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# Non-topographic description of inherent structure dynamics in glass formers

## I Introduction

In 1969, Goldstein suggested that the dynamical slowdown of a liquid approaching its glass transition could be understood in terms of its potential energy landscape goldstein . The practical implementation of this description was later introduced by Stillinger and Weber via the inherent structure (IS) formalism SW1 . The landscape or “topographic” view has become one of the paradigms in the field topo ; Debe . The purpose of this paper is to pursue, however, the rather orthogonal idea that the landscape description is essentially incomplete, in the sense that from the statistical properties of IS, or similar static characteristics, it is not possible to capture the central spatial and dynamical aspects of the physics of glass formers. Instead, we aim here at a “non-topographic” reinterpretation of the dynamics between IS, showing that the central role is played by dynamical heterogeneities, without resorting to any special features of the potential energy landscape.

The connection between the existence of a dynamical correlation length and the landscape description is in fact implicitly present in the original papers goldstein ; SW2 , although it only clearly appears in more recent works Buchner-Heuer2 ; Buchner-Heuer ; Denny-et-al ; Doliwa-Heuer ; dh2 . The connection relies on two remarks. (i) According to Goldstein goldstein , the landscape is useful for “viscous” liquids, for which a separation of time scales between fast vibrations and slower structural relaxations exists. This gives rise to the notions of “basins” or “traps” which are then purely dynamical concepts. (ii) Escape from these traps was described to be “localized” in space goldstein , a fact which was later numerically confirmed SW2 . The transition rate between basins therefore becomes extensive “for large enough systems” SW2 . How large the system must be, what is the geometry, and what are the typical length and time scales of these rearrangements are crucial questions left unanswered unless spatial and dynamical aspects are included explicitly in the theoretical description.

In what follows we show that natural answers can be obtained in the context of dynamical heterogeneities review , thus leading to a consistent qualitative interpretation of IS dynamics. This we demonstrate using the simplest models which capture the phenomenon of dynamic heterogeneity, and for which the landscape properties are completely irrelevant (sections II and III). We also show that a satisfactory quantitative agreement with numerical and experimental studies of mesoscopic systems can be obtained (section IV), emphasizing the relevance of the non-topographic description of supercooled liquid dynamics discussed in this paper.

## II Dynamical heterogeneities versus “hidden inherent structures”

In a cold dense liquid mobility is sparse. A microscopic immobile region is mostly surrounded by other immobile regions. It can become mobile only if it is next to a rare microscopic mobile region: its dynamics is facilitated by the presence of an unjammed mobile neighbour. This is the concept of dynamic facilitation, originally introduced in Fredrickson-Andersen , which leads to the phenomenon of dynamic heterogeneity harro ; Garrahan-Chandler .

The elementary models which capture the idea of dynamic facilitation are the Fredrickson-Andersen (FA) Fredrickson-Andersen  and the East Jackle-Eisinger  spin facilitated models (see Ritort-Sollich  for a comprehensive review). They consist of a chain of two-state spins, $`n_i=0,1`$ $`(i=1\mathrm{}N)`$, with non-interacting Hamiltonian $`H=_in_i`$, and single spin flip dynamics subject to local kinetic constraints. In the FA model, a spin can flip if either of its nearest neighbours is in the up state, while in the East model a spin can flip only if its nearest neighbour to the right is up. The equilibrium behaviour of both models is that of an ideal gas of binary excitations, with an equilibrium concentration of up spins given by $`c=1/\left(1+e^{1/T}\right)`$ at temperature $`T`$. At low temperatures the dynamics is glassy due to the competition between decreasing the energy and the need for facilitating spins. The FA model is Arrhenius, or strong, in the jargon of supercooled liquids Angell , with relaxation time $`t_{\mathrm{rel}}=e^{3/T}`$. The East model is super-Arrhenius, or fragile, $`t_{\mathrm{rel}}=e^{1/(T^2\mathrm{ln}2)}`$.

In order to study the dynamics of IS in the FA and East models we consider the single spin Monte Carlo dynamics in equilibrium at temperature $`T`$, using a combination of Metropolis and continuous time algorithms Newman99 . At each Monte Carlo step, we quench the system by running a zero temperature Metropolis dynamics. We thus obtain the finite $`T`$ and its corresponding IS trajectory, as initially suggested in the context of liquids. In Fig. 1 (top), we show such an IS trajectory in the FA model at $`T=0.6`$. The vertical axis corresponds to space and the horizontal one to time. Up (down) spins in the IS configuration are denoted black (white). The IS structure trajectory is very close to that of the corresponding finite $`T`$ one. This is due to the fact that, as a consequence of the kinetic constraints, an up spin can be relaxed under the quench only if a neighbour is in the up state, so that the quenching procedure does not break the continuity of the up spin “world-lines”. This IS trajectory then displays the structure of a dense mixture of “bubbles” separated by excitation lines, as discussed in Garrahan-Chandler . In Fig. 1 (bottom), we show the evolution of $`e_{IS}`$, the (extensive) energy of the IS, as a function of time $`t`$. The time series is featureless, corresponding to a sequence of many uncorrelated events. This is analogous to what is found in simulations of liquids for high temperatures or large system sizes SW3 ; Buchner-Heuer .

The existence of a dynamical coherence length, $`\mathrm{}(T)`$, is however clear from the IS trajectory in Fig. 1. Individual transitions in IS correspond to the birth or closure of the trajectory space bubbles, i.e., the branching or coalescence of excitation lines. The dynamical correlation length $`\mathrm{}(T)`$ is thus given by the typical size of the bubbles, which is fixed by the equilibrium concentration of excitations, $`\mathrm{}(T)=c^1(T)`$. In Fig. 1, the system size $`L`$ is much larger than $`\mathrm{}(T)`$, $`L=32\mathrm{}(T)`$. In Fig. 2 we show instead an IS trajectory and its corresponding $`e_{IS}`$ time series in a case where the system size is much closer to the coherence length, $`L=4\mathrm{}(T)`$. The time series for $`e_{IS}`$ now displays the coherent changes in IS energies also observed in numerical simulations of “sufficiently small” supercooled liquids Buchner-Heuer ; Denny-et-al ; SW3 . Obviously, “sufficiently small” only becomes a well-defined statement when $`\mathrm{}(T)`$ is first defined. We emphasize also that these “hidden structures” follow here from the presence of dynamical heterogeneities, with no obvious relation to specific topographic features of the energy landscape, which in this case is trivial.

All the features of the $`e_{IS}`$ time series in Fig. 2 (bottom) can be traced back to the slow bubbles, i.e., dynamic heterogeneities, in the trajectory of Fig. 2 (top). The fast spikes in Fig. 2 (bottom) correspond to smaller bubbles that “wet” the larger ones, which in turn determine the more persistent plateaus in $`e_{IS}`$. In principle one could renormalize out the smaller bubbles and obtain a time series for “metabasins” in analogy with Buchner-Heuer ; Denny-et-al ; Doliwa-Heuer . In our case this is unnecessary since we know the space time distribution of bubbles Garrahan-Chandler  and we can therefore account for the effect in the IS dynamics of the whole range of dynamical heterogeneities. This is especially important in the case of the East model, where the hierarchical nature of the dynamics leads to a fractal wetting structure which in turn is responsible for the temperature dependent stretching of correlation functions characteristic of fragile systems Garrahan-Chandler ; Buhot-Garrahan .

## III Lifetime of heterogeneities versus “hopping times”

Each event in the time series of $`e_{IS}`$ of Figs. 1 and 2 which increases/decreases the energy of the IS corresponds to the birth/closure of a bubble in trajectory space. The distribution of time intervals between events is then given by the distribution of time extensions of bubbles, or lifetimes of dynamical heterogeneities, $`p(t)`$. One has Garrahan-Chandler :

$$p(t)=_0^{\mathrm{}}\rho (\mathrm{})\rho (t|\mathrm{})d\mathrm{}=\frac{t^{\beta 1}}{t_{\mathrm{rel}}^\beta 𝒩(\beta )}e^{(t/t_{\mathrm{rel}})^\beta },$$
(1)
where $`\rho (\mathrm{})=ce^c\mathrm{}`$ is the distribution of length scales of heterogeneities, $`\rho (t|\mathrm{})`$ the conditional distribution of corresponding time scales, and $`𝒩`$ a normalization factor. The stretching exponent $`\beta `$ is temperature independent, $`\beta =1/2`$, for the FA model, and decreases with $`T`$ for the East model, with $`\beta T`$ at low temperatures. The correlation functions are determined through the persistence function $`P(t)=_t^{\mathrm{}}p(t^{})dt^{}\mathrm{exp}[(t/t_{\mathrm{rel}})^\beta ]`$. These models are an explicit realization of stretched relaxation induced by the distribution of time and length scales of heterogeneous regions review .

To numerically access the distribution (1), we follow the empirical procedure of Refs. Buchner-Heuer2 ; Buchner-Heuer . As for these simulations of supercooled liquids, we strike a compromise between small enough system sizes, comparable to the dynamic correlation length in order to distinguish between individual events, with large enough ones to avoid finite size effects, corresponding here to an upper cutoff of the integral (1). Again, the procedure becomes well-defined when $`\rho (\mathrm{})`$ has first been defined, Eq. (1). In practical terms, we seek the smallest system size for which autocorrelation functions converge to those of the bulk. In the case of the FA and East models we have checked that this is obtained for systems of length $`L4\mathrm{}(T)`$ and $`8\mathrm{}(T)`$, respectively. The difference stems from the hierarchical structure of time scales of the East model which enhances the relevance of larger length scales with respect to the FA case.

Figs. 3 and 4 show that Eq. (1) indeed describes the distribution of times between events—or “hopping times” in the language of Denny-et-al ; Doliwa-Heuer —in the IS time series. Fig. 3 (top) presents for the FA model, at various low temperatures for system sizes $`L=4\mathrm{}(T)`$, the IS energy correlation function, $`C(t)=[e_{IS}(t)e_{IS}(0)e_{IS}^2]/L`$. An almost temperature independent stretching, close to $`\beta =1/2`$, is obtained, as expected at low temperatures, Eq. (1). In the lower panel of Fig. 3 we show the distribution of the logarithm of hopping times, $`\pi (\mathrm{ln}t)`$, for a similar range of temperature and similar sizes. From Eq. (1), we have

$$\pi (\mathrm{ln}t)=\frac{1}{𝒩(\beta )}\left(\frac{t}{t_{\mathrm{rel}}}\right)^\beta \mathrm{exp}\left[\left(\frac{t}{t_{\mathrm{rel}}}\right)^\beta \right].$$
(2)
Symbols in the bottom panel of Fig. 3 indicate simulation data, while lines correspond to fits using Eq. (2) with $`\beta =1/2`$, i.e., the single fitting parameter is the relaxation time $`t_{\mathrm{rel}}(T)`$. The fits are excellent over several orders of magnitude. Fig. 4 presents a similar analysis for the East model, for systems sizes $`L=8\mathrm{}(T)`$. The top panel shows $`C(t)`$. The temperature dependence of the stretching is obvious, and follows well the theoretical expectations. The bottom panel gives the data for hopping time distributions, and fits using Eq. (2), where now $`\beta (T)`$ is fixed from the corresponding values for $`C(t)`$. Again, the fits are good over several orders of magnitude.

