text:
# Shot Noise Suppression at Non-integer Conductance Plateaus in a Quantum Point Contact

thanks: Corresponding author.thanks: also at NTT Basic Research Laboratories, 3-1 Morinosato-Wakamiya Atsugi, Kanagawa, 243-01 Japan (November 19, 2003)

## Abstract

We study non-equilibrium differential conductance and current fluctuations in a single quantum point contact. The two-terminal electrical transport properties – differential conductance and shot noise – are measured at 1.5 K as a function of the drain-source voltage and the Schottky split-gate voltage. In differential conductance measurements, conductance plateaus appear at integer multiples of $`2e^2/h`$ when the drain-source voltage is small, and the plateaus evolve to a fractional of $`2e^2/h`$ as the drain-source voltage increases. Our shot noise measurements correspondingly show that the shot noise signal is highly suppressed at both the integer and the non-integer conductance plateaus. This main feature can be understood by the induced electrostatic potential model within a single electron picture. In addition, we observe the 0.7 structure in the differential conductance and the suppressed shot noise around 0.7 ($`2e^2/h`$); however, the previous single-electron model cannot explain the 0.7 structure and the noise suppression, suggesting that this characteristic relates to the electron-electron interactions.

A quantum point contact (QPC) in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) system has been a prototypical device used to investigate low-dimensional mesoscopic physics. The Landauer-Büttiker formalism Buttiker92 ; Landauer92 , which interprets the electrical transport in such devices, is the most widely used theoretical model. By applying a negative voltage to lithographically patterned Schottky gates on top of 2DEG, additional spatial confinements can be achieved. Combinations of QPCs form zero-dimensional quantum dots Kastner93  in which single charge tunnelling occurs, and a single QPC defines one-dimensional conducting channels Houten96 . In the latter situation, the QPC becomes an electron waveguide that regulates the number of transverse modes between electron reservoirs. As a manifestation, a conductance trace consists of quantized steps in integer multiples of the spin degenerate quantum unit of conductance, $`G_Q=2e^2/h`$, where $`e`$ is an electron charge and $`h`$ is Planck’s constant. Recently, the quantum modes of coherent electrons under QPCs were imaged with atomic force microscopy Topinka01 . An additional remarkable feature has been identified around 0.7 $`G_Q`$, which is called the “ 0.7 structure ” or “ 0.7 anomaly ” in the QPC conductance Fitzgerald02 . Its physical origin is still under investigation in terms of the interaction Thomas96  and spin properties of electrons Cronenwett02  by means of conductance.

The integer-plateau picture is true when a drain-source voltage ($`V_{ds}`$) is kept small. As $`V_{ds}`$ increases, the plateaus evolve from integer units $`nG_Q`$ to non-integer units $`(\beta +n)G_Q`$, where $`\beta `$ is a fraction between 0 and 1 and $`n`$ is a non-negative integer Patel91 . The transition of conductance plateaus can be understood by a model of an electrostatic potential which is a function of $`V_{ds}`$ Moreno92 ; Kouwenhoven89 . Due to the discrepancy between the number of allowed forward and backward transverse modes for a given finite energy window, the location of quantized levels depends on the degree ($`\beta `$) of the voltage drop across drain and source sides.

Along with experimental and theoretical work on the conductance, the current fluctuations have been studied as well with QPCs since these fluctuations provides information that is not contained, even in principle, in the conductance. Shot noise is the non-equilibrium current fluctuation resulting from the stochastic transport of quantized charge carriers. In mesoscopic conductors, shot noise occurs due to the random partition of electrons by a scatterer. Previous shot noise experiments with a QPC Reznikov95 ; Kumar96  clearly showed that shot noise signals agree well with a non-interacting theory, meaning that shot noise is nearly zero at the integer conductance plateaus where electrons are fully transmitted. We, however, have not yet found any thorough noise studies on the characteristic around the 0.7 structure clearly seen in early noise dataLiu98 ; Heiblum  except as reported in the Ph.D. thesis Oliver02  regarding to such structure.

In this Letter, we reexamine a single QPC and report our experimental results on low frequency shot noise as well as differential conductance at 1.5 K by sweeping both $`V_{ds}`$ and a split-gate voltage $`V_g`$. We find a close connection between noise and conductance data. Shot noise is suppressed when conductance approaches quantized values of $`G_Q`$. Furthermore, the highly reduced shot noise signals are resolved near other fractional $`G_Q`$ regions and around 0.7 $`G_Q`$ for non-zero $`V_{ds}`$.

Our QPC devices were fabricated on a high mobility 2DEG formed in an undoped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. A back-gate field-effect configuration allows us to tune the electron density in 2DEG Hirayama02 . The average electron density is 2 $`\times `$ 1011 cm-2. From the Hall bar pattern, the voltage drop across the QPC can be probed so that QPC conductance was experimentally extracted. Two external parameters — $`V_{ds}`$ and $`V_g`$ — were varied in both the differential conductance, $`g=dI/dV_{ds}`$, and the low frequency two-terminal shot noise measurements. A standard lock-in technique was used on the differential conductance $`g`$ measurement. In order to improve the signal-to-noise-ratio in the shot noise experiment, an ac modulation lock-in technique and a resonant circuit were used together with a home-built cryogenic low-noise preamplifier Reznikov95 ; Liu98 ; Oliver99 . All measurements were performed in a He3 cryostat, whose base temperature was kept at 1.5 K.

The measured differential conductance $`g`$ with an ac bias voltage $`V_{ac}`$ 100 $`\mu V`$ is plotted as a function of $`V_{ds}`$ and $`V_g`$ in Fig. 1(a). All data on each line are taken at a different $`V_g`$, and all measured values are normalized by $`G_Q`$. Dark regions are formed around the regions of plateaus. Conductance flattens around $`G_Q`$ and 2 $`G_Q`$ along $`V_{ds}`$ 0, but away from $`V_{ds}`$ 0, $`g`$ approaches plateaus at different locations. Alternatively, Fig. 1(c) clearly illustrates that the first step appears below 0.5 $`G_Q`$ when $`V_{ds}`$= - 2.5 mV. We compute transconductance $`dg/dV_g`$ by differentiating $`g`$ in terms of $`V_g`$, and plot it in a two-dimensional image graph (Fig. 1(b)). Here, black areas correspond the plateaus due to the small difference between traces along $`V_g`$ axis. In the first big diamond black area, there is a V-shape red structure, which separates the 0.9 $`G_Q`$ structures from the $`G_Q`$ plateau.

Furthermore, we notice that the transition behavior is not identical over the whole conductance values for finite $`V_{ds}`$. Below $`G_Q`$, an additional shoulder structure around 0.7 $`G_Q`$ is manifest and it moves to 0.9 $`G_Q`$, and then the plateau clearly forms below 0.5 $`G_Q`$ at a large $`V_{ds}`$ . In contrast, above $`G_Q`$, as $`V_{ds}`$ increases, no structure similar to the 0.7 anomaly is apparent and the plateau shows an increasing manner. The appearance of the non-integer conductance plateaus in terms of $`V_{ds}`$ is understood quantitatively by a $`V_{ds}`$-dependent saddle-point potential model where the potential in a two-dimensional $`x`$ and $`y`$ plane is given byMoreno92

$$U(x,y)=U_0(V_{ds})+U_yy^2U_xx^2.$$

The first term in the right hand side contains the effect of a non-zero $`V_{ds}`$ and it is written as:

$$U_0(V_{ds})=U_0\beta eV_{ds}+\gamma eV_{ds}^2/2,$$

where the coefficient $`\beta `$ is determined by the actual voltage drop between the drain and source side, and $`\gamma `$ is related to the trend of plateau movements as $`V_{ds}`$ gets biggerMoreno92 .

Although the simulation result (Fig. 2) show the qualitative picture of plateau evolution in $`V_{ds}`$, it fails to replicate the 0.7 $`G_Q`$ and 0.9 $`G_Q`$ structures, suggesting that more complicated physical mechanism is involved under $`G_Q`$ and especially around 0.7 $`G_Q`$ and 0.9 $`G_Q`$.

