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# Search for TeV gamma-rays from SN 1987A in 2001

## 1 Introduction

The explosion of SN 1987A on February 23, 1987, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, was first detected as a short neutrino burst (Koshiba et al., 1987; Hirata et al., 1987; Bionta et al., 1987). It was subsequently detected at almost all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum (see, e.g., Chevalier (1992), McCray (1993) and references therein). After a weakening of the emission, in accordance with the standard lightcurve for a core collapse supernovae of Type II, at present it shows a continuous increasing brightness in radio (Manchester et al., 2002) and X-ray bands (Park et al., 2002).

Although observational efforts in the high-energy gamma-ray region were intensively carried out for several years (Raubenheimer et al., 1988; Ciampa et al., 1988; Bond et al., 1988a, b, 1989; Allen et al., 1993a, b; van Stekelenborg et al., 1993; Yoshii et al., 1996), no positive signals were obtained, with the possible exception of a 2-day TeV gamma-ray burst (Bond et al., 1988b). No observations since 1991 have been reported, despite the fact that models predict an increasing flux of high energy gamma-rays as the SN shock wave expands.

It is now 15 years since SN 1987A. Even an upper limit for the current period of the supernova remnant evolution would be very important to constrain models for gamma-ray emission. The technology used to detect very high-energy gamma-rays has improved significantly over this 15 year period, particularly with the development of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). IACTs detect optical Cherenkov photons produced by electrons in cascades initiated by the interaction of gamma-rays at sub-TeV energies in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The Cherenkov photons are strongly beamed in the direction of the incident gamma-ray. The CANGAROO-II telescope was, at the time of these observations, the only one located in the southern hemisphere.

The CANGAROO-II telescope is located near Woomera, South Australia. Technical details are presented elsewhere (Tanimori et al., 2003), and its performance is described in Enomoto et al. (2002b); Okumura et al. (2002); Itoh et al. (2002). The 10 m diameter telescope has an effective area of 57 m2. SN 1987A can be seen at a zenith angle of 38 at its culmination. As a result, we can measure the TeV region with a significantly better sensitivity than in previous measurements. We report here on the results of observations of SN 1987A.

## 2 Observations and Analysis

The observations were carried out in 2001 over ten moonless nights between November 16 and to December 11. In total, 1275 min. of ON- and 1301 min. of OFF-source data were recorded. We removed the cloudy periods from the data and selected 708 min. of ON- and 1019 min. of OFF-source data. The procedures and further details of the analysis can be found in Itoh et al. (2003).

Briefly, in the analysis, “cleaning” cuts were applied to the pixelized-camera images (each pixel being 0.115 square), requiring that each pixel have greater than $``$3.3 photoelectrons, that the Cherenkov photons arrived within $`\pm `$40 nsec, and that a cluster of at least five adjacent triggered pixels was contained in each event. After these pre-selections, we carried out a shower image analysis using the standard set of image parameters, $`distance`$, $`length`$, $`width`$, and $`\alpha `$ (Hillas, 1985), combining the $`length`$ and $`width`$ (after an initial $`distance`$ cut) to assign the likelihoods to each event (Enomoto et al., 2002a). The likelihoods for both a gamma-ray origin and a cosmic-ray proton origin were calculated. The cut that was used to reject background events was based on the ratio of these two likelihoods. After these cuts, the image orientation angles ($`\alpha `$) were plotted. A gamma-ray signal would appear as an excess at low $`\alpha `$ after the normalized OFF-source $`\alpha `$ distribution is subtracted from the ON-source distribution. As shown in Figs. 1 a)–f), no statistically significant excess of events with $`\alpha <15^{}`$ was observed. From top (a) to bottom (f) in Fig. 1, six different thresholds, which are shown in Table 1, were applied to the analysis. Our Monte Carlo simulations predicted that 73% of the events from a point source would have $`\alpha <15^{}`$ at these zenith angles.

## 3 Upper limits on the gamma-ray flux

The upper limits to the emission at each energy was obtained by adding the statistical and systematic errors to any excess events in the relevant plot in Fig. 1. The total error was the square root of the quadratic sum of both errors. These errors were doubled to obtain $`2\sigma `$ Upper Limits (ULs). In the case of a negative excess, only the errors were used to determine the upper limit.

The derivation of the integral flux depends on the unknown energy spectrum of the incident gamma-rays. We therefore tried several power-law energy spectra ($`E^\gamma `$) in Monte Carlo simulations in order to determine the corresponding effective area of the observations. Three spectra, with differential flux power-law indices of $`\gamma =2.0`$, $`2.5`$, and $`3.0`$, were tested. In all cases, the energy ranges of the generated gamma-rays were 0.15–20 TeV. We obtained integral flux upper limits under various assumptions, as shown in Table 1. Although the threshold energies varied as expected with initial power-law indices, the spectral responses roughly agreed with each other. We therefore adopted $`\gamma =2.0`$, plotted in Fig. 2 by the dotted line with arrows, together with the previous measurements and model predictions.

## 4 Discussion

In Fig. 2 we compile the upper limits on the flux of gamma rays from SN 1987A of this observation (dotted line with arrows) and those reported by others at different times since the explosion. Theoretical predictions by Berezhko and Ksenofontov (2000) (solid line), which correspond to a time of $``$5000 days, and by Gaisser, Harding and Stanev (1989) (dashed line), which is almost constant in time, are also shown.

The upper limits of this observation are significantly better than those of previous observations. In particular, at 3 TeV it is a factor of 20 lower than that of Bond et al. (1988b). At 1 TeV, the upper limit is tightened by a factor of 3, and at the highest point (several TeV) it is improved by a factor of 50. Previous measurements calculated typical luminosity upper limits of several times 1038 erg s-1, using a distance of $``$50 kpc. This observation indicates that the TeV gamma-ray luminosity is lower than $`1\times 10^{37}`$ erg s-1 at $``$10 TeV, which is now of a similar order to those in bright high-energy astronomical objects at various wavelengths.

The predictions concerning the emitted high-energy gamma-rays from this source have been extensively discussed (Honda and Mori, 1987; Nakamura, Yamada and Sato, 1987; Yamada, Nakamura, Kasahara and Sato, 1988; Berezinsky and Ptuskin, 1989; Gaisser, Harding and Stanev, 1989; Schlickeiser and Stanev, 1991; Berezhko and Ksenofontov, 2000). High-energy photons can be produced in collisions of accelerated particles with the ambient medium. There are several processes which could accelerate particles in young supernova remnants (see, e.g., Dogiel and Ginzburg, 1989, for a review).

Gaisser, Harding and Stanev (1989) discuss the acceleration of particles at the pulsar wind shock. However, an analysis of the 2.14 ms pulsar candidate in the remnant of SN 1987A (Middleditch et al., 2000) suggests that the magnetic field strength at the surface of a neutron star has an upper limit of $`10^{10}`$ G (Nagataki and Sato, 2001), which is about two orders less than typical values and that assumed by Gaisser, Harding and Stanev (1989).

The lightcurve of soft X-rays, which are expected from the interaction of the supernova shock with the matter, can be well fitted with a $`t^2`$ relation (Aschenbach, 2002). The recent X-ray data points tend to exceed the $`t^2`$ best fit (Aschenbach, 2002; Park et al., 2002). One can expect the similar behaviour of the TeV gamma-ray flux from collisions of accelerated cosmic rays with the ambient matter.

Fig. 3 shows the dependence of the gamma-ray flux with an energy $`>3`$ TeV on time since the explosion. The solid line is extracted from the results of numerical calculations by Berezhko and Ksenofontov (2000). The dashed curve is an extrapolation to that curve under the assumption that $`F_\gamma t^2`$, which is a reasonable lower limit of the expected flux in the future. One can see that the our upper limit is just a factor of 3 above the theoretical prediction for the current epoch.

The presence and growing amount of synchrotron radio emission unambiguously testify to the presence of high-energy electrons accelerated by the forward-moving ejecta-driven shock. The radio spectrum has a power-law index of 0.88 (Manchester et al., 2002), which is much softer than the value of 0.5 from linear diffusive shock acceleration. This can be explained with an essential modification of the shock wave due to the very effectively accelerated nucleonic cosmic ray pressure (Berezhko and Ksenofontov, 2000). Also, radio measurements show that the shock velocity has dropped from the initial value of 10000–35000 km s-1 to $``$3000 km s-1 (Gaensler et al., 1997), which is consistent with the shock having encountered a denser shocked component of the progenitor’s stellar wind with a number density of $`100`$ cm-3 (Chevalier and Dwarkadas, 1995). It is thus reasonable to expect a considerable flux of TeV gamma-rays from the decay of $`\pi ^0`$ mesons produced in collisions of the cosmic ray nucleonic component with the ambient matter nuclei (Drury, Aharonian and Völk, 1994; Naito and Takahara, 1994), which is expected to increase approximately by a factor of 2 between 2000 and 2006 (Berezhko and Ksenofontov, 2000).

At the current rate of expansion, the shock will encounter the much denser inner optical ring in the year 2004$`\pm `$2 (Manchester et al., 2002). Thus, one can also expect a dramatic increase of the TeV gamma-ray flux, which could well exceed the current upper limits. The future detection of TeV gamma-ray emission, will unambiguously prove the idea that the main part of nucleonic cosmic rays are indeed accelerated at the supernova remnant shock waves by a diffusive acceleration process.

