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# Star Formation and the ISM in Dwarf Galaxies

## 1. Motivation

Color-magnitude diagrams of the stars within the nearest dwarf galaxies give detailed information about how many stars formed, where, and when. In general, star formation rates go up and down as time passes and the galaxies evolve. What is happening in the interstellar medium (ISM) to cause these fluctuations in the star formation rate? The issue is critical to an understanding of galaxy evolution. We attempt to answer this question by studying the properties of the ISM in a sample of dwarf galaxies with good color-magnitude information.

We also study the ISM in the nearby dwarfs because it may offer the closest analog to conditions which prevailed in the very early universe. Specifically, the nearby dwarfs have extremely low metallicities. Heavy metals in the gas phase and in dust are responsible for most of the heating and cooling of the interstellar medium, not to mention the formation of molecular gas. A better understanding of how the ISM works in the nearby dwarf galaxies may find broader application to galaxy evolution and very distant systems.

## 2. Sample and Observations

It has long been known that a careful analysis of HI line profiles can give insight into the temperature and density structure of the ISM (e.g. Radhakrishnan et al. 1972). We are applying these ideas to a sample of seven nearby ($``$ 3 Mpc) gas-rich dwarf galaxies. In order to study the HI line profiles without too much interference from rotational broadening in the finite HI beam, the galaxies must be low mass and/or close to face-on. The galaxies in our sample have HI masses about $`10^7`$ M, and dynamical masses are a few times larger than that. These galaxies have oxygen abundances in the range 4% to 10% of solar, which are approaching the lowest metallicities known for galaxies.

The HI line profiles are obtained from VLA observations with 15<sup>′′</sup> (70 to 200 pc) and 1.3 km/s resolution. We also use ground-based optical broadband and H$`\alpha `$ imaging (e.g. van Zee 2000) to show regions of current and past star formation activity. Four of the galaxies have stellar color-magnitude information from HST, which allows us to trace the star formation activity as a function of time and place within the galaxy.

## 3. The Phase Structure of the Neutral ISM

Contrary to expectations, the HI line width as measured by a second moment of intensity decreases in regions of high column density and near star formation activity. This happens because the shape of the HI line profile changes significantly near regions of star formation. Throughout each galaxy studied, we find a broad HI component, well fitted by a Gaussian of dispersion 8–10 km/s, and containing about 80% of the HI in the galaxy. Its dispersion limits its kinetic temperature to be $`<10^4`$ K. In some regions, near the locations of current star formation activity, there is superposed a narrower component of dispersion 3–5 km/s, with about 20% of the HI mass and kinetic temperature $`<`$ 1000 K. These temperature limits do not take into account possible line broadening from magnetic fields, turbulence, and so on. Figure 1 shows some of these types of spectra from the galaxy GR 8. More details about the analysis of line profiles can be found in Young & Lo (1996; 1997), where we discuss the galaxies Leo A, Sag DIG, and LGS 3.

We identify the broader HI component as a warm (or more turbulent) neutral HI phase, and the narrower component as a cold (or more quiescent) HI phase. That’s because the properties of the dwarf irregular HI spectra are exactly analogous to those of the HI emission spectra in our own Galaxy (Kulkarni & Heiles 1988). In addition, the broad and narrow (warm and cold) HI features are also seen in an intermediate velocity HI cloud (Shaw et al. 1996) and the Magellanic Clouds (e.g. Dickey et al. 1994). The broad and narrow HI components should be seen in many other galaxies as well, if the sensitivity, spectral resolution, and no-rotational-broadening requirements can be met.

Because of the dependence of heating and cooling on heavy metals in the ISM, as mentioned above, it’s not obvious whether a stable multiphase medium similar to the one found in our Galaxy should exist in the dwarf irregulars. Young & Lo (1996, 1997) consider some theoretical models of the phase structure of the Milky Way ISM. They find that these Galactic models can be extended to conditions which are appropriate for the dwarf irregulars, and the models are consistent with observations if the thermal pressure in the dwarf irregulars is a bit lower than in our own Galaxy. These results give greater confidence that the Galactic ISM models may be extended to fit other systems as well— for example, high-redshift quasar absorption lines also indicate multiphase media (Churchill, this conference; Chengalur, this conference).

## 4. Star Formation and the ISM

What do the warm and cold phases of the atomic medium have to do with star formation? After all, the star formation is probably happening in molecular gas. But CO emission has not been detected in galaxies of this type (Taylor et al. 1998), presumably because of the low metallicity. We hypothesize that the cold, dense atomic phase is telling us where conditions are right for the formation of molecular gas and stars. Figure 2 shows that the narrow (cold) HI component is localized near regions of star formation activity in GR 8, whereas the broad (warm) HI component is spread throughout the galaxy.

The properties of the cold HI phase in the dwarf galaxies also explain some important results about how star formation happens in these galaxies. Dohm-Palmer et al. (1997, 1998) traced the star formation activity in Sextans A and in GR 8 as a function of both time and location. They find that star formation occurs in regions or complexes of size 100-200 pc; the activity lasts in one region for about 100 Myr and moves around through the galaxy in a way which is loosely organized at best. The narrow (cold) atomic component is found in patches of about the same size as the star formation regions (Figure 2), so it may trace the raw material for star formation activity. The sizes and linewidths of the narrow HI clumps imply virial masses which are a few times larger than the HI masses alone; part of the difference may be caused by molecular gas.

We plan to test these ideas more fully by exploring the evolution of the ISM with time. For example, the cold HI phase may be a prerequisite for star formation but should be gradually destroyed as the young massive stars inject radiation and kinetic energy into the surrounding gas. We cannot watch the evolution of an individual region of a galaxy, but stellar color-magnitude diagrams for a sample of galaxies will place ages on many different regions. By finding a sequence of star formation regions of different ages, we may be able to watch the evolution of the ISM through the onset of star formation and the disruption of the raw material for star formation.

