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# Spectroscopic Diagnostics for AGNs

## 1. Introduction

The first decade of the 21st Century promises to become the Golden Age of extragalactic astronomy. The 2dF and Sloan Digital Sky Surveys have already made significant contributions to our knowledge of the extragalactic universe. On-going and planned wide-field (pencil-beam) imaging and spectroscopic surveys with 4m (8m)-class telescopes from the ground and in space (e.g., SIRTF, SOFIA, Herschel, NGST) will nicely complement these large-scale surveys and should go a long way to answer some of the most fundamental questions in extragalactic astronomy: How do galaxies form? How do they evolve? How do supermassive black holes fit in this picture of galaxy formation? Which objects are the main contributors to the overall energy budget of the universe? To properly answer these questions, one will need to differentiate objects powered by nuclear fusion in stars (i.e. normal and starburst galaxies) from objects powered by mass accretion onto supermassive black holes (quasars and AGNs). A wide variety of diagnostic tools have been used in the past for this purpose with different degree of success.

Due to space limitations, the present discussion focusses on emission-line diagnostics. The fundamental principles behind these diagnostics are reviewed in §2. Next, the main diagnostic tools available in the ultraviolet, optical, and infrared domains are described in §3, §4, and §5, respectively. A table listing the main diagnostic lines is given in each of these sections. Additional factors which may complicate the use of these tools are discussed in §6. A summary is given in §7 along with an outlook on the future. Note that this review is not meant to be exhaustive; it is meant to emphasize the practical aspects of starburst/AGN spectral classification. Readers who are looking for a more detailed discussion of the physics behind these diagnostic tools should refer to the original papers listed in the text.

## 2. Basic Principles

Activity driven by mass accretion onto supermassive black holes differs in many ways from star-formation activity. The thermal and non-thermal processes associated with the accretion disk and its surroundings (e.g., corona) are at the origin of the “hard” ionizing continuum detected in quasars and AGNs (e.g., Krolik 1999). Material in the vicinity of the nucleus will bear the imprint of this strong radiation field. The deep gravitational potential at the center of these galaxies allows the presence of high-density ($`>`$ 109 cm-3), high-velocity ($`>`$ 2000 km s-1) gas clouds in the inner parsec of quasars and AGNs. This so-called broad-line region or BLR is a powerful diagnostic of nuclear activity in galaxies. The main signatures of the BLRs are broad recombination lines which are unaffected by the effects of collisional de-excitation at high densities. Two general methods have been used in the past to detect BLRs in galaxies: direct spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry. This last method relies on the presence of dust or electrons (“mirrors”) to scatter the BLR signature towards the line of sight (e.g., Antonucci 1993). Direct spectroscopy searches for the presence of the broad recombination lines at wavelengths where the effects of dust extinction are reduced. As shown in Table 1 for representative Galactic extinction (see, e.g., Cardelli, Clayton, & Mathis 1989; Draine & Lee 1984; Draine 1989; Lutz et al. 1996; Lutz 1999), great increase in sensitivity can in principle be obtained by observing at longer wavelengths.

In highly obscured objects with NH $`>`$ 1024 cm-2, direct detection of the BLRs becomes very difficult and one has to rely on spectropolarimetry to search for the presence of a BLR. The obscuring screen may not be opaque in all directions, however. The ionizing radiation field may be able to escape in certain directions and ionize the surrounding material on scales beyond the obscuring material. Distributed in the shallower portion of the gravitational potential ($``$ 0.1 – 1 kpc), this “narrow-line region” or NLR is another excellent probe of nuclear activity. The ionizing spectra of all but the hottest O stars cut off near the He II edge (54.4 eV; Dopita et al. 1995). In contrast, the ionizing spectrum of AGNs contains a relatively large fraction of high-energy photons (e.g., Elvis et al. 1994). Optically thick gas clouds ionized by the hard continuum of AGNs will present a stratified ionization structure with (1) a highly ionized inner face (closest to the AGN), (2) a large partially zone with characteristic fraction of ionized hydrogen H+/H $``$ 0.2 – 0.4 produced by the deposition of keV X-rays (recall that the absorption cross sections of H0, He0, and all other ions decrease rapidly with increasing energy; Osterbrock 1989), and (3) a neutral zone facing away from the AGN. The fast free electrons in the partly ionized zone will have a positive effect on the strengths of low-ionization lines produced by collisional effects, while the highly ionized conditions in the inner face will favor the production of emission lines from ions with high ionization potentials (e.g., Ferland & Netzer 1983; Ferland & Osterbrock 1986, 1987; Binette, Wilson, & Storchi-Bergmann 1996).

Based on these physical principles, one should choose narrow emission line diagnostics following ten basic rules or “Commandments” (a reminder of the 1700th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity as a national religion in Armenia):

* Thou shalt use lines which emphasize the differences between H II regions and AGNs; i.e., use high-ionization lines or low-ionization lines produced in the partially ionized zone.
* Thou shalt use strong lines which are easy to measure in typical spectra.
* Thou shalt avoid lines which are badly blended with other emission or absorption line features.
* Thou shalt use lines with small wavelength separation to minimize sensitivity to reddening.
* Thou shalt use line ratios from the same elements or involving hydrogen recombination lines to eliminate or reduce abundance dependence.
* Thou shalt avoid lines from Mg, Si, Ca, Fe – depleted onto dust grains.
* Thou shalt use lines easily accessible to current UV/optical/IR detectors.
* Thou shalt avoid lines affected by strong stellar absorption features.
* Thou shalt avoid lines affected by strong atmospheric features.
* Thou shalt use lines at long wavelengths to reduce the effects of dust extinction.

## 3. Ultraviolet Emission-Line Diagnostics

When possible, ultraviolet diagnostic tools should be avoided because of their sensitivity to dust extinctions (see the Tenth Commandment and Table 1). However, investigators of the high-redshift universe often have very little choice but to study this region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The ultraviolet domain is potentially a rich source of diagnostic lines. The main emission lines are listed in Table 2. Among the most useful diagnostics to discriminate between AGNs and starbursts are the N V $`\lambda `$1240/He II $`\lambda `$4686, N V $`\lambda `$1240/C IV $`\lambda `$1549, N V $`\lambda `$1240/Ly$`\alpha `$, and C IV $`\lambda `$1549/Ly$`\alpha `$ emission-line ratios. As shown in Figure 1, these ratios are sensitive functions of the shape of the ionizing continuum (harder spectra provide more heating per photoionization, therefore increasing the temperature). These line ratios have been used extensively in studies of high-$`z`$ quasars (e.g., Hamann & Ferland 1999) and radio galaxies (e.g., Röttgering et al. 1997; Villar-Martin et al. 1996, 1999), and the analysis of low-$`z`$ AGNs/LINERs (e.g., Ho et al. 1996; Barth et al. 1996, 1997; Maoz et al. 1998; Nicholson et al. 1998) and starburst galaxies (e.g., Robert, Leitherer, & Heckman 1993).

## 4. Optical Emission-Line Diagnostics

The excellent quantum efficiency of current CCDs combined with the high transparency and low emissivity of the Earth’s atmosphere at optical wavelengths make optical spectroscopy the easiest way to identify AGNs. Table 3 lists the strongest diagnostic lines between 3000 Å and 1 $`\mu `$m. Classification schemes involving several line ratios which take full advantage of the physical distinction between the two types of objects and minimize the effects of reddening correction and errors in the flux calibration have proven very useful for the identification of galaxies as AGNs or starbursts (e.g., Phillips, Baldwin, & Terlevich 1981; Veilleux & Osterbrock 1987; Osterbrock, Tran, & Veilleux 1992; Dopita et al. 2000). Examples of emission-line diagrams are shown in Figure 2 for ultraluminous infrared galaxies from the 1-Jy sample (ULIGs; these are IRAS galaxies with infrared luminosities between 8 and 1000 $`\mu `$m larger than or equal to 1012 L; Kim 1995). The results from this classification indicates that the fraction of Seyfert nuclei increases from $``$ 5% at log\[LIR/L\] = 10 – 11, to $``$ 50% at log\[LIR/L\] $`>`$ 12.3 (Veilleux et al. 1995, Kim, Veilleux, & Sanders 1998; Veilleux, Kim, & Sanders 1999a).

## 5. Near-Infrared Emission-Line Diagnostics

Infrared-bright galaxies such as those discussed in the previous section are hosts to large quantities of molecular gas and dust (e.g., Solomon et al. 1997). The optical line ratios measured in these objects are undoubtedly affected by dust extinction. It is therefore important to also observe these objects at longer wavelengths to verify the results derived from the optical spectra. Near-infrared spectroscopy has had success finding obscured BLRs in several ULIGs (e.g., Hines 1991; Veilleux et al. 1997b, 1999b; spectropolarimetry has lent support to some of these findings: Hines 1991; Hough et al. 1991; Hines & Wills 1993; Hines et al. 1995; Young et al. 1993). This technique has also proven useful in the study of highly reddened BLRs in intermediate Seyferts (1.8’s and 1.9’s; Goodrich 1990; Rix et al. 1990) and in optically classified Seyfert 2 and radio galaxies (e.g., Blanco, Ward, & Wright 1990; Goodrich, Veilleux, & Hill 1994; Ruiz, Rieke, & Schmidt 1994; Hill, Goodrich, DePoy 1996; Veilleux, Goodrich, & Hill 1997a).

The line of choice for ground-based near-infrared searches of obscured BLRs in nearby galaxies is Pa$`\alpha `$ at 1.8751 $`\mu `$m (Table 4). Under Case B recombination (Osterbrock 1989), this line is one-third the strength of H$`\alpha `$ and is twelve times stronger than Br$`\gamma `$ $`\lambda `$2.1655, the next best diagnostic line (e.g., Goldader et al. 1995). This huge gain in intensity more than compensates the slightly larger optical depth due to extinction at the shorter wavelength of Pa$`\alpha `$ (see 4th column in Table 4).

Another important AGN diagnostic line in the K band is \[Si VI\] $`\lambda `$1.962. The existence of five-times ionized silicon ions requires energies larger than 167 eV (Table 4). This forbidden line has been detected in a number of optically selected Seyfert 2 galaxies with a strength comparable to that of \[Fe VII\] $`\lambda `$6087 (roughly a tenth the strength of H$`\beta `$), as expected from photoionization by a AGN power-law continuum (Oliva & Moorwood 1990; Greenhouse et al. 1993; Marconi et al. 1994; Oliva et al. 1994; Thompson 1995, 1996). Near-infrared spectroscopic surveys of ULIGs have confirmed the optical results: the fraction of objects with genuine AGNs (with a BLR or strong \[Si VI\] $`\lambda `$1.962 feature) is at least $``$ 20 – 25%, but reaches $``$ 35 – 50% for those objects with log\[Lir/L\] $`>`$ 12.3. Nevertheless, the presence of an AGN in ULIGs does not necessarily imply that AGN activity is the dominant source of energy in these objects. A more detailed look at the AGNs in these ULIGs is needed to answer this question.

