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# Direct Correlation between Tc and CuO2 Bilayer Spacing in YBa2Cu3O7-x

## Abstract

We report the effects of epitaxial strain and deoxygenation on high quality \[YBa2Cu3O7-x(YBCO) N / PrBa2Cu3O7 (PBCO) 5\]$`_{1000\text{Å}}`$ superlattices, with 1 $`<`$N$`<`$12 unit cells. High spatial resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) shows that strained, fully oxygenated YBCO layers are underdoped. Irrespective of whether underdoping is induced by strain or deoxygenation, X-ray diffraction analysis shows that Tc correlates directly with the separation of the CuO2 bilayers.

Since the discovery of the high Tc superconductivity, the relation between critical temperature and structure has been the focus of considerable interest. Changes in the critical temperature (Tc) induced by pressure (physical) and isovalent substitution (chemical pressure) have been extensively investigated to find which interatomic distances within the unit cell are relevant for the mechanism of superconductivity (see for instance references 1-3 and references therein). However, despite a considerable experimental and theoretical effort, a definitive answer has not yet been obtained, partly due to the complex intracell structure of the cuprates. Most theories consider superconductivity primarily located on the CuO2 planes, which are coupled by proximity or pair tunneling effects \[4-9\], and extensive experimental work has been done, directed to examine the importance of the distance between CuO2 planes of the same and of neighboring cells for the mechanism of superconductivity. Modifications of the interlayer coupling have been explored changing the number of copper planes , their inner structure , or intercalating non superconducting spacers as iodized compounds  or organic spacers .Concerning the separation between neighboring CuO2 planes, substitution of the rare earth element is known to influence lattice dimensions (chemical pressure experiments) . An increase of the rare earth ionic radius from 0.99 A for Yb to 1.08 for Nd is known to increase the distance between planes and also Tc from 88 to 95 K . Despite the extensive work, the results of some of the experiments are contradictory, a clear picture has not emerged yet. Changes in the distance between planes, or modifications in the intracell distances due to cationic substitution, may have, in addition, a direct influence in the charge transfer and thus on the carrier concentration.On the other hand it is well known that changes in oxygen content, which result in changes in the carrier concentration, also cause significant structural changes . This interplay between structural changes and doping has obscured the relationship between superconductivity and structure.

In addition to physical or chemical pressure, structural changes induced by epitaxial strain in thin films can be used to explore the relationship between structure and superconductivity. In a previous paper we have reported that significant epitaxial strain occurs in ultrathin YBa2Cu3O7-x layers in \[YBa2Cu3O7-x(YBCO) N / PrBa2Cu3O7 (PBCO) 5\] $`_{1000\text{Å}}`$ superlattices, with N ranging between 1 and 12 unit cells, as a result of a 1% in-plane lattice mismatch with PBCO. This epitaxial strain causes non-uniform changes in the interatomic distances within the unit cell which correlate with the decrease of the critical temperature in the strained layers .

In this paper we compare structural changes resulting from epitaxial strain with those arising from doping in oxygen depleted YBCO samples. In both cases, changes in the intracell distances are comparable in magnitude but some have opposite signs, and the comparison provides important information on the interplay between structure and superconducting properties. Using high spatial resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) we show, for the first time, that epitaxially strained layers are underdoped. Structure refinement by X-ray diffraction shows that regardless of whether underdoping is caused by strain or deoxygenation, Tc is uniquely determined by the CuO2 bilayer separation. No other intracell spacings show such a correlation, indicating that the CuO2 bilayer spacing is the fundamental structural signature of Tc in the superconducting cuprates.

The samples for this study were epitaxially strained \[YBa2Cu3O7-x /PrBa2Cu3O7\]$`_{1000\text{Å}}`$superlattices grown by high pressure (3.4 mbar) oxygen sputtering on (100) SrTiO3 substrates, held at 900oC. The PBCO layer thickness was fixed in 60 Å, (5 unit cells), enough to decouple the superconducting layers, while the YBCO layer thickness ranged between 12 and 1 unit cells. The number of bilayers grown in the stacking was adjusted to obtain samples 1000Å thick. Structure was analyzed by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and refined with the SUPREX software , which allows refinement of atomic positions in the c- direction within the unit cell. Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) measurements and Z-contrast images were obtained in a VG Microscopes HB501UX STEM operated at 100kV with a field emission gun, and a parallel detection EELS post-column spectrometer. An anular dark field detector was used for imaging. In this microscope, the electron probe can be focused down to a diameter of a 2.2Å. Cross section samples for STEM were prepared by conventional grinding, dimpling and ion milling with Ar ions with an energy of 5 kV, at an incidence angle of 7o. Final cleaning was done at low voltage of 2 kV.

Superlattices grown by this technique had atomically flat interfaces with negligible interdiffusion as proven by x-ray diffraction analysis and energy filtered transmission electron microscopy. Details about sample preparation and interface characterization can be found elsewhere . In these YBCO layers, when the thickness is reduced below 4 unit cells epitaxial strain effects arise due to the 1% lattice mismatch between YBCO and PBCO, causing a quite inhomogeneous reorganization of intracell distances . For the thinnest (one unit cell) YBCO layer, the CuO2 planes move closer to each other by 4%, while the Ba ion approaches the CuO chains by 4% but moves away from the CuO2 planes by 2%. Results for several sets of samples are shown in Fig. 1. Tc is plotted versus the distance between the CuO2 planes and the Y cation, i.e. half of the distance between adjacent CuO2 planes (fig 1a), and versus the distance between the Ba ion and the CuO chains (fig 1b). Note that despite the strain within the single layers might be inhomogeneous, x-ray analysis supplies values for the intracell distances averaged over the whole layer. The \[YBCON/PBCO5\] superlattice samples, with 1$`<`$N$`<`$12 unit cells, where the parameter tuning the Tc is epitaxial strain, are represented by solid squares. The c-lattice parameter of the PBCO was constant at a value of 11.71 $`\stackrel{o}{𝐀}`$, very close to the bulk value, pointing to an unstrained structure of the PBCO . Lattice distortion due to the lattice mismatch with the STO in the first PBCO layer ( +0.4 % along a axis and -0.6 % along b axis) was not detected.

