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# Qualms regarding “Superstatistics ” by C. Beck and E. G. D. Cohen, Physica A 321 (2003) (cond-mat/0205097)

## Abstract

There is neither motivation nor need to introduce ‘superstatistics.’

The authors attempt to generalize the Boltzmann factor so as to obtain a more general statistics, *i.e.*, their so-called superstatistics. The do so by performing a Laplace transform on the probability density function (pdf) of an intensive variable, $`f(\beta )`$, where $`\beta `$ is the inverse temperature. The criteria they use for choosing $`f(\beta )`$ are the following:

1. It must be normalized

$$_0^{\mathrm{}}f(\beta )𝑑\beta =1.$$
(1)
2. It must be such that its Laplace transform

$$B(E)=_0^{\mathrm{}}e^{\beta E}f(\beta )𝑑\beta $$

is normalized, or at least is normalized with respect to a density of states $`\rho (E)`$

$$_0^{\mathrm{}}B(E)\rho (E)𝑑E=_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\beta f(\beta )_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑Ee^{\beta E}\rho (E)=1.$$
3. The superstatistics should reduce to BG-statistics when there are no fluctuations in the intensive variables.

In thermodynamics there are two types of variables: *extensive* and *intensive* variables. In mathematical statistics they correspond to *observable* and *estimable* variables, respectively . Estimable variables relate the probability distribution of the extensive variables to the properties of the physical system. They are referred to as the ‘state of nature’ in mathematical statistics. Estimable variables change due to the nature of the physical interaction, and, therefore, cannot be considered random variables in the frequency sense. Estimable variables cannot be treated in the limit-of-frequency sense; rather, it must be interpreted in the subjective sense that some values of $`\beta `$ are more ‘probable’ than others.

If the parameter’s value is completely unknown in so far as it can take on any conceivable value from $`0`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$, Jeffreys’ rule  for choosing the prior is to take its logarithm as uniform so that

$$f(\beta )d\beta \frac{d\beta }{\beta }\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}0}<\beta <\mathrm{}.$$
(2)
Since the integral of the prior is infinite, it is called improper. Jeffreys uses $`\mathrm{}`$ to represent the probability of a certain event rather than $`1`$. The indetermancy for predicting whether will fall within the interval $`(0,b)`$, $`_0^b𝑑\beta /\beta =\mathrm{}`$, or $`(b,\mathrm{})`$, $`_b^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\beta /\beta =\mathrm{}`$, is merely a formal representation of ignorance.

However, Beck and Cohen do not imply that their $`f(\beta )`$ is a prior pdf. Transforming an improper pdf into a proper pdf can be accomplished by use of Bayes’ theorem . The method uses a likelihood function which essentially inverts the roles of the observable and estimable variables. Due to the additivity of the observable variable, the likelihood function will be a product of the individual probabilities. The likelihood function takes us from an improper, uninformative, pdf to a proper, informative, pdf. This is undoubtedly the meaning of $`f(\beta )`$.

Bayes’ theorem can be written as

$$f(\beta ;\overline{E})=\frac{e^{(\beta :\overline{E})}}{B(\overline{E})}f(\beta )$$
(3)
where $`(\beta ;\overline{E})`$ is the log-likehood function which transforms the prior pdf $`f(\beta )`$ into the posterior pdf $`f(\beta ;\overline{E})`$, where $`\overline{E}`$ is the average energy of the sample. Since the posterior pdf is normalized, we obtain the explicit expression for $`B(\overline{E})`$ as

$$B(\overline{E})=_0^{\mathrm{}}e^{\beta \overline{E}L(\beta )}f(\beta )𝑑\beta =_0^{\mathrm{}}e^{\beta \overline{E}L(\beta )}\frac{d\beta }{\beta },$$

where $`L(\beta )`$ is the Legendre transform of the entropy with respect to the energy, and we have introduced Jeffreys’ improper prior pdf into the second expression.

We now turn to the examples treated by Beck and Cohen. According to the authors, the most relevant example of superstatistics is the Gamma pdf

$$f(\beta )=\frac{1}{b\mathrm{\Gamma }(c)}\left(\frac{\beta }{b}\right)^{c1}e^{\beta /b}.$$
(4)
This Gamma pdf for the inverse temperature has already been derived in ref  eqn (4.97) from Bayes’ theorem (3), where $`2c=3N`$ is the effective number of degrees-of-freedom and $`b=1/E_0`$ is a fixed parameter. Setting the authors’ $`f(\beta )=e^{L(\beta )}/\beta `$, we find

$$L(\beta )=\beta /bc\mathrm{log}(\beta /b)+\mathrm{log}\mathrm{\Gamma }(c)$$

Since $`L(\beta )`$ is the Legendre transform of the entropy, it is the logarithm of the partition function so that

$$\frac{L}{\beta }=\frac{1}{b}\frac{c}{\beta }=\overline{E}$$

which gives the thermal equation of state

$$\beta =\frac{\beta _0}{1+b\overline{E}},$$
(5)
where $`\beta _0=bc=\frac{3}{2}N/E_0`$, in our notation. The entropy is the Legendre transform of $`L`$ so that for $`c`$ large enough so that Stirling’s approximation holds we get

$$S(E)=c\mathrm{log}(1+b\overline{E}).$$
(6)
This means that

$$B(\overline{E})=e^{S(\overline{E})}.$$

It is imperative to emphasize that absolutely no reference to superstatistics has been made! Fluctuations in intensive variables occur in BG-statistics. In fact for $`b\overline{E}1`$ the thermal equation of state (5) reduces to the thermal equation of state of an ideal gas with $`2c`$ degrees-of-freedom, $`\beta =c/\overline{E}`$, and (6) gives the energy dependency of the entropy of an ideal gas, $`S=c\mathrm{log}\overline{E}`$. Superstatistics supposedly enters when Beck and Cohen identify $`B`$ with the Tsallis distribution where $`c=1/(q1)`$ and $`q`$ is the exponent in the Tsallis entropy. The authors write $`B=\mathrm{exp}\left\{c\mathrm{log}(1+b\overline{E})\right\}`$ and expand it for small $`b\overline{E}`$. Yet their resulting expansion is not in powers of $`b\overline{E}`$! The parameter $`b=\beta _0/c=\beta _0(q1)`$, which in our notation is $`b=1/E_0`$, the inverse of the total energy, does not contain the Tsallis exponent $`q`$. The expansion is

$`(1+bE)^c`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=c}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\left(\begin{array}{c}k1\\ c1\end{array}\right)(bE)^{kc}`$
$`=`$ $`1\beta _0E+{\displaystyle \frac{(\beta _0E)^2}{2!}}{\displaystyle \frac{(\beta _0E)^3}{3!}}+\mathrm{}`$
$`+(q1){\displaystyle \frac{(\beta _0E)^2}{2!}}(2q+1)(q1){\displaystyle \frac{(\beta _0E)^3}{3!}}+\mathrm{}`$
and not their eqn (14) in which $`e^{\beta _0E}`$ can be factored out of the sum. This has fatal consequences on their conclusion in eqn (25) that the Tsallis entropy exponent $`q=\beta ^2/\beta ^2`$, which already looked suspicious because it rules out values of $`q<1`$.

The log-normal pdf for the inverse temperature had already been derived in ref  eqn (4.115) where there is a $`1/T_i`$ missing. This term is due to the Jacobian of the transformation on going from (4.114) to (4.115). It was derived from an error law for the temperature for which the geometric mean is the most probable value of the temperature measured. The geometric mean value of the temperature is the lowest attainable temperature when two bodies at different initial temperatures are placed in thermal contact, where the processes of heat withdrawal and injection and conversion into work are carried out reversibly. Again there is neither mention—nor need—of superstatics.

We have left Beck and Cohen’s first example for last because it illustrates two general principles. Firstly, Beck and Cohen choose a uniform prior pdf in an interval from $`a`$ to $`a+b`$. According to Jeffreys’ first rule , a uniform prior is appropriate when the parameter involved can conceivably assume all values from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`+\mathrm{}`$. Since the temperature is non-negative, $`\beta `$ can assume values from $`0`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$, and for such a parameter Jeffreys suggests taking its logarithm uniform, (2).

Secondly, we have always substituted the Legendre transform for the Laplace integral, and this is not justified in this case because it is not a thermodynamic system with a large number of degrees-of-freedom. Consider the following Laplace type integral

$$B(E)=_a^{a+b}e^{\beta E}\beta ^m𝑑\beta .$$
(8)
Under the change of variable $`\beta =m\gamma `$ the integral becomes

$$B(E)=m^{m+1}_a^{}^{a^{}+b^{}}e^{m\varphi (\gamma )}𝑑\gamma ,$$

where $`a^{}=a/m`$, $`b^{}=b/m`$, and

$$\varphi (\gamma )=\gamma E\mathrm{log}\gamma .$$

The function $`\varphi `$ has a minimum at $`\widehat{\gamma }=E^1`$, or equivalently, $`\widehat{\beta }=m/E`$, which is the thermal equation of state for a system of $`2m`$ degrees-of-freedom. Expanding $`\varphi (\gamma )`$ up to second-order in the small difference $`(\gamma \widehat{\gamma })`$ gives

$$B(E)m^{m+1}e^{m(m+1)\mathrm{log}E}\sqrt{\frac{2}{m}}_{\sqrt{(m/2)}(1a/\widehat{\beta })}^{\sqrt{(m/2)}[(a+b)/\widehat{\beta }1]}e^{\tau ^2}𝑑\tau ,$$

where we have introduced the further change of variable, $`\tau =\sqrt{(m/2)}\gamma ^1(\gamma \widehat{\gamma })`$.

We now appreciate that no matter how small $`b`$ is, $`m`$ can be taken so large that the value of the integral is changed only slightly when the limits of integration are replaced by $`\pm \mathrm{}`$ . Thus we finally have

$$B(E)\frac{m^me^m\sqrt{2\pi m}}{E^{m+1}}.$$

For large $`m`$ the numerator is Stirling’s approximation to $`m!`$ up to order $`1/m`$; hence, the final expression for the entropy is

$$S(E)=\mathrm{log}\left(\frac{E^m}{m!}\right).$$

Therefore, we can safely use the Legendre transform in place of evaluating the Laplace transform for values of $`m`$ for which Stirling’s approximation holds. Only in this case can the principles of statistical thermodynamics be used . This does not apply to Beck and Cohen’s uniform distribution. Finally, (8) is essentially the Gamma pdf (4) in the case of large $`b`$ so the normalization condition (1) is not relevant.


