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# Untitled Document

Tidal Tails and Galaxy Evolution

V.P. Reshetnikov, N.Ya. Sotnikova

Astronomical Institute of St.Petersburg State University,
Bibliothechnaya pl. 2, Petrodvoretz, 198504 S.-Petersburg, Russia

## Abstract

We review recent results on the tidal structures of spiral galaxies. Topics included are general characteristics of tails; kinematics of tidal structures and dark haloes of host galaxies; frequency of tidal distortions at $`z1`$.

Introduction

Tidal features are very old known extragalactic objects. It is not generally realized that first remark on them has more than 2 hundred years. William Herschel was the first who described several double and multiple systems of faint nebulas and noted that some of the nebulas are connected by thin strips of luminous matter (see ). Almost two hundred years later, Toomre & Toomre  demonstrated by means of numerical modeling that such exotic and strange objects can be naturally explained as a tidal distortions of gravitationally interacting galaxies.

Extended tidal structures are almost unexplored objects from both observational and theoretical points of view. We have now detailed information about 10 or 20 such structures only. In our report we shall discuss shortly general observational characteristics of the tails and stress the importantance of their investigation.

General characteristics of tidal tails

1) Local frequency

The local fraction of tailed objects is about (1-2)% of all galaxies . This estimation is obtained for relatively bright optical tails. While decreasing surface brightness level we shall observe even larger fraction of tidal distortions. So tidal tails are rare but not extremely infrequent features.

2) Spatial extent

The typical sizes of tails are, on average, comparable with the sizes of host galaxies. But in some cases we observe huge structures – with lengths reaching hundreds kiloparsecs (for instance, a 180 kpc tail in Arp 299 !).

3) Surface brightness

Known tidal features are generally very faint – with surface brightness levels in the $`B`$ passband around 24m–25m .

4) Total luminosity

Surface brightnesses of the tails are low but they are very extended and, therefore, total luminosity may be significant, with mean value about quarter of the luminosity of main galaxy .

5) Optical colors

Optical colors are, on average, bluer than those for the main galaxies. On the whole, the mean color indices are close to those for late-type spiral galaxies: $`BV+0.5`$ .

6) m(HI), m(H2)/m(HI)

Tidal tails are usually gas-rich structures with typical HI masses exceeding or equal 109 solar masses . In several cases the tails contain even most part of HI gas associated with whole galaxy. Molecular gas (CO emission) was discovered recently in the tails of two interacting galaxis . The mass ratio of the molecular gas to HI for those two tails is typical for late spirals.

Simple physics

To understand the development of tidal tails, one must recall how the water surface of the oceans get stretched radially by differential gravitational attraction exerted on it by our Moon. The differential forces between near and far side of the Earth depend on the third power of the Moon’s distance from Earth. That is why the oceans tides are rather mild. When two galaxies experience a close encounter with perigalactic distance is compared with galaxies’ sizes, the tidal field of one galaxy stretches its neighbour radially and then the galaxies’ rotation shears off stars and gaseous clouds from outskirts of their parent galaxies. As a result, stars on the far side of each disk is ejected into long and thin tails.

The change of $`i`$th star momentum ($`\mathrm{\Delta }v_i`$) during the encounter ($`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$) can be expressed in term of perigalactic distance and relative velocity $`v_{\mathrm{rel}}`$.

$$\mathrm{\Delta }v_i=\frac{F_{\mathrm{tid}}}{m_i}\mathrm{\Delta }t\frac{1}{r_{\mathrm{per}}^3}\frac{r_{\mathrm{per}}}{v_{\mathrm{rel}}}\frac{1}{r_{\mathrm{per}}^2v_{\mathrm{rel}}}.$$

The additional energy may be sufficient to transfer the star from position $`r`$ to position $`r+\mathrm{\Delta }r`$

$$\frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }v_i)^2}{2}=\phi (r_i+\mathrm{\Delta }r)\phi (r_i)\left|\frac{d\phi }{dr}\right|\mathrm{\Delta }r,$$

where $`\phi `$ \- is gravitational potential. Then the length of the tail can be estimated as

$$l_{\mathrm{tail}}\mathrm{\Delta }r\frac{1}{r_{\mathrm{per}}^4v_{\mathrm{rel}}^2\left|{\displaystyle \frac{d\phi }{dr}}\right|}.$$
(1)
One can see from Eq.1 that the extent of tidal tails depends strongly on resonances between the rotational and orbital motions (prograde encounters, in which the directions of galaxies rotation and orbital motion are the same – $`v_{\mathrm{rel}}`$ is small, – are most effective for tail building), on perigalactic distance and on the deepness of the common gravitational well.

And now when we know some general things about tails, let’s discuss why it is so interesting and important to study them. We shall discuss only three major points related to essential questions of galaxy evolution.

Star formation in unusual environment

Tidal tails are very unusual settings for star formation. There are several groups of arguments in favour of ongoing star formation in some of such features. For instance, they are gas-rich and have blue optical colors typical for late spirals and spiral arms. Bright blue star forming knots, often associated with HI condensations, are observed in several extended tails. For instance, we found a number of H$`\alpha `$ condensations in the straight and long ($`40`$ kpc) tail of NGC 4676 (The Mice) . Characteristics of the condensations (linear sizes, optical and H$`\alpha `$ luminosities) are common for giant HII complexes. The star formation rate in the tail estimated on the total H$`\alpha `$ luminosity is typical for the disks of normal spirals (10-9M/yr/pc2). Analytical estimations and numerical calculations indicate that the main star formation mechanism in the tidal tail of the Mice is large-scale gravitational instability in the gas of the tail.

Last years observational similarity of the brightest parts of tails and dwarf spiral galaxies have restored an old Zwicky’s idea that dwarf galaxies can be formed from the tidal material ejected during the interactions. And now this idea became an interesting and actively growing field of study. For instance, as the interaction and merger rate was higher in the past, the production of such Tidal Galaxies might be very large. This mechanism can explain in part an excess of the faint blue galaxies.

Tidal tails and dark haloes

Another interesting field of work is the constraints on galactic dark halos characteristics following from the kinematics and morphology of tails. The extent of the tidal tail is very sensitive to the global dynamical structure of the interacting galaxies  – it is difficult for long, massive tails to form in galaxy collisions in which the progenitors are surrounded by very large halos. As one can see from Eq.1 the extent of the tail is inversly proportional to the deepness of gravitational well, and tails extracted from disks might be unable to climb out of deep halo potential wells. But we observe very extended tails! It is suggested that this fact restricts the dark to luminous matter ratio in galaxies .

Such statistical approach have several evident limitations. In our work  we proposed to constrain dark haloes through detailed modelling of specific interacting systems with good observational data about central galaxies and tails. Especially we need good kinematical data for the tails but, unfortunately, such data are extremely poor now.

Probably, the best studied case is well-known system The Mice. With the 6-m telescope we traced emission-lines rotation curve of the northern edge-on tail up to 40 kpc from the nucleus . Using all available information about the central galaxies, we have performed the numerical modelling of the system. We found that the observed high radial velocities in the tail can be explained only if the system members possess rather massive dark halos – with dark to luminous mass ratio within the region up to the tip of the tail about 4.

Besides the Mice, we have the results of kinematical observations for several other objects with tails (work in progress).

Interaction rate evolution

Tidal deformations are clear indicators of recent gravitational perturbations of galaxies. Therefore, one can use their statistics to estimate the interaction rate in the past. It is very important because the rate of interactions and mergers at different redshifts depends on the model of the Universe, and on the details of galaxy formation models.

Tidal tails are faint structures. Due to cosmological dimming and $`K`$-correction, we can observe such distortions out to moderate redshifts only (1 or 1.5). Using the deepest currently available fields – North and South Hubble Deep Fields, – we selected 25 galaxies with probable tails at redshift between 0.5 and 1.5 . General characteristics of the suspected tails are, on average, the same as in local interacting galaxies. We found that volume density of galaxies with tidal tails changes with z as $`(1+z)^4`$. Therefore, we estimated the rate of close encounters between galaxies of comparable mass leading to the formation of extended tidal structures. If this rate reflects the merger rate, our data support a steeply increasing merger rate at z$``$1 and are consistent with current theoretical expectations.

Finally, we would like to stress that further detailed study and modelling of beautiful tidal features will be a powerful tool to investigate many important question of extragalactic astronomy, such as star formation process, the mass and extent of galactic haloes, interactions at high redshifts and so on.

References
1. Eremeeva, A.I. Herschel’s Universe, Nauka, Moscow, 1966
2. Toomre, A. and Toomre, J., 1972, Ap.J. 178, 623
3. Karachentsev, I.D. Binary Galaxies, Nauka, Moscow, 1987
4. Reshetnikov, V.P., 2000, A&A 353, 92
5. Hibbard, J.E. and Yun, M.S., 1999, A.J. 118, 162
6. Schombert, J.M., Wallin, J.F., Struck-Marcell, C., 1990, A.J. 99, 497
7. Reshetnikov, V.P., 1998, Pis’ma v AZh 24, 189
8. Hibbard, J.E. and van Gorkom, J.H., 1996, A.J. 111, 655
9. Braine, J., Lisenfeld, U., Duc, P.-A., 2000, Nature 403, 867
10. Sotnikova, N.Ya. and Reshetnikov, V.P., 1998, Pis’ma v AZh 24, 97
11. Dubinski, J., Mihos, J.Ch., Hernquist, L., 1996, Ap.J. 462, 576
12. Dubinski, J., Mihos, J.Ch., Hernquist, L., 1999, Ap.J. 526, 607


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USM-TH-99

hep-ph/0009297

Nucleon Transversity Distribution

from Azimuthal Spin Asymmetry in Pion Electroproduction

Bo-Qiang Ma a, Ivan Schmidt b, and Jian-Jun Yang b,c

aDepartment of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China,

and CCAST (World Laboratory), P.O. Box 8730, Beijing 100080, China

bDepartamento de Física, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María,

Casilla 110-V, Valparaíso, Chile

cDepartment of Physics, Nanjing Normal University,

Nanjing 210097, China

Abstract

The azimuthal asymmetry observed by the HERMES collaboration in semi-inclusive pion production in deep inelastic scattering of unpolarized positron on the longitudinally polarized proton target, can provide information of the quark transversity distributions of the nucleon. We show that the quark transversity distributions predicted both by the light-cone quark-spectator-diquark model and by a pQCD inspired model can give consistent descriptions of the available HERMES data for the analyzing powers $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ and $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}2\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^+`$ and $`\pi ^{}`$ productions. We also show that the two models give similar predictions of $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^+`$ production, whereas they give very different predictions of $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^{}`$ production at large $`x`$. Further precision measurement of $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^{}`$ production can provide a decisive test of different models.

PACS numbers: 13.87.Fh, 13.60.-r, 13.88.+e, 14.20.Dh

To appear in Phys. Rev. D

Recently, the HERMES collaboration reported evidence for single-spin asymmetries for semi-inclusive pion production in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of unpolarized positron beam on the longitudinally polarized proton target . A significant spin asymmetry of the distribution in azimuthal angle $`\varphi `$ of the pion relative to the lepton scattering plane is found. The lepton scattering plane is determined by the incident and scattered leptons, and the pion emitting plane is determined by the final detected pion and the virtual photon, with the virtual photon as the common axis of the two planes. The azimuthal angle $`\varphi `$ is the angle between the two planes with the axis direction opposite to the virtual photon. Such azimuthal asymmetry offers a means to measure the nucleon transversity distributions, which are one of the three fundamental quark distributions of the nucleon. The other two are the unpolarized and helicity distributions, which are known with some precision both experimentally and theoretically. The quark transversity distribution is difficult to be measured, since it is not directly observable in inclusive DIS processes. Among the proposals to measure the quark transversity distributions, the azimuthal asymmetry in semi-inclusive hadron production has been considered , through the Collins effect  of non-zero production between a chiral-odd structure function and a T-odd fragmentation function. Indeed, there have been a number of studies  to show that the azimuthal asymmetries measured by HERMES can provide information concerning the quark transversity distributions of the nucleon.