The next generation of southern hemisphere IACTs, CANGAROO-III and H.E.S.S., will have improved sensitivities and reduced energy thresholds. Considering the present theoretical estimations and recent radio and X-ray observations, deep observations, with a total ON-source exposure of $``$100 hours, will have a good chance of detecting a signal. A more detailed theory of high-energy gamma-ray production in the SN 1987A environment is now needed. Regular observations over the next decade are also highly desirable.

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, Sports and Technology of Japan and Australian Research Council. The receipt of JSPS Research Fellowships is also acknowledged.


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# Effect of Interlayer Coupling on Current-Assisted Magnetization Switching in Nanopillars

## Abstract

We show that dipole-field induced antiferromagnetic coupling, or RKKY ferromagnetic coupling, between Co layers can strongly affect the low magnetic field switching behavior of Co/Cu/Co nanopillars. Whereas current-assisted switching at low fields in uncoupled nanopillars is always hysteretic, strong coupling of either kind can change the switching to non-hysteretic (reversible). These differences can be understood with a simple picture of current-assisted thermal activation over a barrier.

Current-assisted switching in magnetic nanopillars has lately been receiving much theoretical slonczewski ; berger ; waintal ; sun ; heide ; zhang ; stiles  and experimental cornellorig ; cornellapl ; grollier ; cornelltemp ; cornellquant ; wegrowe ; sun2  attention, both to understand the basic physics and because of its potential for technology. Most of the experimental data have been taken on Co/Cu/Co nanopillars that are either magnetically uncoupled or antiferromagnetically (AF) coupled. Initial studies focused upon the similarities in behavior of the two cases. However, we recently showed urazhdinapl  that at low magnetic field H the dependencies on driving current I of uncoupled and AF coupled nanopillars could be very different: hysteretic for uncoupled samples, but non-hysteretic (reversible) and characterized by telegraph noise for AF coupled ones. In this short paper we provide additional data showing these differences for uncoupled and AF coupled nanopillars, and extend the study to show that low field reversible behavior and telegraph noise occur also in ferromagnetically (F) coupled nanopillars. We show that these differences in behavior can be understood using a simple model of current-assisted thermal activation.

Our samples have the form \[Cu(80)/Co(20)/Cu(10 or 2.6)/ Co(2.5)/Cu(5)/Au(200)\], where thicknesses are in nm. Sample preparation procedures are described elsewhere urazhdinapl . In uncoupled samples, only the top Co(2.5) and most of the middle Cu layer were ion milled to nanopillar size ($``$70 nm x 130 nm), leaving the rest of that Cu layer and the bottom Co(20)-layer extended. This geometry minimizes dipolar coupling between the two Co layers. AF coupling was achieved by milling about halfway through the Co(20) layer, thereby generating dipolar coupling between the two patterned Co layers. F coupling was achieved by reducing the Cu thickness to Cu(2.6), near the third RKKY magnetoresistance (MR) minimum parkin . There were significant variations in coupling strength among both AF and F coupled samples, presumably due to sample shape variation and roughness of magnetic interfaces.

Differential resistances, dV/dI, were measured with four probes and lock-in detection, adding an ac current of amplitude 20 $`\mu `$A at 8 kHz to the dc current I. Positive current flowed from the extended to the fully patterned Co layer. Fig. 1 summarizes the differences between uncoupled (left), AF-coupled (middle), and F-coupled (right) samples. At I=0, the uncoupled (Fig. 1(a)) and AF-coupled (Fig. 1(d)) samples display the usual changes from a low resistance, high-H state in which the magnetizations of Co layers are aligned parallel (P) to each other, to a high resistance, low field state where the magnetizations are aligned antiparallel (AP). In contrast, in strongly F-coupled samples the magnetizations are simultaneously reversed at small H to stay in the exchange-favored P state, yielding only a small feature in MR at I=0 (Fig. 1(h)). At large enough $`I>0`$, F-coupled samples yielded 5% MR (with no hysteresis), similar to the values obtained for uncoupled and AF-coupled samples at $`I=0`$. For uncoupled samples, the change in dV/dI usually occurs in a single step, indicating single domain switching. For AF coupled samples, the non-uniform dipolar field usually leads to a more complex structure. Fig. 1(b,e,i) compares the variations of dV/dI with I for the same three samples. First, we compare the behaviors at small H=20-50 Oe, applied to fix the magetization state of the bottom Co layer. The uncoupled sample (Fig. 1(b), solid line) shows the expected asymmetric hysteretic switching cornellorig  between the same values of dV/dI as in Fig. 1(a). In contrast, the AF-coupled sample (Fig. 1(e), top curve) shows reversible (non-hysteretic) switching at a negative value of I, and the F-coupled sample (Fig. 1(i)) shows reversible switching at a positive value of I. The dashed line in Fig. 1(b) shows that at larger H the switching in uncoupled samples becomes nonhysteretic, characterized by a peak similar to that in Fig. 1(i) for an F-coupled sample. In the AF-coupled sample, the switching becomes hysteretic at intermediate H (Fig. 1(e), middle curve), and nonhysteretic again at large enough H (Fig. 1(e), bottom curve). These curves are similar to those for the uncoupled sample (Fig. 1(b)), but offset by the dipolar coupling field.

Time-resolved measurements, performed at I, H, close to the nonhysteretic switching peaks, are characterized by telegraph noise switching between the AP and P states. Figs. 1(c,f,g,j) show examples for the uncoupled sample and the AF-coupled sample at high H, and both coupled samples at small H. Note that, at identical I of opposite signs, the average telegraph noise periods in the AF-coupled sample are similar.

The similar high-H behaviors, and different low-H behaviors among the samples shown in Fig. 1 can be understood using a simple model of current-assisted thermal excitation over a magnetic barrier separating the AP and P states urazhdin . We do not rule out alternative interpretations that may lead to similar results zhang2 . Our model assumes that large enough current $`I>0`$($`I<0`$) generates magnetic excitations in the P(AP) state, that are described by current-dependent effective magnetic temperatures $`T_m^{P(AP)}`$. The magnetic barrier between the P and AP states is assumed to vary only through the temperature dependence of magnetization. Fig. 2 shows schematics for the different cases of interest. Fig. 2(a) is for hysteretic transitions, which occur both in uncoupled samples at low H or in AF-coupled samples when H balances the dipolar coupling field. The P$``$AP and AP$``$P barriers are the same, but $`I>0`$ results in $`T_m^P>T_m^{AP}`$, leading to P$``$AP switching. Similarly, at $`I<0`$, $`T_m^{AP}>T_m^P`$, leading to AP$``$P switching. Fig. 2(b) is for AF-coupling at low H. Because the P$``$AP barrier is small, the P$``$AP transition is thermally activated at $`I=0`$. Large enough $`I<0`$ (causing $`T_m^{AP}>T_m^P`$) also activates the reverse AP$``$P transition, leading to telegraph noise. Fig. 2(c) shows that, at large enough H, the P$``$AP barrier is larger than AP$``$P barrier in all the samples. In this case, both transitions are thermally activated at large enough $`I>0`$.

We acknowledge helpful discussions with Norman O. Birge and support from the MSU CFMR, CSM, the MSU Keck Microfabrication facility, the NSF through Grants DMR 02-02476 and 98-09688, and Seagate Technology.


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# Formation of a Standing-Light Pulse through Collision of Gap Solitons

## I Introduction

Bragg gratings (BGs) are structures in the form of a periodic variation of the core refractive index, which are written on a fiber or other optical waveguide Kashyap . Devices based on fiber gratings, such as filters and gain equalizers, are among the most widely used components of optical systems. Gap solitons (in a more general context, they are called BG solitons Sterke ) exist in fiber gratings due to the interplay between the BG-induced effective dispersion and Kerr nonlinearity of the fiber material. Exact analytical solution for BG solitons in a standard model were found in Refs. Aceves ; Demetri , and their stability was studied later, showing that, approximately, half of them are stable (see details below) Tasgal ; stability . Spatial solitons and their stability in a model of planar BG-equipped waveguide, taking into regard two polarizations of light, were recently considered in Ref. Skryabin .

Lately, a lot of attention has been attracted to possibilities of capturing “slow light” slowlight , and, in particular, of slowly moving optical solitons slowsoliton  in various settings. Fiber gratings are natural candidates for a nonlinear medium where it is potentially possible to stop the light, as zero-velocities BG solitons, in which the left- and right-traveling waves are in permanent dynamical equilibrium, are available as exact solutions Aceves ; Demetri , and a part of them are stable Tasgal ; stability . Actually, BG solitons that were thus far observed in the experiment were fast ones, moving at a velocity $`75\%`$ of the limit light velocity in the fiber experiment . A possible way to create a zero-velocity soliton is to use an attractive finite-size Weinstein  or $`\delta `$-like we  local defect in the BG which attracts solitons (it was demonstrated in Ref. trapping  that a defect can also stimulate a nonlinear four-wave interaction without formation of a soliton). Moreover, it is possible to combine the attractive defect with local gain, which opens a way to create a permanently existing pinned soliton, even in the presence of loss we2 .