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# AS-TEXONO/03-08 Low Energy Neutrino Physics at the Kuo-Sheng Reactor Neutrino Laboratory in Taiwan

## 1 Introduction

The TEXONO111Taiwan EXperiment On NeutrinO Collaboration222Home Page - http://hepmail.phys.sinica.edu.tw/$``$texono has been built up since 1997 to pursue an experimental program in Neutrino and Astroparticle Physics . The “flagship” program is on reactor-based low energy neutrino physics at the Kuo-Sheng (KS) Power Plant in Taiwan. The KS experiment is the first large-scale particle physics experiment in Taiwan. The TEXONO Collaboration is the first research collaboration among scientists from Taiwan and China .

Results from recent neutrino experiments strongly favor neutrino oscillations which imply neutrino masses and mixings . Their physical origin and experimental consequences are not fully understood. There are strong motivations for further experimental efforts to shed light on these fundamental questions by probing standard and anomalous neutrino properties and interactions . The results can constrain theoretical models necessary to interpret the future precision data $``$ or may yield surprises which have been the characteristics of the field. In addition, these studies could also explore new detection channels to provide new tools for future investigations.

## 2 Kuo-Sheng Neutrino Laboratory

The “Kuo-Sheng Neutrino Laboratory” is located at a distance of 28 m from the core #1 of the Kuo-Sheng Nuclear Power Station at the northern shore of Taiwan . A multi-purpose “inner target” detector space of 100 cm$`\times `$80 cm$`\times `$75 cm is enclosed by 4$`\pi `$ passive shielding materials with a total weight of 50 tons. Different detectors can be placed in the inner space for the different scientific goals. The detectors are read out by a versatile electronics and data acquisition systems  based on 16-channel, 20 MHz, 8-bit Flash Analog-to-Digital-Convertor (FADC) modules. The readout allows full recording of all the relevant pulse shape and timing information for as long as several ms after the initial trigger. The reactor laboratory is connected via telephone line to the home-base laboratory, where remote access and monitoring are performed regularly. Data are stored and accessed with a cluster of multi-disks arrays each with 800 Gbyte of memory.

The measure-able nuclear and electron recoil spectra due to reactor $`\overline{\nu _e}`$ are depicted in Figure 1, showing the effects due to Standard Model \[$`\overline{\nu _\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{e}^{}(\mathrm{SM})`$\] and magnetic moment \[$`\overline{\nu _\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{e}^{}(\mathrm{MM})`$\] in $`\overline{\nu _e}`$-electron scatterings , as well as in neutrino coherent scatterings on the nuclei ($`\overline{\nu _\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{N}(\mathrm{SM})`$ and $`\overline{\nu _\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{N}(\mathrm{MM})`$, respectively). The uncertainties in the low energy part of the reactor neutrino spectra require that experiments to measure $`\sigma [\overline{\nu _\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{e}^{}(\mathrm{SM})]`$ should focus on higher electron recoil energies (T$`>`$1.5 MeV), while MM searches should base on measurements with T$`<`$100 keV . Observation of $`\overline{\nu _\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{N}(\mathrm{SM})`$ would require detectors with sub-keV sensitivities.

Accordingly, data taking were optimized with these strategies. An ultra low-background high purity germanium (ULB-HPGe) detector was used for Period I (June 2001 till May 2002) data taking, while 186 kg of CsI(Tl) crystal scintillators were added in for Period II (Jan 2003 till Sept 2003). Both detector systems operate in parallel with the same data acquisition system but independent triggers.

## 3 Neutrino Magnetic Moment Searches with Germanium Detector

The ULB-HPGe is surrounded by NaI(Tl) and CsI(Tl) crystal scintillators as anti-Compton detectors, and the whole set-up is further enclosed by another 3.5 cm of OFHC copper blocks, and housed in a radon shield. After suppression of cosmic-induced background, anti-Compton vetos and convoluted events by pulse shape discrimination, a background level at 20 keV at the range of 1 keV-1kg-1day-1 and a detector threshold of 5 keV are achieved. These are the levels comparable to underground Dark Matter experiment. Comparison of the measured spectra for 4712/1250 hours of Reactor ON/OFF data in Period I  shows no excess and limits of the neutrino magnetic moment $`\mu _{\overline{\nu _\mathrm{e}}}<1.3(1.0)\times 10^{10}\mu _\mathrm{B}`$ at 90(68)% confidence level (CL) were derived.

Depicted in Figure 2a is the summary of the results in $`\mu _{\overline{\nu _\mathrm{e}}}`$ searches versus the achieved threshold in reactor experiments. The dotted lines denote the $`\mathrm{R}=\sigma (\mu )/\sigma (\mathrm{SM})`$ ratio at a particular (T,$`\mu _{\overline{\nu _\mathrm{e}}}`$). The KS(Ge) experiment has a much lower physics threshold of 12 keV compared to the other measurements. The large R-values imply that the KS results are robust against the uncertainties in the SM cross-sections. The neutrino-photon couplings probed by $`\mu _\nu `$-searches in $`\nu `$-e scatterings are related to the neutrino radiative decays ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\nu `$. Indirect bounds on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\nu `$ can be inferred and are displayed in Figure 2b for the simplified scenario where a single channel dominates the transition. It corresponds to $`\tau _\nu \mathrm{m}_\nu ^3>2.8(4.8)\times 10^{18}\mathrm{eV}^3\mathrm{s}`$ at 90(68)% CL in the non-degenerate case. It can be seen that $`\nu `$-e scatterings give much more stringent bounds than the direct approaches.

## 4 Other Research Subjects

The KS data with ULB-HPGe are the lowest threshold data so far for reactor neutrino experiments, and therefore allow the studies of several new and more speculative topics. Nuclear fission at reactor cores also produce electron neutrino ($`\nu _e`$) through the production of unstable isotopes, such as 51Cr and 55Fe, via neutron capture. The subsequent decays of these isotopes by electron capture would produce mono-energetic $`\nu _e`$. A realistic neutron transfer simulation has been carried out to estimate the flux. Physics analysis on the $`\mu _\nu `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\nu `$ of $`\nu _e`$ will be performed, while the potentials for other physics applications will be studied. In additional, potentials for an inclusive analysis of the anomalous neutrino interactions with matter, as well as studies on neutrino-induced nuclear transitions will be pursued.

Period II data taking includes an addition of an array of 186 kg of CsI(Tl) crystals. , each module being 2 kg in mass and 40 cm in length. The physics goal is to measure the Standard Model neutrino-electron scattering cross sections, and thereby to provide a measurement of $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _\mathrm{W}`$ at the untested MeV range. The strategy  is to focus on data at high ($`>`$2 MeV) recoil energy where the uncertainties due to the reactor neutrino spectra are small. The large target mass compensates the drop in the cross-sections at high energy.

In addition, various R&D projects  are pursued in parallel to the KS reactor neutrino experiment. In particular, a prototype ultra-low-energy germanium (ULE-HPGe) detector of 5 g mass is being studied, with potential applications on Dark Matter searches and neutrino-nuclei coherent scatterings. A hardware energy threshold of better than 100 eV has been achieved, as illustrated in Figure 3. The ULE-HPGe is placed inside the shieldings at the KS laboratory where the goal will be to perform the first-ever background studies at the sub-keV energy range. It is technically feasible to build an array of such detectors to increase the target size to the 1 kg mass range.

The TEXONO research program is supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan and the National Science Foundation, China, as well as by the operational funds from the collaborating institutes.


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# Bandgap engineering and defect modes in photonic crystals with rotated hexagonal holes

## Abstract

We study the bandgap structure of two-dimensional photonic crystals created by a triangular lattice of rotated hexagonal holes, and explore the effects of the reduced symmetry in the unit-cell geometry on the value of the absolute bandgap and the frequencies of localized defect modes. We reveal that a maximum absolute bandgap for this structure is achieved for an intermediate rotation angle of the holes. This angle depends on the radius of the holes and the refractive index of the background material. We also study the properties of the defect modes created by missing holes, and discuss the mode tunability in such structures.

During recent years we observe a rapidly growing interest in the design and fabrication of novel types of photonic-crystal structures possessing large absolute band gaps. The study of various geometries of three-dimensional photonic crystals and different ways to enlarge their absolute bandgaps is a key issue of the physics of periodic dielectric structures where different polarizations of light are coupled together and, therefore, the existence of an absolute bandgap is crucially important for various applications of three-dimensional photonic crystals in optics (see. e.g., Ref. sakoda  and references therein).

However, for two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals Maxwell’s equations are known to decouple effectively for two polarizations, so that the study of a particular photonic bandgap of such periodic structures can be carried out independently for both $`E`$-polarized and $`H`$-polarized electromagnetic waves. Accordingly, two types of photonic bandgaps are usually distinguished to exist for different polarizations. When the bandgaps for two different polarizations overlap, they create the combined bandgap known as an absolute bandgap.

One of the main reasons to enlarge the absolute bandgaps and to study the bandgap properties of 2D periodic photonic structures is an attractive possibility of creating novel types of tunable waveguides and circuits for applications of photonic crystals in integrated optics. In particular, the existence of a large absolute bandgap would allow to design the waveguides in planar structures which can support propagating modes of both polarizations in the same frequency domain.

Up to now, a number of different approaches has been suggested for the enlargement of the absolute bandgaps of 2D photonic-crystal structures. One of these approaches relies on the idea of using the photonic crystals created by a two-dimensional lattice of non-circular holes and exploring the symmetry-reducing properties of 2D photonic crystals for the bandgap enlargement Villeneuve:1992-4969:PRB PRB\_2003 . In particular, Wang et al. Wang:2001-4307:JAP  demonstrated that the absolute bandgap becomes maximal in the case of air holes of the same symmetry as the lattice symmetry. For example, the bandgap takes a maximum value for a triangular lattice of rotated hexagonal holes. However, Qui et al. Qiu:2000-1027:JOSB  suggested that the bandgap as large as that demonstrated in Ref. Wang:2001-4307:JAP  can be achieved in 2D photonic crystals created by air holes of more complex, non-circular shape without any rotation.

In spite of many studies of the absolute bandgaps of photonic crystals created by a lattice of non-circular holes, no specific applications of such large bandgaps have been discussed and demonstrated. In particular, the usual statement that large absolute bandgaps should be useful for functioning of photonic circuits is not well-grounded. As a matter of fact, there is no solid reason to exploit the absolute bandgaps in two-dimensional structures unless photonic-crystal circuits guide light of both polarizations, but the study of defect modes and waveguides in such structures is still incomplete or missing.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we explore further the concept of the enlargement of the absolute bandgaps of 2D photonic crystals through reducing symmetry in the unit-cell geometry taking as an example a 2D dielectric periodic structure created by a a triangular lattice of rotated hexagonal holes. In particular, we reveal that in such 2D structures large absolute bandgaps can be achieved for an intermediate value of the rotation angle of the hexagonal holes. Second, we demonstrate that, by using 2D photonic crystals with a large absolute bandgap, it is possible to create defects which can support localized modes for both polarizations of light, so that the waveguides based on such defects can guide light of both polarizations as well.