The analyzing power masured by HERMES is defined as

$$A_{UL}^W=\frac{\left[\mathrm{d}\varphi \right]W(\varphi )\left\{N^+(\varphi )N^{}(\varphi )\right\}}{\frac{1}{2}\left[\mathrm{d}\varphi \right]\left\{N^+(\varphi )+N^{}(\varphi )\right\}},$$
(1)
where $`UL`$ denotes Unpolarized beam on a Longitudinally polarized target, $`W(\varphi )=\mathrm{sin}\varphi `$ or $`\mathrm{sin}2\varphi `$ is the weighting function for picking up the Collins effect, and $`N^+(\varphi )`$ ($`N^{}(\varphi )`$) is the number of events for pion production as a function of $`\varphi `$ when the target is positively (negatively) polarized. The analyzing powers for both $`\pi ^+`$ and $`\pi ^{}`$ are measured, and from the data there is clear evidence for the non-zero values of $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^+`$, which indicate the azimuthal asymmetry. It has been found by Efremov et al. , based on a theoretical analysis presented in Refs. , that the analyzing powers $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ and $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}2\varphi }`$ are, under a number of simplifying assumptions, proportional to the ratios

$$\frac{_ae_a^2\delta q^a(x)\delta D^{a/\pi }(z)/z}{_ae_a^2q^a(x)D^{a/\pi }(z)},$$
(2)
and

$$\frac{x^2_ae_a^2\left(_x^1d\xi \delta q^a(\xi )/\xi ^2\right)\delta D^{a/\pi }(z)}{_ae_a^2q^a(x)D^{a/\pi }(z)},$$
(3)
respectively. Here $`e_a`$ is the charge of the quark with flavor $`a`$, $`q^a(x)`$ and $`\delta q^a(x)`$ are the quark unpolarized and transversity distributions of the nucleon target, and $`D^{a/\pi }(z)`$ and $`\delta D^{a/\pi }(z)`$ are the fragmentation functions to the pion $`\pi `$ from an unpolarized and transversely polarized quark with flavor $`a`$. In fact the ratios taken from Ref.  involve higher twist functions and functions with intrinsic transverse momentum, and the latter functions are also related to twist three functions. In a next step all these functions are rewritten into twist two distribution and fragmentation functions using Wandzura-Wilczek type of relations, which are approximations. A further detailed theoretical analysis can be found in Ref. . Therefore with the inputs of $`D^{a/\pi }(z)`$ and $`\delta D^{a/\pi }(z)`$ under some simplifying assumptions, we are able to get the quark transversity distributions $`\delta q^a(x)`$ from the measured analyzing powers. We will, following Ref. , consider only the contributions from the favored fragmentation functions $`D^{a/\pi }`$ and $`\delta D^{a/\pi }`$, i.e., $`D(z)=D^{u/\pi ^+}(z)=D^{\overline{d}/\pi ^+}(z)=D^{d/\pi ^{}}(z)=D^{\overline{u}/\pi ^{}}(z)`$ and similarly for $`\delta D^{a/\pi }`$. The average values for $`D^{a/\pi }(z)`$, $`\delta D^{a/\pi }(z)`$, $`\delta D^{a/\pi }(z)/z`$, and the corresponding parameters are also chosen the same as Ref. . Therefore we only need the quark momentum and transversity distributions to calculate Eqs. (2) and (3).

We now focus our attention on the quark transversity distributions of the nucleon. It it widely known that the bulk features of the quark momentum and helicity distributions of the nucleon can be well described by the quark-spectator-diquark model  and a pQCD based counting rule analysis . Both models have their own advantages and played important roles in the investigation of various nucleon structure functions. However, there are still some unknowns concerning the sea content of the nucleon and the large $`x`$ behaviors of valence quarks. For example, there are still some uncertainties concerning the flavor decomposition of the quark helicity distributions at large $`x`$, especially for the less dominant $`d`$ valence quark of the proton. There are two different theoretical predictions of the ratio $`\mathrm{\Delta }d(x)/d(x)`$ at $`x1`$: the pQCD based counting rule analysis  predicts $`\mathrm{\Delta }d(x)/d(x)1`$ whereas the SU(6) quark-spectator-diquark model  predicts $`\mathrm{\Delta }d(x)/d(x)1/3`$. There are still no precision experimental data which can provide a decisive test of the above two different predictions. In the following analysis we will show that the same discrepancy also exists concerning the quark transversity distributions for the $`d`$ valence quark at large $`x`$. We know that the azimuthal spin asymmetry in $`\pi ^{}`$ production of unpolarized lepton DIS scattering on the longitudinally polarized proton target is sensitive to the quark transversity of the valence $`d`$ quark at large $`x`$, therefore a measurement of the azimuthal asymmetry of the $`\pi ^{}`$ production at large $`x`$ should be able to provide a decisive test of the different predictions.

The SU(6) quark-spectator-diquark model  starts from the three quark SU(6) quark model wavefunction of the baryon, and if any one of the quarks is probed, re-organize the other two quarks in terms of two quark wavefunctions with spin 0 or 1 (scalar and vector diquarks), i.e., the diquark serves as an effective particle which is called the spectator. Some non-perturbative effects such as gluon exchanges between the two spectator quarks or other non-perturbative gluon effects in the hadronic debris can be effectively taken into account by the mass of the diquark spectator. The mass difference between the scalar and vector diquarks has been shown to be important for producing consistency with experimental observations of the ratio $`F_2^n(x)/F_2^p(x)=1/4`$ at $`x1`$ found in the early experiments , and also for predicting the polarized spin dependent structure functions of the proton and the neutron at large $`x`$ . The light-cone SU(6) quark-spectator-diquark model  is a revised version of the same framework, by taking into account the Melosh-Wigner rotation effect , in order to discuss the quark helicity and transversity distributions of the nucleon. More explicitly, the quark helicity and transversity distributions should be written as

$$\mathrm{\Delta }q(x)=[\mathrm{d}^2𝐤_{}]M_q(x,𝐤_{})\mathrm{\Delta }q_{QM}(x,𝐤_{});$$
(4)
$$\delta q(x)=[\mathrm{d}^2𝐤_{}]\widehat{M}_q(x,𝐤_{})\mathrm{\Delta }q_{QM}(x,𝐤_{}),$$
(5)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_{QM}(x,𝐤_{})`$ is the quark spin distribution in the quark model, and $`M_q(x,𝐤_{})=\frac{(k^++m)^2𝐤_{}^2}{(k^++m)^2+𝐤_{}^2}`$ and $`\widehat{M}_q(x,𝐤_{})=\frac{(k^++m)^2}{(k^++m)^2+𝐤_{}^2}`$ are the corresponding Melosh-Wigner rotation factors due to the relativistic effect of the quark transversal motion. Some further detailed discussions can be found in Refs. .

We need to point out that the quark-diquark model with simple wavefunctions can provide good relations between different quantities where the uncertainties in the model can be canceled between each other. It is impractical to expect a good description of the absolute magnitude and shape for a physical quantity. However, we may use some useful relations to connect the unmeasured quantities with the measured quantities. For example, we may use the following relation to connect the quark transversity distributions with the quark unpolarized distributions

$$\begin{array}{cccc}\delta u_v(x)=[u_v(x)\frac{1}{2}d_v(x)]\widehat{W}_S(x)\frac{1}{6}d_v(x)\widehat{W}_V(x);& & & \\ \delta d_v(x)=\frac{1}{3}d_v(x)\widehat{W}_V(x),& & & \end{array}$$
(6)
in a similar way as was done for the quark helicity distributions . We can use the valence quark momentum distributions $`u_v(x)`$ and $`d_v(x)`$ from one set of quark distribution parametrization as inputs to calculate the quark transversity distributions, with inputs of $`\widehat{W}_S(x)`$ and $`\widehat{W}_V(x)`$ from model calculation . In this way we can make more reliable prediction for the absolute magnitude and shape of a physical quantity than directly from the model calculation.

We notice that the $`d`$ quark in the proton is predicted to have a negative quark helicity distribution at $`x1`$, and this feature is different from the pQCD counting rule prediction of “helicity retention”, which means that the helicity of a valence quark will match that of the parent hadron at large $`x`$. Explicitly, the quark helicity distributions of a hadron $`h`$ have been shown to satisfy the counting rule ,

$$q_h(x)(1x)^p,$$
(7)
where $`p=2n1+2\mathrm{\Delta }S_z`$. Here $`n`$ is the minimal number of the spectator quarks, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }S_z=|S_z^qS_z^h|=0`$ or $`1`$ for parallel or anti-parallel quark and hadron helicities, respectively . Therefore the anti-parallel helicity quark distributions are suppressed by a relative factor $`(1x)^2`$, and consequently $`\mathrm{\Delta }q(x)/q(x)1`$ as $`x1`$. Taking only the leading term, we can write the quark helicity distributions of the valence quarks as

$$\begin{array}{cccc}& q_i^{}(x)=\frac{\stackrel{~}{A}_{q_i}}{B_3}x^{\frac{1}{2}}(1x)^3;\hfill & & \\ & q_i^{}(x)=\frac{\stackrel{~}{C}_{q_i}}{B_5}x^{\frac{1}{2}}(1x)^5,\hfill & & \end{array}$$
(8)
where $`\stackrel{~}{A}_q+\stackrel{~}{C}_q=N_q`$ is the valence quark number for quark $`q`$, $`B_n=B(1/2,n+1)`$ is the $`\beta `$-function defined by $`B(1\alpha ,n+1)=_0^1x^\alpha (1x)^ndx`$ for $`\alpha =1/2`$, and $`B_3=32/35`$ and $`B_5=512/693`$. The application of the pQCD counting rule analysis to discuss the unpolarized and polarized structure functions of nucleons can be found in Ref. , and the extension to the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ can be found in Refs. .

The quark transversity distributions are closely related to the quark helicity distributions. Soffer’s inequality  constrains the quark transversity distributions by the quark unpolarized and polarized distributions, and there also exists an approximate relation , which connects the quark transversity distributions to the quark helicity and spin distributions. Two sum rules , connecting the integrated quark transversities to some measured quantities and two model correction factors with limited uncertainties, have been also recently obtained. For example, if we assume the saturation of Soffer’s inequality $`2|\delta q(x)|q(x)+\mathrm{\Delta }q(x)`$ , then we obtain $`\delta q=\frac{1}{2}\left[q(x)+\mathrm{\Delta }q(x)\right]=q^{}(x)`$, and this suggests that in general we may express $`\delta q(x)`$ in terms of $`q^{}(x)`$ and $`q^{}(x)`$. All these considerations indicate that it is convenient to parameterize the valence quark transversity distributions in a similar form as the helicity distributions. Therefore we use as a second model

$$\delta q(x)=\frac{\widehat{A}_q}{B_3}x^{\frac{1}{2}}(1x)^3\frac{\widehat{C}_q}{B_5}x^{\frac{1}{2}}(1x)^5,$$
(9)
which clearly satisfies Soffer’s inequality. These quark transversity distributions are constrained by the values of $`\delta Q=_0^1\delta q(x)dx`$ from the two sum rules in Ref. , and we also use $`\widehat{A}_q+\widehat{C}_q=N_q`$ as a constraint, just as in the case of the helicity distributions, in order to reduce the number of uncertain parameters. With the inputs of quark helicity sum $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=\mathrm{\Delta }U+\mathrm{\Delta }D+\mathrm{\Delta }S0.3`$, the Bjorken sum rule $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^p\mathrm{\Gamma }^n=\frac{1}{6}(\mathrm{\Delta }U\mathrm{\Delta }D)=\frac{1}{6}g_A/g_V0.2`$, both obtained in deep-inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering experiments , and taking the two model correction factors both to be equal to 1 for the two sum rules of quark transversities , we obtain $`\mathrm{\Delta }U=0.75`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }D=0.45`$, $`\delta U=1.04`$, and $`\delta D=0.39`$ for the proton, assuming $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$. We may readjust the values when experimental constraints become available, or if we believe other models are more reasonable . The parameters for quark distributions of the nucleons and the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ can be found in Table 1. The ratios $`\mathrm{\Delta }q(x)/q(x)`$ and $`\delta q(x)/q(x)`$ for the valence quarks of the proton are predicted to be 1 at $`x1`$.

