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# Two-loop corrections to the topological mass term in thermal QED₃

## Abstract

We study the radiative corrections to the Chern-Simons mass term at two loops in $`2+1`$ dimensional quantum electrodynamics at finite temperature. We show that, in contrast to the behavior at zero temperature, thermal effects lead to a non vanishing contribution at this order. Using this result, as well as the large gauge Ward identity for the leading parity violating terms in the static limit, we determine the leading order parity violating effective action in this limit at two loops, which generalizes the one-loop effective action proposed earlier.

It is well known that, in odd space-time dimensions, one can add to the usual Maxwell term a parity breaking Lagrangian of the gauge field, known as the Chern-Simons (CS) term . In three dimensional QED, for example, the CS action has the form

$$S_{\mathrm{CS}}=\frac{m}{2}d^3xϵ^{\mu \nu \lambda }\left(_\mu A_\nu \right)A_\lambda .$$
(1)
This action, which is invariant under gauge transformations, provides a tree level mass $`m`$ for the gauge field. When fermions are interacting with the gauge field, the coefficient of the CS term can receive corrections through fermion loops. Thus, for example, the one-loop correction, at zero temperature, shifts the value of the tree level mass as

$$mm+\frac{e^2}{4\pi },$$
(2)
where we have assumed, for simplicity, a single flavor of fermion with charge $`e`$ and mass $`M>0`$, interacting with the Abelian gauge field. In an interesting paper , Coleman and Hill have shown that, at zero temperature, higher order corrections to the CS mass term are absent in $`\mathrm{QED}_3`$. The proof essentially uses two key properties of the amplitudes of the underlying theory, namely, i) the Abelian gauge invariance of the theory and ii) the analytic behavior of the amplitudes at zero temperature.

On the other hand, while gauge invariance still holds at finite temperature, thermal amplitudes violate analyticity. This happens because new branch cuts develop at finite temperature, as a result of possible additional channels of reaction, so that the thermal amplitudes are non-analytic at the origin in the energy-momentum plane. For example, at nonzero temperature, the one-loop radiative correction due to a single flavor of fermion, in the static limit, shifts the tree level CS mass as

$$mm+\frac{e^2}{4\pi }\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{M}{2T}\right),$$
(3)
while a very different behavior is observed in the long wavelength limit . Since analyticity, which is a key ingredient in the proof given by Coleman and Hill, is violated by thermal amplitudes, one would expect that higher order corrections to the CS term may be non vanishing at finite temperature.

In this note, we show explicitly that the CS term indeed receives corrections at two loops in thermal $`\mathrm{QED}_3`$. Such a calculation is, in general, quite involved and cannot be performed in closed form. A great simplification, however, occurs at high temperature, in the static limit, where we find that the leading correction to the coefficient of the CS term, at two loops, is given by

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_2^{(2)}(TM,m)\left(2m3M\right)\frac{e^4}{192\pi ^2T^2}\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{T}{m}\right)$$
(4)
In fact, there is every reason to believe that, at finite temperature, the CS term will, in general, receive nonzero corrections at all higher loops.

Since the CS mass term gets radiative corrections at higher orders, one can ask how the structure of the effective theory will modify so as to be invariant under large gauge transformations. In this connection, let us recall that, at finite temperature, the time direction becomes compact so that nontrivial large gauge transformations, associated with this topological feature, can arise even in an Abelian CS theory . As was shown in , it is really in the static limit that the question of large gauge invariance comes up. In this limit of thermal $`\mathrm{QED}_3`$, the leading order large gauge invariant, parity violating effective action, which results from the one-loop fermion contributions, coincides with the exact one-loop parity violating effective action evaluated in the special background $`A_0=A_0(t)`$, $`\stackrel{}{A}=\stackrel{}{A}(\stackrel{}{x})`$ and has the form

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{PV}}^{(1)}=\frac{e}{2\pi }\mathrm{d}^2x\mathrm{arctan}\left[\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{M}{2T}\right)\mathrm{tan}\left(\frac{ea}{2}\right)\right]B,$$
(5)
where $`a=_0^{1/T}dtA_0\left(t\right)`$ and $`B=ϵ^{0ij}_iA_j`$ is the magnetic field. Note that, for an even number of fermion flavors, Eq. (5) is invariant under the large gauge transformations $`eaea+2\pi n`$, where $`n`$ is an integer (with the magnetic flux quantized).

Since the two-loop contribution to the CS term is non-zero at finite temperature, we would expect all parity violating amplitudes to receive non vanishing two-loop corrections as well, if large gauge invariance were to hold. In fact, one can ask how the leading order effective action in the static limit in Eq. (5) would modify at two loops to have manifest large gauge invariance. This can be determined systematically with the help of the large gauge Ward identity , which reflects the large gauge invariance of the theory in the static limit. The solution of this Ward identity shows that the form of the leading order effective action, at two loops, is similar to that in Eq. (5), with the simple replacement

$$\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{M}{2T}\right)\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{M}{2T}\right)+\frac{4\pi }{e^2}\mathrm{\Pi }_2^{(2)}\left(T\right).$$
(6)
We describe next only the main steps of our analysis. The correction to the CS mass term, at two-loops, can be obtained from the photon self-energy diagrams shown in Fig 1.

In thermal $`\mathrm{QED}_3`$, the vacuum polarization continues to be transverse to the external momentum (as at zero temperature) and has the form

$$\mathrm{\Pi }^{\mu \nu }(p,u)=\mathrm{\Pi }_1^{\mu \nu }(p,u)+iϵ^{\mu \nu \lambda }p_\lambda \mathrm{\Pi }_2(p,u),$$
(7)
where $`\mathrm{\Pi }_1^{\mu \nu }`$ denotes the parity conserving part of the photon self-energy, which is transverse and symmetric in the Lorentz indices (At finite temperature, this structure is a combination of two independent transverse structures.). Here, we are interested only in the parity violating part of the self-energy, which is given by the second term in Eq. (7). Note that these functions depend, in general, on the velocity $`u^\mu `$ of the heat bath. The coefficient of the CS term, $`\mathrm{\Pi }_2(0,u)`$, can be projected out from $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{\mu \nu }`$ as

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_2(0,u)=\frac{1}{2i}ϵ_{\mu \nu \rho }\left[\frac{p^\rho }{p^2}\mathrm{\Pi }^{\mu \nu }(p,u)\right]_{p=0}.$$
(8)
In order to compute the two-loop vacuum polarization at finite temperature, it is convenient to consider first the fermion box diagrams $`B^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }(p,q,u)`$ depicted in Fig. 2. The vacuum polarization can then be obtained from these by attaching together the photon lines with momenta $`q`$ and $`q`$, giving rise to a photon propagator $`D_{\alpha \beta }(q)`$, which, at zero temperature, has the form

$$D_{\alpha \beta }(q)=\frac{1}{q^2m^2}\left(\eta _{\alpha \beta }\frac{q_\alpha q_\beta }{q^2}imϵ_{\alpha \beta \sigma }\frac{q^\sigma }{q^2}\right)+\xi \frac{q_\alpha q_\beta }{q^4},$$
(9)
Here $`\xi `$ is the gauge fixing parameter and the photon propagator contains a parity breaking term coming from the CS action given in Eq. (1).

The other two photon lines in Fig. 2, carrying momenta $`p`$ and $`p`$, become the external lines of the self-energy $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{\mu \nu }(p)`$. Thus, we see that the evaluation of the two loop CS coefficient in Eq. (8) requires the study of the quantity

$$B(q)=ϵ_{\mu \nu \rho }\left[\frac{p^\rho }{p^2}B^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }(p,q,u)\right]_{p=0}D_{\alpha \beta }(q).$$
(10)
As a result of the gauge invariance of the box amplitude, namely,

$$q_\alpha B^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }(p,q,u)=0,$$
(11)
it follows that the terms proportional to $`q_\alpha `$ in the photon propagator (9) do not contribute to Eq. (10), so that $`B(q)`$ is effectively a gauge invariant quantity (which is not true in a non-Abelian theory). It is important to note that only the linear terms in $`p`$ from the box diagrams can possibly contribute to $`B(q)`$, since this quantity is evaluated in the limit $`p0`$. This fact has the interesting consequence that $`B(q)`$, as defined in Eq. (10), vanishes at zero temperature . This happens because the box amplitude is an analytic function at $`T=0`$, which, together with Eq. (11), actually implies that $`B^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }(p,q)`$ must be at least quadratic in the external momentum $`p`$  (and, consequently, $`B(q)`$ must vanish in the limit $`p0`$). However, this is not true at finite temperature, since in this case the amplitudes are no longer analytic functions. In fact, as shown in , the thermal box graphs do give leading order contributions which are linear in $`p`$.

In order to compute the thermal effects, we will employ the imaginary-time formalism , where the integration over continuous energies is replaced by a summation over the discrete values $`\pi inT`$, where $`n`$ is an odd or even integer respectively for fermions or bosons. Using the relations (9), (10) and (11), the coefficient of the CS term, given by Eq. (8), can be written, at two loops, as

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_2^{(2)}(0,u)\mathrm{\Pi }_2^{(2)}(T)={\displaystyle \frac{T}{2i}}{\displaystyle \underset{q_0=2\pi inT}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}^2q}{(2\pi )^2}B(q)}=`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{T}{2i}}\underset{p0}{lim}\left[ϵ_{\mu \nu \rho }{\displaystyle \frac{p^\rho }{p^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{q_0=2\pi inT}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}^2q}{(2\pi )^2}\left(\eta _{\alpha \beta }imϵ_{\alpha \beta \sigma }\frac{q^\sigma }{q^2}\right)\frac{B^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }(p,q,u)}{q^2m^2}}\right],`$ (12)
where we have emphasized the temperature dependence of the CS coefficient in $`\mathrm{\Pi }_2^{(2)}(T)`$.

To evaluate explicitly the above expression for $`\mathrm{\Pi }_2^{(2)}(T)`$, we first compute the trace over the Dirac matrices in $`B^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }`$ and Taylor expand the result up to linear terms in the external momentum $`p`$. The terms of the resulting expression are either proportional to an $`ϵ`$ tensor multiplied by odd powers of the fermion mass $`M`$, or contain even powers of $`M`$ with no $`ϵ`$. As a consequence of the Bose symmetry of $`B^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }`$ (and taking into account the fact that terms which are odd in the internal photon and fermion momenta vanish by symmetric integration) the contractions with the $`\eta _{\alpha \beta }`$ and $`ϵ_{\alpha \beta \sigma }`$ tensors in Eq. (Two-loop corrections to the topological mass term in thermal $`\mathrm{QED}_3`$) give a non-vanishing result only for the terms involving odd and even powers of $`M`$, respectively.

