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# New features of the thermal Casimir force at small separations

## Abstract

The difference of the thermal Casimir forces at different temperatures between real metals is shown to increase with a decrease of the separation distance. This opens new opportunities for the demonstration of the thermal dependence of the Casimir force. Both configurations of two parallel plates and a sphere above a plate are considered. Different approaches to the theoretical description of the thermal Casimir force are shown to lead to different measurable predictions.

PACS numbers: 12.20.Ds, 42.50.Lc, 05.70.-a

The Casimir effect  which is a rare, direct manifestation of the zero-point oscillations of electromagnetic field has attracted a great deal of interest in the last few years. This is in part due to the resurgence of interest in the fundamental problems connected with the physical vacuum. In the simplest situation, the Casimir effect is the attractive force arising between two parallel uncharged metallic plates placed in vacuum at zero temperature. This force is unique as it depends on only the fundamental constants $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`c`$, and on the separation between the plates. No charges or other interaction constants are involved, which are usually present with other forces. The Casimir force arises from the difference of the zero-point oscillation spectrum in the absence and in the presence of plates (extensive literature on the subject can be found in monographs  and in reviews ).

After the first, order of magnitude, report of observation of the Casimir force , a lot of precision measurements have been performed . As a result, the Casimir effect has acquired much broader impact, being successfully used in nanotechnological applications  and for constraining of hypothetical forces predicted by the Kaluza-Klein supergravity and other promising extensions to the standard model . Theoretically, a lot of different boundaries were considered and the Casimir force between realistic materials was calculated including effects of surface roughness, finite conductivity of the boundary metal and nonzero temperature (see  for a review). Note, that although the surface roughness and finite conductivity corrections have been already demonstrated experimentally (see ), the temperature effect on the Casimir force is yet to be measured. Even the theoretical treatment of the temperature effect of the Casimir force is fraught with serious problems in the case of real metals .

It is common knowledge that at $`T=300`$K the relative thermal correction to the Casimir force (ratio of the thermal correction to the result at $`T=0`$K) is an increasing function of the separation distance and achieves substantial values only at sufficiently large separations (for the configuration of two plates made of ideal metal it contributes 0.16% and 2.5% of the result at $`T=0`$K at separations 1$`\mu `$m and 2$`\mu `$m, respectively; for the configuration of a plate and a sphere the respective contributions are 2.7% and 18.2% ). With the increase of a separation, however, the total force decreases so rapidly that thermal corrections to the Casimir force have not yet been measured.

In the present paper we consider the more sensitive “difference force measurements” where the difference in the thermal Casimir forces $`\mathrm{\Delta }F`$ at two different temperatures rather than the absolute value of the thermal Casimir force is measured. As is proved below for the case of real metals, this difference of the thermal Casimir forces (in contrast with the relative thermal correction) does not increase but decreases with increasing separation distance. This opens up new opportunities for the observation of the thermal effect on the Casimir force at the relatively small separations of about 0.5$`\mu `$m where the relative thermal correction itself is negligible. Both configurations of two parallel plates and a sphere (spherical lens) above a plate are considered. In conclusion a realistic experiment is proposed which could help resolve differences between the various contradictory theoretical approaches to the description of the thermal Casimir force between real metals.

We consider first the configuration of two parallel plates made of real metals at a separation distance $`a`$ in thermal equilibrium at a temperature $`T_1`$. For separations $`\lambda _pa2\mu `$m (where $`\lambda _p`$ is the plasma wavelength) and for not too high temperatures ($`350`$K) the characteristic frequency $`c/(2a)`$ of the Casimir effect between good metals, $`Au`$ for instance, belongs to the region of infrared optics. The first Matsubara frequency $`2\pi k_BT/\mathrm{}`$, characterizing the thermal effect, also belongs to the same frequency region ($`k_B`$ is the Boltzmann constant). For such frequencies the plasma model for the dielectric function is applicable

$$\epsilon (\omega )=1\frac{\omega _p^2}{\omega ^2},$$
(1)
where $`\omega _p=2\pi c/\lambda _p`$ is the plasma frequency.

The thermal Casimir force was found  by the substitution of Eq. (1) into the Lifshitz formula  written in the form of a discrete sum over the Matsubara frequencies. For our purposes, the perturbation result obtained in  (see also ) is the most convenient. It is given by

$$F_{pp}(a,T)=F_{pp}^{(0)}(a)\left\{1+\frac{1}{3}\left(\frac{T}{T_{eff}}\right)^4\frac{16}{3}\frac{\delta }{a}\left[1\frac{45\zeta (3)}{8\pi ^3}\left(\frac{T}{T_{eff}}\right)^3\right]+\underset{i=2}{\overset{6}{}}c_i\frac{\delta ^i}{a^i}\right\},$$
(2)
where $`k_BT_{eff}\mathrm{}c/(2a)`$, $`\delta \lambda _p/(2\pi )`$, $`F_{pp}^{(0)}(a)=\pi ^2\mathrm{}c/(240a^4)`$, $`\zeta (z)`$ is zeta function, and coefficients $`c_i(2i6)`$ are explicitly calculated in  (their exact values are not needed for our present purposes). In fact Eq. (2) is the perturbation expansion in powers of two parameters $`\delta /a`$, where $`\delta `$ is the skin depth of electromagnetic oscillations in the metal, and $`T/T_{eff}`$, which are small in the above separation range. One of these parameters takes into account the finite conductivity of a metal and the other one the nonzero temperature. It should be noted that there are no thermal corrections up to $`(T/T_{eff})^4`$ in the higher order conductivity correction terms from the second up to the sixth order. If one would wish consider $`a<\lambda _p`$, our parameter $`\delta /a`$ is not small and it is necessary to use the optical tabulated data for the complex refractive index to compute the thermal Casimir force . At $`a>2\mu `$m the low-temperature asymptotic (2) is not applicable and numerical computations of Ref.  should be used. The regions $`a<\lambda _p`$ and $`a>2\mu `$m are not of our interest here as the first one is not achievable experimentally for the test bodies of $`>1`$mm size, and within the second the total Casimir force is too small.

Now let us suppose that the equilibrium temperature is rapidly changed from $`T_1`$ to a new temperature $`T_2`$ such that $`T_2>T_1`$. The subject of our interest is the difference of the two thermal Casimir forces

$$\mathrm{\Delta }F_{pp}\mathrm{\Delta }F_{pp}(a,T_1,T_2)=F_{pp}(a,T_2)F_{pp}(a,T_1).$$
(3)
Substituting Eq. (2) into Eq. (3), we arrive to

$$\mathrm{\Delta }F_{pp}=\mathrm{\Delta }^{(1)}F_{pp}(T_1,T_2)\mathrm{\Delta }^{(2)}F_{pp}(a,T_1,T_2),$$
(4)
where

$`\mathrm{\Delta }^{(1)}F_{pp}(T_1,T_2)={\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2k_B^4(T_2^4T_1^4)}{45\mathrm{}^3c^3}},`$ (5)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }^{(2)}F_{pp}(a,T_1,T_2)=1+{\displaystyle \frac{90\zeta (3)}{\pi ^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{a}}{\displaystyle \frac{T_{eff}}{T_1+T_2}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{T_1T_2}{T_1^2+T_2^2}}\right).`$ (6)
It is clearly seen that the quantity (4) is negative (i.e. has the same sign as an attractive Casimir force) because with an increase of temperature the magnitude of the force increases. It should be particularly emphasized that the magnitude of $`\mathrm{\Delta }F_{pp}`$ decreases with an increase of separation distance. This leads to the conclusion that in difference force measurements the thermal effect of the Casimir force can be measured more likely at small separations than at large ones where the relative thermal correction inself is greater.

In Fig. 1 the dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }F_{pp}`$ on separation distance is plotted for $`Au`$ ($`\lambda _p=136`$nm), $`T_1=300`$K, and $`T_2=350`$K (solid line). In the same figure the result for ideal metal (infinite conductivity) is shown as a dashed line. It is seen that at the smallest separation where the above computations are applicable ($`a=0.15\mu `$m) the difference thermal effect is more than 9 times stronger than at the largest separation ($`a=2\mu `$m). The low-temperature result for the ideal metal is obtained from Eqs. (4), (5) by putting $`\delta =0`$. It does not depend on the separation distance.

Now we consider the configuration of a sphere (spherical lens) above a plate. This configuration was used in the most precise experiments on measuring the Casimir force by means of an atomic force microscope . Here the free energy is given by the Lifshitz formula. The Casimir force acting between a plate and a lens can be obtained by means of the so called proximity force theorem. The relative error introduced by this theorem is of order $`a/R`$ , where $`R`$ is a sphere radius, i.e. it is a fraction of a percent for separations under consideration, given the large spheres with $`R1`$mm to be used in experiment. The perturbation result obtained in analogy with Eq. (2) is

$$F_{ps}(a,T)=F_{ps}^{(0)}(a)\left\{1+\frac{45\zeta (3)}{\pi ^3}\left(\frac{T}{T_{eff}}\right)^3\left(\frac{T}{T_{eff}}\right)^44\frac{\delta }{a}\left[1\frac{45\zeta (3)}{2\pi ^3}\left(\frac{T}{T_{eff}}\right)^3+\left(\frac{T}{T_{eff}}\right)^4\right]+\underset{i=2}{\overset{6}{}}\stackrel{~}{c}_i\frac{\delta ^i}{a^i}\right\},$$
(7)
where $`F_{ps}^{(0)}=\pi ^3\mathrm{}cR/(360a^3)`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{c}_i=3c_i/(3+i)`$.

