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# The Evolution of Mass Loaded Supernova Remnants. II. Temperature Dependent Mass Injection Rates

## 1 Introduction

The evolution and properties of supernova remnants are fundamental to many areas of astrophysical research. Self-similar solutions for various stages of the evolution have been obtained for various assumptions, as have unified solutions which link these together (see Cioffi, McKee & Bertschinger CMB1988 (1988); Truelove & McKee TM1999 (1999)). The self-similar and unified solutions are complemented by a wide range of numerical investigations. Amongst the problems examined numerically are explosions in plane-stratified media (e.g. Falle & Garlick FG1982 (1982); Arthur & Falle AF1991 (1991), AF1993 (1993)), the evolution of SNRs inside pre-existing wind-driven cavities (Franco et al. FTBR1991 (1991)), the influence of hydrodynamic instabilities (e.g. Chevalier & Blondin CB1995 (1995)), and applications to the broad emission line regions in active galactic nuclei (e.g. Terlevich et al. TTFM1992 (1992); Pittard et al. PDFH2001 (2001)).

In most investigations of supernova remnant evolution, the surrounding medium has been assumed to have a smooth density distribution. However, the interstellar medium is known to be multi-phase (e.g. McKee & Ostriker MO1977 (1977)), and there is clear observational evidence of engulfed clouds within the supernova remnant N63A (Chu et al. C1999 (1999); Warren et al. WHS2002 (2002)). As it is widely known, the injection of mass from such cool clouds into the interior of a supernova remnant will affect its behaviour and structure.

If the clouds are assumed to be continuously distributed, similarity solutions describing the evolution of adiabatic mass loaded supernova remnants can be derived for a specific functional dependence of the mass injection. Previous work has focussed on cases in which one mass injection process is dominant over others. McKee & Ostriker (MO1977 (1977)), Chièze & Lazareff (CL1981 (1981)), and White & Long (WL1991 (1991)) each investigated the evolution under the assumption that cloud destruction is due to conductive evaporation. Alternatively, Dyson & Hartquist (DH1987 (1987)) treated hydrodynamic ablation as the dominant process.

A small number of papers based on numerical simulations of mass loaded supernova remnants also exist in the literature. Cowie, McKee & Ostriker (CMO1981 (1981)) included the dynamics of the clouds and found that warm clouds are swept towards the shock front and are rapidly destroyed, while cold clouds are more evenly distributed and have longer lifetimes. When energy losses become important, this behaviour leads to the highest densities in the remnant occuring over the outer half radius. In contrast, when there is no mass loading, a thin dense shell forms at the forward shock. Arthur & Henney (AH1996 (1996)) studied the effects of mass loading by hydrodynamic ablation on supernova remnants evolving inside cavities evacuated by the stellar winds of the progenitor stars. They showed that the extra mass injected by embedded clumps was capable of producing the excess soft X-ray emission seen in some bubbles in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

The range of a supernova remnant is relevant to a number of important areas of astronomy. It can affect the efficiency of sequential star formation and the global dynamics and structures of starburst superwinds where many remnants overlap. The superwind in the starburst galaxy M82 must be mass loaded to account for the observed X-ray emission (Suchkov et al. S1996 (1996)). Since the range and radiative energy losses of a remnant are affected by mass loading, it is therefore desirable to have approximations which describe remnant evolution and range in clumpy media.

Analogous approximations already exist for smooth media (cf. Truelove & McKee TM1999 (1999) and references therein). In a recent paper (Dyson, Arthur & Hartquist DAH2002 (2002), hereafter Paper I), the first steps towards this goal were taken with the derivation of range approximations for cases in which mass injection occurs at a constant rate, $`q`$, or at a rate which depends on the flow Mach number relative to the clump (Hartquist et al. HDPS1986 (1986)). A mass loading rate of $`qM^{4/3}`$ was used for subsonic flow, where $`M`$ is the Mach number of the flow. A constant mass loading rate $`q`$ was used where the flow is supersonic. This prescription simulates mass stripping from the clump by hydrodynamic ablation.

In this companion paper we consider mass injection from clouds into the hot remnant interior by conductive evaporation (cf. Cowie & McKee CM1977 (1977); McKee & Cowie MC1977 (1977)). This process is potentially important in any astrophysical system where a hot tenuous phase coexists with a colder denser phase (see McKee & Cowie MC1977 (1977) for some examples), though it can be suppressed by magnetic fields. In many systems (including supernova remnants) the hot phase flows past the clouds, and they will be subject also to ablation. Unfortunately, we currently lack even basic models of this combined interaction, so it is difficult to know whether one process dominates the other, or if one process limits the other. For example, one could imagine a scenario whereby ablation drives the initial mass loss, increasing the effective surface area of the cloud (e.g. by forming a tail), at which point conduction takes over and leads to efficient mixing. In evolving objects such as supernova remnants, one process may dominate at early evolutionary stages, while the other dominates at later stages. Given these potential complications and our lack of knowledge about them, as a first approach we treat each process individually.

The outline of our paper is as follows. In Sec. 2 we outline our assumptions and our numerical code; in Sec. 3 we present some of our results; in Sec. 4 we present simple approximations to these results; and in Sec. 5 we summarize and conclude.

## 2 The Calculations

As initial conditions, we take freely-expanding cold ejecta at constant density (typically $`10^4`$ times the ambient density, $`n_0`$), and with a linear velocity profile. The maximum ejecta speed is $`4000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, which together with the radius of the ejecta defines the initial time. We performed extensive tests with different density ratios to confirm that our chosen ratio is large enough not to influence the resulting evolution. The calculations were performed using an adaptive grid hydrodynamic code (see e.g. Falle & Komissarov FK1996 (1996, 1998)), and we have further verified that the resolution employed is high enough to give robust results for the global quantities considered in this paper.

All calculations were performed in spherical symmetry, with an ejecta mass of $`10\mathrm{M}_{}`$ and a kinetic energy of $`10^{51}`$ ergs (the effect of different progenitor masses and explosion energies is commented on in Sec. 5). The assumption that the energy is entirely kinetic for the initial conditions is somewhat different to that in Paper I, but it does not affect the resulting evolution (see also Gull G1973 (1973) and Cowie et al. CMO1981 (1981)). We modelled the intercloud ambient medium as a warm plasma of temperature $`10^4`$ K. Cooling appropriate for an optically thin plasma of solar composition and in collisional ionization equilibrium was included. We assumed that cooling below $`10^4`$ K is balanced by photoionization heating from the diffuse field and for that reason impose a temperature floor of $`10^4`$ K. For simplicity we did not include magnetic fields or shock precursors, and also did not consider conduction between the hot remnant interior and cold neighbouring gas.

The rate of mass evaporation from embedded clouds is dependent on many factors (cf. Cowie & McKee CM1977 (1977)), including the temperature of the hot phase, the cloud radius, and the presence of magnetic fields. However, motions of the clouds are generally not large enough to change the evaporation rates, and Cowie & Songalia (CS1977 (1977)) noted that nonspherical clouds may be treated in an approximate way by adopting half the largest dimension as the radius of the cloud. The evaporative mass-loss rate from a single cloud (Cowie & McKee CM1977 (1977)) is

$$\dot{m}=4\pi a^2nT^{1/2}(k\mu m_\mathrm{H})^{1/2}\varphi F(\sigma _0),$$
(1)
where $`a`$ is the cloud radius, $`n`$ and $`T`$ are the density and temperature of the surrounding hot phase (i.e. the interior of the remnant), $`\mu m_\mathrm{H}`$ is the mean mass per particle, and $`\varphi `$ is an efficiency factor which encapsulates the magnetic field strength, its configuration, the cloud geometry, etc. ($`\varphi =0`$ corresponds to no evaporation, $`\varphi 1`$ to evaporation in the absence of magnetic fields - e.g. $`\varphi =1.1`$ for a plasma with equal electron and ion temperatures and cosmic abundances). $`F(\sigma _0)`$ is a function defined in Eqs. 61 and 62 of Cowie & McKee (CM1977 (1977)). In the classical limit, $`F(\sigma _0)=2\sigma _0`$, where the saturation parameter, $`\sigma _0`$, is defined as

$$\sigma _0=\left(\frac{T}{1.54\times 10^7}\right)^2\frac{1}{na_{\mathrm{pc}}\varphi }.$$
(2)
Here $`a_{\mathrm{pc}}=a/(1\mathrm{pc})`$ is the radius of the cloud in parsecs. The onset of saturation occurs when $`\sigma _0`$ is of order unity, varying between 1.95 ($`\varphi 1`$) and 1.08 ($`\varphi =1`$) for the examples given in Cowie & McKee (CM1977 (1977)). In the classical limit, $`\dot{m}T^{5/2}`$ since $`F(\sigma _0)\sigma _0`$ (cf. Fig. 4 in Cowie & McKee CM1977 (1977)). If saturated, $`F(\sigma _0)\sigma _0^\beta `$, where $`\beta =(1+M_\mathrm{s}^2)/(6+M_\mathrm{s}^2)`$, and $`M_\mathrm{s}`$ (the Mach number of the saturated zone) is related to $`\varphi `$ by

$$M_\mathrm{s}(1+\frac{1}{5}M_\mathrm{s}^2)=2\varphi .$$
(3)
Since $`\varphi `$ is unlikely to exceed unity by a substantial amount, and has a lower limit of zero, the likely range of $`\beta `$ is $`1/6\beta 3/8`$. Hence in the saturated limit $`\dot{m}T^\alpha `$ where $`5/6\alpha 5/4`$.

Since the onset of saturation is dependent on the radius of the cloud for a specified hot phase, larger clouds will tend to evaporate in the classical limit, while the evaporation of mass from smaller clouds will tend towards saturation. As the temperature and density of the remnant interior evolves, the radius of clouds which are just at the onset of saturation will also change. Moreover, we expect the distribution of clouds to evolve with time, as the timescale for the smaller clouds to completely evaporate is shorter than the equivalent timescale for larger clouds and in many cases the evolutionary timescale of the remnant. Further, we may expect some differences in the physical make-up of clouds of differing radii (e.g. the distribution of cloud mass in the cold core and its warmer skin - cf. McKee & Ostriker MO1977 (1977)). Finally, a full treatment also requires specifying the number of clouds per unit volume, which is likely to be dependent on the local environment (e.g. the cloud spectrum inside a starburst superwind is likely to be somewhat different to that in our local ISM). McKee & Ostriker (MO1977 (1977)) argued that mass loading in the Galactic ISM would be dominated by the smaller clouds.

