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# 1 Parametrization of the amplitude

## 1 Parametrization of the amplitude

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We are interested in the decay $`V^{}(p^{},\eta ^{})V(p,\eta )\pi (p_1)\pi (p_2)`$ where the letters in parenthesis stand for the four-momenta and polarization of the corresponding particles. We introduce $`qp_1p_2`$ and $`Qp_1+p_2`$. $`Q^2=s`$, and $`p^2=m^2,p^2=m^2,p_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}=p_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}=m_\pi ^2.`$ In order to obtain the general parametrization is convenient to consider the amplitude for the exchange of arbitrary spin zero and spin two meson like objects (although we do not consider the actual exchange of any particle). Let us first consider the S wave contribution. The amplitude for the $`V^{}V+`$ scalar can be written as:

$`_0=\eta ^\mu \eta ^\nu t_{\mu \nu }.`$
Covariance allow us to write $`t_{\mu \nu }`$ in terms of $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ and the independent ($`p^{},p`$) four-momenta. Imposing $`p^{}\eta ^{}=0`$, $`p\eta =0`$ and using $`p^\mu t_{\mu \nu }=0`$, which follows from the fact that $`V^{}(p^{})`$ is produced through a virtual photon in an $`e^+e^{}`$ machine, we obtain:

$`_0=a_0\left(\eta \eta ^{}{\displaystyle \frac{(p^{}\eta )(p\eta ^{})}{pp^{}}}\right)`$ (1)
Already at this point we encounter differences with the parametrizations used in the literature, where only the $`\eta \eta ^{}`$ term is considered. Although sizable effects are not produced by the extra term it is important to work with the proper Lorentz invariant amplitude. In particular, differences could become relevant when polarization measurements are involved. 111Note that $`a_0^2_{pol}|M_0|^2=2+\frac{m^2}{E^2}`$, whereas $`_{pol}(\eta \eta ^{})=2+\frac{E^2}{m^2}`$, with $`m`$ and $`E`$ the outgoing vector meson mass and energy respectively. For the D wave contribution we write:

$`_2=A^{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }B^{\rho \sigma }`$ (2)
where $`A^{\mu \nu }`$ describes the $`V^{}(p^{})V(p)+D(Q)`$, D standing for a spin two meson like object, $`B^{\rho \sigma }`$ describes the $`D\pi \pi `$ amplitude and $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }`$ is the spin two projector:

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }{\displaystyle \underset{\lambda =1}{\overset{5}{}}}h_{\mu \nu }(\lambda )h_{\rho \sigma }(\lambda ).`$ (3)
The polarization tensor $`h_{\mu \nu }`$ has the following properties:

$`h_{\mu \nu }(\lambda )=h_{\nu \mu }(\lambda ),Q^\mu h_{\mu \nu }(\lambda )=g^{\mu \nu }h_{\mu \nu }(\lambda )=0`$ (4)
Using these relations together with the projector property of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }`$ one finds:

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}P_{\mu \rho }P_{\nu \sigma }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}P_{\mu \sigma }P_{\nu \rho }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}P_{\mu \nu }P_{\rho \sigma },`$ (5)
with

$`P_{\mu \nu }=g_{\mu \nu }{\displaystyle \frac{Q_\mu Q_\nu }{Q^2}}.`$ (6)
On the other hand, by Lorentz covariance $`B_{\rho \sigma }q_\rho q_\sigma `$. It is convenient to introduce:

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }B^{\rho \sigma }=q_\mu q_\nu {\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}P_{\mu \nu }q^2.`$ (7)
Furthermore, using Lorentz covariance and imposing again the conditions $`p^{}\eta ^{}=0`$, $`p\eta =0`$ and $`p^\mu A_{\mu \nu }=0`$, due to the coupling of $`V^{}`$ with a virtual photon, we find the general structure for $`A_{\mu \nu }`$, and through Eq. (2) the di-pion D wave amplitude (Note that $`Q^\mu \mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }=Q^\nu \mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }=0,`$ therefore $`p^\mu \mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }=p^\mu \mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }`$).

$`_2=b\left(\eta ^\mu \eta ^\mu {\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^\nu p^\mu }{pp^{}}}(\eta ^{}p)\right)\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }+c\left(\eta ^\mu (\eta p^{})p^\mu {\displaystyle \frac{(\eta p^{})(\eta ^{}p)}{pp^{}}}\right)p^\nu \mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{a_2}{m^2m^2}}\left((\eta \eta ^{}){\displaystyle \frac{(\eta p^{})(\eta ^{}p)}{pp^{}}}\right)p^\mu p^\nu \mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }.`$ (8)
Where we introduced the $`m^2m^2`$ factor to work with a dimensionless $`a_2`$.

In order to obtain the decay rate, we carry out the integration over the $`p_1,p_2`$ Lorentz invariant phase space in the two pion center of mass reference frame, i.e. $`\stackrel{}{Q}=0,q_0=0`$. We obtain:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_0\frac{1}{2m^{}}\frac{1}{3}\underset{pol}{}|_0^2\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^32p_0}\frac{d^3p_1}{(2\pi )^32p_{10}}\frac{d^3p_2}{(2\pi )^32p_{20}}(2\pi )^4\delta ^4(Qp_1p_2)$$

$$=\frac{1}{48\pi m^{}}\underset{pol}{}|_0^2\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^32p_0}(1\frac{4m_\pi ^2}{Q^2})^{\frac{1}{2}}.$$

The S-D wave interference vanishes upon integration. Indeed covariance imply

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{int}\frac{1}{3m^{}}\underset{pol}{}(R_e_0A^{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu })\frac{d^3p_1}{(2\pi )^32p_{10}}\frac{d^3p_2}{(2\pi )^32p_{20}}(2\pi )^4\delta ^4(Qp_1_2)$$

$$=ag_{\mu \nu }+bQ_\mu Q_\nu $$

but using $`Q^\mu \mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }=g^{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }=0`$, it follows that $`a=b=0`$.

For the $`D`$ wave we proceed along the same lines.

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_2=\frac{1}{2m^{}}\frac{1}{3}\underset{pol}{}\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3(2p_0)}\left(A^{\mu \nu }A_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{\rho \sigma }\right)\overline{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }$$

where

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }=\underset{pol}{}(\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Pi }_{\rho \sigma })\frac{d^3p_1}{(2\pi )^3(2p_{10})}\frac{d^3p_2}{(2\pi )^3(2p_{20})}(2\pi )^4\delta ^4(Qp_1p_2)$$

$$=𝐱\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }.$$

x is determined using the reference frame where $`\stackrel{}{Q}=0,q_0=0`$. For example

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{3333}=\frac{2}{3}𝐱=\underset{pol}{}(\mathrm{\Pi }_{33}\mathrm{\Pi }_{33})\frac{d^3p_1}{(2\pi )^3(2p_{10})}\frac{d^3p_2}{(2\pi )^3(2p_{20})}(2\pi )^4\delta ^4(Qp_1p_2),$$

in this way we obtain

$$𝐱=\frac{Q^4}{60\pi }(1\frac{4m_\pi ^2}{Q^2})^{\frac{5}{2}}$$

We observe that using the $`q_0=0,\stackrel{}{Q}=0`$ reference frame, it is easy to show that $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }Y_2(\theta ,\varphi )`$, i.e. it is associated to the di-pion $`D`$ wave. This together with the fact that $`a_2,b`$ and $`c`$ can only depend upon $`s(p_1+p_2)^2`$, allow us to conclude that $`_2`$ describes the di-pion spin 2 wave. In the following we consider the particular case where only one Lorentz invariant amplitude is included in $`A_{\mu \nu }`$. To this end we set $`b=c=0`$ in Eq(8). This is the simplest way to consistently introduce $`D`$ wave effects in the invariant amplitude. Within this approximation we obtain for the di-pion invariant mass distribution ($`s(p_1+p_2)^2=Q^2`$).

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{d\sqrt{s}}}={\displaystyle \frac{(m^{}p)\sqrt{s}}{3(4m^{}\pi )^3}}{\displaystyle \underset{pol}{}}|(\eta \eta ^{}){\displaystyle \frac{(\eta p^{})(\eta ^{}p)}{pp^{}}}|^2(SW+DW)`$ (9)
where $`p`$ stands for the three momentum ($`p=|\stackrel{}{p}|`$) and

$`SW=|a_0(s)|^2(1{\displaystyle \frac{4m_\pi ^2}{s}})^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ (10)
$`DW={\displaystyle \frac{|\frac{a_2(s)}{m^2m^2}|^2}{180}}(1{\displaystyle \frac{4m_\pi ^2}{s}})^{\frac{5}{2}}\left[(s(m^2+m^2))^24m^2m^2\right]^2`$ (11)
with

$`2m^{}p=\left[(sm^2m^2)^24m^2m^2\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}.`$ (12)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{pol}{}}|\eta \eta ^{}{\displaystyle \frac{(\eta p^{})(\eta ^{}p)}{pp^{}}}|^2=2+{\displaystyle \frac{4m^2m^2}{(m^2+m^2s)^2}}`$ (13)
We have now a general expression describing the decay $`V^{}V\pi \pi `$, which involves two invariant amplitudes, associated to the $`S`$ and $`D`$ wave respectively. We assume, when $`\sqrt{s}0.9GeV`$, the $`S`$ wave is composed of the $`f_0(600)`$ and a non resonant background. This is an approximation since other resonances could contribute to the amplitude in the kinematical region considered. However, it is reasonable to expect that the contribution of the $`f_0(980)`$ ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{f_0(980)}100`$ MeV) and higher states decaying in two pions behave softly in the neighborhood of the $`f_0(600)`$, even if the latter is a broad resonance. Crossed channel contributions are treated in a similar way, i.e. considered as soft functions of the di-pion invariant mass. Therefore we parametrize the form factor associated to the $`S`$ wave in the following way.

$$a_0^{(i)}=\left(\frac{a^{(i)}m_0^2}{D(s)}+\frac{b^{(i)}}{1\frac{c^{(i)}s}{m_0^2}}\right),$$
(14)
$`m_0`$ is introduced for dimensional reasons and is fixed to $`m_0=0.5GeV`$. For $`D(s)`$ we used two different expressions:

$`D(s)`$ $`=`$ $`sm^2+\mathrm{\Pi }(s)`$
$`D(s)`$ $`=`$ $`sm_p^2+im_p\mathrm{\Gamma }_p`$ (15)
where $`\mathrm{\Pi }(s)`$ stands for the $`f_0(600)`$ self energy which involves loop of kaons and pions. Note that Eq(1) defines the mass $`m_p`$ and width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_p`$ of the resonance in terms of the real and imaginary part of the pole of the $`S`$ matrix. If a pole exist, it should be independent of the process where it is observed. However neither the residue nor the background have to be the same for different processes. For this reason we include the index $`i`$ which is associated to the physical decay under consideration. In the kinematical region of interest the $`D`$ channel is non-resonant, thus we can approximate it by a soft background:

$$a_2^{(i)}=\left(\frac{f^{(i)}}{1\frac{g^{(i)}s}{m_0^2}}\right)$$
(16)
It should be clear that our approach is a phenomenological, and that we have not attempted to explicitly incorporate the scale anomaly. In fact, it can be argued that such a contribution is included within the background.