Following the differential conductance experiments, the low frequency two-terminal shot noise measurements performed. In order to extract the distinguishable shot noise signal from background noise, $`V_{ds}`$ cannot be smaller than 500 $`\mu V`$. Three representative graphs are drawn as a function of $`V_g`$ in Fig. 3. Similar behaviors were observed in other devices as well. No matter what value of $`V_{ds}`$ was applied, the shot noise level was clearly minimal when conductance $`G=I/V_{ds}`$ reached about $`G_Q`$ and 2 $`G_Q`$. The degree of the suppression at 3 $`G_Q`$ became less smaller for a large $`V_{ds}`$. In the transient zones between the multiples of $`G_Q`$, the noise characteristic was rather complex. Below the first plateau, the noise suppression appeared around 0.6 $`G_Q`$ and 0.9 $`G_Q`$ until $`V_{ds}`$ 1.5 mV (Fig. 3(a)). As $`V_{ds}`$ further increased, these locations moved down to 0.5 $`G_Q`$ and 0.8 $`G_Q`$ (Fig. 3(b)), and eventually the suppressed noise was found only at 0.4 $`G_Q`$ for $`V_{ds}>`$ 2.5 mV (Fig. 3(c)). Unlikely, when $`G`$ is higher than $`G_Q`$, only one additional noise reduction was found about 1.6 $`G_Q`$ or 1.7 $`G_Q`$ regardless of the magnitude of $`V_{ds}`$. Meanwhile, the plateau structures in $`G`$ gradually washed out as $`V_{ds}`$ increased as shown in Fig. 3(d).

Figure 4 (a) exhibits the above observation of the shot noise response as a function of $`V_{ds}`$ and $`V_g`$ in a continuous manner. The black color depicts the base shot noise level. Even though the occurrence of the suppressed shot noise can be easily seen in units of $`G_Q`$, the actual plot contains other noticeable features. The colored contour plot of conductance $`G=I/V_{ds}`$(Fig. 4(b)) helps us to see the relation of $`G`$ and the shot noise. Again under $`G_Q`$, several black strips are visible: The upper strip relates to the shot noise suppression around $`G_Q`$, and the lower two ones start at the conductance values 0.7 $`G_Q`$ and 0.9 $`G_Q`$. For a high $`V_{ds}`$, the shot noise suppression occurs at less than 0.5 $`G_Q`$. The shot noise signal in higher G has a rather simple pattern: The reduced noises are observed around 1.6 or 1.7 $`G_Q`$ and 2 $`G_Q`$ as previously stated.

We notice that the shot noise behavior in the transient zone between the integer multiples of $`G_Q`$ shares some features with the transconductance two-dimensional image plot (Fig. 1(b)). The peaks in the transconductance correspond to the larger shot noise signals and the dark areas in the transconductance match to the black strips in the shot noise image. Moreover, both the transconductance and the shot noise share common features for $`G<G_Q`$; 0.7 structure can be distinctive and the location of the noise suppression and the new plateaus in $`dg/dV_g`$ occur around 0.4 $`G_Q`$ as $`V_{ds}>`$ 2 mV. Within the saddle-point potential model, $`dg/dV_g`$ is expressed in terms of $`T_i(1T_i)`$ where $`T_i`$ is the i-th one-dimensional (1D) channel transmission probability. Since the shot noise has a term of $`T_i(1T_i)`$ for a small energy window, two quantities are closely related. It is not, however, obvious to predict the response of the shot noise for a large $`V_{ds}`$ because the shot noise is obtained from the integral of the energy dependent transmission probability. Qualitatively, the noise suppression around the plateaus can be expected based on the fact that the current fluctuations can be zero or low when the current remains constant.

The different characteristics in both the transconductance and the shot noise are observed in the region of $`G<G_Q`$ and $`G>G_Q`$. This observation is certainly beyond the simple saddle-point potential model in a single-particle approximation. In particular, it is surprising to have the strongly suppressed shot noise at 0.7 $`G_Q`$, meaning that electrons are regulated by a certain governing physical mechanism. The possible factor relating to the mechanism of the 0.7 anomaly would be the density of electrons. The shot noise study in terms of the electron density would provide more information to explore this question in the future.

In conclusion, we have experimentally studied the low frequency shot noise and the differential conductance with finite values of $`V_{ds}`$. We showed that the main feature of shot noise suppression in terms of $`V_{ds}`$ can be understood by the differential conductance. However, the further investigation of the properties of both the differential conductance and the shot noise around the 0.7 structure should be needed in order to establish better understandings.

We acknowledge the ARO-MURI grant DAAD19-99-1-0215 for supporting this research.


format: text

text:
# Acknowledgments

## Acknowledgments

The work was supported in part by INTAS (project 587, 2000), RFBR (grant 01-02-17152) and by Russian Ministry of Education (Programme Universities of Russia, project 02.01.001). The work by A. Vereshagin was supported by Meltzers Høyskolefond (Studentprosjektstipend 2003).


text:
# Stationary Pulses of Light in an Atomic Medium

Physical processes that could facilitate coherent control of light propagation are now actively explored scullybook ; harris-phystoday ; lukin-nat ; marlanrev ; mabuchi . In addition to fundamental interest, these efforts are stimulated by possibilities to develop, for example, a quantum memory for photonic states cirac97 ; kuzmich03 ; wal03 . At the same time, controlled localization and storage of photonic pulses may allow novel approaches to manipulate light via enhanced nonlinear optical processes boyd . Recently, Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) boller  was used to reduce the group velocity of propagating light pulses hau99 ; kash99  and to reversibly map propagating light pulses into stationary spin excitations in atomic media fleischhauer00 ; liu01 ; phillips01 ; sashaback . Here we describe and experimentally demonstrate a novel technique in which light propagating in a medium of Rb atoms is converted into an excitation with localized, stationary electromagnetic energy, which can be held and released after a controllable interval. Our method creates pulses of light with stationary envelopes bound to an atomic spin coherence, raising new possibilities for photon state manipulation and non-linear optical processes at low light levels.

Several techniques to generate stationary light pulses in an atomic medium have recently been proposed theoretically olga ; axel . The present work is related conceptually to the ideas of Ref. axel , but here we use a different approach involving spatial modulation of the absorptive properties of the medium. The use of such a dissipative effect for coherent control of light is a novel phenomenon, closely related to earlier work on matched pulse propagation in EIT harris-phystoday ; match . Although there exists a substantial body of work on localization of light in random dielectrics gao , Bragg gratings and photonic bandgap materials kogelnik ; yablonovich ; slusher , the unique feature of the present method is that it allows one to accurately control the creation of a stationary light pulse and its release.

The present method can be understood qualitatively by considering a three-state ”lambda” configuration of atomic states (Figure 1A). A large ensemble of $`N`$ atoms is initially prepared in the ground state $`|g`$. We use forward (FD) and backward (BD) control beams, with time varying Rabi-frequencies $`\mathrm{\Omega }_+(t)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{}(t)`$, respectively, to manipulate a weak pulse of signal light. In our experimental realization the two control fields have identical frequencies but opposite propagation directions. The usual EIT boller  corresponds to simultaneous propagation of the forward control and signal beams. When their frequency difference matches the level splitting between the ground state and a metastable (”spin-flipped”) state ($`|s`$) the medium becomes transparent for the signal light, while the sharp atomic dispersion allows one to slow and localize an input signal pulse in the medium hau99 ; kash99 . By turning the control beam off while the pulse is in the medium fleischhauer00 , the signal amplitude vanishes while its state is stored in a stationary spin coherence. This atomic excitation can be converted back into a light pulse, propagating in forward or backward direction, by application of the corresponding control beam liu01 ; phillips01 ; sashaback . The atomic coherence can be converted into a stationary photonic excitation if the medium is illuminated simultaneously by FD and BD beams. Specifically, if the two create a standing wave pattern the EIT suppresses the signal absorption everywhere but in the nodes of the standing wave, resulting in a sharply peaked, periodic modulation of the atomic absorption for the signal light (Figure 1B). Illumination by these beams also results in partial conversion of the stored atomic spin excitation into sinusoidally modulated signal light, but the latter cannot propagate in the medium due to Bragg reflections off the sharp absorption peaks, resulting in vanishing group velocity of the signal pulse. Only after one of the control beams is turned off does the pulse acquire a finite velocity and thus can leave the medium in the direction of the remaining control beam.

