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# Diamagnetic Interactions in Disordered Suspensions of Metastable Superconducting Granules

## I Introduction

The study of the electric and magnetic properties of inhomogeneous or disordered systems has been a subject of long-standing interest in both basic and applied condensed matter physics. Historically, studies of these properties have usually dealt with the determination of effective parameters (typically dielectric constants) on a longer spatial-scale than the typical scales of the inhomogeneities or the disorder . However, in superconducting granular materials the situation is more complex and interesting. These systems, in response to applied fields, can suffer transitions which depend on details at the disorder scale. Moreover, as will become evident below, local fields change at every transition, which makes the response of the whole system history-dependent. In this context, mean or effective properties of these materials are of limited interest.

Measurements on superconducting granular materials can provide interesting information from a fundamental point of view. For example, the measurement of the supercritical fields of disordered suspensions of superconducting granules has yielded determinations of the Ginzburg-Landau parameters of the superconducting transition . On the other hand, the superheated-to-normal phase transitions of Type I superconducting suspensions, induced by irradiation, have served as the basis for the recent development of particle detectors ; also the irradiation-induced supercooled normal-to-superconducting transition of granular arrays is being explored  with respect to dark matter detection in astroparticle physics.

In a superconducting granular material, the transition of each granule is determined by its position in its phase diagram, which is schematically shown in Fig. 1. Type I superconductors exhibit hysteresis, so a granule can traverse the equilibrium curve $`B_c`$ without transiting as long as it remains in the metastable region. In Fig. 1 we show the case of an isolated metastable superconducting granule. It can be seen that the actual normal to superconducting transition, whether induced by a field increase $`\mathrm{\Delta }B`$ or heating $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$, depends critically on its location in the (T,B) phase space referred to the superheating field curve $`B_{sh}`$. Theoretically, this location is given by the bath temperature and the maximum field on the surface $`B_{max}=(3/2)B_{ext}`$. Experimentally, the location generally varies over a small range of fields as a result of surface and volume defects which act as nucleation centers . In contrast, a disordered suspension exhibits a broader range of transition field values , which is generally due both to defects and to diamagnetic interactions between the superconductors themselves. This spreading depends directly on the local fields on the surface of the granules, information which is not directly accessible in experiments, and can reach typical values of $`20\%`$. Analogous behavior has been found in superconducting granule detectors, in which transitions occur by incident energy from particles or radiation. In this case the uncertainty in the minimum energy necessary for the transition necessarily hinders the interpretation of the results of these devices . On the other hand, the long-range nature of the diamagnetic interaction produces changes in the surface field values for the entire system as each transition occurs. In consequence, the suspension disorder and its effects change with each transition. Therefore, it is clear that a complete theoretical analysis of diamagnetic interactions and their effects on transitions constitutes a first step in the interpretation of experiments involving this kind of suspensions.

There exist numerous theoretical results available on magnetic or (mathematically analogous) electric properties of disordered materials. These are mainly for the effective dielectric constant of composites, involving mean field calculations, such as the classical mean-field Clausius-Mossotti or Maxwell-Garnett  approximation, rigorous bounds , or cluster expansions for suspensions of polarizable spheres . Analogous expansions have been developed for the diamagnetic properties of superconducting sphere suspensions. In the regime of dilute suspensions, Geigenmüller  constructed a perturbative theory which is not limited to effective properties, but which calculates statistics of local surface fields on the granules and of the transitions induced by the external field. This theory is formally based on a cluster expansion in such a way that all the quantities are expanded in powers of the volume fraction $`\rho `$ occupied by the microgranules. In practice, the expansion is performed up to first order, which means that only two-body interactions are considered . Nevertheless, it provides the only analytical framework in which experiments have been interpreted so far.

In this paper we will study the magnetic properties of a disordered ensemble of (type I) superconducting granules immersed in an external magnetic field by numerical simulation. We specifically address the question of the diamagnetic interactions between granules, and the process of the successive transitions in the system induced by an increase of the external field. Relevant information, which is not experimentally accessible, such as local surface field values, is obtained during transitions. Conditions on which these transitions occur (essentially the external field values) are the crucial point in the applications mentioned above. The comparison of the simulation results to the perturbative calculation shows that the problem in interpreting experiments is twofold. Firstly, direct application of the perturbative results, which are valid in the dilute regime in principle, uses linear extrapolations of the experimental results to the zero-density limit as parameters of the theory. As we will show, the validity condition of this procedure (i.e. that experiments lie in the proper range of validity of the theory) is hardly fulfilled by current experimental results. Therefore, quantitative predictions are expected to fail in all density ranges. Secondly, some interesting results arise in measurements performed in high-density conditions, where diamagnetic interactions are most important and the perturbative theory does not apply. This is the case for instance of the experimental determination of the supercooling branch of the phase diagram and its associated Ginzburg-Landau parameters.  In each branch of a hystheresis loop, the last transiting granules are expected to be the most defect-free ones. Contrary to the superheating case, in a supercooling situation these granules are most affected by diamagnetic interaction of other superconducting granules. In view of all these circumstances, both the quantitative determination of the limits of validity of the perturbative calculation, and the use of simulation to obtain results valid in the whole density regime are of prime interest.

The structure of this paper is the following. The simulation procedure is described in detail in Section II. Results obtained for representative cases, presented in Section III, show the critical importance of diamagnetic interactions in the transitions of disordered superconducting suspensions, and quantitatively demonstrate the limited range of validity of the perturbation theory. In Section IV some conclusions are drawn from this work.