## 2 The fit

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We consider the following decays: $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)+\pi \pi `$ , $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2S)+\pi \pi `$ , $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)+\pi \pi `$ , $`\psi (2S)J/\psi +\pi \pi `$ , resulting in a total of 165 points. All the data points but the last have been gotten from plots since no listings of the data are available. It is important to mention that previous fits  of the $`\psi (2S)J/\psi +\pi \pi `$ included only a subset of the experimental data.

Following the analysis in  we first attempted a fit in terms of the scale anomaly . The fit produces a $`\chi _{d.o.f.}^2>2`$. This is not an unexpected result, the amplitude associated to the scale anomaly is derived under the assumption that the pions are soft, and this is not the case for all the data under consideration. In fact, according to  and previous analysis , the $`f_0(600)`$ is expected to contribute to these processes. This is the motivation to try a fit in terms of the pole approach, as discussed in the previous section.

The fit using the pole approach is based on Eqs(9,10, 11,14,1,16). The pole can be parametrized in terms of the full propagator, including the self-energy $`\mathrm{\Pi }(s)`$, which involves loops of kaons and pions. In such case, as a result of the fit, we get a mass and the $`g_{fKK}`$ and $`g_{f\pi \pi }`$ coupling constants, and from these the pole position is determined. Unfortunately, the fit turns out to be insensitive to the values of the coupling constants, i.e. different values of the $`g^{}s`$ lead to essentially the same fit, but correspond to pole positions far from each other. For this reason our analysis is restricted to $`D(s)`$ given by Eq(1) where the mass ($`m_p`$)and width ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_p`$)are obtained directly from the fit.

The fit involves 33 parameters. We consider four processes ($`i=1`$ to $`4`$ in Eqs(14, 16)) and for each of these we require seven parameters ($`b`$ and $`f`$ which are complex, and $`a,c,g`$). Three normalization factors are also parameters of the fit -because some of the reported data refers to number of events, not to a differential decay rate- and finally the mass and width of the resonance. The fit leads to a pole located at $`m_p=528\pm 32`$ MeV and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_p=413\pm 45`$ MeV together with the parameters reported in Table(1), and a $`\chi _{d.o.f.}^2=1.12`$. The result of the joint fit are shown as the solid lines in Fig(1). We do not report the result of the fit for S wave alone, however we should mention that including D wave effects improves the total $`\chi ^2`$ but the $`\chi _{d.o.f.}^2`$ remains unchanged. Note in this respect that the fit parameters are obtained from the di-pion invariant mass spectrum, the angular distributions are not involved. Once the fit parameters are fixed, numerical integration over the di-pion invariant mass is performed and we obtain -up to normalization again- the following angular distributions (in GeV units) and the curves shown in Fig(3):

$$\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)\pi \pi \text{[24]}:\frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{d(cos\theta )}=0.07(0.0674(3cos^2\theta 1)^2+1.09)$$
(17)
$$\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)\pi \pi \text{[23]}:\frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{d(cos\theta )}=2.2(0.0009(3cos^2\theta 1)^2+0.511)$$
(18)
$$\mathrm{\Psi }(2S)J/\mathrm{\Psi }\pi \pi \text{[25]}:\frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{d(cos\theta )}=6.5(5.49(3cos^2\theta 1)^2+359)$$
(19)
Besides the pole position and the quality measure through the $`\chi _{d.o.f.}^2`$, it is instructive to analyze the different contributions to the decay rate. These are shown in Fig(2) where the dots corresponds to the pole contribution, the dashed line to the background and resulting fit is represented by the continuous line. From these plots one can see that the pole and background contributions must interfere destructively in all cases, except the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)`$ transition for which the kinematical region includes the pole position and both, constructive (below the pole-mass) and destructive (above the pole) interferences occur leading thus to the structure around 650 MeV. In table(2) we quote the contributions to the $`\chi ^2`$ from the different processes.

## 3 Summary

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In this paper we consider the phenomenological description of the following decays: $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)+\pi +\pi `$, $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2S)+\pi +\pi `$, $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)+\pi +\pi `$, $`\psi (2S)J/\psi +\pi +\pi `$. As far as we can see, it is not possible to obtain a good quality fit in terms of the scale anomaly alone. Using general arguments, we derived an expression for the invariant amplitude describing flavor conserving processes of the type $`V^{}V+\pi +\pi `$, including both S and D waves, which involves two invariant amplitudes. We parametrized the S wave form factor with a pole plus a soft background and the D wave form factor by pure soft background. Fitting the data yields a pole in $`m_p=528\pm 32MeV`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_p=413\pm 45MeV`$ with $`\chi _{d.o.f.}^2=1.12`$. We remark that a strong interference among the pole and the background is required to fit the data. Thus, our analysis seems to indicate that physics in S wave pion-pion interaction below 800 MeV is governed by a subtle interplay between $`f_0(600)`$ meson contributions and a big background, difficult to understand in terms of conventional physics and which could be associated to the scale anomaly.

## 4 Acknowledgments

This work is supported, in part, by CONACyT under grant 37234-E. One of the authors (J.L.L.M.) acknowledges support from the ICTP, Trieste where part of this work was done.

FIGURE CAPTION.

Figure 1. Data points used in the analysis  and the resulting fit (solid line). In the horizontal axes we plot $`m_{\pi \pi }=\sqrt{s}`$ whereas the vertical refers to the differential decay rate $`\frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{d\sqrt{s}}`$, or number of events, as shown in the plots and discussed in the quoted references. For the same reaction, open circles and solid triangles refer to data obtained from exclusive and inclusive processes respectively.

Figure 2. The curve resulting from the fit to the data (solid line), and for comparison the pole (dashed line) and background (dotted line) contributions. Note that for the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2S)+\pi \pi `$ the fit-curve is close to the axes, which implies a strong destructive interference among the pole and the background contributions.

Figure 3. Angular distribution as obtained from Eqs(17,18,19) and compared to data from Ref(). Open circles and solid triangles refer to data obtained from exclusive and inclusive processes respectively.

TABLE CAPTION.

Table 1. Parameters resulting from the fit. The normalization factors refer to: $`N_a`$ data from Ref(), $`N_2`$ to the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)+\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ and $`N_3`$ to $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2S)+\pi ^0\pi ^0`$. The parameters are defined by Eqs(14, 16). Processes are labeled 1: $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)\pi \pi `$, 2: $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)\pi \pi `$ 3: $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3S)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2S)\pi \pi `$ and 4: $`\mathrm{\Psi }(2S)J/\mathrm{\Psi }\pi \pi `$.

Table 2. $`\chi _{d.o.f.}^2`$ for each separate process as obtained from the fit to the di-pion invariant mass distribution.

| $`N_a`$ | $`8.4`$x$`10^3`$ |
| --- | --- |
| $`N_2`$ | $`0.36`$ |
| $`N_3`$ | $`0.62`$ |
| $`a_1`$ | $`8.2`$x$`10^3`$ |
| $`b_1`$ | $`5.3`$x$`10^3+i5.1`$x$`10^3`$ |
| $`c_1`$ | $`0.14`$ |
| $`f_1`$ | $`1.6`$x$`10^3+i3.8`$x$`10^3`$ |
| $`g_1`$ | $`0.4`$ |
| $`a_2`$ | $`7.6`$x$`10^2`$ |
| $`b_2`$ | $`1.1`$x$`10^3+i8.4`$x$`10^2`$ |
| $`c_2`$ | $`5.4`$x$`10^2`$ |
| $`f_2`$ | $`2.3+i2.8`$ |
| $`g_2`$ | $`0.33`$ |
| $`a_3`$ | $`1.2`$x$`10^5`$ |
| $`b_3`$ | $`7.8`$x$`10^4i1.0`$x$`10^5`$ |
| $`c_3`$ | $`1.1`$ |
| $`f_3`$ | $`4.8`$x$`10^3i9.0`$x$`10^5`$ |
| $`g_3`$ | $`5.0`$x$`10^4`$ |
| $`a_4`$ | $`4.8`$x$`10^4`$ |
| $`b_4`$ | $`3.2`$x$`10^4+i3.7`$x$`10^4`$ |
| $`c_4`$ | $`0.48`$ |
| $`f_4`$ | $`3.2`$x$`10^4i3.2`$x$`10^4`$ |
| $`g_4`$ | $`4.9`$x$`10^2`$ |

Table 1.

| Process | $`N_{data}`$ | $`\chi _{d.o.f.}^2`$ |
| --- | --- | --- |
| $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2s)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1s)\pi \pi `$ | 48 | 0.74 |
| $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3s)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1s)\pi \pi `$ | 40 | 1.3 |
| $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(3s)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(2s)\pi \pi `$ | 32 | 1.1 |
| $`\psi (2s)J/\psi \pi \pi `$ | 45 | 1.5 |

Table 2.