To quantify these effects theoretically, consider interaction of atoms with resonant optical fields, represented by plane waves. We decompose the signal field into components propagating in the forward and backward directions along the $`z`$ axis with wave-vectors $`\pm k`$ and slowly varying amplitudes $`_\pm `$. Following fleischhauer00 ; axel  we introduce two components $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\pm `$ of a coupled excitation of light and an atomic spin wave (”dark-state polariton”) corresponding to forward and backward signal fields respectively. In the experimentally relevant case of small group velocities the polariton components are represented by $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\pm =g\sqrt{N}_\pm /\mathrm{\Omega }_\pm `$, where $`g`$ is the atom-field coupling constant scullybook . Assuming further slowly varying pulses and negligible spin decoherence, we find that the components evolve according to

$`{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\mathrm{\Psi }_+=\alpha _{}\xi (\mathrm{\Psi }_+\mathrm{\Psi }_{}){\displaystyle \frac{1}{c}}{\displaystyle \frac{}{\tau }}(\alpha _+\mathrm{\Psi }_++\alpha _{}\mathrm{\Psi }_{}),`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\mathrm{\Psi }_{}=\alpha _+\xi (\mathrm{\Psi }_+\mathrm{\Psi }_{})+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{c}}{\displaystyle \frac{}{\tau }}(\alpha _+\mathrm{\Psi }_++\alpha _{}\mathrm{\Psi }_{})`$ (2)
and the spin coherence $`S=N^{1/2}(\alpha _+\mathrm{\Psi }_++\alpha _{}\mathrm{\Psi }_{})`$ with $`\alpha _\pm =|\mathrm{\Omega }_\pm |^2/(|\mathrm{\Omega }_+|^2+|\mathrm{\Omega }_{}|^2)`$. These equations describe two slow waves that are coupled due to periodic modulation of atomic absorption and group velocity. The first term in the right hand side of Equations (1,2) is proportional to an absorption coefficient $`\xi `$ near resonant line center. When $`\xi `$ is large this term gives rise to the pulse matching phenomenon harris-phystoday ; match : whenever one of the fields is created the other will adjust itself within a short propagation distance to match its amplitude such that $`\mathrm{\Psi }_+\mathrm{\Psi }_{}0`$. The scaled time, $`\tau (t)=_0^t𝑑t(|\mathrm{\Omega }_+|^2+|\mathrm{\Omega }_{}|^2)/g^2N`$, reflects the group velocity reduction associated with atomic dispersion. Finally, the center frequency of the signal light was chosen to match its wave-vector to that of periodic absorption grating. Due to the steep atomic dispersion, this condition can be satisfied by small detuning of the signal light, in direct analogy with other EIT-based processes harris-phystoday .

In the case when the forward signal field propagates in the presence of only one (FD) control field, Eq. (1) has a simple solution $`\mathrm{\Psi }_+(z,t)=\mathrm{\Psi }_+(zc\tau (t),0)`$, which describes a coherent deceleration as shown in Figure 1C. Specifically, when the FD control beam is turned off, the polariton is stopped, the signal light vanishes, and a stationary spin excitation is created. Note that the spatial length of the spin excitation $`l`$ is determined by the length of the compressed pulse corresponding to a product of the input pulse duration and the initial group velocity $`v_g^0`$. Finally, when the FD beam is turned back on, the propagating signal pulse is re-created.

When both control beams are turned on simultaneously, forward and backward signal components are both generated. The electric field amplitudes for both forward and backward signal light are proportional to the amplitudes of the corresponding control fields, as required by the pulse matching condition harris-phystoday ; match . Interesting insight into the propagation dynamics can be gained by considering the dispersion relation associated with Eqs. (1,2): $`\omega =ck(\xi [\alpha _+\alpha _{}]ik)/(\xi ik[\alpha _+\alpha _{}])`$, where $`\omega `$ is the Fourier frequency corresponding to the scaled time $`\tau `$ and $`k`$ is the spatial wave-vector of the signal pulse envelopes. For small wave vectors and a large absorption coefficient this corresponds to a linear dispersive medium with a group velocity $`v_g=c\times (|\mathrm{\Omega }_+|^2|\mathrm{\Omega }_{}|^2)/g^2N`$. Thus, the time-domain solution describes the coupled motion of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\pm `$ envelopes at a group velocity proportional to the intensity difference between the two control fields. When the control Rabi-frequencies are identical, the group velocity $`v_g`$ vanishes and a stationary pulse of light is created as illustrated in Figure 1D. The electric field amplitudes of two signal components are then equal $`_+=_{}`$, corresponding to sinusoidally modulated signal intensity, and the dispersion relation becomes $`\omega =ick^2/\xi `$. In the time-domain this corresponds to a slow spreading of the stationary pulse at a rate $`\delta l/lc\tau /(\xi l^2)`$, which determines the maximal holding time. Hence, in an optically dense medium ($`\xi l1`$) a stationary photonic excitation can be controllably created.

Our experimental apparatus used to demonstrate this effect is shown in Figure 2A. A magnetically shielded 4 cm long $`{}_{}{}^{87}\text{Rb}`$ vapor cell is maintained at T $`90`$ $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{o}}\mathrm{C}`$ (atom number density is $`10^{12}10^{13}`$ $`\mathrm{cm}^3`$). Long-lived hyperfine sublevels of the electronic ground state $`S_{1/2}`$ with $`F=1,2`$ are used as the storage states $`|g,|s`$, respectively, coupled via the excited state $`P_{1/2}`$. The hyperfine coherence time is limited by atomic diffusion out of the beam volume, and is enhanced with a Ne buffer gas of 6 torr (resulting in spin-coherence lifetimes in the $`\mu `$s to ms range kash99 ; phillips01 ). Note that the Doppler-shifts due to atomic motion do not directly affect the spin coherence when the control and the signal beams propagate colinearly in forward and backward pairs.

We first consider continuous wave (CW) excitation of the atomic Rb. Without the control beams the atomic medium is completely opaque to the forward signal beam. When the FD control field is present, a sharp, few 100 kHz-wide resonance appears in the transmission spectrum of the signal beam, corresponding to EIT (curve (i) in Fig. 2B). Turning on the BD beam in the CW regime greatly reduces the EIT transmission (curve (iii)), while at the same time generating a reflected signal beam that is detected in the backward direction (curve (ii)). The peak reflection intensity is a substantial fraction (up to $`80\%`$) of the input signal beam.

These results demonstrate the possibility of coherent control of light via simultaneous driving of the medium with FD and BD beams. Specifically, the signal light cannot propagate in the modulated EIT medium, but instead of absorbing the signal the medium reflects it as a high quality Bragg mirror. This effect is analogous to that predicted theoretically in axel . However, the broad lineshape of the curve (ii) indicates that periodic modulation of the absorptive rather than dispersive properties lays at the origin of the observed Bragg reflection kogelnik . We note, in particular, good agreement between the present experimental results and a theoretical model based on the resonant EIT medium with FD and BD control fields (Figure 2C). At the same time, qualitatively different lineshape is expected for dispersive Bragg gratings axel ; slusher .

