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# Quantum Pair Creation of Soliton Domain Walls

## I  Background and Motivation

A wide class of nonperturbative phenomena in field theory can be understood in terms of quantum tunneling. A well-known example is the quantum decay of the false vacuum Coleman , which has been of broad scientific interest in cosmology Tryon ; Linde  and other fields Caldeira  for over two decades. In three dimensions, the boundary between the bubble of true vacuum and the surrounding false vacuum is a type of topological defect known as a domain wall. A variety of topological defects in condensed matter systems have been proposed to nucleate via quantum or thermal fluctuations. These include vortex-antivortex pairs and vortex rings in superconductors Kosterlitz ; Duan , superfluids Rayfield ; Volovik , and Bose-Einstein condensates Anderson ; dislocation pairs in Wigner crystals Chui  and vortex lattices Blatter ; phase-slip vortex rings in charge density waves (CDWs) Zaitsev-Zotov ; Matsukawa ; charge (or flux) soliton-antisoliton pairs in density waves Maki ; Maiti  (or Josephson junctions Widom ); and soliton-like domain walls surrounding cigar-shaped bubbles of true vacuum in three-dimensional CDWs Krive1 .

Topological defects, such as flux vortices, play an especially important role in the cuprates and other type-II superconductors. Magnetic relaxation rates that depend weakly on temperature up to 20 K Wen , or even decrease with temperature Xue , suggest that vortices may tunnel over a wide temperature range. Moreover, the consistently low $`I_cR_n`$ products of cuprate Josephson devices suggest that Josephson vortex-antivortex pair creation Widom  may occur when the current is much smaller than the “classical” critical current $`I_0\mathrm{\Delta }/R_ne`$.

A charge density wave (CDW) is a condensate Gruner  in which the electronic charge density in a quasi-one-dimensional metal is modulated, $`\rho (x,t)=\rho _0(x,t)+\rho _1\mathrm{cos}[2k_Fx\varphi (x,t)]`$. Here $`\rho _0(x,t)`$ contains the background charge of the condensed electrons, and an excess or deficiency of charge proportional to $`\pm \varphi /x`$. A spin density wave (SDW) has a modulated spin density, and is equivalent to two out-of-phase CDWs for the spin-up and spin-down subbands. Although pinned by impurities, a density wave (DW) can transport a current when an applied field exceeds a threshold value $`E_T`$. The most widely studied models of DW depinning are variations of that proposed by Fukuyama, Lee, and Rice Fukuyama .

A long-standing debate concerns whether a classical description is sufficient to describe density wave depinning, or a quantum treatment is required. John Bardeen Bardeen1 ; Bardeen2  proposed a model in which condensed, dressed electrons Zener tunnel through a “pinning gap,” whose energy per electron is small compared to the Peierls gap. This model was motivated by the Zener-like behavior, $`J[EE_T]\mathrm{exp}(E_0/E)`$ Monceau ; Thorne1  observed in the current-field characteristics of NbSe3 and TaS3. Bardeen pointed out that the 3-D coherence of the DW condensate would suppress thermal excitations without necessarily suppressing the amplitude for coherent tunneling of the internal microscopic degrees of freedom. The observed Zener field $`E_0`$ does not increase with the transverse dimensions, which has important implications for any theory based on tunneling probabilities.

Maki Maki  considered a real-space picture, in which $`2\pi `$-soliton-antisoliton ($`SS^{}`$) pairs nucleate via quantum tunneling. Krive and Rozhavsky Krive2  pointed out the existence of a Coulomb blockade threshold field for the creation of charged $`SS^{}`$ pairs, and later extended this picture to nucleation of soliton-like domain walls Krive1 . A more recent paper Miller1  proposed an analogy to time-correlated single electron tunneling to explain the observed lack of DW polarization below threshold, and to interpret key features of DW dynamics, such as coherent oscillations and narrow-band noise. Observations of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations Latyshev  in the magneto-conductance of CD Ws in NbSe3 crystals with columnar defects strongly support the idea that quantum transport plays a fundamental role. Additional evidence for quantum behavior in density waves is found in rf experiments Miller2 ; Miller3  that show very good agreement with photon-assisted tunneling theory at temperatures up to 215 K.

It is important to also consider whether or not density wave dynamics can be interpreted classically. Perhaps the most obvious requirement for classical sliding is that the washboard potential should be tilted enough for the deformable object to slide over the pinning barrier. This tilting of the washboard potential leads to a predicted phase displacement of $`\pi /2`$ in the s-G model at the classical threshold, and to even greater predicted phase displacements when disorder is included Littlewood . However, NMR and high-resolution x-ray scattering experiments show that the phase displacements of both charge Ross1 ; Ross2 ; Requardt  and spin Wong  density waves are more than an order of magnitude smaller than classically predicted values near threshold.

Classical models also predict Littlewood ; Narayan  that the low-frequency dielectric response should increase, or even diverge, as the classical threshold is approached from below. Such predictions are refuted by the observed bias-independent rf and microwave responses below threshold in both CDWs Miller3 ; Zettl  and Wigner crystals Li . These experiments strongly suggest that the washboard pinning potential is barely tilted as the measured threshold field is attained. Thus, the observed threshold appears to be much smaller than the classical depinning field, and may represent a Coulomb blockade threshold for the creation of charged topological defects. Moreover, attempts Gammie  using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to directly observe either displacement of the CDW below threshold or sliding above threshold have been unsuccessful. The apparent lack of sliding seen in STM experiments and the jerky dynamics revealed by NMR experiments Ross1 ; Ross2  suggest that the DW spends most of its time in the pinned state even above threshold.

The classical deformable DW model also predicts that the high-field dc conductivity should have the form $`\sigma _{cdw}abE^{1/2}`$, where $`a`$ and $`b`$ are constants Sneddon . This prediction is contradicted by experiments Thorne2  that show substantial departure from the classically predicted behavior, but essentially perfect agreement with the Zener form $`\mathrm{exp}(E_0/E)`$, in the high-field limit. Coppersmith and Littlewood Coppersmith  (CL) make the following predictions for mode locking of a moving DW to an ac source within the classical model. (1) Damped relaxation is crucial in that complete mode locking can occur only when the ac frequency and amplitude are small enough for significant relaxation to take place when the total field is less than $`E_T`$. (2) For large ac amplitudes and frequencies such that the time interval spent below threshold is small, the differential resistance $`dV/dI`$ should exhibit peaks but not complete mode locking. In addition, no “wings” (sharp negative dips in $`dV/dI`$ adjacent to the interference peak) should be observed. These predictions are refuted incontrovertibly by ac-dc interference and mode locking experiments on high quality NbSe3 crystals Thorne2  that demonstrate both negative wings and complete mode locking at high dc bias fields and high frequencies.

The failure of CL s calculations to account for the mode-locking experiments reflects a fundamental deficiency of the classical deformable model. When the DW slides rapidly, relaxation into the pinning potential wells cannot occur quickly enough to prevent the deformations and net pinning energy from vanishing. The characteristic frequency for this relaxation, the DW dielectric relaxation frequency, is measured to be about 5 MHz in NbSe3 Miller4 . The observations of complete mode locking at ac and drift frequencies of up to 1 GHz indicate that the strength of DW pinning is undiminished in a regime where significant relaxation cannot occur within the conventional classical model. Thus, quantum mechanisms must be explored to understand, fundamentally, DW depinning and dynamics.

## II Soliton Tunneling Model

A realistic density wave pinning potential would have the form $`U_0(𝐫)\{1\mathrm{cos}[\varphi \varphi _0(𝐫)]\}`$, which includes spatial variations of both the pinning energy $`U_0`$, and the optimum phase $`\varphi _0`$. However, observations of narrow band noise, coherent oscillations, and complete mode-locking with an ac source Thorne2  in high quality NbSe3 crystals suggest that both $`U_0`$ and $`\varphi _0`$ are slowly varying in weakly pinned DWs. The sine-Gordon (s-G) model thus provides an idealized conceptual framework for interpreting many aspects of density wave transport Rice , from both classical and quantum points of view. Similarly, a weakly-coupled Josephson junction (JJ) can be described by a phase, $`\varphi (x,t)`$, representing the phase difference across the junction, in a sine-Gordon potential.

Density waves and JJs are dual in that the roles of charge and flux are interchanged, as well as those of current and voltage. The current in a density wave is $`I=(Q_0/2\pi )\varphi /t`$, where $`Q_02eN_{ch}`$ and $`N_{ch}`$ is the number of parallel chains, whereas the voltage across a JJ is $`V=(\mathrm{\Phi }_0/2\pi )\varphi /t`$, where $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0=h/2e`$. Charge (flux) solitons in a density wave (JJ) carry a charge (flux) of $`\pm Q_0(\pm \mathrm{\Phi }_0)`$ (see Table 1). The width of a Josephson vortex is roughly the Josephson penetration length, $`\lambda _JJ_c^{1/2}`$ whereas, in a DW, the soliton width is $`\lambda _0=c_0/\omega _0`$, where $`c_0`$ is the phason velocity and $`\omega _0`$ is the pinning frequency. Thus, $`\lambda _0`$ will increase with decreasing impurity concentration (as $`\omega _0`$ decreases), and may approach the distance between contacts in extremely pure samples. This is equivalent to approaching the short junction limit, $`L<\lambda _J`$, in a JJ, where the $`VI`$ curves become significantly less rounded.