It is interesting to compare these structural changes with those arising through deoxygenation of bulk YBCO by Jorgensen et al . Upon oxygen depletion the hole density decreases gradually, and so does the value of Tc. At the same time, quite substantial structural changes occur within the bulk YBCO unit cell. Contrary to the strained samples, one observes that as oxygen is removed, the Ba ion moves away from the basal CuO chain (5% for an oxygen content of 6.4 per formula unit), while the CuO2 planes approach each other (3%). Meanwhile, the distance between the Ba ion and the CuO2 planes decreases slightly. Figure 1 demonstrates a clear correlation between structural changes and variations in the critical temperature for both deoxygenation and epitaxial strain. It is remarkable that changes in the different intracell distances caused by strain and deoxygenation are quantitatively similar, although in the case of the Ba-CuO distance show opposite sign.

For the superlattices, increasing epitaxial strain decreases the distance between CuO2 planes, as would be expected from the Poisson effect alone. This is true both for adjacent planes (same cell) and for planes of neighboring cells . It would be expected that the enhanced coupling would increase Tc, which is contrary to the results observed. This suggests that a different effect is ruling the changes in the critical temperature. Significantly, the spacing of the CuO2 bilayers decreases also upon oxygen removal, despite the fact that the c lattice parameter increases in this case.

The behavior of the Ba-CuO spacing between the Ba atom and the CuO chains (figure 1b) is more complicated. In epitaxially strained samples Tc decreases with decreasing Ba-CuO separation, while the opposite trend is found for the oxygen depleted bulk samples. The bell shaped aspect of figure 1b could point at first glance to an optimal Ba-CuO distance for which the maximum Tc is attained. Since on the right branch, the oxygen depleted samples, Tc decreases due to underdoping, the left branch, would be interpreted as overdoping of the CuO2 planes due to the strain induced structural change. However, this conclusion is opposite to that indicated by the contraction of the CuO2 bilayer spacing which occurs both for strained and for underdoped samples. In the following we explicitly deoxygenate the strained superlattices to show that overdoping is not the cause of the reduced Tc.

Strained \[YBCO1/PBCO5\]$`_{1000\text{Å}}`$ superlattices were depleted of oxygen to a nominal content 7-x= 6.93, 6.8 and 6.6 per formula unit. Oxygen content was adjusted in-situ, after sample growth, following a stability line in the phase diagram corresponding to the desired oxygen stoichiometry during sample cool down . These oxygen contents are nominal and the values were inferred from the results obtained on companion thin films of YBCO which were given the same deoxygenation sequence . The structure was quantitatively determined through the refinement of the x-ray diffraction spectra. When oxygen was removed, the superlattice Bragg peaks shifted to lower angles, denoting a monotonic increase of the c lattice parameter. Although a direct measure of the oxygen content in our superlattices is not possible, the relative change in the c lattice parameter obtained from x ray analysis of the superlattices was in perfect agreement with the values found for bulk samples with the same nominal compositions.

Figure 2 shows changes of various intracell distances in the superlattices versus the nominal oxygen content. Results (obtained from x-ray refinement) are shown for the distance from the CuO2 planes to the Y atom (Y-CuO2), from the CuO2 planes to the Ba ion (CuO2-Ba), and from the Ba ion to the chains (Ba-CuO). Deoxygenated superlattices (solid symbols) follow precisely the same trend as neutron data for bulk samples (open symbols) from reference . This shows that the structural changes caused by deoxygenation in strained layers track exactly those occuring in (relaxed) bulk samples. We can therefore directly test the correlation of the Ba-CuO spacing to Tc. For a nominal oxygen content of 7-x = 6.6, we have Tc = 10K in the strained superlattice (see figure 3, discussed below) and the Ba-CuO spacing attains a value of 2.14Å. This is close to the value found for optimally doped unstrained YBCO with Tc = 90 K (see figure 1b). It can be concluded that Tc is not determined by the absolute value of the Ba-CuO spacing.

We now present definitive evidence that the strained superlattices are underdoped. Figure 3 shows the resistance curves corresponding to the deoxygenated \[YBCO1/PBCO5\]$`_{1000\text{Å}}`$ superlattices. The dotted line corresponds to the fully oxygenated \[YBCO1/PBCO5\] superlattice, and the dashed lines correspond to 7-x = 6.8 and 7-x = 6.6 in-situ deoxygenated samples. Slight deoxygenation was also conducted by ex-situ annealing the fully oxygenated \[YBCO1/PBCO5\] superlattices at 125oC in N2 atmosphere for succesive half hour intervals (solid lines in figure 3) . XRD spectra corresponding to these samples did not show measurable structural changes. When decreasing oxygen content we can observe how resistance increases while the Tc decreases smoothly. The reduction in Tc upon deoxygenation clearly shows that the samples are not overdoped in their strained, fully oxygenated state.

This result is confirmed using high spatial resolution EELS. Fine structure on the oxygen K-edge provides a sensitive measure of the superconducting carrier concentration \[26-29\]. It is known that the Cu-3d and O-2p states of the CuO2 plane atoms lie close to the Fermi level. As a result of the dipole selection rule, the unoccupied part of these states can be investigated by exciting transitions from Cu-2p and O-1s levels - in other words, by examining the fine structure of the copper L23 and oxygen K edges. In fully oxygenated YBCO two pre-edge features develop at the O-K edge: a shoulder around 535 eV, which represents transitions to unoccupied Cu-3d states, and a peak around 528 eV representing transitions to O-2p states which give rise to holes in the valence band \[26-29\]. In samples where the oxygen content is decreased this last peak falls in intensity, indicating a decrease in hole concentration and a reduction in the critical temperature. In figure 4 we show the energy loss spectra corresponding to the O-K edge for two different superlattices: a relaxed \[YBCO8/PBCO5\] sample, with a Tc of 88K (dotted line) and a strained \[YBCO1/PBCO5\] sample, showing a Tc of 35K (solid line). Spectra were acquired placing the electron probe on the center of the YBCO unit cell. The inset of figure 4 displays a Z-contrast image of a \[YBCO1/PBCO5\] sample showing very good resolution of the one unit cell thick layers. While the pre-peak at 528 eV is present for the relaxed sample, it is absent in the ultrathin strained layers. This evidences an important change in the hole density in the YBCO layers in the strained superlattice, confirming that the hole concentration is substantially reduced in epitaxially strained samples. Therefore, we can rule out the possibility of overdoping due to strain as a cause of Tc depression in \[YBCO1/PBCO5\] superlattices. It is possible that the strained layers are underdoped not due to the strain but as a result of oxygen deficiency provided that the determination of absolute oxygen concentration in such thin films is a difficult task. However, annealings in pure oxygen at 1 atmosphere and 500 oC did not produce significant Tc changes. Moreover, these fully oxygenated samples did not show measureable persisting photoconductivity after long term illumination with white light , thus excluding the possibility of oxygen deficiency.