Turning to experiments with pulsed light, we first map the input signal pulse onto an atomic coherence of the Rb atoms liu01 ; phillips01 . This procedure corresponds to Fig. 1C and its experimental observation is shown by curve (i) in Figure 3A. The atoms are first optically pumped into the lowest state. A Gaussian-shaped signal pulse of about 5 $`\mu `$s duration then enters the medium where it is slowed to $`v_g^06`$km/s. The FD control beam is subsequently turned off. As a rule a fraction of the signal pulse leaves the cell before that, leading to the first peak of the curve (i). When the FD control field is turned back on, the stored atomic excitation is converted back into light which is detected in the forward direction (second peak of the curve (i)). The amplitude of the retrieved light decays with increasing storage interval with a characteristic time scale of about $`20\mu `$s, corresponding to decay of the hyperfine coherence caused by atomic diffusion. Similar experimental results are obtained by detecting the signal light in the backward direction when the stored coherence is retrieved with the BD beam sashaback .

We next consider the retrieval of the atomic excitations by simultaneous application of the FD and BD control beams. When the intensities of the beams are carefully adjusted, the output signal pulses in both forward and backward directions are greatly suppressed (curves (ii) and (iii) in Figure 3A). Both channels exhibit small leakage. We attribute the first peak to photons retrieved near the cell boundaries, which do not experience sufficient Bragg reflections to be trapped efficiently. The long tail is likely due to a slow spreading of the stored pulse. When the BD beam is turned off the released pulse is detected in the forward channel (curve (ii)). The presence of signal light inside the cell during the simultaneous application of the two control beams was verified directly by monitoring fluorescence from the side of the cell (Figure 3B). For times when the signal output in forward and backward directions is greatly suppressed, we observed significant enhancement of the signal light fluorescence (curve (iii) in Figure 3B), due to residual atomic absorption.

These observations provide evidence for controlled conversion of the stored atomic coherence into a stationary photonic excitation in the cell. Note, in particular, that the magnitude of the fluorescence drops sharply after the BD pulse is turned off. This drop is followed by a gradual decay associated with the exit of the slow pulse from the medium. This behavior is in a qualitative agreement with our simple model, that predicts the light intensity in the stationary pulses to be double of that in the slowly propagating pulse. As shown in Figure 3C, the magnitude of the released pulse decreases exponentially with increasing trapping time with a characteristic time constant of about 7 $`\mu `$s. Note that only a part of this decay is due to the hyperfine coherence decay. Other decay mechanisms include spreading of the stationary pulse, as well as imperfect EIT. We anticipate that improvements in efficiency can likely be achieved, e.g., by initial optical pumping into a single atomic sublevel, using an atomic system with larger level spacing or sharper absorption lines of cold atom clouds.

We finally outline possible avenues opened by the present work. First, we note that our procedure is based on a passive medium and in the ideal limit is not accompanied by optical loss or gain and hence avoids the associated noise. We therefore anticipate that our method preserves the quantum states of light pulses. (This is in contrast, e.g. to Bragg gratings based on gain modulation kogelnik .) Second, although the present work demonstrates stationary light localization and storage in one dimension, it should be possible to controllably localize and guide stationary photonic pulses in three spatial dimensions by using control beams with properly designed wavefronts. Third, controlled conversion of propagating light into stationary light pulses opens interesting possibilities for enhanced non-linear optical processes by combining the present technique with the resonant enhancement of non-linear optics via EIT harris-nlo ; atac-nlo ; hemmer95 . This combination may enable controlled interactions involving quantum few-photon fields harris-hau ; lukin-ima ; gershon ; tombessi  analogous to those feasible in cavity QED mabuchi . Finally, extension of the present ideas to other systems might be possible using, for example, dynamic modulation of photonic bandgap materials.

Acknowledgments We thank A. Andre, M. Eisaman, L. Childress, C. van der Wal, R. Walsworth, S. Zibrov and T. Zibrova for useful discussions, experimental help and comments on the manuscript. This work is supported by the NSF, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and the Alfred Sloan Foundation. Partial support by the DARPA and the ONR (DURIP) is also acknowledged.


text:
# Short-Period Variable Stars in the M31 Halo

## 1 Introduction

The Andromeda galaxy (M31) provides a unique opportunity to study the structure and evolution of massive spirals, as it is the closest such system that can be studied from outside (i.e., line of sight depth is not a major problem). As such, a comparison to our Galaxy allows us to address the question of variety in the evolutionary histories of massive spirals. For example, van den Bergh (2000, 2003) has suggested that the chemical evolution of M31 was much more rapid than that of the Galaxy, and this might point to the origin of M31 as the early merger of two (or more) relatively massive metal-rich ancestral objects. Variable stars provide a unique and powerful tool to inspect the stellar populations and and star formation histories of nearby galaxies (Mateo 1998; 2000; Saha 1999), and here we employ observations of variable stars in the M31 halo to provide new constraints on the evolution of M31.

Mould & Kristian (1986) made the first study of the stellar populations in the M31 halo. An important result of that study was that the M31 halo red giant branch is much redder than those of Galactic globular clusters. This was interpreted as a sign that the mean metallicity was $`[\text{Fe/H}]=0.6`$, a result that has been confirmed by deeper imaging (Durrell, Harris, & Pritchet, 2001). Shortly after this work, a second milestone study of the M31 halo was carried out by Pritchet & van den Bergh (1987; hereafter PvdB), who imaged a field 40 arcminutes from the nucleus along the SE minor axis to search for variable stars. They reported the discovery of 30 RR Lyraes, and assuming a completeness of 25% estimated that the field contained 120 such objects. Compared with the number of red giants, this implied that the frequency of RR Lyraes in the M31 halo is comparable to that found in RR Lyrae-rich globular clusters. As noted in their work, this frequency was surprisingly high given that the Mould & Kristian (1986) metallicity was significantly higher than that measured in RR Lyrae-rich Galactic globular clusters.

The number density of RR Lyraes estimated by PvdB has been called into question by deep HST color-magnitude diagrams of the M31 halo, which show few stars in the region where one would expect RR Lyraes. A recent ultra-deep ACS CMD (Brown et al., 2003) is the best such example, finding roughly an order of magnitude fewer stars in that part of the CMD than would be expected from the PdvB RR Lyrae frequency. Several possibilities exist for the discrepancy in the RR Lyrae frequency. The pointings used by PvdB and Brown et al. (2003) were different, and findings of streams in the M31 halo (Ibata et al., 2001) raise the possibility of position-dependent populations. A second possibility is that accurate photometry of stars at $`B=25.7`$ was at or beyond the capabilities of CCDs in the mid 1980s, and perhaps the earlier RR Lyrae experiment detected specious objects in addition to bona fide RR Lyraes.

To address this discrepancy with a straightforward approach, we repeated the PvdB RR Lyrae experiment and present our findings in this paper. Section 2 describes our data and reduction procedures, and the following sections describe the number of RR Lyraes and their properties.

## 2 Observations and Reduction

We made repeated observations of a field in the M31 halo over the four nights 16$``$19 November 2001 with the MIMO camera (whose performance is described and characterized by Saha et al. 2000) on the 3.5m WIYN telescope. Our field is located about 40’ along the southeast minor axis of M31, and contains part of the field of Mould & Kristian (1986) and all of the field of PvdB. About half of night two and most of night three was lost due to weather; on the first and fourth nights we were able to observe M31 for approximately 8 hours per night. In total, we had 35 usable images (28 $`g`$ and 6 $`r`$) over a 3.3 day baseline, 33 of which were 1800 seconds and the others were slightly shorter due to telescope and instrument operation modalities. Our log of observations is listed in Table 1.

Photometry was obtained using a modified version of HSTphot (Dolphin, 2000), a PSF-fitting photometry package. The original package was designed solely for use with WFPC2 images; the modified version used here is for general use.

The photometry process involved several steps. First the creation of a reference image, which would be used to measure star positions and determine a standard coordinate system. We used the best-seeing images available for this purpose: n1071, n1072, n1074, and n1075 in $`g`$, and n1052, n1073, and n2035 in $`r`$. The $`g`$ reference image is shown in Figure 1. The upper-right portion of chip two was masked out because a probe was vignetting the camera during those observations; unfortunately we had no other suitable observations to fill in that gap in our reference image.

