text:
# Width-amplitude relation of Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal solitary waves

## Abstract

Inequality width-amplitude relations for three-dimensional Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal solitary waves are derived for magnetized plasmas. Criteria for neglecting effects of nonzero cyclotron radius are obtained. We emphasize that the form of the solitary potential is not tightly constrained, and the amplitude and widths of the potential are constrained by inequalities. The existence of a continuous range of allowed sizes and shapes for these waves makes them easily accessible. We propose that these solitary waves can be spontaneously generated in turbulence or thermal fluctuations. We expect that the high excitation probability of these waves should alter the bulk properties of the plasma medium such as electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity.

Coherent structures with nonuniform charge densities are ubiquitous in plasma systems. Laboratory experiments have shown that such structures can be generated by applying voltage pulses Lynov79 ; Bachet01 , voltage jumps Chan84 , intense laser Montgomery01  or plasma beam injections IAI00 . Increasing numbers of space-borne observations have revealed frequent appearance of electrostatic solitary structures in space plasmas (Ergun98 ; Jolene03  and references therein) including regions where magnetic reconnection occurs Drake03 ; Matsumoto03 . Solitary waves can efficiently transport energy, momentum and charge, and are one of the building blocks in a deterministic description of turbulence Saffman95 ; IBM80 . The study of their allowed parameter space is crucial in establishing their relevance to real systems. Most solitary waves, such as those for shallow water (Korteweg-de Vries solitons) and those that describe crystal dislocations (sine-Gordon solitons), have a strict one-to-one mapping between their widths, amplitudes and velocities Drazin83 . However, in collisionless plasmas, the widths and amplitudes of the electrostatic solitary waves that exhibit vortex structures in phase space Schamel86  are not tightly constrained Chen-npg ; Chen-grl . Although the width-amplitude relation of these so-called Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal (BGK) electron solitary waves in three dimensions (3D) have been studied by a few authors Muschietti02 ; Chen-npg ; Chen-grl , the results were limited either by imcomplete analysis of the width-amplitude relation Muschietti02  or by incomplete solutions Chen-npg ; Chen-grl , and the broad impact has not been recognized. In this letter, we derive inequality width-amplitude relation for 3D BGK solitary waves. The description is valid for both electron and ion modes. The inequality width-amplitude relation dictates a continuous range of allowed sizes and amplitudes for these waves, and thus makes them easily accessible. We propose that the continua of allowed existence range enable BGK solitary waves to be spontaneously generated in thermal fluctuations as well as turbulence, and is responsible for their ubiquitous presence in widely different classes of collisionless plasmas.

To construct exact nonlinear solutions that are localized in 3D, we use the BGK approach that was formulated for 1D nonlinear Vlasov-Poisson equations BGK57 , but extend the Poisson equation to 3D. We construct azimuthally symmetric solutions in the limit of infinite magnetic field, and then tune down the magnetic field to obtain the criteria for neglecting effects of nonzero cyclotron radius. One key step in the BGK approach is to separate particles that are trapped in the potential and those that are passing. We prescribe the potential form and the passing particle distribution, solve for the trapped particle distribution, and derive the physical parameter range. This approach is much easier than to prescribe the passing and trapped particle distributions to solve for the potential Schamel82 ; Schamel86 , and so allows us to explore the solution space much more fully.

We consider two species of charge carriers (electrons and one type of ions), each with charge $`q_s`$, mass $`m_s`$, and thermal energy $`T_s`$. The background magnetic field $`𝐁`$ is along the $`\widehat{z}`$ direction. In the strong field limit, particles move only along $`𝐁`$ with velocity $`v`$, and the distribution functions $`f_s`$ satisfy the following Vlasov equations,

$`v{\displaystyle \frac{f_s(𝐫,v)}{z}}{\displaystyle \frac{q_s}{m_s}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Phi }(𝐫)}{z}}{\displaystyle \frac{f_s(𝐫,v)}{v}}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (1)
where $`\mathrm{\Phi }(𝐫)`$ is the electrostatic potential. It can be easily shown by chain rules that any $`f(𝐫_{},w)`$ is a solution to Eq. (1) since its dependence on $`z`$ and $`v`$ is only through the particle energy $`w=m_sv^2/2+q_s\mathrm{\Phi }(𝐫)`$. Such distribution functions and the potential are further constrained by the Poisson equation,

$`^2\mathrm{\Phi }(𝐫)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{s=1}{\overset{2}{}}}{\displaystyle _{q_s\mathrm{\Phi }(𝐫)}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑w{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi n_sq_sf_s(𝐫_{},w)}{\sqrt{2m_s[wq_s\mathrm{\Phi }(𝐫)]}}},`$ (2)
where the velocity space integral has been converted to energy space integral, and $`f_s(𝐫_{},w)`$ is normalized so that $`n_s`$ is the particle density in the unperturbed region where charge neutrality gives $`_sn_sq_s=0`$. Species $`1`$ is defined to be the one which involves trapping ($`\mathrm{min}[q_1\mathrm{\Phi }(𝐫)]<0`$), and species $`2`$ does not. The distribution function $`f_1`$ is further divided into passing and trapped components, $`f_p`$ and $`f_{tr}`$. The second term in Eq. (1) is nonlinear as $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is a functional of the particle distributions and vice versa. In physical terms, the system is nonlinear because plasma particles collectively determine the mean-field potential, and the potential in turn determines how particles distribute themselves. It is the presence of this nonlinear term that admits solitary wave solutions which exhibit localized structures in potentials and distribution functions.

Eq. (1) can be thought as a set of 1D Vlasov equations in the $`\widehat{z}`$ direction for given $`𝐫_{}`$. These parallel Vlasov equations are coupled by the perpendicular profile of the potential $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ through Eq. (2). If $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is known, Eq. (2) reduces to a set of 1D integral equations parameterized by $`𝐫_{}`$. For given $`f_2`$ and the passing distribution $`f_p`$, the trapped distribution $`f_{tr}`$ can be found by solving these integral equations. The important requirement for the solutions to be physical is that the trapped distribution $`f_{tr}`$ so determined should be nonnegative. This leads to a self-consistent constraint on the form of the potential specified at the beginning. It turns out that neither the potential forms nor the passing distributions are tightly constrained. One can prescribe different localized potential functions or different passing particle distributions (as long as the distribution functions satisfy the Vlasov equation). As an illustrating example, the solitary potential is chosen to be an azimuthally symmetric double Gaussian,

$`\mathrm{\Phi }(r,z)`$ $`=`$ $`g\psi \mathrm{exp}\left(z^2/2\delta _z^2r^2/2\delta _r^2\right),`$ (3)
where $`g=\mathrm{sign}(q_1)`$ in order for $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ to trap species 1 particles, $`\psi `$ is the potential amplitude and is positive, $`r=|𝐫_{}|`$, $`\delta _z`$ and $`\delta _r`$ are the parallel and perpendicular widths. The distributions $`f_p`$ and $`f_2`$ are of the Boltzmann type,

$`f_p(w)`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{2m_1/\pi T_1}\mathrm{exp}(w/T_1),`$ (4)
$`f_2(w)`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{2m_2/\pi T_2}\mathrm{exp}(w/T_2).`$ (5)
By carrying out the integrals of $`f_p`$ and $`f_2`$ in Eq. (2), we obtain the trapped particle density,

$`n_{tr}(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Phi }\left[{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{\delta _r^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\delta _r^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\delta _z^2}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{2}{\delta _r^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\delta _z^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\delta _z^2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{g\psi }}\right)\right]e^\mathrm{\Phi }\left[1erf(\sqrt{\mathrm{\Phi }})\right]+\mathrm{exp}(t\mathrm{\Phi }),`$ (6)
where $`t=q_2T_1/(q_1T_2)`$. To simplify the expression, we have set the length unit to be $`\lambda _D=\sqrt{T_1/4\pi n_1q_1^2}`$, energy unit $`T_1`$ and charge unit $`q_1`$ ($`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ becomes strictly negative in units of $`T_1/q_1`$). We have also rewritten the expression in terms of the potential, a crucial step for analytically solving the integral equation. We refer readers to Appendix B in Ref. Lijen02  for the details of solving this Volterra type integral equation, and simply write down the result here,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{f_{tr}(r,w)}{\sqrt{2m_1}}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\sqrt{w}}{\pi }}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{\delta _r^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\delta _r^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\delta _z^2}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{2}{\delta _r^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\delta _z^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\delta _z^2}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{4w}{\psi }}\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{e^w}{\sqrt{\pi }}}\left[1erf(\sqrt{w})\right]{\displaystyle \frac{e^{tw}}{\sqrt{\pi }}}\sqrt{t}erfi(\sqrt{tw}),`$ (7)
where $`w<0`$, and $`erfi(z)=erf(iz)/i`$ is the complex error function which is a real function of its argument.

At this juncture, it is instructive to consider the small amplitude behavior of our solution and compare with previous results. Expand the RHS of Eq. (6) for small $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. The leading term comes from the passing particle density and is of order $`\sqrt{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, and the next order is linear in $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. This means that for small potential amplitudes, the nonlinearity actually dominates over the linear response. In this case, even when $`T_iT_e`$ for electron-proton plasma, the trapped distribution $`f_{tr}`$ can be solved keeping only the leading term, and it yields a constant $`\sqrt{2m_1/\pi }`$, which demonstrates that the plasma can sustain the solitary structure by providing a uniform trapped particle distribution. This result, in the context of ion holes, sharply contrasts the previous result Schamel86  which predicts that ion holes do not exist when $`T_e/T_i<3.5`$.

In recapitulation, we have made one step forward to obtain solutions in Eq. (7) for arbitrary $`t`$ taking into account density perturbations of both species. We also obtained new understanding: nonlinearity dominates over linear response in the small amplitude limit – an unexpected result as one normally expects nonlinearity to be unimportant for small amplitudes. Hereafter, we shall use electron holes as the example to discuss the solution behavior and demonstrate how an inequality width-amplitude relation is obtained in the $`t0`$ limit, the limit which all previous analytical solutions for electron holes were based on. This limit is also applicable to ion holes generated in laboratory experiments where $`T_i/T_e0.03`$ to 0.1 Chan84 ; IAI00 .

