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# Anisotropic “charge-flipping” acceleration of highly charged ions from (𝑁₂)_𝑛 clusters in strong optical fields

## Abstract

The disassembly of molecular clusters $`(N_2)_n`$ ($`n`$=50-3000) in strong optical fields is investigated using two-dimensional time-of-flight spectrometry. Very highly charged ions are formed with a two-component energy distribution. A low-energy, isotropic component correlates with Coulomb explosion. A high-energy, anisotropic component, that results from a “charge flipping” acceleration mechanism, gives rise to ions with energies in excess of the Coulombic limit.

The physics that governs the disassembly of atomic clusters in intense optical fields has attracted considerable attention in the course of the last decade (for a recent review, see  and references therein). In the optical regime, light intensities larger than $``$1012 W cm-2 are termed “intense”; fields generated in such light are strong enough to cause non-perturbative effects in most atoms and molecules. At light intensities above 1014 W cm-2, multiphoton and/or tunneling effects force nearly every irradiated atom and molecule to undergo ionization. Much effort has been devoted in recent years to studies of small atomic and molecular systems under the influence of such fields. Among the dominant effects observed are above-threshold ionization (ATI), tunneling ionization, high harmonic generation, molecular alignment, and enhanced ionization of molecules. For a recent update on progress in these areas, see Bandrauk et al. . Experiments that probe such phenomena are typically conducted under conditions such that the atoms and molecules respond independently to the laser field - the density is kept low enough so that each atom/molecule is “unaware” of the presence of others in the neighborhood. This is not valid for high-density targets like solids, where macroscopic fields that are generated due to charge separation play a crucial role, and recourse has to be taken to many-body, plasma models in order to gain insight into the dynamics of laser-solid interactions. Gas-phase clusters act as a bridge between the low-density and high-density systems. Large atomic clusters, consisting of several hundred to several hundred thousand atoms per cluster, provide the high density required for substantial absorption of laser energy. Experimentally, it has been discovered over the last few years that when such clusters are exposed to an intense ultrashort laser pulse, they absorb energy very efficiently . While energy is absorbed primarily by the electrons in the cluster, it is rapidly redistributed in the form of incoherent radiation (few keV x-rays) and highly energetic ions. The level of ionization and the mean energy of the ejected electrons are both significantly higher than expected from the ionization processes known in isolated atoms and small molecules. The cluster expands and breaks up in a few picoseconds; this rapid disassembly results in the emission of ions with considerable kinetic energy. While maximum ion energies as high as an MeV have been reported , mean energies are typically in the range of 10-100 keV. These are several orders of magnitude higher than the energies that are measured for small molecules.

Although various theoretical models have been proposed to explain the explosion dynamics of clusters under intense field irradiation, none can adequately explain the experimentally observed features that presently drive research in this area. It is clear that most atoms in a cluster are tunnel ionized at the leading edge of the incident laser pulse. Electrons that are ejected from individual atoms are accelerated away from the cluster by the ponderomotive potential and what gets left behind is a positively charged core that gives rise to an increasing potential barrier to further removal of electrons. The question of whether such a barrier is sufficient to retain a large fraction of electrons or not is a major point of contention between the two major models of laser-cluster interaction. In one of the prevailing scenarios, known in the literature as the hydrodynamic expansion model, it is assumed that retention of most of the electrons by the cluster results in a spherically symmetric, electrically neutral plasma. The retained electrons absorb energy from the laser by collisional inverse bremsstrahlung. The hot electron plasma expands due to hydrodynamic pressure, and transfers energy to the ions. The alternative scenario is referred to as the Coulomb explosion-ionization ignition model of the dynamics. Here, the electrons that are ejected following tunnel ionization rapidly leave the vicinity of the cluster. As a result, there is a build-up of charge on the cluster that gives rise to a radial field that may become large enough to drive further ionization at the surface of the sphere. The removal of electrons at the surface increases the radial field further and “ignites” ionization. Cluster explosion due to the Coulombic repulsion between the positively charged ions then occurs. Neither of these scenarios account for several facets of the physics of cluster-laser interactions that have been unveiled in recent experiments. Among them are: (i) Asymmetric Coulomb explosion of clusters . (ii) Enhancement in the asymmetry of both the ion and electron emission at the resonance condition, where the plasma frequency matches the driving laser frequency and the energy absorption by the clusters is most effective . Recent results have provided the impetus for developing models that extend beyond the prevailing, somewhat simplistic, picture of isotropic, one-dimensional plasma expansion and of probing the possibility that new mechanisms for charged particle acceleration, over and above that due to (a) Coulombic fields in small and moderately-sized clusters and (b) hydrodynamic pressure in large clusters might, contribute to the overall dynamics strong optical fields interact with clusters.

Apart from fundamental interest from the viewpoint of non-perturbative cluster dynamics, insights into new ion acceleration mechanisms are important as they offer tantalizing scope for applications involving the physics of high energy density matter, and for the development of new charged particle acceleration and ion propulsion schemes. Clusters have also emerged as a promising source of extreme ultraviolet radiation for lithography  and for emission of coherent radiation at large multiples of the incident laser frequency . The interaction of pulses from tabletop lasers with D2 and D-rich clusters has already made possible the study of table-top fusion, which was hitherto restricted to very large national facilities . The fusion process also holds promise as a source of mono-energetic and short-pulse neutrons for medical and material science studies . In order to broaden the scope of studies, we have applied two-dimensional time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometry to probe the disassembly of relatively small molecular clusters, $`(N_2)_n`$ ($`n`$=50-3000), in strong optical fields. These molecular clusters yield very highly charged atomic ions, including hydrogenic N7+. The ion energy distribution is found to have two components: a low-energy, isotropic component that correlates with a Coulomb explosion mechanism, and an anisotropic component that results from a “charge flipping” ion acceleration mechanism that yields ion energies larger than those expected from purely Coulombic considerations.

Our experiments were conducted using a supersonic jet expansion source that has been described in earlier reports . Briefly, a piezo-driven solenoid valve, with a 30 conical opening of 500 $`\mu `$m, was backed with stagnation pressure of up to 14 bar. The central part of the cluster beam was sampled by a 500 $`\mu `$m skimmer placed $``$30 cm downstream, in an interaction chamber maintained at 10-7 Torr. A Ti:sapphire laser was used that produces 100 fs long pulses, at a repetition rate of 10 Hz, with a maximum energy of 55 mJ. For the present measurements, 10 mJ pulses were focused to intensities of 1016 W cm-2 by means of a 25 cm planoconvex lens. A halfwave plate placed just before the lens was used to control the polarization vector of the laser light. Laser-cluster interactions occured $``$26 cm downstream of the skimmer. The ions formed when the laser and cluster beams were temporally coincident in the interaction zone were detected by a channel electron multiplier (CEM) placed at the end of a 58 cm long flight tube which was mutually orthogonal to the laser and cluster beams. A three-grid retarding potential energy analyzer (RPA), of length 1 cm, with an intergrid separation of 5 mm, was placed in front of the CEM. Application of appropriate positive voltages on the central grid enabled two-dimensional, charge-discriminated energy spectra to be obtained, in a manner that has been described in earlier reports . Cluster formation was verified by measuring the Rayleigh scattered signal from the clusters using 355 nm light from an Nd:YAG laser. Hagena’s scaling law  was used to estimate cluster size; the average size of $`(N_2)_n`$ clusters ranged from $`n`$=50 at a stagnation pressure of 2 bar to $`n`$=3000 at 10 bar.

Fig. 1 shows the ion energy distribution for two cluster sizes at an intensity of 7$`\times `$1015 W cm-2, when the laser light is polarized along the TOF axis as well as perpendicular to it. There is a high-energy component in the distribution (at energies $``$3-5 keV) that exhibits a distinct asymmetry: ion energies and fluxes are enhanced when the laser polarization vector is parallel to the TOF axis. The low-energy component of the distribution (at energies $``$3-5 keV) is found to be isotropic. This type of behavior is consistent with that observed in atomic clusters . However, with $`(N_2)_n`$ clusters, there is a new feature: a very low-energy component (at energies $``$40 eV) that is also asymmetric (see the inset in fig.1). This component has no analog in measurements with atomic clusters and we ascribe it to the ionization signal from unclustered $`N_2`$ molecules that are present in the supersonic beam. The asymmetry that is observed is attributed to spatial alignment of the molecular axis along the laser polarization vector, a feature of laser-molecule interactions that has been well studied . We note that $`N_2`$ has a very low value of the empirical constant in the Hagena parameter , indicating that this molecule has low propensity for clustering; thus we observe a component of unclustered N2 molecules that also emerges from the skimmer.

Variation of cluster size does not result in alteration of the overall morphology of the energy distribution function but for a shift in the energy value at which the isotropic and anisotropic components meet. This point, which we refer to as the “knee”, shifts progressively towards lower energies as the cluster size is reduced. Fig. 2 shows the experimentally measured ion spectra for different pressures, when the laser light is polarized along the TOF axis.

The maximum value of ion energy, $`E_{max}`$, as $`(N_2)_n`$ explodes under Coulombic pressure is from ions that are on the outer surface of the spherical cluster and is given by

$$E_{max}\frac{Q\overline{q}n_c}{R},$$
(1)
where $`\overline{q}`$ is the average charge per nitrogen ion in a cluster, of radius $`R`$, comprising $`n_c`$ nitrogen molecules, and $`Q`$ is the charge on the ion that is detected. It is established that $`n_c`$ varies as $`P^2`$ , where $`P`$ is the stagnation pressure in the supersonic nozzle and, since $`n_c`$ scales with cluster size as $`R^3`$, it is clear that the ion maximum energy, $`E_{max}`$, should scale as $`P^{4/3}`$. This analysis is based upon two assumptions: (i) at a given laser intensity, the average charge does not appreciably change with cluster size, and (ii) cluster expansion is such that the radius of the expanding cluster at the end of the laser pulse is proportional to the initial radius. Results of extensive numerical simulations of cluster explosions that Last and Jortner  have carried out provide ample justification for the validity of both assumptions. Fig. 3 depicts the “knee” energy that we have measured for different values of stagnation pressure, $`P`$. A fit to our data (solid line in fig. 2) shows that the “knee” energy scales as $`P^\alpha `$, where $`\alpha `$=1.5$`\pm `$0.2, which is in consonance with expectations from the our analysis. This brings to the fore the necessity of having to invoke an additional acceleration mechanism, over and above Coulombic pressure, to account for ions that possess energies in excess of the “knee” energy. By working with clusters of relatively small size we exclude the possibility of hydrodynamic pressure coming into play. In this connection it has not escaped our attention that ion energies at values less than the knee energy scale approximately quadratically with ion charge for the clusters under study.

The anisotropy that is observed for the highest energy ions, beyond the “knee” energy, provides a clue as to the nature of this additional acceleration mechanism. As has been observed in earlier work on $`Ar_n`$ clusters , and in numerical simulations of explosions of clusters such as $`Xe_{147}`$ , that the charge state of an ion can rapidly change in resonance with the applied optical field. The radial field due to the charged cluster and the applied laser field act in the same direction for half the optical cycle, and a high ionic charge state can be attained. But, in the next half cycle, these two fields oppose each other, and the net charge is reduced from its maximum value due to ion-electron recombination. This charge flipping gives rise to a net cycle-averaged force that serves to accelerate the ions. The simulations carried out by Ishikawa and Blenski for $`Xe_{147}`$  showed that such acceleration is much smaller for ions that are ejected perpendicular to the laser polarization vector. Measurements carried out by us  on $`Ar_{40000}`$ demonstrated asymmetry in the high energy component of $`Ar^{q+}`$ ($`q`$8) ions produced in the Coulomb explosion regime, and subsequent measurements on explosions of $`Xe_{150000}`$ in the hydrodynamics expansion regime indicated that the asymmetry is likely to be a feature that is independent of the regime in which the explosion takes place. The present measurements on small $`(N_2)_n`$ clusters provide verification of the earlier conjectures.

In summary, measurements of ion energies of the explosion products from $`(N_2)_n`$ ($`n`$=50-3000) clusters provide evidence for formation of energetic ions in very high charge states. The ion energy distribution has a low-energy isotropic component, whose maximum energy is accounted for by simple Coulombic considerations. Over and above this, there is a not-insubstantial flux of ions that have energy in excess of the Coulombic limit. Our measurements provide evidence for a charge-flipping mechanism that accounts for the additional acceleration that is experienced by the exploding ions. It also rationalizes the asymmetry with respect to laser polarization that is observed for these high energy ions. Exploitation of this additional acceleration mechanism might be of utility in future considerations of tabletop accelerators.


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# Lattice study of a Janus interface

## I Introduction

The interactions between water and hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces are important in many areas of research, including such diverse fields as lubrication and protein folding. In order to study hydrophobic effects with as few additional complications as possible, the behavior of water confined between two hydrophobic plates has been the subject of many experimental and theoretical studiesbackg1 ; backg2 ; backg3 ; backg4 ; backg5 ; backg6 ; backg7 . More recently, experimentalists and theorists have also examined the behavior of water confined between one hydrophobic and one hydrophilic platejanus\_gran ; janus\_bind , a so-called Janus interface, to learn how water reacts to the competing effects of the plates.