Having established that both epitaxially strain and deoxygenation cause underdoping, we return to the correlation of the CuO2 bilayer separation with Tc shown in Fig. 1a. For our samples this correlation is independent of how a particular spacing was achieved, epitaxial strain or deoxygenation (or a combination). This shows that the primary structural signature of doping level and Tc is the CuO2 bilayer spacing. This can be interpreted naively as follows: as oxygen is removed from the chains, electrons are returned to the CuO2 planes, which are therefore more strongly attracted by the trivalent rare earth ion. In underdoped samples the separation of the CuO2 planes is thus reduced.Our results do not rule out the posibility of other effects such as fluctuations or size effects being involved in the Tc depression in ultrathin films \[31-35\] . But we report new experimental results showing the connection between Tc and structural modifications.

In summary, we have examined the interplay between epitaxial strain and doping in strained \[YBa2Cu3O7-x(YBCO) N / PrBa2Cu3O7 (PBCO)5\] $`_{1000\text{Å}}`$ superlattices. Through resistivity measurements and high spatial resolution EELS we have shown directly that strained ultrathin layers are underdoped. Deoxygenation of strained samples causes non-uniform changes in the intracell structure, following trends quantitatively and qualitatively similar to those observed in deoxygenated bulk YBCO. In all cases Tc is directly related to the separation of the CuO2 bilayers. In contrast, the distance between the Ba atom and the basal plane behaves quite differently with epitaxial strain and doping and can therefore be used to monitor the interplay between them. These results should stimulate future theoretical studies to highlight the role played by the Ba atom position on the charge transfer mechanism.

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FIGURE CAPTIONS

Figure 1: (a) Tc of YBCO versus the CuO2 bilayer separation, i.e., half the distance between adjacent CuO2 planes (b) Tc versus the distance between the Ba ion and the CuO chains. Open circles are neutron diffraction data for deoxygenated bulk YBCO from reference . Black squares represent the \[YBCON/PBCO5\] superlattices with 12$`>`$N$`>`$1 unit cells. Open squares correspond to deoxygenated \[YBCO1/PBCO5\] superlattices. Dotted lines are a guide to the eye. Vertical dotted lines correspond to spacings in fully oxygenated bulk samples. Error bars denote the range within the XRD refinement was not sensitive to changes in the distances.

Figure 2: Changes (d-d0) of various intracell distances versus the nominal oxygen content, where d0corresponds to the fully oxygenated bulk samples. Superlattice results (obtained from x ray refinement) are shown for the Y-CuO2 spacing (solid triangles), the CuO2-Ba spacing (solid squares), and the Ba-CuO spacing (solid circles). Neutron diffraction data for bulk deoxygenated YBCO are taken from reference  (same notation but open symbols).

Figure 3: Resistance versus temperature curves corresponding to the set of deoxygenated \[YBCO1/PBCO5\] strained superlattices. The dotted line corresponds to a fully oxygenated strained sample. Dashed lines correspond to nominal oxygen contents of 7-x = 6.8 and 7-x = 6.6. Solid lines represent the set of slightly deoxygenated superlattices obtained by ex situ annealings at 125 oC.

Figure 4: Electron energy loss spectra corresponding to the O-K edge for two different superlattices: a relaxed \[YBCO8/PBCO5\] sample (dotted line) and a strained \[YBCO1/PBCO5\] sample (solid line). The vertical line shows the position of the pre-peak in the near edge structure at 528 eV. This peak indicates transitions to O-2p states which give rise to holes in the valence band. Inset: Z-contrast image corresponding to a \[YBCO1/PBCO5\] superlattice. The darker contrast corresponds to YBCO layers (marked with black arrows).


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# Status of e-Print Servers

## 1 Introducción

Today’s communication digital network (email, e-Print server, web sites, FTP, chat, etc.) has become a vital tool for the development of scientific research. Now it’s possible to communicate with the scientific community in less than 24 hours any development or investigation that is considered of importance, in the same way we can access investigations and works published in the day. Additionally there are no restrictions to the size of a document, so it’s possible to show a work with greater detail, even in an interactive way, at very low costs. Thus, the scientific communications have evolved from print. So, on one side it’s not necessary to wait for months to read an article which is to be published in a journal, on the other hand it’s not always possible to consult every journal printed anywhere of the world.

## 2 History and Evolution of Scientific Publications

In the XVIIth century, the intellectual interchange occurred initially through personal letters, manuscripts or messengers. Science was being born and the scientists are few, this causes that the messenger is a science man. For example, Fermat’s work over the theory of probabilities is known thanks to the correspondence that he had with Pascal, or the letters that sent Pascal to Carcavi in which he finds the length of arc of a cycloid, or the famous last theorem of Fermat that is known through a footnote in a manuscript .

It was the development of the press machine (mid XVth century) which guaranteed the diffusion of the knowledge, and at the same time gave an impulse to the intellectual production. For example, it was thanks to the press machine that in the first half of XVIIth century Galileo Galilei could spread his manuscript ”Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”. It’s interesting to remember that Galileo wrote his manuscripts in dialogue form, which allowed it to arrive at a not so specialized public. Soon in the second half of century XVII, Newton gave a strong impulse to modern science, at the same time the Royal Society created the present form to communicate and to validate the scientific knowledge: the journal, and during long time the journals have been the best form to communicate and to impel the scientific development.
— Now, journals continue being means of diffusion and promotion of the scientific work with established rules; The published works must be original and no article can be published in two journals. In the same way the responsibility of an investigation is due to recognize by means of citations. In the publication process the articles must be analyzed and discussed by experts for their later publication, which allows to maintain a control on through the process. Nowadays we speak of 50,000 annual international publications in mathematics .