We illustrate below how the tuning of the parameters ($`\psi ,\delta _r,\delta _z`$) affects the trapped particle distribution. Fig. 1 plots $`f_{tr}`$ (thick lines) and $`f_p`$ (thin lines) at $`r=0`$ and $`z=0`$ as a function of velocity $`v`$. The solid curves in both (a) and (b) correspond to a BGK solitary wave that has zero phase space density at its phase space center ($`r=0,z=0,v=0`$). When the size of the structure is fixed, decreasing the amplitude raises the center phase space density as shown by the dashed curve in Fig. 1(a). On the other hand, increasing the amplitude would lower the center phase space density from zero to a negative value (not shown), and hence result in unphysical solutions. When the amplitude is fixed, increasing the parallel size raises the center phase space density as shown in Fig. 1(b) by the dashed curve. Varying $`\delta _r`$ results in a similar effect.

We now proceed to derive the width-amplitude inequality relation. For $`\delta _r\delta _z`$, the first term in Eq. (7) is positive, hence the global minimum is $`f_{tr}(r=0,w=\psi )`$ and its being nonnegative determines the corresponding width-amplitude relation. For $`\delta _r>\delta _z`$, the global minimum of $`f_{tr}`$ occurs at maximum allowed $`r`$. For a given $`w<0`$, the maximum $`r`$ at which a trapped particle with energy $`w`$ can exist is the $`r_{\mathrm{max}}`$ that satisfies $`w=\mathrm{\Phi }(r_{\mathrm{max}},0)`$. Putting Eq. (3) into this condition, we obtain $`r_{\mathrm{max}}^2=2\delta _r^2\mathrm{ln}(w/\psi )`$. Since the condition $`f_{tr}(r_{\mathrm{max}},w)0`$ guarantees $`f_{tr}(rr_{\mathrm{max}},w)0`$ for $`\delta _r>\delta _z`$, we replace $`r^2`$ in $`f_{tr}(r,w)`$ by $`r_{\mathrm{max}}^2`$. The global minimum of $`f_{tr}(r_{\mathrm{max}},w)`$ is $`f_{tr}(r_{\mathrm{max}},w=\psi )`$, hence the condition $`f_{tr}(r_{\mathrm{max}},w=\psi )0`$ yields the width-amplitude relation for $`\delta _r>\delta _z`$.

The conditions $`f_{tr}(r=0,w=\psi )0`$ when $`\delta _r\delta _z`$ and $`f_{tr}(r_{\mathrm{max}},w=\psi )0`$ when $`\delta _r>\delta _z`$ yield exactly the same expression. Upon re-arrangement, the resulting inequality is written as

$`\delta _z`$ $``$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2(4\mathrm{ln}21)}{\sqrt{\pi }e^\psi [1erf(\sqrt{\psi })]/\sqrt{\psi }4/\delta _r^2}}}.`$ (8)
Fig. 2 plots this inequality. Parameters lying on or above the shaded surface are allowed ($``$), and those under the surface are forbidden ($`\times `$). Curves on the $`\delta _z=0`$ plane are projections of the constant $`\delta _z`$ contours to help visualization of the trend of the shaded surface. The shaded surface curves up toward infinity because the denominator in inequality (8) has to be positive, and that yields another relation between $`\delta _r`$ and $`\psi `$ (given by $`\delta _r^2>4\sqrt{\psi }/(\sqrt{\pi }e^\psi [1erf\sqrt{\psi }])`$ and is plotted as the asymptotic curve on $`\delta _z=0`$ plane). These inequalities occur because we are free to place the global minimum of $`f_{tr}`$ in a continuous range by correspondingly adjusting the amplitude and widths. A point on the shaded surface represents a parameter set that yields zero phase space density at $`w=\psi `$, that is $`(r=0,z=0,v=0)`$, the center of the solitary phase space structure. One example of the empty-centered distribution has been provided in Fig. 1. Lowering the amplitude or increasing the widths shifts a point on the surface to the region above, and Figs. 1(a) and (b) illustrate respectively the effects on the distribution functions.

We note that in the limit of $`\delta _r\mathrm{}`$, inequality (8) reduces to the width-amplitude relation for 1D BGK solitary waves. This limit of inequality (8) gives an upper bound for $`\delta _z`$ that is valid for all finite $`\delta _r`$. The resulting 1D inequality relation provides us a ground to understand the discrepancy of whether the width should increase Turikov84  or decrease Schamel82  with the amplitude. Both results are contained in the inequality relation with that by Ref. Turikov84  corresponding to the lower bounding curve since only empty-centered distributions were studied, and that by Ref. Schamel82  contained in the region above the curve as the distributions only take finite values in the center of the phase space structure.

To establish the validity of the above results in finite magnetic field, we need to know whether the effect of nonzero cyclotron radius would result in decoherence of the solitary structure, that is, how the distance of the instantaneous particle guiding center to the symmetry axis would vary. Therefore, it is best to look at the particle motion projected onto the 2D $`xy`$ plane perpendicular to the magnetic field. The motion of a charged particle inside the solitary structure is influenced by the uniform $`𝐁`$ and the 3D inhomogeneous $`𝐄`$ which upon projection becomes time-dependent $`𝐄_{2D}`$. It can be shown that when the time variation scale of $`𝐄_{2D}`$ is much smaller than the cyclotron frequency $`\omega _c`$, and the spatial variation scale ($`L`$) of $`𝐄_{2D}`$ is much larger than the cyclotron radius $`r_c`$, the instantaneous guiding center would spiral around the infinite-field guiding center, and the solitary structure can be maintained (details of calculations will be presented elsewhere PhP ). Since the time variation of $`𝐄_{2D}`$ is characterized by the frequency ($`\omega _b`$) of the parallel trapped-particle bouncing in the potential, the condition can be written as

$`\omega _b/\omega _c1`$ $``$ $`\sqrt{m_e\psi /e}/(B\delta _z)1`$ (9)
$`r_c/L1`$ $``$ $`\sqrt{2m_e\psi /e}/(B\delta _r)1,`$ (10)
where we have expressed on the right hand side of the arrows the condition in terms of familiar variables. For relevant numerical investigation of nonzero cyclotron radius effects, the readers are referred to Ref. Muschietti02 .

We note that the size and the amplitude of BGK solitary waves do not have a lower cut-off within our theory. The underlying reason is that the screening of the charged core is accomplished by trapped particles which are part of the solitary structure itself. Debye screening is not involved in these self-consistent, self-sustained nonlinear objects. Their size can be well below the Debye radius as far as there are enough particles in the solitary wave to ensure the validity of the mean-field approach. Taking a Debye radius ($`\lambda _D`$) 100 m and a plasma density 5 cm<sup>-3</sup> (typical of the low altitude auroral ionosphere), a width of 0.01 $`\lambda _D`$ for the solitary potential allows $`5\times 10^6`$ particles in the structure. Indeed, sub-Debye scale solitary waves have been observed Ergun98 .

It is the primary purpose of this paper to address the physical origin and significance of the inequality width-amplitude relation plotted in Fig. 2. The freedom to continuously adjust the global minimum of the trapped particle distribution is due to the collisionless nature of the plasma. Collisionlessness preserves the identity of trapped and passing particles as the energy of a particle is conserved. Collisions destroy energy conservation of individual particles, and consequently, do not allow the existence of trapped particle state nor the adjustment on the occupation number of the state. Therefore, the kinetic solitary waves have a continuum of allowed potential heights and widths, in great distinction to fluid solitons. Moreover, even with the same ambient plasma distribution, different functional forms for the solitary potential is allowed. The impact of this multitude of continua of allowed potentials is that these BGK states can be easily excited. In a system with certain fluctuation level and different fluctuation lengths, BGK states may be accessed easily since for a fixed amplitude there is a wide range of allowed widths. We therefore propose that in turbulent systems, BGK solitary waves can be spontaneously generated in the absence of two-stream or current-driven instabilities. The spontaneous generation of these coherent structures and their subsequent mutual interaction may dominate the transport properties of the turbulence. Because these solitary waves have many degrees of freedom, energy, momentum and charge are readily transferred between them, so that they can make important contributions to bulk properties of the plasma such as thermal transport and electrical resistivity. At the vicinity of the waves, passing particles are accelerated and, together with trapped particles, form counterstreaming beams (Fig. 1). Hence the velocity spread increases significantly and results in much higher average velocity spread (heating) of the plasma. Moreover, particle trapping will prevent particles from free acceleration by the applied electric field and regulate the electric current. The high excitation probability of BGK waves can thus lead to finite resistivity that is required for melting the frozen-in magnetic flux and facilitate reconnection to occur in collisionless plasmas.

In summary, we have derived inequality width-amplitude relation for 3D BGK solitary waves, and established their relevance in finite magnetic fields. The continuum of allowed potential sizes and shapes of the waves is due to their kinetic nature, and leads to their ubiquitous presence. We envision that BGK solitary waves can be spontaneously generated in thermal fluctuations as well as in turbulence.

The research at the University of Iowa is supported in part by the DOE Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FC02-01ER54651 and NSF ATM 03-27450, and at the University of Washington by NSF DMR-0201948.


format: text

text:
# Comment on “Probabilistic Quantum Memories”

In a series of similar articles t1 ; t2 ; t3  Trugenberger claims that quantum states could be used as exponentially large memories for classical information. This claim is wrong. Actually quantum mechanics hardly offers any advantage for this task.

Trugenberger considers an “associative memory” in which exponentially many binary strings are stored. For an additional binary string, the goal is to find whether there are strings close to it (in Hamming distance) in this memory. Also one would like to read out one of these close strings. This might, e.g., be useful to find whether a picture, given a noisy version of it, is in a large database. Trugenberger proposes to use an $`n`$-qubit quantum register as the memory. It is prepared in the uniform amplitude superposition (eq. (3)) of exponentially many binary strings (here and in the following we refer to t1 ). Given the additional string, a sequence of operations is performed which leads either to measurement result $`|0`$ (= yes, similar patterns are in the memory) or $`|1`$ (= no, there are no similar patterns). Also, if $`|0`$ is measured, one of the similar strings in the memory is retrieved.

However it is easily seen that a simple classical scheme offers exactly the same performance. Indeed we can replace the $`n`$-qubit memory state with an $`n`$-bit classical memory which stores only a single one of the binary strings. Consider the “processed” memory state (eq. (16)) just before the measurement. In this state the weights of all “stored” binary strings are still equal, thus no amplification of states close to the additional string has taken place. Because of this, we could simply classically store one of the binary strings, chosen uniformly at random. Then we could compare this random string with the additional one and, depending on how close they are, decide to answer “yes” or “no”. So the $`n`$ qubits can be replaced with $`n`$ classical bits without changing the result. Of course the performance of such a scheme is very poor, as it really only stores a single bit string. Thus the repeated claims t1 ; t2 ; t3  of exponential storage capacity, or actually of any advantage over classical systems are wrong.

