text:
# High quality factor measured in fused silica PREPRINT August 11, 2000.

## I Introduction

Several interferometric gravitational wave detectors are currently being built and commissioned around the world , with additional interferometers planned for the future . The extremely weak interaction between gravitational waves and laboratory sized masses requires noise in the interferometer from all sources to be aggressively minimized.

Thermal excitations represent one of the limiting noise sources and are expected to be a major constituent of the LIGO II  noise budget in the intermediate frequency range (roughly 20 Hz to a few hundred Hertz). Thermal noise is caused primarily by dissipation in the interferometer test masses and their suspensions. To minimize thermal noise, these components must be made from materials with low internal friction.

Fused silica, an extremely pure form of silicate glass, has been found to have low internal friction at room temperature . The current design for LIGO II specifies that the optic suspensions be composed entirely of fused silica. Single-crystal sapphire is being considered for the mirrors themselves, with fused silica as a fallback material . We have made dissipation measurements on fused silica samples to help design the next generation of interferometers.

## II Experiment

Our sample was composed of Suprasil 2 brand fused silica manufactured by Heraeus Amersil, Inc. We started with a silica rod 8 mm in diameter and drew it down to a rod 3.5 mm in diameter and 18.8 cm in length, using a natural gas flame. A bob of the 8 mm stock was left attached to one end of the 3 mm sample. A fused silica suspension was drawn above the sample from the same 8 mm stock. We made measurements with two different suspensions, both shown in Figure 1. These suspensions were distinguished by the number and size of the intermediate isolation bobs. The topmost bob was secured in a stainless steel collet which was bolted to a thick aluminum plate supported by four aluminum legs. The whole structure was contained in a vacuum bell jar which was pumped down below 1 mPa (typically below 0.1 mPa).

This sample had been previously measured in 1998 . The current experimental procedure and data analysis are nearly identical to those described in that reference. The sample was excited at the resonant frequency using a comb capacitor exciter . Then, with the exciter grounded, the sample was allowed to ring down. The position of the sample was measured using a shadow sensor. The data was fit to a damped sinusoid from which we extracted the ringdown time, $`\tau `$. Using the mode frequency, $`f`$, we calculate $`Q=\pi f\tau `$.

The ring down that yielded our best $`Q`$ is shown in Figure 2. The fit to an exponential decay is excellent. On the whole, the fit residuals for our data runs were featureless gaussian noise, with $`\sigma _Q/Q1\%`$. We observed no evidence for external excitations (ie. seismic) in the data, nor did we account for such excitations in the data analysis.

The scatter in the results of repeated measurements was typically about 5%, which is substantially higher than expected given our gaussian measurement noise (statistical error). For example, the fiber mode that yielded our best results had the following scatter: $`5.71\times 10^7\pm 9.71\times 10^4`$, $`5.56\times 10^7\pm 4.24\times 10^4`$, $`5.50\times 10^7\pm 1.45\times 10^5`$. We believe this scatter arises from small excess losses which vary from run to run. Possible examples of such losses include rubbing friction in the clamp, temperature dependence of recoil loss, and eddy current damping. These losses would all diminish the measured $`Q`$ and would not obey gaussian statistics. Therefore we quote the highest measured $`Q`$ as the best indication of the level of dissipation in a given sample.

The highest $`Q`$ found previously for this sample was $`2.1\times 10^7`$ in both modes 2 and 3 . After these earlier experiments, the sample’s diameter was measured with steel calipers at about 1 cm intervals along its length. It was then placed in a borosilicate glass tube and stored at room temperature on a laboratory shelf for sixteen months.

After storage, the sample was removed from the glass tube and hung in a new vacuum enclosure which is more massive and sits on an optical table rigidly connected to the floor. The sample was hung as before from a collet with the same multiple bob suspension. Five mechanical modes of the sample were found using the comb capacitor exciter with a DC offset of 500 V and an AC signal at the resonant frequency and amplitude of 500 V. The shadow sensor consisted of a diode laser which cast the shadow of the silica rod on a split photodiode. The highest $`Q`$’s found for each mode are shown in Table I and Figure 3. For this diameter of fused silica fiber, thermoelastic damping is negligible at the measured frequencies.

After a first set of measurements, the sample, still hanging from the multiple bob suspension, was inserted into a 2.8 cm diameter copper tube in preparation for a separate experiment. The sample knocked against the copper tube multiple times during the insertion. Immediately following this procedure, the measured $`Q`$’s were significantly lower (see Table I and Figure 3).

We hypothesized that the lower $`Q`$’s came from an increase in surface loss , induced by the knocking of the sample against the copper tube. To test this hypothesis, the sample was removed from the upper suspension (all fibers and bobs above the bob directly connected to the sample) and flame polished. The polishing was done by fixing the remaining bob in a clamp and holding a natural gas flame to the sample. The flame was held in place long enough so the surface reached the glass transition temperature. The flame was then moved back and forth across the sample so the entire surface reached this point, although not simultaneously. The duration of the flame polishing was 15 minutes. The sample was then allowed to cool in air until the bob could be held, another 15 minutes.

The sample was then moved back to the laboratory and immediately reconnected to the suspension. The original bobs were used, but new connecting fibers were drawn between all the bobs. These fibers were drawn to be thinner than on the previous suspension, with the new fibers being typically $`200\pm 50\mu `$m in diameter. Extreme care was taken to ensure that the sample surface was untouched from the time it was flame polished until it was suspended in the bell jar.

The $`Q`$’s measured after flame polishing (see Table I and Figure 3) showed a marked increase compared to all previous measurements for this sample. Indeed these $`Q`$ values are nearly twice any previously reported room temperature measurement  and equal to the highest measurement of $`Q`$ in fused silica at any temperature .

The aberrantly low $`Q`$ value found for mode 1 is believed to be due to the inability of the suspension to adequately isolate the sample from modes in the aluminum support structure (recoil damping) at this low frequency. The decrease of $`Q`$ with frequency for modes 2–5 is not understood. It may indicate the frequency dependence of an internal loss mechanism such as an Arrhenius loss peak , or it may be due to acoustic radiation traveling up the suspension.

To test the effect of the suspension on the sample $`Q`$’s, we removed the sample from the suspension and redrew the suspension with one additional bob. The fibers were again drawn to be $`200\pm 50\mu `$m thick. In order to keep the entire suspension plus sample roughly the same height, two smaller bobs had to be substituted for the larger central bob. These new bobs were also of Suprasil 2 fused silica. The redrawing of the suspension and repositioning of the sample in the vacuum chamber was once again done with great care so the sample’s surface was not touched. The measured $`Q`$’s using this new suspension are shown in Table I and Figure 3.

## III Discussion

The $`Q`$’s we measured of the flame-polished fused silica rod are the highest ever observed for fused silica at room temperature. The previous highest measurement at room temperature, $`3\times 10^7`$, was obtained by Lunin  using a “wine glass” resonator. The damaged surface layer of this resonator was removed using an unpublished chemical treatment.

The observed dependence of $`Q`$ on surface condition is generally consistent with prior work . However, the results of this experiment do supersede the quantitative conclusion of Ref. , as the $`\varphi (=1/Q)`$ value lies significantly below the curve shown in Figure 6 of that reference. Thus, that paper’s predicted value for the bulk dissipation of fused silica, $`\varphi _{\mathrm{bulk}}=3\times 10^8`$, is too high and instead should be considered indicative of the level of excess loss in these prior measurements.

In Figure 4 we have plotted our current data along with the data from Ref. . We have also included some more recent data taken in the same way as in that paper. Using the theoretical model presented in Ref. , we have plotted the line indicating the dependence of $`\varphi `$ in the surface limited regime. All the data, including our recent measurements, are limited by this line, suggesting that even the highest measured $`Q`$’s are limited by surface loss. If that were the case, then the bulk $`Q`$ for fused silica would be greater than $`5.7\times 10^7`$. The present data are not sufficient to determine $`\varphi _{\mathrm{bulk}}`$ using our theoretical model. Further research in this area is clearly warranted.

It is interesting to compare our results here with the results of Lunin , who, using a fused silica hemispherical resonator at 8400 Hz, found the $`Q`$ to peak at 105 C at a value of 55 million. If the loss mechanisms that dominates Lunin’s results are Arrhenius processes with similar activation energies, then at a lower resonant frequency, the $`Q`$ would peak at a lower temperature. It is possible that at 726 Hz, the peak is near room temperature. We are currently conducting an experiment to measure the temperature dependence of $`Q`$ at these lower resonant frequencies.

To test whether our results were limited by suspension losses, we added an additional isolation bob in our fiber suspension. Except for mode 1, the $`Q`$’s did not change much, which indicates that modes 2–5 are not suspension limited and that their losses arise from internal mechanisms. With the additional isolation bob, the $`Q`$ of mode 1 increased from $`3\times 10^5`$ to $`4\times 10^6`$. This increase indicates that mode 1 was suspension limited by the initial multiple bob suspension. The fact that the $`Q`$ for mode 1 is still well below that of the higher modes, suggests that even with the new suspension mode 1 is still suspension limited.