The quantum decay of the metastable false vacuum of a scalar field $`\varphi `$, accompanied by the creation of solitons and antisolitons in (1+1) dimensions Stone ; Voloshin ; Kiselev  has been studied extensively in quantum field theory. Dias and Lemos Dias1  (DL) have calculated the effective one loop action for pair creation of solitons in the (1+1)-D s-G model. In addition, they have extended their arguments to pair creation of soliton domain walls in higher dimensions. In the (1+1)-D case, the soliton-antisoliton pair production rate per unit time and length, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }/L`$, is identified with the decay rate of the false vacuum. This is calculated to be, in the absence of Coulomb interactions between the solitons (taking $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$) Dias1 :

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{L}=\frac{\epsilon }{2\pi }\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\pi m^2}{\epsilon }\right]$$
(1)
where $`m`$ is the soliton mass (energy). Here $`\epsilon `$ represents the gain in energy per unit length between the two created solitons, which is proportional to the applied electric field $`E`$ for a density wave (and to the applied current for a JJ). The energy for pair creation is contained in the line between the particles and is given by $`2x\epsilon =2m`$, where $`2x`$ is the distance between the solitons.

DL point out Dias1  that a one-particle system in (1+1)-D can be transformed into a line in (2+1)-D and a thin wall in (3+1)-D, except that the mass $`m`$ should be interpreted as a line density and a surface density, respectively. Their calculations thus apply directly to the domain wall pair creation. As the transverse dimensions are increased and the total mass (energy) becomes large, thermal activation becomes suppressed, so quantum processes can dominate even at relatively high temperatures (up to 400 K for the CDW in NbSe3).

As an example, consider the (2+1)-D case, where one can make a cut normal to the infinite strings so that “$`\epsilon `$” will still be the energy density of the line between the two infinitesimal pieces of the strings. Each one of these infinitesimal pieces has a mass $`m`$, so $`m`$ represents the line density of the string. The energy for pair creation of strings comes from the infinite plane between the two strings, and is given by $`2xd\epsilon =d2m`$, where $`d`$ is the length of the string, which goes to infinity Dias2 . Therefore both the mass of the string and the energy to create the pair of strings become infinite.

Importantly, “$`m`$” can no longer be interpreted as the total mass of the string or of the domain wall. Indeed such an interpretation would correspond to creation of point particles in (2+1)-D or in (3+1)-D, where the total mass $`m`$ would be infinite. The infinite energy for pair creation would then have to come from the line between the two particles rather than from the infinite plane between the two strings. DL s calculations do not apply to this process. In the generalization to higher dimensions, one is using the symmetry of the system along the extra direction. In Minkowski space-time, the procedure is direct Dias2 . However, in systems that include gravitation, the procedure is usually not so straightforward, and one must employ dimensional reduction or dimensional expansion Lemos .

Suppose we now put the constants $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`c`$ back into Eq. 1 and take $`\lambda `$ to represent the Compton wavelength, $`\lambda =\mathrm{}/mc`$. (In a density wave, the effective “speed of light” is the phason velocity $`c_0`$, which is about $`3\times 10^5`$ cm/s.) Explicitly putting the physical constants into the exponent, we then have: $`m\pi ^2/\epsilon m\pi c^2/[qE\lambda ]`$, where $`q`$ is the soliton charge for a single chain (i.e. for the (1+1)-D system) and $`E`$ is the electric field. (In a JJ, the charge and electric field would be replaced by the flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ and the current density.) For the (3+1)-D system, we can now define $`m^{}=m/a^2`$ and $`q^{}=q/a^2`$ to be the mass and charge per unit area of the soliton domain wall, respectively. In a density wave, the length represents the transverse distance between DW chains. Note that, for the exponent $`\pi m^{}c^2/[q^{}E\lambda ]`$ to remain dimensionless, $`\lambda `$ needs to retain its original units of length. One way of doing this is to define a new “quantum of action per unit area” in terms of the characteristic length scale $`a`$, i.e. $`\mathrm{}^{}=\mathrm{}/a^2`$ , leading to a Compton wavelength, $`\lambda =\mathrm{}^{}/m^{}c`$, which has the same value as before. Lattice gauge theorists have recently examined models of domain wall fermions (bosons), whose anticommutators (commutators) differ from those of point particles, thus lending credence to the arguments presented here.

Another way of looking at the problem is to recall that $`\mathrm{}`$ has units of angular momentum: $`L=rmv`$, where $`r`$ = distance, $`m`$ = mass, and $`v`$ = velocity. Now, since the mass transforms as $`m^{}=m/A`$, where $`A`$ is an area, from $`L=rmv`$ we must have $`L^{}=L/A`$, so that $`\mathrm{}^{}=\mathrm{}/A`$ Dias2 . The commutator between bosonic domain wall creation and annihilation operators will then be scaled accordingly. The Compton wavelength of the (3+1)-D problem refers to the direction normal to the domain wall, and is thus $`\lambda =\mathrm{}^{}/m^{}c=\mathrm{}/mc`$.

It should be noted that rf experiments Thorne1 ; Miller2 ; Miller3  are consistent with a ratio $`\mathrm{}/q=\mathrm{}^{}/q^{}`$ that is scale invariant, where $`q=2e`$ for a fully condensed CDW. This is further supported by magneto-transport experiments Latyshev , which yield Aharonov-Bohm oscillations with a periodicity of $`h/2e`$, and not $`h/2Ne`$ as predicted theoretically Bogachek , where $`N`$ is the number of coupled chains. However, the observed mode locking with an ac source Thorne2  shows that the phase is coherent throughout macroscopic regions within the crystal, suggesting quantum nucleation of entire domain walls rather than just single dislocations.

The above arguments lead, for a CDW, to a Zener-like current-field characteristic given by:

$$JE\mathrm{exp}[E_0/E]$$
(2)
where the characteristic Zener field $`E_0=[\pi m^2c_0^3]/[\mathrm{}^{}q^{}]`$ is independent of the traverse dimensions. (For a JJ, the $`Vvs.I`$ curve would be given by $`VI\mathrm{exp}[I_0/I]`$.) DL s calculations neglect Coulomb interactions between charge solitons (or magnetic interactions between flux solitons in a JJ), and thus fail to predict a sharp threshold field (threshold current for a JJ) for pair creation. The following section examines the origin of the threshold field as a macroscopic Coulomb blockade effect (or its dual for the case of a JJ).

## III Macroscopic Coulomb Blockade and Time-Correlated Soliton Tunneling

The quantum interpretation of the threshold field, as a pair-creation threshold due to Coulomb blockade, is motivated by Coleman s paper Coleman2  on soliton pair-creation in the massive Schwinger model. A pair of $`S`$ and $`S^{}`$ domain walls with charges $`\pm Q_0`$ produce an internal field of magnitude $`E^{}=Q_0/\epsilon A`$, as shown in Fig. 1, where $`A`$ is the cross-sectional area and $`\epsilon `$ is the dielectric constant. When a field $`E`$ is applied, the difference in electrostatic energies of a state with a pair of separation $`l`$ and of the “vacuum” is $`\mathrm{\Delta }U=(1/2)\epsilon Al[(E+E^{})^2E^2]=Q_0l[(1/2)E^{}\pm E]`$ , which is positive when $`|E|<(1/2)E^{}`$. Conservation of energy thus forbids pair production for fields less than a quantum threshold, $`E_T(1/2)E^{}=Q_0/2\epsilon A`$, which appears to be about two orders of magnitude smaller than the classical depinning field in NbSe3 Miller1 . The observed universality relation, $`\epsilon E_TeN_{ch}/A`$ Gruner , thus arises quite elegantly in this model. Screening by the uncondensed normal carriers greatly enhances the dielectric response of NbSe3, which has an incomplete Peierls gap and also has a much lower threshold field than most other CDW materials. (In a JJ, charge-flux duality leads to a quantum threshold current proportional to $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0/2L_M`$, where $`L_M`$ is the mutual inductive coupling between the Josephson vortex and the antivortex.)

A density wave between two contacts behaves as a capacitor with an enormous dielectric constant, as shown in Fig. 1. The initial charging energy is $`Q^2/2C`$, where $`Q`$ is the displacement charge and $`C=\epsilon A/L`$. We define $`\theta 2\pi Q/Q_0=2\pi E/E^{}=\pi E/E_T`$ and note that a displacement $`\varphi `$ near the middle creates a non-topological kink-antikink pair, with charges $`\pm (\varphi /2\pi )Q_0`$, if $`\varphi =0`$ at the contacts. The washboard pinning and quadratic charging energies can then be written as Miller1 :

$$U[\varphi ]=_0^L𝑑x\{u_p[1\mathrm{cos}\varphi (x)]+u_c[\theta \varphi (x)]^2\}$$
(3)
where the first and last terms represent the pinning and electrostatic charging energies, respectively, and where $`u_pu_c`$ for NbSe3. If the system starts out in its ground state, conservation of energy will prevent tunneling when the applied field is below threshold, $`\theta <\pi (E<E_T)`$, as illustrated in Fig. 2. However, when $`\theta `$ exceeds $`\pi `$, what was formerly the true vacuum becomes the unstable false vacuum. One or more bubbles of true vacuum, with soliton domain walls at their surfaces, then nucleate and expand rapidly (Fig. 1). After $`n`$ solitons of charge $`Q_0`$ (and antisolitons of charge $`Q_0`$) have reached the contacts, the charging energy becomes:

$$\frac{(QnQ_0)^2}{2C}=\frac{Q_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{8\pi ^2C}(\theta 2\pi n)^2$$
(4)
This series of piecewise parabolas is similar to the charging energy of a single-electron tunnel junction, except that $`Q_0`$ now represents a macroscopic charge.

