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# An I-Band-Selected Sample of Radio-Emitting Quasars: Evidence for a Large Population of Red QuasarsBased on observations obtained with the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is jointly operated by the California Institute of Technology and the University of California.

## 1 Introduction

While the term quasar was introduced to describe a new population of ‘QUAsi-StellAr Radio’ sources, the distinction between this class and the radio-silent ‘Quasi-Stellar Objects’ (QSOs) with similarly extreme optical luminosities was quickly lost. Over the first 35 years of quasar/QSO surveys, just over 10,000 such objects were cataloged. The majority of these were optically selected, either using objective prism surveys to identify prominent emission lines or color selection based on the typically blue QSO spectra; most of the remainder of the cataloged cohort came from the optical identification of radio sources discovered in surveys with relatively bright flux density limits. A small additional set of objects came from identification of serendipitous X-ray sources in the fields observed by the Einstein (e.g., Stocke et al. 1983) and ROSAT (e.g., Bade et al. 1995; Mason et al. 2000) soft X-ray telescopes. While consensus has been reached on the quasar energy source (accretion), their underlying agents (supermassive black holes), and their evolution (a marked peak in the redshift range $`1<z<2`$), questions remain about the completeness of the current samples. Does a radio-loud/radio-quiet dichotomy exist, or have existing surveys selected against radio-intermediate objects (cf. Helfand et al. 1999a, White et al. 2000, and Cirasuolo, Magliocchetti, Celotti & Danese 2003 with Ivezić et al. 2002)? Have we missed a large, perhaps dominant segment of the population as a consequence of dust obscuration, or are current samples reasonably complete (Webster et al. 1995; Srianand & Kembhavi 1997; Benn et al. 1998; Kim & Elvis 1999; Corbin et al. 2000)?

By the fortieth anniversary of the identification of 3C273 (Schmidt 1963), the number of known quasars will be rapidly approaching 100,000. This explosion in the discovery rate is driven by two massive optical surveys (2DF – Boyle et al. 2000 and SDSS – Schneider et al. 2002). The additional colors and more sophisticated selection of candidates in these surveys may help mitigate the problem of selection biases that plagued earlier optically selected samples (Meyer et al. 2001). In addition, however, new surveys in other wavelength regimes are extending the range of quasar parameter space explored. Our FIRST Bright Quasar Survey (Gregg et al. 1996; White et al. 2000; Becker et al. 2001; hereafter FBQS1, FBQS2, and FBQS3, respectively) has added over 1000 quasars based on a radio survey with a flux density limit a factor of fifty lower than those used in the past. The 2MASS near-infrared sky survey is beginning to be used as the basis for quasar surveys sensitive to highly reddened objects (Gregg et al. 2002; Cutri et al. 2001; Lacy et al. 2002), and the Chandra and XMM X-ray observatories are providing the first look at the hard X-ray sky with sufficient angular resolution to identify thoroughly buried quasar candidates (e.g., Stern et al. 2002; Norman et al. 2002). While it is improbable that any of these new surveys will alter fundamentally our quasar paradigm, they are likely to have a significant impact on our understanding of the evolutionary history of the population, our detailed models for the quasar engine, and our use of these objects in cosmology and cosmogony.

We present here a modest sample of new quasars discovered in a program to identify 20 cm radio sources in the 16 deg2 Deeprange $`I`$-band survey carried out by Postman et al. (1998, 2002). The primary motivation for examining the Deeprange fields for quasars arises in the quest for previously overlooked quasar populations. Most quasar surveys to date have relied on the relatively blue quasar colors to identify them in optical images of the sky. This reliance on color was a pragmatic decision designed to increase the yield of quasar surveys; i.e., the color cut drastically reduces contamination of the sample by stars. There are other filters that can be used to achieve the same goal, however. In the FBQS, for example, the rationale is that, while 10-20% of quasars are radio emitters at the 1 mJy level, almost no stars are this radio bright. Even so, in carrying out the FBQS, we have found it expedient to impose a weak color cut ($`OE<2`$) to eliminate galaxies from the sample. This was necessary because the reliable division of objects into stellar and nonstellar samples is problematic when using photographic plate-based catalogs. The Deeprange survey affords an opportunity to improve on this vital classification owing to the much higher (CCD) image quality. With better classification, we can afford to eliminate all color cuts and hence create a more unbiased sample. Furthermore, since the Deeprange images are taken in $`I`$ band, the resulting quasar sample is less biased against red objects; even without a color cut, red objects are less likely to show up in a magnitude-limited sample drawn from blue plate material.

In section 2 we describe the radio and optical databases employed and discuss the FIRST Deeprange Quasar (FDQ) sample construction. Section 3 presents the results of a spectroscopic followup program in which thirty-five new quasars and a number of other source types were identified. A comparison of this $`I`$-band selected sample with the FBQS, its implications for that sample’s completeness, and striking evidence for a large, dust-reddened, and previously overlooked population of quasars is presented in Section 4. A discussion of the correlation between the quasars and Deeprange cluster candidates is found in (§5); a summary of our findings (§6) concludes our report.

## 2 An I-band-selected Radio Sample of Quasar Candidates

### 2.1 The Deeprange $`I`$-Band Survey

As part of a program to measure the galaxy correlation function at high redshift and to detect distant galaxy clusters, Postman et al. (1998, 2002) conducted a deep $`I`$-band survey of a 16 deg2 region at high Galactic latitude, selected to have low Galactic extinction and IRAS cirrus emission, a low H I column density, and an absence of bright stars and nearby rich galaxy clusters. The $`4^{}\times 4^{}`$ region centered at RA(J2000) $`=10^\mathrm{h}13^\mathrm{m}28^\mathrm{s}`$ DEC(J2000) $`=+51^{}36^{}44^{\prime \prime }`$ was observed in 1994–1996 with the prime-focus CCD camera of the KPNO111The National Optical Astronomy Observatories are operated by AURA, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. 4-m telescope. Each of the 256 exposures was 900 s in duration and reached a $`5\sigma `$ limiting magnitude of $`I_{AB}=24`$; the zero point is constant over the survey area to $`0.04`$ mag.

The data were reduced in the standard manner, and a catalog of over 700,000 galaxies (and 200,000 stellar objects) was constructed using a modified version of the FOCAS package (see Postman et al. 1998, 2002 for details). The final catalog provides a homogenous, calibrated set of $`I`$-band source counts over the range $`13I23.5`$, which we have used for comparison with our radio catalog.

### 2.2 The FIRST Survey

We have been constructing Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm since the spring of 1993 using the Very Large Array (VLA)222The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. in its B configuration (Becker, White & Helfand 1995). Over 9000 deg2 of the North Galactic Cap have now been imaged to a 20 cm flux density limit of 1.0 mJy; the $`810,000`$ radio sources detected have positional accuracies of $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ (White et al. 1997). In particular, FIRST covers the entire Deeprange survey area; a total of 1206 FIRST catalog sources fall within the area of Deeprange coverage (excluding objects within areas deleted because of bright stars, etc.). A detailed analysis of the radio-optical comparison is in preparation; here we concentrate on the radio sources with stellar counterparts in order to construct a candidate quasar sample.

The FIRST survey sensitivity is quite uniform over the Deeprange survey area. Figure 1 shows the FIRST survey sensitivity as a function of position and the cumulative area covered as a function of the FIRST $`5\sigma `$ detection limit.

### 2.3 A Sample of Stellar Counterparts

We began our comparison of the radio and $`I`$-band data by deriving astrometric offsets between the two databases. Since the FIRST positions are tied to the ICRF (International Celestial Reference Frame; Ma et al. 1998) with an overall systematic bias of $`<30`$ mas (White et al. 1997), we adopt them as defining the reference frame for the match. A catalog of 978 radio/optical sources was constructed by matching the Deeprange catalog to both the FIRST catalog and a supplemental catalog based on VLA A-configuration observations of the Deeprange area. We corrected zero-point shifts in the astrometry for each CCD and derived a distortion correction for the intra-CCD positions in a manner analogous to our derivation of intraplate corrections for the APM survey (McMahon et al. 2002); these corrections were less than $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ peak-to-peak. Both stellar and non-stellar optical objects were included in the calibration; non-stellar objects have poorer positions but are much more frequent radio source counterparts, so they improve the overall calibration. The final registration of the two catalogs is accurate to $`0.05^{\prime \prime }`$ or better, and the rms scatter for individual sources is $`1^{\prime \prime }`$.

For the vast majority of the radio sources, we search for $`I`$-band counterparts by simply matching the positions. However, for multiple-component and extended radio sources, blind matching can lead to missed counterparts. Thus, maps were prepared for all objects by overlaying the radio contours on the $`I`$-band images; the maps were then examined by eye to select additional counterparts. Examples of these maps for the six classical Fanaroff-Riley Type II radio doubles (FRII – Fanaroff & Riley 1974) are shown in Figure 2. Four of these objects are quasars and two are galaxies. In three of these cases (including one quasar), a blind catalog match would not have found the counterpart to lie within $`1.5^{\prime \prime }`$ of an $`I`$-band source owing to the shifting of the centroid of the fitted Gaussian components by emission from along the radio jet, even though an obvious (and now confirmed) counterpart is present. Such cases are a source of modest incompleteness in any radio identification program that does not examine radio source morphology in detail (see, for example, Becker et al. 2001 for a test of the incompleteness of the FBQS arising from extended radio morphologies).

Of the 617 FIRST radio sources with $`I`$-band counterparts coincident to within $`1.5^{\prime \prime }`$, 122 are classified as stellar. We calculate the expected chance coincidence rate using the number of stellar sources in an annulus between $`5^{\prime \prime }`$ and $`12^{\prime \prime }`$ around each radio source in the catalog. Among the 49 stellar counterparts brighter than $`I=20.5`$ we expect between 1 and 2 false matches. Another source of misidentification with stellar counterparts arises from galaxies misclassified as stars in the optical database; Postman et al. (1998) give an estimate of the magnitude-dependent rate at which this occurs. For $`I<20.0`$, we should expect 3 out of 41 such misclassifications, whereas for $`20<I<21`$ we estimate that nearly half of the putative stars are misclassified galaxies, and at fainter magnitudes the situation deteriorates rapidly. From these considerations, coupled with limitations imposed by the amount of spectroscopic confirmation time available, we have adopted a magnitude-limited threshold for $`I`$-band stellar counterparts of $`I20.5`$, leaving us 49 candidates of which we expect approximately $`15\%`$ to be either false or misclassified matches.

## 3 Spectroscopic Identification of Quasars in the Deeprange Field

Observations of the radio source counterparts were conducted over several observing sessions at the Keck II 10-m telescope using both the LRIS and ESI spectrographs. In general, the observing conditions were not photometric. All of the observations were taken at the parallactic angle to minimize slit losses. The LRIS data were reduced and spectra extracted using standard IRAF procedures. ESI spectra were produced using a combination of IRAF tasks and customized software developed by the authors. More details on the algorithms used in the ESI software are given in White et al. (2003).

