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# Scaling and the center of band anomaly in a one-dimensional Anderson model with diagonal disorder

## I Introduction

Despite a long history of research in the field of localization, even such a standard problem as the one-dimensional Anderson tight-binding model with nearest neighbor hopping and diagonal disorder can still hold surprises. This model is described by the equation of motion

$$\psi _{n+1}+\psi _{n1}+(ϵ_nE)\psi _n=0,$$
(1)
where, $`\psi _n`$ represents a wave function at the $`n`$-th site, $`ϵ_n`$ is a random site energy distributed uniformly between $`W`$ and $`W`$, and $`E`$ is the energy. Recently, Schomerus and Titov Titov  demonstrated that single parameter scaling (SPS), which is a cornerstone of the conceptual framework for dealing with transport properties of disordered systems gang , is violated in this classical model of localization in the vicinity of the energy $`E=0`$. While the violation of SPS in the vicinities of the energies $`E=\pm 2`$ (which are band boundaries of the system with $`W=0`$, i.e., all $`ϵ_n=0`$) is well established DeychPRL , the absence of SPS at the band center $`E=0`$ looks surprising. It is yet another manifestation of the anomalous nature of this spectral point. Whereas earlier studies of the Anderson model revealed an anomalous behavior of the localization length at $`E=0`$ Kappus ; Derrida ; Goldhirsch1994 ; Izrailev , the violation of SPS in this spectral region remained unnoticed. The mathematical roots of the anomalous behavior of the localization length were established in Ref. Goldhirsch1994, . At the same time the physical understanding of the nature of the anomalous properties of $`E=0`$ is still absent. Here we suggest an approach to this spectral region based on symmetries of the Hamiltonian Eq. (1), which clarifies the physical nature of this anomaly, and explains scaling properties of the Anderson model in this spectral region.

It is convenient to describe the statistics of conductance, $`g`$, of a disordered chain of length $`L`$ in terms of the Lyapunov exponent (LE), $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$, defined as Anderson

$$\stackrel{~}{\gamma }=\frac{1}{L}\mathrm{ln}\left(1+\frac{1}{g}\right).$$
(2)
SPS means that the probability distribution of $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$ depends on a single parameter, so that, e.g., any moment of this distribution can be expressed through the mean value of LE, $`\gamma \stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$. Such a relationship between $`\gamma `$ and the variance, $`\sigma ^2\stackrel{~}{\gamma }^2\stackrel{~}{\gamma }^2`$, was first conjectured in Ref. Anderson,

$$\tau \sigma ^2L/\gamma =1.$$
(3)
The authors of Ref. Titov,  demonstrated that at $`E=0`$, parameter $`\tau `$ of Eq. (3) deviates from the SPS value and is equal to $`1.047`$. This deviation from Eq. (3), which was overlooked by previous studies probably due to its small size, is of principle importance. It seemingly contradicts a well established criterion for SPS introduced in Ref. DeychPRL, .

In this Letter we show that this is only an apparent contradiction, and explain the violation of SPS at $`E=0`$ within the general picture developed in Ref. DeychPRL, . The anomaly at $`E=0`$ turns out to result from a hidden symmetry of the tight-binding model, which splits the conduction band into two adjacent bands with a boundary at $`E=0`$. This splitting does not affect thermodynamic properties of the model but is crucial to its scaling behavior.

Before presenting our resolution of the mysterious behavior in the vicinity of $`E=0`$, let us recall the history of the criterion for SPS. Originally, Anderson, et al. Anderson  suggested that SPS holds when the localization length of the system, $`l_{loc}=\gamma ^1,`$ exceeds what they called the phase randomization length: $`l_{loc}>l_{ph}`$. The stationary distribution of the phases of the reflection and transmission amplitudes in disordered one-dimensional systems was assumed to become uniform as soon as the system length $`L`$ exceeds $`l_{ph}`$. Many authors derived Eq. (3) from this phase randomization hypothesis for several different models. The phase randomization itself was rigorously proven only for few particular models: banded matrices Mirlin , the Anderson tight-binding model with diagonal disorder Goldhirsch1994 , and a continuous model with a white-noise random potential Schomerus  for certain spectral regions. At the same time, it was shown that for some values of energies, such as $`E=0`$ or $`E=\pm 2`$ for the model described by Eq. (1) the stationary distribution of the phases is not uniform Stone ; Kappus ; Derrida ; Goldhirsch1994 ; Izrailev ; Ossipov .

Although in the vicinities of these special energies SPS is indeed violated ZaslavskyPRL ; Titov , the criterion for SPS based on the phase randomization length does not seem to describe the situation adequately. Indeed, the absence of the phase randomization in all situations discussed above does not mean that the “relaxation” length of the phase distribution diverges and exceeds the localization length when one approaches the respective energies. What actually happens is that the uniform contribution to the stationary phase distribution vanishes in the vicinity of these special energies. As a result, the nonuniform part, which always exists but is usually small, becomes dominant Derrida ; Goldhirsch1994 ; Izrailev . Thus, the phase randomization length, as it was introduced in Ref. Anderson , is ill-defined.

Thus, appealing to the phase distribution in connection with SPS simply substitutes the problem of formulating a criterion for SPS by the problem of finding a criterion for the uniform distribution of phases. Previously proposed criteria for the latter are specific for particular models. For instance, in Ref. Titov,  for the Anderson model within the white noise approximation, the criteria for the phase randomization for the band edges and the band center are set as $`|E2|>3W^{2/3}`$ and $`|E|>10D`$, respectively ($`D`$ is a measure of the disorder strength). These definitions do not look satisfactory to us. We believe that the criterion should be universal and formulated in terms of some fundamental macroscopic quantities.

Such a universal criterion for SPS similar in form to the Anderson’s, $`l_{loc}>l_{ph}`$, was recently suggested in Ref. DeychPRL, :

$$\kappa l_{loc}/l_s>1.$$
(4)
The new length scale, $`l_s`$, has nothing to do with $`l_{ph}`$ and can be expressed through the integral density of states normalized by the total number of states in the band, $`N(E)`$, and a distance between the neighboring sites, $`a`$:

$$l_s=a/\mathrm{sin}[\pi N(E)].$$
(5)
This criterion was extracted from the exact calculation of the variance of LE for the Anderson model with the Cauchy distribution of the site energies, $`ϵ_n`$ (the Lloyd model). Eq. (3) was derived in Ref. DeychPRL,  without any relation to the phase distribution 111The actual result for $`\tau `$ obtained in Ref. DeychPRL,  differs by the factor of $`2`$ from the standard form Eq. (3) because of the peculiarities of the Cauchy distribution. For in-band states, $`N(E)1/2`$ and $`l_s`$ is microscopic and therefore is not significant. For the states close to the band edges and fluctuation states in the former band gaps, where $`N(E)1`$ or $`1N(E)1`$, $`l_s`$ becomes macroscopic and can exceed $`l_{loc}`$. In the latter case, $`l_s`$ has a clear physical meaning as an average distance between localization centers responsible for the states with energies between $`E`$ and the closest fluctuation boundary of the spectrum.

The expression of $`l_s`$ in terms of the density of states $`N(E)`$ allowed authors of Refs. DeychPRL,  to conjecture a generalization of this definition to other models. It was suggested that $`N(E)`$ in Eq. (5) must be understood as the total number of states (per unit length) between $`E`$ and a closest genuine spectral boundary normalized by the total number of states. This definition of $`l_s`$ can be used also in the case of systems with multiple bands, provided that the disorder does not fill the band gaps of the original systems completely, and there exist genuine spectral boundaries inside each of the band gaps. Under this condition, $`N(E)`$ refers to the number of states associated with one particular band of the spectrum, and varies between $`0`$ and $`1`$ when $`E`$ spans the states of the band.

In light of this criterion, one can understand the violation of SPS in the band gaps of the initial spectrum observed numerically in Ref. ZaslavskyPRL, . Applicability of the $`l_s`$-based criterion was examined for several other models such as the Anderson model with the box DeychPRL  and dichotomic Erementchouk  distributions of the site energies, the model of a scalar wave propagating through a one-dimensional disordered periodic-on-average superlattice, and even for the model of a wave propagating in an absorbing medium YamilovPRB . In all these cases, the criterion perfectly described the transition between the SPS behavior of in-band states, and non-SPS behavior of the band edge and fluctuation states. Moreover, as was shown recently in Ref. DeychPRL2002, , the length $`l_s`$ plays an even more important role than simply determining a boundary between SPS and non-SPS spectral regions: the second and the third moments of the distribution of the Lyapunov exponent in the non-SPS region can be parameterized by a single parameter $`\kappa `$ provided that $`L`$ exceeds $`l_s`$ 222For intermediate lengths, $`l_{loc}Ll_s`$, there is an additional parameter $`L/l_s`$, which describes an anomalous behavior of the second moment DeychPRL2002 ..

## II The band-center anomaly in the Anderson model

The success of the scaling approach based on the parameter $`\kappa `$, Eqs. (4) and (5), in predicting violations of SPS at the band edges of different models, and in describing the probability distribution of LE in non-SPS spectral regions DeychPRL ; YamilovPRB ; DeychPRL2002  motivated us to look more carefully at the reasons for the apparent failure of this approach at the center of the band of the Anderson model.

We start our analysis with a tight-binding model without disorder, $`ϵ_n=0`$. The solution of Eq. (1) at $`ϵ_n=0`$ is plane waves, $`\psi _n\mathrm{exp}(\pm ikna)`$, with $`k`$ satisfying the dispersion equation

$$E=2\mathrm{cos}ka;0ka\pi ,$$
(6)
According to the traditional widely accepted point of view, Eq. (6) describes a single energy band $`2E2`$,

However, this model contains more than the simple picture reveals. Indeed, the equations of motion, Eq. (1), at $`ϵ_n=0`$ acquire an additional symmetry: Operation

$$D_n=\psi _n(1)^n\psi _n$$
(7)
transforms a state $`\psi _n(E)`$ into the state $`\psi _n(E)`$: $`\psi _n(E)=(1)^n\psi _n(E)`$. This operation forms a group, and the states of this model can be classified according to its irreducible representations.