## II Simulation details

We performed simulations of dispersions of $`N`$ superconducting spheres of radius $`a`$ sited in positions given by $`𝐑_i`$ in a thin cylindrical sample of thickness $`L`$ and radius $`\alpha \times L`$. Positions were chosen at random in the prescribed volume excluding configurations in which the distance between the centers of any couple of spheres is $`d2a`$. An external field $`B_{ext}`$ applied to the system was considered. The radius of the spheres was considered much greater than the London penetration length, and the transitions of each sphere to the normal phase are completed when the local magnetic field on any point of its surface reaches a threshold value $`B_{th}`$. Hence, we do not consider partial transitions to the intermediate state. This is justified when the local magnetic field applied over a sphere is greater than the critical magnetic field $`B_c`$, and thus the sphere is in a metastable state. Neither the possible effects of diamagnetic contact and associated percolation phenomena for very concentrated configurations were considered. The magnetic field $`𝐁(𝐫)`$ can be determined from a scalar potential $`U(𝐫)`$

$`𝐁(𝐫)=U(𝐫),`$ (1)
which satisfies the Laplace equation

$`^2U(𝐫)=0.`$ (2)
with the following boundary conditions. Firstly, for any superconducting sphere the magnetic field is tangential to the surface, i.e. the normal derivative of the potential vanishes there. Secondly, the value of the field very far from the sample should match $`𝐁_{ext}`$:

$`U(𝐫)𝐫𝐁_{ext}(r\mathrm{}).`$ (3)
The scalar potential $`U(𝐑_j+𝐫_j)`$ near sphere $`j`$ can be expanded in multipoles  which, introducing the boundary conditions at the surface of the sphere, can be written as

$`U(𝐑_j+𝐫_j)={\displaystyle \underset{\lambda =1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu =\lambda }{\overset{\lambda }{}}}Y_{\lambda \mu }(\widehat{r}_j)c_{\lambda \mu }(j)\left\{\left({\displaystyle \frac{a}{r_j}}\right)^{\lambda +1}+{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda +1}{\lambda }}\left({\displaystyle \frac{r_j}{a}}\right)^\lambda \right\}+K(j),`$ (4)
where $`Y_{\lambda \mu }(\widehat{r}_j)`$ are spherical harmonics, and $`c_{\lambda \mu }(j)`$ and $`K(j)`$ are the coefficients of the expansion. There is one of these expansions for each sphere.

From all the expansions, and employing the boundary conditions, the coefficients satisfy the following equations :

$`K(j)=𝐑_j𝐁_{ext}+{\displaystyle \underset{kj}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\lambda =1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu =\lambda }{\overset{\lambda }{}}}A_{00\lambda \mu }(j,k)c_{\lambda \mu }(k)`$ (5)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda +1}{\lambda }}c_{\lambda \mu }(j)=\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{3}}}B_{ext}a\delta _{\lambda 1}\delta _{\mu 0}+{\displaystyle \underset{kj}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\lambda ^{}=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu ^{}=\lambda ^{}}{\overset{\lambda ^{}}{}}}A_{\lambda \mu \lambda ^{}\mu ^{}}(j,k)c_{\lambda ^{}\mu ^{}}(k)`$ (6)
where the constants $`A_{\lambda \mu \lambda ^{}\mu ^{}}(j,k)`$ are given in Ref. . Without loss of generality, in Eq. (6) we have placed the external field in the $`z`$-direction. After determining the values of the unknowns $`c_{\lambda \mu }(j)`$ and $`K(j)`$ for a given configuration, it is possible to calculate the surface fields from Eq. (4).

The constants $`K(j)`$ only give additive contributions to the potential and do not affect the magnetic field values, so the problem is, in principle, to solve the infinite set of linear equations (6) for the unknown $`c`$’s. In practice one only takes into account a limited number of multipolar terms according to the desired precision. Even then, the number of unknowns is so large that a direct solution of the Eqs. (6) is a formidable task for configurations with a representative number $`N`$ of spheres. Instead, we employ the following iterative method . Eq. (6) can formally be written as a matrix equation for the vector of unknown $`𝐜`$

$`𝐜=𝐛+A𝐜`$ (7)
whose solution is

$`𝐜=(IA)^1𝐛`$ (8)
which can be expanded as a power series in $`A`$,

$`𝐜=\left(I+A+A^2+A^3+\mathrm{}\right)𝐛.`$ (9)
The simplest way to numerically perform this expansion is to apply the iteration

$`𝐜_{i+1}=𝐛+A𝐜_i,`$ (10)
$`𝐜_0=𝐛.`$ (11)
The dependence of the $`A`$ matrix elements on the distance between the spheres guarantees the convergence of this expansion, which is faster for more dilute systems. The desired precision is achieved by iteratively applying Eq. (10) until the change of the coefficients $`c`$ is lower than a prescribed value.

The procedure in our simulations is then as follows: $`N`$ superconducting spheres are placed at random in the desired geometry according to the value of the given filling factor $`\rho `$ (fraction of volume occupied by the microgranules). The threshold values $`B_{th}`$ for every sphere are also assigned by using a given distribution. Applying the iterative method described above, the values of the coefficients $`c`$ are obtained, which enables determination of the local values of the magnetic field on the surface of any sphere from Eqs. (1,4). The maximum value of the surface field for each sphere is then calculated by standard routines of minimization of multivariate functions. The comparison of these maximum surface fields with the respective values of $`B_{th}`$ permits selection of the first superconducting sphere that will transit to normal under an increase of the applied magnetic field. Furthermore, the precise value of $`B_{ext}`$ at which the transition occurs is monitored. Subsequently, the system becomes one of $`N1`$ superconducting spheres. The long-range nature of the diamagnetic interactions changes the surface magnetic field values of the remaining superconducting spheres on any transition. This leads us to repeat the same calculation process after each transition until all spheres have transited.