We have obtained spectroscopic classifications for all of the 49 stellar radio source counterparts with $`I<20.5`$; one additional source slightly below this threshold was also observed333In addition, six more objects with positional offsets greater than $`1.5^{\prime \prime }`$ were observed; all were either stars (i.e., chance coincidences) or galaxies.. We find 35 quasars (see Table 1), one BL Lac object, two narrow-line AGN, six galaxies with H II-like spectra, five absorption-line galaxies, and one star. The definitions of the various classes are taken from FBQS2 and FBQS3: we define anything with broad lines as a quasar, objects with narrow emission lines as H II galaxies or AGN depending on their relative line strengths, and the single object with a featureless continuum as a BL Lac. One or more of the absorption-line galaxies could well contain nonthermal components (e.g., as do BL Lacs), but our discovery spectra are insufficient for quantitative classification.

Since only a tiny fraction of FIRST sources are actually identified with stars (Helfand et al. 1999b), the single stellar match almost certainly represents the expected one false coincidence (although the spectrum is unusually blue for a randomly selected star.) Likewise, the five galaxies along with some of the six H II galaxies comprise the expected number of $`I`$-band misclassifications, although in this case, they almost certainly do represent the optical counterpart to the radio source. The BL Lac, AGN, and the more luminous H II galaxies have sufficiently bright nuclei that their classification as stellar is to be expected. We summarize the optical and radio properties of the non-quasar sample members in Table 2. The spectra for the quasars and non-quasars are displayed in Figures 3 and 6, respectively.

Table 1 lists the parameters of the Deeprange radio quasar sample. The source coordinates from the Deeprange catalog are given in the first two columns, followed by the offset between the optical and radio positions. The peak 20 cm flux density of the source’s core component from the FIRST catalog and the total source size follow (col. 4 and 5). Major and minor axes derived from elliptical Gaussian fits are quoted if one component was sufficient to describe the source morphology; sources with major axes smaller than $`2.5^{\prime \prime }`$ are unresolved in the FIRST survey and their sizes are listed as upper limits. For multiple component sources, the full source extents were measured from the radio maps and are listed with a $`\mathrm{`}\mathrm{`}\mathrm{`}\mathrm{`}`$ sign; classical FR II sources are marked with a T (for triple) or D (for double). The next column lists the FIRST catalog integrated flux densities for resolved single-component sources, and the sum of the flux densities for all multiple-component sources. (For unresolved sources, the peak and integrated flux densities are approximately equal, although noise can produce derived integrated flux densities somewhat below the peak values for weak sources; in these cases, the peak values are more reliable estimators.)

Column 7 lists the 20 cm flux density reported in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS – Condon et al. 1998). The $`45^{\prime \prime }`$ beam of this survey is sensitive to low surface brightness emission that could be resolved out in the FIRST survey. Twenty-seven of the 35 quasars are detected in the NVSS; of the eight that lie below that survey’s threshold of 2.5 mJy, we examined the contour maps at the source locations and found four present at flux density levels between 1 and 2 mJy (indicated as, e.g., $`1.4`$). Comparing (as appropriate) the peak or integrated flux densities from FIRST with the NVSS values shows most sources agree to well within their combined uncertainties (systematic flux density uncertainties for the two surveys are $`5\%`$ in addition to the quoted statistical errors). Three of the point sources (FDQ J101308.8+505017, FDQ J102050.6+515719, and FDQ J102101.4+523956) could be variable by from 50% to a factor of two over the one- to three-year interval separating the two sets of observations although, given that the NVSS flux densities are higher in the first two cases, faint diffuse emission associated with the quasar could explain the discrepancies.

Column 8 lists the $`I`$-band magnitude for each quasar. These are followed by the magnitudes in the $`F`$ (red) and $`J`$ (blue) bands derived from the Guide Star Catalog (version 2.2.1) database444The Guide Star Catalog-II is a joint project of the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino. Additional support is provided by European Southern Observatory, Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility, the International GEMINI project and the European Space Agency Astrophysics Division.. If the object is not present in this catalog, we record the APM POSS I $`E`$ (red) and $`O`$ (blue) magnitudes from the McMahon et al. (2002) FIRST optical identification catalog; three objects fall below the thresholds of both sets of plate scans and so are excluded from the color plots discussed below. Note that the POSS and $`I`$-band data are far from contemporaneous, and substantial source variability is possible, suggesting that the $`I`$POSS colors are not highly reliable.

Columns 11 and 12 give $`E(BV)`$, the reddening in the quasar rest frame, and $`A(I)`$, the extinction in the observed frame for the $`I`$-band, as determined from a fit to each spectrum. They are discussed in more detail below (§4.3).

The quasar redshift, plus comments on the source’s spectrum and its properties in other wavelength bands, complete the Table. Only one of the quasars (the optically brightest member of the sample, FDQ J101916.3+504557) has been reported prior to its FIRST detection (Stepanian et al. 1999); Gregg et al. (2000) earlier reported the discovery of the FR II BAL quasar FIRST J101614.2+520915. Three of these quasars are coincident with X-ray sources detected by ROSAT (but see below).

Most of the quasar spectra are unremarkable, although a few deserve comment:

FDQ J100353.6+515457 ($`z=1.63`$) — This object has an unusual spectrum with very broad Mg II emission and very strong Fe II emission.

FDQ J101204.0+531331 ($`z=2.911`$) — This quasar’s emission lines have substantially lower equivalent widths than the FBQS composite spectrum (Brotherton et al. 2001).

FIRST J101614.2+520915 ($`z=2.43`$) — As was discussed in Gregg et al. (2000), this object is a high ionization broad absorption line quasar (HiBAL) with an FRII radio morphology, conclusively demonstrating that BALs can be radio loud.

FDQ J101735.0+533535 ($`z=3.27`$) — This is a low ionization broad absorption line quasar (LoBAL) based on the presence of broad absorption by both C IV and Al III.

FDQ J101742.7+535635 ($`z=1.40`$) — This quasar has very strong absorption lines due to Mg II and Fe at a redshift of $`z=1.305`$, indicative of an intervening damped Lyman alpha line system (Rao & Turnshek 2000).

FDQ J101939.9+514924 ($`z=1.502`$) — This quasar’s emission lines are unusually strong (or its continuum weak) compared with the FBQS composite spectrum.

FDQ J102223.9+523842 ($`z=1.857`$) — This appears to be a HiBAL as well, albeit a marginal example of one.

FDQ J100632.3+534852 ($`z=1.040`$),

FDQ J101119.2+520536 ($`z=0.901`$),

FDQ J101316.8+511118 ($`z=1.16`$),

FDQ J102007.2+522445 ($`z=1.225`$),

FDQ J102132.2+511433 ($`z=0.944`$) — These quasars all have red spectra. They are discussed further below (§4.3).

## 4 Discussion

Our spectroscopic campaign has resulted in the discovery of 35 quasars. One might wonder whether it is worthwhile to create a new, small sample of quasars even as large quasar surveys from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and 2dF are producing samples with thousands or tens of thousands of objects. We believe that this and similar focused studies continue to be interesting because they explore new parts of parameter space. The SDSS/FIRST sample (Ivezić et al. 2002) currently includes 441 spectroscopically confirmed quasars with $`i^{}<18.5`$ over 1030 deg2 of sky. It is therefore 2 magnitudes brighter than this paper’s sample. As a result it is less dense on the sky by a factor of 5, and it includes only the bright end of the quasar luminosity distribution (as does the FBQS2 sample). Consequently the SDSS/FIRST redshift distribution is much more heavily dominated by low-redshift objects.

On the other hand, the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (Croom et al. 2001) is deep ($`18.25<b_J<20.85`$), and includes $`11000`$ quasars spread over 289.6 deg2. Presumably about 10% of these would be detected by a 1 mJy radio survey like FIRST (although only the northern equatorial strip is actually covered by FIRST); the 2dF sample thus includes about 3.8 FIRST quasars deg-2, a slightly higher density than the sample reported here. But the 2dF survey is expected to be complete only for $`0.3<z<2.2`$ and detects no quasars with $`z>3`$. In contrast, in our 35 object sample we detect two $`z>3`$ quasars. Since it is a survey defined from a blue magnitude, the 2dF catalog is also biased against the inclusion of red objects. As we show below, 2dF, and most previous quasar surveys, have missed a large population of red objects.

### 4.1 Redshift Distribution

The limiting $`I`$ magnitude of 20.5 for this sample is nearly 3 magnitudes fainter than the limit in the FBQS1&2, and 1.5 magnitudes deeper than the limit in FBQS3. The samples do show some distinct differences, perhaps the most pronounced being in the redshift distribution. Continuing a trend discernible in comparisons between FBQS2 and FBQS3, as one goes to fainter magnitudes a significant deficit of low redshift quasars develops, to the extent that, in the Deeprange sample, there are very few quasars below a redshift of 1 (see Fig. 7). The lack of low-redshift quasars results mainly from the small volume being sampled (Fig. 8) combined with the excellent sensitivity of the survey, which is capable of detecting even low-luminosity quasars for $`1<z<2`$ where there are far more quasars than at lower redshifts.

It is possible the requirement that the $`I`$-band images to appear point-like causes us to miss some lower luminosity AGN at low redshifts because their host galaxies are also detected. However, the number of such objects is not expected to be very large. From the FBQS catalog, we expect to find $`1.4`$ quasars with $`F17.8`$ and $`z<0.7`$ in the FDQ survey area; the FBQS3 catalog predicts $`1.7`$ quasars with $`F<18.9`$. The single $`z<0.7`$ quasar we detect is not much below expectations given the slowly rising counts for low redshift AGN.

The narrow peaks at $`z1.5`$ and 1.9 in the redshift distribution are notable. They are created by groups of a few objects (also visible in Fig. 8) with characteristic pair separations of $`60h^1`$ Mpc. Possible quasar clustering on similarly large scales has been reported before (e.g., Graham, Clowes & Campusano 1995; Komberg, Kravtsov, & Lukash 1996). The statistical evidence for clustering in this small sample is fairly weak using conventional measures of clustering; we defer the complete analysis of the clustering properties of this and other radio quasar samples to another paper.

### 4.2 Broad Absorption Line Quasars

One of the more interesting results to come out of the FBQS was the large number of BALQSOs in the radio-selected sample. While traditional blue-selected samples contain 10% BALQSOs, the FBQS contains 18%. It is unsurprising, then, that this radio-selected Deeprange sample also contains a relatively high fraction of BALQSOs. Out of nine quasars at a sufficiently high redshift to allow a C IV BAL to be seen, three are BALQSOs (33%). Although this is a small sample, it does add weight to the conclusion that, contrary to some earlier work, radio-intermediate quasars are more likely to be BALQSOs than radio quiet quasars; equally important, this sample of 35 quasars includes the first example of a radio-loud FR II BAL quasar (Gregg et al. 2000).