While performing experiments to study the response of water in a Janus system to shear deformations, Zhang et.al.janus\_gran  found that the fluctuations about the mean value of the viscous response were typically 25-50% of the mean value, but ranged up to 100%. These fluctuations are extraordinarily large compared to the fluctuations observed when both plates are hydrophilic, and it is surprising that they do not average out over the plates, which are approximately 10 $`\mu `$m on a side. When the time series of the viscous response was Fourier analyzed, it was found that the resulting power spectrum is independent of frequency at low frequencies, but at approximately $`f=.001`$ Hz, the power spectrum crosses over to power-law dependence on frequency, with an apparent exponent near $`f^2`$. For frequencies greater than $`f=.01`$ Hz, the power spectrum again levels off and becomes seemingly independent of frequency.

It has been predictedlcw  that when water encounters a large hydrophobic solute, such as the hydrophobic plate in a Janus system, the water forms a semi-free liquid-vapor interface near the hydrophobic surface. The surface is unable to form hydrogen bonds with the water, and the formation of an interface allows the water to form a more energetically favorable hydrogen bonding network. Zhang et.al. suggested that their results are caused by fluctuations of such an interface. They further identified the time scale of $`10^3/2\pi `$ seconds, the inverse of the frequency at which power-law behavior begins in their power spectrum, as the lifetime of vapor or a vapor bubble.

This paper presents the results of a simulation designed to test the hypothesis that fluctuations in the liquid-vapor interface are the source of the large fluctuations and power spectrum seen experimentally. We chose to study a lattice gas because it is a simple model system that can be used to examine the large length scale behavior of a liquid between competing solvophobic and solvophilic plates, and can also describe interface fluctuations. After describing the details of the simulation in Section II, results are presented in Section III, and the paper is concluded with a brief discussion.

## II  Simulation Details

The system in the simulation is an $`L\times L\times R`$ cubic lattice gas, where $`L`$ is the side length of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic plates in the $`x`$ and $`y`$ directions in units of the lattice spacing $`a`$, and $`R`$ is the distance between the plates, in the $`z`$ direction, as shown in Figure 1. $`L`$ and $`R`$ were chosen to be 128 and 8, respectively. Each cell $`i`$ has an associated variable $`n_i`$ which labels the cell as liquid ($`n_i=1`$) or vapor ($`n_i=0`$). The cells around the edges of the system are constrained to have $`n_i=1`$ in order to ensure that there is no evaporation between the plates. The cells in the $`z=0`$ and $`z=7`$ layers represent the hydrophobic and hydrophilic plates, respectively, and are constrained to have $`n_i=1`$ at all times so that liquid in the bulk always interacts with the plates. The remaining unconstrained cells in the bulk obey the Hamiltonian

$$\beta H=\beta ϵ\underset{<ij>}{}n_in_j\beta \mu \underset{i}{}n_i\beta \sigma _A\underset{in.n.A}{}n_i\beta \sigma _B\underset{in.n.B}{}n_i$$
(1)
where $`\beta =(k_BT)^1`$, $`k_B`$ is Boltzmann’s constant, $`<ij>`$ indicates a sum over nearest neighbors, and $`in.n.A`$ and $`in.n.B`$ indicate sums over cells adjacent to plate A (the hydrophobic plate) or B (the hydrophilic plate).

The parameters $`\beta ϵ`$ and $`\beta \mu `$ have the same values as in the simulation of Luzar and Leungbackg7 , $`\beta ϵ=1.26`$ and $`\beta \mu =6ϵ/2+1.84\times 10^4`$, chosen to match the surface tension and isothermal compressibility of water at 300 K. With these parameters, the lattice spacing $`a`$ corresponds to .193 nm, so the plates are approximately 1.5 nm apart, within the range studied by Zhang et.al. However, the plates in the simulation have a side length of approximately 25 nm, which is significantly smaller than the experimental plates. The interactions with the plates are $`\beta \sigma _B=\beta ϵ`$ and $`\beta \sigma _A=.1\beta ϵ`$, which gives a contact angle of 143$`\stackrel{̊}{}`$ at the hydrophobic plate, comparable to the contact angle of approximately 120$`\stackrel{̊}{}`$ in the experimental system.

Zhang et.al. were careful to show that although they applied shear forces to the hydrophobic plate and measured the response of the water in their experiments, the system was still in the linear response regime, so fluctuations present in the nonequilibrium experiment should be present at equilibrium as well. To make the simulation as simple as possible, we chose to study an equilibrium lattice gas propagated by Metropolis Monte Carlo, according to the Hamiltonian in equation (1) for approximately 140,000 passes through the lattice. The contact density, defined to be the number of liquid cells in contact with the hydrophobic plate,

$$c(t)=\underset{in.n.A}{}n_i(t)$$
(2)
was calculated as a function of time, where time is measured in units of Monte Carlo passes through the lattice. $`c(t)`$ should be related to the viscosity of water near the hydrophobic plate, because the viscosity measured at the plate should increase with the amount of liquid (rather than vapor) in contact with the plate.

The distance of the liquid-vapor interface $`h`$ from the hydrophobic plate, as a function of $`(x,y)`$ and time, was also calculated in the simulation. The interface in the $`(x,y)`$ column is defined to be located at the average of the distances of the liquid cell closest to, and the vapor cell farthest from, the hydrophobic plate in that column, reminiscent of Weeks’ derivation of the capillary wave modelcap\_wave ; def\_interf :

$$h(x,y)=\frac{1}{2}\left[\underset{(x,y)}{\mathrm{max}}\left[z_i(1n_i)\right]+\underset{(x,y)}{\mathrm{min}}\left[z_in_i\right]\right]$$
(3)
The value of $`h`$ when liquid is in contact with the hydrophobic plate is $`h=(0+1)/2=0.5`$, and increases in increments of $`1`$ to its maximal value of $`h=(6+7)/2=6.5`$, for vapor in contact with the hydrophilic plate.

The fact that the edges of the system are constrained to be liquid for all $`z`$ leads to a boundary region of approximately 12 cells from each edge where the fluctuations of $`h`$ are smaller than those in the middle of the lattice. Results reported below for the $`104\times 104\times 8`$ lattice resulting from ignoring the outer perimeter of 12 cells are virtually indistinguishable from results with a boundary of 32 cells, so the lattice seems to be large enough to study a Janus interface.

Inside the boundary region, the time and space-averaged interface position is $`h=2.0`$, which means that on average, the first one or two layers in contact with the hydrophobic plate are vapor. Because the plate is so significantly dewetted, changes in the amount of liquid in contact with the plate in our simulation are caused largely by fluctuations of the liquid-vapor interface, rather than by spontaneously-forming vapor bubbles. To the extent that this lattice gas is an accurate description of the experimental Janus system, then, spontaneously-forming vapor bubbles do not seem to be important contributors to the results.

## III  Results

The contact density $`c(t)`$ and interface $`h(x,y;t)`$ were saved every 10 passes through the lattice during the simulation. A section of the time series for the contact density measured over the central $`104\times 104\times 8`$ lattice is shown in Figure 2. The fluctuations in $`c(t)`$ range up to approximately 25% of the mean, which is within the range seen experimentally. The power spectrum resulting from the time Fourier transform of $`c(t)`$, $`S(f)=\left|\stackrel{~}{c}(f)\right|^2`$, where

$$\stackrel{~}{c}(f)=(\mathrm{\Delta }t)\underset{t=0}{\overset{t_{max}}{}}c(t)\mathrm{exp}[2\pi ft/t_{max}]$$
(4)
and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the time between samples (10 passes in our simulation) is shown on a log-log plot in Figure 3. The power is independent of frequency until approximately $`f=.001\mathrm{passes}^1`$, where it begins to drop off. The best-fit line to the data between $`f=.001\mathrm{passes}^1`$ and $`f=.015\mathrm{passes}^1`$ has a slope of $`1.48\pm .04`$, less than the apparent power-law of $`f^2`$ seen experimentally. There seems to be a slight leveling off of the power as a function of frequency at high $`f`$, but the data are so noisy that it is difficult to quantify. The contact density $`c(t)`$ thus exhibits behavior surprisingly similar to the viscous response in the experiments of Zhang et.al.

In order to try to understand the cause of the fluctuations and power spectrum of $`c(t)`$, the dynamics of the liquid-vapor interface were studied. The characteristic length scales of fluctuations of the liquid-vapor interface relevant to fluctuations in the contact density can be inferred from an analysis of the spatial Fourier modes of the interface. The Fourier modes $`\widehat{h}(k_x,k_y;t)`$ of the interface can be defined with the equation

$$\widehat{h}(k_x,k_y;t)(\mathrm{\Delta }x)^2\underset{x,y=0}{\overset{N}{}}h(x,y;t)e^{2\pi i(k_xx+k_yy)}$$
(5)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ is the spatial resolution ($`a`$ in the simulation) and $`N`$ is the number of cells in each dimension (104 in the simulation).

Figure 4 shows the time autocorrelation function of the $`𝐤=(0,0)`$ spatial Fourier mode of the interface,

$$F(t)=\delta \widehat{h}(0,0;0)\delta \widehat{h}(0,0;t)$$
(6)
where $`\delta \widehat{h}(k_x,k_y;t)=\widehat{h}(k_x,k_y;t)\widehat{h}(k_x,k_y;t)`$, as a function of time. $`F(t)`$ decays on a time scale of approximately 1000 passes, which is the inverse of the frequency near which power-law behavior begins in $`S(f)`$. In the sense that fluctuations of the whole interface correspond to changes in the amount of vapor near the hydrophobic plate, $`f.001\mathrm{passes}^1`$ corresponds to the lifetime of vapor fluctuations, similar to the conclusion of Zhang et.al. The fact that the relaxation time of fluctuations of the entire interface corresponds to the frequency at which power-law behavior begins in $`S(f)`$ suggests that interface fluctuations, rather than spontaneously-forming vapor bubbles, are the cause of the fluctuations in $`c(t)`$.

If $`D`$ is the smallest length scale of fluctuations in the interface relevant to fluctuations in the contact density, then contributions to $`h(x,y;t)`$ from Fourier modes with wavelengths smaller than $`D`$ should be minimal. A new function, $`h_D(x,y;t)`$, with no contributions from short-wavelength Fourier modes, can be created by taking the inverse transform of equation (5), but cutting off the sum over wavevectors at $`k_D=1/D`$:

$$h_D(x,y;t)=\frac{1}{N^2}\underset{k_x=0}{\overset{k_D}{}}\underset{k_y=0}{\overset{k_D}{}}\widehat{h}(k_x,k_y;t)e^{2\pi ik_xx}e^{2\pi ik_yy}.$$
(7)
When the small-wavelength Fourier modes are not included, $`h_D(x,y;t)`$ is no longer restricted to take on discrete values. The lack of high-frequency Fourier modes also smoothes out the interface sufficiently that it seldom comes in contact with the hydrophobic plate, so the definition of $`c(t)`$ in equation (2) is no longer useful in the context of fluctuations of $`h_D(x,y;t)`$. Instead, a clipping function is used to create a function $`c_D(t)`$,

$$c_D(t)\underset{x,y}{}\mathrm{\Theta }[\lambda h_D(x,y;t)]$$
(8)
where $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the Heaviside function, and the smooth interface $`h_D(x,y;t)`$ is considered to be in contact with the hydrophobic plate when $`h_D(x,y;t)\lambda `$. $`\lambda `$ is chosen for each $`D`$ so that the time average of $`c_D(t)`$ equals the time average of the total contact density $`c(t)`$.

To estimate the smallest-wavelength fluctuations of the interface relevant to the fluctuations in the $`c(t)`$ time series that was collected during the simulation, the functions $`h_D(t)`$ with $`D=6,7,8,9,10,12,14,\mathrm{and}\mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}16}a`$ were computed from the time series of $`h(x,y;t)`$ collected during the simulation, and the corresponding $`\lambda `$’s ranged from $`\lambda =1.50`$ for $`D=6a`$, to $`\lambda =1.67`$ for $`D=16a`$. The power spectra $`S_D(f)=\left|\stackrel{~}{c}_D(f)\right|^2`$ were computed, and the slope of each curve was measured on a log-log plot between $`f=0.001\mathrm{passes}^1`$ and $`f=0.015\mathrm{passes}^1`$, to see how many Fourier modes could be removed from $`h(x,y;t)`$ but still obtain a slope statistically indistinguishable from the slope of $`S(f)`$ over the same frequency range. It should be noted that this calculation was carried out as a technique to analyze the data collected during the simulation, and not to make a statement about the exact power-law behavior of $`S(f)`$, since the data are quite noisy. The value of the slope for each $`D`$ is displayed in Table 1. The largest value of $`D`$ with a slope still within one standard deviation of the true slope of $`S(f)`$, $`1.48\pm 0.04`$, is $`D=8a`$, which suggests that fluctuations with wavelengths smaller than $`8a`$ are not important to the fluctuations in $`c(t)`$.

