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# Landau and Dynamical Instabilities of the Superflow of Bose-Einstein Condensates in Optical Lattices

## Abstract

The superfluidity of Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices are investigated. Apart from the usual Landau instability which occurs when a BEC flows faster than the speed of sound, the BEC can also suffer a dynamical instability, resulting in period doubling and other sorts of symmetry breaking of the system. Such an instability may play a crucial role in the dissipative motion of a trapped BEC in an optical lattice recently observed Burger .

Optical lattices have long been used to manipulate ultra-cold atoms, with applications ranging from beam splitters Gould , accelerators Raizen ; Dahan  to lithography Timp . There are now growing interests in replacing the cold atoms with Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of alkali atoms Kasevich ; Kozuma ; Klaus  to explore the effects of coherence, atomic interaction, and superfluidity, with important applications in atom lasers Mewes  and high-precision interferometry Carusotto .

In this Letter, we investigate the superfluidity and instabilities of BECs in optical lattices. In free space, the superflow of a uniform BEC is represented by a plane wave, which has Landau instability when it travels faster than the sound. In an optical lattice, the natural objects of concern are the BEC Bloch waves, whose amplitudes are modulated with the same periodicity as the lattice. In the central region of the Brillouin zone of the lowest band, they are found to be local energy minima against all sorts of perturbations and thus represent the superflows of the BEC in optical lattices. For sufficiently strong repulsive interactions between the atoms, the superfluidity region can extend over the entire Brillouin zone; but for weaker interaction, Landau instability can occur in the outer regions of the zone. Many of the Bloch states with Landau instability can even be dynamically unstable in that small initial disturbances around them grow exponentially in time, resulting in period doubling and other forms of spontaneous breaking of the periodicity of the system. This dynamical instability is unique to BEC Bloch waves and not present in BEC plane waves in free space. We map out the dangerous zones of the dynamical instability, characterize the growth rates, and discuss the experimental consequences.

We consider the situation of a one dimensional optical lattice in which the motion in the perpendicular directions are confined Burger  or can be disregarded Klaus . We treat the atomic interaction with the mean field theory, and obtain the grand canonical Hamiltonian

$$H=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}dx\{\varphi ^{}(\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2}{x^2}+v\mathrm{cos}x)\varphi +\frac{c}{2}|\varphi |^4\mu |\varphi |^2\},$$
(1)
where all the variables are scaled to be dimensionless by the system’s basic parameters, the atomic mass $`m`$, the wave number $`k_L`$ of the two laser lights that generate the optical lattice, and the average density $`n_0`$ of the BEC. The chemical potential $`\mu `$ and the strength of the periodic potential $`v`$ are in units of $`\frac{4\mathrm{}^2k_L^2}{m}`$, the wave function $`\varphi `$ in units of $`\sqrt{n_0}`$, $`x`$ in units of $`\frac{1}{2k_L}`$, and $`t`$ in units of $`\frac{m}{4\mathrm{}k_L^2}`$. The coupling constant $`c=\frac{\pi n_0a_s}{k_L^2}`$, where $`a_s>0`$ is the $`s`$-wave scattering length.

Hamiltonian (1) is extremized by states in the form of Bloch waves, $`\varphi _k(x)=e^{ikx}\phi _k(x)`$, where $`\phi _k(x)`$ is of the period of the optical lattice and can be expanded as a Fourier series. To find the numerical solution of a Bloch state in the lowest band, $`\phi _k(x)`$, we truncate the series up to $`N`$th term $`\phi _k(x)=_N^Na_me^{imx}`$ (we used $`N=10`$). The numerical solution is obtained by varying $`\{a_m\}`$ so that the wave function $`\phi _k(x)`$ minimizes the system’s total energy. The accuracy is checked by substituting the solutions into the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, $`\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2}{x^2}\varphi +v\mathrm{cos}x\varphi +c|\varphi |^2\varphi =\mu \varphi ,`$ which is obtained by the variation of Hamiltonian (1).

To determine the superfluidity of these Bloch states, we need to find out if they remain energy minima against perturbations which break the periodicity. These perturbations can be decomposed into different modes labeled by $`q`$,

$$\delta \phi _k(x,q)=u_k(x,q)e^{iqx}+v_k^{}(x,q)e^{iqx},$$
(2)
where $`q`$ ranges between $`1/2`$ and $`1/2`$ and the perturbation functions $`u_k`$ and $`v_k`$ are of periodicity of $`2\pi `$ in $`x`$. Since the system is periodic, the quadratic form of the energy deviation from the Bloch state $`\varphi _k`$ is block diagonal in $`q`$, with each block given by

$$\delta E_k=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}dx\left(\begin{array}{c}u_k^{},v_k^{}\end{array}\right)M_k(q)\left(\begin{array}{c}u_k\\ v_k\end{array}\right),$$
(3)
where

$$M_k(q)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}(k+q)& c\phi _k^2\\ c\phi _k^2& (k+q)\end{array}\right),$$
(4)
with

$$(k)=\frac{1}{2}(\frac{}{x}+ik)^2+v\mathrm{cos}x\mu +2c|\phi _k|^2.$$
(5)
If $`M_k(q)`$ is positive definite for all $`1/2q1/2`$, the Bloch wave $`\varphi _k`$ is a local minimum. Otherwise, $`\delta E_k`$ can be negative for some $`q`$, and the Bloch wave is a saddle point.

We first consider the special case $`v=0`$, BEC in free space, where the Bloch state $`\varphi _k`$ becomes a plane wave $`e^{ikx}`$. The operator $`M_k(q)`$ becomes a $`2\times 2`$ matrix

$$M_k(q)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}q^2/2+kq+c& c\\ c& q^2/2kq+c\end{array}\right)$$
(6)
whose eigenvalues are found easily as

$$\lambda _\pm =\frac{q^2}{2}+c\pm \sqrt{k^2q^2+c^2}.$$
(7)
Since $`\lambda _+`$ is always positive, $`M_k(q)`$ fails to be positive definite only when $`\lambda _{}0`$, or equivalently, $`|k|\sqrt{q^2/4+c}`$. It immediately follows that the BEC flow $`e^{ikx}`$ becomes a saddle point when the flow speed exceeds the sound speed, $`|k|>\sqrt{c}`$. This is exactly the Landau condition for the breakdown of superfluidity Lifshitz , which has recently been confirmed experimentally on BEC Raman .

The stability phase diagrams for BEC Bloch waves are shown in the panels of Fig.1, where different values of $`v`$ and $`c`$ are considered. The results have reflection symmetry in $`k`$ and $`q`$, so we only show the parameter region, $`0k1/2`$ and $`0q1/2`$. In the shaded area (light or dark) of each panel, the matrix $`M_k(q)`$ has negative eigenvalues, and the corresponding Bloch states $`\varphi _k`$ are saddle points and have Landau instability. For those values of $`k`$ outside the shaded area, the Bloch states are local energy minima and represent super-flows. The super-flow region expands with increasing atomic interaction $`c`$, and occupies the entire Brillouin zone for sufficiently large $`c`$. On the other hand, the lattice potential strength $`v`$ does not affect the super-flow region very much as we see in each row. The phase boundaries for $`v1`$ are well reproduced from the analytical expression $`k=\sqrt{q^2/4+c}`$ for $`v=0`$, which is plotted as triangles in the first column.

A saddle-point Bloch state $`\varphi _k`$ can still be dynamically stable in that small deviations from it remain small in the course of time evolution if no external persistent perturbations are present. This is the case for all Bloch states either in the absence of atomic interactions or periodic potentials. When both factors are present, many of the saddle-point Bloch-states become dynamically unstable against certain perturbation modes $`q`$, shown as the dark-shaded regions in Fig. 1. These results are obtained from the linear stability analysis of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation Gross ,

$$i\frac{}{t}\varphi =\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2\varphi }{x^2}+v\mathrm{cos}x\varphi +c|\varphi |^2\varphi ,$$
(8)
which governs the dynamics of the system. A Bloch state $`\varphi _k`$ is a stationary solution of this equation, depending on time only through the phase factor $`e^{i\mu t}`$. Writing the deviation in the similar form of Eq.(2), and expanding the above equation to first order, we find

$$i\frac{}{t}\left(\begin{array}{c}u_k\\ v_k\end{array}\right)=\sigma M_k(q)\left(\begin{array}{c}u_k\\ v_k\end{array}\right),\sigma =\left(\begin{array}{cc}I& 0\\ 0& I\end{array}\right).$$
(9)
The dynamical stability of the Bloch state $`\varphi _k`$ is determined by the eigenvalues $`\epsilon _k(q)`$ of the matrix $`\sigma M_k(q)`$. If they are real for all $`1/2q1/2`$, the state is dynamically stable; otherwise it is dynamically unstable.

Before discussing our detailed results on the dynamical instability, we pause here to make some general remarks. (i) When all the eigenvalues $`\epsilon _k(q)`$ are real, the motions around the Bloch state $`\varphi _k`$ are oscillations, which can be quantized to yield the phonon excitations Lifshitz ; Fetter . The traditional Bogoliubov approach yields the same matrix, $`\sigma M_k(q)`$, for the phonon spectrum. However, the bosonic commutation relation for the phonon operators imposes the skewed normalization condition $`X^{}\sigma X=1`$, which selects only half of all the modes. The other half, satisfying $`X^{}\sigma X=1`$, will be called antiphonon modes for ease of reference, but they really do not represent physical degrees of freedom independent of the phonons. (ii) When the Bloch state is a local minimum ($`M_k(q)`$ positive definite), the dynamical eigenvalues $`\epsilon _k(q)`$ of $`\sigma M_k(q)`$ are all real and the phonon branch of the spectrum is positive. The key to the proof is to notice that

$$\epsilon _k(q)X^{}\sigma X=X^{}M_k(q)X$$
(10)
for an eigenvector $`X`$ of $`\sigma M_k(q)`$. Because the right hand side is positive and $`X^{}\sigma X`$ is real, $`\epsilon _k(q)`$ is real and has the same sign as $`X^{}\sigma X`$. The physical meaning of this theorem is that, when it is a local minimum, the Bloch state $`\varphi _k`$ is dynamically stable and its phonon excitations are not energetically favored. (iii) Because the matrix $`\sigma M_k(q)`$ is non-hermitian and real (when expressed in the momentum representation), complex eigenvalues can only appear in conjugate pairs, corresponding to modes growing or decaying exponentially at rates given by the imaginary part of the eigenvalues. Because both the quadratic forms in Eq.(10) are real, they must vanish when $`\epsilon _k(q)`$ is complex. It is then impossible to enforce the normalization condition $`X^{}\sigma X=1`$, corresponding to the fact that such modes cannot be quantized.