Recently, in XXth century, with the invention of telecommunications and computers, online communications have appeared. In 1961 an experiment that involved the article dissemination based on preprints via IEGs (information Exchange Groups) was made. This service was supported by NIH (National Institutes of Health) in the USA, which counted with 2500 members and 80$`\%`$ of the memos were published in printed journals. The objective of this experiment was to provide immediate communication between investigators, but it came to an end in March of 1967 because IEG preprints is complete publications. This represented a danger for the existing journals since their use would be reduced. In addition IEG preprints violated the requirements of many journals since the submitted documents could not be placed elsewhere .

Later in August 1991 thanks to the efforts of Paul Ginsparg, a server for the centralized distribution of electronic preprints settled down, based on the National Laboratory at Los Alamos (LANL) , which counted with the support of APS (American Physics Society). The initial center was the Theoretical Physics of High Energies (Hep-th) and given its fast acceptance, it extended to many other areas of physics, the nonlinear mathematics, and computer sciences. Today’s e-Print servers (initially called preprint server) are growing to new areas with more adepts and they are not being restricted, this is the case of arXiv which counts with 18 mirrors, 70$`\%`$ of the e-Prints there published are also in journals and 20$`\%`$ of them are conferences .

## 3 E-Print Servers

Perhaps one of the most attractive factors of online publications (around 500 ) is that they allow a systematic consultation, then we can access in a selective form to the information using a search motor, which saves a lot of time when doing a consultation. Additionally the physical space in the libraries is reduced, of the same form we save hard copy printing and the time to obtain an article, in addition not always (unless we are suscribided to the specific journal) we can consult a foreign publications in printed. The slogan is: “You just print what you use”. The costs of an electronic publication are low and its access is easy, for example a library (books, journals, etc.) in an institution can have a cost of 1/4 to 1/3 of the total of its actual expenses. The e-Print servers are very used by the academic community by its low cost of maintenance and publication , in addition the access to publications is free; arXiv is a good example of these. This is not something isolated within electronic media, e.g Linux, an operating system with free access that has more adepts, or the Napster phenomenon, which allowed free access to music; the impact of Google, given its efficiency in the search web and its little publicity, etc.

Our interests is in e-Print servers, which have generated a greater publicity, proliferation and intellectual interchange, maximizing the impact, speed and progress of scientific development, e.g. Maldacena’s work \[hep-th/9711200\] based initially during 10 months in LANL, was one of the most cited in 1998 with 456 citations, or Polchinski’s work \[hep-th/9611050\] which has remained by more than 4 years as e-Print with 688 citations (see ). This shows the impact of works based on e-Print server.

When we want to establish a publication, one of the most severe problems is its prize, and considering the benefits before mentioned of electronic formatting, the publications have been forced to change or to maintain an online version to promote the intellectual production. This has entailed some journals to adapt quickly, among some: Physics Review Letters (PRL) , The Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP)  (Pioneering in totally electronic journals of investigation in physics), Mathematical Physics Electronic Journal (MPEJ) , Central PubMed , the last three of free access. On the other hand, costs are those which determine if a online publication is or not of free access, and since it’s not possible to acces to all existing literature at nondeveloped countries due to its costs, then the competitive investigation is restricted in them, where the theoretical work even can be competitive.

A determining factor for the promotion of the scientific work is perhaps the access to information, and the access to good quality information, which can be recognized by its innovation, rigor and its technological applications, or given the case by its pedagogical or epistemologic content. Access to information is easily obtained by electronic means, nowadays it’s possible to maintain communication through email, e-Print server, web sites, chat or forums with experts, this without great difficulty. Nevertheless today electronic journals or e-Print servers have the same inherited primary characteristic of their precesores, they contain only text and images. Perhaps in a near future no only what we write will be fundamental, also will be important as it seams(remember the Galileo’s work), the multimedia will be useful when the intention is to comunicate with a nonspecialized public.

On another side, when we review the statistics that correlate articles cited with their publication in journals free or not , we find that the citation dynamics diminishes when the journals are not of free access. We present the annual citation dynamics of some of the most cited papers until year 2001 in High Energy Physics (HEP) over a database of $`N_p=477359`$ papers. These are: $`\mathrm{\#}`$6 cited 2696 times, $`\mathrm{\#}`$9 cited 2447 times, $`\mathrm{\#}`$10 cited 2369 times, and $`\mathrm{\#}`$11 cited 2309 times, according to SLAC Library (See Spires).

This database includes papers published in journals and e-Print servers and it can be observed that the citation dynamics for these articles changed after the year 1991, in which the Los Alamos preprint server was established. In figure 1, we show the impact measure of each paper along time ($`I_{\mathrm{\#}i}(y)`$). In figure 2, we show $`I_{\mathrm{\#}i}(y)/N_p(y)`$ (Here $`I_{\mathrm{\#}i}(y)`$ represents the number of times the $`\mathrm{\#}i`$ article has been cited in year $`y`$, and $`N_p(y)`$ represents the articles published in year $`y`$ and registered by the SLAC database). The dynamics shows that after some time it tends to zero in every case. Given the previous commentaries, the question of wether journals continue being a suitable format for the promotion and diffusion of the intellectual work or not.

## 4 A Possibility to Future Scientific Communications

When a work is published by a journal, this means that an idea or an investigation has been registered, and that a group of experts endorses and supports the investigation. At the same time an investigation is being communicated to the scientific community (which implies to have access to this community), this is very well achieved by e-Print servers. On the other hand, if the citation dynamics is considered within the scientific community, it can be deduced that an article acquires relevance and status when its endorsed and cited in other works, and by other investigators; this is to say when it’s useful to others. Therefore a work published as an e-Print acquires the same status of a publication done by a journal at the moment in which it’s cited by someone different from the author(s), and the impact of e-Print would be moderated by it’s number of citations and by those who cite the work (this last one is not novel and is something that always has been implicit within the social dynamics of the scientist community).