The agreement between theory and simulations does not come as a surprise. This step was necessary, however, to establish the actual link between the dynamically heterogeneous dynamics of the system and the distribution of “hopping” or “trapping” times as measured in Refs. Denny-et-al ; Doliwa-Heuer ; dh2 . It also shows that these names (hopping, trapping) somehow obscure the physical interpretation.

## IV Comparison to simulations and experiments

The spin facilitated models studied above are a simple instance where the phenomenon of dynamical “trapping” occurs due to the presence of spatial dynamical heterogeneities. Moreover, they are simple enough that the statistical properties of the “traps” can be worked out analytically. The basic initial observation of Stillinger and Weber was precisely the presence of these “hidden structures in liquid” SW1 ; SW3 . More recently, quantitative studies of the statistical properties of the IS dynamics in liquids have appeared Denny-et-al ; Doliwa-Heuer ; dh2 . The purely topographic interpretation of the data made in Refs. Denny-et-al ; Doliwa-Heuer ; dh2  was the main motivation for the current paper, since we think that the “basins”, “metabasins” or “traps” described in these works are a manifestation of the presence of dynamical heterogeneities, but not necessarily of static “traps”, as discussed in the previous sections.

Having theoretical predictions from the spin facilitated models, it is tempting to reanalyze published data to check whether predictions are able to describe also more realistic models and experiments. Our ambition here is not to claim that one-dimensional spin models are enough to describe the physics of three-dimensional molecular supercooled liquids, but rather to show that the mechanism described above is a simple and robust one, with an applicability well beyond these simple models arrows .

In Fig. 5, we present the data for hopping time distributions from the simulations of Denny-et-al  (top) and Doliwa-Heuer  (bottom). The lines through the symbols are fits using the distribution for dynamical heterogeneities log times of the FA/East models, Eq. (2). Apart from an irrelevant normalization constant, there are only two fitting parameters, the stretching exponent $`\beta `$ and the relaxation time $`t_{\mathrm{rel}}`$. The fits to the data of Denny et al. (top) are as good or better than those with a log normal distribution, as predicted by an activated scaling Denny-et-al . The agreement is also very good for Doliwa and Heuer’s data (bottom), which we have chosen to present as $`\pi (\mathrm{ln}t)`$ rather than as $`p(t)`$ as they were originally published in Doliwa-Heuer . The deviations in the fits in this case are a consequence of the data for the very short times investigated in Doliwa-Heuer , where we expect the mechanism of dynamical facilitation to be less relevant, so that Eq. (2) should describe the tails of the distributions more accurately than the small times fit .

Finally, we have compared Eq. (2) to experimental observations. Although changing the system size is not conveniently realized in experiments, it is still possible to investigate the dynamics in “mesoscopic” regions, i.e., regions of a size comparable to the dynamic coherence length $`\mathrm{}(T)`$. In Ref. VidalRussell-Israeloff , time series for molecular polarization were obtained by Vidal Russell and Israeloff in local probe experiments on polyvinyl acetate films. Typical length scales probed through the use of non-contact atomic force microscopy techniques are $`20\mathrm{nm}`$, i.e., not very large compared to the estimated size of heterogeneities review . Fortunately, since the polarization signal oscillates between two or four discrete levels, fast thermal fluctuations only produce oscillations about these discrete values, so that the corresponding distributions for switching times can directly be compared to Eq. (2), therefore bypassing the IS construction.

We reproduce in Fig. 6 the distributions presented in the Fig. 5 of Ref. VidalRussell-Israeloff , where we have adopted a log scale for the time axis, and represented $`\pi (\mathrm{ln}t)`$ instead of $`p(t)`$, so that the comparison with the theoretical prediction (2) can be made on the entire range of time scales and also to facilitate the comparison with the results presented above. Again, we obtain an excellent fit of the experimental data to Eq. (2) for the complete experimental time window. The stretching exponents we find, $`\beta =0.67`$ and $`0.63`$ for the up and down polarizations, respectively, are slightly larger than the ones estimated in VidalRussell-Israeloff . This is because the latter stemmed from a fit to a stretched exponential form of the tail of the distribution. Instead, it is clear from Fig. 6 that the power law prefactor is necessary to account for the whole spectrum of time scales, and this shifts the stretching exponent to a slightly larger value.

## V Conclusions

We have shown that a consistent interpretation of the IS dynamics can be obtained solely invoking spatial and dynamical aspects related to the statistical properties of the dynamic heterogeneity of supercooled liquids. This physical picture was made more precise in the study of two simple dynamically facilitated spin models, which also allowed to obtain quantitative predictions which compare well to numerical and experimental data. Our results are additional evidence that dynamical heterogeneities play a crucial role in the physics of liquids approaching their glass transition review .

In the topographic language, the so-called “landscape-influenced” regime evidenced by a decrease of $`e_{IS}`$ with decreasing temperature is the relevant one in numerical simulations topo ; sastry . In our non-topographic perspective, this decrease of the IS energy corresponds to a decreasing concentration of facilitating defects arrows , i.e., to the growth of the dynamical coherence length which is in turn directly responsible for the dynamical slowdown. It is therefore striking that the physics at relatively high temperatures, i.e., above the estimated mode–coupling temperature $`T_c`$, can be described by the same physical mechanism of dynamic facilitation initially supposed to be relevant close to the experimental glass transition $`T_g`$. Hence, our results imply that the dynamics above $`T_c`$ is heterogeneous, in agreement with simulations simuhetero .

Moreover, as suggested in Denny-et-al ; Doliwa-Heuer , it logically follows that the physics in this regime is qualitatively not very different from the one at temperatures closer to $`T_g`$. This is at odds with the common belief that a change of mechanism takes place close to $`T_c`$ Debe . This raises two interesting questions that we formulate as a conclusion to the paper. First, in the language of heterogeneities, what is the meaning, if any, of the crossovers reported close to $`T_c`$? Second, since these crossovers somehow justify the use of the mode-coupling theory above $`T_c`$, why does the theory apparently work in a regime where the dynamics is heterogenous, and why does it eventually break down at lower temperatures?

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to J.-P. Bouchaud, D. Chandler, D.R. Reichman and G. Tarjus for discussions. We thank the authors of Refs. Denny-et-al ; Doliwa-Heuer ; VidalRussell-Israeloff  for kindly providing their published data. We acknowledge financial support from a European Marie Curie Fellowship No HPMF-CT-2002-01927, CNRS (France), Worcester College Oxford, EPSRC Grant No. GR/R83712/01, and the Glasstone Fund. Some of the numerical results were obtained on Oswell at the Oxford Supercomputing Center, Oxford University.


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# Nonlinear Schrödinger Equations within the Nelson Quantization Picture

## Abstract

We present a class of nonlinear Schrödinger equations (NLSEs) describing, in the mean field approximation, systems of interacting particles. This class of NLSEs is obtained generalizing expediently the approach proposed in Ref. \[G.K. Phys. Rev. A $`\mathrm{𝟓𝟓}`$, 941 (1997)\], where a classical system obeying to an exclusion-inclusion principle is quantized using the Nelson stochastic quantization. The new class of NLSEs is obtained starting from the most general nonlinear classical kinetics compatible with a constant diffusion coefficient $`D=\mathrm{}/2m`$. Finally, in the case of $`s`$-stationary states, we propose a transformation which linearizes the NLSEs here proposed.

Nonlinear Schrödinger equation, Stochastic quantization method.

One among the most investigated topics in quantum mechanics regards the nonlinear generalizations of the Schrödinger equation. In the last decades many nonlinear extensions of the Schrödinger equation have been proposed in literature either to explore the fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics, with the usual linear theory representing only a limiting case, or to describe particular physical phenomenologies.
Among the many nonlinear variants of Schrödinger equations proposed in literature, we recall the Bialynicki-Birula and Mycielski Bialynicki  in which appears the term $`b\mathrm{ln}|\psi |^2`$, the Guerra and Pusterla model Guerra  introducing the nonlinearity $`\mathrm{\Delta }|\psi |/|\psi |`$ in order to save the superposition principle of the linear quantum mechanics, and finally, the Weinberg theory Weinberg  which proposes the introduction of homogeneous nonlinear terms in order to save, only partially, the superposition principle.
Many of the NLSEs proposed contain complex nonlinearities. For instance, the Doebner-Goldin equation Doebner1 ; Doebner2 , belonging to the Weinberg class, were introduced as the most general NLSE compatible with the Fokker-Planck equation for the probability density.

In addition, a large number of NLSEs have been introduced in order to study some phenomenologies in condensed matter physics. In Ref.s Gagnon ; Gagnon1  a NLSE with a nonlinearity of the type $`a_1|\psi |^2\psi +a_2|\psi |^4\psi +ia_3_x(|\psi |^2\psi )+(a_4+ia_5)_x|\psi |^2\psi `$, is introduced to describe a single mode wave propagation in a Kerr dielectric guide. Another example is found in Ref. Malomed1  where the nonlinearity $`a_1|\psi |^2\psi +ia_2\psi +ia_3_{xx}\psi +ia_4|\psi |^2\psi `$ takes into account pumping and dumping effects of the nonlinear media and can be used to describe dynamical modes of plasma physics, hydrodynamics and solitons in optical fibers (Ref. Malomed3  and references therein). Finally, NLSEs are used to describe propagation of high power optical pulses in ultrashort soliton communication systems Doktorov , incoherent solitons Bang1 , and others.

In Ref. Kaniadakis , starting from a classical system obeying to an exclusion-inclusion principle, a NLSE with complex nonlinearity was derived by using a direct generalization of the stochastic quantization method proposed by Nelson Nelson . The classical nonlinear kinetics imposed by the exclusion-inclusion principle was studied in Ref.s KQ ; KB . Successively in Ref. KLQ  the problem of the most general nonlinear classical kinetics was investigated. This last one contains as a particular case the kinetics found in different physical systems, like among others, the Bosons and Fermions (generalized exclusion-inclusion principle), the quons and the system of particles obeying to the Haldane statistics KLQ1 . The above nonlinear kinetics can be used to describe several physical phenomenologies like the Bose-Einstein condensation, the superfluidity and superconductivity and so on.