After this, photometry was run on the individual images, using star positions determined from the deep photometry obtained in the same filter. The use of known star positions made it possible to obtain accurate photometry in images of poorer quality, as well as ensuring that our list of stars would be the same at each epoch.

After completing this procedure, we found that the photometry appeared too shallow to detect the fainter RR Lyraes. To compensate, we ran a second set of epoch photometry in which consecutive $`g`$ exposures were coadded when possible. We were able to create 12 coadded images (four $`g`$ images could not be combined) and obtained deeper photometry. The 16 epochs are listed in Table 1 under the “Epoch” heading. While giving fewer data points per star, the $`0.3`$ magnitude increase in our depth was essential for a fairly complete recovery of RR Lyraes.

Calibrations were made from our night 1 data, which was our only photometric night of the run, using observations of several Gunn standard stars: BD +28 4211, BD +17 4708, and Ross 34 (Kent, 1985). Using M31 images from similar airmass (n1050 and n1052), we created a set of secondary standard stars in the M31 halo field, to which all of our photometry was transformed. Residuals in the night solutions were no greater than 0.015 magnitudes (rms). Our deep CMD (from the reference images) is shown in Figure 2.

To provide a check on our photometry and calibrations, we produced an independent calibration using different software and photometry using DoPHOT (Schechter, Mateo, & Saha, 1993). The agreement is better than 0.01 magnitudes at all brightness levels, indicating excellent agreement of both the calibrations and the PSF-fitting photometry. We show a comparison of the two sets of photometry in Figure 3.

### 2.1 Image Subtraction Photometry

Since we knew that any RR Lyraes in M31 would be at the detection limits, we made a second set of reductions of the $`g`$ images using a image subtraction technique that has been incorporated into the modified HSTphot. The principles of this procedure are similar to those laid out by Alard & Lupton (1998). A reference image was constructed from the best-seeing epochs, and was subtracted from each individual image. To accomplish the subtraction, one must align (rotate and shift) the reference image to match coordinates, convolve with a kernel to match PSFs, and scale the image to the same count levels. The resulting difference image can then be photometered using PSF-fitting code. A variable star will show up as a positive (if brighter than the reference image) or negative (if fainter) feature in the subtracted image.

We introduce one significant difference: rather than calculating the subtraction kernels directly from the images, we calculated them from the PSFs measured by the photometry program. Making this change creates potential problems if the PSFs are incorrect, but allows us to ignore problems of bad pixels, background differences (a major issue here because of scattered light), and smoothing from interpolation. Another minor change is that our routine does not assume the noise of the reference image to be zero.

The reference image was then convolved by this kernel, scaled, and subtracted from the epoch image. We show part of the difference image for epoch 11 in Figure 4, as well as the residual from our PSF-fitting photometry. Comparing those, we see that stars are subtracted very well in both (which was expected since the PSF is well-measured and the field is not crowded), but that extended objects and stars below the detection limit are subtracted much more accurately using image subtraction. This allows for more reliable measurements of variability, despite the fact that we are working well outside the crowded-field regime where image subtraction techniques are normally applied. The only notable weakness is that the noise is increased by the subtraction process.

The difference images were then run through the HSTphot PSF-fitting routine, giving brightness differences (on the brightness scale of the epoch image rather than the reference image). Scaling this difference to brightness scale of the reference image and adding the star’s brightness in the reference image, the routine provides magnitudes directly comparable with magnitudes from the reference image. Because this calculation is somewhat indirect (and thus conceivably error-prone), we show a comparison of epoch 11 magnitudes as calculated from image subtraction photometry and from standard PSF-fitting photometry in Figure 5. We also show magnitude differences between epoch g11 and the reference image in Figure 6. In both cases we find excellent agreement between the magnitudes measured directly using PSF-fitting photometry and those measured indirectly using image subtraction photometry.

In our variable star search described in the next section, there were two major advantages for using the image subtraction magnitudes. First, as noted above, the photometry was significantly more accurate due to the better subtraction of extended objects and faint stars. This allowed cleaner photometry of the RR Lyraes, which were more susceptible to these effects because of their faintness. Not only does this make for generally better measurements of variability, but it made for fewer detections that had to be rejected because of fitting problems, thus giving more complete light curves.

A second significant difference is that slightly extended objects are treated more correctly. Standard PSF-fitting photometry in HSTphot will treat an object as a star unless there is reason to believe otherwise. This means that objects that are slightly extended will be photometered using a stellar PSF. However, when the seeing varies (as it did during our run), these objects will be less affected by seeing variations, causing them to appear brighter in the poor-seeing images and thus producing an apparent light curve that tracks seeing changes. In contrast, image subtraction will match the seeing in the image, and thus such an object will be subtracted out correctly. While such “seeing variables” are easily weeded out due to their clear signature, using image subtraction gives a much cleaner initial sample.

### 2.2 Variable Star Identification

Our variable star identification procedure was very similar to that used in Leo A (Dolphin et al., 2002), so we will merely summarize here. We began with a series of automatic selection steps, of which a star had to pass all to be flagged as a candidate variable. A star had to pass a variety of steps to make our list of variables. Our $`g`$ photometry list contained a total of 61008 objects, of which 26552 had reliable photometry (classified as a star and fit well in the PSF-fitting process) in at least 10 epochs. From that list of stars, 665 were flagged as variable based on significant variability in the 16 epochs.

We then ran a periodicity test on these 665 stars to test for light curve coherence. The statistic used was a variation on the $`\theta `$ statistic of Lafler & Kinman (1965), is defined by

$$\theta =\frac{_i(m_im_{i+1})^2}{_i(m_im)^2},$$
(1)
where $`m_i`$ is the $`i^{th}`$ point on the light curve, $`m_{i+1}`$ is the next point, and $`m`$ is the uncertainty-weighted mean magnitude. (Here and below, point number $`N+1`$ is defined to be point number $`1`$.) The denominator is, of course, equals the variance in $`m`$ times the number of observations. If the period used to create the light curve is the correct period, then the quantity $`(m_im_{i+1})^2`$ will be much smaller than the variance; if the period is incorrect then $`m_i`$ and $`m_{i+1}`$ are merely two values drawn from a random sample and thus $`(m_im_{i+1})^2`$ should equal twice the variance.

The assumption made by this statistic is that the uncertainties of the magnitudes are constant (or at least close to constant). However, in the case of our data, the drastic seeing variations, the factor of two variation in effective exposure times, and the signal-to-noise variations caused by variability itself cause the $`\theta `$ statistic to work rather poorly. Rather than using the square of the magnitude differences, we prefer to have a statistic that is based on the significance of those differences. The most similar to the theta statistic would be

$$\theta ^{}=\frac{_i(m_im_{i+1})^2/(\sigma _i^2+\sigma _{i+1}^2)}{_i(m_im)^2/\sigma _i^2},$$
(2)
where $`\sigma _i`$ is the uncertainty in $`m_i`$ and $`m`$ here is the uncertainty-weighted mean magnitude (weight = $`1/\sigma ^2`$). The denominator, of course, is simply $`\chi ^2`$ for a fit to constant magnitude. The advantage of this statistic is that a bad point with high uncertainty is given the low weight that it deserves. However, it introduces a failure mode in which highly uncertain points will preferentially be used as bridges between high and low points in the light curve – bright point, uncertain point, faint point (or vice versa).