If these $`Q`$ values could be obtained in a test mass of a gravitational wave interferometer, the thermal noise would be significantly lower than currently anticipated for silica optics . The thermal noise from the mirrors’ internal modes expressed as a spectral density of gravitational wave strain is given by

$$S_h\left(\omega \right)=\frac{4k_BT}{\omega L^2}\frac{1\sigma ^2}{\sqrt{2\pi }Er_0}\varphi \left(\omega \right),$$

where $`k_B`$ is Boltzmann’s constant, $`T`$ is the temperature, $`L`$ is the arm length of the interferometer, $`\sigma `$ is Poisson’s ratio, $`E`$ is Young’s modulus, $`r_0`$ is the width of the laser beam, and $`\varphi `$ is the loss angle. In this frequency band, we have assumed that $`\varphi =1/Q`$ . If fused silica optics with $`Q=3.0\times 10^7`$ were used in LIGO II, their thermal noise would dominate the noise budget over a couple of octaves centered on $`f=100`$ Hz. The thermal noise associated with $`Q=5.7\times 10^7`$ is almost $`\sqrt{2}`$ lower, a substantial improvement.

Actually realizing this lower thermal noise in the mirrors’ internal modes could prove quite challenging. The dependence of $`Q`$ on surface condition could rule out high $`Q`$’s in a polished mirror. Even obtaining the $`3\times 10^7`$ estimated in the LIGO II design  may prove difficult because the mirror surfaces of the test masses and beam splitters must be polished and coated. There is evidence that these coatings may limit achievable thermal noise . We are currently conducting experiments to explore this issue.

It is unlikely that our current results could help reduce the low frequency noise in the LIGO II design. While fused silica ribbons are planned for the final stage of the test mass suspension, their thermal noise, which should be dominated by surface loss, is already expected to be so low  that it is comparable to the radiation pressure noise.

## Acknowledgments

We would like to thank John Chabot for his talent and skill in drawing and flame polishing the fused silica rod; Lou Buda, Charlie Brown, and Lester Schmutzler for their machining efforts; and Adam Schuman and Brian Gantz for their help. We also thank William Startin for originally suggesting an experiment that led to these results. This work was supported by Syracuse University and National Science Foundation Grant No. PHY-9900775.


format: text

text:
# The Formation of Supermassive Black Holes and the Evolution of Supermassive Stars

## I Supermassive Black Holes

There is a large body of observational evidence that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) exist in the centers of many, if not most galaxies (see e.g., the reviews of Rees  and Macchetto ). The masses of SMBHs in the centers of more than 45 galaxies have been estimated from observations  and there are more than 30 galaxies in which the presence of a SMBH has been confirmed . The properties of a few confirmed SMBHs are given in Table 1.

Several properties have been deduced from these observations . A correlation between the SMBH mass and both the mass and the velocity dispersion of the bulge of the host galaxy is observed. These results suggest that the formation and evolution of SMBHs and the bulge component of their host galaxies may be closely related. The largest SMBHs are found in elliptical galaxies and thus may result from galaxy mergers, as ellipticals themselves are thought to form via merger.

Because of their size and mass, SMBHs are expected to be sources of long-wavelength, low-frequency gravitational radiation. Thus, phenomena involving SMBHs might be detectable with proposed space-based gravitational wave detectors, like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) . For example, LISA might be able to detect the collapse of a supermassive star to a SMBH, the coalescence of two SMBHs, or the coalescence of a compact star and a SMBH . The event rates of these phenomena are uncertain due to the uncertainty in the nature of the progenitors of SMBHs. However, the rates could be appreciable because SMBHs are present in many galaxies.

### A Formation Mechanisms

The possible formation mechanisms for SMBHs involve either the stellar dynamics of dense star clusters or the hydrodynamics of supermassive stars (SMSs).

#### 1 Stellar Dynamical Routes

In general terms, dense star clusters are formed via a conglomeration of stars, produced by fragmentation of the primordial gas. In one cluster scenario for SMBH formation, massive stars form via stellar collisions and mergers in the cluster and then evolve into stellar-mass black holes. The merger of these holes, as they grow and settle to the cluster center, leads to the build up of one or more SMBHs .

An alternative cluster scenario centers on the catastrophic collapse of the cluster core. Shapiro and Teukolsky have numerically demonstrated that cluster cores can become dynamically unstable to relativistic collapse . They also showed that if the core is made up of compact stars, it will evolve to the onset of collapse on a relaxation timescale . As the compact core evolves to this point of relativistic instability, the mass of its black holes will increase through collisions and gravitational radiation driven mergers. This will accelerate the approach to relativistic instability, leading to SMBH formation .

#### 2 Hydrodynamical Routes

SMSs may contract directly out of the primordial gas, if radiation and/or magnetic field pressure prevent fragmentation  (see also ). Alternatively, they may build up from fragments of stellar collisions in clusters .

The evolution of SMSs will ultimately lead to the onset of relativistic instability . If the mass of the star exceeds $`10^6M_{}`$, the star will then collapse and possibly form a SMBH. If the star is less massive, nuclear reactions may lead to explosion instead of collapse.

## II Supermassive Stars

Identifying the scenario by which SMBHs form is of fundamental importance to a number of areas of astrophysics. The remainder of this paper examines one of the possible progenitors of SMBHs discussed above, SMSs.

Supermassive stars are radiation dominated, isentropic, and convective  and are thus well represented by a $`n=3`$ polytrope. As mentioned previously, if the star’s mass exceeds $`10^6M_{}`$, nuclear burning and electron/positron annihilation are not important.

After formation, a SMS will evolve through a phase of quasistationary cooling and contraction. If the SMS is rotating when it forms, conservation of angular momentum requires that it spin up as it contracts. The evolutionary path taken by the SMS during this cooling phase depends on the strength of its viscosity and magnetic fields and on the nature of its angular momentum distribution.

### A Cooling Evolution of Uniformly Rotating Supermassive Stars

There are two possible evolutionary regimes for a cooling SMS. In the first regime, viscosity or magnetic fields are strong enough to enforce uniform rotation throughout the star as it contracts.

Baumgarte and Shapiro  have recently studied the evolution of a uniformly rotating SMS up to the onset of relativistic instability. They demonstrated that a uniformly rotating, cooling SMS will eventually spin up to its mass shedding limit. The mass shedding limit is encountered when matter at the star’s equator rotates with the Keplerian velocity. The limit can be represented as a ratio $`\beta _{shed}=(T/|W|)_{shed}`$ of the star’s rotational kinetic energy $`T`$ to gravitational potential energy $`W`$. In this case, $`\beta _{shed}=9\times 10^3`$. The star will then evolve along a mass shedding sequence, losing both mass and angular momentum. It will eventually contract to the point of relativistic instability.

Baumgarte and Shapiro used both a 2nd order, post-Newtonian approximation and a fully general relativistic numerical code to determine that the onset of the instability occurs at a ratio of $`R/M450`$, where $`R`$ is the
star’s radius. Here and throughout this paper $`G=c=1`$. Note that a 2nd order, post-Newtonian approximation was needed because rotation stabilizes the destabilizing role of nonlinear gravity at the 1st post-Newtonian level.

The major result of Baumgarte and Shapiro’s work is that the following universal ratios exist for the critical configuration at the onset of relativistic instability: $`T/|W|`$, $`R/M`$, and $`J/M^2`$. Here $`J`$ is the total angular momentum of the star. These ratios are completely independent of the mass of the star or its prior evolution. Because uniformly rotating SMSs will begin to collapse from a universal configuration, the subsequent collapse and the resulting gravitational waveform will be unique.

#### 1 Collapse Outcome and Gravitational Radiation Emission

The outcome of SMS collapse can only be determined with numerical, fully relativistic three-dimensional hydrodynamics simulations. To date, such simulations have only been published for nearly spherical collapse. The numerical simulations of Shapiro and Teukolsky  demonstrate that this type of collapse is nearly homologous.

In this case the collapse time $`\tau _{coll}`$ is roughly the free-fall time at the horizon (where $`R=2M`$)

$`\tau _{coll}`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{R^3}{4\pi M}}\right)^{1/2}`$ (1)
$`=`$ $`14\mathrm{sec}[M/10^6M_{}]^1.`$ (2)
The peak gravitational wave frequency $`f_{GW}=\tau _{coll}^1`$ is then $`10^2\mathrm{Hz}`$, if the mass of the star is $`10^6M_{}`$. This is in the middle of LISA’s frequency band of $`10^41\mathrm{Hz}`$ .

The amplitude $`h`$ of this burst signal can be estimated roughly in terms of the star’s quadrupole moment

$`h`$ $``$ $`ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{2M^2}{Rd}}`$ (3)
$``$ $`ϵ\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}\times 10^{17}[M/10^6M_{}][d/1\mathrm{G}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}]^1.`$ (4)
Here $`d`$ is the distance to the star and $`ϵT/|W|`$ is a measure of the star’s deviation from spherical symmetry. In this case, $`ϵ`$ will be much less than one even near the horizon, since the collapse is nearly spherical.

Three-dimensional, general relativistic simulations of nonspherical, rotating collapse are underway . The results are not available as yet. However, there are two possible outcomes of this type of collapse that can be discussed.

The first outcome is direct collapse to a SMBH, from the onset of instability. In this case $`ϵ`$ will be on the order of one near the horizon. Thus the peak amplitude (see equation 2) of the burst signal will be $`h5\times 10^{17}[M/10^6M_{}][d/1\mathrm{G}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}]^1`$.

