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# Verification of Atiyah’s conjecture for some nonplanar configurations with dihedral symmetry

## 1. Introduction

Let $`(x_1,\mathrm{},x_N)`$ be an ordered $`N`$-tuple of distinct points in $`\text{R}^3`$. Each ordered pair $`(x_i,x_j)`$ with $`ij`$ determines a point

$$\frac{x_jx_i}{|x_jx_i|}$$

on the unit sphere $`S^2\text{R}^3`$. Identify $`S^2`$ with the complex projective line $`\mathrm{𝐂𝐏}^1`$ by using a stereographic projection. We obtain a point $`(u_{ij},v_{ij})\mathrm{𝐂𝐏}^1`$ and a nonzero linear form $`l_{ij}=u_{ij}x+v_{ij}y\text{C}[x,y]`$. Define homogeneous polynomials $`p_i\text{C}[x,y]`$ of degree $`N1`$ by

(1.1)
$$p_i=\underset{ji}{}l_{ij}(x,y),i=1,\mathrm{},N.$$

###### Conjecture 1.1.

(Atiyah ) The polynomials $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_N`$ are linearly independent.

Atiyah  observed that his conjecture is true if the points $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_N`$ are collinear. He also verified the conjecture for $`N=3`$. Then Eastwood and Norbury  verified it for $`N=4`$. In our previous note  we verified this conjecture for two special planar configurations of $`N`$ points. For additional information on the conjecture (further conjectures, generalizations, and numerical evidence) see .

Apart from the above mentioned result for arbitrary four points, there are no results known for nonplanar configurations. In this note we prove Atiyah’s conjecture for the infinite family of nonplanar configurations described in the abstract.

## 2. Preliminaries

Identify $`\text{R}^3`$ with $`\text{R}\times \text{C}`$ and denote the origin by $`O`$. Following Eastwood and Norbury , we make use of the Hopf map $`h:\text{C}^2\{O\}(\text{R}\times \text{C})\{O\}`$ defined by:

$$h(z,w)=((|z|^2|w|^2)/2,z\overline{w}).$$

This map is surjective and its fibers are the circles $`\{(zu,wu):uS^1\}`$, where $`S^1`$ is the unit circle in C. If $`h(z,w)=(a,v)`$, we say that $`(z,w)`$ is a lift of $`(a,v)`$.

Let $`x_i=(a_i,z_i)`$. For the sake of simplicity, we assume that if $`i<j`$ and $`z_i=z_j`$ then $`a_i<a_j`$. As the lift of the vector $`x_jx_i`$, $`i<j`$, we choose

$$\lambda _{ij}^{1/2}(\lambda _{ij},\overline{z}_j\overline{z}_i),$$

where

$$\lambda _{ij}=a_ja_i+\sqrt{(a_ja_i)^2+|z_jz_i|^2}.$$

Then

$$\lambda _{ij}^{1/2}(z_iz_j,\lambda _{ij}),$$

is a lift of $`x_ix_j`$. The corresponding linear forms are

$`l_{ij}(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda _{ij}x+(\overline{z}_j\overline{z}_i)y,i<j;`$
$`l_{ij}(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`(z_jz_i)x+\lambda _{ji}y,i>j.`$
Define the binary forms $`p_i`$ by using (1.1) and the above expressions for the $`l_{ij}`$’s. Atiyah’s conjecture asserts that the $`N\times N`$ coefficient matrix of these forms is nonsingular.

## 3. Verification of the conjecture

We shall prove Atiyah’s conjecture for the configurations of $`N`$ points satisfying the following two conditions:

* The first $`m`$ points $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_m`$ lie on a line $`L`$.
* The remaining $`n=Nm`$ points $`y_j=x_{m+j+1}`$ $`(j=0,1,\mathrm{},n1)`$ are the vertices of a regular $`n`$-gon whose plane is perpendicular to $`L`$, and whose centroid lies on $`L`$.

Without any loss of generality, we may assume that $`L=\text{R}\times \{0\}`$ and that the $`y_j`$’s lie on the unit circle in $`\{0\}\times \text{C}`$. Write $`x_i=(a_i,0)`$ for $`i=1,\mathrm{},m`$ and $`y_j=(0,b_j)`$ for $`j=0,1,\mathrm{},n1`$. We may also assume that $`a_1<a_2<\mathrm{}<a_m`$ and that $`b_j=\zeta ^j`$, where $`\zeta =e^{2\pi i/n}`$.

The lifts of the nonzero vectors $`x_jx_i`$, $`i,j\{1,\mathrm{},N\}`$ are given in Table 1, where we have set

$$\lambda _i=a_i+\sqrt{1+a_i^2}.$$

Table 1: The lifts of the vectors $`x_jx_i`$

$$\begin{array}{cccc}\mathrm{Vectors}\hfill & \mathrm{Index}\mathrm{restrictions}& \hfill \mathrm{Lifts}& \mathrm{Linear}\mathrm{forms}\\ & & & \\ x_rx_i\hfill & i<rm& \hfill \left(2(a_ra_i)\right)^{1/2}(1,0)& x\\ x_rx_i\hfill & r<im& \hfill \left(2(a_ia_r)\right)^{1/2}(0,1)& y\\ y_sy_j\hfill & sj& \hfill |b_sb_j|^{1/2}(\frac{b_sb_j}{|b_sb_j|},1)& \frac{b_sb_j}{|b_sb_j|}x+y\\ y_jx_i\hfill & im& \hfill \lambda _i^{1/2}(1,\lambda _i\overline{b}_j)& x+\lambda _i\overline{b}_jy\\ x_iy_j\hfill & im& \hfill \lambda _i^{1/2}(\lambda _ib_j,1)& y\lambda _ib_jx\end{array}$$

The associated polynomials $`p_i`$ (up to scalar factors) are given by:

$`p_i(x,y)=x^{mi}y^{i1}\left(x^n\lambda _i^ny^n\right),1im;`$
$`p_{m+j+1}(x,y)={\displaystyle \underset{sj}{}}\left(x+{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{b}_s\overline{b}_j}{|b_sb_j|}}y\right){\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}}(y\lambda _ib_jx),0j<n.`$
We now give the proof of our result.

###### Theorem 3.1.

Atiyah’s conjecture is valid for configurations described above.

###### Proof.

If $`n=1`$ or $`2`$, these configurations are planar and they have been dealt with in . So, we assume that $`n3`$.

Note that

$$b_sb_j=2i\zeta ^{j+s}\mathrm{sin}\frac{\pi (sj)}{n}.$$

After dehomogenizing the polynomials $`p_i`$ by setting $`x=1`$, we obtain (up to scalar factors and ordering) the following polynomials:

(3.1) $`y^{i1}(1\lambda _i^ny^n),1im;`$
(3.2) $`f(\zeta ^jy),0j<n,`$
where

(3.3)
$$f(y)=\underset{s=1}{\overset{n1}{}}(yie^{\pi is/n})\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}(y+\lambda _i).$$

Denote by $`\stackrel{~}{E}_k`$ the $`k`$-th elementary symmetric function of the $`N1`$ numbers:

$$\lambda _i,(1im);ie^{\pi is/n},(1sn1).$$

By convention we set $`\stackrel{~}{E}_0=1`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{E}_k=0`$ if $`k<0`$ or $`kN`$. Then

$$f(y)=\underset{k=0}{\overset{N1}{}}\stackrel{~}{E}_{N1k}y^k.$$

By factorizing $`f`$ over the real numbers, we see that all coefficients of $`f`$ are positive.

Let $`P`$ be the coefficient matrix of the polynomials (3.1) and (3.2). The top $`m`$ rows of $`P`$ form the submatrix

$$\left(\begin{array}{cccccccccc}1& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 0& \lambda _1^n& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& \mathrm{}& 0& 0& \lambda _2^n& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& \mathrm{}& 0& 0& 0& \lambda _3^n& \mathrm{}& 0\\ \mathrm{}& & & & & & & & & \end{array}\right)$$

and the bottom $`n`$ rows the submatrix

$$\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}\stackrel{~}{E}_{N1}& \stackrel{~}{E}_{N2}& \stackrel{~}{E}_{N3}& \mathrm{}& \stackrel{~}{E}_1& \stackrel{~}{E}_0\\ \stackrel{~}{E}_{N1}& \stackrel{~}{E}_{N2}\zeta & \stackrel{~}{E}_{N3}\zeta ^2& \mathrm{}& \stackrel{~}{E}_1\zeta ^{N2}& \stackrel{~}{E}_0\zeta ^{N1}\\ \stackrel{~}{E}_{N1}& \stackrel{~}{E}_{N2}\zeta ^2& \stackrel{~}{E}_{N3}\zeta ^4& \mathrm{}& \stackrel{~}{E}_1\zeta ^{2(N2)}& \stackrel{~}{E}_0\zeta ^{2(N1)}\\ \mathrm{}& & & & & \end{array}\right).$$

In order to compute $`det(P)`$ we perform on $`P`$ successively the following operations:

* Add the first column multiplied with $`\lambda _1^n`$ to the $`(n+1)`$-st column.
* Add the second column multiplied with $`\lambda _2^n`$ to the $`(n+2)`$-nd column.
*
* Add the $`m`$-th column multiplied with $`\lambda _m^n`$ to the $`N`$-th column.

By expanding the determinant of this new matrix along the first $`m`$ rows, we obtain that

$$|det(P)|=c\underset{k=0}{\overset{n1}{}}f_k,$$

where $`c=n^{n/2}`$ is the modulus of the determinant of the matrix $`(\zeta ^{rs})`$, $`0r,s<n`$, and

$$f_k=\stackrel{~}{E}_k+\lambda _{mk}^n\stackrel{~}{E}_{k+n}+\lambda _{mnk}^n\lambda _{mk}^n\stackrel{~}{E}_{k+2n}+\mathrm{},0k<n.$$

As the $`\lambda _i`$’s and the $`\stackrel{~}{E}_k`$’s are positive, the proof is completed. ∎

## 4. Comments on Atiyah and Sutcliffe conjecture

Let us also state explicitly the stronger conjecture of Atiyah and Sutcliffe \[3, Conjecture 2\] for the case of our configurations:

(4.1)
$$n^{n/2}\underset{k=0}{\overset{n1}{}}f_k2^{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{2}\right)}\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}(1+\lambda _i^2)^n,$$

where, as in the proof above,

$$f_k=\underset{s0}{}\left(\underset{j=1}{\overset{s}{}}\lambda _{Njnk}^n\right)\stackrel{~}{E}_{k+sn},0k<n.$$

Recall that $`a_1<a_2<\mathrm{}<a_m`$ and, consequently, $`0<\lambda _1<\lambda _2<\mathrm{}<\lambda _m`$.