A strong linear correlation has long been known to exist between the continuum (or, equivalently, bolometric) luminosities of broad-line AGN and their emission-line luminosities (e.g., Yee 1980; Shuder 1981; Osterbrock 1989). This correlation has often been used to argue that the broad-line regions in AGNs are photoionized by the nuclear continuum. If this is the case, the broad-line–to–bolometric luminosity ratio is a measure of the covering factor of the BLR (e.g., Osterbrock 1989). This correlation can be used to estimate the importance of the AGN in powering ultraluminous infrared galaxies (Veilleux et al. 1997b, 1999b). In ULIGs powered uniquely by an AGN, we expect the broad-line luminosities to fall along the correlation for AGNs. Any contribution from a starburst will increase the bolometric luminosity of the ULIG without a corresponding increase in the broad-line luminosity. Starburst-dominated ULIGs are therefore expected to fall below the “pure-AGN” correlation traced by the optical quasars in a diagram of $`L_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$(BLR) plotted as a function of $`L_{\mathrm{bol}}`$. The data of ULIGs with optical and obscured BLRs are shown in Figure 3. A discussion of the methods and assumptions which were used to create this figure is presented in Veilleux et al. (1999a). Figure 3 strongly suggests that most ($``$ 80%) of the ULIGs with optical or near-infrared BLRs in the 1-Jy sample are powered predominantly by the quasar rather than by a powerful starburst. In other words, the detection of an optical or near-infrared BLR in a ULIG (about 20% of the total 1-Jy sample) appears to be an excellent sign that the AGN is the dominant energy source in that ULIG.

## 6. Mid-to-Far Infrared Emission-Line Diagnostics

The mid-to-far infrared region has long been known to be a rich source of emission-line diagnostics in active and starburst galaxies (e.g., Watson et al. 1984; Roche et al. 1984; Aitken & Roche 1985; Crawford et al. 1985; Lugten et al. 1986; Duffy et al. 1987; Roche et al. 1984, 1991, Spinoglio & Malkan 1992; Voit 1992). With the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) much progress has been made in this area of research in recent years (see review by Genzel & Cesarsky 2000). One of the most important applications of ISO spectroscopy has been its use as a tool to distinguish between star formation and AGN activity in obscured environments. High ionization fine structure lines are strong in the NLR of AGNs but very weak in starbursts (Table 5). Fine-structure lines have smaller excitation energies than their optical counterparts, so they are less temperature sensitive and less model dependent. Unfortunately, they are also fainter than their optical counterparts, and are therefore difficult to detect even in genuine, optically-selected AGNs (e.g., Genzel et al. 1998).

This work has since been extended to larger samples, using the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) diagnostic to reach fainter sources (e.g., Lutz et al. 1998; Rigopoulou et al. 1999; Tran et al. 2001). The PAH features at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.7, and 11.2 $`\mu `$m are ubiquitous in normal galaxies and starbursts but absent near an AGN (e.g., Roche et al. 1991). Obscured regions also show absorption features, the strongest ones at 9.7 and 18 $`\mu `$m being due to silicate dust, which complicate the placement of the continuum near the PAH features. An object-by-object comparison of the optical and ISO spectral types for ULIGs in the 1-Jy sample reveals a remarkably good agreement between the two classification schemes if optically classified LINERs are assigned to the starburst group (Fig. 4). These results indicate that strong AGN activity, once triggered, quickly breaks the obscuring screen at least in certain directions, thus becoming detectable over a wide wavelength range.

## 7. Complications

### 7.1. Contribution from Shocks

Violent gas motions associated with AGN-driven or starburst-driven outflows or galaxy mergers may cause shock waves with velocities of 100 – 500 km s-1 in the ISM of the host galaxies. The shocks may produce a strong flux of EUV and soft X-ray radiation which may be absorbed in the shock precursor H II region (e.g., Sutherland, Bicknell, & Dopita 1995). The combination of the low-ionization emission-line spectrum from the post-shock material and the high-ionization emission-line spectrum from the precursor H II region can reproduce many of the spectroscopic signatures of LINERs and narrow-line AGNs (e.g., Dopita & Sutherland 1995). Fortunately, there are important physical differences between shock ionization and photoionization by an AGN (e.g., Morse, Raymond, & Wilson 1996). First, the line ratios produced in photoionized objects should be independent of the gas kinematics, while they are expected to correlate with the kinematics of the shock-ionized material. This effect is seen in a few optically and infrared-selected LINERs (Veilleux et al. 1994, 1995). The ionizing ultraviolet and soft X-ray continuum in shock-ionized objects should be extended on the same scale as the shock structure, while it is expected to be a point source in the case of pure AGN photoionization. Finally, the electron temperature in shock ionized objects is expected to be considerably higher. Temperature-sensitive line ratios such as C III $`\lambda `$1909/$`\lambda `$977 and N III $`\lambda `$1750/$`\lambda `$991 in the ultraviolet and \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007/$`\lambda `$4363 and \[N II\] $`\lambda `$5755/$`\lambda `$6583 in the optical range are the prime diagnostics of shock excitation. This method was used by Kriss et al. (1992) to deduce that shock excitation is likely to be important in the NLR of NGC 1068.

### 7.2. Aperture Effects

Circumnuclear starbursts often accompany AGNs (see, e.g., recent reviews by Veilleux 2000 and Gonzales Delgado 2001). The strength of the AGN signature is therefore a function of the size of the extraction aperture. This effect is particularly evident among infrared-selected galaxies where circumnuclear starbursts are nearly always present. Figure 5 shows the line ratios of luminous infrared galaxies as function of aperture size. The line ratios in some of these objects are seen to drift towards the H II region locus with increasing aperture size; large apertures dilute the AGN signature. Aperture effects will be particularly important in samples which cover a broad redshift range where a constant angular aperture corresponds to a wide range in linear scale. For a meaningful statistical analysis of the spectral classification one should use a fixed linear aperture for all objects in the sample (regardless of redshifts).

### 7.3. Morphological Biases

Strong trends exist between the presence of an AGN, the mid-to-far infrared colors, and the host morphology. Objects with “warm” infrared colors (e.g., IRAS $`f_{25}/f_{60}>`$ 0.2) often harbor an AGN at optical or near-infrared wavelengths or in polarized light (de Grijp et al. 1985; Veilleux et al. 1995, 1997b, 1999ab; Heisler, Lumsden, & Bailey 1997). Infrared-selected samples are often biased towards or against the presence of AGNs (but this is not the case for the 1-Jy sample; Kim & Sanders 1998). The same thing can be said about galaxy morphology. ULIGs often show signs of galaxy interactions. Most ULIGs are involved in the merger of two relatively large galaxies. Optically-classified Seyferts (especially those of type 1) are generally found in advanced mergers, while H II galaxies and LINERs are found in all merger phases (Fig. 6; see also Veilleux 2001). This means that surveys which specifically look for compact objects will be biased against starburst galaxies and are not statistically reliable for spectral classification purposes.

### 7.4. Metallicity Effects

The line ratio diagnostics discussed in this review often are a sensitive function of the metal contents in the ionized gas (see, e.g., Ferland & Netzer 1983; Veilleux & Osterbrock 1987 for early papers describing the effects of metallicity). The metallicity is well known to be correlated positively with the mass of the host galaxies (e.g., Bender, Burnstein, & Faber 1993), although this result has only been proven at low redshifts. In the early universe, one would expect declining metal abundances with increasing redshifts. The redshift dependence of the relative abundances of the elements involved in the emission-line ratios is a complex function of the star formation history and chemical evolution (including the effects of gas accretion and outflows) of the host galaxy environment (see, e.g., Hamann & Ferland 1999 for a discussion of QSO hosts). The usefulness of emission-line diagnostics at high redshifts will directly depend on the availability of accurate metallicity measurements and diagnostic tools properly calibrated in terms of metallicity.

## 8. Summary

UV–Optical–IR emission-line ratios are powerful diagnostics tools to discriminate between starbursts and AGNs. The following ratios have been shown to be the most reliable tools for this purpose.

* Ultraviolet: N V $`\lambda `$1240/Ly$`\alpha `$, N V $`\lambda `$1240/He II $`\lambda `$1640, C IV $`\lambda `$1548/Ly$`\alpha `$.
* Optical: \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007//H$`\beta `$, \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583/H$`\alpha `$, \[S II\] $`\lambda \lambda `$6724/H$`\alpha `$, \[O I\] $`\lambda `$6300/H$`\alpha `$, \[O II\] $`\lambda \lambda `$7324/H$`\alpha `$, \[Fe VII\] $`\lambda `$6087/H$`\alpha `$, \[Ne V\] $`\lambda `$3426/H$`\beta `$, He II $`\lambda `$4686/H$`\beta `$.
* Near-infrared: Obscured broad Pa$`\alpha `$ 1.875 $`\mu `$m, \[Si VI\] 1.962 $`\mu `$m/Pa$`\alpha `$.
* Mid-Infrared: \[Ne V\] 14 $`\mu `$m/\[Ne II\] 12.8 $`\mu `$m, \[O IV\] 26 $`\mu `$m/\[Ne II\] 12.8 $`\mu `$m, EW(PAH 7.7 $`\mu `$m), overall SEDs especially 25 $`\mu `$m/60 $`\mu `$m colors.

A number of issues complicate the use of line ratios as discriminants between starburst and active galaxies, but additional measures can be used to clarify the situation:

* Shock ionization: If shocks are important, one would generally expect correlations between the line ratios and gas kinematics, a UV continuum extended on the same scale as the shock structure, and high gas temperatures.
* Aperture effects: One should use a constant linear aperture to avoid variations in the contributions from circumnuclear starbursts.
* Morphological bias: The spectral classification is likely to depend on the morphology of the host, especially the merger phase. Selection methods based on morphology will bias the sample.
* Metallicity: Massive host galaxies in the local universe have larger metallicity, but high-redshift galaxies should be less dusty and less metal rich. One needs to use emission-line diagnostics which are properly calibrated as a function of metallicity and reddening.

Several new instruments will help refine the diagnostic tools discussed in this paper. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), to be installed in 2003 on HST, will provide the high ultraviolet throughput needed to calibrate the UV diagnostic tools as a function of metallicity, evaluate the importance of shock ionization with the use of the C III and NIII temperature-sensitive line ratios, and to help resolve the circumnuclear starbursts and shock-excited winds around AGNs. The advent of SIRTF will help in the calibration of the infrared diagnostic tools as a function of metallicity and dust extinction. This spacecraft will also be a powerful instrument to search for infrared-bright AGNs. Ground-based work with adaptive optics and integral-field units will improve the sensitivity of searches for obscured AGNs by focussing on the inner regions of galaxies and avoiding the circumnuclear material associated with other phenomena. Spectroscopic follow-ups from the ground will help identify and classify AGN candidates in space-based and submm-selected samples.