Alternatively, the star may encounter the dynamical bar mode instability. The bar mode is the strongest of a set of global nonaxisymmetric instabilities that may be encountered by a rapidly rotating object. This instability will deform the star into a bar-shaped configuration, making it a strong source of long-wavelength, quasiperiodic gravitational radiation. During the development of the instability, angular momentum and mass will be transported outwards . This could hasten the star’s eventual collapse. Previous linear and nonlinear analyses indicate that $`\beta _{bar}0.27`$ is likely to be an upper limit for the onset of this instability, for a wide range of polytropic equations of state and rotation laws (see, e.g., ).

Baumgarte and Shapiro  have estimated that a uniformly rotating SMS will reach $`\beta `$$``$$`0.27`$ when $`R/M`$=15. This estimate awaits confirmation from three-dimensional, general relativistic hydrodynamical simulations.

The frequency of the quasiperiodic gravitational radiation emitted by the bar can be estimated in terms of its rotation frequency to be

$`f_{GW}`$ $`=`$ $`2f_{bar}2\left({\displaystyle \frac{GM}{R^3}}\right)^{1/2}`$ (5)
$``$ $`2\times 10^3\mathrm{Hz}[M/10^6M_{}]^1,`$ (6)
when $`R/M`$=15. The corresponding amplitude of the radiation, again estimated in terms of the star’s quadrupole moment, is

$`h`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2M^2}{Rd}}`$ (7)
$``$ $`6\times 10^{18}[M/10^6M_{}][d/1\mathrm{G}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}]^1.`$ (8)
The emission of gravitational radiation will continue as long as the collapsing SMS’s bar shape persists.

### B Cooling Evolution of Differentially Rotating Supermassive Stars

In the opposite evolutionary regime, neither viscosity nor magnetic fields are strong enough to enforce uniform rotation throughout the cooling SMS as it contracts. In this case it has been shown that the angular momentum distribution is conserved on cylinders during contraction . Because viscosity and magnetic fields are weak, there is no means of redistributing angular momentum in the star. So even if the star starts out rotating uniformly, it cannot remain so.

The star will then rotate differentially as it cools and contracts. In this case, the subsequent evolution depends on the star’s initial angular momentum distribution, which is largely unknown.

One possible outcome is that the star will spin up to mass shedding (at a different value of $`\beta _{shed}`$ than a
uniformly rotating star) and then follow an evolutionary path that may be similar to that described by Baumgarte and Shapiro .

The alternative outcome is that the star will encounter the dynamical bar instability prior to reaching the mass shedding limit. As discussed above, the bar shape induced by this instability will make the star a source of quasiperiodic, long-wavelength gravitational radiation. The outward transport of angular momentum that occurs during the instability could hasten the eventual collapse of the star.

New and Shapiro  have investigated the evolution of differentially rotating SMSs. Because the angular momentum distribution of these stars is unknown, they examined SMS models with several different initial angular momentum distributions. The goal of their work was to determine if the bar instability or mass shedding limits are reached by these SMS models.

New and Shapiro’s strategy was to examine equilibrium sequences of SMS models, each of which was constructed with a different rotation law. The individual models on each sequence were constrained to have the same $`M`$ and $`J`$, since these quantities are conserved during the cooling evolution of a SMS. However, the models along a sequence have decreasing entropy and thus decreasing axis ratio $`R_p/R_e`$, where $`R_p`$ is the polar radius and $`R_e`$ is the equatorial radius. A sequence is thus representative of the quasistatic, cooling/contracting evolution of a single SMS. This quasistatic approximation is appropriate because the cooling timescale is much longer than the hydrodynamic timescale for $`M<10^{13}M_{}`$ . New and Shapiro examined each of the sequences to determine whether the limits $`\beta _{bar}`$ or $`\beta _{shed}`$ are reached for a SMS model with the given rotation law.

All of the sequences New and Shapiro examined were constructed with Hachisu’s self-consistent field (HSCF) technique . The HSCF method builds individual models in hydrostatic equilibrium, such that their pressure, gravitational, and centrifugal forces are in balance.

The HSCF method requires the choice of a barotropic equation of state $`P=P(\rho )`$. All of the SMS models examined by New and Shapiro were constructed with a polytropic equation of state for which

$$P=K\rho ^{1+1/n}.$$
(9)
As mentioned above, the structure of a SMS is well represented by an $`n=3`$ polytrope. In this equation of state, the polytropic constant $`K`$ is a measure of the specific entropy of the model.

The selection of appropriate rotation laws was constrained by the fact that each rotation law chosen had to enforce conservation of the contracting star’s specific angular momentum profile .

One rotation law that satisfies this constraint is the so-called $`n^{}`$=3 law . Its specific angular momentum profile $`j(m)`$ is

$$j(m)=a_1+a_2\left(1\frac{m(\varpi )}{M}\right)^{\alpha _2}+a_3\left(1\frac{m(\varpi )}{M}\right)^{\alpha _3},$$
(10)
where $`M`$ is the total mass of the system, $`m`$ is the mass interior to cylindrical radius $`\varpi `$, and the numerically determined constants are $`a_1`$=13.27, $`a_2`$=163.3, $`a_3`$=-176.5, $`\alpha _2`$=0.2353, and $`\alpha _3`$=0.2222. This angular momentum profile is identical to that of a uniformly rotating, spherical $`n`$=3 polytrope. Thus an equilibrium sequence constructed with this rotation law is representative of the evolution of a SMS that rotates uniformly prior to its cooling phase. New and Shapiro  have constructed an equilibrium sequence with this rotation law.

Because the initial rotation profiles of SMSs are unknown, New and Shapiro also examined sequences constructed by Hachisu, Tohline, and Eriguchi (; hereafter, HTE). These sequences were built with the following parameterized angular momentum profile:

$$j(m)=(1+q)(J/M)\left[1(1m(\varpi )/M)^{1/q}\right].$$
(11)
Here, the index $`q`$ specifies the rotation law. Note that the limiting case of $`q`$=0 corresponds to the j-constant rotation law.

Nearly spherical models built with these “q-laws” are differentially rotating. Thus, HTE’s $`n`$=3, q-law sequences are representative of the evolution of SMSs, with a wide range of initial differential rotation profiles.

#### 1 Evolutionary Scenarios

A detailed discussion of the properties of the n’=3 sequence, constructed by New and Shapiro, and the q-law sequences of HTE can be found in . In what follows we summarize these properties as they relate to the evolutionary scenarios of differentially rotating SMSs.

Density contour plots of selected models from the $`n^{}`$=3 sequence are shown in Figure 1. The $`n^{}`$=3 sequence terminates due to mass shedding at $`\beta _{shed}>0.30`$. $`\beta _{shed}`$ exceeds the likely upper limit for the bar instability $`\beta _{bar}<0.27`$. Thus we expect that a SMS with this rotation law should never reach the mass shedding limit, but will instead encounter the dynamical bar instability near $`R_p/R_e0.004`$. This is the axis ratio of the model with $`\beta =0.27`$ (see Figure 1d).

No mass shedding limits exist on HTE’s q-law sequences. Each of these sequences makes a continuous transition from spheroidal to toroidal configurations at values of $`\beta _{trans}>0.33>0.27>\beta _{bar}`$. Thus, $`n`$=3 models with these $`q`$-indexed laws would likely encounter the bar mode as spheroids.

We note that the hydrodynamical study of  indicates that $`\beta _{bar}`$ may be less than $`0.27`$ for rotation laws that place a significant amount of angular momentum in equatorial mass elements. Their results predict that the $`m`$=2 stability limit may be less than $`0.20`$ for models with the $`n^{}`$=3 rotation law. Their simulations, of $`n`$=1.5 polytropes, also suggest that a one-armed spiral, $`m`$=1 mode may become increasingly dominant over the $`m`$=2 mode as the equatorial concentration of angular momentum increases. Note that the grid resolutions used in  were likely not sufficient to accurately model the development of instabilities in models with these extreme differential rotation laws . However, the results of  and the linear and nonlinear stability analyses of  confirm that $`0.27`$ is likely to be an approximate upper limit to $`\beta _{bar}`$, for a variety of polytropic indices and rotation laws. The analysis presented in  assumes that the $`m`$=2 bar mode is the dominant mode and that $`\beta _{bar}<0.27`$.

Even if the actual value of $`\beta _{bar}`$ is less than $`0.27`$, the qualitative nature of the results of New and Shapiro would not change. That is, the sequences they examined would still have models that are unstable to the bar mode. In addition, their quantitative estimates of the characteristics of the gravitational radiation emission
presented below would only change by a numerical factor of order 1-10, even if $`\beta _{bar}`$ were as low as $`0.22`$.

#### 2 Gravitational Radiation Emission

The results of New and Shapiro  indicate that a bar mode phase is likely to be encountered by differentially rotating SMSs with a wide range of initial angular momentum distributions. Hydrodynamical simulations are needed to follow the evolution of the star as the instability develops, to compute the gravitational radiation waveforms emitted, and to determine the fate of a SMS that undergoes the bar instability.