The substitution $`(a_1,\mathrm{},a_m)(a_m,\mathrm{},a_1)`$ corresponds to the reflection in the plane $`\{0\}\times \text{C}`$. Consequently, the function

$$\frac{_{k=0}^{n1}f_k}{_{i=1}^m(1+\lambda _i^2)^n}$$

is invariant under the transformation

$$(\lambda _1,\mathrm{},\lambda _m)(\lambda _m^1,\mathrm{},\lambda _1^1).$$

For $`n=1`$ the inequality (4.1) was proved in  in general, and for $`n=2`$ only in the special (limit) case when all $`\lambda _i`$’s are equal. One expects the inequality (4.1) to be strict for all $`n3`$ (see \[3, Section 4\]).

Expand the two products in (3.3) separately:

$`{\displaystyle \underset{s=1}{\overset{n1}{}}}(yie^{\pi is/n})={\displaystyle \underset{j=0}{\overset{n1}{}}}c_jy^{n1j},`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}}(y+\lambda _i)={\displaystyle \underset{j=0}{\overset{m}{}}}E_jy^{mj}.`$
The coefficients $`c_j`$, $`0j<n`$, and $`E_j`$, $`0jm`$, are all positive. We also set $`E_j=0`$ if $`j<0`$ or $`j>m`$. Then

$$\stackrel{~}{E}_k=\underset{i=0}{\overset{n1}{}}c_iE_{ki}.$$

In the limit case, when all $`\lambda _k`$’s are equal to some $`\lambda >0`$, the inequality (4.1) specializes to

$$n^{n/2}\underset{k=0}{\overset{n1}{}}\underset{s0}{}\lambda ^{2sn+k}\underset{i=0}{\overset{n1}{}}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{k+sni}\right)c_i\lambda ^i2^{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{2}\right)}(1+\lambda ^2)^{mn}.$$

For $`\lambda =0`$ this gives

$$n^{n/2}\underset{k=0}{\overset{n1}{}}c_k2^{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{2}\right)}.$$

We conjecture that the following apparent strengthening of (4.1) is valid:

(4.2)
$$\underset{k=0}{\overset{n1}{}}\frac{f_k}{c_k}\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}(1+\lambda _i^2)^n.$$

When all $`\lambda _k`$’s are equal to some $`\lambda >0`$, this becomes:

(4.3)
$$\underset{k=0}{\overset{n1}{}}\underset{s0}{}\lambda ^{2sn+k}\underset{i=0}{\overset{n1}{}}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{k+sni}\right)c_i\lambda ^i\left(\underset{k=0}{\overset{n1}{}}c_k\right)(1+\lambda ^2)^{mn}.$$

If $`n=3`$ then $`c_0=c_2=1`$, $`c_1=\sqrt{3}`$ and the inequality (4.2) takes the form:

(4.4)
$$f_0f_1f_2\sqrt{3}\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}(1+\lambda _i^2)^3,$$

where

$$f_k=\underset{s0}{}\left(\underset{j=1}{\overset{s}{}}\lambda _{N3jk}^3\right)(E_{3s+k}+\sqrt{3}E_{3s+k1}+E_{3s+k2}),$$

and (4.3) the form:

$$f_0f_1f_2\sqrt{3}(1+\lambda ^2)^{3m},$$

where now

$$f_k=\underset{s0}{}\lambda ^{6s+k}\left[\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{3s+k}\right)+\sqrt{3}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{3s+k1}\right)\lambda ^1+\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{3s+k2}\right)\lambda ^2\right].$$

By using Maple, we have verified the last inequality for $`m6`$, and, by using the invariance property mentioned above, it is easy to verify (4.4) for $`m=2`$.


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# Fe/V and Fe/Co (001) superlattices: growth, anisotropy, magnetisation and magnetoresistance

## I INTRODUCTION

The magnetic properties of the transition elements are critically dependent on fine details of the electronic structure of the d-electrons. Thus, any changes of the symmetry or interatomic distances as well as restrictions in dimensionality of the system could introduce striking changes of the magnetic properties. Artificial, but controlled, changes of symmetry, inter atomic distances and dimensionality are readily introduced in Fe and Co when they are grown on single crystalline substrates in the form of thin films or superlattices. Such layered structures allow systematic studies of the dependence of major magnetic properties on e.g. controlled magnitudes of the induced strains. In this article we review results from some recent studies of the magnetic properties of (001) bcc iron and cobalt.

## II Growth

Bcc Fe/V (001) and Fe/Co (001) superlattices were grown on MgO (001) substrates by UHV dc sputtering . The lattice constants of the involved materials are: Fe (2.87 A), V (3.03 A), MgO (4.21 A) and bcc Co (2.82 A) (bcc Co does not exist naturally, but the lattice parameter is estimated from extrapolation from values for Fe(Co) alloys). The lattice mismatch between Fe and V is small enough to allow epitaxial growth and still large enough to introduce relevant strain in the individual Fe layers. The in-plane strain introduced in the samples due to the lattice mismatch causes a symmetry breaking and the true crystallographic structure of the samples becomes body centred tetragonal (bct). The superlattices grow with an  direction of Fe (V or Co) along an  direction of MgO, yielding a lattice mismatch of -4% for iron and 2% for V. The samples were grown under optimal conditions  and the crystallographic properties of the samples were measured by different X-ray techniques certifying the crystallographic quality as well as giving measures of the lattice parameters of the superlattices and the individual layer thicknesses.

## III Magnetic and transport properties

The magnetic and transport properties of the samples were investigated using a QD MPMS5 SQUID-magnetometer and an Oxford Maglab 2000 system.

### A Fe/V - magnetic anisotropy energy

The in-plane magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of different Fe/V samples was derived from measurements of magnetisation curves along the in-plane  and  directions of the films.  No uniaxial contribution to the MAE was found in any of the samples, which also certifies a good bct crystallographic structure of the superlattices. The quite significant lattice mismatch between Fe and V allows studies of the anisotropy as a function of in-plane lattice strain of Fe. Samples of constant iron layer thickness (15 monolayers (ML)), but varying V thickness (1-12 ML) are studied, the in-plane lattice parameter of the samples increases with increasing thickness of the V layers. Experimental average in and out of plane lattice parameters were derived from X-ray diffraction and were complemented by theoretical calculations of the common in-plane and individual out of plane lattice parameters using tabulated elastic constants for Fe and V. The measured and calculated average lattice parameters agreed fairly well and the theoretically derived individual in and out of plane lattice parameters could then safely be used for theoretical calculations of the magnetic properties.

The saturation magnetisation of the superlattices was found to be reduced in comparison with bulk iron, amounting to 1.9 $`\mu `$B compared to 2.2 $`\mu `$B for bulk iron. The reduced magnitude can partly be explained by an induced weak antiferromagnetically aligned magnetic moment in the vanadium interface layers. Fig. 1 shows the measured magnetic anisotropy as a function of lattice strain at 10K. The corresponding theoretically calculated values for strained bulk iron are also included in the figure. These values have been derived using the magnetoelastic constants of iron and the known anisotropy for unstrained bulk iron. The calculated strain dependence of the MAE is remarkably similar to that experimentally observed, but there is a significant downward shift of the measured MAE compared to that of bulk iron, which can be assigned to a surface contribution favouring  as the easy direction at the Fe/V interfaces.

When discussing anisotropy of Fe/V superlattices it should be noted that superlattices grown to form (110) planes do show a totally dominating uniaxial in-plane anisotropy of a magnitude that is comparable to the anisotropy of hexagonal cobalt, although the in-plane symmetry breaking is due to quite modest strains in the films. One interesting future study of the current (001) Fe/V system would thus be to investigate the anisotropy of these superlattices by e.g. ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) to get the full picture of both the in-plane and the out of plane anisotropy and the influence of the bcc to bct symmetry breaking.

### B Fe/V - GMR

The Fe/V (001) system has also been studied as to the magnetoresistance and interlayer coupling strength as a function of the V or the Fe layer thickness.  In the investigated range of V thicknesses (2-16 ML), the interlayer coupling shows one antiferromagnetic maximum centred at V $``$ 13 ML. Fig. 2 shows the dependence of the magnetoresistance for two sample series with vanadium thicknesses of 11 and 13 ML and varying Fe thickness. The 11 ML V samples show only an anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) of increasing magnitude with increasing iron layer thickness. However, the 13 ML V samples show GMR for thin to intermediately thick Fe layers, but for thicker Fe layers the GMR (and the antiferromagnetic (AF) inter-layer coupling) disappears. The GMR effect is superposed by a weak AMR of similar magnitude as observed in the non-AF coupled superlattices. The most surprising feature is the appearance of a cut-off of the GMR occurring for iron thicknesses larger than about 10 ML, leaving only an AMR effect in the samples. This apparent cut-off of the AF-coupling finds no support in current theory  and the physical origin of it is thus not yet understood. However, the fact that the current samples consist of 30 bilayer repetitions causes some magnitude mismatch between the magnetisation of the AF coupled Fe layers. This yields a net magnetic moment that could be large enough to interfere with the AF coupling and destroy the regular AF magnetic structure throughout the sample that is necessary to give the GMR effect and a measurable AF-coupling strength.

### C Fe/Co - magnetisation and magnetic anisotropy

Cobalt does not naturally crystallise in the bcc structure, it is however possible to grow bcc Co as a superlattice intervened with Fe. These bcc Fe/Co superlattices show intriguing magnetic properties. The magnetisation curves for an iron rich and a Co rich superlattice with bilayer thicknesses 6/2 and 2/6 are shown in Fig. 3. There is a change of sign of the anisotropy energy as the system becomes richer on cobalt. In Fig. 4 the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) between the  and  directions is plotted vs. Co content in Fe/Co samples of bilayer thicknesses (x/y) as indicated in the figure. There is a closely linear dependence of the anisotropy energy on concentration. An extrapolation to pure Co gives a value of the MAE that has opposite sign and about twice the magnitude of the MAE of bulk iron. However, one should keep in mind that there can be a significant contribution from the interface regions (cf the results above on the Fe/V system) that may move the MAE curve downward as compared to what would be observed for pure bulk iron and pure but artificial bulk bcc cobalt.

The saturation magnetisation of the different samples are shown in Fig. 5. The values are given in $`\mu `$B/atom. There are several features to note in this figure. The most striking is that the magnitude of the magnetisation is significantly larger than that of corresponding Fe/Co alloys, i.e. there is an interface enhancement of the magnetic moments. The current data gives a possibility to phenomenologically assign a specific value of the magnetic moments of Fe and Co in the atomic layers at the interface and deeper into the magnetic layers. Doing this, one finds a significant enhancement of the iron moments at the interfaces, and also up to some 4 layers away from the interface. To account for the observed behaviour one has also to introduce an oscillating nature of the magnetisation in the layers having the largest magnitude at the interface, a value close to the bulk value one atomic layer away and then again significantly enhanced values in the following two atomic layers to finally settle at the bulk iron value deep into a thick Fe-layer. It was also found necessary to introduce a significantly enhanced Co moment at the interface. The enhanced value of the magnetisation in a superlattice as compared to the corresponding bulk alloy does ask for further experimental and theoretical studies, since current theory does not predict such a big change and basically no enhancement of the Co moment at the interfaces.