Furthermore the author wrongly assumes that this retrieval step could relatively easily be repeated several times. He states that to this end the “memory state” $`|M`$ could be cloned probabilistically. In t3  he explains that this could be achieved with a “state dependent” cloning machine. Note that a retrieval mechanism which has to know about the data it is supposed to retrieve, contradicts the idea of a memory, whether it is associative or otherwise. In our case the cloning machine would have to know virtually all the information about $`|M`$, namely all but possibly $`n`$ bits, as a simple argument shows. Indeed to specify the state as opposed to just the set of $`2^n`$ linearly independent states to which it belongs (as proposed for the state dependent cloning scheme), one needs at most an additional $`n`$ bits. Thus the advantage over a simple re-preparation of $`|M`$ would be marginal (apart from the disadvantage of it being probabilistic, which the author doesn’t discuss). In other words, we would really have to store the whole database classically after all, contrary to the stated goal of the scheme.

Actually it is known that for storing classical information, quantum states in a certain sense cannot offer any advantage. In its simplest version, for perfect channels, the Holevo bound holevo  states that a quantum channel is no better than a classical one for transmitting classical information (technically it is a bound on the mutual information). This of course applies just as well to storing classical information in quantum bits. A last possible loophole might be “quantum random access codes”. In these, we could choose which one of a (possibly exponentially) large set of data sets we want to retrieve from a quantum state (whereby the memory would be destroyed). But at least in an asymptotic sense, i.e. large size and high success probability, even this has been ruled out nayak . Thus we strongly doubt that quantum states could be useful as memories for classical information.


text:
# Optimal teleportation with a mixed state of two qubits.

(October 30, 2002)

## Abstract

We consider a single copy of a mixed state of two qubits and derive the optimal trace-preserving local operations assisted by classical communication (LOCC) such as to maximize the fidelity of teleportation that can be achieved with this state. These optimal local operations turn out to be implementable by one-way communication, and always yields a teleportation fidelity larger than $`2/3`$ if the original state is entangled. This maximal achievable fidelity is an entanglement measure and turns out to quantify the minimal amount of mixing required to destroy the entanglement in a quantum state.

The basic resource in quantum information theory consists of maximally entangled qubits or Bell states. This stems from the fact that the additional resource of entanglement enables to implement all possible global quantum operations locally by making use of the concept of quantum teleportation BBC93 . Perfect teleportation is only possible when maximally entangled states are available. In practical situations however, we have to deal with mixed states due to the undesired coupling of the quantum states with the environment. In this letter we address the following basic question: given a mixed state of two qubits, what is the maximal teleportation fidelity that can be obtained with this state allowing all possible trace-preserving local operations assisted by classical communication (LOCC) or all possible filtering operations (SLOCC)? We give a complete answer to those questions.

If only local unitary operations are allowed, then the Horodecki’s HHH99  proved that the optimal teleportation fidelity $`f`$ is a linear function $`f=(2F+1)/3`$ of the maximal singlet fraction or fidelity $`F`$ BDS96 , which is defined as the maximal overlap of a state with a maximally entangled state:

$$F(\rho )=\underset{|\psi =\mathrm{ME}}{\mathrm{max}}\psi |\rho \psi .$$

Therefore the problem of maximizing the teleportation fidelity is equivalent to maximizing the maximal singlet fraction of a mixed state of two qubits. This problem is also of great interest in the context of distillation protocols BBP96b ; BDS96 ; DEJ96 ; DVV02 , as the distillation of barely entangled states occurs through the use of recurrence schemes which gradually enhance the fidelity under the condition that the initial fidelity $`F`$ exceeds $`1/2`$. The maximal fidelity for separable states is indeed given by $`F=1/2`$. Surprisingly, there exist entangled states whose fidelity is lower than this value VV02b , but the Horodecki’s HHH97  proved that local filtering operations can always be chosen such that, with a finite probability, a state with fidelity exceeding $`1/2`$ is obtained if the original state was entangled. In this letter we will prove the stronger result that a mixed state of two qubits is entangled if and only if there exist trace-preserving LOCC operations such that the fidelity $`F^{}`$ of the LOCC-processed state exceeds $`1/2`$. This answers the following question raised by Badziag and Horodecki BHH00  in the case of two qubits: ”Can any entangled state provide better than classical fidelity of teleportation?”

The present work also sheds new light on the open problem of characterizing the class of local operations that can physically be implemented on a system. Finding a parametrization of the class of LOCC operations turns out to be very difficult. The class of PPT-operations Rai01  however, related to the concept of partial transposition Per96 ; HHH96 , is very easy to characterize, but contains operations that cannot be implemented locally. In this letter, we will consider the problem of maximizing the fidelity under the action of all PPT-operations. Surprisingly, it will turn out that the optimal PPT-protocol is always physically implementable: this is supporting evidence for the fact that the class of PPT-operations yields a good approximation of the class of LOCC operations.

In a first part, the optimal local filtering operations Gi96  such as to maximize the fidelity of the filtered state are derived. The optimal filter is the one that transforms the state into a unique Bell diagonal form. This provides a quantitative way of characterizing the qualitative result of the work of Horodecki HHH97 . The drawback of filtering operations is the fact that these operations can only be implemented with a certain probability. It is therefore an interesting question whether trace preserving local operations can also enhance the fidelity. In a surprising paper of Badziag et al. BHH00 , it was shown that there exist mixed states with fidelity smaller than $`1/2`$, for which local trace-preserving protocols exist that transform this state into a state with fidelity larger than $`1/2`$ without the help of classical communication. Motivated by this example, we looked for the optimal LOCC protocols such as to transform an entangled state into one with fidelity as large as possible allowing classical communication. We prove that the optimal trace-preserving protocol for maximizing the fidelity of a given state always belongs to a very simple class of 1-LOCC operations, and provide a constructive way of obtaining this optimal (state-dependent) LOCC operation. We conclude by giving a geometrical interpretation of the maximum achievable fidelity by LOCC, revealing an interesting connection with the robustness of entanglement VT99 .

Let us now state the first theorem of this letter:

###### Theorem 1

The bipartite local filtering operations probabilistically bringing an entangled mixed state of two qubits to a state with the highest possible fidelity are given by the filtering operations bringing the state into its unique Bell-diagonal normal formVDD01b , yielding a fidelity larger than $`1/2`$.

Proof: In VDD01b  it was proven that the local filtering operations maximizing the concurrence Woo98  of a state are given by the local operations bringing the state into its unique Bell diagonal normal form, and that a state is entangled if and only if its normal form is entangled. The fidelity of a state is bounded above by $`F(\rho )(1+C(\rho ))/2`$ VV02b  with $`C(\rho )`$ the concurrence, and for Bell diagonal states the equality holds. It is moreover trivial to check that the fidelity of an entangled Bell diagonal state exceeds $`1/2`$, which ends the proof.

Next we want to investigate if there always exist trace-preserving local operations such that the fidelity of the obtained state exceeds $`1/2`$ if the original state is entangled. The crucial point is to incorporate the previously described filtering operation as part of a trace preserving LOCC operation. The idea is that it is always possible to make a trace-preserving LOCC operation out of a SLOCC filtering operation by making a pure separable state if the state did not pass the filter. Then with a certain probability a Bell diagonal state $`\rho _f`$ arises with fidelity exceeding $`1/2`$, and with the complementary probability a pure separable state $`|\chi `$ can be created having fidelity equal to $`1/2`$ (note that $`|\chi `$ must be chosen such that $`|\chi |\psi |^2=1/2`$ with $`|\psi `$ the maximally entangled state obeying $`F(\rho _f)=\psi |\rho _f|\psi `$). This proves that for each entangled mixed state of two qubits there exists a trace-preserving 1-LOCC protocol that transforms it into a state with fidelity larger than $`1/2`$.

Let us now try to optimize the trace-preserving operation used in the protocol just described such as to maximize the fidelity of a given state. Note that in general the optimal filter of theorem 1 will not be optimal in the trace-preserving setting as in that case the probability of obtaining the state was not taken into account. The setting is now as follows: we want to find the filter, such that the probability of success $`p_{AB}`$ of the filter multiplied by the fidelity $`F`$ of the state coming out of this filter, plus $`(1p_{AB})`$ times the fidelity of the pure separable state given by $`1/2`$, is maximal. For given filter $`IA,BI`$, the cost-function $`K_{AB}`$ is therefore given by

$$K_{AB}=p_{AB}F(\rho _f)+\frac{1p_{AB}}{2}$$

where

$`p_{AB}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{Tr}\left((AB)\rho (AB)^{}\right)`$
$`\rho _f`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(AB)\rho (AB)^{}}{p_{AB}}}`$
Now some tricks will be applied. Due to the presence of $`A,B`$, we can replace $`F(\rho _f)`$ by $`\psi |\rho _f|\psi `$ with $`|\psi =(|00+|11)/\sqrt{2}`$, and we use the fact that the trace of the product of two matrices is equal to the trace of the product of the partial transpose of two matrices. This leads to the following expression (see also the proof of theorem 1 in VV02b ):

$$K_{AB}=\frac{1}{2}\psi |(CI)\rho ^\mathrm{\Gamma }(C^{}I)|\psi $$
(1)
where $`C=B^{}\sigma _yA`$ and $`\rho ^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the shortcut notation for the partial transpose with respect to the system $`B`$. This cost-function has to be maximized over all complex $`2\times 2`$ matrices $`IA,BI`$, and this leads to a lower bound on the maximum achievable fidelity by LOCC operations. Note that the considered operations can always be implemented using one-way communication (1-LOCC), as one can always choose $`B=I`$ without loss of fidelity.