Table 1 The parameters for quark distributions of the proton in the pQCD inspired model

| Baryon | $`q_1`$ | $`q_2`$ | $`\stackrel{~}{A}_{q_1}`$ | $`\stackrel{~}{C}_{q_1}`$ | $`\stackrel{~}{A}_{q_2}`$ | $`\stackrel{~}{C}_{q_2}`$ | $`\widehat{A}_{q_1}`$ | $`\widehat{C}_{q_1}`$ | $`\widehat{A}_{q_2}`$ | $`\widehat{C}_{q_2}`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| p | u | d | 1.375 | 0.625 | 0.275 | 0.725 | 1.52 | 0.48 | 0.305 | 0.695 |

In the denominators of Eqs. (2) and (3), there are contributions from both quark and antiquark fragmentations, and we should take them into account at small $`x`$. Using the CTEQ parametrization of quark distributions , we can calculate the contributions from quarks and antiquarks for the unpolarized quark distributions. We also use the values of $`u_v(x)`$ and $`d_v(x)`$ from the CTEQ parametrization as the inputs in Eq. (6) to calculate the quark transversity distributions of the valence quarks. This is consistent with the calculation of the denominators, since we have the same inputs. In Fig. 1 we present the calculated $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ and $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}2\varphi }`$ for both $`\pi ^+`$ and $`\pi ^{}`$ productions with only the valence quark distributions in the numerators of Eqs. (2) and (3). We can see from Fig. 1 that the calculated results are compatible with the HERMES data of the analyzing powers, and this is in agreement with existing interpretations of single-spin asymmetries as being associated with the valence quarks distributions . In Fig. 1 we also present the calculated results with the quark transversity distributions from the pQCD inspired model, and find that the results are also in compatible with the existing data.

We notice that the quark-diquark model and the pQCD inspired model give similar predictions of the analyzing power $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^+`$ production, whereas they give very different predictions of $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^{}`$ production. For $`\pi ^+`$ production, the contributions of the quark transversity distributions are dominated by the $`u`$ quarks from the fragmentation of $`u\pi ^+`$. From Table 1 of Ref. , we find that the quark-diquark model and the two sum rules have similar predictions of $`\delta U`$, and also in both the quark-diquark model and the pQCD inspired model, the $`u`$ quarks are totally positively polarized inside the proton at $`x1`$. Therefore the analyzing power $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for the $`\pi ^+`$ production is not sensitive to different models. However, this situation is quite different for $`\pi ^{}`$ production. We find from Fig. 1(b) that the quark-diquark model and the pQCD inspired model have different predictions of $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^{}`$ production in the region of $`x0.3`$, right above the available experimental data. This can be easily understood since the quark-diquark model predicts $`\delta d(x)/d(x)=1/3`$ at $`x1`$, whereas the pQCD inspired model predicts $`\delta d(x)/d(x)=1`$. For $`\pi ^{}`$ production, the contributions of the quark transversity distributions are dominated by the $`d`$ quark from the fragmentation of $`d\pi ^{}`$. Therefore $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^{}`$ production goes in opposite directions at large $`x`$ in the two models. This prediction does not suffer from any model uncertainty which might change the calculated results quantitatively. Thus further precision measurement of $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for the $`\pi ^{}`$ production by HERMES or other groups can provide a decisive test of the two different predictions. However, there should be some uncertainties in the quantitative predictions. The uncertainties for the quark-diquark model should be small, whereas the uncertainties for the pQCD based model are comparatively large. Further constraints from more experimental data on the pQCD based model with higher order terms can improve the situation and increase our predictive power for the pQCD based analysis.

In conclusion, we showed in this paper that the azimuthal asymmetry observed by the HERMES collaboration in semi-inclusive pion production in deep inelastic scattering of unpolarized positron on the longitudinally polarized proton target, can provide information of the quark transversity distributions of the nucleon. We showed that the quark transversity distributions predicted both by the light-cone quark-spectator-diquark model and by a pQCD inspired model can give consistent descriptions of the available HERMES data of the analyzing powers $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ and $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}2\varphi }`$ for both $`\pi ^+`$ and $`\pi ^{}`$ production. We also showed that the two models give similar predictions of $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^+`$ production, whereas they give very different predictions of $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^{}`$ production at large $`x`$. Further precision measurement of $`A_{UL}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for $`\pi ^{}`$ production can provide a decisive test of different models.

Acknowledgments:  This work is partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under grants 19975052 and 19875024, by Fondecyt (Chile) postdoctoral fellowship 3990048, and by Fondecyt (Chile) grants 1990806 and 8000017, and by a Cátedra Presidencial (Chile).


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# One-dimensional spinless fermion model with competing interactions beyond half-filling

thanks: Institute of Metal Physics, Ekaterinburg 620219, Russia

## Abstract

An accurate numerical consideration of 1D spinless fermion model with next-nearest neighbour (NNN) interactions is carried out for the electron concentrations 4/7. It is shown that depending on the parameters of the model it can be either Luttinger liquid or bipolaron liquid. In the former case competing interactions can result in a smooth behavior of one-electron distribution function at the Fermi surface with a divergence in the second derivative with respect to the quasimomentum (and not in the first one, as usual). In this connection, uncommon photoemission spectra for some 1D conductors can be explained qualitatively.

PACS 71.10.Pm, 71.10.Fd

Frustrations and competing interactions are very important for strongly correlated electron systems. As it was shown in a seminal work they can change drastically a ground state of quantum antiferromagnets leading to the formation of “resonating valence bond” (RVB), or quantum spin liquid, state (see also  and references therein). This state has been found later in a series of compounds with both magnetic (spin liquid) and charge (pseudospin liquid) degrees of freedom, see, e.g., the discussion in Refs..The effects of competing interactions were investigated recently for one-dimensional (1D) spinless fermion model. Usually this model is used for the description of Verwey metal-insulator transitions and charge ordering phenomena in Fe3O4, Ti4O7 and other d-metal compounds. It is expected that in the half-filled case the growth of the Coulomb interaction leads to the transition from the metallic state to the insulating charge-ordered one. It appeared, however, that the competing interactions can result in the stabilization of metallic phase without charge ordering for arbitrarily strong Coulomb interaction, this phase being not usual (for 1D systems) Luttinger liquid. Here we investigate this model beyond half-filling.

We proceed with the Hamiltonian

$`H=t{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{L}{}}}\left(c_i^{}c_{i+1}+c_{i+1}^{}c_i\right)+V{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{L}{}}}n_in_{i+1}+V^{}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{L}{}}}n_in_{i+2}`$ (1)
where $`c_i^{},c_i`$ are Fermi creation and annihilation operators on site $`i,`$ $`n_i=c_i^{}c_i`$. Further we use periodic boundary conditions ($`L`$ is the length of the ring) and put $`t=1`$ at the presentation of the computational results.

Earlier we investigated the cases $`\rho =1/2`$ and $`\rho =2/3`$ where $`\rho =N/L`$ is the electron concentration, $`N`$ is the number of electrons. In that cases the ground state is charge-ordered and insulating for small enough $`t`$, except special parameter ratios ($`V=2V^{}`$ for $`\rho =1/2`$ and $`V=0`$ or $`V^{}=0`$ for $`\rho =2/3`$) when the ground state has macroscopically large degeneracy $`g=\mathrm{exp}(LS)`$, $`S`$ is the entropy per cite in the limit $`t=0`$. Consider now a case $`1/2<\rho <2/3`$. It is easy to demonstrate that $`S`$ is finite at $`t=0`$ and arbitrary positive $`V`$ and $`V^{}`$. Therefore one can expect that the ground state is gapless (conducting) at any small but non-zero $`t`$. However, the character of the electron motion turns out to be different for $`V>2V^{}`$ and $`V<2V^{}`$. In the former case the processes of the motion of a single electron without the change of the energy of Coulomb repulsion are possible but in the latter one the electrons can move only as a coupled pairs on neighbouring sites (bipolarons). For example, the configurations \[…011011001…\] and \[…011001101…\] which are distinguished by the motion of one bipolaron in right direction have the same interaction energy (here 1 and 0 are labels for occupied and empty sites). At the same time, the configurations \[…010111001…\] or \[…011010101…\] have the additional energy equal to $`V^{}`$ and $`2V^{}V`$, correspondingly. The latter is the value of bipolaron binding energy at $`t=0,V^{}<V<2V^{}.`$ Note that this bipolaron state is similar to Shubin-Vonsovsky “maximum polarity” state. Thus, the cases $`V>2V^{}`$ and $`V<2V^{}`$ are physically different and has to be considered separately. We investigate both of them numerically for the case $`\rho =4/7`$. Parameters of the ground state, correlation functions, etc. are calculated by the Lanczos method with the extrapolation to the infinite length of the chain $`L\mathrm{}`$; the computational methods are described in Refs..

Consider first the region $`V>2V^{}`$. One can assume that the system is Luttinger liquid (LL) in this case. There are three branches of low-energy excitations in LL: density fluctuation, current, and charge excitations with the velocities $`v_S,v_J`$ and $`v_N`$, correspondingly. The first one is connected with the variation of the total energy $`E`$ of the system under the variation of the total momentum $`P,`$ $`v_S=\delta E/\delta P`$; the second one ($`v_J`$), with the variation of the energy under a shift of all the particles in momenta space, and the third one, with the variation of the chemical potential $`\mu `$ under the change of the total number of particles $`N,`$ $`v_N=\left(L/\pi \right)\delta \mu /\delta N`$. The velocity $`v_J`$ is connected with the conducting properties of the system: $`v_J=2\pi D`$ where $`D`$ is the Drude weight (a spectral weight of the zero-frequency peak in the conductivity). Thus $`v_J0`$ is one of the criterion of the metallic state. As it was shown by Haldane, the identity

$$(v_S)^2=v_Jv_N$$
(2)
takes place. Therefore it is possible to introduce the parameter

$$e^{2\phi }=v_N/v_S=v_S/v_J$$
(3)
which determines the time and space asymptotics of the correlation functions of the system. One-electron distribution function $`n(k)`$ as a function of the quasimomentum $`k`$ has a power-low singularity near the Fermi surface, $`k=k_F`$

$$n(k)n(k_F)C\text{sgn}(kk_F)|kk_F|^\alpha .$$
(4)
with $`\alpha =\mathrm{cosh}2\phi 1.`$ One-particle local spectral density $`\rho \left(E\right)`$ has a singularity near the Fermi energy $`\mu `$ with the same exponent, $`\rho \left(E\right)\left|E\mu \right|^\alpha `$ which can be measured therefore by photoemission spectroscopy. There are various experimental data for inorganic materials with charge-density-waves as well as for the organic superconductor (TMTSF)2PF6 which confirms power-law singularity in $`\rho \left(E\right)`$ predicted by LL theory. It is interesting that in the latter case the value $`\alpha 1.25`$ has been found. At the same time, in all the known models with short-range interactions we always have $`\alpha <1`$ (in particular, in the 1D Hubbard model one can prove that $`\alpha 1/8`$). Our numerical calculations show that $`\alpha <1`$ is also in the model under consideration for one-half - or two–third- fillings. Here we demonstrate that $`\alpha `$ can be larger that 1 for $`1/2<\rho <2/3`$ which give a qualitative explanation of the experimental data.