In the present paper we discuss the problem concerning the quantization of a classical system obeying to the most general nonlinear kinetics compatible with a constant diffusional coefficient, by using the method of Ref. Kaniadakis . We recall that in Ref. Mann  it has been presented another generalization of the stochastic quantization method which permits to obtain NLSEs containing only real nonlinearities.

Let us consider a classical stochastic Marcoffian process in $`n`$dimensional space $``$, described by the following evolution equation:

$$\frac{\rho (t,𝒙)}{t}=\underset{}{}\left[\pi (t,𝒚𝒙)\pi (t,𝒙𝒚)\right]d^ny,$$
(1)
where $`\rho (t,𝒙)`$ is the particle density function and $`\pi (t,𝒙𝒚)`$ the transition probability from the site $`𝒙`$ to the site $`𝒚`$ given by KQ :

$$\pi (t,𝒙𝒚)=r(t,𝒙,𝒙𝒚)\alpha (\rho (t,𝒙))\beta (\rho (t,𝒚)).$$
(2)
The above definition for the transition probability implies a nonlinear kinetics and plays a fundamental role in the development of the theory exposed here. We observe that $`\pi (t,𝒙𝒚)`$ is given by a product of three factors. The first one, $`r(t,𝒙,𝒙𝒚)`$, is the transition rate and depends only on the starting $`𝒙`$ and arrival $`𝒚`$ sites during the particle transition $`𝒙𝒚`$. The second factor $`\alpha (\rho (t,𝒙))`$ is an arbitrary function of the particle population of the starting site. This function satisfies the condition $`\alpha (0)=0`$, because if the starting site is empty the transition probability is equal to zero. Finally the third factor $`\beta (\rho (t,𝒚))`$ is an arbitrary function of the arrival site particle population. For this function we have the condition $`\beta (0)=1`$ which requires that the transition probability does not depend on the arrival site if, in it, particles are absent. The expression of the function $`\beta (\rho (t,𝒙))`$ plays a very important role in the particle kinetics because can stimulate or inhibit the transition $`𝒙𝒚`$ allowing in this way to take into account interactions originated from collective effects.

The evolution equation (1), taking into account the expression of the transition probability Eq. (2), assumes the form:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\rho (t,𝒙)}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`\beta (\rho (t,𝒙)){\displaystyle \underset{}{}}r(t,𝒙+𝒚,𝒚)\alpha (\rho (t,𝒙+𝒚))d^ny`$ (3)
$``$ $`\alpha (\rho (t,𝒙)){\displaystyle \underset{}{}}r(t,𝒙,𝒚)\beta (\rho (t,𝒙𝒚))d^ny.`$
Now we consider the particle kinetics in the first neighbor approximation and then we expand up to the second order the quantities $`r(t,𝒙+𝒚,𝒚)\alpha (\rho (t,𝒙+𝒚))`$ and $`\beta (\rho (t,𝒙𝒚))`$ in Taylor series of $`𝒙+𝒚`$ and $`𝒙𝒚`$ respectively, in an interval around $`𝒙`$, for $`𝒚𝒙`$. We obtain

$`r(t,𝒙+𝒚,𝒚)\alpha (\rho (t,𝒙+𝒚))`$ $`=`$ $`r(t,𝒙,𝒚)\alpha (\rho (t,𝒙))+__i[r(t,𝒙,𝒚)\alpha (\rho (t,𝒙))]y__i`$ (4)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}__i__j[r(t,𝒙,𝒚)\alpha (\rho (t,𝒙))]y__iy__j+O(y^3),`$
$`\beta (\rho (t,𝒙𝒚))=\beta (\rho (t,𝒙))__i\beta (\rho (t,𝒙))y__i+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}__i__j\beta (\rho (t,𝒙))y__iy__j+O(y^3),`$ (5)
being $`__i=/x__i`$, with $`i=1,\mathrm{},n`$.
After introducing the drift coefficient $`𝑱(t,𝒙)`$ the diffusion coefficient $`D(t,𝒙)`$:

$`𝑱(t,𝒙)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{}{}}𝒚r(t,𝒙,𝒚)d^ny,`$ (6)
$`D(t,𝒙)\delta _{_{ij}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{}{}}y__iy__jr(t,𝒙,𝒚)d^ny,`$ (7)
Eq. (3) transforms to the following nonlinear partial differential equation KLQ ; KLQ1 :

$$\frac{\rho }{t}=\mathbf{}\left[\left(𝑱+\mathbf{}D\right)\alpha \beta +D\left(\beta \frac{\alpha }{\rho }\alpha \frac{\beta }{\rho }\right)\mathbf{}\rho \right],$$
(8)
with $`\rho =\rho (t,𝒙),\alpha =\alpha (\rho )`$ and $`\beta =\beta (\rho )`$. Eq. (8) is a continuity equation for the density of particle $`\rho /t+\mathbf{}𝒋=0`$ in the configuration space, where the current results to be the sum of two terms: $`𝒋=𝒋_{\mathrm{drift}}+𝒋_{\mathrm{diff}}`$. The first one $`𝒋_{\mathrm{drift}}=(𝑱+\mathbf{}D)\gamma (\rho )`$ with $`\gamma (\rho )=\alpha (\rho )\beta (\rho )`$, is a nonlinear drift current. The second term $`𝒋_{\mathrm{diff}}=D(\beta \alpha /\rho \alpha \beta /\rho )\mathbf{}\rho `$ is a nonlinear diffusional current different from the standard Fick current. In fact, the coefficient which multiplies $`\mathbf{}\rho `$ is a function of $`\rho `$. Eq. (8) describes a class of nonlinear diffusional processes varying the functions $`\alpha (\rho )`$ and $`\beta (\rho )`$.

In the following, we study a sub-class of the above processes for which the diffusion coefficient $`D`$ is a constant and the diffusional current is given by the standard Fick form $`𝒋_{\mathrm{diff}}=D\mathbf{}\rho `$. Then the functional $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ obey the condition:

$`\beta {\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{\rho }}\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{\beta }{\rho }}=1.`$ (9)
From Eq. (9) we obtain:

$$\alpha (\rho )=\left[\gamma (\rho )\mathrm{\Gamma }(\rho )\right]^{1/2},\beta (\rho )=\left[\gamma (\rho )/\mathrm{\Gamma }(\rho )\right]^{1/2},$$
(10)
where

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\rho )=\mathrm{exp}\left[\stackrel{\rho }{}\frac{d\rho ^{}}{\gamma (\rho ^{})}\right].$$
(11)
Varying $`\gamma (\rho )`$, Eq.s (8), (10) and (11) describe the class of nonlinear kinetics which is the object of study of the present contribution. This class of kinetics includes also the standard linear one for which $`\gamma (\rho )=\rho `$ and then $`\alpha (\rho )=\rho `$, $`\beta (\rho )=1`$.

Following Nelson, we assume that the continuity equation (8), which is a Fokker-Planck equation, describes a stochastic Markoffian process asymmetric in time Nelson . For this reason we must consider both the forward $`(+)`$ and the backward $`()`$ expressions of the particle current $`𝒋=𝒖^{(\pm )}\gamma (\rho )D\mathbf{}\rho `$ where $`𝒖^{(\pm )}=𝑱^{(\pm )}`$ are the forward and backward velocities. The forward and backward Fokker-Planck equation assume the form:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\rho }{t}}+\mathbf{}\left[𝒖^{(\pm )}\gamma (\rho )D\mathbf{}\rho \right]=0.`$ (12)
We define now the current velocity as $`𝒗=\left(𝒖^{(+)}+𝒖^{()}\right)/2`$, assuming that can be derived by a potential $`𝒗=\mathbf{}S/m`$. After summing the forward and backward Fokker-Planck equations, we obtain the following continuity equation:

$$\frac{\rho }{t}+\mathbf{}\left[\frac{\mathbf{}S}{m}\gamma (\rho )\right]=0.$$
(13)
In the stochastic quantization method the system is viewed as a classical Markoffian process where the particles are subjected to a Brownian diffusion with a diffusion coefficient given by $`D=\mathrm{}/2m`$ Fenyes ; Weizel . The mean acceleration for this classical stochastic process is defined as

$$𝒂=\frac{1}{2}\left[\left(\frac{d}{dt}\right)^{()}𝒖^{(+)}+\left(\frac{d}{dt}\right)^{(+)}𝒖^{()}\right],$$
(14)
where the forward and backward derivative are defined us:

$$\left(\frac{d}{dt}\right)^{(\pm )}=\frac{}{t}+𝒖^{(\pm )}\mathbf{}\pm D\mathrm{\Delta }.$$
(15)
The dynamics is governed by the Newton law $`𝑭=m𝒂`$ and supposing that the mean external force $`𝑭`$ is derived from a potential $`𝑭=\mathbf{}V`$, we can write $`\mathbf{}V=m𝒂`$. This last equation, if we take into account the expression of $`𝒂`$ given by Eq. (14) and the expressions of the forward and backward velocities $`𝒖^{(\pm )}=\mathbf{}S/m\pm D\mathbf{}\rho /\gamma (\rho )`$, reproduces after integration the evolution equation for the potential $`S`$ which is the following generalized Hamilton-Jacobi equation:

$$\frac{S}{t}+\frac{(\mathbf{}S)^2}{2m}+U_q(\rho )+W(\rho )+V=0,$$
(16)
where $`U_q(\rho )=\left(\mathrm{}^2/2m\right)\mathrm{\Delta }\rho ^{1/2}/\rho ^{1/2}`$ is the quantum potential Madelung ; Bohm  and $`W`$, given by

$$W(\rho )=f_1(\rho )\mathrm{\Delta }\rho +f_2(\rho )(\mathbf{}\rho )^2,$$
(17)
with

$`f_1(\rho )={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{4m}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma (\rho )}}\right],`$ (18)
$`f_2(\rho )={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{4m}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma (\rho )^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma (\rho )}{\rho }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\gamma (\rho )^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\rho ^2}}\right],`$ (19)
is a real nonlinear quantity depending only on the density of particle $`\rho `$.
We introduce now the complex function $`\psi `$ given by the ansatz:

$`\psi (t,𝒙)=\rho (t,𝒙)^{1/2}\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{i}{\mathrm{}}}S(t,𝒙)\right].`$ (20)
By taking into account Eq. (20) the particle current $`𝒋=(\mathbf{}S/m)\gamma (\rho )`$ can be written as:

$$𝒋=\frac{i\mathrm{}}{2m}\gamma (\rho )\left(\frac{\mathbf{}\psi }{\psi }\frac{\mathbf{}\psi ^{}}{\psi ^{}}\right).$$
(21)
The continuity equation (13), the generalized Hamilton-Jacobi equation (16) together with the ansatz (20), allow to obtain the evolution equations for the function $`\psi `$ which is the following NLSE:

$$i\mathrm{}\frac{\psi }{t}=\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}\mathrm{\Delta }\psi +V\psi +\mathrm{\Lambda }(\rho ,𝒋)\psi ,$$
(22)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(\rho ,𝒋)=W(\rho )+i𝒲(\rho ,𝒋)`$ is a nonlinear complex quantity whose imaginary part is given by:

$$𝒲(\rho ,𝒋)=\frac{\mathrm{}}{2\rho }\mathbf{}\left[\frac{\rho \gamma (\rho )}{\gamma (\rho )}𝒋\right],$$
(23)
and the real one takes the form:

$`W(\rho )={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{4m}}\left[\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma }}\right)\mathrm{\Delta }\rho +\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{\rho }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\gamma ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\rho ^2}}\right)\left(\mathbf{}\rho \right)^2\right].`$ (24)
We remark that Eq. (22) defines a large class of NLSEs by varying the functional $`\gamma (\rho )`$.
In Ref. Kaniadakis , with the purpose of introducing a generalized inclusion-exclusion principle which originates from the collective effects of a many body quantum system, it has been assumed $`\gamma (\rho )=\rho (1+\kappa \rho )`$. The corresponding NLSE obtained from Eq. (22) becomes:

$`i\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{\psi }{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}}\mathrm{\Delta }\psi +V\psi i\kappa {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{2\rho }}\mathbf{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\rho 𝒋}{1+\kappa \rho }}\right)\psi `$ (25)
$`+\kappa {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{4m}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\rho }{1+\kappa \rho }}+{\displaystyle \frac{2\kappa \rho }{2\rho }}{\displaystyle \frac{(\mathbf{}\rho )^2}{(1+\kappa \rho )^2}}\right]\psi ,`$
where $`𝒋`$, given by Eq. (21), takes the form:

$`𝒋={\displaystyle \frac{i\mathrm{}}{2m}}(\psi ^{}\mathbf{}\psi \psi \mathbf{}\psi ^{})(1+\kappa \rho ).`$ (26)
In Eq.s (25) and (26) the parameter $`\kappa 𝑹`$ takes into account of exclusive ($`\kappa <0`$) or inclusive ($`\kappa >0`$) effects due to the particle interactions of the system.

Finally we consider the $`s`$-stationary states $`(𝒋=\mathrm{𝟎})`$ of the system described by Eq. (22) for which $`𝒲(\rho ,\mathrm{𝟎})=0`$. The field $`\psi `$ for these states has the form $`\psi =\rho ^{1/2}\mathrm{exp}(iEt/\mathrm{})`$ and obeys the stationary NLSE:

$$E\psi =\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}\mathrm{\Delta }\psi +V\psi +W(\rho )\psi .$$
(27)
Eq. (27) describes a $`C`$-integrable system which is linearizable by means of a transformation on the field $`\psi `$ Calogero ; Calogero2 . In fact, if we introduce now the new stationary wave function $`\varphi `$ by means of the ansatz

$$\varphi =c\mathrm{\Gamma }(\rho )^{1/2}\mathrm{exp}(iEt/\mathrm{}),$$
(28)
from Eq. (27) follows that the new field $`\varphi `$ obey to the stationary linear Schrödinger equation

$$E\varphi =\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi +V\varphi .$$
(29)
The constant $`c`$ in Eq. (28) is obtainable from the condition $`_{_{}}\psi ^{}\psi d^nx=_{_{}}\varphi ^{}\varphi d^nx=1`$ so that the wave-functions $`\psi `$ and $`\varphi `$ can be normalized simultaneously. The study of the $`s`$-stationary states of the nonlinear system obeying to Eq. (27) is reduced to the study of the $`s`$-stationary states of the linear system (29) under the same external potential $`V(𝒙)`$ and with the same energy $`E`$. We remark that the linearization of Eq. (27) can be understood by taking into account that the wave-functions $`\psi `$ and $`\varphi `$ satisfies the relation $`(T\varphi )/\varphi =(T\psi )/\psi +W(|\psi |^2)`$ where $`T=(\mathrm{}^2/2m)\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the quantum operator of kinetic energy. This last relationship means that the sum of the kinetic energy and of the nonlinear term $`W(|\psi |^2)`$ is equal to the kinetic energy of the system described by the wave function $`\varphi `$. This last system is linear because the nonlinear quantity $`W(|\psi |^2)`$ is hidden into this kinetic energy.

In conclusion, in the present paper we have studied within stochastic quantization a system obeying to the most general nonlinear kinetics compatible with a constant diffusion. The evolution equation (22) obtained in this way describes a wide class of NLSEs with complex nonlinearities by varying the functional $`\gamma (\rho )`$. Being $`\gamma (\rho )`$ an algebraic function of $`\rho `$ the nonlinearities are derivative of the second order, with the real part depending on the density of particle $`\rho `$ but not on the phases $`S`$. All equations belonging to this class conserve the total number of particle of the system, they are $`U(1)`$-invariant and, in absence of the external potential $`V(𝒙)`$, they are invariant over space-time translation and rotation, but generally, are not Galilei invariant. Finally, in the case of $`s`$-stationary states, a transformation $`\gamma `$-dependent permits the linearization of this class of the NLSEs.


text:
# Self-organization in multimode microwave phonon laser (phaser): experimental observation of spin-phonon cooperative motions

(March 6, 2003)

## Abstract

An unusual nonlinear resonance was experimentally observed in a ruby phonon laser (phaser) operating at 9 GHz with an electromagnetic pumping at 23 GHz. The resonance is manifested by very slow cooperative self-detunings in the microwave spectra of stimulated phonon emission when pumping is modulated at a superlow frequency (less than 10 Hz). During the self-detuning cycle new and new narrow phonon modes are sequentially “fired” on one side of the spectrum and approximately the same number of modes are “extinguished” on the other side, up to a complete generation breakdown in a certain final portion of the frequency axis. This is usually followed by a short-time refractority, after which the generation is fired again in the opposite (starting) portion of the frequency axis. The entire process of such cooperative spectral motions is repeated with high degree of regularity. The self-detuning period strongly depends on difference between the modulation frequency and the resonance frequency. This period is incommensurable with period of modulation. It increases to very large values (more than 100 s) when pointed difference is less than 0.05 Hz. The revealed phenomenon is a kind of global spin-phonon self-organization. All microwave modes of phonon laser oscillate with the same period, but with different, strongly determined phase shifts — as in optical lasers with antiphase motions.

Phonon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation was predicted theoretically in TheorEarly  and experimentally observed in microwave range by several groups AmplifEarly  in 1960–1970-th. This phenomenon is very similar to the usual paramagnetic maser gain of electromagnetic field Siegman-1964 ; TP-1991 . But if the phonon gain is large enough to exceed the phonon losses in the solid-state resonator, the self-excitation of laser-like phonon emission is possible GenerTucker ; SSC-1974 ; JETP-1977 . The wavelength of generated microwave-frequency phonons in such phonon laser lies usually in optical or near-infrared range (due to very small velocity of sound in crystals, which is about 5 orders less than the light velocity). In this sence microwave phonon laser (phaser) is more close relative of the optical laser, than terahertz phonon laser (saser), having much shorter wavelength (see Terahertz  and references therein).

Almost all early experiments with microwave phonon lasers GenerTucker ; SSC-1974 ; JETP-1977  were carried out in autonomous regime, when the control parameters of the active system remain unchanged during the whole time of measurement. Various regular and chaotic processes of generation of microwave phonons in a multimode nonautonomous phaser was experimentally observed and studied Chaotic  for $`\omega _m\omega _R`$ 20–300 Hz, where $`\omega _m`$ is the pumping modulation frequency, $`\omega _R`$ is the relaxation frequency of a nonequilibrium autonomous acoustic system ($`\omega _R`$ depends on pumping level). The existence of a single dominating component $`\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _Rt)`$ for the transient processes in the autonomous phonon laser reflects the collective character of a multimode stimulated emission LaminarTheory  in the quantum generators of class $`B`$, an acoustic analog of which is represented by a system studied in Chaotic . As a result, a nonlinear dynamics of the integral intensity of the multimode stimulated phonon emission $`J_\mathrm{\Sigma }(t)`$ in a nonautonomous phonon laser operating at $`\omega _m\omega _R`$ Chaotic  is satisfactorily described by a single-mode (or even point-like) model.

Outside the region of the nonlinear low-frequency resonance indicated above, the pronounced dependence of the mode variables on the scalar order parameter $`J_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is violated. Even in a two-mode regime of the class $`B`$ quantum generator, evolution of the partial components $`J_{1,2}(t)`$ qualitatively differs from $`J_\mathrm{\Sigma }(t)`$ Georgiou-1994 . In particular, the system may exhibit manifestations of a new nonlinear resonance at a frequency $`\omega _L\omega _R`$, which is related to the phonon intermode energy exchange through spin-system.

In this study, a nonlinear superlow-frequency resonance in a ruby phaser was experimentally observed for the first time at $`\omega _m\omega _L10`$ Hz. This resonance leads to a manifold narrowing of the microwave spectrum of stimulated phonon emission and to the appearance of very slow, highly organized self-detunings of phaser generation at still lower frequencies depending on the parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }_L\omega _m\omega _L`$. Some preliminary results on superlow-frequency resonance were reported in LaminarEarly , and short version of this study was published in TPL-2001  and repoted in MSMW-2001 .

The main element of the phonon laser studied is a solid-state microwave acoustic Fabry-Pérot resonator (AFPR) made of a pink ruby crystal $`\mathrm{Cr}^{3+}:\mathrm{Al}_2\mathrm{O}_3`$ (with impurities of $`\mathrm{Cr}_{2\mathrm{x}}^{3+}`$ in $`\mathrm{Al}_{2(1\mathrm{x})}\mathrm{O}_3`$, where $`\mathrm{x}3\times 10^4`$). This AFPR was made of ruby single crystal grown by the Verneuil method and cut to form of a round rod of 2.6 mm diameter and 17.6 mm length. Measured acoustic $`Q`$-factor of the AFPR is $`Q_N10^6`$ at 9–10 GHz.