There are two meaningful limits of $`p0`$ that can be considered in Eq. (Two-loop corrections to the topological mass term in thermal $`\mathrm{QED}_3`$), namely, the static and the long wavelength limits. In this note, we discuss only the static limit $`\stackrel{}{p}0,p_0=0`$, which is simpler than the long wavelength limit $`p_00,\stackrel{}{p}=0`$. The reason is that no analytic continuation for the external energy is necessary in the static limit, so that the linearization in the external momentum in the box diagram can be performed before the computation of the sum over the thermal energies. Furthermore, as we have already shown , the long wavelength limit is manifestly large gauge invariant.

The next step consists in using the Feynman parameterization to integrate over the fermion momentum $`\stackrel{}{k}`$. The integration over the photon momentum $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ can also be done using this method. We must finally perform, in addition to the summation over $`q_0`$, a further summation over the thermal energies $`k_0=(2l+1)\pi iT`$ of the fermion, where $`l`$ is an integer. Unfortunately, it is not possible to obtain a closed form expression for these sums in general. But an important simplification occurs at high temperatures, $`TM,m`$, where the leading thermal correction is obtained from the zero mode $`q_0=0`$. After performing the integration over the Feynman parameter, we find that

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_2^{(2)}(TM,m)`$ $``$ $`\left(2m3M\right){\displaystyle \frac{e^4}{4\pi ^2}}T^2\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{T}{m}}\right){\displaystyle \underset{k_0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{k_0^4}}`$ (13)
$`=`$ $`\left(2m3M\right){\displaystyle \frac{e^4}{192\pi ^2T^2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{T}{m}}\right).`$
It is interesting to remark that the above expression is well behaved, thanks to the tree level CS mass $`m`$, which provides an infrared cutoff. (Note, however, that for $`M0`$, this expression is logarithmically divergent as $`m0`$, a feature special to the thermal field theory.)

Since the two-loop parity violating amplitudes are non-vanishing at finite temperature, we can inquire about the structure of the large gauge invariant, parity violating effective action at two loops. This can be done following the analysis in . Let us assume that the leading term of the full parity violating effective action (in the static limit) can be written as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{PV}}=\frac{e}{2\pi }\mathrm{d}^2x\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}(\stackrel{~}{a})B,$$
(14)
where $`\stackrel{~}{a}=ea=e_0^{1/T}dtA_0(t)`$. We can now derive, as in , a large gauge Ward identity that this effective action must satisfy for large gauge invariance to hold. In fact, it can be easily checked that the quantity $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}(\stackrel{~}{a})`$ introduced in Eq. (14) has to satisfy

$$\frac{^2\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}}{\stackrel{~}{a}^2}=\frac{1}{2}\left[\frac{1}{2\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{}(0)}2\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{}(0)\right]\frac{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}}{\stackrel{~}{a}}\mathrm{sin}(2\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}),$$
(15)
where $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{}(0)=\left(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}/\stackrel{~}{a}\right)_{\stackrel{~}{a}=0}`$ denotes the one-point function. This nonlinear Ward identity, which relates the amplitudes obtained in perturbation theory, shows that all the parity violating amplitudes are connected recursively to the one-point function. The solution of Eq. (15) is easily seen to be

$$\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}(\stackrel{~}{a})=\mathrm{arctan}\left[2\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{}(0)\mathrm{tan}\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{a}}{2}\right)\right],$$
(16)
where $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{}(0)`$, up to two-loop order is given by

$$\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{}(0)=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{M}{2T}\right)+\frac{2\pi }{e^2}\mathrm{\Pi }_2^{(2)}(T).$$
(17)
Substituting the above expression for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}(\stackrel{~}{a})`$ into Eq. (14), we obtain a result which extends, to two-loop order, the parity breaking effective action proposed earlier . (In fact, as we have shown in , the leading term in the static limit coincides with the effective action in the special gauge background $`A_0=A_0(t)`$ and $`\stackrel{}{A}=\stackrel{}{A}(\stackrel{}{x})`$.) Note also that if we know $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}^{}(0)`$ up to any loop (namely, if we calculate the coefficient of the CS term to any loop), we can obtain the leading term in the large gauge invariant, parity violating effective action (in the static limit) up to that order from Eqs. (16) and (14).

In conclusion, we have shown that, at finite temperature, the CS mass term, in the Abelian theory, receives a non vanishing radiative correction at two loop order and we expect this to be true at all higher orders. Furthermore, using the large gauge Ward identity, we have determined the full parity violating effective action, at two loops, which shows that all the other parity violating amplitudes must modify as well, in a well defined manner, for large gauge invariance to hold.

This work was supported in part by U.S. Dept. Energy Grant DE-FG 02-91ER40685, DE-FG02-92ER40716.00, NSF-INT-9602559 as well as by CNPq, Brazil.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

QCD, in contrast to QED, is not exhausted by perturbation theory. While QCD perturbation theory appears to be very successful at higher momentum transfers where the strong coupling constant becomes small, some of the most fundamental properties of hadronic physics like color confinement and hadronization of quarks and gluons, characteristic for the low momentum transfer region, are not accessible to perturbative methods.

QCD is a nonabelian gauge theory. In 1975, Polyakov et al.  made the important discovery that such theories in their pure gauge form, i.e. without the involvement of spontaneous symmetry breaking, have localized classical solutions in Euclidean space-time. Since the objects described by these solutions are localized in 3+1 dimensions, they describe “events” rather than normal particles which are localized in 3 dimensions. Accordingly, they were named pseudoparticles by Polyakov  and instantons by ’t Hooft . The replacement of time $`t`$ by $`ix_4(\mathrm{real}\mathrm{x}_4)`$ by going into Euclidean space corresponds to the method of calculating tunneling amplitudes in the nonperturbative WKB approximation, where the characteristic exponential suppression factor $`\mathrm{exp}(8\pi ^2/g^2)`$ is obtained from solving the classical equations for imaginary time. Instantons are, therefore, interpreted as tunneling events. The tunneling, of course, takes place in real (Minkowskian) space, although it is actually computed in Euclidean space. As was first realized by Ringwald and Espinosa , the exponential suppression of tunneling processes may be overcome at high energies by multiple emission of gauge bosons accompanying fermion production.

The tunneling events violate a conservation law that is obeyed by perturbative solutions: For the classical (BPST) solutions there exists a charge like quantity

$$d^4xF_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{F}_{\mu \nu }=\pm \frac{32\pi ^2}{g^2}$$
(1)
where $`F_{\mu \nu }`$ is the gauge field strength tensor and $`\stackrel{~}{F}_{\mu \nu }`$ its dual tensor. Since from the Adler-Bell-Jackiw axial triangle anomaly  $`(g^2/16\pi ^2)F_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{F}_{\mu \nu }`$ equals the anomalous divergence of the axial-vector divergence, tunneling events i.e. instantons connect states of different axial charge $`Q_5(t)=d^3xJ_0^A(x,t)`$ and one obtains

$$\mathrm{\Delta }Q_5=Q_5(\mathrm{})Q_5(\mathrm{})=_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}𝑑td^3x_0J_0^A(x)=\pm 2.$$
(2)
This relation holds separately for each flavour and for $`N_f`$ flavours one has

$$\mathrm{\Delta }Q_5=\pm 2N_f.$$
(3)
Due to their topolocical nature (1) and (2) hold in Euclidean as well as in Minkowskian space-time. The violation of the conservation of axial charge i.e. helicity is a most significant property of instanton events.

The relevance of instantons for different aspects of hadronic physics has been reviewed recently . In the following, we discuss recent work on the role of QCD-instantons in deep inelastic electron proton scattering.

## 2 Instantons in Deep Inelastic Electron Proton Scattering

Balitsky and Braun  first showed that the contribution of instanton ($`I`$)-induced processes to deep inelastic electron proton scattering from a real gluon calculated in Euclidean space and continued to Minkowski space, rises very rapidly with decreasing Bjorken-$`x`$. Their calculations were restricted, however, to $`x>0.30.35`$. A detailed theoretical  and phenomenological  investigation of deep inelastic scattering at HERA has been pursued by Ringwald, Schrempp and collaborators.

The leading $`I`$-induced process contibuting to deep-inelastic $`ep`$-scattering, given by a hard quark originating from the virtual photon and reacting in the presence of an instanton with a gluon from the proton, is shown in fig. 1.

The corresponding contribution with a quark originating from the proton is suppressed by $`\alpha _s^2`$ and can be neglected in the kinematical region of interest (see below), where the gluon density is high.

The inclusive deep-inelastic $`ep`$ cross section in $`I`$-perturbation theory in the Bjorken limit can be approximated as

$$\frac{d\sigma _{ep}}{dx^{}dQ^2}=\frac{d_{qg}}{dx^{}dQ^2}\sigma _{gg}^I(x^{},Q^2)$$
(4)
where $`d_{qg}/dx^{}dQ^2`$ is a differential luminosity corresponding to a convolution-like integral over photon flux, quark flux and gluon density and $`\sigma _{qg}^I`$ is the total cross section of the $`I`$-induced quark-gluon subprocess.

The critical part of (4) is the calculation of $`\sigma _{qg}^I`$ which contains all $`I`$-dynamics. Outlining the essential dependencies, it can be written as

$$\sigma _{qg}^I=_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\rho D(\rho )_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\overline{\rho }D(\overline{\rho })d^4Re^{Q^{}(\rho +\overline{\rho })}e^{i(p+q^{})R}𝑑Ue^{\frac{4\pi }{\alpha _s}\mathrm{\Omega }(\frac{R^2}{\rho \overline{\rho }},\frac{\overline{\rho }}{\rho },U)}\{\mathrm{}\}$$
(5)
where the integration is performed over the “collective coordinates” of the instanton i.e. the size $`\rho `$ weighted with the density distribution function $`D(\rho )`$, the $`I\overline{I}`$-distance vector $`R`$ and the $`I`$\- $`\overline{I}`$-relative colour orientation $`U`$. $`I`$ as well as $`\overline{I}`$ enter here since the cross section results from the modulus squared of the amplitude for processes induced by single $`I`$ resp. $`\overline{I}`$. The function $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ with the large factor $`4\pi /\alpha _s`$ contains multiple emission of gluons. $`D(\rho )`$ is known in $`I`$-perturbation theory for $`\alpha (\mu _r)\mathrm{ln}(\rho \mu _r)1`$ where $`\mu _r`$ is the renormalization scale. $`D(\rho )`$ has a powerlaw behaviour.

$$D(\rho )\rho ^{6\frac{2}{3}n_f+0(\alpha )}$$
(6)
which in general results in a breakdown of $`I`$-perturbation theory for large values of $`\rho `$. In deep inelastic scattering, however, the exponential term  containing $`Q^{}`$ supresses the contribution form large size instantons and is the key for the applicability of $`I`$-perturbation theory.