Previous hydrodynamical simulations of the bar instability in models with other rotation laws and a different polytropic equation of state indicate that the outcome of this instability is a persistent bar-like structure that emits quasiperiodic gravitational radiation over many cycles . If a similar outcome results from the bar instability in a SMS, the quasiperiodic, long-wavelength gravitational radiation emitted could be detected by LISA.

The frequency of these quasiperiodic gravitational waves can be estimated from the expected bar rotation rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{bar}`$. The model on New and Shapiro’s $`n^{}`$=$`3`$ sequence with $`\beta `$$``$$`\beta _{bar}`$=$`0.27`$ has a central rotation rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$=$`1.02\times 10^1\mathrm{Hz}[M_6\beta _5^3R_{17}^3]^{1/2}`$. Here $`M_6M/10^6M_{}`$, $`R_{17}(R_e)_0/10^{17}\mathrm{cm}`$, and $`\beta _5\beta _0/10^5`$. The subscript 0 denotes the value is for the (nearly) spherical progenitor star, prior to the start of its cooling phase. In previous hydrodynamics simulations of the bar mode instability , $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{bar}`$ was $`0.4\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$. With this relation between $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{bar}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$, the gravitational wave frequency $`f_{GW}`$ can be estimated to be

$`f_{GW}`$ $`=`$ $`2f_{bar}=2{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{bar}}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{0.4}{\pi }}\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$ (12)
$``$ $`1\times 10^2\mathrm{Hz}[M_6\beta _5^3R_{17}^3]^{\frac{1}{2}}.`$ (13)
For a SMS of $`10^6M_{}`$, which begins as a slowly rotating star of radius $`10^{17}\mathrm{cm}`$ with $`\beta _0`$=$`10^5`$, this yields a frequency of $`1\times 10^2\mathrm{Hz}`$. This frequency is in the range in which LISA is expected to be most sensitive, $`10^4`$-$`1\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}`$. The choice $`\beta _0`$=$`2\times 10^4/R_{17}`$ is the maximum value of $`\beta _0`$ for which $`f_{GW}`$ (=$`10^4\mathrm{Hz}`$) is still in LISA’s range of sensitivity.

The strength of the gravitational wave signal can be estimated roughly to be

$`h`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G}{c^4}}{\displaystyle \frac{\ddot{Q}}{d}}{\displaystyle \frac{G}{c^4}}{\displaystyle \frac{MR_{bar}^2f_{bar}^2}{d}}`$ (14)
$``$ $`4\times 10^{15}\left({\displaystyle \frac{d}{1\mathrm{Gpc}}}\right)^1M_6^2\beta _5^1R_{17}^1,`$ (15)
where $`\ddot{Q}`$ is the second time derivative of the star’s quadrupole moment and $`d`$ is the distance, which we
scale to 1 Gpc (the Hubble distance is $``$ 3 Gpc). Here we have used $`R_{bar}R_e`$=$`4.14\times 10^{13}\beta _5R_{17}\mathrm{cm}`$ for the $`n^{}`$=$`3`$ model of  that reaches the point $`\beta \beta _{bar}`$.

The bar will decay on a secular timescale due to dissipative effects. For differentially rotating SMSs, the largest source of dissipation will be gravitational radiation. The gravitational radiation damping timescale $`\tau _{GW}`$ is approximately

$$\tau _{GW}\frac{T}{\left(\frac{dE}{dt}\right)_{GW}},$$
(16)
where $`T`$ is the rotational kinetic energy and $`(dE/dt)_{GW}`$ is the rate at which gravitational radiation carries energy away from the system. Recall that $`T=\beta |W|`$. The gravitational potential energy $`|W|GM^2/R_{bar}`$. Thus,

$$T=\beta \frac{GM^2}{R}.$$
(17)
The radiation rate can be estimated as

$$\left(\frac{dE}{dt}\right)_{GW}\frac{G}{c^5}\frac{M}{R^2}v^6.$$
(18)
In this case the characteristic velocity of the system is $`v=(\beta GM/R)^{1/2}.`$ Substitution of equations (11) and (12) into equation (10) yields

$`\tau _{GW}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{c^5}{G^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{R_{bar}^4}{\beta ^2M^3}}`$ (19)
$``$ $`1\times 10^4\mathrm{yrs}M_6^3[\beta _5R_{17}]^4.`$ (20)
The number of cycles $`𝒩`$ for which the signal will persist is

$`𝒩`$ $``$ $`\tau _{GW}f_{GW}`$ (21)
$``$ $`4\times 10^9[M_6\beta _5R_{17}]^{5/2}.`$ (22)
The quasiperiodicity of such a signal will assist in its detection .

The fraction of the mass $`(dM/M)_{GW}`$ radiated via gravitational radiation over the interval $`\tau _{GW}`$ can be estimated as

$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{dM}{M}}\right)_{GW}`$ $``$ $`\tau _{GW}\left({\displaystyle \frac{dE}{dt}}\right)_{GW}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{Mc^2}}`$ (23)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G}{c^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta M}{R}}`$ (24)
$``$ $`1\times 10^3M_6[\beta _5R_{17}]^1.`$ (25)
## III Conclusions and Future Work

There is strong evidence that SMBHs exist. However, the nature of their progenitors is uncertain. Proposed formation mechanisms involve the evolution of stellar clusters or SMSs.

Recent studies indicate that differentially rotating SMSs, and possibly uniformly rotating SMSs as well, are likely to encounter the dynamical bar instability and thus emit quasiperiodic, long-wavelength gravitational radiation. SMSs will also emit burst gravitational wave signals as they undergo relativistic collapse.

Linear and nonlinear stability analyses are needed to determine precisely the onset of the $`m`$=2 dynamical bar instability for the SMS models considered here. Such analyses are also needed to determine the relative importance of various unstable nonaxisymmetric modes in SMS models (as a dominant $`m`$=1 mode would change the characteristics of the gravitational radiation emission).

In addition, three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations are necessary to study the evolution of SMSs as they undergo the bar instability and/or relativistic collapse, to compute the gravitational waveforms emitted, and to determine the final fate of the star.

Future investigations involving hydrodynamical simulations of SMS models would benefit from improved knowledge of initial conditions, such as an appropriate value for $`\beta _0`$. These appropriate initial conditions could be determined from studies of large-scale structure and cosmology.

Most importantly, studies are required to assess the roles of viscosity and magnetic fields in rotating SMSs to judge whether they are sufficient to drive these configurations to uniform rotation prior to bar instability.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work has been supported in part by NSF Grants AST 96-18524 and PHY 99-02833 and NASA Grants NAG5-7152 and NAG5-8418 to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A portion of this work performed under auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Los Alamos National Laboratory under contract W-7405-ENG-36.


text:
# Josephson Plasma Resonance in Solid and Glass Phases of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ

## Abstract

Vortex matter phases and phase transitions are investigated by means of Josephson plasma resonance in under-doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystals in a microwave frequency range between 19 and 70 GHz. Accompanied by the vortex lattice melting transition, a jump of the interlayer phase coherence extracted from the field dependence of the plasma frequency was observed. In the solid phase, the interlayer coherence little depends on field at a temperature region well below $`T_c`$ while it gradually decreases as field increases toward the melting line up to just below $`T_c`$. As a result, the magnitude of the jump decreases with increasing temperature and is gradually lost in the vicinity of $`T_c`$. This indicates that the vortex lines formed in the vortex solid phase are thermally meandering and the phase transition becomes weak especially just below $`T_c`$.
KEYWORDS: Josephson plasma, vortex state, interlayer coherence

Studies of the mixed state in high-$`T_c`$ superconductors have brought about deeper understandings of the vortex matter in this decade. Most significant notion here is in the existence of the first order vortex lattice melting phenomenon  occurring at $`H_M`$ as shown in Fig. 1 schematically. In high-$`T_c`$ superconductors, this lies well below the upper critical field $`H_{c2}`$ expected from the mean field approximation. This drastic change of the phase diagram has led much interest especially in the vortex liquid state existing above the first order vortex lattice melting transition (and the irreversibility line) below $`H_{c2}`$ line. Since the macroscopic superconducting phase coherence is lost there, the vortex liquid state has been considered as a non-superconducting state having only the short range coherence.

In Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (BSCCO), the vortex lattice melting transition occurs in temperatures and magnetic fields being easily accessible experimentally. The first order character of the phase transition continues up to the critical point, at which it changes the character to the second order phase transition and continues to the irreversibility line and the horizontal line so called the second magnetization peak  as shown schematically in Fig. 1. So far, most of the Josephson plasma resonance (JPR) have been done in the vortex liquid phase except little study in the other vortex phases. JPR can provide quantitative information on the interlayer coherence between adjacent superconducting CuO2 layers in highly anisotropic superconductor such as BSCCO. The Josephson plasma frequency in a finite field and a temperature is expressed as

$$\omega _p^2(H,T)=\omega _p^2(T)\mathrm{cos}\phi _{n,n+1}(H,T),$$
(1)
where $`\phi _{n,n+1}`$ is the gauge invariant phase difference between two adjacent $`n`$-th and $`n+1`$-th layers, and $`\mathrm{}`$ means the thermal and the spatial average. Here, $`\omega _p(T)\sqrt{4edj_c(T)/ϵh}`$ is the zero-field plasma frequency with $`d`$, $`j_c(T)`$, and $`ϵ`$ being the distance between adjacent layers, the temperature dependent critical current along the $`c`$ axis, and the high frequency dielectric constant, respectively . Since the interlayer phase coherence $`\mathrm{cos}\phi _{n,n+1}(H,T)`$ directly indicates the $`c`$ axis correlations of pancakes, it is of considerable interest in studying the different vortex states discriminated by the various phase transition lines by means of JPR .