An upper bound can be obtained by using the techniques developed by Rains Rai01 . Indeed, if we enlarge the class of allowed operations from trace-preserving LOCC operations to trace-preserving PPT-operations, a simple optimization problem arises. A quantum operation $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is PPT if and only if the dual state $`\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ associated to this operation Jam72 ; HHH99 ; CDK01 ; Rai01 ; VV02a  is PPT. The dual state $`\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ corresponding to a map $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ on two qubits is defined in a $`2222`$ Hilbert space and the following relation holds:

$$\left(\mathrm{\Lambda }(\rho )\right)_{A^{}B^{}}^T=4\mathrm{T}\mathrm{r}_{AB}\left(\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }^{AA^{}BB^{}}(\rho _{AB}I_{A^{}B^{}})\right).$$

An upper bound on $`F^{}`$ can now be obtained by considering the following optimization problem: maximize

$$4\mathrm{T}\mathrm{r}\left(\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }(\rho |\psi \psi |)\right)$$

under the constraints

$`\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ $``$ $`0`$
$`\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }^{T_{BB^{}}}`$ $``$ $`0`$
$`4\mathrm{T}\mathrm{r}_{A^{}B^{}}(\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ $`=`$ $`I_{AB}`$
and with $`|\psi `$ a maximally entangled state. Here the notation $`\rho ^{T_{BB^{}}}`$ denotes the partial transpose with respect to the systems $`B`$ and $`B^{}`$. This is a semidefinite program and can easily be solved numerically with guaranteed convergence VB96 . Exploiting symmetries however, it is possible to reduce the complexity drastically. Indeed, $`|\psi `$ remains invariant under a twirl operation and this twirl can be applied to $`\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, leading to a state of the form:

$$\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }=\frac{1}{16}\left(I_4I_4+(4XI_4)(4|\psi \psi |I_4)\right).$$

Here $`X`$, a $`4\times 4`$ matrix, is subject to convex constraints $`I/6XI/2`$ and $`0X^\mathrm{\Gamma }I/3`$. Doing the substitution $`X(IX^\mathrm{\Gamma })/3`$, this optimization problem reduces to the following semidefinite program (see also Rains Rai01 ): maximize

$$1/2\mathrm{Tr}\left(X\rho ^\mathrm{\Gamma }\right)$$
(2)
under the constraints

$`0`$ $``$ $`XI_4`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{I_4}{2}}`$ $``$ $`X^\mathrm{\Gamma }{\displaystyle \frac{I_4}{2}}.`$
Note that the constraint $`\frac{I_4}{2}X^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ will automatically be satisfied if the other three constraints are satisfied: this follows from the fact that $`X^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ has at most one negative eigenvalue $`\lambda _{}`$ and that $`|\lambda _{}|\mathrm{max}(\lambda (X^\mathrm{\Gamma }))`$ VAD01b . Suppose now that $`X`$ fulfills the constraints and has rank larger than one. Then $`X`$ has a separable state $`S`$ in its support, as each two-dimensional subspace contains at least one separable state LS98 . Consider now $`y^2`$ the largest real positive scalar such that $`Xy^2S0`$. It is easy to verify that the matrix $`Y=Xy^2S`$ also fulfils the four constraints, as $`S^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is positive due to its separability. Moreover the value $`\mathrm{Tr}\left(S\rho ^\mathrm{\Gamma }\right)=\mathrm{Tr}\left(S^\mathrm{\Gamma }\rho \right)`$ with $`S`$ separable and $`\rho `$ entangled is assured to be positive. Therefore the matrix $`Y`$ will yield a larger value of the cost-function. This argument implies that the maximal value of the cost-function will be obtained for $`X`$ rank one. $`X`$ can therefore be written in the form:

$$X=(AI_2)|\psi \psi |(A^{}I_2),$$

and the constraints become $`I_2AI_2`$.

But then the variational characterization of the upper bound (2) becomes exactly equal to the variational characterization of the lower bound (1)! This is very surprising as it implies that the proposed 1-LOCC protocol used in deriving the lower bound was actually optimal over all possible LOCC protocols. We have therefore proven:

###### Theorem 2

The optimal trace-preserving LOCC protocol maximizing the fidelity of a given state $`\rho `$ consists of a 1-LOCC protocol where one party applies a state-dependent filter. In case of success, the other party does nothing, and in case of failure, both parties make a pure separable state. The optimal filter and fidelity $`F^{}`$ can be found by solving the following convex semidefinite program: maximize

$$F^{}=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{Tr}\left(X\rho ^\mathrm{\Gamma }\right)$$

under the constraints:

$`0`$ $``$ $`XI_4`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{I_4}{2}}`$ $``$ $`X^\mathrm{\Gamma }{\displaystyle \frac{I_4}{2}}.`$
$`F^{}>1/2`$ if $`\rho `$ is entangled and the optimal $`X_{opt}`$ will be of rank 1, and the filter $`A`$ can be obtained by making the identification

$$X_{opt}=(AI_2)|\psi \psi |(A^{}I_2)$$

with $`|\psi =(|00+|11)/\sqrt{2}`$.

This theorem gives us the optimal way of using a mixed state of two qubits for teleportation: the maximal possible fidelity will be obtained when the state is first subjected to the optimal LOCC protocol.

The given semidefinite program can be solved exactly if $`\rho `$ has some symmetry. Indeed, if $`\rho ^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ remains invariant under certain symmetry operations, the optimal $`X`$ can always be chosen such that it has the same symmetry (this follows from a similar argument as the one used during the twirling step in the proof). As an example, we will calculate $`F^{}`$ for the family of states

$$\rho (F)=F|\psi \psi |+(1F)|0101|$$
(3)
with $`F1/3`$ the fidelity of the state (these are precisely the states with minimal fidelity for given concurrence VV02b ). The symmetries under transposition and under the local operations $`\sigma _z\sigma _z`$ and $`\mathrm{diag}[1,i]\mathrm{diag}[1,i]`$ imply that $`X`$ will be real and of the form

$$X=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}x_1& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& x_2& x_3& 0\\ 0& x_3& x_4& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& x_5\end{array}\right).$$

Moreover $`x_1`$ and $`x_5`$ will be equal to zero in the case of an optimal $`X`$ as otherwise $`X`$ cannot be rank $`1`$, and a simple optimization problem remains. The optimal filter is readily obtained as $`A=\mathrm{diag}[F/(2(1F));1]`$, and the maximal achievable fidelity $`F^{}`$ becomes equal to:

$`F^{}(\rho (F))=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{F^2}{4(1F)}}\right)`$ $`(\mathrm{if}1/3F2/3)`$
$`F^{}(\rho (F))=`$ $`F`$ $`(\mathrm{if}F2/3)`$
Note that for $`F2/3`$, no LOCC protocol exists that can increase the fidelity for this class of states. This is true in general: for high fidelities, the fidelity is very close to $`(1+N)/2`$ with $`N`$ the negativity VV02b  which is an entanglement monotone Vid00  and can therefore not be increased by LOCC operations.

A quantum state used for teleportation is a special kind of unital or bistochastic quantum channel (see e.g. HHH99 ; BB01 ). A unital quantum channel is completely characterized by looking at the image of the Bloch sphere under the action of the channelKR01 . In figure 1, we depict the images of the Bloch sphere under the action of the teleportation channel obtained by the states $`\rho (F)`$ of eq. 3 with $`F=0.4`$ when the following preprocessing was done: 1. optimal LU-preprocessing (implementation of the optimal local unitaries such as to maximize singlet fraction HHH99 ) ; 2. optimal trace-preserving LOCC transformations (theorem 2); 3. optimal filtering operations (theorem 1). This gives a nice illustration of the obtained results.

For general states, no analytical method for obtaining an expression of $`F^{}`$ is known, and a (simple) semidefinite program has to be solved. It is however easy to obtain an explicit lower bound on the optimal $`F^{}`$ in terms of the negativity and the concurrence of the original state. This lower bound is obtained by choosing $`X`$ to be a constant times the subspace spanned by the negative eigenvector $`v_{}`$ of $`\rho ^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. This constant has to be chosen such that the largest eigenvalue of $`X^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ does not exceed $`1/2`$, and it can be shown that this implies that this constant is equal to $`1/(1+\sqrt{1C_v_{}^2})`$ with $`C_v_{}`$ the concurrence of $`v_{}v_{}^{}`$. Using the variational characterization of the concurrence of a mixed state VDD01b ; VDD02a , it is furthermore easy to prove that $`C_v_{}N(\rho )/C(\rho )`$. Putting all the pieces together, we arrive at the following lower bound for the maximum achievable fidelity $`F^{}`$ for an arbitrary state $`\rho `$:

$$\frac{1}{2}\left(1+\frac{N(\rho )}{1+\sqrt{1\left(\frac{N(\rho )}{C(\rho )}\right)^2}}\right)F^{}(\rho )\frac{1}{2}(1+N(\rho )).$$

The upper bound follows from the fact that the fidelity is bounded above by $`(1+N)/2`$ VV02b  which is an entanglement monotone and can therefore not be increased by LOCC operations.

Before concluding, we will show that the maximum achievable fidelity $`F^{}`$ belongs to the class of entanglement measures measuring the robustness of entanglement VT99 ; VW02 . To that purpose, we use the fact that to each formulation of a semidefinite program, there exists a dual formulation VB96  that yields exactly the same value for the extremum. The dual of (2) can be shown to reduce to: minimize

$$G=\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{Tr}\left(Z\right)$$

subject to the constraints

$`Z`$ $``$ $`0`$
$`(\rho +Z)^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ $``$ $`0.`$
Defining the state $`\rho _Z=Z/\mathrm{Tr}\left(Z\right)`$, this problem is equivalent to: minimize

$$G=\frac{1}{2(1p)}$$

over all $`0p<1`$ and over all states $`\rho _Z`$, subject to the constraint that the state $`\rho ^{}`$

$$\rho ^{}=(1p)\rho +p\rho _Z$$

is separable. The minimum value obtained is the maximum achievable fidelity $`F^{}`$. As $`1/(1p)`$ is monotonously increasing over $`0p<1`$, this problem amounts to finding the state $`\rho _Z`$ such that the weight in the mixture of this state with the original state $`\rho `$ is minimal, under the constraint that this mixture is separable. The maximal achievable fidelity $`F^{}(\rho )`$ is therefore a measure of the minimal amount of mixing required of $`\rho `$ with another state such that a separable state is obtained.

In summary, we have shown that the fidelity or maximal singlet fraction is not an entanglement monotone, but can be made one by defining a new fidelity $`F^{}`$ as the maximal achievable one by trace-preserving LOCC operations. These optimal operations were completely determined, and this maximal achievable fidelity $`F^{}`$ quantifies the minimal amount of mixing required for a quantum state to destroy its entanglement. The optimal achievable teleportation fidelity is given by $`f^{}=(2F^{}+1)/3`$.


text:
# Study of Backgrounds at JLC IR Presented at the International Workshop on Linear Colliders, August 26 - 30, 2002 in Jeju, Korea.

## 1 JLC Beam Delivery System

The beam delivery system (BDS) of the JLC is $`1.4`$ km long and consists of four parts: switch-yard, collimator, final focus system (FFS), and beam dump as shown in Fig. 1.