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# Cascade of Quantum Phase Transitions in Tunnel-Coupled Edge States

## Abstract

We report on the cascade of quantum phase transitions exhibited by tunnel-coupled edge states across a quantum Hall line junction. We identify a series of quantum critical points between successive strong and weak tunneling regimes in the zero-bias conductance. Scaling analysis shows that the conductance near the critical magnetic fields $`B_c`$ is a function of a single scaling argument $`|BB_c|T^\kappa `$, where the exponent $`\kappa =0.42`$. This puzzling resemblance to a quantum Hall-insulator transition points to importance of interedge correlation between the coupled edge states.

Edge states in the quantum Hall effect provide a highly tunable system for the study of quantum transport in one-dimensionKaneFisher . Following the prediction of chiral Luttinger liquids in the fractional quantum Hall effectWen90a ; Wen91 , extensive effort has been devoted to the study of tunneling between quantum Hall edge statesKane92 ; Kane94 ; Fendley95 ; Chamon97 ; Milliken96 ; Chang96 ; Grayson98 ; Shytov98 . Tunneling of an electron into a Luttinger liquid is strongly suppressed and theories predict a power-law tunneling conductance with a universal exponent related to the quantum number of the bulk quantum Hall liquid. Experimental studies of tunneling between edge states across a quantum point contactMilliken96  and tunneling between an edge state and a three-dimensional metalChang96 ; Grayson98  have generally tended to support the predicted Luttinger liquid behavior. However, there remain important open questions regarding the experimentally observed exponent and its correlation to the bulk quantum Hall statesShytov98 .

A different and perhaps more intriguing geometry for the study of edge state tunneling involves a line junction that juxtaposes two parallel, counterpropagating edge modes against each other. Such a junction has been initially envisioned as a Hall bar with a long narrow gate that couples two right and left moving edge channels of fractional quantum Hall liquidsRenn95 ; Kane97 . In the limit of weak bias, the conductance across the line junction remains quantized as backscattering between the edge states is negligible. For strong bias, inter-edge backscattering is suppressed and the conductance across the line junction vanishes. In between the two limits, the inter-mode backscattering is mediated by defects in the line junction and a metal-insulator transition is predictedRenn95 ; Kane97 . The transition is characterized by a temperature dependent conductivity that vanishes in the insulating phase and diverges in the metallic state in the limit of zero temperature.

Confirmation of the predicted metal-insulator transition has remained elusive as lithographic limitations and vertical offset of the gates from the plane of two-dimensional electrons complicate the realization of a line-junction. An alternate approach to a line junction involves taking advantage of the inherent atomic precision of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and inserting a precisely defined semiconductor barrier in the plane of two-dimensional electron system through the technique of cleaved edge overgrowthPfeiffer90 ; Kang00 . Such a junction strongly couples two counterflowing edge modes through interedge tunneling and features sharp resonances whenever the single particle energy levels coincide with the chemical potentialKang00 . These resonances are particularly enhanced in its width and height at zero-bias crossings, indicating the importance of electron-electron interaction. Proposed explanations include enhanced tunneling driven by electron-electron interactionMitra01 ; Lee01 ; Kollar02 , mixing of the states with equal transverse momentum from the opposite sides of the barrierHo94 ; Takagaki00 ; Nonoyama02 , and a coupled Luttinger liquid interacting through a strongly backscattering center in the barrierKim03 .

In this paper, we report on the observation of a cascade of quantum phase transitions exhibited by tunnel-coupled edge states of quantum Hall line junctions. Two counterpropagating edge states are separated by an 8.8 nm-wide, $``$100$`\mu `$m-long semiconductor barrier. We identify a series of quantum critical points between successive strong and weak tunneling regimes that are reminiscent of the metal-insulator transition in two-dimensions. Scaling analysis shows that the conductance near the critical magnetic field $`B_c`$ is a function of a single scaling argument $`|BB_c|T^\kappa `$, where the exponent $`\kappa 0.42`$. This apparent similarity to the quantum Hall-insulator transitions is quite puzzling due to one-dimensional character of edge states. Whether the resemblance to a quantum Hall-insulator transition is coincidental or occurs from some deeper physics remains to be clarified.

The line junctions are fabricated by cleaved edge overgrowth using MBEPfeiffer90 ; Kang00 . The initial growth on a standard (100) GaAs substrate consists of an undoped 13$`\mu m`$ GaAs layer followed by an 8.8 nm-thick digital alloy of undoped Al0.1Ga0.9As/AlAs, and completed by a 14$`\mu m`$ layer of undoped GaAs. This multilayer sample is cleaved along the (110) plane in an MBE machine and a modulation-doping sequence is performed over the exposed edge, forming two strips of two-dimensional electron systems separated from each other by the 8.8 nm-thick barrier. A mesa incorporating the barrier and the two-dimensional electron systems into a junction that is $``$100$`\mu m`$ long is defined by photolithography. The inset of Fig. 1a shows the planar layout of the line junction device. In the quantum Hall regime, Landau quantization creates two counterpropagating edge states that are separated by a smooth, rectangular barrier. The density of the two-dimensional electron system in the devices studied was $`n=2\times 10^{11}cm^2`$ with a mobility of $`1\times 10^5cm^2/Vsec`$.

Fig. 1 illustrates the zero-bias conductance (ZBC), $`G=I/V`$, across the line junction and the magnetoresistance of the two-dimensional electron system parallel to the tunnel barrier. The ZBC exhibits a series of conductance peaks that oscillates with increasing magnetic field before abruptly dropping to zero above 6.7 tesla. No oscillatory features can be seen at higher magnetic fields. This is thought to occur from decoupling of the counterpropagating edge modes beyond the last zero bias conductance peakMitra01 ; Takagaki00 ; Nonoyama02 ; Kim03 . Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations are found in the magnetoresistance for low magnetic fields and integer quantum Hall states beyond 2 tesla. The period of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations of the two-dimensional electron systems does not match the conductance oscillations, which are sharper and more distinct than the oscillations in the magnetoresistance. The mismatch in the oscillations arises naturally as a consequence of the electronic states near the junction occurring at higher energies than the corresponding bulk states with same quantum numberKang00 ; Ho94 . The single particle energy levels near the barrier consists of a series of intersecting Landau levels from the left and right sides of the barrier. The uncompensated carriers beneath the barrier further shifts the energy levels in vicinity of the tunnel barrier from that of an ideal two-dimensional electrons with uniform areal densityMitra01 .

In the noninteracting picture of tunneling across the line junction, the ZBC peaks occur whenever the energy levels of the left and right edges coincide with the Fermi level at zero bias. Under Landau quantization the spatial coordinate, $`x`$, corresponds to a guiding center state with a well-defined transverse momentum, $`k_y`$, through the relation $`x=k_y\mathrm{}_{}^2`$, where $`\mathrm{}_{}`$ is the magnetic length. In case of a high quality, low disorder barrier, tunneling across the junction must conserve momentum as the transverse momentum, $`k_y`$, is a good quantum number. Whenever the levels coincide, states with equal transverse momentum are mixed and electrons from one side of the barrier can tunnel over to the opposite side. The ZBC peaks consequently represent tunneling between edge states with $`x=0`$ or conversely $`k_y=0`$ momentum states. Since the $`x=0`$ guiding center state lies at the center of the barrier, there is a large overlap of the electronic wave functions which facilitates tunneling through the barrier. Introduction of electron-electron interaction creates a tunnel gap in the energy spectrum as the gain in the correlation energy compensates for the cost of Coulomb interaction energyMitra01 ; Kollar02 . This is thought to be responsible for the enhancement in the width and height of the ZBC peaks.

Fig. 2 shows the magnetic field dependence of the ZBC between 1.5 and 8.3K. The ZBC peaks grow in amplitude with increasing magnetic field and decreasing temperature. Above 7 tesla, the ZBC becomes vanishingly small as the momentum conserved tunneling across the line junction can no longer be satisfied and the conduction occurs parallel to the junction, along the barrier. A striking feature of the conductance data in Fig. 2 is the series of critical points on the high field side of the conductance peaks. These critical points separate the ZBC peaks from the low conductance regions where the tunneling is largely suppressed. Interestingly, no critical points can be seen on the lower field side of the ZBC peaks. In terms of single particle levels, there are excess states above the energy level crossings on the low field side prior to the entry into the zero-bias peaks. On the other hand, electronic states are depopulated as soon as the system exits the ZBC peaks on the high field side. Consequently, the observed aymmetry may be reflecting the structure of the energy level crossings as the population of the filled states change as a function of magnetic field. The inset of Fig. 2 illustrates the temperature dependence of ZBC at the three largest zero bias-conductance peaks. ZBC increases slowly as temperature is reduced and saturates below 1K.

Figs. 3a and 3b show an expanded view of the ZBC near the critical points around $`B_c`$ = 3.39T and 6.73T with corresponding critical conductance values of $`G_c`$ of approximately $`0.05e^2/h`$ and $`0.03e^2/h`$. Immediately above (below) the critical magnetic field, $`B_c`$, ZBC decreases (increases) with temperature. Such a behavior about the critical points is reminiscent of the quantum Hall-insulator transitions in two-dimensions. Fig. 3c and 3d illustrate the results of the scaling analysis of the ZBC about the critical points. For both cases we find that the tunneling conductance $`G`$ near $`B_c`$ can be scaled as an argument of $`|BB_c|T^\kappa `$, where $`\kappa =0.42`$. While the critical point at $`B_c`$ = 3.39T features a limited scaling regime and consequently a greater uncertainty in the value of the critical exponent, the extended scaling regime around $`B_c`$ = 6.73T and its smaller variance of the exponent provide confidence on the scaling form. Remarkably, this is the same universal scaling form and the exponent found in quantum Hall-insulator transitions in bulk two-dimensional electron systemsSondhi97 .

The scaling result seen above raises a number of important questions regarding the quantum Hall line junctions: namely, (1) what is the physics behind the observed phase transitions, (2) what phases lie on either side of the critical points, and (3) what is the significance of the similarity to the quantum Hall-insulator transitions? Answers to these questions are largely unknown and requires further theoretical investigation. Based on the separation of the edge states by a tunnel barrier on the order of magnetic length, it follows that correlation of electrons on the opposite sides of the barrier should play an important role in the electronic transport across the line junction. The effect of electron-electron interaction is then to transform the pair of counterpropagating edge states into ground states characterized by the interedge Luttinger correlation.