When a similar calculation was performed where the small-$`|𝐤|`$ (large-wavelength) Fourier modes of the interface were progressively removed from the sum in equation (5), the slope of the resulting power spectrum was far outside of the standard deviation of the true slope. In order to estimate the largest length scale of interface fluctuations relevant to fluctuations in $`c(t)`$, a short simulation was run on a larger lattice. A simulation identical to that described in Section II, but with $`L=1024`$, was run for approximately 2000 Monte Carlo passes through the lattice. The power spectrum of the interface fluctuations, $`|\widehat{h}(k_x,k_y;t)|^2`$ was calculated every 10 passes, and the time-averaged power spectrum is shown in Figure 5, plotted versus $`k=|𝐤|`$. The power begins to depend on $`k`$ at approximately $`k=.01a^1`$, which suggests that fluctuations over length scales up to approximately $`100a`$ are relevant in the simulation. Thus, it seems that interface fluctuations over length scales between $`8a`$ ($``$ 1.5 nm) and $`100a`$ ($``$ 19 nm) cause the fluctuations in $`c(t)`$ in the simulation.

Additional simulations were performed to determine the effects of the parameters of the model upon the results described above. Simulations at higher and lower temperatures (corresponding to physical temperatures between 290 and 320 K), and with different values of $`\beta \sigma _A`$, were carried out. $`\beta ϵ`$ and $`\beta \mu `$ were not varied independently so that the system would remain close to liquid-vapor coexistence, and $`\beta \sigma _B`$ was not varied because the interface is so far from the hydrophilic plate that the results would be unchanged.

The results of these parameter changes were consistent with physical intuition. As temperature increases, the interface fluctuates more, causing larger-magnitude fluctuations in $`c(t)`$ and also causing $`h`$ to increase (that is, the interface moves farther from the hydrophobic plate). The power in the spatial Fourier modes of the interface increases, and the leveling off of the power spectrum at small $`k`$ moves to smaller $`k`$, indicating that larger length-scale interface fluctuations are important, as would be expected. The behavior of $`S(f)`$ does not change noticeably over the temperature range studied, and the linear regime begins at approximately the same value of $`f`$.

$`\beta \sigma _A`$ was varied from 0.0 to $`0.2\beta ϵ`$. Increasing $`\beta \sigma _A`$ corresponds to making the hydrophobic plate more hydrophilic, and as would be expected, doing so decreases $`h`$ and the magnitude of the fluctuations in $`c(t)`$, and increases $`c`$. The power in the interface Fourier modes decreases substantially, and the power spectrum levels off at much larger values of $`k`$, indicating that large-wavelength Fourier modes become less important in the interface dynamics, which is reasonable since the interface is so close to the plate and thus has little room in which to move. When $`\beta \sigma _A`$ is increased to $`0.2\beta ϵ`$, $`h=0.89`$, indicating that the hydrophobic plate is almost completely wetted, and the linear regime in $`S(f)`$ disappears.

## IV Discussion

The results of the simulation described above are very similar to the experimental behavior of water at a Janus interface, and support the hypothesis that the large fluctuations and power spectrum of viscous response that were seen experimentally can be attributed to the fluctuating liquid-vapor interface interacting with competing hydrophobic and hydrophilic walls. The power spectrum of fluctuations in $`c(t)`$ has apparent power-law behavior at intermediate frequencies, but the power law is a less rapidly-decaying function of frequency then the apparent experimental value of $`f^2`$. However, the combination of the noise in the power spectrum from the simulations, and the lack of a precise experimental value, means there is no firm basis for a detailed discussion of the exact value of the exponent. Regardless of that exact value, a Fourier analysis of the liquid-vapor interface suggests that fluctuations of the interface over length scales between 1.5 and 19 nm cause the fluctuations in $`c(t)`$ that were observed in the simulation. It is probable that fluctuations over these length scales would be averaged out in a simulation of a system with the much larger plates studied experimentally, but it is interesting that such large fluctuations could be observed in such a simple system.

###### Acknowledgements.

A conversation with S. Granick motivated this work, and the author would like to thank D. Chandler for many helpful discussions. This research has been supported by a grant from the Department of Energy (DEFG03 99ER14987).


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# Diophantine approximation in small degree

## 1. Introduction

This paper (partly a survey) deals with the problem of finding optimal exponents in Diophantine estimates involving one real number $`\xi `$. The prototype of such an estimate is the fact, known at least since Euler, that, for any given irrational real number $`\xi `$, there exist infinitely many rational numbers $`p/q`$ with

(1)
$$\left|\xi \frac{p}{q}\right|q^2.$$

Here, the exponent of $`q`$ in the upper bound is optimal because, when $`\xi `$ has bounded partial quotients, there is also a constant $`c>0`$ such that $`|\xi p/q|cq^2`$ for all rational numbers $`p/q`$ (see Chapter I of ).

Define the height $`H(P)`$ of a polynomial $`P[T]`$ as the largest absolute value of its coefficients, and the height $`H(\alpha )`$ of an algebraic number $`\alpha `$ as the height of its irreducible polynomial over $``$. Then the above estimate may be generalized in the following two ways related respectively with Mahler’s and Koksma’s classifications of numbers.

Consider a real number $`\xi `$ which, for a fixed integer $`n1`$, is not algebraic over $``$ of degree $`n`$. On one hand, an application of Dirichlet’s box principle shows that there exist infinitely many non-zero polynomials $`P[T]`$ such that

(2)
$$|P(\xi )|H(P)^n$$

where, as the sequel, the implied constant depends only on $`n`$ and $`\xi `$. On the other hand, Wirsing showed in  that there exist infinitely many algebraic numbers $`\alpha `$ of degree at most $`n`$ with

(3)
$$|\xi \alpha |H(\alpha )^{(n+3)/2}.$$

For $`n=1`$, both estimates are equivalent to (1), up to the values of the implied constants. For general $`n`$, Spindžuk proved in  that the exponent of $`H(P)`$ in the upper bound (2) is optimal by showing that, for $`\xi `$ outside of a set of Lebesgue measure zero and for each $`ϵ>0`$, there are only finitely many non-zero integer polynomials of degree at most $`n`$ with $`|P(\xi )|H(P)^{nϵ}`$. However, in the second estimate (3), it was conjectured by Wirsing (p. 69 of ) and Schmidt (p. 258 of ) that the optimal exponent for $`H(\alpha )^1`$ is $`n+1`$ instead of $`(n+3)/2`$. Aside from the case $`n=1`$, this is known to be true only for $`n=2`$ thanks to work of Davenport and Schmidt . Despite of several refinements by Bernik, Tishchenko and Wirsing, the optimal exponent remains unknown for any $`n3`$ (see Chapter 3 of  for more details and references).

In 1969, Davenport and Schmidt  devised a new method based on geometry of numbers to study the second type of estimate. Its flexibility is such that it allowed them to treat approximation by algebraic integers. Assuming, for a fixed $`n2`$, that $`\xi `$ is not algebraic over $``$ of degree $`n1`$, they proved that there exists infinitely many algebraic integers $`\alpha `$ of degree at most $`n`$ with

(4)
$$|\xi \alpha |H(\alpha )^{[(n+1)/2]}.$$

They showed that, for $`n=2`$, the optimal exponent of approximation is $`2`$ in agreement with the natural conjecture that it should, in general, be $`n`$. They also provided sharper estimates for $`n=3,4`$.

Their approach which we will describe in the next section conveys them to establish first another Diophantine approximation result. In the case $`n=3`$, it is the following statement (Theorem 1a of ) where

$$\gamma =\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}$$

denotes the golden number.

###### Theorem 1.1 (Davenport-Schmidt).

Suppose that $`\xi `$ is neither rational nor quadratic over $``$. Then there are arbitrarily large values of $`X`$ such that the inequalities

(5)
$$|x_0|X,|x_0\xi x_1|cX^{1/\gamma },|x_0\xi ^2x_2|cX^{1/\gamma }$$

where $`c`$ is a suitable positive number depending on $`\xi `$, have no solution in integers $`x_0`$, $`x_1`$, $`x_2`$, not all $`0`$.

Note that, an application of Dirichlet’s box principle shows that, for any $`X1`$, there exists a non-zero point $`(x_0,x_1,x_2)`$ in $`^3`$ with $`|x_0|X`$ and $`|x_0\xi ^jx_j|[\sqrt{X}]^1`$ for $`j=1,2`$ (see Theorem 1A in Chapter II of ). Since $`1/\gamma 0.618>1/2`$, the condition (5) is a far stronger requirement. Nevertheless, it is shown in  that the exponent $`1/\gamma `$ is best possible for this problem. More precisely, there are countably many real numbers $`\xi `$ which are neither rational nor quadratic over $``$ such that, for a different choice of $`c>0`$ (depending on $`\xi `$), the inequalities (5) admit a non-zero integer solution for any $`X1`$ (Theorem 1.1 of ). Because of this property, we shall call these numbers extremal.

In Section 3 below, we will sketch a proof of Theorem 1.1 and of a criterion for a real number to be extremal. This criterion attaches to an extremal real number a sequence of approximation triples which we will show in Section 4 to be essentially unique and to satisfy a certain recurrence relation. This will allow us in Section 5 to derive a construction of extremal real numbers which generalizes that of Section 6 of .

Theorem 1.1 concerns simultaneous approximations of a real number and its square by rational numbers with the same denominator. Davenport and Schmidt looked more generally at simultaneous approximations of the first $`n1`$ powers $`\xi ,\mathrm{},\xi ^{n1}`$ of a real number $`\xi `$ by rational numbers with the same denominator (Theorem 2a of ), and their result was recently improved by M. Laurent . However, the optimal exponent for this problem is unknown for $`n4`$.

###### Corollary 1.2 (Davenport-Schmidt).

Let $`\xi `$ be as above. There exist infinitely many algebraic integers $`\alpha `$ of degree at most $`3`$ with

$$|\xi \alpha |H(\alpha )^{\gamma 1}.$$

It is shown in  that here also the exponent $`\gamma +12.618`$ is best possible, against the natural conjecture that the optimal exponent would be $`3`$. More precisely, there are real numbers for which the above corollary is optimal up to the value of the implied constant (Theorem 1.1 of ). Such numbers have to be extremal and it would be interesting to know if this property extends to all extremal real numbers.

Considering the irreducible polynomials in $`[T]`$ of the approximations $`\alpha `$ provided by the above corollary, we readily deduce:

###### Corollary 1.3.

Let $`\xi `$ be as above. There exist infinitely many monic polynomials $`P[T]`$ of degree at most $`3`$ with

$$|P(\xi )|H(P)^\gamma .$$

We will prove in Section 6 that the exponent $`\gamma `$ in this statement is also best possible. Note that an argument of Bugeaud and Teulié  shows more precisely that the inequality (4) has infinitely many solutions in algebraic integers $`\alpha `$ of degree exactly $`n`$ under the same assumption that $`\xi `$ is not algebraic of degree $`n1`$. Therefore, one may require that the algebraic integers of Corollary 1.2 have degree $`3`$ and that the polynomials of Corollary 1.3 also have degree $`3`$.

Denote by $`[T]_n`$ the group of integer polynomials of degree at most $`n`$. In another direction, we have the following Gel’fond type criterion in degree two  which is, in a sense, dual to Theorem 1.1.

###### Theorem 1.4 (Arbour-Roy).

Let $`\xi `$. Assume that for any sufficiently large positive real number $`X`$ there exists a non-zero polynomial $`P[T]_2`$ of height at most $`X`$ such that

(6)
$$|P(\xi )|\frac{1}{4}X^{\gamma 1}.$$

Then $`\xi `$ is algebraic over $``$ of degree at most $`2`$.

Theorem 1.2 of  shows that the exponent of $`X`$ in (6) is best possible. Analog statements involving polynomials of degree at most $`n`$ for a fixed integer $`n3`$ are well-known but the corresponding optimal exponent is not known (see Theorem 1 of  for a general setting, and Theorem 2b of  for a sharper estimate in the present context).

Finally, we will show in Section 7 that the extremal real numbers (associated with Theorem 1.1) are also characterized as those real numbers $`\xi `$ for which Theorem 1.4 is optimal up to the value multiplicative constant.

###### Theorem 1.5.

Let $`\xi `$ be an real number which is not rational nor quadratic over $``$. The following conditions are equivalent:

* there exists a constant $`c>0`$ such that, for any real number $`X1`$, there is a non-zero point $`𝐱=(x_0,x_1,x_2)^3`$ satisfying the condition (5);
* there exists a constant $`c>0`$ such that, for any real number $`X1`$, there is a non-zero polynomial $`P[T]_2`$ of height at most $`X`$ satisfying $`|P(\xi )|cX^{\gamma 1}`$.

It would be interesting to know if a similar property holds in higher degree. Note that any real number satisfying one of the above conditions (a) or (b) is transcendental over $``$ by virtue of Schmidt’s subspace theorem.

The present work originates from a colloquium talk given at the University of Ottawa in November 2002. The author thanks the editors for suggesting to include it in the proceedings of CNTA-7. He also thanks Yann Bugeaud for pointing out a number of stimulating questions in relation to the present topic, in particular concerning the status of the exponent in Corollary 1.3.