Addressing all of these issues is beyond the scope of the present paper, so we choose instead the following simplification. We assume that we can specify a temperature for the onset of saturation, $`T_{\mathrm{sat}}`$, which is an average over both the cloud distribution and time. We adopt $`T_{\mathrm{sat}}=10^7`$ K for all of our calculations. Given the uncertainties introduced by this assumption (and those in the original work of Cowie & McKee CM1977 (1977)) it seems unrealistic to specify a complicated dependence for the mass evaporation rate per unit volume above $`T=T_{\mathrm{sat}}`$, and we therefore assume that it is independent of $`T`$. Tests with other values of $`T_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ have shown that our results only become sensitive to the value of $`T_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ when $`T_{\mathrm{sat}}<10^7\sqrt{n_0}\mathrm{K}`$ ($`n_0`$ ($`\mathrm{cm}^3`$) is the intercloud ambient number density). Hence our results with $`n_01\mathrm{cm}^3`$ are robust (since a lower value of $`T_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ implies that most of the mass loading is from a population of tiny clouds ($`a_{\mathrm{pc}}<0.42/\varphi `$) whereas the smallest cloud radii in models of the ISM by McKee & Ostriker (MO1977 (1977)) are $`0.38`$ pc). On the other hand, for $`n_0>1\mathrm{cm}^3`$, our results are dependent on our chosen value of $`T_{\mathrm{sat}}`$. However, as $`T_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ will depend on details such as clump lifetimes and number distributions, which are problem specific parameters, we simply note that our results begin to suffer from loss of generality in this regime.

Our final assumptions are: i) that the intercloud spacing is small compared to the scale over which the properties of the remnant varies (so that a continuous mass source term can be used), ii) that injection takes place at zero velocity relative to the global flow, and iii) that the injected gas has zero internal energy. The full set of gas dynamic equations is then

$$\frac{\rho }{t}+\frac{1}{r^2}\frac{}{r}r^2\rho u=q,$$
(4)
$$\frac{\rho u}{t}+\frac{1}{r^2}\frac{}{r}r^2(p+\rho u^2)=\frac{2p}{r},$$
(5)
$$\frac{e}{t}+\frac{1}{r^2}\frac{}{r}\left[r^2u(e+p)\right]=L,$$
(6)
where the symbols $`\rho `$, $`u`$, and $`p`$ have their usual meanings, $`e=p/(\gamma 1)+0.5\rho u^2`$ is the total energy, and $`L`$ is the radiative cooling term. $`q`$ is the mass loading rate per unit volume and time.

As in Paper I, we define a fiducial mass loading rate

$$q_0=\frac{6\rho _0}{5t_{\mathrm{sf}}},$$
(7)
which gives the mass flux through the blast wave divided by the remnant volume at the onset of thin shell formation for Sedov expansion. Here, $`\rho _0`$ is the intercloud ambient density and $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}`$ is the timescale for thin shell formation for a remnant propagating into a uniform ambient medium given by Franco et al. (FMATT1994 (1994)),

$$t_{\mathrm{sf}}=2.87\times 10^4E_{51}^{3/14}n_0^{4/7}\mathrm{yrs},$$
(8)
where $`10^{51}E_{51}`$ is the explosion energy. In these units, $`q_0=1.32\times 10^{36}E_{51}^{3/14}n_0^{11/7}`$ (with mean mass per particle, $`\mu =0.6`$).

Following the above discussion, we define the mass loading rate due to conduction as

$`q=`$ $`316f^{}q_0`$ $`(T>10^7\mathrm{K}),`$
$`q=`$ $`f^{}q_0(T/T_6)^{5/2}`$ $`(10^5\mathrm{K}<T<10^7\mathrm{K}),`$
$`q=`$ $`0`$ $`(T<10^5\mathrm{K}),`$ (9)
where $`T_6=10^6`$ K (e.g. Cowie et al. CMO1981 (1981)). Thin shell formation occurs when the temperature immediately behind the leading shock is about $`10^6`$ K. At low temperatures, mass loading is so weak that the precise temperature cutoff is unimportant. Defining $`f^{}`$ as we have in Eq. 2 ensures that mass loading starts to influence the dynamics and evolution of the remnant if $`f^{}1`$. To be more specific, low values of $`f^{}`$ mean that mass loading will not dominate in the remnant before the time of onset of thin shell formation, while $`f^{}>1`$ indicates that the evaporated mass becomes important in the remnant before $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}`$ is reached. Readers who refer to Paper I will note that in that paper we defined a parameter $`f`$ which is somewhat analogous to $`f^{}`$. In an ablatively mass loaded remnant the ablated mass is comparable to the swept-up mass at time $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}`$ if $`f1`$. However, under the assumptions we have made, in very young remnants in which the temperature is everywhere above $`10^7`$ K, $`f316f^{}`$ for the mass loading rate in an ablatively loaded remnant to be comparable to that in a conductively loaded remnant for which $`E_0`$ and $`n_0`$ are the same.

$`f^{}`$ is physically related to the number density of clouds and the rate at which mass is evaporated from these. However, from Eq. 13 of Cowie et al. (CMO1981 (1981)), and since $`q_0E_{51}^{3/14}n_0^{11/7}`$, we find that

$$f^{}\varphi a_{\mathrm{pc}}N_\mathrm{c}E_{51}^{3/14}n_0^{11/7},$$
(10)
where $`N_\mathrm{c}`$ is the number density of clouds. Thus we might expect real remnants to be better described by small $`f^{}`$ when they evolve in environments with high ambient densities, and larger $`f^{}`$ when they evolve in environments with low ambient densities. We note that if the distribution of clouds evolve with time, $`f^{}`$ itself may evolve with time, though such an effect is not investigated in the models presented in this paper.

We note here, that differences exist between this work and Paper I. In the calculations presented here, mass loading is permitted throughout the remnant, including the ejecta material, whereas in Paper I it is switched off in the ejecta. This causes differences when most of the mass loading occurs before the remnant has swept up much intercloud mass (i.e. when $`f^{}`$ and $`n_0`$ are large). A further difference is the assumed temperature of the ambient gas. In Paper I, a temperature of 100 K was used, whereas here we use $`10^4`$ K. This will have negligible consequences until near the merger of the remnant with the surrounding gas. We note that in the specific case of superwind generation, merger may take place with gas at even higher temperatures.

We have computed models with $`f^{}=0,0.316,3.16,31.6,316`$, and ambient densities $`n_0=0.01,0.1,1,10,100\mathrm{cm}^3`$. Although there is an indication that high values of $`f^{}`$ will be favoured when remnants evolve in surroundings with low ambient densities, $`f^{}`$ also scales with the number density of clouds, and thus could be completely independent of the density of the intercloud medium. Hence we explored ($`f^{},n_0`$) parameter space.

The remnants are evolved until the blast front degenerates into an acoustic wave. We adopted the same definitions for the ends of the free expansion and Quasi-Sedov-Taylor phases as given in Paper I. These are respectively when the internal energy reaches 60% of the initial energy (FE) and when 50% of the initial energy has been radiated (QST). For $`f^{}<3.16`$, the mass loading dominates in the remnant at times before the onset of thin shell formation, $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}`$, though is always decreasing in importance at this point (i.e. the ratio of loaded mass to swept-up mass is falling). For $`f^{}>3.16`$ the mass loading also remains dominant at the time of the end of the QST stage, $`t_{\mathrm{QST}}`$. Finally, as in Paper I, we note the caveat that we are considering a purely general case and that, in practice, $`f^{}`$ is determined by the actual physical situation being studied. We therefore ignore details such as clump lifetimes and spatial distributions, which only introduce additional, problem specific, parameters.

## 3 Results

We note that all of the results presented in this paper and Paper I are for a particular set of explosion parameters, namely the canonical values $`E=10^{51}\mathrm{erg}`$ and $`M=10\mathrm{M}_{}`$. Where results for hydrodynamic ablation or constant mass loading are presented these have been calculated with the same code as used in the conductive mass loading cases but for the mass loading prescription given in Paper I.

### 3.1 Remnant Expansion Speeds and Ranges

In Fig. 1 we show the remnant expansion speed and radius as functions of time for calculations with zero mass loading ($`f^{}=0`$), substantial mass loading ($`f^{}=3.16`$), and high mass loading ($`f^{}=31.6`$), and for ambient densities of $`n_0=0.01\mathrm{cm}^3`$ and $`n_0=100\mathrm{cm}^3`$. Mass loading causes a reduction in expansion velocity and range at intermediate ages, but there is convergence in speeds and ranges at later times, regardless of the value of $`f^{}`$ or the ambient density. This is in contrast to remnants which mass load through ablation (Paper I) where the reductions in expansion speed and remnant range persist right through to the point of merger with the ambient medium.

This dynamical behaviour can be understood as follows. At early times, the highest temperatures are in the shocked ISM material so mass loading is highest there. By conservation of momentum, the addition of mass to this gas reduces its velocity and also has the effect of increasing the pressure (by conservation of energy). This causes the shocked material to brake harder and leads to an overall reduction in the expansion velocity of the remnant. Once the ejecta have completely thermalized, the highest temperatures are in the shocked ejecta material and most of the mass is added here, increasing the density and pressure in this gas. At this stage the rate of decrease of the expansion velocity is less in the conductively mass loaded remnants than in the zero mass loading case because of the higher pressure in the remnant interior. As the blast wave decelerates, the postshock temperatures and hence the conductive mass loading rates decrease, so during this stage the swept-up mass becomes more important. Eventually, the swept-up mass dominates the dynamics in the postshock region and the remnant evolution tends towards the zero mass loading case.

### 3.2 Mass Loading History

Fig. 2 shows the ratio of injected to swept-up mass as a function of time for various values of $`f^{}`$ and ambient densities $`n_0`$. The top panels show the evolution when mass is injected through hydrodynamic ablation, while the bottom panels show the results obtained when mass injection occurs by conductive evaporation. It is immediately obvious from this figure that these mass loading prescriptions yield vastly different behaviour.