For calculating the cross section for deep inelastic scattering DIS at HERA, the range of collective coordinates has to be known in which $`I`$-perturbation theory can be relied on. This range of collective coordinates then has to be translated into the relevant DIS-variables.

For estimating the range of validity of $`I`$-perturbation theory QCD lattice results from the UKQCD collaboration  have been extremely useful. Fig. 2a shows a comparison of $`I`$-perturbation theory with lattice-QCD in the continuum limit  for the $`I`$-size distribution. The normalization is practically independent on the renormalization scale $`\mu _r`$, but strongly dependent on the value of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\overline{MS}}`$, for which the recent accurate result from the ALPHA collaboration  $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\overline{MS}(n_f=0)}=(238\pm 19)\text{MeV}`$ has been taken. It has to be noted that the pertubative result is essentially parameter free. Fig. 2b shows the corresponding comparison for the $`I\overline{I}`$-distance contribution. Very good agreement down to $`I\overline{I}`$-distances $`R/<\rho ^{}>1`$ is observed.

In the deep inelastic regime the integrals over collective coordinates are dominated by a unique saddle point  which relates the collective coordinates to the Bjorken variables $`Q^{},x^{}`$ of the $`I`$-subprocess as

$$\rho ^{},\overline{\rho }^{}1/Q^{},R^21/(p+q^{})^2R^2/\rho ^{}\overline{\rho }^{}Q^2/(p+q^{})^2=x^{}/1x^{}.$$
(7)
The limits on the collective observables then transform into limits of the DIS variables in the following way:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\rho ^{}0.300.35fm\hfill & & Q^{}/\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\overline{MS}}30.8\hfill \\ & & \\ R^{}/\rho ^{}1\hfill & & x^{}0.35\hfill \end{array}$$
(8)
With these cuts, additional general cuts of $`x>10^3`$ and $`0.1<y<0.9`$ and a “technical cut” of $`Q_{min}^2=Q_{min}^2`$, in order to suppress contributions from nonplanar graphs which are hard to calculate, a total cross section for $`I`$-induced events of $`29\pm 10`$ pb is obtained, where the errors refer to the uncertainty in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\overline{MS}}`$ only. For a total integrated luminosity of about 100 pb-1, which will be reached for each of the HERA experiments H1 and ZEUS by fall 2000, this corresponds to about 3.000 $`I`$-events. Since the total cross section for standard DIS events is several orders of magnitude higher it is evident, however, that a search of $`I`$-induced effects has to make use of specific event characteristics.

## 3 Search Strategies for $`I`$-induced Events at HERA

The Monte Carlo generator QCDINS , developed on the basis of the perturbative model discussed above for the detailed simulation of $`I`$-induced events, yields the following event characteristics :

* a jet (“current jet”) from the outgoing quark in the primary photon interaction (compare fig. 1)
* after removal of the current jet a uniformly populated band of hadrons in $`\eta \varphi `$-space (with the pseudorapidity $`\eta `$ and the azimuthal angle $`\varphi `$) resulting nearly in isotropic decay in the hadronic CMS (defined by $`𝐪+𝐏=0`$)
* high parton multiplicity (for 3 flavours: 3 $`(q\overline{q})`$-pairs; at $`\alpha _s`$ a mean value of $`O(1/\alpha _s)`$ 3 gluons) resulting in a mean charged hadron multiplicity of about 20
* “flavour democracy” resulting in a significantly higher fraction of strange hadrons in $`I`$-induced than in standard DIS-events
* a higher total transverse momentum of $``$5 GeV/$`\eta `$-unit as compared to $`2`$ GeV/$`\eta `$-unit for DIS-events

A typical MC-event is shown in fig. 3.

Search strategies for $`I`$-induced events in a background of normal DIS events based on Monte Carlo data have been discussed by Carli, Gerigk, Ringwald and Schrempp . The aim is to enrich $`I`$-induced events in a data sample by cutting on selected observables while optimizing the separation power, defined as the ratio of the detection efficiencies for $`I`$-induced and DIS-events; in addition, a lower limit of 10$`\%`$ for the $`I`$-detection efficiency is required. Fig. 4 shows the optimization for the number of charged hadrons contained in the $`I`$-band after removal of the current jet.

Cuts on single observables typically result in a separation power of $`\stackrel{<}{}20`$ and, therefore, cuts on several observables have to be combined in order to achieve a higher background reduction. Correlations among the different variables, however, tend to weaken the effect of combinations. For a set of 6 selected observables, which are shown in fig. 5, a separation power of about 130 was obtained.

## 4 Recent H1 Results

Based on this experience, the technique for enhancing $`I`$-induced events has recently been applied by the H1 collaboration to real data : Out of a set of 6 observables a subset of 3 observables has been selected on which cuts are applied (called in the following “primary observables”) while the effect of these cuts on the distributions of the other observables not subjected to cuts (called “secondary observables”) is studied. The preliminary results are based on a total integrated luminosity of 15.8 pb-1 collected by H1 in 1997 and corresponding to about 260 k DIS-events within fixed cuts of $`x>10^3,0.1<y<0.6`$ and $`\mathrm{\Theta }_e>156^\text{o}`$.

The primary observables chosen for the analysis were the number of hadrons $`n_b`$ in the $`I`$-band, the sphericity $`Sph`$ of the event in the hadronic CMS (both after removal of the current jet) and the squared momentum transfer $`Q^2`$ of the $`I`$-subprocess (c.f. fig. 1). The normalized distribution of these observables are compared in fig. 6 with two quite different models for DIS processes, i.e. the colour dipole model CDM  and the matrix element-parton shower-model MEPS  as implemented in the Monte Carlo ARIADNE resp. RAPGAP. Agreement on the level of 5-20$`\%`$ is observed. The signal expected for $`I`$-induced events from QCDINS is $`10^210^3`$ below the DIS background.

A systematic investigation of the effect of cutting primary observables has been carried out. The following combinations of cuts have been studied: $`n_b>5,6,7,8,9`$; $`Sph>0.4,0.5,0.55,0.6,0.65;`$ $`Q^2(\text{GeV}^2)`$: $`95,100,105,110,`$ $`115<Q^2<200`$. The results have been classified in 3 scenarios: “A” for the highest instanton efficiency $`ϵ_{INS}`$, “B” for high instanton efficiency at good separation power $`ϵ_{INS}/ϵ_{DIS}`$ and “C” for the highest separation power at an instanton efficiency $``$ $`10\%`$ (see table 1).

As example, the effect of cut C on primary observables is shown in fig. 7. A background reduction by a factor of 600-800 is achieved. The remaining 549 events are to be compared with 362 $`\pm `$ 25 events expected from CDM and 435$`\pm `$30 events from MEPS. For the resulting distributions the shape of the excess with respect to the DIS models is compatible with the QCDINS expectation. It has to be noted, however, that the excess is of the same magnitude as the difference between the two DIS models and that also the QCDINS prediction is subject to systematic uncertainties .

As secondary observables were chosen the total transverse energy $`E_{tb}`$ of hadrons contained in the $`I`$-band, the transverse energy $`E_{tjet}`$ of the current jet and a third quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$, which is a measure for the isotropy of events . It is obtained by finding the two axes with respect to which the projection of all hadronic momenta (after removal of the current jet) is minimal ($`E_{in}`$) resp. maximal ($`E_{out}`$) and forming $`(E_{in}E_{out})/E_{in}=\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$. $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$ measures the $`E_t`$-weighted azimuthal isotropy; it takes small values for isotropic events, expected for $`I`$-induced reactions, and large values for pencil-like 2-jet-events, expected to constitute a major fraction of the DIS-background.

The effect of cut C on the secondary observables is shown in fig. 8. While an excess of events over both DIS Monte Carlos is observed also here, differences in the shape of the distributions are recognizable; neither the shape of the DIS Monte Carlos nor the shape of the signal expected from QCDINS are well reproduced by the data.

These results do not yet allow any firm conclusion on a possible contribution of $`I`$-induced processes to deep inelastic electron proton scattering. Nevertheless, the observed excess of events and the gross similarity between data and predictions are intriguing and motivate the continuation of these studies with higher statistics and further refined techniques. The ultimate signal of $`I`$-induced effects would consist, of course, in demonstrating the violation of helicity-conservation in DIS-events.

## 5 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Organizers of the Crimean Summer School Seminar, in particular L. Jenkovszky, for an interesting and pleasant stay on the Crimea. I am very grateful to G. Grindhammer, A. Ringwald and F. Schrempp for a critical reading of the manuscript and valuable comments.

Talk given at the Crimea Summer School Seminar “New Trends in High Energy Phyics”, May 27 - June 4, 2000, Yalta (Mishkor)


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# Collective Pinning of a Frozen Vortex Liquid in Ultrathin Superconducting YBa2Cu3O7 Films

## Abstract

The linear dynamic response of the two-dimensional (2D) vortex medium in ultrathin YBa2Cu3O7 films was studied by measuring their ac sheet impedance $`Z`$ over a broad range of frequencies $`\omega `$. With decreasing temperature the dissipative component of $`Z`$ exhibits, at a temperature $`T^{}(\omega )`$ well above the melting temperature of a 2D vortex crystal, a crossover from a thermally activated regime involving single vortices to a regime where the response has features consistent with a description in terms of a collectively pinned vortex manifold. This suggests the idea of a vortex liquid which, below $`T^{}(\omega )`$, appears to be frozen at the time scales $`1/\omega `$ of the experiments.

It is generally accepted that the effect of weak disorder on flux lattices in superconductors results in some sort of glassy state . In a rigorous sense, however, the existence of a truly superconducting vortex glass phase, such that the linear resistance vanishes, is impossible in two dimensions . Although the random potential associated with disorder can quench the motion of the vortex medium as a whole, in two dimensions (in contrast to three) the flow of magnetic flux can be mediated by the motion of thermally created point-like defects. To the best of our knowledge, only limited experimental evidence for the absence of the vortex-glass transition in two dimensions has been found so far .

Relying on sheet impedance measurements, in this Letter we demonstrate that, at typical laboratory time scales, the linear response of the two-dimensional (2D) vortex medium in ultrathin YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) films to a small driving ac field drastically changes with decreasing temperature. At high temperatures the dissipative component of the impedance is frequency independent and exhibits a strong (exponential) temperature dependence which can be attributed to the thermally activated motion of single vortices. However, at lower temperatures, this contribution becomes too small to be observed. In this regime the dynamic response is governed by a different process whose frequency ($`\omega `$) and temperature ($`T`$) dependences are found to be consistent with the idea of a collectively pinned vortex medium, in which large portions of the vortex manifold are fluctuating between pairs of metastable states in the random potential landscape provided by the film microstructure .