The single-electron transistor (SET) Devoret  consists of a gate capacitor $`C_g`$ coupled to an island electrode between two small capacitance tunnel junctions in series. The gate voltage modulates the $`IV`$ curves between the source and drain electrodes, with a period $`e`$ in displacement charge, $`Q_g=C_gV_g`$. The displacement charges $`Q_{1,2}`$ across the two tunnel junctions are related as $`Q_2=Q_1+Q_g+q_0`$, where $`q_0`$ is a phenomenological offset charge induced during cooling Devoret . The SET is related by charge-flux duality to the dc SQUID. The critical voltage across an SET is a periodic function of $`Q_g`$, whereas the critical current across a SQUID is periodically modulated (with period $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$) by the flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$.

The model discussed above suggests that it may be possible to demonstrate a macroscopic version of the SET, by attaching a gate capacitor to an island electrode near the center of a quasi-1-D crystal with a density wave. The displacement charge induced by the gate electrode would then periodically modulate the total critical voltage between the source and drain electrodes. Ideally, in the absence of any shunt conductance, the periodicity of the gate displacement charge might be expected to be $`Q_0`$. However, screening by the normal, uncondensed electrons will tend to reduce the effectiveness of the gate which, unlike the source and drain contacts, cannot be driven by a current source. The displacement charges across the two segments of the crystal will be related as $`Q_2=Q_1+\beta (Q_g+q_0)`$, where $`\beta 1`$ reflects screening by the normal carriers. The total charging energy of the two segments, in this idealized model, will then be:

$$\frac{(Q_1n_1Q_0)^2}{2C_1}+\frac{(Q_2n_2Q_0)^2}{2C_2}=\frac{Q_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{8\pi ^2C}\left\{\frac{(\theta _12\pi n_1)^2}{2C_1}+\frac{(\theta _22\pi n_2)^2}{2C_2}\right\}$$
(5)
where $`C_1`$ and $`C_2`$ are the capacitances of the two segments separated by the island electrode. The analogy to the SET suggests that a gate voltage might modulate the $`IV`$ curves between source and drain contacts, with a periodicity $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_gQ_0/\beta C_g`$. The gate capacitance $`C_g`$, and hence the attainable displacement charge $`Q_g`$, may have been too small to observe non-monotonic behavior in previous experiments Adelman , in which a gate electrode was fabricated directly on the crystal to form a MOSFET-like structure. The soliton tunneling transistor (STT), discussed in the next section, employs a much larger, $`1\mu `$F, gate capacitor coupled to an NbSe3 crystal, and exhibits non-monotonic behavior.

An exact calculation of the charging energy would yield a plot in which the energy is reduced slightly at the crossing points, $`\theta =n\pi `$, as compared to piecewise parabolas. However, Eq. 4 provides a reasonable approximation to $`E(\theta )`$:

$$E(\theta )(\theta 2\pi n)^2$$
(6)
As in the SET, the voltage across each segment of the STT is related to the charging energy as $`V_{1,2}=dE/dQ_{1,2}dE/d\theta _{1,2}`$. If we use the approximation given by Eq. 6, this yields a sawtooth function, which can be expanded as a Fourier series:

$$V_{1,2}=V_0\mathrm{saw}(\theta _{1,2})=\frac{V_0}{\pi }\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{(1)^n}{n}\mathrm{sin}(n\theta _{1,2})$$
(7)
This model can also been used to model the dynamics of density waves and to interpret the narrow-band noise spectra, the many harmonics of which are consistent with a sawtooth function.

Equation 7 is related by charge-flux duality to the current-phase relation of a Josephson junction. The periodic behavior of the source-to-drain voltage vs. gate voltage of an STT can readily be understood by exploiting the duality with a dc SQUID. When each JJ in a dc SQUID has an ideal, sinusoidal current-phase relation and the critical currents $`I_0`$ are identical, the total current is $`I=I_0[\mathrm{sin}\phi _1+\mathrm{sin}\phi _2]`$, where $`\phi _2=\phi _1+2\mathrm{\Phi }/\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$. This yields a total critical current, $`I_c=2I_0|\mathrm{cos}(2\pi \mathrm{\Phi }/\mathrm{\Phi }_0)|`$, which is a periodic function of the flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. Similarly, the total source-to-drain voltage of an ideal STT, $`V=V_1+V_2`$, where $`V_{1,2}`$ are given by Eq. 7, yields a critical voltage that is a periodic function of gate voltage $`V_g=Q_g/C_g`$, as shown in Fig. 3. Here we note that $`\theta _2=\theta _1+\theta _g+\theta _0`$, where $`\theta _g=2\pi \beta Q_g/Q_0=2\pi \beta q_0/Q_0`$, $`Q_g`$ is the displacement charge across the gate capacitor, $`q_0`$ is the offset charge, and $`\beta `$ is the screening parameter due to the normal electrons.

## IV Soliton Tunneling Transistor Experiment

The experiment reported here employs a geometry analogous to that of the SET, in which the “source-to-drain” $`IV`$ characteristic is modulated by a voltage applied to a gate capacitor. Single crystals of NbSe3 were employed in the experiment. This material forms two independent CDWs, at Peierls transition temperatures of 145 K and 59 K Monceau , respectively. The Peierls gap opens up over most of the Fermi surface (FS) below the lower transition, but leaves a small portion of the FS intact, so that a significant concentration ($`6\times 10^{18}cm^3`$) of normal, uncondensed carriers remain down to low temperatures.

The geometry used in our experiment is illustrated in the inset to Fig. 4, where the width of the crystal is exaggerated for clarity. The NbSe3 crystal was placed onto an alumina substrate with a series of evaporated, 25 $`\mu `$m wide gold contacts. The substrate was thermally anchored to a cold-finger in the vacuum shroud of an open cycle helium flow cryostat and the temperature was controlled using a Lake Shore temperature controller attached to a heater coil wrapped around the cold-finger. A Keithley programmable dc current source injected the current between two contacts, which were bonded to the crystal near the ends using silver paint. The “source-to-drain” voltage was measured between two additional gold contacts, as illustrated, and a 1 $`\mu `$F gate capacitor was attached to the center gold contact using silver paint. The spacing between contacts along the crystal was 500 $`\mu `$m center-to-center, and the gate capacitor was kept inside the cryostat.

We found that substantially smaller gate capacitors (as well as gate capacitors with longer leads) were unable to induce a periodic modulation of the $`IV`$ characteristic. Moreover, dc $`IV`$ (rather than differential $`dV/dI`$) measurements were necessary to avoid inducing a displacement current through the gate capacitor. A programmable voltage source was coupled to the gate capacitor via a 10-k$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ resistor, which limited the current flowing through the crystal during changes in gate voltage when the gate capacitor either partially charged or discharged. The cryostat was kept inside an electromagnetically shielded enclosure, and $`V_{sd}`$ was measured with a nanovoltmeter.

The measurements were primarily carried out at 35 K. Previous “field effect transistor” experiments Adelman  showed the greatest modulation at around 30 K, where the threshold field is near its minimum. We also observed the largest modulation, using our geometry, at comparable temperatures. We attained the best temperature stability (better than $`\pm 0.01`$ K) when the temperature was set to 35 K, and thus chose this temperature for most of the measurements reported here.

Figure 4 shows several plots of CDW current as a function of source-to-drain voltage, $`I_{cdw}vs.V_{sd}`$, in a NbSe3 crystal at 35 K, for different values of gate voltage $`V_g`$. The gate voltage is seen to modulate the threshold voltage in the $`IV`$ curves of Fig. 4. Figure 5 displays plots of source-to-drain voltage $`V_{sd}vs.V_g`$ for three values of total bias current above threshold. The plots exhibit roughly periodic behavior, similar to that observed in SETs. However, in our system, the measured periodicity $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_g10V`$ is consistent with a macroscopic displacement charge $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q=C_g\mathrm{\Delta }V_g6\times 10^{13}e`$, comparable to the charge of the conducting electrons between the contacts.

The behavior shown in Fig. 5 is quite extraordinary, and appears to be consistent with the soliton domain wall tunneling hypothesis. The number of parallel CDW chains, $`N_{ch}`$, is about $`10^8`$. Thus, one might estimate the screening parameter as follows: $`\beta Q_0/\mathrm{\Delta }Q2N_{ch}e/\mathrm{\Delta }Q3\times 10^6`$. However, an alternative interpretation for the observed periodicity might be that all of the normal electrons between the contacts participate in screening out the displacement charge $`Q_0`$ of the CDW. Thus, the observation that $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q/e6\times 10^{13}`$ is roughly the number of conducting electrons between contacts may not be a coincidence. Further work is needed to better understand the effects of screening by the normal, uncondensed electrons.

## V Implications

The implications of the model and experimental results reported here are potentially far-reaching, and could impact fields as diverse as cosmology, condensed matter physics, quantum computation, and biophysics. In the field of cosmology, quantum nucleation of dilaton black hole pairs Dowker , cosmic strings Basu , and even the entire universe Tryon ; Linde  have been proposed. The European Science Foundation has recently funded a program, known as Cosmology in the Laboratory (COSLAB), intended to explore laboratory analogs of cosmological objects. Topics being studied include analogies between vortices in superconductors and cosmic strings, and artificial (acoustic or optical) black holes.