When mass loading occurs through ablation, the injected mass becomes increasingly dominant over the swept up mass as time progresses. The limit of the ablative mass loading is a constant mass loading rate $`q`$ (corresponding to supersonic flow throughout the remnant), so that the injected mass increases as $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{load}}4\pi R(t)^3q/3`$, whereas the rate of increase of the swept-up mass is $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{swept}}=4\pi R(t)^2\rho _0dR(t)/dt`$, so that

$$\frac{\dot{M}_{\mathrm{load}}}{\dot{M}_{\mathrm{swept}}}\frac{R(t)q}{\dot{R}(t)\rho _0}f^{}t/t_{\mathrm{sf}},$$
(11)
where we have used Eq. 7 and approximated the remnant expansion speed as $`\dot{R}(t)R(t)/t`$. Hence, as the ratio of the rates increases approximately linearly with time, we expect that the ratio of the injected to swept-up mass will also increase approximately linearly with time. This is indeed the behaviour that we see in Fig. 2 (a,b). Furthermore, for a given $`f^{}`$, we expect that the ratio of the loaded mass ($`M_{\mathrm{load}}`$) to the swept-up mass ($`M_{\mathrm{swept}}`$) as a function of time (in units of $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}`$) will be independent of $`n_0`$, as is indeed seen (Fig. 2 (b)). With reference to Eq. 10, however, “mathematical” independence of $`n_0`$ (at constant $`f^{}`$) does not imply “physical” independence (i.e. keeping constant the other physically meaningful parameters, like $`\varphi `$, $`a_{\mathrm{pc}}`$, $`N_\mathrm{c}`$, $`E_{51}`$).

When mass loading occurs via conductively-driven evaporation, on the other hand, the behaviour of $`M_{\mathrm{load}}/M_{\mathrm{swept}}`$ as a function of $`t`$ is quite different (cf. Fig. 2 a,c). Although the injected mass exceeds the swept-up mass at intermediate times, as the remnant ages the rate of mass loading becomes negligible, and the swept-up mass gradually dominates. In Fig. 2 (c,d), the swept-up mass is, in all cases, greater than the injected mass at the point when the remnant merges with the ambient medium.

This qualitative difference in the time-dependent behaviour of the mass loading between the conductively driven evaporation and ablation cases accounts for the differences in the evolutionary behaviour displayed in Fig. 1 of this paper and the evolution of the remnants discussed in Paper I. For the conductive case, the mass loading is extinguished at relatively early times and hence does not have much effect over the later stages of the remnant evolution. Once mass loading is “switched off” the ratio $`M_{\mathrm{load}}/M_{\mathrm{swept}}`$ depends solely on $`M_{\mathrm{swept}}`$ and thus is not independent of $`n_0`$.

### 3.3 Mass and Energy Fractions

Fig. 3 shows the time variation of the mass and energy fractions for $`n_0=0.01\mathrm{cm}^3`$ and $`f^{}=0`$, 3.16 and 31.6. Although our initial conditions specify the remnant energy as being entirely kinetic at early times, a significant fraction is quickly thermalized.

Values of $`f^{}=3.16`$ and 31.6 correspond to $`f`$ values of $`10^4`$ and $`10^5`$, respectively. These are much higher than the $`f`$ values discussed in Paper I. The reason for this choice is to approximately match the loaded to swept-up mass ratio in the two different mass loading scenarios at the onset of thin-shell formation, $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}`$, i.e., $`M_{\mathrm{load}}/M_{\mathrm{swept}}4`$ in both cases. Since conductive evaporation is saturated only at early times in the remnant evolution (cf. Fig. 3c and e) and becomes negligible once average temperatures fall below $`10^6`$ K, while hydrodynamic ablation becomes more important as the remnant’s volume increases, obviously far higher values of $`f`$ are necessary in the conductive evaporation case to give $`M_{\mathrm{load}}/M_{\mathrm{swept}}4`$ at $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}`$.

With $`f^{}=0`$ (no mass loading) the thermal energy fraction peaks at approximately 0.72 i.e. the value for a Sedov-Taylor remnant expanding into a uniform medium (cf. Fig. 3b). Once the age of the remnant is comparable to $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}`$, the remnant begins to radiate its thermal energy, and the thermal energy fraction falls as the kinetic energy fraction rises. Mass injection speeds up these processes, and the thermal energy fraction first overshoots (see § 3.1), then undershoots the Sedov-Taylor value (Figs 3d,f). The decrease in the thermal energy fraction occurs not long after the end of the FE stage. This is long before radiative losses become significant, and the remnants are at this stage cooling by adiabatic expansion, such that thermal energy is converted into kinetic energy. This is despite the countering effect of mass loading, which at any given time tends to increase the thermal energy fraction relative to the kinetic energy fraction. However, we note that the thermal energy fraction begins to decline when the mass fraction of evaporated material starts to drop off and thus is simply a manifestation of the fact that mass loading is ceasing to be an important process in these remnants long before the onset of radiative cooling. In contrast, for the ablation cases discussed in Paper I, it was found that since mass loading becomes more important for the remnant as time goes on, the thermal energy fraction continues to increase right up until the end of the QST stage.

At very late times the energy in a SNR with mass loading due to conductive evaporation is predominantly kinetic, whereas in Paper I it was found that in the final stages of a SNR with mass loading due to ablation the continued mass loading ensures that thermal energy dominates.

### 3.4 Evolution of Physical Quantities

In Fig. 4 we show the density, pressure, temperature, and velocity distributions at specific times just before and after the predicted onset of thin-shell formation for models with $`n_0=0.01`$ and $`f^{}=0`$ and $`f^{}=3.16`$. The “structure” at small radii (where the ejected mass is) seen in the density and temperature plots is a consequence of the initial conditions and imposed spherical symmetry (which requires a reflection condition at $`r=0`$) but does not significantly affect global properties (see e.g. Cioffi et al. CMB1988 (1988)).

For $`f^{}=0`$ the distributions of density etc. in the external part of the remnant (where the swept up mass is) correspond to the standard Sedov-Taylor solution (although, as in Cioffi et al. CMB1988 (1988), at high ambient densities the remnant becomes radiative before fully entering this phase). The thin-shell formation time, $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}`$, for this ambient density is $`4\times 10^5`$ yr (from Eq. 8). Inspection of Fig. 4 (in particular, the pressure, which drops markedly in the region where strong radiative cooling starts) shows that our simulations are consistent with this value.

The addition of mass through the conductively driven evaporation of embedded clouds significantly alters the properties of the remnant, most obviously causing the interior density of the remnant to increase with respect to the no mass loading case. At early times, mass loading occurs mainly in the centre of the remnant (in the shocked ejecta region). Once temperatures here fall below $`10^6`$ K (due to adiabatic expansion), mass loading occurs mainly in the region of hot post-shock gas behind the blast wave, creating a “thick-shell” morphology (cf. Fig. 4b), resembling that of Cowie et al. (CMO1981 (1981)) and Dyson & Hartquist (DH1987 (1987)).

### 3.5 Volume-Averaged Mass Loading Properties

In Fig. 5 (a) we show the remnant-averaged mass-injection rate (rate of mass evaporation divided by the volume of the remnant) as a function of time. At early times, the entire remnant is above $`T=10^7`$ K, hence conductive evaporation is saturated and the remnant-averaged mass loading rate is approximately constant as the remnant expands (the small rise is caused by the increasing fractional volume of the hot shocked gas in the remnant). Once the average remnant temperature drops below $`10^7\mathrm{K}`$ the mass evaporation rate is no longer saturated and $`\dot{\rho }`$, the rate of mass evaporation per unit volume, varies with time as $`\dot{\rho }t^2`$. This matches the behaviour found by Chièze & Lazareff (CL1981 (1981)), who adopt $`\dot{\rho }T^{5/2}`$, for heavily mass loaded remnants. This is a steeper dependence than the $`\dot{\rho }t^1`$ dependence found by White & Long (WL1991 (1991)), which is a consequence of their particular description for mass loading ($`\dot{\rho }T^{5/6}`$).

From Fig. 5b and Fig. 6 we see that the majority of the mass evaporation from the embedded clouds occurs after the average temperature of the remnant drops below $`10^7\mathrm{K}`$. Once the average remnant temperature drops below $`10^5`$ K mass loading is effectively “switched off”, the remnant averaged mass injection rate drops sharply, leaving the power-law dependence on time, and the quantity of evaporated mass remains constant in the remnant from this time onwards. Interestingly, this quantity does not depend linearly on the mass loading factor $`f^{}`$ (Fig. 5b). Roughly half the evaporated mass is loaded after the average temperature has dropped below $`10^6\mathrm{K}`$ for the model with $`n_0=0.01\mathrm{cm}^3`$ and $`f^{}=3.16`$. Hence our results should not be strongly affected by the precise value of the temperature $`T_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ at which conductive evaporation becomes saturated, or by the initial conditions that we specify.

### 3.6 End of the QST Stage

In Fig. 7, the ratio of the time at which the total energy of the remnant falls to one half of its initial energy, $`t_{1/2}(f^{},n_0)`$, to the shell formation timescale, $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}(n_0)`$, defined in Eq. 8, is shown as a function of the mass loading parameter $`f^{}`$ for the five different values of the ambient density used. This figure shows far more variation with $`n_0`$ than the equivalent figure in Paper I, where the curve for the different values of the mass loading parameter lie on top of each other. In the conductively driven mass loading case the mass loading rate is sensitive to the thermal structure throughout the remnant, and radiative cooling, when it begins, occurs in a larger volume of gas (because of the “thick-shell” morphology). The radiative cooling rate thus depends on the density and temperature of the gas in this extended region, which have a non-simple relation to the mass loading factor $`f^{}`$. In contrast, in the ablation cases discussed in Paper I, mass loading occurs in the narrow region just behind the blast wave, and so the amount of radiative cooling in this zone (which ultimately defines $`t_{\mathrm{QST}}`$) depends directly on the factor $`f`$.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 The Free Expansion (FE) Phase

Table 1 gives the total mass in the remnant at the end of the FE phase, $`M_{\mathrm{FE}}`$, for remnants with an initial energy, $`E=10^{51}\mathrm{erg}`$, and ejecta mass, $`M=10\mathrm{M}_{}`$. When there is no mass loading the total mass is independent of the ambient density (being approximately $`56\mathrm{M}_{}`$, cf. Paper I), though with intermediate rates of mass loading (e.g. $`f^{}0.316`$) $`M_{\mathrm{FE}}`$ becomes dependent on $`n_0`$. For slightly higher mass loading rates ($`f^{}3.16`$) $`M_{\mathrm{FE}}37\mathrm{M}_{}`$, and is insensitive to both $`f^{}`$ and $`n_0`$. The fact that $`M_{\mathrm{FE}}`$ is dependent on $`f^{}`$ for a given $`n_0`$ is consistent with Figs. 3 (b,d,f), where it can be seen that the remnant energy thermalizes more rapidly with increasing $`f^{}`$. This behaviour arises from the fact that mass loading reduces the rate at which the remnant expands at early times, as it causes more braking in the ejecta and sends the reverse shock back through it more quickly. In contrast, we note that $`M_{\mathrm{FE}}`$ is essentially constant when mass loading occurs by hydrodynamic ablation (Paper I). Since the mass loading is essentially saturated in both formulations at this stage, these differences arise from the fact that in this paper we also mass load in the shocked ejecta (unlike in Paper I), which has the effect of increasing its pressure.