One of objectives of this paper is to explore a possibility of slowing down BG solitons by colliding two identical ones moving in opposite directions in the fiber grating. Collisions are quite feasible from the experimental standpoint, as a characteristic length necessary for the formation of a BG soliton is $`2`$ cm experiment , while uniform fiber gratings with a length $`1`$ m or even longer are now available. Already in the first work Aceves , where exact solutions for the moving solitons were found, their collisions were simulated, with a conclusion that they passed through each other, re-appearing with intrinsic vibrations, which may be explained by excitation of an intrinsic mode which a stable BG soliton supports Tasgal . Note that broad small-amplitude BG solitons are asymptotically equivalent to nonlinear-Schrödinger (NLS) solitons, hence collisions between them are completely elastic Litchinitser . However, in a more generic case results may be different, as the standard fiber-grating model, see Eqs. (1) below, is not an integrable one, on the contrary to the NLS equation. Systematic simulations are thus needed to study head-on collisions between BG solitons, results of which are reported below in Section III, after presenting the model in Section II. The main finding is that, at relatively small values of the solitons’s velocities $`\pm c`$, and not too large values of the solitons’ energy, the solitons merge into a single *standing* one. In the case when the solitons pass through each other, we quantify the collision by an energy-loss share. In section IV, we report results of simulations of multiple collisions between two solitons, to model a situation in a fiber loop. These results show that multiple collisions essentially increase the maximum velocity which admits the merger. Simulations were also carried out to check if inclusion of a local defect attracting the solitons may assist the fusion of the colliding solitons. In Section V we demonstrate that the defect does not affect the situation essentially; however, a small-amplitude trapped pulse, which captures a relatively small share of the initial solitons’ energy, appears as a result of the collision. Finally, in Section VI we report some related results pertaining to single-soliton dynamics, viz., reshaping of an input pulse of a sech form (as suggested by the NLS equation) into a BG soliton in the fiber grating, and gradual decay of a soliton in a finite-length grating due to the energy leakage through open ends. Section VII concludes the paper.

## II The model

The commonly adopted model of nonlinear fiber gratings is based on a system of coupled equations for the right- ($`u`$) and left- ($`v`$) traveling waves Sterke ,

$`iu_t+iu_x+v+\left[\left(1/2\right)|u|^2+|v|^2\right]u`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$
$`iv_tiv_x+u+\left[\left(1/2\right)|v|^2+|u|^2\right]v`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (1)
where $`x`$ and $`t`$ are the coordinate and time, which are scaled so that the linear group velocity of light is $`1`$, the Bragg-reflectivity coefficient being $`1`$ too. Exact solutions to Eqs. (1), which describe solitons moving at a velocity $`c`$ ($`c^2<1`$), were found in Refs. Aceves  and Demetri :

$`u`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha W(X)\mathrm{exp}\left[y/2+i\varphi (X)iT\mathrm{cos}\theta +i\varphi _0\right],`$
$`v`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha W^{}(X)\mathrm{exp}\left[y/2+i\varphi (X)iT\mathrm{cos}\theta +i\varphi _0\right].`$ (2)
Here, $`\theta `$ is an intrinsic parameter of the soliton family (the other parameter is $`c`$), which takes values $`0<\theta <\pi `$ and is proportional to the soliton’s energy (alias norm),

$$E_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}\left[|u(x)|^2+|v(x)|^2\right]𝑑x=8\theta \sqrt{1+c^2}\left(3+c^2\right)^1.$$
(3)
Further, $`\alpha ^2\frac{3}{2}+c^2`$, $`\mathrm{tanh}yc`$, $`\varphi _0`$ is an arbitrary real constant, and

$`X`$ $`=`$ $`\left(1c^2\right)^{1/2}\left(xct\right),T=\left(1c^2\right)^{1/2}\left(tcx\right),`$
$`\varphi (X)`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha ^2\mathrm{sinh}(2y)\mathrm{tan}^1\left\{\mathrm{tanh}\left[(\mathrm{sin}\theta )X\right]\mathrm{tan}\left(\theta /2\right)\right\},`$ (4)
$`W(X)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\mathrm{sin}\theta \right)\mathrm{sech}\left[(\mathrm{sin}\theta )Xi\left(\theta /2\right)\right].`$
We used these exact solutions as initial conditions to simulate collisions between identical solitons with opposite velocities.

To consider the influence of a local defect on the collision (see Section V below), Eqs. (1) are modified as in Refs. Weinstein  and we : To consider the influence of a local defect on the collision, Eqs. (1) are modified as in Refs. Weinstein  and we :

$`iu_t+iu_x+v+\left[\left(1/2\right)|u|^2+|v|^2\right]u`$ $`=`$ $`\delta (x)\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }u\kappa v\right),`$ (5)
$`iv_tiv_x+u+\left[\left(1/2\right)|v|^2+|u|^2\right]v`$ $`=`$ $`\delta (x)\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }v\kappa u\right),`$ (6)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>0`$ and $`\kappa >0`$ account for a local increase of the refractive index and suppression of the Bragg reflectivity, respectively.

## III Collisions between solitons

### III.1 The mode of simulations

In this section, we consider collisions between exact BG solitons (2). In a real experiment, an initially launched pulse should pass some distance to shape itself into a soliton. As it was mentioned above, in previously reported experiments this distance was quite small, $`2`$ cm experiment , hence this is not a big issue. Nevertheless, it is relevant to separately simulate shaping of an initially launched single-component pulse into a steady-shape BG soliton. This will be done separately below in section VI.

Simulations of collisions were performed by means of the split-step fast-Fourier-transform method. First, collisions between solitons in the case of repulsion between them (with a phase difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _0=\pi `$) was considered. It was found that the solitons bounce from each other quasi-elastically, without generation of any visible radiation or intrinsic vibrations of the solitons, if their initial velocities $`\pm c`$ are small enough, and the solitons are “light”, having a sufficiently small value of $`\theta `$. Collision-induced radiation becomes quite conspicuous if the solitons are “heavier” or faster, see an example in the inset to Fig. 1. Figure 1 shows a boundary in the plane $`(c,\theta )`$, above which the collision results in generation of noticeable amount of radiation, in the case $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _0=\pi `$.

Then, collisions between in-phase solitons, with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _0=0`$ (the case of attraction), were simulated. In this case, a number of various outcomes can be distinguished. A summary of the results is displayed in Fig. 2 in the form of a diagram in the $`(c,\theta )`$ plane, different outcomes being illustrated by a set of generic examples displayed in Fig. 3.

The simplest case is the collision of solitons with small $`\theta `$ (region E in Fig. 2; see also Fig. 4 below). In accordance with results reported in Ref. Litchinitser , these solitons collide elastically, which is easily explained by the fact that they are virtually tantamount to NLS solitons.

### III.2 Merger of solitons and spontaneous symmetry breaking

The most interesting outcome of the collision is *merger* of two solitons into a single one, which takes place in the region $`0c<0.2`$, $`0.15\pi <\theta <0.35\pi `$ (area M in Fig. 2). A typical example of the merger is shown in Fig. 3(a), its noticeable peculiarities being that the merger takes place after multiple collisions, and the finally established soliton demonstrates persistent internal vibrations, see the lower panel of Fig. 3(a). As judged from the lowest panel of Fig. 3(a) \[and other similar plots\], the amplitudes of these internal vibrations amount to about $`10`$ to $`20\%`$ of the soliton amplitudes. In this region (area M) of the values of $`\theta `$, the attraction between initially quiescent ($`c=0`$) in-phase solitons, which are placed at some distance from each other, also results in their merger, see Fig. 3(b). At the border between the regions M and E, the interaction between initially quiescent or slow solitons results in their separation after several collisions, which is accompanied by a conspicuous spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), see an example in Fig. 3(c). Note that the SSB resembles what was observed in a model of a dual-core fiber grating, in which the nonlinearity and BG proper were carried by different cores Atai . As well as in that case, SSB may be plausibly explained by a fact that the “lump”, which temporarily forms as a result of the attraction between the solitons in the course of the collision between them, may be subject to modulational instability, hence a small asymmetry in the numerical noise may provoke conspicuous symmetry breaking in the eventual state. Indeed, it is well known that any spatially uniform solution to Eqs. (1) is modulationally unstable MI , and it is obvious that the instability can extend to any sufficiently broad state.

### III.3 Quasi-elastic collisions

Increase of $`\theta `$ brings one from the region M to F (Fig. 2), where solitons collide quasi-elastically, i.e., they separate after the collision, emerging with smaller amplitudes, see Fig. 3(d). A noticeable peculiarity of this case is that the collision results in an *increase* of the solitons’ velocities, which is seen in the change of the slope of the contour-level plots in Fig. 3(d). We note that, pursuant to Eq. (3), the soliton’s energy monotonically increases with $`c^2`$, therefore the collision-induced decrease of the amplitude may be explained not only by radiation loss, but also by the increase of the velocities. The acceleration of the solitons due to the collision is more salient if the initial velocity $`c`$ is small; for instance, initially quiescent solitons (with $`c=0`$) acquire a large velocity after the interaction, see Fig. 3(e).

As for still heavier solitons, it is known that they are unstable if $`\theta >\theta _{\mathrm{cr}}1.011(\pi /2)`$ Tasgal ; stability  (this value pertains to $`c=0`$; $`\theta _{\mathrm{cr}}`$ very weakly depends on the soliton’s velocity stability ). In accordance with this, in the region D (Fig. 2) the collision triggers a strong deformation of unstable or weakly stable solitons, see Fig. 3(f). At essentially longer times, the strong deformation leads to destruction of the pulses.