In the area of biophysics, Fröhlich suggested Frohlich1 ; Frohlich2  that long-range quantum coherence may play a fundamental role in biological systems. This may provide a mechanism to integrate complex interactions that take place within a live cell. A recent model Mavromatos  proposes that microtubules, which exist in the cells of all higher organisms but are especially concentrated in neurons, engage in a form of quantum computation. Roger Penrose Penrose  has even made compelling arguments that large-scale quantum coherence, perhaps mediated by the microtubules, plays a fundamental role in consciousness. It is clear that, for Penrose s arguments to be valid, some mechanism is needed to suppress decoherence. Perhaps soliton domain walls, or related topological defects, may prove to be topologically protected from decoherence at biological temperatures. Further research is clearly warranted to explore this extraordinary possibility.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of James Claycomb, L.-M.(Patrick) Xie, and John McCarten as well as valuable insights provided by Oscar Dias and Jose Lemos. This work was supported, in part, by the State of Texas through the Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Advanced Research Program (ARP), and by the R. A. Welch Foundation (E-1221).


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# Searching for Clusters with SUMSS

## 1 Introduction

Evidence is growing for a $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }0.7`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M0.3`$ universe (see eg. deBernardis2002  Slosar2002 ). Structure formation theory predicts that such a universe will contain large numbers of clusters out to $`z1`$ Jenkins2001 . However, only a handful of such clusters have been discovered to date (see eg. Stanford97 , Rosati99 , Chapman2000 , Fabian2001 , Nakata2001 , Thompson2001 , Haines2001 , Stanford2002 , Hashimoto2002 , Benoist2002 ); the traditional methods for finding clusters, using overdensities of optical or IR sources, suffer severely from contrast and contamination problems at high redshifts. For this reason the new generation of X-ray satellites—Chandra and XMM-Newton—are now involved in searches for such high-redshift clusters.

However, determination of the statistical properties of distant clusters solely on the basis of X-ray surveys may lead to biases: the density-squared dependence of X-ray bremsstrahlung radiation means that highly centrally condensed systems (i.e. relaxed and with a well established cooling flow) will be preferentially selected by X-ray samples, even though they may not be typical of systems of a given mass at a given epoch. Other selection techniques are clearly needed to complement the X-ray work.

Radiosources are widely regarded as tracers of high density regions at higher redshifts (see eg. Venemans2002 ). Work on this subject has been documented by many authors: distant clusters have been found using deep imaging around single radiosources (see eg. Nakata2001 , Best2000 ); also, groupings of radiosources in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) have proven successful as tracers of high-$`z`$ clusters of galaxies (see Croft2001 , Cotter2002 ). Such techniques are likely to find only a small subset of the total population and will inevitably involve some bias. Interactions between galaxies are thought to trigger radiosources (see eg. Best2002 ). It is therefore likely that by searching for groupings of radiosources we will bias our search towards merging clusters. This is complementary to the X-ray searches which will be biased towards relaxed systems.

## 2 Using the SUMSS catalogue to identify potential clusters

The SUMSS is a radio survey at 0.8 GHz with a resolution of 40 arcsec, complete to about 6mJy (see Bock99 ) and therefore very similar in frequency, resolution and completeness to the NVSS. We have used the SUMSS catalogue Mauch2002  to search for overdensities of radiosources in the Southern Hemisphere. By searching for groupings of 5 radiosources within a 7 arcmin radius, we produced a list of 120 candidate clusters. After examining the SuperCOSMOS $`R`$-band images of these fields, we were able to remove obvious chance alignments where several of the sources had clearly unrelated IDs, and some low-$`z`$ clusters (i.e., a small number of Abell-type clusters). This procedure left 60 candidates for clusters expected to lie at $`z>0.3`$, beyond the SuperCOSMOS $`R`$-band plate limit for radiosource host galaxies.

## 3 ATCA observations

All 60 of these candidates have been further observed at 20cm and 13cm with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) (using the 6-km array) (see Buttery2001b ). These observations were carried out with the goal of providing more accurate source positions to facilitate optical identifications. However, they have proven very interesting in their own right. About thirty percent of the candidates show diffuse emission, which is often associated with clusters of galaxies (see Buttery2002 ). Further observations of these clusters were made on the ATCA in 2002 November using the 1.5-km array in order to investigate this extended emission (see Fig. 1).

## 4 Optical Imaging

In addition to the radio observations, 40 of the potential clusters have been imaged to $`V23`$, $`R23`$ and $`I22`$ with the ANU 2.3-m telescope. Analysis of this data is ongoing. These optical observations are designed to identify clusters out to a redshift of $`z0.7`$, and to make an approximate redshift estimate by locating the position of the $`4000`$-Å break.

Fig. 2 shows an optical identification for a radiosource imaged by the ATCA as well as many galaxies of a similar magnitude around the radiosource. This cluster has an estimated redshift of $`z0.4`$.

The candidates which have no identifications in the optical images are very likely to contain clusters associated with at least some of the radiosources. In the FIRST survey (1.4 GHz, $``$1mJy completeness) about $`10\%`$ of the sources are at a $`z>0.7`$ (Culverhouse priv. comm.). SUMSS, which is closely matched in frequency and completeness, should have a similar redshift distribution, and so the Poisson probability of five unrelated radiosources lying at different redshifts $`z>0.7`$ would be one in $`10^5`$.

## 5 IR imaging

Service observations have been made of 3 clusters in $`J`$ and $`K`$ using IRIS2 at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Further imaging in $`J`$ and $`K`$ was carried out using SofI in 2002 December on the New Technology Telescope in Chile, on the cluster candidates with no identifications from the 2.3-m. This allows redshift estimation for clusters where the $`4000`$-Å break lies between $`R`$ and $`J`$, or further to the red.

Preliminary results show the IR observations have been very succesful at detecting high-$`z`$ clusters. Fig. 3 shows a radiosource surrounded by $`J`$-band sources on the left which are not seen in the $`R`$-band image. This indicates the $`4000`$-Å break lies between $`R`$ and $`J`$ implying a redshift of $`z1`$.

## 6 Conclusions

Our results give further evidence to indicate that radiosources trace high-density regions at higher redshifts. Our method of searching for overdensities of radiosources as a tracer for clusters has been sucessful. We now have a sample of several tens of clusters and robust candidate distant clusters selected by this new technique. The clusters will form an ideal sample for future 8-m optical/IR and X-ray follow-up. 8-m spectroscopy will be essential to confirm the redshifts of the high-$`z`$ candidates. X-ray follow-up will allow the testing of the hypothesis that our technique is biased towards finding merging systems, by giving information about the morphology of the clusters. It may also provide new information on the interaction between radiosources and the cluster environment.


text:
# Introduction

## Introduction

The CDF experiment can look back to a successful $`B`$ physics program during the 1992-1996 Run I data taking period. The highlights of Run I $`B`$ physics results from CDF include the measurements of the lifetimes of all $`B`$ hadrons , several measurements of the $`B^0`$ flavour oscillation frequency $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_d`$ , the discovery of the $`B_c`$ meson  and first evidence that the $`CP`$ violation parameter $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$ is different from zero . Since 1996, the CDF detector has undergone a major upgrade  to allow operation at high luminosities and bunch spacings of up to 132 ns, as originally planned for Run II of the Tevatron. The upgraded CDF detector contains several completely new components that took years for successful completion.

Run II officially started in March 2001. Since then much work has gone into commissioning the CDF detector. With the beginning of 2002, the CDF detector is in stable running conditions operating with reliable physics triggers. We report about the first physics results obtained with the upgraded CDF detector from the analysis of the first Run II data collected until the summer of 2002.

## Start-up of Run II

### The Upgraded Tevatron Accelerator

The Fermilab accelerator complex has also undergone a major upgrade since the end of Run I. The centre-of-mass energy has been increased to 1.96 TeV. But most importantly, the Main Injector, a new 150 GeV proton storage ring, has replaced the Main Ring as injector of protons and anti-protons into the Tevatron. The Main Injector also provides higher proton intensity onto the anti-proton production target, allowing for more than an order of magnitude higher luminosities. An additional new storage ring, the Recycler, housed in the same tunnel as the Main Injector, will allow to reuse anti-protons at the end of each store. The design luminosity during the first phase of Run II (Run IIa) is 5-8$`10^{31}`$ cm-2s-1 for a final integrated luminosity of $`2`$ fb-1 by the end of Run IIa. The present bunch crossing time is 396 ns with a $`36\times 36`$ $`p\overline{p}`$ bunch operation.

Figure 1(a) shows the development of the initial Tevatron luminosity from late 2001 to late 2002. So far, the peak luminosity reached by the Tevatron is 3.7$`10^{31}`$ cm-2s-1 still below expectations. Figure 1(b) is a diagram of the integrated luminosities delivered and recorded by CDF. This graph also includes the amount of data recorded with information from CDF’s silicon vertex detector. The total integrated luminosity recorded by CDF in 2002 is about 100 pb-1 (equivalent to the Run I data set).

### CDF Detector Performance in Run II

The CDF detector improvements for Run II  were motivated by the shorter accelerator bunch spacing of up to 132 ns and the increase in luminosity by an order of magnitude. All front-end and trigger electronics has been significantly redesigned and replaced. A DAQ upgrade allows the operation of a pipelined trigger system. CDF’s tracking system was completely upgraded. It consists of a new Central Outer Tracker (COT) with 30,200 sense wires arranged in 96 layers combined into four axial and four stereo superlayers. It also provides d$`E`$/d$`x`$ information for particle identification. The Run II silicon vertex detector consists of seven double sided layers and one single sided layer mounted on the beampipe covering a total radial area from 1.5-28 cm. The silicon vertex detector covers the full Tevatron luminous region which has a RMS spread of about 30 cm along the beamline and allows for standalone silicon tracking up to a pseudo-rapidity $`|\eta |`$ of 2. The forward calorimeters have been replaced by a new scintillator tile based plug calorimeter which gives good electron identification up to $`|\eta |=2`$. The upgrades to the muon system almost double the central muon coverage and extent it up to $`|\eta |1.5`$.