#### Acknowledgments.

The ground-based study on ultraluminous infrared galaxies discussed in this paper is done in collaboration with Drs. D. B. Sanders and D.-C. Kim. The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of NASA through LTSA grant number NAG 56547.

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# Trust Enhancement by Multiple Random Beacons

## A Introduction

In cryptography and distributed computing, a random beacon is a trusted information source (eg a radio transmitter) that periodically broadcasts a random signal which is unknown to anyone before the time of broadcast but becomes known to everyone thereafter. Beacons were originally proposed by Rabin  to facilitate remote transactions such as contract signing. Bennett, DiVincenzo and Linsker  (cf. Fig. 1) proposed using a trusted random beacon to help authenticate video recordings, made by untrusted recording apparatus operated by untrusted personnel, against falsification of the time or content (see Figure 1). These two applications require only a low information rate (eg kHz), and assume that the history of previously emitted signals becomes a matter of public record, being stored at the beacon and/or other independent locations to help resolve disputes. More recently, Aumann and Rabin  have proposed using a much higher bandwidth beacon (eg GHz to THz) to permit informationally secure encryption. The security of this scheme depends on the beacon’s information rate being so great that no one can feasibly store the history of its previously emitted signals.

The Achilles’ heel of beacons is the need for users to trust that they have not been sabotaged. A dishonest beacon operator can intentionally substitute pseudorandom digits, or true random digits generated much earlier and leaked to accomplices, for the supposedly fresh random digits being emitted by the beacon. Even if the operator is honest, a dishonest hardware supplier could have concealed a tiny clandestine pseudorandom generator (PSRG) in the supposed true random generator (TRG) hardware used by the beacon, causing the hardware’s output to be largely predictable. To avoid detection, such a hardware saboteur should not make the output wholly deterministic, because this would lead to the sabotaged generator issuing the same digit stream   FIG. 1.: Time-bracketed video authentication uses periodic “challenge” signals from a trusted random source to influence the scene being recorded (e.g. by a challenge-controlled laser scan), and shortly thereafter returns a hashed digest of the scene, including the effect of the challenge, to a trusted repository. The digests are produced by applying a secure hash function $`h`$ to the current digital image data). The time bracketing prevents pre- or post-dating, and provides evidence that the action actually took place, as opposed to having been computationally simulated in real time or assembled from prerecorded material. Dishonest personnel can destroy the videotape, or can prevent it from being recorded in the first place, but so long as the beacon and repository remain honest, they cannot easily produce a faked video that will match the archived digests.  every time it was turned on. Rather the sabotaged generator might take its first few hundred digits from the TRG, then use these as a seed for the concealed PSRG to generate the rest of the sequence deterministically. An accomplice, knowing the nature of the sabotage, could then monitor the first few hundred digits of beacon output and use these to predict all the rest. To help accomplices who had missed the initial beacon output, the saboteur could use a steganographic reseeding strategy, for example whenever a particular random 40-bit string appeared in the beacon output, it would signal that the next 200 bits were not pseudorandom, but true random bits being used to reseed the concealed PSRG.

One might hope that these various sabotages, at least the ones involving pseudorandom generators, could be detected by post-facto analysis of the corrupted digit stream; but this hope is probably vain, as it is widely believed that there exist “cryptographically strong” pseudorandom generators which, when seeded with a random $`n`$-bit seed, produce an output stream that cannot be distinguished from true random digits in time polynomial in $`n`$.

In view of the ease of sabotaging beacons and the difficulty of detecting that they have been sabotaged, the main hope for beacon users would appear to lie in protocols that amplify trust by combining the outputs of several spatially and administratively separated beacons, in the reasonable expectation that they only a few of them have been sabotaged. Henceforth we will consider a set of $`n`$ nominally but not exactly synchronized beacons $`B_1\mathrm{}B_n`$, each of which emits digits from an $`\mathrm{}`$ letter alphabet at regular intervals. Some beacons are are honest and some dishonest (sabotaged), and we assume that the dishonest subset does not change with time. We will consider protocols for trust amplification by users who have access to the outputs of all the beacons.

An important consideration is whether the user, who combines the output of several beacons to produce some resultant sequence, is honest or dishonest. These two premises are profoundly different, and give rise to quite different protocols. An honest user strives to produce a resultant sequence that is random and unpredictable by accomplices of the dishonest beacons, despite not knowing which these are. A dishonest user, by contrast, knows the identities of the dishonest beacons, and conspires with them to produce a predictable resultant sequence, despite the unpredictability of the outputs of the honest beacons. A dishonest-user protocol is considered successful if it defeats this conspiracy, forcing the resultant sequence to be unpredictable even though the dishonest user is trying to make it predictable. This is the relevant premise for time-bracketed video authentication, whose goal is to prevent a potentially dishonest camera manufacturer and operator from producing a video that has been undetectably falsified as to its time or content.

One might ask why an honest user needs any beacon at all: if he is assumed to be honest, why can’t he generate his own random numbers, in effect being a beacon unto himself? One possible answer is that he may lack the physical capacity to produce random numbers, or to produce them as fast as he desires, without drawing on external sources of randomness. In passing we note that an honest user, having a low-rate random source in his own lab, can use an extractor (cf. , to distill certifiably unpredictable high-rate random numbers from the low-rate private source and a collection of high-rate random beacons, only some of which are honest.

The remainder of this paper will concern dishonest-user protocols of the kind relevant for beacons to be used in time-bracketed authentication.

Vazirani  considered the related problem of devising protocols to extract nearly unbiased random bits from two beacons, both dishonest and colluding, but neither entirely controllable by its operator. Here, by contrast, we have some beacons that are entirely controllable by colluding dishonest operators, and others that are entirely random and honest, but the designer of the protocol doesn’t know which.

## B Trust amplification for beacons that are spacelike separated or otherwise known to be incapable of influencing one another

Trust amplification works best when the beacons are known to be incapable of influencing one another, so the dishonest beacons cannot adapt their output to that of the honest ones. This will be assured if the beacons’ emissions are so well synchronized, compared to the distance between them, as to be spacelike separated in the sense of special relativity. Two beacons, say $`B_1`$ and $`B_2`$, are said to be spacelike separated when for all integer $`i`$ the spacetime event $`(i,B_1)`$ occurs at a spacelike interval from the spacetime event $`(i,B_2)`$; in other words, a light signal starting at beacon $`B_1`$ at the instant when it emits its $`i^{}`$th digit $`B_1(i)`$ will not have arrived at beacon $`B_2`$ by the time beacon $`B_2`$ emits its $`i`$’th digit $`B_2(i)`$, and similarly with the indices 2 and 1 reversed. Under these conditions, it is evident that the XOR (or more generally the mod-$`\mathrm{}`$ sum $``$, for an $`\mathrm{}`$-letter alphabet) of the two beacons, ie the digit stream $`B_1(i)B_2(i)`$, will be random iff at least one of constituent beacons is random. ***Even without spacelike separation, noninteraction can sometimes be assured, with lesser confidence, by shielding or isolating each potentially dishonest beacon well enough to block significant incoming signals from the honest beacons. However, unless otherwise noted, we will henceforth assume that the beacons are not shielded or isolated, and that unless two beacons are spacelike separated the later one, if dishonest, can overhear and adapt to the signals of the earlier one.

For a beacon to be trustworthy, its output must not only be random, but also unpredictable before the time it is supposed to become public. In general the information from any given beacon does not become available to everyone simultaneously, owing to propagation delays, which can never be less than the distance of the observer from the beacon divided by the velocity of light $`c`$. For example, in the case of two synchronized honest beacons separated by distance $`d`$, an observer midway between the beacons would learn $`B_1(i)`$ and $`B_2(i)`$, and could compute $`R_{XOR}(i)`$, at a time $`d/2v`$ after the emission time of the $`i`$’th digit, where $`vc`$ is the signal propagation velocity. An observer at either beacon would have to wait a little longer, until time $`d/v`$, to obtain the signal from the other beacon. These considerations may be summarized in the following proposition, whose proof is obvious:

If $`B_1\mathrm{}B_n`$ is a set of spacelike separated beacons, at least one of which is honest,

1. the modular sum

$$R_{XOR}(i)=\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}B_k(i)$$
(1)
is random,
2. $`R_{XOR}(i)`$ is unpredictable from the viewpoint of any observer outside the intersection of the forward light cones of the honest subset of beacons.
3. assuming that signals propagate at light speed, $`R_{XOR}(i)`$ can be correctly calculated by any observer inside the intersection of the forward light cones of all the beacons.

The principal effect of dishonesty is thus to create a region of spacetime within which $`R_{XOR}(i)`$ is predictable to accomplices of the dishonest beacons, but not to the general public. This region consists of points within the forward light cone of every honest beacon, but outside the forward light cone of at least one dishonest beacon.

## C Trust amplification for beacons that are timelike separated or otherwise suspected of influencing one another

Within any nominally synchronized set of beacons there may be enough timing error that the beacons are not in fact spacelike separated. Lack of spacelike separation can seriously impair the trustworthiness of the resultant sequence $`R_{XOR}(i)`$, making it untrustworthy over all spacetime, not just in a limited region. For example, suppose that beacon $`B_1`$ is so late that it has all the other beacons in its past light cone. Then, if $`B_1`$ is sabotaged, it can adapt its output $`B_1(i)`$ so as to force the resultant $`R_{XOR}(i)`$ not to be random, but to take on a predetermined value, perhaps chosen long beforehand. Thus the accomplices of the dishonest beacon potentially know $`R_{XOR}(i)`$ wherever they sit in spacetime, while honest players, as before, will only know $`R_{XOR}(i)`$ if they sit within the intersection of the future light cones of all the beacons, which in this case is simply the future light cone of $`B_1`$.

In the worst case, where one beacon is consistently so late as to have all the others in its past light cone, the XOR of all the beacons is no more trustworthy than the single latest beacon taken by itself. However, one can still gain some increased trust by combining the beacons in a different fashion, which we call the time-sharing protocol. Here the resultant is defined to be a cyclicly chosen one of the original beacons,

$$R_{TS}(i)=B_{i\mathrm{mod}n}(i).$$
(2)
If some of the beacons are honest and some dishonest, then some digits of the resultant sequence $`R_{TS}`$ will be predictable by accomplices of the dishonest beacons and others will be unpredictable. The resultant sequence is thus sure to be partly unpredictable, while the sequence from any individual beacon, or the XOR of all of them, has some chance of being wholly predictable. For purposes such as time-bracketed authentication , a sequence that is sure to be at least partly unpredictable is still usable, though not as good as a wholly unpredictable sequence; but a sequence that has some chance of being be wholly predictable is unusable.