## IV conclusions

The magnetism of the transition metals (e.g. Fe and Co) depends critically on the symmetry and volume of the lattice. These parameters are readily varied in theoretical calculations and the magnetism of the elements can be mapped out for ’any’ artificial crystallographic structure. One possibility to check these predictions and to tailor the magnetic properties of a magnetic material is given by growing magnetic superlattices containing two different transition metals. We have here briefly reviewed some recent experimental results on two different superlattice systems Fe/V (001)  and Fe/Co (001)  that are and have been extensively studied at the Angstrom Laboratory in Uppsala.

## V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Financial support from the Swedish Research Council (VR) and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) is acknowledged.


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# Auger : A large Air Shower Array and Neutrino Telescope

## 1 Introduction

The nature and origin of the observed Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) have been for the past decades the subject of numerous debates and models (for a review see e.g. ). None of those models seemed to be able to fulfill simultaneously the source power requirement, its invisibility and the transport energy losses without requiring either new physics or large magnetic field together with a local over-abundance of transient (power sufficient?) sources. Moreover recent experimental results shown at the 27th ICRC conference, seemed somewhat contradictory in particular concerning the flux of events above the Greisen Zatsepin and Kuzmin cut-off. Given the lack of statistics the interpretation of the same data has even led some authors to completely contradictory conclusions (see e.g. ). What are the UHECR sources and their distribution ? What is their nature and energy spectra ? What is the flux above $`10^{20}eV`$ ? Those are the few fundamental questions that future experiments need to answer.

In the energy range \[$`10^{19}10^{20}`$\] eV only stable hadrons (e.g. protons) or nuclei, among the known particles, can travel on distance much larger than a few tens of Mpc. However the maximum distance is still limited to about 50 Mpc (our neighborhood on cosmological scale) above $`10^{20}`$ eV because of photo-production or photo-dissociation processes against the Cosmic Microwave Background of radiation (CMB). If astrophysical objects such as AGN or GRB are to play a fundamental role in UHECR production then particle spectra from distant sources will be affected by these processes. Resulting fluxes should extinct exponentially above $`10^{20}`$ eV exhibiting the GZK cutoff. Taking into account additional distortions induced for example by extra galactic magnetic fields we conclude that hadron spectra in this energy range will mix the source characteristics together with the transport distortions. On the other hand neutrinos can travel on cosmological distances essentially unaffected and all astrophysical UHECR hadron sources as well as more exotic ones such as topological defect collapses or heavy relic decays are bound to produce Ultra High Energy Neutrino (UHEN). Their detection would be a very valuable clue to the characteristics of the UHECR sources.

## 2 Auger

Because of their very low flux UHECR cannot be observed directly from space. Instead one must reconstruct the primary cosmic ray characteristics from the Extended Air Shower (EAS) it produces when interacting with the atmosphere. The Auger Observatories  consist of two instrumented sites. One in the southern hemisphere, now under construction in Malargüe (Argentina), and the other one in the northern hemisphere. The detection system combines the two major techniques : a fluorescence detector system to measure the longitudinal profile of the EAS and a surface array of detectors to sample its lateral distribution at the ground. With a detection acceptance larger than 16,000 km2sr per site Auger should observe each year more than 5,000 events above $`10^{19}`$ eV, 500 above $`5\times 10^{19}`$ and more than 100 above $`10^{20}`$.

The southern Auger site will be composed of 1600 Cherenkov stations (our surface detector units) and 4 fluorescence eyes located at the periphery of the array. Each eye is composed of six $`30^o\times 30^o`$ mirror and camera units looking inwards over the surface station network. During year 2001 we accomplished all of our planned objectives : complete the construction of the assembly, central acquisition and office, and first fluorescence detector buildings; construct and deploy 40 Cherenkov stations (31 equipped with electronics) and develop and install two fluorescence mirror/camera prototype units. This mini Auger, called Engineering Array (EA) has been successfully running since then and has shown excellent performances most of them being above our initial specifications. Many events were recorded including about 100 hybrid events seen by both the fluorescence and the surface detectors (see Figure 1). It is however beyond the scope of this paper to report on these data and on the detector performances which will be the subject of a dedicated publication. Let us mention however, that the construction of the observatory is going on well. A new fluorescence building is now completed and a pre-production observatory with 2 complete eyes and 140 stations should be running in 2003.

## 3 Neutrino Identification and Acceptance

Previous studies on UHEN interaction in the atmosphere and observation with Auger were reported in . UHEN may be detected and distinguished from ordinary hadrons by the shape of the horizontal EAS they produce. Ordinary hadrons have large cross sections and interact very early after entering the atmosphere. At large zenith angles (above 80 deg.) the particles propagation distance along the shower axis between the shower maximum and the ground becomes larger than 100 km. At ground level the electromagnetic part of the shower is totally extinguished (more than 6 equivalent vertical atmosphere were gone through) and only high energy muon survive (Figure 2). In addition, the shower front is very flat (radius larger than 100 km) and the particles time spread is very narrow (less than 50 ns).

Unlike hadrons, neutrinos may interact deeply in the atmosphere and can initiate a shower in the volume of air immediately above the detector. These Horizontal Air Shower (HAS) will appear as “normal young ” showers with a curved front (radius of curvature of a few km), a large electromagnetic component, and with particles arrival well spread over time (over hundreds of nanoseconds) even at large distances from the axis. These differences are striking when one looks at the ground particles time distribution versus the distance from shower axis. Figure 3 shows this distribution as computed from a Monte Carlo simulation while Figure 4 compares two real events with widely different zenith angle as were recorded by the Auger EA. These plots should only be taken as indicatives. In particular the horizontal shower in Figure 4 has an estimated energy about five times larger than the vertical one, therefore it extends at much larger distance from the shower axis. A fair comparison would require a vertical shower of approximately the same energy whose larger lateral extension would allow to observe the difference in time spread over a wider range. Moreover the time bins in the real data is 25ns wide (this is not a limitation since our tanks impulse response function is about 50 ns wide) while the Monte Carlo results were plotted with a 1 ns resolution. Nevertheless the difference is still quite clear.

The acceptance to neutrino interactions in the atmosphere above the Auger array has been calculated in  and reaches about 40 km3 water equivalent above a neutrino energy of $`10^{19}`$ eV. Although quite large this is not sufficient to see a few neutrino events per year except for some very speculative neutrino sources . Even at these energies the neutrino interaction length in air is too large compared to the Auger array dimensions and our “target” does not convert enough neutrino into visible HAS above the detector.

## 4 Tau Neutrino detection

The possibility to detect tau neutrinos in the Auger observatory was first introduced in and was described in detail in a dedicated paper. Unlike electrons which do not escape from the rocks111If one does not take into account the LPM effect which significantly increases the electron path length above $`10^{18}`$ eV. or muons that produce a much to faint signal in the atmosphere, taus, produced in the mountains or in the ground around the Auger array, can escape even from deep inside the rock and produce a clear signal if they decay above the detector.

The chain of reactions together with the geometrical configuration that must be met to produce a detectable tau shower are depicted in Figure 5. These conditions are rather severe : the neutrino must be almost perfectly horizontal (within less than 5 deg.) the tau produced by its interaction should escape the earth and then decay over a distance matching the Auger surface array dimension, finally the decay must occur at low altitude. These criteria can be met as a result of a number of favorable numerical coincidences :

* At $`10^{18}`$ eV the tau decay length is of the order of the Auger array dimension (50 km).
* In earth, the neutrino interaction length at this same energy is a few 100 km.
* For skimming angle below 5o neutrino propagate through a few 100 km of earth a distance corresponding to their interaction length
* A few $`10^{18}`$ eV is the neutrino energy corresponding to the threshold of pion photo-production by protons on the CMB.

A Monte-Carlo technique has been used to simulate the tau neutrino or charged lepton interactions and propagation inside the Earth. The lepton may interact several times through deep inelastic scattering, changing charge in most cases, or eventually decay, but, in all cases, a tau neutrino or charged lepton is present in the final state. Some energy is lost at each interaction, as well as continuously along the paths. However, in our energy range, the initial direction of the incoming neutrino is always conserved (Figure 5).

We computed that most of the detectable signal (90%) comes from upward going $`\nu _\tau `$ where the interactions occur in the ground all around the array and only 10% from downward going $`\nu _\tau `$ coming from interactions in the mountains surrounding the array.

The results that we obtained are summarized in Figure 6 and in Table 1 and are very encouraging, even in the case of the highest contribution of Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS-high) to the tau interaction length (reducing the length over which the tau can escape from inside the earth). In case of a null result (although unexpected!) Auger could set after five years a limit as low as $`5\times 10^9`$ GeV cm-2s-1sr-1 at 90% CL assuming an $`E^2`$ energy dependent flux in the range \[0.3,3\] EeV.

## 5 The WB upper bound as a lower limit

In 1998, Waxman and Bahcall have calculated a neutrino flux upper limit from astrophysical transparent source, now referred to as the WB limit (or WB bound) . Some authors  have argued that this limit was too restrictive in particular because of the spectral properties of the sources. In this section we do not wish to enter this debate but rather follow Waxman and Bahcall’s argument to conclude that even for those sources a detectable neutrino signal should be visible in Auger.

In their paper the authors suppose that UHECR are protons produced by astrophysical sources. The source flux is then normalized to the observed cosmic ray flux assuming that those protons do not loose most of their energy at the production point against the local photon background. This is the transparency condition which is deduced from the fact that those sources are visible in gamma rays. At this stage a neutrino flux upper limit is obtained assuming that all the proton energy gets converted into neutrino.

Below the pion photo-production threshold against the CMB background (around $`7\times 10^{19}`$ eV) the computed neutrino fluxes are, by construction, upper limits for those sources. However, for protons with energy above the threshold the situation is quite different : they will effectively convert their energy into neutrino on distances of the order of a few tens of Mpc. Therefore, if those sources are the dominant contribution to the observed cosmic rays in the range  EeV and since most of them should lie outside our GZK sphere they will produce a neutrino flux of the order of the WB bound.

Since it is generally admitted that any other non transparent astrophysical source would directly produce more neutrinos and since in all top down models the neutrino flux at the production point is much larger then the proton flux, we can conclude that for neutrino energy above a few222The exact location in energy depends on the source distribution dependence to red-shift. $`10^{18}`$ eV the neutrino flux should be above the WB bound.