We consider a 2D photonic crystal created by a triangular lattice of hexagonal holes assuming an arbitrary rotation of the hole relative to the lattice symmetry axis, as shown in Fig. 1(a). The photonic band gap is calculated by solving Maxwell’s equations, by means of the plane-wave expansion method PW\_1 . Two examples of the photonic bandgap structure of such a photonic crystal is shown in Figs. 1(b,c), for the particular cases of the hole rotation, i.e. for $`\theta =0`$ and $`\theta =30^o`$, respectively. Our main goal here is to study the effect of the hole rotation on the value of the (lowest-order) absolute band gap. The results can naturally be compared with the bandgap spectra of the 2D structures created by circular holes, as well as with the case when the hexagonal holes are not rotated, see Fig. 1(b).

In Fig. 2 we show the dependence of the normalized width of the absolute bandgap for two types of triangular lattices created by circular and hexagonal holes, as the functions of the normalized radius, $`r/a`$. We make this type of comparison for different values of the rotation angle of the hexagonal lattices, such that the rotation for the hexagonal holes is chosen to maximize the absolute bandgap at a given radius. In all the cases we confirm that the hexagonal lattices possess a larger absolute bandgap, and this bandgap depends strongly on the hexagon orientation.

As a matter of fact, we observe that the absolute bandgap can be enlarged dramatically by employing the concept of local symmetry reduction in the unit cell of the structure, and using hexagonal holes instead of circular holes to reduce the rotational symmetry. In this latter case, the bandgap depends strongly on the rotation angle of the holes. In brief, our findings can be summarized as follows. First, the maximal bandgap is achieved for some intermediate (critical) angle of rotation; in the case of the hexagonal holes in the material with $`ϵ=12`$, this critical angle is close to the value 24o. Second, the critical angle $`\theta _{\mathrm{cr}}`$ depends on the value of the dielectric constant $`ϵ`$ of the photonic-crystal material, but it varies slowly near this intermediate value. Figures 3(a,b) show the maximum value of the absolute bandgap $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega /\omega `$ and the variation of the critical angle $`\theta _{\mathrm{cr}}`$ of the rotated hexagonal holes on the value of the dielectric permittivity $`ϵ`$ of the photonic crystal material. It is therefore clear that this critical rotation angle is not a fundamental constant of the structure, but it is defined by some effective geometry and material properties corresponding to the maximum effect of the local symmetry reducing in the unit-cell geometry, similar to the effects discussed in Ref. Qiu:2000-1027:JOSB  for a complete different problem. Moreover, the absolute bandgap varies dramatically for relatively small values of $`ϵ`$, whereas it saturates for large $`ϵ`$, and the critical angle approaches the value $`21^o`$.

As we mentioned above, in the case of 2D periodic dielectric structures, both $`E`$\- and $`H`$-polarization components of the electromagnetic field are decoupled. In this case, the existence of large absolute bandgaps can be useful to support localized modes for both polarizations of light, and that the waveguides based on such defects can guide light of both polarizations as well. Therefore, in order to employ some practical advantages of using the properties of the absolute bandgaps in 2D photonic structures, we should explore the properties of the defect modes and waveguides created in such types of photonic crystals. To be practically useful, such waveguides should be tolerant to the fabrication disorder, so that two-dimensional photonic structures created by a lattice of holes seem to be the best suited structures where defect modes and waveguides can be fabricated making some missing holes.

Figure 4(a) shows the spectrum of localized defect modes supported by a triangular lattice of hexagonal holes, for the case when the lattice is created by the holes rotated by 23.7o, and the bandgap takes its maximum value. As follows from these results, the defect created by a missing rotated hole can support simultaneously localized modes of both TE and TM polarizations, allowing for an effective manipulation of light in photonic-crystal circuits based on this type of defects. Additionally, in Fig. 4(b) we show how the absolute bandgap and the defect frequencies vary with a change of the rotation angle $`\theta `$, at the fixed value of the hole radius $`r/a=0.43`$ defined in Fig. 1(a). From the results presented in Fig. 4(b) it follows that the frequencies of the defect modes inside the absolute bandgap are almost constant for all angles.

Our results show that the similar features are observed for the waveguides created in the lower-symmetry photonic crystals possessing a large absolute photonic bandgap: the possibility to enlarge the bandgap in a 2D photonic structures created by rotated hexagonal holes allows such waveguides to support the guided modes of both polarization, and their bandgap properties can be easily manipulated. This problem will be addressed in our future publications.

In conclusion, we have presented the results of engineering of the absolute bandgaps in 2D photonic crystals for photonic-circuit applications, for the example of a photonic crystal created by a triangular lattice of hexagonal holes. We have revealed that the maximum value of the absolute bandgap in this structure can be achieved when all hexagonal holes are rotated by a finite angle, and this rotation angle takes an intermediate value between the values corresponding to the simplest symmetries of the lattice. The critical rotation angle depends on the parameters of photonic crystals, but it is shown to be almost constant for large values of the dielectric permittivity. Moreover, the frequencies of the defect modes which can be supported by missing holes in such structures do not vary much with the hole rotation and changing the value of the absolute bandgap.

We believe that our results will be important for a design of the photonic-crystal waveguides and circuits supporting propagating guided modes of both polarizations in the same frequency domain, as well as for the study of nonlinear waveguides where the intensity-induced coupling between the modes of different polarization can be controlled through the rotation of holes or non-circular defects. In addition, we believe that our results can be useful for a design of novel types of coupled-resonator optical waveguides with the properties which can be tuned by using rotated hexagonal holes instead of circular holes.

In addition, we would like to mention that large absolute bandgaps can be very useful for exploring nonlinear properties of photonic crystals, when the intensity-dependent refractive index of the waveguides can be employed to couple the field polarizations. In this case, we can create nonlinear photonic-crystal circuits where one polarization is used for the signal transmission, whereas the other polarization is employed for controlling the signal propagation, in order to realize switching between different transmission regimes, etc.

This work has been supported by the Australian Research Council through the ARC Center of Excellence program and the Center for Ultra-high bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS). We thanks Dr. X.H. Wang for useful discussions.


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# Chronology protection in a toy surface plasmon ”time machine”.

\[

## Abstract

Recently introduced toy surface plasmon ”black holes” and ”wormholes” (New Journal of Physics 5, 147.1-147.8 (2003), and gr-qc/0306089) can be used to create a toy ”time machine” according to a number of published designs (see for example I.D. Novikov, Sov.Phys.JETP 68, 439 (1989)). Assuming that such a toy ”time machine” does not work, a general prediction can be made of strong electromagnetic field enhancement inside an arbitrarily-shaped nanohole near an arising effective event horizon, which is supposed to prevent the toy ”time machine” from being operational. This general result is useful in description of the nonlinear optical behavior of random nanoholes in metal films.

PACS no.: 78.67.-n, 04.70.Bw

\]

Solid state toy models are useful in understanding of many complicated field-theoretical situations . In particular, they help in consideration of electromagnetic phenomena in curved space-time. In the case of media electrodynamics this is possible because of an analogy between the propagation of light in matter and in curved space-times: it is well known that the Maxwell equations in a general curved space-time background $`g_{ik}(x,t)`$ are equivalent to the phenomenological Maxwell equations in the presence of a matter background with nontrivial electric and magnetic permeability tensors $`ϵ_{ij}(x,t)`$ and $`\mu _{ij}(x,t)`$ . In this analogy, the event horizon corresponds to a surface of singular electric and magnetic permeabilities, so that the speed of light goes to zero, and light is ”frozen” near such a surface. Unfortunately, until recently all the suggested electromagnetic black hole toy-models were very difficult to realize and study experimentally, so virtually no experimental work was done in this field.

Very recently a number of simple surface plasmon toy black hole and wormhole models have been suggested and observed in the experiment . These models are based on the surface plasmons that propagate along a metal surface, which is curved and/or covered with a layer of dielectric. Surface plasmons are collective excitations of the conductive electrons and the electromagnetic field . They exist in ”curved three-dimensional space-times” defined by the shape of the metal-dielectric interface. Since in many experimental geometries surface plasmons are weakly coupled to the outside world (to free-space photons, phonons, single-electron excitations, etc.) it is reasonable to treat the physics of surface plasmons separately from the rest of the surface and bulk excitations, so that a field-theory of surface plasmons in a curved space-time background may be considered. For example, a nanohole in a thin metal membrane may be treated as a ”wormhole” connecting two ”flat” surface plasmon worlds located on the opposite interfaces of the membrane . On the other hand, near the plasmon resonance (which is defined by the condition that $`ϵ_m(\omega )=ϵ_d`$ at the metal-dielectric interface, where $`ϵ_m(\omega )`$ and $`ϵ_d`$ are the dielectric constants of metal and dielectric, respectively ) the surface plasmon velocity vanishes, so that the surface plasmon ”stops” on the metal surface, and the surface charge and the normal component of the electric field diverge. For a given frequency of light, the spatial boundary of the plasmon resonance (”the event horizon” of our toy model) may be defined at will using the geometry $`ϵ_d(x,y)`$ of the absorbed layer (or a liquid droplet) of dielectric on the metal surface. Thus, the plasmon resonance becomes a natural candidate to emulate the event horizon of a black hole. As a result, toy two-dimensional surface plasmon black holes can be easily produced and studied (see Fig.1) . In another example, a surface plasmon toy model of a rotating black hole (Kerr metric ) can be emulated if the dielectric layer exhibits optical activity .

Real wormholes and rotating black holes are the basic elements which may allow, in principle, a creation of a time machine according to a number of published designs . In what follows I am going to emulate the time machine design published in  with toy surface plasmon ”black holes” and ”wormholes”. Assuming that such a toy ”time machine” does not work, a general prediction can be made on strong electromagnetic field enhancement inside an arbitrary-shaped nanohole near an arising effective event horizon, which is supposed to prevent the surface plasmon ”time machine” from being operational. This general result is useful in description of the nonlinear optical behavior of random and artificial nanoholes in metal films, which indeed show signs of strongly nonlinear behavior in recently observed single-photon tunneling and optically-controlled photon tunneling experiments .