### Acknowledgments.

J. Salzer is gratefully acknowledged for providing the optical and H$`\alpha `$ images of GR 8.

## References

Dickey, J. M., Mebold, U., Marx, M., Amy, S., Haynes, R. F., & Wilson, W. 1994, A&A, 289, 357

Dohm-Palmer, R. C., Skillman, E. D., Gallagher, J. S., et al. 1998, AJ, 116, 1227

Dohm-Palmer, R. C., Skillman, E. D., et al. 1997, AJ, 114, 2527

Kulkarni, S., & Heiles, C. 1988, in Galactic and Extragalactic Radio Astronomy, ed. G. Verschuur & K. Kellermann (2d ed; New York: Springer), 95

Radhakrishnan, V., Murray, J. D., Lockhart, P., & Whittle, R. P. J. 1972, ApJS, 24, 15

Shaw, C. R., Bates, B., Kemp, S. N., Keenan, F. P., Daview, R. D., & Roger, R. S. 1996, ApJ, 473, 849

Taylor, C. L., Kobulnicky, H. A. and Skillman, E. D. 1998, AJ, 116, 2746

van Zee, L. 2000, AJ, 119, 2757

Young, L. M., & Lo, K. Y. 1996, ApJ

Young, L. M., & Lo, K. Y. 1997, ApJ

Question: (J. Rhoads) What are the dynamical times in these galaxies. ie., how long does it take a star to orbit the galaxy and forget where it was born?

Response: Dohm-Palmer et al. (1997) discuss this issue, and they argue that the remnant structures of star formation activity could easily last for 0.5 to 1 Gyr. One of the reasons for this longevity is that these small galaxies appear to be rotating in solid-body fashion, with no shear and no spiral density waves.


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# Bound entangled Gaussian states

## I Introduction

Many experiments in the young field of quantum information physics are not carried out on finite dimensional quantum systems, for which most of the basic theory has been developed, but in the quantum optical setting. In that setting the basic variables are quadratures of field modes, which satisfy canonical commutation relations, and hence have no finite dimensional realizations. It would seem that the theory therefore becomes burdened with all the technical difficulties of infinite dimensional spaces, while theoreticians are on the other hand still struggling to answer some simple questions about qubit systems. However, the states relevant in quantum optics are often of a special kind, and for this class the typical questions of quantum information theory are luckily of the same complexity as for the usual finite dimensional systems.

This simple class of states of “continuous variable systems” is the class of Gaussian states, i.e., those states whose Wigner function is a Gaussian on phase space. Such a state is therefore completely specified by its mean and its covariance matrix, where the mean is irrelevant for entanglement questions, because it can be shifted to zero by a local unitary (phase space translation). It turns out that the basic entanglement properties of a Gaussian density matrix (as a state on two infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces) can be translated very nicely into properties of its covariance matrix (see Section 2), so that problems involving Gaussian states are reduced to problems of finite dimensional linear algebra rather reminiscent of the problems involving finite dimensional density matrices.

For the latter it is well known  that the positivity of the partial transpose (“ppt”) is necessary for separability, but sufficient only for the smallest non-trivial systems, namely systems in dimensions $`22`$ and $`23`$. In all higher dimensions we can find “bound entangled states”, which are not separable, but nevertheless have a positive partial transpose, and are hence not distillible . In the case of continuous variable systems the first nontrivial examples of this kind were obtained in . In the Gaussian setting it was shown by Simon  that for bipartite systems with one canonical degree of freedom on each side (Alice and Bob), i.e., once again for the simplest possible systems, the equivalence of ppt and separability also holds. For this system it was also shown that non-ppt states are indeed distillible . In the present paper we settle the relationship between separability and ppt for all higher dimensions, showing that the equivalence holds also for systems of $`1\times N`$ oscillators, but fails for all higher dimensions. We show this by giving explicit examples for $`2\times 2`$ oscillators.

The key idea for constructing bound entangled Gaussian states is the notion of “minimally ppt” covariance matrices. These are defined as the covariance matrices of ppt Gaussian states, which are not larger (in matrix ordering) than the covariance matrix of any other ppt Gaussian state. It is easy to see that a minimally ppt covariance matrix belongs to a separable state iff that state is a product state. Hence bound entangled Gaussians arise from all minimally ppt covariance matrices, which are not block diagonal. Numerically, minimally ppt covariance matrices can be obtained very efficiently by successively subtracting rank one operators from a given covariance matrix. This algorithm is reminiscent of techniques for density matrices in the context of “best separable approximation” . Running this procedure for $`2\times 2`$ or larger systems generically gives bound entangled Gaussian states.

Our paper is organized as follows: In Section 2 we will set up the basic notation, and the translation of separability and ppt conditions into properties of covariance matrices (for separability this appears to be new). We also describe the minimally ppt covariance matrices. In Section 3 we prove the equivalence for the $`1\times N`$ case, and in Section 4 we present a five parameter family of $`2\times 2`$ bound entangled states.

## II Gaussian states and entanglement

A system of $`f`$ canonical degrees of freedom is described classically in a phase space, which is a $`2f`$-dimensional real vector space $`X`$. The canonical structure is given by a $`2f\times 2f`$ matrix $`\sigma `$, known as the symplectic matrix, which is antisymmetric and non-singular. With a suitable choice of coordinates (“canonical coordinates”), it can be brought into a standard form: The $`2f`$ variables are then grouped into $`f`$ canonical pairs (e.g., position and momentum), for each of which the symplectic matrix takes the form $`\sigma =\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$, and all other matrix elements vanish.

The symplectic matrix also governs the canonical commutation relations for the corresponding quantum system: if $`R_\alpha `$, $`\alpha =1,\mathrm{},2f`$ are canonical operators (for canonical coordinates these are naturally grouped into $`f`$ standard position operators and $`f`$ standard momentum operators), the commutation relations read

$$i[R_\alpha ,R_\beta ]=\sigma _{\alpha \beta }\mathrm{𝟏}.$$
(1)
These relations may be exponentiated to the Weyl relations involving unitaries $`W(\xi )=\mathrm{exp}(i\xi \sigma R)`$, where $`\xi X`$, and $`\xi \sigma R=_{\alpha \beta }\xi _\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \beta }R_\beta `$. These Weyl operators implement the phase space translations. We will assume that they act irreducibly on the given Hilbert space, i.e., that there are no further degrees of freedom. Then by von Neumann’s uniqueness Theorem  the $`R_\alpha `$ are unitarily equivalent to the usual position and momentum operators in the $`^2`$ space over position space.

For a general density operator $`\rho `$ we define the mean as the vector $`m_\alpha =\mathrm{tr}(\rho R_\alpha )`$, and the covariance matrix $`\gamma `$ by

$$\gamma _{\alpha \beta }+i\sigma _{\alpha \beta }=2\mathrm{tr}\left[\rho (R_\alpha m_\alpha \mathrm{𝟏})(R_\beta m_\beta \mathrm{𝟏})\right],$$
(2)
which is well-defined whenever all of the unbounded positive operators $`R_\alpha ^2`$ have finite expectations in $`\rho `$. Due to the canonical commutation relations the antisymmetric part of the right hand side is indeed the symplectic matrix, independently of the state $`\rho `$. The state-dependent covariance matrix $`\gamma `$ is therefore real and symmetric. Moreover, $`\gamma +i\sigma `$ is obviously positive definite.