The most important improvements for $`B`$ physics in Run II are a Silicon Vertex Trigger (SVT) and a Time-of-Flight (ToF) system with a resolution of about 100 ps. The later employs 216 three-meter-long scintillator bars located between the outer radius of the COT and the superconducting solenoid. The CDF II Time-of-Flight detector and its performance has been presented by S. Giagu  at this conference. As an example of the preliminary performance of the new Time-of-Flight system, Figure 2(a) shows the distribution of reconstructed mass versus momentum for positive and negative tracks showing clear separation of $`\pi `$, $`K`$ and $`p`$. The Time-of-Flight system will be most beneficiary for the identification of kaons with a 2 $`\sigma `$-separation between $`\pi `$ and $`K`$ for $`p<1.6`$ GeV$`/c`$. This will enable CDF to make use of opposite side kaon tagging and allows to identify same side fragmentation kaons accompanying $`B_\text{s}^0`$ mesons .

In Run I, all $`B`$ physics triggers at CDF were based on leptons including single and dilepton triggers. The newly implemented Silicon Vertex Trigger gives CDF access to purely hadronic $`B`$ decays and makes CDF’s $`B`$ physics program fully competitive with the one at the $`e^+e^{}`$ $`B`$ factories. The hadronic track trigger is the first of its kind operating successfully at a hadron collider. It works as follows: With a fast track trigger at Level 1, CDF finds track pairs in the COT with $`p_T>1.5`$ GeV$`/c`$. At Level 2, these tracks are linked into the silicon vertex detector and cuts on the track impact parameter (e.g. $`d>100`$ $`\mu `$m) are applied. The original motivation for CDF’s hadronic track trigger was to select the two tracks from the rare decay $`B^0\pi \pi `$. The Silicon Vertex Trigger was fully operational at the time of this conference. A detailed discussion of CDF’s Silicon Vertex Trigger and its initial performance has been presented by D. Lucchesi  at this conference. As an example of the performance of this trigger, we show the SVT track impact parameter distribution which behaves as expected. Figure 2(b) indicates a resolution of about 50 $`\mu `$m including a 33 $`\mu `$m contribution from the transverse beam spreading.

## First Run II Physics Results from CDF

At the time of this conference in June 2002, the performance of the CDF detector was already close to what has been achieved in the Run I data taking period and the new devices such as the hadronic track trigger were fully operational. As an example of the capabilities of the SVT two-track trigger, Figure 3(a) shows a $`K\pi `$ mass distribution displaying a $`D^0`$ signal of $`37,200\pm 200`$ events obtained in a small data sample of only 5.7 pb-1. The hadronic track trigger clearly collects large data samples from long-lived charm and beauty decays.

Where does this charm come from? Is it subsequent charm from $`B`$ decays or direct charm? Figure 3(b) shows the impact parameter $`d_0`$ of the reconstructed $`K\pi `$-pair. In the case of direct charm, the $`D^0`$ points back to the primary vertex resulting in $`d_00`$ while in the case of the $`D^0`$ originating from a $`BD^0`$ decay, the $`D^0`$ does not necessarily extrapolate to the primary interaction vertex resulting in $`d_00`$. As can be seen from Fig. 3(b), CDF collects large amounts of direct charm with the hadronic track trigger - a new physics opportunity which did not exist in Run I.

The physics results presented by CDF in the summer of 2002 were based on a data sample of 10-20 pb-1 and intended to demonstrate that the CDF detector is working and calibrated. They included, for example, first measurements of $`B`$ meson masses such as $`m(B^+)=(5280.6\pm 1.7\pm 1.1)`$ MeV$`/c^2`$, $`m(B^0)=(5279.8\pm 1.9\pm 1.4)`$ MeV$`/c^2`$ and $`m(B_\text{s}^0)=(5360.3\pm 3.8\pm _{2.9}^{2.1})`$ MeV$`/c^2`$, or the measurement of the mass difference $`m(D_\text{s}^+)m(D^+)=(99.41\pm 0.38\pm 0.21)`$ MeV$`/c^2`$ with comparable precision to the current world average $`D_\text{s}^+/D^+`$ mass difference . For this measurement, the common decay mode $`D_\text{s}^+/D^+\varphi \pi ^+`$ was used. Figure 4(a) show the $`KK\pi `$ invariant mass for the $`D_\text{s}^+/D^+`$ candidate events. Another example of CDF II physics results is the measurement of the inclusive $`B`$ lifetime using $`J/\psi \mu \mu `$ events demonstrating the good understanding of CDF’s new silicon vertex detector. The obtained result $`c\tau _b=(458\pm 10\pm 11)\mu `$m is in good agreement with other measurements . Figure 4(b) shows the decay length distribution from inclusive $`J/\psi `$ events with the result of the lifetime fit superimposed.

## Prospects for $`𝑩`$ Physics in Run II

The highlights of CDF’s expected $`B`$ physics program in Run IIa include the discovery of $`B_\text{s}^0`$ flavour oscillations, measurements of $`CP`$ violation in $`B`$ decays as well as searches for rare $`B`$ decays and measurements of $`B`$ production and spectroscopy such as $`B_c`$ physics. Originally a luminosity of 2 fb-1 was anticipated to be available in the first two years of Run II. Some of the prospects presented below are based on such a data sample.

### $`𝑩_\text{s}^\mathrm{𝟎}`$ Flavour Oscillations

$`B^0\overline{B}^0`$ and $`B_\text{s}^0\overline{B_\text{s}^0}`$ flavour oscillations measure the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements $`|V_{td}|/|V_{ts}|`$. The measurement of the $`B_\text{s}^0`$ oscillation frequency $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_\text{s}`$ is clearly one of the goals for CDF in Run IIa. Some of the detector upgrades play an important role in CDF’s prospects for measuring $`B_\text{s}^0`$ mixing. The inner layer of silicon mounted on the beampipe improves the time resolution for measuring the $`B_\text{s}^0`$ decay length to 0.045 ps. This will be important if $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_\text{s}`$ is unexpectedly large. The Time-of-Flight system will enhance the effectiveness of $`B`$ flavour tagging, especially through same side tagging with kaons and opposite side kaon tagging, to a total $`\epsilon 𝒟^211.3\%`$ . CDF expects a signal of about 75,000 fully reconstructed $`B_\text{s}^0D_\text{s}^+\pi ^{},D_\text{s}^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ events in 2 fb-1.

Figure 5(a) shows the expected sensitivity for a 5 $`\sigma `$-observation of $`B_\text{s}^0`$ mixing as a function of the mixing parameter $`x_\text{s}=\mathrm{\Delta }m_\text{s}/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ for various event yields. In Fig. 5(b), the integrated luminosity needed for a 5 $`\sigma `$-observation is plotted versus $`x_\text{s}`$ for different signal-to-background ratios assuming a sample size of 75k fully reconstructed $`B_\text{s}^0`$ decays. If the $`B_\text{s}^0`$ mixing frequency is around the current Standard Model (SM) expectation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_\text{s}20`$ ps-1 , Figure 5(b) indicates that CDF would only need a few hundred pb-1 to discover $`B_\text{s}^0`$ flavour oscillations. This assumes all detector components and triggers work as expected. There appear to be indications that the projected event yield might be overestimated. Given this and the small amount of data delivered by the Tevatron at the time of this conference (and even at the end of 2002), it will take some time until CDF can present first results on $`B_\text{s}^0`$ mixing. A measurement of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_\text{s}`$ will be the next crucial test of the SM probing whether the obtained result will fit to the current constraints on the CKM triangle which are all in beautiful agreement . It is noteworthy to mention that physics with $`B_\text{s}^0`$ mesons is unique to the Tevatron until the start of the LHC in 2007.

### $`𝑪𝑷`$ Violation

Several years ago, the most important decay modes for the study of $`CP`$ violation in the $`B`$ system were believed to be $`B^0J/\psi K_S^0`$ and $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$. The time dependence of $`CP`$ violation in the former mode measures $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$, while the decay $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ usually appears in the literature as a tool to determine $`\alpha =180^{}\beta \gamma `$. However, it has been shown that the so-called penguin pollution in $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ is sufficiently large to make the extraction of fundamental physics parameters from the measured $`CP`$ asymmetry rather difficult. An evaluation of measuring $`CP`$ violation in $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ does therefore require a strategy to distinguish penguin contributions from tree diagrams. A large number of strategies to disentangle both contributions is discussed in the literature . However, they generally require either very large data sets or involve hard to quantify theoretical uncertainties.

CDF evaluated a strategy of measuring the CKM angle $`\gamma `$ as suggested by Fleischer in Ref. . This method is particularly well matched to the capabilities of the Tevatron as it relates $`CP`$ violating observables in $`B_\text{s}^0K^+K^{}`$ and $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$. Both decays are related to each other by interchanging all down and strange quarks, i.e. through the so-called “U-spin” subgroup of the SU(3) flavour symmetry of strong interactions. The strategy proposed in Ref.  uses this symmetry to relate the ratio of hadronic matrix elements for penguins and trees, and thus uses $`B_\text{s}^0K^+K^{}`$ to correct for the penguin pollution in $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$.