In Fig. 8 we show the radius at the end of the free-expansion stage, $`R_{\mathrm{FE}}`$, as a function of $`n_0`$ and $`f^{}`$. We derive an appropriate analytical approximation for the dependence of $`R_{\mathrm{FE}}`$ on $`n_0`$ and $`f^{}`$ by following the same procedure as in Sec. 4.1 of Paper I. The agreement between the simulations and the analytical approximation is generally good, although the latter systematically underestimates $`R_{\mathrm{FE}}`$ at high values of $`f^{}`$ (as was also found in Paper I, where an explanation for this is given). For future purposes, however, we are more concerned with accurate estimates for $`R_{\mathrm{QST}}`$, the radius at the end of the Quasi-Sedov-Taylor phase. We note that the much higher values of $`f`$ which we consider in this paper lead to a greater range in $`R_{\mathrm{FE}}`$ at a given $`n_0`$.

### 4.2 The Quasi-Sedov-Taylor (QST) Phase

In Fig. 9 and Table 2 we show the variation of $`R_{\mathrm{QST}}`$ with $`n_0`$ and $`f^{}`$. We find that the expression

$$R_{\mathrm{QST}}(f^{},n_0)0.75R_{\mathrm{QST}}(f^{}=0)f^{0.05}10^{b\mathrm{tanh}(n_0/a)},$$
(12)
where $`a=6\times 10^{0.9(1e^x)x}`$, $`b=0.17(\mathrm{log}_{10}f^{}+2.5)^{1.1}`$, and $`x=\mathrm{log}_{10}f^{}+0.5`$ achieves a good fit to the numerical results. We plot values of $`R_{\mathrm{QST}}`$ using Eq. 12 in Fig. 9.

The ratio of the radius at the end of the Quasi-Sedov-Taylor phase to the radius at the same stage for the case where $`f^{}=0`$ ($`R_{\mathrm{QST}}/R_{\mathrm{QST}}(f^{}=0)`$) is shown in Fig. 10 for all $`f^{}`$ and $`n_0`$. Although there is variation with $`n_0`$ for $`n_010`$, this ratio appears to become fairly insensitive to $`n_0`$ for larger values of $`f^{}`$. We further note that the behaviour seen in Figs. 7 and 10 is qualitatively similar (which is also the case for ablative mass loading cf. Paper I).

For an ambient density, $`n_0=0.01`$, the approximation noted in Eq. 11 of Paper I, with substitution of $`f`$ with $`f^{}`$, i.e.

$$R_{\mathrm{QST}}0.9R_{\mathrm{QST}}(f^{}=0)(10\sqrt{f^{}})^{0.09\mathrm{log}_{10}f^{}},$$
(13)
is a good fit, while for high ambient densities ($`n_0100.0`$) an excellent approximation is

$$\mathrm{log}_{10}R_{\mathrm{QST}}0.3\mathrm{log}_{10}f^{}0.5.$$
(14)
In the equations in this section it is again assumed that the remnants have an initial energy, $`E=10^{51}\mathrm{erg}`$, and ejecta mass, $`M=10\mathrm{M}_{}`$.

## 5 Conclusions

We have extended work presented in Paper I on the evolution of mass loaded supernova remnants by considering mass loading by conductively driven evaporation of embedded clouds. Paper I confirmed that mass injection can strongly influence remnant evolution, and we also establish here that the nature of the mass injection process is also important in this regard. This is due to the fact that mass loading through conductive evaporation is extinguished at relatively early times. Hence, conductively driven mass loading does not appreciably alter the later stages of remnant evolution, when the remnant is dominated by swept up ambient gas. Therefore remnants that ablatively mass load are dominated by loaded mass and thermal energy at late times (Paper I), while those that conductively mass load are dominated by swept-up mass and kinetic energy. The greater dominance of loaded mass in the ablative case means that such remnants evolve more quickly, and reach all dynamical stages earlier. At a given age they tend to be both more massive and smaller than equivalent remnants which are conductively mass loaded.

We are able to confirm some of the properties of conductively mass loaded remnants predicted from self-similar solutions, and in particular find that such remnants may display a thick-shell morphology (cf. the hydrodynamic results presented in Cowie et al. CMO1981 (1981) and the similarity solutions presented in Dyson & Hartquist DH1987 (1987)).

In this work we have been particularly interested in the range of conductively mass loaded supernova remnants at the time at which they have radiated away half of their initial energy (see Table 2). It was noted in Sec. 2 that $`f^{}`$ may be dependent on $`n_0`$. This behaviour would pick-out a roughly diagonal line in Table 2, and implies that the radius of remnants at the end of the quasi-Sedov-Taylor stage has less variance with $`n_0`$ than would otherwise be the case. However, since $`f^{}`$ is also dependent on the number density of cold clouds we do not expect a particularly tight relationship.

Simple approximations that fit the evolution of the range of supernova remnants which conductively mass load, and which are complementary to similar approximations in Paper I, have also been found. In both works it is assumed that the remnant has an initial energy, $`E=10^{51}\mathrm{erg}`$, and an ejecta mass, $`M=10\mathrm{M}_{}`$. We expect that the evolution of remnants which ablatively mass load will be fairly insensitive to the progenitor mass, because the majority of the mass loading occurs after the FE stage ends, at which point the swept up mass is about 6 times greater than the progenitor mass. In the conduction case it is not so clear what will happen, because most of the mass loading occurs in the early stages when the remnant is becoming thermalized. Furthermore, the mass loading may well be more dependent on our model assumptions (such as the saturation temperature, $`T_{\mathrm{sat}}`$), than on the progenitor mass, at least in some regions of parameter space. With regards to the possibility of different explosion energies, we note that our solutions should scale in a similar way to the time of thin shell formation, $`t_{\mathrm{sf}}E^{3/14}`$ (cf. Eq. 8).

Our range approximations will form the basis of future work to investigate galactic superwinds formed by the combination of many overlapping supernovae.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank Dr. R. Bandiera for constructive comments which led to clarification of our assumptions and generally improved the paper. JMP would also like to thank PPARC for the funding of a PDRA position. This work has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service.


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# Bifurcations and Averages in the Homoclinic Chaos of a Laser with a Saturable Absorber

## 1 Introduction

Chaos in monomode $`CO_2`$ lasers with an intracavity molecular gas as saturable absorber, $`LSA`$, has been observed Dangoisse88 ; Hennequin88 ; Tachikawa88 ; Zambon91 ; Papoff91 ; Lefranc91  and modeled by a three level system to represent the amplifier and a two level system for the absorber Tachikawa88 . A passive Q-switching of the laser cavity is produced by the saturation of the absorber and, for appropriate relaxation and saturation rates, the laser oscillates with periodic or chaotic pulse emission. The dynamical system behavior is explained as due to the approach to a homoclinic tangency to a saddle focus Hennequin88 , or to an unstable periodic orbit Zambon91 ; Papoff91 ; Lefranc91 , depending on the operating parameters of the system.

This work presents numerical solutions of the laser model giving the dynamical bifurcations as it approaches a homoclinic orbit to an unstable cycle which consists of a high spike pulse and an infinite number of undulations. Bifurcations diagrams are usually exhibited by giving the peak of the pulses and here they are given by the average power of the laser. The properties of the average power throughout the bifurcations are the main results reported.

## 2 The 3-2 level model

Introduced by Tachikawa et al Tachikawa88  and thoroughly analyzed by many authors the $`32`$ level model for the $`LSA`$ predicts most dynamical observations made in these lasers. The mean intracavity intensity $`I(t)`$, the mean gain medium population inversion $`U(t)`$, the effective ground state population depletion of the gain medium, $`W(t)`$, and the mean population difference of the absorber $`\overline{U}(t)`$, are the four independent variables for the rate equations in the model. It can be shown Lefranc91 ; deOliveira97  that the LSA system may be reduced to a three dimensional flux as one considers the usual fast relaxation of the absorber deOliveira97 , and adiabatically eliminates the variable $`\overline{U}(t)`$.

The three level-two level rate equations describing the $`LSA`$ with the normalized variables explained above are Lefranc91 :

$`\dot{I}`$ $`=`$ $`I\left(U\overline{U}1\right)`$ (1)
$`\dot{U}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ\left[WU\left(1+I\right)\right]`$ (2)
$`\dot{W}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ\left(A+bUW\right)`$ (3)
$`\dot{\overline{U}}`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{ϵ}\left[\overline{A}\overline{U}\left(1+aI\right)\right]`$ (4)
The parameters in the equations are: $`ϵ`$ and $`\overline{ϵ}`$ the relaxation rates of the amplifier and absorber, respectively, normalized to the cavity relaxation rate (which is the inverse time unit). $`A`$ and $`\overline{A}`$ are the pumping rates in the amplifier and absorber population differences, respectively, normalized to the cavity loss. The coefficient $`b`$ is the difference between the population relaxation rates of lower and upper level of the gain transition, normalized to the sum of these relaxation rates. The saturability coefficient for the absorber, normalized to the two level saturability of the gain, is $`a`$. More detailed explanation of these dimensionless quantities and the physical behavior contained in Eqs. (1)-(4) are given in Ref. Lefranc91 .