One of the resonator’s acoustic mirrors was coated with a textured piezoelectric $`\mathrm{ZnO}`$ thin film capable of detecting longitudinal acoustic ($`LA`$) oscillations in AFPR. These oscillations were excited in the ruby crystal lattice due to the stimulated phonon emission at spin transitions $`E_3E_2`$ of $`\mathrm{Cr}^{3+}`$ paramagnetic ions. Inversion of populations of spin-levels $`E_3,E_2`$ was provided by simultaneous (push-pull) pumping of the transitions $`E_1E_3`$ and $`E_2E_4`$. Here $`E_i(i=\mathrm{1..4})`$ are the $`\mathrm{Cr}^{3+}`$ ground spin multiplet levels.

The experiments were performed at $`\omega _m=`$ 2–20 Hz with the ruby phaser having push-pull electromagnetic pumping at a frequency of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_P=2.3\times 10^{10}`$ Hz (see FIG. 1). The mode frequencies $`\mathrm{\Omega }_N`$ of the generated $`LA`$-phonons occur near a maximum of the inverted acoustic paramagnetic resonance (APR) line $`\mathrm{\Omega }_S=9.12\times 10^9`$ Hz. Since the longitudinal sound velocity $`V_{LA}`$ in the system studied was $`V_{LA}=V_{LA}(𝒌𝐂_3)10^6`$ cm/s, the wavelengths $`\lambda _N`$ of the generated microwave acoustic modes were close to the optical-wavelength ones: $`\lambda _N1\mu `$m ($`𝐂_3`$ is the trigonal axis of ruby crystal lattice). The intermode spacing was $`\mathrm{\Omega }_N\mathrm{\Omega }_{N1}=3.1\times 10^5`$ Hz and the total number of modes reached $`N_0^{\text{max}}=23`$ at a nonmodulated pumping power of $`P=1.2\times 10^2`$ W and the quality factor of electromagnetic pumping cavity $`Q_P=10^4`$.

All the experiments were performed by measuring the microwave spectra of the $`LA`$-oscillations at temperatures of $`\theta =1.74.2`$ K in static magnetic fields $`H`$ within the interval $`H=[H^{()},H^{(+)}]`$, where $`H^{(\pm )}=H_0\pm |\mathrm{\Delta }H|_{\text{max}}`$, $`H_0=3920`$ Oe, $`\mathrm{\Delta }H=HH_0`$, $`|\mathrm{\Delta }H|_{\text{max}}=50`$ Oe. The magnetic field vector $`𝑯`$ was oriented at an angle of $`\vartheta =54^{}44^{}`$ with respect to the axis $`𝐂_3`$ of the ruby crystal, which was necessary to ensure the condition of the push-pull pumping $`E_3E_1=E_4E_2`$ (FIG. 1). A typical power spectrum of microwave phonon emission in autonomous ruby phonon laser is shown at FIG. 2.

A special feature distinguishing this experiment from those described in Chaotic  was the use of a pulse lock-in method for detecting the microwave acoustic spectra. The essence of the method is as follows. A stimulated phonon emission generated in the crystal is converted by the piezoelectric film into an electromagnetic signal transmitted to a microwave spectrum analyzer. In the normal state, a beam of the input oscilloscope in the spectrum analyzer is shut off. The oscilloscope is periodically open by strobe pulses only within very short time intervals $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\text{str}}T_m2\pi /\omega _m`$, with a strobing period $`T_{str}`$ being equal exactly to the period of external pumping modulation $`T_m`$. At each lock-in time instant, the beam displayed a set of points on the oscilloscope screen indicating an instantaneous frequency distribution of the phonon mode intensity.

The shutter of a camera making photographs of the oscilloscope screen is open within a certain registration time interval $`t_{\text{reg}}`$, which is set as $`t_{\text{reg}}=nT_m`$ ($`n1`$ being an integer). Therefore, each camera shot represents a series of superimposed point sets. If the period of intensity oscillations for all of the generated phonon modes coincides with the external modulation period $`T_m`$, a spectrum measured in this stroboscopic regime must contain a singe point representing each mode.

A different situation takes place when the intensity oscillations of the generated phonon modes are not in phase with the modulation factor. For example, if the oscillation period is doubled simultaneously for all the modes, the number of points on the image would double as well. An especially illustrative pattern observed for the stimulated emission periodicity breakage, whereby the distribution of points on the image becomes chaotic, the intermode correlation is lost, etc.

It is important to note that both qualitative and quantitative information can be obtained concerning the degree of spectral ordering, the character of regular and irregular detunings in the mode structure, etc. The pro-posed method is essentially a generalization of the well-known Poincaré cross-sections method (see, e.g., Schuster-1984 ) to the case of a multimode system. A highly illustrative character — one of the main advantages of the Poincaré method — is fully inherited in the proposed approach.

Figures 3 and 4 show typical stroboscopic spectra of the stimulated phonon emission measured at $`\omega _m=94.0`$ Hz (i.e., in the region of a low-frequency resonance $`\omega _m\omega _R`$) and at $`\omega _m=9.79`$ Hz (at the maximum of the superlow-frequency resonance observed for the first time). The measurements were performed for $`n=10`$. As is clearly seen, a low-frequency destabilization of the generation process is manifested primarily by a strong chaotic amplitude modulation of the phonon modes (FIG. 3). This is accompanied by certain broadening of the spectrum ($`N_R^{(\text{max})}=25`$) as compared to that observed in the autonomous regime. The variation of $`\omega _m`$ from 70 to 200 Hz does not lead to qualitative changes of the general pattern (in agreement with the data reported previously for $`J_\mathrm{\Sigma }(t)`$ Chaotic ).

On the contrary, a superlow-frequency destabilization of the generation process is manifested by a pronounced (manifold) narrowing of the spectrum ($`N_L^{(\text{max})}=7`$) on the background of a significantly lower mode amplitude automodulation (FIG. 4). However, a much more pronounced feature is the appearance of self-detunings in the microwave phonon spectrum for $`\omega _m`$ deviating from the maximum of the superlow-frequency resonance at $`\omega _m=9.79`$ Hz. The self-detuning process is manifested by motion of the region of localization of this relatively narrow mode cluster along the frequency axis at a retained localization (width) of each mode. In other words, new modes are sequentially “fired” on one side of the cluster and approximately the same number of modes are “extinguished” on the other side, up to a complete generation breakdown in a certain final portion of the frequency axis. This is usually followed by a short-time refractority, after which the generation is fired again in the opposite (starting) portion of the frequency axis and the entire process of collective motions is multiply repeated at a period of $`T_{SD}T_m`$.

FIG. 5 shows a series of stimulated phonon emission spectra measured for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_L=0.23`$ Hz and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_H=0`$. A time interval of $`T_E2.5`$ s between sequential exposures $`E_K`$ in FIG. 5 is selected to be much greater than $`T_m`$. For the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_L`$ value indicated above, the self-detuning period is $`T_{SD}14`$ s. The results of experiments showed that the $`T_{SD}`$ value strongly depends on both absolute value and sign of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_L`$ and varies from a few tenths of a second for $`|\mathrm{\Delta }_L|1`$ Hz up to very large values $`T_{SD}>100`$ s for $`|\mathrm{\Delta }_L|<0.05`$ Hz. The direction of motion of the mode cluster is determined by the sign of $`|\mathrm{\Delta }_L|`$: for the virtual cluster maximum position denoted by $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B`$, the direction is such that $`\text{sgn}(d\mathrm{\Omega }_B/dt)=\text{sgn}\mathrm{\Delta }_L`$.

An analogous character of self-detunings in the microwave phonon spectrum in the region of the super-low-frequency resonance is retained on the whole in a rather broad range of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_H`$ . Moreover, in the entire region of $`|\mathrm{\Delta }_H|<10`$ Oe, even the $`\omega _L`$ value remains virtually the same (close to 9.8 Hz). Only for a still greater detuning of the spin system with respect to the magnetic field (under these conditions, even an autonomous phonon laser may exhibit some insufficiently studied generation features TPL-1994 ), the resonance frequency $`\omega _L`$ begins to drop significantly (approximately by half for $`|\mathrm{\Delta }_H|<60`$ Oe). Here the stimulated phonon emission intensity drops by more than one order of magnitude because of a decrease in the level of pumping (which passes now via a wing of the paramagnetic resonance line). A change in the sign of $`|\mathrm{\Delta }_H|`$ does not modify the self-detuning process (in contrast to the case of changing the sign of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_L`$ considered above).

On the whole, the dynamics of the collective motions described above is somewhat analogous to that of autowaves Mikhailov-1990 . Indeed, the observed moving spectral structures (like the usual autowaves) are independent (within certain limits) of perturbations in the control parameters and probably result from a self-organization in the open dissipative system of a phonon laser. The energy of external excitation (in our case, a pumping field) is spent for maintaining this state, while selective external factors only switch on certain internal processes changing the system behavior. Although the motions observed in our experiments occur in the spectral “space”, these phenomena naturally reflect the corresponding processes in the real physical space of a distributed active system of the phonon laser studied.

It should be emphasized that the above-described self-detunings in the phonon spectra of a nonautonomous phaser, as well as the recently observed nonlinear phenomena in electromagnetic masers TP-1999  and autonomous acoustic quantum generators TPL-1994 ; RE-1999 , possess an essentially nonthermal nature. Although the lower characteristic frequencies of the motions observed in this study fall within a millihertz frequency range, all these motions are related to the microwave field self-action through a spin system of a paramagnet in the absence of the so-called phonon bottleneck effect Antipin-1978  (and of the resulting phonon avalanche Golenishchev ). Therefore, no overheating of the stochastic phonon subsystem takes place in the spectral range of $`10^8`$ Hz corresponding to the APR linewidth on the $`E_2E_3`$ transition in pink ruby crystal at low temperatures. The observed frequencies of the chaotic amplitude modulation occur below $`10^3`$ Hz, while the microwave modes of the stimulated phonon emission remain very broad ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }_N<10^7\mathrm{\Omega }_N`$) for both $`\omega _m\omega _R`$ and $`\omega _m\omega _L`$. In this respect, behavior of the studied system qualitatively differs from that of the optical quantum generators of class $`A`$ featuring a large-scale breaking of coherency (by the hydrodynamical turbulence type Weiss-1999 ) of the stimulated emission.

In conclusion, the revealed phenomenon is a kind of global spin-phonon self-organization, which is the result of superlow-frequency resonant destabilization of stationary phaser generation. All microwave modes of phonon laser oscillate with the same period, but with different, strongly determined phase shifts — as in optical class $`B`$ lasers with antiphase motions (see LaminarTheory  and references therein). Several features of observed cooperative alternation of resonant $`LA`$ modes in phonon laser may be described by simple balance model of active medium with spatial hole burning LaminarTheory , but detailed theory of the self-organization in phaser must include into consideration the electron-nuclear magnetic interactions Abragam-1982 . These interactions dramatically modify the processes of near-resonant energy transfer in ruby phaser JETP-1977 ; FTT-1982  due to nuclear spin polarization under conditions of electron spin-system saturation.