To combat this problem, we chose to examine coherence between more distant points on the light curve, rather than just between adjacent points. The statistic we have derived to accomplish this is

$$\theta ^{}=\frac{_i_{ji}w_{ij}(m_im_j)^2/(\sigma _i^2+\sigma _j^2)}{\chi _\nu ^2_i_{ji}w_{ij}},$$
(3)
$$w_{ij}=\{\begin{array}{cc}1\hfill & \text{if }j=i+1;\hfill \\ \mathrm{cos}(\varphi _j\varphi _i)\hfill & \text{if }ji+1\text{ and }0\varphi _j\varphi _i<0.25;\hfill \\ 0\hfill & \text{otherwise},\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
where $`\varphi _i`$ is the phase of point $`i`$ and varies between 0 and $`2\pi `$ and $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ is the reduced $`\chi ^2`$. The quantity $`\theta ^{}`$ will be one if $`m_i`$ and $`m_j`$ are uncorrelated since the variance of $`m_im_j`$ equals $`\chi _\nu ^2(\sigma _i^2+\sigma _j^2)`$. If the period is correct, the variance of $`m_im_j`$ should equal $`\sigma _i^2+\sigma _j^2+A^2(1\mathrm{cos}(\varphi _j\varphi _i))`$, where $`A`$ is related to the amplitude of the variability. (For sinusoidal variability, $`A`$ equals half the peak-to-peak variation; for other light curve shapes it will be different.) For our data, we found that stars with $`\theta ^{}0.5`$ have a high probability of being true variables, and thus used that cutoff. Applying this criterion, we had 246 remaining candidate variables from the initial list of 665.

We note that there are other options for testing periodicity. An obvious one would be a Fourier transform, but we found this to be more strongly affected by period aliasing and by bad points than our $`\theta ^{}`$ statistic.

After paring the list to 246 candidate variables by automatic checks, we made a set of manual checks of the variability and periodicity. Objects were examined on the individual images to verify that they were not extended and were indeed variable, and the light curves were verified visually. This reduced the number of variable stars to 37. Most of our false detections were cases in which a cosmic ray landed on the star in one or two epochs, or stars near the edge in which positions were not correctly mapped from the reference image to the epoch. A summary of the properties of these 37 bona fide variable stars are given in Table 2, with complete photometry given in Table 3 and light curves in Figure 7. A finding chart is shown in Figure 8.

As is typical for work with ground-based data, stars with periods near one day had only a small fraction of their light curves covered by our observations. We show our phase coverage as a function of period in Figure 9. This figure also indicates that we had poor phase coverage for stars with periods near half a day, again caused by the 8-hour window during which observations were made. The lack of adequate phase coverage affects both discovery completeness and aliasing in determining periods for objects that are discovered. Our period analysis found many RR Lyraes that could have equally likely had periods of one half or one third of a day; this degeneracy was unfortunate given that an RR Lyrae can have either period. For these stars and others with ambiguous periods, we provide both options in Table 2 and Figure 7.

## 3 Census of RR Lyraes

Among our list of 37 variable star candidates are 24 likely RR Lyraes. Most likely the thirteen remaining variables are a mixture of anomalous Cepheids, population II Cepheids, and blended RR Lyraes. However we have unambiguous periods for only six of the thirteen and $`r`$ magnitudes for only four of those six; thus definitive classification is impossible.

In order to estimate the actual number of RR Lyraes in the field, we have to estimate our incompleteness, which has three major sources. First, as indicated in the previous paragraph, an RR Lyrae with a period of between 0.48 and 0.52 days would only have $`6070\%`$ of its light curve covered by our $`g`$ photometry and thus would be less likely to make our list of variables. Since no RR Lyraes with periods in this range were recovered, we assume a completeness of close to zero for such stars. If stars with periods between 0.48 and 0.52 days account for approximately 12% of RR Lyraes as in the OGLE LMC database (Udalski et al., 1999), this factor would create an incompleteness of $`12\%`$.

The second source of incompleteness is that a minority of our images were sufficiently deep to obtain adequate photometry of RR Lyraes near their minimum. Our two epochs with excellent seeing (g02 and g03) were separated by 0.1 days, and our only other epoch with seeing better than 0.75 arcsec (g04) was obtained 0.05 days after g03. The photometry in the two best epochs was complete to $`V26.6`$, approximately a half magnitude deeper than the average of the other epochs. Dividing our list of 24 RR Lyraes into four groups based on phase at g03 (with equal phase range in each group), we find that nearly half (11) were at minimum during that epoch. If we interpret this as a signal of incompleteness, we estimate that the incompleteness caused by seeing changes was approximately 45%.

Estimating that another 50% of the RR Lyraes were thrown out during our conservative selection process, we calculate a total completeness of $`24\%`$ ($`0.88\times 0.55\times 0.5`$). This implies that there are roughly 100 RR Lyraes in our field (a density of 1.1 RR Lyraes per square arcmin), an estimate that we believe accurate to a factor of two (the uncertainty due to estimations made in the completeness correction).

For comparison, PvdB claimed the discovery of 30 RR Lyraes with a completeness fraction of 25% in a 7.26 square arcminute field. Extrapolating this number to our observed field, we should have expected to find $`1520`$ RR Lyraes. Even if we were complete only at their level, we should have recovered $`380`$ RR Lyraes. The fact that we were only able to find one fifteenth that number, despite better seeing and deeper photometry, is a source of concern.

A second estimate of the number of RR Lyraes can be taken from the recent deep ACS photometry by Brown et al. (2003) in a field 51 arcminutes from the nucleus of M31. Although they show their CMD in greyscale and do not report magnitudes on a standard system, we estimate from their CMD that there are approximately ten stars in the RR Lyrae region of their CMD. Scaling from the ACS field of view to ours and adjusting for the distance to the nucleus of M31, this translates to approximately 120 RR Lyraes in our field of view, which is in good agreement with the number we have estimated.

Since our field includes the entire PvdB field, we are able to examine more carefully the source of the discrepancy between our findings. Table 4 gives a list of the 32 variable stars they found. Of these, fourteen were sufficiently extended or blended that we could not obtain stellar photometry in our template $`g`$ image. A fifteenth fell on a bad column and could not be photometered. Fourteen of the remaining seventeen failed to pass our variability criteria, all having $`\chi ^2<2`$ for their individual-epoch $`g`$ magnitudes. Of those fourteen, only number 3 has properties consistent with those of an Lyrae, with a blue color and moderate $`\chi ^2`$ value of 1.8. The others are redder and/or non-variable to the accuracy of our photometry.

Of the three stars in common between our lists, two appear too bright to be isolated RR Lyraes. PvdB noted that star 7 (our V08) was too bright to be an RR Lyrae and felt it was likely a blend of an RR Lyrae with a fainter non-variable star. We agree with this assessment, as its color appears too red to fall in the instability strip, making a blend with a fainter, redder star the most likely scenario. A second common star, number 15 (our V21) is comparably bright (in their study and in ours), but its color places it in the instability strip and thus we believe it to be a population II Cepheid or an anomalous Cepheid. The third common variable is star 17 (our V13), which appears to be a bona fide RR Lyrae.

Although we cannot directly compare our photometry because common bands were not used, we can do so indirectly. The typical $`Bg`$ color of an RR Lyrae star should be approximately 0.35, including the foreground extinction to this field. For the three matches between our photometry lists, we find a mean $`Bg`$ difference of $`0.56\pm 0.06`$ magnitudes, implying a discrepancy of roughly 0.2 magnitudes (in the sense that our photometry is brighter).Including all well-photometered stars with similar $`gr`$ colors as RR Lyraes, we find that a mean $`Bg`$ difference of $`0.66\pm 0.13`$ magnitudes (the larger scatter most likely due to the larger color range). The source of this uncertainty is unclear. As described in section 2, two of us independently reduced and photometered the data using different packages and agreed to one percent. We also find the MIMO detector to have no measurable nonlinearity (better than 0.02 magnitude over 5 magnitudes; Saha et al. in prep), eliminating a second potential source of error. We note also that Pritchet & van den Bergh (1988) found that the measured $`BV`$ color was 0.2 magnitudes redder than expected, which could be explained by an error of $`+0.2`$ magnitudes in their $`B`$ magnitudes. We thus will proceed under the assumption that our magnitudes are accurate.