The crossover to the collective pinning regime has been observed over the whole frequency range explored in our experiments. Quite remarkably, it is located at a temperature $`T^{}(\omega )`$ which turns out to be much higher than the estimated melting temperature of a 2D vortex crystal in the absence of disorder. Thus, the response we observe well below $`T^{}(\omega )`$ does not originate from a collectively pinned vortex crystal, but from a collectively pinned (dynamically) frozen vortex liquid (or, in other terms, from a strongly disordered vortex solid). On the other hand, a study of the liquid-like response well above $`T^{}(\omega )`$ as a function of the applied magnetic field $`B`$ reveals that in this regime the vortex activation process is controlled by a surface barrier mechanism .

It is worth mentioning that the classical theory of flux creep in the collective pinning regime  and its ac extensions  ignore the periodic nature of the vortex lattice, the vortex medium being treated as an elastic manifold interacting with a random potential. Therefore, this approach should provide a reliable description of a disordered vortex solid (or frozen vortex liquid) as long as the frequency of observation is high enough for the motion of defects with respect to the driven vortex medium to appear to be frozen.

A possible criterion to distinguish between a genuine continuous phase transition to a vortex glass and a simple dynamic crossover to a collective pinning regime could rely on studies of $`T^{}(\omega )`$ extending at ultralow frequencies. If a true phase transition occurs, $`T^{}(\omega )`$ should saturate with decreasing $`\omega `$ at the (nonvanishing) vortex-glass transition temperature, whereas in the opposite case the decrease of $`T^{}(\omega )`$ should be unlimited. In our experiments $`T^{}(\omega )`$ decreases by only $`5\%`$ over three decades in frequency, thereby preventing us from drawing any conclusion with regard to the existence of a genuine phase transition. Qualitatively, in the frequency range explored in our experiments the ac response of ultrathin YBCO layers is identical to that of thick films, for which signatures of a true 3D vortex-glass phase were reported by several authors. Thus, from a practical point of view the glass-like features we observe below $`T^{}(\omega )`$ turn out to be undistinguishable from those of a genuine vortex glass.

The experiments were performed on two films YBCO-2 and YBCO-4, respectively 2 and 4 unit cells thick (i.e, with thicknesses $`d=2.4nm`$ and $`d=4.8nm`$), grown epitaxially ($`c`$-axis oriented) by laser ablation onto ($`100`$) SrTiO3 substrates. Both films were sandwiched between nonsuperconducting buffer and cover PrBa2Cu3O7 layers. For comparison, a thick ($`d=110nm`$) YBCO film was also studied. Their complex sheet impedance $`Z`$ was extracted from the mutual-inductance change of a drive-receive coil system  operated with a conventional lock-in detector allowing inductances to be measured with a sensitivity of $`10pH`$ between $`30Hz`$ and $`100kHz`$. The bulk in-plane magnetic penetration depth $`\lambda _{ab}(T)`$ was inferred from measurements of the inverse sheet kinetic inductance $`1/L_0\omega \text{Im}[1/Z(B=0)]=d/\mu _0\lambda _{ab}^2`$ in zero magnetic field and found to fit well, over a wide temperature range, a parabolic dependence  $`\lambda _{ab}^2(T)=\lambda _{ab}^2(0)[1(T/T_c)^2]`$ with $`\lambda _{ab}(0)=550nm`$ and $`T_c=48.3K`$ for YBCO-2 and $`\lambda _{ab}(0)=340nm`$ and $`T_c=73.7K`$ for YBCO-4.

The inverse sheet inductance $`1/L_g=\omega \text{Im}(1/Z)`$ (which measures the degree of superconducting phase coherence in the system) and the resistive component of the sheet impedance $`R_z=\text{Re}(Z)`$ (which measures dissipation) of YBCO-4 in a perpendicular field of $`0.01T`$ are plotted logarithmically in Fig. 1 as a function of $`1/T`$ for a set of 4 representative frequencies. As highlighted by the dotted straight lines, at high temperatures both $`1/L_g(T)`$ and $`R_z(T)`$ exhibit an Arrhenius-like behavior, thereby pointing to a thermally activated process involving single vortices. In this regime $`R_z(T)`$ is almost frequency independent, whereas $`1/L_g(T)`$, as shown in the insert of Fig. 1, is proportional to $`\omega ^2`$. These features are in excellent agreement with what one expects from barrier limited diffusion of non interacting particles.

The linearity of the Arrhenius plots in the thermally activated regime implies that the activation energy $`U(T,B)`$ is either constant or linearly dependent on temperature. We expect the latter to be the case, since $`U(T,B)`$ should be proportional to the basic energy scale of vortex matter, $`ϵ(T)=\varphi _0^2/4\pi \mu _0\lambda _{ab}^2(T)`$($`\varphi _0`$ is the superconducting flux quantum and $`\mu _0`$ the induction constant), which varies as $`(T_cT)`$ in the temperature range of interest just below $`T_c`$. Then, noticing that the temperature dependence of $`\lambda _{ab}^2`$ discussed above leads to $`U(T,B)2U(0,B)[1(T/T_c)]`$ near $`T_c`$, our data allow to explore the dimensionality of the vortex medium by studying the field dependence of the zero-temperature activation energy $`U(0,B)`$.

The results for the three YBCO samples studied in this work are shown in Fig. 2. While the energy barrier for the thickest (reference) film \[Fig. 2(a)\] obeys a power law $`U(0,B)B^\alpha `$ with an exponent $`\alpha 0.40\pm 0.05`$ fairly close to the prediction $`\alpha =1/2`$ for plastic vortex motion in a 3D vortex liquid , for the thinnest YBCO-2 layer \[Fig. 2(b)\] $`U(0,B)`$ exhibits, over the entire field range covered by our experiments, a logarithmic field dependence signaling 2D behavior. This interpretation is corroborated by a quantitative comparison with the theoretical predictions for flux flow in two dimensions controlled by surface barriers . In this regime the prelogarithmic factor of $`U(0,B)`$ is of the form $`Cϵ(0)d`$, with $`C=1/2`$. Inspection of the slope of $`U(0,B)`$ for YBCO-2 in Fig. 2(b) gives $`U(0,B)/\mathrm{ln}(1/B)71K`$, corresponding to $`C0.45`$, a value in excellent agreement with that calculated for the surface barrier mechanism. Note that the response of samples of macroscopic size as those studied in this work would be dominated by edge barriers only at extremely low frequencies, far below those accessible to our experiment. However, as evidenced by AFM images of the film microstructure, a consequence of the ”unit cell by unit cell” growth of the YBCO layers is the formation of linear defects (steps), related to thickness variations in multiples of a unit cell, separating flat islands $`0.2\mu m`$ in size. It can be then expected that such steps play a role similar to that of sample edges, as they would also provide barriers against vortex motion exhibiting, in two dimensions, a logarithmic field dependence.

Additional evidence for the 2D-3D dimensional crossover of the vortex medium is provided by a study of the activation energy for YBCO-4. As shown in Fig. 2(a), for this film $`U(0,B)`$ exhibits algebraic behavior with $`\alpha 0.58\pm 0.06`$ at high fields, but crosses over, at $`B^{}1T`$, to a low-field regime characterized by a much smaller exponent ($`\alpha 0.1`$) pointing to a logarithmic field dependence, which is indeed demonstrated by the lin-log plot of Fig. 2(b). By comparing the activation energies for 3D  and 2D  vortex liquids, it is possible to estimate the crossover field as $`B^{}k\varphi _0(\gamma /d)^2`$, where $`\gamma `$ is the anisotropy ratio and $`k`$ a numerical constant of order unity. Using $`\gamma 1/7`$ for YBCO, one obtains $`B^{}1T`$ for YBCO-4 by choosing $`k1/2`$.

As shown by Fig. 1, with decreasing temperature both $`1/L_g(T)`$ and $`R_z(T)`$ cross over to a regime where their temperature dependence becomes much weaker than in the activated regime. While the change in behavior in $`1/L_g(T)`$ would be present even if $`R_z(T)`$ would continue to decrease exponentially with $`1/T`$, the crossover in $`R_z(T)`$ points to the onset of a different regime. In order to elucidate its physical nature, it is convenient to define a crossover temperature $`T^{}(\omega )`$ and to compare it with the melting temperature of the vortex medium. We ad hoc identify $`T^{}(\omega )`$ as the temperature corresponding to the maximum curvature of the $`R_z(T)`$-curves in Fig. 1, the particular choice of the criterion being irrelevant for our conclusions. At $`B=0.01T`$, $`T^{}(\omega )`$ varies approximately from $`67K`$ at the upper limit to $`64K`$ at the lower end of the frequency spectrum explored in our measurements (the maximum curvature in the $`1/L_g(T)`$-curves occurs at about the same temperatures). Quite remarkably, these crossover temperatures are much higher than the temperature, $`T_M=\varphi _0^2d/32\pi ^2\sqrt{3}k_B\mu _0\lambda _{ab}^2(T_M)15K`$ ($`k_B`$ is the Boltzmann constant), at which the 2D vortex crystal in YBCO-4 would melt due to dislocation unbinding  in the absence of disorder (notice that the data of Fig. 1 were taken in the 2D regime well below $`B^{}`$). Thus, the picture emerging from the impedance measurements is that of a vortex liquid which, well below $`T^{}(\omega )`$, appears to be frozen at the time scales, $`1/\omega `$, of our measurements and whose response, as is shown below, can be described by ac extensions of the theory of collective pinning.

The low-frequency linear dynamic response of a collectively pinned elastic vortex manifold has been investigated in Refs.  and recently, in a more systematic way, in Ref. . In this approach large (in general anisotropic) portions of the vortex medium (vortex bundles) are assumed to be fluctuating between pairs of metastable states in the uncorrelated random potential. Treating these pairs of states as current-driven two-level systems with a size distribution $`\nu (r)`$, the vortex contribution $`l_{zv}(T,\omega )`$ to the specific inductance of the system can be shown  to be, quite generally, of the form:

$$l_{zv}(T,\omega )B^2_{r_c}^{r_\omega }𝑑r\nu (r)\frac{V^2u^2}{E}$$
(1)
where $`u`$ is the average vortex displacement inside a bundle in the direction of the current-induced force, $`r`$ the size of a bundle in the same direction, $`V`$ its volume, $`E`$ the energy scale which can be associated with it, $`r_c`$ the collective pinning length  and $`r_\omega r_c[(k_BT/U_0)\mathrm{ln}(1/\omega \tau )]^{1/\chi }`$ a frequency-dependent length scale setting the maximum size of the vortex bundles which appreciably contribute to the response ($`U_0`$ and $`\tau `$ are, respectively, a characteristic energy and a relaxation time related to disorder, $`\chi `$ the energy barrier exponent). It turns out to be convenient to estimate $`E`$ by considering the compressive contribution $`E_c`$ to the energy. In doing this, one has to take into account the dispersive nature of the compression modulus $`c_{11}(q)`$, which in thin films ($`d\lambda _{ab}`$) is always nonlocal. Using $`c_{11}(q)(B^2d/\mu _0\lambda _{ab}^2)q^2`$ in the regime of interest, one obtains  $`E_c(B^2d/\mu _0\lambda _{ab}^2)S^2(u/r)^2`$, where $`S=V/drr_{}`$. Then, setting $`\nu (r)1/r^3`$ as imposed by the presence of a hierarchical distribution of quasi-isotropic ($`r_{}r`$) two-level systems , from Eq. (1) we find:

$$L_z(T,\omega )L_0(T)\{1+C^{^{}}\mathrm{ln}[(k_BT/U_0)\mathrm{ln}(1/\omega \tau )]\},$$
(2)
where $`C^{^{}}`$ is a numerical constant. Since $`L_z(\omega )`$ depends only logarithmically on $`\omega `$, a simplified Kramers-Kronig relation  can be used which leads to:

$$R_z(T,\omega )C^{^{}}(\pi /2)\omega L_0(T)/\mathrm{ln}(1/\omega \tau ).$$
(3)
Notice that in a film with a high density of linear defects (steps) acting as a network of strong pinning lines, the regime of collective pinning can be realized by vortices moving along these linear defects.