Acknowledgments. The author is grateful to E. D. Makovetsky (Physical Optics Chair, Kharkov V.N. Karazin National University) and S. D. Makovetskiy (Department of Computer Sciences, Kharkov National University of Radioelectronics) for their valuable help with computer processing of the experimental data.


text:
# Extended Emission from Cygnus X-3 Detected with Chandra

## 1 Introduction

Cyg X–3 is a bright high mass X-ray binary with a 4.8 hr orbital period lying at a distance of $``$10 kpc (Dickey, 1983). The exact nature (black hole or neutron star) of the compact object is still in question. The mass donating companion is most likely an early Wolf-Rayet star (Fender et al., 1999) with an intense stellar wind evidenced by both infrared (van Kerkwijk, 1993) and X-ray (Paerels et al., 2000) lines. The source is highly variable from radio to hard X-ray wavelengths. In the radio, several Jansky flares are associated with the ejection of relativistic radio jets (see e.g., Geldzahler et al., 1983; Mioduszewski et al., 2001). Depending on assumptions made for the jet geometry, intrinsic velocities between 0.3c – 0.8c have been inferred. Cyg X–3 is therefore one of about a dozen Galactic binaries considered to be “microquasars” (see Distefano et al., 2002, for a list). When observed at milliarcsecond scales, the radio jets appear to be one-sided, while on arcsecond scales they appear two-sided. In either case the jet axis is nearly north-south.

## 2 Observations and Analysis

Chandra has observed Cyg X–3 with the spectroscopy array of the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer/High Energy Transmission Grating (ACIS-S/HETG) on four occasions for the purposes of studying the Wolf-Rayet wind (Paerels et al., 2000), measuring the source distance (Predehl et al., 2000), and searching for emission lines from the radio jets. The observations were made in 1999 October and December and in 2000 April (see Table 1). Figure 1 puts the Chandra observations in the context of the *Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer* All Sky Monitor (RXTE/ASM) Cyg X-3 light curve. The X-ray flux exhibits a strong bimodal behavior, alternating between extended periods below 10 and above 20 cps. Observations 101+1456a and 1456b occurred during a transition to and in a low state, respectively, while 425 and 426 were during the high state. Since the scattering halo is proportional to the recent point source flux, the high state observations have much brighter halo emission which is effectively a background for the detection of extended structure.

In our analysis of these observations, we used the CIAO tools version 2.2. The archival data were processed with ASCDS versions R4CU5UPD9 (101, 1456) and 6.3.1 (425, 426).

### 2.1 Image Analysis

For each observation, we extracted the zeroth order image binned at the nominal ACIS-S resolution ($``$0.49′′). Figure 2 shows the total image from all four observations. In each individual image, there is a bright, unresolved core surrounded by a strong scattering halo (Predehl et al., 2000) and the point spread function (PSF) wings. In each case, there is also significant ($``$10$`\sigma `$) excess emission to the NE (position angle, PA$``$75) of the point source. The farthest extent from the core is 18′′, corresponding to 2.7 $`D_{10}`$ lyr where $`D_{10}`$ is the distance in units of 10 kpc. It is also clearly extended, by about 5′′ (0.8 $`D_{10}`$ lyr), orthogonal to the core direction. As a fiducial location for the extension, its brightest point, near the center of the outermost arc, lies at RA=20h 32m 27s.1, Dec=$`+`$40 57 33′′.5 (J2000). We are confident the extension is real, as it appears at the same sky location in each observation, even though the observations were made at very different roll angles (see Table 1). This rules out instrumental artifacts, such as PSF asymmetries, which would move with the roll angle. Figure 2 also shows the profile of three slices through the point source. Although the point source is piled up, resulting in lost counts on axis, a clear extension is seen $``$16′′ off axis in two of the slices. The third, which avoids the extension, is shown for comparison. Furthermore, there is some evidence for a SW extension oppositely directed along slice 1. Neither feature is aligned with the ACIS readout streak or dispersed grating spectra in any of the observations.

It is not clear whether the NE extension is connected to the point source or not. Apparent in the image is a “bridge” of emission stretching from the NE extension toward the point source. The two slices suggest that this bridge could simply be the scattering halo, which shows modest azimuthal variations at most radii. However, if this bridge is associated with the extension, then there is evidence of substructure, since it appears brighter around the periphery with relatively weak emission in the center.

Finally, the milliarcsecond scale radio jets are almost north-south aligned, with PA=175 (Mioduszewski et al., 2001), nearly, but not quite, perpendicular to the X-ray extension.

### 2.2 Spectra

In order to search for any connection between the point source emission and that of the NE extension, we extracted grating spectra of the point source and CCD spectra of the extension from all four observations. This allowed us to look for correlated time variability and spectral similarities. For the extended emission, we used segments of annuli taken at the same radial distance from the point source for source and background regions. Table 2 lists rates, fluxes, and spectral parameters from fits to absorbed black body and power law models. For the point source, which has strong, variable lines from the stellar wind (Paerels et al., 2000), we included the six or seven most prominent lines as required for each observation in order to achieve an acceptable chi-squared. Good fits were achieved with both models. The resulting $`\chi ^2`$ values gave no preference between the two, except for the core source in observations 425 and 426 where a black body was somewhat preferred.

Within each observation, the extension flux was consistent with a constant. The flux was also unchanged between observations 425 and 426, which were separated by two days. We therefore have no evidence of variability on less than $``$day times. However, the point source and scattering halo did brighten by a factor of seven between observations 1456b and 425 (separated by four months), while the extension count rate only increased by about a factor of 2.5. This implies that the emission is not simply reprocessed/scattered point source flux (see §3). In any event, given the apparent size ($``$0.8 lyr) of the extended region, it is somewhat surprising to observe such strong variability in just four months. This hints that there may be significant underlying substructure. Unfortunately, because of limited statistics, we cannot determine if the extension spectrum changed, although the 1999 spectra are marginally harder than those in 2000.

## 3 Discussion

Any model of the extended emission must explain the observed morphology, time variability, luminosity, and spectrum. We consider several possible origins: scattering in a non-axisymmetric dust halo, a coincidental alignment of an unrelated source, reflection from the companion’s stellar wind, bremsstrahlung from the disk wind, and collision of historical jets with the ISM.

One possibility is that a non-uniform distribution of dust around the line of sight could result in enhanced, asymmetric halo emission. In this case, the spectrum and flux should follow closely the point source spectrum with only a short ($``$days) delay. However, the extension flux varied only by a factor of 2.5 over the observations, while the point source and the bulk of the halo varied by a factor of seven. Also, the black body temperature of the point source and extension in ObsID 425 (when Cyg X–3 had been bright for weeks) are significantly different (see Table 2). These facts argue that scattering halo asymmetries are not the cause of the extension.

We also considered the possibility that the source is unrelated to Cyg X–3. However, the fact that it is both extended and variable on month timescales rules out any extra-galactic object. The only remaining possibilities are supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae, and microquasar jets. Supernova remnants are ruled out by the time variability. The lack of a radio counterpart and the low number density of pulsar nebulae (only about 25 are known; Helfand, 1998) make this possibility unlikely, P$``$$`10^8`$. Finally any microquasar jets would certainly be associated with Cyg X–3. We therefore think it very unlikely that this is a coincidental alignment.

The emission may be flux from the point source scattered by the integrated Wolf-Rayet wind well outside the binary system. However, if the wind is persistent, then the outer regions of the disk wind should be shielded by the denser inner regions. This would result in a morphology dominated by flux close to the system, very different from what we observe.

However, the Wolf-Rayet wind may still cause the extension via Bremsstrahlung at its interface with the ISM. Ogley et al. (2001) used Infrared Space Observatory observations to infer a mass loss rate, which for disk-like wind geometries subtending 1.2 sr, could be as high as $`10^3`$$`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$$`\mathrm{yr}^1\mathrm{sr}^1`$. Such a disk wind in the plane of the binary orbit was suggested by Fender et al. (1999) to explain variations in the infrared spectrum and orbital modulation of V(iolet)/R(ed). Furthermore, Martí et al. (2001) hypothesize that a disk wind inclined to the radio jet axis could obscure one side of the base of a double jet. This could cause the jet to appear one-sided on milliarcsecond scales and two-sided on larger scales, as is observed. With a terminal velocity of $``$1500 km s-1 (van Kerkwijk, 1993), such a wind would require about 500 $`D_{10}`$ years to reach the observed 18′′ extent of the X-ray emission. This would effectively be a minimum age for the observed extension. A Bremsstrahlung fit to the ObsID 425 spectrum gives an electron temperature of $`1.6_{0.6}^{+1.4}`$ keV. The other observations were poorly constrained, but consistent with ObsID 425. With this temperature, and assuming a volume corresponding to a 5′′ diameter sphere, the data imply an electron density of a few hundred per cubic centimeter. While this is much higher than even the densest disk winds at a radius of 2.5 lyr, if the wind is plowing into the ISM and stopping, then the pertinent quantity is the *time integrated* wind density. Taking the above disk wind parameters and assuming the wind is fully ionized, it would require only about 2,000 years to build up the necessary electron density. Time variability would result from (historical) changes in the wind intensity that would heat the accumulated material to a greater or lesser degree. This picture is our most consistent explanation for the observations.

The emission might also be the result of material from an earlier jet ejection colliding with the ISM. In this case the X-rays would most likely be from synchrotron emission, as appears to be the case for the X-ray jets in XTE J1550-564 (Tomsick et al., 2003). This picture would account for the possible limb brightening of the extension, as the bulk of the emission would be expected at the jet/ISM interface. However, this scenario would require that the jet direction has precessed through a very large angle, since the observed radio jets are aligned close to the north-south direction. Furthermore, the transverse extent of the X-ray structure requires that the jet was either poorly collimated or exhibited significant change in direction during the emission period. This is significantly different from XTE J1550-564 where the jets are collimated to 2(Corbel et al., 2002). We note that the morphology expected from jet emission, a conical feature emanating from the core, should be easily distinguished from the elliptical shape expected from the disk wind model. We have recently made a Chandra High Resolution Camera observation to try to distinguish these possibilities.