The sort of uncertain unpredictability relevant to time-bracketed authentication can be quantified by the per-character min entropy, ie the logarithm of the probability (as seen by the dishonest users) of the most likely resultant sequence $`R_{TS}(i)`$, divided by the length of the sequence. If there are $`n`$ timelike separated beacons, $`k`$ of which at random are sabotaged but we don’t know which, then the min entropy of $`R_{TS}`$ is $`((nk)/n)\mathrm{log}\mathrm{}`$ bits per character. On the other hand, each individual beacon, say $`B_1`$, or the XOR of all the beacons if $`B_1`$ is the latest, has a per-character min entropy approaching zero, because $`B_1`$’s min entropy is dominated by the probability $`k/n`$ that it is sabotaged, and so emits a sequence that is completely predictable by dishonest users.

The advantage of using min entropy can be seen by noting that in this situation the ordinary Shannon entropies of $`R_{TS}`$ and $`B_1`$ are equal, both being $`((nk)/n)\mathrm{log}\mathrm{}`$ bits per character. Thus min entropy heavily and properly penalizes any chance of complete predictability, while Shannon entropy allows it to hide amidst the unpredictability of other cases.

The superiority of spacelike separation, and the advantage of using the $`R_{XOR}`$ instead of $`R_{TS}`$ when the beacons are known to be spacelike separated, can be seen by comparing the per character min entropies in various cases.

In general the resultant sequences $`R_{XOR}`$ (for spacelike separated beacons) or $`R_{TS}`$ (for any set of beacons) will be at least partly unpredictable, and therefore usable for purposes such as time bracketed authentication, except when all the beacons are dishonest.

## D Why it is not generally advantageous to combine beacons by hashing

A seemingly attractive alternative to $`R_{XOR}`$ and $`R_{TS}`$ would be to use a cryptographically strong, one-way hash function $`h`$ to combine the beacons,eg

$$R_h(i)=h(B_1(i),B_2(i)\mathrm{}B_n(i)),$$
(3)
where $`h`$ is an $`m`$-to-$`1`$ mapping on characters from an $`\mathrm{}`$-letter alphabet; but, as we shall show, $`R_h`$ has significant weaknesses compared to $`R_{XOR}`$ and $`R_{TS}`$. For concreteness consider the case where there are $`m=2`$ beacons, an unknown one of which is dishonest, and where each beacon broadcasts letters from an $`\mathrm{}=2^d`$ letter alphabet, so that $`R_h`$ may be viewed as a pseudorandom mapping from a pairs of $`d`$-bit strings to a single $`d`$-bit string. In the following we will use lower case letters $`x,y`$ etc to denote $`d`$-bit strings.

If the two beacons are spacelike separated, or otherwise known to be noninteracting, $`R_{XOR}`$ will perfectly random and unpredictable. By contrast, as we will show, a dishonest beacon operator with a lot of computing power (whom we will call Eve) can force $`R_h`$ to be significantly nonrandom, for example forcing its first bit to be almost always zero. Assume, without loss of generality, that Eve is operating $`B_1`$. She then finds, by brute force search, some string $`x^{}`$ defined to be any $`d`$-bit string $`x`$ on which the set $`\{y:h(x,y)\mathrm{𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚜}\mathrm{𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}\}`$ has minimal cardinality. This minimal cardinality will be of order unity, so if Eve always broadcasts $`x^{}`$ as her maliciously chosen output from $`B_1`$, while the honest beacon $`B_2`$ broadcasts random $`d`$-bit strings, the first bit of $`R_h(x^{},y)`$ will almost always be 0. Similarly Eve can force the value of any other single digit of $`R_h`$, or strongly bias several digits of her choosing. Under the more realistic assumption that Eve has limited computing power, she cannot appreciably bias $`R_h`$, so it is no better and no worse than $`R_{XOR}`$.

If the beacons are timelike separated, with dishonest beacon $`B_1`$ later so it can overhear honest beacon $`B_2`$, a computationally powerful Eve can force the almost all the digits of $`h`$ to agree with a particular string $`z_0`$ of her choosing. To do so, she waits till she has heard the particular string $`y`$ broadcast by $`B_2`$, then chooses her string $`x^{}`$ to be one that minimizes the Hamming distance between $`z_0`$ and $`h(x,y)`$. Often (about $`1/e`$ of the time) she can obtain an exact hit $`h(x^{},y)=z_0`$; in other case she can almost certainly find an $`x^{}`$ for which $`h(x^{},y)`$ differs from the target $`z_0`$ in only one bit. Under the more realistic assumption of limited computing power, Eve can force the values of $`m`$ several dozen bits of her choosing in $`R_h`$. To do so she waits till she overhears $`y`$, then proceeds by trial and error, evaluating $`h(x,y)`$ for $`2^m`$ random $`x`$ values, until she finds one, $`x^{}`$ such that the first $`m`$ digits, or any other set of $`m`$ digits of her choosing in $`R_h(x^{},y)`$, have the values she wants. The computational effort is exponential in the number of digits she wishes to force. For small string lengths $`d`$, an Eve with moderate computing power can force all the digits of $`R_h`$, making it totally insecure. For large $`d`$, this is no longer possible, and $`R_{TS}`$ and $`R_h`$ offer two somewhat different kinds of partial unpredictability. With $`R_h`$ such an Eve can force a small fraction of the digits in the output stream, digits of her choosing, while the others remain unpredictable. With with $`R_{TS}`$ Eve can force half the digits in the output stream, but has no control over which digits these are. Depending on the beacon application, one or another kind of partial predictability may be preferable. For time-bracketed authentication, it is probably better to use $`R_{TS}`$, because a few absolutely uncontrollable challenges are probably harder for a would-be forger to simulate than a greater number of partly-controllable challenges.


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# Spin-drift transport and its applications

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## Abstract

We study the generation of non-equilibrium spin currents in systems with spatially-inhomogeneous magnetic potentials. For sufficiently high current densities, the spin polarization can be transported over distances significantly exceeding the intrinsic spin-diffusion length. This enables applications that are impossible within the conventional spin-diffusion regime. Specifically, we propose dc measurement schemes for the carrier spin relaxation times, $`T_1`$ and $`T_2`$, as well as demonstrate the possibility of spin species separation by driving current through a region with an inhomogeneous magnetic potential.

The rapidly developing field of spin-sensitive electronics promises to reinvigorate conventional semiconductor electronics. Utilizing the carriers’ spin degrees of freedom in addition to their charge opens possibilities for conceptually new spintronic devices. Already implemented are GMR read-heads and non-volatile magnetic RAM (MRAM); there are also many proposals for other devices . Much of the promise of spintronic devices lies in the enhanced flexibility of the spin degrees of freedom compared to electrical charge. While creating local charge imbalance generally involves large electrostatic Coulomb energies, non-equilibrium spin polarizations can be created at a very low cost. As a consequence, spin polarizations are inherently susceptible to manipulation, e.g. by external magnetic fields or by current drive. Indeed, it has been observed experimentally that non-equilibrium spin polarization can be transported over distances exceeding 100 micrometers , with only moderate diffusive spread. This would be impossible in the case of the non-equilibrium charge inhomogeneity, since the Coulomb repulsion would blow such inhomogeneity apart almost instantly.

The immunity of the spin polarization with respect to electrical screening makes it possible to satisfy drift transport conditions, for which the local spin polarization can be carried downstream by an electrical current over distances proportional to the drift velocity. This situation can be obtained for sufficiently large current densities, when the spin-drift length becomes larger than the spin-diffusion length (both defined below). In this Letter we explore this new regime, readily achievable in spin transport, but almost never realized in electron-hole transport. It is studied based on general formulation for spin transport using spin drift-diffusion equations.

The spin-drift regime is generally favorable for spintronic purposes as it can provide larger spin-injection depths compared to the spin-diffusive regime. Here we propose two specific applications of the spin-drift regime: (1) dc transport-based measurement of longitudinal ($`T_1`$) and transverse ($`T_2`$) spin relaxation times; (2) spin species separation by inhomogeneous magnetic fields. To determine the spin relaxation times, we propose to measure the spin polarization decay profile in the presence of constant current; the decay length can then be related either to $`T_1`$ or $`T_2`$, depending on the experimental setup. Unlike conventional pump-probe techniques, there is no need for ultrafast time-resolved detection, and the spin polarization profile can be measured either by optical or some other techniques. To spatially separate spin-up from spin-down carriers, we propose to drive current in a 2D geometry containing a region of inhomogeneous magnetic field. This technique can be used as a flexible alternative to the standard spin injection techniques.

To study spin transport we use the drift-diffusion approximation for spin currents in the presence of an inhomogeneous spin-dependent potential $`V_\sigma (𝐫)=g\mu _B\sigma 𝐇`$. At this point we assume that in the plane of the electron gas, the applied magnetic field $`𝐇`$ can vary in value but not in orientation. Then all carriers in the sample can be divided into spin-up ($`\sigma =1/2`$) and spin-down ($`\sigma =1/2`$) species that feel magnetic potentials equal in magnitude but opposite in sign, $`V_{}(𝐫)=V_{}(𝐫)`$. For the external potential smaller than the thermal energy in the non-degenerate case, $`V_\sigma (𝐫)<k_BT`$, or less than the Fermi energy in the degenerate case, $`V_\sigma (𝐫)<E_F`$, the local carrier density will remain essentially unchanged, both with and without current drive. Hence, in what follows we neglect electrical screening effects since they only modify the results in the order $`(V_\sigma /max(k_BT,E_F))^2`$. In the drift-diffusion approximation, the spin-polarized current is

$`𝐣_\sigma =n_\sigma \mu (q𝐄V_\sigma )qDn_\sigma ,`$ (1)
where $`q=\pm e`$ is the carrier charge, $`n_\sigma `$ the number density of the spin species $`\sigma `$, $`D`$ the diffusion constant, $`\mu `$ the mobility, $`𝐄`$ the external electric field, and $``$ denotes the gradient operator. We assumed that the transport is unipolar (e.g. n-doped semiconductor), and the diffusion constant is the same for both spin species. We do not include the Lorentz force, which also acts on the moving electrons, since it affects both spin species identically and, moreover, is compensated through the classical Hall effect for a confined sample geometry. In practice, local variation of the magnetic potential can be achieved either through the use of micromagnets that can create strongly inhomogeneous external magnetic fields, or by magnetically doping semiconductors, which can produce strong position dependence in the carrier $`g`$-factor.