## 2. The method of Davenport and Schmidt

Let $`n`$ be a fixed positive integer and let $`\xi `$ be a fixed real number which is not algebraic over $``$ of degree at most $`n`$. The natural approach to construct algebraic approximations of $`\xi `$ of degree at most $`n`$ is to produce non-zero polynomials of $`[T]_n`$ with “small” value and “large” derivative at $`\xi `$. One then concludes using the fact that any non-zero polynomial $`P[T]`$ of degree at most $`n`$ with $`P^{}(\xi )0`$ has at least one root $`\alpha `$ with

(7)
$$|\xi \alpha |n\frac{|P(\xi )|}{|P^{}(\xi )|}.$$

Define a convex body of $`^n`$ to be a compact, convex, neighborhood $`𝒞`$ of $`0`$ which is symmetric with respect to $`0`$ (i.e. $`𝒞=𝒞`$). According to a well-known result of Minkowski, if such a convex body $`𝒞`$ has volume at least $`2^n`$, then it contains a non-zero point of $`^n`$. Applying this result to the convex body of $`^{n+1}`$ defined, for a real number $`X1`$, by

$$\{\begin{array}{c}|x_0+x_1\xi +\mathrm{}+x_n\xi ^n|X^n\hfill \\ |x_1|X\hfill \\ \mathrm{}\hfill \\ |x_n|X\hfill \end{array}$$

and noting that its volume is $`2^{n+1}`$, we deduce that there exists a non-zero polynomial $`P[T]`$ with

$$\mathrm{deg}(P)n,H(P)(1+|\xi |+\mathrm{}+|\xi |^n)X\text{and}|P(\xi )|X^n.$$

The difficulty is to control the derivative of $`P`$ at $`\xi `$. The best one can hope is, for arbitrarily large values of $`X`$, to have $`|P^{}(\xi )|X`$. Then, using (7), one finds that there is at least one root $`\alpha `$ of $`P`$ with

$$\mathrm{deg}(\alpha )n,H(\alpha )X\text{and}|\xi \alpha |X^{n1}H(\alpha )^{n1}.$$

This motivates the conjecture mentioned in the introduction. In general, one has recourse to resultants to establish lower bounds on $`|P^{}(\xi )|`$.

The approach of Davenport and Schmidt in  is different as they require a set $`\{P_1,\mathrm{},P_n\}`$ of $`n`$ linearly independent polynomials of $`[T]_{n1}`$, all having small absolute value at $`\xi `$. Then, taking any monic polynomial $`Q[T]`$ of degree $`n`$ with $`Q(\xi )=0`$ and writing it as a linear combination

$$Q=T^n+\theta _1P_1+\mathrm{}+\theta _nP_n$$

with $`\theta _1,\mathrm{},\theta _n`$, one sees that the polynomial $`P[T]`$ given by

$$P=T^n+[\theta _1]P_1+\mathrm{}+[\theta _n]P_n$$

is monic of degree $`n`$, has height $`H(P)H(Q)+_{i=1}^nH(P_i)`$, and satisfies

$$|P(\xi )|\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}|P_i(\xi )|\text{as well as}|P^{}(\xi )||Q^{}(\xi )|\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}|P_i^{}(\xi )|.$$

So, if $`X`$ denotes an upper bound for $`_{i=1}^nH(P_i)`$, an appropriate choice of $`Q`$ (with $`H(Q)X`$ and $`|Q^{}(\xi )|X`$) produces a polynomial $`P`$ with

$$H(P)X,|P(\xi )|\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}|P_i(\xi )|\text{and}|P^{}(\xi )|X.$$

The roots of such a polynomial are algebraic integers of degree $`n`$ and height $`X`$ and, by (7), at least one of them, say $`\alpha `$, satisfies

$$|\xi \alpha |\frac{n}{X}\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}|P_i(\xi )|.$$

To construct appropriate sets of polynomials $`\{P_1,\mathrm{},P_n\}`$, Davenport and Schmidt apply a result of duality of Mahler . To state this result or rather a consequence of it, let $`𝒞`$ be a convex body of $`^n`$ and let $`𝒞^{}`$ denote the set of points $`(y_1,\mathrm{},y_n)^n`$ satisfying

$$|x_1y_1+\mathrm{}+x_ny_n|1$$

for all $`(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)𝒞`$. Then, $`𝒞^{}`$ is again a convex body of $`^n`$, called the dual (or polar) convex body to $`𝒞`$ (the bi-dual $`𝒞^{}`$ being $`𝒞`$ itself) and, if $`𝒞`$ contains no non-zero integral point, then $`n!𝒞^{}`$ contains $`n`$ linearly independent points of $`^n`$.

For example, given real numbers $`X,Y1`$, the convex bodies of $`^n`$ defined by

$$𝒞:\{\begin{array}{c}|x_0|X\hfill \\ |x_0\xi x_1|Y^1\hfill \\ \mathrm{}\hfill \\ |x_0\xi ^{n1}x_{n1}|Y^1\hfill \end{array}\text{and}𝒦:\{\begin{array}{c}|y_0+y_1\xi +\mathrm{}+y_{n1}\xi ^{n1}|X^1\hfill \\ |y_1|Y\hfill \\ \mathrm{}\hfill \\ |y_{n1}|Y\hfill \end{array}$$

are essentially dual to each other in the sense that

$$n^1𝒦𝒞^{}𝒦.$$

So, if $`𝒞`$ contains no non-zero integral point, then there are $`n`$ linearly independent polynomials of $`[T]_{n1}`$ of height $`Y`$ whose absolute values at $`\xi `$ are $`X^1`$ and therefore there exists an algebraic integer of degree $`n`$ and height $`Y`$ whose distance to $`\xi `$ is $`(XY)^1`$.

In the case $`n=3`$, this explains why Theorem 1.1 implies the existence of infinitely many algebraic integers $`\alpha `$ of degree $`3`$ with $`|\xi \alpha |H(\alpha )^{\gamma 1}`$ as stated in Corollary 1.2. In general, the fact that (4) has infinitely many solutions in algebraic integers of degree $`n`$ follows from a similar statement (Theorem 2a of ) showing that for $`X=cY^\nu `$ with $`\nu =[(n1)/2]`$ and an appropriate constant $`c>0`$, there are arbitrarily large values of $`Y`$ for which the convex body $`𝒞`$ contains no non-zero integral point.

A modification of the method produces approximation by algebraic numbers or algebraic integers of degree $`n`$ or even by algebraic units of degree $`n`$ (see ). A more general choice of convex bodies involving several derivatives still produces simultaneous approximations of a real number by conjugate algebraic integers .

## 3. Extremal real numbers

In this section, we present a sketch of proof of Theorem 1.1 and establish some properties of the corresponding “extremal” real numbers.

Let $`\xi `$ be a fixed real number. For each point $`𝐱=(x_0,x_1,x_2)^3`$, we define

$$𝐱=\mathrm{max}\{|x_0|,|x_1|,|x_2|\}\text{and}L(𝐱)=L_\xi (𝐱)=\mathrm{max}\{|x_1\xi x_0|,|x_2\xi ^2x_0|\}.$$

Identifying any such point with the corresponding symmetric matrix

(8)
$$𝐱=\left(\begin{array}{cc}x_0& x_1\\ x_1& x_2\end{array}\right),$$

we define

$$det(𝐱)=\left|\begin{array}{cc}x_0& x_1\\ x_1& x_2\end{array}\right|=x_0x_2x_1^2.$$

Then, using the multilinearity of the determinant, one finds

(9)
$$|det(𝐱)|=\begin{array}{cc}x_0& x_1\xi x_0\\ x_1& x_2\xi x_1\end{array}𝐱L(𝐱).$$

Similarly, if $`det(𝐱,𝐲,𝐳)`$ denotes the determinant of the $`3\times 3`$ matrix whose rows are points $`𝐱,𝐲,𝐳^3`$, one finds,

(10)
$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill |det(𝐱,𝐲,𝐳)|& =\begin{array}{ccc}x_0& x_1\xi x_0& x_2\xi ^2x_0\\ y_0& y_1\xi y_0& y_2\xi ^2y_0\\ z_0& z_1\xi z_0& z_2\xi ^2z_0\end{array}\hfill \\ & \\ & 𝐱L(𝐲)L(𝐳)+𝐲L(𝐱)L(𝐳)+𝐳L(𝐱)L(𝐲).\hfill \end{array}$$

We are now ready to present a sketch of proof of Theorem 1.1. To this end, assume that $`\xi `$ is neither rational nor quadratic over $``$ and that there exists a positive real number $`c`$ such that the inequalities (5) have a non-zero solution $`𝐱=(x_0,x_1,x_2)^3`$ for any sufficiently large real number $`X`$. We need to show that $`c`$ is bounded below by some positive constant depending only on $`\xi `$.

First note that there is a sequence of points $`(𝐱_i)_{i1}`$ in $`^3`$ with the following three properties:

* $`1𝐱_1<𝐱_2<𝐱_3<\mathrm{}`$
* $`L(𝐱_1)>L(𝐱_2)>L(𝐱_3)>\mathrm{}`$
* if $`𝐲^3`$ has $`1𝐲<𝐱_{i+1}`$, then $`L(𝐲)L(𝐱_i)`$.

Although this differs slightly from the construction in §3 of , we say that $`(𝐱_i)_{i1}`$ is a sequence of minimal points for $`\xi `$. In such a sequence, any point $`𝐱_i`$ with $`i2`$ is primitive, i.e. has relatively prime coordinates. Moreover any two consecutive points $`𝐱_i`$ and $`𝐱_{i+1}`$ with $`i2`$ are linearly independent. Define

$$X_i=𝐱_i\text{and}L_i=L(𝐱_i)$$

for each $`i1`$. Then, for any sufficiently large $`i`$, the hypotheses imply the existence of a non-zero point $`𝐱^3`$ with $`𝐱<X_{i+1}`$ and $`L(𝐱)cX_{i+1}^{1/\gamma }`$. This gives

(11)
$$L_icX_{i+1}^{1/\gamma }.$$

Davenport and Schmidt show that, for any sufficiently large $`i`$, we have $`det(𝐱_i)0`$ (Lemma 2 of ). Since $`det(𝐱_i)`$ is an integer, its absolute value is then bounded below by $`1`$ and, using the estimate (9) combined with (11), we find

(12)
$$1|det(𝐱_i)|X_iL_icX_iX_{i+1}^{1/\gamma }.$$

They also show that, for infinitely many $`i`$, the points $`𝐱_{i1}`$, $`𝐱_i`$ and $`𝐱_{i+1}`$ are linearly independent (Lemma 5 of ). For these $`i`$, the same argument based on (10) and (11) then gives

(13)
$$1|det(𝐱_{i1},𝐱_i,𝐱_{i+1})|X_{i+1}L_iL_{i1}c^2X_{i+1}^{11/\gamma }X_i^{1/\gamma }.$$

The required lower bound on $`c`$ then follows by comparing (12) and (13), upon noting that $`11/\gamma =1/\gamma ^2`$.

The above considerations apply in particular to any extremal real number $`\xi `$. Combining (12) and (13) then shows that, for all indices $`i`$ such that $`𝐱_{i1}`$, $`𝐱_i`$ and $`𝐱_{i+1}`$ are linearly independent, we have

$$𝐱_{i+1}𝐱_i^\gamma ,L_\xi (𝐱_i)𝐱_i^1,|det(𝐱_i)|1,|det(𝐱_{i1},𝐱_i,𝐱_{i+1})|1$$

writing $`ab`$ to mean $`ab`$ and $`ab`$. A further analysis shows that, by going to a subsequence $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ of $`(𝐱_i)_{i1}`$, one may assume these estimates to hold for all $`i1`$. More precisely, we have the following equivalence (Theorem 5.1 of ):

###### Theorem 3.1.

A real number $`\xi `$ is extremal if and only if there exists a constant $`c1`$ and an unbounded sequence of non-zero primitive points $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ of $`^3`$ satisfying, for all $`i1`$,

1. $`c^1𝐲_i^\gamma 𝐲_{i+1}c𝐲_i^\gamma `$,
2. $`c^1𝐲_i^1L_\xi (𝐲_i)c𝐲_i^1`$,
3. $`1|det(𝐲_i)|c`$,
4. $`1|det(𝐲_i,𝐲_{i+1},𝐲_{i+2})|c`$.

In the next section, we show that the sequence $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ is essentially uniquely determined by $`\xi `$.

## 4. The sequence of approximation triples

In this section, we fix an extremal real number $`\xi `$ and a sequence of approximation triples $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ as in Theorem 3.1. We first prove:

###### Proposition 4.1.

There exists a constant $`c_3>0`$ such that any non-zero primitive point $`𝐲^3`$ with

(14)
$$L_\xi (𝐲)c_3𝐲^{1/\gamma }$$

is of the form $`𝐲=\pm 𝐲_i`$ for some index $`i1`$.

###### Proof.

Fix a constant $`c_3`$ with $`0<c_3𝐲_1^1`$. Then, for any non-zero point $`𝐲^3`$, there exists an index $`i1`$ such that

$$c_3𝐲_i𝐲<c_3𝐲_{i+1}.$$

If (14) holds, we then find

$$\begin{array}{ccccc}\hfill |det(𝐲,𝐲_i,𝐲_{i+1})|& & 𝐲𝐲_i^1𝐲_{i+1}^1+𝐲_{i+1}𝐲_i^1L_\xi (𝐲)\hfill & & c_3+c_3^{1/\gamma ^2},\hfill \\ \hfill |det(𝐲,𝐲_i,𝐲_{i1})|& & 𝐲𝐲_i^1𝐲_{i1}^1+𝐲_i𝐲_{i1}^1L_\xi (𝐲)\hfill & & c_3+c_3^{1/\gamma ^2}.\hfill \end{array}$$

So, provided that $`c_3`$ is sufficiently small, these determinants vanish and, since $`𝐲_{i1}`$, $`𝐲_i`$ and $`𝐲_{i+1}`$ are linearly independent with $`𝐲_i`$ primitive, we conclude that $`𝐲=\pm 𝐲_i`$. ∎

Since, for all sufficiently large values of $`i`$, the point $`𝐲=𝐲_i`$ satisfies the condition (14), we deduce from this proposition that the sequence $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ is uniquely determined by $`\xi `$ up to its first terms and up to multiplication of its terms by $`\pm 1`$.