We now present our detailed results on the dynamical stability. Again, we first look at the case $`v=0`$, where the eigenvalues of $`\sigma M_k(q)`$ are

$$\epsilon _\pm (q)=kq\pm \sqrt{q^2c+q^4/4}.$$
(11)
These eigenvalues are always real; the BEC flows in free space are always dynamically stable. When $`v0`$, the situation is totally different: the eigenvalues $`\epsilon _k(q)`$ of $`\sigma M_k(q)`$ can be complex and Bloch states can be dynamically unstable. The dark-shaded areas in Fig. 1 are the places where these $`\epsilon _k(q)`$ are complex.

In the first column of Fig. 1, where $`v1`$, the dark-shaded areas are like broadened curves. These curves are the solutions of $`\epsilon _+(q1)=\epsilon _{}(q)`$,

$$k=\sqrt{q^2c+q^4/4}+\sqrt{(q1)^2c+(q1)^4/4},$$
(12)
which are plotted as solid dots in Fig. 1. This is the resonant condition for a phonon mode to couple with an antiphonon mode by first order Bragg scattering. The resonance is necessary because the complex eigenvalues can appear only in pairs, and they must come from a pair of real degenerated eigenvalues. Resonances within the phonon spectrum or within the antiphonon spectrum do not give rise to dynamical instability; they only generate gaps in the spectra. Somehow, in order to produce a mode with zero normalization, one must couple a pair of modes with opposite normalizations.

In the first row of Fig. 1, we have another extreme case $`cv`$. The open circles along the left edges of these two dark-shaded areas are given by

$$E_1(k+q)E_1(k)=E_1(k)E_1(kq)$$
(13)
where $`E_1(k)`$ is the lowest Bloch band of $`H_0=\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2}{x^2}+v\mathrm{cos}x`$. When $`c=0`$, this periodic system is linear; the excitation spectrum just corresponds to transitions from the the condensate of energy $`E_1(k)`$ to other Bloch states of energy $`E_n(k+q)`$, or vise versa. The above equation is just the resonant condition between such excitations in the lowest band ($`n=1`$). Alternatively, this condition may be viewed as the energy and momentum conservation for two particles in the condensate to interact and decay into two different Bloch states $`E_1(k+q)`$ and $`E_1(kq)`$.

One common feature of all the diagrams in Fig. 1 is that there is a critical Bloch wave number $`k_d`$ beyond which the Bloch states $`\varphi _k`$ are dynamically unstable. The onset instability at $`k_d`$ always corresponds to $`q=1/2`$. In other words, if we drive the Bloch state $`\varphi _k`$ from $`k=0`$ to $`k=1/2`$ the first unstable mode appearing is always $`q=\pm 1/2`$, which represents period doubling. Only for $`kk_d`$ can longer wavelength instabilities occur. The growth of these unstable modes drives the system far away from the Bloch state and spontaneously breaks the translation symmetry of the system. The critical value of the Bloch wave number for the case of $`v1`$ is found to be $`k_d=(c+1/16)^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ by substituting $`q=\frac{1}{2}`$ into Eq.(12). In the other extreme case, $`cv`$, the same substitution in Eq.(13) yields $`k_d=1/4`$ with the help of periodicity of the band energy. Based on these results and the diagrams in Fig. 1, we find that $`k_d\frac{1}{4}`$.

The dynamical instability discovered in this work should be observable in experiments. We have mapped out the dangerous zones of dynamical instability, which give us a good sense of where to look for unstable Bloch states and modes of instability. In Fig. 2, the rate of growth $`r`$ for the most prominent mode (dashed lines in Fig. 1) of each Bloch state $`k`$ is plotted in Fig. 2. The physical unit of the growth rate is $`\frac{4\mathrm{}k_L^2}{m}`$, which is 4.0 per microsecond for sodium and 0.16 per microsecond for rubidium. Since the lifetime of BECs can be up to the order of seconds Kurn , these growth rates in Fig. 2 are significant. It is possible to directly observe the change of periodicity of the BEC due to the dynamical instability by monitoring the Bragg scattering of a probing laser light by the BEC cloud Phillips . This dynamical instability can also cause the disruption of Bloch oscillations Wu .

In a recent experiment, the superfluidity and instabilities of a BEC in an optical lattice was studied using a cigar-shaped (one dimensional) magnetic trap Burger . After the BEC was prepared in the trap in the presence of the optical lattice, the trap was suddenly shifted by $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ along the longitudinal direction. This is equivalent to displacing the whole BEC off the center of the harmonic trap then releasing it. The subsequent oscillations of the BEC are non-damped if the initial displacement is small, but become dissipative if $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ is over a critical value $`\mathrm{\Delta }x_c`$. This qualitatively agrees with our stability diagrams, because larger $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ implies larger velocity and therefore larger $`k`$. The dissipative behavior was explained as a manifestation of the Landau instability, but the dynamical instability discussed here is likely to play a crucial role in our view. First, the experiment has $`v0.2`$ and $`c0.02`$, where the dynamical instability is rampant according to Fig.2. Second, $`\mathrm{\Delta }x_c`$ increases with decreasing lattice potential $`v`$, which is in accordance with the trend of the growth rate as a function of $`v`$ and $`k`$ shown in the figure. Third, there is no dissipation when the BEC density is low, where Landau instability should be very strong but dynamical instability be very weak according to our Fig.1. However, more detailed analyses are needed to take into account of the effects of inhomogeneity and thermal cloud before a quantitative comparison with the experiment.

We are grateful for helpful discussions with Mark Raizen and Roberto Diener, and supports by the NSF, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, and the NSF of China.


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# QUANTIZED FRACTAL SPACE TIME AND STOCHASTIC HOLISM

## Abstract

The space time that is used in relativistic Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory is the Minkowski space time. Yet, as pointed out by several scholars this classical space time is incompatible with the Heisenberg Uncertainity Principle: We cannot go down to arbitrarily small space time intervals, let alone space time points. Infact this classical space time is at best an approximation, and this has been criticised by several scholars. We investigate, what exactly this approximation entails.

00footnotetext: E-mail:birlasc@hd1.vsnl.net.in

Over the past several decades, time has been studied by several scholars from different perspectives-. As pointed out in Chapter 3, Newtonian space time was purely geometrical, as compared to Einstein’s physical study of it, whether it be the Minkowski space time of Special Relativity or the Riemannian space time of General Relativity. In almost all these studies, as also in Quantum Field Theory, we still speak of space time points and deal with rigid scales even though the Quantum Mechanical Uncertainty Principle contradicts these notions as discussed in preceding Chapters like Chapters 2, 3 and 6.
In the preceding Chapters we have highlighted these shortcomings and have referred to the concept of discrete space time. There is a nuance, though. Discrete space time could still be thought of in the context of rigid minimum units, for example the Planck length, or more generally the Compton wavelength of the most massive elementary particle.
However, as highlighted in Chapter 6 we have considered the Compton wavelength, firstly without restricting it to the most massive particle, and secondly in the context of a stochastic underpinning: We were lead to Quantized Fractal Space Time (QFST).
Using QFST, we then saw in Chapter 6 that

$$(\stackrel{}{x},t)(\stackrel{}{x},t)\gamma $$
(1)
where the $`\gamma `$’s are matrices. However the constraints imposed by the commutation relations

$$[y,z]=(ıa^2/\mathrm{})L_{x,}[t,y]=(ıa^2/\mathrm{}c)M_{y,}$$

$$[x,p_y]=[y,p_x]=ı\mathrm{}(a/\mathrm{})^2p_xp_y;$$

require the $`\gamma `$’s to be atleast, $`4\times 4`$ Dirac matrices. At the same time these commutation relations underlie the double connectivity or spin half, which is closely connected with non-commutativity, as we saw (Cf. also ref.). From equation (1) it would appear that there are extra dimensions - indeed we encountered this in the previous Chapter. As pointed out, the situation is similar to that in Quantum Superstrings. These extra dimensions are curled up or supressed, in the unphysical Compton region. In the Kaluza-Klein theory, on the other hand, the curling up takes place within the Planck length. Still, we could reconcile the two.
We also saw in Chapter 6 that the double Weiner process within the Compton scale gives rise to Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, and indeed time itself, through the equation

$$xx+ıx^{}\text{where}x^{}=ct$$

and the complex velocity potential $`VıU`$. (We also saw in Chapter 3 that the so called non-relativistic Quantum Theory is not really Galilean invariant, as a true non-relativistic theory should be. This is borne out by the Sagnac effect .)
On the other hand if there were no double Weiner process (or zitterbewegung), then the diffusion constant $`\nu `$ would vanish and there would be neither Special Relativity nor Quantum Mechanics (nor time!). This would also amount to the disappearance of the quantized vortices in the hydrodynamical formulation seen in Chapter 3.
These situations expose the mismatch of the classical ideas of space time and Quantum Theory. Indeed as Wheeler put it , ”No prediction of space time, therefore no meaning for space time is the verdict of the Quantum Principle. That object which is central to all of Classical General Relativity, the four dimensional space time geometry, simply does not exist, except in a Classical approximation.” Inspite of this, to understand the nature of the non- Quantum Mechanical space time of Classical Theory, let us take the diffusion constant of Chapter 6, $`\nu `$(or the Planck constant $`h`$) to be very small, but non-vanishing. That is we consider the semi classical case. This is because, a purely classical description, does not provide any insight.
It is well known that in this situation we can use the WKB approximation. In this case the right hand side of the equation

$$\psi =\sqrt{\rho }e^{ı/\mathrm{}S}$$

goes over to, in the one dimensional case, for simplicity,

$$(p_x)^{\frac{1}{2}}e^{\frac{ı}{\mathrm{}}{\scriptscriptstyle p(x)𝑑x}}$$

so that we have, on comparison,

$$\rho =\frac{1}{p_x}$$
(2)
In this case the condition $`U=0`$ implies

$$\nu ln(\sqrt{\rho })=0$$
(3)
(Cf. Chapter 6). This semi classical analysis suggests that $`\sqrt{\rho }`$ is a slowly varying function of $`x`$, infact each of the factors on the left side of (3) would be $`0(h)`$, so that the left side is $`0(h^2)`$ (which is being neglected). Then from (2) we conclude that $`p_x`$ is independent of $`x`$, or is a slowly varying function of $`x`$.
The equation of continuity now gives

$$\frac{\rho }{t}+\stackrel{}{}(\rho \stackrel{}{v})=\frac{\rho }{t}=0$$

That is the probability density $`\rho `$ is independent or nearly so, not only of $`x`$, but also of $`t`$. We are thus in a stationary and homogenous scenario. This is strictly speaking, possible only in a single particle universe, or for a completely isolated particle, without any effect of the environment. Under these circumstances we have the various conservation laws and the time reversible theory, all this taken over into Quantum Mechanics as well. With Wheeler’s turn of phrase, though with a slightly different connotation, this is ”time without time” or ”change without change”, an approximation valid for small, incremental changes, as indeed is implicit in the concept of a differentiable space time manifold. All this should not be surprising. In the preceding Chapter, section 2, we have indeed noted the limitations of the Field approach, a framework otherwise necessary for studying a multitude of particles.
We noted in Chapter 2, Prigogine’s statement that ”Our physical world is no longer symbolised by the stable and periodic planetary motions that are at the heart of classical mechanics”. The moment we consider the simplest of cases, viz., the three body problem, even in Newtonian Mechanics, it amounts to bringing in instabilities due to the environmental or holistic feature.
In our considerations in the preceding Chapters, we encountered exactly this holistic feature in a stochastic setting, what may be called stochastic holism. For example this is embodied not only in the various Large Number relations deduced in Chapter 7 or the fluctuations underlying interactions in Chapter 8, but also in the fact that as we saw in the last Chapter, the number of particles in the universe (and a maximal universal velocity) can be considered to be the only free parameter - the other microphysical constants are dependent on this. If Classical Theory can be compared to a strucutre constructed with rigid building blocks, with ideas like local realism thrown in, we are here talking about a picture where the building blocks themselves depend on the overall structure stochastically.
In this case the puzzle of the irreversibility of time, as discussed by several scholars- also disappears. Irreversibility is a consequence of the statistical, or in a manner of speaking Thermodynamic nature of space time. Indeed we saw in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 that the equation

$$T=\sqrt{N}\tau $$

provides an immediate arrow of time, while in Chapter 10 we saw how QFST could explain the Kaon decay.
It was shown in Chapter 7 that this picture of fluctuations in the context of QFST leads automatically to the Large Number Relations. Ofcourse it is possible to trivialise these Large Number relations as coincidences with an anthropic type argument . Our approach on the other hand has been not so much an explanation for cosmic numerology, as it has been a search for minimum underlying simple principles, in the spirit of Occam’s razor, that would explain disparate phenomena. That is what science is all about.