The dynamically generated non-equilibrium spin polarization relaxes towards its equilibrium value. Under constant drive, the relaxing spins are replenished by the divergence of the spin current. In the relaxation-time approximation,

$`𝐣_s`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _\sigma /T_1,`$ (2)
$`\delta _\sigma `$ $`=`$ $`n_\sigma \overline{n}_\sigma ,`$ (3)
$`\overline{n}_\sigma `$ $`=`$ $`n_0\mathrm{exp}(V_\sigma /k_BT)/2.`$ (4)
The expression for the equilibrium density, $`\overline{n}_\sigma `$, corresponds to non-degenerate carriers. For degenerate carriers, the Boltzman distribution should be replaced by the Fermi-Dirac distribution. In the non-stationary case, there is an extra time derivative, $`\delta _\sigma /t`$, on the left hand side of the continuity equation. Combining Eqs. (1) and (2), the dc equation for spin density under uniform drive ($`𝐄=0`$) is

$`\mu 𝐄(\overline{n}_\sigma +\delta _\sigma ){\displaystyle \frac{\mu }{q}}(\delta _\sigma V_\sigma )D^2\delta _\sigma ={\displaystyle \frac{\delta _\sigma }{T_1}}`$ (5)
The first term on the left hand side represents the drag of the spin density by the electric field ($`\mu 𝐄=v_d`$ – the drift velocity), the second term, as we will see, is usually unimportant, and the last term represents diffusion. Similar descriptions have been previously considered by several authors , however, with the focus on the diffusive regime (neglecting $`𝐄\delta _\sigma `$ terms). The drift terms have only been invoked in the spatially localized regions, such as depletion layers and Schottky barriers. The primary goal of the present work is to explore the spin-drift regime that occurs for larger drives, that is when the spin-drift length, $`L_E=\mu ET_1`$, exceeds the spin diffusion length, $`L_D=\sqrt{DT_1}`$.

We first consider the one dimensional case with spin-polarized negative half-space. The static equilibrium density is

$`\overline{n}_\sigma n_0/2=\sigma S\mathrm{\Theta }(x),`$ (6)
where $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the step function equal to unity for positive arguments and zero otherwise; $`S`$ is the static spin density in the polarized region. The step in the density profile implies a step in the magnetic potential, $`V_\sigma `$. The density modification in the presence of a uniform current drive is described by the 1D version of Eq. (5). The strongest singularity is caused by the jump in $`V_\sigma `$ at $`x=0`$ (second term in Eq. (5)), which implies discontinuity in the density, $`\delta _\sigma `$,

$$\frac{\delta _\sigma (+0)\delta _\sigma (0)}{\delta _\sigma (+0)+\delta _\sigma (0)}=\frac{\mu }{2qD}(V_\sigma (0)V_\sigma (+0)).$$

Within our assumptions about the magnitude of the magnetic potential, $`V_\sigma <max(k_BT,E_F)`$, this correction is small and hence can be neglected. Also, it causes charge imbalance, and hence is screened out for distances exceeding the Coulomb screening length. The solution of the homogeneous equation for $`\delta _\sigma `$ is

$`\delta _\sigma (x)`$ $`=`$ $`A\mathrm{exp}(\lambda _1x)+B\mathrm{exp}(\lambda _2x),`$ (7)
$`\lambda _{1(2)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{L_E}{2L_D^2}}\left(1+()\sqrt{1+4L_D^2/L_E^2}\right).`$ (8)
Matching the ($`x>0`$) and ($`x<0`$) solutions at $`x=0`$ and requiring vanishing $`\delta _\sigma `$ at infinity, the spin density, $`s=\delta _{}\delta _{}`$, for the positive drift velocity ($`qE>0`$) is

$`s={\displaystyle \frac{S}{\sqrt{1+4L_D^2/L_E^2}}}\times \{\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{exp}(\lambda _1x),& x<0,\\ \mathrm{exp}(\lambda _2x),& x>0\end{array}.`$ (11)
The solution for the negative drift velocity can be obtained from this solution as $`s(x)`$.

Two interesting special cases correspond to the spin-drift ($`L_EL_D`$) and the spin-diffusion ($`L_E<L_D`$) regimes. In the spin-drift case,

$`s=\{\begin{array}{cc}S\mathrm{exp}(x/L_E),\hfill & x>0,\\ 0,\hfill & x<0\end{array}.`$ (14)
And in the spin-diffusion case,

$`s={\displaystyle \frac{SL_E}{2L_D}}\mathrm{exp}(|x|/L_D).`$ (15)
The series of solutions for various strengths of the electric field are shown in Figure 1. The parameters are characteristic of $`10^{16}`$ cm-3 Si-doped GaAs: $`\mu =3000`$ cm2/Vs, $`T_1=100`$ ns, $`T=1.6`$ K. The drift condition for this system is realized for $`E>2\sqrt{k_BT/q\mu T_1}2`$ V/cm. Experimentally, much larger electric fields have been applied to this system.

Under spin-drift conditions, the characteristic length of the exponential decay of spin polarization is proportional to the longitudinal spin relaxation time, $`L_E=v_dT_1`$. In this regime, there is almost one-to-one correspondence between the distance from the interface and the time spent by electrons in the region with zero field, $`x=v_dt`$, which is only weakly altered by diffusion. Therefore, by measuring the decay length and knowing the drift velocity, $`v_d=\mu E`$, one can directly determine $`T_1`$. An advantage compared to the conventional pump-probe approach is that the measurement can be conducted in a dc setup that doesn’t require ultrafast optics and electronics. The spin polarization detection with sub-micron spatial resolution can be done by standard optical techniques based on Kerr/Faraday rotation, or possibly using magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) by modulating the current at the cantilever frequency.

In addition to the longitudinal relaxation time, $`T_1`$, which defines how fast the longitudinal spin polarization disappears, an almost identical approach can be applied to determine the transverse spin relaxation time, $`T_2`$, which measures the electron spin decoherence time. For that, in the setup described above, a weak uniform magnetic field, $`H_{}`$, should be applied perpendicular to the direction of the strong field that exists at $`x<0`$. In the region with the strong field, this additional component will only weakly alter the the direction of the total field. However, in the region where originally there was no magnetic field, this component will cause the precession of the drifting spin polarization. The spatial period of the precession

$`L_P=2\pi v_d/\omega _L,`$ (16)
is related to the Larmor frequency, $`\omega _L=g\mu _BH_{}/\mathrm{}`$, which is about 62 MHz at $`H_{}=100`$ G for $`g=0.44`$. For the driving electric field $`E=10`$ V/cm and the above parameters, $`L_P5\mu `$m. Such spatial modulation can be resolved both by optical means or with MRFM. To determine the transverse spin relaxation time $`T_2`$ one needs to measure spatial dependence of the spin polarization component perpendicular to $`H_{}`$ and then fit it to

$`S\mathrm{exp}(x/v_dT_2)\mathrm{cos}(2\pi x/L_P).`$ (17)
Here we neglected the diffusive spread of the spin polarization, which will case an analogue of NMR inhomogeneous broadening. The diffusive spread will matter, however, only when it becomes comparable to the precession length, $`L_P`$. This effectively places an upper limit on the distance from the interface for which the precession-induced oscillation can be resolved, $`L<|\mu EL_P^2/D|250\mu `$m for the above parameters. The upper limit can be modified by the choice of the transverse magnetic field $`B_{}`$ with the only constraint that $`\omega _LT_2>1`$. Finally, the carrier $`g`$-factor itself can be determined from the Larmor frequency, which can be extracted from the precession length.

Another application that is only possible in the spin-drift regime is the spatial separation of spin species by driving electric current through a region with an inhomogeneous magnetic field. To demonstrate this effect, we consider a two-dimensional system with a compact region containing magnetic field. Unlike the one-dimensional case considered above, the “minority” (opposite to magnetic field) spin carriers can avoid this region by flowing around it. Indeed, this is what we observe by solving numerically the 2D spin-relaxation drift-diffusion equations, Fig. 2. The calculation is performed on a $`100\times 150`$ lattice that spans $`30\times 45\mu `$m region for parameters relevant to Si-doped GaAs (specified above). The field is localized in 10 $`\mu `$m disk. For large enough electric field, there is formation of the negative spin polarization where the current impinges on the boundary of the magnetic field region. The minority spin polarization is then dragged downstream by the current until it relaxes and diffuses away. Notice that in the zero-current state there is $`no`$ negative spin polarization in the system. The “majority” spin polarization is ripped off the local field region, and together with the “minority” carriers forms a three-tail structure that extends over the spin-drift length, $`L_E`$, downstream. Therefore, driving current through this system leads to an effective separation of the two spin species. A similar effect can be expected also in the ballistic regime realized in the ultra-high mobility 2DEG structures.

The effect that we discussed above is analogous to the classic Stern-Gerlach effect; however, unlike the original effect the spin separation can be achieved even with electrons. In the original Stern-Gerlach experiment, neutral spin-1/2 particles passing through a region with a magnetic field gradient get deflected by the force $`F=g\mu _B(\sigma )𝐇`$, and produce two spots on the screen that represent two possible projections of spin $`\sigma `$. For charged particles, the situation is complicated due to the Lorentz force that acts to scramble the separation. It was first pointed out by Bohr that in the case of electrons, the observation of Stern-Gerlach effect is impossible because the deflection by the Lorentz force exceeds the spin-related splitting. The Bohr argument does not apply, however, to constrained geometries, e.g. a thin film sample, where the Lorentz force is compensated by the Hall voltage. This makes the solid-state Stern-Gerlach effect possible. It is important to stress, however, that despite the appearance, the mechanism for spin separation here is distinctly different from the the classic Stern-Gerlach effect. A time-dependent Stern-Gerlach effect was recently considered by Fabian and Das Sarma.

In the above discussion we assumed a possibility of a magnetic field profile that is inhomogeneous but always pointing along the same line, e.g. perpendicular to the sample plane. This is an important assumption because the fringe fields have ability to destroy spin polarization through precession. For the $`10^{16}`$ Si:GaAs, a 100 Gauss fringe field at 10 V/cm drive could scramble the polarization after 5 $`\mu `$m. However, since the fringe fields decay rapidly in space, their detrimental effects can be reduced by increasing the drive or by reducing the size of the micromagnets. Moreover, for thin-film samples, the effects of the fringe fields can be essentially eliminated by placing the sample between two closely spaced magnet terminals (split ring) or between two “identical” magnets. Alternatively, one could selectively boost the $`g`$-factor, e.g. by locally doping II-VI semiconductors with Mn. This way, when placed even in a relatively weak uniform external magnetic field, different parts of the sample will feel very different magnetic potentials. By combining these approaches, one can engineer a variety of strong magnetic potentials which are not affected by the fringe fields.