For the two thermal Casimir forces at temperatures $`T_1`$ and $`T_2`$ for the configuration of a sphere above a plate we consider the difference quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}`$ defined as in Eq. (3). By the use of Eq. (7) the following result is obtained

$$\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}=R\mathrm{\Delta }^{(1)}F_{ps}(T_1,T_2)\mathrm{\Delta }^{(2)}F_{ps}(a,T_1,T_2),$$
(8)
where

$`\mathrm{\Delta }^{(1)}F_{ps}(T_1,T_2)={\displaystyle \frac{\zeta (3)k_B^3}{\mathrm{}^2c^2}}(T_2T_1)(T_1^2+T_2^2),`$ (9)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }^{(2)}F_{ps}(a,T_1,T_2)=\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{T_1T_2}{T_1^2+T_2^2}}\right)\left(1+2{\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{a}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^3}{45\zeta (3)}}{\displaystyle \frac{T_1+T_2}{T_{eff}}}\left(1+4{\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{a}}\right).`$ (10)
In analogy with the case of two parallel plates, it is seen that at low temperatures ($`T_1,T_2T_{eff}`$), where the present theory is applicable, $`\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}`$ is negative as expected. It should again be noted that the magnitude of $`\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}`$ is a decreasing function of the separation distance. Thus the difference force measurements of the thermal effect on the Casimir force can be done at small separations rather than at large separations.

In Fig. 2 the dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}/R`$ versus separation distance is plotted for $`Au`$ with $`T_1=300`$K, and $`T_2=350`$K. The case for the ideal metal with infinite conductivity is shown as a dashed line. At the smallest separation $`a=0.15\mu `$m the difference thermal effect is more than 2 times stronger than at $`a=2\mu `$m. In contrast to the case of two parallel plates, for ideal metals, the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}/R`$ decreases with increasing separation distance.

The difference thermal forces considered above are well adapted to resolve the contradictions between alternative theoretical approaches to the calculation of the Casimir force at nonzero temperature. In the approach used here (see also ) the plasma dielectric function, valid at the characteristic frequencies $`c/(2a)`$ and $`2\pi k_BT/\mathrm{}`$, is extended for all frequencies. In particular, it was used to calculate the zero-frequency term of the Lifshitz formula for the force and free energy. The alternative approach  uses the physically correct behavior $`\epsilon \omega ^1`$ at small frequencies at nonzero temperature. As a result, the contribution of the zero-frequency term in the two approaches is different and this has given rise to extensive discussion  in the recent literature. In Ref.  it was shown that the dependence $`\epsilon \omega ^1`$ leads to surprises such as negative values of entropy of the fluctuating electromagnetic field between the plates and the violation of the Nernst heat theorem. To avoid this problem, it was suggested in Ref.  that for the surface separations of order 1$`\mu `$m the behavior of $`\epsilon `$ at characteristic frequencies should be extended for all frequencies, including the zero frequency. This is in fact embedded in the use of the plasma model, as above, for the dielectric function . It must be also emphasized that the physical results obtained in this manner coincide with those obtained by means of the Leontovich surface impedance .

To contrast the behavior of the difference thermal Casimir force between the two theoretical approaches, let us consider the experimentally preferred configuration of a sphere (spherical lens) above a plate. The difference of the thermal Casimir forces calculated in the approach of Refs.  is given by Eqs. (8), (10). We now fix a value of separation, say, $`a=0.5\mu `$m, fix $`T_1=300`$K, and consider $`\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}`$ as a function of $`T_2`$, where $`T_1T_2350`$K. In the approach of Refs. , the perpendicular polarization does not contribute to the zero-frequency term of the Lifshitz formula whereas the contribution of the parallel polarization is the same as the one given by the plasma model. All other terms of the Lifshitz formula are the same in both approaches in the low temperature limit under consideration here. The zero-frequency contribution of the perpendicular polarized modes into the Casimir force $`F_{ps}(a,T)`$ calculated in the framework of the Lifshitz formula and plasma model is given by

$$\frac{k_BTR}{8a^2}_0^{\mathrm{}}y𝑑y\mathrm{ln}\left[1\left(\frac{y\sqrt{\omega _p^2+y^2}}{y+\sqrt{\omega _p^2+y^2}}\right)^2e^y\right]\frac{k_BT\zeta (3)R}{8a^2}\left(14\frac{\delta }{a}+12\frac{\delta ^2}{a^2}\right)$$
(11)
(higher order terms do not contribute at separations $`a0.5\mu `$m). Then, the low-temperature thermal force in the approach of Refs.  is obtained by the subtraction of Eq. (11) from Eq. (7). As a result, the difference force in the approach of  is given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}=R\mathrm{\Delta }^{(1)}F_{ps}(T_1,T_2)\mathrm{\Delta }^{(2)}F_{ps}(a,T_1,T_2)+\frac{k_B\zeta (3)R}{8a^2}(T_2T_1)\left(14\frac{\delta }{a}+12\frac{\delta ^2}{a^2}\right),$$
(12)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{(1)}F_{ps}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{(2)}F_{ps}`$ are defined in Eq. (10).

In Fig. 3, the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}/R`$ is plotted versus $`T_2`$ at a separation $`a=0.5\mu `$m and $`T_1=300`$K using the approach of  (solid line) and using the alternative approach of  (dotted line). The result for ideal metal boundaries practically coincides with the solid line for the scale used in the figure. Three significant differences emerge for the $`|\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}/R|`$ as a function of $`T_2`$ for the two approaches considered. First, it is seen in Fig. 3 that at $`T_2=350`$K, the value of $`|\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}/R|`$, given by the dotted line, is more than 6 times larger than that given by the solid line, a difference which should be measurable experimentally. Second, it should be noted that in the approach of  the sign of $`\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}`$ is positive, i.e. the magnitude of the thermal Casimir force decreases with an increase of $`T`$. Third, the quantity $`|\mathrm{\Delta }F_{ps}/R|`$, given by the dotted line, changes rapidly with the change in $`T_2`$.

In conclusion we would like to note that the changes of the force amplitude predicted above are of order $`10^{13}`$N for the sphere of radius $`R=2`$mm and $`T_2T_1=50`$K. This difference of temperature can be achieved by the illumination of the sphere and plate surfaces with laser pulses. If laser pulse durations of $`10^2`$s are chosen, calculations show that equilibrium temperatures of $`T_1`$ and $`T_2`$ can be achieved for sufficient duration allowing Casimir force measurements by means of an atomic force microscope (note that force oscillations of order $`10^{13}`$N were demonstrated with a relative error of about 20% at a 95% confidence level in the recent measurement of the lateral Casimir force ). The proposed experiment having the same accuracy would also help in resolving the differences in the alternative theoretical approaches to the description of the thermal Casimir force between real metals.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation and National Institute for Standards and Technology. G.L.K. and V.M.M. were also supported by CNPq (Brazil).


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# A digital multi-channel spectroscopy system with 100 MHz flash ADC module for the GENIUS-TF and GENIUS projects.

## 1 Introduction

The GENIUS-TF project  and GENIUS project  \- the latter being under construction in the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory - require a new modular, multi-channel data acquisition system and electronics, capable of taking data from up to 300 and more detectors simultaneously. Since last year a new range of Flash ADC modules with high sampling rates of 100 MHz and resolution of 11-12 bits are available on the market. With these devices it is now possible to develop a multi-channel system for gamma-spectroscopy if the count range is in moderate range. Using this approach it is possible to capture the detailed shape of the preamplifier signal with high speed ADC, and then perform digitally all essential data processing functions, including precise energy measurement over a range of 3 keV-3 MeV, rise time analysis, ballistic deficit correction and pulse shape analysis. Thus we can obtain both the energy and the pulse shape information from one detector using one channel of the Flash ADC module.

## 2 Test detector and 8-channel electronics

To test the digital processing approach for gamma spectroscopy the following setup has been used:

An ORTEC germanium detector with a built-in low noise preamplifier was connected to two 4-channel low noise amplifiers developed by MPI für Kernphysik in Heidelberg. The amplifier/filter has a variable gain ranging from 10 to 100, a variable offset with a maximum of 4 V, a variable differential filter, a pole zero cancellation circuit and two integral filters. Currently we do not use any analog shaping at this stage, these amplifiers provide only the necessary gain and DC offset. The signal outputs from these amplifiers were directly connected to the Flash ADC module developed by SIS (model 3300, 100 MHz sampling frequency, 12 bit, 8 channels, dual buffer). A VME CPU with Intel P3/850 MHz CPU, running Linux as operating system, reads out the Flash ADC. Fig.1 shows a schematic diagram of the used test system.

In the current test system the VME CPU waits for at least 10 events (2000 samples for every event) sampled in the dual buffer memory. The trigger for each event is produced by the flash ADC, which has a trapezoid FIR filter and a digital threshold circuit  for each of the 8 channels. After the 10 events have been triggered the memory banks of the FADC are switched and the CPU reads out the non-active memory bank. Due to this double buffer feature of the FADC we can achieve nearly zero dead time (less than 10 $`\mu `$sec for 10 events) as long as the buffers of the FADC are not overrun. After the read out which is currently available with 4 Mbytes/sec the test system applies digital filters to the sampled data to compute the energy, the rise time, and the timing of the input pulse.

## 3 Digital signal processing for gamma spectroscopy

Each analog stage in a conventional spectrometer introduces irreversible signal distortion that cannot be removed by further processing stages. If the input signal is digitized at early stage, we can eliminate this problem and obtain the best result using a digital processing. In our test system each pulse from the Ge detector is digitized at 100 MHz and stored as 2000 16-bit words in the CPU memory (see Fig. 2). The first 400 words are used for base line calculation. After subtracting the base line, we compress the 2000 samples to 250 by summing every 8 samples (see Fig. 3), before applying a digital filter.

As a first stage of digital filtering we use a differential filter with P/Z compensation :

$$y[n]=a_0x[n]+a_1x[n1]+b_1y[n1]+px[n1].$$
(1)
A simple recursive filter is used as one stage of n-pole integral filter:

$$y[n]=a_0x[n]+b_1y[n1].$$
(2)
Repeating these calculations n times we obtain the n-pole integral filter. The coefficients are found from these simple equations .