A Gaussian state is best defined in terms of its characteristic function, which for a general state is $`\xi \mathrm{tr}(\rho W(\xi ))`$. This should be seen as the quantum Fourier transform  of $`\rho `$, and is indeed the Fourier transform of the Wigner function of $`\rho `$. Hence we call $`\rho `$ Gaussian, if its characteristic function is of the form

$$\mathrm{tr}\left[\rho W(\xi )\right]=\mathrm{exp}\left(im^T\xi \frac{1}{4}\xi ^T\gamma \xi \right).$$
(3)
Here the coefficients were chosen such that $`\gamma `$ and $`m`$ are indeed covariance and mean of $`\rho `$, as is readily verified by differentiation. The necessary condition $`\gamma +i\sigma 0`$, which is equivalent to $`\gamma i\sigma 0`$ by complex conjugation, is also sufficient for Equation (3) to define a positive operator $`\rho `$. We note for later use that a Gaussian state is pure iff $`(\sigma ^1\gamma )^2=\mathrm{𝟏}`$, which is equivalent to $`\gamma +i\sigma `$ having maximal number of null eigenvectors, i.e., the null space $`𝒩=\left\{\mathrm{\Phi }\right|(\gamma +i\sigma )\mathrm{\Phi }=0\}`$ has dimension $`(dimX)/2`$. Note that this null space must always be considered as a complex linear subspace of $`\text{ }\text{C}^{2f}`$, the complexification of $`X`$. For such a complex subspace we denote by $`\mathrm{}e𝒩`$ the subspace of $`X`$ consisting of all real parts of vectors in $`𝒩`$. Then a Gaussian state is pure iff $`\mathrm{}e𝒩=X`$.

Let us now consider bipartite systems. The phase space is then split into two phase spaces $`X=X_AX_B`$, where $`A`$ stands for Alice and $`B`$ for Bob. This is a “symplectic direct sum”, which means that $`\sigma =\sigma _A\sigma _B`$ is block diagonal with respect to this decomposition. In other words, Alice’s canonical operators $`R_\alpha `$ commute with all of Bob’s. The Weyl operators are naturally identified with tensor products: $`W(\xi _A\xi _B)W(\xi _A)W(\xi _B)`$. We call this an $`f_A\times f_B`$ system, if $`dimX_A=2f_A`$, and $`dimX_B=2f_B`$.

It is clear from (2) and (3) that the covariance matrix of a product state is block diagonal and, conversely, a Gaussian state with block diagonal $`\gamma `$ is a product state. Separability is characterized as follows:

###### Proposition 1

Let $`\gamma `$ be the covariance matrix of a separable state with finite second moments. Then there are covariance matrices $`\gamma _A`$ and $`\gamma _B`$ such that

$$\gamma \left(\begin{array}{cc}\gamma _A& 0\\ 0& \gamma _B\end{array}\right).$$
(4)
Conversely, if this condition is satisfied, the Gaussian state with covariance $`\gamma `$ is separable.

In order to show the first statement suppose the given state is decomposed into product states with covariance $`\gamma ^k`$ and mean $`m^k`$ with convex weight $`\lambda _k`$. Then $`m_\alpha =_k\lambda _km_\alpha ^k`$ and, similarly, for the second moments we have

$$\gamma _{\alpha \beta }+2m_\alpha m_\beta =\underset{k}{}\lambda _k\left(\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^k+2m_\alpha ^km_\beta ^k\right).$$
(5)
Hence the difference between $`\gamma `$ and the block diagonal $`_k\lambda _k\gamma ^k`$ is the matrix

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_{\alpha \beta }=2\left(\underset{k}{}\lambda _km_\alpha ^km_\beta ^k\underset{k\mathrm{}}{}\lambda _k\lambda _{\mathrm{}}m_\alpha ^km_\beta ^{\mathrm{}}\right),$$
(6)
which is positive definite, because $`\xi _\alpha \xi _\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_{\alpha \beta }=_k\mathrm{}\lambda _k\lambda _{\mathrm{}}(s_ks_{\mathrm{}})^20`$, where $`s_k=_\alpha \xi _\alpha m_\alpha `$.

In order to show the converse, let $`\sigma `$ be the Gaussian product state with covariance $`\gamma _A\gamma _B`$, and let $`\gamma ^{}=\gamma \gamma _A\gamma _B0`$. Then $`\gamma ^{}`$ is the covariance of a classical Gaussian probability distribution $`P`$, and the characteristic function of the given state $`\rho `$ is the product of the characteristic function of $`\sigma `$ and the Fourier transform of $`P`$. Hence $`\rho `$ is the convolution of $`\sigma `$ and $`P`$ in the sense of , which is the average of the phase space translates $`W(\xi )\sigma W(\xi )^{}`$ over $`\xi `$ with weight $`P`$. Since all these states will be product states, $`\rho `$ is separable.

There are different ways of characterizing the partial transpose. One simple way is to say that with respect to some set of canonical coordinates the momenta in Alice’s system are reversed, while her position coordinates and all of Bob’s canonical variables are left unchanged. In addition, the order of factors in the partial transpose of $`R_\alpha R_\beta `$ is reversed when both factors belong to Alice. When we replace $`\rho `$ in (2) by its partial transpose, we therefore find the antisymmetric part of the equation unchanged, whereas $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }`$ picks up a factor $`1`$ whenever just one of the indices corresponds to one of Alice’s momenta. Let us call the resulting covariance matrix by $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$. Clearly, if the partial transpose of $`\rho `$ is again a density operator, we must have $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }+i\sigma 0`$. But this is equivalent to $`\gamma +i\stackrel{~}{\sigma }0`$, where in $`\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$ the corresponding components are reversed, so that $`\stackrel{~}{\sigma }=(\sigma _A)\sigma _B`$. This form of the condition is even valid if we do not insist on canonical variables. Combining it with the positivity condition for Gaussian states we get the following characterization:

###### Proposition 2

Let $`\gamma `$ be the covariance matrix of a state with finite second moments, which has positive partial transpose. Then

$$\gamma +i\stackrel{~}{\sigma }0,\text{where }\stackrel{~}{\sigma }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\sigma _A& 0\\ 0& \sigma _B\end{array}\right).$$
(7)
Conversely, if this condition is satisfied, the Gaussian state with covariance $`\gamma `$ has positive partial transpose.