In order to realize these representations, we introduce two field invariants with respect to $`D_n`$:

$$u_l=\psi _{2l};v_l=\psi _{2l+1}.$$
(8)
Solving equations of motion for these fields we find that the spectrum is separated into two branches described by the following dispersion equations

$$E=\pm \mathrm{cos}(ka/2).$$
(9)
Two bands of the spectrum described by Eq. (9) have a common boundary at $`E=0`$, and, therefore, the spectrum of the system appears as consisting of a single band, as it is usually assumed. However, the classification of the states according to the irreducible representations of $`D_n`$ reveals that $`E=0`$ should be considered as a band boundary rather than as a band center. The new description of the band structure can be viewed as a transition to the reduced zone representation, where the wave number of the original dispersion equation Eq. (6) is restricted to the interval $`0ka\pi /2`$. This operation is equivalent to doubling of the elementary cell of the original periodic chain. This can be justified by noticing that two adjacent sites of the chain are not equivalent with respect to the operation $`D_n`$ \[Eq. (7)\].

The considerations presented above would have been merely an exercise, if the vicinity of $`E=0`$ did not behave anomalously in the presence of disorder. Of course, any disorder mixes states from $`E<0`$ and $`E>0`$ bands. However, since violation of SPS occurs in the vicinity of a spectral boundary of an unperturbed system DeychPRL , one can expect that $`E=0`$ behaves similarly to $`E=\pm 2`$ boundaries. Actually a similarity between properties of $`E=0`$ and other band boundaries was noted already in Ref. Goldhirsch1994, , where it was shown that the calculation of the LE in the vicinities of all three points $`E=\pm 2`$, and $`E=0`$ required almost identical mathematical approach.

The deviation of the parameter $`\tau (\kappa )`$, Eq. (3), from unity observed in Ref. Titov,  can be interpreted as a manifestation of the band-edge nature of the spectral point $`E=0`$. This deviation is, however, different from the behavior of $`\tau (\kappa )`$ in the vicinity of $`E=\pm 2`$. Near $`E=\pm 2`$, $`\tau (\kappa )`$ demonstrates a small overshoot above unity at the band side of these boundaries, and decreases quickly at the band gap sides DeychPRL . Since two conduction bands are adjacent at $`E=0`$, there is no band gap related decrease of $`\tau (\kappa )`$. However, the band-edge nature of $`E=0`$ still manifests itself in the form of the overshoot, discovered in Ref. Titov, . This overshoot appears at both sides of $`E=0`$.

The fundamental question is whether the deviation from SPS near $`E=0`$ occurs in accordance with the criterion Eq. (4)? The answer is “yes”, however, the definition of the length $`l_s`$, Eq. (5), should be modified to reflect the fact that the states are now distributed between two bands. Accordingly, when calculating $`l_s`$ for each of the bands, we have to keep in mind that $`N(E)`$ in Eq. (5) is a number of states between $`E=0`$ and a given energy $`E`$ normalized by the total number of states in this band.

The results of the numerical calculations based on the new definition of $`l_s`$ reveal first of all (Fig. 1) that the criterion $`\kappa >1`$ and SPS are indeed violated simultaneously near $`E=0`$ as well as near $`E=2`$. What we find even more important, however, is that the results of the calculations for different energies, strengths of disorder, and lengths of the system, all collapse to a single curve, when presented in the form $`\tau (\kappa )`$. Thus $`\kappa l_{loc}/l_s`$, after the proper definition of $`l_s`$, remains a natural scaling variable for the entire spectrum of the system.

This means that separating negative and positive energies in two bands is physically significant. Of course, functions $`\tau (\kappa )`$ for the vicinities of $`E=2`$ and $`E=0`$, do not coincide. This does not cause problems for our scaling description as long as these two regions are well separated by the spectral interval where $`\tau =1`$.

Additional arguments in favor of our interpretation of the $`E=0`$ anomaly can be obtained by modifying the initial Anderson model. For example, one can include next to the nearest neighbors interaction, and consider a model determined by the equation

$$\psi _{n+1}+\psi _{n1}+\alpha (\psi _{n+2}+\psi _{n2})+(ϵ_nE)\psi _n=0.$$
(10)
The spectrum of this model, in the absence of disorder, consists of two branches, only one of which corresponds to propagating states for $`\alpha <1/4`$. This branch is invariant with respect to a similar symmetry $`(1)^n\psi _n(E)=\psi _n(E^{})`$. The stationary point of this transformation $`E^{}=E=2\alpha `$ is a boundary between two adjacent bands. Numerical calculations confirmed that indeed there is an anomaly in the dependence of the scaling parameter $`\tau (\kappa )`$ at $`2\alpha `$ similar to the one discussed above (see inset in Fig. 1).

To justify the physical significance of our treatment of $`E=0`$ as a band edge further we added a periodic potential $`U_n=U_0(1)^n`$ to random site energies $`ϵ_n`$. This potential breaks the symmetry of the model, and creates in the vicinity of $`E=0`$ a real band gap with a width proportional to $`U_0`$. The idea is to look at the sensitivity of the anomalous behavior in the vicinity of $`E=0`$ to the presence of the real band gap. This gap should decrease together with the magnitude of the symmetry-breaking potential. Will the features associated with the gap survive the vanishing of the gap width? The results of the numerical simulations answering this question are presented in Fig. 2. One can see that the anomalies in $`\tau (\kappa )`$ remain stable with respect to the symmetry-breaking perturbation. In the limit $`U_00`$, $`\tau (\kappa )`$ has the same behavior as for small but finite $`U_0`$. This observation in conjunction with the scaling arguments presented above gives strong support to our treatment of $`E=0`$ as a band edge.

Finally, there is one more question that should be addressed. Choosing an appropriate periodic potential one can create a band gap centered not only at $`E_{gap}=0`$ but anywhere in the spectrum. Why, then, is SPS violated only near $`E=0`$? It follows from our numerical studies that when the periodic potential is weak and $`E_{gap}0`$, the $`\tau (\kappa )`$-function always approaches the band edge without any overshoot above its SPS value, $`\tau =1`$; it simply decreases inside the gap. As a result, the normal SPS-like behavior is restored once the periodic potential vanishes. In the Lloyd model, the similar behavior is characteristic for all band boundaries, $`E=\pm 2,0`$. Therefore, the absence of a real band gap at $`E=0`$ masks the actual nature of this energy, and the center-band anomaly in the behavior of the second moment is not observed.

Concluding, we resolved the mystery of the anomalous properties in the vicinity of $`E=0`$ in the Anderson model with diagonal disorder. We demonstrated that due to an additional symmetry of the respective Hamiltonian, this spectral point must be considered as a band boundary between two adjacent bands rather than the center of a single band. The relevance of the criterion for SPS suggested in Refs. DeychPRL,  is thus reestablished. Our approach allows one to describe statistical properties of conductance in the vicinity of $`E=0`$ within the framework of the scaling approach of Ref. DeychPRL2002, .

The authors thank Steve Schwarz for reading and commenting on the manuscript. The work at Queens College was supported by AFOSR under Contract No. F49620-02-1-0305, and partially by PSC-CUNY grants. BA gratefully acknowledges partial support by the EPSRC grant GR/R95432.


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# Magnetic field and pressure effects on charge density wave, superconducting, and magnetic states in Lu5Ir4Si10 and Er5Ir4Si10

thanks: Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail address: mhjung@kbsi.re.kr

## Abstract

We have studied the charge-density-wave (CDW) state for the superconducting Lu5Ir4Si10 and the antiferromagnetic Er5Ir4Si10 as variables of temperature, magnetic field, and hydrostatic pressure. For Lu5Ir4Si10, the application of pressure strongly suppresses the CDW phase but weakly enhances the superconducting phase. For Er5Ir4Si10, the incommensurate CDW state is pressure independent and the commensurate CDW state strongly depends on the pressure, whereas the antiferromagnetic ordering is slightly depressed by applying pressure. In addition, Er5Ir4Si10 shows negative magnetoresistance at low temperatures, compared with the positive magnetoresistance of Lu5Ir4Si10.

The charge density wave (CDW) ground state develops in low-dimensional materials as a consequence of electron-phonon interactions in that the electronic instabilities lead to structural modulations. The periodic charge density modulation accompanied by a periodic lattice distortion has a tendency to achieve nesting of the Fermi surface and to open an energy gap at the Fermi level. There have been many studies on a phase diagram where CDW coexists with superconductivity (SC) CDW\_SC . There have been a couple of previous studies to look for possible interplay between CDW and magnetism Mydosh\_Er ; Jung . However, the precise role of CDW with respect to SC or magnetism is unclear so far. It is worthwhile to study strongly coupled CDW systems such as Lu5Ir4Si10 and Er5Ir4Si10 with SC and magnetism, respectively.

Both Lu5Ir4Si10 and Er5Ir4Si10 compounds crystallize in the Sc5Co4Si10-type (space group P4/mbm) tegragonal structure structure . The chainlike structure of Lu1/Er1 atoms along the $`c`$ axis may not only form a quasi-one-dimensional electronic band but also achieve a CDW ground state. Lu5Ir4Si10 shows a strongly coupled commensurate CDW state at $`T_{\mathrm{CDW}}`$ = 83 K, which is followed by a weakly coupled BCS-type superconducting state below $`T_\mathrm{C}`$ = 3.9 K Mydosh\_Lu . It has been found that this structural transition is accompanied with a partial gapping of the Fermi surface Lu\_CDW  and a periodic lattice distortion with the wave vector $`\stackrel{}{q}=(0,0,3/7)`$ Mydosh\_Lu , leading to a metallic nature even in the CDW state. The superconducting transition temperature is slightly depressed by an applied pressure up to 20 kbar at a rate of $`dT_\mathrm{C}/dP1\times 10^2`$ K/kbar and suddenly jumps up into $`T_\mathrm{C}`$ = 9.1 K at 21.4 kbar Lu\_SC . On the other hand, Er5Ir4Si10 has a transition on cooling to a 1D incommensurate CDW state at $`T_{\mathrm{ICDW}}`$ = 155 K and a lock-in transition at $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$ = 55 K Mydosh\_Er . Then, the well-localized Er3+ moments are antiferromagnetically ordered below $`T_\mathrm{N}`$ = 2.8 K Er\_M . It has been suggested that the incommensurate CDW state is favored in the doubled unit cell with $`\stackrel{}{q}=(0,0,1/4\pm \delta )`$ and then locks into a purely commensurate CDW phase at $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$, whereby $`\delta `$ jumps to zero. The magnetic moments of the Er ions may play a definite role in these transitions. This paper reports the first observation of magnetic field and pressure effects on the CDW states in the superconducting Lu5Ir4Si10 and the local-moment magnet Er5Ir4Si10 single crystals. The present results suggest that there is an interplay between CDW and magnetism, which becomes important near $`T_\mathrm{N}`$.