In summary, we explored the spin-drift regime, which is realized for sufficiently large but realistic current densities in semiconductors. In this regime, the spin density can be carried by the current over distances controlled by the spin-drift length, which can significantly exceed the spin-diffusion length. This opens a possibility of designing spintronic devices with the spin properties dynamically controllable by the applied bias. This is in sharp contrast with the conventional particle-hole semiconductor electronics where electrostatic screening practically precludes large scale dynamic manipulation of the relative particle-hole density. As specific applications, we proposed measurement schemes for the carrier spin relaxation times, $`T_1`$ and $`T_2`$, as well as demonstrated the possibility of spin species separation by driving current through a region with an inhomogeneous magnetic potential. The latter is analogous to the classic Stern-Gerlach effect.

Upon completion of this paper, author became aware of the related one-dimensional study of the spin-drift regime by Yu and Flatté.

We thank S.A. Crooker, J. Albrecht, D.L. Smith, J. Fabian, and S.A. Trugman for useful discussions. This work was supported by DARPA SPINs program.


text:
# The nuclear equation of state probed by 𝐾⁺ production in heavy ion collisions

## 1 Introduction and model

The original motivation to study the kaon production in heavy ion reactions at intermediate energies, namely to extract information on the nuclear equation of state (EOS) at high densities is a matter of current debate. Already in the first theoretical investigations by transport models it was noticed that the $`K^+`$ yield reacts sensitive on the nuclear equation of state . The yields were found to be about a factor 2–3 larger when a soft EOS was applied compared to a hard EOS. At that time the available data  already favoured a soft equation of state. However, calculations as well as the experimental data were still burdened with large uncertainties.

In  we studied the question if in the meantime decisive information on the nuclear EOS can be extracted from subthreshold kaon production in heavy ion collisions. There are several reasons why it appears worthwhile to do this: Firstly, there has been significant progress in the recent years towards a more precise determination of the elementary kaon production cross sections , based also on new data points form the COSY-11 for the reactions $`pppK^+X`$ very close to threshold . Secondly, the KaoS Collaboration has performed systematic measurements of the $`K^+`$ production far below threshold in heavy ($`Au+Au`$) and light ($`C+C`$) systems . Looking at the ratios built from heavy and light systems possible uncertainties which might still exist in the theoretical calculations should cancel out to a large extent which allows to draw reliable conclusions. Furthermore, far below threshold the kaon production is a highly collective process and a particular sensitivity to the compression of the participant matter is expected.

The present investigations are based on the Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) transport model . For the nuclear EOS we adopt soft and hard Skyrme forces corresponding to a compression modulus of K=200 MeV and 380 MeV, respectively, and with a momentum dependence adjusted to the empirical optical nucleon-nucleus potential . The saturation point of nuclear matter is thereby fixed at $`E_B=16`$ MeV and $`\rho _{\mathrm{sat}}=0.17\mathrm{fm}^3`$ . The calculations include $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1232)`$ and $`N^{}(1440)`$ resonances. The QMD approach with Skyrme interactions is well tested, contains a controlled momentum dependence and provides a reliable description of the reaction dynamics in the SIS energy range, expressed e.g. by collective nucleon flow observables as well as particle production. In contrast to AGS energies where the creation of resonance matter may lead to an effective softening of the EOS, baryonic resonances with masses above the $`N^{}(1440)`$ can safely be neglected for the reaction dynamics at SIS energies .

We further consider the influence of an in-medium kaon potential based on effective chiral models . The $`K^+`$ mean field consists of a repulsive vector part $`V_\mu =3/8f_\pi ^2j_\mu `$ and an attractive scalar part $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_S=m_\mathrm{K}m_\mathrm{K}^{}=m_\mathrm{K}\sqrt{m_\mathrm{K}^2\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{KN}}/f_\pi ^2\rho _S+V_\mu V^\mu }`$. Here $`j_\mu `$ is the baryon vector current and $`\rho _S`$ the scalar baryon density and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{KN}}=450`$ MeV. Following  in the vector field the pion decay constant in the medium $`f_\pi ^2=0.6f_\pi ^2`$ is used. However, the enhancement of the scalar part using $`f_\pi ^2`$ is compensated by higher order contributions in the chiral expansion , and therefore here the bare value is used, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{KN}}\rho _S/f_\pi ^2`$. Compared to other chiral approaches  the resulting kaon dispersion relation shows a relatively strong density dependence. The increase of the in-medium $`K^+`$ mass $`\stackrel{~}{m}_\mathrm{K}`$, Eq. (2), with this parameterisation is still consistent with the empirical knowledge of kaon-nucleus scattering and allows to explore in-medium effects on the production mechanism arising from zero temperature kaon potentials. For the kaon production via pion absorption $`\pi BYK^+`$ the elementary cross section of  are used. For the $`NNBYK^+`$ channels we apply the cross sections of Ref.  which give a good fit to the COSY-data close to threshold. For the case of $`N\mathrm{\Delta }BYK^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }BYK^+`$ reactions experimental data are rare. Thus we rely on the model calculation of ref. . In the case that a $`N^{}`$ resonance is involved in the reaction we used the same cross section as for nucleons. In the presence of scalar and vector fields the kaon optical potential in nuclear matter has the same structure as the corresponding Schroedinger equivalent optical potential for nucleons

$$U_{\mathrm{opt}}(\rho ,𝐤)=\mathrm{\Sigma }_S+\frac{1}{m_\mathrm{K}}k_\mu V^\mu +\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }_S^2V_\mu ^2}{2m_\mathrm{K}}.$$
(1)
and leads to a shift of the thresholds conditions inside the medium. To fulfil energy-momentum conservation the optical potential is absorbed into an newly defined effective mass

$$\stackrel{~}{m}_\mathrm{K}(\rho ,𝐤)=\sqrt{m_\mathrm{K}^2+2m_\mathrm{K}U_{\mathrm{opt}}(\rho ,𝐤)}$$
(2)
which is a Lorentz scalar and sets the canonical momenta on the mass-shell $`0=k_\mu ^2\stackrel{~}{m}_\mathrm{K}^2`$. Thus, e.g., the threshold condition for $`K^+`$ production in baryon induced reactions reads $`\sqrt{s}\stackrel{~}{m}_B+\stackrel{~}{m}_Y+\stackrel{~}{m}_K`$ with $`\sqrt{s}`$ the centre–of–mass energy of the colliding baryons. For a consistent treatment of the thresholds the scalar and vector baryon mean fields entering into eq. (2) are determined from two versions of the non-linear Walecka model with K=200/380 MeV, respectively . The hyperon field is thereby scaled by 2/3 which yields also a good description of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ flow . Since the parameterisations chosen for the non-linear Walecka model yield the same EOS as the Skyrme ones, the overall energy is conserved. The kaon production is treated perturbatively and does generally not affect the reaction dynamics .

## 2 EOS dependence of $`K^+`$ production

The $`K^+`$ excitation function for $`Au+Au`$ and $`C+C`$ reactions starting from 0.8 A$``$GeV which is far below threshold ($`E_{thr}=`$ 1.58 GeV) has been measured by the KaoS Collaboration . In  we calculated this excitation function for a soft/hard EOS including the in-medium kaon potential. For both systems the agreement with the KaoS data  is very good when a soft EOS is used. In the large system there was a visible EOS effect which is absent in the light system. The inclusion of the repulsive in-medium $`K^+`$ potential is thereby essential to reproduce the data . Already in the light system the $`K^+`$ yield is reduced by about $`50\%`$. To extract more clear information on the nuclear EOS, in Fig. 1 we considered the ratio $`R`$ of the kaon multiplicities obtained in $`Au+Au`$ over $`C+C`$ reactions, normalised to the corresponding mass numbers. The kaon potential is included since without the in-medium potential one is not able to reproduce the experimental $`K^+`$ yields .

The calculations are performed under minimal bias conditions with $`b_{\mathrm{max}}=11`$ fm for $`Au+Au`$ and $`b_{\mathrm{max}}=5`$ fm for $`C+C`$ and normalised to the experimental reaction cross sections . Both calculations show an increase of $`R`$ with decreasing incident energy down to 1.0 A$``$GeV. However, this increase is much less pronounced when the stiff EOS is employed. In the latter case $`R`$ even decreases at 0.8 A$``$GeV whereas the soft EOS leads to an unrelieved increase of $`R`$. At 1.5 A$``$GeV which is already very close to threshold the differences between the two models become small. The strong increase of $`R`$ can be directly related to higher compressible nuclear matter. The comparison to the experimental data from KaoS  where the increase of $`R`$ is even more pronounced strongly favours a soft equation of state. We would like to mention that similar results were also obtaind by independent IQMD calculations . These also include an in-medium kaon potential derived in relativistic mean field theory (RMF)  which is somewhat less repulsive than that one used in our calculations. For the soft EOS the IQMD calculations almost coincide with the present results . For the hard EOS there exists still deviations concerning the slope of $`R`$ going far below threshold. This could be due to the different in-medium potentials and is an open question which has to be resolved by future investigations. However, the compared to earlier works  improved statistics has now led to a relatively good overall agreement of the two sets of transport calculations.

The dependence of $`R`$ on the various production channels is shown in Fig.2. There the ratios $`R_i`$ are built separately for the production channels with initial states $`i=NN,\pi N,N\mathrm{\Delta },\pi \mathrm{\Delta },\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Here one has to keep in mind that the $`NN`$ and $`\pi N`$ cross sections are quite well under control whereas the $`N\mathrm{\Delta },\pi \mathrm{\Delta }`$ channels are experimentally unknown. Thus one has to rely on model predictions . However, the shape of $`R`$ is not strongly influenced by these two channels which are the most insecure ones. The excitation function for the $`N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ contribution varies only little as a function of energy and is similar using the different EOSs. The contribution of the $`\pi \mathrm{\Delta }`$ channel is decreasing for both, a hard and a soft EOS. The shape of $`R`$ is to most extent determined by the $`NN`$ and $`\pi N`$ contributions. In our calculations the latter channel is responsible for the decrease of $`R`$ very far below threshold when the hard EOS is applied. Since we consider ratios theoretical uncertainties in the knowledge of elementary cross sections cancel out in first order anyway, which makes the conclusions more reliable. Also the Nantes group  reported that varying e.g. the $`N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ cross section by a factor of two does hardly affect the final shape of $`R`$.