The high conductance and the low conductance regimes then represent a pair of highly correlated ground states that are separated by a quantum phase transition and that differ primarily in its ability to tunnel across the line junction. The high conductance, “metallic” phase corresponds to a state with a number of edge electrons partaking in the tunneling across the barrier and backscattering parallel to the junction. Above the critical magnetic fields, tunneling become suppressed and primary conduction now occurs parallel to the barrier in the low conductance, “insulating” phase. While the resemblance to a quantum Hall-insulator transition is suggestive of some type of quantum Hall physics, edge states are generally coupled weakly to the bulk quantum Hall states and are predominantly one-dimensional in its character. Whether these states possess significant enough quantum Hall correlation to produce the observed exponents remains unclear.

Although a disorder driven metal-insulator transition in a line junction has been predicted earlierRenn95 ; Kane97 , the high quality of the MBE-grown barrier and the momentum conservation in the single particle tunneling lead us to discount the likelihood of disorder playing a prominent role. The ballistic property of edge states further minimizes the possible decoherence effects associated with disorder. Based on these features of the line junction, we conclude that disorder should not be playing an appreciable role in the observed transitions.

In the theory of tunneling based on the interedge phase coherence across the line junction, the ZBC peak states are explained in terms of a broken symmetry state characterized by a tunnel gap in the energy spectrumMitra01 . Interaction between the left and the right edge states produces a Luttinger liquid whose symmetry is broken by a phase transition into a one-dimensional pseudospin ferromagnet. The gap in the tunnel spectrum estimated to be $``$1K in the samples with 8.8 nm-wide barrierMitra01 ; Kollar02 . As the magnetic field is switched away from the ZBC peaks, the cost in the Coulomb energy increases as the tunnel gap is reduced. The system evolves continuously until it can no longer sustain a tunnel gap. Subsequent motion of electrons occurs parallel to the barrier as tunneling is no longer possible. It remains to be seen whether such a scenario will produce a quantum phase transition with observed critical exponents.

In the model of Kim and FradkinKim03 , inter-edge tunneling in the line junction is equivalent to a coupled one-dimensional system interacting through short range interactions. Instead of considering a continuous distribution of tunneling sites along the junction, it is postulated that the tunneling between the right- an left-moving edge modes occurs primarily through a weak tunneling center. Introduction of electron-electron interaction within the proposed framework allows for a rigorous mapping of two parallel edge channels into a coupled Luttinger liquid characterized by an effective Luttinger parameter $`K`$. Depending on the coupling constant between the left and right moving branches, there is a quantum phase transition between a state with no tunneling for $`K>1`$ or perfect tunneling $`K<1`$. The experimentally observed sequence of critical points represents a series of $`K=1`$ quantum critical points between the strongly and weakly tunneling regimes. The sequence of critical point therefore mimics a series of opening and pinching-off of the tunneling center as a function of magnetic field. While our data is qualitatively consistent with the proposed scenario by Kim and Fradkin, further clarification of the predicted transitions and associated critical exponents is necessary.

In conclusion, we have studied the temperature dependent transport across a quantum Hall line junction. The tunnel-coupled, counterpropagating edge states produce a series of quantum critical points between the highly and weakly tunneling regimes. These critical points indicate a series of quantum phase transitions between two correlated one-dimensional ground states arising as a result of strong interedge correlation. Scaling analysis shows that the conductance near the critical behavior scales as $`|BB_c|T^\kappa ,\kappa 0.42`$, similar to that of quantum Hall-insulator transitions. Whether there is strong quantum Hall correlation across the line junction or some other physics is responsible for the observed transitions remains to be explained.

We would like to thank E. Fradkin, S. Girvin, I. Gruzberg, E. Kim, A. Ludwig, A. Mitra, H.L. Stormer, and P. Wiegmann for useful discussions. The work at the University of Chicago is supported by NSF DMR-0203679 and NSF MRSEC Program under DMR-0213745.


text:
# Gapless Color-Flavor-Locked Quark Matter

(Nov 2003)

## Abstract

In neutral cold quark matter that is sufficiently dense that the strange quark mass $`M_s`$ is unimportant, all nine quarks (three colors; three flavors) pair in a color-flavor locked (CFL) pattern, and all fermionic quasiparticles have a gap. We argue that as a function of decreasing quark chemical potential $`\mu `$ or increasing $`M_s`$, there is a quantum phase transition from the CFL phase to a new “gapless CFL phase” in which only seven quasiparticles have a gap. The transition occurs where $`M_s^2/\mu 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$, with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ the gap parameter. Gapless CFL, like CFL, leaves unbroken a linear combination $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$ of electric and color charges, but it is a $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-conductor with a nonzero electron density. These electrons and the gapless quark quasiparticles make the low energy effective theory of the gapless CFL phase and, consequently, its astrophysical properties qualitatively different from that of the CFL phase, even though its $`U(1)`$ symmetries are the same. Both gapless quasiparticles have quadratic dispersion relations at the quantum critical point. For values of $`M_s^2/\mu `$ above the quantum critical point, one branch has conventional linear dispersion relations while the other branch remains quadratic, up to tiny corrections.

preprint: MIT-CTP-3447

We know a lot about the properties of cold quark matter at sufficiently high baryon density from first principles. Quarks near their Fermi surfaces pair, forming a color superconductor reviews . In this letter we study how the favored pairing pattern at zero temperature depends on the strange quark mass $`M_s`$, or equivalently on the quark chemical potential $`\mu `$, using the pairing ansatz Alford:1998mk

$$\psi _a^\alpha C\gamma _5\psi _b^\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_1ϵ^{\alpha \beta 1}ϵ_{ab1}+\mathrm{\Delta }_2ϵ^{\alpha \beta 2}ϵ_{ab2}+\mathrm{\Delta }_3ϵ^{\alpha \beta 3}ϵ_{ab3}$$
(1)
Here $`\psi _a^\alpha `$ is a quark of color $`\alpha =(r,g,b)`$ and flavor $`a=(u,d,s)`$; the condensate is a Lorentz scalar, antisymmetric in Dirac indices, antisymmetric in color (the channel with the strongest attraction between quarks), and consequently antisymmetric in flavor. The gap parameters $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3`$ describe down-strange, up-strange and up-down Cooper pairs, respectively.

To find which phases occur in realistic quark matter, one must take into account the strange quark mass and equilibration under the weak interaction, and impose neutrality under the color and electromagnetic gauge symmetries. The arguments that favor (1) are unaffected by these considerations, but there is no reason for the gap parameters to be equal once $`M_s0`$. Previous work Alford:1999pa ; Alford:2002kj ; Steiner:2002gx ; Neumann:2002jm  compared the color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase (favored in the limit $`M_s0`$ or $`\mu \mathrm{}`$), and the two-flavor (2SC) phase (favored in the limit $`M_s\mathrm{}`$). In this paper we show that in fact a transition between these phases does not occur. Above a critical $`M_s^2/\mu `$, the CFL phase gives way to a new “gapless CFL phase”, not to the 2SC phase. The relevant phases are

$`\mathrm{\Delta }_3\mathrm{\Delta }_2=\mathrm{\Delta }_1=\mathrm{\Delta }_{CFL}`$ CFL (2)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }_3>0,\mathrm{\Delta }_1=\mathrm{\Delta }_2=0`$ 2SC (3)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }_3>\mathrm{\Delta }_2>\mathrm{\Delta }_1>0`$ gapless CFL (4)
To impose color neutrality, it is sufficient to consider the $`U(1)_3\times U(1)_8`$ subgroup of the color gauge group generated by the Cartan subalgebra $`T_3=\mathrm{diag}(\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2},0)`$ and $`T_8=\mathrm{diag}(\frac{1}{3},\frac{1}{3},\frac{2}{3})`$ in color space Alford:2002kj . We introduce chemical (color-electrostatic) potentials $`\mu _3`$ and $`\mu _8`$ coupled to the color charges $`T_3`$ and $`T_8`$, and an electrostatic potential $`\mu _e`$ coupled to $`Q_e`$ which is the negative of the electric charge $`Q=\mathrm{diag}(\frac{2}{3},\frac{1}{3},\frac{1}{3})`$ ($`\mu _e>0`$ corresponds to a density of electrons; $`\mu _e<0`$ to positrons.) The neutrality condition on $`\mu _e,\mu _3,\mu _8`$ is

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mu _e}=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mu _3}=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mu _8}=0.$$
(5)
Any condensate of the form (1) is neutral with respect to a “rotated electromagnetism” generated by $`\stackrel{~}{Q}=QT_3\frac{1}{2}T_8`$, so $`U(1)_{\stackrel{~}{Q}}`$ is never broken, but, depending on the values of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_i`$, the rest of the gauge group may be spontaneously broken. We emphasize that this does not affect the neutrality condition (5): a macroscopic sample must be neutral under all gauge symmetries Alford:2002kj .

Previous model-independent calculations Alford:2002kj  have compared the free energy of the CFL phase with that of the 2SC and unpaired phases. In the CFL phase, $`\mu _e=\mu _3=0`$ and $`\mu _8=M_s^2/(2\mu )`$ to leading order in $`M_s/\mu `$. To this order, the CFL phase has a lower free energy than either 2SC or neutral unpaired quark matter for

$$\frac{M_s^2}{\mu }<4\mathrm{\Delta }_{CFL}.$$
(6)
In this paper we show that the CFL phase becomes unstable already at a lower value of $`M_s^2/\mu `$.