Differential filter:

$`a_0=(1+x)/2`$

$`a_1=(1+x)/2`$

$`b_1=x`$

Integral filter:

$`a_0=(1x)`$

$`b_1=x`$

The value for $`x`$ can be found from the desired time constant $`d`$ of the filter:

$`x=exp(1/d)`$

The coefficient $`p`$ in formula (1) is intended for pole/zero compensation of the preamplifier RC time constant. The optimal value for $`p`$ can be found experimentally for every particular preamplifier/detector combination.

The energy value for a given event is calculated as a peak value of the filtered pulse sample (see Fig.4). The energy value is used for an energy spectrum histogram filling.

## 4 Experimental results.

The system was extensively tested for a 3 months period. After optimization of the parameters we have found that the best energy resolution was obtained for the 8-pole digital filter with a time constant of 1.6 $`\mu `$sec. With this filter the measured resolution of the ORTEC germanium detector was 1.9 keV (FWHM) for the 1332 keV 60Co line, and 1.3 keV for 59.5 keV 241Am line.

The resulting energy spectrum of the 60Co test source is presented in Fig. 5.

The energy resolution has nearly reproduced the FWHM measured with a peak sensing ADC (1.8 keV).

Fig. 6 shows the low-energy part of the 241Am spectrum. We have found that the low-energy threshold of the test system is about 3 keV for the given detector. It will be lower for a detector with a better energy resolution. In any case it is already a satisfactory value for the GENIUS-TF facility . The measured integral non-linearity of the test system is less than 0.01%, which is corresponding to the integral non-linearity of the used ADC. The measured differential non-linearity is less than 1%. To determine the long time stability, we tested our system for a three weeks period with a 60Co source. The air temperature in the laboratory was 21$`\pm `$10C. At this condition the maximum peak shift was less than 0.5 channels ( 0.007% ). The maximum count rate of the test system is 4000 events per second.

## 5 Conclusion

A digital spectroscopy system has been developed for the GENIUS-TF and GENIUS projects. Using a digital signal processing instead of analog reveals better accuracy and stability limited only by ADC quality. Our tests have proved, that this system shows an ultimate performance making it the best choice for low-level gamma spectroscopy. The system will be installed in the Gran-Sasso underground lab in the beginning of the year 2003.

## 6 Acknowledgement

The authors thank Mr. C. Dörr for his help in the beginning of this project. The authors would like to thank Prof. V.A. Bednyakov for his permanent interest in this work.


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# Superconductivity in Pr2Ba4Cu7O15-δ with metallic double chains

## Abstract

We report superconductivity with $`T_{c,onset}`$=$``$16K in polycrystalline samples of
Pr2Ba4Cu7O15-δ possessing metallic double chains. A reduction treatment on as-sintered samples causes not only the enhanced metallic conduction but also the appearance of superconductivity. This finding is strongly contrast with the oxygen removal effect of superconducting Y2Ba4Cu7O15-δ.

Since the discovery of high-$`T_c`$ copper-oxide superconductors, extensive studies on strongly electron correlated system have been in progress on the basis of physical properties of two-dimensional (2D) CuO2 planes. Moreover, from the viewpoint of low-dimensional physics, particular attention is paid to the physical role of one-dimensional (1D) CuO chains included in some families of high-$`T_c`$ copper oxides such as Y-based superconductors with the transition temperature $`T_c`$=$``$ 92K . It is well known that the Pr-substitution for Y-sites in YBa2Cu3O7-δ (Y123/7-$`\delta `$) and YBa2Cu4O8 (Y124/8) compounds dramatically suppresses $`T_c`$ and superconductivity in CuO2 planes disappears beyond the critical value of Pr , $`x_c`$=0.5 and 0.8, respectively SO87 ; HO98 . Such a suppression effect due to Pr-substitution on superconductivity has been explained in terms of the hybridization model with respect to Pr-4$`f`$ and O-2$`p`$ orbitals FE93 .Y124/8 compound with double chains is thermally stable up to 800 C ,while in Y123/7-$`\delta `$ oxygen deficiencies are easily introduced at lower annealing temperatures JO87 . Intermediate between PrBa2Cu3O7-δ (Pr123/7-$`\delta `$) with single chains and PrBa2Cu4O8 (Pr124/8) with double chains is the Pr2Ba4Cu7O15-δ (Pr247/15-$`\delta `$) compound with an alternative repetition of the single and double chains along the $`c`$-axis, isostructural with superconducting Y2Ba4Cu7O15-δ (Y247/15-$`\delta `$) BO88 ; YA94 . The crystal structure of orthorhombic Pr247 is schematically shown in Fig. 1 (space group $`Ammm`$). In Pr247, it is possible to examine physical properties of metallic double chains varying oxygen contents along single chains YA94 ; MA95 .

In this paper, we report superconductivity in Pr2Ba4Cu7O15-δ compound possessing metallic double chains. Polycrystalline Pr2Ba4Cu7O15-δ compound was synthesized using a powder sintering method under high pressure oxygen YA94 ; HO98 . The Pr6O11, BaO2 and CuO powders with high purity were mixed to the stoichiometric composition and then were pressed into a cylindrical pellet. The pellet was calcined at 850-900 C in air and then was sintered at 975 C for 18 hours with P(O2)=5 atm. As-sintered samples were annealed in argon gas at 650 C. The resistivity measurement was performed by a conventional four-probe technique. The magnetization measurement was carried out down to 2K under zero-field cooling (ZFC) and field cooling(FC)conditions using a SQUID magnetometer.

Figure 2 shows the X-ray diffraction patterns for as-sintered and Ar reduced Pr247/15-$`\delta `$ at room temperature. All diffraction lines were indexed in terms of the Pr247 majority phase, except for a small amount of the BaCuO2 phase.
Here, we give some comments on impurity phases in Pr247. From our previous studies on synthesis of Pr247 compounds, we have pointed out possible impurity phases such as PrBaO3 , BaCuO2 and Pr124/8 , except for the starting materials YA94 ; HO98 . X-ray diffraction patterns on both as-sintered and reduced Pr247 reveal @a small amount of the BaCuO2 impurity phase although the precipitation of PrBaO3 and Pr124/8 is strongly suppressed in this sintering process. It is truly expected that in the present samples, the PrBaO3 and Pr124/8 phases may be included as a very small volume fraction hardly detectable by x-ray diffraction. However, the lower-$`T`$ heat treatment never causes superconductivity for the PrBaO3 , BaCuO2 and Pr124/8 phases. The oxide materials of PrBaO3 and BaCuO2 are highly insulator. Moreover, the Pr124/8 phase is thermally stable under lower temperature annealing and the resistivity data of metallic Pr 124 single crystals exhibit no superconductivity down to 2KHO00 . Therefore, we believe that even if there exist minor impurity phases hardly observed by x-ray probe, low-$`T`$ reduction process induces no superconductivity for the impurity phases in Pr247.
The lattice parameters of the as-sintered sample are estimated from the least-squared fitting to the X-ray diffraction data to be $`a`$=3.8880(3), $`b`$=3.9037(3) and $`c`$=50.660(4) Å respectively. The oxygen deficiency $`\delta `$ of as-sintered Pr247 is taken as almost zero because pure Y247prepared under the same sintering condition as Pr247, exhibits a sharp superconducting transition with $`T_c`$=$``$89K HO98 . In fact, Tallon $`etal.`$, reported that the resistivity of Y247/15 shows a superconducting transition near $`T_c`$=$``$92KTA90 . For comparison, the unit length of $`c`$-axis in Pr247/15 \[=2$`\times `$(Pr123/7 unit)+(Pr124/8 unit)\] is estimated to be 50.77 Å from $`c`$=11.73 Å for Pr123/7 and $`c`$=27.308 Å for Pr124/8 LO90 ; YA94 . This estimation is almost comparable with the $`c`$-axis lattice constant of Pr247/15. For the sample reduced in Ar for 4 days, the lattice parameters are determined to be $`a`$=3.8923(5), $`b`$=3.9020(3) and $`c`$=50.814(6) Å respectively. The oxygen deficiency $`\delta `$ of Pr247 due to Ar annealing is estimated to be $`\delta `$=$``$0.5 from the thermogravimetry and results in a substantial elongation of the $`c`$-axis length up to $``$0.3%, keeping its orthorhombic structure. These results are similar with a variation in the lattice parameters of Y247 as a function of oxygen deficiency. Irizawa $`etal.`$ , reported that the $`c`$-axis length of Y247/15-$`\delta `$ reaches an increase by 0.36% over the range of oxygen deficiency from $`\delta `$=0.05 to 0.6 IR02 .