When $`\rho `$ is separable, Proposition 1 shows the existence of a block diagonal $`\gamma ^{}=\gamma _A\gamma _B`$ with $`\gamma \gamma ^{}`$. Since $`\gamma _A`$ and $`\gamma _B`$ are covariance matrices in their own right, we have $`\gamma _A\pm i\sigma _A0`$, and similarly for Bob’s side. But this means that $`\gamma \gamma ^{}i\sigma `$ and $`\gamma \gamma ^{}i\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$, and $`\gamma `$ has positive partial transpose, as a separable density operator should. We have made this explicit, because it shows that it may be interesting to see how much “space” there is between $`\gamma `$ and $`i\sigma `$ and $`i\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$. This leads to the central definition of this paper:

###### Definition 1

We say that a real symmetric matrix $`\gamma `$ is a ppt-covariance, if $`\gamma +i\sigma 0`$ and $`\gamma +i\stackrel{~}{\sigma }0`$, and that it is minimally ppt, if it is a ppt-covariance, and any ppt-covariance $`\gamma ^{}`$ with $`\gamma \gamma ^{}`$ must be equal to $`\gamma `$.

Note that a minimally ppt matrix $`\gamma `$ is separable if and only if it is a direct sum, i.e., if the corresponding state factorizes. There is a rather effective criterion for deciding whether a given ppt-covariance is even minimally ppt: First of all, if there were any $`\gamma ^{}\gamma `$ with $`\gamma ^{}\gamma `$, we can also choose $`\gamma \gamma ^{}=\mathrm{\Delta }`$ to be a rank one operator, i.e., a matrix of the form $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\alpha \beta }=\xi _\alpha \xi _\beta `$. Then we have $`\gamma +i\sigma ϵ\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for sufficiently small positive $`ϵ`$ if and only if $`\xi `$ is in the support of the positive operator $`\gamma +i\sigma `$. The same reasoning applies to $`\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$, so that $`\gamma `$ is minimally ppt iff there is no real vector $`\xi `$, which is in the support of both $`\gamma +i\sigma `$ and $`\gamma +i\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$. Rephrasing this in terms of the orthogonal complements of the supports, we get the following characterization which we will use later on:

###### Proposition 3

Let $`\gamma `$ be a ppt-covariance, and let $`𝒩`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$ denote the null spaces of $`\gamma +i\sigma `$ and $`\gamma +i\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$, respectively. Then $`\gamma `$ is minimally ppt if and only if $`\mathrm{}e𝒩`$ and $`\mathrm{}e\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$ together span $`X`$.

This gives an effective procedure to find a minimally ppt $`\gamma ^{}`$ below a given $`\gamma `$: in each step one subtracts the largest admissible multiple of a rank one operator with vector $`\xi `$ orthogonal to the span of $`\mathrm{}e𝒩`$ and $`\mathrm{}e\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$, which is then in the supports of $`\gamma +i\sigma `$ and $`\gamma +i\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$. In every step this will either increase $`𝒩`$ or $`\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$, so that a minimally ppt covariance matrix is reached after a finite number of steps.

## III The $`1\times N`$ case

This section is devoted to the proof that, for Gaussian states of $`1\times N`$ systems, ppt implies separability. It is clear from the previous section that this is equivalent to saying that every minimally ppt covariance matrix is block diagonal, i.e., belongs to a product state. So throughout this section we assume that $`\gamma `$ is a minimally ppt covariance matrix.

As a first step we get rid of irrelevant pure state factors in the following sense: Suppose that the two null spaces have a non-trivial intersection, i.e., there is a $`\mathrm{\Phi }0`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }𝒩\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$. Then $`(\sigma \stackrel{~}{\sigma })\mathrm{\Phi }=(i\gamma i\gamma )\mathrm{\Phi }=0`$, so $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ has non-zero components only in Bob’s part of the system. So let $`X_C`$ denote the subspace of $`X_B`$ spanned by real and imaginary part of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. Then the restriction of the state to the subsystem $`C`$ satisfies the pure state condition (its covariance matrix $`\gamma _C+i\sigma _C`$ has a null vector by construction). It follows that the density matrix factorizes: $`\rho _{A,BC,C}=\rho _{A,BC}\rho _C`$, where $`\rho _C`$ is a pure state. (This conclusion can also be obtained purely on the level of covariance matrices, by introducing in $`X_B`$ a basis of canonical variables containing a canonical basis of $`X_C`$). Clearly, the separability of such a state is equivalent to the separability of $`\rho `$, and the covariance matrix restricted to $`X_AX_{BC}`$ is again minimally ppt. Hence we have reduced the problem to the analogous one for the smaller space $`X_AX_{BC}`$.

We may therefore assume without loss of generality that the null spaces $`𝒩`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$ have trivial intersection. This means that we proceed by contradiction, since we want to prove ultimately that the state is a product of “irrelevant pure state factors”.

Now let $`0\mathrm{\Phi }𝒩`$ and $`0\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$. Then because $`\gamma `$ is hermitian, we have $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }},\gamma \mathrm{\Phi }=\gamma \stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }},\mathrm{\Phi }`$. Using the null space conditions and the skew hermiticity of $`\sigma `$, we can rewrite this as

$$\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }},(\sigma \stackrel{~}{\sigma })\mathrm{\Phi }=0.$$
(8)
Now the vector $`(\sigma \stackrel{~}{\sigma })\mathrm{\Phi }`$ must be nonzero, since otherwise we would have $`\mathrm{\Phi }𝒩\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$. This is a condition on the $`X_A`$-components $`\mathrm{\Phi }_A`$ of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, since $`\sigma `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$ differ only on that two-dimensional subspace. By the same token the $`X_A`$-component $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}_A`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ must be non-zero. Hence all vectors $`(\sigma \stackrel{~}{\sigma })\mathrm{\Phi }`$ lie in the one dimensional subspace of $`\text{ }\text{C}X_A`$ orthogonal to $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}_A0`$. The proportionality constant is thus a linear functional on $`𝒩`$ vanishing only for $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0`$, which means that $`𝒩`$ must be one dimensional. By symmetry $`dim\stackrel{~}{𝒩}=1`$. By Proposition 3 the spaces $`\mathrm{}e𝒩`$ and $`\mathrm{}e\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$ together span $`X`$, and since they are two dimensional, it follows that $`dimX4`$, i.e., we can have at most a $`1\times 1`$ system. For such systems our claim has been shown by Simon , and is hence proved.