In proving the inequalities (9) and (10), we used the multi-linearity of the determinant. Equivalently, we could have looked at the Taylor series expansion of $`det(𝐱)`$ and $`det(𝐱,𝐲,𝐳)`$ at the points $`𝐱=(x_0,x_0\xi ,x_0\xi ^2)`$, …, $`𝐳=(z_0,z_0\xi ,z_0\xi ^2)`$. Proposition A.1 of the appendix generalizes this idea and, through a computer search, provided the following relations.

###### Proposition 4.2.

For any sufficiently large index $`i`$, we have

(15)
$$det(𝐲_i,𝐲_{i+1},[𝐲_{i+3},𝐲_{i+3},𝐲_{i+4}])=0\text{and}det(𝐲_{i+1},𝐲_{i+2},[𝐲_{i+3},𝐲_{i+3},𝐲_{i+4}])=0,$$

where, upon identifying points $`𝐱,𝐳^3`$ with the corresponding symmetric matrices as in (8) and upon denoting by $`\mathrm{Adj}(𝐳)`$ the adjoint matrix of $`𝐳`$, we define

(16)
$$[𝐱,𝐱,𝐳]=𝐱\mathrm{Adj}(𝐳)𝐱.$$

A direct proof of these relations can be found in , as part of the proof of Corollary 5.2 of . It uses the estimates of Lemma 3.1 of  to show that the above determinants (15) have absolute values tending to zero as $`i`$ tends to infinity. As in Proposition 2.3 of , we deduce:

###### Corollary 4.3.

There exists a $`2\times 2`$ matrix $`M`$ with relatively prime integer coefficients and an index $`i_0`$ such that the symmetric matrix corresponding to $`𝐲_{i+2}`$ is a rational multiple of $`𝐲_{i+1}M𝐲_i`$ when $`ii_0`$ is odd, and a rational multiple of $`𝐲_{i+1}{}_{}{}^{t}M𝐲_i`$ when $`ii_0`$ is even. Such a matrix $`M`$ is non-singular, non-symmetric and non-skew-symmetric.

###### Proof.

Choose $`i_02`$ so that the relations (15) hold for $`ii_01`$. Since $`𝐲_i`$, $`𝐲_{i+1}`$ and $`𝐲_{i+2}`$ are linearly independent, these relations imply that $`[𝐲_{i+3},𝐲_{i+3},𝐲_{i+4}]`$ is a rational multiple of $`𝐲_{i+1}`$ and thus, by definition of the latter symbol, since all these matrices are invertible, that $`𝐲_{i+4}`$ is a rational multiple of $`𝐲_{i+3}𝐲_{i+1}^1𝐲_{i+3}`$ for $`ii_01`$. Therefore, assuming that $`𝐲_{i+3}`$ is a rational multiple of $`𝐲_{i+2}S𝐲_{i+1}`$ for some integer matrix $`S`$ and some index $`ii_01`$, we find that $`𝐲_{i+4}`$ is a rational multiple of $`𝐲_{i+2}S𝐲_{i+3}`$, and so, by taking transpose, that $`𝐲_{i+4}`$ is a rational multiple of $`𝐲_{i+3}{}_{}{}^{t}S𝐲_{i+2}`$. The first assertion of the corollary then follows by induction on $`i`$, upon choosing $`M`$ so that it holds for $`i=i_0`$. The matrix $`M`$ is clearly non-singular. It is not symmetric since a simple computation based for example on the formulas (2.1) and (2.2) of  gives

(17)
$$det(𝐲_i,𝐲_{i+1},𝐲_{i+1}M𝐲_i)=det(𝐲_i)det(𝐲_{i+1})\mathrm{trace}(MJ)\text{where}J=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right),$$

while, for odd $`ii_0`$, the above determinant is non-zero. Finally, it is not skew-symmetric, otherwise in the above notation we would have $`M=\pm J`$ which, for $`ii_0`$, would imply proportionality relations

$$𝐲_{i+3}𝐲_{i+2}J𝐲_{i+1}𝐲_iJ𝐲_{i+1}J𝐲_{i+1}𝐲_i$$

and thus $`𝐲_{i+3}=\pm 𝐲_i`$, against the fact that the norms of the $`𝐲_i`$’s are unbounded. ∎

As the sequence $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ is uniquely determined by $`\xi `$ up to its first terms and up to multiplication of its terms by $`\pm 1`$, we deduce that the matrix $`M`$ of the corollary is uniquely determined by $`\xi `$ up to multiplication by $`\pm 1`$ and up to transposition. We say that $`M`$ is the matrix associated with $`\xi `$ and, for a given $`M`$, we denote by $`(M)`$ the set of extremal real numbers with associated matrix $`M`$. In the next section, we present a criterion for showing that $`(M)`$ is not empty.

Remark that, in the notation of the corollary, the sequence of matrices $`(M_i)_{i1}`$ given by $`M_i=𝐲_iM`$ for $`i`$ even and by $`M_i=𝐲_i{}_{}{}^{t}M`$ for $`i`$ odd satisfies

$$M_{i+2}=M_{i+1}M_i$$

for all $`ii_0`$. It can therefore be viewed as a Fibonacci sequence of matrices in $`\mathrm{GL}_2()`$.

## 5. Construction of extremal real numbers

###### Proposition 5.1.

Let $`M`$ be a non-singular, non-symmetric $`2\times 2`$ matrix with relatively prime integer coefficients. Assume that there exist non-singular $`2\times 2`$ symmetric matrices $`𝐲_1,𝐲_2,𝐲_3`$ with relatively prime integer coefficients such that $`𝐲_3`$ is a rational multiple of $`𝐲_2M𝐲_1`$. Extend the definition of $`𝐲_i`$ coherently for $`i4`$ by asking that $`𝐲_i`$ has relatively prime integer coefficients and that it is a rational multiple of $`𝐲_{i1}M𝐲_{i2}`$ for odd $`i3`$ and a rational multiple of $`𝐲_{i1}{}_{}{}^{t}M𝐲_{i2}`$ for even $`i4`$. Assume further that the $`𝐲_i`$’s are unbounded and that there exist positive constants $`c_4`$ and $`c_5`$ such that

$$|det(𝐲_i)|c_4\text{and}𝐲_{i+2}c_5𝐲_{i+1}𝐲_i$$

for all $`i1`$. Then $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ is a sequence of approximation triples associated with an extremal real number $`\xi (M)`$.

###### Proof.

For each $`i1`$, we have

(18)
$$𝐲_{i+2}=\rho _i𝐲_{i+1}S𝐲_i$$

for some appropriate choice of $`S=M`$ or $`{}_{}{}^{t}M`$ and some non-zero rational number $`\rho _i`$ with $`|\rho _i|1`$. Assuming that $`𝐲_i`$ and $`𝐲_{i+1}`$ are non-singular, this shows that $`𝐲_{i+2}`$ is also non-singular. Thus, by induction, all $`𝐲_i`$’s are non-singular, and so

$$1|det(𝐲_i)|c_4$$

for $`i1`$. We also deduce that

$$𝐲_{i+3}=\rho _{i+1}𝐲_{i+2}{}_{}{}^{t}S𝐲_{i+1}=\rho _i\rho _{i+1}𝐲_{i+1}S𝐲_i{}_{}{}^{t}S𝐲_{i+1}$$

which, starting from the fact that $`𝐲_1`$, $`𝐲_2`$ and $`𝐲_3`$ are symmetric, implies by induction that all $`𝐲_i`$’s are symmetric. The formula (17) with $`M`$ replaced by $`S`$ also gives

$$det(𝐲_i,𝐲_{i+1},𝐲_{i+2})=\rho _idet(𝐲_i)det(𝐲_{i+1})\mathrm{trace}(SJ).$$

Since $`M`$ is non-symmetric, we have $`\mathrm{trace}(SJ)=\pm \mathrm{trace}(MJ)0`$ and therefore, the above determinant being an integer, it satisfies

$$1|det(𝐲_i,𝐲_{i+1},𝐲_{i+2})|c_4^2|\mathrm{trace}(MJ)|.$$

The relation (18) also implies that

$$𝐲_{i+2}c_6𝐲_{i+1}𝐲_i$$

where $`c_6`$ denotes the sum of the absolute values of the coefficients of $`M`$. Defining $`q_i=𝐲_{i+1}𝐲_i^\gamma `$ and using the similar lower bound for $`𝐲_{i+2}`$ from the hypotheses of the theorem, we deduce that

$$c_5q_i^{1/\gamma }q_{i+1}c_6q_i^{1/\gamma },$$

which, by induction, implies $`c_7^1q_ic_7`$ with $`c_7=\mathrm{max}\{q_1,q_1^1,c_5^{\gamma ^2},c_6^{\gamma ^2}\}`$ and so

$$c_7^1𝐲_i^\gamma 𝐲_{i+1}c_7𝐲_i^\gamma ,$$

for all $`i1`$.

Denote by $`[𝐱]`$ the image of a non-zero point $`𝐱`$ of $`^3`$ in the projective space $`^2()`$, and, for any non-zero point $`𝐲^3`$, define

$$d([𝐱],[𝐲])=d(𝐱,𝐲)=\frac{𝐱𝐲}{𝐱𝐲}$$

where $`𝐱𝐲`$ denotes the vector product of $`𝐱`$ and $`𝐲`$. This distance function defines the usual topology on $`^2()`$ (see for example Lemma 1.16 of ) and it is easily proved to satisfy

(19)
$$d(𝐱,𝐳)d(𝐱,𝐲)+2d(𝐲,𝐳)$$

for any three non-zero points $`𝐱,𝐲,𝐳`$ of $`^3`$. Since $`^2()`$ is compact, the sequence $`([𝐲_i])_{i1}`$ has an accumulation point $`[𝐲]`$ for some non-zero $`𝐲^3`$. Since the points $`𝐲_i`$ have bounded determinant and norm tending to infinity with $`i`$, we deduce that, by continuity,

(20)
$$det(𝐲)=0.$$

In order to estimate the distance between two consecutives points of this sequence, we note that

$$𝐲_{i+2}J𝐲_{i+1}=\rho _i𝐲_i{}_{}{}^{t}S𝐲_{i+1}J𝐲_{i+1}=\rho _idet(𝐲_{i+1})𝐲_i{}_{}{}^{t}SJ,$$

thus

$$\underset{k,\mathrm{}=0,1}{\mathrm{max}}|y_{i+2,k}y_{i+1,\mathrm{}+1}y_{i+2,k+1}y_{i+1,\mathrm{}}|c_4c_6𝐲_i,$$

and so

(21)
$$d(𝐲_{i+1},𝐲_{i+2})2c_4c_6\frac{𝐲_i}{𝐲_{i+1}𝐲_{i+2}}c_8𝐲_{i+1}^2$$

with $`c_8=2c_4c_6/c_5`$. Using (19), (21) and the fact that the norms of the $`𝐲_i`$’s grow faster than any geometric series, we deduce that, for $`k>i2`$, we have

$$d(𝐲_i,𝐲_k)\underset{j=i}{\overset{k1}{}}2^{ji}d(𝐲_j,𝐲_{j+1})c_8\underset{j=i}{\overset{k1}{}}2^{ji}𝐲_j^2c_9𝐲_i^2$$

for some constant $`c_9>0`$. As $`d(𝐲_k,𝐲)`$ can be made arbitrarily small for a suitable choice of $`k>i`$, this implies

$$d(𝐲_i,𝐲)c_9𝐲_i^2,$$

showing in particular that the sequence $`([𝐲_i])_{i1}`$ converges to $`[𝐲]`$.

We claim that the point $`𝐲=(y_0,y_1,y_2)`$ has $`y_00`$. Otherwise, upon denoting by $`k`$ a fixed index for which $`y_k0`$, we would have, for $`i2`$,

$$|y_ky_{i,0}|=|y_ky_{i,0}y_0y_{i,k}|𝐲𝐲_id(𝐲_i,𝐲)c_9𝐲𝐲_i^1.$$

As this upper bound tends to zero for $`i\mathrm{}`$, this would force the integer $`y_{i,0}`$ to be zero for all sufficiently large values of $`i`$, against the fact that the determinant of any three consecutive $`𝐲_i`$’s is non-zero.

Since $`y_00`$, we may assume without loss of generality that $`y_0=1`$. Writing $`\xi =y_1`$, we then deduce, by virtue of (20), that

$$𝐲=(1,\xi ,\xi ^2).$$

and so

$$L_\xi (𝐲_i)𝐲𝐲_i𝐲𝐲_id(𝐲_i,𝐲)c_9\mathrm{max}\{1,\xi ^2\}𝐲_i^1$$

for any $`i2`$. We also get a lower bound of the same type for $`L_\xi (𝐲_i)`$ by combining the estimate (9) with the lower bound $`|det(𝐲_i)|1`$. Therefore, by Theorem 3.1, the number $`\xi `$ is extremal, and $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ is an associated sequence of approximation triples. ∎

To apply the above proposition for a given skew-symmetric matrix $`M`$, one has to choose $`𝐲_1`$ and $`𝐲_2`$ so that

* the product $`𝐲_2M𝐲_1`$ is symmetric,
* the $`𝐲_i`$’s have bounded non-zero determinants,
* the $`𝐲_i`$’s are unbounded and the ratios $`𝐲_{i+2}/(𝐲_{i+1}𝐲_i)`$ are bounded below by some positive constant.