The WB bound, as given in reference , is $`1.5\times 10^8`$ GeV cm-2s-1sr-1 for a strong z-evolution of the sources. Only half of those neutrino may convert into $`\nu _\tau `$ on their way to Earth given a flux of $`7.5\times 10^9`$ GeV cm-2s-1sr-1. This flux is fifty percent larger than the Auger $`\nu _\tau `$ null result limit and within our sensitivity (Figure 6). An example of cosmogenic neutrinos produced by protons from astrophysical source (taken from ) is shown under the GZK label in Figure 6 with the corresponding number of events in Table 1.

## 6 Conclusions

The Auger observatory is a very sensitive neutrino telescope reaching for a null result a limit in $`\nu _\tau `$ flux as low as $`5\times 10^9`$ GeV cm-2s-1sr-1 at 90% CL. Moreover, given the observation of UHECR in the range  EeV, given the lower limit on neutrino flux which can be derived from the WB bound and given the strong experimental evidence for $`\nu _\mu \nu _\tau `$ with large mixing the expectations for a positive result in the next five years are very high. Beside its excellent performances for the study of UHECR Auger may very well be the first experiment to observe $`\nu _\tau `$ appearance from a $`\nu _\mu `$/$`\nu _e`$ source.


text:
# Hydrodynamics of binary fluid phase segregation

## Abstract

Starting with the Vlasov-Boltzmann equation for a binary fluid mixture, we derive an equation for the velocity field $`𝒖`$ when the system is segregated into two phases (at low temperatures) with a sharp interface between them. $`𝒖`$ satisfies the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations together with a jump boundary condition for the pressure across the interface which, in turn, moves with a velocity given by the normal component of $`𝒖`$. Numerical simulations of the Vlasov-Boltzmann equations for shear flows parallel and perpendicular to the interface in a phase segregated mixture support this analysis. We expect similar behavior in real fluid mixtures.

When a fluid is quenched from a high temperature to a low temperature inside the miscibility gap it evolves from its initial homogeneous state which is now unstable into a final equilibrium state consisting of two coexisting phases separated by an interface. The phase segregation process, involving hydrodynamical velocity fields $`𝐮(𝐱,t)`$, is more complicated than the corresponding diffusive processes in quenched binary alloys langer . In a seminal work siggia  Siggia pointed out that in the late stages of phase segregation sharp interfaces develop between domains of the two phases and the coarsening process is mainly due to hydrodynamic flows driven by these elastic interfaces. Following Siggia there has been much work to investigate the time evolution of this coarsening process white ; perrot ; kendon , and this is still going on solis ; furukawa .

There has been much less work on the derivation of a quantitative description of the velocity field involving the interface between two phases of macroscopic size, a problem of considerable interest in its own right anderson . To do this one should start from a microscopic description of the transition region in which the composition varies smoothly on the microscopic scale and end up with boundary conditions on the “membrane” representing this transition layer on the macroscopic scale (the sharp interface limit). This is a difficult task for the case in which the two phases have widely different densities, viscosities, etc., since a reasonable microscopic description valid for both phases is hard to find.

To overcome this difficulty we consider here a situation in which both the equilibrium and kinetics are as simple as possible. This is a binary fluid model introduced in bl  which provides a description of phase segregation kinetics at the mesoscopic level via the Vlasov-Boltzmann (VB) equations. These equations can be obtained from the microscopic dynamics (in a convincing but not rigorous manner) and in turn allow a derivation, in a suitable limit, of bulk hydrodynamical equations belm1 . The hydrodynamic equations we obtain for the bulk mixture are similar but not identical to the heuristic macroscopic equations previously proposed for describing phase segregation in an energy and momentum conserving system kawa . In the present paper we consider the case in which the fluid is already well segregated with sharp interfaces between the different phases. We derive hydrodynamic equations involving the interface motion, directly from the VB equations and carry out direct simulations for the time evolution of simple hydrodynamical flows, in the presence of such an interface. The resulting free boundary problem was considered phenomenologically, in the context of interface oscillations, by Harrison harrison . We compare our results, with good agreement, with the behavior based on the linearized version chandra  of the hydrodynamic equations, recently considered for studying coarsening dynamics solis . Both the derivation and the numerical analysis are new and we believe that the results have, as is the case of the Navier-Stokes equations of a one component fluid, a universal validity even though their rigorous derivation from microscopic models can only be carried out currently from the Boltzmann equation del . In fact preliminary calculation using the Enskog equation instead of the Boltzmann equation (more appropriate for a dense fluid) leads to the same hydrodynamics.

The model we consider is a mixture of two species of hard spheres with diameter $`d`$ and unit mass labeled by $`1,2`$, with a long range positive potential $`\mathrm{}^3V(\mathrm{}^1r)`$ between particles of different species; $`\mathrm{}`$ is the range of the interaction. The latter causes phase segregation at temperatures lower than a critical temperature $`T_c`$, into phases I and II: I is rich in species 1 and II in species 2 ccelm . Let $`n`$ be the total particle density. It was shown in belm1  that, when $`nd^3<<1`$, while $`\mathrm{}>>d`$, this system is well described by coupled VB kinetic equations for the one-particle distributions $`f_i(𝒓,𝒗,\tau ),i=1,2`$

$$_\tau f_i+𝒗_𝒓f_i+𝑭_i_𝒗f_i=J[f_i,f_1+f_2]$$
(1)
where $`𝑭_i(𝒓,\tau )=_𝒓V_i(𝒓,\tau )`$ with $`V_i`$ the self-consistent Vlasov potentials $`V_i(𝒓,\tau )=_^3\mathrm{}^3V(\mathrm{}^1|𝒓𝒓^{}|)n_j(𝒓^{},\tau )𝑑𝒓^{},ij`$, $`n_j(𝒓,\tau )=_^3f_j(𝒓,𝒗,\tau )𝑑𝒗`$, and $`J[f,g]`$ is the Boltzmann collision operator for hard spheres cip . We are interested in an equilibrium state at a fixed total density in which the system is split into two regions, one consisting of phase I, and the other of phase II. These regions are separated by a transition layer whose local form can be obtained by considering particular $`1`$-d stationary ‘solitonic’ (actually kink) solutions of (1): set $`f_i=\rho _i(z)M(𝒗)`$ where $`M(𝒗)`$ is the Maxwellian with unit mass, zero mean velocity and temperature $`T`$, $`M(𝐯)=(2\pi k_BT)^{3/2}\mathrm{exp}[𝒗^2/2k_BT]`$. Moreover $`\rho _i(z)=\varphi _i(z/\mathrm{})`$ with $`\varphi _i(q)`$ smooth functions satisfying the equations

$$k_BT\mathrm{log}\varphi _i(q)+_{}𝑑q^{}\stackrel{~}{V}(|qq^{}|)\varphi _j(q^{})=C_i$$
(2)
where $`\stackrel{~}{V}(q)=_^2𝑑wV(\sqrt{q^2+w^2})`$ and $`C_i`$ is a constant. For $`T<T_c`$ Eqs. (2) have non-homogeneous solutions with asymptotic values $`\rho _i^I`$ and $`\rho _i^{II}`$ as $`q\pm \mathrm{}`$, corresponding to the densities in phases I and II respectively: by symmetry $`\rho _1^I=\rho _2^{II}`$, $`\rho _2^I=\rho _2^{II}`$. The solutions are not explicit but their existence and properties are studied in bl  and ccelm . These are similar to those observed in realistic mixtures, such as oil and water.

We are interested in studying hydrodynamical flows when the width of the interface, which is of order $`\mathrm{}`$, is small compared to the mean free path $`\lambda `$ which is in turn small compared to $`L`$, the characteristic length of the domains occupied by the pure phases. Setting $`𝒓=ϵ^1𝒙,\tau =ϵ^2t`$, where $`ϵ=\lambda /L\mathrm{}/\lambda `$ and $`𝒙`$, $`t`$ are the macroscopic position and time, we wish to study the small $`ϵ`$ behavior of a solution $`f_i^ϵ(𝒙,𝒗,t)=f_i(ϵ^1𝒙,𝒗,ϵ^2t)`$ of Eqs. (1), in the incompressible regime, corresponding to low hydrodynamic velocity del . We assume far from the interface a solution of the form del

$$f_i^ϵ(𝒙,𝒗,t)=\overline{\rho }_i(𝒙)M(𝒗)+\underset{s=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}ϵ^sg_i^s(𝒙,𝒗,t)$$
(3)
where $`\overline{\rho }_i(𝒙)`$ is either $`\rho _i^I`$ or $`\rho _i^{II}`$ depending on which region $`𝒙`$ is in. Note that by symmetry $`\rho _1^I+\rho _2^I=\rho _1^{II}+\rho _2^{II}=\overline{\rho }`$, i.e. the total density is the same in both phases but varies in the interface region. Putting $`f^ϵ=f_1^ϵ+f_2^ϵ`$, we have for the hydrodynamic velocity field

$$\overline{\rho }^1_^3𝒗f^ϵ(𝒙,𝒗,t)𝑑𝒗=ϵ𝒖(𝒙,t)+O(ϵ^2),$$

so that the Mach number is of order $`ϵ`$ (incompressible regime). Far from the interface the temperature $`T`$ and the densities are constants, coinciding for $`T<T_c`$ with the asymptotic values of the solitonic solutions.

To understand what happens near the interface consider the situation in which the interface is flat. Then $`f_i(𝒓,𝒗,\tau )=\rho _i(z)M(𝒗)`$ with $`\rho _i(z)=\varphi _i(z/\mathrm{})`$ a stationary solution of the Vlasov-Boltzmann equations. If the interface is not flat this is not exactly true, but because of the tendency of the solitonic profile to keep its form and just translate, one expects that the solution is locally close to the solitonic profiles multiplied by the Maxwellian. On the other hand, the force due to the surface tension acts on the particles of the fluid which start to move with some average velocity $`𝒖`$ and the surface moves accordingly, so that its normal velocity is at any point $`𝒖𝑵`$, $`𝑵`$ being the normal to the surface. To implement this picture we write the solution near the interface as

$$f_i^ϵ(z,\stackrel{~}{𝒙},𝒗,t)=\rho _i(z)M(𝒗)+\underset{s=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}ϵ^s\stackrel{~}{g}_i^s(z,\stackrel{~}{𝒙},𝒗,t).$$
(4)
The notation is as follows: given a point $`𝒙`$ we call $`z=ϵ^1d(𝒙,\mathrm{\Gamma }_t)`$, where $`d(𝒙,\mathrm{\Gamma }_t)`$ is the distance of $`𝒙`$ from the interface $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_t`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{𝒙}`$ the component of $`𝒙`$ tangential to the interface; $`\rho _i(z)=\varphi _i(z/\mathrm{})`$ is the solitonic solution centered on $`z=0`$. Since we are so close to the interface we can assume that locally it looks almost flat, so that the solution near the interface has a weak dependence on $`\stackrel{~}{𝒙}`$. Therefore the profile interpolating between the values of the densities in the bulk on the two sides of the interface should be well approximated by the 1-d solitonic profile $`\rho _i(z)`$, the lowest order term in Eq. (4).