## IV $`2\times 2`$ bound entangled states

It was already mentioned in the introduction that numerical examples of minimally ppt covariances, which do not split into $`\gamma _A\gamma _B`$ are easily generated by the subtraction method. In contrast, the subtraction method for $`1\times N`$ systems always ends up at a block diagonal $`\gamma `$. This is rather striking, but not really conclusive, because the numerical determination of the null space of a matrix which may have small eigenvalues may depend critically on rounding errors. We have therefore prepared the following all integer $`2\times 2`$ example $`\gamma `$:

$$\gamma =\left(\begin{array}{cccccccc}2& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 1\\ 0& 0& 2& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 1& 0& 0\\ 1& 0& 0& 0& 2& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 4& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 2& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 4\end{array}\right).$$
(9)
The key to getting simple examples is symmetry, which in turn simplifies the verification of the basic properties. The most important symmetry in the example is the multiplication operator $`S`$ with diagonal matrix elements $`(1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1)`$. It satisfies $`S\sigma +\stackrel{~}{\sigma }S=0`$, and $`S\gamma =\gamma S`$. Consequently, $`\gamma +i\sigma `$ and $`\gamma i\stackrel{~}{\sigma }=S(\gamma +i\sigma )S`$ are unitarily equivalent, so it suffices to check the positivity and to compute the null space of $`\gamma +i\sigma `$. We note in passing that this unitary equivalence is not necessary for bound entangled Gaussians, since generically the spectra of $`\gamma +i\sigma `$ and $`\gamma +i\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$ are different.

Further unitaries commuting with the covariance matrix (9) are the multiplication operator $`C`$ with diagonal matrix elements $`(1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1)`$, and the skew symmetric operator $`R`$ with $`R_{13}=R_{24}=R_{75}=R_{86}=1`$, and zero remaining entries. All these operators have square $`\pm \mathrm{𝟏}`$, and commute with each other and the symplectic forms up to signs. Therefore, if we start with a generic vector $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1𝒩`$, the application of $`R,C,S`$ and products of these operators yields eight vectors $`\mathrm{\Omega }_i`$, which form a basis of $`\text{ }\text{C}^8`$. Since these vectors lie in either $`𝒩,\stackrel{~}{𝒩}`$ or their complex conjugates we know how $`\gamma `$ acts on them and the covariance matrix is thus determined by $`\gamma =\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$, where $`\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Omega }`$ denote the matrices consisting of column vectors $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_k=\gamma \mathrm{\Omega }_k`$. The above $`\gamma `$ is generated in this manner from

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_1=(1,i,2,3i,1,i,1,0).$$
(10)
Then the condition of Proposition 3 is satisfied by construction, and we only have to verify that $`\gamma +i\sigma 0`$, which is again simplified by this operator commuting with $`R`$. Explicitly, we get the eigenvalues $`0,3\sqrt{3},3,3+\sqrt{3}`$, each with multiplicity $`2`$.

Generalizing this example we can construct a five parameter family of bound entangled Gaussian states commuting with $`R,S`$ and $`C`$ in the same manner as above. We start with a generic vector

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_1=(a,ib,c,id,e,if,1,0),a,b,\mathrm{},f>0.$$
(11)
Then $`\gamma `$ being real and symmetric requires $`d=(bc+f)/a`$ and from the characteristic function of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k,\mathrm{\Lambda }_l+i\sigma \mathrm{\Omega }_l`$ we obtain that $`\gamma +i\sigma 0`$ iff $`ace`$, where equality is ruled out since this would be equivalent to $`det(\mathrm{\Omega })=0`$.

States obtained from (11) are all of a non block diagonal form similar to (9), and are hence bound entangled.

## Acknowledgement

Funding by the European Union project EQUIP (contract IST-1999-11053) and financial support from the DFG (Bonn) is gratefully acknowledged.


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# Untitled Document

Formation of Root Singularities on the Free Surface
of a Conducting Fluid in an Electric Field

N. M. Zubarev

Institute of Electrophysics, Ural Division, Russian Academy of Sciences,
106 Amundsena Street, 620016 Ekaterinburg, Russia
e-mail: nick@ami.uran.ru

## Abstract

The formation of singularities on a free surface of a conducting ideal fluid in a strong electric field is considered. It is found that the nonlinear equations of two-dimensional fluid motion can be solved in the small-angle approximation. This enables us to show that for almost arbitrary initial conditions the surface curvature becomes infinite in a finite time.

Electrohydrodynamic instability of a free surface of a conducting fluid in an external electric field  plays an essential role in a general problem of the electric strength. The interaction of strong electric field with induced charges at the surface of the fluid (liquid metal for applications) leads to the avalanche-like growth of surface perturbations and, as a consequence, to the formation of regions with high energy concentration which destruction can be accompanied by intensive emissive processes.

In this Letter we will show that the nonlinear equations of motion of a conducting fluid can be effectively solved in the approximation of small perturbations of the boundary. This allows us to study the nonlinear dynamics of the electrohydrodynamic instability and, in particular, the most physically meaningful singular solutions.

Let us consider an irrotational motion of a conducting ideal fluid with a free surface, $`z=\eta (x,y,t)`$, that occupies the region $`\mathrm{}<z\eta (x,y,t)`$, in an external uniform electric field $`E`$. We will assume the influence of gravitational and capillary forces to be negligibly small, which corresponds to the condition

$$E^28\pi \sqrt{g\alpha \rho },$$

where $`g`$ is the acceleration of gravity, $`\alpha `$ is the surface tension coefficient, and $`\rho `$ is the mass density.