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# Force distributions in 3D granular assemblies: Effects of packing order and inter-particle friction

## I Introduction

In ordinary solids and confined fluids, uniformly applied loads are distributed homogeneously throughout the material. This is not the case for granular materials, which are collections of discrete non-cohesive macroscopic particles . For such systems, stresses are distributed in a highly inhomogeneous manner, along networks containing the largest inter-particle forces . These “force chains” support most of the external load, effectively shielding large regions of the material. The probability distribution, $`P(F)`$, of normal forces, $`F`$, between neighboring particles provides a quantitative way of analyzing these stresses . $`P(F)`$ in granular media exhibits characteristic differences from what would be expected for ordinary solids or fluids.

Recent experiments have measured $`P(F)`$ at the container boundaries of granular media . When the applied loads are small enough not to cause significant particle deformations two key features of $`P(F)`$ have emerged: first, $`P(F)`$ exhibits an abundance of small force values, even far below the mean force, $`\overline{F}`$; and second, for forces above $`\overline{F}`$, $`P(F)`$ decays with a characteristic, exponential dependence. This unusual shape of $`P(F)`$ has wide-ranging implications. Compared to a Gaussian profile, the exponential tail indicates a significantly higher probability of an individual contact force greatly exceeding the mean force. In applications with a fixed yield strength, this corresponds to higher chances for material failure. Perhaps even more intriguing is the non-zero value for $`P(F)`$ as $`F`$ approaches zero. Investigations concerning the structure of force chains have suggested that this abundance of low forces could be caused by arching effects . The shape of $`P(F)`$ at low forces has also been associated with glassy behavior .

As far as the precise functional form for $`P(F)`$ is concerned, however, there is currently no clear consensus. Several fitting forms have been proposed, which differ most widely in their predictions for $`P(F)`$ at low forces, ranging from $`P(F)0`$  to $`P(F)\mathrm{}`$  as $`F`$ approaches zero. Because of the obvious discrepancies not only among some of these model predictions, but also between certain model predictions and the available experimental data, it is important to test the robustness of the results with regard to variations in the bead parameters, the packing construction, and the loading conditions. Experimentally, the issue of whether $`P(F)`$ depends on inter-particle friction in any significant way and whether disordered packings behave differently from highly ordered, crystalline configurations has not been tested. Clearly, a perfect, infinite crystal composed of identical grains would result in a delta function for $`P(F)`$ since all contact forces are the same in this case. However, it is unknown how the shape of $`P(F)`$ is modified by the small amounts of disorder present in real granular crystals. Also it is not known how inter-particle friction influences the distribution of forces.

Here we address these issues with a systematic experimental investigation of the effects on $`P(F)`$ of packing order as well as inter-particle friction. Our results confirm the robust character of the probability distribution of forces. We find that $`P(F)`$ is essentially independent of changes in the particle arrangement from amorphous to crystalline and changes in the particle surface from smooth to rough. In particular, we observe an exponential decay over more than 2.5 decades for forces larger than the mean. Below the mean force, our data are consistent with either a flat distribution or a small peak centered close to $`\overline{F}`$.

The paper is organized as follows. After a review of currently available theoretical model predictions and simulation results, we introduce our experimental methods, including details of the carbon paper technique used to measure normal forces and a discussion of the experimental uncertainties. We then present results for $`P(F)`$ obtained from crystalline and amorphous granular packings using both smooth and rough beads. We also show how $`P(F)`$ evolves with system depth. A final section discusses these results in light of recent experimental and theoretical work on granular and other jammed systems.

## II Background

The original $`q`$-model, proposed by Coppersmith et al captures the dominant behavior of $`P(F)`$ at large $`F`$: $`P(F/\overline{F})\mathrm{exp}(dF/\overline{F})`$, where $`d`$ is a positive constant. This model was extended by Nguyen and Coppersmith  and by Socolar and Sexton , and Claudin et al. have related it to a diffusion equation with an additional randomly varying convection term . Despite this success, these models predict power-law behavior for $`P(F)`$ at forces below the mean force, implying $`P(F)0`$ as $`F0`$, which disagrees with experimental findings . Using contact dynamics computer simulations, Radjai et al have measured $`P(F)`$ and fit it with a slowly diverging power law below $`\overline{F}`$ and with a decaying exponential at large forces. This form is qualitatively more consistent with experimental results .

Recently, the effects of particle deformations on the structure of force chains has been considered. Simulations by Makse et al show evidence for a crossover in the shape of $`P(F)`$ from pure exponential to Gaussian as the applied load is increased. However, experiments by Løvoll et al with no external force do not show pure exponential behavior; rather, they are more consistent with the results of Mueth et al at higher deformations. This is in agreement with simulations by Thornton  and Nguyen and Coppersmith , which observe a slow trend toward Gaussian behavior at very large deformations with no evidence of a pure exponential in the low-deformation regime.

Tkachenko and Witten have argued that frictional forces lead to elastic behavior . Simulations performed by Eloy and Clement  and by Thornton  predict a dependence of $`P(F)`$ on inter-particle friction, but this has yet to be seen in experiment.

$`P(F)`$ has also been studied in simulations of supercooled liquids and glasses . For a liquid with a strongly repulsive core the tail of $`P(F)`$ is a decaying exponential at all temperatures. As the temperature of the liquid is lowered to the glass transition, $`P(F)`$ develops a small peak centered at $`\overline{F}`$ and is very reminiscent of the experimental data on granular systems found by Mueth et al.

## III Experimental Methods

We have performed experiments on five different granular systems. In order to compare our results with the earlier work of Mueth et al, we first examined an amorphous pack of smooth spherical glass beads. We then constructed both hexagonal-close-packed (HCP), and face-centered-cubic (FCC) crystalline lattices of the spheres and repeated the experiment on these highly ordered systems. In addition, we examined both amorphous and HCP arrangements of spheres with roughened surfaces.

The experiments were performed using approximately 70,000 soda lime glass spheres with diameter $`3.06\pm 0.04\mathrm{m}m`$. We used an acrylic container of equilateral triangular cross section with a side length of 165 mm, which is commensurate with our HCP crystals (See Fig. 1). The top and bottom boundaries of the system were thick, close-fitting acrylic pistons. The height in layers, $`h`$, of the HCP crystals ranged from 1 to 61, with the bulk of the data being taken at $`h=45`$. FCC crystals were studied with $`h=10`$. The amorphous arrangements had a filling height of 12 cm, which corresponds to approximately the same number of particles as in the 45-layer crystals.

### A Crystal Packing

It is difficult to construct three-dimensional macroscopic crystals of granular materials. Vibration methods for crystallization can efficiently produce triangular close-packed layers ; however these methods do not control the stacking order of the planes which is necessary for three-dimensional crystal structures. Also, these methods typically result in large numbers of defects (approximately 10%) which can ruin long range order. We have developed a method to construct near-perfect crystals of glass spheres in an efficient manner. Our technique consists of four steps. First, one layer’s worth of beads is placed upon a perforated metal sheet which has small holes arranged in a triangular lattice with a spacing equal to the bead diameter. The array of holes, and therefore the collection of beads, is commensurate with our cell. Second, a vacuum is established behind the perforated plate; this holds the beads in place while the plate is manipulated. Third, the arrangement is inverted and lowered into the cell, which has been precisely machined to accept a monolayer of crystallized beads. The vacuum is then removed to release the beads. Fourth, a small number of residual defects and grain boundaries are removed by hand before the process is repeated to add successive layers. By carefully monitoring the layer-to-layer structure, we were able to create large, nearly perfect HCP structures of arbitrary height with 1,431 and 1,378 particles in alternating layers. Upon construction, each 45-layer HCP crystal contained 70,119 beads with fewer than 10 beads significantly out of place, and typically these defects were confined to the edges of the container.

HCP packings of rough spheres were created in the same manner. Unfortunately, the etching process reduced the bead size by a few micrometers, causing a noticable incommensurability between the bead lattice and the cell. This resulted in a larger number of defects and less stability.

We also constructed a FCC crystal, but boundary effects made the procedure considerably more difficult. These effects were minimized by rotating the orientation of the pack by thirty degrees. A seed layer was used at the bottom of the cell to arrange the pack in this awkward position. The resulting packing was incommensurate with our cell and was highly unstable; for this reason only one small ($`h=10`$) smooth FCC crystal was created.

### B Rough Particles

Force chains are present only when grains are in contact. This suggests that the highly nonlinear frictional forces between particles may play an important role in determining the network of force chains. To understand the magnitude of these effects on $`P(F)`$, we have varied $`\mu `$, the coefficient of static friction between grains.

A collection of glass spheres was etched in a hydrofluoric acid solution (Ashland Chemical Inc. 7:1 Buffered Oxide Etch) for approximately 2 hours. The difference between the smooth beads and the etched beads was quite apparent by visual inspection. Figure 2 shows scanning electron microscope images of smooth and etched beads. We have quantified the increase in surface friction between grains due to etching using the apparatus shown schematically in Figure 3. The ratio of the coefficients of static friction is characterized by the changes in spring length given by

$$\frac{\mu _{rough}}{\mu _{smooth}}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }x_{rough}\mathrm{\Delta }x_{sled}}{\mathrm{\Delta }x_{smooth}\mathrm{\Delta }x_{sled}}$$
(1)
where the change in spring length, $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$, is measured at the point of bead movement, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }x_{sled}`$ is included to remove the contribution from friction of the sled with the base. The measured ratio was $`3.0\pm 0.3`$ .