Although the process of selection in e-Print server is minimum, this system could work if a good culture of scientific communication is acquired , which would benefit to all. For example, one of the frequent vices of the scientific investigator is to publish by the mere fact of publishing (see also other commentaries in ). The same author must make his work valid and to select what is publishable and what is not. The investigator must remember that when he submits an article, his prestige is in game and this is decisive if he’s interested in that his work is recognized, important when asking for support for investigation projects.

E-Print servers has been a system that recognizes the responsibility of a work, in which the very source of of documents (tex, txt, html, etc.) can be found. This fact (direct access to sources) is not matter of worry. The plagiarism of ideas or the presence of saboteurs (for example: to supplant a name, etc.) is something unseen and the scientists are communicating their ideas almost instantaneously, with the confidence of which its investigation is recognized (remember the works of Maldacena and Polchinski). Also, some recognized physicists who work in the area of High Energy Physics have begun to use just the e-Print archives and less the journals, today it’s common to find citations to works that have been published only in an e-Print server.

We are giving a great deal of importance to citations, and it’s possible to ask how to establish the status of an article according to its citations. The use of a directed graph can be a good method for the article classification (see ), which is defined as follows: Given two articles represented by the nodes $`A,B`$, we say that $`A`$ is connected with $`B`$ ($`AB`$) if $`A`$ cites $`B`$. In addition we may consider the weight of $`B`$ as the number $`i_B`$ of connections to $`B`$, i.e. the number of times that $`B`$ is cited, in such a way that the citations made by the same group of authors or a sub-group of it are excluded. This graph can partially be ordered using its weights, since the smallest weight is zero and greater than some natural number $`n0`$. One says that two nodes $`A,B`$ are connected ($`AB`$) if it’s possible to find a way that it connects $`A`$ with $`B`$ (ej $`AQJMB`$), and a node $`C`$ is essential (Ĉ ) if it’s a forced node of the $`AB`$ way. A graph is connected if it does not have essential nodes, this is to say if the graph does not contain articles that connect isolated subjects.

Using the previous scheme of connected graphs or some other, we could measure the acceptance and the impact of e-Print, using the weight $`i_x`$ of each node, in such a way that e-Print acquires the status of a published article if it has a weight different from zero. On the other hand to take a statistic of the scientific production, is something that the electronic media can do without greater difficulty, this can be seen for example in Physics, Mathematics and Computer sciences the database of SPIRES-HEP  or Citeseer  respectively.

At the moment, the journals will continue being a control mechanism and consultation and diffusion of works of good quality.

## Acknowledgments

The author was partially supported by the Fundación Mazda para el Arte y la Ciencia. He would like to express his gratitude to Alvaro O’byrne by its commentaries and suggestions.

$`\mathrm{}`$: Published in http://ArXiv.org


text:
# References

ISU-NP-THY-02-11

Effective Operator Treatment of the Anharmonic Oscillator

K.J. Abrahama & J.P. Varya

a Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

ABSTRACT

We analyse the one-dimensional anharmonic oscillator using effective operator methods in both the strong and weak coupling limits. We show that in the case of a one-dimensional model space, the similarity transformation needed to define the effective Hamiltonian is related to the coefficients in the expansion of the wave function in the unperturbed harmonic oscillator basis. We obtain an infinite system of equations which is equivalent to those obtained from the Hill Determinant solution of the anharmonic oscillator. The analytic properties of the resulting equations reveal the non-perturbative features of the underlying problem. Thus, we demonstrate the the utility of the effective operator method for solving a non-analytic strong coupling problem.

The effective operator method  has been used extensively and successfully within a cluster approximation scheme to obtain the low-lying spectroscopy of complex nuclei  with realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions. Central to the methodology of  is the iterative construction of a similarity transformation which transforms the original hamiltonian to a new hamiltonian having a two-component block diagonal structure where one component is finite dimensional and accommodates the low-lying spectroscopy. Diagonalising this finite dimensional block diagonal sub-matrix yields a finite number of eigenvalues to any desired precision corresponding to a subset of the exact solutions. In a sense, the similarity transformation is designed to decouple a finite dimensional sub-space from the rest of the spectrum, even in cases when the original hamiltonian cannot be treated by perturbative methods. However, there are few rigorous results on the existence, or non-existence , of the similarity transformation on which the utility of the method hinges, although several practical issues specific to strongly correlated nuclear systems are under investigation. Thus the formal properties of this effective operator approach require additional study, particularly within the framework of problems known to be non-perturbative in character. In addition to formal aspects, a deeper understanding of the errors associated with various approximations is required. For example, when a sequence of clusters is introduced as in the nuclear many body applications  we still need to understand how to optimize the convergence with increasing cluster size and/or with increasing model space size. In order to clarify the physical utility of the approach and refine our knowledge of its limitations and properties we address a well studied non-perturbative problem, the one dimensional quartic oscillator in both the strong and weak coupling regime. In doing so, we shed light on the origins of the decoupling which plays such a crucial role.

The hamiltonian $`H`$ that we select, has the form $`H_0+V`$ where

$$H_0=\frac{p^2}{2m}+\frac{m\omega ^2x^2}{2}$$
(1)
and $`V=\lambda x^4`$.

The perturbation expansion for energy eigenvalues is known not to converge, independent of the size of $`\lambda `$ . The divergent behaviour of the expansion may be traced to the fact that, to large orders in perturbation theory, the growth in the number of contributions is sufficiently rapid to lead to a series that eventually diverges, even for $`\lambda `$ arbitrarily small.

Various non-perturbative methods have been applied to extract the eigenvalues . In this investigation we will construct an effective Hamiltonian using a similarity transformation along the lines proposed by Lee & Suzuki . In addition to extracting energy eigenvalues from the effective hamiltonian, the matrix elements of the generator of the similarity transformation will also be used to develop a system of equations equivalent to those obtained from the Hill determinant solution of the anharmonic oscillator.