The potential of the electric field $`\phi `$ satisfies the Laplace equation,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\phi =0,$$

with the following boundary conditions,

$$\phi Ez,z\mathrm{},$$

$$\phi =0,z=\eta .$$

The velocity potential $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ satisfies the incompressibility equation

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }=0,$$

which one should solve together with the dynamic and kinematic relations on the free surface,

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{t}+\frac{(\mathrm{\Phi })^2}{2}=\frac{(\phi )^2}{8\pi \rho }+F(t),z=\eta ,$$

$$\frac{\eta }{t}=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{z}\eta \mathrm{\Phi },z=\eta ,$$

where $`F`$ is some function of variable $`t`$, and the boundary condition

$$\mathrm{\Phi }0,z\mathrm{}.$$

The quantities $`\eta (x,y,t)`$ $`\psi (x,y,t)=\mathrm{\Phi }|_{z=\eta }`$ are canonically conjugated, so that the equations of motion take the Hamiltonian form ,

$$\frac{\psi }{t}=\frac{\delta H}{\delta \eta },\frac{\eta }{t}=\frac{\delta H}{\delta \psi },$$

where the Hamiltonian

$$H=\underset{z\eta }{}\frac{(\mathrm{\Phi })^2}{2}d^3r\underset{z\eta }{}\frac{(\phi )^2}{8\pi \rho }d^3r$$

coincides with the total energy of a system. With the help of the Green formula it can be rewritten as the surface integral,

$$H=\underset{s}{}\left[\frac{\psi }{2}\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{n}+\frac{E\eta }{8\pi \rho }\frac{\stackrel{~}{\phi }}{n}\right]𝑑s,$$

where $`\stackrel{~}{\phi }=\phi +Ez`$ is the perturbation of the electric field potential; $`ds`$ is the surface differential.

Let us assume $`|\eta |1`$, which corresponds to the approximation of small surface angles. In such a case we can expand the integrand in a power series of canonical variables $`\eta `$ and $`\psi `$. Restricting ourselves to quadratic and cubic terms we find after scale transformations

$$ttE^1(4\pi \rho )^{1/2},\psi \psi E/(4\pi \rho )^{1/2},HHE^2/(4\pi \rho )$$

the following expression for the Hamiltonian,

$$H=\frac{1}{2}\left[\psi \widehat{k}\psi +\eta \left((\psi )^2(\widehat{k}\psi )^2\right)\right]d^2r$$

$$\frac{1}{2}\left[\eta \widehat{k}\eta \eta \left((\eta )^2(\widehat{k}\eta )^2\right)\right]d^2r.$$

Here $`\widehat{k}`$ is the integral operator with the difference kernel, whose Fourier transform is the modulus of the wave vector,

$$\widehat{k}f=\frac{1}{2\pi }\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{f(x^{},y^{})}{\left[(x^{}x)^2+(y^{}y)^2\right]^{3/2}}𝑑x^{}𝑑y^{}.$$

The equations of motion, corresponding to this Hamiltonian, take the following form,

$$\psi _t\widehat{k}\eta =\frac{1}{2}\left[(\widehat{k}\psi )^2(\psi )^2+(\widehat{k}\eta )^2(\eta )^2\right]+\widehat{k}(\eta \widehat{k}\eta )+(\eta \eta ),$$
(1)
$$\eta _t\widehat{k}\psi =\widehat{k}(\eta \widehat{k}\psi )(\eta \psi ).$$
(2)
Subtraction of Eqs. (2) and (1) gives in the linear approximation the relaxation equation

$$(\psi \eta )_t=\widehat{k}(\psi \eta ),$$

whence it follows that we can set $`\psi =\eta `$ in the nonlinear terms of Eqs. (1) and (2), which allows us to simplify the equations of motion. Actually, adding Eqs. (1) and (2) we obtain an equation for a new function $`f=(\psi +\eta )/2`$,

$$f_t\widehat{k}f=\frac{1}{2}(\widehat{k}f)^2\frac{1}{2}(f)^2,$$
(3)
which corresponds to the consideration of the growing branch of the solutions. As $`f=\eta `$ in the linear approximation, Eq. (3) governs the behavior of the elevation $`\eta `$.

First we consider the one-dimensional case when function $`f`$ depends only on $`x`$ (and $`t`$) and the integral operator $`\widehat{k}`$ can be expressed in terms of the Hilbert transform $`\widehat{H}`$,

$$\widehat{k}=\frac{}{x}\widehat{H},\widehat{H}f=\frac{1}{\pi }\text{P}\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{f(x^{})}{x^{}x}𝑑x^{},$$

where P denotes the principal value of the integral. As a result, Eq. (3) can be rewritten as

$$f_t+\widehat{H}f_x=\frac{1}{2}(\widehat{H}f_x)^2\frac{1}{2}(f_x)^2.$$
(4)
It should be noted that if one introduces a new function $`\stackrel{~}{f}=\widehat{H}f`$, then Eq. (4) transforms into the equation proposed in Ref.  for the description of the nonlinear stages of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.

For further consideration it is convenient to introduce a function, analytically extendable into the upper half-plane of the complex variable $`x`$,

$$v=\frac{1}{2}(1i\widehat{H})f_x.$$

Then Eq. (4) takes the form

$$\text{Re}\left(v_t+iv_x+2vv_x\right)=0,$$

that is, the investigation of integro-differential equation (4) amounts to the analysis of the partial differential equation

$$v_t+iv_x+2vv_x=0,$$
(5)
which describes the wave breaking in the complex plane. Let us study this process in analogy with , where a similar problem was considered. Eq. (5) can be solved by the standard method of characteristics,

$$v=Q(x^{}),$$
(6)
$$x=x^{}+it+2Q(x^{})t.$$
(7)
where the function $`Q`$ is defined from initial conditions. It is clear that in order to obtain an explicit form of the solution we must resolve Eq. (7) with respect to $`x^{}`$. A mapping $`xx^{}`$, defined by Eq. (7), will be ambiguous if $`x/x^{}=0`$ in some point, i.e.

$$1+2Q_x^{}t=0.$$
(8)
Solution of (8) gives a trajectory $`x^{}=x^{}(t)`$ on the complex plane $`x^{}`$. Then the motion of the branch points of the function $`v`$ is defined by an expression

$$x(t)=x^{}(t)+it+2Q(x^{}(t))t.$$

At some moment $`t_0`$ when the branch point touches the real axis, the analiticity of $`v(x,t)`$ at the upper half-plane of variable $`x`$ breaks, and a singularity appears in the solution of Eq. (4).