### C Analysis Techniques for Measuring Local Forces

The experiments were performed as follows. An external force of 7600 N was applied to the top piston of the cell with a pneumatic press, while the bottom piston rested upon a fixed floor. Some force was carried by the walls of the cell, but we determined that this was typically less than 10% of the applied force. We measured the normal forces at the upper and lower boundaries by placing carbon paper and white paper between the granular material and the pistons . This allowed each grain at the boundaries to press into the paper, leaving a mark whose size and intensity were dependent upon the normal force on that bead . A portion of a scanned image of the resulting imprints is shown in Figure 1. Roughly 2000 marks from both the top and bottom boundaries were identified for each data run. We observed no significant deviations from circular marks, as might be produced by tangential forces.

After each data run, each sheet of white paper was carefully removed and digitized with a flat bed scanner. These digital images were then processed using image analysis software to find both the area and the intensity of each mark. The force on each bead was extracted from the area and intensity of the corresponding feature using calibration curves taken over the same force range. To account for variations in the applied load from run to run, the forces on the individual beads were divided by the average force for each data run. A histogram of the rescaled forces was then averaged over typically 10-20 independent data runs and normalized in order to represent the probability distribution of forces, $`P(f)`$, where $`fF/\overline{F}`$.

Calibration data were obtained by lowering a known mass connected to a single bead onto carbon paper covering white paper. This system, described in reference , consisted of a vertical slide with impulse-absorbing springs; a pulley and cable system was added to ensure that the bead was lowered slowly and monotonically in order to further eliminate impulse forces. Because of the potential variability in carbon paper, each package of paper was calibrated independently. To interpolate a calibration curve from the discrete set of calibration points we used two procedures: 1) a global fourth-order polynomial fit and 2) a local sliding parabolic fit with a window of eleven data points. Figure 4a shows a representative set of calibration data together with the fitted fourth-order polynomial. The relationship between force and intensity is monotonic but nonlinear. We found that the force distributions were very sensitive to the calibrations, especially in the low-force regime.

### D Systematic and Statistical Errors

The uncertainties due to the calibrations are an inherent characteristic of the carbon paper method and represent the largest contribution to systematic errors. The most significant problem is the proper interpolation between calibration points. As shown in figure 4b, the two interpolation methods can lead to significant differences in the intensity-to-force conversion. It is not clear which of the two fitting methods gives the more accurate calibrations, although we found the fourth order polynomial to produce smoother data. For the data shown below, we computed $`P(f)`$ using both methods (see insets of figures 5 and 6), and we interpret the difference as an estimate of the systematic error introduced by the calibration.

An additional complication arises from the presence of forces below our threshold of detectability, which is approximately 0.7 N. It is difficult to distinguish between undetectably small forces and missing bead contacts, but the number of forces below threshold can be estimated experimentally using the two-sided tape technique described by Mueth et al. An approximate number of very small forces was inserted into the force distributions to account for these undetectable contacts. Errors in the number of undetectable forces affect the normalization and thus effectively rescale $`f`$. Including this source of error, we estimate the uncertainty in the exponential slope to be approximately 5%.

## IV Results

We assembled a large number of amorphous and crystalline packs of both smooth and rough glass beads and studied them with the carbon paper technique. As detailed below, the force distributions exhibit exponential behavior for $`f>1`$. This result has been found previously in experiment, theory, and simulation . Our data are consistent with a small peak in $`P(f)`$ near the mean force or with a plateau below the mean force. We found that the force distributions, $`P(f)`$, were well represented in all cases by the functional form

$$P(f)=a(1be^{cf^2})e^{df}$$
(2)
which is a slight generalization of that proposed by Mueth et al.

Data was taken at both the top and bottom boundaries of the pack. Very little force was carried by the walls, so that the total force at the bottom, as measured from the carbon dots, was typically within 15% of the force at the top. As had been found previously , $`P(f)`$ was equivalent between the two surfaces, and the following data represent an average of the results at the top and bottom in order to improve the statistics.

The total forces on both boundaries were typically within 15% of the applied force. This result implies that the carbon marks were dominated by normal forces, as additional tangential forces would have increased the total force. The equivalence between total measured force and applied force also suggests that there were not a significant number of duplicate marks resulting from bead movement as these would also tend to raise the measured total force.

### A $`P(f)`$: Amorphous vs. Crystalline

Amorphous packs were recreated before each run, which ensured that each run was independent of the others. Figure 5a shows $`P(f)`$ for smooth amorphous packs which have been calibrated using the polynomial method. The data shown represent an average over 32 independent packings. Each run gave approximately 1800 force measurements. The distribution agrees well with that reported by Mueth et al. The solid line in the figure is a fit to Equation 2; the fitting parameters are shown in Table I. The error bars represent the statistical error for multiple data sets, and the insets show $`P(f)`$ for low forces calculated using both calibration interpolation methods. We also measured the correlations between pairs of normal forces, and we found no significant correlations for amorphous arrangements.

$`P(f)`$ for multiple HCP crystals, $`h=45`$, of smooth beads is shown in figure 5b. This represents an average over 26 runs, distributed over three different HCP crystals with each run giving approximately 2200 force measurements. These data show a similar form to that of the amorphous packs, but there appears to be a slightly higher peak in the smooth crystal data for forces near the average value, $`f1`$, as well as a slightly steeper exponential decay at large $`f`$. We have seen some evidence of aging (a gradual settling of the grains into a more jammed state) for a single HCP crystal which had been previously subjected to more than 40 runs. We have excluded these data from our results.

To test the robust nature of the probability distribution, we constructed an FCC crystal with $`h=10`$. Figure 5c shows $`P(f)`$ to be virtually indistinguishable from that obtained for the HCP crystal. Due to the difficulties of constructing a crystal incommensurate with our cell, only one FCC crystal was created. The data represent an average of 10 runs with approximately 2000 force measurements each.

### B $`P(f)`$: Smooth vs. Rough

Amorphous and HCP crystalline packs created with the roughened beads were also studied. The rough amorphous data were taken from 20 independent packings, each representing approximately 1800 force measurements. The rough HCP crystal data were taken from 10 data runs on one crystal with approximately 2200 force measurements each. The resulting force distributions for the rough beads (Fig. 6) were not significantly different from the distributions for the smooth beads (Fig. 5). The fitting coefficients are given in Table I.

All systems, consisting of both smooth and rough beads in both amorphous and crystal packs, showed similar force distributions. The $`P(f)`$ curves for four systems are shown together in Figure 7.

### C $`P(f)`$: Height Dependence

The aforementioned experimental results were obtained for HCP crystals and amorphous packs which were many bead diameters in height. We are interested in understanding how the $`P(f)`$ distributions are built up as the height is increased. We studied this question by varying the number of layers in HCP crystals of smooth glass beads. Figure 8 shows $`P(f)`$ for HCP crystals of different heights ranging from $`h=1`$ to $`h=61`$. For comparison, the solid line in each panel represents the fit to Equation 2 for the $`h=45`$ smooth HCP crystals. For a single layer, $`h=1`$, $`P(f)`$ is determined primarily by the polydispersity of the beads themselves. As the height is increased, $`P(f)`$ evolves toward a height-independent form. We find that $`P(f)`$ is robust for pack heights greater than $`h15`$.

### D Particle Deformation

Recent simulations on both 2-D and 3-D bead packs suggest that the form of $`P(f)`$ depends on particle deformations . We calculate particle deformations using a Hertzian deformation law :

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\delta R}{R}}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{2D^2\overline{F}^2}{R^4}}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}}`$

where $`\overline{F}`$ is the mean force per bead, and $`R`$ is the bead radius. $`D`$ is determined by material properties:

$`D={\displaystyle \frac{3(1\sigma ^2)}{2E}}`$

where $`\sigma `$ is Poisson’s ratio and $`E`$ is Young’s modulus. Soda lime glass spheres have $`\sigma =0.24`$ and $`E=69\mathrm{G}Pa`$ . For the data we have presented, $`R=1.53\mathrm{m}m`$, and $`\overline{F}7.0\mathrm{N}`$, resulting in particle deformations of 0.2%. We varied the force applied to the $`h=45`$ HCP crystals over a range of $`\overline{F}`$ from 3.5 N to 8.0 N. This corresponded to deformations of 0.12% to 0.2%. Over this limited range, we found that $`P(f)`$ remained unchanged.

## V Discussion and Conclusions

Our data for $`P(f)`$ can be well fit by the form given in Equation 2. For forces larger than the mean force, we found $`P(f)`$ to be a decaying exponential. For forces smaller than the mean force, our data are consistent with either a small peak or a plateau. There was very little change in the force distribution when the bead pack was varied from amorphous to crystalline, although there is some evidence that the exponential decay for large forces is slightly steeper in the crystalline configurations. There may also be support for an aging effect, although this is still inconclusive. We found $`P(f)`$ to be unaffected when the inter-particle coefficient of friction was changed by a factor of three.

Packing history may also affect the results for an individual data run and could therefore alter the form of $`P(f)`$. A small number of particular runs were found to show significantly different results, such as pure exponential behavior. Only after a considerable number of individual experiments were performed and averaged could a robust probability distribution be presented. We find these variations in the individual runs to be quite surprising. They may indicate that the system is occasionally caught in a state not representative of the average configuration.

We do not see evidence for a change in $`P(f)`$ due to the deformation of the particles over a range from 0.12% to 0.2%. Simulations and experiments performed by Makse et al. suggest that $`P(f)`$ is a pure exponential for small deformations, with a transition to a Gaussian centered at $`f=1`$ when particle deformation is increased . We estimate the deformations to vary from 0.09% to 0.4% in the experiments of Makse et al., while their simulations have a much wider range. The fact that our data do not show a transition toward either pure exponential or Gaussian behavior seems to be in contradiction to their experimental results. Our data are not necessarily inconsistent with their simulations, as our results may be viewed as being in a transition regime between small and large deformations. We note, however, that simulations by Thornton  as well as Nguyen and Coppersmith  find a slow transition toward a Gaussian profile at high deformations (well beyond our range), but do not find a pure exponential in any deformation regime. At low deformations, these simulations show a form of $`P(f)`$ which is qualitatively similar to our results. In addition, this form is also consistent with experiments by Løvoll et al on a granular pack with no external forcing and thus very low deformations.

We are able to make qualitative comparisons with the predictions of some theoretical and simulation work for $`P(f)`$ in the $`f<1`$ regime. We find that $`P(f)`$ does not approach zero as $`f0`$, in contrast with the predictions of the $`q`$-model . Based on simulations, Radjai et al. report a slow power-law divergence as $`f`$ approaches zero ; while this form is similar to our experimental results (since the power-law exponent is very small), it does not account for the possibility of a peaked distribution near the mean.