### 4.3 Colors for Faint $`I`$-band Selected Quasars

The median $`OE`$ colors (roughly equivalent to $`BR`$) for FBQS2 and FBQS3 quasars with $`z>0.4`$ are 0.52 and 0.63, respectively, for survey limits of $`E=17.8`$ and $`E=19.0`$. For the current survey limit of $`I=20.5`$ we might expect the median to be another $`0.1`$ magnitude redder, but the observed median for the 27 $`z>0.4`$ Deeprange quasars with both colors shows an increase more than three times this large: $`JF=0.84`$. The comparison is displayed graphically in Figures 9 and 10. A two-sided Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicates that the FDQ and FBQS2 distributions are different with 99.94% confidence, while the FDQ and FBQS3 distributions differ with 97.8% confidence.

The mean and median $`JF`$ colors are identical for the $`z<2`$ FDQ quasars and for the entire FDQ sample. The redder colors are therefore not a consequence of the higher mean redshift of the $`I`$-band sample (Fig. 11). The color difference is also not the result of the various red and blue bands employed in the different surveys. The $`J`$ and $`F`$ bands are slightly redder than the $`O`$ and $`E`$ bands, extending about 30 nm farther to the red in each case. Consequently $`JF<OE`$ for the reddest objects. Thus by comparing the $`JF`$ colors for the FDQ sample directly with $`OE`$ for the FBQS samples, we get a conservative estimate of the color difference between the samples; the actual color difference will be larger (by up to 0.5 mag) for the reddest objects.

It appears that the quasars are redder both because of the fainter optical magnitude limit and as a result of being selected in a redder band. This is consistent with the result expected if dust extinction is relevant: a quasar of a given intrinsic luminosity with extra dust will be both fainter and redder. Ignoring such effects can lead to a serious underestimate of the size of the red quasar population.

In addition to the redder mean color of the sample, the removal of the color cut (at $`OE<2.0`$) has allowed us to identify three objects too red to be included in the FBQS.555 FDQ J101316.8+511118 also is not detected on the POSS plates, but its flat optical spectrum and weak lines suggest that it is likely to be variable with a blazar continuum component rather than being a red object. One of these is a low-ionization BAL (FDQ J101735.0+533535, $`z=3.270`$), but the other two simply have red spectra (in Fig. 3, see FDQ J102007.2+522446, $`z=1.225`$, and FDQ J101119.3+520537, $`z=0.901`$.) The $`JF`$ colors for these three objects, estimated from the spectra using synthetic photometry, are 2.3, 2.6 and $`>3`$ respectively. A fourth object with a similarly red spectrum, FDQ J100632.4+534852 ($`z=1.040`$), formally fails to exceed the color cut, but lacks simultaneous red and blue magnitudes which would probably show that it too would have failed to be included in the FBQS sample; its synthetic $`JF`$ is 2.5. Thus, $`10\%`$ of the quasars confirmed here would have been missed in a radio-selected sample even when the color cut is more than a magnitude redder than the sample mean.

Are these red spectra the result of extinction by dust? To estimate the reddening for our quasars, we have fitted the spectra using the FBQS composite spectrum (Brotherton et al. 2001) with a Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) dust reddening law from Gordon & Clayton (1998). The SMC extinction rises steeply into the ultraviolet (making it possible to produce red spectra with less visual extinction) and lacks the 2175 Å bump seen in Galactic dust. The SMC law is similar to dust observed in energetic extragalactic sources such as quasars and starbursts; no quasar has been seen to have a 2175 Å absorption bump (Pitman, Clayton, & Gordon 2000). We have not attempted to fit the spectra for the two quasars that have strong broad absorption line systems, since those objects are heavily reddened by the BALs themselves. Table 1 gives the results determined from these fits: $`E(BV)`$, the reddening in the quasar rest frame, and $`A(I)`$, the $`I`$-band extinction in the observed frame.

As can be seen from the examples in Figure 12(a), most of the quasars are excellent fits to the template spectrum with little or no reddening, but a minority show evidence for quite large extinction values (Fig. 12b). The reddened models fit the observed spectra well; note that both the continuum and broad emission lines are well matched by the model.

One might be tempted to assume that because the red quasars represent only a small fraction of the sample, they are also a small fraction of the quasar population. However, Figure 13 shows a very interesting correlation: all of the red quasars are found at relatively low redshifts. Five of the ten quasars with $`z<1.3`$ have very red colors. A two-sided Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicates that the redshift distributions of red quasars (with $`E(BV)>0.5`$) and non-red quasars differ at the 96.5% confidence level.

Red quasars are not seen at higher redshifts because their red colors make them very difficult to detect there. As the redshift increases and bluer rest wavelengths shift into the $`I`$-band, such objects quickly fade to the point of invisibility. We have computed synthetic $`I`$ magnitudes as a function of redshift for our sample spectra to determine the limit of visibility ($`I<20.5`$) for each source. Distances were computed using a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-cosmology with $`H_0=70`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$. The results for the ten $`z<1.3`$ quasars are given in Table 3. If the red quasars that we observe were moved to $`z=1.5`$, none of them would have been detectable above the $`I<20.5`$ limit of our survey. In contrast, the low-redshift blue quasars detected in our sample are visible to much greater redshifts, typically $`z=1.7`$–2.1. Unless red quasars are preferentially found only at low redshifts — and it is just a matter of luck that our detection limit forbids us from detecting more distant objects — there must be many more red quasars associated with the quasar population peak at $`1<z<2`$.

The excellent fits to the spectra in Figure 12(b) argue strongly in favor of dust as the source of the reddening for at least some of our red quasars. In that case the implied dereddened luminosities are large. Even with a magnitude limit $`I<20.5`$, our survey is deep enough to detect only the most luminous of these reddened quasars. Figure 14 shows the dereddened $`I`$-band absolute magnitudes as a function of redshift along with the effect of reddening on our detection limit. For higher redshift objects where bluer rest wavelengths move into the $`I`$-band, even a small amount of dust absorption has a dramatic effect on detectability. The only objects detectable at a reddening as large as $`E(BV)=0.7`$ are the three quasars that are actually seen to be very red (Fig. 12b), and it would be impossible to detect similar objects in the $`I`$-band at redshifts greater than $`1.5`$. The five most luminous objects with $`z<1.3`$ are all red.

Unless highly reddened quasars are also preferentially highly luminous, there must be an even larger, as yet undiscovered, population of quasars at lower luminosity. Such a correlation is not completely implausible; perhaps quasars that are heavily reddened have just accreted a new source of fuel that guarantees they will also be relatively luminous. Since the luminosity cannot exceed the Eddington limit, however, we still expect to find lower luminosity reddened quasars associated with lower black hole masses.

This conclusion appears difficult to escape. For some quasars, an optical synchroton emission component or contaminating light from a host galaxy can produce a redder spectrum (Benn et al. 1998; Whiting, Webster & Francis 2001). Our red quasars with lower $`E(BV)`$ values might be fitted with a red synchrotron continuum. However, any explanation of the reddest quasars based on an additional emission mechanism is strongly ruled out by our observations. Not only are the reddened quasar template spectra generally a good fit to our data, but the quasar light must be strongly suppressed in the ultraviolet to explain the absence of red quasars at higher redshifts from our sample.

Our data strongly support the hypothesis, originally raised by Webster et al. (1995) based on a radio sample with a much higher ($`100`$ mJy) flux density threshold, that radio quasars are dominated by a previously undetected population of red, heavily obscured objects (see also Srianand & Kembhavi 1997; Benn et al. 1998; Kim & Elvis 1999). The red objects we detect represent fully half the population of the $`z<1.3`$ quasars in our sample; unless their underlying luminosity and redshift distributions are very different than those of blue quasars, there must be many more such objects at higher redshifts and lower luminosities comparable to our blue quasars. We are likely to be detecting only the most luminous tip of the red quasar iceberg.

## 5 Associations Between Quasars and Clusters

We have compared the positions of the objects in our sample to the catalog of cluster candidates in Postman et al. (2002). Eight sources lie within $`2.5^{}`$ of a cluster centroid, with an expected chance coincidence rate of five matches (ignoring the small overlap of cluster candidates). Five of the cluster/radio-source coincidences are matches between rarer high-redshift cluster candidates and confirmed quasars. A $`2.5^{}`$ radius around the $`z0.8`$ clusters covers only 3.7% of the survey area, so that only 1.3 chance coincidences with quasars would be expected. In addition, three of the matching quasars have redshifts similar to the estimated cluster redshifts: cluster #243 ($`z1.1`$) with FDQ J101510.6+523643 ($`z=0.960`$), cluster #304 ($`z0.8`$) with FDQ J101119.2+520536 ($`z=0.901`$), and cluster #382 ($`z0.8`$) with FDQ J101002.1+512700 ($`z=0.787`$). It is likely that all three are real associations that confirm the cluster redshift estimates.

Two of the three quasars coincident with X-ray sources are also close to cluster candidates, and it is possible that a hot intracluster medium is responsible for the X-ray emission; in the case of cluster #34 ($`z0.3`$) and FDQ J102256.6+540717 ($`z=0.340`$), the cluster and quasar redshifts match, and a physical association is quite probable.

There are only two other FDQ quasars with redshifts less than unity, and one of them also has a cluster match, albeit at a slightly greater separation. Cluster #303 ($`z0.7`$) is $`3.0^{}`$ from FDQ J102059.8+520917 ($`z=0.813`$). The close agreement in the redshifts makes this another likely physical association.

This is a remarkable result: five of the six $`z<1`$ quasars in the FDQ are associated with Deeprange cluster candidates of similar estimated redshifts. Despite the large number of candidates (444) in the cluster catalog, this is highly statistically significant. Using a radius of $`3^{}`$, the cluster candidates cover 22% of the survey area, so the probability that five of six $`z<1`$ quasars lie within $`3^{}`$ of a cluster of any redshift is only $`2\times 10^3`$. The probability that five randomly selected clusters will all have redshifts within $`\pm 0.15`$ of the five $`z<1`$ quasar redshifts is even smaller, only $`5\times 10^4`$. The joint probability of both happening by chance is very small, even considering the a posteriori nature of this argument.

The only $`z<1`$ quasar without an associated cluster is FDQ J102132.2+511433 ($`z=0.944`$). The Deeprange cluster selection efficiency is expected to decline at such high redshifts (Postman et al. 2002), so we would not expect all $`z0.95`$ clusters to be included in the Deeprange catalog. Our results are therefore consistent with the possibility that all of our $`z<1`$ quasars are associated with clusters.

This has some surprising implications. Recall that only 10% of quasars are radio-loud (RLQs); there must be $`300`$ additional radio-quiet QSOs (RQQs) with $`I<20.5`$ in the Deeprange area. Since 3 of the 109 $`z0.8`$ Deeprange cluster candidates have associated RLQs, one can project that $`30`$ such clusters will have an associated quasar when the RQQs are included. Since 30–40% of the $`z0.7`$ cluster candidates are expected to be spurious (Postman et al. 2002), that would lead to half of the real high-redshift cluster candidates having associated quasars.