In Ref. , abrupt jump of the plasma frequency accompanied with the melting transition is reported. Their result indicates that the clear jump of the phase coherence continues up to $`T_c`$ and the jump suddenly disappears at $`T_c`$. According to Blatter et al., the first order melting transition is weaken near $`T_c`$  and the symptoms have been found experimentally . Quite recently, Koshelev and Bulaevskii also pointed out that the interlayer coherence does not change considerably at the melting transition in low fields (in the vicinity of $`T_c`$) because of strong meandering of the vortex lines .

In this paper, we discuss the melting transition quantitatively and the vortex state especially for the vortex solid phase below the melting transition in terms of the interlayer coherence extracted from JPR measurements as functions of microwave frequency, temperature, and magnetic field. As consequences, the change of interlayer coherence at the transition is quite small especially in the vicinity of $`T_c`$, where the vortex lines are not straight but meandering strongly even in the vortex solid state.

JPR measurements were performed in a microwave frequency range between 19 and 70 GHz in an under-doped BSCCO single crystal with $`T_c`$ of 72.4 K. Frequency-stabilized microwave was generated by a signal swept generator or Gunn oscillators and the resonance was detected either by sweeping external magnetic field at a fixed temperature or by sweeping temperature at a fixed field. Details of the experimental setup are described in Ref.

Figure 2(a) represents typical resonance curves obtained by sweeping magnetic field. The resonance appears from 25 K in a finite field, the resonance field shows maximum around 30 K, and it disappears above 59 K, where the zero field plasma frequency $`\omega _p(T)`$ coincides with the incidental microwave frequency of 52.4 GHz. At all frequencies below 64 GHz, we observed similar feature of the resonance: the resonance field once increase and decrease as temperature increases, and the resonance disappears below $`T_c`$. It is noted that the resonance becomes hysteretic and quickly moves towards low field as temperature is decreased below 30 K, and it is no longer observable below 20 K. As clearly seen in Fig. 2(a), It is also noticeable that the resonance line width which becomes larger quickly below the temperature at which the resonance field is maximum. By sweeping temperature on the contrary, a sharp resonance is observed below 68 Oe as shown in Fig. 2(b).

In Fig. 3, temperature dependences of the resonance field $`H_{res}`$ at 12 frequencies between 18 and 64 GHz together with temperature dependence of the vortex lattice melting field ($`H_M`$) obtained by the magnetization measurements by a SQUID magnetometer in the same crystal are plotted. $`H_{res}`$ at a given temperature decreases with increasing frequency, and the resonance is observed not only in the vortex liquid state but also in the vortex solid state below $`H_M`$. The temperature dependence of $`H_{res}`$ below $`H_M`$ is similar to the one in the liquid state: a broad maximum around 30 K and $`H_{res}`$ decrease toward $`T_c`$. Below 30 K, $`H_{res}`$ decreases toward low temperature at all frequencies even below $`H_M`$. As shown in the inset of Fig. 2(b), the resonance positions obtained by sweeping both magnetic field and temperature coincide above the maximum. This means that the thermal equilibrium state of vortices is realized even in the solid phase above the maximum by sweeping magnetic field, whereas it is not below the maximum. In previous studies, this inequilibrium state has been explained due to a pinning effect in the vortex glass state because the maximum of $`H_{res}`$ almost coincides with $`H_{irr}`$ shown in Fig. 1. Although this explanation may be valid for the resonance above $`H_M`$, the behaviors of the resonance in the solid phase implies that there is also a phase boundary similar to $`H_{irr}`$ line even below $`H_M`$ indicated as a dotted line in Fig. 1.

In our previous publication  the temperature dependence of JPR in zero magnetic field $`\omega _p(T)`$ was explained by the two fluid model very well as

$$\omega _p^2(T)=\frac{\omega _p^2(0)}{2}\left[1\stackrel{~}{\tau }^2+\sqrt{(1+\stackrel{~}{\tau }^2)^24\stackrel{~}{\tau }^2(T/T_c)^4}\right],$$
(2)
where $`\stackrel{~}{\tau }=\tau \omega _p(0)`$ is the reduced scattering rate. Using Eq. (1) and Eq. (2), we can derive the interlayer coherence without ambiguity. The normalized field dependence of the interlayer phase coherence $`\omega _p^2(H,T)/\omega _p^2(T)`$ at $`H_M`$ is plotted as a function of field in Fig. 4. It is clearly observed that the interlayer phase coherence abruptly jumps in the vicinity of $`H_M`$ with decreasing magnetic field at low temperatres below 55 K. This jump can be attributed to the first order phase transition from liquid to solid as reported previously . Although the magnitude of this jump is clearly noticeable, it amounts only to 0.65 at most and becomes even smaller at higher temperatures. Such a relatively small jump of the phase coherence at $`H_M`$ is partly caused by the precursor reduction of the phase coherence already beginning well below $`H_M`$, indicating that the strong thermal phase fluctuations dominate in wide temperature region below $`T_c`$. The interlayer coherence continues to survive even above $`H_M`$ and seems to follow the $`1/H`$ dependence very well in good accordance with the theoretical prediction .

The magnitude of the jump of the interlayer coherence decreases as temperature increases, the sharp jump gradually disappears and turns to a broad increase above 65 K. In terms of the interlayer coherence, this result is interpreted that the vortex lattice melting transition becomes weaker as temperature increases and finally looses one of the characteristics of the first order phase transition in temperatures considerably below $`T_c`$ (5–7 K). This is in contrast to the results in Ref. , where the change of interlayer coherence accompanied by the first order transition seems not to depend on temperature. Koshelev and Bulaevskii have derived a relation between plasma frequencies and the vortex wandering length $`r_w`$ defined as mean deviation of two pancake vortices of a vortex line at neighboring layers, which does not depend on the wandering mechanism of vortex lines . They conclude that in the low field region of $`B<20`$ G the wandering length of the vortex lines is comparable with the Josephson length $`\lambda _J`$ and the interlayer coherence does not change considerably at the melting transition. Here, $`\lambda _J`$ is given by the anisotropy parameter $`\gamma `$ and the interlayer spacing $`s`$ as $`\lambda _J\gamma s`$. This suggestion is consistent with our experimental results in a sense that the abrupt jump at $`T_M`$ in the vicinity of $`T_c`$ is hardly visible due parhaps to the weakening of the melting transition caused by the strong vortex fluctuations even in the vortex solid state.

Finally, we mention about the line-shape of the resonance in the solid phase. As shown in Fig. 2, the resonance line observed in the liquid state (between 35 and 46 K) is sharp and has a slight tail at higher field side, whereas the line in the glass and the solid phases is relatively broad and has a tail at lower field side. The line-shape in the liquid state has been explained by the dispersion relation of the longitudinal Josephson plasma mode . On the contrary to this, non-uniform field distribution—interlayer phase difference $`\phi _{n,n+1}`$— over a layer may be generated in the solid and the glass phases, since pancake vortices are localized because of formation of the vortex lines. As a result, $`\phi _{n,n+1}`$ has relatively large inhomogenity over a layer, from which the low field tail and broadening of the line could be explained.

In summary, the vortex lattice melting transition is studied quantitatively in terms of interlayer coherence by the Josephson plasma resonance. The transition becomes weaker at higher temperatures and the jump of the interlayer coherence remarkably diminishes near $`T_c`$. This result suggest that the fluctuations of the vortices even in the vortex solid phase is considerably strong and the melting transition may turn from the first to the second order.

This work is partly supported by the REIMEI Research Resources of Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute.


text:
# Bilayer Quantum Hall Systems: Spin-Pseudospin Symmetry Breaking and Quantum Phase Transitions

## I Introduction

In a seminal paper more than fifteen years ago Halperin pointed out  that if additional (i.e. in addition to the 2D orbital motion) degrees of freedom or quantum numbers (e.g. spin, layer, etc.) are important in quantized Hall systems, then intriguing novel phenomena associated with new quantum phases described by multicomponent (generalized Laughlin) wavefunctions, the so-called Halperin wavefunctions, become theoretically possible. The observation  and the theoretical understanding  of the $`\nu =1/2`$ quantum Hall effect ( where $`\nu `$ indicates the total Landau level filling throughout this paper, rather than the filling factor for each individual layer) was one of the spectacular early confirmations of Halperin’s ideas. During the last decade there has been a great deal of theoretical and experimental work  on multicomponent quantum Hall systems with the primary emphasis on $`\nu =1/2`$ and $`\nu =1`$ bilayer structures (with the layer index serving as a pseudospin variable with $`U(1)`$ symmetry in the absence of interlayer tunneling) although there have also been some interesting developments in single layer composite spin states in higher Landau levels .