The computational results are presented in the Table.

The finiteness of $`v_J`$ and, consequently, of the Drude weight proves the metallic nature of the ground state. One can see that for $`V>`$ $`2V^{}`$ Eq.(2) is valid (but not for $`V<2V^{}`$ where the system is not LL but bipolaron liquid, see below). The exponent $`\alpha `$ appears to be maximum along the line $`V^{}=\left(11/40\right)V`$. In particular, for $`V=120,V^{}=33`$ one has $`\alpha 1.68`$ which is even larger than the experimental value for (TMTSF)2PF6.

Consider now the case $`V<2V^{}`$. It is shown from the Table that Eq.(2) is violated in this case, at least, for large enough $`V`$ and $`V^{}`$. As it was discussed above the reason is the formation of bipolarons. There are two evidences of the coupling of electrons in the pairs for large enough $`2V^{}V`$. First of all, the energy gap defined as $`\mathrm{\Delta }=E\left(N+1\right)+E\left(N1\right)2E\left(N\right)`$ is finite (Fig. 1);

at the same time, the Drude weight is also non-zero which means that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the superconducting, or bipolaron, gap but not insulating one. Then, the ground state energy appears to be oscillate as a function of magnetic flux in the ring $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ with the period corresponding to the charge 2$`e`$ of current carriers. The corresponding results are presented in Fig. 2,

the flux being introduced by the replacement $`tt\mathrm{exp}\left(2\pi i\mathrm{\Phi }\right)`$ in Eq.(1). According to these criteria, bipolarons do not form at small enough $`2V^{}Vt.`$ To understand better this transition region we fit the total energy by the expression

$$E\left(\mathrm{\Phi }\right)E\left(0\right)=\beta \left(1\mathrm{cos}2\pi \mathrm{\Phi }\right)+\gamma \left(1\mathrm{cos}4\pi \mathrm{\Phi }\right)$$
(5)
where the first term corresponds to the “normal” current carriers and the second one to the bipolarons. The fitted parameters $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$ are shown in Fig. 3.

One can see that there is a coexistence of bipolaron conductivity and the usual one in the transition region $`V2V^{}t`$. It would be very interesting to investigate an explicit nature of this coexistence (phase separation or a homogeneous state) but for this aim computations for larger clusters are necessary.

In the limit of small $`t`$ one can simplify the problem using the operator perturbation theory developed first by Bogoliubov. In the lowest order in $`t/\left(2V^{}V\right)`$ one can obtain

$$H_{eff}=\frac{t^2}{2V^{}V}𝒫\underset{i=1}{\overset{L}{}}\left(c_i^{}c_{i+1}c_{i1}^{}c_i+c_i^{}c_{i1}c_{i+1}^{}c_i\right)𝒫.$$
(6)
where $`𝒫`$ is the projection operator on the state with the lowest Coulomb energy. This Hamiltonian describes the bipolaron motion with the effective transfer integral $`t^2/\left(2V^{}V\right)`$. Our numerical results give for the Drude weight

$$v_J=2\pi D\frac{2.3t^2}{2V^{}V}$$
(7)
For small enough $`t`$ the latter can be arbitrarily small. This differ drastically the case under consideration from the usual Verwey transition. One can show for $`\rho =1/2,V^{}=0`$ that near the transition point $`V=2t`$ the Drude weight has a finite jump

$$v_J(V=2t0)=\pi /2;v_J(V=2t+0)=0.$$
(8)
To conclude, we investigate numerically the ground state of 1D spinless fermion model with competing interactions beyond half-filling. Depending on the ratio of NN and NNN interactions it is either Luttinger liquid (with unusually large exponent $`\alpha `$ which can be even larger than 1) or bipolaron liquid. These results may be important to understand properties of low-dimensional conductors; in particular, the value $`\alpha >1`$ has been observed in photoemission experiments for (TMTSF)2PF6.

This work is partially supported by Russian Basic Research Foundation, grant 00-15-96544.


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# A New Quadruple Gravitational Lens System: CLASS B0128+437

## 1 Introduction

Building upon the successful methodology of the Jodrell Bank-VLA Astrometric Survey (JVAS; Patnaik et al. 1992; Browne et al. 1998; Wilkinson et al. 1998) which is known to contain 6 examples of gravitational lensing (King et al. 1999) within a parent sample of 2384 sources, the Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey (CLASS; for example Browne 1999) aims to find new examples of strong gravitational lensing within a flux-limited sample of $`\mathrm{12\hspace{0.17em}000}`$ flat-spectrum radio sources observed with the VLA in A configuration at 8.4 GHz. Upon completion of CLASS the lensing frequency within the combined samples of JVAS and CLASS will allow constraints to be placed on the cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. This has already been achieved for the JVAS sample (Helbig et al. 1999). Also, individual lens systems can be used to determine the Hubble parameter (Refsdal 1964) by measuring the time delay between individual images in a system.

So far 18 lens systems have been found in JVAS and CLASS111JVAS and CLASS lens survey papers can be found at URL http://gladia.astro.rug.nl:8000/ceres/papers/papers.html.. Prior to the final group of CLASS observations which are currently being followed up with MERLIN and the VLBA, this paper reports on the discovery of a new lens system, B0128+437, originally observed in the first phase of CLASS. The system was found after a re-analysis of the entire CLASS dataset.

## 2 VLA Re-analysis and MERLIN Observations

In order to ensure uniformity over all epochs of observations, the entire CLASS dataset was re-flagged and re-calibrated together in a standard way within AIPS. The data were then re-mapped using an automatic script within DIFMAP (Shepherd 1997; Pearson et al. 1994) and Gaussian model components were fitted to the components in each map. All sources with multiple compact model components with separations in the range 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3 to 6″and flux density ratios $``$10:1 were selected. The beam size of the VLA at 8.4 GHz in A configuration is $``$0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$2, and a compact component is defined to have a Gaussian diameter (FWHM) $``$170 mas. Also, only those systems where the total flux density in all components added together is $``$20 mJy were selected. The vast majority of lens candidates found this way have been followed up during previous phases of CLASS. The small number of new candidates arising from the re-analysis and re-selection process were followed up with MERLIN at 5 GHz.

The top-left panel of Figure 1 shows the VLA 8.4 GHz map of B0128+437 after the re-calibration of the CLASS data, obtained on 1994 March 05 as part of CLASS “phase 1”. The maximum component separation is 534 mas which is less than three times the beam size and as a result only three components are resolved. It can be seen a posteriori that this map is consistent with a four image lens system where the brightest component in the VLA map consists of an unresolved blend of two images. The total flux density of the system is 24.6 mJy and the flux density ratio between the brightest and faintest components is $``$3.75:1. The details of the three components are given in Table 1.

B0128+437 was observed at 5 GHz on 2000 March 09 by MERLIN as part of ‘snapshot’ observations of the new lens candidates from the CLASS VLA data re-analysis. The data were edited and calibrated using the standard MERLIN programs and AIPS, and then mapped to an rms noise level of 277 $`\mu `$Jy beam-1 with a beam size of $``$50 mas using DIFMAP. Four components were detected (Figure 1) with a maximum component separation of 542 mas. The brightest component in the VLA map is well resolved into two components in the MERLIN map with a separation of 136 mas. The positions of all four components are consistent with those expected from a four-image lens system. The individual components have been modelled with four Gaussian components giving a total flux density of 47.7 mJy. All four components are unresolved i.e. $`<30`$ mas to within the errors and modelling the source with four $`\delta `$ functions or four Gaussian components resulted in similar values of $`\chi ^2`$. Details of the model components are given in Table 2. Components are labelled (anti-clockwise from the brightest) A to D.

The flux density ratios between components appear to have slightly different values at 8.4 GHz and 5 GHz. However, components A, B, and D are contained within an area only two beam-widths across in the VLA 8.4 GHz map and significant errors in the flux density of each component can therefore arise when the map is deconvolved with the beam. Furthermore, the $`3\sigma `$ level at each of the two frequencies is $``$1 mJy beam-1. The combination of these two factors means that the differences between the flux density ratios at each frequency are not significant.

## 3 Lens Galaxy Modelling

An attempt has been made to model the B0128+437 lens system with a singular isothermal ellipsoid mass distribution (for example Kormann, Schneider & Bartelmann 1994). The four MERLIN image flux densities and positions have been used as input parameters, providing eleven constraints (eight from image positions and three from image flux ratios). The model parameters which were allowed to vary were the source and lens positions, the lens velocity dispersion, ellipticity and position angle. Thus there were seven free parameters, and hence four degrees of freedom. A 3 mas error in the relative positions of each component and a 20 per cent error in the flux densities to take account of source variability and systematic errors were allowed. A lens redshift of $`z_l=0.5`$, source redshift of $`z_s=1.5`$, and a flat universe with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=1.0`$ were assumed. The resulting model suggests that the lens mass has an axial ratio $`b/a0.76`$. However, the differences in the positions of the four model images from those in the actual map are all in the range 30 to 100 mas which clearly shows that a singular isothermal ellipsoid model does not reproduce the observations well. This suggests that the system may consist of a complex deflector and may involve other nearby galaxies.

Modelling with the addition of an external shear component resulted in image positions and flux ratios being reproduced well (see Figure 2) with image positions within 1 mas and flux ratios within a few per cent of the observed values; the shear has a value of $``$0.23. This result also suggests that there is an additional lensing component external to the main lensing galaxy to the north-east or south-west. Optical and/or infrared imaging must now be carried out to determine the positions and numbers of possible deflectors before more accurate modelling can be achieved. No optical counterpart has been found at the position of the radio images on POSS-II, placing a limit of $`m_R>20`$ on the main lensing galaxy.

The image configuration in B0128+437 is similar to that of another CLASS lens system, B1555+375 (Marlow et al. 1999). This system has been mapped with greater sensitivity than B0128+437 and has a well-constrained mass model for the lensing galaxy. From the model for B1555+375, the magnification of individual images ranges from 0.5 to 8.2, and the combined magnification for all four images is $``$20. This comparison is used in the next section.

## 4 The Nature of the Radio Source in B0128+437

The integrated spectrum of the background source in B0128+437 can be obtained from the current MERLIN and VLA observations at 5 GHz and 8.4 GHz, and the GB6 (Gregory et al. 1996), NVSS (Condon et al. 1998), and WENSS (Regelink et al. 1997) surveys at 4.85 GHz, 1.4 GHz and 325 MHz respectively. A plot of the radio spectrum from these data is shown in Figure 3. Despite the sparsity of points, the spectrum clearly peaks at $``$1 GHz which shows that the source is a GigaHertz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) source.