If $`\theta `$ is taken in the same range as in the merger region M, i.e., $`0.15\pi <\theta <0.35\pi `$, but with a larger velocity, the collision picture seems in an ordinary way: the solitons separate with some decrease in their velocity, and some loss in the amplitude. If the initial velocity is still larger, it is possible to distinguish another region, marked R in Fig. 2, where the velocity shows no visible change after the collision, but emission of radiation takes place.

Quasi-elastic collisions can be naturally quantified by the ratio $`\theta _{\mathrm{out}}/\theta _{\mathrm{in}}`$ of the soliton’s parameter after and before the collision, and by share of the net initial energy of the solitons which is lost (to radiation) as the result of the collision. To this end, we performed the least-square-error fit of pulses emerging after the collision to the exact soliton solutions (2), aiming to identify the values of $`\theta _{\mathrm{out}}`$, and the post-collision velocity was measured in a straightforward way. The corresponding soliton’s energy was then calculated by means of the formula (3).

The results of the computation are shown in Fig. 4. A noteworthy feature, which is obvious in both panels (a) and (b), is that inelastic effects first strengthen with the increase of $`\theta _{\mathrm{in}}`$ from very small values (which correspond, as it was said above, to the NLS limit) to $`0.3\pi `$, then they weaken, attaining a *minimum*, which corresponds to the most quasi-elastic collisions, at $`\theta _{\mathrm{in}}0.4\pi `$, and then get stronger again, with the increase of $`\theta _{\mathrm{in}}`$ up to $`0.6\pi `$. Past the latter value, the isolated soliton is strongly unstable by itself, therefore detailed study of collisions becomes irrelevant.

## IV Multiple collisions in a fiber ring

Since the main motivation of this work is the possibility to generate a standing pulse by dint of collisions between BG solitons, it is natural to consider multiple collisions, that may occur between two solitons traveling in opposite directions in a fiber loop, or if a single soliton performs shuttle motion in a fiber-grating cavity, i.e., a piece of the fiber confined by mirrors (in the latter case, the soliton periodically collides with its own mirror images). An issue for experimental realization of these schemes is to couple a soliton into the loop or cavity. Using a linear coupler connecting the system to an external fiber may be problematic, as repeated passage of the circulating soliton through the same coupler will give rise to conspicuous loss. Another solution may be to add some intrinsic gain to the system, making it similar to fiber-loop soliton lasers, where a soliton-circulation regime may self-start laser . It is relevant to mention that fiber-ring soliton lasers including BG components were investigated before BraggLaser . Still another possibility is to use figure-eight fiber lasers 8 , in which one loop is made of BG, while the other one provides for the gain. Detailed analysis of these schemes is, however, beyond the scope of this paper.

We performed simulations of the multiple collisions between two identical solitons in the loop, imposing periodic boundary conditions. Figure 5(a) shows an example in which the multiple collisions slow down the solitons quite efficiently, enforcing them to merge. As is seen, in this case the solitons underwent two collisions before the merger. The initial values $`c=0.3`$ and $`\theta =0.3\pi `$ used in this example show that the multiple collisions in the loop help to increase the maximum initial velocity $`c_{\mathrm{max}}`$, that admits merger of the two solitons, by a factor of $`3`$ (at least) against the single-collision case, cf. Fig. 2. In fact, the largest value of $`c_{\mathrm{max}}`$ corresponding to the multiple collisions was found to be $`0.4`$, i.e., a part of the region S from Fig. 2 is absorbed into M in the loop configuration. The evolution of the field at the central point, $`|u(x=0)|`$, which is also displayed in Fig. 5(a), demonstrates that the emerging zero-velocity pulse is again a breather, cf. Fig. 3(a).

Another example of multiple collisions in the loop is shown in Fig. 5(b), where the solitons initially have $`\theta =0.3\pi `$ and $`c=0.7`$, belonging to the region R of Fig. 2. In this case, the solitons hardly undergo any slowing down due to the collisions, while they keep losing energy. Due to the gradual decrease of $`\theta `$, which is related to the energy by Eq. (3), the solitons gradually drift to the region E (see Fig. 2), where the collision becomes elastic.

## V Effect of a localized defect on the collision.

In Refs. Weinstein  and we , it has been found that local attractive defects can trap gap solitons. This fact suggests a possibility that the merger of two colliding solitons might be assisted by a defect placed at the collision point. We investigated the effect of two kinds of local defects, which represent BG suppression or increase of the refractive index, corresponding, respectively, to $`\kappa >0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>0`$ in Eqs. (6) (a single collision was considered in this case).

We have found that attractive defects of either type do not actually catalyze formation of a pinned pulse that would retain a large part of the energy of the colliding solitons. Nevertheless, a relatively small part of the energy gets trapped by the defect, and a small-amplitude pinned soliton appears, see an example in Fig. 6, which is displayed for the case of the local refractive-index perturbation, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>0`$, $`\kappa =0`$. Local BG suppression, accounted for by $`\kappa >0`$, produces a similar effect. We have also checked that repulsive local defects (negative $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ or $`\kappa `$) do not produce any noticeable effect either.

## VI Special effects in the single-soliton dynamics

### VI.1 Transformation of an input pulse into a Bragg-grating soliton

As it was mentioned above, signals which are coupled into a fiber grating in a real experiment are not “ready-made” BG solitons, but rather pulses of a different form, which should shape themselves into solitons. After that, one can consider collisions between them, as it was done above. For this reason, it makes sense to specially consider self-trapping of BG solitons from a standard input pulse in the form of the NLS soliton,

$$u_0(x)=\eta \mathrm{sech}(\eta x)\mathrm{exp}(i\kappa x),v_0(x)=0.$$
(7)
where $`\eta `$ and $`\kappa `$ are two arbitrary real parameters. The energy of the pulse (7), defined as per Eq. (3), is $`E_0=2\eta `$.

Transformation of the pulse into a BG soliton was simulated directly within the framework of Eqs. (1). The results are summarized in Fig. 7, in the form of plots showing the share of the initial energy lost into radiation, cf. Fig. 4(b). A noteworthy feature revealed by the systematic simulations is that, with the increase of the parameter $`\eta `$, that measures the amplitude and inverse width of the initial pulse (7), the energy-loss share first decreases, attaining an absolute minimum at $`\eta 0.81.0`$, and then quickly increases. The fact that the relative energy loss becomes very large for large $`\eta `$ is easy to understand, as the initial energy of the pulse (7) increases indefinitely with $`\eta `$, while the energy of the emerging stable BG pulse, with $`\theta 1.011(\pi /2)`$ and $`c^2<1`$, cannot exceed (in the present notation) $`E_{\mathrm{max}}=\sqrt{2}\pi `$, see Eq. (3) \[we did not observe formation of more than one BG soliton from the initial pulse (7)\]. Thus, an optimum shape of the sech input signal, which provides for the most efficient generation of the BG soliton, is suggested by these results.

### VI.2 Decay of the soliton in a finite-length fiber grating with free ends

In any experiment (unless the fiber loop or cavity are used), a standing soliton will be created in a fiber grating with open edges. Then, some energy leakage will take place through free ends of the fiber segments. From the exact solution (2) it follows that the leakage is exponentially small if the segment’s length $`l`$ is much larger than the soliton’s spatial width, which is $`1`$ mm in a typical situation experiment ; we2 . Moreover, the energy leakage through loose end can be easily compensated (along with intrinsic fiber loss) by local gain we2 . Nevertheless, it is an issue of interest to find the soliton’s decay rate due to the leakage.

We addressed the issue, simulating Eqs. (1) with the free boundary conditions, $`u_x=v_x=0`$, set at the edges of the integration domain. In Fig. 8, we show the decay of the soliton’s amplitude in time, for different values of the domain’s length, with initial $`\theta _{in}=0.51`$. The initial increase of the amplitude is a result of temporary self-compression of the pulse due to its interaction with the edges. As a reference, we mention that, in the case of the shortest fiber grating considered here, with $`l=8`$, it takes the time $`t=42.2`$ for the decrease of the amplitude by a factor of $`e`$.

## VII Conclusion

We have presented results of systematic studies of collisions between moving solitons in fiber gratings. Various outcomes of the collision were identified, the most interesting one being merger of the solitons into a single zero-velocity pulse, which suggests a way to create pulses of “standing light”. The merger occurs for solitons whose energy takes values between $`0.15`$ and $`0.35`$ of its maximum value, while the velocity is limited by $`c_{\mathrm{max}}0.2`$ of the limit velocity. If the energy is larger, another noteworthy outcome is acceleration of the solitons as a result of the collision, especially when their initial velocities are small. In the case when the solitons pass through each other, inelasticity of the collision was quantified by the relative energy loss. If the energy exceeds the soliton’s instability threshold, the collision results in strong deformation of the solitons, which is followed by their destruction. Simulations of multiple collisions between two solitons in the fiber-loop configuration show that the largest initial velocity admitting the merger increases to $`cc_{\mathrm{max}}0.4`$ of the limit velocity. It was also shown that attractive local defects do not alter the overall picture, although a small-amplitude trapped pulse appears in this case. Finally, specific effects were investigated in one-soliton dynamics, such as transformation of a single-component pulse into a Bragg-grating soliton, and decay of the soliton in a finite-length fiber grating due to the energy leakage through loose edges.

## Acknowledgement

One of the authors (B.A.M.) appreciates hospitality of the Optoelectronic Research Centre at the Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong.