Let us recall the basic principles of a ”real” time machine operation. In a time machine design of Morris, Thorne and Yurtsever  (Fig.2(a)) at the initial time the openings of the wormhole are not far apart. Assuming that one of the openings is forced to move away at high speed (while internal distance between the openings remains unchanged and short at all times), and then to reverse its motion and return back to the vicinity of the second opening, upon completion of the motion the clock of the moving opening will lag the clock of the stationary wormhole opening. As a result, an observer passing through the wormhole may travel to his past or future depending on the direction of travel through the wormhole. Another variant of the time machine introduced by Novikov  (Fig.2(b)) consists of a wormhole in which one opening rotates around another. The clock of a moving opening lags the clock of a stationary one, so that after some time a Cauchy horizon appears, and travel into the past becomes possible.

Before we start to emulate one of these time machine designs with surface plasmon optics, let us recall the effective metric and the basic properties of surface plasmon toy black holes. As a first step, let us consider in detail the dispersion law of a surface plasmon (SP), which propagates along the flat metal-dielectric interface. The SP field decays exponentially both inside the metal and the dielectric. Inside the dielectric the decay exponent is roughly equal to the SP wave vector. As a first step let us assume that both metal and dielectric completely fill the respective $`z<0`$ and $`z>0`$ half-spaces. In such a case the dispersion law can be written as

$$k^2=\frac{\omega ^2}{c^2}\frac{ϵ_dϵ_m(\omega )}{ϵ_d+ϵ_m(\omega )},$$
(1)
where we will assume that $`ϵ_m=1\omega _p^2/\omega ^2`$ according to the Drude model, and $`\omega _p`$ is the plasma frequency of the metal. This dispersion law is shown in Fig.3(a) for the cases of metal-vacuum and metal-dielectric interfaces. It starts as a ”light line” in the respective dielectric at low frequencies and approaches asymptotically $`\omega =\omega _p/(1+ϵ_d)^{1/2}`$ at very large wave vectors. The latter frequency corresponds to the so-called surface plasmon resonance. Under the surface plasmon resonance conditions both phase and group velocity of the SPs is zero, and the surface charge and the normal component of the electric field diverge. Since at every wavevector the SP dispersion law is located to the right of the ”light line”, the SPs of the plane metal-dielectric interface are decoupled from the free-space photons due to the momentum conservation law. If a droplet of dielectric is placed on the metal surface, the SP dispersion law will be a function of the local thickness of the droplet. Deep inside the droplet far from its edges the SP dispersion law will look similar to the case of a metal-dielectric interface, whereas near the edges (where the dielectric is thinner) it will approach the SP dispersion law for the metal-vacuum interface. As a result, for every frequency between $`\omega _p/(1+ϵ_d)^{1/2}`$ and $`\omega _p/2^{1/2}`$ there will be a closed linear boundary inside the droplet for which the surface plasmon resonance conditions are satisfied. Let us show that such a droplet of dielectric on the metal interface behaves as a ”surface plasmon black hole” in the frequency range between $`\omega _p/(1+ϵ_d)^{1/2}`$ and $`\omega _p/2^{1/2}`$, and that the described boundary of the surface plasmon resonance behaves as an ”event horizon” of such a black hole.

The dispersion law of surface plasmons in real experimental situations is defined by the shape and thickness of the droplet near its edge, by the thickness of the metal film, and by the dielectric properties of the substrate. In order to simplify the effective metric, let us consider a thin free-standing metal membrane with two ”linear” droplets positioned symmetrically on both sides of the membrane (Fig.3(b)). The droplets thicknesses at $`x=0`$ correspond to the surface plasmon resonance at the illumination frequency. The droplets taper off adiabatically in positive and negative $`x`$-directions on both sides of the membrane. In the symmetric membrane geometry the surface plasmon spectrum consists of two branches $`\omega _{}`$ and $`\omega _+`$, which exhibit positive and negative dispersion, respectively, near the surface plasmon resonance . Fig.3(c) shows the dispersion curves of both branches for the cases of metal-vacuum interface far from the droplets, and for the locations near $`x=0`$. The droplets represent an effective black hole for $`\omega _{}`$ modes and an effective white hole for $`\omega _+`$ modes, similar to . If the effective slowly varying local surface plasmon phase velocity $`c^{}(x)=\omega /k(x)`$ is introduced, the wave equation for surface plasmons may be written as

$$(\frac{^2}{c^2t^2}\frac{^2}{x^2}\frac{^2}{y^2})A=0,$$
(2)
which corresponds to an effective metric

$$ds^2=c^2dt^2dx^2dy^2$$
(3)
The event horizon corresponds to $`c^{}=0`$ at $`x=0`$. The two regions $`x>0`$ and $`x<0`$ correspond to the two sides of a black hole, which are connected by an Einstein-Rosen bridge at $`x=0`$. The behavior of $`c^{}(x)`$ near $`x=0`$ may be defined at will by choosing the corresponding geometry of the droplet edge (if necessary, the droplet may be replaced by a similar shaped layer of solid dielectric). Let us assume that $`c^{}=\alpha xc`$ in the vicinity of $`x=0`$. However, we should remember that this linear behavior will be cut off somewhere near the effective horizon due to such effects as Landau damping, losses in the metal and the dielectric, etc. . The resulting effective metric now looks like

$$ds^2=\alpha ^2x^2c^2dt^2dx^2dy^2$$
(4)
Thus, this particular choice of the shape of the droplet edge gives rise to an effective Rindler geometry. Similar metric would describe the space-time geometry near the event horizon of a black hole with mass $`M_{BH}=c^2/8\gamma \alpha `$, where $`\gamma `$ is the gravitation constant .

Let us discuss the properties of the local ”proper” time $`\tau =c^{}t`$, which appears in this model. This ”proper” plasmon time at a metal-dielectric interface (for example, deep inside a liquid droplet) always lags the ”proper” time at a metal-vacuum interface, due to the slower surface plasmon phase velocity. As a result, addition of a dielectric near metal surface emulates the slowing down of the clocks due to the motion of a reference frame or due to the gravitation field. Thus, we can try and emulate the motion of the wormhole openings in one of the time machine designs shown in Fig.2 by placing a droplet of dielectric on top of our toy wormhole (which means placing a liquid droplet on top of a hole drilled in a metal membrane (Fig.4a)). A plasmon trajectory starting from the top side of the membrane near the droplet edge and bringing it to its bottom side, and back to the top through the hole would emulate a time traveler motion described in . However, even though we would be using a distorted model ”proper” time $`\tau =c^{}t`$ in this experiment, and there is no actual slowing down of a real clock of an observer performing experiments with surface plasmons, we are not supposed to build a surface plasmon toy ”time machine”: the surface plasmons cannot go back in time even according to the readings of a clock measuring this distorted ”proper” time. This is clear from the fact that $`c^{}`$ is always positive.

After a careful consideration we notice though, that the nature prevents operation of such a time machine: inside the hole drilled in the metal membrane another effective horizon is bound to appear. In the case of a smooth cylindrical hole partially filled with the dielectric (Fig.4b), this is quite clear from the consideration of dispersion of cylindrical surface plasmons . At large wavevectors ($`k>>1/R`$, where R is the cylinder radius) the dispersion law of cylindrical plasmons looks similar to the dispersion of regular surface plasmons (eq.(1)). Thus, virtually the same consideration as above may be repeated for cylindrical plasmons near the meniscus boundary, and we come to a conclusion that an effective horizon should appear near the meniscus boundary.

However, the impossibility of building a time machine implies a much stronger conclusion, which would be valid in any arbitrarily-shaped pinhole in a metal film covered with a dielectric: an effective horizon must appear in any such pinhole. The value of this conclusion is in its generality. Maxwell equations are not easy to solve for some random, asymmetric, arbitrarily-shaped pinholes. The consideration above predicts strong electromagnetic field enhancement in any such geometry, which means that nonlinear optical properties of pinholes covered with dielectrics should be strongly enhanced. This conclusion agrees well with our experimental observations .

Nonlinear optical effects put limits on the validity of the effective metrics (3) or (4). While, this statement is true in general, it may not be valid for the lowest order nonlinearities. For example, the nonlinearities of the liquid dielectric of the form

$$n=n_0+n_2E^2,$$
(5)
where $`E`$ is the local electric field and $`n_2>0`$, which would be responsible for the self-focusing effect in three-dimensional optics, may lead to a toy ”gravitational collapse” of the surface plasmon field near the toy ”black hole”. This type of nonlinearity causes an effective gravitational interaction of surface plasmons with each other. Thus, we may imagine a situation where a liquid droplet is illuminated with an intense plasmon beam at a frequency below $`\omega _p/(1+ϵ_d)^{1/2}`$, so that a low intensity plasmon field would not experience an event horizon near the droplet edge. However, the increase in the droplet refractive index due to the high intensity plasmon field will cause the plasmon field to collapse towards an arising event horizon. Such a self-focusing effect may cause even stronger local field enhancement in the droplet and nanohole geometries observed in our experiments .

In conclusion, recently introduced toy surface plasmon ”black holes” and ”wormholes” can be used to create a toy ”time machine” according to a number of published designs . Assuming that such a toy ”time machine” does not work, a general prediction can be made of strong electromagnetic field enhancement inside an arbitrarily-shaped nanohole near an arising effective event horizon, which is supposed to prevent the toy ”time machine” from being operational. This general result is useful in description of the nonlinear optical behavior of random nanoholes in metal films.

This work has been supported in part by the NSF grants ECS-0210438 and ECS-0304046.

Figure captions.

Fig.1 Far-field images of a toy surface plasmon black hole: (a) Droplet of glycerin on a gold film surface (illuminated from the top). The droplet diameter is approximately 15 micrometers. (b) The same droplet illuminated with white light in the Kretschman geometry, which provides efficient coupling of light to surface plasmons on the gold-vacuum interface. The white rim around the droplet boundary corresponds to the effective surface plasmon ”event horizon”.

Fig.2 (a) Time machine design of Morris, Thorne and Yurtsever. Wormhole opening A is stationary, while the opening B moves along the Z-direction and returns back. (b) Time machine design of Novikov. Wormhole opening A is stationary, while the opening B rotates around it.

Fig.3 (a) Surface plasmon dispersion law for the cases of metal-vacuum and metal-dielectric interfaces. (b) A thin metal membrane with two ”linear” droplets positioned symmetrically on both sides of the membrane. An effective event horizon is located at $`x=0`$. (c) Dispersion laws of the $`\omega _{}`$ and $`\omega _+`$ modes exhibit positive and negative dispersion, respectively, near the surface plasmon resonance. These branches are shown for the cases of metal-vacuum interface far from the droplets, and for the locations near $`x=0`$.