We shall present solutions to the gap equations for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3`$ below. First, however, we give a model-independent argument for the instability of the CFL phase above some critical $`M_s^2/\mu `$ In the condensate (1), the $`(gs,bd)`$, $`(bu,rs)`$ and $`(rd,gu)`$ quarks pair with gap parameters $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3`$ respectively, while the $`(ru,gd,bs)`$ quarks pair among each other involving all the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$’s. The gap equations for the three $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$’s are coupled, but we can, for example, analyze the effect of a specified $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$ on the $`gs`$ and $`bd`$ quarks without reference to the other quarks. The leading effect of $`M_s`$ is like a shift in the chemical potential of the strange quarks, so the $`bd`$ and $`gs`$ quarks feel “effective chemical potentials” $`\mu _{bd}^{\mathrm{eff}}=\mu \frac{2}{3}\mu _8`$ and $`\mu _{gs}^{\mathrm{eff}}=\mu +\frac{1}{3}\mu _8\frac{M_s^2}{2\mu }`$. In the CFL phase $`\mu _8=M_s^2/(2\mu )`$ Alford:2002kj , so $`\mu _{bd}^{\mathrm{eff}}\mu _{gs}^{\mathrm{eff}}=M_s^2/\mu `$. The CFL phase will be stable as long as the pairing makes it energetically favorable to maintain equality of the $`bd`$ and $`gs`$ Fermi momenta, despite their differing chemical potentials Rajagopal:2000ff . It becomes unstable when the energy gained from turning a $`gs`$ quark near the common Fermi momentum into a $`bd`$ quark (namely $`M_s^2/\mu `$) exceeds the cost in lost pairing energy $`2\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$. So the CFL phase is stable when

$$\frac{M_s^2}{\mu }<2\mathrm{\Delta }_{CFL},$$
(7)
For larger $`M_s^2/\mu `$, the CFL phase is replaced by some new phase with unpaired $`bd`$ quarks, which from (6) cannot be neutral unpaired or 2SC quark matter because the new phase and the CFL phase must have the same free energy at the critical $`M_s^2/\mu =2\mathrm{\Delta }_{CFL}`$.

For a more detailed analysis, we use a NJL model with a pointlike four-quark interaction with the quantum numbers of single-gluon exchange, as in the first paper in Ref. reviews  but with chemical potentials $`\mu _e`$, $`\mu _3`$ and $`\mu _8`$ introduced as in Ref. Alford:2002kj . Whereas in nature, the conditions (5) are enforced by the dynamics of the gauge fields whose zeroth components are $`\mu _e`$, $`\mu _3`$ and $`\mu _8`$ Alford:2002kj ; Gerhold:2003js , in an NJL model Eqs. (5) must be imposed Alford:2002kj . The model has two parameters, the four-fermion coupling $`G`$ and a three-momentum cutoff $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, but we quote results in terms of the physical quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ (the CFL gap at $`M_s=0`$), since varying $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ by 20% while tuning $`G`$ to keep $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ fixed changes all of our results by at most a few percent. We use $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=800`$ MeV in all results that we quote.

We make the ansatz (1) for the diquark condensate in the quark propagator, using the Nambu-Gorkov formalism, and then evaluate the free energy $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. We shall present the details of our calculation elsewhere, but the formalism is as in Ref. Buballa:2001gj , with the additional constraints of electrical and color neutrality. To simplify the analysis, we neglect the color and flavor symmetric contributions Alford:1998mk  that respect the same symmetries and are known to be small Alford:1998mk ; Alford:1999pa , set the light quark masses to zero, and treat the constituent strange quark mass $`M_s`$ as a parameter, as in Ref. Alford:2002kj , leaving a treatment like that of Refs. Steiner:2002gx ; Neumann:2002jm  in which one solves for the $`\overline{s}s`$ condensate for the future. We incorporate $`M_s`$ only via its leading effect, a shift $`M_s^2/2\mu `$ in the effective chemical potential for the strange quarks. This requires that $`M_s^2/\mu ^2`$ be small, and neglects the dependence of the gap parameters on the Fermi velocity of the strange quark Kundu:2001tt , meaning that we find $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3=\mathrm{\Delta }_2=\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$ in the CFL phase instead of finding $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3`$ larger than the other two by a few percent Steiner:2002gx . We work to leading nontrivial order in $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3`$, $`\mu _e`$, $`\mu _3`$ and $`\mu _8`$, since these are all small compared to $`\mu `$. Finally, we neglect the effects of antiparticles. None of these approximations precludes a qualitative understanding of the new phase we shall describe.

We calculate the free energy $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and solve six coupled integral equations, the neutrality conditions (5) and the gap equations $`\mathrm{\Omega }/\mathrm{\Delta }_1=\mathrm{\Omega }/\mathrm{\Delta }_2=\mathrm{\Omega }/\mathrm{\Delta }_3=0`$. Our solutions depend on three parameters: $`\mu `$, $`M_s`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. We always take $`\mu =500`$ MeV, which is reasonable for the center of a neutron star. We quote results only for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0=25`$ MeV, which is within the plausible range reviews  and ensures that the transition (7) occurs where $`M_s^2/\mu ^2`$ corrections are under control. Although we have obtained our results by varying $`M_s`$ at at fixed $`\mu `$, we typically quote results in terms of the important combination $`M_s^2/\mu `$. Note that in nature $`M_s`$ increases with decreasing $`\mu `$.

In Fig. 1, we show the gaps as a function of $`M_s^2/\mu `$, for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0=25`$ MeV. We see a phase transition occurring at a critical $`M_s^c`$ that, in our model calculation with $`\mu =500`$ MeV, lies between $`M_s=153`$ MeV and $`M_s=154`$ MeV. Below $`(M_s^2/\mu )_c`$, i.e. at high enough density, we have the CFL phase. At $`M_s=153`$ MeV, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1=\mathrm{\Delta }_2=\mathrm{\Delta }_2=23.5`$ MeV and $`M_s^2/\mu =46.8`$ MeV: the model-independent prediction (7) is in good agreement with our model calculation. For $`M_s^2/\mu >(M_s^2/\mu )_c`$, i.e. at densities below those where the CFL phase is stable, we find the gapless CFL (gCFL) phase with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3>\mathrm{\Delta }_2>\mathrm{\Delta }_1>0`$, and all the gaps changing much more rapidly with $`M_s^2/\mu `$. We have checked that upon varying $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, the critical $`M_s^2/\mu `$ changes quantitatively as predicted by (7) and our results are otherwise qualitatively unchanged.

By evaluating the free energy, we have confirmed that the CFL $``$ gCFL transition at $`(M_s^2/\mu )_c`$ is not first order, and found a first-order gCFL $``$ unpaired quark matter transition at $`M_s^2/\mu 129`$ MeV. The (now metastable) gCFL phase continues to exist up to $`M_s^2/\mu 144`$ MeV where, as we show below, it ceases to be a solution.

We see from the $`bd`$-$`gs`$ quasiquark dispersion relations (dashed lines in Fig. 2) that there are gapless excitations at momenta $`p_1^{bd}`$ and $`p_2^{bd}`$. The analysis of Ref. Bowers:2001ip  demonstrates that, as expected from the model-independent argument above, these bound a “blocking region” Alford:2000ze  $`p_1^{bd}<p<p_2^{bd}`$ in which there are $`bd`$ quarks but no $`gs`$ quarks, and thus no pairing. We have confirmed this by explicit calculation of number densities. The volume of the blocking region is zero at the critical point, and grows in the gCFL phase like $`(p_2^{bd}p_1^{bd})[M_s^2/\mu (M_s^2/\mu )_c]^{1/2}\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{1/2}`$. Note that the dispersion relations in the blocking region are nontrivial because the excitations obtained by either adding a $`gs`$ quark or removing a $`bd`$ quark mix via the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$ condensate. If we neglect this mixing, the gapless excitations near $`p_2^{bd}`$ ($`p_1^{bd}`$) are $`bd`$ ($`gs`$) quarks and holes. The gapless CFL phase is analogous to the unstable Sarma phase Sarma , but is rendered stable by the neutrality constraint. This possibility, leading to a gapless phase appearing at a continuous phase transition, was first noted in the two flavor case Shovkovy:2003uu ; Gubankova:2003uj , and it was conjectured that the three flavor case could be similar Gubankova:2003uj . Our model also has a gapless 2SC phase, but it is free-energetically disfavored relative to the gCFL phase except perhaps very near where the gCFL and unpaired quark matter free energies cross at $`M_s^2/\mu =129`$ MeV: a calculation with fewer approximations will be required to resolve a possible small gapless 2SC “window”.

The $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-neutral $`gs`$ and $`bd`$ quarks are not the only source of gapless modes in the gCFL phase: there are also gapless $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-charged modes, associated with the $`bu`$ and $`rs`$ quarks, making the gCFL phase a $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-conductor rather than an insulator. Electrons play a crucial role in this, but let us first understand the quark matter on its own, setting the electron mass to infinity and in so doing keeping the gCFL phase a $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-insulator.

In the absence of electrons, both the CFL and gCFL phases have a degenerate set of neutral free energy minima over a range of $`\mu _{\stackrel{~}{Q}}=\frac{4}{9}(\mu _e+\mu _3+\frac{1}{2}\mu _8)`$, with the two orthogonal chemical potentials and the three gap parameters fixed. The limits of this range (giving $`\mu _e`$ rather than $`\mu _{\stackrel{~}{Q}}`$) are shown in Fig. 3. Because $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is independent of $`\mu _{\stackrel{~}{Q}}`$ in this range, the material is a $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-insulator. At the upper limit in $`\mu _{\stackrel{~}{Q}}`$ (lower limit in $`\mu _e`$), the $`bu`$ and $`rs`$ quarks, which have $`\stackrel{~}{Q}=+1`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{Q}=1`$ respectively, start to unpair: they develop a blocking region of unpaired $`bu`$ quarks bounded by gapless modes, meaning that the $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-neutrality condition cannot be satisfied. At the lower limit in $`\mu _{\stackrel{~}{Q}}`$ (upper limit in $`\mu _e`$) an analogous dielectric breakdown occurs with the $`rdgu`$ pairs breaking and a blocking region of unpaired $`gu`$ quarks with $`\stackrel{~}{Q}=1`$ developing. The solid curves in Fig. 3 thus define the “band gap” for $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-charged fermionic excitations. In the region between the curves, $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-insulating CFL or gCFL quark matter exists, but outside that region no neutral solution exists. At $`M_s^2/\mu =144`$ MeV, which is so large that the gCFL phase is anyway already metastable with respect to unpaired quark matter, the two boundaries cross, meaning that no gCFL solution can be found.