## Figures


text:
# Computational Geometry Column 44

## Abstract

The open problem of whether or not every pair of equal-area polygons has a hinged dissection is discussed.

A *dissection* of one polygon $`A`$ to another $`B`$ is a partition of $`A`$ into a finite number of pieces that may be reassembled to form $`B`$. $`A`$ and $`B`$ are then said to be *equidecomposable*. A staple of puzzle collections for centuries, the field has been given new life through Frederickson’s 1997 monograph \[Fre97\]. He quickly followed that with a second book \[Fre02\] on *hinged dissections*, the most famous of which is the elegant 1902 Dudeney-McElroy hinged dissection between a square and an equilateral triangle illustrated in Fig. 1.

It has been known since the early 19th century that any two polygons of equal area are equidecomposable.111 It has been known since the early 20th century that not all equal-volume polyhedra are equidecomposable. One method \[Fre97, p. 221\] triangulates polygon $`A`$, dissects each triangle to a rectangle, converts each rectangle to one of fixed length, and stacks all the rectangles. Applying the same process to $`B`$ and overlaying the stacked rectangles yields a mutual dissection. No comparable method is known for hinged dissections:

question: Does every pair of equal-area polygons have a hinged dissection?

The usual interpretation of this problem ignores possible intersections between the pieces as they hinge, following what Frederickson calls the “wobbly-hinged” model. Removing this freedom is perhaps not difficult, but seems not to be settled in the literature.

Here I report on two advances on this problem. The first is a proof that any two *polyominoes* of the same area have a hinged dissection \[DDE+03\]. A polyomino is a polygon formed by joining unit squares at their edges \[Gol65, Kla97\]. One composed of $`n`$ squares is called an *$`n`$-omino*. The authors establish a type of universal dissection by proving that a cycle of $`2n`$ right isosceles triangles, hinged at their base vertices, can fold to any $`n`$-omino. See Fig. 2. Although the cycle may seem a special case, they prove that any hinged graph structure may be converted into another dissection hinged in a cycle.

The polyomino result generalizes to hinged dissections of all edge-to-corresponding-edge gluings of congruent copies of any polygon. This leads, among other curiosities, to a $`128`$-piece hinged chain of isosceles right triangles that folds to shapes representing all the letters of the alphabet and the ten digits \[DD03\].

The second advance is a proof by Eppstein \[Epp01\] that any asymmetric polygon has a hinged dissection to its mirror image. His dissection partitions the polygon into a chain of *kites*, quadrilaterals with reflection symmetry across a diagonal. With this partition in hand, it is easy to rotate the kites so all their symmetry diagonals align. The mirror image of the unfolding process then folds the shape to its mirror image. This procedure is illustrated for a simple example in Fig. 3.

The kite partition relies on circle packing \[BE00\], and must be supplemented by a refined partition, and threading around the boundary of a spanning tree to obtain a hinged chain. This work leads to a possible route toward solving the general problem for hinged dissections, for it reduces it to $`O(n)`$ equal-area triangle hinge-dissection problems with particular constraints on the hinges.


text:
# Vacuum energy and Universe in special relativity

## Abstract

The problem of cosmological constant and vacuum energy is usually thought of as the subject of general relativity. However, the vacuum energy is important for the Universe even in the absence of gravity, i.e. in the case when the Newton constant $`G`$ is exactly zero, $`G=0`$. We discuss the response of the vacuum energy to the perturbations of the quantum vacuum in special relativity, and find that as in general relativity the vacuum energy density is on the order of the energy density of matter. In general relativity, the dependence of the vacuum energy on the equation of state of matter does not contain $`G`$, and thus is valid in the limit $`G0`$. However, the result obtained for the vacuum energy in the world without gravity, i.e. when $`G=0`$ exactly, is different.

The problem of the vacuum energy appears to be more general than the cosmological constant problem which arises in general relativity . Earlier we discussed the vacuum energy and its relation to the cosmological constant considering general relativity as an effective theory . We found that the energy of the equilibrium vacuum state at zero temperature is zero due to the general thermodynamic Gibbs-Duhem relation applied to the vacuum as a medium. The non-zero value of the vacuum energy, or more exactly the gravitating part of the vacuum energy, comes from perturbations of the vacuum state. In typical situations the perturbations of the vacuum are caused by the gravitating matter, and thus the induced vacuum energy density must be on order of the energy density of matter, which results in the cosmological constant consistent with observations .

Now we extend the discussion of the vacuum energy to the case of special relativity, i.e. to the Universe without gravity. Though in the world without gravity the cosmological constant is absent, the vacuum energy still plays an important role in the structure of the Universe. We find how the vacuum energy responds to matter in special relativity, and how this allows us to stabilize the static special-relativity Universe filled with matter having arbitary equation of state.

The cosmological term in the action for the general relativity is

$$S_\mathrm{\Lambda }=d^4x\sqrt{g}\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}.$$
(1)
The corresponding stress-energy tensor of the vacuum is obtained by variation of the action over the metric tensor $`g^{\mu \nu }`$

$$T_{\mu \nu }^{\mathrm{vac}}=\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}u_\mu u_\nu +P^{\mathrm{vac}}(u_\mu u_\nu g_{\mu \nu })=\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}g_{\mu \nu }.$$
(2)
Here $`\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}`$ is the vacuum energy density and $`u^\mu `$ the 4-velocity of the vacuum. Since the equation of state for the vacuum is

$$P^{\mathrm{vac}}=\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}},$$
(3)
the energy-momentum tensor does not depend on the 4-velocity $`u^\mu `$, and thus is the same in any coordinate system.

The Eq.(2) with equation of state (3) are valid for the vacuum in special relativity too, i.e. in the absence of the dynamical field $`g^{\mu \nu }`$. These equations are obtained by the conventional procedure used in quantum field theory, when one introduces the fictituous field, such as the fictituous gauge fields or fictituous metric, and calculate the response of the vacuum to these fields. Moreover, the equation of state $`P^{\mathrm{vac}}=\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}`$ is even more general, since it is valid even in the non-relativistic theories, where the quantum vacuum is played by the ground state of the quantum condensed matter. This equation of state comes from the general thermodynamic Gibbs-Duhem relation applied to the homogeneous ground state of a condensed matter (see. e.g. ).

Let us consider the Universe in special relativity (i.e. in the absence of gravity, $`G=0`$), which is filled with non-gravitating homogeneous matter – the perfect cosmic fluid, and discuss how the vacuum responds to the matter and stabilizes this Universe. The energy-momentum tensor of matter is

$$T_{\mu \nu }^\mathrm{M}=\rho ^\mathrm{M}v_\mu v_\nu +P^\mathrm{M}(v_\mu v_\nu g_{\mu \nu }),$$
(4)
where $`v^\mu `$ the 4-velocity of matter, and $`\rho ^\mathrm{M}`$ and $`P^\mathrm{M}`$ are energy density and pressure of matter in the comoving frame.

In the general coordinate frame, the energy and momentum density of matter are

$$\stackrel{~}{\rho }^\mathrm{M}=\frac{\rho ^\mathrm{M}+\frac{v^2}{c^2}P^\mathrm{M}}{1\frac{v^2}{c^2}},𝐩^\mathrm{M}=\frac{𝐯}{c^2}\frac{\rho ^\mathrm{M}+P^\mathrm{M}}{1\frac{v^2}{c^2}}.$$
(5)
The obvious consequence of Eq.(5) is that the energy and the momentum of matter do not satisfy the relativistic relation between the energy and momentum

$$𝐏=E\frac{𝐯}{c^2}.$$
(6)
The reason for that is related to the external forces acting on matter, which violate the Lorentz invariance, since they establish the preferred reference frame in which these forces are isotropic. These forces are presented in Eq.(5) through the pressure $`P^\mathrm{M}`$ of matter, which is supported by the external pressure (see Sec. 14 of Ref. ). If the Universe is completely isolated from the ”environment”, the external pressure is absent, $`P^\mathrm{M}=P_{\mathrm{external}}=0`$, and the Lorentz-invariant equation (6) is restored. But the typical matter considered in cosmology, such as the relativistic plasma, does not exist at zero pressure as an equilibrium state, except for the extreme limit case of the cold matter. Thus, within the special relativity the Universe must be either empty, or contain such a matter which can exist in equilibrium at zero pressure (the matter in a cold liquid state, for example).

The vacuum gives an alternative scenario for the equilibrium static Universe with matter to exist in special relativity. The equilibrium state is achieved when the pressure of the cosmological matter is compensated by the partial pressure of the vacuum, so that the external pressure becomes zero:

$$P_{\mathrm{external}}=P^{\mathrm{vac}}+P^\mathrm{M}=0,$$
(7)
and the Universe (matter + vacuum) can be in equilibrium without external environment. For this equilibrium Universe the Eq.(6) for the energy and momentum of the whole Universe is also restored.