The BDS serves multiple purposes: (i) to switch beams from the main linac or the bypass line to the first or second interaction point (IP), (ii) to create a finite crossing angle at the IP, (iii) to collimate the beams to eliminate possible backgrounds at the detector, (iv) to focus the beams at the IP, (v) to protect the machine from damages due to beam aborts, and (vi) to dump the spent beams after collision safely. The design of the JLC BDS is based on that of NLC BDS, because of the close similarity of the overall machine design and parameters. A notable difference, however, exists between JLC and NLC in a layout of the BDS. It arises from the beam crossing angle at the first IP; JLC has a small angle of 7 mrad while NLC has 20 mrad. Figure 2 shows the geomtry of a JLC BDS. The aspect ratio in this diagram is highly distorted to illustrate the bending of the beam lines and the beam crossing angle at the IP. Figure 3 shows the optics functions in the collimator and final focus sections. In the following we assume the electron beam energy of 250 GeV.

## 2 BDS Simulation

A full simulation program, LCBDS , has been developed to simulate the entire BDS. The LCBDS uses GEANT4  to model the individual beamline elements including drifts, all (dipole, quadrupole, sextupole, octapole, and decapole) magnets, collimator elements (spoiler, absorber, and energy slit), and a beampipe. Physics processes currently included in the code are multiple scattering at the beamline elements, electromagnetic shower and photon conversion to muon pairs. In order to gain reasonable statistics, we increase the muon production cross section by a factor of 100 to generate events and, then, scale down the results by the same factor. In order to verify the tracking capability of the simulation, the transportation of the core beam has been simulated from the entrance of the BDS to the IP and the results are compared with the beam profile shown in Fig. 3 obtained by using SAD program . The core beam is assumed to have a size of $`\sigma _x=14.8\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and $`\sigma _y=658\mathrm{nm}`$, and an angular dispersion of $`\sigma _x^{}=0.413\mu \mathrm{rad}`$ and $`\sigma _y^{}=0.093\mu \mathrm{rad}`$ at the entrance of the BDS. Figure 4 shows the beam size at the IP obtained by the LCBDS. The results (214.5 nm and 2.73 nm in $`x`$ and $`y`$ directions, respectively, in rms) well reproduce the design values (211 nm and 2.7 nm).

## 3 Detector Backgrounds

The sources of the background can be categorized as follows:

1. Upstream background: background produced upstream of the IP. This includes synchrotron radiation generated at the final focus quadrupole and bending magnets, and muons produced in electromagnetic showers arising from lost halo electrons/positrons. Because the collimators are designed to scrape off halo particles, muons are produced predominantly at the collimators.
2. IP background: background generated at the IP. Produced via $`e^+e^{}`$ collisions at the IP are disrupted primary beams, beamstrahlung photons, $`e^+e^{}`$ pairs from beam-beam interactions, radiative Bhabhas and hadrons from two-photon interactions.
3. Downstream background: background produced downstream of the IP. This concerns secondary neutrons produced at the extraction line and beam dump. A large number of low-energy neutrons can drift back and back-shine the detector.

We report on-going efforts to identify background sources based on the LCBDS simulation.

### 3.1 Synchrotron Radiation Background

Synchrotron radiation photons reached at the IP are predominantly generated at the final quadrupole magnets. Photons generated at the bending magnets upstream of the final quadrupole magnets also reach at the IP. Figure 5 (a) shows the spatial distribution of the synchrotron radiation photons arising from a nominal beam (core beam) containing $`10^5`$ electrons. The extent of $`y`$ distribution is limited within $`0.5`$ mm. The $`x`$ distribution, however, is wider and has a long tail extending to $`1`$ cm. This is due to photons generated at the bending magnets. These photons are mostly contained within the beampipe (nominally with a radius of 2 cm) even without any mask and therefore, will not be serious background to the detector. The energy distribution of the photons is shown in Fig. 6 (a). The mean photon energy is $`0.35`$ MeV.

Synchrotron radiation photons originating from the beam halo, electrons with large amplitudes, can be more spread and could become serious background. In the current design the collimator section removes halo particles with amplitudes larger than $`12\sigma _x`$ or $`50\sigma _y`$ from the beam center. The size and material of spoilers and absorbers used in our simulations are summarized in Fig. 7.

In order to simulate the collimator section performance and the remaining synchrotron radiation, we generate the beam halo electrons that distribute uniformly over $`50\sigma _x`$ and $`200\sigma _y`$ region, where $`\sigma _x`$ and $`\sigma _y`$ are the nominal beam size at the entrance of the BDS. The angular distribution of the halo is also uniform over $`50\sigma _x^{}`$ and $`200\sigma _y^{}`$. The spatial and energy distributions of the resulting photons (without any mask near the IP) are shown in Figs. 5 (b) and 6 (b). These photons are still contained in the beampipe and will further be reduced by a mask system.

### 3.2 Muon Background

The collimator section in turn can become a source of the background. Muon pairs can be produced via photon conversions in the electromagnetic showers created by the lost halo electrons. Figure 8 shows the energy and spatial distributions of the muons reached at the IP if the BDS is not equipped with any muon shield. The average muon energy is $`61`$ GeV. The probability for a 250 GeV electron lost at the collimator to produce a muon at the IP (without muon shield) is estimated to be $`1.4\times 10^5`$. Figure 9 shows where along the BDS those muons are produced. They are produced predominantly at the collimator section. The magnetized iron pipes surrounding the beam pipe have been considered as an option of the muon shield. Its design and detailed simulation are under study.

## 4 Conclusion

We have presented some of the early results obtained using a beam delivery system simulation based on GEANT4. This program, LCBDS, has successfully reproduced the beam profile as designed. We have shown the results on the synchrotron radiation and muons produced in the JLC beam delivery system.


text:
# Long lasting instabilities in granular mixtures

## 1 Introduction

The most spectacular phenomenon associated with granular matter is certainly the phase segregation that one observes when a granular mixture is shaked, poured or rotated . Respectively, stripe , axial  and radial  segregation patterns have been reported. Recent experiments  and theoretical models  have been extensively performed in the particular case of stripe segregation.

However, the least studied type of segregation is the case of the axial segregation in the so-called Oyama’s drum . The experiment consists in rotating a tube which is half filled with a sand mixture. The mixture is composed by 2 granular species differing in size and having different angles of repose. Due to the rotation, avalanches occur in the tube. Bands of the different granular species appear after a few minutes. A sketch and a picture of the axial segregation are illustrated in Figure 1. It has been reported  that the bands merge and only three stripes remain after very long times. One should also remark that Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) experiments have shown that a radial segregation is also present in the center of the tube . Small grains being located in the center of the tube.

On the theoretical side, it has been proposed  that the axial segregation is similar to a spinodal decomposition. A simple and elegant model for diffusion of the different sand species along the tube axis has also been proposed by Savage . This model considers the difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ of dynamical angles for both species as a relevant parameter. If $`\rho (x,t)`$ is the density of one species along the tube axis $`x`$, the different slopes involve a segregation flux

$$\varphi _s=\beta \frac{\rho }{x}$$
(1)
for that species. The positive coefficient $`\beta `$ is a function of the slope difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ and the rotation speed $`\omega `$ of the tube. In addition, a Fickian diffusion

$$\varphi _d=D\frac{\rho }{x}$$
(2)
is taken into account. The diffusion coefficient $`D`$ is a function of the rotation speed $`\omega `$. Summing both fluxes and taking into account the continuity equation for $`\varphi _s+\varphi _d`$, one  obtains the classical diffusion equation

$$\frac{\rho }{t}=D_e\frac{^2\rho }{x^2}$$
(3)
with an effective diffusion constant $`D_e=D\beta `$ which could be negative for defined $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ and $`\omega `$ values. A negative coefficient explains the formation of bands because any inhomogeneity in $`\rho `$ is then amplified towards full segregation. The Savage’s model is a first step in the understanding of the phenomenon. The most elaborated model remains the one proposed by Zik and coworkers . In the Zik’s model, $`\beta `$ scales as $`\beta \rho (1\rho )`$ and the occurence of bands is attributed to a spinodal decomposition instead of a simple diffusion. More recently, molecular dynamics simulations have also been performed  in order to study the effect of friction. Axial segregation can be simulated with thousand of virtual grains.

We have performed new experiments in the Oyama’s drum. We have produced axial segregation patterns and studied the phenomenon during several hours/days. In some experiments, we have obtained spectacular patterns that we call instabilities. The present paper deals with such unusual patterns. They are discussed in the light of previous theoretical arguments and earlier experiments. Mechanisms for instabilities appearance are proposed.

## 2 Experiments

Our experimental setup is the following. A glass tube (diameter $`40`$ mm, length $`300`$ mm) is half filled with a binary sand mixture. The tube is rotated at a constant angular frequency $`\omega `$ which can be controlled. The rotation speed can range from 20 rotations per minute (rpm) to 40 rpm. The tube in rotation is perfectly horizontal. Two different sands have been selected for our study. For each type of sand, the granulometry has been selected by sifting. White grains have a mean diameter around $`d=0.32`$ mm. Black grains have a mean diameter around $`d=0.22`$ mm. The angle of repose for dark grains is $`\theta =28^o\pm 1^o`$. The angle of repose for the white grains is $`\theta =33^o\pm 1^o`$. Repose angles of different species have been measured by averaging the slope of a stable pile of the considered species along its surface. A CCD camera captures the pattern along the tube axis every minute. A computer collects the successive pictures. Each picture of the glass tube is rescaled into a line of pixels. This line represents the average density of the sand species along the $`x`$ axis. The successive lines of pixels are numerically glued together in order to form a space-time diagram of the evolving segregation pattern.

Figure 2 presents a typical spatio-temporal graph built with 3840 images of the pattern, for a total period of 64 hours. In the picture, time goes down. The segregation pattern emerges within a few minutes. After a long time (several hours), the bands begin to merge. The merging of adjacent bands is rare. However, such an event is a rapid process (typically less than one minute) since the end part of a vanishing band is always abrupt. See three vanishing bands in the top of Figure 2. The number $`N`$ of bands seems to decrease exponentially with time. Figure 3 emphasizes such a decay for the particular data of Figure 2. We have fitted those data with the stretched exponential

$$N=2+(N_02)\mathrm{exp}\left(\sqrt{\frac{t}{\tau }}\right)$$
(4)
with $`N_0`$ being the initial number of bands and $`\tau `$ being a characteristic time for the decay. The data for others space-time graphs obtained with our setup are also well fitted with this empirical law. A systematic study of that particular dynamics is under way and will be published elsewhere . Before looking at the details, we can make 3 general observations:

(1) The segregation begins first at the extremities of the tube and then nucleates randomly in the tube. The spreading pattern formation is emphasized in Figure 4. The presence of tube ends (walls) affects locally the friction and induces the formation of bands at the extremities. We have noticed that at low rotation speeds ($`10`$ rpm), bands appear only at the extremities while the middle part of the tube is still mixed, even for very long times.