Another possibility, however, is that the RLQs are preferentially found in clusters and that the (as yet undiscovered) RQQs in this field will not be associated with Deeprange clusters. Many studies have concluded that RLQs are more likely to be found in high-density cluster environments than are RQQs (e.g., Yee & Green 1984; Ellingson, Yee & Green 1991) although others have concluded that RQQs and RLQs are both found in clusters (e.g., Hutchings, Crampton & Johnson 1995; Wold et al. 2001). Recently Söchting, Clowes, & Campusano (2002) explored the correlation between clusters and RQQs at $`z0.3`$ and found that the RQQs do associate with clusters but that they tend to occupy the cluster periphery rather than the cluster core. Note that some of the five FDQ quasars are also relatively far from the cluster centers, with projected local distances of 0.4–1.5 Mpc.

Quasar/cluster associations have generally not been analyzed at $`z1`$ because it is difficult to identify clusters at such high redshifts. Since quasars were far more common at $`z1`$ than at $`z0.3`$, it is expected that more clusters will have quasars at high redshifts. Whether as many as half the $`z1`$ clusters have associated quasars, as we suggest, can be confirmed by future studies. The Deeprange field would be a fruitful target for searches for radio-quiet quasars in order to quantify this association. Spectroscopic redshifts for the associated cluster candidates will also help confirm their association with FDQ quasars.

## 6 Summary and Conclusions

A complete, magnitude-limited sample of radio-emitting quasars in the Deeprange I-band survey has been constructed by obtaining optical spectra for 50 stellar counterparts to FIRST radio sources in the 16 deg2 survey region. Thirty-five quasars were detected. In addition to the first radio-loud FRII BAL quasar, two additional BAL quasars were discovered, representing fully one-third of objects with a high enough redshift for the BAL signature to be seen. A probable damped-Lyman-alpha absorber was identified in another source. Most intriguing, however, is the discovery of five very red quasars with $`0.7<z<1.3`$ that represent half of all objects in this redshift range. Indeed, if we use dereddened magnitudes, the five most luminous quasars with $`z<1.3`$ are all red, and three of the six most luminous objects in the entire 35-member sample are red. Fits of the FBQS composite quasar spectrum with an SMC reddening law yield $`I`$-band extinctions of $`1.2<A(I)<3.7`$ magnitudes for the five reddest quasars.

We show that with reddenings this large, even the most luminous quasars ($`M_B<27`$) are not detectable beyond $`z=1.5`$ at our $`I`$-band magnitude limit of 20.5. Indeed, the combination of the good fits of the reddened composite spectrum to our spectra and the absence of any red quasars at higher redshift (naturally attributable to extinction) strongly suggest that 1) the quasars are red because of dust, and 2) the detected objects represent only a small fraction of the total population.

This striking support for the Webster et al. (1995) results on the missing red quasar population, using the much larger population of objects with radio fluxes several hundred times fainter, is cause for reflection. Are the most luminous quasars red because they are both magnified and reddened by an intervening galaxy? Gregg et al. (2002) argued that this could explain the red quasars found in a survey of FIRST-2MASS counterparts, and several other examples are known of very red quasars that are lensed (Hewitt et al. 1992, Courbin et al. 1998). An argument that weighs heavily against this hypothesis is that the lensing fraction would be absurdly high. If most lensed quasars are missed because they are reddened, it is in principle possible that we have the lensing fraction wrong; however, cosmological constraints strongly reject the possibility that the lensing fraction is as high as 10%. A high lensing fraction in objects selected to be very red is allowed since that sample could be strongly biased, but the sample presented in this paper has no color bias (for either red or blue objects) so it should not have any particular bias toward lensed objects.

Could the dust fraction increase with cosmic time (along with metallicity) so that moving out beyond $`z=1.3`$ will not yield a significant additional population of reddened quasars? Possibly, although there is little evidence from quasar spectra for metallicity evolution out to $`z>6`$; it is more likely that dust gets destroyed and/or blown away as a quasar ages and undergoes repeated high luminosity intervals, so that there might well be fewer reddened objects at low redshift.

It remains unknown whether or not the large number of hidden quasars adduced from first the radio-loud and now the radio-intermediate segments of the population extends to radio-quiet objects. We note that the radio flux distribution for the red quasars is indistinguishable from that for the other quasars in our sample, and that two of the red quasars have flux densities close to the FIRST detection limit. It is therefore unlikely that such objects are found only in radio sources with $`F_\nu >1`$ mJy. Addressing the question of whether red quasars are common in the radio-quiet population is clearly of considerable importance for assessing the true accretion luminosity of the Universe and its evolution with cosmic time.

Finally, we have found that five of the six quasars in our sample with $`z<1`$ are associated with Deeprange cluster candidates with concordant redshift estimates. Extrapolating these results to the radio-quiet portion of the population suggests that up to half of the $`0.3<z<1`$ clusters have associated quasars. Spectroscopic redshifts for the cluster galaxies and a search for radio-quiet quasars in this field are required to confirm this suggestion.

We thank the referee, Michael Drinkwater, for some very helpful comments which led us to quantify and strengthen our conclusions about the implications of these results for the missing red quasar population. The success of the FIRST survey is in large measure due to the generous support of a number of organizations. In particular, we acknowledge support from the NRAO, the NSF (grants AST-00-98259 and AST-00-98355), the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (operated under the auspices of the U. S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. W-7405-Eng-48), the Space Telescope Science Institute, NATO, the National Geographic Society (grant NGS No. 5393-094), Columbia University, and Sun Microsystems. DJH is grateful for the support of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Fund, and joins RHB and RLW in thanking the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Cambridge for hospitality during some of this work.


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# Spin-Voltaic Effect and its Implications

\[

## Abstract

In an inhomogeneously doped magnetic semiconductor, an interplay between an equilibrium magnetization and injected nonequilibrium spin leads to the spin-voltaic effect–a spin analogue of the photo-voltaic effect. By reversing either the sign of the equilibrium magnetization or the direction of injected spin polarization it is possible to switch the direction of charge current in a closed circuit or, alternatively, to switch the sign of the induced open-circuit voltage. Properties of the spin-voltaic effect can be used to perform all-electrical measurements of spin relaxation time and injected spin polarization, as well as to design devices with large magnetoresistance and spin-controlled amplification.

\]

Most of the existing applications using spin degrees of freedom in electronic systems exploit the magnetoresistive effects in magnetic nanostructures involving metals (paramagnetic and ferromagnetic) and insulators . Considering semiconductors, on the other hand, offers flexibility in the doping and fabrication of a wide range of hetero- and nanostructures while the nonlinear current-voltage ($`IV`$) characteristics are suitable for amplification and implementing logic. Even though many materials, in their ferromagnetic state, can have a substantial degree of equilibrium carrier spin polarization, this alone is usually not sufficient for spintronic applications , which typically require current flow and/or manipulation of the nonequilibrium spin (polarization). Since the early work on shining circularly polarized light  and driving electrical current  to generate nonequilibrium spin polarization in semiconductors, the challenge has remained to understand what the implications are of such nonequilibrium spin .

We illustrate here the influence of nonequilibrium spin on $`IV`$ characteristics in magnetic p-n junctions  magnetic analogues of ordinary p-n junctions , and focus on the implications of the spin-voltaic effect . Related phenomena of the spin-charge coupling  were introduced in metallic heterostructures by Silsbee and Johnson, following the theoretical proposals for electrical spin injection of Aronov and Pikus  (a recent account of electrical spin injection and a detailed list of references is given in ). In the context of semiconductors there is a long tradition of optically generating (for example, by shining circularly polarized light) spin-polarized carriers and spin-dependent electromotive force (spin emf) , reviewed in . Both incoherent  and coherent  optical generation of spin currents have been demonstrated. In an applied magnetic field and using quantum point contacts, electrical spin injection and detection in semiconductor quantum dots  have been shown to have properties similar to spin-charge coupling .

Magnetic p-n junctions, which could demonstrate the spin-voltaic effect, have spatially dependent spin splitting of carrier bands–a consequence of doping with magnetic impurities and/or an applied magnetic field $`B`$. Such a spin splitting can be realized using ferromagnetic semiconductors  or paramagnetic semiconductors in finite $`B`$ (where either the magnitude of $`B`$ or the $`g`$-factor is spatially inhomogeneous). For simplicity, we address here the second realization, depicted in Fig. 1.

In the low injection regime it is possible to obtain the results for spin-polarized transport analytically and to decouple the contribution of electrons and holes . In the $`p`$ ($`n`$) region there is a uniform doping with $`N_a`$ acceptors ($`N_d`$ donors). Within the depletion region ($`x_L<x<x_R`$), we assume that there is a spatially dependent spin splitting of the carrier bands. Zeeman splitting of the conduction band can be expressed as $`2q\zeta =g\mu _BB`$, where $`g`$ is the $`g`$-factor for electrons, $`\mu _B`$ is the Bohr magneton, $`q`$ is the proton charge, and $`\zeta `$ is the electron magnetic potential . In contrast to metals, the magnitude of the $`g`$-factor can be significantly different from the free electron value, exceeding 500 in Cd0.95Mn0.05Se at low temperature  and attaining $``$ 50 in InSb at room temperature. We further assume that the carriers obey the nondegenerate Boltzmann statistics and consider only the effect of spin-polarized electrons (the net spin polarization of holes can also be simply included ). The product of electron (n) and hole (p) densities in equilibrium (denoted with subscript “0”) is modified from the nonmagnetic p-n junction as

$$n_0p_0=n_i^2\mathrm{cosh}(\zeta /V_T)$$
(1)
where $`n_i`$ is the intrinsic (nonmagnetic) carrier density and $`V_T=k_BT/q`$, with $`k_B`$ the Boltzmann constant and $`T`$ temperature. In a nonmagnetic p-n junction charge current $`J`$ can be decomposed into electron and hole contributions $`J=J_n+J_p`$, which in turn are proportional to the density of the nonequilibrium minority carriers, $`J_n\delta n_L=nn_0=n_0[\mathrm{exp}(V/V_T)1]|_{x=x_L}`$, $`J_p\delta p_R=pp_0=p_0[\mathrm{exp}(V/V_T)1]|_{x=x_R}`$, evaluated at the two edges of a depletion region , and $`V`$ is the applied bias. For a magnetic p-n junction, Eq. 1 implies that in the regime $`\zeta >V_T`$, the density of minority electrons changes exponentially with $`B`$ ($`\zeta `$) and can give rise to exponentially large magnetoresistance . Furthermore in the n-p-n magnetic bipolar transistor , from applying Eq. 1 to the base $`p`$-region, it follows that the current amplification also varies exponentially with $`B`$.