Since excellent and extensive reviews of bilayer (spin-polarized) $`\nu =1/2`$ and $`\nu =1`$ quantum Hall physics already exist  in the literature, we focus in this article on the recently discovered  rich and interesting physics associated with the bilayer $`\nu =2`$ quantum Hall systems, where both spin and pseudospin dynamics compete in the quantum Hall phenomena leading to a number of novel magnetic quantum phases (and interesting possible $`T=0`$ quantum phase transitions among them as physical parameters such as interlayer tunneling, Zeeman coupling, interlayer separation, etc. are tuned), some of which seem to have already been experimentally observed .

To introduce the concept of a spin symmetry breaking quantum phase transition in bilayer quantum Hall systems we start from the schematic non-interacting single particle energy level diagram shown in Fig. 1. Consider a bilayer system in an external magnetic field with a total filling factor $`\nu =2`$ (i.e. the average filling in each layer is 1 in the balanced situation under consideration) assuming there is an interlayer tunneling induced symmetric-antisymmetric gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ between the orbital levels and a magnetic field induced Zeeman gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ between the spin up and down levels. We restrict ourselves entirely to the lowest Landau orbital level for the time being, neglecting coupling to all higher orbital Landau levels assuming $`\mathrm{}\omega _c`$ to be very large. Therefore tunneling- and spin-split energy levels are:

$`E_{s\alpha }=s{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_Z}{2}}+\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}}{2}}`$ (1)
where we have ignored the ground state Landau level energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _c/2`$. The spin ($`s`$) and the layer-pseudospin ($`\alpha `$) quantum indices are each discreet and can take only two values $`s=\pm 1`$ (up/down) $`\alpha =1`$ (symmetric/antisymmetric). From now on we use notation $`1`$ and $`2`$ to denote symmetric ($`1`$) and and antisymmetric ($`1`$) states. Equation (1) therefore desribes four possible single particle energy levels (as shown in Fig. 1) with the following energy values $`E_1=\mathrm{\Delta }_Z/2\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}/2`$; $`E_2=\mathrm{\Delta }_Z/2+\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}/2`$; $`E_{+1}=+\mathrm{\Delta }_Z/2\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}/2`$; $`E_{+2}=+\mathrm{\Delta }_Z/2+\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}/2`$ where we use the notation 1(2) and $`(+)`$ to denote the symmetric (antisymmetric) tunneling-split and spin up (down) levels respectively. Each of these four single particle levels has a macroscopic Landau degeneracy associated with the ususal magnetic field induced Landau quantization which is not explcitly shown above. We emphasize that all four levels belong to the lowest orbital Landau level, and higher Landau levels are ignored in our consideration.

For total $`\nu =2`$ only two of these energy levels are occupied ( and the other two empty), as shown in Fig. 1 in the single particle picture. Depending on whether $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z>\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ (or $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}>\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$) the weak (strong) tunneling situation, there is always a single particle excitation gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_g=|\mathrm{\Delta }_Z\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}|`$ at the Fermi level. The $`\nu =2`$ bilayer system is thus always in an incompressible quantized Hall state by virtue of the existence of the single particle excitation gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_g`$. This is in sharp contrast to the corresponding extensively studied  zero tunneling $`\nu =1`$ bilayer system in the fully spin polarized situation where the single particle gap is by definition zero ($`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}=0`$ in the absence of tunneling), and any incompressibility must necessarily arise from interlayer many-body correlation in the pseudospin space. We thus already note two significant differences between $`\nu =2`$ bilayer and ( the better known and well-studied) $`\nu =1`$ bilayer physics. In the $`\nu =2`$ case, the system is always incompressible by virtue of the existence of the non-zero excitation gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_g0`$ whereas in the $`\nu =1`$ zero-tunneling case there is never any single particle tunneling gap, but the $`\nu =1`$ system may be driven incompressible (for suitable values of interlayer separation, etc.) by interlayer coherence effects as in Halperin $`(1,1,1)`$ state - or in related many-body incompressible states ; the other crucial difference between the two is that the interesting coherence and quantum phase transition physics in the $`\nu =1`$ case  arise entirely from the pseudospin correlation effects in the absence of tunneling since the real electron spin is assumed to be completely frozen out by the large Zeeman splitting in the system ( i.e. the electrons are are all completely spin-polarized) whereas the interesting quantum phase transition and symmetry breaking physics  in the $`\nu =2`$ bilayer case arise from the interplay between the spin and pseudospin correlations (with both $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ playing important roles, and the interesting regime is in fact $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}/\mathrm{\Delta }_Z1`$) and the actual symmetry breaking in the $`\nu =2`$ bilayer case  is a peculiar breaking of the real spin symmetry (see Fig. 2) in the $`x`$-$`y`$ plane of the layers (with the magnetic field orientation being along the $`z`$ direction in the usual notation).

Of the four $`E_{s\alpha }`$ single particle states in the lowest Landau level (Fig. 1), arising from spin and pseudospin splitting (Zeeman and tunneling effects respectively), only two are filled with electrons for total $`\nu =2`$. The level $`E_1`$ is always the lowest energy state and is therefore always filled, whereas the level $`E_{+2}`$ is always the highest energy state and is therefore always empty. But the other two levels $`E_2`$ and $`E_{+1}`$ could be filled or empty depending on the relative values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$, and in fact in the single particle model there is a level crossing at $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z=\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ where these two levels ($`E_2`$ and $`E_{+1}`$) are degenerate. Within the single particle picture there will be a trivial first order phase transition in the system at the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z=\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ level crossing point ( as $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ and/or $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ are being varied as tuning parameters) with the system making a transition from a fully spin-polarized ferromagnetic (F) for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z>\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$, with the occupation of both the spin-up $`E_1`$ and $`E_2`$ (symmetric and antisymmetric) levels (with $`E_+`$ levels being completely empty) in the high field (more precisely, the large Zeeman splitting) situation to a fully pseudospin polarized and spin paramagnetic singlet state (S) for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}>\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$, with the occupation of symmetric $`E_1`$ and $`E_{+1}`$ spin up and down levels (with antisymmetric $`E_{\pm 2}`$ levels being completely empty). There is nothing interesting or noteworthy about this trivial $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z=\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ level crossing induced first order phase transition except that it does not happen – inclusion of many-body interaction effects, particularly interlayer correlations, pre-empts the trivial first order transition by introducing a novel spin symmetry breaking  which eliminates the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z=\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ induced level crossing by producing a new symmetry-broken ground state which mixes the two relevant levels $`E_{+1}`$ and $`E_2`$ generating a new ground state with the linear combination $`\alpha |+1+\beta |2`$ (and $`|\alpha |^2+|\beta |^2=1`$). The $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z=\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$-induced level crossing of spin-up/symmetric $`|+1`$ and spin down/antisymmetric $`|2`$ states and the associated first order transition, therefore, does not happen – instead a new purely interaction driven quantum phase, the so-called canted antiferromagnetic (C) phase , is stabilized around the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z=\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ regime of the relevant parameter space in between the F phase ($`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}>>\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$) and the S phase $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}>>\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$. This novel quantum phase diagram, where the phase transitions $`FCS`$ are all continuous, was first predicted on the basis of an unrestricted Hartree-Fock mean-field calculation in ref. , and was then further theoretically extended and confirmed in refs  using a variety of theoretical techniques including the spin-bond approach , more detailed Hartree-Fock calculations , an $`O(3)`$ quantum non-linear sigma model , a Chern-Simons field theory , and a small system direct numerical diagonalization calculation . It is reasonable to state that the basic $`\nu =2`$ bilayer quantum Hall phase diagram with three distinct spin quantum phases (F,C,S) as a function of interlayer tunneling, Zeeman splitting, and interlayer correlation is now well established. The spin orientations in the two layers in the C phase are depicted schematically in Fig. 2.

Our description of the C phase and the associated $`\nu =2`$ bilayer quantum Hall phase diagram has so far utilized the single particle language emphasizing the competition between $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$, and the interaction-induced avoided level crossing at the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z=\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ degeneracy point leading to the spontaneous breaking of bilayer spin symmetry. This is however purely qualitative and is in fact quite simplistic since interaction strongly renormalizes the single particle energy levels in the system. One should interpret the energy levels of Fig. 1 as renormalized (for example, at the Hartree-Fock level) levels, and NOT purely single particle levels, i.e. the parameters $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ should not be taken as the bare parameters, but as the renormalized effective spin and pseudospin splittings, respectively (remembering that the many-body renormalization by Coulomb interaction may be quite large in quantum Hall systems). One implication of this many-body renormalization is that the C phase may in fact extend all the way down to $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}^2`$ instead of being around $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ as the simple level crossing qualitative argument above suggests. Another feature of the many-body nature of the phenomena manifests itself in the fact that the quantum phase transitions among the F,C, and S phases may be induced by tuning the interlayer separation d (instead of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ or $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ as discussed above) which automatically continuously renormalizes the energy levels producing the symmetry breaking. Thus, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ in the above discussion are not the bare single particle parameters, but are renormalized effective parameters of the system, which could, in principle, be very different from the bare parameters.