Fig.4 (a) Surface plasmon toy ”time machine”: a droplet of dielectric is placed on top of the hole drilled in a metal membrane near its opening B, in order to emulate its motion. The metal membrane is made thicker to the right of the hole in order to allow plasmon propagation from the top side of the membrane to its bottom side, and back to the top through the hole (opening A). (b) Cylindrical plasmons inside a smooth cylindrical channel partially filled with dielectric experience an effective event horizon at the edge of the meniscus.


text:
# FERMILAB-Conf-03/379-ANeutrino Mixing and Cosmology

## 1 Introduction

The relic neutrino background has never been directly detected, so we must resort to indirect means to infer its properties. One of the most useful tools available is Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). By putting neutrino oscillations together with BBN, we may shed light on neutrino mixing, cosmology, or both. We will outline the consequences of oscillations of the relic background neutrinos, for both active-active and active-sterile oscillation modes. The central issue we shall probe is: how big is the universe’s lepton number?

While the baryon asymmetry of the universe is well determined, $`n_B/n_\gamma 5\times 10^{10}`$, the size of the lepton asymmetry is unknown. The simplest assumption is that the baryon and lepton asymmetries are of the same size, as would be the case if $`BL`$ were conserved. However, there are viable models in which $`L`$ may be large while $`B`$ is small. Given constraints on charge neutrality, any large lepton asymmetry would have to be hidden in the neutrino sector.

Since neutrinos and antineutrinos should be in chemical equilibrium until they decouple at a temperature $`T2`$ MeV, they may be well-described by Fermi-Dirac distributions with equal and opposite chemical potentials:

$$f(p,\xi )=\frac{1}{1+\mathrm{exp}(p/T\xi )},$$
(1)
where $`p`$ denotes the neutrino momentum, $`T`$ the temperature, and $`\xi `$ the chemical potential in units of $`T`$. The lepton asymmetry $`L_\alpha `$ for a given flavour $`\nu _\alpha `$ is related to the chemical potential by

$$L_\alpha =\frac{n_{\nu _\alpha }n_{\overline{\nu }_\alpha }}{n_\gamma }=\frac{\pi ^2}{12\zeta (3)}\left(\xi _\alpha +\frac{\xi _\alpha ^3}{\pi ^2}\right),$$
(2)
where $`\zeta (3)1.202`$. A nonzero chemical potential results in extra energy density, such that the effective number of neutrinos is increased from the standard model prediction by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu =\frac{30}{7}\left(\frac{\xi }{\pi }\right)^2+\frac{15}{7}\left(\frac{\xi }{\pi }\right)^4.$$
(3)
Large chemical potentials affect BBN in two ways:

1. The extra energy density increases the expansion rate of the universe, thus increasing the BBN helium abundance, and also alters the CMB results. This sets the weak bound $`|\xi _\alpha |3`$, for all three flavours.
2. An additional, much stronger, limit can be placed on the $`\nu _e`$$`\overline{\nu }_e`$ asymmetry, as it directly effects the neutron to proton ratio prior to BBN by altering beta-equilibrium. (Beta-equilibrium is between the weak interactions $`n+\nu _ep+e^{}`$ and $`p+\overline{\nu }_en+e^+`$.) For example, positive $`\xi _e`$ increases the $`\nu _e`$ abundance relative to $`\overline{\nu }_e`$, thus lowering the neutron to proton ratio and decreasing the helium yield. This sets the limit $`|\xi _e|0.04`$.

However, it is possible that the two effect compensate for each other, i.e., the effects of a small $`\xi _e`$ are partially undone by an increased expansion rate due to a large $`\xi _{\mu ,\tau }`$. In this case the bounds become :

$`0.01<\xi _e`$ $`<`$ $`0.22,`$ (4)
$`|\xi _{\mu ,\tau }|`$ $`<`$ $`2.6,`$ (5)
where the upper limits are obtained only in tandem.

## 2 Oscillations between three active neutrino

Since we know neutrinos oscillate, the individual lepton numbers $`L_e`$, $`L_\mu `$ and $`L_\tau `$ are violated and only the total lepton number is conserved. It was suggested in Ref.  (see also ) that the large neutrino mixing angles implied by the present data may lead to equilibration of all three flavours in the early universe. If a large asymmetry hidden in $`\xi _{\mu ,\tau }`$ were to be transfered to $`\xi _e`$ well before weak freezeout at $`T1\mathrm{MeV}`$, the stringent BBN limit on $`\xi _e`$ would then apply to all three flavours, improving the bounds on $`\xi _{\mu ,\tau }`$ by nearly two orders of magnitude.

This proposal was recently studied in detail in Refs. , where close to complete equilibration of the asymmetries $`\xi _{\mu ,\tau }`$ with $`\xi _e`$ was found. The equilibration takes place when $`T2\mathrm{MeV}`$ via an MSW transition which is driven by the solar mass squared difference. (It is actually more complicated than a normal MSW transition, as forward scattering from other neutrinos in the background medium introduces a non-linear contribution to the effective potential . This has the effect of synchronizing the neutrino ensemble such that all momentum modes go through the MSW resonance together, with parameters governed by an effective momentum, which is close to the thermal average. See  for details.) This MSW transition converts the initial flavour states (which are approximately mass eigenstates at high temperature) into vacuum mass eigenstates, which, due to the large solar mixing angle, have large components of all three flavours.

This equilibration is an important result, as it excludes the possibility of degenerate BBN , and is the strongest limit on the total lepton number of the universe and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. In terms of extra relativistic degrees of freedom, the limit is impressively tight: If $`\xi _{e,\mu ,\tau }=0.04`$, then $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu 3\times 0.0007=0.002`$. One implication is that cosmological constraints on (and future measurements of) neutrino masses will not be subject to uncertainty in the relic neutrino density.

Strictly speaking, one version of the degenerate BBN scenario is still possible: It is conceivable that $`\xi _e\xi _\mu \xi _\tau 0.2`$, provided that another relativistic particle species contributes the extra energy density required to compensate for the large $`\nu _e`$ chemical potential . This extra energy density can no longer consist of active neutrino, so would have to be something more exotic. Such an unnatural scenario could eventually be detected via the CMB.

## 3 Active-sterile oscillations

Active-sterile oscillations before the time of BBN are potentially dangerous, as they may bring the sterile degrees of freedom into thermal equilibrium, thus increasing the expansion rate and thereby upsetting the successful predictions of BBN. All models which seek to explain LSND  via the addition of a sterile neutrino suffer from this problem. Since the LSND mixing angle is relatively large, the sterile neutrino is always thermalised .

The rate at which the sterile species is populated is

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu _\alpha \nu _s)\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{scatt}}\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _m,$$
(6)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{scatt}}`$ is he active-neutrino collision rate, and $`\theta _m`$ is the matter affected mixing angle. However, it is possible to avoid thermalisation of the sterile, by invoking the presence of a small relic neutrino asymmetry . This provides an index of refraction, which suppresses the active-sterile mixing angle so that the rate of sterile production is negligible, until after the neutrinos thermally decouple from the rest of the plasma.

## 4 Cosmological neutrino mass limits, and 4-neutrino models

The absolute neutrino mass scale may be probed via cosmological means through large scale structure measurements, as free streaming of neutrinos suppresses the growth of structure on the small scales that are within the horizon while the neutrinos are relativistic. The current limit is roughly $`m_\nu 1\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$, depending somewhat on how conservatively parameter degeneracies are priors are treated .

Since the LSND mass squared difference is $`O(\mathrm{eV})`$, if all 4 neutrino species are populated in the universe, the cosmological mass limits constrain the LSND parameter space. However, BBN considerations already disfavour scenarios in which a 4th neutrino is populated. If we avoid the thermalisation of the sterile state (via the presence of a lepton asymmetry) it may have two desirable consequences: In addition to eliminating the BBN problems, the large scale structure mass limits may also be avoided. For instance, if we have a 3+1 model in which the heaviest, isolated, mass state consists mostly of the sterile neutrino, the abundance of this heavy state (and hence its contribution to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu `$) will be small.

## 5 Conclusions

Large angle MSW transitions lead to neutrino flavour equilibration in the early universe. This sets the strongest limit on the universe’s lepton number, because stringent constraints on the $`\nu _e`$$`\overline{\nu }_e`$ asymmetry can now be applied to all three flavours. The possibility of “degenerate” BBN is thus eliminated, thereby removing a possible uncertainty in cosmological determinations of neutrino mass.

Sterile neutrino are cosmologically disfavoured if they are brought into thermal equilibrium before BBN. While all sterile neutrino models which can accommodate LSND suffer this problem, the constraints can be avoided by the presence of a lepton asymmetry, which prevents thermalisation of the sterile, thus avoiding both BBN limits and large scale structure mass limits.

Acknowledgments –  N.F.B. was supported by Fermilab (operated by URA under DOE contract DE-AC02-76CH03000) and by NASA grant NAG5-10842.


text:
# Neutrino Physics Without Oscillations

## 1 Introduction

Apart from rather old bubble chamber experiments we have no data for neutrino interactions with free protons. In spite of this, neutrino measurements on nuclei have given very important information on the internal structure of the nucleon. For example, this is the best source of information on the shape of the anti-quark parton distribution functions – even though, as we mention below, the understanding of nuclear corrections for neutrino beams is in a very rudimentary state. The axial form factor of the nucleon provides important guidance in dealing with low energy interactions of pions with nucleons and the nucleon-nucleon force. In comparison with the axial and electromagnetic transition form factors to baryon excited states it can also yield new insight into the dynamics of hadron structure Thomas:kw .

Sum rules play a crucial role in strong interaction physics as, ideally, they are model independent – linking different experiments. The failure of such a sum rule indicates a serious change to our understanding of the strong interaction – the failure of some symmetry or of QCD itself. The famous Ellis-Jaffe sum rule, which failed in the so-called “spin crisis”, was not in this category as it required a dynamical assumption (the absence of strange quarks in the nucleon). On the other hand, it is not widely appreciated that developments in the application of Witten’s renormalization group methods witten  to the flavor singlet axial axial charge of the nucleon mean that we do now have a rigorous sum rule for the leading twist spin structure functions of the nucleon Bass:2002mv ; Bass:2002wy . This is discussed in Sect. 2, where the importance of measuring neutrino-nucleon elastic scattering is emphasised.

In Sect. 3 we discuss recent developments in the interpretation of the reported 3$`\sigma `$ deviation from the Standard Model expectation for $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$ in neutrino nucleus scattering. There is a recent model independent result for the correction associated with charge symmetry violation in the parton distribution functions which reduces the anomaly to no more than 2$`\sigma `$ Londergan:2003ij . In addition, there are major issues concerning our understanding of shadowing in neutrino interactions with nuclei which urgently need attention – both in connection with the NuTeV claim Miller:2002xh  and more generally in connection with the possible systematic errors in our knowledge of the flavor dependence of parton disributions.