We begin by establishing the following notation: let $`E`$ denote a generic eigenvalue and $`\mathrm{\Psi }>`$ the corresponding exact eigenstate of the Hamiltonian in Eq.1. In that case we have

$$H\mathrm{\Psi }>=E\mathrm{\Psi }>$$
(2)
Following , we define $`S`$, the generator of a similarity transformation such that $`\stackrel{~}{H}=e^SHe^S`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }>}=e^S\mathrm{\Psi }>`$ . It then follows that

$$\stackrel{~}{H}\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }>}=E\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }>}$$
(3)
For now, $`S`$ is arbitrary but subsequently, restrictions will be placed on $`S`$.

The next step in the treatment along the lines of  is the identification of a suitable model space (P-Space). We will use a one dimensional model space containing the ground state of $`H_0`$ signified by $`0>`$. With this choice, P, the projection operator onto the model space is just $`0><0`$. The Q space is then $`\mathrm{\Sigma }i><i`$, where the sum over $`i`$ runs over all states of the harmonic oscillator other than the ground state; $`P`$ and $`Q`$ are orthogonal and $`P+Q=I`$.

The first constraint we impose on $`S`$ is that $`S=QSP`$. This leads to the identities

$$PS=SQ=0$$

and

$$S=SP=QS$$

These identities will be used extensively later on. Since $`P`$ and $`Q`$ are orthogonal, $`S^2=0`$ leading to $`e^{\pm S}=I\pm S`$. With this choice of $`P`$ and $`Q`$ spaces and the restriction on $`S`$, $`S`$ reduces to a column vector whose non-vanishing matrix elements are of the form $`<iS0>(i0)`$ which will be denoted by $`S_i`$. The $`S_i`$ will be seen to be related to the expansion coefficients of the true wavefunction in the unperturbed basis. The final condition we impose on $`S`$ comes from requiring that

$$\stackrel{~}{H}P\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }>}=EP\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }>}$$
(4)
As in  we define the effective hamiltonian $`H_{eff}`$ to be $`P\stackrel{~}{H}P`$. In general, diagonalising $`H_{eff}`$ yields a subset of energy eigenvalues of the full hamiltonian, since in our case $`H_{eff}`$ is one dimensional we will recover just one eigenvalue for any given $`S`$. Expanding $`H_{eff}`$ in terms of $`S`$ gives

$$H_{eff}=PHP+PVS$$
(5)
From Eq. 4 and the fact that $`P`$ and $`Q`$ are projection operators it follows that $`Q\stackrel{~}{H}P=0`$, yielding

$$SHP+SVS=QVP+QHS$$
(6)
which can be rewritten as

$$QVP+QHS=SH_{eff}$$

After subtracting $`\mathrm{\Omega }S`$ from both sides of the preceeding equation, ($`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is an arbitrary parameter), we obtain the following equation for $`S`$

$$S=A(QVPS(H_{eff}\mathrm{\Omega }))$$
(7)
where

$$A=(\mathrm{\Omega }QHQ)^1$$

Note that since $`S`$ and $`H_{eff}`$ must be $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ independent, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is strictly speaking redundant. Nonetheless, the utility of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ will soon be made clear. No use has been made of the fact that the P space is one dimensional, thus Eqs. 4, 5 & 7 are perfectly general and identical equations arise when treating more complex hamiltonians along the lines of .

Since $`H_{eff}`$ depends explicitly on $`S`$, Eq. 7 is a non-linear operator equation for $`S`$ potentially admitting more than one solution. In addition, $`A`$ is ill-defined in an infinite dimensional Hilbert Space. In applications to many body problems it is customary to impose an arbitrary cut-off in the Q space which leads to a well defined $`A`$, in our case this amounts to neglecting all oscillator quanta above a certain energy. This also reduces $`S`$ to a finite dimensional column vector. Even with this simplification Eq. 7 is still hard to solve exactly; in applications to many body hamiltonians iterative solutions are preferred. We propose the following sequence of iterations;

$`S^{(n)}`$ $`=`$ $`A(QVPS^{(n1)}(H_{}^{(n)}{}_{eff}{}^{}\mathrm{\Omega }))`$ (8)
$`H_{}^{(n+1)}{}_{eff}{}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`PHP+PVS^{(n)}`$ (9)
with $`S^{(0)}=0`$ as the starting point in the sequence. After a suitable number of iterations the sequence is terminated. Since the $`P`$ space is one dimensional, the final $`H_{eff}`$ is simply the energy eigenvalue, no diagonalisation is necessary. On the other hand, it is necessary to check the cut-off independence of the energy eigenvalues and the convergence of the iterations, this can be done by varying both the cut-off and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. As a check we calculate the eigenvalues emerging from this procedure after a total of seven iterations. We retain only the first ten harmonic oscillator eigenstates of even parity in calculating $`A`$; since $`V`$ does not mix eigenstates of even and odd parity it is adequate to consider only even parity states in calculating $`A`$. As in  we use $`\mathrm{}=1`$, $`\omega =2`$ and $`m=.5`$ and allow $`\lambda `$ to vary. Our results (setting $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$) are
Iteration$`(n)`$ $`\lambda =.1`$ $`\lambda =.2`$ $`\lambda =.3`$ $`\lambda =1`$ $`\lambda =2`$ $`\lambda =3`$    0 1.075 1.15 1.225 1.75 2.5 3.25  1 1.06792 1.12612 1.17806 1.45479 1.7359 1.95799  2 1.06603 1.12035 1.16752 1.40423 1.62662 1.79234  3 1.06551 1.11886 1.16495 1.39484 1.61088 1.77311  4 1.06535 1.11845 1.16429 1.3929 1.60819 1.77022  5 1.06531 1.11834 1.16411 1.39248 1.60768 1.76971  6 1.06529 1.11831 1.16407 1.39238 1.60757 1.76962
These results are in excellent agreement with the ground state energies in ; extending the size of the $`Q`$ space used to obtain $`A`$ changes the eigenvalues (if at all) only at the fifth significant figure or beyond. Furthermore, allowing $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ to vary between -2 to +2 leads to a similarly small change in the obtained eigenvalues. As in  we can access different solutions for $`S`$ and thus different eigenvalues, by choosing a different range of values for $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$.