Using equation of state (3) and the equilibrium condition (7) one obtains the density of the vacuum energy induced by matter with pressure $`P^\mathrm{M}`$ in the equilibrium Universe:

$$\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}=P^\mathrm{M}.$$
(8)
Since the vacuum momentum is zero

$$𝐩^{\mathrm{vac}}=0,$$
(9)
the total energy density and momentum density of the system (matter + vacuum) become

$$\rho _{\mathrm{total}}=\stackrel{~}{\rho }^\mathrm{M}+\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}=\frac{\rho ^\mathrm{M}+\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}}{1\frac{v^2}{c^2}},𝐩_{\mathrm{total}}=𝐩^\mathrm{M}+𝐩^{\mathrm{vac}}=\frac{𝐯}{c^2}\frac{\rho ^\mathrm{M}+\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}}{1\frac{v^2}{c^2}}.$$
(10)
They satisfy the relativistic equation (6), and the corresponding density of the rest mass of the system is

$$\rho _{\mathrm{total}}=\frac{m_{\mathrm{rest}}c^2}{\sqrt{1\frac{v^2}{c^2}}},m_{\mathrm{rest}}=\frac{\rho ^\mathrm{M}+\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}}{c^2\sqrt{1\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}.$$
(11)
The extra factor $`\sqrt{1v^2/c^2}`$ in the denominator of the rest mass is cancelled by the relativistic transformation of the volume: the volume $`V`$ in the frame of the measurement and the volume $`V_{\mathrm{comoving}}`$ in the comoving frame are related as $`dV=dV_{\mathrm{comoving}}\sqrt{1v^2/c^2}`$, so that the total rest energy of the system is

$$M_{\mathrm{rest}}=𝑑V\frac{\rho ^\mathrm{M}+\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}}{\sqrt{1\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}=V_0\left(\rho ^\mathrm{M}+\rho ^{\mathrm{vac}}\right).$$
(12)
Thus the whole world represents the relativistic object whose rest mass is the sum of the rest energies of the matter and quantum vacuum. The energy density of the quantum vacuum induced by the nongravitating ($`G=0`$) matter is completely determined by the equilibrium condition (7) and equation of state for matter $`P^\mathrm{M}=w^\mathrm{M}\rho ^\mathrm{M}`$:

$$\rho _{G=0}^{\mathrm{vac}}=w^\mathrm{M}\rho ^\mathrm{M}.$$
(13)
We can compare the vacuum energy (13) in the Universe in special relativity, i.e. when $`G=0`$, with the vacuum energy in Universes in general relativity, i.e. when $`G0`$. For the Einstein static closed Universe  the vacuum energy induced by the gravitating matter is

$$\rho _{\mathrm{Einstein}}^{\mathrm{vac}}=\frac{1}{2}\left(1+3w^\mathrm{M}\right)\rho ^\mathrm{M},$$
(14)
and for the Gödel steady-state rotating Universe  it is:

$$\rho _{\mathrm{Goedel}}^{\mathrm{vac}}=\frac{1}{2}\left(1w^\mathrm{M}\right)\rho ^\mathrm{M}.$$
(15)
In all three Universes, the density of the vacuum energy induced by matter is proportional to the energy density of matter. Equations (14) and (15) for the worlds with gravity do not depend on the Newton constant $`G`$, and thus are valid in the limit $`G0`$. But they do not coincide with Eq.(13) for the world without gravity, i.e. when $`G`$ is exactly zero. While in special relativity the vacuum response to matter is determined by the condition of zero external pressure, $`P_{\mathrm{external}}=0`$, in the case of the gravitating matter the condition of gravineutrality is added . The pressure and energy of the gravitational field contributes to both conditions even in the limit $`G0`$. These contributions come from the space curvature in the Einstein Universe and from the local rotational metric in the Gödel Universe.

As distinct from the static gravitating Universes which experience different types of the gravitational instabilities, in special relativity the Universe with matter is stable, if the quantum vacuum itself is the stable object. In the latter case, small perturbations of the vacuum state, caused by cold or hot matter, do not destabilize the system. This fact is well known for the condensed matter analogs of the Universe – quantum liquids, where the role of the quantum vacuum is played by the superfluid condensate, and the role of the relativistic matter is played by the ”relativistic” quasiparticles, with $`c`$ being the maximum attainable speed of the low-energy quasiparticles. Examples are provided by the Bose-superfluid 4He and Fermi-superfluid 3He-A. Both quantum liquids are stable at $`T=0`$ and $`P=0`$, and their stability is not violated by the massless ”relativistic” quasiparticles which appear at $`T0`$ forming the analog of matter in these toy Universes. For both liquids the equation (13) is valid with the ”relativistic” equation of state $`w^\mathrm{M}=1/3`$, if the liquids are isolated from the environment . Though in both quantum liquids there are the low-frequency collective modes corresponding to the dynamics of the effective metric, this effective gravity does not obey the general covariance and is not Newtonean at large distances. As a result the effective gravity in these liquids does not modify the special-relativistic equation (13).

For such condensed matter systems, the relativistic equations (10) obtained for the energy and momentum of a Universe in special relativity are also applicable, but with one reservation. As distinct from its special relativity counterpart, the quantum vacuum (condensate) in condensed matter does not obey the effective Lorentz invariance obeyed by the excitations of the condensate – quasiparticles. In particular, the momentum density of the quantum condensate is non-zero. As distinct from Eq.(9), the superfluid condensate moving with the so-called superfluid velocity $`𝐮_\mathrm{s}`$ carries the momentum density $`𝐩^{\mathrm{vac}}=mn𝐮_\mathrm{s}`$, where $`m`$ is the mass of particles comprizing the condensate (atoms of liquid), and $`n`$ is their number density. As a result, for quantum liquids the relativistic equations are valid only in the reference frame moving with the condensate. The full correspondence between the quantum vacuum and superfluid condensate could occur only for such hypothetical condensates whose ”atoms” are massless, $`m=0`$. However, the difference between the relativistic quantum vacuum and non-relativistic quantum condensate does not change the conclusion that the vacuum response stabilizes the non-gravitating Universe.

I thank A.A. Starobinsky for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by ESF COSLAB Programme and by the Russian Foundations for Fundamental Research.


text:
# Recurrence Time Statistics for Finite Size Intervals

## I  Introduction

Since it was settled, the Poincaré recurrence theorem has been the source of a number of paradoxes relating reversible microscopic dynamics of a system on the one hand and irreversible macroscopic behavior of this system on the other hand. An answer to these paradoxes was given by Boltzmann, who adopted the law of big numbers ($`N\mathrm{}`$, where $`N`$ is the number of degrees of freedom of the system under study) and the recognition that the Poincaré Recurrence Time (PRT) to a highly improbable initial condition is too large to be observed in times normally available. Boltzmann’s point of view was recently restated by Lebowitz  in contrast with a new point of view based on nonlinear dynamics. In this new approach, rather than the limit $`N\mathrm{}`$, the central role is played by the sensitivity to initial conditions added to the idea that the Poincaré recurrence time do not need to be very large to lie beyond the observable range limit .

Besides its fundamental importance for classical statistical mechanics , PRT statistics has been used, in the recent years, as a tool for time series analysis in a variety of areas ranging from economics to plasma physics , and as a way of studying trapping properties in Hamiltonian systems , which is an important feature for anomalous transport processes . The series of recurrence times itself has also been subject of fractal analysis . All these aspects have brought a renewed interest in the study of recurrence time statistics.

General results have shown that the exponential-one law, $`e^t`$, holds for the cumulative probability of first recurrence times (scaled by the mean first recurrence time) of transitive Markov chains , hyperbolic dynamical systems such as axiom A diffeomorphisms  and for systems verifying a strong mixing property . Further improvement to the study of recurrences to finite size intervals has been given by Galves and Schmitt . They have computed an upper bound for the difference between the cumulative probability of first recurrence times and the exponential-one law. Moreover, they have shown that the right scaling of the first recurrence times should include an extra factor besides the mean first recurrence time. This factor lies between two strictly positive constants independent of the recurrence interval. Recently these results have been extended to unimodal maps .

The Poissonian statistics, or its cumulative equivalent exponential-one law for scaled recurrence times, is deduced in the limit of infinitely small recurrence interval. However, in many of the recent applications mentioned previously the recurrence times are obtained either from numerical simulations or experimental data. In these cases it is unavoidable to use a recurrence interval with a finite size. The size of the interval is chosen in order to obtain a sufficient number of recurrences to build the recurrence time (RT) statistics. In this article we are interested in the RT statistics to finite size intervals of chaotic dynamical systems.

We begin using simple basic concepts of combinatorial analysis to deduce the statistics of recurrences to a given finite size interval for random processes and chaotic systems with strong mixing. This statistics applies not only for the first recurrence time (RT) but for all the $`r`$-th recurrence time. We obtain this statistics, which we call binomial-like distribution of RT, as a result of a simple combinatorial analysis problem. This distribution is valid for every size of the return region. When the probability of coming back to the return region is very small, the binomial-like RT statistics reduces to the Poissonian statistics, commonly observed for PRT problems in the literature . Since we adopt a combinatorial approach to deduce this statistics, almost no information about the dynamics of the system, but its strong chaotic mixing property, can be obtained from it. Therefore, dynamical properties show their signature when the recurrence time statistics deviates from the former ones. One of these deviations is particularly important for Hamiltonian systems and concerns with a power law tail for long recurrence times . In this article, we study a type of deviation which is related with the presence of unstable periodic orbits inside of the recurrence interval. We call it short time memory effect. This deviation originates the extra factor, which should multiply the mean recurrence time in order to give the right scaling of the series of recurrence times as considered by Galves and Schmitt . It appears when a finite recurrence interval is considered. Although this deviation is restricted to a few short recurrence times, it changes the whole statistics. Moreover, we would like to emphasize that our deviation is in agreement with the bounds estimated in the previous works.