In the real world there are electrons, which we take to be massless. Consequently, in the CFL phase $`[M_s^2/\mu <(M_s^2/\mu )_c]`$, neutrality requires $`\mu _e=0`$, so no electrons are present and the material remains $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-neutral and a $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-insulator, as before kaoncondensation . However, in the gCFL phase, $`[M_s^2/\mu >(M_s^2/\mu )_c]`$, $`\mu _e=0`$ is below the allowed range. In this case, the true solution lies “just below” the lower curve in Fig. 3, where the $`bu`$ and $`rs`$ quarks have become gapless, allowing a small density of unpaired $`bu`$ ($`\stackrel{~}{Q}=+1`$) quarks to cancel the charge of the electrons. The density of electrons is $`\mu _e^3/(3\pi ^2)`$, and the density of unpaired $`bu`$ quarks is $`(p_2^{bu})^3(p_1^{bu})^3/(3\pi ^2)`$, so they cancel when $`(p_2^{bu}p_1^{bu})=\mu _e^3/3\overline{p}^2`$, where $`\overline{p}`$ is the average of the momenta $`p_1^{bu}`$ and $`p_2^{bu}`$ that bound the $`bu`$ blocking region. At $`M_s^2/\mu =80`$ MeV, where $`\mu _e=14.6`$ MeV at the lower curve in Fig. 3, this implies $`(p_2^{bu}p_1^{bu})=0.0046`$ MeV! (To resolve $`p_2^{bu}p_1^{bu}`$, we solved the equations assuming 200 and 500 “flavors” of massless electrons.) Because $`(p_2^{bu}p_1^{bu})`$ is so small, at the true $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-neutral solution $`\mu _e`$ is very close to the lower curve in Fig. 3, and the gaps are almost unaffected by the inclusion of electrons. However, the effect of including electrons is profound: because $`\mu _e`$ cannot be zero, gCFL quark matter is deformed slightly away from being a $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-insulator, so that it can carry a positive $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-charge to compensate the negatively charged electrons. The gCFL phase is therefore a $`U(1)_{\stackrel{~}{Q}}`$ conductor. The quantum phase transition at $`M_s^2/\mu =(M_s^2/\mu )_c`$ is a “metal-insulator transition”, with electron density $`n_e(\mu _e^2m_e^2)^{3/2}`$ as the most physically relevant order parameter. The phase transition is continuous but higher-than-second order ($`dn_e/d(M_s^2/\mu )`$ is continuous).

The phenomenology of gCFL quark matter in compact stars will be dominated by the modes with energy less than or of order the temperature, which is in the range keV to hundreds of keV. For the $`gs`$-$`bd`$ quasiparticles (Fig. 2), the gapless $`\stackrel{~}{Q}=0`$ quasiparticles at $`p_1^{bd}`$ and $`p_2^{bd}`$ have conventional linear dispersion relations, except for $`M_s^2/\mu (M_s^2/\mu )_c`$ where $`p_2^{bd}p_1^{bd}0`$. For the $`bu`$-$`rs`$ quarks, the dispersion relation is strictly speaking also quadratic only at the quantum critical point, but the gapless points separate so slowly in the gCFL phase that this dispersion relation remains very close to quadratic. For example, at $`M_s^2/\mu =80`$ MeV the maximum in the quasiparticle energy between $`p_1^{bu}`$ and $`p_2^{bu}`$ is $`(p_2^{bu}p_1^{bu})^2/(8\mathrm{\Delta }_2)=(\mu _e^6/72\overline{p}^4\mathrm{\Delta }_2^2)0.13`$ eV, which is negligible at compact star temperatures. The requirement of $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$-neutrality naturally forces the gapless $`bu`$-$`rs`$ dispersion relation to be (very close to) quadratic, without requiring fine tuning to a critical point.

The low energy effective theory of the gCFL phase must incorporate gapless fermions which have number densities $`\mu ^2\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }_2T}`$ (the gapless quarks with quadratic dispersion relation), $`\mu ^2T`$ (the gapless quarks with linear dispersion relations), and $`\mu _e^2T`$ (the electrons). In contrast, the (pseudo-)Goldstone bosons present in both the CFL and gCFL phases have number densities at most $`T^3`$. This means the gCFL phase will have very different phenomenology. It will be particularly interesting to compute the cooling of a compact star with a gCFL core, because neutrino emission will be associated with a weak $`bdbu`$ transition, requiring conversion between quasiparticles with linear and quadratic dispersion relations.

Although we have studied the gCFL phase in a model, all of the qualitative features that we have focussed on appear robust, and we have also offered a model-independent argument for the instability that causes the transition. It remains a possibility, however, that the CFL gap is large enough that baryonic matter supplants the CFL phase before $`M_s^2/\mu >2\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Assuming that the gCFL phase does replace the CFL phase, it is also possible that gaps are small enough that a third phase of quark matter could supplant the gCFL phase at still lower density, before the transition to baryonic matter. In our analysis with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0=25`$ MeV, this third phase would be the unpaired quark matter at $`M_s^2/\mu >129`$ MeV but, unlike our central results, this is model dependent. Other possibilities include the gapless 2SC phase Shovkovy:2003uu , a three-flavor extension of the crystalline color superconducting phase Kundu:2001tt ; Alford:2000ze ; Bowers:2001ip ; Bowers:2002xr , or weak pairing between quarks with the same flavor Alford:2002rz .

We acknowledge helpful conversations with J. Bowers, M. Forbes, E. Gubankova, J. Kundu, W. V. Liu, S. Reddy, T. Schäfer and F. Wilczek. Research supported in part by DOE grants DE-FG02-91ER40628 and DF-FC02-94ER40818.


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# Further Reading

## Further Reading

These notes were prepared while working on an invited contribution to vol.16 no.11 (November 2003 issue) of Physics World, which focused on quantum gravity. While I here focused on “Quantum Gravity Phenomenology”, other areas of quantum-gravity research were discussed in Physics World vol.16 no.11 (2003) 29-34 (by L. Susskind) and Physics World vol.16 no.11 (2003) 37-41 (by C. Rovelli). Ref.  contains a few recent descriptions of the status of quantum-gravity research. Ref.  contains a few papers on some strategies for searching for Planck-scale effects which I did not discuss in these short notes. Ref.  contains some references on the possible role of Planck-scale-modified dispersion relations in cosmology.


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# Dark Matter-Wave Solitons in Optical Lattices

## 1 Introduction

Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) loaded into optical lattices show a wide range of interesting physical properties and complex nonlinear dynamics. Optical lattices can be employed to study many important physical phenomena of atomic and solid state physics. The properties of coherent macroscopic matter waves in a lattice, such as the Bloch-band structure , macroscopic interference effects , Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener tunnelling , have been explored in a number of experiments.

One of the many advantages in using a macroscopic quantum periodic system, such as BECs in optical lattices is that the effective periodic potential created by a standing light wave can be easily and precisely manipulated by changing the intensities, polarizations, geometry or frequencies of the interfering laser beams. For example, the depths of the periodic potential wells induced by an optical lattice can be controlled by tuning the intensities of the laser beams. The shape of the potential can also be varied by creating an optical superlattice with more than one order of periodicity. The novel possibilities for band-gap engineering offered by superlattices have been shown to lead to a variety of phase transitions in the contensate , and can be effectively employed for ultracold atom manipulations, such as patterned loading of atoms into lattice sites . Most remarkably, periodicity of the optical lattice potential leads to the effective dispersion of the BEC wavepackets being a function of the band structure. Thus by inducing the motion of the lattice relative to the BEC (i.e. via non-zero detuning of the laser beams), one can manage the dispersion properties of a matter wave .

Coherent matter waves are inherently nonlinear due to the presence of interatomic interactions. One of the common features of nonlinear dispersive systems is the existence of solitons. Bright solitons are localized wavepackets where the effects of dispersion are balanced by nonlinearity to produce self-trapping. In Bose-Einstein condensates, bright solitons require very special conditions to be observed. Without a periodic potential, an attractive nonlinearity and a low number of atoms within each soliton (to prevent condensate collapse) is required . In an optical lattice, bright matter-wave solitons have been predicted to exist, due to the balance of repulsive atomic interactions and negative effective dispersion near a band edge . Bright solitons of repulsive BEC take the form of gap solitons, embedded in the spectral gaps of the linear Bloch-wave spectrum.

In the majority of condensates currently created experimentally, the interatomic interaction is repulsive. This corresponds to an effectively defocusing nonlinearity of the matter-wave which can support dark solitons \- localized dips on the condensate density background with a phase gradient across the localized region. Similar to other types of solitons, they can remain dynamically stable due to the balancing effects of nonlinearity and the (positive) dispersion. Dark solitons have been created experimentally in repulsive condensates by using a phase-imprinting technique to apply a sharp phase gradient to a condensate cloud in a magnetic trap . In the case of BECs loaded into optical lattices, i.e. with the possibility for dispersion management, dark solitons can be supported in both repulsive (for positive effective dispersion) and attractive condensates (for negative effective dispersion). Moreover, dark lattice solitons are expected to be easier to create experimentally than bright gap solitons, as they are not confined to the spectral gaps , and a phase-imprinting technique can be applied to a nonlinear Bloch-wave background within a spectral band. Alternatively, trains of dark solitons can be created in a periodic potential via Bragg scattering  .

The theory of dark solitons has been developed extensively for many types of periodic systems such as discrete atomic chains and waveguide arrays . Applying the concepts of discrete dynamical systems to the physics of the Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices, Abdullaev et al.  studied dark and bright solitons on non-zero backgrounds in a vertical lattice by employing a discrete mean-field model derived in the tight-binding approximation, i.e. considering a single isolated band of the Bloch-wave spectrum. In contrast, Yulin and Skryabin  used a single-gap continuous coupled-mode model in order to examine the stability and existence of out-of-gap dark and bright solitons. A more general analysis based on the continuous Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a periodic potential was presented by Alfimov et al.  who showed that for a repulsive condensate in an optical lattice, dark solitons can exist as stationary localized solutions with nonvanishing asymptotics. Alfimov et al.  as well as Konotop and Salerno  also found numerically stable dark solitons for periodic quasi-one-dimensional BEC systems. The weak spectral instability of the dark solitons in the combined optical lattice and a strong harmonic potential, both in the discrete and continuous mean-field models, has been established in .