The main features of the response of our very thin YBCO layers in the frozen vortex-liquid regime below $`T^{}(\omega )`$ are well described by these expressions (note that, below $`T^{}(\omega )`$, $`R_z\omega L_z`$ and, therefore, $`L_gL_z`$). Focusing first on the temperature dependence, one sees that it should be dominated by $`L_0(T)`$, the logarithmic corrections entering Eqs. (2) and (3) varying too slowly to be of any relevance in the limited temperature interval of our experiments. The dashed curve in Fig. 1(a), which is simply $`1/L_0(T)`$ as inferred from zero-field measurements, fits nicely the low-temperature (almost frequency-independent) $`1/L_g(T)`$-curves. On the other hand, the temperature dependence and the order of magnitude of $`R_z`$ below $`T^{}(\omega )`$ are compatible with Eq. (3) for any reasonable estimate of $`\tau `$ ($`10^{12}10^7s`$). We have also found that the response in the frozen vortex-liquid regime is only weakly dependent on $`B`$ in the field range covered by our experiments (up to $`3T`$), in agreement with the theoretical prediction (derived for $`BB_{c2}`$).

Further evidence for the interpretation of the response in terms of a collectively pinned vortex manifold emerges from the analysis of the frequency dependence of our data. As shown in Fig. 1(a), at low temperatures, well below $`T^{}(\omega )`$, $`1/L_g`$ is almost frequency independent, a behavior consistent with Eq. (2), where the extremely slow-varying (double-logarithmic) vortex contribution can be hardly expected to be noticeable against the superfluidbackground $`1/L_0`$. To discuss the dissipative component, in Fig. 3 we show a family of $`R_z`$ vs $`\omega `$ isotherms in a log-log plot. With decreasing temperature the isotherms progressively evolve from the frequency-independent regime characteristic of the vortex liquid at high temperatures to an almost algebraic behavior with an exponent $`0.7`$ at the lowest temperature ($`65K`$) at which dissipation could be studied with sufficient accuracy. Considering the fact that this isotherm reflects, at a time scale $`1/\omega `$, the response of a 2D vortex medium ”on the verge of freezing” rather than that of a ”deep-frozen” liquid, we interpret the general behavior emerging from Fig. 3 and, in particular, the value of the exponent extracted from the ”coldest” isotherm, as an indication that $`R_z(\omega )`$ will likely tend to the almost linear frequency dependence predicted by Eq. (3) well below $`T^{}(\omega )`$. This should be compared with the response of a non-frozen pinned vortex liquid for which one would expect a crossover to an $`\omega ^2`$-dependence at sufficiently low temperatures.

We would like to thank L. Baselgia Stahel, S. Blaser and B. Schmied for their contribution during the early stages of this work, A. Daridon for the AFM images and A. Rüfenacht for assistance in the analyis of the data. We are also grateful to G. Blatter and V.B. Geshkenbein for interesting discussions and useful comments. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.


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# Environmental effects on Gas and Galaxy Evolution in Clusters

## 1. Galaxy evolution in clusters at optical wavelengths

Galaxy evolution in clusters has some interesting characteristics:

a) it is rapid, because significant evolution is observed already between $`z0.20.3`$ and $`z=0`$;

b) it mainly involves disk galaxies. As we will discuss, most of the action is taking place in spiral and S0 galaxies while not much happens to the bulk of the ellipticals except passive evolution, at least up to $`z0.6`$.

c) from the optical point of view two types of galaxy evolution are observed: a transformation of the galactic morphologies (i.e. Hubble types) and a change in the star formation activity, therefore the stellar population content.

Most of the distant cluster work presented in this section is a result of the MORPHS collaboration (involving W. Couch, A. Dressler, R. Ellis, A. Oemler, B.M. Poggianti and I. Smail) that studied 10 rich clusters at $`z=0.40.5`$ using WFPC2-HST imaging and ground-based optical spectroscopy (Smail et al. 1997, Dressler et al. 1999 \[D99\]).

### 1.1. Morphological evolution

The relative frequency of the various Hubble types evolves with redshift. Roughly speaking, spirals are a factor of 2 to 3 more abundant at $`z0.5`$ than at $`z=0`$, while S0 galaxies are proportionally less abundant in the distant clusters (Dressler et al. 1997 \[D97\]). Hence, a large number of the S0 galaxies we observe in clusters today seem to have evolved from the numerous spirals observed at $`z=0.5`$ (see also Fasano et al. 2000 \[F00\]). In contrast, the fraction of ellipticals at $`z=0.5`$ is already as large or larger than in the nearby universe (D97). Furthermore, many of the spirals have disturbed morphologies, in some cases due to an obvious interaction/merger.

The morphology-density relation changes with redshift as well: at low z it was found to be valid in all types of clusters (Dressler 1980), while at higher redshift a qualitatively similar relation exists only in centrally concentrated clusters and is absent in low-concentration ones (D97, F00).

### 1.2. Stellar population evolution

The first evidence for strong evolution of the stellar populations came from photometric data and was uncovered by Butcher & Oemler (1984), who found an excess of blue galaxies in clusters at $`z0.2`$. The large number of spectra now available has allowed to study the star formation histories of the cluster galaxies in greater detail (Poggianti et al. 1999 \[P99\]).

Galaxies in distant clusters show a large variety of spectral characteristics (D99, see Table 1), namely:

– totally passive spectra without signs of current or recent star formation, that resemble those of nearby ellipticals (k-type).

– post-starburst/post-starforming galaxies with no ongoing star formation, that were forming stars at some time during the last Gyr. These are known as “E+A” galaxies, and will be called “k+a”’s in this paper;

– spectra of star-forming galaxies that resemble those of normal, quiescent nearby spirals (e(c) type);

– starburst galaxies (e(b) and e(a) types). The e(a) spectra are characterized by a peculiar combination of spectroscopic features (Table 1) and have been proposed to be spectra of starburst galaxies that are highly obscured by dust (P99, Poggianti & Wu 2000). It is important to note that by definition the difference between e(a) and k+a galaxies is the presence of the \[OII\] emission. Neverthless, it is possible that some of the k+a’s are extreme e(a) galaxies in which the \[OII\] line is totally extincted by dust (Smail et al. 1999, see also Owen’s contribution in these proceedings).

The fraction of galaxies as a function of the spectral class are given for the MORPHS clusters and field in Table 1 (P99). In clusters at $`z=0.40.5`$, we observe a large fraction of k+a galaxies (21% of the total cluster population) and globally a much higher proportion (30%) of star-forming galaxies than at $`z=0`$, of which about 1/3 are dusty starbursts (10%). Post-starburst galaxies are much more frequent in the distant cluster environment (21%) than in the distant field (6%), while the proportion of star forming galaxies is higher in the field and dusty starburst spectra are present in both environments with a similar incidence (11%).

Comparing the morphological and spectral classifications, the majority of Es and S0s have stellar populations that are old, passively evolving (k type), while most of the post-starburst and of the star-forming spectra belong to spiral galaxies. Overall, the star formation properties of the spirals are quite surprising: only 10% of them have spectra similar to nearby field spirals, about 20% are starbursting and the majority ($`70`$%) are not currently forming stars, being either k+a or k types.

These results are consistent with field spirals/groups infalling into the clusters and having their star formation rate truncated by some mechanism related to the cluster environment, and then turning into S0s at some later time. The fact that most of the k+a spectra belong to galaxies that are still classified as spirals indicates that the process responsible for halting the star formation must not affect the morphology, or at least not on the same timescale. A process acting only on the gas content of an infalling galaxy – such as an ICM-ISM interaction – is therefore a good candidate for producing k+a spiral galaxies (see Bower’s and Vollmer’s contributions in these proceedings).

Finally, it is important to note that – although the most obvious effect of the cluster environment is the halting of the star formation (k+a galaxies) – these results do not exclude that at the same time the cluster could provoke an enhancement of SF in some subset of galaxies.

## 2. A multiwavelength study of Abell 2670

The physical mechanism, or mechanisms, responsible for the observed evolution still need to be identified. The H i information can be very valuable in discriminating among the candidate processes because it can provide the link between the evolution of the morphologies/star formation and the gas content and can aid reconstructing the building history of the cluster.

We and a number of other collaborators are carrying out an H i+optical study of 20 clusters out to z=0.2; here we present the results of the first of these clusters, Abell 2670, obtained in collaboration with K. Dwarakanath, R. Guhathakurta, A. Shambrook, R. Sharples. Abell 2670 is a rich cluster at z=0.08 which at first sight appears a relaxed, dynamically evolved cluster from the optical and the X-ray data. However, the cD galaxy has a large offset from the cluster mean velocity and there is evidence for substructure from a statistical analysis of the redshift catalog which shows the presence of at least 2 and probably 3 subsystems merging almost along the line of sight (Bird 1994).

Our group has acquired VLA H i imaging, CTIO UBVRI wide-field imaging and Keck images of selected areas of A2670 and has analyzed $`300`$ optical spectra from Sharples et al. (1988) and ROSAT archive images (Hobbs & Willmore 1997). The VLA imaging consists of 3 pointings,, mapping the entire volume of the cluster and covering the whole velocity space of cluster members over an area 5 Mpc by side down to a limit of $`10^8M_{}`$ of H i. The VLA data also provide as a by-product radio continuum information.

We begin by comparing in Table 1 the star formation properties of A2670 with those of the MORPHS clusters for galaxies down to the same absolute magnitude. The two main differences are that k+a galaxies are much less abundant and that e(a) spectra are missing among the luminous galaxies of A2670.