Snellen et al. (2000) found that both the turnover frequency $`\nu _{\text{peak}}`$ and the turnover flux density $`S_{\text{peak}}`$ of GPS sources correlates with their overall maximum angular size (component separation, not the maximum size of a single GPS source component) over a flux density range for the turnover ranging from $``$40 mJy to $``$5 Jy. It is estimated that $`\nu _{\text{peak}}`$ for B0128+437 is $``$1 GHz with a flux density $`S_{\text{peak}}`$100 mJy. However, the source is being magnified and lensed into four images. Assuming that the total magnification in B0128+437 is similar to that in B1555+375 (see Section 3), the ‘real’ turnover flux density of B0128+437 is estimated to be $``$5 mJy. The observed near-linear correlation between the overall maximum angular size and $`S_{\text{peak}}^{1/2}\nu _{\text{peak}}^{5/4}`$ suggests that the intrinsic angular size of the radio source in B0128+437 is between 1 and 10 mas. Since the source is being magnified by up to $``$10 times in the strongest image the angular size of the source could increase to between 3 and 30 mas in this instance. The fact that the strongest image is unresolved in the MERLIN 5 GHz map also places an upper limit of $``$30 mas on the apparent angular size of the source in this image. VLBI observations at 1.4 GHz with a resolution of a few milliarcseconds might be able to resolve the images, which would place additional constraints on the lens model.

The prospect of using this system to measure the Hubble parameter is unfortunately not promising. If the radio source is indeed a GPS source, it will be a member of one of the least variable classes of extragalactic radio source (Aller, Aller & Hughes 1992). The GB6 survey data show that the 4.85 GHz flux density was $`47\pm 5`$ mJy between 1986 November and 1987 October. The MERLIN observations at 5 GHz on 2000 March give a total flux density of $`47.7\pm 0.3`$ mJy. While this does not rule out the possibility of detecting variability within the source, it is consistent with the source being non-variable.

## 5 Small Quad Lenses

Since, in the VLA 8.4 GHz CLASS map of B0128+437 images A and D were not resolved, as was also the case with B1555+375, other compact four-image lens systems may have been missed in the search of JVAS and CLASS if two of the images had a separation smaller than the beam size. In such cases a single extended Gaussian component would have been fitted to these images during the automatic mapping process. The lens candidate selection criterion stipulating multiple compact components would then result in rejection of such a system as a lens candidate unless the remaining two images were detected and fitted with compact Gaussian components. In order to check that no such systems have been missed, a new set of selection criteria based on the expected image configurations of small-quad lens systems was devised. Five new candidates were found, all of which have been followed-up with MERLIN at 5 GHz. In each case, the ‘resolved’ component in the VLA 8.4 GHz CLASS map was shown by MERLIN to be a single extended component. All five candidates were rejected as lenses based on surface brightness and morphological arguments. It is unlikely that there are additional lens systems like B0128+437 or B1555+375 within the JVAS and CLASS samples.

## 6 Summary and Future Work

A new gravitational lens system, B0128+437, has been discovered in the course of a re-analysis of the entire CLASS dataset. The system consists of four images of a background radio source which appears to be a GPS source. It might be possible to detect extended structure if the system is observed with VLBI. Initial attempts to model the lens mass with a singular isothermal ellipsoid distribution have proved unsuccessful, indicating that there may be multiple deflectors contributing to the lens.

The discovery of B0128+437 has increased the number of known compact lens systems. Whilst there is no optical information to constrain the lensing mass, Turner, Ostriker & Gott (1984) suggest that lower separation lenses are more likely to be due to spiral galaxies. At present the mass distributions of these systems are not well understood at cosmological lensing redshifts (for example Keeton & Kochanek, 1998) making B0128+437 of particular interest.

In order to constrain the lens mass model, further radio observations with MERLIN and VLBI must be made to better determine the image flux densities and positions. The detection of extended structure within the source will provide further parameters with which to constrain the lens mass model. Optical and/or infrared imaging to locate the lensing mass(es), and spectroscopy to find the lens and source redshifts are also needed for a satisfactory lens model.

## Acknowledgments

The VLA is the Very Large Array and is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory which is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. MERLIN is the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network and is a national facility operated by the University of Manchester on behalf of PPARC. This research was supported in part by the European Commission, TMR Programme, Research Network Contract ERBFMRXCT96-0034 ‘CERES’. PMP would also like to thank PPARC for the support of a studentship award.


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# Low-spin spectroscopy of 50Mn

## I Introduction

Atomic nuclei along N=Z line where the relative proximity of the neutron and proton Fermi surfaces favors the proton-neutron (pn) correlations on the equal footing with neutron-neutron (nn) and proton-proton (pp) ones are proved to give a unique opportunity to study the different isospin modes of pn interaction in various contexts .

In contrast to pp (T=1,Tz=-1) and nn (T=1,Tz=1) configurations the pn pairs can either form isovector (T=1,Tz=0) or isoscalar (T=0,Tz=0) states. Isovector pn correlations manifest themselves in a similar fashion to like-nucleon correlations that is evident from the properties of the T=1 isobaric analogue nuclei while the pn interaction in isoscalar channel (T=0,Tz=0) is much less understood and is currently the subject of active debate . In the light of this interest recently the low-spin structure of odd-odd N=Z nuclei 54Co , 46V  and 50Mn  was studied in Cologne. The most interesting findings of our studies are strong isovector M1 transitions which have simple explanation in terms of two particle quasideuteron configurations  and collective rotational properties of low-lying states in 46V  and 50Mn.

This contribution present new results for 50Mn establishing the equivalence of full pf-shell model and deformed mean field treatments of the low-energy structures in 50Mn.

## II Collective and quasideuteron properties of yrast states in 50Mn

Recently we have investigated the low-spin structure of the odd-odd $`N=Z`$ nucleus 50Mn up to an excitation energy of $`E_x3.6`$ MeV . Low spin states of 50Mn were populated using the fusion evaporation reaction 50Cr (p, n$`\gamma `$)50Mn at a proton beam energy $`E_p=15`$ MeV. The beam was delivered by the FN-Tandem accelerator of the University of Cologne. A part of the low spin level scheme of 50Mn, which could be determined from our $`\gamma \gamma `$-coincidence data, is shown in Fig. 1. From the analysis of coincidence spectra, 25 new transitions were placed in the level scheme, establishing 16 new levels. In total, we could assign new spin quantum numbers to six levels. Nine new intensity ratios and eight new multipole mixing ratios $`\delta `$ were determined. Our new data together with some recent high spin data for 50Mn from C. E. Svensson, et al.  give a consistent and extensive level scheme for 50Mn.

The $`0_1^+`$ ground state, the $`2_1^+`$ state at 800 keV and the $`4^+`$ states at 1931 keV ( not at 1917 keV as it was reported previously by C. E. Svensson, et al. ) in 50Mn are interpreted as the $`T=1`$ isobaric analogues of the $`0_1^+`$ ground state, the $`2_1^+`$ state at 783 keV and the $`4_1^+`$ state at 1882 keV respectively in the isobaric nucleus 50Cr ( see Fig. 1). The interpretation was done using new measured intensity and multipole mixing ratios for the 50Mn.

The experimental data were compared to shell model (SM) calculations of the positive parity states of 50Mn in the full pf-shell configurational space without truncation. Two different nucleon-nucleon residual interactions were considered in : the KB3 interaction, adopted from Ref.  and the FPD6 interaction taken from Ref. . Close agreement with experiment was obtained for observables (level scheme, intensity and multipole mixing ratios) near the ground state.

As an example the calculated excitation energies with FPD6 interaction for the positive parity levels with spin quantum numbers $`J=07`$ below 3 MeV are compared to the data in Fig. 2. The comparison shows that the calculations lead to almost perfect agreement with experiment. Furthermore we collect SM predictions for B(E2) and B(M1) values in Table I to compare with rotational model results.

Accordingly to the Nilsson model last odd proton and odd neutron in 50Mn occupy the Nilsson deformed $`[312]5/2^{}`$ orbital which transforms to the spherical $`f_{7/2}`$ orbital at the limit of zero deformation. Then the low-lying states in 50Mn should form the lower parts of $`K^\pi =0^+`$,T=1 (even spins), $`K^\pi =0^+`$,T=0 (odd spins) and $`K^\pi =5^+`$,T=0 bands ( see Fig.2). Supposing the deformation parameter $`\beta `$ to be 0.25 we have calculated B(E2) values for $`K^\pi =0^+`$ and $`K^\pi =5^+`$ intraband transitions (see Table I). One can see that SM results are well matched by the geometrical model indicating band structures in 50Mn. Furthermore it follows from the Nilsson scheme that promoting one proton or one neutron from the $`[312]5/2^{}`$ $`(f_{7/2})`$ orbital to the closely lying $`[312]1/2^{}`$ $`(p_{3/2})`$ orbital one can construct $`K^\pi =3^+`$ and $`K^\pi =2^+`$ bands in 50Mn. From the SM we can identify the $`3_2^+,T=0`$ (most probably it corresponds to the observed $`J=3`$,T=0 level at 1798 keV) and $`4_2^+,T=0`$ (it corresponds to the observed $`4^+`$,T=0 level at 1917 keV) states as a possible members of the $`K^\pi =3^+`$ band taking into account that they are connected by very strong E2 transition (see Table I). This B(E2) value can be reproduced in geometrical model supposing that $`K^\pi =3^+`$ band is strongly deformed ($`\beta 0.3`$). However such a transition was not observed in the present experiment due to the small spacing between the levels at 1798 keV and 1917 keV but there is an experimental indication that both states does not decay strongly to the states from other bands. Therefore it would be very interesting to find an experimental support of this theoretical hypothesis of stronger deformed K=3 band.

Another interesting observation which follows from the comparison of theoretical and experimental data is that there are strong isovector M1 transitions in 50Mn which have non-collective quasideuteron nature and could be described in frames of Nilsson model too . Accordingly to the quasideuteron picture  (see also ) one should expect very large summed M1 $`0^+1^+`$ transition strength ( 18 $`\mu _N^2`$) for odd-odd N=Z nuclei in $`f_{7/2}`$ orbital. The main part of this strength is predicted by Nilsson model  and shell model to be distributed among three $`0_1^+1_i^+`$ transitions in 50Mn nucleus. From the measured decay intensity ratio for $`2_1^+,T=1`$ state in 50Mn and B(E2;$`2_1^+0_1^+`$) value in the T=1 isospin partner nucleus 50Cr we have estimated ( see for details ) B(M1;$`2_1^+1_1^+`$) value in 50Mn which is given in Table I. Supposing that theoretical and experimental ratios of B(M1;$`0_1^+1_1^+`$) and B(M1;$`2_1^+1_1^+`$) values are similar, one can actually estimate also that a large part of the total quasideuteron M1 $`0_1^+1^+`$ transition strength (up to $``$4.5$`\mu _N^2`$) could be distributed to the $`0_1^+1_1^+`$ transition.

Furthermore it follows from SM calculations for 46V  and 50Mn that ratios of B(E2;$`J+2,K=0J,K=0`$) and B(E2;$`2_1^+0_1^+`$) values are very similar for both FPD6 and KB3 interactions. Applying to this regularity (i.e. assuming that it is true for the experimental values) and using measured intensity ratios we can estimate M1 strengths for some other transitions (see Table I).

This estimation clearly shows that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$K=0 $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$T=1 M1 transitions are enhanced while other $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$T=1 M1 transitions are indicated by the SM and experimental results to be retarded due to the K quantum number selection rule ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$K $`>`$ 1 M1 transitions are forbidden). The strong M1 transitions can be interpreted as an consequence of considerable contributions of quasideuteron configurations to the low-spin K=0 states in 50Mn.