In this paper we study the structure and mobility properties of dark solitons in single and double-periodic optical lattices (superlattices) by employing the full continuous mean-field model. First, we describe the multiple band structure of the condensate Bloch-wave spectrum and analyze the Bloch waves corresponding to the band edges of the matter-wave spectrum of a single-periodic optical lattice. We then extend this analysis to the case of a double-periodic optical superlattice and demonstrate that extra mini-gaps appear in the matter-wave spectrum. We show that in-band Bloch states can support dark solitons, and find numerically continuous families of dark solitons imprinted onto the nonlinear Bloch waves of a repulsive BEC. These localized states display some properties found in discrete lattice models, including the existence of the pinning (Peierls-Nabarro) potential  that inhibits the solitons mobility and interactions even in the shallow-well case. Pairs of dark solitons with opposing phase gradients always experience a repulsive interaction in the lattice-free case , and we show that an optical superlattice can be used to initiate and effectively control the interactions of dark lattice solitons.

## 2 Model

The dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate loaded into an optical lattice can be described in the mean field approximation, by the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation for the macroscopic condensate wavefunction $`\mathrm{\Psi }(x,r,t)`$,

$$i\mathrm{}\frac{\mathrm{\Psi }}{t}=\left\{\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}^2+V(x,r)+g_{3D}|\mathrm{\Psi }|^2\right\}\mathrm{\Psi }$$
(1)
where $`r=(y,z)`$, $`V(x,r)`$ is the time-independent trapping potential, and $`g_{3D}=4\pi \mathrm{}^2a_s/m`$ characterizes the two-body interactions for a condensate with atoms of mass $`m`$ and s-wave scattering length $`a_s`$. The scattering length $`a_s`$ is positive for repulsive interactions and negative for attractive interactions. For the cases examined in this paper, we use the parameters set by 87Rb: $`m=1.44`$x$`10^{25}`$ kg and $`a_s=5.7`$ nm.

We consider a trapping potential $`V(x,r)`$ of the form

$$V(x,r)=\frac{1}{2}m\omega _{}^2(x^2+\mathrm{\Omega }^2r^2)+V_L(x),$$
(2)
where $`r^2=y^2+z^2`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\omega _{}/\omega _x`$. The first term of the potential describes an anisotropic parabolic potential due to a magnetic trap, and $`V_L(x)`$ is the effective periodic potential formed by a quasi-1D optical lattice of the form,

$$V_L(x)=U[\epsilon \mathrm{sin}^2(K_1x)+(1\epsilon )\mathrm{sin}^2(K_2x)],$$
(3)
where $`0\epsilon 1`$. The superlattice potential given by Eq. (3) can be obtained by creating two separate far-detuned quasi-1D single-periodic lattices using lasers of different wavelengths, e.g. $`\lambda _1>\lambda _2`$. If the two lattices are orthogonally polarized, when they are superimposed, the resulting dipole trapping potential is proportional to the sum of their individual intensities. With this interpretation, $`U`$ is proportional to the total intensity and $`\epsilon `$ related to the relative intensities of the two standing light waves. The lattice wavevectors are $`K_1=2\pi /\lambda _1`$ and $`K_2=2\pi /\lambda _2`$, and the larger of the two periods is $`d=\lambda _1/2`$. In this paper we choose $`\lambda _1/\lambda _2=2`$ (e.g. $`\lambda _1=700`$ nm and $`\lambda _2=350`$ nm)

Eq. (1) can be made dimensionless using the characteristic length $`a_L=d/\pi `$, energy $`E_{rec}=\mathrm{}^2/ma_L^2`$, and time $`\omega _L^1=\mathrm{}/E_{rec}`$ scales of the lattice. In dimensionless units, the two-body interaction coefficient is given by $`g_{3D}=4\pi (a_s/a_L)`$, and the lattice depth is measured in units of the lattice recoil energy, $`E_{rec}`$. Furthermore, assuming that the condensate cloud is strongly elongated in $`x`$-direction ($`\mathrm{\Omega }>10^1`$), the system can be considered to be quasi-1D. The condensate wavefunction is then separable $`\mathrm{\Psi }(x,r,t)=\mathrm{\Phi }(r)\psi (x,t)`$, with $`\mathrm{\Phi }(r)`$ well described by the ground-state of a two-dimensional radially symmetric quantum harmonic oscillator, with the normalization $`_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}|\mathrm{\Phi }|^2𝑑y𝑑z=1`$. Integrating dimensionless Eq. (1) over the transverse co-ordinates, gives the 1D GP equation:

$$i\frac{\psi }{t}=\left\{\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2}{x^2}+V(x)+g_{1D}|\psi (x,t)|^2\right\}\psi $$
(4)
where $`g_{1D}=8(a_s/a_L)(\omega _L/\omega _{})^2`$. As the magnetic confinement along the axial direction is weak, we can ignore its contribution to $`V(x)`$ so that the external potential is approximated by the quasi-1D periodic potential of the optical lattice along the direction of weak confinement:

$$V(x)=V_L(x)=U[\epsilon \mathrm{sin}^2(x)+(1\epsilon )\mathrm{sin}^2(2x)],$$
(5)
where the amplitudes $`U`$ and $`\epsilon `$ are experimentally controlled parameters and can be varied in our model. The shape of an optical superlattice depends on the values of these parameters. In the limits $`\epsilon 0,1`$, the lattice becomes single-periodic, and $`U`$ is equal to the height of the lattice $`V_0`$. For $`\epsilon 0,1`$, Eq.(5) describes a double-periodic superlattice, with the lattice amplitude, $`U`$, defined through the height of the periodic potential, $`V_0`$, as

$$U=16V_0\frac{1\epsilon }{(43\epsilon )^2}$$

Figure 1 shows that the superlattice potential consists of a series of alternating small and large wells. As seen in the figure, by changing the intensities of the two component standing waves (i.e. varying $`\epsilon `$), the relative depth of lattice wells can be manipulated whilst keeping the height, $`V_0`$, and the periodicity of the lattice constant.

## 3 The matter-wave band-gap spectrum

The stationary states of a condensate in a quasi-1D infinite periodic potential are described by solutions of Eq. (4) of the form: $`\psi (x,t)=\varphi (x)\mathrm{exp}(i\mu t)`$, where $`\mu `$ is the corresponding chemical potential. The steady-state wave function $`\varphi (x)`$ obeys the time-independent GP equation

$$\left[\frac{1}{2}\frac{d^2}{dx^2}V(x)+\mu g_{1D}|\varphi (x)|^2\right]\varphi (x)=0,$$
(6)
where $`V(x)`$ is defined in Eq. (5).

The case of a noninteracting condensate formally corresponds to $`g_{1D}=0`$. Eq. (6) is then linear in $`\varphi `$ and the condensate wave function can be presented as a superposition of Bloch waves,

$$\varphi (x)=b_1\varphi _1(x)e^{ikx}+b_2\varphi _2(x)e^{ikx},$$
(7)
where $`\varphi _{1,2}(x)`$ have periodicity of the lattice potential, $`b_{1,2}`$ are constants, and $`k`$ is the Floquet exponent. The linear matter-wave spectrum consists of bands of eigenvalues $`\mu _{n,k}`$ in which $`k(\mu )`$ is a real wavenumber of amplitude-bounded oscillatory Bloch waves. The bands are separated by “gaps” in which $`Im(k)0`$. The solutions at the band edges are exactly periodic stationary Bloch states. For an interacting condensate ($`g_{1D}0`$), bright gap soliton solutions exist for the chemical potentials corresponding to the gaps of the linear matter-wave spectrum .

Figure 2 presents the band-gap diagram on the plane $`(\mu ,V_0)`$ for the Bloch-wave solutions of Eq. (6) for the case of a noninteracting condensate in the lattice described by Eq. (5) for different lattice parameters. Only the lowest energy transmission bands are shown. The band-gap structure of a single-periodic optical lattice ($`\epsilon =0`$, shaded) is compared with that of a double-periodic lattice or superlattice ($`\epsilon =0.05`$, dashed curves). The mini-gaps the superlattice opens up ‘inside’ the transmission band regions of the single-periodic lattice are clearly visible. As $`\epsilon =0.05`$ is close to $`\epsilon =0`$, there is significant overlap between the two linear band-gap spectra. However, as $`\epsilon 1`$, the two spectra diverge. Fig. 2(b) shows the spatial structure of the Bloch wave solutions, $`\varphi _{\mathrm{Lin}}(x)`$ at the edges of the single-periodic transmission bands for a lattice height of $`V_0=1`$. Dotted lines show the potential and $`\varphi _{\mathrm{Lin}}`$ is normalized according to the condition, $`_0^\pi |\varphi _{\mathrm{Lin}}|^2𝑑x=\pi `$.

Figure 3(a) shows the band-gap structure for a noninteracting condensate in a superlattice with $`\epsilon =0.3`$ compared to that of a single-periodic lattice, both for a lattice height of $`V_0=1`$. The bands of the single-periodic lattice are ‘folded back’ into the first Brillouin zone ($`0k1`$) of the superlattice. The edges of the first mini-gap ($`\mathit{1}_B^{^{}}`$, $`\mathit{1}_T^{^{}}`$) are clearly visible. Fig. 3(b) shows examples of the structure of the periodic Bloch waves at the edges of the superlattice transmission bands. The dotted lines show the superlattice potential and $`\varphi _{Lin}`$ is normalized according to the condition, $`_0^{2\pi }|\varphi _{Lin}|^2𝑑x=\pi `$. With the small wells breaking the symmetry of the sinusoidal potential, Bloch wave solutions exist with peaks in the small wells and/or the large wells of the superlattice. The periodic Bloch waves at band-edges $`\mathit{1},\mathit{1}_B^{^{}},\mathit{1}_T^{^{}}`$ and $`\mathit{2}`$ have discrete counterparts in the solutions of the well-known diatomic lattice problem. The extended solutions in higher-order bands cannot be described using the standard single-band discrete approximation.