Figure 3(a) shows the temperature variation of electrical resistivity in sintered Pr247/15-$`\delta `$. The value of $`\rho `$ of the as-sintered sample exhibits a semiconducting behavior at high $`T`$, it reaches a broad maximum at $`T_m`$= $``$150K and gradually decreases down to 4K. This finding has been well explained on the basis of the parallel circuit model (the inset of Fig.1) composed of both the semiconducting CuO2 planes and metallic CuO double chains, as first proposed by Bucher $`etal`$, in YBCO system MA95 ; BU90 . A previous study on both sintered Pr 124 and Pr247 implicated that the negative temperature dependence of the resistivity above $`T_m`$ is ascribed to the CuO2 plane conduction, while the positive $`T`$-dependence of the resistivity below $`T_m`$ to the CuO double-chain conduction MA95 . On the other hand, the $`T`$ dependence of $`\rho `$ of the reduced samples follows a strongly metallic conduction up to 300K. For the 4-days reduced sample, the superconducting transition evidently appears around 10 K and the zero-resistivity temperature $`T_{c,zero}`$ is determined to be 3.8K from low-$`T`$ resistivity data. The value of $`\rho `$ of the superconducting sample is proportional to $`T^2`$ below 150K, which is the same temperature dependence of $`\rho `$ along the $`b`$-axis of Pr 124 single crystal HO00 . Accordingly, the oxygen defects in Pr247 system cause not only the enhanced metallic state but also the appearance of superconductivity, in strongly contrast with the oxygen removal effect of Y247 on its resistivity IR02 .
Next, the temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility ($`\chi `$) in Pr247 is shown in Fig.4. For the 4-days reduced sample, the value of $`\chi `$ gradually increases with decreasing $`T`$, then exhibits a hump near 10K and finally a clear diamagnetic signal is detected below $``$9 K on both ZFC and FC data. The superconducting volume fraction is estimated to be about 4% at 2K from the ZFC data. Moreover, for 2-days reduced one, a sharp drop in the $`\chi `$ data is also observed below 10K. On the other hand, the value of $`\chi `$ for the as-sintered one shows a Curie-Weiss like behavior and a slight anomaly is observed at $``$3K indicating the formation of superconducting state. The Curie-Weiss plot suggests that the Néel temperature of Pr spins $`T_N`$ is $``$ 16K almost the same as $`T_N`$(=17K)in Pr124 HO98 . Furthermore, the ($`\chi \chi _0`$)-1 data in the inset of Fig.4(b) show a nonlinear deviation near $``$ 160 K associated with the Néel ordering of Cu spins, which is not far from $`T_N`$(=200 K)in Pr124 LI99 . This finding is consistent with the evidence for an antiferromagnetic order of the planar Cu spins in the NQR experiment FU03 .
Recently, we have found out that a low-$`T`$ reduction treatment in a vacuum causes a higher superconductive sample of Pr247, as shown in Fig.5, through our seeking for more suitable annealing conditions. A sharply superconducting transition is observed around 16K and the zero resistivity state is completely achieved at 13K, in spite of a small fraction of superconductivity (4% at 2K, the data of $`M(T)`$ below 5K are not shown here) . However, a longer heat treatment on as-sintered samples in a vacuum than 24 hours do not improve their superconducting property accompanied by a saturation in the $`c`$-axis elongation, where the $`c`$ axis length expands up to 50.93 Å under annealing at 400 C for 24 hours. It should be noted that superconductive samples are obtained reproducibly under the similar annealing procedure from starting materials. We wonder why the $`\rho `$=0 state is realized in the bulk sample of Pr247, in spite of a small volume fraction of superconductivity estimated from low-$`T`$ magnetization data. In granular superconductive system, a percolative model predicts a normal to superconduting transition, in other words, the $`\rho `$=0 state through the formation of superconducting paths beyond a threshold of superconductive volume fraction, where its critical value is about 15% in 3D case. For example, in a Au-Y123 granular system, the zero resistivity state disappeared for the samples investigated below the net superconducting volume fraction of 20 %, in spite that in their samples a clear diamagnetic signal with $`T_c`$=90K was detected XI88 . In a MgO-Bi2212 composite system, the non zero-resistance was also reported near the volume fraction of 12% while its superconductive grains of Bi2212 matrix exhibited no drop of $`T_c`$=70K from $`M(T)`$ data LI93 . Polycrystalline samples of Pr247 prepared by a sintering process are composed of numerous grains with their grain size of several micron meters. Following the percolation model, several percents of superconductive volume fraction causes at most a gradual drop in resistivity but never realize the zero resistive state for polycrystalline samples. On the contrary, the $`\rho `$=0 state is surely realized in reduced Pr247 accompanied by the enhanced metallic state. We expect that a small fraction within individual grains of Pr247 contributes superconducting paths, forming a zero resistive network. This finding suggests that the observed superconductivity is closely related to a bulk property of Pr247.

Here, we would like to comment on superconductivity with $`T_c`$=85K in a Pr123 single crystal reported by Zou $`etal`$ ZO98 . Surely, the origin of bulk superconductivity in Pr123 has not been made clear, but several authors claimed that the superconductivity originates from the inhomogeneities in the chemical composition such as the Ba-rich Pr123 NA99 . The partial substitution of Ba for Pr -site gives rise to a strong suppression of the hybridization between Pr-$`4f`$ and O-$`2p`$ orbits, resulting in doping mobile carriers into CuO2 planes and the appearance of superconductivity. This issue seems to depend on the criterion whether the orbital hybridization leading to carrier localization is retained or not. The negative $`T`$-dependence of resistivity for as-sintered Pr247 (Fig.3(a)) demonstrates a clear contribution from the insulating CuO2 planes as well as the insulating Pr123. Moreover, Matsushita $`etal`$ showed that the value of $`\rho `$ in as-sintered Pr247 gradually rises at high temperatures with applied pressure, indicating the enhancement of the hybridization state between Pr and O orbits MA95 . It is easily understood that a reduction process does not alter the electronic state of the Pr-O hybridization because a lower temperature annealing in Ar hardly cause the Ba substitution for Pr sites in the Pr247 composition. In fact, a previous work on stoichiometric Pr123/7-$`\delta `$ reported that its resistivity increases by more than three orders of magnitude as the oxygen content 7-$`\delta `$ is reduced from 6.93 to 6.46 LO90 . In this study, the $`c`$-axis elongation due to oxygen deficiency gives no changes on the Pr-O hybridization state in Pr123 system. In a similar way, it is expected that there also exists the hybridization in the reduced Pr247 accompanied by the $`c`$-axis elongation due to oxygen removal. In the view point of sample preparation, we have to point out outstanding differences between Pr123 and Pr247. As-grown crystal of Pr123 was annealed in flowing pure oxygen gas for over 4 days under two steps of annealing temperatures in order to realize superconductivity. Zou et al., reported that the $`c`$-axis lattice constant of the annealed crystal is shorter than that of the as-grown one. Therefore, it is difficult to identify the observed superconductivity in reduced Pr247 with the bulk superconductivity in oxidized Pr123 crystal.

Moreover, Hall coefficient measurement MA04  on reduced Pr247 reveals that RH($`T`$) clearly shows its negative sign below 100K, which is probably related to the enhanced metallic state due to oxygen removal. A systematic study on the pressure effect on both transport and magnetic properties in the superconducting Pr247 is in progress YA03 . A microscopic research such as the NMR will be also carried out, in order to specify the superconducting regions.
In summary, we have reported superconductivity in polycrystalline samples of Pr2Ba4Cu7O15-δ possessing metallic double chains. Both resistivity and magnetization measurements exhibit the superconducting transition temperature $`T_{c,onset}`$=$``$ 16K and the superconducting volume fraction is estimated to be about 4% at 2K. The reduction treatment causes not only the enhanced metallic conduction but also the realization for superconductivity, accompanied by the c-axis elongation due to oxygen deficiency.


text:
# Higgs Pair-Production in the Standard Model at Next Generation Linear 𝑒⁺𝑒⁻ Colliders

## I Introduction

In the Standard Model (SM)  of particle physics, there are three types of interactions of fundamental particles: gauge interactions, Yukawa interactions and the Higgs boson self-interaction. The Higgs boson  plays an important role in the SM; it is responsible for generating the masses of all the elementary particles (leptons, quarks, and gauge bosons). However, the Higgs-boson sector is the least tested one in the SM, in particular the Higgs boson self-interaction. In the SM, the profile of the Higgs particle is uniquely determined once its mass $`M_H`$ is fixed. The decay width, the branching ratios and the production cross sections are given by the strength of the Yukawa couplings to fermions and gauge bosons, the scale of which is set by the masses of these particles. Unfortunately, the mass Higgs boson is a free parameter.

The only available information on $`M_H`$ is the lower limit $`M_H114.1`$ $`GeV`$ established at LEP2 . The collaborations have also reported a 2.1$`\sigma `$ excess of events beyond the expected SM backgrounds consistent with a SM like Higgs boson with a mass $`M_H=115_{0.9}^{+1.3}`$ $`GeV`$ . Furthermore, the accuracy of the electroweak data measured at LEP, SLC, and the Tevatron provides sensitivity to $`M_H`$: the Higgs boson contributes logarithmically, $`\mathrm{log}(\frac{M_H}{M_W})`$, to the radiative corrections to the $`W/Z`$ boson propagators. A recent analysis yields the value $`M_H=88_{37}^{+60}`$ $`GeV`$ corresponding to 95$`\%`$ C.L.

The search for Higgs boson is one of the main missions of present and future high-energy colliders. The observation of this particle is of major importance for the present understanding of the interactions of the fundamental particles.

The trilinear Higgs self-coupling can be measured directly in pair-production of Higgs particles at hadron and high-energy $`e^+e^{}`$ linear colliders. Higgs pairs can be produced through double Higgs-strahlung of $`W`$ or $`Z`$ bosons , $`WW`$ or $`ZZ`$ fusion ; moreover through gluon-gluon fusion in $`pp`$ collisions  and high-energy $`\gamma \gamma `$ fusion  at photon colliders. The two main processes at $`e^+e^{}`$ colliders are double Higgs-strahlung and $`WW`$ fusion:

double Higgs-strahlung $`:`$ $`e^+e^{}ZHH`$ (1)
$`WW`$ double-Higgs fusion $`:`$ $`e^+e^{}\overline{\nu }_e\nu _eHH.`$ (2)
The $`ZZ`$ fusion process of Higgs pairs is suppressed by an order of magnitude since the electron-Z coupling is small. However, the process $`e^+e^{}t\overline{t}H,`$ has been extensively studied. This three-body process is important because it is sensitive to Yukawa couplings. The inclusion of four-body processes with heavy fermions $`f`$, $`e^+e^{}f\overline{f}HH`$  in which the SM Higgs boson is radiated by a $`t(\overline{t})`$ quark, at future $`e^+e^{}`$ colliders  with a c.m. energy in the range of 500 to 1600 $`GeV`$, such as the TESLA machine  is necessary in order to know its impact on the three-body mode processes and also to search for new relations that could have a clear signature of the Higgs boson production.

Moreover, this process depends on the Higgs boson triple self-coupling, which could lead us to obtain the first non-trivial information on the Higgs potential. We are interested in finding regions that could allow the observation of the process $`t\overline{t}HH`$ at the next generation of high energy $`e^+e^{}`$ linear colliders. We consider the complete set of Feynman diagrams at tree-level (Fig.1) and used the CalcHep  packages for the evaluation of the amplitudes and of the cross section.