To summarize, the observations for 50Mn nucleus were compared to large scale shell model calculations for the positive parity states. An excellent agreement between theory and experiment was noted. The collective rotational properties of the low-lying states in 50Mn were established basing on the B(E2) values from shell model calculations. Strong enhancement of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$T=1 M1 transitions caused by the quasideuteron configurations is found to take place for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$K=0 case.

## Acknowledgments

We thank A. Gelberg, J. Eberth, K. Jessen, R. V. Jolos, H. Klein, V. Werner for valuable discussions. This work was partly supported by the DFG under Contracts no. Br 799/10-2, 799/9-3, Pi 393/1-1 and by the US DOE under Contract No. DE-FG02-91ER-40609.


text:
# Universal Tunnelling Time in photonic Barriers

## Abstract

Tunnelling transit time for a frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) in a double–prism experiment was measured using microwave radiation. We have found that the transit time is of the same order of magnitude as the corresponding transit time measured either in an undersized waveguide (evanescent modes) or in a photonic lattice. Moreover we have established that in all such experiments the tunnelling transit time is approximately equal to the reciprocal ($`1/f`$) of the corresponding frequency of radiation.

Previous photonic tunnelling transit time experiments have been carried out using electromagnetic radiation both at microwave and optical frequencies. Such experiments were stimulated by the formal analogy between the classical Helmholtz wave equation and the quantum–mechanical Schrödinger equation. The corresponding tunnelling transit time data for e.g. electrons are not yet available.

In our Letter we are considering the tunnelling transit time for opaque photonic barriers enders1 ; steinberg1 ; spielmann ; ranfagni1 . We suggest that in general the transit or delay time is approximately equal to the reciprocal frequency $`1/f`$ of the corresponding radiation and that it is independent of the type or shape of the actual barrier. The transit time or group delay time is defined as $`\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}=\frac{x}{v_{\mathrm{gr}}}`$, were $`x`$ is the tunnelling distance and $`v_{\mathrm{gr}}=\frac{d\omega }{dk}`$. This definition agrees with that introduced by Eisenbud and Wigner who put $`\tau _\phi =\frac{d\phi }{d\omega }=\frac{x}{d\omega /dk}`$ merzbacher . The tunnelling transit time or just tunnelling time for short, is measured as the time interval between the respective times of arrival of the signal’s envelope at the two ends of the tunnelling length $`x`$. We are not suggesting here that this is equivalent to the measure of the signal velocity within the barrier.

In order to justify this hypothesis of a universal tunnelling time we have carefully analyzed our own experimental results and those of others. Three different types of photonic barrier have been used. Investigations carried out in such experiments as shown in Fig.1.

In Fig.1a the tunnelling effect occurs between two prisms (frustrated total internal reflection or FTIR) carey ; balcou ; mugnai , in Fig.1b tunnelling is modelled by the forbidden band of an one–dimensional photonic lattice steinberg1 ; spielmann ; nimtz1 , and in Fig.1c tunnelling occurs in the undersized section of the waveguide enders1 . Since in one dimension the Helmholtz and Schrödinger equations are similar, it is suggested that the three kinds of barrier can be used to model the one–dimensional process of wave mechanical tunnelling sommerfeld ; feynman .

Let us start by presenting some new data on the double–prism experiment. For $`n_1>n_2`$ and an angle of incidence $`\theta _i>\theta _c:=\mathrm{arcsin}n_2/n_1`$ the incoming beam penetrates into the second medium and travels for some distance along the interface before being scattered back into the first medium (see Fig.2); here $`n_1`$ and $`n_2`$ are respectively the refractive indices of the first prism and of the air. If a second prism with $`n_3=n_1=n`$ is used to probe the “evanescent” component of the wave, the total reflection becomes “frustrated” and photonic tunnelling across the air gap takes place.

It is indicated in Fig.2 that the barrier traversal time of the double-prism, or what we call here the tunnelling time can be split into two components $`t_{\mathrm{tunnel}}=t_{}+t_{}`$, one along the surface due to the Goos-Hänchen shift $`D`$, and another part perpendicular to the surface artmann . The measured tunnelling time represents the group or phase time delay as explained earlier.

The first component is related to a non-evanescent wave characterized by the real wavenumber $`k_{}:=k_0n\mathrm{sin}\theta _i`$ while the second one $`k_{}:=ik_0\sqrt{n^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _i\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}}`$ is related to the evanescent mode traversing the gap between the two prisms. ($`k_0=2\pi /\lambda _0`$, $`\lambda _0`$ is the corresponding vacuum wavelength, and $`n`$ the refractive index of both prisms.)

The Goos-Hänchen shift $`D`$ is a sensitive function of the gap width $`d`$, the frequency of radiation and its polarization, the beam width and the angle $`\theta _i`$ of the incoming beam balcou ; cowan ; horowitz . With increasing air gap the shift reaches a constant asymptotic value $`D`$ = $`d\phi /dk_{}`$ balcou ; cowan , where $`\phi `$ is the phase shift of the reflected or transmitted beam.

We have performed a double-prism experiment with two prisms of perspex, obtained from a 400 mm cube by a diagonal cut. The corresponding refractive index of $`n=1.605`$ gives a total reflection angle of $`\theta _c`$ = 38.68. Microwave radiation at $`f=8.45`$GHz generated by a 2K25 klystron was fed to a parabolic dish antenna which transmitted a near parallel beam to the prisms. (Beam spread was less than 2).

In order to appoint the tunnelling time we measured the time for a signal travelling the closed and the opened prism. The transmission time through the opened prism is faster than through the closed prism. Considering the modifications of the path length the tunnelling time was determinated from the difference of both times.

The signal was then picked up by a microwave horn antenna and fed amplified to an oscilloscope (HP 54825A). Due to the Goos–Hänchen shift (see Fig.2) the position of the beam’s maximum had to be found by scanning the reflected and transmitted beams. It was found that the signal had a Gaussian-like shape, its half-width being 8 ns nimtz2 .

Since the total propagation time (antenna–prism–antenna) is longer than the signal half–width, it is safe to assume that the transmitter, the prism, and the detector are well decoupled since there is no danger of the circuit components being coupled by a standing wave building up. The experimental set–up permits asymptotic measurements.

The tunnelling time was measured at the frequency of 8.345 GHz (vacuum wavelength $`\lambda _0`$ = 36 mm) using a TE-polarized beam. The beam diameter was 190 mm and the angle of incidence was chosen to be $`\theta _i`$ = 45.

We tested whether all beam components were parallel and whether the angle of incidence was within the regime of total reflection by measuring at two different frequencies the transmission as a function of the gap between the two prisms. The measured transmission was 0.73 dB/mm at 8.345 GHz and 0.93 dB/mm for 9.72 GHz respectively compared to the theoretical values of 0.76 dB/mm and 0.94 dB/mm (see Fig.3). This agreement between the theoretical (as quoted for $`k_{}`$ in feynman ) and experimental results indicates that our method of measuring FTIR is very sensitive, provided the boundary conditions are well defined.

The tunnelling time was measured in the regime of constant asymptotic Goos–Hänchen shift $`D`$, where in our case (see experimental parameters given above) $`D=31`$ mm. The time $`t_{\mathrm{GH}}=t_{}`$ for the Goos–Hänchen shift can be obtained from balcou  by writing:

$$t_{\mathrm{GH}}t_{}=\frac{Dn\mathrm{sin}(\theta _i)}{c}$$
(1)
For $`D`$ = 31 mm, n = 1.605 and $`\theta _i`$ = 45 we obtain from (1) $`t_{\mathrm{GH}}`$ = 117 ps. Actually this value equals the measured Goos–Hänchen time for the total reflected beam in the absence of the second prism. (The measured time was obtained by properly taking into consideration the beam’s path in the prism.) As mentioned before for a transmitted beam the total tunnelling time is the sum of the two components $`t_{}`$ and $`t_{}`$.

Surprisingly the measured total tunnelling time proved to be equal to $`t_{}`$ alone. Since our accuracy of time measurement was $`\pm `$ 10 ps, this means that $`t_{}`$ 10 ps or at least $`t_{}`$ = 0.

Thus it would appear that the measured total tunnelling time depends mostly on the Goos-Hänchen shift and hence is approximately equal to the Goos–Hänchen time $`t_{\mathrm{GH}}`$. This result is compatible with some theoretical investigations bearing in mind the imaginary wavenumber $`k_{}`$ of the evanescent mode in the gap stahlhofen .

For large gaps where the transit time does not depend on $`d`$ the theoretical value for the FTIR-tunnelling time is 82 ps, using the model of Ghatak and Banerjee ghatak . This value is quite near to the measured value of 117 $`\pm `$ 10 ps. It is now quite interesting to note that the reciprocal of the carrier frequency, $`1/f=120`$ ps, gives approximately the same value for the time interval as the measured tunnelling time. This result is also in agreement with the theoretical model of Ghatak and Banerjee, being valid over a wide range of frequencies and at all angles of incidence, except in the vicinity of the critical angle $`\theta _c`$ and for $`\theta _i>80^{}`$ (grazing incidence) (see Fig.4).

This relationship we have obtained for FTIR seems to be a universal property of many tunnelling processes.

Some previously obtained experimental results are collected in Table 1; they all seems to confirm the suggested universal property that the tunnelling time is approximately equal to the reciprocal of the carrier frequency. Some deviations may have arisen from two experimental short comings: the studied barriers have not been sufficiently opaque or some tunnelling experiments were too difficult to perform.

Our experimental data obtained from FTIR using microwave radiation show that the finite tunnelling time is largely dependent on the interference effects at the entrance boundary of the barrier. In the case of FTIR it is the time equivalent to the Goos-Hänchen shift as was first pointed out by Stahlhofen stahlhofen .

We have also checked using a waveguide at a microwave frequency of 8.85 GHz, whether a similar behaviour applies in the case of a photonic lattice type shown in Fig.1b. The measured group delay time $`\tau _{\mathrm{refl}}=75\pm 5`$ ps of the reflected beam was found to be the same as the time measured for traversing the barrier, $`\tau _{\mathrm{trans}}=74\pm 5`$ ps, or what we have called the tunnelling time. Once again there is no indication that the evanescent mode spend any time inside the barrier, similary to FTIR nimtz2 .

Hartman hartman  calculated the tunnelling time (phase time delay) of Gaussian wave packets for one-dimensional barriers based on the time dependent Schrödinger equation. It is interesting to note that his theoretical wave-mechanical results are also in agreement with the photonic experiments for different barrier lengths enders2 .

All experimental measurements of the tunnelling time are in agreement with the theoretical calculations and indicate a universal tunnelling time in the case of opaque barriers. Both the measured finite total tunnelling time and the time delay of the reflected beam are associated with the front of the barrier and closely correlate with the reciprocal of frequency of the corresponding radiation.

We gratefully acknowledge helpful discussions with P. Mittelstaedt, A. Stahlhofen, R.–M. Vetter, and the Referee who made us familiar with the calculations of Ghatak and Banerjee. G.N. likes to thank X. Chen and P. Lindsay for stimulating discussions during his short stay at Queen Mary and Southfield College London.


text:
# Pairing-induced localization of the particle continuum in weakly bound nuclei

## Abstract

The Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov (HFB) problem for the cutoff local energy-density functional is solved numerically by using the Gor’kov formalism with an exact treatment of the particle continuum. The contributions from the resonant and “gas” continuum to the spectral density of the HFB eigenstates as well as the shifting and broadening of the discrete HF hole orbitals are clearly demonstrated with the illustrative example of the drip-line nucleus 70Ca. The structure of the neutron density distribution in the localized ground state is analyzed, and the formation of its extended tail (“halo”) is shown to be a collective pairing effect.