Before discussing the implications of the injected nonequilibrium spin in a magnetic p-n junction (depicted in Fig. 1), it is helpful to recall two simpler situations. Consider first the usual photo-voltaic effect in a nonmagnetic p-n junction ($`\zeta 0`$) illuminated entirely by unpolarized light. Photo-generated electron and holes will be swept away in opposite directions by the built-in electric field in the depletion region. This departure from the equilibrium carrier densities (prior to the illumination) shifts the balance of the electron and hole currents which no longer add up to zero. If the leads are connected to the two ends of a p-n junction, a reverse charge current will flow. Conversely for an open circuit configuration, photo-generated carriers suppress the built-in field and create a net (open circuit) voltage measured at the two terminals. An analogous illumination by circularly polarized light can serve as a source of spin-polarized current–a spin-polarized solar cell . However, while changing the degree of circularly polarized light (say, by reversing the helicity of an incident light) changes the degree of current spin polarization , there are no changes in $`IV`$ characteristics–the nonequilibrium spin does not affect the charge properties.

In a magnetic p-n junction carrier spin polarization $`P=s/n`$, the ratio of the spin $`s=n_{}n_{}`$ and electron density ($`n=n_{}+n_{}`$), can be changed from the equilibrium value $`P_0=\mathrm{tanh}(\zeta /V_T)`$ by shining circularly polarized light or by direct electrical spin injection as depicted in Fig. 1 (a) and (b), respectively. With the spatially dependent spin splitting, charge current will acquire an additional component–the spin-voltaic current $`J_{sv}`$ caused by the nonequilibrium spin . In the spin-voltaic effect the nonequilibrium spin, by diffusion (and drift) from the point where it is generated to the edge of depletion region \[$`\delta P_R0`$, see Fig. 1(a)\], disturbs the balance between the generation and recombination currents (Fig. 1. If $`\zeta >0`$, and more spin up electrons are present at $`x_R`$ ($`\delta P_R>0`$), the barrier for them to cross the region is smaller than the barrier for the spin down electrons, so more electrons flow from $`n`$ to $`p`$ than from $`p`$ to $`n`$, and positive charge current results. If there are more spin down electrons at $`x_R`$ ($`\delta P_R<0`$), the current is reversed. In an open circuit geometry with a reversal of injected spin polarization ($`\delta P_R\delta P_R`$ the sign of the induced voltage will be switched , characteristic also for spin-charge coupling  and the electrical detection of injected spin in quantum dots . An equivalent change of the sign for $`J_{sv}`$ and the open circuit voltage can be realized by reversing the equilibrium magnetization i.e. $`\zeta \zeta `$ and, correspondingly, $`P_{0L}P_{0L}`$. Such a reversal can be achieved by changing $`BB`$ in the paramagnetic case, or by temporarily applying a finite $`B`$ to flip the magnetization of a ferromagnetic region (in metallic multilayers this is feasible even at small fields $`<10`$). The total charge current can be expressed as spin equilibrium parts $`J_n`$ and $`J_p`$ and the spin-voltaic current $`J_{sv}`$ generated by the nonequilibrium spin

$$J_{sv}n_{0R}P_{0L}\delta P_Re^{V/V_T},$$
(2)
which, unlike $`J_{n,p}`$, can remain finite even as $`V0`$, when $`JJ_{sv}`$ . The product of the equilibrium magnetization and the nonequilibrium injected spin or, equivalently, $`P_{0L}\delta P_R`$ also enters directly the current amplification in a magnetic bipolar transistor , which can be tuned by the controlling the spin-voltaic effect. Furthermore, Eq. 2 shows the sensitivity of $`J_{sv}`$ to spin relaxation since $`\delta P_R`$ depends on the effective distance $`d`$ between the point of spin injection and the depletion region edge $`x_R`$ . The decay of the corresponding nonequilibrium spin can be characterized by the spin relaxation time $`T_1`$ and the corresponding length scale, the spin diffusion length $`L_{sn}=\sqrt{D_nT_1}`$, where $`D_n`$ is the electron diffusivity . Figure 2 illustrates how the sensitivity of $`J_{sv}`$ to spin relaxation could be used to perform all-electrical measurements of $`T_1`$ .

Consider an idealized situation where the injected spin is completely polarized. A long $`T_1`$ implies that the injected spin polarization will not be reduced at the depletion region edge, as shown in Fig. 2(a). The spin up electrons will then be easily transfered across the lower barrier in the depletion region, leading to large $`J_{sv}`$. In contrast, for a short $`T_1`$ sketched in Fig. 2(b), some of the injected spin up electrons will have their spin flipped. Those spin down electrons would go across the higher barrier (suppressed by $`\mathrm{exp}(\zeta /V_T)`$ within the Boltzmann statistics as compared to the transfer of spin up electrons) and $`J_{sv}`$ is reduced. While these two limiting cases indicate that is possible to extract an unknown $`T_1`$ from $`J_{sv}(T_1)`$ at finite bias the total charge current $`J`$ could be dominated by $`J_n`$ and $`J_p`$–a large $`T_1`$-independent background ($`J_{n,p}`$ do not contain the nonequilibrium spin). It is therefore useful to use the symmetry properties of the individual contributions to the charge current with respect to the applied magnetic field

$$J_{n,p}(B)=J_{n,p}(B),J_{sv}(B)=J_{sv}(B),$$
(3)
recalling that $`\zeta B`$. Consequently, $`IV`$ characteristics can be used to extract the $`T_1`$ and the degree of the injected spin polarization by measuring $`J(V,B)J(V,B)=2J_{sv}`$ , where the large $`T_1`$-independent background has then been effectively removed. By adapting this procedure to the parameters of GaAs it was shown that a variation of an unknown $`T_1`$ by an order of magnitude would give a change of approximately two orders of magnitude in $`J_{sv}`$  and the spin relaxation time could be extracted from measured I-V curves.

To simplify the presentation, we have focused on a particular implementation of the spin-voltaic effect. Analytical results for a low injection regime, where $`V<V_Tln(N_aN_d/n_i^2)`$–the built-in potential , are also available in other cases . For example, when both $`p`$ and $`n`$ regions are magnetic, the spin-voltaic current in Eq. 2 should be modified by replacing $`P_{0L}(P_{0L}P_{0R})/(1P_{0R}^2)`$. At higher applied bias, the corresponding problem can be solved numerically by self-consistently combining Poisson’s and the appropriate continuity equations for spin and charge densities .

A materials realization of the spin-voltaic effect, similar to the usual photo-voltaic effect, is not limited to p-n junction, and can also include heterojunctions and structures with Schottky barriers. Even though most of the currently studied ferromagnetic semiconductors , such as (Ga,Mn)As and (In,Mn)As, are $`p`$-doped with spin-polarized electrons rather then holes, they still have a spin splitting in the conduction band as depicted in Fig. 1(a), and could be suitable for the implementation of the spin-voltaic effect.

We thank S. Das Sarma and H. Munekata for useful discussions. This paper is based on the presentation at the International Workshop on Nanostructured Metallic Materials sponsored by Nanotechnology Research Network Center of Japan and Tohoku University Materials Research Center. This work was supported by DARPA, NSF-ECS, and the US ONR.


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# Locating the Launching Region of T Tauri Winds: The Case of DG Tau

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The magnetocentrifugal mechanism (Blandford & Payne, 1982) is widely considered the leading candidate for producing jets and winds in star formation (see reviews by Königl & Pudritz 2000; Shu et al. 2000); alternative mechanisms involving thermal and/or radiation pressure have been shown to be inadequate. An outflow can in principle be launched by torsional Alfvén waves, as shown numerically by Shibata & Uchida (1985) and others (see Kato, Kudoh, & Shibata 2002 and references therein). These simulations are typically of relatively short duration, however, and it is not clear whether a large-scale, sustained outflow can be produced by this mechanism alone.

The magnetocentrifugal model has two popular versions: X-winds (Shu et al., 2000) and disk-winds (Königl & Pudritz, 2000). The X-winds are launched from a narrow region close to the truncation radius $`R_X`$ of the Keplerian disk by a stellar magnetosphere. The disk-winds are, on the other hand, envisioned to come from a wider range of disk radii outside $`R_X`$. These two possibilities are not immediately distinguishable observationally, because the launching surfaces in both cases are thought to be small, and only the flow regions at much larger distances are directly observable at the present.

In this Letter, we derive a method of inferring the rotation rate (and thus the radius) of the wind-launching region on the Keplerian disk from measurable quantities at large distances (§ 2). In § 3, we first test the method on a set of numerically-determined large-scale magnetocentrifugal wind solutions, and then apply it to the well-studied wind of the T Tauri star DG Tau, using data obtained by Bacciotti et al. (2002) with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We discuss our results and conclude in § 4.

## 2 A METHOD FOR LOCATING THE WIND-LAUNCHING REGION

### 2.1 Physical Basis of the Method

The basic principle of magnetocentrifugal wind launching is well understood. It involves open field lines firmly anchored on a rapidly rotating disk, and centrifugal acceleration of fluid parcels along the field lines into a high-speed wind. The wind trails behind the disk in rotation, generating a toroidal component of magnetic field, which exerts a braking torque on the disk. It is this magnetic torque that is responsible for extracting both energy and angular momentum from the disk and for powering the wind. Since the energy extracted is simply the work done by the rotating disk against the magnetic torque (e.g. Spruit 1996), the rate of energy extraction is directly proportional to the rate of angular momentum extraction, with the proportionality constant being the angular speed $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ of the disk rotation. The extracted energy and angular momentum are initially stored in an electromagnetic form. They are gradually converted into a kinetic form as the flow accelerates. At large observable distances, the conversion is nearly complete, and the wind becomes kinetically dominated. Along any given field line, the kinetic energy will then be proportional to the fluid angular momentum, with the same proportionality constant $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ because of energy and angular momentum conservation.

At any observable location (say of a distance $`\varpi _{\mathrm{}}`$ from the rotation axis, where the subscript denotes a quantity far from the launching region), the specific kinetic energy and angular momentum of the wind are given by the poloidal and toroidal components of the fluid velocity, $`v_{p,\mathrm{}}`$ and $`v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}`$, through $`(v_{p,\mathrm{}}^2+v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}^2)/2`$ and $`v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}\varpi _{\mathrm{}}`$ respectively. Both velocity components can in principle be derived empirically from spatially resolved spectra and proper motion observations, as has been done for DG Tau (Bacciotti et al., 2002). Once measured, they can be used to deduce the rate of disk rotation at the foot point of the field line passing through that location, through

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_0\frac{v_{p,\mathrm{}}^2/2}{v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}\varpi _{\mathrm{}}},$$
(1)
where $`v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}v_{p,\mathrm{}}`$ is assumed, as is generally true at large distances. The above relation provides a simple way to infer the rotation rate of the wind-launching region on the Keplerian disk and, if the central stellar mass is known independently, the distance from the star. In the next subsection, we will use the steady magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) wind theory to derive a refined version of this relation, taking into account of the energy and angular momentum associated with fluid rotation at the base of the wind.