(2) The topography of the granular surface is deeply affected by the segregation pattern. A close look at the surface reveals different slopes for the different sand species (see the top picture of Figure 1). Those slopes correspond to the dynamical angles of the species, which are $`2^o`$ larger than the repose angles. This is the main ingredient of both Savage  and Zik  models.

(3) For very long times, the pattern tends to a complete segregation of both granular species. Only two bands are observed. This complete segregation is clearly observed at the end of Figure 2. One should remark that Frette and Stavans  did not always obtain a complete segregation pattern even after having performed very long experiences (but at a lower speed than in our cases).

In the great majority of our experiments, the successive merging of bands towards a full segregation of both granular species have been observed. However, looking at the details of Figure 2, one observes a turbulent-like pattern at the interface between white and dark bands. This particular event occured after 18 hours of rotation. The turbulent pattern is emphasized in Figure 5. The duration of that event lasted about 5 hours. The instability of white/dark interfaces began when a new dark band nucleated in the middle part of a white band. This nucleation process involved the development of secondary bands in the neighborhood. Extremely slow undulations of the borders are also seen in the bottom of Figure 2, a long time after the ‘turbulent’ event emphasized in Figure 5.

The occurrence of such behavior is still mysterious. We did not discover the precise conditions on which they appear and disappear. However, it should be remarked that the occurence of such patterns is not an artefact. Indeed, they appeared in different experiments under various conditions, i.e. at various rotation speeds. Moreover, initial mixtures were premixed as homogeneously as possible.

Figures 6 and 7 present additional patterns that we have also obtained. In those examples, the instability does not affect the total number of bands along the tube axis. In Figure 5, one observes undulations of the borders of white bands. In fact, thin dark bands nucleate periodically in the center of white bands before being expelled. In Figure 6, the situation is slightly different: two small bands are seen to detach from a white band and to travel from that band towards the next one.

Some instabilities are provoked by the nucleation of thin dark bands (see Figures 5 and 6). Others appear at the border of apparently stable white bands (see Figure 7). We will discuss the occurence of that phenomena in the next section.

## 3 Discussion

It should be noted that an earlier experimental work  put into evidence some travelling waves in the tube. This behavior was present for higher filling fraction of the tube ($`>55`$%) than in our experiments. Such travelling waves were associated with the early stages of the segregation (about 20 minutes), when inhomogeneities of the initial mixture provoke the nucleation and the motion of bands. Herein, the instabilities are seen to occur after very long times and last several hours. The nature of the instabilities could be quite different from those reported in .

As mentionned at the beginning of this paper, MRI experiments  have put into evidence that radial segregation is always present. Small grains (the dark species herein) tend to segregate in the bulk. This implies that in our experiments, the white bands may have a dark core. We assist thus at the competition between axial and radial segregation in that regions. Any fluctuation of the radial pattern may provoke the nucleation of a thin dark band. Thereafter, this thin band travels slowly towards one border to be expelled. This coupling between surface and volume compositions could explain the instabilities.

Surface and bulk processes are characterized by different time scales. Axial segregation has a larger characteristic time scale than radial segregation. This rate difference could also explain why our instabilities last several hours: the phenomenon comes from bulk fluctuations. MRI experiments could corroborate those mechanisms.

Consider the fraction of dark species $`x`$ observed along the tube, measured by image analysis. Figure 8 presents the time evolution of the ratio

$$r=\frac{x}{1x}$$
(5)
in the long experiment of Figure 5. The ratio $`r`$ emphasizes the surface ‘equilibrium’ between both species along the tube. During the whole process, the ratio fluctuates around a linear trend close to $`r=1`$. However, during a period of instability, we observe giant fluctuations of $`r`$ up to $`20\%`$. This means that the compositions of both bulk and surface deviate strongly from equilibrium composition.

## 4 Summary

Bulk segregation should be taken into account when axial patterns are discussed. Oyama’s drum experiment is an example of 3-dimensional segregation. This has been already suggested by Hill et al . Moreover, we have reported hereabove additional effects such as long lasting instabilities which arise from bulk processes. The dynamics of those patterns are extremely slow with respect to the formation/vanishing of the bands. We stress that those instabilities originate from the competition between axial and radial segregations. As a consequence, the Savage model, which considers only surface effects should be extended to take into account the bulk distribution of granular species.

The physical conditions, such as rotation speed and granulometry, which imply the formation of instabilities, are still unclear. This point needs a systematic experimental study. This represents a huge amount of work since each experiment lasts several hours.

## Acknowledgements

HC is financially supported by the FRIA (Brussels, Belgium). This work is also suppported through the ARC contract n02/07-293. The authors would also like to thank M. Ausloos for fruitful discussions.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The international reputation of various nations in a particular scientific domain is not simply proportional to the total money spent on it. Among other factors, one could list: the organizational setup, the focus on the field by the national instances, the spirit of competition between different laboratories. But perhaps the single most important factor leading to the success of a nation in a given scientific field is how it trains and selects its scientists.

In this article, I will describe how the tenured scientists are selected in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics in France. I will limit myself to scientists, and not discuss the recruitment of engineers, technicians and administrative staff. By astronomy and astrophysics, I will span the fields of solar physics, space physics (solar wind and magnetospheres including terrestrial), planetary physics, stellar physics, high-energy astrophysics, interstellar and circumstellar physics and chemistry, galactic structure and extragalactic science, cosmology (from the local universe to the cosmic microwave background), and physics (e.g. calibration of atomic and molecular parameters of astronomical relevance).

I will describe the three major corps of scientists in Sec. 2 and the selection committees and procedures in Sec. 3, illustrate the evolution of the hiring in Sec. 4, compare with other countries in Sec. 5, and finally list and attempt to answer the outstanding questions in Sec. 6. A summary is provided in Sec. 7.

## 2 The Three Major Corps

The French scientists in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics are subdivided, in roughly equal numbers, among three separate corps listed in Table 1: the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (hereafter, CNRS), the Observatories and the Universities.

Among the approximate total of 750 French tenured astronomers and astrophysicists, 44% are CNRS scientists, 30% have been hired by the Observatories, 19% are University faculty, and another 7% were hired by other institutions (almost all at the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, hereafter CEA, which has its Service d’Astrophysique). Table 1 illustrates the similarities and differences among the three major corps: roughly equal sizes, national tenure committees for two (the CNRS and the CNAP for Observatory positions) of the three corps, but different attributes, and varying difficulties for promotion and mobility.

Note that their are two entry levels for CNRS positions (Chargé de Recherche 2nd class and 1st class – CR2 and CR1 respectively), and similarly two upper levels (Directeur de Recherche – DR2 and DR1). Whereas two upper levels exist both for the Observatories and the Universities, the rule of law only allows hiring to 2nd class levels. Moreover, the Universities and Observatories have both merged their two entry level classes. Finally, all three corps have exceptional-class upper levels, for scientists with exceptional careers, and the Observatories and Universities have a higher paying entry-level for older scientists.

## 3 The Selection Process

### 3.1 The tenure committees

The members of French national tenure committees (CNRS and CNAP) are mostly elected with a minority (1/4 to 1/3) nominated by high-level administrators. The elections are usually based upon lists of candidates (as required by rule of law), where for the past 10 years, the tradition has been to have typically three lists affiliated with national labor unions, and one independent list. Many of the candidates on labor union lists are not personally affiliated with these labor unions, and it appears to this author (who served at different times on all three tenure committees) that there is little collusion between members of a given list (unionized or not) on important votes. The specificity of unionized lists is that they can rely on advice from active union people that are either not on the committees or in other scientific fields, especially for establishing their platform and for negotiating with the government on proposed reforms.

The CNRS, CNAP and CNU committees also handle promotions within the different levels, and the CNRS committee is also involved in formulating policy and strategic planning, as well as in the analysis of entire laboratories and national subfield networks (Groupements de Recherche).

With the exception of the CNRS, junior scientists do not participate in the recruitment of upper-level scientists, while all upper-level committee members participate in the promotion of the sparse exceptional classes.

### 3.2 CNRS and Observatory positions: filled by national committees

The CNRS and Observatory positions are filled in a similar fashion. All candidates are assigned two referees from the tenure committee, who study their CV in detail, and the first referee provides a few minute report to the committee, while the second referee adds information in a much shorter intervention. All entry-level candidates pass a short audition (20 min + 5 min questions at the CNRS; 15 min + 3 min questions at CNAP), as well as the candidates for promotion to the upper level at the Observatories (the CNRS astronomy section stopped auditioning its upper level candidates in 2001). The very large number of candidates (of order 100) forces the committees to split up into two to three auditioning sections, and an unsuccessful candidate will be generally rotated to a different auditioning subsection on his/her new attempt in the following year. The committees then discuss and vote to narrow down the list of candidates from typically over 100 to the final number typically less than 10.

The principal selection criterion is the excellence of the scientific research as estimated by the publication record, the analysis by the referees, and the audition. There is also an increased use of citation statistics, although there is fairly little correlation between the chosen candidates and their publication and/or citation rates, even normalized to the number of authors and rank of the candidate among the authors (in part because the committees are very careful not to discriminate against scientists who publish less, such as instrumentalists and people working in pure theory).

Additional criteria are the pertinence of the candidate’s research topics, his/her autonomy, ability to work in teams, perceived usefulness to the laboratory (s)he suggests to work at, general dynamism, student supervision, teaching ability for the CNAP (see Sect. 3.3), educational background (being an alumnus of one of the French Grandes Écoles is a plus, and a detail rarely forgotten by the referees), and possible awards and distinctions. Moreover, the CNRS and CNAP often strive to maintain a balance between the different laboratories throughout the country, as well as between the subfields of the candidates. In some instances, two scientists are hired in a given subfield and none in another subfield, while in other cases, the committee will build its short list by requiring at most one candidate per subfield (there are usually fewer positions than subfields).