To obtain a solution of Eqs. (1) we have to put these expressions in the equations (after space-time rescaling) and match the two expansions. This can be done in a consistent way and it is possible to compute the terms in the series (the long computation will be reported elsewhere), but the question of the convergence of the series is open (we expect they are asymptotic). The result is that in the limit $`ϵ0`$ the velocity field $`𝒖(𝒙,t)`$ is divergence free and solves the incompressible Navier-Stokes (INS) equation

$$_t𝒖+(𝒖\mathbf{})𝒖+\mathbf{}p=\nu \mathrm{\Delta }𝒖$$
(5)
with the kinematic viscosity $`\nu `$ obtained from the Boltzmann equation as in cip . Moreover, $`𝒖`$ is continuous across the interface $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_t`$ whose normal velocity is given by

$$v_{\mathrm{\Gamma }_t}(𝒙)=𝒖(𝒙,t)𝑵(𝒙,t)$$
(6)
while the pressure is discontinuous at the surface and satisfies Laplace’s law

$$(p_+p_{})=\sigma K,$$
(7)
Here ($`p_{}`$) $`p_+`$ is the pressure on the side of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_t`$ (not) containing the normal $`𝑵`$; $`K`$ is the mean curvature of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_t`$ and $`\sigma `$ is the surface tension given in terms of solitonic profiles as

$$\sigma =\frac{1}{2}(q^{}q)\underset{ij=1,2}{}\frac{d\varphi _i(q)}{dq}\stackrel{~}{V}(qq^{})\varphi _j(q^{})dqdq^{}$$
(8)
The equation for $`𝒖`$ is a complicated initial boundary value problem with free boundary $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_t`$. The solutions of INS in the two domains separated by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_t`$ are coupled by the jump condition for the pressure. Since the solution is not explicit, we compare our numerical results with the linearized version of this problem, studied in chandra .

To obtain numerical solutions of the VB equations we use the method introduced in bl  to simulate the VB dynamics at the particle level, based on coupling the direct simulation Monte Carlo algorithm for the short-range interaction with the grid-weighting method for the long-range repulsion. The results were obtained using about $`5\times 10^6`$ particles, in a cube ($`L\times L\times L`$) with periodic boundary conditions. The unit of length is the mean free path $`\lambda =(2^{\frac{1}{2}}\pi \overline{\rho }d^2)^1`$, and the unit of time is the mean-free time between collisions $`\tau =\lambda /c`$, $`c=(2k_BT)^{\frac{1}{2}}`$. For the repulsive inter-species potential we use, as in bl , $`V(q)=\alpha \pi ^{\frac{3}{2}}\mathrm{exp}(q^2)`$ (note that the mean-field critical temperature is given by $`k_BT_c=\overline{\rho }\alpha /2`$), with a range of interaction $`\mathrm{}=0.4\lambda `$. All quenches were performed at total particle density $`\overline{\rho }`$, with $`\overline{\rho }d^30.01`$. We focus on the behavior of a simple initial flow perturbation, $`u_z(0)=u_0\mathrm{cos}(ky)`$, with $`k=2\pi n_k/L`$, $`n_k=1,2,3,\mathrm{}`$, outside and inside the coexistence region; for all simulations we set $`u_0=0.1c`$. For a homogeneous system this shear wave perturbation leads to a time dependent flow $`u_z(t)=u(t)\mathrm{cos}(ky)`$, where $`u(t)=u(0)\mathrm{exp}(\nu k^2t)`$, $`\nu =\eta /\overline{\rho }`$ and $`\eta `$ is the viscosity.

We first study the behavior of the above initial perturbation in the homogeneous region of the phase diagram at $`T/T_c=1.5`$. The initial velocity profile decays exponentially with very high accuracy and we extract a kinematic viscosity $`\nu `$ which agrees with the Boltzmann gas viscosity cip . We then turn to the study of the system in the presence of interfaces, at two temperatures, $`T_1/T_c=0.51`$ and $`T_2/T_c=0.33`$. For each of these temperatures the initial configuration contains two interfaces (due to periodic boundary conditions), situated in the $`\{xy\}`$ plane a distance $`L/2`$ apart, that separate domains of the two equilibrium phases for the particular temperature. The static structure of these interfaces has been described in bl . The thickness of the interface is of order $`\mathrm{}`$.

For an initial flow perturbation that is parallel with the interfaces, $`𝐮(0)=u_x(0)\widehat{𝐱}=u_0\mathrm{cos}(ky)\widehat{𝐱}`$, where $`\widehat{𝐱}`$ is the unit vector in the $`x`$-direction, the behavior of the velocity profile is virtually identical with the one in the homogeneous region. The situation is however very different if the initial perturbation is perpendicular to the interfaces, i.e. $`𝐮(0)=u_z(0)\widehat{𝐳}=u_0\mathrm{cos}(ky)\widehat{𝐳}`$. While $`u_z(t)`$ is still very well represented by $`u(t)\mathrm{cos}(ky)`$, $`u(t)`$ no longer decays exponentially. To fully characterize this situation we also look at the position of the interface. The order parameter $`\phi =(\rho _1\rho _2)/\rho `$ is calculated at time as a function of $`z`$ and $`y`$. We find that $`\phi (z,y,t)`$ is very well fitted by the profile $`\phi _0\mathrm{tanh}[(zz_0(y,t))/\xi ]`$ bl , and identify $`z_0(y,t)`$ with the position of the interface. Furthermore, $`z_0(y,t)`$ is well represented by $`z_0(y,t)=A(t)\mathrm{cos}(\kappa y)`$. The velocity amplitude $`u(t)`$ and the interface amplitude $`A(t)`$ for the temperature $`T_1`$ and $`n_k=1`$ are shown in Fig. 1, along with fits with the functional forms expected for an overdamped harmonic oscillator: $`A(t)=u_0\mathrm{exp}(\gamma t)\mathrm{sinh}(\omega t)/\omega `$, $`u(t)=u_0\mathrm{exp}(\gamma t)[\gamma \mathrm{sinh}(\omega t)/\omega +\mathrm{cosh}(\omega t)]`$.

We find that these forms can reasonably reproduce the results up to the highest $`n_k`$ simulated, $`n_k=9`$. In Fig. 2 we show the amplitudes of the interface oscillations $`A(t)`$ up to $`n_k=3`$, along with the corresponding best fits, for temperature $`T_1`$(top) and $`T_2`$(bottom). We note that the $`n_k=1`$ behavior at $`T_2`$ is qualitatively different from the other cases, showing damped oscillations. The functional forms that describe this result are: $`A(t)=u_0\mathrm{exp}(\gamma t)\mathrm{sin}(\omega t)/\omega `$, $`u(t)=u_0\mathrm{exp}(\gamma t)[\gamma \mathrm{sin}(\omega t)/\omega +\mathrm{cos}(\omega t)]`$.

These simulation results can be compared with those obtained from the linear perturbation analysis of a thin, initially flat interface with surface tension $`\sigma `$ separating fluids of matching density $`\overline{\rho }`$ and viscosity $`\eta =\nu \overline{\rho }`$. This type of analysis has been carried out in chandra  in the full space. The idea is to look for flow solutions $`u_{x,y,z}(t)\text{e}^{\mu t}\mathrm{cos}(k_xx+k_yy)`$ following a small velocity perturbation of wave number $`k`$. This yields a $`u_z`$ decaying exponentially as a function of the distance from the interface. We carried out a similar analysis matching the periodic boundary and initial conditions in which $`u_z`$ is independent of $`z`$ away from the interfaces. Under these conditions and taking into account the discontinuity of the normal stresses due to surface tension, we can write, following chandra  (see e.g. Chapter X, Eq. 28)

$$\rho _tu_z=\eta \mathrm{\Delta }u_z+\mathrm{\Sigma }_s[\sigma (_x^2+_y^2)\delta z_s]\delta (zz_s)$$
(9)
where $`z_s`$ is the position of the interface $`s`$, $`\delta z_s`$ is the displacement from the initial position and $`d\delta z_s/dt=u_{zs}`$ is the velocity of the interface. However, we regard the above equation integrated over the torus, along $`z`$, as the more fundamental one if $`u_z`$ is $`z`$ independent. This yields

$$\rho _tu_z=\eta \mathrm{\Delta }u_z+L^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_s\sigma (_x^2+_y^2)\delta z_s$$
(10)
Using $`u_z=u_{zs}`$ and assuming $`u_z(t)\text{e}^{\mu t}\mathrm{cos}(ky)`$, which is consistent with the initial conditions, we get $`\mu ^2\rho +\mu k^2\eta +L^12\sigma k^2=0`$. This equation is characteristic of a damped oscillator. Introducing the length scale $`L_s=\nu ^2\rho /\sigma `$ and time scale $`T_s=\nu ^3\rho ^2/\sigma ^2`$, this becomes

$$\mu _{}^2+\mu _{}k_{}^2+L_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}2k_{}^2=0$$
(11)
where $`\mu _{}=\mu T_s`$, $`k_{}=kL_s`$ and $`L_{}=L/L_s`$. Using $`k=2\pi n_k/L`$ we find that the above equation predicts damped oscillations for $`n_k<n_k^0=(2L_{})^{\frac{1}{2}}/\pi `$ and overdamped behavior (no oscillations) otherwise. For our binary fluid model the surface tension can be related to the interface profile (see Eq. 8) and easily estimated bpl , and therefore we can calculate $`n_k^0`$. We find that for $`T_1/T_c=0.55`$, $`n_k^0=0.83`$, so that for all $`n_k`$ the oscillations should be overdamped, in agreement with the simulation results. For $`T_2/T_c=0.33`$, $`n_k^0=1.39`$, so the $`n_k=1`$ case should exhibit damped oscillations, while the others should be overdamped; this is again in agreement with the simulations. We also calculate the coefficients $`\gamma `$ and $`\omega `$ that describe the behavior of the velocity profile and compare with the simulation results, see Fig. 3. We find good agreement for small $`k`$ ($`n_k`$) and increasing deviations as $`k`$ increases; the relative behavior of $`\gamma `$ and $`\omega `$ also appears to be qualitatively different from the simulations for large $`k`$. This is as expected, since for larger $`k`$, i.e. smaller wavelengths, we are far from the hydrodynamic regime. Our hydrodynamic picture is valid if $`k\lambda =2\pi n_kϵ`$, $`\mathrm{}/\lambda `$ and $`u/c`$ are of order $`ϵ=\frac{\lambda }{L}`$, which is in our simulations $`0.028`$. Better agreement is found in simulations with $`\mathrm{}/\lambda =0.2`$ (and $`ϵ=.056`$), see Fig. 3, which indicates that the accuracy of the equations we derive increases when the interface becomes sharper.