Single crystals of Lu5Ir4Si10 and Er5Ir4Si10 have been grown with a tri-arc furnace using a modified Czochralski technique (see Ref. Mydosh\_Lu ; Mydosh\_Er  for details). The electrical resistivity was measured by a standard four-probe dc method using conventional 10 T and 20 T superconducting magnets at the Korea Basic Science Institute in South Korea. Magnetization measurements were performed with a Quantum Design superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer. Data of the specific heat were taken by a thermal relaxation method utilizing a Quantum Design physical property measurement system (PPMS). The pressure cells for the transport and magnetic measurements are of the piston-cylinder type constructed out of BeCu alloy.

Figure 1 demonstrates the presence of both CDW and SC transitions in Lu5Ir4Si10. At $`T_{\mathrm{CDW}}`$ = 83 K, the specific heat $`C(T)`$ has a sharp spike, of which the size is about 160 J/mol K. This indicates the first-order nature of the CDW phase transition Mydosh\_Lu . In the inset of Fig. 1, a peak structure observed at $`T_\mathrm{C}`$ = 3.9 K corresponds to the SC transition. The application of magnetic field does not change the CDW structure at all but suppresses the SC state. On the other hand, Er5Ir4Si10 displays multiple CDW phases and magnetic ordering. Figure 2 shows the drastic changes in $`C(T)`$ at these transitions. With decreasing temperature, the normal state changes into an incommensurate CDW (ICDW) state at $`T_{\mathrm{ICDW}}`$ = 155 K, where $`C(T)`$ has a sharp peak. It has been reported to be characteristic of the second-order nature of the ICDW transition Mydosh\_Er . This ICDW state develops into a commensurate CDW (CCDW) state at lower temperature $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$ = 55 K, where $`C(T)`$ has a broad shoulder. With further cooling around $`T_\mathrm{N}`$ = 2.9 K, there is a peak in the inset of Fig. 2 because the antiferromagnetic ground state occurs. When the magnetic field is applied, both $`T_{\mathrm{ICDW}}`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$ are unchanged, while $`T_\mathrm{N}`$ is smeared out with magnetic field. These data provide that the magnetic field effect is driven with no change in the electronic instabilities but strong change in the superconductivity and the magnetic ordering.

The anisotropic magnetism of Er5Ir4Si10 is apparent in Fig. 3. The magnetic susceptibility $`\chi (T)`$ has been measured in a field of 100 G along the $`a`$ and $`c`$ axes. At high temperatures above 50 K, both $`\chi _a`$ and $`\chi _c`$ are well fitted by the Curie-Weiss law, $`\chi =C/(T\theta _\mathrm{P})`$. From this fit, we obtain the effective magnetic moments of $`\mu _a=9.58(3)\mu _\mathrm{B}`$ and $`\mu _c=9.59(3)\mu _\mathrm{B}`$ and the paramagnetic Curie temperatures of $`\theta _a`$ = $``$ 6.76(0) K and $`\theta _c`$ = 3.50(5) K for $`Ha`$ and $`Hc`$, respectively. The values of $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ indicate that the Er ion is in the normal trivalent state in Er5Ir4Si10. The value of $`(2\theta _a\theta _c)/3`$ = $``$ 3.34 K is in qualitative agreement with the previous value of $`\theta _\mathrm{P}`$ = $``$ 1.98 K for a polycrystalline sample Er\_M , implying a weak antiferromagnetic-type correlation between the Er3+ moments. At low temperatures below 50 K, the small deviation from the Curie-Weiss law is attributed to the crystal-field effect. Since the difference between $`\theta _a`$ and $`\theta _c`$ is proportional to the tetragonal crystal-field parameter $`B_2^0`$ CEF , we obtain $`B_2^0`$ = $``$ 0.13(6) K using $`\theta _a\theta _c`$ = $``$ 10.26(5) K. With further cooling, there appears a significant difference that $`\chi _a`$ are much smaller than $`\chi _c`$, which reveals only the antiferromagnetic phase transition at $`T_\mathrm{N}`$ = 2.9 K.

In order to examine the pressure effect on the magnetism of Er5Ir4Si10, we have measured $`\chi (T)`$ for $`Hc`$ at constant pressure. As is seen in Fig. 4, the high-temperature data at 9 kbar satisfy the Curie-Weiss law with $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}=9.52(3)\mu _\mathrm{B}`$ and $`\theta _\mathrm{P}`$ = 1.33(9) K. This yields that the valence of Er ion is pressure independent and the magnetic correlation slightly depends on pressure. The most remarkable effect of pressure on the magnetism is illustrated in the inset of Fig. 4. The application of pressure strongly depresses the low-temperature moments and thus the magnetic transition becomes very sluggish. One could anticipate that at higher pressure beyond our experimental range here the magnetic ordering is suppressed completely, resulting in free spin paramagnetism of Er ions.

We now present the pressure and magnetic field effects on the transport of Lu5Ir4Si10. The pressure was fixed at room temperature and the data of electrical resistivity $`\rho (T)`$ have been taken at constant magnetic field as the sample was slowly warming up. The pressure dependence of $`\rho (T)`$ for Lu5Ir4Si10 as a function of temperature at different magnetic fields is shown in Fig. 5. At ambient pressure, $`\rho (T)`$ shows a sharp upward jump at $`T_{\mathrm{CDW}}`$ = 81 K. This is well understood by considering the decrease in area of the Fermi surface as a result of the opening of an energy gap. The CDW transition occurs near 68 K at $`P`$ = 9 kbar. As the pressure is increased, one can expect a band broadening due to pressure-promoted intralayer/interlayer coupling and hence the CDW state becomes unstable and $`T_{\mathrm{CDW}}`$ is lowered with pressure. The monotonic depression of $`T_{\mathrm{CDW}}`$ is consistent with the general trend in conventional CDW materials such as layered transition-metal dichalcogenides and NbSe3 CDW . Since the Fermi surface is sharper at low temperature, the CDW transition is rather sensitive under pressure. The striking feature in $`\rho (T)`$ is the metallic behavior even in the CDW state, indicating that the energy gap is not completely opened, i.e., there is a definite electronic density of states within the gap. We also observe a slight increase of $`T_\mathrm{C}`$ with pressure. This pressure effect can be ascribed to the enhancement of the density of states at the Fermi level resulting from the decrease of the gap. In addition, $`\rho (T)`$ has been studied in the nonmagnetic BeCu cell at various magnetic fields. In a series of temperature cycles at different pressures, the CDW transition is not changed, while the SC transition is strongly suppressed. We note that the application of magnetic field slightly enhances the resistance at low temperatures. This positive magnetoresistance is more pronounced under pressure than at ambient pressure. These results could be attributable to the semimetallic CDW character of Lu5Ir4Si10.

In contrast to the monotonic depression of $`T_{\mathrm{CDW}}`$ for Lu5Ir4Si10 with pressure, the application of pressure in Er5Ir4Si10 has complex effects on the CDW phase transitions. In Fig. 6, $`\rho (T)`$ at ambient pressure displays an abrupt increase at $`T_{\mathrm{ICDW}}`$ = 150 K and a sharp drop at $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$ = 55 K in zero field. The former anomaly at $`T_{\mathrm{ICDW}}`$ can be understood in a way similar to the sharp upward jump at $`T_{\mathrm{CDW}}`$ in Lu5Ir4Si10. The latter anomaly at $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$ may reflect another mechanism that the commensurate modulation destroys the perfect nesting of the Fermi surface, leading to the gain of a portion of the Fermi surface. Consequently, the density of states at the Fermi level is enhanced and thus $`\rho (T)`$ drops sharply at $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$. The influence of pressure on the phase transitions is evident in Fig. 6. The ICDW phase transition is independent of the pressure within our experimental error in temperature of $`\pm `$ 0.1 K. This result is contrary to the CDW state for Lu5Ir4Si10, whose transition temperature strongly depends on pressure. The anomaly associated with the CCDW phase is smeared out under pressure. These pressure effects on the ICDW and CCDW transitions may reflect that the incommensurate-commensurate transition at $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$ depends more critically on the band structure of Er5Ir4Si10 than the normal-incommensurate transition at $`T_{\mathrm{ICDW}}`$ and there is possible interplay between CDW and magnetism in this compound. Further crucial experiments such as low-temperature single-crystal electron or neutron diffraction measurements should be performed to provide the evidence for the strongly coupled CDW interplaying with the magnetic ordering of Er5Ir4Si10. By an applied magnetic field, both $`T_{\mathrm{ICDW}}`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$ remain essentially unchanged, while $`T_\mathrm{N}`$ is strongly depressed. In addition, the magnetoresistance of Er5Ir4Si10 is negative at low temperatures. This is compared with the positive magnetoresistance observed in Lu5Ir4Si10.

In conclusion, we have determined the transition temperatures from the normal to incommensurate phase at $`T_{\mathrm{ICDW}}`$ and from the incommensurate to commensurate phase at $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$ as functions of hydrostatic pressure and magnetic field. We find that for Er5Ir4Si10 $`T_{\mathrm{CCDW}}`$ is suppressed rapidly with pressure, while $`T_{\mathrm{ICDW}}`$ remains constant. It is worthwhile to mention that we cannot rule out the complex transport mechanism, in which the CDW order parameters have different pressure dependence. In addition, the application of magnetic field depresses the resistivity, leading to a negative magnetoresistance at low temperatures. These observations imply that conduction electrons couples strongly with phonons involved in the CDW transition and f electrons with the local-moment magnetism. Comparison of these results with Lu5Ir4Si10 suggests that the suppression of $`T_{\mathrm{CDW}}`$ by pressure is not a necessary condition for the strongly coupled CDW systems with magnetic ordering. It would not be so surprising for one to see the CDW phase interplaying with the magnetism, because of its electronic instability due to magnetic correlation. More information is needed concerning the exact mechanism in terms of the strong electron-phonon interaction as well as the critical coupling between the $`f`$ and conduction electrons.

This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation through the Center for Strongly Correlated Materials Research at Seoul National University and the National Research Laboratory project of the Korea Ministry of Science and Technology.