## III Results and discussion

For the simulations we have employed a distribution of values of $`B_{th}`$ consistent with experimental results for tin microspheres diluted in paraffin . A parabolic distribution fit is used in the interval between $`0.8B_{sh}`$ and $`B_{sh}`$ . This distribution of $`B_{th}`$ values was obtained from experimental data corresponding to systems with small $`\rho `$ extrapolated to $`\rho =0`$. The number of initially superconducting spheres employed in simulations was $`N=250`$ for dilute dispersions with $`\rho `$ values from $`0.001`$ up to $`0.05`$, and $`N=150`$ for denser systems with $`\rho `$ up to $`0.20`$. For each case we performed averages over a number of independent configurations between $`2`$ to $`7`$. The geometrical ratio $`\alpha `$ was chosen to be $`10`$. This large value of $`\alpha `$ makes finite-size effects important for the larger volume fractions employed. Indeed for $`\rho =0.20`$ a system of $`N=150`$ has a width of only $`4.6`$ sphere radius, and hence cannot be considered as truly $`3`$\- dimensional. However, it also avoids the appearance at these densities of percolating clusters associated to diamagnetic contact, which in fact has been ignored in simulations.

The fraction $`f`$ of remaining superconducting spheres during an increase of the external field is shown in Fig. 2 versus $`B_{ext}`$ for different values of $`\rho `$. The furthest to the right continuous line in this figure shows the expected behavior for isolated spheres, for which the maximum surface field is equal to $`3/2B_{ext}`$, and therefore can be directly related to the distribution of $`B_{th}`$ values. We see that for the most dilute case ($`\rho =0.001`$) the $`f`$ values closely follow that $`\rho =0`$ limit, except for a few transitions occurring earlier than expected corresponding to spheres whose distances to the nearest neighbor are not very large (about $`0.100.15`$ times the radius value). Therefore, for such a dilute case, the observed spread in the transition field values can be attributed to surface defects. However, Fig. 2 shows transitions for increasingly lower external fields as the concentrations of the sample are increased. This enhanced spread in the transition fields is produced by the diamagnetic interactions between spheres in these more densely packed configurations, which generate local surface fields much higher than the externally applied field and are the origin of the observed dependence on the sample filling factor. We see that diamagnetic interactions start to be the most important factor in transition spreading for filling factors of a few per cent. Indeed half of the spheres have undergone transitions at $`B_{ext}=0.48B_{sh}`$ for $`\rho =0.20`$, while for $`\rho =0.001`$ a field $`B_{ext}=0.60B_{sh}`$ is required. Similar behavior was observed in the experimental results of Dubos and Larrea . In these experiments half of the spheres transited at $`B_{ext}=0.48B_{sh}`$ for $`\rho =0.25`$, at $`B_{ext}=0.50B_{sh}`$ for $`\rho =0.20`$, and $`B_{ext}=0.53B_{sh}`$ for $`\rho =0.04`$. This agreement confirms that the mechanisms implemented in the simulations (presence of surface defects and influence of diamagnetic interactions) are essentially correct.

These results suggest an analysis of our results in terms of the perturbative theory of Geigenmüller , which takes into account these mechanisms under the same hypotheses (ignoring partial transitions, diamagnetic contact, etc) assumed in our numerical simulations. This theory performs a systematic expansion of quantities such as the surface field distribution and the transition sequence in powers of the filling factor. Within the framework of this expansion we can write :

$$f(B_{ext},\rho )=f_0(B_{ext})+\rho f_1(B_{ext})+O(\rho ^2)$$
(12)
where the zeroth order is the same $`\rho =0`$ prediction represented in Fig. 2. This expansion shows how the distribution of $`B_{th}`$ can be obtained from experimental data by performing measurements on samples of different densities and extrapolating the results to $`\rho 0`$ . In this expansion, each order can be calculated from this distribution of threshold fields $`B_{th}`$, and involves increasingly higher order contributions both in the number of spheres and in multipolar interactions. In the present state of the theory, calculations are done up to first order, which is equivalent to considering only two-body interactions.

The comparison between our simulations and the results of the Geigenmüller theory should permit one to define the range of validity of the linear approximation, and provide an insight into the effects of higher order terms. To this end Fig. 2 also shows the predictions of Eq. 12 and Ref.  for $`\rho =0`$, $`0.01`$, $`0.05`$ and $`0.10`$ as continuous lines. We see that the theory does contain the observed trend of transitions to occur for lower external fields due to diamagnetic interactions, but agreement does not seem to be quantitative except for extremely dilute samples. For the $`5\%`$ case agreement appears to be rather poor and it is worse for denser systems.

A more appropriate test of the linear approximation involved in Eq. 12 is the study of the dependence of $`f`$ on the density $`\rho `$ for different values of $`B_{ext}`$. This is shown in Fig. 3, where symbols represent simulation results and lines are the perturbative predictions of Eq. 12. Note that the evolution of a system during successive transitions is represented by points at constant $`\rho `$ and increasing values of $`B_{ext}`$. We see that the perturbative calculation of Eq. 12 provides a correct qualitative picture of the transitions. However, for intermediate values of $`B_{ext}`$, the differences between theory and simulations begin to be non-negligible at volume fractions between $`2`$ \- $`5\%`$. These results further indicate that $`\rho 0`$ extrapolations of experimental results, performed in order to obtain information on the distribution of values of $`B_{th}`$, should only be made with very dilute systems. This may explain the apparent discrepancies between theory and experiment found in Refs. , where the values of $`f_0`$ and $`f_1`$ were evaluated by linear extrapolations of experimental data up to $`\rho =5\%`$. In view of Fig. 3, this procedure should yield erroneous results in the range of the most interesting values of $`B_{ext}`$, where transitions mostly occur. It is precisely in this range where the contribution of $`f_1`$ in Eq. 12 is more important, so it is here where a breakdown of the perturbative scheme is expected . We will address this point below.