## 3 Phase space for $`K^+`$ production

To obtain a quantitative picture of the explored density effects in Fig. 3 the baryon densities are shown at which the kaons are created. The energy is chosen most below threshold, i.e. at 0.8 A$``$GeV and only central collisions are considered where the effects are maximal. $`dM_{K^+}/d\rho `$ is defined as

$$dM_{K^+}/d\rho =\underset{i}{\overset{N_{K^+}}{}}\frac{dP_i}{d\rho _B(𝐱_i,t_i)}$$
(3)
where $`\rho _B`$ is the baryon density at which the kaon $`i`$ was created and $`P_i`$ is the corresponding production probability. For the comparison of the two systems the curves are normalised to the corresponding mass numbers.

Fig.3 illustrates several features: Only in the case of a soft EOS the mean densities at which kaons are created differ significantly for the two different reaction systems, i.e. $`<\rho /\rho _{\mathrm{sat}}>`$=1.46/1.40 for $`C+C`$ and 1.47/1.57 for $`Au+Au`$ using the hard/soft EOS. Generally, in $`C+C`$ reactions densities above $`2\rho _{\mathrm{sat}}`$ are rarely reached whereas in $`Au+Au`$ the kaons are created at densities up to three times saturation density. Furthermore, for $`C+C`$ the density distributions are weakly dependent on the nuclear EOS. The situation changes completely in $`Au+Au`$. Here the densities profile shows a pronounced EOS dependence . Moreover, the excess of kaons obtained with the soft EOS originates almost exclusively from high density matter which demonstrates that compression effects are probed.

Similar as the density shown before a quantitative measure for the collectivity probed by the $`K^+`$ production and for phase space effects is shown in Fig.4. There the average number of collisions for those hadrons ($`N,\mathrm{\Delta },\pi `$) which were involved in the $`K^+`$ production are displayed. Again only central collisions are considered where the effects are maximal. $`<N_C>`$ is defined as

$$<N_C>=\underset{i}{\overset{N_{K^+}}{}}\frac{1}{2}(N_{C_1}^i+N_{C_2}^i)P_i/\underset{i}{\overset{N_{K^+}}{}}P_i$$
(4)
with $`N_C^i`$ being the number of collisions which particles ($`1,2`$) experienced before they produced kaon $`i`$, and $`P_i`$ is the corresponding production probability. It is seen that in average the particles undergo about twice as much relevant collisions in the heavy compared to the light system. Furthermore, the collectivity, i.e. the accumulation of energy by multiple scattering, increases with decreasing incident energy. Thus one can conclude that the increase of $`R`$ is not due to a trivial phase space effect, namely the fact that far below threshold the $`C+C`$ system is simply too small to provide enough collectivity for the kaon production. If such a scenario - which could model independently as well explain the rise of $`R`$ seen in the KaoS data - would be true, $`<N_C>`$ would have to saturate for $`C+C`$ collisions at low energies. One can expect such a saturation from the number of binary collisions at even lower incident energies but here this is obviously not yet the case. Moreover, building also here the ratio (lower panel of Fig.4) it seems that the relative enhancement of available phase space for $`K^+`$ production in the large system is decreasing at low energies. This demonstrates that $`K^+`$ production far below threshold always requires a certain amount of collectivity which can be provided also in a very small colliding system, though such processes are rare. There is, however, no sharp limit were such collision histories become impossible. Thus trivial phase space effects can be excluded for an explanation of the increase of $`R`$. In  a similar argument was based on the measurement of high energy pions which can test the phase space available for particle production.

## 4 $`K^+`$ flow

Finally in Fig.5 the transverse $`K^+`$ flow in $`Ni+Ni`$ reactions at 1.93 A.GeV is considered in order to obtain a conclusive picture of the consistency of in-medium effects with data . As proposed in  the $`K^+`$ in-medium potential is treated in its full covariant form, i.e. including the Lorentz force contribution which arises from the existence of the vector field. As discussed in  the Lorentz force leads to a cancellation of the anti-flow  due to the repulsive time-like part of the vector potential. Thus there is no difference of the $`K^+`$ flow for the calculations with and without in-medium effects around mid-rapidity. However, at target and spectator rapidities the reduced error bars of more recent FOPI data  allow a distinction between the two scenarios. Both calculations show flow there but the flow signal is much weaker using the in-medium potential. Only the latter case is consistent with the data. The necessity to include the in-medium effects, on the other hand side, is consistent with knowledge from other dynamical observables .

## 5 Summary

To summarise, we find that at incident energies far below the free threshold $`K^+`$ production is a suitable tool to study the dependence on the nuclear equation of state. Using a light system as reference frame there is a visible sensitivity on the EOS when ratios of heavy ($`Au+Au`$) over light ($`C+C`$) systems are considered. Transport calculations indicate that the $`K^+`$ production gets hardly affected by compressional effects in $`C+C`$ but is highly sensitive to the high density matter ($`1\rho /\rho _{\mathrm{sat}}3`$) created in $`Au+Au`$ reactions. Results for the $`K^+`$ excitation function in $`Au+Au`$ over $`C+C`$ reactions as measured by the KaoS Collaboration, strongly support the scenario with a soft EOS. This statement is also valid when an enhancement of the in-medium kaon mass as predicted by chiral models is taken into account. Since the explanation of the total $`K^+`$ yields and the $`K^+`$ flow requires the presence of in-medium effects a consistent picture for the $`K^+`$ dynamics is obtained.

The authors would like to acknowledge valuable discussions with J. Aichelin, Ch. Hartnack, H. Oeschler, P. Senger and C. Sturm.

## References


text:
# Anomalous properties of heat diffusion in living tissue caused by branching artery network. Qualitative description

## I Introduction. Living tissue as a heterogeneous medium

Blood flowing through vessels forms paths of fast heat transport in living tissue and under typical conditions it is blood flow that governs heat propagation on scales about or greater than one centimeter (for an introduction to this problem see, e.g., CH80 ; SE70 ). Blood vessels make up a complex network being practically a fractal. The larger is a vessel, the faster is the blood motion in it and, so, the stronger is the effect of blood flow in the given vessel on heat transfer. Blood flow in capillaries practically does not affect heat propagation whereas blood inside large vessels moves so fast that its heat interaction with the surrounding cellular tissue is ignorable CH80 . Thus, there should be vessels of a certain length $`\mathrm{}_v`$ that are the smallest ones among the vessels wherein blood flow affects heat transfer remarkably. The value of $`\mathrm{}_v`$ can be estimated as BOOK  (see also CH80 ; SE70 ):

$$\mathrm{}_v\sqrt{\frac{D}{jfL_n}},$$
(1)
where $`D=\kappa /(c\rho )`$ is the temperature diffusivity of the cellular tissue determined by its thermal conductivity $`\kappa `$, specific heat $`c`$, and density $`\rho `$, the value $`j`$ is the blood perfusion rate (the volume of blood going through tissue region of unit volume per unit time), and the factor $`L_n\mathrm{ln}\left(l/a\right)`$ is logarithm of the mean ratio of the individual length to radius of blood vessels forming peripheral circulation. For the vascular networks made up of the paired artery and vein trees where all the vessels are grouped into the pairs of the closely-spaced arteries and veins with opposite blood currents the coefficient $`fL_n^{1/2}`$ accounts for the counter-current effect 111Initially the factor $`f`$ was phenomenologically introduced in the bioheat equation to take into account a certain renormalization of the blood perfusion rate caused by the counter-current effect C80 ; W87a ; W87b . Its theoretical estimate was later obtained independently by Weinbaum et al. WXZE97  and Gafiychuk & Lubashevsky BOOK  (announced for the first time in we1 ).. For the vascular networks where the artery and vein trees are arranged independently of each other the factor $`f`$ should be set equal to unity, $`f=1`$. In particular, for the typical values of the ratio $`l/a20`$–40 Mch89 , the thermal conductivity $`\kappa 710^3`$ W/cm$``$K, the heat capacity $`c3.5`$ J/g$``$ K, and the density $`\rho 1`$ g/cm3 of the tissue as well as setting the blood perfusion rate $`j0.3`$ min-1 from (1) we get the estimates $`\mathrm{}_v4`$ mm and $`L_n34`$.

In the mean-field approximation the effect of blood flow on heat transfer is reduced to the renormalization of the temperature diffusivity, $`DD_{\text{eff}}`$, WJ85  and the appearance of the effective heat sink $`fj`$ CH80 ; BOOK ; WXZE97  in the bioheat equation:

$$\frac{T}{t}=\left(D_{\text{eff}}T\right)fj(TT_a)+q_T.$$
(2)
Here $`T(𝐫,t)`$ is the tissue temperature field averaged over scales about $`\mathrm{}_v`$, the parameter $`T_a`$ is the blood temperature insider the systemic circulation arteries, and the summand $`q_T(𝐫,t)`$ called below the temperature generation rate is specified by the heat generation rate $`q`$ as $`q_T=q/(c\rho )`$. The renormalization of the temperature diffusivity is mainly determined by the blood vessels of lengths about $`\mathrm{}_v`$ and due to the fractal structure of vascular networks the renormalization coefficient $`F=D_{\text{eff}}/D`$ is practically a constant of unity order, $`F1`$ BOOK .

Let us imitate the temperature evolution in terms of random walks whose concentration is $`(TT_a)`$. Then the part of the vein tree made up of vessels whose lengths exceed or are about the scale $`\mathrm{}_v`$ forms the system of traps. In fact, blood streams going through the vein tree merge into greater streams at the nodes (Fig. 1). Therefore an effective random walker after reaching the boundary of one of these veins inevitably will be moved by blood flow into the internal points of large veins. Then, due to relatively fast blood motion inside these veins it will be carried away from the tissue region under consideration, which may be described in terms of the walker trapping or, what is the same, the heat sink BOOK . Since the mean distance between these veins is determined mainly by the shortest ones, i.e. by the veins of length $`\mathrm{}_v`$ the mean time during which a walker wanders inside the cellular tissue before being trapped is BOOK

$$\tau \frac{\mathrm{}_v^2}{D}L_n.$$
(3)
In obtaining the given expression we have assumed the vascular network to be embedded uniformly in the cellular tissue, so the tissue volume $`\mathrm{}_v^3`$ falls per one vein (and artery, respectively) of length $`\mathrm{}_v`$. Whence it follows, in particular, that the rate at which the walkers are being trapped by these vein, i.e. the rate of their disappearance is estimated as $`1/\tau `$, leading together with expression (1) to the heat sink of intensity $`fj`$ in the bioheat equation (2). The characteristic spatial scale of walker diffusion in the cellular tissue before being trapped is $`\mathrm{}_T\sqrt{D\tau }`$, i.e.

$$\mathrm{}_T\mathrm{}_v\sqrt{L_n}\sqrt{\frac{D}{jf}}1\text{cm}.$$
(4)
The scale $`\mathrm{}_T`$ gives us also the mean penetration depth of heat penetration into the cellular tissue from a point source or, what is the same, the widening of the temperature distribution caused by heat diffusion in the cellular tissue. It is the result obtained within the mean-field approximation.