The article is structured as follows: in section II, we present the deduction of the binomial-like statistics, which is exemplified by a Gaussian stochastic process. The statistics for chaotic dynamical systems (logistic and Hénon map) are calculated numerically in section III, where the short time memory effect is clearly observed. In section IV, we explore the origins of this effect and how it changes the RT statistics. Finally, in section V, we summarize our conclusions of this article.

## II  Binomial-like Distribution

Let $`f:MM`$ be a homeomorphism with an invariant measure $`\mu (M)=1`$. Given a region $`IM`$ with $`\mu (I)>0`$, the Poincaré Recurrence Theorem asserts that a trajectory, having started inside $`I`$, returns to $`I`$ infinitely many times. The time interval, $`T_i`$, between the $`i`$-th and the $`(i+r)`$-th return is what we refer to as the $`r`$-th recurrence time. This time interval is just one of an infinite sequence $`\{T_i:i=1,2,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}\}`$, and we are interested in the statistics of this sequence.

For convenience, most of the calculations are made for unidimensional systems. In this case, the interval $`I`$ is defined as $`I(X_c,\delta )=[X_c\delta ,X_c+\delta ]`$, as illustrated in FIG. 1 with a Gaussian random time series. When we have small values of $`\delta `$, and thus a small probability $`\mu (I)`$, we are dealing with the Poincaré recurrence time.

This article concerns the discrete time case, where the system is observed at a constant sample rate $`\tau =1`$. A few adjustments are needed for the continuous time case .

In order to obtain the statistics for the recurrence time, consider the following simple problem: Let $`e_1`$ and $`e_2`$ be two mutually exclusive events. The event $`e_1`$ occurs with the constant probability $`\mu `$ and $`e_2`$ with the constant probability $`(1\mu )`$. Consider now a sequence of $`T_i`$ trials $`\{S_k:k=1,2,\mathrm{},T_i\}`$ where $`S_k=e_1`$ or $`S_k=e_2`$. What is the probability of having $`r`$ events of type $`e_1`$ and $`(T_ir)`$ events of type $`e_2`$ with the constraint that the last trial results is an event of the type $`e_1`$? This kind of problem is known in the literature of combinatorial analysis as Bernoulli trials (“repeated independent trials for which there are only two possible outcomes with probabilities that remain the same throughout the trials” ).

The answer for this problem is the following: the probability of having $`r`$ events $`e_1`$ and $`(T_ir)`$ events $`e_2`$ is $`\mu ^r(1\mu )^{T_ir}`$. The last event must be of the type $`e_1`$, then there are

$$\frac{(T_i1)!}{(T_ir)!(r1)!}$$

ways of having $`(r1)`$ events $`e_1`$ in the previous $`(T_i1)`$ trials. Combining these results and suppressing the index $`i`$, since $`T_i`$ is just one of an infinite sequence of $`r`$-th recurrence times, we have:

$$P(T;r,\mu )=\frac{(T1)!}{(Tr)!(r1)!}\mu ^r(1\mu )^{Tr}.$$
(1)
For a dynamical system with an invariant ergodic measure and for which each step is independent from the previous ones, it is easy to see that Eq. (1) gives the probability of $`r`$-th recurrence time if we consider the following analogy: between the $`i`$-th and the $`(i+r)`$-th return to the interval $`I(X_c,\delta )`$ the trajectory spends $`T_i`$ steps, each step (one trial) has a probability $`\mu =\mu (I(X_c,\delta ))`$ of being in the interval $`I(X_c,\delta )`$ (event $`e_1`$) and a probability $`[1\mu (I(X_c,\delta ))]`$ of being outside $`I(X_c,\delta )`$ (event $`e_2`$).

Usually one is interested in the first recurrence time statistics ($`r=1`$). In this case, Eq. (1) gives

$$P(T;1,\mu )=\mu (1\mu )^{T1},$$
(2)
that can be rewritten as

$$P(T;1,\mu )=\frac{\mu }{1\mu }e^{\mathrm{ln}(1\mu )T},$$

which, by its turn, reduces to the Poissonian statistics

$$P(T;1,\mu )=\mu e^{\mu T},$$
(3)
when $`\mu 0`$.

This statistics is the one commonly encountered for Poincaré recurrences in chaotic dynamical systems . The small $`\mu (I(X_c,\delta ))`$ condition is, usually, satisfied when we take small values of $`\delta `$.

For any $`r`$, in the usual limit , $`\mu 0`$ and $`T1`$, the binomial-like distribution (Eq. (1)) reduces to the Poisson-like distribution

$$P(T;r,\mu )=\frac{\mu (\mu T)^{r1}}{(r1)!}e^{\mu T}.$$
(4)
Eqs. (2) and (3), as well as any other distribution of first RT, must satisfy two conditions: the first one is, obviously, the normalization,

$$\underset{T=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}P(T;1,\mu )=1,$$
(5)
and the second one is the Kac’s lemma :

$$T\underset{T=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}TP(T;1,\mu )=\frac{\tau }{\mu }.$$
(6)
Although Kac’s lemma is usually applied to closed Hamiltonian systems, its original derivation  was based in general assumptions that cover a large class of dynamical systems including those we shall discuss in this work.

The above conditions will be used in section IV to take into account dynamical effects on the recurrence time statistics.

To finalize this section we shall exemplify the binomial-like distribution obtaining the RT statistics of a stochastic process whose variable, $`x`$, is governed by a Gaussian density of probability:

$$\rho _G(x)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi \sigma ^2}}e^{{\displaystyle \frac{(xx)^2}{2\sigma ^2}}},$$
(7)
with $`x=0`$ and $`\sigma =0.2`$ (see FIG. 2).

The probability, $`\mu (I(X_c,\delta ))`$, of returning to an interval $`I(X_c,\delta )`$ is given by:

$$\mu (I(X_c,\delta ))=_{X_c\delta }^{X_c+\delta }\rho _G(x)𝑑x,$$
(8)
in particular, for the intervals $`I_1`$ and $`I_2`$, shown in FIG. 2, we have $`(X_{c1}=0.3,\delta _1=0.02)`$ and $`(X_{c2}=0.2,\delta _1=0.06)`$, respectively. Their corresponding probabilities are $`\mu (I_1)=0.02596`$ and $`\mu (I_2)=0.09679`$.

FIG. 3 shows the statistics of recurrences to the intervals $`I_1`$ and $`I_2`$ for the Gaussian random time series.

The solid lines correspond to the analytical results given by Eq. (1) and they are in a good agreement with the numerical results.

## III  Chaotic dynamical systems

Let’s see now what happens when we consider the statistics of first recurrence of two deterministic dynamical systems.

The first system we analyze is the logistic map,

$$x_{n+1}=bx_n(1x_n),$$
(9)
in the completely chaotic regime (parameter $`b=4`$). Its invariant probability density,

$$\rho _L(x)=\frac{1}{\pi \sqrt{x(1x)}},$$
(10)
is shown in FIG. 4. In this figure, we also see the return interval $`I_1`$ ($`X_{c1}=0.9,\delta _1=0.01`$) with measure $`\mu (I_1)=0.02124`$.

Using the logistic map, we create a trajectory with $`N=10^8`$ points and look for recurrences to the interval $`I_1=[X_{c1}=0.9,\delta _1=0.01]`$, indicated in FIG. 4. The statistics of first recurrence times to this interval is shown in FIG. 5.

As our second example of dynamical system we choose the Hénon map,

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill x_{n+1}& =1ax_n^2y_n,\hfill \\ \hfill y_{n+1}& =bx_n.\hfill \end{array}$$
(11)
with the parameters $`a=1.4`$ and $`b=0.3`$.

The distribution of first recurrence to a finite size interval for the Hénon map is shown in FIG. 6. In order to obtain this result, we eliminate the transient by iterating the Hénon map $`10^3`$ times and take the final point, $`𝐗_c=(x_c,y_c)`$, as the center of the phase space interval, $`I`$, with radius $`\delta =10^2`$. An initial condition inside the interval $`I`$ is chosen and the Hénon map is iterated until we obtain $`10^7`$ recurrence events.

Both maps present distributions of recurrence times which fall exponentially (a straight line for a linear-log graphic) after some $`Tn^{}`$ ($`n^{}10`$ for the logistic map and $`n^{}40`$ for the Hénon map). What is indicated through the solid lines in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 for the logistic map and Hénon map, respectively. Nevertheless, these solid lines do not coincide with the ones (dashed lines) given by the binomial-like statistics, Eq. (2), which is indistinguishable from what would be the correct Poissonian statistics with $`T={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mu (I)}}`$ for the particular size of the intervals used. In particular, the difference between the right mean recurrence time and the inverse of the slope of the solid line in figure 6 is approximately $`9.3\%`$. This difference indicates that an extra factor, besides the mean recurrence time, should be considered in order to obtain the right scaling of the series of recurrence times .

The reason for this deviation is the following: In the previous section, we showed that the complete independence of iteration and the existence of an invariant measure were necessary to obtain the binomial-like statistics of recurrence to an interval of finite size. However, deterministic dynamical systems hardly fulfill the condition that an iteration is completely independent from the previous ones. Therefore, dynamical systems have a kind of memory which affects the distribution of short recurrence times as we shall show in the next section.

## IV  Memory Effects on the RT Distribution

In this section, we show how the memory effect changes the probability of short recurrence times, and how the latests are responsible for the deviation of the whole distribution.