This paper is organized as follows: In Sec. II we present the total cross section for the process $`e^+e^{}t\overline{t}HH`$ at next generation linear $`e^+e^{}`$ colliders, and in Sec. III, we give our conclusions.

## II Cross Section of the Higgs Pairs Production in the SM at Next Generation Linear Positron-Electron Colliders

In this paper, we evaluate the total cross section of the Higgs pair-production in the SM at next generation linear $`e^+e^{}`$ colliders.

For the SM parameters, we have adopted the following: the angle of Weinber $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W=0.232`$, the mass ($`m_t=175`$ $`GeV`$) of the top, the mass ($`m_{Z^0}=91.2`$ $`GeV`$) of the $`Z^0`$, with the mass $`M_H`$ of the Higgs boson having been taken as inputs .

We have considered the high energy stage of a possible Next Linear $`e^+e^{}`$ Collider with $`\sqrt{s}=800,1600`$ $`GeV`$ and design luminosity 1000 $`fb^1`$. In the evaluation of the amplitudes and of the cross section, we used the CalcHep  packages.

In order to illustrate our results of the production of Higgs pairs in the SM, we present in Fig. 2 a plot for the total cross section as a function of Higgs boson mass $`M_H`$. We observe in this figure that the total cross section for the double Higgs production is of the order of $`0.02`$ $`fb`$ for Higgs masses in the lower part of the intermediate range. The cross sections are at the level of a fraction of femtobarn, and they quickly drop as they approach the kinematic limit. In these conditions, it would be very difficult to extract any useful information about the Higgs self-coupling from the studied process except that the $`e^+e^{}`$ machine works with very high luminosity.

Fig. 3 shows the total cross section as a function of the center-of-mass energy $`\sqrt{s}`$ for two representative values of the Higgs mass $`M_H=110,130`$ $`GeV`$. We observe that the cross section is very sensitive to the Higgs boson mass and decreases when $`M_H`$ increases. Our conclusion is that for an intermediate Higgs boson, a visible number of events would be produced, as is illustrated in Table I.

For center-of-mass energies of 800-1600 $`GeV`$ and high luminosity, the possibility of observing the process $`t\overline{t}HH`$ is promising as shown in Table I.

| Total Production of Higgs Pairs | $`t\overline{t}HH`$ | |
| --- | --- | --- |
|  |  |  |
| $`M_H(GeV)`$ | $`\sqrt{s}=800`$ $`GeV`$ | $`\sqrt{s}=1600`$ $`GeV`$ |
| 110 | 14 | 19 |
| 130 | 6 | 15 |
| 150 | 2 | 11 |
| 170 | 1 | 9 |
| 190 |  | 7 |

Table I. Total production of Higgs pairs in the SM for $`=1000`$ $`fb^1`$ and $`m_t=175`$ $`GeV`$.

We also include in Fig. 4 a contours plot for the number of events of the studied process, as a function of $`M_H`$ and $`\sqrt{s}`$.

## III Conclusions

In conclusion, the double Higgs production in association with $`t(\overline{t})`$ quarks ($`e^+e^{}t\overline{t}HH`$) will be observable at the Next Generation Linear $`e^+e^{}`$ Colliders. The study of this process is important in order to know their impact on the 3-body process and it could be useful to probe anomalous $`HHH`$ coupling given the following conditions: very high luminosity, center-of-mass large energy and intermediate range Higgs mass.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) (Proyect: 40729-F), Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI) (México) and Programa de Mejoramiento al Profesorado (PROMEP). O.A. Sampayo would like to thank CONICET (Argentina). The authors would also like to thank Maureen Sophia Harkins Kenning for revising the manuscript.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Fig. 1 Feynman Diagrams at tree-level for $`e^+e^{}t\overline{t}HH`$.

Fig. 2 Total cross section of the Higgs pairs production $`e^+e^{}t\overline{t}HH`$ as function of the Higgs mass $`M_H`$ for $`\sqrt{s}=800,1600`$ $`GeV`$ with $`m_t=175`$ $`GeV`$.

Fig. 3 Total cross section of the Higgs pairs production $`e^+e^{}t\overline{t}HH`$ as function of the center-of-mass energy $`\sqrt{s}`$ for two representative values of the Higgs mass $`M_H=110,130`$ $`GeV`$ with $`m_t=175`$ $`GeV`$.

Fig. 4 Contours plot for the number of events as a function of $`M_H`$ and $`\sqrt{s}`$.


text:
# Unexpected Scaling of the Performance of Carbon Nanotube Transistors

## Abstract

We show that carbon nanotube transistors exhibit scaling that is qualitatively different than conventional transistors. The performance depends in an unexpected way on both the thickness and the dielectric constant of the gate oxide. Experimental measurements and theoretical calculations provide a consistent understanding of the scaling, which reflects the very different device physics of a Schottky barrier transistor with a quasi-one-dimensional channel contacting a sharp edge. A simple analytic model gives explicit scaling expressions for key device parameters such as subthreshold slope, turn-on voltage, and transconductance.

Recent decades have witnessed remarkable and continuing improvements in the performance of field-effect transistors (FETs). These improvements result largely from aggressive scaling of devices to smaller sizes. As further improvement of conventional FETs becomes increasingly difficult, attention has focused on new devices like carbon nanotube (CN) FETs. CNFETs have already shown very promising performance, despite the use of relatively thick gate oxides .

Here we examine the performance improvement of CNFETs upon scaling of the thickness and dielectric constant of the gate oxide. In both experimental measurements and numerical calculations, we find a very different scaling behavior than for conventional transistors, with important consequences for the design of CNFETs. Specifically, we find that key measures of device performance scale approximately as the square root of the gate-oxide thickness $`t_{ox}`$ or its inverse. These include the turn-on voltage, the transconductance, and the subthreshold slope.

We show that this surprising behavior can be captured in a simple analytic model, which gives a universal form for the saturation current versus gate voltage. Our model incorporates the recent recognition  that, in ambipolar CNFETs such as ours, transistor action is caused by modulation of the Schottky barriers (SBs) at the metal-nanotube contacts. The model also highlights the central role of the contact geometry in determining the scaling, with different geometries giving different power laws for the scaling. In contrast, the scaling of conventional FETs with $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}`$ is independent of contact geometry in the long-channel limit.

In conventional transistors, there is great interest in oxides with high dielectric constants, because these increase the gate capacitance and thus the performance. Improved performance has also been obtained in this way for CNFETs . However, for ballistic SB-CNFETs, the performance is not linked to the capacitance. We show that in this case, the improvement instead comes from changes in the electric field patterns due to the inhomogeneous dielectric used. For such geometries, the degree of improvement is tightly coupled to the gate-oxide thickness, with the most dramatic improvement occurring for thicker gate oxides.

Our CNFETs use a standard back-gated geometry , taking advantage of the precise thickness control and high quality of thermally grown SiO2. Very thin gate oxides (2 and 5 nm) are grown in small, pre-patterned areas on a degenerately doped silicon wafer, which serves as the gate. Carbon nanotubes with diameter of about 1.4nm  are dispersed on the wafer. Source and drain electrodes, formed using electron-beam lithography and lift-off, contact those CNs lying on ultra-thin oxide. In order to suppress the leakage current, the rest of the source and drain contacts are separated from the back gate by a thicker ($`120`$ nm) field oxide. Details of the fabrication will be presented elsewhere.

Typical transport characteristics of bottom gate devices with thin oxides are shown in Fig. 1. A quantitative comparison can be made by measuring the subthreshold slope  $`S(d\mathrm{log}_{10}I/dV_\mathrm{g})^1`$ where $`V_\mathrm{g}`$ is the gate voltage. The extracted values are given in Fig. 1. We see a steady improvement of the turn-on for thinner oxides. However, even the thinnest oxides give $`S`$ significantly higher than the thermal limit of about $`kT\mathrm{ln}10`$ 60 mV/dec at room temperature, and a key goal here is to understand the factors leading to further performance improvement.

(Lower $`S`$ values have been reported in CNFETs using highly-doped, effectively ohmic contacts  or exotic designs . However, these have their own advantages and disadvantages; and here we consider only straightforward scaling of existing designs that lend themselves to integration with Si-based devices.)

To understand the scaling properties of carbon nanotube (NT) transistors, we calculate the current using the Landauer-Büttiker formula, and assuming ballistic transport:

$$I=\frac{4e}{h}\left[F(E)F(EeV_\mathrm{d})\right]T(E)𝑑E.$$
(1)
Here $`V_\mathrm{d}`$ is the applied drain voltage and $`F`$ is the Fermi function. The energy-dependent transmission $`T(E)`$ through the SB is evaluated within the WKB approximation, using the idealized band structure . This gives

$$\mathrm{ln}T=\frac{4}{3bV_\pi }\underset{z_\mathrm{i}}{\overset{z_\mathrm{f}}{}}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }^2[E+eV(z)]^2\right)^{1/2}𝑑z,$$
(2)
where $`b=0.144`$ nm is the bond length, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is half the NT band gap, $`V_\pi =2.5`$ eV is the tight-binding parameter, and $`V(z)`$ is the electrostatic potential along the NT. The integration is performed between the classical turning points $`z_\mathrm{i}`$ and $`z_\mathrm{f}`$. \[E.g., for electrons in the conduction band, $`z_\mathrm{f}`$ is determined from $`\mathrm{\Delta }eV(z_\mathrm{f})=E`$; $`z_\mathrm{i}=0`$ or, if $`E<\mathrm{\Delta }`$, is determined from $`\mathrm{\Delta }eV(z_\mathrm{i})=E`$.\] For simplicity, we present numerical calculations only for the case of mid-gap Schottky barrier, though we have examined other cases. In this case, the current is symmetric with respect to the applied gate voltage; and without loss of generality, we limit the discussion to positive gate voltages, i.e. electron tunneling into the conduction band.