With the hadronic track trigger, CDF expects to reconstruct at least 5000 $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ and 20,000 $`B^0K^\pm \pi ^{}`$ events in 2 fb-1 assuming a branching ratio of $`(B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{})=5\times 10^6`$. The question whether CDF will be able to extract these signals from potentially enormous backgrounds, has been studied. With respect to combinatorial background, a signal-to-background ratio not worse than $`S/B0.4`$ can be expected. Regarding physics backgrounds from $`BK\pi `$ and $`B_\text{s}^0KK`$ decays, a $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ signal can be extracted by exploiting the invariant $`\pi \pi `$ mass distribution as well as the d$`E`$/d$`x`$ information provided by CDF’s Central Outer Tracker. From this, CDF expects the $`B\pi \pi `$, $`K\pi `$, $`KK`$ and $`\pi K`$ yields to be measured with an uncertainty of only a few percent.

Measurements on the tagged samples determine the time dependent $`CP`$ asymmetry for $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ and $`B_\text{s}^0K^+K^{}`$ which is given by: $`𝒜_{CP}=𝒜_{CP}^{dir}\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }mt+𝒜_{CP}^{mix}\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Delta }mt`$. With the strategy suggested in Ref. , studies at CDF indicate that a measurement of the CKM angle $`\gamma `$ to better than $`10^{}`$ could be feasible with 2 fb-1 of data. The utility of these modes depends on how well the uncertainty from flavour $`SU(3)`$ breaking can be controlled. Data for these and other processes should tell us the range of such effects. The resulting Standard Model constraints could be quite stringent. CDF estimates of possible SU(3) breaking effects show that 20% SU(3) breaking leads to a systematic error of less than half the statistical precision given above. This encouraging result might allow CDF to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the CKM unitarity triangle within the first 2 fb-1 of Tevatron data in Run II.

### Rare $`𝑩`$ Decays

Rare $`B`$ decays provide detailed tests of the flavour structure of the Standard Model at the loop level, and as such provide a complementary probe of new physics to that of direct collider searches. As an example, we discuss the decay $`B^0K^0\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$. The Forward-Backward asymmetry $`A_{FB}`$ in this decay is defined as

$$A_{FB}=\frac{N(\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta }>0)N(\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta }<0)}{N(\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta }>0)+N(\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta }<0)}=\frac{N_FN_B}{N_F+N_B}$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the angle between the direction of the $`B^0`$ and the direction of the $`\mu ^+`$ in the rest frame of the $`\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ system. In general $`A_{FB}`$ depends on the decay kinematics. SM calculations predict the distribution of $`A_{FB}`$ as a function of the dimuon mass to cross the zero around $`\sqrt{s}=m_{\mu \mu }2`$ GeV$`/c^2`$ which is stable under various form-factor parameterizations. Figure 6(a) compares the $`A_{FB}`$ distributions predicted by the Standard Model with several SUSY models including SUGRA and MIA-SUSY. Some new physics models predict there to be no zero point in the $`A_{FB}`$ distribution.

CDF expects about 60 $`B^0K^0\mu \mu `$ event in Run IIa which will allow this decay to be seen at the Standard Model level. However, precision studies (particularly of the zero point in the Forward-Backward asymmetry) will require larger integrated luminosity.

### $`𝑩`$ Production and Spectroscopy

The discrepancy between the predicted and measured $`b`$ quark production cross section at the Tevatron is one of the largest disagreements between Standard Model theory and measurement. A better understand of $`b`$ quark production in $`p\overline{p}`$ collisions, especially in the high-$`p_T`$ region as well as $`b\overline{b}`$ production correlations is clearly desirable. CDF plans to investigate lepton-$`D^0`$ events to tag $`b`$-jets in Run II. Figure 6(b) shows the predicted cross section reach as of function of $`B`$ meson $`p_T`$ for $`BD^0eX`$ with a kinematic cut on the electron of $`E_T>`$ 8 GeV and $`p_T>`$ 7.5 GeV/$`c`$ assuming 2 fb-1 of luminosity. The statistical errors are predicted from Monte Carlo and scaled by a factor of two to include the effect of background.

## Conclusion

After a five year upgrade period, the CDF detector is back in operation taking high quality data in Run II with all subsystems functional including a new central tacking chamber and silicon vertex detector as well as a hadronic track trigger and a Time-of-Flight system. The understanding of the detector is advanced and first physics results have been presented. We also discussed the prospects for $`B`$ physics in Run II, in particular the measurements of $`B_\text{s}^0`$ flavour oscillations and $`CP`$ violation in $`B`$ decays. More detailed information about $`B`$ physics prospects at the Tevatron in Run II can be found in Ref. .


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# 𝑵-body simulations with two-orders-of-magnitude higher performance using wavelets

## 1 INTRODUCTION

$`N`$-body simulations of structure formation in the early Universe, of galaxies and plasmas are limited crucially by noise (e.g., Dawson 1983; Birdsall & Langdon 1991; Pfenniger 1993; Pfenniger & Friedli 1993; Splinter et al. 1998; Baertschiger & Sylos Labini 2002; Hamana, Yoshida & Suto 2002; Huber & Pfenniger 2002; Semelin & Combes 2002). The number of particles $`N`$ that can be used is several orders of magnitude smaller than the real number of bodies. This implies that fluctuations of physical quantities become drastically exaggerated, and that their contribution to the overall dynamics can even become dominant. One way to reduce noise in simulations is to soften the interaction at short distances. Softening can be optimized so as to suppress small-scale fluctuations while respecting the large-scale dynamical properties (Romeo 1994, 1997, 1998a, b; Dehnen 2001; see also Byrd 1995 and references therein). On the other hand, noise also manifests itself as large-scale fluctuations, and the only known way to reduce them is to increase $`N`$. This is very uneconomical because the computational cost scales at best linearly with $`N`$.

Wavelets are a new mathematical tool that has proved to be of great help for noise reduction in digital signal/image processing (see the beautiful presentation by Mackenzie et al. 2001; see also Bergh, Ekstedt & Lindberg 1999). The basic idea behind wavelets is that they provide a multi-resolution view of the signal. The signal is analysed first at the finest resolution consistent with the data, and then at coarser and coarser resolution levels. Doing so, wavelets probe the structure of the signal and the contributions from its various scales. This is fundamental for noise reduction, since noise is present on all scales in the signal. Using wavelets we can thus remove most of the noise without altering the inherent structure of the signal. And we can do this very quickly because the algorithm is even faster than the fast Fourier transform.

So why not use wavelets for reducing noise in simulations? This is indeed the goal of our paper. The idea behind such an application is to de-noise simulations at each timestep. The resulting improvement is of unprecedented level compared with classical techniques: wavelet de-noising makes the simulation equivalent to a simulation with two orders of magnitude more particles.

We provide convincing evidence that our wavelet method works so successfully by making a detailed prediction and carrying out three hard tests. The prediction is based on the improvement in signal-to-noise ratio for initial models of disc galaxies. The tests are devoted to probing the effects of both noise and wavelet de-noising on the simulations, with $`N`$ spanning two orders of magnitude. Specifically:

1. The first test concerns the fragmentation of a cool galactic disc, which is the onset of a gravitational instability (see, e.g., Binney & Tremaine 1987). We show that the time at which the disc fragments is artificially shortened in simulations with moderate $`N`$, whereas wavelet de-noising produces an output comparable to simulations with very large $`N`$, as predicted.
2. The second and third tests concern the heating and accretion following the fragmentation, respectively. These are fundamental processes in the dynamical evolution of disc galaxies, which is induced by gravitational instabilities via the outward transport of angular momentum and energy (see, e.g., Binney & Tremaine 1987). So these tests also have a clear physical motivation. Simulations with moderate $`N`$ show artificially enhanced heating and accretion, whereas wavelet de-noising produces an output consistent with the prediction.

Even though the prediction and the tests are specific to disc galaxies, our wavelet method is also expected to work successfully when applied to cosmological and plasma simulations. This is because the result depends mainly on the intrinsic properties of wavelets and on the type of noise in the simulation, as we explain incisively in the discussion.

The rest of our paper is organized as follows. The method is presented in Sect. 2, where we give an overview of wavelets and data de-noising using wavelets, and explain how to use them for de-noising $`N`$-body simulations. The prediction is made in Sect. 3, the three tests are carried out in Sect. 4, and further points are discussed in Sect. 5. Finally, the conclusion is drawn in Sect. 6.

## 2 METHOD

### 2.1 Wavelets

Wavelets are a new, very successful, tool for analysing signals, which has exciting applications in physics, apart from engineering and mathematics (see, e.g., Mallat 1998; Bergh et al. 1999). In general, real signals are nonstationary, cover a wide range of frequencies, contain transient components; and the characteristic frequencies of given segments of the signal are correlated with their time durations, in the sense that low/high frequencies imply long/short times. The standard Fourier analysis is inappropriate for such signals because it loses all information about the time localization of a given frequency component111For example, let us consider a musical composition and its Fourier transform. If we interchange various parts of the composition, its Fourier transform remains the same but the music becomes different or even unrecognizable., is very uneconomical and highly unstable with respect to perturbations. So real signals require a simultaneous time-frequency analysis222For example, a musical score is a time-frequency analysis of a musical composition..