Let us consider the solution behavior close to the singularity. Expansion of (6) and (7) at a small vicinity of $`x=x(t_0)`$ up to the leading orders gives

$$v=Q_0\delta x^{}/(2t_0),$$

$$\delta x=i\delta t+2Q_0\delta t+Q^{\prime \prime }t_0(\delta x^{})^2,$$

where $`Q_0=Q(x^{}(t_0))`$, $`Q^{\prime \prime }=Q_{x^{}x^{}}(x^{}(t_0))`$, $`\delta x=xx(t_0)`$, $`\delta x^{}=x^{}x^{}(t_0)`$, and $`\delta t=tt_0`$. Eliminating $`\delta x^{}`$ from these equations, we find that close to singularity $`v_x`$ can be represented in the self-similar form ($`\delta x\delta t`$),

$$v_x=\left[16Q^{\prime \prime }t_0^3(\delta xi\delta t2Q_0\delta t)\right]^{1/2}.$$

As $`\text{Re}(v)=\eta /2`$ in the linear approximation, we have at $`t=t_0`$

$$\eta _{xx}|\delta x|^{1/2},$$

that is the surface curvature becomes infinite in a finite time. It should be mentioned that such a behavior of the charged surface is similar to the behavior of a free surface of an ideal fluid in the absence of external forces , though the singularities are of a different nature (in the latter case the singularity formation is connected with inertial forces).

Let us show that the solutions corresponding to the root singularity regime are consistent with the applicability condition of the truncated equation (3). Let $`Q(x^{})`$ be a rational function with one pole in the lower half-plane,

$$Q(x^{})=\frac{is}{2(x^{}+iA)^2},$$
(9)
which corresponds to the spatially localized one-dimensional perturbation of the surface ($`s>0`$ and $`A>0`$). The characteristic surface angles are thought to be small, $`\gamma s/A^21`$.

It is clear from the symmetries of (9) that the most rapid branch point touches the real axis at $`x=0`$. Then the critical moment $`t_0`$ can be found directly from Eqs. (7) and (8). Expansion of $`t_0`$ with respect to the small parameter $`\gamma `$ gives

$$t_0A\left[13(\gamma /4)^{1/3}\right].$$
(10)
Taking into account that the evolution of the surface perturbation can be described by an approximate formula

$$\eta (x,t)=\frac{s(At)}{(At)^2+x^2},$$

we have for the dynamics of the characteristic angles

$$\gamma (t)\frac{s}{(At)^2}.$$

Then, substituting the expression for $`t_0`$ (10) into this formula, we find that at the moment of the singularity formation with the required accuracy

$$\gamma (t_0)\gamma ^{1/3},$$

that is, the angles remain small and the root singularities are consistent with our assumption about small surface angles.

In conclusion, we would like to consider the more general case where the weak dependence of all quantities from the spatial variable $`y`$ is taken into account. One can find that if the condition $`|k_x||k_y|`$ holds for the characteristic wave numbers, then the evolution of the fluid surface is described by an equation

$$\left[v_t+iv_x+2vv_x\right]_x=iv_{yy}/2,$$

which extends Eq. (5) to the two-dimensional case.

An interesting group of particular solutions of this equation can be found with the help of substitution $`v(x,y,t)=w(z,t)`$, where

$$z=x\frac{i}{2}\frac{(yy_0)^2}{t}.$$

The equation for $`w`$ looks like

$$w_t+iw_z+2ww_z=w/(2t).$$

It is integrable by the method of characteristics, so that we can study the analyticity violation similarly to the one-dimensional case. Considering a motion of branch points in the complex plane of the variable $`z`$ we find that a singularity arises at some moment $`t_0<0`$ at the point $`y_0`$ along the $`y`$-axis. Close to the singular point at the critical moment $`t=t_0`$ we get

$$\eta _{xx}|_{\delta y=0}|\delta x|^{1/2},\eta _{xx}|_{\delta x=0}|\delta y|^1.$$

This means that in the examined quasi-two-dimensional case the second derivative of the surface profile becomes infinite at a single isolated point.

Thus, the consideration of the behavior of a conducting fluid surface in a strong electric field shows that the nonlinearity determines the tendency for the formation of singularities of the root character, corresponding to the surface points with infinite curvature. We can assume that such weak singularities serve as the origin of the more powerful singularities observed in the experiments .

I would like to thank A.M. Iskoldsky and N.B. Volkov for helpful discussions, and E.A. Kuznetsov for attracting my attention to Refs. . This work was supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Grant No. 97–02–16177.

References

1. L. Tonks, Phys. Rev. 48 (1935) 562.
2. Ya.I. Frenkel, Zh. Teh. Fiz. 6 (1936) 347.
3. V.E. Zakharov, J. Appl. Mech. Tech. Phys. 2 (1968) 190.
4. S.K. Zhdanov and B.A. Trubnikov, Sov. Phys. JETP 67 (1988) 1575.
5. E.A. Kuznetsov, M.D. Spector, and V.E. Zakharov, Phys. Lett. A 182 (1993) 387.
6. E.A. Kuznetsov, M.D. Spector, and V.E. Zakharov, Phys. Rev. E 49 (1994) 1283.
7. M.D. Gabovich and V.Ya. Poritsky, JETP Lett. 33, (1981) 304.
8. A.V. Batrakov, S.A. Popov, and D.I. Proskurovsky, Tech. Phys. Lett. 19 (1993) 627.


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# Metal-insulator transition in anisotropic systems

11institutetext: Institut für Physik, Technische Universität, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany

## Abstract

We study the three-dimensional Anderson model of localization with anisotropic hopping, i.e., weakly coupled chains and weakly coupled planes. In our extensive numerical study we identify and characterize the metal-insulator transition by means of the transfer-matrix method and energy level statistics. Using high accuracy data for large system sizes we estimate the critical exponent as $`\nu =1.6\pm 0.3`$. This is in agreement with its value in the isotropic case and in other models of the orthogonal universality class.

Previous studies of Anderson localization And58  in three-dimensional (3D) disordered systems with anisotropic hopping using the transfer-matrix method (TMM) LiSEG89 ; ZamLES96a ; PanE94 , multifractal analysis (MFA) MilRS97  and energy-level statistics (ELS) MilR98  show that an MIT exists even for very strong anisotropy. In Refs. MilRS99a ; MilRSU00 , we studied critical properties of this second-order phase transition with high accuracy. Here we shall demonstrate the significance of irrelevant scaling exponents for an accurate determination of the critical disorder $`W_c`$ and the critical exponent $`\nu `$. Previous highly accurate TMM studies for isotropic systems of the orthogonal universality class reported $`\nu =1.54\pm 0.08`$ Mac94 , $`\nu =1.58\pm 0.06`$ SleO99a , $`\nu =1.61\pm 0.07`$, and $`\nu =1.54\pm 0.03`$ CaiRS99 , whereas for anisotropic systems of weakly coupled planes $`\nu =1.3\pm 0.1`$ and $`\nu =1.3\pm 0.3`$ was found ZamLES96a . We emphasize that this variation in theoretical values has its counterpart in the experiments where a large variation of $`\nu `$ has been reported with values ranging from 0.5 PaaT83  over 1.0 WafPL99 , 1.3 StuHLM93 , up to 1.6 BogSB99 . Possibly this experimental “exponent puzzle” StuHLM93  is due to other effects such as electron-electron interaction BogSB99  or sample inhomogeneities StuHLM93 ; RosTP94 ; StuHLM94 .