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# Limit cycle induced frequency locking in self-sustained current oscillations of superlattices

## Abstract

The ac response of self-sustained current oscillations (SSCOs) in GaAs/AlAs superlattices (SLs) is derived based on the deformation of a limit cycle under an external ac driving force. Frequency locking into an integer fraction of the ac frequency is obtained in a periodic response in which a limit cycle deforms either with or without a topological change. This frequency locking is robust against the ac bias because a limit cycle can adjust itself. The results are verified both numerically and experimentally, indicating that SSCOs in SLs can be understood within the framework of the general concepts and principles of nonlinear physics.

Following the early pioneering studychang ; buttiker  on vertical electron transport in superlattices (SLs), one of the recent surprising discoveries is self-sustained current oscillations (SSCOs) under a dc biaskwok ; jwang . A large number of experimental and theoretical studies have focused on different aspects of these oscillations. It is understood that SSCOs are accompanied by the motion of boundaries of electric field domains (EFDs)kastrup . A model capable of describing both the formation of stationary EFDs and SSCOs emerged after many tedious analyses and numerical calculationskastrup . Our understanding of SSCOs was greatly advanced through numerical investigations of this model. As we know, physical system with an intrinsic frequency may have various possible responses to an external driving force. For a linear system, such as a simple pendulum, it will oscillate with the frequency of the driving force. For a nonlinear system, however, it can oscillate with an integer multiple of the driving frequency. For example, a laser light passing through a nonlinear optical medium may lead to the second and third harmonic generations. It is also known that many other nonlinear systems can have frequency locking, in which a system might oscillate with an integer fraction of the driving frequency. It is therefore interesting to ask how the SSCOs observed in SLs response to a combined dc and ac bias. Numerical solutions on several SL modelsbgb ; cao ; scholl ; ventra  show possible aperiodic oscillations, either quasiperiodic or chaotic. The experimental evidences of chaotic behavior were also reportedzhang ; luo . While most early studies focused on the chaotic behavior of tunneling current, there were also studies of the periodic response to an ac bias based on diople EFD modelscholl2 . However, a generalized explanation with deep insights into the observed periodic response and other nonlinear responses in SLs is yet to emerge.

In a recent studyxrw ; xrw1 , we found that SSCOs in a SL correspond to the generation of limit cycles around an unstable steady-state solution. In the terminology of nonlinear physicsbook , SSCOs are the manifestation of one-dimensional attractors-limit cycles. The power of the limit-cycle concept lies in its simplicity and universality. An important question one might ask is if the SSCOs indeed come from limit cycles, what will be the possible responses of the SSCOs to an extra ac bias? As it will be demonstrated in this letter, the EFDs model independent responses of SSCOs in SLs to an extra ac bias can be readily derived based on limit cycles. One will see that in periodic responses of SSCOs in SLs the frequency locking is not only a natural outcome of a limit cycle, but also very robust against the ac driving force. Furthermore, we can predict quantitatively the frequency of a periodic response for a given external ac bias. Thus, it is beneficial to use the limit cycle to understand SSCOs. First, by considering a limit cycle as a basic object, we argue that the limit cycle can have three possible responses to an extra ac bias: 1) a small deformation without a topological change; 2) a small deformation with a topological change; 3) destruction of the limit cycle. The first two scenarios lead to the phenomenon of frequency locking, and the last one gives rise to an aperiodic response. Second, a widely used drift velocity model is solved numerically to demonstrate this type of frequency locking and its robustness. Finally, we present our experimental results. An excellent agreement between the theory and the experiment is achieved.

For the sequential electron tunneling in a SL, the phase space is made up by the bias on each potential barrier, as explained in References 13 and 14, since the state of a given SL is fully determined by these biases. On each point in the phase space, there is a unique vector which describes the system velocity in the spacebook . This velocity is determined by the dynamics of the system. A point with zero velocity is called a fixed point. An unstable fixed point, as denoted by the cross in Fig. 1, is such that a small deviation from the fixed point will drive the system away from the point. However, the system will stay around the fixed point because of the external bias constraint. In the case of a SSCO, this local repulsion and global attraction lead the system to move along a closed curve, a limit cycle, around the fixed pointxrw ; hao . Using a two-dimensional case as an example, it is schematically illustrated in Fig. 1 as a loop in solid line. Applying an extra ac bias with frequency $`\omega _{ac}`$, the velocity field in the phase space changes through the dynamical equations of the system. If the bias is small, it can only perturb the velocity slightly, which, in turn, modifies the limit cycle.

For the periodic response, a limit cycle can change in two distinct ways. One way is a small deformation of the limit cycle without a topological change, as shown by the curve A in Fig. 1. The length of the limit cycle can at most change a little. The time period for a system to move along the closed curve once does not change substantially, since its velocity field in the phase space is controlled by the system dynamics that is perturbed only slightly by the extra ac bias. In this case, the system oscillates with a frequency $`\omega `$, whose value is not too far from its intrinsic frequency $`\omega _0`$. There is another requirement for the periodic response. Considering the system starting initially from a point on a limit cycle, it moves along the limit cycle and returns to the starting point after a time $`T`$, giving a frequency $`\omega =2\pi /T`$. To have a periodic motion, the external ac bias should also return to its initial value. This means that $`T`$ must be an integer multiple of the ac-bias period $`2\pi /\omega _{ac}`$. Thus, we have $`\omega _{ac}/\omega =p=`$integer. In fact, this is a general condition for the periodic motion of a dynamical system under an ac driving forcebook . A natural conclusion of this argument is that the limit cycle makes a small deformation like that of curve A in Fig. 1, when the ac frequency $`\omega _{ac}`$ is in the vicinity of $`p\omega _0`$, an integer number of the system intrinsic frequency.

The other way is a topological change of the limit cycle in spite of slight perturbation of the phase velocity field. This can occur when the system trajectory does not close itself after moving around the fixed point once. Instead, the trajectory returns to its starting point after $`q`$ rounds. For example, the curve B in Fig. 1 shows a closed curve after two rounds. In this case, the system oscillates with a frequency around $`\omega _0/2`$. It should be pointed out that this situation can occur only when the dimensionality of the phase space is larger than two. Combining the periodicity requirement discussed above, the second scenario occurs only when $`\omega _{ac}/\omega _0`$ is in the vicinity of $`p/q`$ ($`integer`$), where $`p`$ and $`q`$ are integers. Under this type of ac bias, the limit cycle deforms itself in such a way that it becomes a closed curve after $`q`$ turns in the phase space, giving $`\omega _{ac}/\omega =p`$.

Obviously, the periodic response must oscillate with an integer fraction of the ac frequency if the SSCOs are indeed due to the generation of limit cycles around an unstable fixed point. This type of frequency locking does not depend on a particular model. Since the limit cycle can deform itself under an ac bias, this periodic response with an integer fraction of the ac frequency is expected to be quite robust against $`\omega _{ac}`$, meaning that $`\omega _{ac}/\omega `$ should remain unchanged with a small variation of $`\omega _{ac}`$. In order to verify these results, we numerically solve a widely used discrete drift model under the combined dc and ac biases in the SSCOs regime. For a system consisting of $`N`$ quantum wells under a bias $`U`$ between the two end wells, the current flow is perpendicular to the SL layers. In the sequential tunneling, charge carriers are in local equilibrium within each well, so that a chemical potential can be defined locally. The chemical potential difference between two adjacent wells is called bias $`V`$ on the barrier between the two wells. A current $`I_i`$ passes through the $`i^{th}`$ barrier under a given bias $`V_i`$. This current may depend on other parameters, such as doping $`N_D`$.

Following References 5 and 14, the dynamics of the system is governed by the discrete Poisson equations

$$k(V_iV_{i1})=n_iN_D,i=1,2,\mathrm{}N$$
(1)
and the current continuity equations

$$J=k\frac{V_i}{t}+I_i,i=0,1,2,\mathrm{}N$$
(2)
where $`k`$ depends on the SL structure and its dielectric constant. $`n_i`$ is the electric charge in the $`i^{th}`$ well. In Eq. (1), the same doping in all wells is assumed. $`I_i`$ is, in general, a function of $`V_i`$ and $`n_i`$. It can be shownsun  that all SSSs are stable if $`I_i`$ is a function of $`V_i`$ only. On the other hand, a SSS may be unstablekastrup  if one chooses $`I_i=n_iv(V_i),`$ where $`v`$ is a phenomenological drift velocity which is, for simplicity, assumed to be a function of $`V_i`$ only. The constraint equation for $`V_i`$ is

$$\underset{i=0}{\overset{N}{}}V_i=U$$
(3)
To close the equations, a suitable boundary condition is needed. It is reasonable to assume a constant $`n_0`$, $`n_0=\delta N_D`$, if the carrier density in the emitter is much larger than those in wells, and its change due to a tiny tunneling current is negligible.

Previous studieskastrup ; xrw1  have shown that this model is capable of describing SSCOs with a negative differential drift velocity. One can obtain a SSCO when $`v(V)=0.0081/[(V/E1)^2+0.01]+0.36/[(V/E2.35)^2+0.18]`$, $`N=30`$, $`U=32.7E`$, $`N_D=0.095kE`$, and $`\delta =1.001`$ are usedxrw1 . This $`v`$ has two peaks at $`V=E`$ and $`V=2.35E`$. The region from $`V=E`$ to $`V=1.3E`$ exhibits negative differential velocity. Thus, $`E`$ can be used as a natural unit of bias, and $`1/v(E)`$ as that of the time (the lattice constant is set to be 1). The intrinsic frequency $`\omega _0`$ is $`0.14`$($`v(E)/1`$), indicating that the corresponding EFD boundary oscillates inside about 7 wells. Now we apply an extra ac bias $`V_{ac}\mathrm{sin}(\omega _{ac}t)`$ with $`V_{ac}=0.327E`$ in addition to the above dc bias. And we have solved numerically the above set of equations for different $`\omega _{ac}`$. The current oscillation frequency can be obtained from the Fourier transformation of time evolution of the current. The results are plotted in the $`\omega _{ac}/\omega `$ vs. $`\omega _{ac}/\omega _0`$ plane shown by the solid line in Fig. 2. It has a structure similar to a devil’s staircase. The width of the staircase contains the information of robustness that the limit cycle can adjust itself. This robustness depends on both the amplitude and the frequency of ac bias. The width of the devil’s staircase around $`\omega _{ac}/\omega _0=1/q`$ decreases with the increase of $`q`$ and the results are not displayed for $`q3`$. The dash line is the similar result for $`V_{ac}=0.654E`$. The data are offset vertically for a better view. Clearly, the periodic response around $`\omega _{ac}=1.5\omega _0`$ disappears, leading to a possible chaotic response. It shows that the limit cycle is destroyed, and the phase trajectory, somehow, cannot make a closed curve under this ac bias.