PACS: 21.60.-n; 21.90.+f; 24.10.Cn

Keywords: Local energy-density functional; pairing correlations; localized states in the continuum; drip-line nuclei; neutron halo

, , thanks: E-mail address: fayans@mbslab.kiae.ru thanks: Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Pairing correlations significantly influence the properties of finite nuclei producing, e.g., the observed odd-even staggering of the binding energies and radii. In the mean-field models, the pairing is introduced either at the BCS or the HFB level . The zone of the active phase space around the Fermi surface, in which the major pairing effects are developed, depends on the effective interaction used. Whenever this zone includes states from the particle continuum, and this is obviously inevitable when approaching the drip line, the BCS approximation breaks down, yielding unphysical nucleonic gas . A correct treatment of the pairing problem with continuum is provided by the HFB theory which, for the chemical potential $`\mu <0`$, always gives a localized ground state . In principle, an exact solution of the HFB equations should be found with the physical boundary conditions both for the bound and scattering states (examples of such solutions are given in ). However, in most applications of the HFB theory to nuclei, with different kinds of the energy-density functionals, the particle continuum is discretized in a box (see, e.g.,  and references therein), and it is still questionable whether or not the particle level density can be well reproduced with such a prescription, particularly near the threshold. Continuum effects have been studied very recently in  within the HFB method using a fixed, analytically soluble mean field potential and keeping self-consistency only in the pairing channel; again, the continuum states have been discretized in a spatial box. An attempt to take into account the resonant continuum within the HF+BCS approach has been also made recently in . One should notice that, for a nucleus with even $`N`$ (we consider the neutron subsystem for definiteness), all HFB solutions with energies $`E>|\mu |S_{2\mathrm{n}}/2`$ ($`S_{2\mathrm{n}}`$ is the two-neutron separation energy) belong to the continuum, and these solutions contain both localized and non-localized HFB resonances. Their positions and widths, as well as the genetic relation to the Hartree-Fock (HF) single-particle spectrum, and also the contribution from the nonresonant continuum are worth to be revealed with numerically “exact” HFB calculations. Of particular interest is the situation on the drip line where the nuclei have only one bound state — the ground state, and the whole HFB spectrum is continuous. Our study is motivated by the great activity in physics of radioactive nuclear beams which have lead already, e.g., to the discovery of halo structure in some loosely bound nuclei.

Our approach is based on the generalized variational principle applied to the cutoff (local) energy-density functional  and on the physically transparent and mathematically elegant Green’s function method. The coordinate-space technique used to solve the Gor’kov equations exactly, for spherical systems with a local pairing field, is described in detail in . Here we shall discuss the results for Ca isotopes obtained with functional DF3 whose normal part is parametrized in Ref. . In the anomalous (pairing) part we employ the contact “gradient” pairing force  with a density-dependent form factor

$$^\xi =1.35\times C_0\left(f_{\mathrm{ex}}^\xi +h^\xi x^{2/3}(\stackrel{}{r})+f_{}^\xi r_0^2\left(\stackrel{}{}x(\stackrel{}{r})\right)^2\right),$$
(1)
where $`x=(\rho _\mathrm{n}+\rho _\mathrm{p})/2\rho _0`$ is the isoscalar dimensionless density with $`\rho _{\mathrm{n}(\mathrm{p})}`$ the neutron (proton) density and $`\rho _0`$ the equilibrium density of one kind of particles in symmetric nuclear matter with the Fermi energy $`ϵ_{0\mathrm{F}}`$; $`C_0=2ϵ_{0\mathrm{F}}/3\rho _0`$ is the inverse density of states at $`ϵ=ϵ_{0\mathrm{F}}`$; $`r_0^2=(3/8\pi \rho _0)^{2/3}`$ (for DF3, $`C_0=308.2`$ MeV$``$fm3 and $`r_0=1.147`$ fm). The pairing strength parameters $`f_{\mathrm{ex}}^\xi =1.79`$, $`h^\xi =1.36`$ and $`f_{}^\xi =2.0`$ have been deduced from the neutron separation energies and charge radii in the Pb isotope chain , both the staggering and kink being well reproduced. As shown in Ref. , the force (1) with the scaling factor of 1.35 allows to nicely reproduce the analogous differential observables in the Ca isotopes including the anomalous behavior of charge radii. All calculations are done with a fixed energy cutoff of 40 MeV above the Fermi level in any given nucleus.

The HFB problem with the above energy-density functional is solved iteratively by using the coordinate-space technique in the complex energy plane. The normal and anomalous densities at each iteration are evaluated as the contour integrals of the generalized Green’s function $`\widehat{G}`$ which obey the Gor’kov equation $`(E\widehat{})\widehat{G}(E)=\widehat{I}`$ with $`\widehat{}`$ the HFB Hamiltonian. For spherical systems, after separating the spin-angular variables one gets the equation for the radial component $`\widehat{g}_{jl}`$ of the generalized Green’s function $`\widehat{G}`$:

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}Eh_{jl}+\mu & \mathrm{\Delta }\\ \mathrm{\Delta }& E+h_{jl}\mu \end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}g_{jl}^{11}& g_{jl}^{12}\\ g_{jl}^{21}& g_{jl}^{22}\end{array}\right)(r,r^{};E)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\delta (rr^{})& 0\\ 0& \delta (rr^{})\end{array}\right),$$
(2)
where $`h_{jl}=\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}(\frac{d^2}{dr^2}+\frac{l(l+1)}{r^2})+U_\mathrm{c}(r)+U_{sl}(r)\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{l}_{jl}`$ is the Hartree-Fock (HF) Hamiltonian in the $`jl`$ channel with $`U_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`U_{sl}`$ the central and spin-orbit potentials, respectively; $`\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{l}_{jl}=j(j+1)l(l+1)\frac{3}{4}`$; $`E0`$. The solution of this matrix equation is constructed by using the four linearly independent solutions $`(u_i,v_i),i`$=1–4, which satisfy the homogeneous system obtained from (2) by replacing the right hand side by zero . Two of them are regular at $`r0`$ and the other two are regular at $`r\mathrm{}`$. The latter are chosen with the asymptotic momenta $`k_\pm =\sqrt{\mu \pm E}`$ such that $`\mathrm{Im}k_\pm 0`$ which provides, in particular, the correct asymptotics for the particle scattering states at the $`\mathrm{Im}E=0`$ axis. Such boundary conditions ensure the spatial localization of the nuclear ground state at $`\mu <0`$ .

It is convenient to study the pairing effects in terms of the spectral distributions over the eigenstates of the HFB Hamiltonian, i.e. in terms of the spatial integrals of the imaginary parts of the Gor’kov Green’s functions. Here, for the given $`jl`$ quantum numbers, we shall consider two partial spectral distributions:

$$\frac{N_{jl}^{22}}{E}=\frac{2j+1}{\pi }_0^R\mathrm{Im}g_{jl}^{22}(r,r;E)r,$$
(3)
and

$$\frac{N_{jl}^{11}}{E}=\frac{2j+1}{\pi }_0^R\mathrm{Im}g_{jl}^{11}(r,r;E)r.$$
(4)
The first and the second we shall call the $`v^2`$\- and $`u^2`$-spectral density, respectively. The corresponding analytical expressions can be obtained by using the partial Green’s functions which incorporate the generalized Wronskian of the four linearly independent solutions as given in Refs. . We add that the expressions for the canonical-basis spectral distributions and the numerical results with discretized continuum for a few tin isotopes can be found in Ref. .

In eq. (3), the spatial integral converges for $`R\mathrm{}`$ since it includes only the localized components $`v^2`$. At $`E>|\mu |`$, all HFB eigenstates are in the continuum and, since $`\mathrm{Im}g_{jl}^{11}`$ contains non-localized components $`u^2`$, the integration in eq. (4) is meaningful only up to a certain finite range $`R`$. One may present the two above expressions by one function $`N_{jl}^{\mathrm{HFB}}/ϵ`$ if (3) and (4) are considered as functions of $`ϵ=\mu E`$ and $`ϵ=\mu +E`$, respectively, though both are for the same HFB eigenvalue $`E`$.

We show in Figs. 1 and 2 the partial HFB neutron spectral densities for even and odd $`l`$, respectively, calculated for the drip-line nucleus 70Ca, as functions of $`ϵ`$ with $`R`$=10 fm (lower panels) and also present the corresponding “HF” level densities (upper panels). The “HF” refers to the results obtained by solving eq. (2) but keeping only the diagonal part of $`\widehat{}`$ which emerges after solving the HFB problem ($`h_{jl}`$ includes the contribution from pairing correlations). In other words, in these figures we show the level densities for the basis which diagonalizes the mean field part of the HFB Hamiltonian versus the spectral densities which arise when the pairing field $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is present explicitly in the left matrix in eq. (2). We point out that the spherical volume of radius $`R`$=10 fm is chosen here as the physical volume in which the mean-field and pairing correlations are mostly active to produce the localized ground state, it is not a normalization box; within this volume we integrate the imaginary parts of the Green’s functions which have the correct asymptotic behavior (the normal and anomalous densities, when solving the HFB problem, have been evaluated up to 25 fm, and, again, the wave functions are not zero at and beyond this radius, but the contribution from this far region to the bulk ground state properties is negligible). For the visualization of the $`\delta `$-like peaks associated with the discrete “HF” states and very narrow resonances, a small imaginary part $`\gamma `$=1 keV has been added to the energy $`E`$ in the Green’s functions. The obtained chemical potential is small, $`\mu =149`$ keV; the spectral densities within the region $`2\mu <ϵ<0`$ should vanish, and those which appear in Figs. 1 and 2 at these energies are due to the smearing parameter $`\gamma `$.