### 2.2 General Derivation

It is well known that in a steady, axisymmetric MHD wind, several quantities are conserved along a given field line (Mestel, 1968). These include the total specific energy and angular momentum

$$E=\frac{v^2}{2}\frac{B_\varphi B_p\mathrm{\Omega }\varpi }{4\pi \rho v_p}+h+\mathrm{\Phi }_g,L=\varpi \left(v_\varphi \frac{B_\varphi B_p}{4\pi \rho v_p}\right),$$
(2)
and the quantity $`\mathrm{\Omega }=(v_\varphi B_\varphi v_p/B_p)/\varpi `$, which can be interpreted as the angular speed at the base of the wind, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$, where the poloidal flow speed $`v_p`$ is negligible compared to the speed of Keplerian rotation. Here, $`v`$ denotes velocity, $`B`$ magnetic field, $`h`$ specific enthalpy, $`\rho `$ mass density, and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_g`$ the gravitational potential. The subscript $`p`$ refers to a quantity in the poloidal $`(\varpi ,z)`$ plane of a cylindrical coordinate system $`(\varpi ,\varphi ,z)`$. We will ignore the enthalpy term in the expression for specific energy since magnetocentrifugal winds are dynamically cold in general.

Note from equation (2) that the magnetic contributions to the energy and angular momentum are proportional to each other. Since neither of them can be measured directly, we get rid of both by constructing a combined quantity

$$JE\mathrm{\Omega }L=\frac{v^2}{2}+\mathrm{\Phi }_g\mathrm{\Omega }\varpi v_\varphi ,$$
(3)
which is also conserved along a field line (see also Lovelace et al. 1986). At the launching surface, the wind corotates with the disk at the local Keplerian speed $`v_{K,0}`$, which yields $`J=3v_{K,0}^2/2`$. As the distance increases, the gravitational potential $`\mathrm{\Phi }_g`$ decreases quickly, and we have approximately

$$\frac{v_{p,\mathrm{}}^2+v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}^2}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_0\varpi _{\mathrm{}}v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}\frac{3}{2}v_{K,0}^2.$$
(4)
Since the Keplerian speed of disk rotation is related to the angular speed through $`v_{K,0}=(G\text{M}_{}\mathrm{\Omega }_0)^{1/3}`$ around a star of mass $`\text{M}_{}`$, we finally have

$$\varpi _{\mathrm{}}v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Omega }_0\frac{3}{2}(G\text{M}_{})^{2/3}\mathrm{\Omega }_0^{2/3}\frac{v_{p,\mathrm{}}^2+v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}^2}{2}0,$$
(5)
which is the desired equation for determining the disk rotation rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ in the wind-launching region from measurable quantities at large distances.

Mathematically, we can define $`\xi \mathrm{\Omega }_0^{1/3}`$, and cast equation (5) into a cubic equation

$$\xi ^3a_2\xi ^2a_0=0,$$
(6)
with the coefficients

$$a_2=\frac{3}{2}\frac{(G\text{M}_{})^{2/3}}{\varpi _{\mathrm{}}v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}},\mathrm{and}a_0=\frac{v_{p,\mathrm{}}^2+v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}^2}{2\varpi _{\mathrm{}}v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}}.$$
(7)
If we let $`q=a_2^2/9`$, $`r=a_0/2+a_2^3/27`$, and $`D=q^3+r^2=a_0^2/4+a_2^3a_0/27`$, then the nature of the solution is determined by the value of $`D`$. For $`D>0`$, which is always true in our case, there are one real and two complex conjugate roots. The real root is given analytically by

$$\xi =(r+\sqrt{D})^{1/3}+(r\sqrt{D})^{1/3}+a_2/3.$$
(8)
Once $`\xi `$ is determined, one can obtain the angular speed through $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=\xi ^3`$, and infer the wind-launching radius through $`\varpi _0=(G\text{M}_{}/\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2)^{1/3}`$.

Astrophysically interesting magnetocentrifugal winds are probably “fast” in the sense that they have enough energy to climb out the potential well of the central star easily (instead of barely). In such a case, we expect the kinetic energy of the wind (the third term of eq. ) to be substantially greater than the gravitational binding energy at the launching surface (which is essentially the second term of eq. ). Noting again that typically $`v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}v_{p,\mathrm{}}`$, we recover from equation (5) the simple relation (1), which can be cast into a more practical form

$$\varpi _00.7\text{AU}\left(\frac{\varpi _{\mathrm{}}}{10\text{AU}}\right)^{2/3}\left(\frac{v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}}{10\text{km}\text{s}^1}\right)^{2/3}\left(\frac{v_{p,\mathrm{}}}{100\text{km}\text{s}^1}\right)^{4/3}\left(\frac{\text{M}_{}}{1\text{M}_{\mathrm{}}}\right)^{1/3}$$
(9)
for locating the wind-launching region on the disk.

## 3 METHOD VERIFICATION AND APPLICATION

### 3.1 Method Verification using Numerical Solutions

We have tested the method of inferring the rotation rate of the wind-launching surface on a set of numerically-determined magnetocentrifugal wind solutions (J. Anderson et al. 2003, in preparation). These solutions are obtained using the Zeus3D MHD code (Clarke, Norman, & Fiedler, 1994) assuming axisymmetry. The simulation setup and code modifications are described in Krasnopolsky, Li, & Blandford (1999). Basically, we prescribe on the Keplerian disk around a solar-mass star a distribution of open magnetic field, and load onto the field a mass flux at a low speed (typically $`10\%`$ of Keplerian). The slowly-moving wind material is accelerated centrifugally along the rotating field lines into a high-speed flow. The wind gradually sweeps the ambient medium out of the simulation box, chosen to have a $`100\times 100\text{AU}`$ size, and settles into a steady state. The properties of the steady wind at large distances are determined uniquely by the conditions on the launching surface. They are used for our method verification.

The results of applying our method to two representative simulations are presented in Table 1. The simulations differ only in the mass loading rate of the wind; model L corresponds to a “light” wind, with $`\dot{M}_w=10^8\text{M}_{\mathrm{}}\text{yr}^1`$, typical of T Tauri winds, and model H corresponds to a “heavy” wind, with $`\dot{M}_w=10^6\text{M}_{\mathrm{}}\text{yr}^1`$, which is more extreme (Edwards, Ray, & Mundt, 1993). For each model, we first read out from the solution the two velocity components $`v_{p,\mathrm{}}`$ and $`v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}`$ at four selected, observable locations with known cylindrical radius $`\varpi _{\mathrm{}}`$, and then compute the corresponding angular speed at the launching surface from both the simple relation (1), $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{0,A}`$, and the refined relation (5), $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{0,B}`$. Comparing the predicted values with the exact $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$, we find that the simple relation (1) works well for the light wind, but under predicts the rotation rate by a factor of two for the more extreme, heavy wind. The large discrepancy in the latter case comes from the neglect of the fluid energy and angular momentum at the base of the wind in deriving relation (1), which are comparable to their magnetic counterparts for the heavy wind. The fluid contributions are included in relation (5), which yields a rotation rate accurate to within about $`5\%`$ in both cases. The small errors can be further reduced if the (slow) speed with which the wind solution is initiated and the gravitational binding energy at the observing location are accounted for properly, which can be done. Such refinements are not warranted, however, given the large uncertainties in real observational data, to which we now turn.

### 3.2 The Case of DG Tau

Observational data needed to locate the wind-launching region on the disk are available for DG Tau, thanks to the spatially resolved spectra of several forbidden lines obtained by Bacciotti et al. (2000) using HST/STIS. The STIS slit was placed along the axis of the flow and at three pairs of locations at distances $`10`$, $`20`$, and $`30\text{AU}`$ from the axis (one on each side). Two distinct velocity components are detected, with the high-velocity component (HVC) concentrating near the axis and the low-velocity component (LVC) being more laterally extended. Bacciotti et al. (2002) analyzed the extended LVC in detail, and derived the radial (line-of-sight) velocity $`v_{r,\mathrm{}}`$ at four positions along each slit, labeled I through IV in their Fig. 7. They also found tentative evidence for rotation from the difference in radial velocity between the regions displaced symmetrically with respect to the axis. The axis is inclined at $`\theta 38\mathrm{°}`$ to our line of sight (Eislöffel & Mundt, 1998), which allows us to estimate the poloidal speed $`v_{p,\mathrm{}}=v_{r,\mathrm{}}/\mathrm{cos}\theta `$, assuming a flow predominantly parallel to the axis. This assumption is expected to break down badly in region I, which is the closest to the disk; it should be accurate to $`50\%`$ or better in the other regions. The estimated values of $`v_{p,\mathrm{}}`$ in regions II through IV are listed in Table 2, along with the deprojected toroidal velocities computed using the numbers given in Table 1 of Bacciotti et al. (2002), which are uncertain. The angular speed $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ in Table 2 is derived from equation (5), and the wind-launching radius $`\varpi _0`$ is computed for a stellar mass $`\text{M}_{}=0.67\text{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ (Hartigan et al., 1995).

It is clear from Table 2 that the LVC of the DG Tau wind comes from a range in disk radius, from $`0.3`$ to $`4\text{AU}`$. The spread in launching radius can be understood qualitatively as follows: in each of the three regions, the flow located closest to the axis (at the $`10\text{AU}`$ distance) has the highest poloidal speed (and thus the highest specific energy) and the lowest, or close to the lowest, toroidal speed (and thus the lowest specific angular momentum given its small distance). To extract the highest energy against the weakest torque on the disk (corresponding to the lowest angular momentum), the field line passing through the innermost location in each region must be driven at the fastest rate at the foot point, i.e., must be anchored closest to the central star. Detailed calculations confirm this expectation, as shown in Fig. fig:dgtau, where straight lines connecting the observing locations and their originating points on the disk are plotted. These lines give a crude indication of the actual streamlines. They are well behaved, with two exceptions: the lines associated with the two outer locations in region IV cross other lines, which is problematic. However, region IV appears to be perturbed by a limb-brightened bubble-like structure (Bacciotti et al., 2000), which may have introduced additional asymmetry to the flow with respect to the axis, and compromised the estimates of toroidal speed and thus the foot point locations.

We reiterate that our values of $`v_{p,\mathrm{}}`$ are estimated from the radial velocities at the peak of forbidden lines, which sample only the component of poloidal velocity parallel to the axis, $`v_{z,\mathrm{}}`$, in the likely case of peak emission originating from the tangent point of our line of sight with the wind. Since the $`v_\varpi `$ component is unmeasured, our values of $`v_{p,\mathrm{}}`$ are actually underestimates. This effect will be most pronounced for the least collimated part of the flow, where $`v_{p,\mathrm{}}`$ can be underestimated by as much as $`50\%`$. Taking this effect into account could move the outermost launching point inward by a factor up to two.