The selection of Observatory scientists is more complex than that for their CNRS counterparts, as, in addition to the standard requirement of scientific excellence, a successful candidate must imperatively be attached to an observational service task (simulation of observations through the instrument; design, assembly, or calibration of the instrument; systematic observations; pipeline development; data archival), and this service task must be for one of the dozen or so observational projects that is considered top priority by the astronomical funding agency (Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers or INSU). For example, a brilliant theoretician without any proven track record for the service task he proposes stands no chance of entering the corps of Observatories. Unfortunately, the CNAP has little leverage on Observatory scientists who do not perform their service tasks, given the recent merger of the two entry-level classes.

The discussions are tricky as committee members refrain from being negative on candidates. Some committees discuss more, while others resort more often to votes. In a blocked situation, one often displays a mute histogram, without names attached (except for the person counting the votes), and one can then place a new rejection threshold at some local minimum in this histogram. The advantage of discussing more is that more useful things are said, and decisions can be made almost by consensus. The disadvantage of too much discussion is that a few charismatic and forceful committee members have an undue influence on the other committee members.

The CNRS hiring committee provides a list that can be modified by a high-level administrator at the CNRS (such changes are extremely rare), while the list provided by the CNAP is final.

### 3.3 University hiring: national qualification then local hiring

The University positions are filled in a different fashion. The positions are all targeted to specific subfields of astronomy and astrophysics, although roughly 1/4 are as vague as Astrophysics, while roughly half are fairly narrowly targeted. The committees are local to their universities, with roughly one-quarter of the members nominated from outside institutions. But these local committees can only consider candidates that have been previously qualified by a section (usually Astronomy) of the CNU.

There are three criteria for qualification: research activity, teaching activity, and proficiency in the French language. Roughly 2/3 to 3/4 of all entry-level candidates are qualified by the CNU. The qualification is good for four years. Less than half of the candidates for qualification to Professorship are qualified by the CNU (given the high fraction of foreign candidates, many of whom are not proficient in the French language).

The local tenure committees then make a short list of typically 5 candidates or less, and audition them for typically a half-hour, and then discuss and vote to select a candidate. They emphasize the scientific record, as well as the teaching ability of the candidate as judged by recommendation letters and the clarity of expression (the latter is also used, albeit to a lesser degree, by the CNAP).

The chances for promotion of a Maître de Conférences to Professeur are randomized by the requirement that a position of Professeur opens up at his/her University, with a description that meets his/her work.

## 4 Evolution Since 1980

### 4.1 Hirings per section

Fig. 1 shows the evolution of annual hirings in the different corps of scientists. Since 1989, the rate of hiring has been higher than in previous years, thanks mainly to increased hirings at the Universities, the CEA, and to some extent at the Observatories, to reach a total annual rate of 22 hirings per year. Part of this increase is related to the rise of the field of astroparticles.

### 4.2 Pressure

The first half of the 90’s saw a greater than doubling of the number of candidates for tenured positions (from 35-40 to 80), associated with only a 50% increase in the total number of positions (see Fig. 1). This dramatic rise in the number of candidates is believed to be associated to the time when scientists with French doctorates began pursuing their careers with postdoctoral fellowships in other countries, and with the slight rise in the median age of hiring (Sec. 4.6 and Fig. 4 below).

Since the mid-90’s, the number of candidates for Observatory positions has only risen slightly ($`<10\%`$) for observatory positions. Indeed, at this time, the CNAP began to place strong emphasis on observational service tasks as a necessary (but insufficient) selection criterion, so that many candidates (often theoreticians) with no obvious service tasks, have censored themselves with respect to Observatory positions. On the other hand, the number of candidates to CNRS positions has continued to rise since the mid 90’s, to typically 100 today. Given the increase in pressure on tenured positions that occurred in the early 90’s, the graduate schools in France began, in the late 90s, to reverse their policy of increasing the number of graduate students.

It is interesting to follow the candidates to a given corps for a given year. Among the 37 candidates to Observatory positions in 1989, 16 (43%) were hired that year in one of the four corps, 8 (22%) the following year, and another 7 (19%) in the subsequent 3 years, so that within 4 years, all but 5 (14%) had found tenured scientific positions. But, by 1994, only 50% of the 82 candidates to the Observatories were eventually hired in one of the four corps.

The pressure on positions is quantified in Table 2. The median pressure on targeted positions is 9, whereas the median pressure is 25 on non-targeted CNRS positions and 12 on Observatory positions (double the pressure on Observatory positions during the late ’80s). In 1996 and 1997, the median pressure on University positions was 23.

### 4.3 Hirings per field

Fig. 2 shows the variations with time of the fields of the new recruits. The fluctuations in the fraction of hiring per field do not appear to be statistically significant, except for the field of high-energy astrophysics, albeit marginally so (the probability, from binomial statistics, of having as few High Energy positions in the first period combined with as many High Energy positions in the third period, assuming the actual mean rate of 9.0% over the three periods, is 5%).

### 4.4 Hirings per methodology

Fig. 3 presents the evolution in the principal methodologies of the recruited astronomers and astrophysicists since 1982.

The trends are fairly stable, except for a statistically significant increase in the fraction of scientists mainly involved in modeling, and a significant decrease of scientists involved in theory.

### 4.5 Fraction of women recruits

In the last 21 years, the fraction of women recruits (in all four corps: CNRS, Observatories, Universities and CEA) has remained essentially constant at 20%: 20% in 1982-1988, 22% in 1989-1995, 19% in 1996-2002 (the latter decrease is not statistically significant). However, the fraction of women hired in 1965-1975 was significantly higher, at over 25%. The fraction of women hired by the four corps since 1980 are statistically identical (19%, 22%, 20% and 15% for the CNRS, Observatories, Universities and CEA, respectively). The success rate of female candidates for entry-level CNRS positions is virtually the same as their male counterparts (Durret 2002).

### 4.6 Age of recruitment

Are French scientists recruited increasingly later in their career? Fig. 4 shows the age of recruitment (the age at the end of the year when the recruitment is pronounced) for scientists in the major three corps (CNRS, Observatories, and Universities – no age data was available for the CEA staff).

Fig. 4 shows the rise with time in the age of the recruits, with the relation (straight line in the Figure)

$$\mathrm{Age}=27.8+0.15(\mathrm{Year}1980).$$
(1)
This increase is statistically significant. For example, subdividing the scientists into three 7-year periods: 1982-1988, 1989-1995, and 1996-2002, the distribution of recruitment ages is statistically higher through the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test from the 1st to the 2nd period (93.7% confidence) and from the 2nd to the 3rd period (99.5% confidence). Also a Spearman rank test gives a probability of $`3\times 10^{11}`$ of such a rank correlation (0.36) by chance. The parabolic fit suggests that this increase in the age of tenured scientists is currently flattening. In fact, the rank correlation test yields a significant rise in hiring age during 1980-1991, but an insignifcant rise since 1992. The overall rise in recruitment age is significant for both CNRS and Observatory positions (whose age patterns are very similar), but not for University positions.

An increase of 1.5 years of age every 10 years constitutes a strong rise. Since 1980, the typical recruitment age has thus risen 3 years, which represents 10% of the age of the scientist. In 2002, the typical recruitment age (parabolic fit in Fig. 4) is 30.6 years. This corresponds to 3-4 years after the PhD. In contrast, around 1980, scientists were typically hired by the end of their PhD, and in the 60’s and 70’s some scientists were granted tenured positions before starting their PhD, even at the young age of 22!

## 5 Comparison with other Countries

In comparison with other countries, France can boast one of the highest rate per capita of hiring tenured scientists in astronomy and astrophysics. The advantage is that this attracts highly qualified foreign scientists. The disadvantage is that the quality threshold is perhaps lower than in countries with few positions.

Another originality of the French system is its reliance on national hiring committees (see following section). In comparison with other countries, the assessment of candidates by experts outside the committees (recommendation letters) have little impact on committees (but they can have a great impact on the candidate’s two referees).

In the United States and many other countries, a short list is made, based upon the publication record, the recommendation letters, the perceived dynamism and the academic background, and only the candidates on the short list are interviewed both in private and through an hour-long seminar. In France, the CNAP is forced, by rule of law, to conduct auditions on all the candidates, which, even after splitting the committees in two or three sub-jurys, and limiting the presentations of the candidates to 15 or 20 minutes, still requires a few days full time.

As in most systems, the candidate to the French system must play by the rules of the game. In a system with national hiring, this includes not only making strong contact with the laboratory where one wishes to work, but also making presentations of one’s work across the country, because as is usually the case in any country, a candidate with a known face has more chances of being hired than an unknown face (the CNAP now has photographs of the candidates and in general a fraction of the members have seen the candidate during an audition or seminar). A candidate to the Observatories must moreover develop a credible observational service task with the staff at the laboratory where (s)he wishes to settle.

One drawback of the French system is that it is fixed by rules of law, hence very rigid. This prevents the rapid hiring of outstanding foreign scientists (e.g. during the demise of the former Soviet Union). Nevertheless, a few outstanding foreign individuals have been hired (see Sect. 6.3 below).

## 6 Recurrent Questions

### 6.1 Local versus national hiring

In most countries, the hiring of tenured faculty is conducted by the local institutions. For French astronomy, roughly 1/3 of astronomers are hired locally (through the Universities and the CEA), while the remainder are hired through the national CNRS and CNAP committees. Having myself pursued my graduate studies and postdoc in the United States, I first found this situation quite strange. In hindsight, I now believe that national hiring works better for France.

While local hiring has the advantage of developing a healthy competition between the various laboratories, it has the drawback of leading ($``$ 1/4 of the time) to the hiring of less-qualified “locals” instead of more qualified “exteriors”. In other words, some (probably a minority of) French scientists sitting on local tenure committees lack the free-market spirit to strengthening science, but prefer instead to favor former students, and national committees prevent such abuses.

### 6.2 Big science versus creative individuals and the issue of targeted positions

Another important question is how to maintain the best balance between the wish to hire the brightest individuals and the need to supply manpower to the large high-priority observational projects in which France is investing heavily in equipment. In the last three years, 37% of the CNRS positions were targeted to either a particular field of astronomy (sometimes a pluridisplinary field at the boundaries of astronomy), and/or a particular international observatory (see Table 2). The question of supplying manpower to the important observational programs is also addressed in detail by the CNAP, which, since the mid ’90s, has been considering service tasks on large observational projects as a prime and necessary criterion for hiring (although there are no specifically targeted Observatory positions).