The flux described by those equations was studied by Lefranc et al. Lefranc91  who calculated bifurcations diagrams typical of homoclinic chaos. Generally each laser pulse has a leading spike, named the reinjection, and $`(0,1,\mathrm{},n,\mathrm{})`$ small undulations in a tail associated to the cycling around the unstable orbit to be reached at the homoclinic tangency. The notation is then $`P^{(n)}`$ for the pulses with $`n`$ undulations and the periodic regime made with such pulses and $`C^{(n)}`$ for the chaotic pulsation composed of irregular occurrence of pulses $`P^{(m)}`$ with $`mn+1`$. The maxima in the spike and the undulations of a long train of pulses can be registered to indicate the dynamical state of the LSA. A bifurcation diagram consists of a plot of the maxima in the pulses emitted versus the control parameter $`A`$, which is the pump rate of the laser.

The bifurcations, as shown in Figure $`1(a)`$, consist of alternating periodic-chaotic windows well predicted Lefranc91  in the homoclinic chaos of LSA. At certain chosen parameters they also show long sequences windows separated by periodic to periodic global bifurcations from a regime $`P^{(n)}`$ to a $`P^{(n+1)}`$ Hugopre00 .

## 3 Averages and Bifurcations

The average of a dynamical variable in a nonlinear flux or map may manifest some of its bifurcations Luiz96 ; Hugoave00 . Such property has been pointed out in the early days of studies of chaotic maps Lorenz63 . It is our purpose here to verify how such average behaves in a flux associated to a laser system where experimental tests are feasible Luiz96 ; Hugoavex00 .

The parameters used to numerically solve equations (1-4) were: $`\overline{A}=2.16`$, $`ϵ=0.137`$, $`\overline{ϵ}=1.2`$, $`a=4.17`$ and $`b=0.85`$. The control parameter $`A`$ was varied between $`1.4`$ and $`2.0`$. The bifurcation diagram showing the maxima of the pulses is given in Figure $`1(a)`$. Lefranc et al Lefranc91  have discussed this diagram in details. At each position of $`A`$ $`400`$ maxima are saved from the numerical integration done with a standard fourth order Runge-Kutta routine. The calculation at each of the $`300`$ steps of $`A`$ had as initial condition the last values from the previous step. For low gain, i.e. small $`A`$, the laser shows periodic pulsation with spike pulses $`P^{(0)}`$ which bifurcates into periodic pulsation of one undulation pulses. This global bifurcation consists in a transition that generally has bistability. Increasing the value of $`A`$ gives a cusp bifurcation from periodic $`P^{(2)}`$ into chaotic $`C^{(2)}`$ pulsation. The chaotic window ends at a tangent bifurcation, when the system recovers periodic pulsation $`P^{(3)}`$. This $`P^{(3)}`$ window develops a cascade of period doubling bifurcations into $`C^{(4)}`$ chaos and so on. The succession of windows is one of the signatures of the homoclinic chaos. At $`A=1.92`$ an inverse cascade of period doubling leads the system to a Hopf bifurcation connected to the continuous wave laser operation, when the fixed point $`I_+0`$ is stable. Figure $`1(b)`$ shows the average power of the laser calculated in same range of variation of the control parameter $`A`$. The transient at each step of the calculation, which is very important near the bifurcation points, was eliminated, as far as possible within computation time, by neglecting the first $`25000`$ time units in a total of $`80000`$ time units of integration. It can be seen that the most important manifestation of the bifurcations in the average occur at the periodic to periodic transition and at the Hopf bifurcation. The average suffers a discontinuity at the periodic to periodic transitions. Such discontinuity also occurs at the Hopf bifurcation, when the parameters make this a supercritical one. At the period doubling and at the tangent bifurcations the changes in the average are not visible in the scale resolution of Figure $`(1b)`$. To search for the average variations on these bifurcations a refined calculation was done over the period doubling and the tangent bifurcation around the $`C^{(3)}`$ chaotic window, as shown in Figure $`2`$. The period doubling bifurcation remains without changes for the average. At these bifurcations the only expected changes on the average is in one of its derivative with respect to the control parameter. For the flux studies here no derivative discontinuity was obtained to the resolution of the calculation. Conversely a first derivative discontinuity is obtained, analytically and numerically, for the average of one dimensional maps at period doubling bifurcations Hugoave00 .

Figure $`2`$ shows a bifurcation diagram for the average still with the same parameters of Figure $`1`$, but spanning a very narrower range of $`A`$ at the onset of the tangent bifurcation from chaotic regime $`C^{(3)}`$ to periodic $`P^{(4)}`$. Similar behavior occur for the other tangent bifurcations. To fit the dependence of the average $`\overline{I}`$ on $`A`$ the expression

$$\overline{I}(A)=\overline{I}_i+B_i(A_i^cA)^{\nu _i}$$
(5)
was used, with the values of $`\overline{I}_i`$ and $`A_i^c`$ extracted from inspection of the numerical diagram near the $`(i)`$ bifurcation . A best fitting of eq. (5) to the data is shown in Figure $`(2b)`$ in a log-log graph. The dots are the numerical calculation and the line corresponds to the fitting which verifies that the average decreases following a power law whose exponent is $`\nu _i=1/2`$. The other tangent bifurcation in the diagram seems to have the same exponent but a detailed study was not pursued.

## 4 Conclusions

Bifurcation diagrams associated to the homoclinic tangency to an unstable periodic orbit in the 3-2 level model for a laser with saturable absorber were calculated numerically.

The numerical solutions were used to calculate the average power emitted by the chaotic laser. It was verified that the average power has a discontinuous change on the cusp bifurcations, related to the bistability between different periodic regimes. Through period doubling bifurcations, no change of the average power was obtained. The tangent bifurcations from chaos into periodic pulsation show a characteristic average power dependence, similar to the averages observed on the logistic map Hugoave00 , with a critical exponent 1/2. Preliminary experiments observing bifurcations in the average power of a $`CO_2`$ laser with $`SF_6`$ as saturable absorber have been done Luiz96  and the verification of the properties of critical exponents on the tangent bifurcations is under development Hugoavex00 . Characterizing Dynamical bifurcations by averages, which can be measured experimentally by slow detectors, may be useful to study ultra fast chaotic systems.

## Acknowledgments

Work partially supported by Brazilian Agencies: Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (CNPq), Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) and part of the Pronex project on Nonlinear Optics, Lasers and Applications


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# Concentration of higher dimensional entanglement

## Abstract

Enhancement of entanglement enhancement is necessary for most quantum communication protocols many of which are defined in Hilbert spaces larger than two. In this work we present the experimental realization of entanglement concentration of orbital angular momentum entangled photons produced in the spontaneous parametric down-conversion process which have been shown to provide a source for higher dimensional entanglement. We investigate the specific case of three dimensions and the possibility of generating different entangled states out of an initial state. The results presented here are of importance for pure states as well as for mixed states.

Most of the current applications of entanglement in quantum communication such as quantum teleportation  and quantum cryptography work best for maximally entangled states. However, in practice one always has to deal with non maximally entangled or mixed states for example because of the uncontrollable interaction of the particles with the environment. Therefore many quantum protocols such as distillation  purification , concentration  and error correction  have been suggested in order to enhance the quality of entanglement. With the exception of quantum error correction which is most important for quantum computation, the common idea in all other protocols is to start with a sample of entangled states having a low quality of entanglement and using local operations and classical communication only to end up in a smaller ensemble with a higher degree of entanglement. A measure for the enhancement of the entanglement could for example be the non local feature of the state represented by violation of Bell’s inequalities.

There are varying terminologies in the literature. Following reference  we will use the term concentration for our experimental achievement which was to extract maximally entangled states out of non maximally entangled pure states. This method is also referred to as local filtering or the ”Procrustean method” ***After Procrustes, a fabulous Greek giant who stretched or shortened captives to fit one of his iron beds. In contrast to concentration the term distillation is used for the more general case of extracting entanglement out of initially mixed states. Purification denotes the procedure which makes arbitrary initial states more pure, after local operations and classical communication, but not necessarily more entangled. As demonstrated by Horodecki et al. , even if the fidelity of the system to be in the desired entangled state is less than $`1/2`$, all inseparable quantum systems can be distilled to singlet states by local filtering and the Bennett et al. distillation protocol . This means that the Procrustean concentration method as experimentally demonstrated here is not only of importance for pure states but also for extracting entanglement out of mixed states.

There exists a steadily growing interest in entanglement in higher dimensions since it allows realization of new types of quantum communication protocols . Such states also have been shown to be more efficient and to provide more security in quantum communication applications such as in quantum cryptography . However in order to overcome the problem of uncontrollable interaction of the quantum states with the environment and to make quantum communication with higher dimensional entangled states feasible it is important to be in full control of the corresponding distillation and concentration techniques. So far the Procrustean method has been experimentally demonstrated only for entangled qubits, i.e. for two-dimensional systems . Given the motivations discussed above we demonstrate for the first time the experimental realization of quantum concentration in higher dimensions using qutrits entangled in orbital angular momentum.

In our experiment the entangled qutrits were produced via type-I spontaneous parametric down-conversion using a BBO crystal (Beta Barium Borate) of 1,5 mm thickness pumped by an Argon ion laser operating at 351nm and having 120 mW of light power. Since we were not interested in polarization entanglement but in the entanglement of the orbital angular momentum we chose type-I down-conversion thus exploiting the greater efficiency of producing entangled photon pairs. We used the energy-degenerated case where both entangled photons had a wavelength of 702nm.

Due to their helical wave fronts the electromagnatic field of photons having an orbital angular momentum has a phase singularity. There the intensity has to vanish resulting in a doughnut-like intensity distribution. These light fields can be described by means of Laguerre Gaussian ($`LG_{pl}`$) modes with two indices $`p`$ and $`l`$. The $`p`$-index identifies the number of radial nodes observed in the tranversal plane and the l-index the number of the 2$`\pi `$-phase shifts along a closed path around the beam center. The latter determines the amount of orbital angular momentum in units of $`\mathrm{}`$ carried by one photon . In all our experiments we only considered LG modes with an index $`p=0`$ whereas the $`l`$-index of the entangled photons varied from -2, -1,…to ..1, 2. Since the $`LG_{pl}`$ modes form an orthogonal basis they can be used to realize discrete higher dimensional entangled systems.