The total H i image is presented in Fig. 1 (left panel), where the 42 H i detections are shown as contours. A group of very rich H i galaxies with H i masses up to more than $`10^{10}M_{}`$ is visible in the north-east region. This group has a small velocity dispersion and its mean velocity is higher than the cluster mean and close to the velocity of the cD galaxy. This appears to be a subsystem that hasn’t gone through the cluster centre yet. There are somewhat sparser H i detection SW and there are no H i detections within the central 250 kpc. This lack of detections in the core is not due to the morphology-density relation, because in this region of the cluster there are at least 5 bright spirals of types Sb or later that fall within the H i velocity range and yet are undetected.

The H i image of the central $`2.7\mathrm{Mpc}^2`$ is presented in Fig. 2 (right panel) together with the ROSAT contours and the spectral types of the H i galaxies. The six galaxies in projection closest to the cluster centre have asymmetric H i distributions and in some cases the H i is displaced from the optical. Their H i masses are in the range $`4\times 10^810^9M_{}`$. The star formation properties of these galaxies show a bimodal behaviour: 2 of them are starbursts (optically faint e(b) and e(a)) while the other 4 are rather passive (k and k(e) types). None of them has a vigorous, spiral-like star formation (e(c) type). In contrast, the H i-rich group at NE comprises many e(c) and k(e) types, as one would expect for a group of field galaxies composed of early and late type spirals.

It is worth noticing the existence of a population of k-type, yet gas rich galaxies. Their spectral classification is confirmed by their red colors as shown in Fig. 1 (right panel). This figure shows that in general there is a good correlation between the spectral type and the color, with the k, k(e), e(c), e(a) and e(b) types becoming progressively bluer.

Among the H i detections there aren’t any secure k+a galaxies and this is consistent with the post-starburst/post-starforming galaxies being devoid of significant amounts of neutral gas. K+a galaxies are also undetected in radio-continuum: out of the 23 cluster members with radio continuum emission, 17 have spiral-like star formation (e(c)’s) and 6 are totally passive (k’s).

It is interesting to contrast the results of A2670 with those of the Coma cluster, in which Bravo-Alfaro et al. (2000) have carried out a detailed H i imaging study of 19 spirals (see also Bravo-Alfaro et al. in these proceedings) finding that the H i properties of the cluster galaxies are strongly correlated with the projected distance from the cluster centre. The most strongly H i-deficient galaxies are located roughly within the extent of the central X-ray emission and show asymmetries in the H i distribution and often a shift between the optical and the H i position. Surprisingly, in Coma most of the H i-detected galaxies with disturbed H i morphology – which are likely to be currently interacting with the ICM – have e(a) spectra (Fig. 2, left panel). Those that are not dusty starbursts are rather passive (1 k and 2 k(e) types).

The H i and optical data together are consistent with clusters accreting groups of galaxies that have both their gas content and their SF properties altered by the impact with the X-ray IGM. H i-detected galaxies in the outskirts of A2670 – those undisturbed in their H i content and morphology – have SF properties typical of field spirals, while both in A2670 and in Coma those galaxies that still retain some gas – but appear to be already affected by the cluster environment in their H i content – are either passive or starbursting with significant amounts of dust. The relative proportions in the two clusters are different: Coma has numerous starbursts among the H i-disturbed galaxies while A2670 has mostly passive spectra, as if Coma has been “caught in the act” and A2670 is seen after/before an infalling group begins to be affected by the ICM. This is suggestive of a SF enhancement due to the interaction with the IC gas in Coma.

Here we have presented an H i-optical comparison of two low-z clusters. In the nearby universe we are observing the tail of evolutionary processes that are prominent in clusters at slightly higher redshift, hence it will be extremely interesting to study the H i content in more distant clusters, at z=0.2 and beyond, where the populations of infalling star-forming galaxies are a significant fraction of the global cluster population.

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Butcher, H., Oemler, A., 1984, ApJ, 285, 426

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text:
# Two-pion decay modes of the 𝑁^∗(1440) in 𝑛𝑝→𝑑𝜋𝜋

## Abstract

A simple model for the $`npd\pi \pi `$ reaction has been developed. It is shown that the deuteron momentum spectra measured at $`T_n=795`$ MeV can be understood in terms of the Roper excitation and its $`N\pi \pi `$ decay modes. A similar pattern, recently observed in $`pppp\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, can be explained in the same way.

Double-pion production in nucleon-nucleon ($`NN`$) collisions is a source of interesting information about the properties of baryonic resonances and the $`NN`$ interaction in the inelastic region. It has actually become an active field of experimental research at CELSIUS and COSY, where the reactions $`ppNN\pi \pi ,d\pi \pi `$, $`pd{}_{}{}^{3}He\pi \pi `$ and $`dd{}_{}{}^{4}He\pi \pi `$ are being studied near threshold.

The $`npd\pi \pi `$ reaction was studied in the past in connection with the ABC effect. Here, I focus the attention on the deuteron spectrum measured using a neutron beam with $`T_n=795`$ MeV . In contrast to the experiments performed at higher energies ($`1`$ GeV), the ABC peaks are not present in the data; they rather show a well defined bump at high $`\pi \pi `$ missing masses, in disagreement with the models available in the literature .

My aim is to show that this behavior can be understood as a consequence of the interference of two mechanisms involving the excitation of the Roper resonance $`N^{}(1440)`$ and its subsequent decay into $`N(\pi \pi )_{Swave}^{T=0}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\pi `$ respectively . The present model is a reduced version of the one of Ref.  for the $`NNNN\pi \pi `$ reaction.

With these ingredients, and using the Paris deuteron wave function, one can calculate the deuteron momentum distribution for different laboratory angles.

The mechanism $`N^{}N(\pi \pi )_{Swave}^{T=0}`$ produces spectra very similar to phase space, while the $`N^{}\mathrm{\Delta }\pi `$ mechanism plays a crucial role in providing the right shape to the distributions through its interference with the larger $`N^{}N(\pi \pi )_{Swave}^{T=0}`$ contribution. This interference is constructive at high $`\pi \pi `$ masses and destructive at low ones. Such a pattern can be understood by realizing that the $`N^{}\mathrm{\Delta }\pi `$ amplitude is dominated by terms proportional to the scalar product of the outgoing pions three momenta; this scalar product has different signs in the center of the spectra, where the pions go back to back, and at the edges, where they travel together.

In order to further illustrate the effect of the interference, Fig. 4 shows the effect of changing the relative sign of the two amplitudes. The data clearly favor a choice of the sign of $`g_{N^{}\mathrm{\Delta }\pi }`$ in agreement with earlier works .

The double-$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ mechanism is too small to be represented in Fig. 2. In Fig. 4, its contribution is shown for $`T_n=830`$ MeV, $`\theta _{lab}=4.5^{}`$ and using the Hulthen wave function, in order to compare with the calculation of Ref.  (Fig. 4 b). The differential cross section obtained in the case of only pion exchange is very similar to the one given by the relativistic model of Ref.  but the inclusion of the rho exchange modifies the result, and the short range correlations cause a strong reduction of the strength of this mechanism.

The presented spectra are equivalent to a $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ invariant mass distribution shifted to higher masses with respect to phase space; a similar behavior has been recently observed in $`pppp\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ at a lower energy $`T_p=750`$ MeV (see Fig. 2 of Ref. ). I have calculated this observable including only the dominant isoscalar excitation of the $`N^{}(1440)`$ decaying into $`N(\pi \pi )_{Swave}^{T=0}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\pi `$. I have also included $`pp`$ final state interaction (strong plus Coulomb) via effective range approximation  and the experimental kinematical constrain $`3^{}\theta _{lab}24^{}`$ for the detected particles (protons and $`\pi ^+`$). Also here, the interference between the two mechanisms allows to explain the observed shift.


text:
# REFERENCES

König et al. Reply: In a recent Letter  we developed a theory of carrier-induced ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic semiconductors. We analyzed the elementary spin excitations at low temperatures, where spin waves can be approximated as non-interacting Bose particles (“independent spin-wave theory”). In addition, we proposed a simple ad hoc “self-consistent spin-wave” approximation for higher temperatures in order to demonstrate the increasing inadequacy of mean-field theory critical temperature estimates at high carrier densities.

Following Ref. , Yang et al.  use an equation-of-motion approach under the Tyablikov decoupling scheme to arrive at an alternative “self-consistent spin-wave” theory. As we will show now, it is straightforward to rederive this scheme within our formulation, and thereby provide a clearer physical picture of the nature of their approximation.

The independent spin-wave theory describes small amplitude collective fluctuations of the magnetization, spin waves with dispersion $`\mathrm{\Omega }_p`$. It predicts for the thermal average of the impurity-spin density

$$S^z=\frac{1}{V}\underset{|\stackrel{}{p}|<p_c}{}\left\{Sn(\mathrm{\Omega }_p)\right\}.$$
(1)
The Bose function $`n(x)`$ reflects the fact that the spin waves are approximated by independent Bose particles. It is known  that this equation yields the correct prefactor of the characteristic $`T^{3/2}`$-law.

A self-consistent spin-wave theory provides an approximate theory of large amplitude magnetization fluctuations, taking into account, for example, spin-quantization constraints on boson occupation numbers.

Weiss mean-field theory, which is expected to be accurate for a model with static long-range interactions, neglects correlation and, hence, spin-wave dispersion, but treats the problem self consistently. Then the constraint on the number of spin waves per impurity spin ($`2S`$) leads to $`S^z=cSB_S(\beta S\mathrm{\Omega })`$ or, equivalently,

$$S^z=c\left\{Sn(\mathrm{\Omega })+(2S+1)n[(2S+1)\mathrm{\Omega }]\right\}$$
(2)
where $`B_S(x)`$ is the Brillouin function, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ denotes the energy of an uncorrelated spin flip, which is independent of momentum $`\stackrel{}{p}`$. The mean-field theory is closed by specifying the dependence of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ on $`S^z`$ (it is $`\mathrm{\Omega }=J_{pd}n^{}`$ where $`n^{}`$ is the free-carrier spin density). The second Bose function in Eq. (2) is the correction term from spin kinematics and rules out unphysical states. Due to the neglect of correlation, Weiss mean-field theory can substantially overestimate the critical temperature . It fails to describe the low-temperature magnetization as well.

A self-consistent spin-wave scheme ideally (i) reduces to the independent spin-wave theory at low temperatures, (ii) simplifies to Eq. (2) in the Ising limit, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_p\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and (iii) yields a second-order phase transition by allowing for the trivial solution $`S^z=0`$.