The advantage of targeting positions for specific fields or projects is obvious: to fill an important need at a given time. Moreover, given persistent rumors, over the last dozen years, on the intentions of the French government to merge the Observatories into the Universities, the aspect of service tasks performed by Observatory astronomers is considered to be the prime motivation for keeping a specific status for Observatory positions. However, in most cases, the pressure on the targeted positions is considerably lower than on the non-targeted ones: Table 2 indicates that none of the CNRS targeted positions since 2000 had pressures above 40% of those of their non-targeted counterparts of the same year, and most had a pressure 1/4 less than for Observatory positions. One is therefore led to wonder whether the targeted positions are attributed on average to individuals of lower competence than are the non-targeted ones.

In the author’s opinion, the pendulum is swinging a little too far in the direction of supplying the big science projects, given that all the Observatory positions (through the observational service task) and nearly 40% – see Table 2 – of recent CNRS positions are targeted to projects, and moreover, over half of the University positions come with narrowly defined targets. What is worse, the French government recently proposed (but then withdrew in face of the clear opposition of the astronomical community) a reform of the CNAP that would have made all Observatory positions targeted both by field and by location (to conform with the targeting of university positions). It would make more sense to stop targeting CNRS positions, except in rare instances for specific interdisciplinary fields (the CNRS has partially solved this problem by just creating a special committee separate from Solar System and Distant Universe called Astroparticles). To provide manpower to the large projects, the INSU should release an official public list of top-priority observational programs, that would contain roughly twice the number of annual Observatory positions available, and that would be renewed every year. The CNAP would then be required to hire Astronomers proposing service tasks with one of these listed programs. With such a system, the CNRS would hire the more creative individuals, while the CNAP would hire the team players. Both sets of scientists are necessary to make a country like France thrive in the international arena.

### 6.3 The hiring of foreign scientists

Overall, since 1980, roughly 11% of all scientists hired at the entry level were from foreign countries or French nationals who (like this author) had left France before graduate school, and both are hereafter refererred to as “foreign”. Table 3 shows the numbers and fractions of foreign scientists per corps (these are lower limits, as some may have been missed).

The Table indicates a statistically significant low fraction of foreign scientists hired at the Universities (given a predicted foreign-hiring rate of 11%, there is 0.6% probability that two or less foreigners would be hired out of 79 University recruits). This low fraction of foreign University recruits presumably arises because foreign accents are deemed a hindrance to good teaching, and also because foreign scientists are often aware too late of the prerequisite of qualification by the CNU. On the other hand, the CEA has a strong tradition of hiring foreign scientists (21% of their hirings since 1980, which is statistically significantly high).

The origins of the foreign recruits are Western Europe (58%), South America (10%), North America (9%), North Africa (7%), Middle East (7%), Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (5%), East Asia (2%), and Australia (2%).

Fig. 4 helps answer the question of the openness of the French system to scientists from outside France. Overall, the median delay for the hiring of foreign scientists, relative to their French counterparts (excluding those older scientists directly hired at upper-level positions) is 2.9 years. The age of arrival in France makes a crucial difference. Scientists arriving before the age of 28 are hired 1.0 year (median) after their French counterparts, while scientists arriving at 28 or after are hired 5.5 years (median) after their French counterparts. Only three (late arrivals) out of 31 foreign scientists (10%) were hired directly from abroad. In addition to that, 7 foreign scientists were directly hired (in the last 23 years) to upper level positions, among which 2 directly from abroad (both for positions of head of their laboratory), and one only one year after his arrival (again for a position of head of a laboratory).

Since the time of arrival is essential, one can wonder whether late-arrivals of foreign scientists lead to longer or shorter time intervals to tenure in comparison with earlier arrivals.

The plot on the left of Fig. 5 shows no correlation between the age of arrival and the time interval for hiring measured from the age of arrival if greater than 27 (corresponding approximately to the year of the PhD thesis), or else from 27 years of age. With this definition of the time interval, foreign scientists wait globally 0.8 year more (mean) than their French counterparts for securing tenured positions (this difference is significant to 94% confidence). In fact, the plot on the right of Fig. 5 shows the 1 year delay for foreigners arriving early (99% significant with a KS test) with only 17% hired by the age of 29, in comparison with the 48% of their French counterparts. On the other hand, foreigners arriving after 27 typically wait 2.5-3 years, slightly less (but not significantly so) than it takes French nationals counting from the age of 27.

The penalty on the foreign astronomers who arrive young in France may be due to cultural differences. This is even more pronounced for foreign scientists arriving later in France, but although they are hired at older ages, they wait the same (once in France) then do their French counterparts (now counting from the age of 27).

### 6.4 How important should be the criterion of integration within a laboratory?

In France, the perceived integration of the candidate to the laboratory where he wishes to work is considered an essential selection criterion. The heads of laboratories are asked by the CNAP (but not by the CNRS committee) to present an ordered list of their preferred candidates, and this information is very influential: in the last two years, among the 14 scientists that the CNAP has hired at entry-level positions, only one had not been at the top of the list by the laboratory he was applying to work at.

The advantage of such a system is that it enables the heads of laboratories, often with the help of the scientists working in their lab, to plan the recruitments and allows them to strengthen (or weaken) particular research teams within their laboratory. The drawback is that, just like in the case of targeted positions, the overall quality of hired scientists will not be optimal. For example, the most brilliant candidates may not be high-priority in their laboratories, either because their subfield of work is not well represented in their laboratory, or because they are applying to an outside laboratory (not one where they performed their doctoral thesis work) and the laboratory head is prioritizing one or more candidates from his/her laboratory. This is a likely occurrence when excellent foreign scientists seek a laboratory where to apply for tenure.

In this author’s opinion, a brilliant scientist who settles in a laboratory with nobody else in his/her particular subfield of work, will manage, in time, to attract others in his/her subfield, some of whom may be former students. It is not important if, during his/her first years of tenure, such a scientist does not publish with other scientists in his laboratory. In this age of electronic mail and cheap telephone rates, long-distance collaborations are easy to implement. The long-term benefits outweigh the lack of early collaborations.

### 6.5 Is recruitment governed by chance?

One would certainly hope that chance is absent in the recruitment procedures of French astronomers. Unfortunately, there is indeed an element of chance in the French tenure system, as there is on any tenure (or telescope allocation) committee. Indeed, the forcefulness of the candidate’s referees is an important element of the decision making in any system that does not rely too strongly on bibliometric quantities such as the rates of paper production and/or citations.

Another element that could be considered chance is the competition that the candidate might suffer in a given laboratory and/or field of work. However, if the candidate feels overshadowed by another candidate to the same laboratory, (s)he may well apply to a different one.

Finally, in the competition for positions at the Observatories, the candidate must make the right choice of an observational service task that is in a large observational program prioritized by the national funding agency (INSU). If an official list of such prioritized programs (as advocated at the end of Sec. 6.2) were publicly made available roughly half a year before the season of tenure committees (usually Spring in France), candidates would then be able to begin work on a publicly listed observational service task before launching their candidacy.

One can ask why did some of the best candidates fail to obtain a tenured position in France after many tries. The best known few cases involved scientists (who usually find permanent astronomical positions outside the country) with important gaps in their publication record. Although the committees in France avoid basing their decisions by simply counting papers, they are often strongly tempted to pass on a candidate with a large gap in his/her publication record, in favor of other candidates of similar overall perceived competence with large publication records, and hence considerably more numerous noteworthy scientific results.

### 6.6 How much mobility should be allowed between laboratories and between corps?

Another question concerning the human resources of a given country, is whether the decision makers should strive to strengthen the strongest laboratories and abandon the weakest, or on the contrary provide a minimum human workforce for all laboratories.

This question affects the decisions of the national tenure committees (CNRS and CNAP), and the second view point is probably at least as well followed as the first. This question also affects the rules regarding the mobility of French scientists. Some believe that scientists should be free to change laboratories, if they are accepted by a new one. Others believe that mobility should be made more difficult, to prevent numerous departures from a given laboratory.

In this author’s opinion, the first view point is to be favored, as leading to optimal scientific productivity. If a scientist feels frustrated enough to want to leave his/her laboratory, which entails a loss of a few weeks in negotiations, moving and settling in the new laboratory and location, this must mean that (s)he senses a considerable increase in his/her scientific productivity in the new laboratory. Moreover, some scientists will want to move for family reasons.

If the situation in a given laboratory is serious enough to lead to many scientists wanting to leave, should they be forced to stay? Would all the good scientists flock to the most reputed laboratories? Some would indeed, but only up to some point, when the laboratories will have filled their office space. And the national tenure committees (CNRS and CNAP) can attempt to prioritize the hiring of scientists in the laboratories that have recently lost scientists, which makes more sense if this loss is caused by premature death than by retirement, or especially voluntary leave.

## 7 Summary and recommendations

The French tenure system is probably unique in the world, with a high rate of hiring per capita, its combination of local and national hiring tenure committees, the young age at which its scientists reach tenured positions, and its governance by state rules and decrees.

The balance between the free-market and organized/planned approaches is also unique to France. The strong reliance on national tenure committees is justified as preventing abuses of favoring local candidates. On the other hand, although the increased targeting of tenured positions by subfield and/or laboratory is obviously helping France provide manpower in its large priority projects, it is also leading to a corresponding decrease in the hiring of the brilliant and creative scientists. This situation can be remedied by a public list of $`2N`$ priority projects set by INSU from which the CNAP committee will select the service tasks of its $`N`$ Observatory positions, and a reduction by at least half of the fraction of targeted CNRS positions. Moreover, one should be careful not to prevent the mobility of scientists in the name of laboratory planning.

The French system, although rigid by virtue of its being governed by government decrees and ruling, is nevertheless flexible enough to hire a substantial fraction (11%) of foreign scientists. Young arrivals in France are hired typically one year after their French counterparts, while those arriving after their PhD typically wait 2.5-3 years before being given tenure.

Still, astronomers and astrophysicists working in French laboratories are at least as influential as scientists working in other Western countries (Bertout et al. 2003). In some respects, the French system is slowly converging to the other western systems, in that most young scientists now go for postdoctoral positions outside the country, and, in general, now publish almost all their works in English, are more present in international conferences and committees, and are now more experienced (typically age 31) when they are granted tenured positions. Nevertheless, vive la différence!

## Acknowledgements

I warmly thank J.C. Vial and A. Heck for useful comments, and F. Durret, B. Guiderdoni, R. Ferlet, M. Marcelin, R. Mochkovitch, and many others for useful general or detailed information for the statistical study presented here.