## 2 A Rigorous Sum Rule for Spin Dependent Deep Inelastic Scattering

In polarised deep inelastic scattering at a scale, $`Q^2`$, where three flavors of quark are “active”, the first moment of the nucleon spin structure function, $`g_1`$, may be written as a linear combination of the iso-triplet, SU(3) octet and flavour singlet, scale-invariant axial charges of the nucleon kod ; mink ; larin ; alta :

$$_0^1𝑑xg_1^p(x,Q^2)=\left(\frac{1}{12}g_A^{(3)}+\frac{1}{36}g_A^{(8)}\right)C_{NS}(Q^2)+\frac{1}{9}g_A^{(0)}|_{\mathrm{inv}}C_S(Q^2)+𝒪(\frac{1}{Q^2}).$$
(1)
Here $`C_{NS}`$ and $`C_S`$ are, respectively, the flavour non-singlet and flavour singlet Wilson coefficients, which have been evaluated to three-loops in Ref. larin :

$`C_{NS}(Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{\pi }}3.58\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{\pi }}\right)^220.21\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{\pi }}\right)^3\right]`$
$`C_S(Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{3\pi }}0.55\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{\pi }}\right)^24.45\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{\pi }}\right)^3\right].`$ (2)
The isotriplet axial charge, $`g_A^{(3)}`$:

$$2ms_\mu g_A^{(3)}=p,s|\left(\overline{u}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5u\overline{d}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5d\right)|p,s,$$
(3)
is measured in neutron beta-decay, while the octet axial charge, $`g_A^{(8)}`$:

$$2ms_\mu g_A^{(8)}=p,s|\left(\overline{u}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5u+\overline{d}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5d2\overline{s}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5s\right)|p,s,$$
(4)
is measured in hyperon beta-decays. The Ellis-Jaffe sum rule ej  was based on the dynamical assumption that the strange quark content of the nucleon was negligible, in which case the scale-invariant, flavor singlet axial charge would be equal to the octet axial charge. The failure of that sum rule smc ; hermes ; e143 ; e154  led to a completely new appreciation of the role of the axial anomaly in QCD, as well as the possibility that a substantial fraction of the spin of the proton might reside on polarized glue.

Recently, Bass, Crewther, Steffens and Thomas (BCST) Bass:2002mv  have shown how the 3-flavour, scale-invariant, flavour-singlet axial charge of the nucleon can be determined independently by systematically correcting elastic neutrino-proton scattering data for heavy-quark contributions. With this result we have a rigorous sum rule relating deep inelastic scattering in the Bjorken region of high energy and momentum transfer to three independent, low energy measurements. As with the Bjorken sum rule, the verification of this new proton spin sum rule is a crucial test of QCD itself.

The scale-invariant flavour singlet axial charge, $`g_A^{(0)}|_{\mathrm{inv}}`$, is defined by mink ; larin :

$$2ms_\mu g_A^{(0)}|_{\mathrm{inv}}=p,s|𝒮_\mu (0)|p,s$$
(5)
where

$$𝒮_\mu (x)=E(g)J_{\mu 5}^{GI}(x)$$
(6)
is the product of the gauge-invariantly renormalized singlet axial-vector operator

$$J_{\mu 5}^{GI}=\left(\overline{u}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5u+\overline{d}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5d+\overline{s}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5s\right)_{GI}$$
(7)
in three flavour QCD and the renormalisation group factor

$$E(g)=\mathrm{exp}_0^g𝑑g^{}\gamma (g^{})/\beta (g^{}).$$
(8)
Here $`\beta (g)`$ and $`\gamma (g)`$ are the Callan-Symanzik functions associated with the gluon coupling constant $`g`$ and the composite operator $`J_{\mu 5}^{GI}`$. Finally then, the renormalization group invariant, singlet axial charge is (for three active flavors):

$`g_A^{(0)}|_{\mathrm{inv}}`$ $`=`$ $`E_3(\alpha _3)\left(\mathrm{\Delta }u+\mathrm{\Delta }d+\mathrm{\Delta }s\right)_3`$ (9)
$`=`$ $`\left(\mathrm{\Delta }u+\mathrm{\Delta }d+\mathrm{\Delta }s\right)_{\mathrm{inv}}.`$
The non-perturbative factor $`E(g)`$ in Eq.(6) arises naturally from the coefficient function of $`J_{\mu 5}^{GI}`$ in the product of electromagnetic currents $`J_\alpha (x)J_\beta (0)`$ at short distances, $`x_\mu 0`$. It compensates for the scale dependence of $`J_{\mu 5}^{GI}`$ caused by the anomaly adler ; bell ; koeb ; rjc  in its divergence

$$^\mu J_{\mu 5}^{GI}=2f^\mu K_\mu +\underset{i=1}{\overset{f}{}}2im_i\overline{q}_i\gamma _5q_i,$$
(10)
where $`K_\mu `$ is a renormalized version of the gluonic Chern-Simons current, and the number of flavours, $`f`$, is three. A consequence of the renormalization-scale invariance of $`𝒮_\mu `$ is that its spatial components have operator charges

$$S_i(t)=d^3x𝒮^i(t,𝐱),$$
(11)
which satisfy an equal-time algebra mink

$$[S_i(t),S_j(t)]=i\epsilon _{ijk}S_k(t),$$
(12)
characteristic of spin operators, whereas the operator charges $`d^3xJ_{i5}^{GI}(t,𝐱)`$ do not bt .

Elastic $`\nu p`$ scattering measures the neutral-current axial charge $`g_A^{(Z)}`$

$$2ms_\mu g_A^{(Z)}=p,s|J_{\mu 5}^Z|p,s,$$
(13)
where

$$J_{\mu 5}^Z=\frac{1\text{}}{2\text{}}\left\{\underset{q=u,c,t}{}\underset{q=d,s,b}{}\right\}\overline{q}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5q.$$
(14)
As this is a six flavour quantity one must correct for the heavy flavours $`t,b`$ and $`c`$ which do not contribute to deep inelastic scattering for $`Q^2`$ below (say) 10 GeV2. By applying the renormalization group techniques of Witten, and in particular by introducing appropriate “matching functions”, BCST were able to sum all large logarithms appearing to NLO (the technique can be applied systematically to any order) in the heavy quark masses, with the result Bass:2002mv :

$`2g_A^{(Z)}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\mathrm{\Delta }u\mathrm{\Delta }d\mathrm{\Delta }s\right)_{\mathrm{inv}}+𝒫\left(\mathrm{\Delta }u+\mathrm{\Delta }d+\mathrm{\Delta }s\right)_{\mathrm{inv}}`$ (15)
$`+`$ $`O(m_{t,b,c}^1),`$
where $`𝒫`$ is a polynomial in the running couplings

$`𝒫`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{6}{23\pi }}\left(\alpha _b\alpha _t\right)\left\{1+{\displaystyle \frac{125663}{82800\pi }}\alpha _b+{\displaystyle \frac{6167}{3312\pi }}\alpha _t{\displaystyle \frac{22}{75\pi }}\alpha _c\right\}`$ (16)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{6}{27\pi }}\alpha _c{\displaystyle \frac{181}{648\pi ^2}}\alpha _c^2+O\left(\alpha _{t,b,c}^3\right).`$
Here $`\alpha _t`$, $`\alpha _b`$ and $`\alpha _c`$ are rigorously defined simultaneous running couplings. The factor $`\alpha _b\alpha _t`$ ensures that all contributions from $`b`$ and $`t`$ quarks cancel for $`m_t=m_b`$.

The final step in deriving the sum rule is then to realize that

$$(\mathrm{\Delta }u\mathrm{\Delta }d\mathrm{\Delta }s)_{\mathrm{inv}}=g_A^{(3)}+\frac{1}{3}g_A^{(8)}\frac{1}{3}g_A^{(0)}|_{\mathrm{inv}}.$$
(17)
Using Eqs.(15), (16) and (17), one can extract the value of $`g_A^{(0)}|_{\mathrm{inv}}`$ and Eq.(1) is then a rigorous sum rule. As a result, the accurate measurement of the $`Z^0`$ axial coupling to the proton (or neutron) should be an extremely high priority.

## 3 The NuTeV Anomaly

In 1973, Paschos and Wolfenstein Paschos:1972kj  derived an expression relating the ratio of neutral-current and charge-changing neutrino interactions on isoscalar targets to the Weinberg angle:

$$R^{}\frac{\frac{1}{\rho _0^2}\left(\sigma _{NC}^{\nu N_0}\sigma _{NC}^{\overline{\nu }N_0}\right)}{\sigma _{CC}^{\nu N_0}\sigma _{CC}^{\overline{\nu }N_0}}=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W.$$
(18)
In Eq.(18), $`\sigma _{NC}^{\nu N_0}`$ and $`\sigma _{CC}^{\nu N_0}`$ are respectively the neutral-current and charged-current inclusive, total cross sections for neutrinos on an isoscalar target. The quantity $`\rho _0M_W/(M_Z\mathrm{cos}\theta _W)`$ is one in the Standard Model. The NuTeV group recently measured neutrino charged-current and neutral-current cross sections on iron Zeller:2001hh , finding $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W=0.2277\pm 0.0013(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.0009(\mathrm{syst})`$. This value is three standard deviations above the measured fit to other electroweak processes, $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W=0.2227\pm 0.00037`$ Abbaneo:2001ix . The discrepancy between the NuTeV measurement and determination of the Weinberg angle from electromagnetic measurements is surprisingly large, and may constitute evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model.

As the NuTeV experiment did not strictly measure the Paschos-Wolfenstein ratio, there are a number of additional corrections that need to be considered, such as shadowing Miller:2002xh , asymmetries in $`s`$ and $`\overline{s}`$ distributions Cao:2003ny , asymmetries in $`c`$ and $`\overline{c}`$ distributions Melnitchouk:1997ig , charge asymmetric valence parton distributions Londergan:2003ij ; Londergan:2003pq , and so on. Reference Davidson:2001ji  provides an excellent summary of possible corrections to the NuTeV result from within and outside the Standard Model.

### 3.1 Model Independence of the Charge Symmetry Correction

Londergan and Thomas recently calculated corrections to the NuTeV experiment arising from charge symmetry violation CSV) caused by the small difference of $`u`$ and $`d`$ quark masses Londergan:2003pq . This calculation followed earlier work on CSV in parton distributions Sather:1991je ; Rodionov:cg , and involved calculating CSV distributions at a low momentum scale, appropriate to a valence-dominated quark model, and using QCD evolution to generate the CSV distributions at the $`Q^2`$ values appropriate for the NuTeV experiment. The result was a correction to the NuTeV result $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{CSV}0.0015`$. This would reduce the reported effect from 3 to 2 standard deviations. Following this, NuTeV reported their own estimate of the CSV parton distributions, using a rather different procedure NuTeV2 . They obtained a much smaller correction, $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{CSV}+0.0001`$. The large discrepancy between these two results suggested that the CSV correction might be strongly model dependent.