Given that the hamiltonian is non-perturbative the convergence of the sequence of iterations is non-perturbative in character; furthermore the error induced by truncating the $`Q`$ space to construct $`A`$ is small. Since truncation of the $`Q`$ space in the manner just described is a key ingredient in the application of effective operator methods in many body hamiltonians, we will attempt to understand why this procedure is valid. More precisely, we will show that at least for the purposes of calculating low lying eigenvalues, $`S`$ may be accurately approximated by a column vector of finite dimension; since $`S=QSP`$, it then follows the $`Q`$ space needed to define $`A`$ is effectively finite dimensional which justifies the truncation we employ.

We start by expanding Eq. 4 in terms of $`S`$ and $`H`$ leading to

$$(HSH+HSSHS)P\mathrm{\Psi }>=EP\mathrm{\Psi }>$$
(10)
In order to derive an identity for $`E`$ in terms of the $`S_i`$ we expand $`\mathrm{\Psi }>`$ in terms of the eigenstates of $`H_0`$ as follows

$$\mathrm{\Psi }>=\alpha _nn>$$
(11)
The sum in Eq. 11 begins from zero and runs over all positive integers. For the sake of future notational convenience we will denote $`<nAm>`$ by $`A_{nm}`$ where $`A`$ is any operator. Inserting the form of $`\mathrm{\Psi }>`$ from Eq. 11 into Eq. 10 and operating with $`<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}`$ on both sides yields

$$E=<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}H\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}>+<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}HS\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}>$$
(12)
assuming that $`\alpha _0`$ is non-vanishing. Inserting a complete set of states yields

$$E=H_{00}+V_{02}S_2+V_{04}S_4$$
(13)
exploiting the fact that the quartic perturbation connects the ground state only to states $`2>`$ and $`4>`$. Eq. 13 is a special case of a more general expression for the exact eigenenergy resulting from an effective hamiltonian in a one-dimensional model space derived in .

Equations for the remaining $`S_i`$ may be obtained by sandwiching Eq.6 between $`0>`$ and $`<n`$ where $`n0`$. Doing so and using the fact that $`P`$ and $`Q`$ are projection operators gives

$$<nSH0>+<nSVS0>=<nV0>+<nHS\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}>$$
(14)
By judicious insertions of complete sets of states, the left hand side of Eq. 14 can be reduced to

$$S_n(H_{00}+V_{02}S_2+V_{04}S_4)$$

The term within brackets is just $`E`$ from Eq. 13. Thus Eq. 14 may be written as

$$S_nE=<nV0>+<nHS0>$$
(15)
Inserting a complete set of states yields

$$S_nE=V_{n0}+\underset{m}{}H_{nm}S_m$$
(16)
As before we will assume $`n`$ to be even, the extension to include odd $`n`$ is straightforward. Inserting different values of $`n`$ into Eq. 16 leads to a system of coupled equations for the $`S_n`$. For $`n=2`$ we have,

$$V_{20}+(H_{22}E)S_2+V_{24}S_4+V_{26}S_6=0$$
(17)
For $`n=4`$ we have,

$$V_{40}+V_{42}S_2+(H_{44}E)S_4+V_{46}S_6+V_{48}S_8=0$$
(18)
For $`n=i`$ and $`i>4`$, there is no term independent of $`S`$. The equation takes the form

$$V_{ii4}S_{i4}+V_{ii2}S_{i2}+(H_{ii}E)S_i+V_{ii+2}S_{i+2}+V_{ii+4}S_{i+4}=0$$
(19)
We can make all the preceeding equations homogenous with the generic substitution

$$S_i=\frac{\beta _i}{\beta _0}$$

With this substitution Equations 13, 17, 18 read

$`(H_{00}E)\beta _0+V_{02}\beta _2+V_{04}\beta _4`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (20)
$`V_{20}\beta _0+(H_{22}E)\beta _2+V_{24}\beta _4+V_{26}\beta _6`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (21)
$`V_{40}\beta _0+V_{42}\beta _2+(H_{44}E)\beta _4+V_{46}\beta _6+V_{48}\beta _8`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (22)
For larger values of $`n`$ it is adequate to replace $`S_i`$ by $`\beta _i`$ in Eq. 19 giving

$$V_{ii4}\beta _{i4}+V_{ii2}\beta _{i2}+(H_{ii}E)\beta _i+V_{ii+2}\beta _{i+2}+V_{ii+4}\beta _{i+4}=0$$
(23)
For the sake of comparison, we substitute the expansion from Eq. 11 into Eq. 2. Restricting ourselves to $`\alpha _i`$ with $`i`$ even yields

$`(H_{00}E)\alpha _0+V_{02}\alpha _2+V_{04}\alpha _4`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (24)
$`V_{20}\alpha _0+(H_{22}E)\alpha _2+V_{24}\alpha _4+V_{26}\alpha _6`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (25)
$`V_{40}\alpha _0+V_{42}\alpha _2+(H_{44}E)\alpha _4+V_{46}\alpha _6+V_{48}\alpha _8`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (26)
and for larger values of $`i`$ we have

$$V_{ii4}\alpha _{i4}+V_{ii2}\alpha _{i2}+(H_{ii}E)\alpha _i+V_{ii+2}\alpha _{i+2}+V_{ii+4}\alpha _{i+4}=0$$
(27)
It is clear that $`\alpha _i`$ and $`\beta _i`$ satisfy the same set of equations. However, solving for the $`\alpha _i`$ is equivalent to solving the Hill determinant for the quartic oscillator . Since the $`S_i`$ are proportional to the $`\beta _i`$, the $`S_i`$ may also be obtained from solving the Hill determinant. Furthermore, the physical significance of the $`S_i`$ is apparent, the $`S_i`$ may be taken equal (up to an overall constant) to the coefficients arising in the expansion of the true wave function in the unperturbed basis. As far as we are aware, this is the first instance where a connection between $`S`$ and the expansion of the wave function in unperturbed basis has been established.