With the rotation rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ determined, we can estimate the Alfvén radius $`\varpi _A`$ by equating the fluid angular momentum at large distances, $`\varpi _{\mathrm{}}v_{\varphi ,\mathrm{}}`$, with the total angular momentum, $`L\mathrm{\Omega }_0\varpi _A^2`$ (e.g. Spruit 1996). The estimates for $`\varpi _A`$ are listed in Table 2 and the corresponding “Alfvén points” are plotted in the right panel of Fig. fig:dgtau. The Alfvén radius turns out to be $`1.8`$ to $`2.6`$ times the foot point radius (except for the “streamline” passing through the bubble-affected outermost location in region IV; see Table 2). The typical ratio of $`\varpi _A/\varpi _02`$ implies that roughly $`1/4`$ of the material accreted through the disk is ejected in the extended LVC of the DG Tau wind as per the relationship $`\dot{M}_w/\dot{M}_d(\varpi _0/\varpi _A)^2`$ (Pelletier & Pudritz, 1992).

## 4 CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION

We have developed a method of locating the launching region of T Tauri winds, if such winds are driven magnetocentrifugally, as is widely believed. Our method relies on the fact that the energy and angular momentum in the wind are extracted mostly by magnetic fields from the rotating disk, and they are related by the rate of disk rotation because the energy extracted is the work done by the rotating disk against the magnetic torque responsible for the angular momentum extraction. Since most of the wind energy and angular momentum at large, observable distances are in the measurable kinetic form, they can be used to infer the disk rotation rate in the wind launching region. Applying this method to the wind of DG Tau, we find that its spatially resolved LVC comes from a region on the disk extending from $`0.3`$ and $`4\text{AU}`$ from the central star. This range brackets the rough estimate of $`1.8\text{AU}`$ by Bacciotti et al. (2002). It strengthens the notion that the LVCs of T Tauri winds are driven from relatively large disk radii (Kwan & Tademaru, 1988).

The DG Tau wind has a HVC with a radial velocity of $`220\text{km}\text{s}^1`$ (Pyo et al., 2003). Where this component is launched is less certain. It is unresolved in the transverse direction in the HST observations (Bacciotti et al., 2000), implying a half-width $`5\text{AU}`$. Unless rotating at a speed much greater than that inferred for the LVC ($`10\text{km}\text{s}^1`$), the HVC must be driven magnetocentrifugally from a disk region with radius on the order of $`0.1\text{AU}`$ or smaller, according to equation (9). The small launching radius is indicative of an X-wind origin (Shu et al., 2000). To draw a more quantitative conclusion on the launching radius of the HVC, its rotational speed must be measured, which may become possible with the advent of optical interferometry using large, ground-based telescopes.

Support for this work was provided in part by NASA grants NAG 5-7007, 5-9180, 5-12102 and NSF grant AST 00-93091.


text:
# Two band gap field-dependent thermal conductivity of 𝑀𝑔𝐵₂

## I INTRODUCTION

Superconductivity at a remarkably high transition temperature closed to 40K was recently discovered in $`MgB_2`$ . $`MgB_2`$ has a Debye temperature about 800K, several times larger than that of $`Nb_3Sn`$, as seen from specific heat measurements \[3-7\]. The phonon density of states of $`MgB_2`$ has been obtained by inelastic neutron scattering \[8-11\]. These results indicate that phonons are playing an important role in the interaction of the new superconductor $`MgB_2`$. Most experiments in $`MgB_2`$, such as the isotope effect , $`T_c`$ pressure dependence  and tunneling spectroscopy  indicate that the superconductivity of $`MgB_2`$ can be consistent with a phonon-mediated BCS electron pairing. Beside \[5-7,17\] reports have also shown some evidence for two gaps in the quasiparticle excitation spectrum of $`MgB_2`$ \[18-20\].

The thermal conductivity has been used widely to study superconductors , offering important clues about the nature of heat carriers and scattering processes between them, especially in $`H`$=0, and in unconventional superconductors \[22-26\], the more so in the superconducting state for which traditional electrical probes such as the electrical resistivity, Hall effect, and thermopower are inoperative. The study of the thermal conductivity in applied magnetic fields has also been an interesting new probe of the vortex state of high- $`T_c`$ superconductors \[27-37\] and in $`MgB_2`$, in absence \[38-40\] or presence \[41-42\] of a magnetic field.

In this paper we present a new study of the thermal conductivity $`\kappa (H,T)`$ of polycrystalline $`MgB_2`$, as a function of temperature in both absence and presence of magnetic fields in order to probe the anomalous dependences  in light of new vortex structure considerations . The temperature range goes between 4-50K and the applied magnetic field goes up to 13.9 Tesla. The superconductivity of $`MgB_2`$ persisted over the investigated condition though no sharp anomaly in the thermal conductivity $`\kappa (H,T)`$ was observed around the superconducting transition. The thermal conductivity almost monotonously increases with increasing temperature in zero and low magnetic fields whereas a significant enhancement of the values of the thermal conductivity is found for high magnetic fields. A model based on two different gaps and two subsystems of quasiparticles with different field-dependent characters in superconducting $`MgB_2`$ is argued to be consistent with these results.

## II SAMPLE PREPARATION AND MEASUREMENTS

Polycrystalline $`MgB_2`$ samples were prepared by the conventional solid state reaction method. A mixed powder of high purity $`Mg`$ and $`B`$ with an appropriate ratio was ground and pressed into pellets. The pellets were wrapped in a tantalum foil and sealed in a stainless steel reactor, then heated at 950 C for 4 hours under an argon gas flow. Repeating the process we got a high-density bulk sample. The phase purity was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. No impurity phase was observed within the usual X-ray resolution. For the electrical and thermal conductivity measurements one 8 x 1.5 x 0.8 mm3 bar was cut from a bulk sample pellet.

In order to check the sample superconductivity we have measured the electrical resistivity by the standard four-probe d.c. technique in the 4 to 50 K temperature range and for magnetic fields up to 14 T. Fig. 1 shows the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity, $`\rho (H,T)`$, of polycrystalline $`MgB_2`$ for several magnetic fields under heating condition. The applied field was 0, 1, 4, 7, 10 and 14T in turn applied at low temperature after zero field cooling. A narrow superconductivity transition occurs at $`T_c`$ = 38.1K in zero-field. With increasing fields $`T_c`$ shifts to lower temperature and the transition width increases as expected. It should be noted that the superconductivity of $`MgB_2`$ persisted over the investigated fields.

The thermal conductivity of the sample was measured by the longitudinal steady-state thermal flow method in the temperature range 4-50 K and for several magnetic field up to 13.9 T. The thermal flow and the magnetic field were parallel to the long axis of the sample. A thin-film chip resistor was used as an end heater, and thin-wire differential thermocouples for monitoring the thermal gradients on the sample. The measurements were performed under high vacuum with two additional shields mounted around the sample in order to reduce the heat losses due to radiation at finite temperature . A carbon-doped glass resistance thermometer was used to measure the temperature of sample in a magnetic field. The sensitivity of the thermocouple as well as the resistance of the thin-film resistor were previously calibrated for magnetic field conditions. The whole experiment was computer controlled .

Fig. 2 shows the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of polycrystalline $`MgB_2`$, in applied 0.0, 0.02, 0.5, 1.0, 5.0, 10.0 and 13.9 Tesla field after zero-field cooling. Data were recorded while warming the sample up at a fixed magnetic field. The thermal conductivity is seen to increase monotonically with increasing temperature in the investigated ranges. The temperature dependence of $`\kappa (0,T)`$ is linear (correlation coefficient R = 0.9995). With increasing fields, $`\kappa (H,T)`$ has an almost linear temperature dependence at low fields. A significant enhancement in $`\kappa (H,T)`$ is obvious in the high- field region at low temperature, as in . All $`\kappa (H,T)`$ over $`T`$ curve intersect each other at 19K above which temperature the curves of $`\kappa (H,T)`$ for different fields merge on each other, except that for 13.9T.

## III DISCUSSION of MEASUREMENTS

As shown in Fig.2, the absence of anomaly in the thermal conductivity in zero-field near the superconducting transition $`T_c`$, is first in reasonable agreement with other results reported for polycrystalline \[37-39\] and single crystalline $`MgB_2`$ . Such a smoothness is often attributed to charge carrier and phonon scattering by a distribution of localized impurities or extended defects. However, the $`MgB_2`$ thermal conductivity markedly differs in behavior at $`T_c`$ from that of conventional superconductors and high temperature superconductors. The thermal conductivity of such superconducting materials generally shows an anomalous behavior at the superconducting transition temperature, either a decrease or an increase below $`T_c`$ depending on the nature of the heat carrier and their interaction. In conventional superconductors $`\kappa (T)`$ decreases below $`T_c`$ due to the condensation of electrons. In the case of the high temperature superconductors $`\kappa (T)`$ shows a peak below $`T_c`$ that is explained by considering either an increase in the phonon mean free path due to carrier condensation or an increase in the quasi-particles relaxation time in the superconducting state or to both. Our results show no such a response in the thermal conductivity for $`MgB_2`$ around $`T_c`$ in both absence (and presence of magnetic fields) within our experimental resolution. It means that $`MgB_2`$ thermal conduction is not much sensitive to any Cooper pairing below $`T_c`$ nor to the breaking effect introduced by a field. However, the lattice contribution is substantial in both the superconducting and the normal state region. Indeed, in zero field, the thermal conductivity $`\kappa `$ in a metal is generally considered to be the sum of electrons $`\kappa _e`$ and phonon contributions $`\kappa _{ph}`$, i.e. $`\kappa (T)`$ = $`\kappa _e(T)`$ \+ $`\kappa _{ph}(T)`$.

The electronic contribution to $`\kappa (T)`$ in the superconducting state has been calculated by Bardeen, Rickayzen, and Tewordt . The phonon thermal conductivity is usually represented within the Debye-type relaxation rate approximation

$$\kappa _{\mathrm{ph}}=\frac{k_\mathrm{B}}{2\pi ^2v}\left(\frac{k_\mathrm{B}}{\mathrm{}}\right)^3T^3\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{\Theta }_D/T}{}}\frac{x^4e^x}{(e^x1)^2}\tau (\omega ,T)𝑑x,$$
(1)
where $`\omega `$ is the frequency of a phonon, $`\tau (\omega ,T)`$ is the corresponding relaxation time, $`v=\mathrm{\Theta }_D\left(k_B\mathrm{/}\mathrm{}\right)(6\pi ^2n)^{1/3}`$ is the average sound velocity, $`n`$ is the number density of atoms, and $`x=\mathrm{}\omega /k_\mathrm{B}T`$. For our analysis, we use $`\mathrm{\Theta }_D=750`$ K, as deduced from specific heat measurements . The total phonon relaxation rate

$`\tau ^1=L/v+B\omega ^4+CT\omega ^2\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Theta }_D/bT)+D\omega `$ (2)
$`+E\omega g(x,y)`$ (3)
can be represented as a sum of terms corresponding to independent scattering mechanisms. The individual terms, dominating in different temperature intervals, introduce phonon scattering by sample boundaries, point defects, phonons, dislocations, and electrons, respectively. The constants $`L`$, $`B`$, $`C`$, $`b`$, $`D`$, and $`E`$ are a measure for the intensity of corresponding phonon relaxation processes. The function $`g(x,y)`$ is given in Ref..