The spin symmetry breaking associated with the existence of the novel C phase (not present in the noninteracting theory) leads to interesting collective mode behavior  as one would expect for a continuous quantum phase transition. First, the lower $`S=1`$ spin density excitation, the $`\omega _{}`$ mode associated with the collective transition between $`E_2`$ and $`E_{+1}`$, becomes soft with its long wavelength spin gap vanishing at the boundaries between the C phase and the F or S phase. This theoretically predicted long wavelength softening of the appropriate spin density excitaion has been experimentally observed  via the inelastic light scattering spectroscopy, confirming the existence of the C phase. The second interesting collective mode behavior is the existence of a Goldstone mode in the C phase with a linear energy-wavevector dispersion in the long wavelength limit which arises from the spontaneous breaking of the symmetry of spin rotations in the $`XY`$ plane in the CAF phase. This Goldstone mode, which exists only in the CAF phase, has not yet been experimentally observed perhaps because of the fact that the specific selection rules operating in the resonant Raman scattering experiments produces little spectral weight in the Goldstone mode making it unobservable in the usual inelastic light scattering spectroscopy . The issue of the observation of the Goldstone mode, which is a characteristic of the CAF-phase, is an important open question in the subject. It has been argued theoretically  that disorder may modify the sharp Goldstone mode to a broad peak.

We close this introduction with a brief discussion of the nature of the canted antiferromagnetic phase and the associated symmetry breaking leading to it. In the absence of Zeeman splitting the spin symmetry of the problem is $`SU(2)`$ whereas the pseudospin/layer index has only a $`U(1)`$ symmetry in the absence of tunneling (the interlayer interaction is explicitly different from the interlayer interaction, the zero tunneling pseudospin symmetry becomes $`SU(2)`$ only in the limit of zero interlayer separation when the the intralayer and interlayer Coulomb interaction matrix elements are trivially equal). In the presence of tunneling, however, the $`U(1)`$ pseudospin symmetry is explicitly broken, and the only $`SU(2)`$ spin symmetry of the problem matters. The presence of the external magnetic field along the $`z`$ direction in the quantum Hall problem now converts the whole problem to that of an $`XY`$ quantum spin model. This $`XY`$ spin symmetry is spontaneously broken in the C-phase as the electron spin chooses a particular orientation in the $`XY`$ plane ( opposite or antiferromagnetic in the two layers), making the total spin in each layer to be canted (in opposite directions) at some angle to the $`z`$ axis (Fig. 2). The physical reason for this canting is simple: In the presence of finite tunneling the spontaneous symmetry breaking induced (antiferromagnetic) spin canting allows the $`\nu =2`$ bilayer system to lower its total energy with respect to the normal F and S phases by exploiting the superexchange or virtual exchange mechanism – the effect is akin to (but more complex than) the conversion of a Hubbard type model to the $`t`$-$`J`$ model with $`J=4t^2/U`$, and the $`J`$ term allows energy reduction via superexchange. The physical mechanism underlying the spontaneous symmetry breaking leading to the C phase is so transparent that one expects it to occur at the bilayer filling factors $`\nu =2/m`$, where $`m`$ is an odd integer, provided there is finite interlayer tunneling (and interlayer separation is neither too large nor too small). The reason for this expectation is that for $`m`$ an odd integer, the $`\nu =2/m`$ bilayer system supports two incompressible Laughlin states in each layer (when the layer separation is large) which should exploit the superexchange mechanism to lower its energy by creating the intermediate C-phase for intermediate values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ and layer separation. More detailed considerations based on the Chern-Simons theory indicate that  C phases may exist even for general bilayer filling factors not satisfying $`\nu =2/m`$ constraint.

The rest of this review is organized as follows: in section II we briefly describe the Hartree-Fock  and the spin bond mean field theories for the C-phase symmetry breaking; in section III we consider effects of disorder which, we argue theoretically , should give rise to Bose spin glass phase in the quantum phase diagram – there is a recent experimental claim of observing  the predicted  Bose glass phase in $`\nu =2`$ bilayer transport experiments; in section IV we discuss microscopic wavefunctions for the CAF phase and the corresponding Chern-Simons field theory developed in ref ; in section V we conclude with a discussion of open issues and questions and related theoretical developments as well as a brief description of the experimental efforts in this problem .

## II Mean Field Hartree-Fock and Spin Bond Theories

The Hartree-Fock calculations for the CAF phase in $`\nu =2`$ bilayer quantum Hall systems follow the usual approach of the mean field theories. One starts with the Coulomb interaction Hamiltonian

$`_c`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma _1\sigma _2}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu _1\mu _2\mu _3\mu _4}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha _1\alpha _2}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐪}{}}V_{\mu _1\mu _2\mu _3\mu _4}(𝐪)e^{q^2l_0^2/2}`$ (2)
$`\times `$ $`e^{iq_x(\alpha _1\alpha _2)l_0^2}C_{\alpha _1+q_y\mu _1\sigma _1}^{}C_{\alpha _2\mu _2\sigma _2}^{}C_{\alpha _2+q_y\mu _3\sigma _2}C_{\alpha _1\mu _4\sigma _1}`$ (3)
where $`C_{\alpha \mu \sigma }^{}`$ creates an electron in the lowest Landau level with the intra-Landau index $`\alpha `$, pseudospin $`\mu `$, and spin $`\sigma `$; and $`V_{\mu _1\mu _2\mu _3\mu _4}`$ are the intralayer and interlayer Coulomb interaction potentials (see  for details). Mean field approximation to a many-body problem is achieved by performing Hartree-Fock pairing through the expectation values $`C_{\mu _1\sigma _1}^{}C_{\mu _2\sigma _2}`$, which should be found self-consistently. It is natural to assume expectation values of the fields that come into the non-interacting part of the Hamiltonian $`C_{\mu \sigma }^{}C_{\mu \sigma }`$. Such terms generate effective tunneling and Zeeman splitting that strongly renormalize the bare parameters present in the non-interacting part of the Hamiltonian. They provide the Hund’s rule tendency of quantum Hall systems: by generating large effective Zeeman or tunneling splitting all the electrons will be polarized in the spin or pseudospin sectors in phases F and S respectively. What is more surprising is that one also finds a non-trivial self-consistent solution for the fields $`C_{1+}^{}C_2`$ and its conjugate. This field breaks explicitly the $`S^z`$ spin symmetry of the original Hamiltonian (3) and provides mixing between the states $`E_2`$ and $`E_{+1}`$. The existence of such non-trivial expectation values substantiates the statment of the existence of spontaneously broken spin symmetry in the CAF phase. By going back to the basis of layer indices for the single electron states (from the basis of symmetric/antisymmetric states) one can show that $`C_{1+}^{}C_2`$ describes the appearance of the spin expectation values that lie in the $`XY`$ plane and are opposite in the two layers, i.e. a canted spin phase.

An apparent disadvantage of the Hartree-Fock approach is that it does not allow a consistent treatment of the quantum fluctuations of the Neel order parameter, so it overestimates the region of stability of the CAF phase and does not allow to address any of the interesting critical phenomena that take place in the vicinity of the transition lines. Non-linear sigma model introduced in  is a way to address both of these issues in a simple field theoretical approach. The two ingredients that come into this theory are: two well separated layers form fully polarized ferromagnets with a gap towards charge excitaions and the primary coupling between the layers is antiferromagnetic exchange. The disadvantage of the non-linear sigma model is that it treats the interlayer tunneling perturbatively and by concentrating on the spin it does not provide an equivalent treatment of the pseudospin degrees of freedom. So, for example, understanding the effects of an external gate voltage would be extremely difficult within this formalism. A spin bond approach suggested in  extends the non-linear sigma model by first treating non-perturbatively the inter-layer Coulomb interactions, interlayer tunneling, and the gate voltage to find the nature of the spin triplet and spin singlet states that provide the basis for the effective description of the system. In a nutshell the spin bond approach may be summarized as follows. Two electrons with the same intra-Landau level index but from the opposite layers may be combined into a spin singlet or spin triplet electron pairs. These combinations are then treated as hard core bosons, with the interaction between the two kinds of bosons coming from in-plane ferromagnetic exchange. When only the singlet or the triplet pairs are present in the ground state one finds the S and the F phases respectively, and when the two bosons are condensed simultaneously we find the CAF phase. There is a simple connection between the Hartree-Fock and the spin bond formalisms. In fact, if one considers a set of states that have the same expectation values as we discussed earlier, but allows these expectation values to be non-uniform, the energy functional for these states will coincide with the continuous limit of the spin-bond model. Reasonable quantitative agreement between the spin-bond model and the Hartree-Fock calculations has been demonstrated in , but computationally the first is significantly simpler.