Simulations performed by O’Hern et al on quenched molecular liquids in two dimensions show the most apparent similarities to our results. For potentials with finite repulsive terms, such as a Lennard-Jones potential with a range cut off at its minimum value, the $`P(f)`$ distribution is indistinguishable from our findings. Also, there may exist a correlation between granular crystals which have aged (as mentioned above) and quenched molecular liquids at temperatures well below the glass-transition temperature. The increase of the exponential slope as well as a slight peak near the mean force in crystalline configurations are similar to those found in jammed fluids where large forces cannot relax when quenched below the glass-transition temperature.

## VI Acknowledgments

We thank Sue Coppersmith, Qiti Guo, Steve Langer, Andrea Liu, Milica Medved, Corey O’Hern, Raghuveer Parthasarathy, Denise Sawicki, Alexei Tkachenko, Mary Upton, and Tom Witten. We especially thank Dan Mueth for the background on which this work was built as well as his continued interest, comments, and criticisms. This work was supported by NSF under Grant No. CTS-9710991 and by the MRSEC Program of the NSF under Grant No. DMR-9808595.


text:
# A Deep, Wide-Field H𝛼 Survey of Nearby Clusters of Galaxies

## 1. Introduction

With the Mosaic CCD Imager on the 0.92m telescope at KPNO, we are able to cover an 1 field in a single observation, and reach limiting fluxes corresponding to star formation rates (SFRs) of about 0.1 M/yr for extended galaxies and $``$0.01 M/yr for compact emission-line galaxies. The broad goals of the survey are to construct a complete inventory of star forming galaxies in a well-defined volume limited sample, to characterize the demographics of the local star forming population, and to quantify the completeness of other methods for measuring the local SFR density. We are also carrying out a parallel survey of a local field sample, so we also will be able to study the influences of cluster environment on the SFRs.

## 2. Luminosity Functions

We have observed four clusters so far during an observing run in February 1999. These clusters have been observed previously by Moss, Whittle, & Pesce (1998: MWP98) using an objective prism technique. In Figure 1, we show a flux distribution of H$`\alpha `$-emitting galaxies in A1367. Also shown by shaded histograms are the distributions of the galaxies detected by MWP98. Although the analysis is still in the preliminary stage, the comparison between our data and those from MWP98’s prism survey suggests that $`5060`$% of H$`\alpha `$ flux is missing from the latter. This is due to a combination of insensitivity of the prism survey to low-luminosity emission-line galaxies and to brighter galaxies with weak extended H$`\alpha `$ emission. In addition, we note that we have detected a large number H$`\alpha `$-emitting galaxies without any velocity data. Since membership is uncertain for these objects, we have not included them in any of the analysis. However, it is evident that the imaging survey has revealed the incompleteness in the detection of H$`\alpha `$ fluxes in the previous prism surveys.

## 3. Tidally-Induced Dwarf Galaxies?

While visually searching for emission-line galaxies in the central field of Abell 1367, we found a particularly interesting field around N3860, CGCG 97-114 and CGCG 97-125, scattered with emission-line dwarf knots. Each “knot” is only a few arcsec in diameter, however, some are clustered in small groups that likely are par of dwarf galaxies. With the present data, we cannot answer as to what triggered such widespread star formation in this particular region of the cluster. We have obtained spectra for some H$`\alpha `$-emitting objects and they all coincide with those of CGCG97-114 and 97-125 ($`v8200`$ km/s), confirming that they are associated with the larger galaxies in this group. (NGC 3860 is not in this group; its velocity is $`6000`$km/s). The star formation rates for these objects, calculated using Kennicutt (1983), vary from $`0.02`$ up to $`1.2`$M/year.

This research was supported by NSF Grant AST-9900789. SS was supported by the NASA LTSA program, NAS7-1260.

## References

Kennicutt, R.C., 1983, ApJ, 272, 54

Moss, C., Whittle, M., & Pesce, J.E., 1998, MNRAS, 300, 205


text:
# Ultracompact stars with multiple necks

## Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ulf Nilsson and Claes Uggla for giving us access to their results at an early stage prior to publication and for numerous useful discussions. Many thanks are also due to Ingemar Bengtsson, Martin Goliath and Sören Holst for their interest and many valuable comments regarding this work. Financial support was given by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council.


text:
# Oscillations of the superconducting order parameter in a ferromagnet

## Abstract

Planar tunneling spectroscopy reveals damped oscillations of the superconducting order parameter induced into a ferromagnetic thin film by the proximity effect. The oscillations are due to the finite momentum transfer provided to Cooper pairs by the splitting of the spin up and down bands in the ferromagnet. As a consequence, for negative values of the superconducting order parameter the tunneling spectra are capsized (”$`\pi `$-state”). The oscillations’ damping and period are set by the same length scale, which depends on the spin polarization.

The quantum character of superconductivity arises from the existence of phase coherence in the electron condensate. In conventional superconductors, where pairing is provided by the exchange of virtual phonons, the phase is a constant. On the other hand, phase sensitive experiments  in high temperature superconductors have shown that the wavefunction of Cooper pairs with perpendicular quasiparticle momenta presents a $`\pi `$-phase shift suggesting unconventional pairing. Here, we show that a $`\pi `$-phase shift can also occur in the order parameter of conventional superconductors when superconducting correlations coexist with ferromagnetic order.

More than 30 years ago, Fulde and Ferrel , and Larkin and Ovchinnikov  (FFLO), showed independently that the superconducting order parameter may be modulated in real space by an exchange field. A Cooper pair, in the singlet state, acquires a finite momentum $`Q=2E_{ex}/\mathrm{}v_F`$, where $`2E_{ex}`$ is the exchange energy corresponding to the difference in energy between the spin-up and spin-down bands, and $`v_F`$ the Fermi velocity. The superconducting phase grows linearly with the spatial coordinate $`x`$, $`\phi =Qx`$ and a $`\pi `$-phase shift was expected for translations of $`\mathrm{\Delta }xhv_F/4E_{ex}`$. Unlike high temperature superconductors where $`\phi `$ is a 2$`\pi `$-multiple of 0 and $`\pi `$, in the FFLO-state $`\phi `$ varies continuously.

The FFLO-state only occupies a tiny part of the superconducting phase diagram close to the normal state . The fragility of singlet superconductivity in a finite exchange field that removes the degeneracy of the ground state with respect to the spin degrees of freedom makes its experimental evidence still an open question. In homogeneous superconductors the normal state is recovered when $`E_{ex}>\sqrt{2}/2\mathrm{\Delta }_s`$ (Clogston criterion) , where $`\mathrm{\Delta }_s`$ is the superconducting energy gap. The situation is more favorable if Cooper pairs are injected from a superconductor into a ferromagnet F by the proximity effect. Assuming that the superconductor is weakly affected by the exchange field, superconducting correlations persist in F even for exchange energies much higher than $`\mathrm{\Delta }_s`$. The physical reason is that Cooper pairs are not instantaneously broken when they penetrate into the ferromagnet. They survive for a time corresponding to a traveled length on the order of $`\xi _F=\mathrm{}v_F/2E_{ex}=1/Q`$, the coherence length scale in F , which is independent on the energy gap. The breakdown of the Clogston criterion turns out to be very significant since $`E_{ex}`$ is typically at least two orders of magnitude larger than $`\mathrm{\Delta }_s`$.

When a Cooper pair moves into a ferromagnet, the phase shift produces oscillations of the real part of the superconducting order parameter on a length scale given by $`\xi _F`$ , as shown in Fig. 1a . However this artificially generated FFLO-state vanishes on the same length scale, which is typically of the order of a few $`nm`$. Unlike bulk superconductors where the gap equation allows the FFLO-state to occur only for exchange fields close to the critical field, this state exists for any exchange energy. Furthermore, the oscillating behavior of the order parameter in F is only due to the phase factor, while the number of Cooper pairs decays monotonically. We shall call the states corresponding to a positive sign of the real part of the order parameter the ”$`0`$-state” and those corresponding to a negative sign of the order parameter the ”$`\pi `$-state”.

An induced superconducting order parameter in F modifies the quasiparticle density of state (DOS). In the ”$`\pi `$-state”, i.e. when the thickness of the ferromagnet is larger than $`\xi _F`$, the features in the superconducting DOS are reversed with respect to the normal state (see inset a of Fig. 1a). This can be explained considering the microscopic mechanism that allows superconducting correlations to propagate into F, i.e., Andreev reflections . The process is illustrated in Fig. 1b using the energy-momentum dispersion law of the normal metal: an incoming electron in a normal metal N with energy lower than $`\mathrm{\Delta }_s`$ from the Fermi level, is reflected into a hole at the S/N interface. The incoming electron and the outgoing hole accumulate a phase difference ($`\phi =\mathrm{\Delta }px`$) depending on their traveled distance, $`x`$, and on the difference between their momenta, $`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$. Note that $`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$ is a function of the quasiparticle energy. If the normal layer is very thin, the phase difference is small and, roughly speaking, the DOS in N is close to that of the Cooper pair reservoir. The situation is strongly modified if the normal metal is ferromagnetic. As Andreev reflections invert spin-up into spin-down quasiparticles and vice-versa , the total momentum difference includes the spin-splitting of the conduction band: $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_F=\mathrm{\Delta }p+Q`$ (see Fig. 1c). If the exchange energy is much larger than the energy gap, which is usually the case, $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_FQ`$ and the phase difference between the electron and hole wavefunction is almost energy independent. The DOS is modified in a thin layer on the order of $`\xi _F`$. In particular, the interference between the electron and hole wavefunction produces an oscillating term in the superconducting DOS with period $`xE_{ex}/\mathrm{}v_F`$. A phase-induced oscillating term in the superconducting DOS is a natural consequence of the proximity effect. It has already been observed in the past either in the clean  or the dirty  limits. However, oscillations usually appear as a function of energy since, in a normal metal, the phase is energy dependent. Differently, in a ferromagnet the oscillations turn the overall energy-dependent DOS up side down with respect to the normal state.

We measure the superconducting DOS by tunneling spectroscopy. The conductance vs. bias of a tunnel junction between a superconductor and a normal metal probes the energy-dependent quasi-particle DOS of the superconductor, convoluted by the thermal broadening. The DOS is obtained after normalizing the spectra by the background conductance measured when both electrodes are in the normal state. Planar junctions provide unsurpassed energy resolution and even more importantly, in our case, large magnitude resolution. We fabricated planar junctions completely ”in-situ” by thin film deposition in a typical base pressure of $`10^9`$ Torr. An aluminum layer is deposited on a silicon substrate and then oxidized in an oxygen glow discharge (P=$`810^2`$ mbar) resulting in high quality tunnel barriers. The junction area 100$`\mu `$m x 100$`\mu `$m is defined by evaporating 500 Å of insulator (SiO) through shadow masks. A thin layer of $`Pd_{1x}Ni_x`$ (hereafter called PdNi) backed by 500 Å of Nb ($`T_c`$=8.8 K) is deposited just after oxidation defining a four-terminal cross-junction geometry . The Nb and the PdNi respectively provide the Cooper pair reservoir and the ferromagnetic thin film. The mean free path in the PdNi thin films is limited by surface scattering. The Ni concentration is kept on the order of 10 % and measured after fabrication by Rutherford Back scattering Spectrometry (RBS). The junction resistance is typically between $`50\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and 1K$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ while the interface resistance between PdNi and Nb is $`10^5\mathrm{\Omega }`$. The bias-dependence of the tunneling conductance is measured using a standard AC-modulation technique. Combining Lock-in detection with an ultra-low noise DC/AC mixer, we can directly resolve structures in the DOS as small as $`10^4`$ of the background conductance.