## 4 Dark solitons

### 4.1 Single-periodic lattices

We find different families of dark soliton solutions by using a standard relaxation technique to numerically solve Eq. (6) for a lattice potential $`V(x)`$ given by Eq. (5). In this subsection we describe our results for the single-periodic case ($`\epsilon =0`$). In the following subsections we will expand our investigations to the more complicated double-periodic superlattice. Although we only study dark solitons associated with the lowest bands of the matter-wave spectrum, our results should qualitatively apply to dark solitons of the higher order bands.

Figures 4(a,b) show the families of dark solitons for a single-periodic optical lattice of height $`V_0=1`$. According to Figure 2, this is in the shallow well regime, where the bands are broad, the condensate behaves like a superfluid, and the coupling between lattice wells is strong. Figure 4(a) plots the complementary power, $`P_c`$ of the dark soliton families against the chemical potential $`\mu `$. $`P_c`$ is defined as follows,

$$P_c=\left[\varphi _{\mathrm{Background}}^2(x)\varphi _{\mathrm{Soliton}}^2(x)\right]𝑑x$$
(8)
The complementary power characterizes a deficit of the condensate atoms associated with the formation of a dark-soliton notch in the Bloch wave background.

By analogy with bright spatially localized states of the condensate in a lattice, there exist two distinct types of dark solitons - those centered on the minimum (on-site) and maximum (off-site) of the lattice potential. The families of the on-site and off-site dark solitons, characterized by the dependence $`P_c(\mu )`$, are plotted in Figure 4(a). The two families of dark solitons originate at the bottom edge of each band of the linear matter-wave spectrum. The splitting of the power between the families becomes prominent for large $`\mu `$ in the first band, but is negligible for the families originating in the second band. As can be seen in Figure 4(b), each of these dark solitons rests on a periodic matter-wave background. Near the bottom edge of a band, the background has a spatial structure of a linear periodic Bloch wave at the corresponding band edge \[cf. Fig 2(b)\]. For larger $`\mu `$, when the linear theory becomes invalid, the background mode describes a nonlinear Bloch wave, which is a periodic solution of the nonlinear time-independent Gross-Pitaevskii equation . The effect of the interatomic interactions (i.e. nonlinearity) is to cause an effective shift of the band edges. Therefore the nonlinear Bloch waves can be found in spectral regions beyond the linear bands. Correspondingly, the families of dark solitons originate within but extend well beyond the band.

### 4.2 Superlattices

In the previous subsection, we examined the limiting case of $`\epsilon =0`$ corresponding to a single-periodic lattice. Here we study the dark solitons in a superlattice, where $`0<\epsilon <1`$ and a second periodicity is introduced to the system, as shown in Figure 1 above. As shown in Section 3, the addition of the extra periodicity to the lattice potential causes large structural changes in the matter-wave band-gap spectrum as well as the spatial structure of the Bloch states (and hence to the nonlinear Bloch waves). Dark solitons can now appear at the edges of the mini-gaps opened by the superlattice.

We found dark soliton solutions to Eq. (6) for a superlattice potential with $`\epsilon =0.3`$ and a lattice height of $`V_0=1`$ (shallow well regime) numerically. For this superlattice potential, the minigaps are inside the bands of the matter-wave spectrum of the single-periodic lattice. Figure 5(a) shows the complementary powers of the dark solitons in the two bands around the first mini-gap opened by the superlattice potential. The two families in each band correspond to the dark states centered on a large or a small lattice well. The latter state transforms into an off-site dark soliton in the limit $`\epsilon 1`$, and into an on-site soliton in the limit $`\epsilon 0`$. Figure 5(b) presents examples of the spatial structure of each of the dark soliton families. As in the case of dark solitons in a single-periodic lattice, the dark solitons in a superlattice describe kink-like modes on a non-zero background that, away from the soliton, becomes a nonlinear Bloch wave. The families of dark solitons originate at the bottom edges of the linear bands and extend beyond the bands as nonlinearity grows.

As $`\mu `$ is increased, the power splitting between two families becomes prominent in each of the two bands shown in Figure 5(a). In the single-periodic case, the dark solitons centered at a potential minimum always had lower complementary powers than the family centered at the potential maximum. A superlattice allows us to have dark solitons centered in wells of different levels of trapping and as can be seen Figure 5(a) the more ‘stable’ family seems to alternate between dark solitons centered at a large well and those centered at a small well. Similar power splitting behaviour has been observed for bright gap solitons in binary waveguide arrays recently analyzed in ; for that model the power splitting can be connected to alternating stability properties.

Stability is a large and as yet unexplored question for dark matter-wave solitons in optical lattices. Several analytical techniques have been developed to study stability of dark solitons and are outlined in a review paper by Kivshar and Luther-Davies . However, a rigorous analysis of stability of dark matter-wave solitons in an optical lattice is complicated by the fact that their backgrounds are not constant but take the form of nonlinear Bloch waves. These have their own stability properties which have been explored in . These studies suggest that only the ground state nonlinear Bloch wave can be modulationally stable. Some work on the stability of dark matter-wave solitons in optical lattices have been conducted by Yulin and Skryabin, in the framework of a coupled-mode model . Yulin and Skryabin found that whilst bright out-of-gap solitons on a bright background are unstable, the stability of dark out-of-gap solitons depends on the stability of the background . The study of stability of dark solitons in optical superlattices in the framework of the full mean-field model is beyond the scope of the present paper.

### 4.3 Soliton interactions

The difference in the complementary powers of the soliton families described above can be associated with the difference between the minimal values of the energy functional,

$$E=\left[\frac{1}{2}(\varphi )^2+V_L(x)\varphi ^2+\frac{1}{2}g_{1D}\varphi ^4\right]𝑑x,$$

for the two different types of the stationary dark solitons. This energy difference corresponds to the maximum of an effective potential of the lattice known as the Peierls-Nabarro (PN) potential . The height of the PN potential can be understood as the minimum energy required to move a localized wavepacket by one lattice site, i.e. the difference between the energies of a soliton located at a minimum of the periodic lattice and one at a maximum. As was shown for bright localized modes in a discrete lattice, the two different stationary states can be seen to represent a moving mode at different times, therefore the knowledge of the PN potential height is essential in answering the questions about possible mobility of a lattice soliton and its ability to interact with other localized states .

Analytical and numerical calculations of the PN potential for the bright gap solitons have recently been performed in the discrete GP model , assuming the tight-binding regime of the BEC dynamics. Remarkably, it has been established that the tight binding calculations of the PN potential fail to match the results for the full continuous model even in the regime of parameters where the approximation is well justified. Here, we calculate the PN potential height for the two types of dark solitons found both in the single- and double-periodic lattice, and show the results of the calculations for different values of $`\mu `$ in Fig. 6 . In a single-periodic lattice \[Fig. 6 (a)\], for the moderate values of $`\mu `$ within the first band, the dependence has a ”flat” region followed by a region where the PN barrier for the on-site dark soliton is positive. Therefore the dark on-site soliton is effectively pinned by the lattice. For the superlattice, the steep positive region of the PN barrier height near the first band edge \[Fig. 6 (b)\] indicates that the motion and interaction of the solitons could be easily initiated, if initially the dark state is centered on a small well of the superlattice potential. The inflection of the dependence at larger $`\mu `$ could indicate that, for the shallow lattice, the nonlinear effects on the soliton dynamics become more important than those due to the lattice potential. Clearly, for a fixed chemical potential, lattice height, and periodicity, variation of the superlattice parameter $`\epsilon `$ controls the height of the PN potential and therefore mobility and interaction properties of the dark solitons.

To model interactions between dark matter-wave solitons in an optical lattice we integrate Eq. (4) using a pseudo-spectral Fourth Order Runge-Kutta method in the interaction picture. The code is implemented using the xmds code generator . We study interaction between dark solitons in the framework of two models of optical lattice potentials described above, i.e. (i) a single-periodic lattice with $`\epsilon =0`$ and (ii) an optical superlattice with $`\epsilon =0.3`$. In each case, the lattice height is fixed to $`V_0=1`$. The initial conditions for both lattices are a pair of dark solitons on a ground-state nonlinear Bloch wave background \[see Figs. 4(b) and 5(b)\]. The chemical potential is slightly different in each case so as to have the same maximum density (and hence nonlinearity) for both lattices. The initial spatial separation between the dark solitons in a pair is $`6\pi `$. For the superlattice this corresponds to a spatial separation of 6 wells. For the single- periodic lattice, a spatial separation of 12 wells. The results of the temporal dynamics are shown in Figure 7 (for the values of $`\mu `$ near the bottom edge of the first band), and seem to agree with the qualitative predictions from the PN calculations.

Figure 7(a) shows that even in the shallow-well regime, a single- periodic potential is sufficient to trap the dark solitons due to the effect of the large positive PN potential height (both solitons are initially centered at the potential minima). In this case, the density perturbation of the matter wave develops from the numerical noise. By adding the amplitude perturbation to the initial conditions, one can observe damped oscillations of the individual soliton positions around the potential minimum (not shown). In the superlattice potential, if both solitons are initially centered at the large wells of the lattice potential, the dark solitons are also trapped by the lattice, as in Figure 7(b). However, if the solitons are shifted so that they are initially centered at the small wells of the lattice potential they are able to move and repel each other, as shown in Figure 7(c). The addition of amplitude perturbations to the initial state almost immediately triggers a rapid soliton separation Figure 7(c). The same effect can be achieved by changing the contrast of the superlattice by increasing $`\epsilon `$ whilst keeping the periodicity and lattice height constant.

## 5 Conclusions

We have analyzed the band-gap structure of the Floquet-Bloch matter waves in optical lattices and superlattices in the framework of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a single- and double-periodic potential. We have shown that each type of the nonlinear Bloch matter-waves can support dark solitons - localized, stationary notches in the condensate background density with a phase gradient. We have described different families of dark solitons originating within the multiple bands of the Floquet-Bloch matter wave spectrum. By considering the continuous analogue of the Peierls-Nabarro potential in discrete lattices, we have demonstrated that the mobility and interaction properties of the dark solitons can be effectively controlled by changing the structure of an optical superlattice.

The authors acknowledge a support from the Australian Research Council and useful discussions with Dr. Craig Savage.

## References