The study of the maximum values of the magnetic field on the surface of the granules is the key point in analyzing the transitions, as pointed out above. This is a quantity that is not accessible to direct experimental measurements. The theory of Geigenmüller provides estimates of the distribution of values of such maximum fields in the small-density expansion :

$$P(B_{max},\rho )=P_0(B_{max})+\rho P_1(B_{max})+O(\rho ^2)$$
(13)
In this equation $`P(B_{max},\rho )`$ stands for the fraction of superconducting spheres with a maximum surface magnetic field smaller than $`B_{max}`$. We have omitted the implicit dependence of such quantities on $`B_{ext}`$. $`P_0(B_{max})`$ is the step function $`\theta (B_{max}3/2B_{ext})`$, i.e. the result for isolated spheres. The linear term describes the broadening of the distribution due to magnetic interactions . These interactions change at each transition during the increase of the external field, and therefore are history dependent. This is the reason why the broadening described by $`P_1`$ depends on $`B_{ext}`$.

The problem of a systematic expansion in $`\rho `$ of quantities such as the distribution $`P(B_{max},\rho )`$ is that by its own nature the zeroth order is discontinuous, while the effect of a finite $`\rho `$ should smooth it. However, it is impossible that a linear correction such as Eq. 13 could do this job for all values of $`\rho `$. In fact, looking closely at the prediction of Eq. 13 around $`B_{max}=3/2B_{ext}`$ we can check that there exists a discontinuity and the distribution function ceases to be monotonous. This breakdown of the perturbative theory is shown in Fig. 4, where we represent the predictions of the theory for a dilute case ($`\rho =0.01`$) and a concentrated case ($`\rho =0.20`$) at an applied external field $`B_{ext}=0.5B_{sh}`$. At this value of $`B_{ext}`$ all transitions are exclusively due to diamagnetic interactions, and whereas for dilute systems only a small fraction have occurred, for more concentrated configurations the system is deeply immersed in the transition sequence. We see that two branches appear on both sides of the discontinuity at $`B_{max}=3/2B_{ext}`$. While both branches are close to each other for small $`\rho `$ and one could use some criterion to connect them, for large $`\rho `$ this is not the case. We have chosen to use the right-hand side branch in such situations to extract quantitative information and to compare it with simulations.

In Fig. 5 we show simulation and perturbative results of the distribution $`P`$ of maximum surface fields for systems at $`B_{ext}=0.2B_{sh}`$ and different initial values of $`\rho `$. These results are almost identical to the results without transitions of Ref. . For this value of the external field, only a reduced number of spheres have already transited, and what one sees is the result of the diamagnetic interactions on almost completely disordered configurations of superconducting spheres. Again, although the perturbative theory qualitatively describes the diamagnetic effects, namely the broadening of the maximum field distribution, it only appears as quantitatively correct for very small values of the occupied volume fraction. In Fig. 6 we show the analogous results for an external field $`B_{ext}=0.6B_{sh}`$. For this field the system has already suffered a large number of transitions except for the extremely dilute configurations. Here the convergence of the perturbative expansion is expected to be rather limited, and, in fact, its non-analytical behavior at $`B_{max}=3/2B_{ext}`$ is clearly seen. However the perturbative theory (the right-hand side branch) continues to provide satisfactory qualitative predictions. Note that the maximum field distributions are much narrower after this increase of the external field. In fact, when a large number of spheres have transited induced by the external field, those that remain superconducting are expected to form quite ordered configurations , and, as a consequence, the surface field values become more uniform in the sample . This feature is captured by the perturbative theory.

In order to show the ordering effect of the transitions more clearly we present the evolution of the distribution $`P`$ during the increase of $`B_{ext}`$ for three systems with representative values of the filling factor: $`\rho =0.001`$ (Fig. 7), $`\rho =0.01`$ (Fig. 8) and $`\rho =0.20`$ (Fig. 9). For each filling factor, both simulations and perturbative results are shown for values of the external field ranging from $`0.2B_{sh}`$ up to $`0.6B_{sh}`$, for which most transitions occur. We see again that the broadening of the field distribution is drastically reduced as the external field is increased. The results indicate discrepancies between the perturbative theory and the simulations for the lowest values of $`B_{ext}`$ even for very dilute systems. However, agreement improves as $`B_{ext}`$ increases and the systems undergo transitions.

The results obtained for the most dense system with a volume fraction $`\rho =0.20`$ (Fig. 9) are particularly interesting: the large discrepancies observed at $`B_{ext}=0.2B_{sh}`$ evolve to a fair agreement for $`B_{ext}=0.5B_{sh}`$ or $`B_{ext}=0.6B_{sh}`$. In Fig. 10 we characterize the distribution of maximum surface fields for this filling factor by its mean and its standard deviation values, which are represented versus the increasing external field and compared with the perturbative theory. One feature of the theory that is visible here is that it predicts transitions only for external fields greater than $`0.2B_{sh}`$. We see that the surface fields approach the isolated sphere values as $`B_{ext}`$ increases, whereas the standard deviation approaches zero indicating an increase of the uniformity of the system. We also see that the theory approaches the simulation results quite satisfactorily for external fields greater than $`0.4B_{sh}`$.

This agreement after transitions between simulations and a small density approximation is quite surprising for such a dense case, and appears to be better than that obtained for low densities and low external field. One possible explanation could be that when a large number of transitions have occurred, the effective filling factor (if we only take into account the remaining superconducting spheres) is smaller, and one could expect a better convergence of the $`\rho `$-expansion. However, this agreement corresponds to systems with effective volume fractions after transitions that are higher than in the low field systems represented in Figs. 7 and 8 for $`\rho =0.001`$ and $`0.01`$. This can be seen in Fig. 11, where we have represented the mean and standard deviation of the maximum surface fields versus the effective filling factor $`\rho _{ef}`$ for the dense system with initial $`\rho =0.20`$. In this figure the evolution of the system is to decreasing values of $`\rho _{ef}`$. We already see good agreement for $`\rho _{ef}=0.1`$, which is a rather large value. To show this, in Fig. 9 we have also represented the distribution of maximum fields for a configuration with the same $`\rho _{ef}`$ (slightly lower than $`0.1`$) than that of $`B_{ext}=0.5B_{sh}`$, but with positions completely at random, and the corresponding predictions from perturbative theory. Note the good agreement between theory and simulations for the system which has been ordered by transitions compared with the discrepancies observed for the last random configuration with the same effective filling factor. We can conclude that the perturbative theory implicitly includes the observed tendency to form ordered configurations of remaining superconducting spheres, and that it describes these resulting configurations quite well, even if they arise from much more concentrated initial systems. However this good behavior of the theory is not completely explained by the decrease of the effective filling factor during the transition process.