To obtain the electrostatic potential along the NT, we numerically solve the electrostatic boundary problem given by our device geometry, which is sketched in the upper inset of Fig. 2. We consider a device similar to the experiment with a bottom gate at $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}`$ from the NT, source and drain contacts that are 20 nm thick, and a top electrode which is far from the NT with respect to $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}`$. (The use of a top electrode in this geometry is for computational convenience; and whether it is grounded or kept at $`V_g`$ has negligible impact on the results.) We further neglect charge on the NT as in . This remains a good approximation throughout the regime studied here . All numerical calculations here use a NT of 1.4 nm diameter and a band gap of $`0.6`$ eV.

In Fig. 2 the inverse of the subthreshold slope, $`S^1`$, has been plotted versus the inverse oxide thickness $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}^1`$. Experimentally, about 20 to 30 devices were characterized at each oxide thickness. Only devices with symmetric (or nearly symmetric) p- and n-conduction were included in the average values presented in Fig. 2. The $`S^1`$ values — even for very thin oxides — lie well below the thermal limit. The theoretical curve for the bottom gate geometry is in good qualitative agreement with experiment; the difference presumably arises from the specific contact geometry, which is not known precisely on the nm scale in the experiment.

To illustrate the importance of the contact geometry, we also consider an idealized double gate device (lower inset of Fig. 2). Its source and drain contacts are as thin as the NT diameter (1.4 nm), and both top and bottom gate oxides have thickness $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}`$. The general trend with $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}`$ is unchanged, but for any given $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}`$ the subthreshold slope is greatly improved relative to the bottom gate device with thicker contact.

To better understand the behavior, we consider a simple model. For the double gate device, in the limit of vanishing contact thickness \[inset of Fig. 3(b)\], the electrostatic problem can be solved analytically . The potential in the vicinity of the contact varies as $`V(z)=2V_\mathrm{g}\pi ^{1/2}(z/t_{\mathrm{ox}})^{1/2}`$, where $`V_\mathrm{g}`$ is the gate voltage and $`z`$ is the distance from the contact along the NT. Inserting this $`V(z)`$ into Eq. (2), and taking $`V_\mathrm{d}=V_\mathrm{g}`$ \[as in inset of Fig. 3(a)\], we calculate the saturation current. (We consider the limit of a thick gate oxide, where the position of the conduction band at the drain, $`\mathrm{\Delta }eV_\mathrm{d}`$, can be replaced by $`\mathrm{}`$). Then

$$I_{\mathrm{sat}}=\frac{4e\mathrm{\Delta }}{h}H(\frac{V_\mathrm{g}}{V_{\mathrm{scale}}^{\mathrm{dg}}},\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{kT}),$$
(3)
where $`H(x,y)`$ is

$$H(x,y)=\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\mathrm{exp}(h(s)/x^2)}{1+\mathrm{exp}(sy)}𝑑s$$
(4)
and $`h(s)`$ is

$$h(s)=\underset{\mathrm{max}(0,1s)}{\overset{1s}{}}t[1(s+t)^2]^{1/2}𝑑t.$$
(5)
The “scaling voltage” for this idealized double-gate device is

$$V_{\mathrm{scale}}^{\mathrm{dg}}=\left(\frac{2\pi \mathrm{\Delta }^3}{3be^2V_\pi }\right)^{1/2}t_{\mathrm{ox}}^{1/2}.$$
(6)
Within this idealized geometry (and in the thick-oxide limit etc.), changing the oxide thickness is equivalent to simply rescaling the gate voltage by $`V_{\mathrm{scale}}^{\mathrm{dg}}`$. The turn-on voltage is proportional to $`V_{\mathrm{scale}}^{\mathrm{dg}}`$, and thus scales as $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}^{1/2}`$. We can evaluate $`S`$ for $`V_\mathrm{d}`$ at saturation, where $`S=(d\mathrm{log}_{10}I_{\mathrm{sat}}/dV_\mathrm{g})^1`$. Then $`S`$, like $`I_{\mathrm{sat}}`$, is a function of $`V_\mathrm{g}/V_{\mathrm{scale}}^{\mathrm{dg}}`$. Thus $`S`$ scales as $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}^{1/2}`$. Similarly, we find that the transconductance, $`dI_{\mathrm{sat}}/dV_\mathrm{g}`$, scales as $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}^{1/2}`$.

For very thin gate oxides, some of these approximations break down — in particular, the simple form of $`V(z)`$ near the contact, and the infinite limits of integration in Eq. (4). But in any case, $`S`$ must eventually saturate at the thermal limit of $`kT\mathrm{ln}10`$ 60 mV/dec. This suggests the interpolation formula $`S=(\alpha t_{\mathrm{ox}}+(kT\mathrm{ln}10)^2)^{1/2}`$, with $`\alpha `$ a fitting parameter. Fig. 2 shows that this fitting works well for the experiment and the calculation for both device geometries. For thick oxides, $`S`$ scales as $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}^{1/2}`$, while for very thin oxides it gradually approaches the thermal limit.

For a more complete description of the device behavior, we examine the saturation current vs. gate voltage. Figure 3(a) shows the results of the full numerical calculation for the bottom-gate geometry. These are well described by the analytic model (3), over a large range of $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}`$, if we replace the analytic $`V_{\mathrm{scale}}^{\mathrm{dg}}`$ with $`V_{\mathrm{scale}}^{\mathrm{bg}}=2.2V_{\mathrm{scale}}^{\mathrm{dg}}`$, where the single empirical factor of 2.2 is sufficient to account for the difference in geometry. Figure 3(b) shows that all curves are nearly identical to the analytic form (3), with the same $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}^{1/2}`$ scaling as in the idealized model (aside from the one empirical factor of 2.2). As discussed above, the analytic model becomes inaccurate for very thin oxides, and this is observed in Fig. 3(b) for $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}=2`$ nm.

In contrast to conventional FETs, the scaling of the performance here with $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}`$ depends on the specific contact geometry. If the contact were infinitely thick, then the electrostatic potential near the right-angle corner would depend on distance as $`z^{2/3}`$ . For such a geometry, the turn-on voltage and $`S`$ would scale as $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}^{2/3}`$, while the transconductance would scale as $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}^{2/3}`$. Thus there is not really a universal power law; rather, the behavior depends on the contact geometry. Nevertheless, the two geometries considered here are rather well described by a single simple power-law behavior.

In addition to reducing the oxide thickness, the performance can be improved by using an oxide (or other gate dielectric) having higher dielectric constant . In conventional transistors, this improves performance by increasing the gate capacitance, and hence the charge in the channel. However, in ballistic SB-CNFETs, the charge in the channel is unimportant for the turn-on regime, so the improvement observed in such devices  must have a different origin.

In fact, within the approximations made here, simply increasing the dielectric constant everywhere would have no effect on the performance. However, most actual devices studied use a thin gate oxide below the NT, with air above it.

Fig. 4 shows how the electrostatic potential changes due to the interface between dielectrics. The potential contour lines at the source contact are much closer in the case of an interface with $`ϵ_\mathrm{b}>ϵ_\mathrm{t}`$, resulting in a thinner SB. Thus the turn-on becomes much sharper.

In this geometry the improvement is large only for relatively thick oxides. This can be understood from the interface boundary condition $`ϵ_\mathrm{b}\varphi _\mathrm{b}/y=ϵ_\mathrm{t}\varphi _\mathrm{t}/y`$, where $`\varphi _{\mathrm{t},\mathrm{b}}`$ is the electrostatic potential on top of the interface or below it, and $`ϵ_{\mathrm{t},\mathrm{b}}`$ are the dielectric constants of the top and bottom oxide. In the limit of large dielectric constant for the bottom oxide, $`ϵ_\mathrm{t}/ϵ_\mathrm{b}0`$, giving equipotential lines perpendicular to the interface. However, a distance on the order of the oxide thickness is needed for a drop of $`V_\mathrm{g}`$ of the NT potential. Therefore, while the turn-on becomes sharper, it does not approach the limit $`T(E)1`$.

Our numerical calculations indicate that with high ratios $`ϵ_\mathrm{b}/ϵ_\mathrm{t}`$, large improvements can be achieved for thick oxides. However, the changes become rather small for very thin oxides. For example, for $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}=20`$ nm, replacing the homogeneous oxide ($`ϵ_\mathrm{b}/ϵ_\mathrm{t}=1`$) by HfO2 below and air above the NT ($`ϵ_\mathrm{b}/ϵ_\mathrm{t}=11`$) changes the slope $`S`$ from 240 mV/dec to 120 mV/dec. This improvement agrees well with experimental data . For $`t_{\mathrm{ox}}=2`$ nm, though, $`S`$ changes only from 95 mV/dec to 75 mV/dec.

We have focused here on the case of a mid-gap Schottky barrier. However, we have also examined the behavior for other values of the Schottky barrier. As long as the current is limited by tunneling through a SB, as for barrier heights of $`0.2`$ eV or more, the scaling behavior derived here continues to hold.

We thank Bruce Ek for expert technical assistance and Jörg Appenzeller for helpful discussion. S. H. thanks the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for financial support under the Grant number HE3292/2-1.


text:
# A model for string-breaking in QCD

## 1 Introduction

In pure gauge theories, the potential energy of a static $`\overline{q}q`$ pair grows with the quark-antiquark distance $`r`$ as

$$V(r)=\sigma r$$
(1)
where $`\sigma `$ is known as string tension. From Regge phenomenology, $`\sigma (440\mathrm{MeV})^2`$. Equation (1) is confirmed by numerical simulations on the lattice, see e.g. , or  and references therein for recent calculations.

In full QCD, due to the presence of dynamical quarks, string breaking is expected to occur. Equation (1) yields an accurate description of the potential up to some distance, above which the system prefers to convert the energy into $`\overline{q}q`$ pairs, or mesons. String breaking has been observed on the lattice, see e.g. , and its behaviour at finite temperature around the deconfining phase transition has been studied numerically .