This question was recently resolved by Londergan and Thomas Londergan:2003ij , as we now summarise. The charge symmetry violating contribution to the Paschos-Wolftenstein ratio has the form

$$\mathrm{\Delta }R_{CSV}=\left[3\mathrm{\Delta }_u^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_d^2+\frac{4\alpha _s}{9\pi }\left(\overline{g}_L^2\overline{g}_R^2\right)\right]\left[\frac{\delta U_\mathrm{v}\delta D_\mathrm{v}}{2(U_\mathrm{v}+D_\mathrm{v})}\right]$$
(19)
where

$`\delta Q_\mathrm{v}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}x\delta q_\mathrm{v}(x)𝑑x`$
$`\delta d_\mathrm{v}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`d_\mathrm{v}^p(x)u_\mathrm{v}^n(x);\delta u_\mathrm{v}(x)=u_\mathrm{v}^p(x)d_\mathrm{v}^n(x).`$ (20)
The denominator in the final term in Eq. (19) gives the total momentum carried by up and down valence quarks, while the numerator gives the charge symmetry violating momentum difference – for example, $`\delta U_\mathrm{v}`$, is the total momentum carried by up quarks in the proton minus the momentum of down quarks in the neutron. This ratio is completely independent of $`Q^2`$ and can be evaluated at any convenient value.

Using an analytic approximation to the charge symmetry violating valence parton distributions that was initially proposed by Sather Sather:1991je , one can evaluate Eq.(19) at a low scale, $`Q_0^2`$, appropriate for a (valence dominated) quark or bag model Signal:yc ; Schreiber:tc . The advance over earlier work was to realize that for NuTeV we need only the first moments of the CSV distribution functions and these could be obtained analytically. The result for the moment of the CSV down valence distribution, $`\delta D_\mathrm{v}`$, is

$`\delta D_\mathrm{v}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}x\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\delta M}{M}}{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dx}}(xd_\mathrm{v}(x)){\displaystyle \frac{\delta m}{M}}{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dx}}d_\mathrm{v}(x)\right]𝑑x`$ (21)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\delta M}{M}}{\displaystyle _0^1}xd_\mathrm{v}(x)𝑑x+{\displaystyle \frac{\delta m}{M}}{\displaystyle _0^1}d_\mathrm{v}(x)𝑑x={\displaystyle \frac{\delta M}{M}}D_\mathrm{v}+{\displaystyle \frac{\delta m}{M}},`$
while for the up quark CSV distribution it is

$`\delta U_\mathrm{v}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\delta M}{M}}\left[{\displaystyle _0^1}x\left({\displaystyle \frac{d}{dx}}\left[xu_\mathrm{v}(x)\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dx}}u_\mathrm{v}(x)\right)𝑑x\right]`$ (22)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\delta M}{M}}\left({\displaystyle _0^1}xu_\mathrm{v}(x)𝑑x{\displaystyle _0^1}u_\mathrm{v}(x)𝑑x\right)={\displaystyle \frac{\delta M}{M}}\left(U_\mathrm{v}2\right).`$
(Here $`\delta M=1.3`$ MeV is the neutron-proton mass difference, and $`\delta m=m_dm_u4`$ MeV is the down-up quark mass difference.)

Equations (21) and (22) show that the CSV correction to the Paschos-Wolfenstein ratio depend only on the fraction of the nucleon momentum carried by up and down valence quarks. At no point do we have to calculate specific CSV distributions. At the bag model scale, $`Q_0^20.5`$ GeV2, the momentum fraction carried by down valence quarks, $`D_\mathrm{v}`$, is between $`0.20.33`$, and the total momentum fraction carried by valence quarks is $`U_\mathrm{v}+D_\mathrm{v}.80`$. From Eqs. (21) and (22) this gives $`\delta D_\mathrm{v}0.0046`$, $`\delta U_\mathrm{v}0.0020`$. Consequently, evaluated at the quark model scale, the CSV correction to the Paschos-Wolfenstein ratio is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }R_{CSV}0.5\left[3\mathrm{\Delta }_u^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_d^2\right]\frac{\delta U_\mathrm{v}\delta D_\mathrm{v}}{2(U_\mathrm{v}+D_\mathrm{v})}0.0020.$$
(23)
Once the CSV correction has been calculated at some quark model scale, $`Q_0^2`$, the ratio appearing in Eq. (19) is independent of $`Q^2`$, because both the numerator and denominator involve the same moment of a non-singlet distribution. (Note that we have not included the small QCD radiative correction in Eq.(23).)

We stress that both Eqs. (21) and (22) are only weakly dependent on the choice of quark model scale – through the momentum fractions $`D_\mathrm{v}`$ and $`U_\mathrm{v}`$, which are slowly varying functions of $`Q_0^2`$ and, in any case, not the dominant terms in those equations. This, together with the $`Q^2`$-independence of the Paschos-Wolfenstein ratio (Eq. (19)) under QCD evolution, explains why the previous results, obtained by Londergan and Thomas with different models and at different values of $`Q^2`$ Londergan:2003pq , were so similar. Finally, Londergan and Thomas also demonstrated that the acceptance function calulated by NuTeV does not introduce any significant model dependence to this result.

### 3.2 Higher-Twist Shadowing Corrections

Although the average $`Q^2`$ of the NuTeV measurement is quoted as 16 GeV2, at small $`x`$ the typical $`Q^2`$ is much lower and one needs to beware of possible higher-twist effects. In particular, studies of the muon nucleus scattering in a similar momentum transfer region suggest that vector meson dominance (VMD) processes can produce substantial nuclear corrections Kwiecinski:ys ; Melnitchouk:1995am ; Melnitchouk:2002ud . It is especially important that there are extensively studied differences in shadowing between photon and charged-current neutrino interactions with nuclei Boros:1998es ; Boros:1998mt . These were important in reducing the apparently large charge synmmetry violation in an earlier NuTeV measurement Boros:1999fy .

As noted by Miller and Thomas Miller:2002xh , the same reasoning leads one to conclude that there should be a substantial difference between the VMD shadowing corrections for neutral and charged current neutrino scattering. Such a difference was not considered in the analysis of the NuTeV data. A priori, this correction is at least as large as the reported anomaly. It is difficult to estimate the systematic error associated with this as the NuTeV analysis requires that one model separately the ratios of neutral to charged current cross sections for neutrinos and anti-neutrinos and the input parton distributions are derived without higher-twist shadowing corrections from a variety of sources including electron, muon and neutrino data on protons, deuterons and nuclei. This needs a great deal more work before one can demonstrate that the problem is under control at the required level of accuracy.

## 4 Summary

We have explained the developments in systematically correcting for heavy quark contributions to the flavor singlet axial charge of the nucleon measured in neutrino, neutral current scattering from the nucleon, which mean that we now have a rigorous spin sum rule. As a result it is now imperative to find ways to measure $`g_A^{(Z)}`$ accurately.

In connection with the NuTeV anomaly we now have a robust prediction for the CSV contribution to the Paschos-Wolfenstein ratio. It was possible to express the correction in terms of integrals which could be evaluated without ever specifying the shapes of the CSV distributions. Despite the fact that parton charge symmetry violation has not been directly measured experimentally, and that parton CSV effects are predicted to be quite small, we have strong theoretical arguments regarding both the sign and magnitude of these corrections. The CSV effects should make a significant contribution to the value for the Weinberg angle extracted from the NuTeV neutrino measurements, reducing the anomaly by at least one standard deviation. Finally, again in connection with the NuTeV anomaly, we noted the importance of understanding higher-twist shadowing corrections associated with VMD and particularly the corresponding systematic errors in our knowledge of parton distribution functions.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge important contributions to the topics discussed here from S. D. Bass, R. J. Crewther, J. T. Londergan, G. A. Miller and F. Steffens. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council and the University of Adelaide.


text:
# Magnetic Field Effect on Static Antiferromagnetism in Electron-Doped Superconductor Pr1-xLaCexCuO4 (𝑥=0.11 and 0.15)

## Abstract

Effects of magnetic fields (applied along the c-axis) on static spin correlation were studied for the electron-doped superconductors Pr1-xLaCexCuO4 with $`x`$=0.11 ($`T_c`$=26 K) and $`x`$=0.15 ($`T_c`$=16 K) by neutron scattering measurements. In the $`x`$=0.11 sample located near the antiferromagnetic(AF) and superconducting phase boundary, the field dependence of both the magnetic intensity at T=3 K and the onset temperature of the magnetic order exhibits a peak at $``$5 T. In contrast, in the overdoped $`x`$=0.15 sample a static AF order is neither observed at zero-field nor induced by the field up to 8.5 T. Difference and similarity of the field effect between the hole- and electron-doped high-$`T_c`$ cuprates are discussed.

Magnetism in lamellar copper oxides is widely believed to play an important role in the mechanism of high-$`T_c`$ superconductivityKastner . Extensive neutron scattering measurements have indeed shown an intimate relation between incommensurate (IC) low-energy spin fluctuations observed in the hole-doped ($`p`$-type) La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO)Yoshizawa ; Birgeneau ; Cheong  and their superconductivityYamada\_LSCO . Recentlly, neutron scattering study on the superconducting (SC) LSCO with $`x`$$``$1/8 and excess-oxygen doped La2CuO4+y revealed an enhancement of the long-ranged IC magnetic order by magnetic fields applied along the c-axis Katano ; Lake\_Nature ; Khaykovich1 ; Khaykovich2 . Lake et al., furthermore, found field-induced slow spin fluctuations below a spin-gap energy, which shows a tendency toward the magnetic order, in the optimally doped LSCOLake\_Science . These authors discussed that the antiferromagnetic (AF) insulator with IC correlations is a possible ground state after vanishing the superconductivity, as supported by theoretical studiesZhang ; Ogata ; Ichioka . Thus, in order to clarify the universal nature of magnetism hidden behind the superconductivity, it is necessary to investigate whether the AF order is commonly observed by suppressing the superconductivity.