The work S.B. was performed under the auspices of the U. S. Department of Energy by University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. W-7405-Eng-48. The work of J. L. was supported by NSF Grant DMR 98-13268, AFOSR Grant AF 49620-01-1-0154, DIMACS and its supporting agencies, the NSF under contract STC-91-19999 and the N.J. Commission on Science and Technology, and NATO Grant PST.CLG.976552. R.M. partially supported by MIUR, Cofin-2000 and INFM.


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# Superfluidity in a Doped Helium Droplet

## Abstract

Path Integral Monte Carlo calculations of the superfluid density throughout 4He droplets doped with linear impurities (HCN)n are presented. After deriving a local estimator for the superfluid density distribution, we find a decreased superfluid response in the first solvation layer. This effective normal fluid exhibits temperature dependence similar to that of a two-dimensional helium system.

Molecules confined in helium nanodroplets have been shown to exhibit excitation spectra with clearly resolved rotational fine structure consistent with that of a free rotor, though with an increased moment of inertia. Grebenev *et al.* have shown that only a few layers of 4He coating the molecule are required to decouple the impurity from the droplet and achieve free rotation. Callegari *et al.* have suggested that the increased moment of inertia is due to the hydrodynamic response of the impurity rotating through the anisotropic helium density immediately surrounding the molecule. Kwon and Whaley have proposed a model in which a microscopic normal fluid is induced in the first solvation layer by the anisotropy of the molecule-helium interaction.

In this paper, a microscopic Path Integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) estimator of the local contribution to the total superfluid response is presented. Simulations of 4He droplets containing linear (HCN)3 isomers show a significant reduction in the superfluid response of the first solvation layer. Furthermore, we find that this reduction is due in part to thermal excitations, in addition to the temperature-independent normal fluid assumed to be induced by the anisotropic HCN-helium interaction potential. The cylindrically-symmetric region of the first solvation layer was found to exhibit temperature dependence consistent with that of a two-dimensional helium system. The moment of inertia was calculated, in reasonable agreement with experiment, and was independent of temperature below T=1 K as the dominant contribution came from the normal fluid coating the ends of the molecule, which was predominantly induced by the anisotropy of the density in that region.

The superfluid density can be defined in terms of the response of the system to an imposed rotation. In imaginary-time path integrals, it is manifested by particle exchange over length scales equal to the system size. Although superfluid response (like conductivity) is not itself a local property, it is possible to calculate a local contribution to the total response. In PIMC, the total superfluid response along the axis of rotation $`\widehat{n}`$ is proportional to the square of total projected area of the imaginary-time paths:

$$\frac{\rho _s}{\rho }|_{\widehat{n}}=\frac{2mA_{\widehat{n}}^2}{\beta \lambda I_c},$$
(1)
where $`\lambda =\mathrm{}^2/2m`$, $`\beta =1/k_BT`$ and $`I_c`$ is the classical moment of inertia. To define a local superfluid density we write:

$`\rho _s(𝐫)|_{\widehat{n}}=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2mN}{\beta \lambda I_c}}{\displaystyle 𝑑𝐫^{}A_{\widehat{n}}(𝐫)A_{\widehat{n}}(𝐫^{})}`$ (2)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2mN}{\beta \lambda I_c}}A_{\widehat{n}}(𝐫)A_{\widehat{n}},`$ (3)
where $`𝐀(𝐫)`$, related to the local angular momentum operator, is defined as

$$𝐀(𝐫)\frac{1}{2}\underset{i,k}{}(𝐫_{i,k}\times 𝐫_{i,k+1})\delta (𝐫𝐫_{i,k})$$
(4)
and $`A_{\widehat{n}}`$ is the $`\widehat{n}`$-component of the total area of all the particles. Since $`𝐀(𝐫)`$ integrates to the total area, the local superfluid response exactly integrates to the total response.

Two types of contributions to the local superfluid density can be distinguished based on the connectivity of the instantaneous paths: contributions of particles on the same chain, which on the average must be positive, and contributions of particles on different exchange cycles. By reversing the order of one exchange cycle the contribution from different cycles will change sign; if the cycles are spatially separated, the magnitude of the contribution will be unaffected, so that their contribution is much smaller. They will however increase the statistical noise of the superfluid density. Numerically we find that the same cycle contribution accounts for roughly 80% of the total superfluid density in the systems presented in this paper.

The local superfluid density estimator used by Kwon and Whaley defined the effective normal fluid induced by the anisotropic molecule-helium interaction potential in terms of the average number density distribution of paths in exchange cycles of fewer than six atoms. Although qualitatively interesting, this estimator is not the superfluid response to an imposed rotation, as there is no direct relation between the number of atoms in a permutation cycle and its area.

In order to test our estimator, PIMC simulations were performed on $`N=128`$ and $`N=500`$ 4He droplets doped with (HCN)3 isomers. Nauta and Miller found that HCN molecules in helium droplets self-assemble into linear chains spaced roughly 4.4 Å apart. The HCN molecules in our simulations were fixed along the z-axis with this spacing. An imaginary time-step of $`1/20`$ K-1 was used. With cylindrical symmetry and precise experimental data over a range of isomer lengths, this system is well-suited for studying superfluidity at a molecular interface.

The number density of a doped helium droplet at $`T=0.38`$ K is shown in Fig. 1. The two-dimensional areal density of the first solvation layer was $`0.12`$ Å-2, which is still in the liquid phase for thin 4He films at these temperatures . Even if the density were large enough to be solid in a 2D film, the curved geometry of the film around the HCN molecule could frustrate crystalline order, keeping the first solvation layer in a dense liquid state.

We define the change in the moment of inertia due to the helium as the contribution due to the normal fraction in the first layer rotating rigidly with the impurity:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }I=_{v(\xi )}𝑑𝐫m_4r_{}^2\left(\rho (𝐫)\rho _s(𝐫)\right)$$
(5)
where $`v(\xi )`$ is the volume of helium a distance $`\xi `$ away from the surface of the molecule, $`r_{}`$ is the radial distance from the axis of rotation in cylindrical coordinates. The results calculated from our $`N=128`$ droplet results are plotted in Fig. 2, for several cutoff distances near the first layer minimum. Both the estimated statistical error and the uncertainty due to the cut-off were on the order of 10%. Fig. 2 shows that the moment of inertia due to the effective normal fluid in the first solvation layer calculated using our PIMC local superfluid density estimator is in reasonable agreement with the experimental value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }I=1240`$ amu Å2 , within error bars. We also find that $`\mathrm{\Delta }I`$ is effectively independent of temperature below $`T=1.0`$ K. This is because the dominant contribution to the moment of inertia comes from the induced normal fluid at the ends of the isomer, which is almost completely due to anisotropy in the molecular potential.

To quantify the reduced superfluid response in the first layer, we averaged over the cylindrically-symmetric region of the 4He-(HCN)3 droplet, defined as the region between $`z=3.5`$ Å and $`z=3.5`$ Å (see Fig. 1). The results of this averaging are shown in Fig. 3. Taking the ratio of the superfluid density to the number density clearly shows a reduced superfluid response in the first layer for rotation about both the radial axis and the molecular axis. At zero temperature, there can be no “normal” density for rotation about the molecular axis because of the cylindrical symmetry, so this reduction must be due to thermal excitations.

Shown in Fig. 4 is the temperature dependence of the superfluid density in the first solvation layer. determined for $`N=128`$ 4He-(HCN)3 droplets at $`T=0.19`$, 0.38, 0.77, and 1.25 K. At first glance, this result appears to contradict known properties of liquid helium; the superfluid density of bulk helium at 0.75 K is 1.000(1). Theoretical studies of pure $`N=128`$ helium clusters show a superfluid transition roughly in agreement with the bulk lambda transition. Pure droplets like those produced for use in scattering experiments, with several thousand atoms at $`T=0.38`$ K, should have a superfluid fraction very close to unity. However, the helium in the first layer coating the impurity molecule more closely resembles a two-dimensional system than a three-dimensional system, because the motion of the helium atoms is restricted by the He-HCN potential to be primarily on the cylindrical surface circumscribing the (HCN)3 impurity. Two-dimensional helium films have been shown to have a Kosterlitz-Thouless type of superfluid transition at temperatures significantly lower than $`T_\lambda `$ . The reduction in the transition temperature is due to the reduced dimensionality, increasing the phase space for long wavelength fluctuations, and the lowering of the “roton” gap. A similar temperature-dependent reduction in the superfluid response of the first layer of helium surrounding the ends of the isomer was not observed.

To extract the average superfluid density fraction in the first layer from the distributions plotted in Fig. 4, we integrate over the superfluid density and number density in the first layer and take the ratio:

$$\frac{\rho _s}{\rho }=\frac{\underset{0}{\overset{r_1}{}}𝑑r_{cyl}\rho _s(r_{cyl})}{\underset{0}{\overset{r_1}{}}𝑑r_{cyl}\rho (r_{cyl})},$$
(6)
where $`r_1`$ is the position of the density minimum between the first and second solvation layers. The average superfluid density in the first solvation layer as a function of temperature is shown in Fig. 6. The transition is very broad due to the small number of atoms ($`30`$) in the first layer. It shows the onset of superfluidity at roughly 1 K. The superfluid density about the molecule axis (z-axis) goes to unity as the temperature goes to zero, as the density is symmetric about this axis. The normal fluid response from rotating about the radial axis (r-axis) combines both thermal effects and effective normal fluid induced by rotating through the anisotropic helium density, and because of this, does not go to zero at $`T=0`$ K.

We have determined that only a small fraction of the particles in the first layer are localized (not permuting) at T=0.38 K and below, as shown in Fig. 5. Though many of the permutations are between atoms within the same layer, the first layer is not cut off from the rest of the fluid. Below 1 K, the majority of the atoms in the droplet are part of exchange cycles with atoms in both the first layer and the rest of the droplet. However, in terms of excitations, the first layer is well represented as a 2D superfluid.

To compare the effects of density on the thermally-induced normal fluid in the first layer, we calculated the superfluid density distribution for $`N=128`$ 4He-(HCN)3 droplets at T=0.19, 0.38, 0.77, and 1.25 K, with a 4He-HCN interaction reduced by a factor of two in order to reduce the density in the first solvation layer. The density in the first layer decreased by $`15`$%, corresponding to an average coverage of 0.10 Å-2. The difference in coverage caused a 20% reduction in the superfluid response about the radial axis at T=0.19 K and T=0.38 K. At higher temperatures, the superfluid response was unchanged within the estimated error bars. The superfluid response about the molecule axis (z-axis) was unchanged within error bars. This is further evidence that the normal response in the first layer is due to both the anisotropy of the molecular potential and thermal excitations.