A common technique to produce $`LG_{0l}`$ modes out of the Gaussian mode is to use computer generated holograms which are usually transmission gratings with dislocations in the center . Inversely such a hologram in connection with a single-mode optical fiber can be used to identify a certain $`LG_{0l}`$ mode . It has also been demonstrated that by displacing such a hologram it is possible create superposions of the $`LG_{00}`$ (=Gaussian) and the corresponding $`LG_{0l}`$ mode with well-defined amplitudes and relative phases. In the present experiment in order to identify the $`LG_{01},LG_{01},LG_{02}`$ and $`LG_{02}`$ modes blazed transmission phase gratings with a period of 20 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ were used which had a diffraction efficiency of about 85%.

The experimental demonstration of the concentration was performed in two steps . Besides our earlier confirmation of conservation of orbital angular momentum  we also demonstrated entanglement of the $`LG_{01}`$, $`LG_{00}`$ and $`LG_{01}`$ modes by violating a generalized CHSH type Bell inequality . It was therefore reasonable to expect that those results also hold for the extension to $`LG_{02}`$ and $`LG_{02}`$. Thus first we confirmed this issue. Restricting ourselves to the case of a pump beam having no orbital angular momentum, that is an $`LG_{00}`$ (Gaussian) mode, it was shown that the entangled down-conversion state was given by $`C_{00}|00+C_{11}|11+C_{22}|22`$, where the numbers in the kets are equivalent to the absolute value of the $`l`$-index $`|l|`$ of photon 1 and photon 2 respectively. Using the same techniques as in earlier experiments  the down converted photons on each side were projected onto the respective eigenstates via computer generated holograms. The amplitudes $`C_{ij}`$ were determined from the coincidence count rates which are a measure for the probabilities. In order to demonstrate the entanglement the state was also measured in a rotated basis, i.e. the down converted photons were projected onto superpositions of $`LG`$ modes (Fig.3 upper row). As it is discussed in an earlier paper this can be achieved by displaced holograms.

In the second step which we actually demonstrated entanglement concentration. This we showed by converting the initial entangled state having non-equal relative amplitudes into a state with equal amplitudes representing a maximally entangled state.

The experimental setup is shown in Fig.1. The Gaussian ($`LG_{00}`$) is focused on the BBO crystal where the entangled pairs are produced. These are emitted from the crystal at an angle of $`4^{}`$ off the pump beam and are coupled into optical fiber couplers via a lens on each side.

For convenience the mode identification was done using a probabilistic method since the count rates were sufficiently high. However a deterministic mode separator  would be possible but significantly more complicated. Two non-polarizing beam splitters, the first one having a transmission to reflectivity ratio of 2:1 the second one of 1:1, redirected each photon with probability of 1/3 to each of three mode detectors. As mentioned above the combination of a computer generated hologram and a single mode optical fiber acts as a mode detector. Using the respective holograms and single photon detectors we were able to detect $`LG_{02},LG_{01},LG_{00},LG_{01}`$ and $`LG_{02}`$ modes. The coincidence logic was designed to record the coincidences between an arbitrary pair of detectors each on one side. This gives 9 possible coincidence count rates.

It has been experimentally observed  that the emission probability for the higher order entangled modes decreases with the index $`l`$. Besides, in order to have a maximum collection efficiency of the down converted photons it is important to adapt their beam parameters to the spatial mode which can be coupled into the single mode fibers . Usually the proper alignment is achieved by overlapping the waist of the down converted beam on the crystal with the waist of an auxiliary beam being sent in a reverse direction through the single mode fiber and the coupling lenses. However the waist size of the $`LG`$ modes grows with their l-index. Therefore there does not exist a common setting of the coupling lenses which can couple the $`LG_{00},LG_{01}`$ and the $`LG_{02}`$ modes all with maximum efficiency. In order to measure the initial down-converted state emitted by the crystal we had to proceed in the following way. First the coupling lenses were positioned to have maximal collection efficiency for the $`LG_{00}`$ mode. Then the lens positions were changed to maximize the collection efficiencies for the $`LG_{01}`$ and the $`LG_{02}`$ mode respectively.

Therefore the measured amplitudes depend on the positioning of the coupling lenses. Therefore it is possible by varying their positions to couple in one mode more effectively than the other one. This method can be considered as a kind of filtering because part of the photon state emitted in the modes for which the collection efficiency of the setup ist not optimal is lost.

In Fig.2 the filtering effect is illustrated in one of the down-conversion arms for two different LG modes (e.g. $`LG_{00}`$ and $`LG_{0|1|}`$).

The refractive index of the mono-mode fibers determines a certain angle of acceptance for incoming light. The position of the lens is chosen such that the LG mode with the lower emission probability (here $`LG_{0|1|}`$) has a good overlap with the aceptance mode of the fiber. For simplicity the hologram which would be needed to transform the LG modes with $`|l|0`$ into the Gaussian mode in order to make them detectable via mono-mode fibers is left out in Fig.2 As a result the LG mode with the higher emission probabilty (here $`LG_{00}`$) has not an optimal overlap with the aceptance mode of the fiber which causes a filtering of the amplitude of this LG mode. The same arrangement with another distance can be used in the other arm of the down-conversion to achieve a filtering of the $`LG_{0|1|}`$ mode with respect to the $`LG_{0|2|}`$ mode.

It is also important to mention that as a consequence of entanglement each lens acts as a non-local filter on both sides. The filtering action of a lens on one side projects also the corresponding modes on the other side. By varying the distance of the two coupling lenses from the crystal just by the same amount one would be able to equalize the amplitudes of two modes only. It is only by choosing asymmetric positions and by exploiting the entanglement that it is possible to achieve nearly the same coincidence count rates for all three different modes.

In order to identify the state emitted by the crystal we proceeded as described above choosing three different lens positions for collecting the $`LG_{00},LG_{0|1|}`$ and $`LG_{0|2|}`$ respectively each with the same efficiency. Afterwards the amplitude of each mode was taken from that choice of setup having the maximum collection efficiency for the corresponding mode. It is only by this way that the same collection efficiency is ensured for all modes. Using detectors with nearly equal detection efficiency the normalized initial state was found to be

$$\psi _{initial}=0,80|00+0,44|11+0,41|22$$
(1)
The amplitudes were calculated from the coincidence count rates which represent the probabilities for detecting the photon pair in the corresponding $`LG`$ mode. For convenience we chose the basis for describing the initial state such as having no relative phases between the components. Such a choice is always possible. By scanning all holograms only horizontally these relative phases remain unchanged.

In order to demonstrate that the initial state is entangled it was also measured in bases rotated in Hilbert space. This was done by displacing the holograms. A displaced $`LG_{01}`$($`LG_{02}`$)-hologram projects an incoming mode onto a certain superposition of the $`LG_{00}`$ and the $`LG_{01}`$($`LG_{02}`$) depending on its displacement . Therefore in one beam the $`LG_{01}`$\- and the $`LG_{02}`$-holograms were displaced while in the other beam the corresponding holograms performed a scan of the mode of the incoming photons. The resulting coincidences are shown in Fig.3 upper row.

As shown in an earlier work  the high visibility ($`80\%`$) of these curves in the rotated basis can be viewed as a signature of entanglement. whereas a mixed state would lead to a equally distributed coincidence measurement of the LG modes resulting in curves having low contrast.

As discussed above different lens positions cause different filterings of the initial state (1). That means by choosing various lens positions on both sides different entangled states can be created out of an initial state. After having identified the ”initial state” this was demonstrated experimentally by for 7 different combinations of lens settings in the two arms and detecting the coincidences. Out of these the normalized amplitudes were calculated for the resulting filtered states (Tab.4). Each of these lens configurations can be identified with a certain filter density for the LG modes. The filter density for each LG mode is defined as $`1\frac{C_{LC}}{C_{INT}}`$ where $`C_{LC}`$ and $`C_{INT}`$ denote the conincidence count rate at a certain lens configuration and the coincidence count rates for the initial state respectively. It is a quantitative measure therefore how a lens configuration acts as a filter for an LG mode.

The filtered states are not always necessarily more entangled for any lens configuration, however the filtering action of the lens configuration Nr. 5 in Tab.2 causes a maximal concentration of the initial state emitted by the crystal. The concentrated state is found to be

$$\psi _{concentrated}=0,60|00+0,56|11+0,57|22$$
(2)
which is very close to the three-dimensional maximally entangled state

$$\psi _{max}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\left[|00+|11+|22\right]$$
(3)
.

Since state (1) was the only ”initial” state available to us other lens configurations yielded filtered state which are not necessarily more entangled. However because of the linearity of the filtering process there exist possible initial states for which each of the local filterings in Tab.4 would cause the concentration of entanglement. For example given the states $`0,26|00+0,50|11+0,83|22`$ or $`0,73|00+0,63|11+0,27|22`$ as initial states the filtering action of the lens configurations Nr. 1 and Nr. 7 in Tab.4 would cause the concentration into the maximally entangled state (3) respectively.

After we had experimentally equalized the amplitudes of the initial state (1) we wanted to demonstrate that the resulted filtered state (2) was entangled. Therefore we proceeded in the same way as for demonstrating the entanglement of the initial state. The state (2) was measured in bases rotated in Hilbert space. Again, the two holograms on one side were displaced while the two holograms in the other arm made scans of the modes of the photons.

The measured coincidences are shown in Fig.3 lower row. One can find that in the $`\psi _{concentrated}`$ case which is closer to the maximally entangled state the visbilities are higher. These are defined as $`V=\frac{C_{max}C_{min}}{C_{max}+C_{min}}`$ where $`Co`$ denotes the coincidence count rates. The corresponding visibilities in Tab.4 are $`86,4\%`$for the $`LG_{01}`$ modes and $`81,5\%`$ for the $`LG_{02}`$ in the $`\psi _{initial}`$ case and $`94,4\%`$ for the $`LG_{01}`$ modes and $`87,3\%`$ for the $`LG_{02}`$ in the $`\psi _{concentrated}`$ case. The asymmetry in Fig.3 lower row right is due to an imperfection of the corresponding hologram.

By exploiting simple experimental techniques theses results clearly show the possibility to extract maximally entangled states out of non maximally entangled ones in higher dimensions. Furthermore the present work demonstrates that using the same technique it is possible to produce and to identify different entangled states. The results presented here are not only of interest for pure states but also for extracting entanglement out of mixed states. Since, as demonstrated by Horodecki et al. , all inseparable quantum systems can be distilled to singlet states by local filtering and the Bennett et al. distillation protocol . Therefore it can be expected that the ideas and techniques presented here will be of importance for future quantum communication networks over long distances which necessarily will need some kind of entanglement enhancement procedure.