The $`\alpha _i`$ may be independently determined by the requirement that

$$det(HEI)=0$$

for an invertible $`H`$. It can be shown that this requirement is equivalent to the more general statement in  of which Eq. 13 is a special case . This provides an independent cross-check of our results.

There are additional constraints on the $`S_i`$ for large $`i`$ which arise from the behaviour of the matrix elements $`V_{ij}`$ at large $`i`$. To derive these constraints, let us rewrite Eq. 19 as follows,

$$V_{ii4}S_{i4}+V_{ii2}S_{i2}+H_{ii}S_i+V_{ii+2}S_{i+2}+V_{ii+4}S_{i+4}=ES_i$$
(28)
For large $`i`$ the matrix elements appearing in Eq. 28 have the approximate form

$`<ix^4(i+4)>`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{m\omega }})^2({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}})i^2(1+5/i)+\mathrm{}`$ (29)
$`<ix^4(i+2)>`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{m\omega }})^2i^2(1+3/i)+\mathrm{}`$ (30)
$`<ix^4i>`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{m\omega }})^2({\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}})(2i^2+2i+1)`$ (31)
$`<ix^4(i2)>`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{m\omega }})^2i^2(11/i)+\mathrm{}`$ (32)
$`<ix^4(i4)>`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{m\omega }})^2({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}})i^2(15/i)+\mathrm{}`$ (33)
$`<ix^2(i+2)>`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{2m\omega }})i+\mathrm{}`$ (34)
$`<ix^2(i2)>`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{2m\omega }})i+\mathrm{}`$ (35)
$`<ix^2i>`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{2m\omega }})(2i+1)`$ (36)
where higher order finite terms in the expansion have been neglected. As can be seen from the above equations, the left hand side of Eq. 28 contains both quadratic and linear divergences in $`i`$ at large $`i`$, and no such divergences appear on the right. Eq. 28 will be consistent only if $`S_i`$ fall off rapidly for large $`i`$ aided by possible cancellations due to sign differences between the various $`S_i`$ appearing on the left. As a consequence of the $`S_i`$ falling off rapidly, low energy eigenvalues of the full hamiltonian are expected to be only weakly dependent on high energy eigenstates of the unperturbed hamiltonian. As a check, we allow $`i`$ in Eq. 28 to run over a limited range of even values beginning at 0, and compute the lowest energy eigenvalues from the resulting equations. We use the same numerical values for the parameters as before and allow $`\lambda `$ to vary over the same range. The results are summarised in the table below:
$`imax/2`$ $`\lambda `$ .1 .2 .3 1 2 3    5  1.06529 1.11829 1.16406 1.39337 1.61123 1.77481  10  1.06529 1.11829 1.16405 1.39235 1.60755 1.76963  15  1.06529 1.11829 1.16405 1.39235 1.60754 1.76959  20  1.06529 1.11829 1.16405 1.39235 1.60754 1.76959
The entries in the table are the lowest energy eigenvalues obtained from sets of not more than 20 equations, and are in excellent agreement with the results obtained by our iterative procedure and with . This is strong support of our earlier claim that low energy eigenvalues of the full hamiltonian are only weakly dependent on high energy states of the unperturbed hamiltonian. It is now clear why the truncation of the $`Q`$ space which was implemented in order to facilitate the iterative procedure is justified. The decoupling of high energy states in a toy model has been independently studied in ; however unlike the quartic oscillator the hamiltonian in  can be analytically inverted, permitting the use of methods very different from the ones we employ in this paper.

As an additional analytical check on the decoupling of $`S_i`$ for large $`i`$, we consider the following Ansatz for large $`i`$,

$$\frac{S_{i+j}}{S_i}(1)^{j/2}(1\frac{jf(j/2)}{i}\frac{m^2\omega ^3}{\lambda \mathrm{}})$$
(37)
where $`f`$ is some arbitrary unspecified function. Inserting this Ansatz into Eq. 28 and using the asymptotic forms of the matrix elements given earlier, we see that Eq. 28 is free of divergences in $`i`$ provided

$$f(2)f(2)+2f(1)2f(1)+1=0$$
(38)
The utility of Eqs. 38 & 37 will become apparent when we investigate what happens when $`\lambda `$ is so large that it dominates the quadratic term in the potential. In that case the hamiltonian may be conveniently expressed as

$$\frac{p^2}{2m}+\frac{m\omega ^2x^2}{2}+\lambda x^4\frac{m\omega ^2x^2}{2}$$

Following the same procedure as before but with $`V=\lambda x^4\frac{m\omega ^2x^2}{2}`$ gives an equation identical to Eq. 28 but with different values of $`H_{ii}`$, and $`V_{ii\pm 2}`$. This is not surprising as the structure of Eq. 28 does not rely on the precise form of $`V`$ but on the fact that the only non-vanishing matrix elements $`V_{ij}`$ have $`(ij)4`$, which is the case for both forms of $`V`$ that we consider.

Once again, consistency requires that all divergences quadratic and linear in $`i`$ cancel on the left hand side of Eq. 28 with $`V`$ modified to study the strong coupling limit. Using the approximate forms of the relevant matrix elements given earlier, it is straightforward to verify that the recursion relation in Eq. 37 originally derived to analyse finite coupling is sufficient to gaurentee the cancellations in the strong coupling limit as well. The only difference between the two cases lies presumably only in the $`𝒪(1/i^2)`$ term which plays no role in cancellation of divergences. This is a further indication of the non-perturbative nature of the effective operator method.

To conclude, we have implemented an an effective operator treatment of the anharmonic oscillator on the lines of . We have analyzed the validity of a key simplification made in the treatment of the nuclear many body problem. The role of the expansion of the exact eigenfunction in the basis of the unperturbed hamiltonian in defining $`S`$, the generator of the similarity transformation has been emphasized. Both the strong and weak coupling cases may be treated along the same lines, underscoring the non-perturbative nature of the formulation. Our numerical application demonstrates rapid convergence to known results with modest effort.

This work was supported in part by U.S. DOE Grant No. DE-FG-02-87ER-40371, Division of High Energy and Nuclear Physics.