The second condition is automatically fulfilled if $`M`$, $`𝐲_1`$ and $`𝐲_2`$ have determinant $`\pm 1`$, because then all $`𝐲_i`$’s have determinant $`\pm 1`$. The third condition is also fulfilled if, for example, the coefficients of $`M`$ are positive while those of $`𝐲_1`$ and $`𝐲_2`$ are non-negative.

Example 1. If we define

$$A=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right),B=\left(\begin{array}{cc}b& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)\text{and}M=AB=\left(\begin{array}{cc}ab+1& a\\ b& 1\end{array}\right)$$

for a choice of distinct positive integers $`a`$ and $`b`$, then

$$𝐲_1=A,𝐲_2=ABA\text{and}𝐲_3=𝐲_2M𝐲_1=ABAABA$$

are symmetric matrices of determinant $`\pm 1`$ with non-negative entries while $`M`$ has positive entries. The resulting sequence $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ thus fulfills all requirements of Proposition 5.1. It can be shown that the corresponding extremal real number has continued fraction expansion

$$\xi =[0,a,b,a,a,b,a,\mathrm{}]$$

given by the Fibonacci word on $`\{a,b\}`$ (see Theorem 2.2 of  or Corollary 6.3 of ).

Example 2. Take

$$𝐲_1=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right),𝐲_2=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a^3+2a& a^3a^2+2a1\\ a^3a^2+2a1& a^32a^2+3a2\end{array}\right)\text{and}M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)$$

for a fixed positive integer $`a`$. One readily checks that $`𝐲_2M𝐲_1`$ is symmetric, that $`det(𝐲_1)=det(𝐲_2)=1`$ and that $`det(M)=1`$. Thus, to ensure that the corresponding sequence $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ defines an extremal real number, it remains only to verify the growth condition on the norms of these points. To this end, we note that if $`𝐱,𝐲^3`$ have coordinates satisfying $`x_0x_1x_20`$ and $`y_0y_1y_20`$ and if the product $`𝐳=𝐲M𝐱`$ is symmetric, then we also have $`z_0z_1z_20`$ and moreover $`z_0(a1)y_0x_0`$. By recurrence on $`i`$, using $`𝐲_{i+2}=𝐲_{i+1}M𝐲_i`$ for odd $`i`$ and $`𝐲_{i+2}=𝐲_iM𝐲_{i+1}`$ for even $`i`$, we deduce that $`𝐲_i=y_{i,0}`$ and that $`𝐲_{i+2}(a1)𝐲_{i+1}𝐲_i`$ for all $`i1`$. So, for $`a2`$, the required growth condition is satisfied (we have $`lim_i\mathrm{}𝐲_i=\mathrm{}`$ since $`𝐲_2>𝐲_1=1`$). In the case where $`a=1`$, one finds that the points $`𝐱=𝐲_3`$ and $`𝐲=𝐲_2`$ satisfy the stronger conditions $`x_02x_14x_20`$ and $`y_02y_14y_20`$ and that, for such points $`𝐱,𝐲^3`$, when the product $`𝐳=𝐲M𝐱`$ is symmetric, we also have $`z_02z_14z_20`$ and $`z_0y_0x_0/2`$. By recurrence on $`i`$, this gives $`𝐲_i=y_{i,0}`$ and $`𝐲_{i+2}(1/2)𝐲_{i+1}𝐲_i`$ for all $`i2`$. In particular, since $`𝐲_2=3`$ and $`𝐲_3=5`$, we deduce that $`𝐲_{i+1}>𝐲_i>2`$ for $`i1`$ and so $`lim_i\mathrm{}𝐲_i=\mathrm{}`$. Thus, in all cases, the sequence $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ defines an extremal real number in $`(M)`$. This proves the remark at the end of §3 of .

## 6. Approximation by cubic algebraic integers

In order to show that the exponent in Corollary 1.3 is best possible, we apply the following criterion where, for a real number $`x`$, the symbol $`\{x\}`$ denotes the distance from $`x`$ to a closest integer (compare with Proposition 9.1 of ).

###### Lemma 6.1.

Let $`\xi `$ be an extremal real number and let $`(𝐲_i)_{i1}`$ be a corresponding sequence of approximation triples. Assume that there exists a constant $`c_1>0`$ such that

(22)
$$\left\{y_{i,0}\xi ^3\right\}c_1$$

for any sufficiently large index $`i`$. Then there exists a constant $`c_2>0`$ such that, for any monic polynomial $`P[T]_3`$, we have

$$|P(\xi )|c_2H(P)^\gamma .$$

###### Proof.

Choose an index $`i_01`$ such that (22) holds for each $`ii_0`$. Multiplying $`P`$ by a suitable power of $`T`$ if necessary, we may assume without loss of generality that $`P`$ has degree three. Writing $`P(T)=T^3+pT^2+qT+r`$, we find, for any $`ii_0`$,

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \left\{y_{i,0}\xi ^3\right\}& |y_{i,0}P(\xi )|+|p|\left\{y_{i,0}\xi ^2\right\}+|q|\left\{y_{i,0}\xi \right\}\hfill \\ & 𝐲_i|P(\xi )|+2H(P)L_\xi (𝐲_i)\hfill \\ & 𝐲_i|P(\xi )|+c_3H(P)𝐲_i^1\hfill \end{array}$$

with a constant $`c_3>0`$ depending only on $`\xi `$. Choosing $`i`$ to be the smallest integer $`ii_0`$ for which

$$H(P)\frac{c_1}{2c_3}𝐲_i,$$

and using (22) this implies

$$|P(\xi )|\frac{c_1}{2}𝐲_i^1.$$

The conclusion follows as the above choice of $`i`$ implies $`𝐲_iH(P)^\gamma `$. ∎

Let $`a1`$ be an integer and, for shortness, define $`_a=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$. Example 2 of the preceding section shows that this set is not empty. Moreover, it is proved in §4 of  that any extremal real number $`\xi `$ in $`_a`$ satisfies the hypotheses of the preceding lemma (more precisely it is shown that $`lim_j\mathrm{}\left\{y_{i+3j,0}\xi ^3\right\}`$ exists and is a positive real number for $`i=0,1,2`$). So, we deduce:

###### Theorem 6.2.

Let $`a1`$ be an integer and let $`\xi _a`$. There exists a constant $`c>0`$ such that, for any monic polynomial $`P[T]_3`$, we have

$$|P(\xi )|cH(P)^\gamma .$$

###### Corollary 6.3.

With $`\xi `$ as above, there exists a constant $`c^{}>0`$ such that, for any algebraic integer $`\alpha `$ of degree at most $`3`$ over $``$, we have

$$|\xi \alpha |c^{}H(\alpha )^{\gamma 1}.$$

## 7. Proof of Theorem 1.5

Theorem 8.1 of  provides a sequence of polynomials in $`[T]_2`$ with small absolute value at a given extremal real number $`\xi `$. These polynomials are constructed by taking exterior products of consecutive approximation triples of $`\xi `$. As a corollary, this result implies Theorem 1.2 of  which in turn tells us that (a) implies (b) in Theorem 1.5. Our proof that (b) implies (a) will be similar. We will first prove that, for any given real number $`\xi `$ which satisfies this condition (b), there is a sequence of polynomials in $`[T]_2`$ with properties parallel to those stated in Theorem 3.1. Then, by taking exterior products of consecutive polynomials in this sequence, we will get points $`𝐱`$ in $`^3`$ for which $`L_\xi (𝐱)`$ is small. This will require the following lemma.

###### Lemma 7.1.

Let $`\xi `$ be a real number and let $`P=p_0+p_1T+p_2T^2`$ and $`Q=q_0+q_1T+q_2T^2`$ be polynomials of $`[T]_2`$ with

$$2H(P)|Q(\xi )|H(Q)|P(\xi )|.$$

Then the point

$$𝐱=PQ=(p_2q_1p_1q_2,p_0q_2p_2q_0,p_1q_0p_0q_1)^3$$

satisfies

$$(2\mathrm{max}\{1,|\xi |+|\xi ^2|\})^1H(Q)|P(\xi )|L_\xi (𝐱)\frac{3}{2}H(Q)|P(\xi )|.$$

###### Proof.

The upper bound follows immediately from the relations

$$x_0\xi x_1=p_2Q(\xi )q_2P(\xi )\text{and}x_0\xi ^2x_2=q_1P(\xi )p_1Q(\xi ).$$

For the lower bound, we simply note that

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill q_0P(\xi )p_0Q(\xi )& =\xi (q_1P(\xi )p_1Q(\xi ))\xi ^2(q_2P(\xi )p_2Q(\xi ))\hfill \\ & =\xi (x_0\xi ^2x_2)+\xi ^2(x_0\xi x_1)\hfill \end{array}$$

implies

$$\mathrm{max}\{1,|\xi |+|\xi ^2|\}L_\xi (𝐱)\underset{0i2}{\mathrm{max}}|q_iP(\xi )p_iQ(\xi )|H(Q)|P(\xi )|H(P)|Q(\xi )|.$$

We now prove Theorem 1.5 by adding one more equivalent condition (compare with Theorem 5.1 of ):

###### Theorem 7.2.

Let $`\xi `$ be a real number. The following conditions are equivalent:

* the number $`\xi `$ is extremal;
* the number $`\xi `$ is neither rational nor quadratic over $``$ and, for any real number $`X1`$, there is a non-zero polynomial $`P[T]_2`$ of height at most $`X`$ satisfying $`|P(\xi )|c_1X^{\gamma 1}`$ with a constant $`c_1=c_1(\xi )`$;
* There exists a constant $`c_21`$ and an unbounded sequence of non-zero polynomials $`(Q_k)_{k1}`$ of $`[T]_2`$ with relatively prime coefficients satisfying, for all $`k1`$,

+ $`c_2^1H(Q_k)^\gamma H(Q_{k+1})c_2H(Q_k)^\gamma `$,
    + $`c_2^1H(Q_k)^{\gamma ^3}|Q_k(\xi )|c_2H(Q_k)^{\gamma ^3}`$,
    + $`1|\mathrm{Res}(Q_k,Q_{k+1})|c_2`$,
    + $`1|det(Q_k,Q_{k+1},Q_{k+2})|c_2`$.

###### Proof.

As mentioned earlier, Theorem 1.2 of  shows that (a) implies (b).

Assume now that (b) is satisfied. We prove (c) by going back to the arguments of . First of all, we recall that there is a sequence of “minimal polynomials” $`(P_i)_{i1}`$ in $`[T]_2`$ with the following three properties:

* $`1H(P_1)<H(P_2)<H(P_3)<\mathrm{}`$
* $`|P_1(\xi )|>|P_2(\xi )|>|P_3(\xi )|>\mathrm{}`$
* if $`P[T]_2`$ has $`1H(P)<H(P_{i+1})`$, then $`|P(\xi )||P_i(\xi )|`$

(see §3 of  or Lemma 5 of ). For each $`i1`$, let $`V_i`$ denote the sub-$``$-vector space of $`[T]`$ generated by $`P_i`$ and $`P_{i+1}`$. Then, for $`i2`$, the polynomials $`P_i`$ and $`P_{i+1}`$ form a basis of the group $`V_i[T]`$ of integral polynomials in $`V_i`$ (see the proof of Lemma 2 of ). In particular, $`P_i`$ has relatively prime coefficients for $`i2`$. Moreover the condition (b) implies

(23)
$$|P_i(\xi )|c_1H(P_{i+1})^{\gamma 1}$$

for any $`i1`$.

Let $`I`$ denote the set of indices $`i2`$ for which $`P_{i1}`$, $`P_i`$ and $`P_{i+1}`$ are linearly independent. Lemma 6 of  shows that $`I`$ is an infinite set and the arguments in §3 of  show that there exists an index $`i_1I`$ such that $`\mathrm{Res}(P_i,P_{i+1})0`$ for all $`iI`$ with $`ii_1`$. We define a sub-sequence $`(Q_k)_{k1}`$ of $`(P_i)_{i1}`$ by putting $`Q_k=P_{i_k}`$ where $`i_k`$ denotes the $`k`$-th element $`i`$ of $`I`$ with $`ii_1`$. We claim that this sequence enjoys all properties stated in (c).