To verify the above results of frequency locking and its robustness experimentally, we have measured the response of SSCOs under an extra ac bias from a GaAs/AlAs SL sample. The GaAs/AlAs SL sample is grown by molecular beam epitaxy. It consists of 30 periods of $`14`$nm GaAs well and 4nm AlAs barrier and is sandwiched between two $`n`$+-GaAs layers. The central 10nm of each GaAs well is doped with Si ($`n=2\times 10^{17}`$cm-3). The sample is fabricated into $`0.2\times 0.2`$mm2 mesas. The SSCOs response is recorded using an Agilent 54642A oscilloscope. It has been found that SSCOs in a SL can be induced by changing the sample temperaturejwang . In this measurement, the sample temperature is fixed at $`95`$K and the dc bias at $`0.34`$V, which is located within the first plateau of the time-averaged I-V curve. The inset of Fig. 3 shows the current oscillation trace without any ac bias. The SSCOs is clearly demonstrated with a frequency $`\omega _0=51.56`$KHz. The oscillation periodicity is indicated by the corresponding Poincaré map (or the first return map)book , as shown in Fig. 3. The Poincaré map is derived from the current oscillation trace by sampling the current trace in a step of $`T_0`$ (=$`2\pi /\omega _0`$). Cares have been taken to minimize any possible artifact in deriving Poincaré maps.

Figure 4 are Poincaré maps obtained with an applied extra ac bias. The ac bias amplitude $`V_{ac}`$ is set at $`66`$mV and the driving frequencies $`\omega _{ac}`$ are indicated. The Poincaré maps are obtained with sampling steps $`T_{ac}`$ ($`=2\pi /\omega _{ac}`$). As discussed early in this paper, the system exhibits the frequency locking when $`\omega _{ac}`$ is set in the vicinity of $`p\omega _0`$ or $`\omega _0/p`$ with $`p=integer`$. The measured response frequency $`\omega `$ is equal to $`\omega _{ac}/p`$ for $`\omega _{ac}=p\omega _0`$ or $`\omega _{ac}`$ for $`\omega _{ac}=\omega _0/p`$, respectively. Fig.4 (a) -(d) clearly demonstrate the occurrence of the frequency locking when $`\omega _{ac}=\omega _0,2\omega _0,\omega _0/3,`$ and $`\omega _0/2`$, respectively. The two dots in Fig. 4(b) result from $`\omega =\omega _{ac}/2`$ while our sampling step is $`T_{ac}`$.

In order to demonstrate the robustness of the frequency locking, we focus on the frequency locking in the vicinity of $`\omega _{ac}=3\omega _0/2`$ and $`2\omega _0`$. By varying the applied ac bias, the existence of the devil’s staircase is shown in Fig. 5, in which the data for different ac bias amplitude $`V_{ac}`$ are offset vertically for clarity. Lines in Fig.5 indicate the frequency locking range around $`\omega _{ac}/\omega _0=1.5`$ and $`2`$ for a given $`V_{ac}`$. Clearly, the devils staircase widths, i.e. the robustness of frequency locking, are strongly dependent on $`V_{ac}`$ and $`\omega _{ac}`$. The locking range for $`\omega _{ac}/\omega _0=2`$ is much larger than that for $`\omega _{ac}/\omega _0=1.5`$. When $`V_{ac}`$ is small (=$`16`$mV) the periodic response cannot be found around $`\omega _{ac}/\omega _0=1.5`$. These results are in good agreement with the theoretical expectations.

The above demonstrated quantitative agreements among the theory, the model calculation, and the experiment clearly indicate that SSCOs in SLs are indeed originated from the generation of limit cycles. The unusual frequency locking into a particular set of an integer fraction of ac frequency is the direct manifestation of deformation of limit cycles under ac bias. It is worth to emphasize that based on limit cycles frequency locking does not depend on the particular structure of the EFD. Like many other nonlinear dynamical systems, the frequency locking of SSCOs can be understood within the framework of the general concepts and principles of nonlinear physics.

In summary, the limit cycle can deform itself in such a way that it makes $`q`$ turns in the phase space around an unstable fixed point when the ac frequency $`\omega _{ac}`$ is in the vicinity of $`\frac{p}{q}\omega _0`$ with integers $`p`$ and $`q`$. Thus, a system may oscillate with $`\omega _{ac}/p`$, an integer fraction of $`\omega _{ac}`$, or about $`\omega _0/q`$. Both of this type of frequency locking and its robustness are verified by the numerical model calculations and real experiments. In conclusion, the limit cycle picture of SSCOs gives a deep insight into the nonlinear properties of SLs.

This work is supported by UGC, Hong Kong, through grants HKUST6149/00P and HKUST6162/01P. XRW thanks Prof. P. Tong for useful discussions. We are very grateful to Prof. Yiping Zeng for providing SL samples.


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# Mid-Rapidity Neutral Pion Production in Proton-Proton Collisions at √𝐬=200 GeV

## Abstract

The invariant differential cross section for inclusive neutral pion production in $`p+p`$ collisions at $`\sqrt{s}`$ = 200 GeV has been measured at mid-rapidity ($`|\eta |<0.35`$) over the range $`1<p_T14`$ GeV/$`c`$ by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. Predictions of next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations are consistent with these measurements. The precision of our result is sufficient to differentiate between prevailing gluon-to-pion fragmentation functions.

Particle production at large transverse momenta, $`p_T`$, in hadronic reactions has provided an important testing ground for perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) . Next-to-leading order pQCD calculations describe Tevatron ($`\sqrt{s}`$$`=`$$`1.8`$ TeV) measurements of inclusive jet production  within 10% and direct photon production , in which the elementary quark-gluon scattering produces a photon directly, within 50%. For high-$`p_T`$ pion production, the recent calculations have not been compared with the UA2 data  obtained at $`\sqrt{s}`$$`=`$540 GeV. However, at lower center of mass energies ($`\sqrt{s}`$$``$63 GeV), they underestimate the data by a factor of $``$2.5 . Similar discrepancies have been observed for direct photon measurements from fixed target experiments  and have been attributed to effects of soft-gluon radiations beyond NLO , to effects of initial intrinsic transverse momentum, $`k_T`$ , or to experimental problems in the difficult direct photon measurements . The $`\pi ^{}`$ calculations, as compared to the jet or direct photon calculations, also require the probability for the scattered quark or gluon to fragment into a pion.

Information on fragmentation to pions  has principally come from global analyses of inclusive hadron production in $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation. These analyses constrain the quark-to-pion fragmentation functions well but, via the scale dependence, the gluon-to-pion fragmentation function to a lesser extent. For example, the latter function at a scale of 100 GeV2 can vary by a factor of 2 to 10 when the fraction of the initial gluon momentum carried by the pion is above 0.5. The more direct measurements of gluon fragmentation functions from $`b`$-tagged, three jet event data from LEP  have played a limited role in the global analyses because NLO corrections are unavailable for the quantitative treatment, including scale and scheme dependences, of these data. As has been explored for measurements of inclusive hadron production in $`p`$$`+`$$`\overline{p}`$ collisions , results from inclusive pion production at high $`p_T`$ can be included in the global analyses and thus may provide meaningful constraints on the gluon-to-pion fragmentation. These results will also provide a reference needed for quantifying the suppression of $`\pi ^{}`$ production observed in Au-Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)  and, to the extent of agreement with the calculations, the foundations for the planned polarized gluon density measurement with polarized protons in RHIC .

In this Letter, we report the first results on inclusive neutral pion production in $`p+p`$ collisions at a center of mass energy ($`\sqrt{s}`$) of 200 GeV as extracted from the data collected during the 2001-2002 run period (Run-2) of RHIC. The bunched proton beams in the collider were vertically polarized with spin orientations alternating in successive bunches. By balancing the integrated luminosity in the different spin states, the effects from polarization were canceled at the 0.1% level.

In Run-2, the PHENIX experiment  operated two central arm spectrometers, one muon arm spectrometer, and other detectors for triggering and vertex determination. This work used the beam-beam counters (BBC)  for determining the collision vertex and constructing the minimum bias (MB) trigger, and the electromagnetic calorimeters (EMCal)  for detecting the neutral pions and deriving high-$`p_T`$ triggers.

The unbiased differential cross section for $`\pi ^{}`$ production is calculated from the MB triggered data sample as

$$E\frac{d^3\sigma }{dp^3}=\frac{1}{\widehat{}}\frac{1}{2\pi p_T^{}}\frac{C_{\mathrm{reco}}C_{\mathrm{conv}}}{f_\pi ^{}}\frac{N_\pi ^{}}{\mathrm{\Delta }p_T\mathrm{\Delta }y},$$
(1)
where $`N_\pi ^{}`$ is the number of $`\pi ^{}`$’s observed in a $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_T`$ wide bin at $`p_T^{}`$ defined as the $`p_T`$ for which the cross section equals its average over the bin; $`\mathrm{\Delta }y`$ is the rapidity range; $`C_{\mathrm{reco}}`$ is a correction for the acceptance, reconstruction efficiency, and $`p_T`$ smearing; $`C_{\mathrm{conv}}`$ is a correction for the conversion of decay photons; $`f_\pi ^{}`$ is the fraction of the inclusive $`\pi ^{}`$ yield for which the MB trigger condition was satisfied; and $`\widehat{}`$ is the integrated luminosity for the analyzed data sample. The high-$`p_T`$ triggered sample required an additional correction to account for the efficiency of this trigger for $`\pi ^{}`$ detection.

The MB trigger imposed the requirement that the collision vertex was within 75 cm of the center of the interaction region. This vertex was reconstructed from the difference in the arrival times of particles at the BBCs which were located along the beam line at $`\pm `$1.44 m from the nominal interaction point and subtended the pseudorapidity range $`\pm `$(3.0-3.9) with full azimuthal coverage. In the analysis of the data, a more restrictive requirement of $`\pm `$30 cm was applied.