We take the advantage of working with a simple dynamical system, the logistic map, which gives us the possibility of calculating analytically the probability of short recurrence times.

### IV.1  Short Recurrences and Lack of Memory

The procedure to obtain the probability of short recurrence times, illustrated in FIG. 7, consists in identifying the region, $`R_nI`$, of initial points whose trajectories return to $`I`$ after $`n`$ iterations of the map $`f(x)`$, what is equivalent to the first recurrence of the map $`f^n(x)`$.

Since we are specially interested in the first return time, we note that, if $`R_nR_m\mathrm{}`$ for $`m<n`$, the points from the intersection will return to $`I`$ in $`m`$, not $`n`$, iterations. To avoid this error, we define a new interval $`\overline{R}_n=R_n(R_nR_m)`$ for every $`m<n`$. The probability of a first recurrence time $`T=n`$ is, then, given by:

$$P_1(T=n)=\frac{\mu (\overline{R}_n)}{\mu (I)}.$$
(12)
This method provides the probability of any first recurrence time. Nevertheless, the determination of the regions $`\overline{R}_n`$ becomes a cumbersome task as $`n`$ grows.

Although the above procedure is not useful for calculating the probabilities of first return when $`n`$ becomes large, it is useful for showing how the chaotic dynamics simulates a random process for large recurrence times.

When $`n`$ grows, the region $`R_n`$ becomes the union of a large number, $`N`$, of disjoint sub-regions in the interval $`I`$, that is:

$$R_n=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}R_n^i,\text{with}\mu (R_n)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\mu (R_n^i).$$
(13)
The more sub-regions we have, the smaller they are.

In particular, as the map $`f^n(x)`$ is a polynomial of order $`2^n`$ there are $`2^n`$ unstable periodic orbits, each one with its associated sub-region. The $`2^n`$ sub-regions are distributed in the interval $`[0,1]`$ according to the invariant density, $`\rho _L(x)`$, given by Eq. (10). The sub-regions $`R_n^i`$ are just the ones which are inside the interval $`I`$.

For large $`n`$, there are $`N2^n\mu (I)`$ sub-regions in the interval $`I`$, each one with the same measure,

$$\mu (R_n^i)=\frac{\mu (I)}{2^n}.$$
(14)
The probability of having a recurrence to $`I`$ in the time $`T=n`$ is:

$$P(T=n)=\frac{\mu (R_n)}{\mu (I)}.$$
(15)
Putting Eqs. (13) and (14) in Eq. (15), we obtain the recurrence probability, $`P(T=n)\mu (I)`$, independent of $`n`$ for large $`n`$, which is the same hypothesis assumed for the Bernoulli trials problem in section II. This argument justifies the exponential decay of the recurrence time statistics after the short times. It must be emphasized, however, that $`P(T)`$ given by Eq. (15) is not the probability of first recurrence to $`I`$ in the time $`T=n`$. This one is given by Eq. (12), where $`\overline{R}_n`$, instead of $`R_n`$, is used. It is in the calculations of $`\overline{R}_n`$ that the memory effect appears, since the approximation $`N2^n\mu (I)`$ is not valid for $`n<n^{}`$. The same arguments hold for a general hyperbolic chaotic system, since the number of recurrence sub-regions is equal to the number of periodic orbits, and the latest grows as $`e^{hT}`$, where $`h`$ is the topological entropy.

### IV.2 The Fitting of the Memoryless Exponential

Let’s see how the deviation of the shortest recurrence times affects the whole distribution. As it was shown in FIG. 5, for greater values of $`T`$ (after the decay of the memory, $`T>n^{}`$) the recurrence time distribution approaches a straight line in a linear-log graphics, what can be generally represented by an exponential,

$$P_{exp}(T)=g_0e^{\gamma T}.$$
(16)
Since we know the mean recurrence time (or the measure of the recurrence interval), the above two parameters, $`g_0`$ and $`\gamma `$, can be analytically obtained by using the two conditions presented in section II, namely, the normalization:

$$\underset{T=1}{\overset{n^{}1}{}}P_1(T)+\underset{T=n^{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}P_{exp}(T)=1,$$
(17)
and the Kac’s lemma:

$$T=\underset{T=1}{\overset{n^{}1}{}}TP_1(T)+\underset{T=n^{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}TP_{exp}(T)=\frac{1}{\mu (I)},$$
(18)
where $`P_1(T)`$ is given by Eq. (12) or obtained directly from the data. The agreement of the exponential (Eq. (16)) obtained by this procedure with the linear part (in the linear-log representation) of the RT distribution for the logistic map, as shown by the solid lines in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, was verified for different recurrence intervals.

### IV.3  Dependence of the memory effect on the interval

In this sub-section, we explore the dependence of the memory effect on the position $`X_c`$ and size of the interval with a special interest in small intervals. As we argued before, only a few number of short recurrence times diverge from a straight line in the linear-log representation, but their effects on the whole distribution is considerable. So we can take the deviation of the asymptotic exponential from the binomial (Poissonian) distribution as a quantifier of the short time memory effect. Let

$$g(T)=g_0e^{\gamma T},$$

be the exponential adjusted to the asymptotic part of the distribution. As shown in section II, the binomial distribution results in $`\gamma =ln(1\mu )`$, that reduces to $`\gamma =\mu `$ in the Poissonian case. Since we are specially interested in small intervals, we will use the relative deviation from the Poisson statistics $`\gamma /\mu (I)1=\gamma T1`$ as the quantifier of the memory effect.

In FIG. 8, it is shown the dependence of the memory effect with the position of the interval. We note that the effect occurs for virtually all recurrence intervals. Most of the intervals deviate from the exponential positively but for recurrence intervals that contain periodic orbits of small periods the asymptotic exponential is negatively deviated when compared to the binomial distribution.

To explore the dependence of the memory effect on the size of the interval we took, by chance, an arbitrary position $`X_c=0.582`$ and we vary its semi-width, $`\delta `$. The results obtained numerically are illustrated in FIG. 9. For the logistic map, the relation between the measure, $`\mu (I)`$, and the semi-width, $`\delta `$, is easily found out integrating the distribution (10)

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \mu (X_c,\delta )& =_{X_c\delta }^{X_c+\delta }\frac{1}{\pi \sqrt{(x(1x))}}𝑑x\hfill \\ & =\mathrm{arcsin}(X_c+\delta )\mathrm{arcsin}(X_c\delta ).\hfill \end{array}$$
(19)
With the relation (19) and remembering that for the binomial distribution $`\gamma =ln(1\mu )`$ we obtain the solid line in FIG. 9. From FIG. 9, we see that for great values of $`\delta `$ the results deviate from both the Poissonian (dashed line) and binomial-like distributions. The convergence of the numerical results of the logistic map to the Poissonian statistics occurs in the limit of small interval, coherently with what is found in the literature . This convergence occurs clearly only for $`\delta <10^4`$. Considering the error bars obtained by the numerical fitting, these are much smaller intervals than the ones for which the convergence of the binomial-like to Poisson takes place. Considering our previous discussions, the convergence of the numerical results to the Poissonian statistics occurs only when the short time memory effect becomes negligible.

## V Conclusions

Based on a simple Bernoulli trials problem, we obtain a binomial-like distribution for the $`r`$-th recurrence time statistics of a generic interval. This distribution depends only on the measure of the recurrence interval ($`\mu (I)`$) that, when it is sufficiently small, turns out the statistic to the usual Poissonian distribution for the first Poincaré recurrence time.

The information related to the dynamical properties appears in the deviation from these distributions as, for example, the power-law behavior for large recurrence times studied in references . In this article, we discuss a kind of deviation that appears for finite size intervals. In this case the short recurrence times are affected by a kind of memory of the chaotic systems. We show that the origin of this short time memory effect is due to the existence of unstable periodic orbits inside of the finite size recurrence interval. The analytical method of calculating the recurrence probabilities, described in section IV.1, shows how these periodic orbits changes the distribution of short recurrence times. Furthermore, our observed deviations for the specific systems studied in this work are in agreement with bounds predicted for general classes of systems in previous works .

The exponential growth of the number of periodic unstable orbits in chaotic dynamical systems restates the condition of independence between recurrences for large times, resulting in an exponential-like behavior of the recurrence time distribution after the decay of memory. Imposing the normalization condition and the Kac’s lemma, we are able to make an analytical fitting to the memoryless part of the distribution. This fitting illustrates how the short recurrence times, which are affected by the memory, modify the whole distribution. Since just a few points deviate from an exponential, a histogram bin larger than one may lead to the wrong conclusion that the distribution is Poissonian. What results in a contradiction: the inverse of the false Poissonian exponent is different from the mean recurrence time obtained from the recurrence series. For example, for the data of FIG. 6 this difference is of $`9.3\%`$. We believe that this alert has to be taken into account when the RT statistics is calculated. We would like to stress that our results indicate that the correct normalization of a series of recurrence times should consider an extra factor, besides the mean recurrence time, in order to properly obtain the asymptotic exponential-one law.

We emphasize that the memory effect, discussed in this article, applies for any recurrence interval of a general chaotic dynamical system. For small intervals it may not be relevant because it turns smaller than the numeric precision. When one is calculating RT numerically, it must be checked that the interval is sufficiently small that this regime is already achieved.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was made possible through financial support from the following Brazilian research agencies: FAPESP and CNPq.