The phase diagram obtained from the spin-bond model for the case when the distance between the layers is equal to the magnetic length $`l_0`$ is shown for three values of the external gate voltage in Fig. 3. One can see that for large values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$, the many body corrections to the effective tunneling and Zeeman energies are small and we find that the CAF phase is centered around $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}=\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ line as discussed earlier. However when $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$ are small, there are significant deviations from this line caused by Coulomb interactions. Spin-bond model or Hartree-Fock approaches allow one to calculate several experimentally testable properties of the CAF phase. Among them is the amplitude of the antiferromagnetic order parameter $`|𝐍|`$ that appears continuously on the phase boundaries between the C and S or F phases and reaches its maximum in the midddle of the C phase . From $`|𝐍|`$ one can calculate the Goldstone mode velocity as well as find an estimate for the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature. Another important probe of the CAF phase that has been discussed in refs  comes from applying a bias voltage ($`V_+`$) between the two layers. As shown in Fig. 3 the main effect of the charge imbalance between the layers is to shift the phase boundaries without altering their shape, so for example when $`V_+`$ is finite one can find C and S phase even when $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ is zero. In the context of bilayer $`\nu =1`$ quantum Hall states a considerable emphasis has been given to the concept of the interlayer coherent states . We emphasize that the concept of spontaneous interlayer coherence is only applicable when there is no tunneling between the layers. So, at $`\nu =2`$ only when $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$ is identically zero and there is finite bias voltage one can identify the CAF phase as interlayer coherent, qualitatively similar to the pseudospin coherent $`(1,1,1)`$ Halperin state for the $`\nu =1`$ bilayer system .

## III Disorder Effects

Another obvious advantage of the spin bond model is that it gives a simple framework to understand the effects of disorder on the C phase . Fluctuations in the distance between the wells or the presence of impurities give rise to random fluctuations in the energy of singlet and triplet bosons, and will stabilize the phase that may be visualized as consisting of domains of S, F, and CAF phases. By appealling to a similarity between this problem and a problem of charged bosons hopping in a random chemical potential this phase was identified as a spin Bose glass phase . From the same analogy important conclusions may be drawn about the properties of this novel phase. Triplet and singlet bosons are localized, so there is no broken spin symmetry, however, there is infinite antiferromagnetic susceptibility, analogous to infinite superfluid susceptibilty of the charge Bose glass. Goldstone peaks, that were the dominant feature of the spin response function in the CAF phase, are replaced by finite longitudinal susceptibility at small frequencies. This spin Bose glass phase has a finite density of low energy excitations which provides another way to experimentally distinguish it. Finally the existence of the spin Bose glass phase separating the S, F, and CAF phases has important consequences in that it changes the critical exponents to those of the superconductor-insulator transition in the dirty boson system studied in . It is worth pointing out that the spin Bose glass system may be a better experimental realization of a 2D superconductor-insulator transition in a boson system than the conventionally used 2D superconducting films in that it is free of long range forces and low energy fermionic excitations, and therefore allows one to vary the density of bosons by varying the magnetic field.

## IV Halperin Wavefunction and the Chern-Simons Field Theory

Another important perspective on the nature of the C phase comes from considering its microscopic (Halperin) wavefunction. Here again analogy with the spinless electron in a bilayer system at $`\nu =1`$ (or $`\nu =1/m`$ in general) is very useful. In the latter case Wen and Zee  discussed that the origin of the interlayer coherent wavefunction at this filling factor lies in the remarkable property of the Halperin $`(m,m,m)`$ wavefunctions (neglecting electron spin) to fix the total filling factor but not the individual filling factor in each layer. This allows a construction of interlayer coherent states, i.e. the states that are a superposition of states with different numbers of particles in each layer but fixed total number of particles. Such states break spontaneously the $`U(1)`$ symmetry of the problem that in the absence of interlayer tunneling the number of electrons in each layer is a good quantum number, and that the system should have a specific number of electrons in each layer. For spinful electrons in bilayer quantum Hall systems the analogous Halperin-type construction leads naturally to a C phase . In fact imagine making an analogue of the $`(m,m,m)`$ wavefunction of the $`E_2`$ and $`E_{+1}`$ states. In this case one is mixing states that have different $`S^z`$ components of the spin and therefore creates a state that is not an irreducible represenatation of the $`S^z`$ operator. This corresponds to spontaneously breaking the $`S^z`$ symmetry of the system. From this reasoning one can also argue that the general fractional filling factor for which the CAF phase is possible is given by

$`\nu ={\displaystyle \frac{n+m2l}{nml^2}}`$ (4)
where $`n`$ and $`m`$ are odd integers and $`l`$ is an arbitrary integer. This formula trivially includes the $`\nu =2/m`$ originally suggested in . The idea of the Halperin wavefunctions for the CAF phase can be extended to a full bosonic Chern-Simons theory that provides a unified picture of the gapless charge neutral Goldstone mode and charged excitations in the system . The key ingredient of this approach is to represent the electrons as bosons with attached fluxe tubes and then describe the quantum Hall state as a state where the bosons have condensed. The main result that comes out of such calculation is that in the CAF phase the system has non-trivial topological vortex-like spin excitations, merons, that have a Neel order parameter winding by $`2\pi `$ on the periphery with S or F phases inside the meron core, and that these excitations carry an electric charge. The amount of charge carried by each meron depends on the exact position inside the quantum phase diagram, but the two merons with S and F cores always add up to a charge of one quasiparticle (i.e. $`1`$ for the $`\nu =2`$ case). This provides another demonstartion of the remarkable property of quantum Hall systems to mix charge and spin degrees of freedom . Full experimental implications of the theory developed in  have not yet been worked out.

## V Conclusions

We have provided a brief qualitative review of recent developments in our understanding of the rich quantum phase diagram of bilayer quantum Hall systems at the total filling factor of $`\nu =2`$ or more generally $`\nu =2/m`$ where $`m`$ is an odd integer. Similar considerations should also apply to bilayer systems with $`\nu =2m`$, where $`m`$ is odd, but Landau level coupling neglected here may be a significant issue for $`\nu =6`$, $`10`$. Interplay among interlayer tunneling, Zeeman spin splitting, intra- and inter-layer Coulomb interactions could produce novel spin symmetry breaking in the system, leading to a new class of magnetic ground states, the canted antiferromagnetic phase, nestled between the more usual spin-polarized ferromagnetic and symmetric (singlet) paramagnetic phases. The presence of disorder leads to interesting Bose glass regimes within the canted phase. The spontaneous spin $`XY`$ symmetry breaking giving rise to the canted phase also produces softening of the appropriate collective spin density excitations in the F and S phases, which have presumably been experimentally observed  via the resonant Raman scattering spectroscopy. There have also been several reports of indirect observation of the canted and the Bose glass phase in transport experiments . There are collective linearly dispersing Goldstone modes in the CAF phase which have not yet been experimentally observed – it has been argued  that the spectral weight carried by the Goldstone mode will be broadened into a weak broad peak in the Bose glass phase, which in fact is consistent with experimental light scattering measurements Further work along this line is necessary.

In addition to the $`T=0`$ quantum phase transitions among the F, C, and S magnetic phases, there should be a finite temperature classical Kosterlitz-Thouless type phase transitions  within the CAF phase as the temperature is increased, and the usual vortex unbinding disordering transition of the $`XY`$ model takes place. The critical temperature for this Kosterlitz-Thouless type transition has been estimated  to be around 1K, and there is some experimental evidence in its support .

From a theoretical perspective the existence of the predicted canted phase and the associated continuous quantum phase transitions in bilayer quantum Hall systems is now well established. The original prediction  based on an unrestricted Hartree-Fock mean field theory has been well-confirmed and substantiated in subsequent theoretical analysis using O(3) nonlinear sigma model , spin bond theories , more detailed Hartree-Fock calculations , and most importantly, through the construction of explicit wavefunctions for the symmetry-broken phases associated with a Chern-Simons theory  and a direct diagonalization exact numerical calculations . The direct diagonalization calculations  eliminates any lingering questions one may have about the existence of the C phase being an artifact of mean-field theories. The quantum phase diagram obtained in the exact diagonalization calculation in ref.  is essentially identical to that obtained  by the spin bond approach with the original Hartree-Fock theory  giving phase diagrams which are qualitatively identical except for the fact that the S phase is overemphasized in Hartree-Fock theories.

The experimental situation is somewhat less definitive although the inelastic light scattering experiments  convincingly demonstrate the mode softening and the quantum phase transition (and possibly even the classical Kosterlitz-Thouless transition) predicted  to occur in $`\nu =2`$ bilayer quantum Hall systems. In addition, transport measurements of quantum Hall activation energies provide strong circumstantial evidence  for the existence of the canted phase. More detiled transport measurements on samples spanning wider regimes of parameter space (i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SAS}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_Z`$, $`d`$, etc.) would certainly be helpful in elucidating the complete quantum phase diagram. In principle, definitive experimental evidence confirming the canted phase could come from careful spin polarization and NMR measurements as suggested in ref. , but such magnetic moment measurements are extremely difficult in two dimensional semiconductor systems because of weak signal and background problems.

Finally we mention that there have been a number of related theoretical developments  in the field motivated by the prediction of the canted phase . These theoretical developments explore several interesting features such as generalizing the C phase concept to multilayer superlattice  and to double quantum dot  structures as well as other topics in collective modes , the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature , and the field theory  of the problem. A very recent preprint  considers the effects of spontaneous symmetry breaking in bilayer quantum Hall systems on the edge states.

We also point out that mean field calculations  suggest the possibility of an exchange-correlation-driven intersubband-spin-density-softening-induced ground state antiferromagnetic instability even for zero magnetic filelds in low density two-subband (bilayer or monolayer) two-dimensional electron systems, however, Raman scattering measurements indicate  no such zero field transitions for currently accessible 2D densities.

We acknowledge US-ONR (S.D.S) and Harvard Society of Fellows (E.D) for support.