Take $`i=i_k`$ for some $`k1`$. Using Lemmas 2 and 4 of  together with (23) , we find

$$1|det(P_{i1},P_i,P_{i+1})|6H(P_i)H(P_{i+1})|P_{i1}(\xi )|6c_1H(P_i)^\gamma H(P_{i+1})$$

and

$$1|\mathrm{Res}(P_i,P_{i+1})|12H(P_i)H(P_{i+1})^2|P_i(\xi )|12c_1H(P_i)H(P_{i+1})^{1/\gamma }.$$

Comparing these two sets of inequalities, we deduce

(24)
$$H(P_{i+1})H(P_i)^\gamma ,|P_{i1}(\xi )|H(P_i)^{\gamma 1}\text{and}|P_i(\xi )|H(P_{i+1})^{\gamma 1}.$$

In particular, the polynomial $`Q_k=P_i`$ satisfies

(25)
$$|Q_k(\xi )|H(Q_k)^{\gamma ^3}.$$

Moreover, if $`i`$ is large enough, the pairs $`(P,Q)=(P_{i1},P_i)`$ and $`(P,Q)=(P_i,P_{i+1})`$ both satisfy the hypotheses of Lemma 7.1 and so we get

(26)
$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill L_\xi (P_{i1}P_i)H(P_i)|P_{i1}(\xi )|H(P_i)^\gamma ,& & \\ & & \\ \hfill L_\xi (P_iP_{i+1})H(P_{i+1})|P_i(\xi )|H(P_{i+1})^\gamma .& & \end{array}$$

Adjusting the implied constants if necessary, we may assume that these estimates hold for all $`iI`$.

Consider now the next element $`j=i_{k+1}`$ of $`I`$. By construction, we have $`V_i=V_{j1}`$ and so $`P_iP_{i+1}=\pm P_{j1}P_j`$. Using (26), we find

$$H(P_j)^\gamma L_\xi (P_{j1}P_j)=L_\xi (P_iP_{i+1})H(P_{i+1})^\gamma $$

and so, by (24),

(27)
$$H(Q_{k+1})=H(P_j)H(P_{i+1})H(Q_k)^\gamma .$$

Moreover, since $`P_i`$ and $`P_j`$ are linearly independent (being primary of distinct height), they form a basis of $`V_i`$. Since $`V_i`$ contains $`P_i`$ and $`P_{i+1}`$ whose resultant is non-zero, we deduce that $`P_i`$ and $`P_j`$ also have a non-zero resultant and using Lemma 2 of  together with (25) and (27), we get

$$1|\mathrm{Res}(Q_k,Q_{k+1})|H(Q_k)H(Q_{k+1})^2|Q_k(\xi )|1.$$

Finally, putting $`\mathrm{}=i_{k+2}`$, we observe that the polynomials $`P_i`$, $`P_j`$ and $`P_{\mathrm{}}`$ are linearly independent as they span the same vector space over $``$ as $`P_{j1}`$, $`P_j`$ and $`P_{j+1}`$. Using Lemma 4 of  together with (25) and (27), this gives

$$1|det(Q_k,Q_{k+1},Q_{k+2})|H(Q_{k+1})H(Q_{k+2})|Q_k(\xi )|1.$$

The last three estimates together with (25) show that the sequence $`(Q_k)_{k1}`$ satisfies the condition (c).

To prove the last implication that (c) implies (b), assume the existence of a sequence of polynomials $`(Q_k)_{k1}`$ as in condition (c). We first claim that $`\xi `$ is neither rational nor quadratic over $``$. To prove this, assume on the contrary that there exists a non-zero polynomial $`Q[T]_2`$ which vanishes at $`\xi `$. Using Lemma 4 of , we then find

$$|det(Q,Q_k,Q_{k+1})|H(Q)H(Q_{k+1})|Q_k(\xi )|H(Q)H(Q_k)^{\gamma ^2},$$

which implies that the integer $`det(Q,Q_k,Q_{k+1})`$ is zero for all sufficiently large values of $`k`$, against the hypothesis that any three consecutive $`Q_k`$’s are linearly independent. Define

$$𝐲_k=Q_kQ_{k+1}$$

for each index $`k1`$. We have

$$𝐲_kH(Q_k)H(Q_{k+1})H(Q_k)^{\gamma ^2}$$

for all $`k1`$ and, applying Lemma 7.1 we deduce

$$L_\xi (𝐲_k)H(Q_{k+1})|Q_k(\xi )|H(Q_{k+1})^\gamma 𝐲_{k+1}^{1/\gamma }.$$

This shows in particular that $`L_\xi (𝐲_k)`$ tends to zero as $`k`$ tends to infinity and thus that the sequence $`(𝐲_k)_{k1}`$ is unbounded. So, for any sufficiently large real number $`X`$, there exists an index $`k`$ such that $`𝐲_kX𝐲_{k+1}`$ and, for such a choice of $`k`$, the previous estimate gives $`L_\xi (𝐲_k)X^{1/\gamma }`$. This shows that $`\xi `$ is extremal. ∎

## Appendix A Finding new relations

Let the notation be as in Section 4. Fix an integer $`k1`$, a $`(k+1)`$-tuple of non-negative integers $`𝐝=(d_0,\mathrm{},d_k)`$, an integer $`p0`$ and triples of indeterminates $`𝐮_j=(u_{j,0},u_{j,1},u_{j,2})`$ for $`j=0,1,\mathrm{},k`$. To each monomial

$$𝐮_0^{𝐞_0}\mathrm{}𝐮_k^{𝐞_k}=\underset{j=0}{\overset{k}{}}\underset{\mathrm{}=0}{\overset{2}{}}u_{j,\mathrm{}}^{e_{j,\mathrm{}}}[𝐮_0,\mathrm{},𝐮_k]$$

we associate a weight given by

$$\underset{j=0}{\overset{k}{}}\underset{\mathrm{}=0}{\overset{2}{}}\mathrm{}e_{j,\mathrm{}}$$

and a multi-degree given by

$$(|𝐞_0|,\mathrm{},|𝐞_k|)=(e_{0,0}+e_{0,1}+e_{0,2},\mathrm{},e_{k,0}+e_{k,1}+e_{k,2}).$$

We denote by $`E(𝐝,p)`$ the sub-$``$-vector space of $`[𝐮_0,\mathrm{},𝐮_k]`$ generated by all monomials of multi-degree $`𝐝`$ and weight $`p`$. We also denote by $`\mathrm{𝟏}`$ the element of $`^{3k+3}`$ all of whose coordinates are equal to $`1`$.

###### Proposition A.1.

Suppose that a polynomial $`PE(𝐝,p)`$ satisfies

$$\left(\underset{j=0}{\overset{k}{}}\underset{\mathrm{}=1}{\overset{2}{}}\left(\frac{}{u_{j,\mathrm{}}}\right)^{f_{j,\mathrm{}}}P\right)(\mathrm{𝟏})=0$$

for any choice of non-negative integers $`f_{0,1},f_{0,2},\mathrm{},f_{k,1},f_{k,2}`$ with

$$2\underset{j=0}{\overset{k}{}}(f_{j,1}+f_{j,2})\gamma ^j\underset{j=0}{\overset{k}{}}d_j\gamma ^j\text{and}f_{j,1}+f_{j,2}d_j,(0jk).$$

Then, we have

$$P(𝐲_i,𝐲_{i+1},\mathrm{},𝐲_{i+k})=0$$

for all sufficiently large values of $`i`$.

###### Proof.

We find

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill P(𝐲_i,\mathrm{},𝐲_{i+k})& =\xi ^py_{i,0}^{d_0}\mathrm{}y_{i+k,0}^{d_k}P(1,\frac{y_{i,1}}{y_{i,0}\xi },\frac{y_{i,2}}{y_{i,0}\xi ^2},\mathrm{},1,\frac{y_{i+k,1}}{y_{i+k,0}\xi },\frac{y_{i+k,2}}{y_{i+k,0}\xi ^2})\hfill \\ & =\xi ^py_{i,0}^{d_0}\mathrm{}y_{i+k,0}^{d_k}\underset{j=0}{\overset{k}{}}\underset{\mathrm{}=1}{\overset{2}{}}\frac{1}{f_{j,\mathrm{}}!}\left(\left(\frac{y_{i+j,\mathrm{}}}{y_{i+j,0}\xi ^{\mathrm{}}}1\right)\frac{}{u_{j,\mathrm{}}}\right)^{f_{j,\mathrm{}}}P(\mathrm{𝟏}),\hfill \end{array}$$

where the sum in the second expression ranges over all choices of non-negative integers $`f_{0,1},f_{0,2},\mathrm{},f_{k,0},f_{k,1}`$ with $`f_{j,1}+f_{j,2}d_j`$ for $`j=0,\mathrm{},k`$. Since, for any such choice of integers, we have

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \left|y_{i,0}^{d_0}\mathrm{}y_{i+k,0}^{d_k}\underset{j=0}{\overset{k}{}}\underset{\mathrm{}=1}{\overset{2}{}}\left(\frac{y_{i+j,\mathrm{}}}{y_{i+j,0}\xi ^{\mathrm{}}}1\right)^{f_{j,\mathrm{}}}\right|& \underset{j=0}{\overset{k}{}}𝐲_{i+j}^{d_j2f_{j,1}2f_{j,2}}\hfill \\ & 𝐲_i^{_{j=0}^k(d_j2f_{j,1}2f_{j,2})\gamma ^j},\hfill \end{array}$$

the hypothesis implies

$$|P(𝐲_i,\mathrm{},𝐲_{i+k})|𝐲_i^ϵ$$

for some positive real number $`ϵ`$. Since $`P(𝐲_i,\mathrm{},𝐲_{i+k})`$ is a rational number with bounded denominator, it must therefore vanish for all sufficiently large values of $`i`$. ∎

Empirically it seems that, for a given multi-degree $`𝐝`$, the dimension of $`E(𝐝,p)`$ is maximal with $`p=|𝐝|=d_0+\mathrm{}+d_k`$. For values of $`p`$ at equal distance from $`|𝐝|`$, that is for integers $`p,q0`$ with $`p+q=2|𝐝|`$, the dimensions of the corresponding vector spaces $`E(𝐝,p)`$ and $`E(𝐝,q)`$ are the same. So, it is natural to look first for polynomials in $`E(𝐝,|𝐝|)`$.

A computer search based on the above proposition found two non-zero polynomials with the appropriate vanishing, namely

$$det(𝐮_0,𝐮_1,[𝐮_3,𝐮_3,𝐮_4])\text{and}det(𝐮_1,𝐮_2,[𝐮_3,𝐮_3,𝐮_4])$$

where the symbol $`[𝐮_3,𝐮_3,𝐮_4]`$ is defined by (16). The first polynomial has multi-degree $`(1,1,0,2,1)`$ and weight $`5`$, while the other has multi-degree $`(0,1,1,2,1)`$ and weight $`5`$. They provide the relations (15) of Proposition 4.2.


text:
# Millisecond pulsars with r-modes as steady gravitational radiators

## Abstract

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are generally agreed to originate in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), in which mass transfer onto the neutron stars spins them up to their observed, fast rotation. The lack of MSPs and LMXBs rotating near break-up and the similar rotation periods of several LMXBs have been attributed to the accretion torque being balanced, at fast rotation, by gravitational radiation, perhaps caused by an oscillation mode made unstable through the so-called Chandrasekhar-Friedman-Schutz mechanism. Recently, Wagoner has argued that internal dissipation through weak interaction processes involving $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ hyperons may cause LMXBs to evolve into a quasi-steady state, in which the neutron star has a nearly constant rotation rate, temperature, and mode amplitude. We take this hypothesis one step further, showing that MSPs descending from these LMXBs spend a long time in a similar state, in which a low-amplitude r-mode turns them into extremely steady sources of both gravitational waves and thermal X-rays, while they spin down due to a combination of gravitational radiation and the standard magnetic torque. Observed MSP braking torques already place meaningful constraints on the allowed gravitational wave amplitudes and dissipation mechanisms.

The Chandrasekhar-Friedman-Schutz instability Chandrasekhar (1970); Friedman and Schutz (1978a, b) can make retrograde r-modes (inertial modes due to the Coriolis force) on rapidly rotating neutron stars grow and emit gravitational waves at the expense of the stellar rotational energy and angular momentum Andersson (1998); Friedman and Morsink (1998). It is choked Lindblom et al. (1998) at very high temperatures by bulk viscosity due to non-equilibrium weak interactions such as the Urca processes ($`np+e+\overline{\nu }_e`$ and $`p+en+\nu _e`$, where $`n`$, $`p`$, $`e`$, $`\overline{\nu }_e`$, and $`\nu _e`$ denote neutrons, protons, electrons, electron antineutrinos, and electron neutrinos, respectively, or analogous processes involving hyperons), and at very low temperatures by standard shear viscosity. Additional damping could be provided at intermediate temperatures by hyperon bulk viscosity Jones (2001); Lindblom and Owen (2002), caused by the processes $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^0+nn+n`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}+pn+n`$. If strong enough, this can split the instability region on the temperature-frequency plane into two separate windows, as illustrated in Fig. 1.

In the standard “recycling” model, millisecond pulsars (MSPs) reach their high rotation rates due to the accretion torque in a low-mass X-ray binary system (LMXB) Bhattacharya and van den Heuvel (1991). For this to happen, some mechanism must suppress the CFS instability enough to prevent the gravitational wave torque from being larger than the accretion torque. The simplest scenario Levin (1999) requires a shear viscosity substantially higher than that used in Fig. 1, so that the instability boundary at the equilibrium temperature $`T_{acc}`$ reached during the accretion process Brown and Bildsten (1998) lies higher than the fastest rotation frequencies observed in MSPs, $`650`$ Hz. This is not unlikely, since a stronger effective shear viscosity might be obtained with a thicker crust Levin and Ushomirsky (2001), superfluids Lindblom and Mendell (2000), or a magnetic field Mendell (2001). An instability boundary just above the frequency of the fastest pulsars might even explain why there are no MSPs approaching the break-up frequency, but it would tend to predict an accumulation of MSPs near this boundary, rather than the observed scarcity of MSPs with periods below 2 ms Bildsten (2002).