The EMCal consisted of two subsystems: a six sector, lead scintillator (PbSc) calorimeter and a two sector, lead glass (PbGl) calorimeter. Located at a radial distance of $``$5 m from the beam line, each of these sectors covered the pseudorapidity range of $`|\eta |`$$`<`$$`0.35`$ and an azimuthal angle interval of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi 22.5^{}`$. Each of the towers in the calorimeter subtended $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi \times \mathrm{\Delta }\eta 0.01\times 0.01`$, thus ensuring that the two photons from a decayed $`\pi ^{}`$ were resolved up to a $`p_T`$ of at least 20 GeV/$`c`$. The energy calibration was corroborated by the position of the $`\pi ^{}`$ invariant mass peak, the energy deposit from minimum ionizing charged particles traversing the EMCal (PbSc), and the correlation between the energy deposit in the EMCal and the measured momentum for electrons and positrons identified by the ring-imaging Čerenkov detector. These studies showed that the accuracy of the energy measurement was within 1.5%. At a $`p_T`$ of $``$11 GeV/$`c`$, this uncertainty translates into a systematic error on the $`\pi ^{}`$ yield of $``$12%. The effective energy resolution for the dataset was deduced from the widths of the $`\pi ^{}`$ mass peaks, which varied with $`p_T`$ from 7% to 10% (PbSc) and 12% to 13% (PbGl), and a comparison of the measured energy and momentum for the identified electrons and positrons.

The number of recorded high-$`p_T`$ $`\pi ^{}`$’s was enhanced by a high-$`p_T`$ trigger (denoted as 2$`\times `$2) in which threshold discrimination was applied independently to sums of the analog signals from non-overlapping, 2$`\times `$2 groupings (called tiles) of adjacent EMCal towers. During this run, the thresholds corresponded to a deposited energy of 0.75 GeV. The efficiency of this trigger for $`\pi ^{}`$ detection, $`\epsilon _\pi ^{}^{2\times 2}(p_T)`$, was obtained from the MB data. As shown in Fig. 1a, this efficiency reached a plateau at a $`p_T`$ of $``$3 GeV/$`c`$. This dependence was reproduced by Monte Carlo calculations which included the measured tile threshold curves, the EMCal detector response, and the geometry of the active trigger tiles. The saturation level, $`0.78\pm 0.03`$ for both PbSc and PbGl, was consistent with the geometrical acceptance of the active trigger tiles. For $`p_T`$$`>`$4 GeV/$`c`$, the geometrical acceptance was used to correct the $`\pi ^{}`$ yield in the high-$`p_T`$ sample.

Since only a fraction of inelastic $`p+p`$ collisions produce particles which enter both BBCs, the MB trigger condition biased the recorded data sample, so only a fraction, $`f_\pi ^{}`$, of the inclusive $`\pi ^{}`$ yield was detected. This fraction was determined from data collected by an additional, high-$`p_T`$ trigger which had not been operated in coincidence with the MB trigger. This trigger was formed by threshold discrimination of the sums of the analog signals from overlapping 2$`\times `$2 groupings of adjacent 2$`\times `$2 trigger tiles. As shown in Fig. 1b, the fraction of these high-$`p_T`$ events with $`\pi ^{}`$’s for which the MB condition was also satisfied was $`0.75\pm 0.02`$, independent of $`p_T`$.

In each event, the two photon invariant mass was calculated for each pairing of clusters. Clusters were paired if the energy asymmetry, $`|E_1E_2|/(E_1+E_2)`$, was less than 0.8 (PbSc) or 0.7 (PbGl). For the PbGl, the pairings were further restricted to those clusters which were identified as electromagnetic via the shower profile and time-of-flight. The $`\pi ^{}`$ yield was extracted by integrating the invariant mass spectrum over a region around the $`\pi ^{}`$ mass. The background contribution in each $`p_T`$ bin was estimated and then subtracted by fitting the invariant mass distribution outside the peak region (PbSc) or using the mixed event technique (PbGl). For the PbSc and the PbGl, the background to signal ratio varied with increasing $`p_T`$ from 1 to 0.1 and 1 to 0.03, respectively.

The raw yields were corrected for the $`p_T`$ smearing arising from the EMCal energy resolution and the steeply falling spectrum; and for the losses due to the disabled towers, the incomplete azimuthal coverage, the energy asymmetry cut, and the photon identification cut (PbGl). The correction for these effects, $`C_{\mathrm{reco}}`$, was calculated with Monte Carlo simulations which contained the configuration of the active EMCal towers. The energy and position of the decay photons were smeared with the measured test beam resolutions  augmented by a constant energy smearing of 5% (12%) for the PbSc (PbGl) to match the response of the EMCal.

The correction for the losses due to conversions of decay photons, $`C_{\mathrm{conv}}`$, was determined to be 4% (PbSc) and 9% (PbGl) by using a GEANT3  simulation of the PHENIX detector. The same simulation, using $`p+p`$ events from the PYTHIA generator , showed that the contribution of $`\pi ^{}`$’s from secondary interactions was negligible and that the contribution from decays of other hadrons (e.g., $`K^0`$ and $`\eta `$ mesons) was less than 6%. The $`\pi ^{}`$ spectrum was not corrected for these decays.

The integrated luminosity, $`\widehat{}`$, was determined from the number of MB events using an absolute calibration of the trigger cross section obtained via the van der Meer scan technique . In a scan, the transverse profile of the beam overlap is measured by sweeping one beam across the other in steps while monitoring the MB trigger rate. This information, the bunch intensities of the two beams ($``$$`10^{11}`$/bunch), and the revolution frequency (78 kHz) are then used to compute the instantaneous luminosity. The trigger cross section is the ratio of the MB trigger rate when the beams were overlapping maximally to the instantaneous luminosity. Based on three scans, this cross section was $`21.8\pm 0.9`$ (2.8) mb at the 68.5% (95%) confidence level with an absolute error of 0.7 mb. From the linear sum of the absolute error and half of the 95% confidence level, point-to-point systematic error, an error of 9.6% was assigned for the luminosity normalization.

During the run, the maximum and average instantaneous luminosities were $`1.5\times 10^{30}`$ and $`0.5\times 10^{30}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$, respectively. Contributions from multiple collisions per bunch crossing and beam-gas interactions were negligible. The MB trigger sample of 16 million events corresponded to 0.7 $`\mathrm{nb}^1`$. As computed from the fraction of recorded MB events which also met the 2$`\times `$2 high-$`p_T`$ trigger condition ($``$1/47), the 18 million high-$`p_T`$ triggered events corresponded to an effective luminosity of 39 $`\mathrm{nb}^1`$.

The invariant differential cross sections obtained from the MB and high-$`p_T`$ samples were consistent within the statistical errors over the $`p_T`$ region of overlap ($`p_T`$$``$5.5 GeV/$`c`$). Moreover, the results determined independently from the PbSc and the PbGl data samples were consistent. The main sources of the point-to-point systematic uncertainty in the two measurements are summarized in Table I for a low and a high $`p_T`$ bin. The total error was computed as the quadrature sum of the statistical and point-to-point systematic errors.

From the MB and the high-$`p_T`$ trigger samples for $`p_T`$ below and above 4 GeV/$`c`$, respectively, Table II tabulates the cross section and the errors obtained by averaging the PbSc and PbGl results using the total error for the weighting. Figs. 2a and 2b show this combined result and its fractional statistical and systematic uncertainties ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma /\sigma `$). The data are well parameterized by a power-law form $`A(1+p_T/p_0)^n`$ with parameters of $`A=386`$ mb$``$GeV-2$``$$`c^3`$, $`p_0=1.219`$ GeV/$`c`$, and $`n=9.99`$.

In Fig. 2, our results are compared with NLO pQCD calculations . The basic concept underlying these calculations is the factorization of the cross section into parton distribution functions for the protons, parton-to-pion fragmentation functions, and short-distance partonic hard-scattering cross sections which can be evaluated using perturbative QCD. Because of this factorization, the calculations depend on unphysical, factorization and renormalization scales which are of the order of the hard scale $`p_T`$. This dependence is reduced as higher order terms are included in the perturbation expansion. For a calculation truncated at a given order, this dependence serves as a gauge for the uncertainty in its results.

The calculations in Fig. 2 have been performed with equal renormalization and factorization scales of $`p_T`$/2, $`p_T`$, and 2$`p_T`$ by using the CTEQ6M  set of parton distribution functions and two sets of fragmentation functions. In general, these calculations are consistent with the data, even at low $`p_T`$ ($`<`$2 GeV/$`c`$) where the theory might be expected to be less applicable. On closer inspection, as shown Fig. 2c and 2d, the calculation with the “Kniehl-Kramer-Pötter” (KKP) set of fragmentation functions  agrees with our data better than the calculation with the “Kretzer” set  does. These two sets differ mainly in that the gluon-to-pion fragmentation function, $`D_g^\pi `$, is greater in the KKP set. This difference is exhibited primarily at low $`p_T`$ because of the dominance of gluon-gluon and gluon-quark interactions for $`p_T`$ below $``$10 GeV/$`c`$ . Our measurement thus may impose a meaningful constraint on $`D_g^\pi `$.

In summary, the invariant differential cross section for inclusive neutral pion production in $`p+p`$ collisions at $`\sqrt{s}=200`$ GeV was measured at mid-rapidity ($`|\eta |<0.35`$) as a function of $`p_T`$ up to $``$14 GeV/$`c`$. These results were compared with two NLO pQCD calculations which differed in the choice of fragmentation functions. Over the full range of $`p_T`$, the calculations were consistent with the result within the uncertainty of the calculations as judged from the scale dependence, although the results favored a larger gluon-to-pion fragmentation function.

We thank the staff of the Collider-Accelerator and Physics Departments at BNL for their vital contributions. We thank Werner Vogelsang and Stefan Kretzer for their interest and input. We acknowledge support from the Department of Energy and NSF (U.S.A.), MEXT and JSPS (Japan), CNPq and FAPESP (Brazil), NSFC (China), CNRS-IN2P3 and CEA (France), BMBF, DAAD, and AvH (Germany), OTKA (Hungary), DAE and DST (India), ISF (Israel), KRF and CHEP (Korea), RAS, RMAE, and RMS (Russia), VR and KAW (Sweden), U.S. CRDF for the FSU, US-Hungarian NSF-OTKA-MTA, and US-Israel BSF.


text:
# Polynomial versus Exponential Growth in Repetition-Free Binary Words

## 1 Introduction

We are concerned in this paper with problems on combinatorics of words .

Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be a finite nonempty set, called an alphabet. We consider finite and infinite words over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. The set of all finite words over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is denoted by $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$. The set of all infinite words (that is, maps from $``$ to $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$) is denoted by $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^\omega `$. In this paper we often use a particular class of alphabets, namely

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_k:=\{0,1,\mathrm{},k1\}.$$

A morphism is a map $`h:\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ such that $`h(xy)=h(x)h(y)`$ for all $`x,y\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$. A morphism may be specified by providing the image words $`h(a)`$ for all $`a\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. If $`h:\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ and $`h(a)=ax`$ for some letter $`a\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, then we say that $`h`$ is prolongable on $`a`$, and we can then iterate $`h`$ infinitely often to get the fixed point $`h^\omega (a):=axh(x)h^2(x)h^3(x)\mathrm{}`$. If there exists an integer $`k`$ such that the morphism $`h`$ satisfies $`h(a)=k`$ for all $`a\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, we say it is $`k`$-uniform. If a morphism is $`k`$-uniform for some $`k`$, then we say it is uniform. For more on morphisms, see, for example, .

A square is a nonempty word of the form $`xx`$, as in the English word murmur. A cube is a nonempty word of the form $`xxx`$, as in the Finnish word kokoko. An overlap is a word of the form $`axaxa`$, where $`x`$ is a possibly empty word and $`a`$ is a single letter, as in the English word alfalfa. A word $`v`$ is a factor (sometimes called a subword) of a word $`x`$ if $`x`$ can be written $`x=uvw`$ for some words $`u,w`$. A word avoids squares (resp., cubes, overlaps) if it contains no factor that is a square (resp., cube, overlap). Such words are also called squarefree (resp., cubefree, overlap-free). For example, the English word $`\mathrm{𝚜𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚎}`$ is squarefree, whereas $`\mathrm{𝚜𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚎}`$ is not.

It is well-known and easily proved that every word of length $`4`$ or more over a two-letter alphabet contains a square as a factor. However, Thue proved in 1906  that there exist infinite squarefree words over a three-letter alphabet. Thue also proved that the word $`\mu ^\omega (0)=0110100110010110\mathrm{}`$ is overlap-free (and hence cubefree); here $`\mu `$ is the Thue-Morse morphism sending $`001`$ and $`110`$.

Dejean  initiated the study of fractional powers. Let $`\alpha `$ be a rational number $`1`$. Following Brandenburg , we say that a nonempty word $`w`$ is an $`\alpha `$-power if there exist words $`y,y^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ such that $`w=y^ny^{}`$, and $`y^{}`$ is a prefix of $`y`$ with $`n+|y^{}|/|y|=\alpha `$. For example, the English word alfalfa is a $`\frac{7}{3}`$-power and the word ionization is a $`\frac{10}{7}`$-power. If $`\alpha `$ is a real number, we say that a word $`w`$ avoids $`\alpha `$-powers (or is $`\alpha `$-power-free) if it contains no factor that is a $`\beta `$-power for any rational $`\beta \alpha `$. We say that a word $`w`$ avoids $`\alpha ^+`$-powers (or is $`\alpha ^+`$-power-free) if it contains no factor that is a $`\beta `$-power for rational $`\beta >\alpha `$. Thus a word is overlap-free iff it is $`2^+`$-power-free.

We may enumerate the number of words avoiding various patterns. Brandenburg  proved (among other things) that there are exponentially many cubefree binary words; also see Edlin . Restivo and Salemi  proved that there exist only polynomially many overlap-free binary words of length $`n`$; in fact they gave an upper bound of $`O(n^{\mathrm{log}_215})`$. The exponent $`\mathrm{log}_215`$ was improved to $`1.7`$ by Kfoury  to $`1.587`$ by Kobayashi , and to $`1.37`$ by Lepistö . Also see Cassaigne

Overlap-free words avoid $`2^+`$-powers, and there are only polynomially many over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_2`$. Cubefree words avoid $`3`$-powers and there are exponentially many over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_2`$. Kobayashi \[9, Problem 6.6\] asked the following natural question: at what exponent $`\alpha `$ (if any) does the number of binary words avoiding $`\alpha `$-powers jump from polynomial to exponential? In this paper we prove that the answer is $`\frac{7}{3}`$. Our proof uses the fact that various structure theorems, which previously were known for overlap-free words, also hold for any exponent $`\alpha `$ with $`2<\alpha \frac{7}{3}`$.

## 2 Preliminary lemmas

We begin with some notation and preliminary results. We write $`\overline{0}=1`$ and $`\overline{1}=0`$. We let $`\mu `$ be the Thue-Morse morphism mentioned in the previous section.

###### Lemma 1

Let $`t,v\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}`$. If there exist $`c,d\mathrm{\Sigma }_2`$ such that $`c\mu (t)=\mu (v)d`$, then $`d=c`$, $`t=\overline{c}^n`$, and $`v=c^n`$, where $`n=|t|=|v|`$.

Proof.  See \[1, Lemma 1.7.2\].

###### Lemma 2

Suppose $`t,y\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}`$ and $`\mu (t)=yy`$. Then there exists $`v\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}`$ such that $`y=\mu (v)`$.

Proof.  See \[1, Lemma 1.7.3\].

###### Lemma 3

Let $`h:\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ be a uniform morphism, and let $`\alpha `$ be a rational number. If $`w`$ contains an $`\alpha `$-power, then $`h(w)`$ contains an $`\alpha `$-power.

Proof.  Suppose $`w`$ contains an $`\alpha `$-power. Then there exist words $`s,s^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }^+`$ and $`r,t\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ such that $`w=rs^ns^{}t`$, where $`s^{}`$ is a nonempty prefix of $`s`$ and $`n+|s^{}|/|s|=\alpha `$. Then $`h(w)=h(r)h(s)^nh(s^{})h(t)`$. Then $`h(w)`$ contains the $`\alpha `$-power $`h(s)^nh(s^{})`$.

Note that for arbitrary morphisms the result need not be true (unless $`\alpha `$ is an integer).

###### Lemma 4

Let $`w\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}`$, and suppose $`\mu (w)`$ contains an $`\alpha `$-power. Then $`w`$ contains a $`\beta `$-power with $`\beta \alpha `$.

Proof.  Suppose $`\mu (w)`$ contains an $`\alpha `$-power, say $`\mu (w)=xy^ny^{}z`$, where $`n+|y^{}|/|y|=\alpha `$. There are four cases to consider, based on the parity of $`|x|`$ and $`|y|`$.

Case 1: $`|x|`$ is even and $`|y|`$ is even. There are two subcases, depending on the parity of $`|y^{}|`$.

Case 1a: $`|y^{}|`$ is even. Then $`|z|`$ is even. Then there exist words $`r,s,s^{},t`$, with $`s^{}`$ a prefix of $`s`$, such that $`\mu (r)=x`$, $`\mu (s)=y`$, $`\mu (s^{})=y^{}`$, and $`\mu (t)=z`$. Then $`w=rs^ns^{}t`$, and so $`w`$ contains the $`\alpha `$-power $`s^ns^{}`$.

Case 2a: $`|y^{}|`$ is odd. Then $`|z|`$ is odd. Then there exist words $`r,s,s^{},t`$, with $`s^{}`$ a prefix of $`s`$, and a letter $`c`$ such that $`\mu (r)=x`$, $`\mu (s)=y`$, $`\mu (s^{})c=y^{}`$, and $`\overline{c}\mu (t)=z`$. Since $`|y^{}|`$ is odd, $`|y|`$ is even, and $`y^{}`$ is a prefix of $`y`$, it follows that $`y^{}\overline{c}`$ is also a prefix of $`y`$. Hence $`s^{}c`$ is a prefix of $`s`$. Then $`w`$ contains the $`\beta `$-power $`s^ns^{}c`$, where

$$\beta =n+\frac{|s^{}c|}{|s|}=n+\frac{2|s^{}|+2}{2|s|}=n+\frac{|y^{}|+1}{|y|}>n+\frac{|y^{}|}{|y|}\alpha .$$

Case 2: $`|x|`$ is even and $`|y|`$ is odd. Then there exists a word $`t`$ such that $`\mu (t)=yy`$. From Lemma 2 there exists $`v`$ such that $`y=\mu (v)`$. But then $`|y|`$ is even, a contradiction. Thus this case cannot occur.

Case 3: $`|x|`$ is odd and $`|y|`$ is even. There are two subcases, depending on the parity of $`|y^{}|`$.

Case 3a: $`|y^{}|`$ is even. Then $`|z|`$ is odd. Then there exist words $`r,s,s^{},t`$ and letters $`c,d,e`$ such that $`x=\mu (r)c`$, $`y=\overline{c}\mu (s)d`$, $`y^{}=\overline{d}\mu (s^{})e`$, and $`z=\overline{e}\mu (t)`$. Consideration of the factor $`yy`$ gives $`c=d`$. Hence $`\mu (w)=\mu (r(cs)^ncs^{}et)`$ and so $`w=r(cs)^ncs^{}et`$. Thus $`w`$ contains the $`\alpha `$-power $`(cs)^ncs^{}`$, and since $`s^{}`$ is a prefix of $`s`$, it follows that $`cs^{}`$ is a prefix of $`cs`$.

Case 3b: $`|y^{}|`$ is odd. Then $`|z|`$ is even. Then we are in the mirror image of case 2a, and the same proof works.

Case 4: $`|x|`$ is odd and $`|y|`$ is odd. Then from length considerations we see that there exist words $`t,v`$ and letters $`c,d`$ such that $`y=c\mu (t)=\mu (v)d`$. By Lemma 1, we have $`d=c`$, $`t=\overline{c}^n`$, $`v=c^n`$. Thus $`y=c(\overline{c}c)^n`$. Since $`y^{}`$ is a nonempty prefix of $`y`$, we may write $`\mu (w)=xy^2ct`$ for some word $`t`$. Since $`|x|`$ and $`|y|`$ are odd, and $`y`$ ends in $`c`$, we must have that $`cc`$ is the image of letter under $`\mu `$, a contradiction. Thus this case cannot occur.

###### Theorem 5

Let $`w\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}`$, and let $`\alpha >2`$ be a real number. Then $`w`$ is $`\alpha `$-power-free iff $`\mu (w)`$ is $`\alpha `$-power-free.

Proof.  Combine Lemmas 3 and 4.

We remark that Theorem 5 is not true if $`\alpha =2`$; for example $`w=01`$ contains no square, but $`\mu (w)=0110`$ does.