Ferromagnetic order in PdNi alloys results from indirect exchange between the Ni magnetic moments provided by the large spin susceptibility of Pd . At low Ni concentrations, the total magnetic moment is mainly due to the spin polarized electrons of the host at the Fermi level . Long-range itinerant ferromagnetism provides an almost ideal system where Cooper pairs are suddenly polarized when they enter into the ferromagnet. The main advantage of using a ferromagnetic alloy, instead of pure Ni, for instance, is that the exchange energy can be kept suitably small. $`E_{ex}`$ may be estimated from the magnetization $`M\mu _B\chi E_{ex}`$, where $`\mu _B`$ is the Bohr magneton and $`\chi `$ the host susceptibility. In PdNi alloys with 10 % of Ni, $`E_{ex}`$ is of the order of $`10meV`$  resulting in $`\xi _F`$ 50 Å, which corresponds to an order of magnitude increase with respect to pure ferromagnetic elements such as Fe, Ni or Co. This coherence length is accessible to standard thin film technology. Of course, decreasing the Ni concentration closer to the paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition would further increase the penetration length of Cooper pair into the ferromagnet. However, we observed that lowering the Ni concentration results in a reduced magnetic homogeneity.

In Fig. 2a the superconducting DOS at T=300 mK is presented for two different thickness of PdNi. The Al counter-electrode is driven into the normal state by applying a magnetic field of 100 Gauss perpendicular to the film  For the thinner ferromagnetic layer (50Å) the phase factor is positive (”0-state”) and the DOS displays a maximum at the Nb gap edge and a minimum at the Fermi level set to zero in our spectra. As a result of the finite interface resistance between PdNi and Nb, the pair amplitude is small, corresponding to a few per cent difference from the background conductance. To stress that in our geometry the relevant energy scale for the proximity effect is the Nb gap energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{Nb}`$=1.40$`meV`$, the DOS of Nb measured in a junction without PdNi is also plotted on the r.h.s. of Fig. 2a. Increasing the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer (75Å), the phase factor becomes negative (”$`\pi `$-state”) and the DOS is flipped with respect to the normal state. When both electrodes are in the superconducting state the structures are amplified by the Al BCS singularity and shifted in energy by the aluminium gap as expected for elastic tunneling.

A check on the magnetic properties of F is shown in Fig. 2b and Fig. 2c, which presents the normalized Hall resistivity, $`\rho _{Hall}/\rho ^2`$, vs. applied field, of the 50 and 75 Å thick PdNi layers respectively, corresponding to the ”0 and $`\pi `$-state” measured by tunneling spectroscopy. The Hall resistivity is sensitive to magnetic scattering through the spin-orbit coupling and provides a suitable probe of weak magnetic moments in thin films . In ferromagnetic materials scattering by defects produces a net asymmetry in the transverse current density that is compensated, at equilibrium, by the anomalous Hall field . The Hall resistivity shows a fast variation at low magnetic field when the magnetic domains order and a linear dependence at higher field corresponding to the ordinary Hall effect. As the anomalous Hall effect is proportional to the magnetization and to the square of $`\rho `$, the film resistivity, the extrapolation of $`\rho _{Hall}/\rho ^2`$ at zero field is directly proportional to the saturation magnetization . Complementary measurements by MOKE (Magneto-Optical-Kerr-Effect) on junctions presenting the same structure also show ferromagnetic ordering with a typical coercive field, $`H_c`$, of 1500 Gauss close to that measured by the anomalous Hall effect ($`H_c`$= 1200 Gauss). Finally, from the direct measurement of the saturation magnetization by SQUID we can extract the exchange energy and hence verify the estimated coherence length in the ferromagnet. We obtain $`M=0.21\mu _B`$ which gives $`E_{ex}=15meV`$ and $`\xi _F=45`$ Å.

Increasing the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer, i.e. for $`x>>\xi _F`$, the proximity effect disappears and the normalized tunneling conductance becomes equal to unity. The DOS at zero energy, $`N(0)`$, as a function of $`x`$ is simply found from the spatial dependence of the order parameter, being $`N(0)=\mathrm{}e(\sqrt{1\mathrm{\Psi }^2})`$. In Fig. 3 we present the DOS at zero energy vs. $`x/\xi _F`$. We observe quantitative agreement with the $`cos(x\sqrt{2}/\xi _F)e^{x\sqrt{2}/\xi _F}`$ dependence of the order parameter  presented in Fig. 1a. Here $`\xi _F`$ is the coherence length in the dirty limit and is obtained by measuring the exchange energy from the saturation magnetization as indicated above. The only fitting parameter is the finite interface transparency, $`\gamma _B=0.035`$, which accounts for the reduced pair amplitude in F. A shift of 15 Å in the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer was also included to account for interface roughness or interdiffusion as shown by X-ray reflectivity measurements

Our results show that the superconducting order parameter induced into a ferromagnet by proximity effect oscillates with a period given by the exchange energy. They suggest that S/F nanostructures offer a unique way to investigate the interplay between superconductivity and magnetic order since they do not require comparable energy scales. Furthermore they indicate that the proximity effect may indeed be used to fabricate Josephson junctions with a $`\pi `$-phase shift, as recently proposed .

We are indebted to P. Veillet, P. Monod and J. Ferré for the SQUID and MOKE magnetic characterization. We acknowledge W. Guichard and P. Gandit for measuring the Nb/PdNi interface resistance. We also thank D. Esteve, H. Pothier, W. Belzig , Yu. Nazarov, A. Buzdin, J-P. Torre, O. Bourgeois and H. Bernas for useful discussions.


text:
# Quantum Magic Bullets via Entanglement

## I Introduction

Entanglement is a peculiar quantum phenomenon in which two quantum systems exhibit a greater degree of correlation than is permitted classically. Entanglement has been shown to be a highly useful effect for quantum computation and quantum communications, see  for a recent review. One of the earliest and most striking pictures of entanglement was given by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) in their original paper on entangled states . In contrast with the majority of subsequent work, the original EPR paper concentrated on entanglement of continuous variables, position and momentum. Although most recent work on entanglement has focused on discrete systems such as quantum bits or qubits, experimental demonstration of continuous-variable teleportation via entanglement , theoretical constructions of analog quantum error-correcting codes , and methods for universal quantum computation over continuous variables  suggest that the original EPR state is well-worth revisiting.

This paper shows that entanglement of continuous variables exhibits several significant properties in the context of scattering theory. Consider two particles that are entangled in terms of continuous variables such as position and momentum. Measurement of one particle can be shown to project the other particle into the complex conjugate, or time-reversed state. This fact has the following consequence. Consider a potential barrier put in the path of the first particle that reflects some states and transmits other states with probability one (such a barrier can be thought of as a generalized filter). Then there is a related potential barrier for the second particle—corresponding to the time-reversed scattering matrix for the first potential—such that if the first particle is transmitted through its barrier, the second particle will be transmitted through its barrier with probability one. We call this effect, a quantum “magic bullet.” This paper presents a theoretical exposition of the magic bullet effect both in terms of the original EPR state and in terms of entangled photons, and proposes experimental realizations of quantum magic bullets.

## II EPR-State Magic Bullets

First, let us revisit the original Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen state. Suppose that a particle with zero momentum decays into two particles at time $`t=0`$. The particles have position eigenstates $`|x_j`$, and momentum eigenstates $`|p_j=(1/\sqrt{2\pi \mathrm{}})_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}e^{ipx/\mathrm{}}|x_j𝑑x`$, where $`j=1,2`$. (Like EPR, we restrict our attention to a one-dimensional system: the multi-dimensional generalization is straightforward.) Immediately after the initial particle’s decay, the joint state of the two new particles is

$$|\psi _{\mathrm{EPR}}=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}|x_1|x_2𝑑x=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}|p_1|p_2𝑑p.$$
(1)
These two particles are thus perfectly correlated in position, and also perfectly anticorrelated in momentum. It was this dual correlation that Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen suggested was incompatible with the classical notion of reality: the EPR state seems to allow each particle to be in an eigenstate of two noncommuting observables.

Irrespective of interpretations of quantum mechanics (which are notoriously slippery), the EPR state exhibits the following property. We expand $`|\psi _{\mathrm{EPR}}`$ in terms of an arbitrary orthonormal basis $`\{|\varphi _z\}`$, indexed by a continuous parameter $`z`$, obtaining $`|\varphi _z_j=\varphi _z(x)|x_j𝑑x`$, where $`\varphi _z(x)=x|\varphi _z`$. Then, recalling that $`|x^{}=|x`$, we have

$$|\psi _{\mathrm{EPR}}=|\varphi _z_1|\varphi _z_2^{}𝑑z.$$
(2)
Suppose that a measurement of an operator with eigenstates $`|\varphi _z_1`$ is made on the first particle. It is immediately seen that if this measurement reveals the first particle to be in the state $`|\varphi _z_1`$, the second particle is then in the complex conjugate state $`|\varphi _z_2^{}`$.

Complex conjugation in quantum mechanics is equivalent to time reversal. If a particle evolves according to a Hamiltonian $`\widehat{H}`$, so that an initial state $`|\varphi `$ at $`t=0`$ evolves into the state $`|\varphi (t)=e^{i\widehat{H}t/\mathrm{}}|\varphi `$ for $`t>0`$, then taking the complex conjugate gives the state $`e^{i\widehat{H}^{}t/\mathrm{}}|\varphi ^{}`$, viz., the complex conjugate of the evolved state is the complex conjugate of the initial state evolved backward in time ($`tt`$) according to the time-reversed Hamiltonian $`\widehat{H}^{}`$. If $`\widehat{H}`$ is real, i.e., time-reversal invariant (as is the case for almost all fundamental Hamiltonians, with the notable exception of the $`K^0`$ meson), then the energy eigenfunctions of $`\widehat{H}`$ can be taken to be real, because $`\widehat{H}|E=E|E`$ implies $`\widehat{H}|E^{}=E|E^{}`$. Suppose that both particles in the EPR state are subjected to a time-reversal invariant Hamiltonian $`\widehat{H}`$. Over time $`t`$, the state $`|\psi _{\mathrm{EPR}}`$ evolves into

$$|\psi (t)_{\mathrm{EPR}}e^{i\widehat{H}t/\mathrm{}}|\varphi _z_1e^{i\widehat{H}t/\mathrm{}}|\varphi _z_2^{}𝑑z=|\varphi _z(t)_1|\varphi _z(t)_2^{}𝑑z.$$
(3)
The state of the first particle at time $`t`$ is thus perfectly correlated with a state that is the complex conjugate of that particle’s state at time $`t`$: the second particle is in the time-reversed state of the first.