## IV Summary and Conclusions

In summary, we have performed numerical simulations of disordered suspensions of superheated superconducting granules (SSG), transiting to normal when an external magnetic field is slowly increased from zero. Transitions are controlled by the local surface magnetic fields, which depend in a non-trivial way on the geometrical configuration of the superconducting granules via strong diamagnetic interactions, and the presence of surface defects. Performed simulations employ complete resolutions of the Laplace equation for the magnetic field with suitable boundary conditions on the surface of the superconducting spheres, and therefore are expected to provide results which are not limited to dilute samples. Consistent comparison with previous experimental results indicates that the simulations capture the mechanisms involved in the real system, and their use in simulations appears to be essentially correct. A better comparison with experimental results might need a revision of the $`B_{th}`$ distribution. Also the employ of a larger number of spheres in simulations could be necessary to reduce finite-size effects . On the other hand, the numerical method can be straightforwardly generalized to SSG configurations with spheres of different sizes. Preliminary simulations with realistic size distributions show the same qualitative behaviour than obtained with spheres of equal radius.

Transition sequences as a function of the (increasing) applied field have been obtained for a large range of granule concentrations. Distributions of local maximum surface fields, a relevant quantity in interpreting SSG experiments but not directly measurable, have also been obtained. Results indicate a non-negligible effect of diamagnetic interactions between spheres, even for dilute systems, manifested in transitions occurring for lower external fields. These interactions appear as the most dominant factor in transitions for filling factors starting at a few per cent. The distribution of maximum surface fields becomes wider for denser configurations owing to diamagnetic interactions, but successive transitions induced for these interactions reduce the dispersion of these surface fields. This homogenising effect is associated with a positional ordering of the remaining superconducting spheres, and should be an important factor in reducing the energy uncertainty in detection applications of SSG systems.

We have compared simulation results of both transitions and surface field distributions with the analytical cluster expansion of Geigenmüller . Theory and simulations share the same mechanisms (diamagnetic interactions and surface defects), and the same hypothesis (not considering partial transitions nor diamagnetic contacts) in modeling SSG systems. However the theory has been developed up to first order in the filling factor, which limits the calculation to two body interactions. Simulation results show that the perturbative theory qualitatively predicts the behavior of the system, namely the dependence of the transitions and the maximum surface fields on the concentration of the sample and on the value of the external applied field. However, perturbative theory is quantitatively correct only for very dilute samples, with occupied volume fractions of at most $`1`$ \- $`2\%`$. This range of validity increases for systems initially at higher densities after having undergone a large number of transitions. The ordering of these resulting configurations is well described by the theory.

As a final conclusion, diamagnetic interactions appear to be a factor of fundamental concern in SSG systems. Results from perturbative expansions, although providing a very useful framework for analyzing experiments, have a rather limited range of validity, and should be used with caution in obtaining quantitative information. In particular, extrapolation to the zero concentration limit of experimental data should only be performed for very dilute samples, within the validity range of the expansion. The use of simulations to obtain results for all densities should become an essential tool in interpreting SSG experiments. In this sense, generalization of the theoretical framework in which both simulations and perturbative theory are based could be essential to analyze very concentrated systems, in which partial transitions due to diamagnetic contact can occur.

These results, or more properly the numerical techniques in obtaining them, may also be of interest in a re-examination of the earlier Ginzburg-Landau parameter determinations from multi-grain measurements of the supercooled-to-superconducting transition. This numerical approach should also be of use in areas of condensed matter physics other than superconductivity, such as viscous fluid flow through a disordered porous medium, where similar equations arise, or investigation of the magnetic properties of ultrathin ferromagnetic films .

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank T. Girard for helpful discussions and manuscript corrections. We acknowledge financial support from Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Técnica (Spain) (Projects BFM2000-0624-C03-02 and PB98-1203), Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca (Spain) (Projects 1999SGR00145 and 2000XT-0005), and European Commision (Project TMR-ERBFMRXCT96-0085). We also acknowledge computing support from Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca-Centre de Supercomputació de Catalunya (Spain).


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# FIRST 0747+2739: A FIRST/2MASS Quasar with an Overabundance of C IV Absorption Systems

## 1 Introduction

It is generally agreed that the broad absorption line (BAL) systems seen in the spectra of many quasars are intrinsic to the quasar, arising from high velocity outflow of gas directly from the accretion disk region (Weymann et al., 1991). Narrow absorption lines in quasar spectra, however, arise from a variety of sources. Narrow absorption lines with small velocities relative to the quasar emission redshift could be caused by galaxies along the line of sight, clouds in the interstellar medium of the host galaxy, or even smaller scale gas flows within a few parsecs of the black hole. On the other hand, most of the narrow absorption systems that have large velocities with respect to the emission redshift of the quasar are thought to be intervening (Sargent et al., 1988); however, there is increasing evidence that even some fraction of these may be intrinsic. In many BAL quasars, the absorption troughs have considerable structure, suggesting a connection to narrow absorption line systems. We discuss the spectrum of a newly discovered quasar, FIRST J074711.2+273904 (hereafter FIRST 0747+2739), with an overdensity of C IV absorbers in its spectrum. It may be an example of an object whose BAL component has been caught in a transitional state that could be related to orientation, time, or density.