Finally, we note that the microquasars SS433, LS I $`+`$61303, and possibly Cyg X-1 have extended *radio* emission around their cores perpendicular to their jet axes (Paragi et al., 1999; Massi et al., 2001; Stirling et al., 1998; Spencer et al., 2001). While these features are on much smaller (AU) scales, it is suggested that they are related to disk-like winds in the binary orbital plane. This suggests that the extended X-ray regions may be visible as radio sources, and deep searches should be carried out.


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# Probability of anomalously large Bit-Error-Rate in long haul optical transmission

## Abstract

We consider a linear model of optical pulse transmission through fiber with birefringent disorder in the presence of amplifier noise. Both disorder and noise are assumed to be weak, i.e. the average bit-error rate (BER) is small. The probability of rare violent events leading to the values of BER much larger than its typical value is estimated. We show that the probability distribution has a long algebraic tail.

Optical fibers are widely used for transmission of information. In an ideal case, information carried by pulses would be transmitted non-damaged. In reality, however, various impairments lead to the information loss. Noise generated by optical amplifiers and fiber birefringence are the two major impairments in high-speed fiber communications. The amplifier noise is short-correlated in time, while the birefringence varies significantly along the optical line and is practically frozen in time, since the characteristic temporal scale of such variations is long compared to the signal propagation time through the entire fiber line. Coexistence of two different sources of randomness characterized by two well-separated time scales is pretty common in statistical physics of disordered systems. A classical example would be the glassy behavior driven by short-correlated thermal noise in a system with frozen structural disorder (see, e.g., GlassReview  for review). An extremely non-Gaussian statistics of the observables is an important feature of the disordered/glassy system. In this letter we demonstrate that strong deviation from Gaussianity is also typical for optical fiber telecommunication systems.

Birefringent disorder is caused by weak random ellipticity of the fiber cross section. Birefringence splits the pulse into two polarization components and it also leads to pulse broadening 79US ; 81Kam ; 86PW . This effect known as polarization mode dispersion (PMD) have been extensively studied experimentally 78RU ; 81MSK ; 87BPW ; 87ACMD ; 96GGWP ; 00NJKG  and theoretically 88Pol ; 88PBWS ; 91PWN . PMD is usually characterized by the so-called PMD vector that was found to obey Gaussian statistics 88Pol ; 88PBWS ; 91PWN . It was also shown, e.g. in 94OYSE , that first order PMD compensation corresponding to cancellation of the PMD vector on the carrier frequency is experimentally implementable. Higher-order generalizations of the PMD vector (introduced to resolve complex frequency dependence of the PMD phenomenon with higher accuracy) as well as a suggestion on how to compensate for PMD in the higher orders have been also discussed 98Bul  and implemented experimentally, e.g. in 99MK . This works were focused on separating effects caused by PMD from other potential impairments. Common wisdom hiding behind this strategy says that one should start with evaluating the two impairments separately and then estimate the joint effect on the optical telecommunication system performance taking them on equal footing. In this letter we challenge this equal-footing approach. We show that the effects of temporal noise and structural disorder on the overall system performance may not be separated since the bit-error-rate (BER) strongly depends on a realization of birefringent disorder. Thus, the probability distribution function (PDF) of BER and especially its tail corresponding to large values of BER are the objects of prime interest and practical importance for describing the probability of the system outage.

Our letter is organized as follows. We start with discussing the dynamical equations for an optical pulse evolution in a birefringent fiber also influenced by the amplifier noise. BER produced by the amplifier noise for a given realization of the birefringent disorder is analyzed first. Then we describe the PDF of BER, found by averaging over many realizations of disorder. Some general remarks conclude the letter.

The envelope of the electromagnetic field propagating through optical fiber in the linear regime (i.e. at relatively low pulse intensity), which is subject to PMD distortion and amplifier noise, satisfies the following equation 79US ; 81Kam ; 89Agr

$`_z𝚿i\widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}(z)𝚿\widehat{m}(z)_t𝚿id(z)_t^2𝚿=𝝃(z,t),`$ (1)
where $`z`$ is the position along the fiber, $`t`$ is the retarded time (measured in the reference frame moving with the optical signal), $`𝝃`$ is the amplifier noise, and $`d`$ is the chromatic dispersion coefficient. The envelope $`𝚿`$ is a two-component complex field where the components stand for two polarization states of the optical signal. Birefringent disorder is characterized by two random Hermitian $`2\times 2`$ traceless matrices $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ and $`\widehat{m}`$ measuring fiber birefringence in the first- and second-order and corresponding to the first two terms of the expansion in $`\omega \omega _0`$ with $`\omega `$ and $`\omega _0`$ being the signal and carrier frequencies respectively. The disorder is frozen at least on all the propagation related time scales, i.e. the two matrices can be considered to be $`t`$-independent. The random matrix, $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}(z)`$, can be excluded from the consideration by means of the transformation to the coordinate system rotating together with polarization state of the signal at the carrier frequency: $`𝚿\widehat{V}𝚿`$, $`𝝃\widehat{V}𝝃`$ and $`\widehat{m}\widehat{V}\widehat{m}\widehat{V}^1`$. Here, the unitary matrix $`\widehat{V}(z)`$ is the ordered exponential, $`T\mathrm{exp}[i_0^zdz^{}\widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}(z^{})]`$ defined as the solution of the equation, $`_z\widehat{V}=i\widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}\widehat{V}`$, with $`\widehat{V}(0)=\widehat{1}`$. Hereafter we use the notations $`\widehat{m}`$, $`𝝃`$ and $`𝚿`$ for the renormalized objects whereas the original objects will be no more referred to. With this notation the equation for $`𝚿`$ has the same form as Eq. (1) if we set $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}=0`$. The solution of the renormalized equation can be partitioned into a sum of a homogeneous contribution, insensitive to the additive noise and the inhomogeneous one, $`\mathit{\varphi }`$ and $`𝝋`$, respectively:

$`𝝋=\widehat{W}(z)𝚿_0(t),\mathit{\varphi }={\displaystyle _0^z}dz^{}\widehat{W}(z)\widehat{W}^1(z^{})𝝃(z^{},t),`$ (2)
$`\widehat{W}(z)=\mathrm{exp}[i{\displaystyle _0^z}dz^{}d(z^{})_t^2]T\mathrm{exp}[{\displaystyle _0^z}dz^{}\widehat{m}(z^{})_t],`$ (3)
where $`𝚿_0`$ describes the input pulse shape (at $`z=0`$).

We assume the optical system length $`Z`$ is much larger than the distance between the next-nearest amplifier stations. (The stations are set to compensate for losses in the pulse intensity.) Coarse-graining on the inter-amplifier scale allows treating amplification in the continuous limit. Zero in average additive noise, $`𝝃`$, is the amplification leftover. The amplifier noise has Gaussian statistics 94Des  and its correlation time (set by quantum excitation processes in amplifiers) is much shorter then the pulse width. Therefore, $`\xi `$-statistics is fully determined by its pair correlation function

$$\xi _\alpha (z_1,t_1)\xi _\beta ^{}(z_2,t_2)=D_\xi \delta _{\alpha \beta }\delta \left(z_1z_2\right)\delta (t_1t_2),$$
(4)
where the coefficient $`D_\xi `$ characterizes the noise strength.

Averaging over birefringent disorder is of different nature: statistics here is collected over different fibers or, alternatively, over different states of the same fiber collected over time. (Birefringence is known to vary on a time scale essentially exceeding the pulse propagation time.) The matrix $`\widehat{m}`$ can be expanded in the Pauli matrices, $`\widehat{m}(z)=h_j(z)\widehat{\sigma }_j`$, where $`h_j`$ is a real three-component field. The field is zero in average and short-correlated in $`z`$. It enters the observables described by Eqs. (2,3) in an integral form and, according to the central limit theorem (see, e.g., Feller ), can be treated as a Gaussian random field described by the following pair correlation function

$$h_i(z_1)h_j(z_2)=D_m\delta _{ij}\delta (z_1z_2),$$
(5)
where $`D_m`$ characterizes the disorder strength. Note that even though the original $`\widehat{m}`$ entering Eq. (1) is anisotropic the isotropy of $`h_j`$ \[implied in Eq. (5)\] is restored as a result of the $`\widehat{m}\widehat{V}\widehat{m}\widehat{V}^1`$ transformation.

We discuss here the case of the so-called return-to-zero (RZ) modulation format when pulses in a given frequency channel are well separated in $`t`$. Detection of a pulse at the fiber output corresponding to $`z=Z`$ requires a measurement of the pulse intensity, $`I`$,

$$I=dtG(t)\left|𝒦𝚿(Z,t)\right|^2,$$
(6)
where the function $`G(t)`$ is a convolution of the electrical (current) filter function with the sampling window function (limiting the information slot). The linear operator $`𝒦`$ in Eq. (6) stands for an optical filter and may also incorporate a variety of engineering “tricks” applied to the output signal $`𝚿(Z,t)`$. Ideally, $`I`$ takes a distinct value if the bit is “1” and is negligible if the bit is “0”. Both the noise and the disorder enforce $`I`$ to deviate from its ideal value. One declares the output signal to code $`0`$ or $`1`$ if the value of $`I`$ is less or larger than the decision threshold $`I_0`$. The information is lost if the output value of the bit differs from the input one. The probability of such event should be small (this is a mandatory condition for a successful fiber line performance) i.e. both impairments typically cause only small distortion to a pulse. Formally, this means: $`D_\xi Z1`$, $`D_mZ1`$, where both the initial signal width and its amplitude are rescaled to unity.

Below we focus our analysis on the initially “1” (unitary) bit. We do not consider the evolution of a zero bit since it does not contribute to the anomalously large values of BER, which we are mainly interested to describe. The probability to loose the unitary bit is $`B=_0^{I_0}dIP(I)`$. Here $`P(I)`$ is the PDF of the signal intensity (6) (that fluctuates due to the noise $`𝝃`$) for the initial signal $`𝚿_0`$ corresponding to the bit “1”. In engineering practice BER is measured collecting the statistics over many initially identical pulses. (As different pulses sense different realizations of the noise, this averaging over different pulses is actually equivalent to the noise averaging.) Repeating the measurement of $`B`$ many times (each separated from the previous one by a time interval larger than the characteristic time of the disorder variations or, alternatively, making measurements on different fibers) one constructs the PDF of $`B`$, $`𝒮(B)`$. The PDF achieves its maximum at $`B_0`$, a typical value of $`B`$. Even though the average distortion of a pulse caused by the noise and disorder is weak, rare but violent events may substantially affect the optical system performance. The probability of such rare events is determined by $`𝒮(B)`$ taken at $`BB_0`$. Our further analysis is focused on this PDF tail.