In general, a linear time-frequency transform can be written as

$$s(t)S(a,b)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\psi _{ab}^{}(t)s(t)dt,$$
(1)
where $`s(t)`$ is the signal, $`S(a,b)`$ is the transformed signal at scale $`a`$ (frequency $`1/a`$) and position $`b`$, and $`\psi _{ab}(t)`$ is the analysing function. In the windowed Fourier transform,

$$\psi _{ab}(t)=\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}t/a}\psi (tb),$$
(2)
where the $`a`$-dependence is a modulation, the $`b`$-dependence is a translation, and hence the windows $`\psi _{ab}(t)`$ have the same width as the basic $`\psi (t)`$. Fig. 1 (left) shows that this transform has a fixed time-frequency resolution. In the wavelet transform,

$$\psi _{ab}(t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{a}}\psi \left(\frac{tb}{a}\right),$$
(3)
where the $`a`$-dependence is a dilation ($`a>1`$) or a contraction ($`a<1`$), the $`b`$-dependence is a translation, and hence the wavelets $`\psi _{ab}(t)`$ are self-similar to the basic $`\psi (t)`$. Fig. 1 (right) shows that such a transform has an adaptive time-frequency resolution, which is an important property in favour of its choice. The inverse wavelet transform is

$$S(a,b)s(t)=\frac{1}{c_\psi }_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}db_0^{\mathrm{}}\frac{\mathrm{d}a}{a^2}\psi _{ab}(t)S(a,b),$$
(4)
where $`c_\psi `$ is a normalization constant; and, under rather general assumptions, the admissibility condition for its existence is

$$_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\psi (t)dt=0,$$
(5)
i.e. wavelets have zero mean. A more general requirement is

$$_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}t^n\psi (t)dt=0(n=0,1,\mathrm{},N),$$
(6)
i.e. wavelets have a certain number $`N+1`$ of vanishing moments. This and other requirements for the choice of $`\psi (t)`$ are discussed in Sect. 2.2. Summarizing in other words, the continuous wavelet transform has the meaning of a local filtering, both in time and in scale, and is non-negligible only when the wavelet matches the signal.

The continuous wavelet transform can be extended to 2-D signals (images) by operating not only a scaling and a translation but also a rotation on the basic wavelet. And it can also be extended to signals defined on more general manifolds via group representation theory.

The wavelet transform can be discretized by setting $`a=2^j`$ and $`b=k2^j`$ ($`j,k`$ integers), but this condition alone does not guarantee that the set of wavelets is an orthogonal basis. Orthogonality is an important property because it means non-redundancy and thus fast algorithms, and besides it is a physically useful requirement (see Sect. 2.2). Orthogonal and bi-orthogonal wavelet bases can be constructed with a mathematical technique known as multi-resolution analysis. The resulting algorithm is the fast wavelet transform and its complexity is $`4MN_\mathrm{d}`$, where $`M`$ is the size of the wavelet and $`N_\mathrm{d}=2^J`$ ($`J`$ positive integer) is the size of the discrete signal. This algorithm is faster than the fast Fourier transform, whose complexity is $`2N_\mathrm{d}\mathrm{log}_2N_\mathrm{d}`$, and has a data storage of comparable efficiency. Fig. 2 shows how the fast wavelet transform acts on the signal. The signal is decomposed into two parts: an approximation and a detail. The approximation is produced by passing the signal through a low-pass filter and rejecting every other data point. Analogously, the detail is produced by high-pass filtering and down-sampling. The approximation is then itself decomposed into two parts: a coarser approximation and a coarser detail; and the decomposition is iterated. While the wavelet analysis consists of decomposing the signal by filtering and down-sampling, the wavelet synthesis consists of reconstructing the signal by up-sampling and filtering, and the resulting algorithm is the inverse fast wavelet transform.

The fast wavelet transform can be extended to images and $`n`$-D signals. The discussion basically follows the 1-D case, except that the signal is decomposed into $`2^n`$ parts: 1 approximation and $`2^n1`$ details, one for each axis and each diagonal; and so on.

### 2.2 Data de-noising using wavelets

Note that in this section ‘signal’, ‘time’ and ‘frequency’ also mean ‘image’, ‘space’ and ‘wavevector’, or higher-dimensional counterparts, respectively.

#### 2.2.1 Why do wavelets serve to filter noise so effectively?

The adaptive time-frequency resolution and the non-redundancy of the fast wavelet transform have an important practical application: given a noisy signal, the underlying regular part gets mostly concentrated into few large wavelet coefficients, whereas noise is mostly mapped into many small wavelet coefficients. This means that, if we identify a correct threshold, then we can set all the small coefficients to zero and get back a signal almost decontaminated from noise. This is the idea behind data de-noising and explains why wavelets serve to filter noise so effectively, independent of general properties of the data such as the number of dimensions or the presence of symmetries (see, e.g., Mallat 1998; Bergh et al. 1999).

#### 2.2.2 Handling two relevant types of noise

In the case of Gaussian white noise, a correct threshold can be identified rigorously if the wavelet basis is orthogonal. The threshold is proportional to the standard deviation of noise, which can be robustly estimated from the smallest-scale detail coefficients, and the proportionality factor depends on the size of the signal.

In the case of Poissonian noise, there is a method that produces good results. The method is to transform the Poissonian data $`Y_\mathrm{P}`$ into data $`Y_\mathrm{G}`$ with (additive) Gaussian white noise of standard deviation $`\sigma _\mathrm{G}=1`$:

$$Y_\mathrm{G}=2\sqrt{Y_\mathrm{P}+\frac{3}{8}}$$
(7)
(Anscombe 1948), which can then be de-noised as discussed above. Specifically, the Anscombe transformation has the property to help achieving additivity, normalization and variance stabilization (Stuart & Ord 1991). On the other hand, it has a tendency to fail locally where the data have small values or large variations (e.g., Kolaczyk 1997; Starck, Murtagh & Bijaoui 1998). Those features may give rise to negative values in the de-noised data, which can be set to zero. The Anscombe transformation also introduces a bias in the data (e.g., Kolaczyk 1997; Starck et al. 1998). The bias is additive and bounded, can be estimated analytically as

$$\mathrm{𝐵𝐼𝐴𝑆}\frac{1}{4}\left(1\frac{1}{N_\mathrm{d}}\right)\sigma _\mathrm{G}^2$$
(8)
(Stuart & Ord 1991) or computed numerically and removed from the de-noised data.

#### 2.2.3 How should we choose the wavelet?

In order to optimize data de-noising, we should choose a wavelet that satisfies the following requirements: (1) it has a small compact support and is symmetric, for a good time localization; (2) it has a large number of vanishing moments and is regular, for a good frequency localization; (3) it is orthogonal, for a correct threshold identification. On the other hand, orthogonal wavelets are not symmetric, with one uninteresting exception. The best alternative is to choose a symmetric bi-orthogonal wavelet that is also quasi-orthogonal. These rules select a few wavelets, from the more than a hundred commonly used. The final choice depends on the resolution required by the data.

### 2.3 De-noising of $`𝑵`$-body simulations using wavelets

#### 2.3.1 How does it work?

$`N`$-body simulations commonly use a grid for tabulating the particle density, and for computing the potential and the field (see, e.g., Hockney & Eastwood 1988). The number of particles $`n`$ in each cell shows fluctuations $`|\delta n|/nn^{1/2}`$ with respect to an average $`n`$. This means that the particle distribution is corrupted by noise that is basically Poissonian, whereas the noise induced in the potential and in the field is of a more complex nature. Using wavelets we can thus de-noise the particle distribution at each timestep and make the simulation equivalent to a simulation with many more particles. This is how it works.

#### 2.3.2 Which choices of the wavelet are appropriate?

A very appropriate choice for de-noising of $`N`$-body simulations is the wavelet ‘rbio 6.8’, described in the documentation of the Matlab Wavelet Toolbox (Misiti et al. 1997). This wavelet differs significantly from zero in an interval of approximately three mesh sizes, which is consistent with the effective spatial resolution of the simulations. In simulations dominated by small-scale structures, the wavelet ‘rbio 4.4’ may be a better choice.

## 3 PREDICTION

In order to make specific predictions, we focus on $`N`$-body simulations of disc galaxies, and adopt a widely used Cartesian code (Combes et al. 1990). We choose realistic theoretical models that represent a truncated Kuzmin disc of scale length $`a_\mathrm{d}=5`$ kpc and cut-off radius $`R_{\mathrm{cut}}=30`$ kpc for various $`N`$, $`N_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\mathrm{c}`$, where $`N`$ is the number of particles, $`N_\mathrm{c}`$ is the number of cells in the physical grid and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\mathrm{c}`$ is the cell size (see, e.g., Binney & Tremaine 1987). We then create noisy simulation models by generating random particle positions and tabulating $`n`$ at this initial time. We finally de-noise such models using the wavelet ‘rbio 6.8’. The amount of noise in the models is quantified by the signal-to-noise ratio

$$\mathrm{𝑆𝑁𝑅}=\left[\frac{{\displaystyle X_{ij}^2}}{{\displaystyle (Y_{ij}X_{ij})^2}}\right]^{1/2},$$
(9)
where $`X_{ij}`$ are the theoretical data and $`Y_{ij}`$ are either the noisy data or the wavelet de-noised data. In the de-noised data, $`\mathrm{𝑆𝑁𝑅}`$ means the inverse of an appropriately defined estimation error.

Fig. 3 illustrates wavelet de-noising in action in a high-resolution case (Fig. 3a) and in a low-resolution case (Fig. 3b). First of all, note that in the noisy simulation models $`\mathrm{𝑆𝑁𝑅}\sqrt{\overline{n}}`$ for a given grid size $`\sqrt{N_\mathrm{c}}\mathrm{\Delta }_\mathrm{c}`$, where $`\overline{n}=N/N_\mathrm{c}`$ is the average number of particles per cell. This is consistent with the fact that the noise is basically Poissonian. Then it follows that wavelet de-noising can improve the signal-to-noise ratio by one order of magnitude, as if the noisy model had two orders of magnitude more particles (cf. Fig. 3a). Even in noisy models with low signal-to-noise ratios the improvement is comparable (cf. Fig. 3b). The natural prediction is that the improvement shown for the initial models implies a comparable improvement in performance for the simulations.