Beyond the scope of the mean-field theory we meet several phenomena. One of them is the temperature nonuniformities caused by the vessel discreteness Bi86  which can be described assuming the heat sink in equation (2) to contain a random component BOOK . Another is fast heat transport over scales exceeding substantially the length $`\mathrm{}_T`$ caused by the effect of blood flow through the artery tree. The latter phenomena is the main subject of the present paper.

## II Fast heat transport with blood flow through large artery tree

Let at a certain time a random walker wandering in the cellular tissue get a boundary of a large artery, i.e. an artery of length exceeding $`\mathrm{}_v`$. It should be noted that such an event is of low probability and cannot be considered within the standard mean-field approximation because the relative number of large arteries is small. Due to the direction of the blood motion from larger arteries to smaller ones as well as the high blood flow rate in the large arteries the walker will be transported fast to one of the arteries of length $`\mathrm{}_v`$ (Fig. 2). The blood flow rate in small vessels is not high enough to affect the walker motion essentially and it has inevitably to leave this artery and wander in the cellular tissue until being trapped by the veins of length $`\mathrm{}_v`$. Thereby a certain not too large number of random walkers generated, for example, inside a cellular tissue neighborhood of a point $`𝐫`$ can be found during the time $`\tau `$ inside a cellular tissue neighborhood of a point $`𝐫^{}`$ at a distance much larger than $`\mathrm{}_v`$, i.e. $`\left|𝐫𝐫^{}\right|\mathrm{}_v`$. The given effect may be regarded as anomalously fast heat diffusion in living tissue, i.e. heat superdiffusion.

Dealing with heat transfer in living tissue we may confine our consideration to the peripheral vascular networks typically embedded uniformly into the cellular tissue, at least at the first approximation M77 . The latter statement means, in particular, the fact that for a fixed peripheral vascular network the vessel collection comprising all the arteries of length $`l`$ meets the condition of the volume $`l^3`$ approximately falling per each one of these arteries. Therefore as is seen in Fig. 2 a walker going into a large artery of length $`l`$ at initial time during the time $`\tau `$ before being trapped by the veins can be found equiprobably at each point of the given artery neighborhood of size $`l`$. In other words, this walker makes a large jump of length $`l`$ that exceeds substantially the mean-field diffusion length $`\mathrm{}_T`$.

In what follows we will analyze the temperature distribution averaged over all the possible realizations of the vascular network embedding. This enables us to regard a walker entering a large artery of length $`l`$ as a random event whose probability is independent of the walker initial position. Thereby, the probability $`P_l`$ for a walker to make a large jump over the distance $`l`$ is also independent of the spatial coordinates $`𝐫`$. It should be noted that for a fixed realization of the vascular network embedding the probability $`P_l`$ depends essentially on the spatial coordinates $`𝐫`$ and the heat transfer in living tissue on large scales has to exhibit substantial dependence on the specific position of the heat sources.

Now we estimate the value of $`P_l`$ assuming the heat sources to be localized inside a domain $`Q_{}`$ of size $``$. Two different factors determine the value of $`P_l`$. First, it is the process of walker trapping by an artery of length $`l>`$ $``$ going through the domain $`Q_{}`$. If $`l<`$ $``$ blood flow in this artery has practically no effect on heat diffusion. On the average a random walker during the time $`\tau `$ travels the distance $`\mathrm{}_T`$ in the cellular tissue until being trapped by the veins of length $`\mathrm{}_v`$. So for a walker to enter this artery and, thus, to leave the domain $`Q_{}`$ with blood flow in it the walker, on one hand, should be located at initial time inside a cylindrical neighborhood $`Q_l`$ of the given artery whose radius is about $`\mathrm{}_T`$ and the volume is $`\mathrm{}_T^2`$. On the other hand, it has to avoid being trapped by the veins of length $`\mathrm{}_v`$. The probability of the latter event is about $`(\mathrm{}_v/\mathrm{}_T)^2`$. Indeed, a vein of length $`\mathrm{}_v`$ may be treated as a trap of cylindrical form. Thereby in qualitative analysis the walker trapping can be described in terms of two-dimensional random walks in the plane perpendicular to the artery under consideration where the trapping veins are represented by small circular regions. Their density is about $`1/\mathrm{}_v^2`$ which directly leads to the latter estimate. Therefore the total number of walkers leaving the domain $`Q_{}`$ with blood flow through the given artery per unit time is

$$\frac{1}{\tau }\left(\frac{\mathrm{}_v}{\mathrm{}_T}\right)^2\mathrm{}_T^2(TT_a)=\frac{D}{L_n}(TT_a).$$
(5)
In obtaining (5) we have taken into account expression (3). Since the trapped walkers spread uniformly over a region of size $`l`$ the resulting density of the walker transition rate to a point $`𝐫`$ spaced at a distance about $`l`$ from the domain $`Q_{}`$ is

$$g_l(𝐫)\frac{D}{L_n}\frac{}{l^3}(TT_a).$$
(6)
It should be noted that the transition rate $`g_l(𝐫)`$, as it must, does not depend on the local value of blood perfusion rate.

At the second step we should average the obtained transition rate $`g_l(𝐫)`$ over the possible realizations of the vascular network embedding. Let us adopt a simplified model for the vascular network shown in Fig. 3$`a`$ where the vessel lengths $`l_n`$ and $`l_{n+1}`$ of the neighboring hierarchy levels $`n`$ and $`n+1`$ are related as $`l_n=2l_{n+1}`$. Figure 3$`b`$ demonstrates a more adequate model for the peripheral artery tree which, however, within the framework of the present qualitative analysis may be reduced to the former one by combining three sequent two-fold nodes into one effective four-fold node at all the levels. In this case the cubic domain of volume $`l_n^3`$ falls per each artery of level $`n`$. Let us now consider individually three characteristic forms of the domain $`Q_{}`$, a ball or a cube of size $``$ ($`d=3`$), an infinitely long cylinder of radius $``$ ($`d=2`$), and a plane layer of thickness $``$ ($`d=1`$). For the ball or the cube, i.e. a region bounded in three dimensions the probability that an artery of level $`n`$ passes through the domain $`Q_{}`$ is about

$$P_l^{(3e)}\left(\frac{}{l_n}\right)^2.$$

For the infinitely long cylinder

$$P_l^{(2e)}\left(\frac{}{l_n}\right)$$

and for the plane layer $`P_l^{(1e)}1`$. Multiplying $`g_l(𝐫)`$ by the corresponding values of $`P_l^{(e)}`$ we get the result of averaging the walker transition rate $`g_l(𝐫)`$ over the possible realizations of the vascular network embedding. The obtained result is written as

$$g_l(𝐫)\frac{D}{L_n}\frac{^d}{l_n^{2+d}}(TT_a),$$
(7)
where the value $`d`$ actually plays the role of the dimension of the space inside which the temperature field can be considered. At the next step we should sum the terms (7) over all the levels of the large artery tree. However due to the strong increase of the terms (7), $`g_l(𝐫)2^{n(2+d)}`$, as the level number $`n`$ increases the arteries of length $`lr`$ mainly contribute to the value of $`g_l(𝐫)`$. So the term describing the fast heat transport with blood flow through large arteries from the domain $`Q_{}`$ (located near the origin of the coordinate system) can be written as

$$g(𝐫)\frac{D}{L_n}_{}𝑑𝐫^{}\frac{T(𝐫^{})}{\left|𝐫𝐫^{}\right|^5},$$
(8)
where $``$ is the region containing the peripheral vascular network as a whole and the integration in the three dimensional space over the domain $`Q_{}`$ allows for all its three considered types.

Expression (8) together with the mean-filed bioheat equation (2) enables us to write the following equation governing the anomalous heat transfer in living tissue

$$\frac{T}{t}=D^2T+\frac{D}{L_n}_{}𝑑𝐫^{}\frac{T(𝐫^{})T(𝐫)}{\left|𝐫𝐫^{}\right|^5+\mathrm{}_v^5}fj(TT_a)+q_T,$$
(9)
where we have added directly the value $`\mathrm{}_v`$ in order to cut off the spatial scales smaller than the length $`\mathrm{}_v`$ and ignored the difference between the effective temperature diffusivity and the true one of the cellular tissue. Equation (9) is the desired governing equation of the anomalous fast heat diffusion in living tissue for the averaged temperature field. It should be noted that the second term on the right-hand side of equation (9) depends weakly on the blood perfusion rate. Therefore, for the nonuniform distribution of the blood perfusion rate $`j(𝐫,t)`$ equation (9) holds also.

### Anomalous temperature distribution under local strong heating

Hyperthermia treatment as well as thermotherapy of small tumors of size about or less 1 cm is related to local strong heating of living tissue up to temperatures about 45$`^{}`$C or higher values. In this case the tissue region heated directly, for example, by laser irradiation is also of a similar size. Due to the tissue response to such strong heating the blood perfusion rate can grow tenfold locally whereas in the neighboring regions the blood perfusion rate remains practically unchanged Song84 . The feasibility of such nonuniform distribution of the blood perfusion rate may be explained applying to the cooperative mechanism of self-regulation in hierarchically organized active media BOOK ; SIAM . Therefore in the region affected directly the blood perfusion rate $`j_{\text{max}}`$ can exceed the blood perfusion rate $`j_0`$ in the surrounding tissue substantially. In this case the characteristic length of heat diffusion into the surrounding tissue is about

$$\mathrm{}_T^{}\sqrt{\frac{D}{fj_{\text{max}}}},$$
(10)
giving us also the minimal size $`_{\text{mim}}`$ of the region wherein the tissue temperature increase $`(T_{\text{max}}T_a)`$ is mainly localized. In the neighboring tissue the blood perfusion rate keeps up a sufficiently low value $`j_0`$, which makes the heat propagation with blood flow through large arteries considerable. Indeed, let us estimate the temperature increase caused by this effect using the obtained equation (9). The temperature increase $`T(r)T_a`$ at a point spaced at the distance $`r>`$ from the region (of size $``$) affected directly, i.e. the tail of the temperature distribution is mainly determined by the anomalous heat diffusion and, so, is estimated by the expression

$$T(r)T_a\frac{j_{\text{max}}}{L_nj_0}\frac{(\mathrm{}_T^{})^2^3}{r^5}\left(T_{\text{max}}T_a\right).$$
(11)
As seen from (11) for a sufficiently local and strong heating of the tissue, i.e. when $`\mathrm{}_T^{}`$ and $`j_{\text{max}}j_0`$ the temperature increase at not too distant points such that $`r`$ $``$ can be considerable. Otherwise the anomalous heat diffusion is ignorable.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by STCU grant #1675 and INTAS grant #00-0847.