This work was supported by the Austrian FWF, project F1506.


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# Current-voltage characteristics and the zero-resistance state in a 2DEG

## Abstract

We study the current-voltage characteristics *(CVC)* of two-dimensional electron gases (2DEG) with microwave induced negative conductance in a magnetic field. We show that due to the Hall effect, strictly speaking there is no distinction between N- and S-shaped *CVC*s. Instead the observed *CVC* depends on the experimental setup with, e.g., an N-shaped *CVC* in a Corbino disc geometry corresponding to an S-shaped *CVC* in a Hall bar geometry in a strong magnetic field. We argue that instabilities of homogeneous states in regions of negative differential conductivity lead to the observation of zero resistance in Hall bars and zero conductance in Corbino discs and we discuss the structure of current and electric field domains.

preprint: $`Revision:1.13`$

An interesting effect has been observed in recent papers Klitzing ; Zudov : the resistance of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) subjected to microwave irradiation drops to zero in some interval of an applied magnetic field $`B.`$ This zero resistance state (ZRS) is achieved at low magnetic fields where at the measurement temperatures Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations are weak. Possible mechanisms for this phenomenon are discussed in a number of papers Philips ; Yale ; Andreev ; Anderson ; Shi ; Raikh ; Mikhailov . It was shown in Refs. Yale ; Shi ; Raikh  that in the presence of irradiation and a magnetic field the conductivity $`\sigma _{xx}`$ may become negative in a weak electric field $`E_x`$. In addition, using a simple model, the authors of Ref. Shi  have calculated the current-voltage characteristic $`I(V)`$ of an irradiated system with a density-of-states periodic in energy $`\epsilon `$. They have demonstrated that not only regions with negative conductance $`G`$, but also regions with positive $`G`$, may have negative differential conductance $`G_d=dI/dV`$ on the current-voltage characteristic *(CVC)* curve. According to Ref. Shi  the $`I(V)`$ curve is N-shaped (or to be more exact it can be regarded as a chain of the N-shaped *CVC*s), similar to the one shown in Fig. 1. This means that three voltages correspond to one current. While the authors of Ref. Shi  do not show in detail how the ZRS arises in their approach, a phenomenological model for the ZRS was proposed in Ref. Andreev . Here, the authors assumed that the resistivity $`\rho _{xx}`$ depends on the current density $`j`$ in such a way that the dependence of electric field on current density, $`E_x=\rho _{xx}(j)j_x`$, is N-shaped. This means that the inverse dependence $`j_x(E_x)`$ is S-shaped (three currents correspond to one voltage, cf. Fig. 3). It was shown that the states corresponding to the part of the *CVC* with negative differential conductance are unstable. The authors assumed that a stratification of the uniform current density occurs as a result of this instability and two current domains with opposite current directions arise in the Hall bar. With increasing total current $`I_x`$ the relative width of the two domains changes and the electric field $`E_x`$ remains zero, that is a ZRS is established in the system.

We note that the results presented in Refs. Yale ; Shi ; Raikh ; Andreev  are not completely new. Many years ago the absolute negative conductance has been predicted in Refs. Ryzhii ; Elesin ; V'yurkov  (2 and 3DEG in a strong magnetic field under irradiation) and in Epstein  (a superlattice under irradiation). The instability of systems with N- or S-shaped *CVC* in the absence of a magnetic field and the possible types of the electric field or current domains arising as a result of this instability also has been studied three decades ago (see, for example, the review KoganVolkovUs  and references therein). The instability of a system with S-shaped *CVC* in a magnetic field was studied in Ref. K . As a result of the instability of a homogeneous state, in systems with N-shaped *CVC*, domains of constant electric field arise whereas in systems with S-shaped *CVC* domains with constant current density appear. In the absence of a magnetic field it was shown that a wide domain of constant electric field leads to a horizontal line on the *CVC* (zero differential conductance state) whereas a wide current domain in the sample leads to the appearance of a vertical line on the *CVC* (zero differential resistance state) KoganVolkovUs ; KoganVolkovZh .

Currently, there does not appear to be a consensus as to what kind of *CVC*, N- or S-shaped, will lead to the ZRS in the presence of a magnetic field. In the present paper we address this issue and analyse the form of the *CVC* as well as the type of domains in different experimental setups. We consider a 2DEG in a magnetic field $`B`$ and assume that the conductivity $`\sigma _{xx}\sigma `$ depends on the electric field $`E`$ and the Hall conductivity $`\sigma _{xy}\sigma _H`$ is independent of the electric field $`E`$. We are not going to analyse the origin of this type of non-linear behavior and just note that this kind of dependence is discussed in Ref. Shi . In a two-dimensional system, the electric field $`E`$ has two components $`E_{x,y}`$ so that the conductivity $`\sigma `$ depends on $`E=(E_x^2+E_y^2)^{1/2}`$. If one of two components vanishes identically (for example $`E_y=0`$), as it happens in measurements on the Corbino disc, then $`j_x=\sigma (E_x)E_x`$. We assume that the $`\sigma (E_x)`$ dependence corresponds to an N-shaped *CVC* (see Fig. 1). We will show that the form of the *CVC* in experiments on a Hall bar depends strongly on the magnetic field, becoming S-shaped in the limit of strong Hall effect: $`\sigma _H|\sigma |`$. This regime $`\omega _c\tau _t1`$, where $`\omega _c`$ is the cyclotron frequency and $`\tau _t`$ is the momentum relaxation time, is relevant to the experiments under consideration. We note in passing that in the experiments, due to the predominant forward scattering nature of the disorder, the single particle lifetime $`\tau _s`$ is much shorter than $`\tau _t`$ Klitzing . In the following, we will discuss the form of the *CVC* and the structure of non-homogeneous states (electric field and current domains) in different experimental setups.

We consider a 2DEG in a magnetic field assuming first that the current density $`j`$ and the electric field $`E`$ are homogeneous in the sample. The current density $`j_{x,y}`$ depends on the electric field $`E_{x,y}`$ via the components $`\sigma `$ and $`\sigma _H`$ of the conductivity tensor,

$$j_{x,y}=\sigma (E)E_{x,y}\pm \sigma _HE_{y,x}.$$
(1)
If the sample has the shape of a Corbino disc, the electric field $`E_y`$ in the azimuthal direction is zero, and the *CVC* shown in Fig. 1 is N-shaped. If we consider a sample in the shape of a Hall bar, then in general both components $`E_{x,y}`$ are finite. However, the current component $`j_y`$ in the Hall bar is zero and hence we can express the component $`E_y`$ through $`E_x`$: $`E_y=E_x\sigma _H/\sigma (E).`$ Inserting it into the expression for the current density $`j_x`$, we get the dependence of $`j_x`$ on $`E_x`$,

$$j_x=\frac{\left(\sigma ^2(E)+\sigma _H^2\right)}{\sigma (E)}E_x.$$
(2)
For the component $`E_x`$ of the electric field we get

$$|E_x|=\frac{|\sigma (E)|}{\sqrt{\sigma ^2(E)+\sigma _H^2}}E.$$
(3)
Eqs. (2) and(3) determine the form of the *CVC* for the Hall bar. We plot the resulting *CVC* in Figs. 2 and 3 for the case of low and high magnetic field, respectively. We see that in a weak field, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{min},\mathrm{max}}\sigma _H`$, the *CVC* for almost all currents follows the form of the $`I(V)`$ characteristic shown in Fig. 1. However at low currents, $`j_x\sigma _HE_0`$, the shape of the *CVC* changes drastically. This kind of the *CVC* can not be assigned either to the N- or S-shaped types of the *CVC*. Associated with the loops is a change of the Hall angle from small values at large negative $`j_x`$ to a value close to $`\pi `$ near $`j_x=E_x=0`$ and back to small values at large $`j_x`$.

With increasing magnetic field the form of the *CVC* changes and finally, at $`\sigma _H\sigma _{\mathrm{min},\mathrm{max}}`$, is transformed into an S-shaped $`I(V)`$ characteristic (Fig. 3). The $`I(V)`$ curve crosses the y-axis at the currents $`j_x=0,`$ $`\pm j_0,`$ where $`j_0=\sigma _HE_0`$. The characteristic field $`E_{x1}`$ at which $`dj_x(E_x)/dE_x=\mathrm{}`$ is determined by $`E_x=E_{x1}(E_1)`$, where $`E_1`$ satisfies the equation $`E_1d\sigma (E_1)/dE_1=\sigma (E_1)`$ and is of the order of $`E_{x1}=aE_0\sigma _{\mathrm{min}}/\sigma _H`$ ($`a=2/3^{3/2}`$ for a parabolic dependence of $`\sigma (E)`$ on $`E`$ at small $`E`$). The corresponding value of the current is $`j_x(E_{x1})=j_0/\sqrt{3}`$ in the same approximation. In the limit of high magnetic field, $`\omega _c\tau _t1`$, the Hall angle does not change appreciably and oscillates around $`\pi /2`$.

In order to check the applicability of this model to the experiments Klitzing ; Zudov , it would be interesting to measure the *CVC* in two configurations. If the *CVC* is measured on a Corbino disc, the $`I(V)`$ curve should have the form shown in Fig. 1, that is the N-shaped form. However due to instability of a homogeneous state, a horizontal line ($`j_x=0`$) should be observed in the interval $`E_0<E_x<E_0`$ (zero conductance state). In principle one can also observe the part with negative absolute and differential conductance if short pulses of the voltage are applied to the sample. This method of measuring the *CVC* of a homogeneous sample was used in studies of the Gunn effect a long time ago (see the review KoganVolkovUs  and references therein). The duration of the voltage pulses should be shorter than a characteristic time for the build-up of the electric field domains, but longer than the period of the ac field applied to the sample. In dc measurements the domains of the electric field $`E_x(x)`$ should appear as it happens for example in the Gunn effect. In the system under consideration the electric field has different direction in each domain. A variation of the total voltage leads to a change of the relative widths of the domains; the current remains negligible (zero conductance state). Due to the Hall effect, the electric field domains also carry current densities. Since the strength of the electric field is given by the critical field $`E_0`$ where the Hall angle is $`\pi /2`$, the associated currents always flow perpendicular to the direction of the electric field. Thus, in a magnetic field, current and electric field domains exist simultaneously.