## 2 Data

FIRST 0747+2739 was discovered in the early stages of an ongoing project to search for extremely red quasars (Gregg et al., 2002). Candidates are found by matching point sources from the The 2-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS; Kleinmann et al. 1994) with FIRST radio sources, and then further matching to an optical catalog such as the APM (McMahon & Irwin, 1992). This object also has been discovered independently by Benn et al. (2002). FIRST 0747+2739 has $`RK=2.5`$, not particularly red, but it is undetected on the blue Palomar sky survey plate, yielding $`BK7`$. The initial spectrum was obtained using the Kast spectrograph on the Lick Observatory 3m telescope. A higher signal-to-noise spectrum was obtained at Keck Observatory using the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (LRIS; Oke et al. 1995), revealing a strikingly rich system of absorption lines redward of Ly$`\alpha `$.

FIRST 0747+2739 is located at $`07^\mathrm{h}47^\mathrm{m}11^\mathrm{s}.208+27^{}39\mathrm{}04\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}00`$ (J2000). There is a 2MASS source within $`1\mathrm{}`$ with $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K`$ magnitudes of $`16.77`$, $`16.16`$, and $`15.38`$, respectively. The peak $`20\mathrm{cm}`$ flux density as measured by FIRST (Becker et al., 1995) is $`1.08\pm 0.14\mathrm{mJy}`$; the integrated FIRST flux density is $`1.55\mathrm{mJy}`$.

Motivated by the LRIS spectrum, we obtained a high-dispersion spectrum of FIRST 0747+2739 using the echelle spectrograph and imager (ESI; Epps & Miller 1998) on the Keck II telescope on the night of 2000 April 6. The night was photometric with $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9`$ seeing. A 900s high-resolution spectrum was taken through a $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}0`$ slit in the echellette mode of ESI. In this mode, the spectral range of $`3900\mathrm{\AA }`$ to $`11000\mathrm{\AA }`$ is covered in 10 spectral orders with a nearly constant dispersion of $`11.4\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{pixel}^1`$. The signal-to-noise of the spectrum ranges from 20 to 40 per pixel. Wavelength calibrations were performed with observations of a CuAr lamp. The spectrophotometric standard G191-B2B (Massey et al., 1988; Massey & Gronwall, 1990) was observed for flux calibration. All observations were carried out at the parallactic angle. The data were reduced using a tailored set of IRAF and IDL routines developed by us specifically for ESI data.

## 3 Analysis and Discussion

The overdensity of absorption features in the spectrum of FIRST 0747+2739 is immediately apparent in the Keck ESI data (Figure 1). Also conspicuous are a weak trough-like feature near $`7815\mathrm{\AA }`$ and two damped Ly$`\alpha `$ systems. The region longward of Ly$`\alpha `$ emission is plotted on an expanded scale in the lower panels of Figure 1. We used an automated routine to search this spectral region for absorption lines with significance greater than $`10\sigma `$. A total of 42 absorption line systems were identified, 34 being C IV doublets, including a BAL-like C IV trough. The systems are given in Table 1, which lists the system identification code, the redshift, the rest equivalent width of the blue and red components of the C IV doublet (if detected), the “ejection” velocity of the system, and other absorption species belonging to each system. The velocities are with respect to the quasar redshift and are given by $`v=(R^21)/(R^2+1)`$, where $`R=(1+z_{em})/(1+z_{abs})`$. The individual systems are merged into 18 “Poisson” systems (14 of which are C IV) by combining absorbers within $`1000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Sargent et al., 1988).

### 3.1 Line Densities

How unusual is the abundance of C IV absorbers seen towards FIRST 0747+2739? At high-redshift, Steidel (1990) found that (based on 11 quasars) the expected number of C IV absorbers per unit redshift is approximately $`1.0\pm 0.5`$ at $`z3.25`$ for rest equivalent width larger than $`0.15\mathrm{\AA }`$ and $`\beta c>5000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. If we sum the equivalent widths of the each of the C IV systems within $`150\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, and ignore those three systems with $`\beta c<5000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, we find seven combined systems with rest equivalent widths larger than $`0.15\mathrm{\AA }`$ for both lines in the C IV doublet. The path length searched for C IV between Ly$`\alpha `$ emission and C IV emission is $`\mathrm{\Delta }z=0.984`$. Thus, $`dN/dz`$ is $`7.11`$ for this line of sight — an excess of 12 standard deviations from the Steidel (1990) measurement.

For weak C IV lines, Tripp et al. (1996) find $`dN/dz=7.1\pm 1.7`$ for $`W_r>0.03\mathrm{\AA }`$ and $`1.5<z<2.9`$ (based on four quasars). If we impose constraints on the Tripp et al. (1996) data to match our more conservative $`10\sigma `$ significance limit and combine systems within $`200\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, then the density reported by Tripp et al. (1996) is reduced to $`dN/dz=3.75\pm 1.25`$. In our Keck ESI spectrum of FIRST 0747+2739 we find, using the same criteria, at least 9 distinct high-velocity C IV systems. Over the path length observed, that yields $`dN/dz=9.1\pm 3.0`$, which is a $`4.3\sigma `$ excess as compared to Tripp et al. (1996); thus there is evidence that the overdensity of absorption may extend to weaker systems.

Since Sargent et al. (1988) and Steidel (1990) found that the density of absorption lines decreases with increasing redshift (for strong lines) and since the C IV absorption systems found in FIRST 0747+2739 are at higher redshifts than either the Tripp et al. (1996) or Steidel (1990) samples, our observed density of lines may be even more significant.

What can explain the large overdensity of absorption toward FIRST 0747+2739? All possible explanations can be classified as intervening or intrinsic. In the intervening case, the absorption lines arise from material associated with galaxies along the line of sight that have no relation to the quasar. In the intrinsic case, the absorption is caused by high velocity ejecta from the quasar itself.