Using PIMC and a local superfluid density estimator, we find that the first solvation layer surrounding a linear impurity is approximately a two-dimensional superfluid. Although this effect has only a small contribution to the moment of inertia of this system, it is clear that thermal excitations play a significant role in the superfluid surrounding a molecule. By varying the temperature of the droplet, by adding 3He atoms, one could, in principle, observe such temperature dependence in the moment of inertia.

The authors would like to acknowledge K. Lehmann and B. Whaley for useful discussions. The computations were carried out at NCSA and the IBM cluster at the Materials Computation Center, and was supported by the NASA Microgravity Research Division, Fundamental Physics Program. This work was also performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. W-7405-Eng-48.

$``$ Present Address: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, L-415, Livermore, CA 94550.


text:
# A Phenomenological Treatment of Chiral Symmetry Restoration and Deconfinement

## Abstract

A phenomenological expression for the thermodynamic potential of gluons and quarks is constructed which incorporates the features of deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration known from lattice simulations. The thermodynamic potential is a function of the Polyakov loop and chiral condensate expectation values. The gluonic sector uses a successful model for pure $`SU(N_c)`$ gauge theories in which the Polyakov loop eigenvalues are the fundamental order parameters for deconfinement. The quark sector is given by a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model in which a constant background $`A_0`$ field couples the chiral condensate to the Polyakov loop. We consider the case of $`N_f=2`$ in detail. For two massless quarks, we find a second order chiral phase transition. Confinement effects push the transition to higher temperatures, but the entropy associated with the gluonic sector acts in the opposite direction. For light mass quarks, only a rapid crossover occurs. For sufficiently heavy quarks, a first order deconfinement transition emerges. This simplest model has one adjustable parameter, which can be set from the chiral transition temperature for light quarks. It predicts all thermodynamic quantities as well as the behavior of the chiral condensate and the Polyakov loop over a wide range of temperatures.

Finite temperature QCD, in its variants which can be studied with lattice techniques, exhibits both deconfinment and chiral symmetry restoration. Depending on the model under study, there may be one or more phase transitions as the temperature is varied, or no phase transition at all. Finite density brings with it an additional rich set of possible behaviors at low temperatures. The transition from one phase to another may be marked by a first- or second-order phase transition, or two apparently different phases may be connected to one another, as in a liquid-gas transition. While we understand much about these complex behaviors, we lack a comprehensive, simple theoretical tool which gives us insight into possible behaviors. In short, we need a Landau-Ginzburg theory for finite temperature QCD.

The behavior of finite temperature QCD can be understood from the behavior of two order parameters: the Polyakov loop $`P`$, associated with deconfinement, and the chiral condensate, $`\overline{\psi }\psi `$, associated with chiral symmetry restoration. Our aim is to construct simple phenomenological models incorporating both chiral symmetry restoration and deconfinement in a unified way, which can be applied to both quenched and unquenched behavior, for all values of $`N_c`$ and any number of flavors $`N_f`$. These models naturally give the behavior of $`P`$, $`\overline{\psi }\psi `$, and thermodynamic variable such as pressure as a function of temperature and chemical potential. By incorporating both $`P`$ and $`\overline{\psi }\psi `$ as order parameters, useful information about non-equilibrium behavior is also available.

Polyakov loop models have been used extensively to describe the deconfinement transition in pure gauge theories . The two models of the deconfinement transition in $`SU(N_c)`$ gauge theories which we have developed . use the eigenvalues of the Polyakov loop as the fundamental order parameters. This accords with the results of high-temperature perturbation theory , and our models reproduce the leading $`T^4`$ behavior of perturbation theory at high temperature. Both of the models we have studied correctly predict a second order phase transition for $`SU(2)`$ and a first order phase transition for $`SU(N_c)`$ when $`N_c3`$.

In the case of $`SU(3)`$, the center symmetry $`Z(3)`$ allows us to consider the vacuum expectation value of the trace of the Polyakov loop to lie along the real axis. The trace of the Polyakov loop in the fundamental representation can be parametrized along the real axis. as $`P_F=1+\mathrm{cos}(2\pi /3\varphi )`$, where $`\varphi =0`$ corresponds to the confined phase and $`\varphi 0`$ corresponds to a non-zero value for $`P_F`$ signaling deconfinement. We will use our first model, model A, to describe deconfinement here. The free energy as a function of $`\varphi `$ has the form

$`V_G={\displaystyle \frac{8\pi ^2T^4}{405}}+\left({\displaystyle \frac{3T^2M^2}{2\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2T^4}{3}}\right)\varphi ^2`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{2T^4}{3\pi }}\varphi ^3{\displaystyle \frac{3T^4}{2\pi ^2}}\varphi ^4.`$ (1)
This model is obtained from a truncation of the free energy of massive gluons moving in a constant Polyakov loop background. Model A has a single free parameter, the mass scale $`M`$. The pressure, energy density and interaction measure derived from the above thermodynamic potential compare well with pure gauge simulations.

Quarks break $`Z(3)`$ symmetry explicitly. This effect is small for large quark mass, and the deconfinement transition remains first order for sufficiently large quark masses. Within model A, we find that for a single heavy quark, deconfinement persists as a first-order phase transition until a second-order critical point is reached at $`m_c2.57M`$. For quark masses below this value, deconfinement occurs as a smooth crossover.

A complete discussion of QCD at finite temperature must also incorporate chiral symmetry restoration. We include these effects via a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model coupled to the background Polyakov loop. The free energy of $`N_f=2`$ quarks at 1-loop order can be written as

$$V_F=\frac{\sigma ^2}{4G}N_fN_ctrln(i\gamma ^\mu D_\mu +m_0+\sigma ),$$
(2)
where $`G`$ is the four-fermion coupling constant, the composite field $`\sigma =\frac{\overline{\psi }\psi }{2G}`$, and $`D_\mu `$ is a covariant derivative containing the background $`A_0`$ field. The constituent mass $`m`$ of the quarks is given as $`m=m_0+\sigma `$, where $`m_0`$ is the current mass. The coupling constant $`G`$ as well as the non-covariant cutoff $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ required to regularize the theory are fixed by zero temperature phenomenology. The values used are  $`G=5.02`$ GeV<sup>-2</sup> and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=653`$ MeV, which lead to $`f_\pi =93MeV`$ and $`\overline{\psi }\psi =2(250MeV)^3`$. For sufficiently large temperature, the finite temperature contribution of the functional determinant can be evaluated using a high temperature expansion . The quark part of our model has no remaining free parameters once it is calibrated to give the correct zero temperature physics.

The only free parameter in model A coupled to the NJL model is $`M`$. The chiral transition temperature $`T_c`$ is shown in figure 1 as a function of $`M`$. As M is lowered, $`T_c`$ decreases until $`M=300`$ MeV, below which $`T_c`$ is essentially frozen at $`175`$ MeV, the value predicted by the NJL model with a trivial Polyakov loop. At very low values of $`M`$, the energy density divided by $`T^4`$ changes from a monotonically increasing function of temperature to one which approaches the blackbody behavior from above in stark constrast to lattice data. If one chooses $`M=596`$ MeV, the value which yields a pure gauge deconfinement temperature of $`T_d=270`$ MeV, then the chiral transition temperature is $`201`$ MeV which is somewhat higher than lattice simulations indicate. Choosing the value $`M=300`$ MeV yields a reasonable value of the transition temperature while avoiding the problem of poorly behaved thermodynamic functions. Once $`M`$ is fixed there are no free parameters in the model.

The chiral order parameter $`\sigma `$ and the Polyakov loop are plotted as a function of temperature in figure 2. Choosing a zero current quark mass yields a clear second order chiral transition while the deconfinement order parameter displays crossover behavior. The pressure divided by $`T^4`$ is plotted in figure 3. The interaction measure $`\mathrm{\Delta }=(ϵ3p)/T^4`$ falls to zero at high temperatures as $`1/T^2`$, a behavior also seen in the pure gauge theory model.

The effect of adding a small chemical potential can also be studied using a high temperature expansion of the quark determinant. In figure 4 the phase diagram is displayed for $`M=300`$ MeV. The chiral transition appears to be second order out to at least $`\mu =130MeV`$ which is roughly the limit of reliability of the high-temperature expansion. The dotted line shows an elliptical extrapolation to higher $`\mu `$. This line extrapolates to precisely the value predicted by the NJL model at zero temperature, displayed as a large point in the figure.

We plan to continue studying the phase diagram of this model. The dependence of the location of the tricritical point on the mass parameter $`M`$ remains to be worked out. The addition of a non-zero bare quark mass is expected to change the tricritical point to a second order critical point and shift its location slightly in the $`T\mu `$ plane.


text:
# Planck Scale Phenomena

## 1 Introduction

It is well known that in Quantum Gravity as well as in Quantum SuperString Theory, we encounter phenomena at the Planck scale. Yet what we encounter in the real world is, not the Planck scale, but the elementary particle Compton scale. The explanation for this is that the very high energy Planck scale is moderated by the Uncertainty Principle. The question which arises is, exactly how does this happen? We will now present an argument to show how the Planck scale leads to the real world Compton scale, via fluctuations and a modification of the Uncertainty Principle.