Comparing the RR Lyrae population with the number of red giants with magnitudes in the range $`23.15<g<24.15`$, we calculate a ratio of 30 red giants per RR Lyrae (assuming 24% completeness). For comparison, an RR Lyrae-rich globular cluster such as M3 has a ratio of approximately 6 (Saha et al., 1992). Adopting M3 as an upper limit on the RR Lyrae production rate and using a conservative completeness correction, we conclude that at least 10% of M31 red giants are drawn from an ancient, RR Lyrae-producing population.

## 4 RR Lyrae Metallicities

Averaging all 24 RR Lyrae candidates, we find a mean magnitude of $`g=25.15\pm 0.03`$ (rms scatter of $`\pm 0.14`$ magnitudes). If the five marginal-quality RR Lyraes (quality of 2 in Table 2) are removed, these numbers are unchanged. From the 13 RR Lyraes with $`r`$ magnitudes, we find a mean color of $`gr=0.10\pm 0.05`$ (rms scatter of $`\pm 0.20`$ magnitudes).

To correct for reddening, we used the extinction maps of Schlegel, Finkbeiner, & Davis (1998) to calculate $`E(BV)=0.09\pm 0.03`$. Applying the extinction curve of Cardelli, Clayton, & Mathis (1989) with $`R_V=3.1`$ and $`\lambda _g=4930`$Å, we calculate $`A_g=1.143A_V=0.32\pm 0.10`$. For an $`r`$ wavelength of $`\lambda _g=6550`$Å, we calculate $`A_r=0.820A_V=0.23\pm 0.08`$, giving $`E(gr)=0.09\pm 0.03`$. This value agrees well with the mean color of our RR Lyraes, which compared with a typical RR Lyrae color of $`(gr)_0=0.17`$ (Saha et al. in prep) implies a reddening of $`E(gr)=0.07\pm 0.05`$. Correcting our mean RR Lyrae magnitude for extinction, we calculate $`g_0=24.83\pm 0.11`$ ($`V_0=24.81\pm 0.11`$).

Adopting a true M31 distance modulus of $`(mM)=24.44\pm 0.10`$ (Madore & Freedman, 1991), we calculate an absolute magnitude of the RR Lyraes of $`M_V=0.37\pm 0.15`$. This is significantly brighter than one would expect given a halo metallicity of $`[\text{M/H}]=0.8`$ (Durrell, Harris, & Pritchet, 2001) and the RR Lyrae absolute magnitude calibration of Carretta et al. (2000):

$$M_V=(0.18\pm 0.09)([\text{Fe/H}]+1.5)+(0.57\pm 0.07)=0.70\pm 0.09.$$
(5)
We find several possible explanations for the discrepancy: uncertainties in the RR Lyrae zero point, uncertainties in the adopted M31 distance, incompleteness in our photometry, or errors in the assumed metallicity or metallicity effects. We find no evidence for a large error in the zero point, since our study of IC 1613 (Dolphin et al., 2001) used a variety of distance indicators to measure an RR Lyrae absolute magnitude of $`M_V=0.61\pm 0.08`$ at $`[\text{M/H}]=1.3\pm 0.2`$, which is in excellent agreement with the Carretta et al. (2000) calibration at that metallicity.

It appears equally implausible that the adopted distance is in error. Mould & Kristian (1986) report a distance modulus of $`(mM)_0=24.4\pm 0.2`$ from their red giant branch tip, while Stanek & Garnavich (1998) use the red clump to measure $`(mM)_0=24.47\pm 0.06`$.

A completeness bias is plausible, since the seeing changes during our run made us insensitive to faint RR Lyraes near maximum in our best-seeing epochs. To test this hypothesis, we selected the eleven RR Lyraes whose phases maximized the odds of detection (at minimum in our best-seeing epochs) and thus minimize this possible bias. Those RR Lyraes had a mean magnitude of $`g=25.16\pm 0.04`$, which is not significantly fainter than the overall average. We note that this test is imperfect, as the RR Lyraes tested are themselves ones that passed any selection biases; nevertheless we would have expected to see a difference of much more than 0.01 magnitudes between had our sample been significantly biased against faint RR Lyraes. A comparison with the deep ACS CMD of Brown et al. (2003) also argues against large photometry or selection biases. At the expected color of RR Lyraes, their horizontal branch falls at $`m_{F606W}25.30`$, which corresponds to $`V25.15`$.

This leaves the final option, metallicity, as the most reasonable scenario. While Durrell, Harris, & Pritchet (2001) and others find the M31 halo to be metal-rich on average, they found the metallicity distribution best-fit with a bimodal distribution: roughly 60% of the stars in a narrow distribution centered at $`[\text{M/H}]=0.5`$ and the remaining stars in a very broad distribution ($`\sigma =0.45`$ dex) centered at $`[\text{M/H}]=1.2`$. If the rate of RR Lyrae production is a strong function of metallicity as suggested by Tamm, Kraft, & Suntzeff (1976), one would expect RR Lyraes to be preferentially drawn from the metal-poor part of this distribution. Given our relatively large uncertainty of $`\pm 0.15`$ magnitudes and the large range of metallicity dependencies of $`M_V(RR)`$ in the literature (e.g. Sandage & Cacciari 1990 calculated a slope of 0.37 mags per dex, compared with 0.15 mags per dex from Carney, Storm, & Jones 1992), our observations are consistent with the RR Lyraes being drawn from the metal-poor portion of the Durrell, Harris, & Pritchet (2001) distribution.

We also note that variations in the RR Lyrae absolute magnitude have only been thoroughly examined for Galactic globular clusters, which fall within a very limited range of the possible age-metallicity space. In particular, there are few (if any) young, metal-poor globular clusters. Likewise, use of equation 5 makes implicit assumptions regarding the helium (Ciardullo & Demarque, 1977) and alpha element (VandenBerg et al., 2000) abundances as a function of iron abundance, which are not necessarily the same in the M31 halo as they are in Galactic globulars. Therefore our conclusions regarding the implied metallicity of M31 halo RR Lyraes are only strictly correct if such stars have ages and abundance ratios comparable to those of Galactic globular clusters.

## 5 Summary

We have presented the results of a search for RR Lyraes in the M31 halo using observations taken over four nights on the WIYN 3.5m telescope. Our $`9.6\times 9.6`$ arcminute field was selected to include the smaller field used by a previous study by Pritchet & van den Bergh (1987), which was 40 arcminutes southeast of M31’s nucleus along the minor axis. Applying a combination of PSF-fitting and image difference photometry techniques, we were able to detect 37 variable stars, including 24 RR Lyraes.

We estimate an completeness fraction of 24%, which implies that roughly 100 RR Lyraes are present in this field – slightly more than 1 RR Lyrae per square arcminute. This number is much less than that calculated by Pritchet & van den Bergh (1987) ($`17`$ per square arc minute), and is consistent with the frequency of RR Lyraes expected from deep HST color-magnitude diagrams (Brown et al., 2003).

The mean magnitude of the RR Lyraes is $`g=25.15\pm 0.03`$, which is consistent with the accepted M31 distance modulus of $`(mM)=24.44`$ only if RR Lyraes have a significantly lower metallicity than the mean value of $`[\text{M/H}]=0.8`$ (Durrell, Harris, & Pritchet, 2001). We interpret this as an indication that RR Lyraes are predominantly created by an old, low-metallicity population within the M31 halo (i.e. very similar to the population that appears to dominate the Milky Way halo) that accounts for at least 10% of the red giants.