### 3.2 The Intervening Hypothesis

The number density of strong C IV lines towards this quasar is much larger than is normally observed. An examination of the spectra and tables from Sargent et al. (1988) and Steidel (1990) along with a query of the York et al. (1991) catalog of quasar absorption lines reveals that such a concentration of C IV absorption over such a long path length is extremely rare. None of the 11 high-redshift quasars from Steidel (1990) has a density of C IV absorption higher than FIRST 0747+2739. Two of the 55 lower redshift quasars from Sargent et al. (1988) do have absorption line densities higher then FIRST 0747+2739; Q0013-004 (UM 224; $`z=2.086`$) and Q0854+191 ($`z=1.896`$) have six and seven strong ($`W_r>0.15\mathrm{\AA }`$) “Poisson” systems over path lengths of $`\mathrm{\Delta }z0.6`$, respectively.

Quasars that have relatively high densities of absorption have created much interest in the search for signs of superclustering at high redshift (e.g., Heisler et al., 1989; Romani et al., 1991; Foltz et al., 1993; Dinshaw & Impey, 1996). However, most of these quasars have absorption systems where the overdensity is very limited in its redshift range, such as CSO 118 (Ganguly et al., 2001) and the well-studied PKS 0237$``$233 (Foltz et al., 1993). FIRST 074711.2+273904 is different in the sense that the overdensity of C IV absorption is spread over a large redshift range ($`\mathrm{\Delta }z1`$) — much too large to be explained by a single supercluster. A search of the NASA Extragalactic Database (NED) to look for other quasars to test the superclustering hypothesis found no other known quasars within 30 arcminutes, although there are five other radio sources within $`10\mathrm{}`$ of FIRST 0747+2739.

One possible way to reconcile the intervening hypothesis with the absorption line overdensity in FIRST 0747+2739 is if the quasar is being gravitationally magnified by the intervening material. Such magnification could occur without producing multiple images, and might help to explain why a quasar with $`z>4`$ is so bright. The possibility of compound microlensing of quasars by their absorption line systems is not a new concept (Thomas et al., 1995; Vanden Berk et al., 1996). This object, however, is a point source in our NIRC K-band image from Keck Observatory, obtained in 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$4 seeing.

Finally, it is possible that the apparent overdensity of absorption systems in FIRST 0747+2739 is either just chance coincidence, or is not actually all that uncommon. The number of high-redshift quasars that are well-studied for absorption is still quite small and additional investigations may yet turn up more cases like FIRST 0747+2739. Such a finding would not necessarily be evidence for either the intrinsic or the intervening hypothesis, however. For now, we conclude that the nature of FIRST 0747+2739 is highly unusual and next to impossible to reconcile with any picture where a significant number of the absorbing systems can be attributed to intervening objects unassociated with the quasar.

### 3.3 The Intrinsic Hypothesis

Strong circumstantial evidence to support the intrinsic interpretation for the plethora of narrow, high-velocity absorption systems in FIRST 0747+2739 is the presence of similar, almost certainly intrinsic, absorption at low velocities relative to the quasar emission line frame. System S is typical of intrinsic absorption line systems seen in other quasars, exhibiting N V absorption and a small blueshift relative to the quasar’s C IV emission redshift. System Q appears to be a weak BAL-like outflow; System P is also broad, but the blue and red components of the troughs are resolved. Finally, System R, with a velocity of only $`+1600`$ km s<sup>-1</sup>, may also be an intrinsic absorption system.

There is ample evidence in the literature for the intrinsic interpretation of high-velocity non-BAL outflows in quasars. Jannuzi et al. (1996) and Hamann et al. (1997a) found weak, high-velocity, trough-like outflows; Hamann et al. (1997a) showed that the outflows in Q 2345+125 are intrinsic because the absorption profiles varied in $`3.5`$ months in the quasar rest frame. Richards (2001) and Richards et al. (2001) give statistical evidence that some narrow, high-velocity C IV absorption line systems may be intrinsic in nature. Finally, Ganguly et al. (2001) discuss an overdensity of C IV absorption in CSO 118.

FIRST 0747+2739 is similar to one of the quasars that comprise the so-called “Tololo Pair” (e.g., Dinshaw & Impey, 1996), namely Tol 1038$``$2712, which also has weak BAL-like troughs. This well-studied pair is a favorite for superclustering studies (e.g., Jakobsen et al., 1986) since the two quasars appear to have common absorption line systems despite the rather large ($`17\mathrm{}.9`$) separation between the quasars. Other authors (e.g., Cristiani et al., 1987; Robertson, 1987) still favor the hypothesis that both are BALQSOs and the absorption is from intrinsic high velocity outflow. The velocity separation of the lines in the Tololo Pair is reminiscent of the of the double-trough BAL structure found by Korista et al. (1993) for BALQSOs in general, lending credence to the idea that the absorption lines in the Tololo pair are intrinsic. In any case, the similarity of Tol 1038$``$2712 and FIRST 0747+2739 may help lead to an understanding of the nature of the absorption in both systems.

Q1303+308 provides another interesting comparison; because of its complex absorption structure, it has been classified as a BALQSO (Foltz et al., 1987); however, the absorption lines are all very narrow and do not meet the traditional BAL criteria set forth largely by the same authors a few years later (Weymann et al., 1991). One must then wonder, how we would classify an object with a slightly lower incidence of absorption than Q1303+308. Such an object might simply be classified as a quasar with an overdensity of absorption line systems much like FIRST 0747+2739.