A further important aspect of anisotropic hopping besides the question of universality is the connection to experiments which use uniaxial stress, tuning disordered Si:P or Si:B systems across the MIT PaaT83 ; WafPL99 ; StuHLM93 ; BogSB99 . Applying stress reduces the distance between the atomic orbitals, the electronic motion becomes alleviated, and the system changes from insulating to metallic. Thus, although the explicit dependence of hopping strength on stress is material specific and in general not known, it is reasonable to relate uniaxial stress in a disordered system to an anisotropic Anderson model with increased hopping between neighboring planes.

We use the standard Anderson Hamiltonian And58

$$𝐇=\underset{ij}{}t_{ij}|ij|+\underset{i}{}ϵ_i|ii|$$
(1)
with orthonormal states $`|i`$ corresponding to electrons located at sites $`i=(x,y,z)`$ of a regular cubic lattice with periodic boundary conditions. The potential energies $`ϵ_i`$ are independent random numbers drawn uniformly from $`[W/2,W/2]`$. The disorder strength $`W`$ specifies the amplitude of the fluctuations of the potential energy. The hopping integrals $`t_{ij}`$ are non-zero only for nearest neighbors and depend on the spatial directions, thus $`t_{ij}`$ can either be $`t_x`$, $`t_y`$ or $`t_z`$. We study (i) weakly coupled planes with $`t_x=t_y=1`$, $`t_z=1\gamma `$ and (ii) weakly coupled chains with $`t_x=t_y=1\gamma `$, $`t_z=1`$ with hopping anisotropy $`\gamma [0,1]`$. For $`\gamma =0`$ we recover the isotropic case, $`\gamma =1`$ corresponds to independent planes or chains. We note that uniaxial stress would be modeled by weakly coupled chains after renormalization of the hopping strengths such that the largest $`t`$ is set to $`1`$.

The MIT in the Anderson model of localization is expected to be a second-order phase transition BelK94 ; AbrALR79 . It is characterized by a divergent correlation length $`\xi _{\mathrm{}}(W)|WW_c|^\nu `$ KraM93 . To construct the correlation length of the infinite system $`\xi _{\mathrm{}}`$ from finite size data $`\xi _M`$ ZamLES96a ; KraM93 ; PicS81a ; MacK81 , the one-parameter scaling hypothesis Tho74  $`\xi _M=f(M/\xi _{\mathrm{}})`$ is employed. One might determine $`\nu `$ from fitting to $`\xi _{\mathrm{}}`$ obtained by a FSS procedure MacK81 . Better accuracy can be achieved by fitting directly to the $`\xi _M`$ data Mac94 ; SleO99a ; CaiRS99 . We use fit functions SleO99a  which include two kinds of corrections to scaling: (i) nonlinearities of the disorder dependence of the scaling variable and (ii) an irrelevant scaling variable with exponent $`y`$ (cp. Fig. 1). For the nonlinear fit, we use the Levenberg-Marquardt method MilRS99a ; SleO99a . The input data $`\xi _M`$ for the FSS procedure are either (a) reduced localization lengths $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_M`$ obtained by TMM with 0.07% accuracy and system widths up to $`17\times 17`$ for, e.g., the case of weakly coupled planes with $`\gamma =0.9`$ MilRSU00 ; or (b) integrated $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3`$ statistics obtained from highly accurate ELS data (0.2% to 0.4%) and system sizes up to $`50^3`$ MilRS99a .

When applying the TMM to our anisotropic systems, one has to consider two non-equivalent orientations of the axis of the quasi-1D bar: parallel and perpendicular to the planes or chains. The localization lengths in the perpendicular direction are smaller than in the parallel direction by a factor of about $`1\gamma `$ for coupled planes and $`(1\gamma )^2`$ for chains ZamLES96a . The critical disorder $`W_c`$ should not depend on the orientation of the bar ZamLES96a . For strong anisotropies $`\gamma 0.9`$ this is difficult to verify numerically due to strong finite size effects as shown in Fig. 1.

By computing data for very large system sizes up to $`M^2=22^2`$ ($`46^2`$) for the case of weakly coupled planes with $`\gamma =0.9`$ ($`0.96`$) we can show that this finite size effect can be sucessfully modelled (cp. Fig. 1) by an irrelevant scaling exponent and $`W_c`$ is indeed the same for both orientations.

In Fig. 2, we show fitted values obtained by FSS of TMM data for different choices of expansion coefficients in the nonlinear fit procedure. We conclude $`\nu =1.62\pm 0.07`$ and $`W_c=8.63\pm 0.02`$.

In Fig. 2, we also show the results for FSS of highly accurate ELS data (0.2% to 0.4%) and system sizes up to $`N^3=50^3`$. The error estimate is larger and the values of $`W_c`$ and $`\nu `$ are much more scattered than before. Comparing the spreading of the $`W_c`$ and $`\nu `$ values with their confidence intervals, the error estimates appear to be too small. E.g., the 95% confidence intervals of the smallest and largest $`W_c`$ value do not overlap. We therefore estimate $`\nu =1.45\pm 0.2`$ and $`W_c=8.58\pm 0.06`$ MilRS99a .

In conclusion, our results confirm the existence of an MIT for anisotropy $`\gamma <1`$ for weakly coupled planes found previsouly in studies using TMM ZamLES96a , MFA MilRS97 , and recently by ELS MilR98 . We have shown that large system sizes, high accuracies MilRS99a ; MilRSU00  and irrelevant scaling exponents are necessary to determine the critical behavior reliably. Our results are in good agreement with other high accuracy TMM studies for the orthogonal universality class Mac94 ; SleO99a ; CaiRS99 ; SleO97 . These numerical estimates seem to converge towards $`\nu 1.6`$.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful for the support of the DFG through Sonderforschungsbereich 393.