The EPR state also exhibits interesting scattering properties. Suppose that the first particle is subjected to a time-reversal invariant Hamiltonian corresponding to a unitary scattering matrix $`\widehat{S}(t)=e^{i\widehat{H}t/\mathrm{}}`$. Note that $`\widehat{S}^{}(t)=\widehat{S}^{}(t)=\widehat{S}^1(t)`$. After the particle is scattered, let us make a projective measurement on it, corresponding to the Hermitian operator $`\widehat{O}=_oo\widehat{P}_o`$, where $`o`$ is real and $`\widehat{P}_o=\widehat{P}_o^2`$ is the projection operator on the eigenspace corresponding to $`o`$. Now suppose that the second particle is subjected to the inverse scattering operation $`\widehat{S}^{}(t)`$, and that the conjugate measurement $`\widehat{O}^{}=_oo\widehat{P}_o^{}`$ is made on this particle. Then the results of the two measurements will be perfectly correlated: a result of $`o`$ for the first particle will be accompanied by a result $`o`$ for the second particle. That is, if the first particle passes through a given scattering potential, the second particle passes through the time-reversed potential with probability one, regardless of how unlikely it was for the first particle to have breached its barrier. We call this effect a quantum magic bullet.

The magic bullet effect can be implemented in other ways as well. For example, suppose that it is possible to conjugate the phase of the second particle (for example, by sending it off a phase-conjugate mirror) at time $`t`$. The phase conjugation effectively performs a spin echo on the particle, resulting in the state $`|\varphi _z(t)_1|\varphi _z(t)_2𝑑z`$. The second particle now performs the same dynamics as the first particle, but with a time lag of $`2t`$. In particular, if the first particle manages to pass through a generalized filter, then the second particle will pass through the same filter with probability one $`2t`$ seconds later.

Quantum magic bullets can have many manifestations. We now turn to examples of quantum magic bullets that can be constructed using nonlinear optics.

## III Field-Quadrature Magic Bullets

Parametric interactions in $`\chi ^{(2)}`$ crystals have proved to be rich sources of quantum light-beam phenomena, see  for a unified treatment of a wide variety of such effects, including quadrature-noise squeezing, nonclassical twin-beam production, nonclassical fourth-order interference, and polarization-entangled photon-pair production. All these phenomena originate from the same fundamental physics: in a $`\chi ^{(2)}`$ material pumped by a strong beam at frequency $`\omega _P`$ and wave vector $`𝐤_P`$, a single pump photon is converted into a pair of photons—one signal ($`S`$) and one idler ($`I`$)—subject to the energy- and momentum-conservation conditions, i.e., $`\omega _S+\omega _I=\omega _P`$ and $`𝐤_S+𝐤_I=𝐤_P`$, respectively.

We shall use the continuous-wave, type-II phase matched, doubly-resonant optical parametric amplifier (OPA)—with vacuum-state signal and idler inputs—as the basis for all of the optical magic-bullet realizations to be discussed. This OPA arrangement, shown schematically in Fig. 1, produces signal and idler outputs with orthogonal polarizations, well-defined spatial modes, and fluorescence bandwidths in the MHz to GHz range. As in , we shall assume that the signal and idler linewidths are identical, that there are no losses in the OPA cavity, and that there is no depletion of nor excess noise on the pump beam. The positive-frequency, photon-units field operators for the excited output polarizations of the signal and idler, $`\widehat{E}_S(t)`$ and $`\widehat{E}_I(t)`$, are then conveniently expressed in terms of their respective fluorescence center frequencies, $`\omega _S`$ and $`\omega _I`$, and their complex envelopes via, $`\widehat{E}_j(t)=\widehat{A}_j(t)e^{i\omega _jt}`$, for $`j=S,I`$. The full, multi-mode, joint state of these output signal and idler fields is known to be a stationary, entangled, Gaussian pure state that is completely characterized by the following normally-ordered (fluorescence) and phase-sensitive spectra :

$`S^{(n)}(\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}\widehat{A}_S^{}(t+\tau )\widehat{A}_S(t)e^{i\omega \tau }𝑑\tau `$ (4)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}\widehat{A}_I^{}(t+\tau )\widehat{A}_I(t)e^{i\omega \tau }𝑑\tau =\left|{\displaystyle \frac{2G}{1G^2(\omega /\mathrm{\Gamma })^22i\omega /\mathrm{\Gamma }}}\right|^2,`$ (5)
$`S^{(p)}(\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}\widehat{A}_S(t+\tau )\widehat{A}_I(t)e^{i\omega \tau }𝑑\tau ={\displaystyle \frac{2G[1+G^2+(\omega /\mathrm{\Gamma })^2]}{|1G^2(\omega /\mathrm{\Gamma })^22i\omega /\mathrm{\Gamma }|^2}}.`$ (6)
Here, $`G^2`$ is the OPA pump power, normalized to the threshold power for oscillation, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the cavity-loss rate.

To establish an analogy between the multi-mode signal and idler fields and the two-particle EPR state, let us consider an arbitrary pair of entangled single-frequency modes, namely, the signal beam at frequency $`\omega _S+\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ and the idler beam at frequency $`\omega _I\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$. The joint signal$`\times `$idler state for these two modes has the number-ket representation,

$$|\psi _{SI}=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\sqrt{\frac{\overline{N}^n}{(\overline{N}+1)^{n+1}}}|n_S|n_I,$$
(7)
where $`\overline{N}=S^{(n)}(\mathrm{\Delta }\omega )`$ is the average number of photons per mode. Individually, each mode (signal and idler) is in a chaotic (Bose-Einstein) state, but their photon numbers are perfectly correlated. We shall return to this photon-pair property in the sections to follow. Our present course is to connect this signal$`\times `$idler state to the EPR state. For that purpose we need the field-quadrature representation for $`|\psi _{SI}`$.

The real and imaginary parts of a photon annihilation operator, $`\widehat{a}`$, i.e, its quadrature components $`\widehat{a}_1\text{Re}(\widehat{a})`$ and $`\widehat{a}_2\text{Im}(\widehat{a})`$, behave like normalized versions of position and momentum. In particular, the $`\widehat{a}_1`$ eigenkets, $`|\alpha _1`$, are related to the $`\widehat{a}_2`$ eigenkets, $`|\alpha _2`$, by Fourier transformation, $`|\alpha _2=(1/\sqrt{\pi })_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}e^{2i\alpha _2\alpha _1}|\alpha _1𝑑\alpha _1`$. The joint signal$`\times `$idler state given in Eq. 7 takes the following form, when written in the field-quadrature representation generated by the eigenkets of $`\widehat{a}_{S_1}`$ and $`\widehat{a}_{I_1}`$,

$$|\psi _{SI}=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\psi (\alpha _{S_1},\alpha _{I_1})|\alpha _{S_1}_S|\alpha _{I_1}_I𝑑\alpha _{S_1}\alpha _{I_1},$$
(8)
with

$$\psi (\alpha _{S_1},\alpha _{I_1})\mathrm{exp}\left[(1+2\overline{N})\alpha _{S_1}^2+4\sqrt{\overline{N}(\overline{N}+1)}\alpha _{S_1}\alpha _{I_1}(1+2\overline{N})\alpha _{I_1}^2\right]/\sqrt{\pi /2}.$$
(9)
Equations 8 and 9 are not identical to the EPR state, Eq. 1, but they do embody a nonclassical continuous-variable correlation. Optical homodyne detection  can be used to perform the $`\widehat{a}_{S_1}`$ and $`\widehat{a}_{I_1}`$ measurements. When such measurements are made on the state $`|\psi _{SI}`$, the unconditional (marginal) statistics for the $`\widehat{a}_{S_1}`$ and $`\widehat{a}_{I_1}`$ observations are identical: their individual outcomes are Gaussian random variables, each with mean zero and variance $`(1+2\overline{N})/4`$. It is the joint statistics of these two measurements that reveals pure quantum behavior. In particular, if we are given that the outcome of the $`\widehat{a}_{S_1}`$ measurement is $`\alpha _{S_1}`$, then the conditional statistics of the $`\widehat{a}_{I_1}`$ measurement remain Gaussian, but with conditional mean $`[\sqrt{4\overline{N}(\overline{N}+1)}/(1+2\overline{N})]\alpha _{S_1}`$ and conditional variance $`1/4(1+2\overline{N})`$. Thus, when $`\overline{N}1`$ there is a strong sub-shot-noise correlation between these signal-beam and idler-beam homodyne measurements: the conditional variance is substantially below that coherent-state (shot-noise) level of 1/4. Moreover, as $`\overline{N}\mathrm{}`$, the state $`|\psi _{SI}`$ approaches a normalized version of the EPR state, as can be seen from rewriting $`\psi (\alpha _{S_1},\alpha _{I_1})`$ as follows:

$`\psi (\alpha _{S_1},\alpha _{I_1})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _{S_1}^2}{1+2\overline{N}}}\right)}{[\pi (1+2\overline{N})/2]^{1/4}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{exp}\left[(1+2\overline{N})\left(\alpha _{I_1}{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{4\overline{N}(\overline{N}+1)}}{1+2\overline{N}}}\alpha _{S_1}\right)^2\right]}{[\pi /2(1+2\overline{N})]^{1/4}}}`$ (10)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(\pi \overline{N})^{1/4}}}\delta (\alpha _{I_1}\alpha _{S_1}),\text{as }\overline{N}\mathrm{}\text{.}`$ (11)
Experimental demonstrations of this signal/idler homodyne correlation have already been reported , although for optical parametric oscillators (OPOs)—in which the strong mean fields arising from above-threshold OPA operation act as homodyne-detection local oscillators—rather than for OPAs. An example of such data, obtained from a triply-resonant optical parametric oscillator , is shown in Fig. 2. The upper trace shows the shot-noise level and the lower trace shows the signal-minus-idler intensity difference for frequency detunings, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega /2\pi `$, ranging from 2 to 6 MHz. The $`>5`$ dB noise reduction in the signal-minus-idler intensity difference is a manifestation of the nonclassical correlation cited above for the OPA field quadratures.