The fashionable method of determining whether a particular absorption system is intrinsic is either to determine the “coverage fraction” of the quasar or to show that the absorption line system is variable (Barlow et al., 1997; Hamann et al., 1997b). Lacking the data to test for variability, we have analyzed the coverage fractions for each of our systems as a function of velocity. Many of the high-velocity systems do indeed have coverage fractions that are consistent with the intrinsic hypothesis; however, the majority of the systems are resolved into multiple components or blended, which means that the coverage fraction results are not entirely reliable. Thus, on the basis of our covering fraction analysis alone, we are not able to confirm (or exclude) the possibility that the overdensity of absorption lines in this quasar spectrum is due to intrinsic absorption.

Regardless of the lack of conclusive evidence from variability or coverage fractions, the presence of trough-like absorption at moderate velocities and the large redshift span of the overdensity of the C IV absorption points towards an intrinsic origin of at least some of the relatively narrow, high-velocity C IV absorption systems. We suggest that FIRST 0747+2739 is a quasar in transition from (to) a quasi-BAL object to (from) a standard quasar. The lack of strong, broad absorption can be explained as being the result of one or more effects. As time goes on, it may be natural for the lines to become narrow as the clouds dissipate down to their small, dense cores; or BAL features might be a superposition of many narrow features and FIRST 0747+2739 has a relatively low density of them; or perhaps the many narrow absorbers can somehow be attributed to orientation effects.

## 4 Conclusions

In summary, we find that that overdensity of C IV absorption lines seen along the line of sight to FIRST 0747+2739 is sufficiently high that it is likely that at least some of these systems are high-velocity, intrinsic absorption systems. The presence of weak trough-like absorption features suggests that FIRST 0747+2739 may be a transitional BAL quasar that is being observed at a brief phase in its transition to (or from) a standard quasar, or is being viewed at a highly specific orientation, or that it is a BAL with a very low absorber density. If the absorption is intrinsic, monitoring with high resolution spectroscopy over the course of $`18`$ months may reveal variability of the absorbers, a signature of intrinsic absorption. Confirmation (or exclusion) of the intrinsic hypothesis for the unusually large number of high-velocity C IV systems in FIRST 0747+2739 would have interesting consequences for C IV absorption line studies, particularly high-redshift superclustering studies.

GTR acknowledges support from NSF grant AST99-00703. RHB and MDG acknowledge support from the NSF (grants AST-98-02791 and AST-98-02732) and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (operated under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. W-7405-Eng-48). This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We thank Rajib Ganguly and Jane Charlton for useful discussions.


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# The Nature of the faint far-infrared extragalactic source population: Optical/NIR and radio follow-up observations of ISOPHOT deep-field sources using Keck, Subaru, and VLA telescopes

## 1. Introduction

Deep surveys at FIR and submilimeter wavelengths have been carried out in order to investigate the nature of dust-enshrouded galaxies at high redshift. As a contribution to this field, our group made a deep FIR survey using the ISOPHOT camera on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) satellite (Kawara et al. 1998; Matsuhara et al. 2000). Mapping at 90$`\mu `$m and 170$`\mu `$m of two $`44^{}\times 44^{}`$ fields in the Lockman Hole (LH\_EX and LH\_NW), a region exhibiting the lowest H i column density in the sky (Lockman et al. 1986), resulted in the detection of 36 sources with $`f_{90}>`$ 150 mJy and 45 sources with $`f_{170}>`$ 150 mJy. Given the relatively large size of the ISOPHOT beam at 170$`\mu `$m ($``$90<sup>′′</sup>), we have obtained opt/NIR images and spectra using telescopes on Mauna Kea and 6cm radio continuum maps using the VLA (Yun et al. 2002) to identify the most likely source of the 170$`\mu `$m emission. Here we report our initial identifications of the brightest of the ISOPHOT 170$`\mu `$m sources.

## 2. Results and Discussion

Redshifts of 35 FIR source candidates were determined using optical spectra obtained with ESI on Keck II during three observing runs in 2000 March and 2001 January. Infrared luminosities, $`L_{\mathrm{ir}}(81000\mu m)`$, were then estimated by using the ISOPHOT fluxes and assuming an SED similar to that of Arp 220. We found one hyperluminous infrared galaxy (HyLIG: $`L_{\mathrm{ir}}>10^{13}L_{}`$) at $`z=1.6`$, 11 ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs: $`L_{\mathrm{ir}}>10^{12}L_{}`$) at $`0.3<z<1`$, 12 luminous infrared galaxies (LIGs: $`L_{\mathrm{ir}}>10^{11}L_{}`$), and 11 galaxies with $`L_{\mathrm{ir}}<10^{11}L_{}`$. Except for one LIG at $`z=0.365`$, all of the galaxies with $`L_{\mathrm{ir}}<10^{12}L_{}`$) are at $`z<0.3`$. The mean redshift for all sources is $`0.31\pm 0.31`$.

The low-resolution ESI spectra were used to determine the optical spectral-type of the candidate ISOPHOT sources. Following procedures used by Murayama & Taniguchi (1998), the spectra were classified into four types – AGNs, LINERs, HII-type, and early-type (without emission lines). The HyLIG at $`z=1.6`$ was found to be a quasar. One ULIG had an early-type spectrum and 10 ULIGs are HII galaxies. Among the remaining 23 lower-luminosity sources, there was one early-type galaxy, one Seyfert 2, 10 LINERs and 11 HII galaxies. Thus, based on our low-resolution ESI optical spectra most of the ISOPHOT 175$`\mu `$m sources appear to be powered primarily by star formation, consistent with the conclusion reached from an analysis of ISOPHOT number counts by Matsuhara et al. (2000) that most of the ISOPHOT sources are star-forming galaxies at $`z<1`$.

## References

Kawara, K., et al. 1998, A&A, 336, L9

Lockman, F. J., Jahoda, K. & McCammon, D. 1986, ApJ, 302, 432

Matsuhara, H., et al. 2000, A&A, 361, 407

Murayama, T. & Taniguchi, Y. 1998, PASJ, 50,241

Yun, M. S., et al. 2002, in preparation