In this paper, we construct a dynamical model of string breaking. Lattice simulations have shown that the chromoelectric field in the presence of a static quark-antiquark pair looks like an Abrikosov flux tube  of transverse size $`r_{}`$, with $`r_{}0.2÷0.3\mathrm{fm}`$ , as conjectured since a long time . This picture is consistent with a dual superconductor mechanism of confinement , the superconductor being at the border between type-I and type-II. We shall interpret string breaking as due to the production of light quark-antiquark pairs by the chromoelectric field of the dual Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen flux tube. We plan to verify this idea by an extended program of lattice simulations. In this paper, we discuss the general features of the model and present some analytic calculations in limiting cases.

A similar phenomenon occurs in electrodynamics when one considers the potential inside a condenser. When the distance $`r`$ between the plates is increased, at constant electric field, the energy increases linearly with $`r`$, up to some distance where the system becomes unstable because of $`e^+e^{}`$ pair production.

For a constant static electric field the rate of production of spin-1/2 particle pairs per unit volume and unit time is given by :

$$w_{\mathrm{QED}}=2\frac{(eE)^2}{(2\pi )^3}\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{e^{\pi nm^2/eE}}{n^2}.$$
(2)
In QCD the analog of the condenser is the flux tube, electron-positron pairs are replaced by quark-antiquark pairs, the coupling constant $`e`$ by the strong coupling constant $`g`$, and a factor $`N_cN_f`$ must be added to properly take into account the number of degrees of freedom. Hence,

$$w_{\mathrm{QCD}}w=2N_cN_f\frac{(g)^2}{(2\pi )^3}\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{e^{\pi nm^2/g}}{n^2},$$
(3)
where $``$ is a constant static chromoelectric field. However, free quarks do not exist in QCD, and therefore $`m`$ in this formula is some mass parameter to be determined, which can be either the constituent quark mass, or a typical hadron mass (e.g., $`m_\pi `$). On the lattice, quark masses can be changed at will, and $`m`$ can be understood as a function of them.

In this work, in order to understand the relevant physics, we shall study the simplified case, in which the chromoelectric field is averaged over the transverse direction and then considered as uniform in space. A partial physical justification is that, due to the higher modes of the string, the tube configuration will fluctuate with a frequency that is much higher than the rate of pair production. More precise calculations taking into account the transverse size of the flux tube and the space dependence of the electric field can be performed and will be presented elsewhere. The use of Eq. (2), which relies on the assumption that the field is constant in space, will in any case be a good approximation if the transverse size of the tube is larger than $`1/m`$. The volume $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ that we consider is the physical three-dimensional volume of the flux tube, of cross section $`S`$, multiplied by a time equal to the length of the tube $`r`$ in natural units. This is a natural choice. Indeed, in order to measure the force between the heavy $`\overline{q}q`$ pair, we need at least the time to propagate the interaction between the two particles. Also this choice can be tested on the lattice. The interaction can be described by an elastic potential if no pair has been produced in the meantime. Hence, the long-range part of the potential is given by:

$$V(r)=\sigma re^{r^2Sw}$$
(4)
i.e. the linear potential $`\sigma r`$ multiplied by the probability that no pairs are created in the volume $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Clearly, $`V(r)`$ has a maximum at:

$$\overline{r}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2Sw}}$$
(5)
which yields an indication of the string breaking distance. Models for hadronic processes based on similar ideas exist in the literature (see e.g. ).

## 2 Explicit models

We shall assume for the average chromoelectric field $``$ the rms value of the chromoelectric field on the cross section of the tube:

$``$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{^2},`$
$`^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{S}}{\displaystyle d^2z^2(z)}.`$
At the border between type-I and type-II supeconductor (the so-called Bogomol’nyi limit ), $`^2`$ can be computed explicitely. The flux tube is the solution  of the dual Landau-Ginzburg equation, obtained from the Lagrangian:

$$=\frac{1}{4}F^2+|D\phi |^2V(\phi ).$$
(6)
Here $`F_{\mu \nu }=_\mu B_\nu _\nu B_\mu `$, $`D_\mu \phi =(_\mu ig_mB_\mu )\phi `$, $`V(\phi )=\frac{\lambda }{2}\left(|\phi |^2v^2\right)^2`$, $`B_\mu `$ is the dual gauge field, $`g_m`$ is the magnetic charge and, in the broken phase, $`v0`$. The Bogomol’nyi limit corresponds to $`m_H=m_V=\sqrt{2}g_mv`$. In this limit, the solutions to the equations of motion are known  and the string tension, defined as the integral of the energy density $``$ over transverse directions, can be computed exactly :

$$\sigma =d^2z(z)=\frac{\pi m_V^2}{g_m^2}.$$
(7)
Using the Dirac quantization condition, $`gg_m=2\pi `$, Eq. (7) becomes $`\sigma r_{}^2=\alpha _s`$.

Using the solution of Ref.  for a tube carrying one unit of flux, we compute the average of the electric field squared:

$$^2=C_{\mathrm{Bog}}\frac{m_V^2\sigma }{\pi },$$
(8)
where $`C_{\mathrm{Bog}}0.18`$. The exponent in Eq. (3) becomes then

$$\mathrm{ln}y\frac{\pi ^2m^2}{\sqrt{0.18}gg_m\sigma },$$
(9)
and if $`gg_m=2\pi `$, as expected in a dual superconductor, then $`y0.7`$. The sum of the terms of order higher than one in Eq. (3) can be estimated to be $`y^2/4`$, that for the worst case of $`m=m_\pi `$ allows one to keep only the first term in the sum with an accuracy of $`17\%`$. The coefficient $`w`$ can finally be written as:

$$w=N_cN_f\frac{\alpha _s}{\pi ^2}\frac{0.18}{S}\sigma e^{\pi m^2/2\sqrt{0.18}\sigma }.$$
(10)
Note that the potential in this analysis is determined up to a constant term, depending on the physics at shorter distances. Furthermore, $`V(r)`$ only depends on the string tension $`\sigma `$ and the mass $`m`$. The potential obtained by inserting Eq. (10) into Eq. (4) can be checked on the lattice; the dependence on $`m^2`$ can be tested by comparing the potential while varying the bare quark mass.

Equation (5) yields the following expression for the position of the maximum:

$$\overline{r}=\frac{\pi }{\sqrt{0.36N_cN_f\alpha _s\sigma y}}.$$
(11)
Note that since $`\alpha _sN_c`$ is constant at large $`N_c`$, $`\overline{r}`$ is $`N_c`$-independent in this limit. Next, using $`\alpha _s(1\mathrm{GeV})0.5`$, $`N_c=3`$, $`N_f=2`$, one obtains from Eq. (11) the following estimates $`\overline{r}(m=200\mathrm{MeV})2.0\mathrm{fm}`$, $`\overline{r}(m=300\mathrm{MeV})3.3\mathrm{fm}`$. There is a degree of arbitrariness in the choice of the scale at which $`\alpha _s`$ should be computed, so that the latter has to be considered as a parameter in Eq. (11). In practice , string breaking is detected on the lattice as a deviation of the $`\overline{q}q`$-potential from the straight line $`V=\sigma r`$, bigger than the numerical error. Let $`\epsilon `$ be the value of such a relative error. From Eq. (4) it follows

$$1e^{r_B^2Sw}\epsilon ,$$

or the breaking distance $`r_B`$:

$$r_B=\overline{r}\sqrt{2}\left|\mathrm{ln}(1\epsilon )\right|.$$

For instance, for $`\epsilon 20\%`$, $`r_B0.28\overline{r}`$.

The existence of the maximum of the potential and the dependence of its position on $`m`$ can also be tested directly in numerical simulations. In all this analysis the flux tube is assumed to be that of the quenched theory. Production of gluon pairs is neglected, because the threshold would be given by the lightest glueball mass, which is much larger than the typical hadron mass. This is also the reason why at the one-loop order the formula (2) can be translated to QCD in the way this has been done in Eq. (3).

The same analysis can be performed in the extreme type-II regime (else called the London limit), $`\mathrm{ln}\kappa 1`$, where $`\kappa m_H/m_V`$ is the Ginzburg-Landau parameter with $`m_H=\sqrt{2\lambda }v`$, $`m_V=\sqrt{2}g_mv`$. The only difference of this limit from the Bogomol’nyi one is that the coefficient $`1/\sqrt{0.18}2.36`$ in Eq. (9) should be replaced by $`1.18\mathrm{ln}\kappa `$. Indeed, in the London limit Eq. (8) is replaced by

$$^2=\frac{C_{\mathrm{Lond}}}{\mathrm{ln}\kappa }\frac{m_V^2\sigma }{\pi },$$
(12)
where $`C_{\mathrm{Lond}}0.71`$. For reasonable values of $`\mathrm{ln}\kappa `$ (for instance, $`\mathrm{ln}\kappa 4`$), there is no significant change with respect to the Bogomol’nyi case.

## 3 Temperature dependence

More information can be extracted from Eq. (5) if one considers the long-range potential at finite temperature, as the deconfinement temperature is approached.

If the mass in Eq. (2) is the constituent quark mass, it stays finite at the transition, while the string tension vanishes with a critical exponent:

$$\sigma (1T/T_c)^\nu $$
(13)
where an effective exponent $`\nu =1/3`$ can be used for a first order phase transition. In this case, $`\overline{r}`$ behaves as $`\frac{e^{\mathrm{const}/\sigma }}{\sqrt{\sigma }}`$. The approximation in Eq. (10) is improved as we approach the phase transition.