## 2 The Planck Scale

It is well known that the Planck Scale is defined by

$$l_P=\left(\frac{\mathrm{}G}{c^3}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}10^{33}cm$$

$$t_P=\left(\frac{\mathrm{}G}{c^5}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}10^{42}sec$$
(1)
(1) defines the absolute minimum physical scale . Associated with (1) is the Planck mass

$$m_P10^5gm$$
(2)
There are certain interesting properties associated with (1) and (2). $`l_P`$ is the Schwarzschild radius of a black hole of mass $`m_P`$ while $`t_P`$ is the evaporation time for such a black hole via the Beckenstein radiation . Interestingly $`t_P`$ is also the Compton time for the Planck mass, a circumstance that is symptomatic of the fact that at this scale, electromagnetism and gravitation become of the same order . Indeed all this fits in very well with Rosen’s analysis that such a Planck scale particle would be a mini universe . We will now invoke a time varying gravitational constant

$$G\frac{lc^2}{m\sqrt{N}}=(\sqrt{N}t)^1\alpha T^1$$
(3)
which resembles the Dirac cosmology and features in another scheme in which (3) arises due to the fluctuation in the particle number . In (3) $`m`$ and $`l`$ are the mass and Compton wavelength of a typical elementary particle like the pion while $`N10^{80}`$ is the number of elementary particles in the universe, $`\sqrt{N}`$ the fluctuation in particle number and $`T`$ is the age of the universe.
In this scheme wherein (3) follows from the theory, we use the fact that given $`N`$ particles, the fluctuation in the particle number is of the order $`\sqrt{N}`$, as noted by Hayakawa, while a typical time interval for the fluctuations is $`\mathrm{}/mc^2`$, the Compton time. We will come back to this point later. So we have

$$\frac{dN}{dt}=\frac{\sqrt{N}}{\tau }$$

whence on integration we get,

$$T=\frac{\mathrm{}}{mc^2}\sqrt{N}$$

and we can also deduce its spatial counterpart, $`R=\sqrt{N}l`$, which is the well known empirical Eddington formula. It is also possible to then deduce the Hubble Law and a hitherto mysterious empirical relationship, noted by Weinberg, between the mass of the pion and the Hubble constant (Cf.refs. for details).
Equation (3) which is an order of magnitude relation is consistent with observation  while it may be remarked that the Dirac cosmology itself has inconsistencies.
Substitution of (3) in (1) yields

$$l=N^{\frac{1}{4}}l_P,$$

$$t=N^{\frac{1}{4}}t_P$$
(4)
where $`t`$ as noted is the typical Compton time of an elementary particle. We can easily verify that (4) is consistent. It must be stressed that (4) is not a fortuitous empirical coincidence, but rather is a result of using (3), which again as noted, can be deduced from theory.
(4) can be rewritten as

$$l=\sqrt{n}l_P$$

$$t=\sqrt{n}t_P$$
(5)
wherein we have used (3) and $`n=\sqrt{N}`$.
We will now compare (5) with the well known relations, deduced earlier,

$$R=\sqrt{N}lT=\sqrt{N}t$$
(6)
The first relation of (6) is the well known Eddington formula referred to while the second relation of (6) is given also on the right side of (3). We now observe that (6) can be seen to be the result of a Brownian Walk process, $`l,t`$ being typical intervals between ”steps” (Cf.). We demonstrate this below after equation (8). On the other hand, the typical intervals $`l,t`$ can be seen to result from a Nelsonian process themselves. Let us consider Nelson’s relation,

$$(\mathrm{\Delta }x)^2l^2=\frac{\mathrm{}}{m}t\frac{\mathrm{}}{m}\mathrm{\Delta }t$$
(7)
(Cf.).
Indeed as $`l`$ is the Compton wavelength, (7) can be rewritten as the Quantum Mechanical Uncertainty Principle

$$lp\mathrm{}$$

at the Compton scale (Cf. also ) (or even at the de Broglie scale).
What (7) shows is that a Brownian-Nelsonian process defines the Compton scale while (6) shows that a Random Walk process with the Compton scale as the interval defines the length and time scales of the universe itself (Cf.). Returning now to (5), on using (2), we observe that in complete analogy with (7) we have the relation

$$(\mathrm{\Delta }x)^2l_P^2=\frac{\mathrm{}}{m_P}t_P\frac{\mathrm{}}{m_P}\mathrm{\Delta }t$$
(8)
We can now argue that the Nelsonian-Brownian process (8) defines the Planck length while a Brownian Random Walk process with the Planck scale as the interval leads to (5), that is the Compton scale.
To see all this in greater detail, it may be observed that equation (8) (without subscripts)

$$(\mathrm{\Delta }x)^2=\frac{\mathrm{}}{m}\mathrm{\Delta }t$$
(9)
is the same as the Nelsonian equation, indicative of a double Weiner process. Indeed as noted by several scholars, this defines the fractal Quantum path of dimension 2 (rather than dimension 1) (Cf.e.g. ref.).
Firstly it must be pointed out that equation (9) defines a minimum space time unit - the Compton scale $`(l,t)`$. This follows from (9) if we substitute into it $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }x}{\mathrm{\Delta }t}_{max}=c`$. If the mass of the particle is the Planck mass, then this Compton scale becomes the Planck scale.
Let us now consider the distance traversed by a particle with the speed of light through the time interval $`T`$. The distance $`R`$ covered would be

$$𝑑x=R=c𝑑t=cT$$
(10)
by conventional reasoning. In view of the Nelsonian equation (9), however we would have to consider firstly, the minimum time interval $`t`$ (Compton or Planck time), so that we have

$$𝑑tnt$$
(11)
Secondly, because the square of the space interval $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ (rather than the interval $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ itself as in conventional theory) appears in (9), the left side of (10) becomes, on using (11)

$$𝑑x^2(\sqrt{n}dx)(\sqrt{n}dy)$$
(12)
Whence for the linear dimension $`R`$ we would have

$$\sqrt{n}R=nct\text{or}R=\sqrt{n}l$$
(13)
Equation (12) brings out precisely the fractal dimension $`D=2`$ of the Brownian path while (13) is identical to (4) or (6) (depending on whether we are dealing with minimum intervals of the Planck scale or Compton scale of elementary particles). Apart from showing the Brownian character linking equations (4) and (9), incidentally, this also provides the justification for what has so far been considered to be a mysterious large number coincidences viz. the Eddington formula (6).
There is another way of looking at this. It is well known that in Quantum SuperString Theory, at the Planck scale we have a non commutative geometry

$$[x,y]0(l_P^2),[x,p_x]=\mathrm{}[1+0(l_P^2)]etc.$$
(14)
Indeed (14) follows without recourse to Quantum SuperStrings, merely by the fact that $`l_P,t_P`$ are the absolute minimum space time intervals as shown a long time ago by Snyder .
The non commutative geometry (14), as is known is symptomatic of a modified uncertainty principle at this scale -

$$\mathrm{\Delta }x\frac{\mathrm{}}{\mathrm{\Delta }p}+l_P^2\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }p}{\mathrm{}}$$
(15)
The relation (15) would be true even in Quantum Gravity. The extra or second term on the right side of (15) expresses the well known duality effect - as we attempt to go down to the Planck scale, infact we are lead to the larger scale represented by it. The question is, what is this larger scale? If we now use the fact that $`\sqrt{n}`$ is the fluctuation in the number of Planck particles (exactly as $`sqrtN`$ was the fluctuation in the particle number as in (3) so that $`\sqrt{n}mpc=\mathrm{\Delta }p`$ is the fluctuation or uncertainty in the momentum for the second term on the right side of (15), we obtain for the uncertainty in length,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }x=l_P^2\frac{\sqrt{n}m_Pc}{\mathrm{}}=l_P\sqrt{n},$$
(16)
We can easily see that (16) is the same as the first relation of (5). The second relation of (5) follows from an application of the time analogue of (15).
Thus the impossibility of going down to the Planck scale because of (14) or (15), manifests itself in the fact that as we attempt to go down to the Planck scale, we infact end up at the Compton scale.
Interestingly while at the Planck length, we have a left time of the order of the Planck time, as noted above it is possible to argue on the other hand that with the pion mass and length of a typical elementary particle like the pion, at the Compton scale, we have a life time which is the age of the universe itself as shown by Sivaram .
Interestingly also Ng and Van Dam deduce the relations like

$$\delta L(Ll_P^2)^{1/3},\delta T(Tt_P^2)^{1/3}$$
(17)
where the left side represents the uncertainty in the measurement of length and time for an interval $`L,T`$. We would like to point out that if in (17) we use for $`L,T`$, the size and age of the universe, then $`\mathrm{\Delta }L`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ reduce to the Compton scale $`l,t`$.
In conclusion, Brownian-Nelsonian processes and the modification of the Uncertainity Principle at the Planck scale lead to the physical Compton scale.


text:
# High resolution spectral survey of symbiotic stars in the near-IR over the GAIA wavelength range

## 1. Introduction

The spectral region around the near-IR CaII triplet and the head of the Paschen series is among the most promising to investigate the cool component of symbiotic stars. First of all the region is free from telluric absorptions and thus well accessible from the ground (Munari 1999). Secondly, given the dependance of the interstellar extinction on wavelength, the red region is more suitable for the study of the symbiotic sample, which has a spatial distribution flattened toward the Galactic plane.

However, the dominant reasons to move toward these red wavelengths lie in their high diagnostic potential of the nature of the cool giant and the reduced disturbing presence of the nebular continuum. Furthermore, this region (precisely the 8480-8740 Å interval) has been selected for the spectral survey ($`3\times 10^8`$ objects, complete to $`V17.5`$ mag) that the ESA astrometric Cornerstone mission GAIA should perform starting 2010.

The region is dominated by some of the strongest features visible in cool stars ( CaII triplet, FeI, TiI, MgI and SiI lines, as well as lines from CN and TiO bands ) . The presence and activity of the hot companion is well traced by

Paschen, CaII, HeI and NI emission lines which are strong and abundant in this wavelength interval. The latter is away from the veiling effect of the nebular blue continuum, that by filling-in aborption features tendes to mimic hotter spectral types, reduced metallicities and higher gravities for the cool component.

## 2. The atlas

We are completing a wide ranging, high resolution (R$``$20,000), high S/N ($``$100) spectral survey of symbiotic stars (selected from the Allen 1984 and Belczyǹski et al. 2000 catalogues) over the 8480-8740 Å wavelength range with the Asiago 1.82 telescope equipped with the Echelle+CCD spectrograph. Our collection of symbiotic spectra includes so far $``$40 objects, representative of the different types of cool components encountered in these binary systems (G, K, M, C and S spectral types, both non-variable as well as pulsating). Two examples of the collected spectra are presented in Figures 1 and 2.

The survey is supplemented by identical observations of a wide sample ($``$140) of MKK templates to serve as reference stars for classification purposes and training of syntetic model spectra aimed to investigate the cool component of symbiotic stars. The sample includes giants, bright giants and supergiants (ranging from G0 to M7, containing also C, S and Ba stars) and covers different metallicities ($``$2.59$``$\[Fe/H\]$``$+0.38). It is intended to integrate and enrich the GAIA atlas mapping the MKK system presented by Munari & Tomasella (1999).

## 3. Purposes

The collected data will serve the purpose to (a) classify the cool component with the greatest attention given to the determination of the still basically unknown luminosity class, (b) derive their atmosferic parameters (Teff, logg, \[Fe/H\], \[$`\alpha `$/Fe\], Vrotsini), (c) asses the radial velocity dispersion of the symbiotic stars with respect to the standard galactic disk rotation and (d) derive distances via spectrophotometric parallaxes, as well as (e) understand better the kinematics and physical properties of the nebular regions as mapped by the intensity and profile of the emission lines.

Knowing these properties would open unprecedented possibilities in addressing the evolutionary status of the symbiotic stars, their galactic population, their number in the Galaxy and the probability that they are precursors of type Ia supernovae.

## References

Allen, D.A. 1984, Proc. A.S.A, 5, 369

Belczyǹski, K., Mikolajewska, J., Munari, U., Ivison, R.J., & Friedjung, M. 2000, A&A, 146, 407

Munari, U. 1999, BaltA, 8, 73

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