Let us discuss first the peculiarities in the “HF” level densities. For a finite-depth potential well, such as our neutron HF potential, it can be shown that the partial single particle level density in the continuum within a spherical volume with radius $`R`$ larger than the potential range is given by

$$\frac{N_{jl}^{\mathrm{HF}}}{ϵ}=\frac{2j+1}{\pi }\left\{\frac{\delta _{jl}}{ϵ}+\frac{k^3R^3}{2ϵ}\left[\left(Y_{jl}^l(kR)\right)^2Y_{jl}^{l1}(kR)Y_{jl}^{l+1}(kR)\right]\right\},$$
(5)
where $`Y_{jl}^i(kR)=(\mathrm{cos}\delta _{jl})j_i(kR)(\mathrm{sin}\delta _{jl})n_i(kR),i=l,l\pm 1;k=\sqrt{2mϵ}/\mathrm{}`$. This formula is valid for $`R`$ big enough so that the radial wave function can be expressed through spherical Bessel and Neumann functions ($`j_l`$ and $`n_l`$, respectively) and the phase shift $`\delta _{jl}(ϵ)`$ can be calculated accurately. The resonance-like bumps seen in the upper panels in Figs. 1 and 2 at $`ϵ>0`$ are associated with the term $`\delta _{jl}/ϵ`$ in (5). These bumps are imposed on a rather flat nonresonant continuum which weakly oscillates with an energy-dependent wavelength defined by $`\mathrm{\Delta }(kR)2\pi `$. Without potential, when $`\delta _{jl}(ϵ)0`$, eq. (5) gives the free-gas partial level density. Subtracting the latter from eq. (5), at $`kRl`$ one gets

$$\frac{N_{jl}^{\mathrm{HF}}}{ϵ}\frac{N_{jl}^{\mathrm{gas}}}{ϵ}=\frac{2j+1}{\pi }\left[\frac{\delta _{jl}}{ϵ}\mathrm{cos}(2kR+\delta _{lj})\frac{\mathrm{sin}\delta _{lj}}{2ϵ}\right].$$
(6)
Averaging this expression over small energy range $`\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ>\pi \sqrt{2\mathrm{}^2ϵ/mR^2}`$ eliminates the oscillating cosine term, and one is left with the usual level density $`\delta _{jl}/ϵ`$ associated with the potential well itself (see also Ref. ). However, this procedure can not be applied at low energies, i.e. in the region near the continuum threshold which, in drip-line nuclei, is very close to the Fermi surface. This zone of the phase space is of importance since the major pairing effects are developed around the Fermi surface. At any finite $`R`$, when $`ϵ0`$, the leading term $`k^{2l1}`$ of the expansion of $`\delta _{jl}/ϵ`$ in powers of $`k`$ cancels in eq. (5) due to the contribution coming from the term $`\mathrm{sin}(2\delta _{jl})j_{l1}(kR)n_{l+1}(kR)`$. The resulting level density near the continuum threshold turns out to be proportional to $`C_{jl}k^{2l+1}`$, i.e. it has the free-gas behavior, the coefficients $`C_{jl}`$ depend, however, on the potential well. For the $`s`$-wave level density, using the effective range approximation, we get from (5) and (6) an analytical expression:

$$\frac{N_{\frac{1}{2}0}^{\mathrm{HF}}}{ϵ}=\frac{2}{3\pi }\frac{k^3}{ϵ}R^3\left\{13\frac{a}{R}\left[1\frac{a}{R}\left(1\frac{1}{2}\frac{r_{\mathrm{eff}}}{R}\right)\right]\right\}.$$
(7)
where $`a`$ is the scattering length and $`r_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is the effective range. In the curly brackets here is a factor which could give an enhancement of the HF level density as compared to the free-gas one. For our “HF” potential we found $`a=14.8`$ fm and $`r_{\mathrm{eff}}=14.4`$ fm, which gives, with $`R=10`$ fm, an enhancement factor of about 7. These parameters correspond to the virtual $`s`$-state at $`ϵ_0=51`$ keV which shows up as a sharp peak at very low positive $`ϵ`$ in the upper panel in Fig. 1. The width of this very asymmetric peak at half maximum is about 23 keV. At larger energies, one can see in this panel two partners of the $`d`$-wave resonance which is split due to the spin-orbit potential, and also the $`g_{7/2}`$ resonance whose $`g_{9/2}`$ partner is in the discrete spectrum at $`ϵ=276`$ keV. Besides, a negative-parity $`h_{11/2}`$ resonance can be seen in the upper panel in Fig. 2. The resonance characteristics and the energies $`ϵ_\lambda ^0`$ of some bound “HF” states are listed in Table 1 (the first three columns).

The graphical presentation of Fig. 1 and 2 has the advantage that the HFB spectral densities from the lower panels would be smoothly transformed to the corresponding upper “HF” ones if the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$’s in the HFB Hamiltonian of eq. (2) could be smoothly switched off keeping the “HF” part $`h_{jl}`$ unchanged and defining $`\mu `$ by the particle number condition. In this way, one can easily trace the genetic origin of the irregularities seen in the HFB spectral densities. In particular, the resonance contributions from the particle continuum to the localized $`v^2`$-spectral density can be recognized. The characteristics of the picked-out localized $`v^2`$-parts of the HFB resonances are listed in Table 1 attributing them the genetic “HF” $`jl`$ quantum numbers (the fourth and fifth columns). The widths of the “HF” resonance states and of the localized $`v^2`$-components of the HFB resonances have been estimated from a 3-point no-background Breit-Wigner fit of the corresponding maxima. One can see that the discrete “HF” states get widths, i.e. they become the HFB resonances whose $`v^2`$-components are shifted, as expected, to lower $`ϵ`$. The HFB nonresonant background can be also seen in the lower panels of Figs. 1 and 2. The non-localized $`u^2`$\- and localized $`v^2`$-components of the HFB resonances are located symmetrically with respect to $`ϵ=\mu `$ (i.e., $`E=0`$). We remark that all these belong to the same HFB eigenstate, however we do not discuss here the properties of the $`u^2`$-components due to lack of space.

As seen in Fig. 1, the $`1g_{9/2}`$ “HF” state at $`ϵ_\lambda ^0=276`$ keV becomes, with pairing, a HFB resonance whose localized $`v^2`$-component lies well below the continuum threshold, at $`ϵ\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ where $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ is the diagonal matrix element of the pairing field over the “HF” states near the Fermi surface. In our case, the energy gap $`2\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ between the two components of this resonance is rather big, $`10`$ MeV. This could lead to the noticeable reduction of the tail of the neutron density distribution (the so-called pairing anti-halo effect ). However, in the drip-line nuclei, when $`|\mu |\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$, near the threshold there appear strong localized $`v^2`$-components from the resonant and non-resonant parts of the particle continuum with different $`jl`$. This is clearly seen in the lower panels of Figs. 1 and 2.

The “HF” and HFB partial neutron occupation numbers $`N_{jl}`$ in 70Ca are listed in Table 2. Also given in this table are the numbers of neutrons $`N_{jl}(r>R_1)`$ and $`N_{jl}(r>R_2)`$ in the tail of $`\rho _\mathrm{n}`$ beyond the nuclear surface; $`R_1`$ and $`R_2`$ are defined by $`\rho _\mathrm{n}(R_1)=0.01`$ fm-3 and $`\rho _\mathrm{n}(R_2)=0.001`$ fm-3, respectively. The choice of $`R_1`$ roughly corresponds to the radius $`R_\mathrm{F}+t/2`$ where $`t=4(\mathrm{ln}3)d`$ is the width of the diffuse zone approximated in the usual way by the Fermi function $`\{1+\mathrm{exp}[(rR_\mathrm{F})/d]\}^1`$. The calculated densities for Ca isotopes with $`A=38`$ to 70 (a few of them are shown in Fig. 3) can be well described in the surface region by such a Fermi distribution. For 70Ca, we found $`R_\mathrm{F}=4.60`$ fm and $`d=0.73`$ fm which gives $`R_1=6.2`$ fm (for comparison: in 48Ca, $`R_\mathrm{F}=3.85`$ fm, $`d=0.52`$ fm and $`R_1=5.0`$ fm; thus, approaching the drip line, the size of the diffuse surface zone is significantly increasing). Using a larger radius $`R_2`$, one can characterize the $`jl`$ composition of the outmost tail of $`\rho _\mathrm{n}`$ in the “halo” region. Table 2 shows that the pairing makes the $`N_{jl}`$ distribution more “uniform” than in the “HF” case, the major effect is due to the depletion of the discrete “HF” orbitals $`g_{9/2}`$, $`f_{7/2}`$ and $`f_{5/2}`$ and filling the resonance structures from the “HF” continuum ($`3s_{1/2}`$, $`2d_{5/2}`$, etc., see Table 1). The partial neutron numbers in the “halo” region are also distributed more uniformly, the contributions from the states with higher angular momenta, up to $`l=8`$, are not negligible. Thus, in our calculations, the composition of the extended tail of the neutron density distribution in 70Ca is determined by a collective pairing effect.

The numbers of neutrons beyond the diffusive surface, $`N_{\mathrm{halo}}`$, calculated both for even and odd Ca isotopes with $`A=38`$ to 70 are shown in the right insert in Fig. 3. Depending on the choice of the upper limit for the tail density, 0.01, 0.003 or 0.001 fm-3, $`N_{\mathrm{halo}}`$ varies from 1.41 to 5.30, from 0.47 to 2.35 and from 0.19 to 1.04, respectively; the relative increase of $`N_{\mathrm{halo}}`$ for the latter choice reaches a factor of 5.5. Irregulaties seen in in the behavior of $`N_{\mathrm{halo}}`$ are due to the odd-even effect. Odd isotopes are calculated with blocking , the heaviest one is predicted to be 55Ca. The neutron density in this drip-line nucleus is also plotted in Fig. 3, the one-neutron “halo” tail of $`\rho _\mathrm{n}`$ in this case originates from the $`2p_{1/2}`$ blocked level with $`ϵ_\lambda =820`$ keV.

The rms matter radii $`r_\mathrm{m}`$ are shown in the left insert in Fig. 3. The staggering seen in the lighter Ca isotopes is generated by the gradient pairing force (1) whose parameters were chosen to reproduce both the neutron separation energies $`S_\mathrm{n}`$ and anomalous behavior of charge radii . One may suspect that this force yields too strong pairing near the drip line where the surface becomes more diffuse and the repulsive gradient term in (1) decreases; as the result we get $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}5`$ MeV for 70Ca and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}1.8`$ MeV around 44Ca, the latter being in agreement with experiment. Unfortunately, the density dependence of the effective pairing force is not well known, and the extrapolation to the drip line with parametrization (1) may be questionable. Quite different results could be obtained with another kind of the pairing force. One can use, for example, instead of (1), a simple $`\delta `$-interaction without $`\rho `$-dependence, with $`^\xi =0.66C_0`$, which also reproduces well the experimental $`S_\mathrm{n}`$ values, and calculate then the whole Ca chain. The matter radii obtained with such a “constant” force are shown by the dotted line in the left insert in Fig. 3, and the binding energies together with two-neutron separation energies are presented in Fig. 4 in comparison with the results for the force (1). The behavior of $`r_\mathrm{m}`$ versus $`A`$ for “constant” $`^\xi `$ is relatively smooth, without noticeable staggering 111We remark that neither the observed evolution of charge radii in Ca nor the kink in Pb isotopes could be reproduced with this simple pairing force  which is thus rather unrealistic and serves here only as a demonstrative example.; the odd- and even-$`A`$ drip-line nuclei occur to be 57Ca and 70Ca, respectively. Around these nuclei, weak irregularities can be seen in the behavior of $`r_\mathrm{m}`$. 70Ca comes out with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$, i.e. pairing correlations do not appear for “constant” $`^\xi `$ in this nucleus; besides, the calculated $`S_{2\mathrm{n}}`$ value is negative, $`236`$ keV (see Fig. 4), so 70Ca could be a two-neutron drip-line double-magic emitter. As seen in Fig. 4, the binding energies $`E_\mathrm{b}`$ and $`S_{2\mathrm{n}}`$ values are reproduced fairly well with both kinds of the pairing force, though a better description is obtained with the gradient force (1). Systematic deviations start at the mass numbers right beyond the measured region. Clearly, new experimental data and more extensive theoretical studies are needed to find still better parametrizations of the effective pairing force and improve the predictive power of self-consistent mean-field models.

In conclusion: we have presented a numerically exact solution of the HFB problem for the cutoff local energy-density functional. The Green’s function formalism with physical boundary conditions has been used. The localization of the particle continuum in the drip line nucleus 70Ca has been analyzed in terms of the partial spectral densities for the HFB eigenstates whose spectrum is fully continuous. The genetic relation to the “HF” (mean-field) partial level densities has been discussed, and the contributions from the resonant and nonresonant particle continuum to the localized ground state, as well as the shifting and broadening of the discrete hole orbitals have been clearly revealed. The composition of the extended neutron distribution in the “halo” region beyond the diffuse surface has beeen analyzed in terms of the partial occupation numbers, and its formation has been shown to be a collective pairing effect.

Partial support of this work by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project 98-02-16979) is gratefully acknowledged.