Important challenges have been made on the prototypical electron-doped ($`n`$-type) system of Nd2-xCexCuO4 (NCCO) which shows commensurate spin fluctuations at the tetragonal (1/2 1/2 0) reciprocal-lattice position in both AF and SC phasesYamada\_NCCO . In Nd1.86Ce0.14CuO4, at least down to 15 K Matsuda et al. observed no field effect on the AF order which coexists or phase separates with the bulk superconductivityMatsuda  , whereas Kang et al. subsequently reported a field-enhanced huge magnetic intensity for Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4 and asserted the AF order as a competing ground state with the superconductivity, irrespective of carrier typeKang . This discrepancy could be originated from drastic(first-order like) doping dependence of the static magnetism near the boundary between AF and SC phasesUefuji ; Uefuji2 . However, since the bulk superconductivity with identical $`T_c`$ of 26 K as well as the AF order appears in both samples, field-effects on the AF order and the superconductivity are still controversial. Furthermore, a effect on Nd3+ spins is expected to be significant in NCCO, and therefore, the results may conceal the inherent field dependence of Cu2+ spin correlations. Thus, a more comprehensive study on the $`n`$-type system is required using a sample with small rare-earth magnetic moments.

In this paper, we report the result of neutron scattering measurements performed under magnetic fields on the $`n`$-type Pr1-xLaCexCuO4 (PLCCO) with $`x`$=0.11 ($`T_c`$=26 K) and 0.15 ($`T_c`$=16 K), in which the effect of rare-earth moments is negligibly small compared with that in NCCOFujita\_mSR ; Kadono . Samples with $`x`$=0.11 and 0.15 are located in the vicinity of the phase boundary between AF and SC phases and in the overdoped SC phase, respectivelyGarcia ; Fujita\_mSR . At zero field, the former sample shows a short-ranged commensurate AF order, while no evidence of a magnetic order was observed in the latter sample. The intrinsic field-effect on the AF order is, hence, expected to be clarified by the comparative study of these samples. In the $`x`$=0.11 sample, the magnetic field up to 5 T along the c-axis enhances both the magnetic intensity of elastic scattering at ($`\pi `$,$`\pi `$) and the ordering temperature ($`T_m`$). Further applying the field both intensity and $`T_m`$ start to decrease and under the field of 9 T these values nearly return back to those in the zero field. In contrast, no static order was induced in the $`x`$=0.15 sample in the field up to 8.5 T. Thus, analogous to the results for LSCO, magnetic field affects the static spin correlation existing at zero-field, but does not induce an AF order at least up fo 8.5 T. We newly observed a similar field dependence between the enhanced magnetic intensity and $`T_m`$.

Single crystals of PLCCO with $`x`$=0.11 and 0.15 were grown using a traveling-solvent floating-zone method. We annealed the as-grown single crystalline rods with $``$30 mm in length and 6 mm in diameter under argon gas flow at 960C for 12 hours followed by further annealing under oxygen gas-flow at 500 C for 10 hours. For the present samples, the amount of the oxygen atoms removed by the heat treatment was determined to be 0.05 per unit formula from the weight loss of the sample after treatment.

The edge of the annealed crystals was cut into a plate to characterize the superconductivity by magnetic susceptibility measurements. As shown in Fig. 1, both $`x`$=0.11 and 0.15 samples exhibit bulk superconductivity with $`T_c`$(onset) of 26 K and 16 K, respectively.

Using the main part of crystals, elastic neutron scattering measurements were performed on the triple-axis spectrometer TAS-2 installed at the thermal neutron guide of JRR-3M of Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). We selected the incident neutron energy $`E_i`$ of 14.7 meV with the collimation sequence of 17-20-sample-20-80 (or 17-80-sample-40-80) for the investigation of the peak-profile with a high-resolution (or the peak-intensity against the temperature and the magnetic field). A pyrolytic graphite filter was placed before the sample to eliminate the higher-order harmonics of the incident neutrons. We mounted each single crystal with the CuO2 sheets in the horizontal scattering plane and applied magnetic fields vertically to this scattering plane using a split-type cryocooled superconducting magnet. Crystallographic indexes are denoted as ($`h`$ $`k`$ 0) in the tetragonal notation with the reciprocal-lattice unit (r.l.u.) at 3 K of 1.579 $`\AA `$-1, corresponding to the lattice constant of 3.979 $`\AA `$ along he Cu-O bonding. All measurements were done in the field cooling process after the field was set at above $`T_c`$($`B`$=0) and $`T_m`$($`B`$).

The spatial static spin correlations were studied by scans along \[1 -1 0\] direction through the AF zone center of (1.5 0.5 0) in the as-grown samplesFujita\_neutron . Figure 2 shows the scan-profiles at 3 K after subtracting the background at high temperatures. Intensities for both samples are normalized by their volumes. At low temperatures in zero-field, a weak intensity due to the magnetic order appears in the $`x`$=0.11 sample at a commensurate (1.5 0.5 0) position.

We note that the magnetic intensity is superposed on the temperature-independent non-magnetic superlattice peak, whose origin was discussed from the viewpoint of lattice distortionKurahashi  and/or an impurity phase caused by heat treatmentsMatsuura . Measurements with the tighter collimation revealed that the Gaussian line-width is broader than the resolution limited value indicated with the horizontal bar in Fig. 2(a). The intrinsic half-width was evaluated to be 0.0049$`\pm `$0.0008 $`\AA `$-1, corresponding to the inverse of the size of ordered region of 205$`\pm `$32 $`\AA `$ in the CuO2 planes. These observations suggest that the commensurate short-range AF order coexists or phase-separates with the bulk superconductivity at zero field. The peak-width shows no remarkable field dependence, in contrast to the result for LSCO in which the long-ranged AF order is stabilized under the fieldKatano ; Lake\_Nature ; Khaykovich1 ; Khaykovich2 . The field-enhanced intensity shows a maximum at $``$5 T which is about 25$`\%`$ of the intensity at 0 T. With increasing field beyond 5 T the intensity starts to decrease (Fig. 4) and at $``$9 T becomes comparable with that at zero-field. No magnetic signal was observed in the $`x`$=0.15 sample even under magnetic fields.

In Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4 studied by Kang and coworkers similar field dependence of the magnetic intensity was observedKang . However, the magnetic intensity is much stronger than that of PLCCO, therefore, a strikingly large effect of Nd spins should be included in the field dependence of its magnetic intensity at ($`\pi `$,$`\pi `$). We further note that a field-induced complicated spin structure appears for Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4, while no evidence of such a structure was seen in Pr0.89LaCe0.11CuO4.

The field effect was observed only for the sample with $`x`$=0.11 where the magnetic intensity exists in zero field. This result is comparable with that obtained for LSCO; the static AF order in the SC phase is enhanced Katano ; Lake\_Nature ; Khaykovich1 ; Khaykovich2 , whereas no magnetic order is induced in the optimally doped or slightly overdoped spin-gap statesLake\_Science .

However, in the case of the hole-doped La-214 systems, the intensity increases monotonically with field strength Lake\_Nature ; Khaykovich1 ; Khaykovich2  but no signature of a peak in the field dependence was so far observed.

We next investigated the $`T`$-dependence of the peak intensity in the $`x`$=0.11 sample for $`B`$$``$9 T. As seen in Fig. 3(a), the magnetic intensity appears below $``$$`T_c`$ at zero-field. With decreasing temperature, the intensity lineally increases similar to the case of the magnetic order in random systemsAeppli ; Tranquada1 . Interestingly, $`T_m`$ increases up to $``$60 K at 5 T and starts to decrease upon further increase of the field. Such a field dependence of $`T_m`$ was not reported for Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4 possibly caused by a gradual increase of Nd3+ moments in the magnetic order which prevents from a precise determination of $`T_m`$. More interestingly, as shown in Fig. 4, the field dependences of $`T_m`$ and the peak-intensity at 3 K are quite similar. We note that the linear relation between the Néel temperature and the staggered moment and their large field effect are often seen in the weak itinerant antiferromagnets and theoretically interpreted within the Fermi liquid frameworkMoriya . A recent nuclear magnetic resonance studyZheng  for optimally doped PLCCO also predicted the Fermi-liquid ground state. Therefore, the magnetism in the $`n`$-type cuprate near the AF-SC phase boundary can be regarded as the weak itinerant antiferromagnet, in contrast to that in the hole doped cuprates in which magnetic interaction is robust against doping due to the charge segregation into stripesTranquada ; Fujita\_LBCO .

The shift of $`T_m`$ by magnetic field suggests the field dependence of the quantum critical concentration for the magnetic order. To confirm this point a neutron scattering study in a narrow concentration range of 0.11$`<`$$`x_c`$$``$0.15 for PLCCO is needed to detect a possible field-induced magnetic order in the samples with no magnetic order at zero field and low temperatures.

Now we discuss the relation between the field effect and the superconductivity. Systematic $`\mu `$SR measurements on the PLCCO systems revealed a decrease in volume fraction of the magnetic order, staggered moment and $`T_m`$ upon electron-dopingFujita\_mSR  near the AF-SC phase boundary. This result suggests an existence of AF ordered islands segregated from the SC background in the $`x`$=0.11 sample. The nonmagnetic 3d10 Cu-cites introduced by doped electrons in Cu 3$`d`$ orbitals may play some role for the formation of the AF islandsYamada\_NCCO ; Zheng . In this situation, magnetic field affects both SC and AF ordered regions. In the present case, since the maximum value of $`T_m`$ under magnetic field exceeds $`T_c`$($`B`$=0 T), we speculate that the field effect on the AF islands is important to understand the effect on the spin correlation. Absence of field-induced AF order in the SC region may relate with an energy gap in magnetic excitation as seen in NCCOYamada\_NCCO . On the other hand, the field-induced AF order around SC vortices is predicted for both hole- and electron-doped cupratesChen . We note that the upper critical field of optimally-doped PLCCO is comparable to the value at which the field dependence of both magnetic intensity at $`T`$=3 K and $`T_m`$ show a peakZheng . Thus, the origin of the simultaneous suppression of magnetic intensity and $`T_m`$ at high fields beyond 5 T is important to understand the magnetic field effect on high-$`T_c`$ cuprates.

In conclusion, we have investigated the effect of magnetic field on the static spin correlations in the electron-doped superconductors Pr1-xLaCexCuO4 with $`x`$=0.11 and 0.15 by neutron scattering measurements. The field dependences of the magnetic intensity at low temperatures and the onset temperature of commensurate AF order are similar and show a peak at $``$5 T in the $`x`$=0.11 sample. In contrast, a static AF order was not induced in the $`x`$=0.15 sample under the fields up to 8.5 T. These new findings of field-effect in the electron-doped system nearly free from the effect of rare-earth spins would provide important clues for understanding the common mechanism of high-$`T_c`$ superconductivity in the doped antiferromagnets.

We gratefully thank R. Kadono for invaluable discussions and Y. Shimojyo for technical assistance. This work was supported in part by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (Novel Quantum Phenomena in Transition Metal Oxides), for Scientific Research (B), for Encouragement of Young Scientists, and for Creative Scientific Research ”Collaboratory on Electron Correlations - Toward a New Research Network between Physics and Chemistry”.