We would like to thank the NOAO TAC for the allocation of telescope time and the KPNO staff for their assistance. We wish to thank our referee, Chris Pritchet, for helpful comments. EO was partially supported by the NSF under grant AST 0098518.


text:
# FeII/MgII, [Fe/Mg] Ratios and High-z Quasars

## 1. Introduction

Nearly 20 years ago, in their paper investigating the physics of FeII emission in quasars, Will, Netzer, & Wills (1985; WNW) suggested the importance of measuring the (Fe/Mg) abundance ratio in quasars, in that an overabundance of iron in quasars and active galaxies “may have important implications for their evolution.” Hamann & Ferland (1993; 1999) discussed the possible use of the FeII/MgII $`\lambda `$2800 emission line flux ratio as a chronometer in quasars. With Type II SNe producing most of the $`\alpha `$ elements (O, Mg, etc), and Type Ia SNe accounting for most of the iron enrichment, a characteristic delay of $``$ 1 Gyr is expected for (Fe/$`\alpha `$) to reach solar values. However, the value of this delay has been a matter of recent controversy, with some models of Matteucci & Recchi (2001) suggesting much shorter delay time scales, depending upon the environment.

Recent quasar surveys, such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, have discovered large numbers of high redshift quasars. Infrared spectroscopy of these quasars have revealed their emission in MgII and UV-optical FeII. Elston et al. (1994) was the first to report strong FeII emission in $`z>3`$ quasars. Since then several investigators have measured the UV FeII/MgII emission ratio in quasars with redshifts up to $`z6`$, with hopes of gauging early chemical evolution in the centers of host galaxies and pinning lower limits to the age of the universe at high redshift (Kawara et al. 1996; Thompson et al. 1999; Aoki et al 2002; Dietrich et al. 2002; Iwamuro et al. 2002; Pentericci et al. 2002; Freudling et al. 2003; Dietrich et al. 2003a; Maiolino et al. 2003; Barth et al. 2003). Yoshii et al. (1998) used galactic chemical evolution models and FeII/MgII measurements of a $`z=3.62`$ quasar to constrain cosmological models, based upon the delay in the iron enrichment and two important assumptions. First, as suggested by WNW, they assumed that a flux ratio FeII(UV $`+`$ opt)/MgII $`3`$ represents solar (Fe/Mg). This has never been established theoretically. Second, they assumed that the flux ratio scales directly with the abundance ratio. It is this latter relationship that we investigate, as an important first step toward possibly establishing the FeII/MgII flux ratio in quasars as a meter stick of time and/or (Fe/$`\alpha `$) enrichment history (see Di Matteo et al. 2003). A linear relation (logarithmic slope $`1`$) between the flux and abundance ratios is not expected, due to the thermostatic effects of significant coolants. The logarithmic slope in the relation may even change since MgII is only a doublet, while FeII can redistribute its cooling to a vast array of UV and optical multiplets (where one may not be measuring).

## 2. Grids of Photoionization Models

Using Gary Ferland’s photoionization code, Cloudy, we computed 8 separate grids of photoionized clouds, each grid containing 841 models and spanning 7 decades in hydrogen number density ($`7\mathrm{log}n_H(\mathrm{cm}^3)14`$) and ionizing photon flux ($`17\mathrm{log}\mathrm{\Phi }_H(\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1)24`$) for a fixed cloud total hydrogen column density ($`10^{23}`$ cm<sup>-2</sup>). Each grid was assigned elemental abundances and metallicity ($`Z`$) from the giant elliptical starburst abundance set of Hamann & Ferland (1999; their Figure 13) for a particular age of the starburst (see Figure 1). These spectral simulations used the default simplified model FeII atom within Cloudy. The predicted quasar emission line spectrum from each grid was determined by summing the emission over a broad distribution of clouds within the grid following the “locally optimally-emitting clouds” (LOC) scheme of Baldwin et al. (1995). In addition Gary Ferland and Jack Baldwin have kindly provided predicted FeII(2240-2660 Å)/MgII ratios for 3 simple combinations of $`Z`$ and (Fe/Mg) (Figure 1; solar, high & low $`Z`$), each of these grids computed using Cloudy’s detailed 371-level model FeII atom. The spectral region 2240-2660 Å in FeII emission will be referred to as the FeII(UV bump).

## 3. Results

For each of our 8 grids, the total cooling from the simplified FeII model atom was integrated over a broad distribution of clouds, as described above, and ratioed to the emission from MgII $`\lambda `$2800. The same was also done for the 3 grids that utilized the detailed model FeII atom, except that the predicted emission from the more commonly measured FeII(UV bump) was used. The flux ratios from the 8 grids utilizing the simplified FeII model atom were normalized to the FeII(UV bump)/MgII flux ratio from the solar metallicity grid predicted by the detailed FeII model atom. The slope in the $`\mathrm{log}`$(FeII(UV bump)/MgII) vs. $`\mathrm{log}`$(Fe/Mg) relation from our 8 grids was found to be 0.4, whereas that between the 3 grids utilizing the detailed model FeII atom was found to be 0.6. As expected the predicted logarithmic slope is substantially less than 1.

In Figure 2 we show the FeII(UV bump)/MgII flux ratio as a function the approximate age of the starburst. The flux ratio climbs rapidly and then flattens beyond $``$1.5 Gyr, corresponding to a (Fe/Mg) abundance ratio of about twice solar (Figure 1). Based upon these results, we might expect to measure a systematic decline in the FeII(UV bump)/MgII flux ratio in samples of quasars for redshifts $`z>3.7`$ assuming a host galaxy formation redshift $`z_{form}20`$ or $`z>2.7`$ assuming $`z_{form}6`$, for presently favored cosmological parameters. While this flux ratio is difficult to measure, especially in the observed frame IR, no such systematic decline has been detected to date. More importantly, Baldwin et al. (these proceedings) find that the origin of even the UV FeII emission in quasars remains in question; part of this is reflected in the weakness of the predicted flux ratio in Figure 2 even at large values in (Fe/Mg). Without intending to sound obvious, we must first understand the origin of the FeII emission in quasars before it can be used as either a clock or as a means to track enrichment histories of the centers of host galaxies. Additional clues to chemical evolution at high redshift may come from other heavy element emission lines (e.g., NV, CIII\]; see Dietrich et al. 2003b), from measurements of CO (Bertoldi et al. 2003), and even measurements of the X-ray iron K-edge (Hasinger et al. 2003).

## References

Aoki, K., Murayama, T., Denda, K. 2002, PASJ, 54, 353

Baldwin, J.A., et al., these proceedings

Barth, A.J., Martini, P., Nelson, C.H., & Ho, L. 2003, ApJ, 594, 95

Bertoldi, F. et al. 2003, A&A, 409, L47

Dietrich, M., Appenzeller, I., Vestergaard, M., & Wagner, S.J. 2002, ApJ, 564, 581

Dietrich, M., Hamann, F., Appenzeller, I., & Vestergaard, M. 2003a, ApJ, 596, 817

Dietrich, M., Hamann, F., Shields, J.C., Constantin, A., Heidt, J., Jäger, K, Vestergaard, M., & Wagner, S.J. 2003b, ApJ, 589, 722

Di Matteo, T., Croft, R.A.C., Springel, V., & Hernquist, L. 2003, submitted to ApJ (astro-ph/0309533)

Elston, R., Thompson, K.L., & Hill, G.J. 1994, Nature, 367, 250

Freudling, W., Corbin, M.R., Korista, K.T. 2003, ApJ, 587, L67

Hamann, F., & Ferland, G. 1999, ARA&A, 37, 487

Hasinger, G., Schartel, N., & Komosa, S. 2002, ApJ, 573, L77

Iwamuro, F., Motohara, K., Maihara, T., Kimura, M., Yoshii, Y., Doi, M. 2002, ApJ, 565, 63

Karwara, K., Murayama, T., Taniguchi, Y., & Arimoto, N. 1996, ApJ, 470, L85

Maiolino, R., Juarez, Y., Muijica, R., Nagar, N.M., & Oliva, E. 2003, ApJ, 596, 155

Matteucci, F., & Recchi, S. 2001, ApJ, 558, 351

Pentericci, L., et al. 2002, AJ, 122, 2833

Thompson, K.L., Hill, G.J., & Elston, R. 1999, ApJ, 515, 487

Yoshii, Y., Tsujimoto, T., Kawara, K. 1998, ApJ, 507, L113