Wagoner Wagoner (2002) has shown that fast rotations periods can be reached even if there is a substantial unstable region at $`T_{acc}`$. In this scenario, the low-temperature instability window is reached from below as the neutron star is spun up by accretion (see Fig. 2(a)). A stable balance between cooling through neutrino emission and heating through nuclear reactions undergone by the accreted matter in the deep crust (which release $``$ 1 MeV per baryon Brown and Bildsten (1998)) keeps the stellar interior warm, at a temperature $`T_{acc}10^{7.58.8}`$ K that depends on the allowed neutrino emission processes (e.g., direct vs. modified Urca). As the star moves into the unstable region, its most unstable r-mode Lindblom et al. (1998) (with spherical-harmonic indices $`l=m=2`$) is excited, producing viscous dissipation. The resulting heat release moves the star to the high-temperature boundary of the instability window Wagoner (2002); Bonacic (2003), set by

$$0.051\nu _{\mathrm{kHz}}^6\mathrm{s}^1=0.13f_h\nu _{\mathrm{kHz}}^2T_8^2\mathrm{s}^1.$$
(1)
The left-hand side gives the r-mode driving rate through gravitational radiation reaction Lindblom et al. (1998) for a “fiducial” neutron star with a polytropic ($`n=1`$) equation of state, mass $`M=1.4M_{}`$, and radius $`R=12.5`$ km, in terms of the rotation frequency in kHz, $`\nu _{\mathrm{kHz}}`$. The right-hand side is the damping rate, dominated by hyperonic processes, whose large uncertainty (including the reduction due to superfluid effects) is parameterized by the dimensionless parameter $`f_h`$. This parameter is unity for the preferred bulk viscosity of Lindblom and Owen Lindblom and Owen (2002) with no superfluid effects, acting in a hyperonic core of radius $`r=R/2`$, whereas $`f_h=0.16`$ corresponds to the bulk viscosity previously proposed by Jones Jones (2001). The resulting interior temperature, in units of $`10^8`$ K, turns out to be $`T_8=0.63f_h^{1/2}\nu _{\mathrm{kHz}}^2`$.

Once the temperature is high enough for accretion heating to be negligible, the dimensionless mode amplitude Lindblom et al. (1998) $`\alpha `$ is set by the balance of the hyperon bulk viscosity heating and the neutrino emission (the latter assumed to be dominated by direct Urca processes Lattimer et al. (1991)),

$$3.6\times 10^{50}f_hT_8^2\nu _{\mathrm{kHz}}^4\alpha ^2\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1=1.2\times 10^{39}f_UT_8^6\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1,$$
(2)
where we again parameterize our ignorance by a dimensionless factor, $`f_U`$, which is unity when the threshold for nucleonic direct Urca processes ($`np+e^{}`$) is reached at half the stellar radius. It can take different (possibly temperature-dependent) values if the threshold radius is different, if only hyperonic direct Urca processes are allowed Prakash et al. (1992), or if superfluidity reduces the reaction rates Levenfish and Yakovlev (1994). The resulting amplitude is quite small, $`\alpha =7.5\times 10^7(f_U/f_h^3)^{1/2}\nu _{\mathrm{kHz}}^2`$, so the linear approximation used in the expressions above are amply justified, and it appears unlikely that the mode could be saturated at lower amplitudes by any other processes such as turbulent viscosity Wu et al. (2001) or mode coupling Arras et al. (2002).

With the temperature and mode amplitude at any given rotation rate set by eqs. (1) and (2), the accretion torque, $`\dot{M}\sqrt{GMR}=1.5\times 10^{34}(\dot{M}/\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}})\mathrm{dyne}\mathrm{cm}`$ (where $`\dot{M}`$ is the mass accretion rate and $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}}=1.9\times 10^8M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ is the standard “Eddington limit” Shapiro and Teukolsky (1983)), gradually drives the star “up” towards faster rotation. It may eventually settle in a quasi-steady state, in which the accretion torque is balanced by the angular momentum loss due to gravitational radiation Wagoner (2002), $`6.8\times 10^{46}\nu _{\mathrm{kHz}}^7\alpha ^2\mathrm{dyne}\mathrm{cm}`$, at an equilibrium period

$$P_{\mathrm{eq}}=\frac{1}{\nu _{\mathrm{eq}}}=1.1\left(\frac{f_U}{f_h^3}\frac{\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}}}{\dot{M}}\right)^{1/11}\mathrm{ms},$$
(3)
which is only very weakly dependent on the uncertain parameters. In this state, the neutron star is a source of low-amplitude gravitational waves, whose steadiness depends on that of the accretion rate.

It is worth noting that eq. (3) and the expression above for the accretion torque are only valid if the star’s rotation is much slower than the mass-shedding limit and the accretion disk extends down to the stellar surface, not being constrained by the star’s magnetic field. We also point out that the possibility of accretion torques in LMXBs being balanced by gravitational wave emission, in somewhat different scenarios, had previously been suggested Wagoner (1984); Bildsten (1998).

In what follows, we analyze what happens in Wagoner’s scenario once the accretion stops and the star turns on as a (millisecond) radio pulsar. It slowly slides down the instability boundary as it loses angular momentum through the combined effects of gravitational radiation and standard magnetic braking (Fig. 2(b)). Its heating and cooling time scales, as well as the growth and damping times for the r-modes, are much shorter than the spin-down time, and therefore the star will remain in the quasi-steady state described by equations (1) and (2). Since no external perturbations are present, the spin-down is extremely smooth and predictable, as observed in MSPs Lorimer (2001). For a given neutron star model (which sets the “fudge factors” $`f_U`$ and $`f_h`$), the rotation period, $`P`$ (observed as the periodicity of the radio pulses), uniquely determines the gravitational-wave contribution to the spin-down rate

$$\dot{P}_{GW}=5.3\times 10^{18}\frac{f_U}{f_h^3}\left(\frac{1\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}}{P}\right)^9.$$
(4)
We note that, if the particles in the neutron star core are superfluid, the factors $`f_U`$ and $`f_h`$ will depend on temperature, and therefore implicitly on $`P`$, which would modify the dependence of $`\dot{P}_{GW}`$ from the proportionality to $`P^9`$ implied by eq. (4). However, for typical cases that we evaluated numerically, a strongly decreasing function $`\dot{P}_{GW}(P)`$ is still obtained.

Of course, for periods $`P`$ of actually observed MSPs in the range of applicability of this model, $`\dot{P}_{GW}(P)`$ can be at most as high as the observed $`\dot{P}`$. The most constraining case is the so-called “black widow” Fruchter et al. (1988), PSR B1957+20, because of its short period, $`P=1.60`$ ms, and its small intrinsic period derivative Camilo et al. (1994), $`\dot{P}=1.2\times 10^{20}`$. For this pulsar, we require $`f_h^3/f_U6.4,`$ i.e., a somewhat larger bulk viscosity and/or a substantially lower neutrino emissivity than in our favored model. Neither of these would be too surprising, in view of their strong dependence on the uncertain state of very dense matter. The presence of superfluid energy gaps for the particles in the neutron star core could substantially reduce the phase space and therefore the rates of all reactions, thereby decreasing both the Urca cooling rate Levenfish and Yakovlev (1994) and the hyperon bulk viscosity Lindblom and Owen (2002); Haensel et al. (2002), potentially down to $`f_U,f_h1`$. Since the reactions determining $`f_h`$ involve more potentially superfluid particles (both hyperons and nucleons) than the Urca processes (just nucleons), it is likely that $`f_h<f_U`$, making it difficult to satisfy the “black widow” constraint. However, $`f_U`$ may be reduced if, instead of nucleonic direct Urca processes, only hyperonic direct Urca reactions are allowed, which would set $`f_U`$ (without superfluid reduction) at $`0.2`$ Prakash et al. (1992). The latter processes are almost certainly allowed as long as hyperons exist in the star, but again may be reduced (perhaps more strongly than the neutrino-less processes contributing to $`f_h`$) if the hyperons become superfluid at high temperatures. Therefore, instead of ruling out the model, the observations may be used to constrain the internal properties of neutron stars once the model is validated in other ways.

Of course, the values of $`f_h`$ and $`f_U`$ are most likely not identical for all MSPs, as these probably have different masses, and therefore different mean densities and different fractions of their interior in which the relevant processes take place. Assuming, for simplicity, that the condition $`f_h^3/f_U6.4`$ does apply to all MSPs and LMXBs, we can in principle constrain the LMXB equilibrium period to $`P_{\mathrm{eq}}0.9(\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}}/\dot{M})^{1/11}`$ ms. Strictly speaking, this period is beyond the mass-shedding limit for our adopted neutron star model, and should therefore not be taken literally. It shows that, in order to be consistent with MSP observations, the r-mode instability cannot limit the rotation of LMXBs to much below the maximum allowed equilibrium rotation for any neutron star, unless magnetic stresses prevent the accretion disk from reaching the surface, reducing the accretion torque and increasing the equilibrium period. A similar conclusion has been reached before Brown and Ushomirsky (2000), based on the low luminosity of LMXBs in quiescence, compared to the expectation from internal dissipation.

The spin-down of a newly born MSP, initially spinning at a period $`P_0`$ near the mass-shedding limit, is likely to be dominated by the gravitational radiation torque. The time it takes to spin down to a slower period $`P`$ is $`t3.9\times 10^6(f_h^3/6.4f_U)[(P/\mathrm{ms})^{10}(P_0/\mathrm{ms})^{10}]`$ yr, substantially shorter (and much more period-dependent) than for magnetic braking at the inferred magnetic field strengths, $`10^{89}`$ G. This makes it much less likely to find such extremely rapidly spinning MSPs, perhaps in this way explaining the observed absence of these objects Bildsten (2002). An independent test of this scenario would be a measurement of the braking index, $`n\nu \ddot{\nu }/\dot{\nu }^2`$ Shapiro and Teukolsky (1983), which reaches a huge value ($`n=11`$, if $`f_h^3/f_U`$ is constant) in the regime where the torque is dominated by gravitational-wave emission (compared to $`n=3`$ for pure magnetic dipole braking). Unfortunately, measurements of braking indices in MSPs are out of reach.

In this state, the effective surface temperature of the MSP can be inferred from its interior temperature Gudmundsson et al. (1982) to be $`T_s8\times 10^5f_h^{0.28}(P/\mathrm{ms})^{1.1}`$ K, not far below the upper limits obtained from ROSAT observations of MSPs Reisenegger (1997), and perhaps within the reach of more careful determinations based on XMM-Newton spectra.

Perhaps most interestingly, the MSP will radiate gravitational waves at the r-mode frequency. In the limit of slow rotation and weak gravity, this frequency is 4/3 times the rotation frequency Papaloizou and Pringle (1978), or $`850`$ Hz for the fastest pulsars. A more precise determination, including centrifugal and relativistic corrections, should be possible. The angle-averaged amplitude at a distance $`D`$ is Owen et al. (1998)

$$h7\times 10^{28}\left(\frac{6.4f_U}{f_h^3}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{1.6\mathrm{ms}}{P}\right)^5\frac{1.5\mathrm{kpc}}{D},$$
(5)
where the reference numbers correspond to the “black widow” pulsar, the most favorable known so far. According to recent sensitivity curves Brady and Creighton (2000), this signal is almost within reach of the advanced LIGO with signal recycling, tuned at the appropriate frequency and integrating for $`1/3`$ yr. Therefore, future gravitational-wave observatories may well give us information about weak interaction processes in superdense matter.

A recent study Andersson et al. (2002) has found that “strange stars”, composed of “deconfined” $`u`$, $`d`$, and $`s`$ quarks, may have a time evolution qualitatively similar to that later found by Wagoner Wagoner (2002) for neutron stars in LMXBs and here for neutron stars as MSPs. In the corresponding strange stars, the bulk viscosity is dominated by the process $`u+ds+u`$, the quark analog for the hyperonic processes considered in the present discussion. In that study, the reheating due to bulk viscous dissipation is ignored, and therefore the evolution time scale is set by passive cooling, which is much faster and thus more violent than in the more realistic case discussed here. In view of the present theoretical uncertainties and lack of observational constraints, LMXBs and MSPs may well be strange stars rather than neutron stars. Although the numerical details are different (and even more uncertain), “strange MSPs” may follow a similar evolutionary path and be subject to observational constraints analogous to those discussed here for neutron stars.

We conclude that, if there is a substantial instability window at low temperatures, neutron stars (or strange stars) in LMXBs can generally spin up to MSP rotation rates by the mechanism suggested by Wagoner Wagoner (2002). The gravitational wave torque will still be active in their MSP phase, until they reach the bottom of the instability window, which some of the observed MSPs may not yet have done. Thus, these MSPs will be sources of gravitational waves and thermal X-rays. Even if born rotating near break-up, MSPs will spin down to near the observed periods much more quickly than in the magnetic braking model, perhaps explaining the scarcity of very fast MSPs.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors thank T. Creighton and L. Lindblom for useful information, N. Andersson, P. Arras, M. Catelan, Y. Wu, and two anonymous referees for comments that improved the manuscript, and L. Bildsten for encouragement. This work was supported by FONDECYT-Chile through the regular research grant # 1020840.