If instead the mass in Eq. (2) is the pion mass, it vanishes at the chiral point as:

$$m^2(1T/T_c)^\gamma ,$$
(14)
where the exponent $`\gamma `$ is determined by the universality class of the transition. For instance, if the symmetry breaking is described by an $`O(4)`$ RG fixed point , $`\gamma 1.44`$. In this case, $`y`$ approaches one at the critical temperature, and the string breaking distance grows as $`1/\sqrt{\sigma }`$ as the temperature is increased. One should also remark that Eq. (7) implies that the transverse size of the flux tube $`r_{}`$ is inversely proportional to $`\sqrt{\sigma }`$. When approaching $`T_c`$, $`r_{}^2`$ goes large as $`(1T/T_c)^\nu `$. Since $`\nu =1/3`$, $`r_{}^2m^2(1T/T_c)^{1.1}`$ goes to zero, implying that the Schwinger formula can no longer be applied when $`T`$ is very near $`T_c`$. These two scenarios can be checked against data from lattice simulations.

A qualitative comparison with the data of Ref.  for the string breaking length at finite temperature is roughly consistent with the behaviour predicted by combining Eq. (11) with Eqs. (13) and (14). A more quantitative analysis requires more precise and systematic numerical simulations.

## 4 Concluding remarks

We have developed a model for string breaking based on the existence of chromoelectric flux tubes. The form of the long-range potential is predicted, which leads to an estimate of the string breaking length; the relevant parameters are the string tension and the mass $`m`$, which is to be determined phenomenologically. A prediction is also obtained for the behaviour of the string breaking length near the deconfinement phase transition. Our predictions will be tested against the results of lattice simulations. In particular, the quark masses in lattice simulations can be varied, and $`m`$ can be understood as a function of them.

###### Acknowledgments.

D.A. is grateful to the whole staff of the Physics Department of the University of Pisa for cordial hospitality. The work has been partially supported by INFN, by the INTAS grant Open Call 2000, Project No. 110, and by MIUR-Progetto Teoria e fenomenologia delle particelle elementari.


text:
# 𝒮𝒫ℳ BULLETIN Issue number 2: February 2003 ce

## 1. Editor’s note

This issue of the $`𝒮𝒫`$ BULLETIN contains several new research announcements. We also have a conference announcement. This conference seems particularly interesting for recipients of this bulletin: Liljana Babinkostova and Gary Gruenhage are experts in the field of topological diagonalizations, Klaas Pieter Hart is an expert in filters, and Jindrich Zapletal is an expert in cardinal characteristics of the continuum.

Recall that in most cases, the information does not reach us without your help. Please contact us with any interesting information you have on new preprints/papers, conferences/workshops, and candidates for subscription (our list of recipients expanded a little in the last month, but we know that there are many more mathematicians working in the field which may be interested in receiving this bulletin).

The first issue of this bulletin is available online at

> http://arxiv.org/abs/math.GN/0301011

In that issue we gave some of the basic definitions used frequently in the field of Selection Principles in Mathematics. In the *Problem of the month* section we describe the classification of the resulting properties with regards to (standard) covers, large covers, $`\omega `$-covers, and $`\gamma `$-covers. Only two classification problems remain unsettled and constitute the problem of the month.

### 1.1. Dedication

After this issue was completed, we heard of the tragedy of space shuttle Columbia, who broke up over Texas on Feb 1 2003 ce, as it headed for a landing in Florida. We dedicate this issue to the memorial of the shuttle crew: Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon.

*Boaz Tsaban*, tsaban@math.huji.ac.il

http://www.cs.biu.ac.il/~tsaban

## 2. Research announcements

### 2.1. The Pytkeev property and the Reznichenko property in function spaces

For a Tychonoff space $`X`$ we denote by $`C_p(X)`$ the space of all real-valued continuous functions on $`X`$ with the topology of pointwise convergence. Characterizations of sequentiality and countable tightness of $`C_p(X)`$ in terms of $`X`$ were given by Gerlits, Nagy, Pytkeev and Arhangel’skii. In this paper, we characterize the Pytkeev property and the Reznichenko property of $`C_p(X)`$ in terms of $`X`$. In particular we note that if $`C_p(X)`$ over a subset $`X`$ of the real line is a Pytkeev space, then $`X`$ is perfectly meager and has universal measure zero.

*Masami Sakai*, sakaim01@kanagawa-u.ac.jp

### 2.2. The combinatorics of splittability

Marion Scheepers, in his studies of the combinatorics of open covers, introduced the property $`\mathrm{𝖲𝗉𝗅𝗂𝗍}(𝔘,𝔙)`$ asserting that a cover of type $`𝔘`$ can be split into two covers of type $`𝔙`$. In the first part of this paper we give an almost complete classification of all properties of this form where $`𝔘`$ and $`𝔙`$ are significant families of covers which appear in the literature (namely, large covers, $`\omega `$-covers, $`\tau `$-covers, and $`\gamma `$-covers), using combinatorial characterizations of these properties in terms related to ultrafilters on $``$.

In the second part of the paper we consider the questions whether, given $`𝔘`$ and $`𝔙`$, the property $`\mathrm{𝖲𝗉𝗅𝗂𝗍}(𝔘,𝔙)`$ is preserved under taking finite unions, arbitrary subsets, powers or products. Several interesting problems remain open.

The paper is available online:

> http://arxiv.org/abs/math.LO/0212312

*Boaz Tsaban*, tsaban@math.huji.ac.il

### 2.3. The Hurewicz covering property and slaloms in the Baire space

According to a result of Kočinac and Scheepers, the Hurewicz covering property is equivalent to a somewhat simpler selection property: For each sequence of large open covers of the space one can choose finitely many elements from each cover to obtain a groupable cover of the space. We simplify the characterization further by omitting the need to consider sequences of covers: A set of reals $`X`$ satisfies the Hurewicz property if, and only if, each large open cover of $`X`$ contains a groupable subcover.

The proof uses a “structure” counterpart of a combinatorial characterization, in terms of slaloms, of the minimal cardinality $`𝔟`$ of an unbounded family of functions in the Baire space. In particular, we obtain a new characterization of $`𝔟`$.

The paper is available online:

> http://arxiv.org/abs/math.GN/0301085

*Boaz Tsaban*, tsaban@math.huji.ac.il

### 2.4. Games in Logic

A nice review of Games in Logic (including Game-Theoretic Semantics), written in 2001 by the logician Wilfrid Hodges for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is available online at: `http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-games/`

*Peter McBurney*, p.j.mcburney@csc.liv.ac.uk

## 3. Other announcements

### 3.1. Boise Extravaganza in Set Theory (BEST 2003)

Friday, March 28 - Sunday, March 30, 2003.

We are pleased to announce our twelfth annual BEST conference. There will be 4 talks by invited speakers:

* Liljana Babinkostova (Boise State University)
* Klaas Pieter Hart (Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands)
* Gary Gruenhage (Auburn University)
* Jindrich Zapletal (University of Florida)

The talks will be held on Friday, Saturday and on Sunday in the Department of Mathematics at Boise State University. BEST social events are planned as well.

The conference webpage at

> `http://math.boisestate.edu/~best/`

contains the most current information including lodging, abstract submission, maps, schedule, etc. Anyone interested in giving a talk and/or participating should contact one of the organizers as soon as possible.

Limited financial support is available, in particular for graduate students. In order to apply, e-mail one of the organizers and we will send you the required paperwork.

The conference is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged.

*Tomek Bartoszynski*, tomek@math.boisestate.edu

*Justin Moore*, justin@math.boisestate.edu

### 3.2. A web site dedicated to SPM

Marion Scheepers and Liljana Babinkostova are building a comprehensive web site dedicated to Selection Principles in Mathematics. According to Scheepers, this site is planned to “grow to contain everything under the sun related to SPM”. Currently, the site contains:

* A useful bibliography of works in the field,
* Online versions of some of the major papers in the field,
* Seminar meetings and workshop announcements; and
* Selected open problems (under construction).

The site’s address is:

> `http://iunona.pmf.ukim.edu.mk/~spm/`

*Boaz Tsaban*, tsaban@math.huji.ac.il

## 4. Problem of the month

The following discussion is borrowed from . (The paper  makes an excellent introduction to one of the major aspects of the field of SPM.)

We will use the notation given in the first issue of this bulletin (http://arxiv.org/abs/math.GN/0301011). For the types of covers which we consider,

$$𝖲_1(𝔘,𝔙)𝖲_{fin}(𝔘,𝔙)𝖴_{fin}(𝔘,𝔙)\&\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{𝔘}{𝔙}\right)$$

and $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\right)`$ does not hold for an infinite $`T_1`$ space $`X`$ . This rules out several of the introduced properties as trivial. Each of our properties is monotone decreasing in the first coordinate and increasing in the second. In the case of $`𝖴_{fin}`$ note that for any class of covers $`𝔙`$, $`𝖴_{fin}(𝒪,𝔙)`$ is equivalent to $`𝖴_{fin}(\mathrm{\Gamma },𝔙)`$ because given an open cover $`\{U_n\}_n`$ we may replace it by $`\{_{i<n}U_i\}_n`$, which is a $`\gamma `$-cover (unless it contains a finite subcover).

In the three-dimensional diagram of Figure 1 below, the double lines indicate that the two properties are equivalent. The proof of these equivalences can be found in .

The analogue equivalences for the Borel case also hold, but in the Borel case more equivalences hold : For each $`𝔙\{,_\mathrm{\Omega },_\mathrm{\Gamma }\}`$,

$$𝖲_1(_\mathrm{\Gamma },𝔙)=𝖲_{fin}(_\mathrm{\Gamma },𝔙)=𝖴_{fin}(_\mathrm{\Gamma },𝔙).$$

After removing duplications we obtain Figure 2 (see below).

Almost all implications which do not appear in Figure 2 where refuted by counter-examples (which are in fact sets of real numbers) in . The only unsettled implications in this diagram are marked with dotted arrows. We thus have the following *classification problems* (which appear in  as Problems 1 and 2).

###### Problem 4.1.

Is $`𝖴_{fin}(\mathrm{\Gamma },\mathrm{\Omega })=𝖲_{fin}(\mathrm{\Gamma },\mathrm{\Omega })`$?

###### Problem 4.2.

And if not, does $`𝖴_{fin}(\mathrm{\Gamma },\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ imply $`𝖲_{fin}(\mathrm{\Gamma },\mathrm{\Omega })`$?