If the *CVC* is measured on a Hall bar, it has the form shown in Fig. 3 with a vertical line in the interval $`j_0<j_x<j_0`$ (zero resistance state). The part of the $`I(V)`$ curve with negative conductance can also be measured if one applies short current pulses. The pulsed measurements would allow one to determine a characteristic time required for the build-up of the current filaments. It is worth noting that a switching of the system into a non-homogeneous state has much in common with a first order phase transition (see Ref. KoganVolkovUs ). Therefore even in dc measurements it is possible in principle to measure “superheated” and “supercooled” states which correspond to parts of the *CVC* with negative absolute, but positive differential conductance. As in the case of a first order phase transition, the result of a particular measurement will depend on factors that influence the nucleation of a new phase (homogeneity of the sample, boundary conditions etc). If the current filament is created in the middle of the sample, the *CVC* has the form shown in Fig. 3 by the dashed line KoganVolkovUs . This means that the observed *CVC* may have a hysteresis: with decreasing current it goes along the upper part of the *CVC*, passes through the intersection point $`j_0`$ and reaches a point $`j(E_{x1})`$. When $`j_x`$ decreases further, a jump to a curve shown by the dashed line occurs and the *CVC* follows this line to the region of negative currents. In this configuration, as it is noted in Ref. Andreev , the current domains (current filaments) with opposite current directions are elongated in the x-direction. The stratification of the current density, as we mentioned above, is natural in systems with S-shaped $`I(V)`$ characteristic. In the presence of a strong magnetic field the electrical field domains arise simultaneously in the transverse direction (the Hall field domains).

In order to find the form of the electric field and current domains, one needs to derive the full set of equations governing the space and time dependence of all quantities of interest (electric field, current density etc). At present there is no such a theory. Here, we suggest a simple phenomenological model that allows one to map this problem to the problem considered earlier. We assume that the Coulomb screening length is less than the thickness of the 2DEG. In this case the relation between the concentration of electrons $`n`$ and the electric field $`𝐄`$ is given by the Poisson equation

$$𝐄=\frac{4\pi e}{ϵ}\left(nn_0\right),$$
(4)
where $`n_0`$ is the electron density in the uniform case. Consider the case of a Corbino disc. Then $`E_y=0`$ and the component $`j_x`$ equals

$$j_x=\sigma (E_x)E_xeD_xn+\frac{ϵ}{4\pi }_tE_x.$$
(5)
Here the second term is the diffusion current and the third term is the displacement current. This simplified model can not be applied directly to the real experimental situation because it implies a local approximation for the current density, that is, for example the screening length $`l_{scr}=\sqrt{D/(4\pi \sigma _{\mathrm{max}}/ϵ)}`$ is assumed to be longer than the mean free path (obviously this is not the case in real samples). However this model in our opinion captures the main ingredients of the system qualitatively. One can eliminate the electron density from Eqs. (4) and (5) and obtain for a stationary or steadily moving domain of the electric field

$$\frac{4\pi }{ϵ}j_x=\frac{4\pi }{ϵ}\sigma _0(E_x)E_xD_{\xi \xi }^2E_x_\xi E_x\left(s\frac{\sigma _0(E_x)E_x}{en_0}\right).$$
(6)
Here $`\sigma _0(E_x)=\sigma (E_x)n_0/n`$ and $`\xi =xst.`$ We assumed that $`E_x(x,t)=E_x(\xi )`$. One can see that Eq. 5 agrees almost completely with an equation describing the Gunn effect (see KoganVolkovUs ). The only difference is that the $`\sigma _0(E_x)`$ dependence is different in both cases; in particular the symmetry point of the N-shape part of the *CVC* in this case is located at the origin of the coordinates ($`E_x,j_x`$). This means that the topology of solutions in the ($`E_x,_\xi E_x`$) plane remains unchanged and therefore many conclusions about *CVC*, forms of the electric field domains in the Gunn effect are valid for our system (however domains in our system are almost motionless). For instance, wide stationary domains with the electric field equal to $`\pm E_0`$ are described by the phase space trajectory (the separatrix)

$$\frac{1}{r}\left[_\zeta \frac{1}{r}\mathrm{ln}\left(1+r_\zeta \right)\right]=U(1)U(\zeta )$$
(7)
where $`\zeta =\xi /l_{\mathrm{scr}}`$, $`r=E_0/(el_{\mathrm{src}}n_0)`$, $`=E_x/E_0`$ is the normalized electric field, $`U()=_0^{}𝑑_1j(_1)/j_m`$, $`j_m=\sigma _{\mathrm{max}}E_0`$, and $`j(_1)=\sigma (_1)_1`$ is the *CVC*. The screening length $`l_{\mathrm{scr}}`$ in our model determines the width of the domain wall. We will not study here in detail the form of domains arising in the system. Note only that this analysis can be carried out similarly to that presented in Refs. KoganVolkovUs ; KoganVolkovZh .

In summary, we have studied the form of the current-voltage characteristic $`I_x(V_x)`$ in the presence of non-linearity and magnetic field. The Hall effect removes the distinction between N- and S-shaped *CVC*s characteristic for zero-field systems. Instead the shape of the *CVC* depends on boundary conditions imposed by the experimental setup. We showed that an N-shaped *CVC* in the Corbino disc geometry corresponds for sufficiently strong magnetic fields to an S-shaped *CVC* in the Hall bar geometry. Homogeneous states with negative differential conductivity are unstable to the formation of domains. Again, due to the Hall effect these domains are characterised by both a constant electric field and a constant current density. In these domains the Hall angle is 90 degrees. As a result, we expect the measurements of zero conductance in Corbino discs and zero resistance in Hall bars to be manifestations of the same physical phenomenon.

Note added: After the preparation of this manuscript we became aware of Ref. Yea03  that reports the observation of an apparently zero-conductance state in a Corbino disc geometry.


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# Untitled Document

Topology from the Bottom Up

Randall D. Kamien

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania,

Philadelphia, PA 19104-6396 USA

Though the use of topology and geometry to understand the physical world is commonplace and natural it is only now that it has become central to the control and design of new materials. For instance, data from the cosmic microwave background explorer (COBE) has not only shed light on the geometry of the Universe and the cosmological constant, but it constrains the allowed topology as well , ruling out the possibility of the its being spatially periodic. The classical theory of electromagnetism can be recast geometrically and serves as the simplest example of the gauge theories of elementary particles. These theories are the basis for the wildly successful standard model of particle physics; their deep connection to modern topology has led to major advances in pure mathematics .

In the realm of condensed matter and materials physics, the role of topology is well known. For instance, the number of times that a closed string winds around a point is independent of its exact conformation and is therefore a topological property. The persistence of currents in superconductors and superfluids is guaranteed by this very same topology as is the existence of Abrikosov flux lines in Type II superconductors and defects in smectic liquid crystals. These topological defects are at best a profound example of a macroscopic quantum state and at worst a nuisance for technology. On page 1716 of this issue Bausch et al. have performed a series of elegant experiments to convincingly confirm that the robust and generic aspects of the topology of a sphere or soccer ball can be used to understand the structure of colloidal crystals on spheres. Not just a curiosity, these structured colloidosomes will be the building blocks for complex structures with novel optolectronic, mechanical and photonic properties.

Through a variety of methods, materials physics has developed the tools to predict and control the assembly of complex materials. The most promising are methods based on self-assembly, those that rely on identical molecules and supramolecular assemblies to assemble into structures that reflect their molecular architecture . Typically, advances in chemical synthesis lead to ever more complex molecules that, in turn, assemble into ever more complex structures. Perhaps the simplest example of this is a chiral nematic or cholesteric liquid crystal. In those materials control of the rigidity, aspect ratio and chirality of the molecules allows for the self-assembly of a singly-periodic cholesteric phase, i.e. a one-dimensional crystal. This level of macroscopic structure is enough to make temperature probes, field-controlled diffraction gratings, and optical switches. The chiral molecular structure is often enough to form exotic liquid-crystalline blue phases that control light in three-dimensions and exhibit mirrorless lasing .

The control of molecular geometry and topology can lead to the rational design and control of macroscopic structure. The cholesteric phase of chiral mesogens and the $`Pm\overline{3}n`$ phases of dendrimers are the precursors to the new phases which can be built from scarred colloidosomes.

The ability to control the topology of the molecules in addition to their geometry leads to concomitant advances in the spectrum of materials properties. Polymers with attached, side-chain nematogens form liquid crystalline elastomers  with extraordinary opto-mechanical responses, exhibiting shape changes between 10% and 400%! Thus, by merely changing the connectivity, i.e. the topology, of the mesogens and the polymer backbones, it is possible to drastically alter material properties. These materials are likely to find their way into a variety of actuators and sensors, including artificial muscle. Another example of topological control is in the synthesis of branched, dendritic polymers or dendrimers. By controlling the geometry of the branching points and the recursive topology of the branches, it has become possible to assemble supramolecular, nanoscale structures with specific form and function. Indeed, recent advances in dendrimer synthesis have led to an entirely new class of complex, electronic materials that owe their great technological potential to their ability to self-process themselves into the nanoscale geometries that modern molecular electronics requires . Further advances promise mechanical actuators, chemical sensors and anisotropic conductors.

The work by Bausch et al. opens up an entirely new mode for self-assembly. By relying on the elegant topological arguments that ensure twelve scars on each colloidosome, the authors have demonstrated that micron-sized building blocks can, themselves be self-processed. The universal behavior that is independent of the colloidal interactions makes it possible to design macroscopic materials without the need for elegant, difficult yet costly synthetic methods. Moreover, since the length of the scars can be rationally controlled, it is possible to tailor the surface properties to enhance or inhibit the binding of specific agents. The interactions that control the positions and distribution of the defects can be harnessed to use the scars as scaffolding that can template the assembly of functional nanomolecules or form the connectors for a space-filling lattice of functionalized spheres. Instead, the colloidosome building blocks can be easily synthesized, controlled and assembled so that greater attention can be lavished upon the active chemical or biochemical sites. Morever, the colloidosomes themselves can be filled and functionalized with a vast array of therapeutics, biomaterials and nanostructures, enabling the assembly of truly hierarchical, self-processed materials.

References

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