The $`\kappa _e(T)`$ magnitude can be estimated from the electrical resistivity and the Wiedemann-Franz (W-F) rule $`\kappa _e\rho =LT`$ where $`L`$ = $`L_0`$, the Lorentz constant, if the scattering is elastic; $`L<L_0`$ if it is inelastic. Since the value of $`\kappa _e`$ is an upper limit when obtained by using the W-F rule and $`L_0`$, we estimate that the value of $`\kappa _e`$ is about 20% of the $`total`$ value of the thermal conductivity in the normal state, $`\kappa _n`$ e.g. at $`T`$=50K for our sample. The best fit value for $`L`$ being significantly smaller than the expected Lorentz constant $`L_0`$ calls attention to the influence of inelastic scattering, and to a large phonon (80%) contribution.

Next, consider the field dependence of the thermal conductivity $`\kappa (H)`$/$`\kappa (H=0)`$ at several temperatures (Fig.3). In low fields, the thermal conductivity seems insensitive to the magnitude of the applied magnetic fields whereas it becomes variably enhanced at higher fields. Notably, the value $`\kappa (H)`$ is higher than that of $`\kappa (H=0)`$ in the field region larger than 0.5 T at low temperature (below 19K). The non-linear field dependence and the field-dependence enhancement in $`\kappa (H)`$ imply that the effect of vortex structure, induced by the field, over heat carrier in the mixed state of $`MgB_2`$ is no longer a beaten track. According to standard thinking for conventional superconductors the introduction of a magnetic field would lead to a decrease in heat conductivity because vortices constitute new scattering centers for heat carriers. This picture provided a qualitative explanation of the field-induced decrease in $`\kappa (H)`$ observed in the vortex states of conventional superconductors and high $`T_c`$ cuprates in the investigated regions of the field-temperature plane \[27-37\].

To interpret quantitatively the field dependence of the thermal conductivity in superconductors one again assumes that phonons and electrons contribute independently as thermal carriers, such that

$$\kappa (B,T)=\kappa _e(B,T)+\kappa _{ph}(B,T),$$
(4)
where $`\kappa _e(B,T)`$ and $`\kappa _{ph}(B,T)`$ are the electronic and phononic contribution to $`\kappa (B,T)`$, respectively.

Again the mean free path of both, electrons and phonons, can change below $`T_c`$, because the scattering of phonons on electrons is reduced when electrons condense into the superconducting state. Moreover the electron-electron interaction can change when the superconducting gap opens below $`T_c`$ and modify the mobility because of the condensate presence. Therefore, it is not immediately clear a priori which type of thermal carriers and which interactions are responsible for the behavior of the thermal conductivity in various temperature and field ranges.

More recently experiments have shown unequivocally that the two gaps structure is an intrinsic Fermi property of $`MgB_2`$. According to band structure calculations and tunneling experiments, there are two distinctive Fermi surfaces : one is a two dimensional cylindrical Fermi surface arising from $`\sigma `$-orbitals due to $`p_x`$ and $`p_y`$ electrons of $`B`$ atoms and the other is a three dimensional tubular Fermi surface network coming from $`\pi `$-orbitals due to $`p_z`$ electrons of $`B`$ atoms. They are weakly hybridized with $`Mg`$ electron orbitals. These two Fermi surfaces have different superconducting energy gaps: A large band gap (LBG) $`\mathrm{\Delta }_L`$ on the 2D Fermi surface sheets and a small band gap (SBG) $`\mathrm{\Delta }_S`$ on the 3D Fermi surface. The ratio $`\mathrm{\Delta }_S`$ /$`\mathrm{\Delta }_L`$ is estimated to be around 0.3$``$0.4 . Electrons on these two Fermi surfaces own different characters since the $`\sigma `$-orbital is strongly coupled to the in-plane $`B`$-atom vibration with $`E_{2g}`$ symmetry but the $`\pi `$-orbital is weakly coupled with this phonon mode

Consider first the possible electronic contribution and let us analyze the field dependence of the thermal conductivity at low temperature (19K in our study) within a vortex lattice structure picture for a two band gap superconductor. The single vortex state has been studied by Nakai et al. . In each unit cell and within a two-band superconducting model , the vortex core radius is found to be narrow for the LBG and is large for the SBG electrons. When increasing $`H`$ the vortex core radius widens (and the order parameter is suppressed). This widening $`H`$ effect is stronger for the SBG than for the LBG electrons. Therefore the LBG vortex bound states are highly confined, due the narrow core radius, while the S-band vortex core states are more loosely bound. In the vortex core of the L-band, the local density of states (LDOS) at site $`r`$, $`N_L(r,EO)`$, is thus highly concentrated, while the $`N_S(r,EO)`$ LDOS is rather spread out in the $`S`$-band case. In fact, the low energy states extending from the $`S`$-band vortex cores are even expected to overlap with neighboring ones. For increasing $`H`$the overlap is expected to become more pronounced and the LDOS to reduce to a flat profile, i.e. $`N_S(r,EO)/N_s(E_F)0.5`$ for the $`S`$-band, - where $`N_S(E_F)`$ is the total DOS in the normal state at the Fermi level. This picture of the vortex structure in $`MgB_2`$ is in fine agreement with the field dependence of the electronic specific heat \[5-7\].

From a scattering point of view, we have also to consider two subsystems of quasiparticles characterized by $`\mathrm{\Delta }_L`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_S`$ band gaps. Let $`\kappa _e(B,T)=\kappa _{e,L}(B,T)+\kappa _{e,S}(B,T)`$, thereby taking into account two sets of electrons with different characters.

According to the analysis on single crystalline $`MgB_2`$  the electrons experiencing the large gap provide approximately 2/3 of the total electronic heat conduction, and the dominant part of the interaction between quasiparticles and low-frequency phonons is provided by that part of the electronic excitation spectrum experiencing the small gap .

The function $`g(x,y)`$ in Eq.(2) is then given by the sum

$$g(x,y)=g(x,\mathrm{\Delta }_L(T)/k_BT)+\alpha g(x,\mathrm{\Delta }_S(T)/k_BT).$$
(5)
The parameter $`\alpha `$ characterizes the relative weight of phonon scattering by quasiparticles in the two $`S`$ and $`L`$ subsystems.

It seems reasonable to expect that a weak field more easily suppresses the energy SBG than the LBG. Therefore superconductivity is maintained in a field mainly because the LBG survives, up to $`H_{c2}`$, as seen in Fig.1, i.e $`\alpha =0`$. The $`N_s(r,EO)`$ domains with low-energy excitations survive, but for increasing fields the SBG LDOS reaches a flat profile $`N_s(r,EO)/N_s(E_F)`$ $`0.5`$, thereby not contributing to heat conduction. This $`H_{c2S}`$ seems to be ca. 3.0 T. These SBG electrons become heat carrier prone, inducing above $`H_{c2S}`$ an increase in the electronic thermal conductivity. Nakai et al.  claim that $`H_{c2S}`$ and $`H_{c2L}`$ are the same because they do not observe a hump in the specific heat at some intermediary field, i.e. the lower one. This maybe due to the fact that the specific heat is on one hand a bulk quantity in contrast to the thermal conductivity rather probing a percolation path. Moreover, we have shown elsewhere that it is sometimes very hard to obtain accurately kinks and phase transtion lines form specific heat data , even with high precision measurements, in contrast to magnetotransport data .

Consider the phonon contribution next. Phonons are accepted to be the dominant heat carriers in $`MgB_2`$, especially down to $`T`$/ $`T_c`$ $``$ 0.4 \[37-39\]. The study of the phonon spectrum in $`MgB_2`$ \[8-11\] has clearly shown an anomalous phonon behavior at the low energy transfer of -24 meV on cooling through $`T_c`$ reflecting a strong relation between these phonon states and superconductivity origin in $`MgB_2`$.

From the thermal conductivity in a magnetic field behavior point of view, the phonon-(double type) vortex structure interaction should be expected to depend also on the nature of the phonon spectrum, in the sense of Tewordt-Wolkhausen picture . The phonons which can inelastically interact with the bound quasiparticles in the vortex cores are only those for which the phonon wavelength $`\lambda <\xi `$, is of the size of a vortex core . Thus it seems obvious that due to the overlapping features of the low energy states, the SBG vortices become less effective scattering centers for phonons as well. Therefore the mean free path of low frequency phonons may also increase, resulting in an increase of the thermal conduction process at high field, in agreement with the above data. We conjecture that the quasi particle associated with the LBG contribute moderately to the thermal conductivity at high field and low temperature. In fact interactions involving the quasiparticles associated with the LBG and thermal phonons have not been well described. Nevertheless they could contain an elastic component of the scattering process. Such a picture seems a fine way of interpreting the decrease of the thermal conductivity at high field and high temperature (Fig.2) .

Finally, an alternative view considers that electrons self-organize into collective textures rather than point-like entities . Such an image of electronic collective textures in an applied magnetic field is complex and not immediately ready for interpreting the (electron or phonon in fact) scattering process within the framework of a double vortex structure, as discussed above. We cannot further debar the possibility that a field-induced shift of the phonon spectrum itself could produce effects similar to temperature. Some softening of the phonon spectrum indeed exists, as seen in the thermal expansion coefficient . This equivalency, to be fair, may be also at the origin of the enhanced behavior of the field-temperature dependent thermal conductivity in superconducting $`MgB_2`$.

## IV CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we have investigated the heat transport in $`MgB_2`$ in both absence and presence of magnetic fields (up to 14T) in the temperature range between 4-50K. In these regimes, the superconductivity of $`MgB_2`$ persisted as seen from electrical resistivity measurements; no clear anomaly appeared in the thermal conductivity at $`T_c`$. The thermal conductivity in absence of field shows a $`T`$-linear increase up to 50 K. In weak magnetic fields the thermal conductivity is insensitive to the magnitude of the applied field; an enhanced thermal conductivity appears at higher fields and low temperature, but not at high temperature. We argue that the existence of two quasiparticle subsystems with different field-dependent characters explain the results. The field dependence of the thermal conductivity for such a two-band superconductor indicates that the enhancement of $`\kappa (H,T)`$ at low temperature in high fields is a result of the overlap of the low energy states outside the small band gap vortex cores, above a critical $`H_{c2S}`$ field.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.10174070), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (NKBRSF-G19990646) and partly supported by the Belgium National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS)

## Figure captions

Figure 1:
Electrical resistivity of polycrystalline $`MgB_2`$ versus temperature in 0, 1, 4, 7, 10 and 14 Tesla applied magnetic fields

Figure 2:
Thermal conductivity, $`\kappa (H,T)`$, of polycrystalline $`MgB_2`$ vs. temperature $`T`$ in zero $`H`$-field and in 0.02, 0.5, 1.0, 5.0, 10.0 and 13.9 Tesla applied magnetic fields

Figure 3:
Field dependence of $`MgB_2`$ reduced thermal conductivity $`\kappa (H)`$/$`\kappa (H=0)`$) at several temperatures