## IV Photon-Pair Magic Bullets

Most entanglement experiments that rely on parametric optical interactions draw upon the photon-pair property exhibited in Eq. 7. Moreover, these experiments—which employ non-resonant, parametric downconverters rather than doubly-resonant optical parametric amplifiers—are carried out at extremely low photon fluxes. In this regime, a $`T`$-sec-long photon-counting measurement (on either the signal or idler beam) will yield zero counts with near-unity probability $`1p`$, and one count with probability $`p`$; the probability of multiple counts at such low fluxes is negligible. Photon-pair creation within the $`\chi ^{(2)}`$ medium is nearly instantaneous, but, for our doubly-resonant OPA, the time correlation between signal and idler photons in the output beams is smeared out to several cavity lifetimes. Thus, to represent the OPA version of low-flux photon-pair generation, we decompose $`\widehat{E}_S(t)`$ and $`\widehat{E}_I(t)`$—on a photon-counting interval $`[0,T]`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }T1`$—into operator-valued Fourier series whose coefficients are the photon annihilation operators,

$`\widehat{a}_{S_n}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle _0^T}\widehat{E}_S(t){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{exp}[i(\omega _S+2\pi n/T)t]}{\sqrt{T}}}𝑑t,`$ (12)
$`\widehat{a}_{I_n}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle _0^T}\widehat{E}_I(t){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{exp}[i(\omega _I2\pi n/T)t]}{\sqrt{T}}}𝑑t.`$ (13)
When there is one photon pair present in $`[0,T]`$, its joint state then has the entangled multi-mode number-ket expansion,

$$|\psi _{SI}=\underset{n}{}\psi _n|1_{S_n}|1_{I_n},$$
(14)
in this representation, where $`|\psi _n|^2S^{(n)}(2\pi n/T)`$, and our Fourier-decomposition sign convention has forced there to be an $`\widehat{a}_{I_n}`$ photon present whenever an $`\widehat{a}_{S_n}`$ photon occurs. From this photon-pair state we can exhibit the conjugate-state projection property of the magic bullet effect.

Suppose that we make a measurement that projects the signal photon onto the state $`|\varphi _S=_n\varphi _n|1_{S_n}`$. When that measurement yields a non-zero result, it is easy to see that the idler photon is left in the state,

$$|\psi _I=\frac{{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\psi _n\varphi _n^{}|1_{I_n}}{\sqrt{{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}|\psi _n|^2|\varphi _n|^2}}.$$
(15)
If the $`\psi _n`$ are approximately constant over the $`n`$ values for which $`|\varphi _n|`$ differs significantly from zero, then (except for a physically insignificant absolute phase) we get

$$|\psi _I\underset{n}{}\varphi _n^{}|1_{I_n},$$
(16)
i.e., the projective measurement on the signal photon has placed the idler photon in the conjugate state.

To our knowledge, the preceding conjugate-state projection property of entangled photon pairs has not been observed experimentally. It does, however, have an important application in quantum communications. The recently proposed system for long-distance entanglement transmission (through standard telecommunication fiber) and long-duration optical storage (in trapped-atom quantum memories)  implicitly uses this effect. Let us make that cavity effect explicit.

Consider two high-$`Q`$, initially unexcited, single-ended optical cavities—resonant at frequencies $`\omega _S+\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ and $`\omega _I\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$, respectively—that have no excess losses. Suppose that these cavities are illuminated by the signal and idler fields $`\widehat{E}_S(t)`$ and $`\widehat{E}_I(t)`$ for a $`T_c`$-sec-long time interval, after which photon-counting measurements $`\widehat{n}_S\widehat{a}_S^{}(T_c)\widehat{a}_S(T_c)`$ and $`\widehat{n}_I\widehat{a}_I^{}(T_c)\widehat{a}_I(T_c)`$ are performed on the resulting cavity fields. The intracavity photon annihilation operators at time $`T_c`$, $`\widehat{a}_S(T_c)`$ and $`\widehat{a}_I(T_c)`$, are related to the initial (vacuum-state) cavity operators, $`\widehat{a}_S(0)`$ and $`\widehat{a}_I(0)`$, and the input signal and idler fields via,

$`\widehat{a}_S(T_c)`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{a}_S(0)e^{(\mathrm{\Gamma }_c+i\mathrm{\Delta }\omega )T_c}+{\displaystyle _0^{T_c}}𝑑t\sqrt{2\mathrm{\Gamma }_c}e^{(\mathrm{\Gamma }_c+i\mathrm{\Delta }\omega )(T_ct)+i\omega _St}\widehat{E}_S(t),`$ (17)
$`\widehat{a}_I(T_c)`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{a}_I(0)e^{(\mathrm{\Gamma }_ci\mathrm{\Delta }\omega )T_c}+{\displaystyle _0^{T_c}}𝑑t\sqrt{2\mathrm{\Gamma }_c}e^{(\mathrm{\Gamma }_ci\mathrm{\Delta }\omega )(T_ct)+i\omega _It}\widehat{E}_I(t),`$ (18)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c`$ is the measurement-cavity linewidth. The OPA statistics from Eqs. 5 and 6 can now be used to evaluate the normalized photocount-difference variance, $`\sigma _n^2(\widehat{n}_S\widehat{n}_I)^2/(\widehat{n}_S+\widehat{n}_I)`$, from which the presence of the magic-bullet effect can be deduced.

The magic-bullet effect occurs in the narrowband measurement regime ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c\mathrm{\Gamma }`$), when the cavity-loading time $`T_c`$ is long enough for statistical steady-state to be reached ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_cT_c1`$). In Fig. 3 we have plotted $`\sigma _n^2`$ vs. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, for several values of the normalized detuning, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega /\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, with $`G^2=0.01`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_cT_c1`$. Figure 3 clearly shows the magic bullet effect as $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c/\mathrm{\Gamma }0`$. The low photon-fluxes of the signal and idler beams imply that the $`\widehat{n}_S`$ and $`\widehat{n}_I`$ measurements each yield outcomes that are either zero or one. For there to be a strongly sub-shot-noise value of the normalized photocount-difference variance ($`\sigma _{SI}^21`$), it must be that every signal-cavity count is accompanied by an idler-cavity count, even though the probability that a signal photon will make it into its cavity becomes very low as $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ decreases. Note that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c/\mathrm{\Gamma }1`$ makes the signal and idler fluorescence spectra approximately constant over their respective measurement-cavity linewidths, in keeping with the general conjugate-state projection requirement that the $`\psi _n`$ be approximately constant over the $`n`$ values for which $`|\varphi _n|`$ differs significantly from zero.

## V Magic-Bullet Penetration of Optical Filters

The cavity-loading conjugate-state projection example that we have just seen extracts single-mode measurements—the photon number in each cavity—from the multi-mode illumination fields, $`\widehat{E}_S(t)`$ and $`\widehat{E}_I(t)`$. Our final example of the quantum magic-bullet effect will examine multi-mode measurements of these multi-mode fields.

Suppose that the signal and idler beams from the OPA illuminate a pair of narrowband optical-transmission filters, and that the outputs from these filters, in turn, illuminate a pair of unity quantum efficiency photodetectors. As shown in Fig. 4, we will assume that these filters are symmetrically displaced from the center frequencies of the signal and idler fluorescence spectra, so as to select frequency pairs that are entangled. A magic-bullet effect, if it exists in this framework, would involve photon counting over $`T`$-sec-long time intervals satisfying $`\omega _cT1`$, where $`\omega _c`$ is the filter bandwidth. In particular, using $`\widehat{N}_S`$ and $`\widehat{N}_I`$ to denote the signal and idler count measurements over these intervals, low-flux OPA operation implies that these measurements each yield either zero counts (a high-probability event) or one count (a low probability event). Moreover, the probability that any particular signal photon will successfully pass through the narrowband signal-beam filter will be very low when $`\omega _c\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Thus, if there is a strongly sub-shot-noise signal-minus-idler normalized photocount-difference variance, $`\sigma _N^2(\widehat{N}_S\widehat{N}_I)^2/(\widehat{N}_S+\widehat{N}_I)1`$, it must be that whenever a signal photon is transmitted by the signal-beam filter, there is an accompanying idler photon that is transmitted by its filter. This signal-transmission/idler-transmission pairing is the magic-bullet effect: it occurs whenever $`\sigma _N^21`$, regardless of how unlikely it is for a signal photon to pass through the signal-beam filter.

Magic-bullet filter penetration is intrinsically a multi-mode effect, because of the large time-bandwidth product, $`\omega _cT1`$, that is involved. To analyze this situation, let us assume that the signal and idler filters have no excess losses, and that their intensity transmissions have $`K`$th-order Butterworth shapes given by,

$`|H_S(\omega )|^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+[(\omega \omega _S\mathrm{\Delta }\omega )/\omega _c]^{2K}}},`$ (19)
$`|H_I(\omega )|^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+[(\omega \omega _I+\mathrm{\Delta }\omega )/\omega _c]^{2K}}}.`$ (20)
The OPA statistics from  can be combined with the analysis techniques from  to show that $`\sigma _N^21/2K`$, for $`\omega _c/\mathrm{\Gamma }1`$ when $`\omega _cT1`$. Evidently, there is a magic bullet effect here, but it requires the use of steep-skirted optical filters, i.e., $`K1`$.

## VI Discussion

In this paper we have laid out the basic properties of quantum magic bullets. Starting from the continuous-variable entanglement considered by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen, we have shown that a projective measurement on one particle of an entangled pair projects the other into the conjugate (time-reversed) state. Conjugate-state projection, in turn, permitted us to show that when one particle successfully negotiates a scattering potential, its entangled companion will pass through a related scattering potential with probability one, no matter how unlikely the first event was. This is the quantum magic bullet. In seeking optical realizations of magic bullets, we first showed that the field-quadrature entanglement that exists between appropriately-paired signal and idler frequencies from optical parametric interactions approximates the EPR-state. The sub-shot-noise levels seen in OPA quadrature-squeezing experiments  implicitly confirm this behavior. The photon-twins behavior seen in OPO intensity-difference measurements , provide a direct demonstration of the nonclassical correlation between the signal and idler frequencies. The full, joint Bose-Einstein state has also been seen, in the output from a parametric downconverter, via quantum-state tomography .

The field-quadrature form of optical magic bullets is an asymptotic effect that is strongly nonclassical only when the average photon number per mode is high. Furthermore, it requires the use of homodyne or self-homodyne measurements. Photon-pair counting measurements in the low-flux operating regime provide a more attractive optical magic-bullet scenario, although they do not represent the perfect analog of the EPR-state position-momentum entanglement that the $`\overline{N}\mathrm{}`$ field-quadrature state does. The single-mode realization of the photon-pair magic bullet, based on intracavity photon-counting, has yet to be demonstrated experimentally. Nevertheless, it is intrinsic to the coupling of polarization-entangled photons from an OPA pair  into a trapped-atom quantum memory  for the purpose of long-distance transmission and long-duration storage of qubits . The multi-mode realization of the photon-pair magic bullet requires that steep-skirted, low-excess-loss filters be used. A possible experimental realization might use a grating/lens/pinhole system in which the frequency components of the signal and idler beams were first dispersed in angle, then focused to spatially separate them on a detector plane, where a pinhole would provide steep-skirted frequency selection prior to photodetection.

###### Acknowledgements.

This research was supported by the National Reconnaissance Office under contract NRO000-00-C-0032.