At low temperatures the correction term in Eq. (2) is negligible and Eq. (2) reduces to Eq. (1) if $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is replaced by an effective energy which accounts for the spin-wave dispersion $`\mathrm{\Omega }_p`$,

$$n(\mathrm{\Omega })\frac{1}{cV}\underset{|\stackrel{}{p}|<p_c}{}n(\mathrm{\Omega }_p)$$
(3)
($`=\mathrm{\Phi }`$ in the notation of Ref. ). In Ref.  we obtained a self-consistent spin-wave scheme by using the replacement $`\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_p`$ in Eq. (2) and averaging over momenta, $`(1/cV)_{|\stackrel{}{p}|<p_c}\mathrm{}`$. This is equivalent to restrict the number of spin waves per wave vector $`\stackrel{}{p}`$ and turns out to be too restrictive at low temperatures, as we pointed out in Ref. . Nevertheless, requirements (ii) and (iii) are still satisfied and the prefactor of the $`T^{3/2}`$-law is only slightly changed. This approximation would completely fail in reduced-dimension systems as emphasized in Ref.  but these are not of interest here .

Equation (3) of Ref.  is identical to Eq. (2) with $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ determined by Eq. (3). Now all the requirements (i), (ii), and (iii) are satisfied. The scheme proposed by Yang et al. is, therefore, equivalent to Weiss mean-field theory but with an effective (constant) spin-flip energy $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ which accounts for correlation.

Finally, we note that in both self-consistent schemes, the one in Ref.  and the one proposed in Ref. , not only does the magnetization of the impurity spins vanish at the critical temperature but, by construction, the polarization of the free carriers goes to zero as well. This is not generally the correct physical picture. For example, in the limit of low carrier densities, the local band polarization of the free carriers remains finite even above $`T_c`$  and neither scheme gives reliable $`T_c`$ estimates.


text:
# Medium effects on the flow of strange particles in heavy ion collisions

## 1 Introduction

Strange particle production from heavy ion collisions offers the possibility to study the properties of the hot dense matter formed in these collisions. Because of its small interaction cross section with a nucleon, about 10 mb, Randrup and Ko  suggested that the kaon would be a good messenger of the dense matter where it was expected to be produced in heavy ion collisions. The first experiment was carried out by Schnetzer et al.  at the Bevalac at an energy of 2.1 GeV/nucleon. Although the kaon yield was consistent with the prediction of cascade calculations, the momentum spectra of kaons could only be explained if the final-state scattering of kaons was included . Subsequently, Aichelin and Ko  showed that the kaon yield in heavy ion collisions at subthreshold energies, i.e., below 1.56 GeV/nucleon, was sensitive to the nuclear equation of state used in the transport model. Comparisons of the experimental data from the KaoS collaboration at SIS/GSI  with results from various transport models seem to indicate that the nuclear equation of state is soft , consistent with that inferred from the proton flow data .

As to the antikaon, Kaplan and Nelson  pointed out, based on the chiral Lagrangian, that its mass should decrease in dense matter due to the attractive vector and scalar potentials, the latter resulting from the explicit chiral symmetry breaking, leading to a possible kaon condensation in neutron stars . This would limit the maximum mass of neutron stars to about one and a half solar masses and give rise to suggestions of many small black holes in our galaxy . The drop of antikaon mass also gives a natural explanation  of the observed enhancement of subthreshold antikaon production in heavy ion collisions by the FOPI collaboration at SIS/GSI .

Using the relativistic transport model , Li et al.  showed that the kaon directed flow in heavy ion collisions was sensitive to the strength of kaon potential in nuclear medium. The observed vanishing kaon flow by the FOPI collaboration  was found to be consistent with the prediction based on the repulsive kaon potential that results from the cancellation of the attractive scalar and repulsive vector potentials acting on the kaon. Analyses of the the experimental data from heavy ion collisions at AGS/BNL and SPS/CERN are being carried out, and preliminary results cannot be explained without including the kaon medium effects in the transport model.

In this talk, we will review the theoretical understandings of the properties of kaon and lambda in nuclear medium, and the effects due to changes in their in-medium properties on their collective flow in heavy ion collisions at SIS/GSI, AGS/BNL, and SPS/CERN.

## 2 Strange particles in nuclear medium

### 2.1 Kaon and antikaon

Since the pioneering work of Kaplan and Nelson , there were many studies on the properties of kaons in dense matter using the chiral Lagrangian . To leading order in the expansion of the chiral Lagrangian, the explicit symmetry breaking term gives rise to the large kaon mass, while the term involving the vector current contributes to its isoscalar $`s`$-wave scattering amplitude from a nucleon. The latter leads to a repulsive or an attractive optical potential for $`K^+`$ and $`K^{}`$ in symmetric nuclear matter. Further attraction for the kaon is obtained from terms next to leading order in the chiral expansion, which involves the kaon-nucleon sigma term and depends again on the explicit symmetry breaking. Ignoring isospin dependent terms, which do not contribute in symmetric nuclear matter, the chiral Lagrangian to the next to leading order is

$`_{𝒦𝒩}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{8f^2}}\overline{N}\gamma _\mu N(\overline{K}\stackrel{\mu }{\stackrel{}{}}K)+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }_{KN}}{f^2}}\overline{N}N\overline{K}K`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{D}}{f^2}}(\overline{N}N)(_\mu \overline{K}^\mu K).`$
In the above, $`f93`$ MeV is the pion decay constant, and the value of the kaon-nucleon sigma-term $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{KN}=\frac{1}{2}(m_q+m_s)N|\overline{u}u+\overline{s}s|N`$ depends on the strangeness content of the nucleon, $`y=2N|\overline{s}s|N/N|\overline{u}u+\overline{d}d|N`$ $`0.10.2`$. Using the light quark mass ratio $`m_s/m_{u,d}29`$, one obtains $`370<\mathrm{\Sigma }_{KN}<405\mathrm{MeV}`$. On the other hand, lattice gauge calculations show that $`y0.33`$ which would give $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{KN}450`$ MeV . The additional parameter, $`\stackrel{~}{D}0.33/m_K\mathrm{\Sigma }_{KN}/m_K^2`$, is determined from comparing with $`K^+`$-nucleon scattering data.

In the mean-field approximation, the kaon energy in the nuclear medium is then given by

$`\omega _{K,\overline{K}}`$ $`=`$ $`\left[\sqrt{(m_K^2+k^2)\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{D}}{f^2}}\rho _s\right)^2+\left({\displaystyle \frac{3}{8f^2}}\rho _N\right)^2}\pm {\displaystyle \frac{3}{8f^2}}\rho _N\right]`$ (2)
$`\times `$ $`\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{D}}{f^2}}\rho _s\right)^1,`$
with

$$m_K^{}=\sqrt{\left(m_K^2\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }_{KN}}{f^2}\rho _s\right)\left(1+\frac{\stackrel{~}{D}}{f^2}\rho _s\right)^1}.$$
(3)
In the above, the plus and minus signs are for the kaon and antikaon, respectively. Using the KFSR relation ($`m_\rho =2\sqrt{2}fg_\rho `$) and the SU(3) relation ($`g_\omega =3g_\rho `$), the kaon vector potential, $`3\rho _N/(8f^2)`$, can be written as $`(1/3)(g_\omega /m_\omega )^2\rho _N`$ which is just 1/3 of the nucleon vector potential in the Walecka model , as expected from the constituent quark model. With $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{KN}350`$ MeV, the in-medium kaon mass at normal nuclear matter density, given by its energy at zero three-momentum, increases by about 30 MeV, consistent with that given by the impulse approximation using the kaon-nucleon scattering length, while that of antikaon decreases by about 100 MeV, similar to that extracted from the kaonic atom data . The kaon and antikaon potential from the chiral Lagrangian are shown in the left panel of Fig. 1 by the dotted and dashed curves for $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{KN}`$ equal to 270 and 450 MeV, respectively.

The chiral Lagrangian predicts, however, an attractive isoscalar s-wave scattering length for the $`K^{}`$-nucleon scattering amplitude, which contradicts with the repulsive one found in experiments . This discrepancy has been attributed to the existence of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ which is located below the $`K^{}N`$-threshold. To circumvent this problem, the chiral perturbation calculation was extended either by Lee et al.  to include an explicit $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ state or by Kaiser et al.  to use the interaction obtained from the leading order chiral Lagrangian as a kernel for a Lippman-Schwinger type calculation, which was then solved to generate a bound state $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$. In this picture, the properties of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ is significantly changed in the nuclear medium as a result of the Pauli blocking of the proton inside this bound state . With increasing density, its mass increases and the strength of the resonance is reduced, leading to a change of the $`K^{}`$ optical potential from repulsive to attractive at a density of about $`1/4`$ of nuclear matter density in agreement with the analysis of $`K^{}`$ atoms . The resulting antikaon potential  is shown in the left panel of Fig. 1 by the dash-dotted curve.

The kaon potential was also studied in the meson-exchange model by Schaffner et al.  based on the Lagrangian

$$=_\mu \overline{K}^\mu K(m_K^2g_{\sigma K}m_K\sigma )\overline{K}K+ig_{\omega K}\omega _\mu \overline{K}\stackrel{\mu }{\stackrel{}{}}K,$$
(4)
where the coupling constants $`g_{\sigma K}`$ and $`g_{\omega K}`$ to the scalar ($`\sigma `$) and vector ($`\omega `$) fields, respectively, can be related to other known coupling constants using SU(3) symmetry or determined empirically from the kaon-nucleon scattering amplitude. In the mean-field approximation, the kaon energy is then given by

$$\omega _{K,\overline{K}}=[m_K^2+k^2g_{\sigma K}m_K\sigma +(g_{\omega K}\omega _0)^2]^{1/2}\pm g_{\omega K}\omega _0,$$
(5)
where the plus and minus signs are, again, for the kaon and antikaon, respectively. The kaon potential given by this model is shown in the left panel of Fig. 1 by the solid curve. Although all theoretical models predict that the kaon has a moderate repulsive potential and the antikaon has a strong attractive potential, their magnitudes differ substantially. It is thus important to have experimental data to constrain the values of the kaon and antikaon potentials. Kaon production from heavy ion collisions offers this possibility, particularly for the kaon potential at high densities.

For the momentum dependence of kaon potential, Shuryak  found, based on the impulse approximation, that it would become weaker as its momentum increases. On the other hand, the dispersion relation analysis by Sibirtsev and Cassing  shows that the kaon potential is essentially independent of the momentum. They also found that the antikaon potential became less attractive with increasing momentum. In a coupled channel approach involving $`\overline{K}N`$, $`\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }`$, and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$, Schaffner-Bielich et al.  found that the antikaon potential could even change to a repulsive one at large momenta due to the diminishing effect of the Pauli blocking. The latter effect was shown to be further enhanced in nuclear matter at finite temperature.