Mentioning the importance of accounting for an appropriate form of the linear operator $`𝒦`$, we restrict our discussion to two possibilities, when the optical filtering is accompanied by an overall time shift (this operation is usually called “setting the clock”) or by a compensation achieved by insertion of an additional piece of fiber with adjustable birefringence. Optical filter is required to separate different frequency channels. In addition the filter smoothes out an otherwise strong impact on the pulse caused by amplifier noise temporal ultra-locality. “Setting the clock” procedure is formalized as, $`𝒦_{cl}𝚿=𝚿(tt_{cl})`$, where $`t_{cl}`$ is an optimal time delay. The so-called first-order compensation means

$$𝒦_1𝚿=\mathrm{exp}\left[_0^Zdz\widehat{m}(z)_t\right]𝚿,$$
(7)
where the usual exponent (instead of the ordered one) enters Eq. (3). In the engineering practice or laboratory experiments all the three strategies (along with some additional others) can be applied simultaneously. Below we imply that the optical filter is always inserted. As far as the “setting the clock” and the first-order compensation procedures are concerned we intend to compare those effects with the pure (no compensation) case.

The first step in our calculations is to find the value of $`B`$ for a given realization of disorder. In this case the $`𝝋`$-part of the envelope $`𝚿`$ is a constant (dependent on the disorder) while the $`\mathit{\varphi }`$-contribution fluctuates. One obtains from Eqs. (2,4) that $`\mathit{\varphi }`$ is a zero mean Gaussian variable, with the pair correlation function $`\varphi _\alpha (z,t_1)\varphi _\beta ^{}(z,t_2)=D_\xi z\delta _{\alpha \beta }\delta (t_1t_2)`$. Note that statistics of $`\mathit{\varphi }`$ is sensitive neither to the chromatic dispersion coefficient $`d`$ no to the birefringence matrix $`\widehat{m}`$. Thus, averaging over the noise statistics is reduced to a Gaussian path integral over $`\mathit{\varphi }`$. The inequality $`D_\xi Z1`$ justifies the saddle-point evaluation of the integral and also allows to estimate $`\mathrm{ln}B`$ as $`\mathrm{ln}P(I_0)`$. Thus, one finds that the product $`D_\xi Z\mathrm{ln}B`$ is a negative quantity of order one, insensitive to the noise characteristics. This quantity depends on the initial signal profile $`\mathrm{\Psi }_0`$, disorder $`h_j`$, integral chromatic dispersion $`_0^Zd(z)𝑑z`$, and also on the details of the measurement and compensation procedures.

We next analyze the dependence of $`B`$ on the birefringent disorder. The smallness of $`D_\xi Z`$ means that even weak disorder can produce large deviations in $`B`$ from its typical value $`B_0`$, $`\mathrm{ln}B_0(D_\xi Z)^1`$, corresponding to $`h_j=0`$. Therefore $`\mathrm{ln}(B/B_0)`$ can be represented as a series in $`h_j`$. The leading contribution is found upon expanding the ordered exponential (3) \[entering $`𝝋`$ in accordance with Eq. (2)\] in a series in $`𝒉`$, followed by substituting the result for $`𝝋`$ into Eq. (6), and performing the saddle-point calculations, aiming to find $`P(I_0)`$. The smallness of $`D_\xi Z`$ enables us to substitute $`\mathrm{ln}B`$ by $`\mathrm{ln}P(I_0)`$. Then, in the second-order in $`h`$, one obtains

$`\mathrm{ln}(B/B_0)=\mathrm{\Gamma }/(D_\xi Z),\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mu _1H_3+\mu _2H_j^2`$ (8)
$`+\mu _2^{}{\displaystyle _0^Z}dz_1{\displaystyle _0^{z_1}}dz_2\left[h_1(z_1)h_2(z_2)h_2(z_1)h_1(z_2)\right],`$
where $`H_j=_0^Zdzh_j(z)`$ and the initial pulse $`𝚿_0`$ is assumed to be linearly polarized. The coefficients $`\mu `$ entering Eq. (8) are sensitive to the initial signal profile $`\mathrm{\Psi }_0`$, chromatic dispersion and to the measurement procedure. The coefficients can be calculated only numerically, however, some conclusions based on the general form of Eq. (8) can be drown without this detailed calculations.

If no correction procedure is applied to the output signal then $`\mu _21`$, whereas $`\mu _1`$ and $`\mu _2^{}`$ are corrections related to the temporal asymmetry of the pulse (produced by the optical filter) and to the so-called the pulse chirp (generated by the dispersion term), respectively. If no compensation is applied the leading role is played by the first term in Eq. (8), and one arrives at $`\mathrm{ln}𝒫\mathrm{\Gamma }^2/(2\mu _1^2D_mZ)`$. If the “setting the clock” procedure applies (with $`t_{cl}`$ dependent on $`𝒉`$: $`t_{cl}=t_0H_3`$, with $`t_0`$ being the optimal time shift without disorder), the first-order term in the right-hand side of Eq. (8) cancels out and the second-order term is dominated by $`\mu _2(H_1^2+H_2^2)`$. According to Eqs. (2,3) the statistics of $`B`$ depends on the integral dispersion $`_0^Zdzd(z)`$. In practice some special technical efforts (dispersion compensation) are made to reduce it, so that usually this quantity is small. If the initial pulse is real (there is no chirp) and if the integral dispersion is small, then $`\mu _2^{}`$ is negligible. In this case Eq. (5) leads to the following PDF of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$

$`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\mu _2D_mZ}}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{2\mu _2D_mZ}}\right).`$ (9)
If the first-order compensation scheme described by Eq. (7) is used the first two terms in the right-hand side of Eq. (8) cancel out, $`\mu _1=\mu _2=0`$, and if in addition $`\mu _2^{}0`$ one arrives at

$`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })=(2D_mZ\mu _2^{})^1\mathrm{cosh}^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }}{2\mu _2^{}D_mZ}}\right),`$ (10)
replacing Eq. (9). Comparing Eqs. (9,10) with the result for the no-compensation case we conclude that the compensations lead to much narrower PDF. If $`\mu _2^{}`$ is also $`0`$ (i.e. if the first order compensation is applied and the output signal is not chirped) then higher-order terms in the expansion of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ in $`h_j`$ should be accounted for. This case will be discussed elsewhere.

Finally, we are in a position to analyze the PDF of $`B`$, $`𝒮(B)`$. Expressing $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ via $`B`$ according to (8) followed by substituting the result into Eq. (9) for the PDF of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ leads to the following expression for the remote ($`_0`$) tail of the PDF of $``$

$`𝒮(B)\mathrm{d}B{\displaystyle \frac{B_0^\alpha \mathrm{d}B}{B^{1+\alpha }}},\alpha ={\displaystyle \frac{D_\xi }{2\mu _2D_m}}.`$ (11)
The applicability range for Eq. (11) is given by $`1\mathrm{\Gamma }D_mZ`$ that transforms into $`1/(D_\xi Z)\mathrm{ln}(B/B_0)D_m/D_\xi `$. If the first-order compensation is applied Eq. (9) should be replaced by Eq. (10), thus leading to the same expression (11) for the tail with $`\mu _2`$ replaced by $`\mu _2^{}/\pi `$. The dependence of the PDF on BER is illustrated in Fig. 1. One also finds from Eq. (11) that the so-called outage probability, $`𝒪_B_{}^1dB𝒮(B)`$, where $`B_{}`$ is some fixed value taken to be much larger than $`B_0`$, is estimated as $`\mathrm{ln}𝒪(D_\xi /D_m)\mathrm{ln}(B_0/B_{})`$.

There is also a universal remote tail of $`𝒮(B)`$ corresponding to huge fluctuations of the disorder when the signal is almost destroyed by the fluctuations. In this extreme case $`I`$ is close to the threshold value $`I_0`$ already at $`𝝃=0`$. Then $`B`$ is nothing but a probability of such an event (i.e. the noise configuration $`𝝃`$) that the inhomogeneous contribution $`\mathit{\varphi }`$ would fill the remaining small gap between $`I`$ and $`I_0`$. Thus one gets $`\mathrm{ln}B\varphi ^2/(D_\xi Z)`$. The value of $`\mathit{\varphi }`$ is proportional to the deviation $`\delta h`$ of the $`h`$-disorder term from such a special configuration, $`h_{sp}`$, which gives $`I=I_0`$ at $`𝝃=0`$. Therefore, one estimates, $`\mathrm{ln}B(\delta h)^2Z/D_\xi `$. The logarithm of the probability for this disorder configuration to occur is a sum of two contributions: $`1/(D_mZ)`$, corresponding to the special configuration, $`h_{sp}`$, and the other one, $`\delta h/D_m`$, corresponding to $`\delta h`$. One arrives at the following expression for the probability density

$`\mathrm{ln}𝒮(B){\displaystyle \frac{C_1}{D_mZ}}+C_2\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{D_\xi }{D_m^2Z}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{B}}},`$ (12)
where $`C_1`$ and $`C_2`$ are constants of order one. Eq. (12) holds when $`(D_mZ)^2D_\xi Z|\mathrm{ln}B|1`$. Note, that the remote tail (12) decays with $`B`$ faster than the algebraic one (11).

Eq. (11) describes our major result: The PDF of BER has a long algebraic tail. The exponent $`\alpha `$ of the algebraic decay is proportional to the ratio of the amplifier noise variance, $`D_\xi `$, to the birefringent disorder variance, $`D_m`$. This statement clearly shows that effects of noise and disorder are, actually, inseparable. Another interesting feature of Eq. (11) is that the exponent $`\alpha `$ is $`Z`$-independent. The only $`Z`$-dependent factor in the final result (11) is the overall normalization factor $`B_0^\alpha `$. Note also that even though an extensive experimental (laboratory and/or field trial) confirmation of this statement would be very welcome, some numerical results, consistent with Eq. (11) are already available. Thus, Fig. 2a of 01XSKA  re-plotted in log-log variables shows a linear relation between $`\mathrm{ln}S`$ and $`\mathrm{ln}B`$, i.e. just the algebraic decay predicted by Eq. (11).

Summarizing, this letter is the first brief report on the new method/approach. We plan to discuss many related but more specific issues, e.g. more complex compensation strategies (periodic and higher-order compensation) in subsequent publications in specialized optical journals. However, it is important to stress that the major result of the paper that the PDF of BER is characterized by a long tail (algebraic or faster, but slower than exponential) is universal.

We are thankful to I. Gabitov for numerous extremely valuable discussions and G. Falkovich for useful comments. We also wish to acknowledge the support of LDRD ER on “Statistical Physics of Fiber Optics Communications” at LANL.