## 4 TESTS

### 4.1 Fragmentation of a cool galactic disc

In order to test such a prediction, we explore a hard problem: the fragmentation of a cool galactic disc (e.g., Semelin & Combes 2000; Huber & Pfenniger 2001). A rotating disc with low velocity dispersion is gravitationally unstable and therefore sensitive to perturbations, which are amplified and break the initial axial symmetry of the system. The time that characterizes symmetry breaking clearly depends on the initial amplitude of the perturbations, for small perturbations need a long time to grow into an observable level. In particular, this is true for the fluctuations imposed by granular initial conditions. Thus the symmetry-breaking time is a clear diagnostic for quantifying the effect of noise on the simulation. Our initial models are as in Fig. 3b, with the following additional specifications (irrelevant in that context): disc mass $`M_\mathrm{d}=5\times 10^{10}`$ M, Plummer bulge-halo of comparable mass and scale length, Plummer softening with softening length $`s=0.25`$ kpc, Safronov-Toomre parameter $`Q=0.7`$ (see, e.g., Binney & Tremaine 1987). We vary $`N`$ so as to test in detail the improvements predicted by Fig. 3b, and by an analogous examination of the gravitational field of the disc (a factor of 18). We run the simulations for 250 Myr, a typical dynamical time.

Fig. 4 illustrates that in the wavelet de-noised simulation the symmetry-breaking time is even longer than in the best noisy simulation, which uses the largest number of particles allowed by computer memory. This is a strong piece of evidence that wavelet de-noising outperforms the predictions.

### 4.2 Heating following the fragmentation of a cool galactic disc

As an additional test, we investigate the heating following the fragmentation of a cool galactic disc. When spiral gravitational instabilities reach a sufficiently large amplitude, the velocity dispersion of the disc starts to increase by collective relaxation (e.g., Zhang 1998; Griv, Gedalin & Yuan 2002). The heat produced in a dynamical time is low if the initial amplitude of the instabilities is small. Therefore the increase of velocity dispersion is another diagnostic for quantifying the effect of noise on the simulation.

Fig. 5 illustrates that, on the whole, in the wavelet de-noised simulation the increase of velocity dispersion is smaller than in the noisy simulation with 42 times more particles. This is a further piece of evidence that wavelet de-noising outperforms the predictions.

### 4.3 Accretion following the fragmentation of a cool galactic disc

As a further test, we analyse the accretion following the fragmentation of a cool galactic disc. The amplification of spiral gravitational instabilities produces not only heating but also re-distribution of matter in the disc, which appears more evidently as accretion near the centre (e.g., Zhang 1998; Griv et al. 2002). The mass accreted in a dynamical time is low if the initial amplitude of the instabilities is small. So the peak of mass density is still another diagnostic for quantifying the effect of noise on the simulation.

Fig. 6 strengthens our result by confirming, once again, that wavelet de-noising outperforms the predictions.

## 5 DISCUSSION

Wavelet de-noising suppresses almost all the noise but introduces slight local biases, which have no significant effect on the conservation of angular momentum and energy. In fact, the deviations are less than 0.04% and 0.06% per dynamical time, respectively, and compare well with those typical of the code (Combes et al. 1990). The improvement in performance concerns not only the fidelity of simulations to real systems, shown in Figs 3–6 and discussed above, but also the standard computational issues (time, memory and storage). This improvement is by one/two orders of magnitude in the low/high-resolution case examined. Note in this context that an important, albeit non-classical, reason for increasing the number of particles is to improve the resolution. Optimal choices of $`N`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`s`$ are interdependent (e.g., Hernquist, Hut & Makino 1993; Dehnen 2001), and besides they strongly depend on the physical problem under investigation (Romeo 1998a; Dehnen 2001). Wavelet de-noising acts so as to increase the equivalent number of particles, therefore analogous considerations apply. Further points are discussed below.

### 5.1 Large vs. small spatial scales

The spatial scales on which noise is ‘significant’ depend upon what physical quantity is considered: the particle density, the potential, the field, or other quantities related to the dynamical effect of noise such as the relaxation time (in this case one often refers to the relative contribution of distant and close encounters; e.g., Dehnen 2001). In particular, the particle distribution is affected by noise that is basically Poissonian and white, and hence significant on all scales. As noted in Sect. 2.2 and adapted to the present context, wavelets succeed in suppressing this type of noise not only on small but also on *large* scales, *without* damping real instabilities. Indeed, this is what makes wavelets so successful in comparison with other methods of noise reduction (see the literature quoted).

### 5.2 3D vs. 2D, and initial (a)symmetry

The prediction and the tests shown in previous sections concern disc galaxies, whose simulation models are commonly flat and initially axisymmetric. Appropriate 3-D tests regarding this or other types of galaxies would demand an exceedingly large number of particles, $`N10^8\text{}10^9`$, in order to have a satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio in the basic simulation (an average of a few particles per cell) and in order to be able to run simulations with two orders of magnitude more particles. On the other hand, as noted in Sect. 2.2.1, the remarkable efficiency of wavelets in suppressing noise is an *intrinsic* property of such functions, which has been tested *extensively* in the literature. Because of that the initial symmetry is also irrelevant, apart from the fact that it breaks quickly. If any remark should be made, then note that axisymmetry is an unfavourable initial condition since the fast wavelet transform has privileged directions: the Cartesian axes and diagonals (see Sect. 2.1). Thus the result of our paper is also expected to hold in 3D, with or without initial symmetry.

### 5.3 Plasma and cosmological vs. galaxy simulations

Can our wavelet method be applied to plasma and cosmological simulations?

The case of plasma simulations is rather clear. Even if the initial models are non-noisy, Poissonian noise develops in few dynamical times (see, e.g., Dawson 1983; Birdsall & Langdon 1991). Wavelet de-noising can be applied from the start, since it prevents the onset of noise without affecting the quiet model.

The case of cosmological simulations is more complex but is also quite clear. The initial conditions consist of setting up a non-noisy uniform particle distribution, and of imposing small random fluctuations with Gaussian statistics and a given power spectrum (e.g., Efstathiou et al. 1985; Sylos Labini et al. 2002). Poissonian noise develops naturally, as a reaction of the system to the initial order and hence reduced entropy. The onset of Poissonian noise is especially quick in cold-dark-matter simulations, where structures form bottom-up and the first virialized systems contain a small number of particles (e.g., Binney & Knebe 2002). There is a natural way to apply our wavelet method to cold-dark-matter simulations. It is to de-noise them only over a range of scales that is adapted to the phase of clustering: from the cell size to the size of the structures that have formed latest. Analogous ideas can be implemented in the context of other cosmological models. In this way wavelet de-noising prevents the onset of Poissonian noise without affecting the imposed fluctuations, or the quiet background.

Thus our wavelet method can be applied not only to galaxy but also to cosmological and plasma simulations, with minor adaptions.

## 6 CONCLUSION

The conclusion of this paper is that wavelet de-noising allows us to improve the performance of $`N`$-body simulations up to two orders of magnitude. This result has been shown for simulations of disc galaxies, and can be generalized to other grid geometries and particle species than those used here. Besides, wavelet de-noising can be adapted for a variety of constraints (e.g., partial de-noising at given scales or at a pre-assigned level) and initial conditions (e.g., partially noisy or quiet starts), and thus have important applications also in cosmological and plasma simulations.

Our wavelet code will be described in a following paper, and will then be available on request.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It is a great pleasure to thank Gene Byrd, Françoise Combes, Stefan Goedecker and Daniel Pfenniger for strong encouragement, valuable suggestions and discussions. We are very grateful to John Black, Alan Pedlar and Gustaf Rydbeck for strong support. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Swedish Research Council and a grant by the ‘Solveig och Karl G Eliassons Minnesfond’.


text:
# Are we observing black hole spins in jetted Gamma-Ray Bursts?

## 1 GRB from maximally rotating black holes ?

The most popular models for the engine of long GRB attribute the energetics of the prompt emission ($`E10^{52}`$ erg) and of the afterglow, to the energy released by the accretion of a torus onto a rotating Black Hole (BH) (e.g. Woosley 1993, Vietri & Stella 1998, see Meszaros 2002 for a review).

Indeed relativistic numerical simulations and analytical calculations support the view that the collapse of a rotating massive star can lead \- under rather general assumptions - to the formation of a black hole and a disc containing about 10 per cent of the mass (Shibata & Shapiro 2002, Shapiro & Shibata 2002).

If the event is catastrophic and not repetitive, the accretion of the whole of the torus should leave as a final result a BH with mass $`M`$ and angular momentum $`J`$, depending on the mass and angular momentum of the progenitor star.

From general principles (e.g. the no-hair theorem (Misner, Thorne, Wheeler 1973), the ejecta giving raise to the GRB and afterglow events can be only related to these quantities, $`M`$ and $`J`$, that characterize the BH.

Within this scenario we then notice that the BH spin is expected to be directly related to the collimation angle $`\theta _{\mathrm{j}et}`$ of the relativistic fireball responsible for the GRB emission and vice versa estimated values of $`\theta _{\mathrm{j}et}`$ can be translated into a value of the BH spin $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{j}et}`$. In particular the results presented by Berger, Kulkarni & Frail (2003) correspond to a distribution which suggests that GRB could be produced by almost maximally rotating BH (see Figure 1).

## 2 Conclusions

Under the general assumption that the energy released in GRB originates from a torus accreting onto a rotating BH, we note the collimation angles of the ejecta reflect the distribution of the BH spin. The reported values (e.g. Berger, Kulkarni & Frail 2003) suggest a maximally rotating BH.