### 2.2 Lambda

Because of strangeness conservation, hyperons such as the lambda and sigma are produced together with kaons. Heavy ion collisions thus also offer the opportunity to study the properties of hyperons in dense matter, which is important in understanding if the core of a neutron star can exist as a hyperon matter . The potential for the lambda particle at normal nuclear matter density is relatively well determined to be about -30 MeV from the structure of hypernuclei . Theoretically, the lambda potential in nuclear matter has been studied using the Dirac-Bruckner-Hartree-Fock approach . The result ranges from -25 to -40 MeV, depending on the input boson-exchange models for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }N`$ interaction. There were also various attempts to generalize the Walecka-type model from SU(2) to SU(3) to include the hyperon degrees of freedom . In the naive SU(3) quark model, the hyperon potential is about 2/3 of the nucleon potential, as there are only two light quarks in a hyperon instead of three light quarks in a nucleon. Recently, hyperon properties in nuclear matter were also studied using the QCD sum-rule approach. It was found that both lambda scalar and vector potentials were significantly weaker than the prediction from the naive quark model , while those of the sigma hyperon were somewhat stronger and were close to the ones for the nucleon . The accuracy of these findings were, however, limited by uncertainties in the nucleon strangeness content and certain in-medium four-quark condensates.

Writing the lambda self-energy in terms of the scalar ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }_S^\mathrm{\Lambda }`$) and vector ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }_V^\mathrm{\Lambda }`$) parts, its potential can then be expressed as

$$U_\mathrm{\Lambda }(𝐩,\rho )=[(m_\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Sigma }_S^\mathrm{\Lambda })^2+𝐩^2]^{1/2}+\mathrm{\Sigma }_V^\mathrm{\Lambda }(m_\mathrm{\Lambda }^2+𝐩^2)^{1/2}.$$
(6)
Using $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_S^\mathrm{\Lambda }2\mathrm{\Sigma }_S^N/3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_V^\mathrm{\Lambda }2\alpha \mathrm{\Sigma }_V^N/3`$, where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_S^N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_V^N`$ are the nucleon scalar and vector self-energies, respectively, the lambda potential is shown in the right panel of Fig. 1 for different values of $`\alpha `$. Also shown in the figure is the empirical lambda potential at normal nuclear matter density.

## 3 Strange particle flow in heavy ion collisions

Strange particle flow in heavy ion collisions is sensitive to the mean-field potential in dense matter as an attractive interaction between the strange particle and nucleons aligns its flow with that of the nucleons whereas a repulsion leads to an anti-alignment (anti-flow). However, strange particle flow is also sensitive to the overall reaction dynamics, in particular to the properties of the nuclear mean field and to reabsorption processes especially in case of the antikaons. Therefore, transport calculations are required in order to consistently incorporate all these effects.

### 3.1 GSI

The $`K^+`$ flow has been measured by the FOPI collaboration  at GSI. Although the error bars are large, the data (circles) in the left panel of Fig. 2 clearly show a vanishing flow at midrapidity. Also shown in the figure are theoretical results from the transport model calculations by the TAMU-SUNY group , the Giessen group , and the Tübingen group . It is seen that the experimental data are consistent with the results that include the kaon mean-field potential from the chiral Lagrangian (lower left panel) but not the ones without any potential (upper left panel). It is worthwhile to point out that while the primordial flow of kaons produced from meson-baryon scattering is positive, those produced from baryon-baryon collisions already have a very small flow . Also, it has been found that inclusion of the spatial component of the kaon vector potential would lead to an attractive Lorentz force between the kaon and nucleons, leading thus again to a positive kaon flow . However, the Lorentz force increases with kaon momentum, and this contradicts the predictions from more detailed theoretical studies which show an opposite momentum dependence .

The repulsive kaon potential also leads to an enhanced emission of kaons out of the reaction plane as first shown by Li and Ko . Similar results, shown in the left panel of Fig. 3, were obtained by the Tübingen group . The observed kaon azimuthal distribution, which shows an enhanced out-of-plane emission, can only be explained by the inclusion of a repulsive kaon potential. Again, the data do not support the existence of a simple Lorentz force between the kaon and nucleons.

For antikaons, Li and Ko  showed that their flow and azimuthal distribution were influenced by the attractive potential. In the right panel of Fig. 3, the results from the Tübingen group  show that the $`K^{}`$ azimuthal distribution, which is dominated by out-of-plane emission in the absence of potential, becomes more symmetric once the attractive potential is included in the relativistic transport model. Similarly, the antiflow of antikaons in the absence of potential, which results from the strong absorption effect, changes into a positive flow under the influence of the attractive potential. The results from Li and Ko are shown in the right panel of Fig. 2. Unfortunately, the measurement of $`K^{}`$ observables is more difficult since it is produced less abundantly at subthreshold energies.

For lambda particles, which cannot be absorbed as the pion and antikaon, it is expected to have a positive flow as the nucleons. Li and Ko  found that the magnitude of the lambda flow depended on the strength of the attractive lambda potential. In the left panel of Fig. 4, theoretical results from Li and Brown  are shown together with the experimental data from the FOPI collaboration . Both the lambda-nucleon scattering and the attractive potential are seen to increase the flow. However, the large experimental errors in the data makes it not possible to draw conclusions on the magnitude of the lambda potential. A similar conclusion was reached by the Tübingen group . Also shown in the right panel of Fig. 4 is the lambda azimuthal distribution predicted by Li and Ko . It is seen that the lambda potential has a large effect on the lambda azimuthal distribution. It will be of interest to compare the theoretical predictions with future experimental data.

### 3.2 AGS

Both lambda and kaon flow were measured in Au+Au collisions at 6 A GeV at AGS by the E895 Collaboration . The data show a positive lambda flow and a large kaon antiflow. To understand these results, Zhang et al.  and Pal et al.  have carried out a calculation based on the ART transport model . In the left panel of Fig. 5, the theoretical results from Ref.  are compared with the measured lambda (filled circles) and proton (squares) flow. The proton flow is well described by a soft nuclear equation of state corresponding to an incompressibility of 200 MeV (solid curve). The results from a stiff equation of state with $`K=380`$ MeV is seen to give too large a proton flow. This is different from the conclusion based on the UrQMD model , which includes the string dynamics in the initial stage, that the stiff equation of state describes the data better. Although the lambda flow obtained with a potential gives a good description of the data, the large experimental errors cannot differentiate the difference between a lambda potential which is 2/3 of the nucleon potential (dotted curve) and that which is the same as the nucleon one (dot-dashed curve). Also shown is the result obtained with a lambda potential which is 2/3 of the nucleon potential but without the lambda-nucleon scattering (dashed curve). Comparing it with the dotted curve shows that the scattering effect is not large.

For the kaon flow, the experimental data (circles) show a very large antiflow compared to that in heavy ion collisions at lower energies available from GSI. This is shown in the right panel of Fig. 5 together with the theoretical results obtained from the ART model using various kaon potentials . Without potential (dashed curve), the kaon has a positive flow, which is similar to the results obtained from the RQMD model . With the potential obtained from the impulse approximation, shown by the dashed curve in the inset, the kaon flow (dashed curve) changes to a small negative one. The results (solid curve) obtained from the kaon potential given by the chiral Lagrangian, shown by the solid curve in the inset, agree very well with the large kaon antiflow measured in experiments. The latter potential is seen to be more repulsive at high densities than the one given by the impulse approximation. This is due to the saturation of the scalar density with increasing densities, which makes the attractive scalar kaon potential less important at high densities than the repulsive vector kaon potential, which increases with density. Setting the kaon formation time to zero ($`\mathrm{t}_{\mathrm{fo}}^\mathrm{K}=0`$) (dash-dotted curve) does not affect much the result. Li et al.  have pointed out that the kaon flow is better illustrated by its dependence on the transverse momentum, i.e., the differential flow. The decrease of kaon flow is then due to the cancellation between the negative flow of kaons with low transverse momenta and the positive flow of kaons with high momenta.

The $`K^{}`$ flow was also studied in the ART model by Song et al.  for heavy ion collisions at AGS energies. Similar to the results at GSI energies, the $`K^{}`$ was predicted to have a positive flow due to the strong attractive potential. However, there are at present no experimental data from AGS on the antikaon flow.

### 3.3 SPS

For heavy ion collisions at SPS energies, there is very little study on the flow of strange particles. Experiments by the WA98 collaboration  show that the kaon elliptic flow, which measures the asymmetry between the in-plane and out-of-plane kaon momentum distributions, is negative, opposite to that for the proton and the pion. This implies that kaons are preferentially emitted out of the reaction plane. Theoretical results from the RQMD without the kaon potential show instead a positive kaon elliptic flow. Whether the observed negative kaon elliptic flow is due to the repulsive kaon potential remains to be studied.

## 4 Summary

We have reviewed in this talk the kaon in-medium properties based on the chiral Lagrangian, which predicts that the kaon feels a moderate repulsive potential due to the cancellation of the attractive scalar and repulsive vector potentials while the antikaon has a strong attractive potential as the vector repulsion becomes attractive for the antikaon. These results are consistent with the empirical information obtained from the $`K^+`$-nucleus scattering and the kaonic atom. Similar results are obtained from the phenomenological meson-exchange model. The latter model also allows one to study the lambda potential, which is predicted to have a potential which is somewhat less attractive than that for a nucleon.

We have also reviewed the experimental data for both kaon and lambda flow in heavy ion collisions at various energies. For the GSI energies, both the vanishing kaon flow and enhanced out-of-plane emission are consistent with the repulsive potential predicted by the chiral Lagrangian. The predicted positive flow of antikaons and their more symmetric azimuthal distribution remain to be verified by experiments. For the lambda flow, which is positive in the experiments, the data are not accurate enough to allow for a determination of the strength of the lambda potential. However, the effect of potential is predicted to be large in the lambda azimuthal distribution.

For heavy ion collisions at AGS, the large antiflow of kaons observed in the experiments is again consistent with the kaon potential predicted by the chiral Lagrangian, which shows that it becomes more repulsive at high densities than that given by the impulse approximation based on the kaon-nucleon scattering length. Again, the lambda potential cannot be determined from the lambda flow data due to the large errors in the experiment. Also, there is no data to compare with the theoretically predicted positive flow of antikaons.

For heavy ion collisions at SPS, there are very little experimental measurements on the flow of strange particles. Preliminary results of a negative kaon elliptic flow, i,e. out-of-plane emission dominates over in-plane flow, cannot be accounted for by transport model studies without a kaon mean-field potential. Further theoretical and experimental studies are thus needed in order to understand the properties of strange particles in the hot dense matter formed in such high energy heavy ion collisions.

## 5 Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY-9870038, the Welch Foundation under Grant No. A-1358, and the Texas Advanced Research Program under Grant No. FY99-010366-0081.

## 6 References