## 3 A structure theorem for $`\alpha `$-power-free words for $`2<\alpha \frac{7}{3}`$

Restivo and Salemi  proved a beautiful structure theorem for overlap-free binary words. Roughly speaking, it says that any overlap-free word is, up to removal of a short prefix or suffix, the image of another overlap-free word under $`\mu `$, the Thue-Morse morphism. Perhaps surprisingly, the same sort of structure theorem exists for binary words avoiding $`\alpha `$-powers, where $`\alpha `$ is any real number with $`2<\alpha \frac{7}{3}`$.

###### Theorem 6

Let $`x`$ be a word avoiding $`\alpha `$-powers, with $`2<\alpha \frac{7}{3}`$. Let $`\mu `$ be the Thue-Morse morphism. Then there exist $`u,v,y`$ with $`u,v\{ϵ,0,1,00,11\}`$ and a word $`y\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}`$ avoiding $`\alpha `$-powers, such that $`x=u\mu (y)v`$.

Proof.  We prove the result by induction on $`|x|`$. If $`|x|2`$, then the factorizations can be chosen as shown in the following table.

| $`x`$ | $`u`$ | $`y`$ | $`v`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`ϵ`$ | $`ϵ`$ | $`ϵ`$ | $`ϵ`$ |
| $`0`$ | $`0`$ | $`ϵ`$ | $`ϵ`$ |
| $`1`$ | $`1`$ | $`ϵ`$ | $`ϵ`$ |
| $`00`$ | $`00`$ | $`ϵ`$ | $`ϵ`$ |
| $`01`$ | $`ϵ`$ | $`0`$ | $`ϵ`$ |
| $`10`$ | $`ϵ`$ | $`1`$ | $`ϵ`$ |
| $`11`$ | $`11`$ | $`ϵ`$ | $`ϵ`$ |

Now suppose the claim is true for all $`x`$ with $`|x|<k`$. We prove it for $`|x|=k`$. Let $`x`$ be $`\alpha `$-power-free with $`|x|3`$. Write $`x=az`$ with $`a\mathrm{\Sigma }_2`$ and $`z\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}`$. Since $`x`$ is $`\alpha `$-power-free, so is $`z`$. Since $`|z|<|x|`$, by induction there exist $`u^{},v^{}\{ϵ,0,1,00,11\}`$ and a $`\alpha `$-power-free word $`y^{}`$ such that $`z=u^{}\mu (y^{})v^{}`$.

Now there are several cases to consider.

* 1: $`u^{}=ϵ`$ or $`u^{}=a`$. Then we may write $`x=u\mu (y)v`$ with $`(u,y,v)=(au^{},y^{},v^{})`$.
* 2: $`u^{}=\overline{a}`$. Then $`x=u\mu (y)v`$ with $`(u,y,v)=(ϵ,ay^{},v^{})`$. Since $`x`$ is $`\alpha `$-power-free, so is $`\mu (ay^{})`$, and hence, by Theorem 5, so is $`ay^{}`$.
* 3: $`u^{}=aa`$. Then $`x`$ begins with $`aaa=a^3`$, and so $`x`$ does not avoid $`\alpha `$-powers.
* 4: $`u^{}=\overline{a}\overline{a}`$. Then $`x=a\overline{a}\overline{a}\mu (y^{})v^{}`$.

+ 4.a: $`|y^{}|=0`$. Then $`x=a\overline{a}\overline{a}v^{}`$. If $`v^{}=ϵ`$ (resp., $`v^{}=a`$, $`v^{}=aa`$), then we can write $`x=u\mu (y)v`$ with $`(u,y,v)=(ϵ,a,\overline{a})`$ (resp., $`(u,y,v)=(ϵ,a\overline{a},ϵ)`$, $`(u,y,v)=(ϵ,a\overline{a},a)`$. Otherwise, if $`v^{}=\overline{a}`$ or $`v^{}=\overline{a}\overline{a}`$ then $`x`$ contains $`\overline{a}\overline{a}\overline{a}=\overline{a}^3`$, and so $`x`$ does not avoid $`\alpha `$-powers.
    + 4.b: $`|y^{}|1`$. There are two cases to consider.

    - 4.b.i: $`y^{}=ay^{\prime \prime }`$. There are several cases to consider.

        * 4.b.i.1: $`|y^{\prime \prime }|=0`$. Then $`y^{}=a`$ and $`x=a\overline{a}\overline{a}a\overline{a}v^{}`$.

            If $`v^{}=ϵ`$ (resp., $`v^{}=a`$, $`v^{}=aa`$, $`v^{}=\overline{a}`$), then we can write $`x=u\mu (y)v`$ with $`(u,y,v)=(ϵ,a\overline{a},\overline{a})`$ (resp., $`(u,y,v)=(ϵ,a\overline{a}\overline{a},ϵ)`$, $`(u,y,v)=(ϵ,a\overline{a}\overline{a},a)`$, $`(u,y,v)=(ϵ,a\overline{a},\overline{a}\overline{a})`$). Otherwise, if $`v^{}=\overline{a}\overline{a}`$, then $`x`$ contains $`\overline{a}\overline{a}\overline{a}=\overline{a}^3`$, and so $`x`$ does not avoid $`\alpha `$-powers.
            * 4.b.i.2: $`|y^{\prime \prime }|1`$. If $`y^{\prime \prime }=ay^{\prime \prime \prime }`$, then $`x=a\overline{a}\overline{a}a\overline{a}a\overline{a}\mu (y^{\prime \prime \prime })v^{}`$, so $`x`$ contains the $`\frac{5}{2}`$-power $`\overline{a}a\overline{a}a\overline{a}`$. If $`y^{\prime \prime }=\overline{a}y^{\prime \prime \prime }`$, then $`x=a\overline{a}\overline{a}a\overline{a}\overline{a}a\mu (y^{\prime \prime \prime })v^{}`$, so $`x`$ contains the $`\frac{7}{3}`$-power $`a\overline{a}\overline{a}a\overline{a}\overline{a}a`$.
        - 4.b.ii: $`y^{}=\overline{a}y^{\prime \prime }`$. Then $`x=a\overline{a}\overline{a}\overline{a}a\mu (y^{\prime \prime })v^{}`$. Thus $`x`$ contains $`\overline{a}\overline{a}\overline{a}=\overline{a}^3`$.

Our proof by induction is now complete.

The decomposition in Theorem 6 is actually unique if $`|x|7`$. As this requires more tedious case analysis and is not crucial to our discussion, we do not prove this here.

We also note that the role of $`\frac{7}{3}`$ in Theorem 6 is crucial, since no word $`\mathrm{}0110110\mathrm{}`$ can be factorized in the stated form.

## 4 Polynomial upper bound on the number of $`\frac{7}{3}`$-power-free words

Theorem 6 has the following implication. Let $`x=x_0`$ be a nonempty binary word that is $`\alpha `$-power-free, with $`2<\alpha \frac{7}{3}`$. Then by Theorem 6 we can write $`x_0=u_1\mu (x_1)v_1`$ with $`|u_1|,|v_1|2`$. If $`|x_1|1`$, we can repeat the process, writing $`x_1=u_2\mu (x_2)v_2`$. Continuing in this fashion, we obtain the decomposition $`x_i=u_i\mu (x_i)v_i`$ until $`|x_{t+1}|=0`$ for some $`t`$. Then

$$x_0=u_1\mu (u_2)\mathrm{}\mu ^{t1}(u_{t1})\mu ^t(x_t)\mu ^{t1}(v_{t1})\mathrm{}\mu (v_2)v_1.$$

Then from the inequalities $`1|x_t|4`$ and $`2|x_i||x_{i1}|2|x_i|+4`$, $`1it`$, an easy induction gives $`2^t|x|2^{t+3}4`$. Thus $`t\mathrm{log}_2|x|<t+3`$, and so

$$\mathrm{log}_2|x|3<t\mathrm{log}_2|x|.$$
(1)
There are at most $`5`$ possibilities for each $`u_i`$ and $`v_i`$, and there are at most $`22`$ possibilities for $`x_t`$ (since $`1|x_t|4`$ and $`x_t`$ is $`\alpha `$-power-free). Inequality (1) shows there are at most $`3`$ possibilities for $`t`$. Letting $`n=|x|`$, we see there are at most $`3225^{2\mathrm{log}_2n}=66n^{\mathrm{log}_225}`$ words of length $`n`$ that avoid $`\alpha `$-powers. We have therefore proved

###### Theorem 7

Let $`2<\alpha \frac{7}{3}`$. There are $`O(n^{\mathrm{log}_225})=O(n^{4.644})`$ binary words of length $`n`$ that avoid $`\alpha `$-powers.

We have not tried to optimize the exponent in Theorem 7. Probably it can be made significantly smaller.

## 5 Exponential lower bound on the number of $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-power-free words

In this section we prove that there are exponentially many binary words of length $`n`$ avoiding $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-powers.

Define the $`21`$-uniform morphism $`h:\mathrm{\Sigma }_4^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}`$ as follows:

$`h(0)`$ $`=`$ $`011010011001001101001`$
$`h(1)`$ $`=`$ $`100101100100110010110`$
$`h(2)`$ $`=`$ $`100101100110110010110`$
$`h(3)`$ $`=`$ $`011010011011001101001.`$
We first show

###### Lemma 8

Let $`w`$ be any squarefree word over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_4`$. Then

* $`h(w)`$ contains no square $`yy`$ with $`|y|>13`$; and
* $`h(w)`$ contains no $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-powers.

Proof.  We first prove (i). We argue by contradiction. Let $`w=a_1a_2\mathrm{}a_n`$ be a squarefree word such that $`h(w)`$ contains a square, i.e., $`h(w)=xyyz`$ for some $`x,z\mathrm{\Sigma }_4^{}`$, $`y\mathrm{\Sigma }_4^+`$. Without loss of generality, assume that $`w`$ is a shortest such word, so that $`0|x|,|z|<21`$.

Case 1: $`|y|42`$. In this case we can take $`|w|5`$. To verify that $`h(w)`$ contains no squares $`yy`$ with $`|y|>13`$, it therefore suffices to check the image of each of the 264 squarefree words in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_4^5`$.

Case 2: $`|y|>42`$. First, we observe the following facts about $`h`$.

###### Fact 9

* Suppose $`h(ab)=th(c)u`$ for some letters $`a,b,c\mathrm{\Sigma }_4`$ and words $`t,u\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}`$. Then this inclusion is trivial (that is, $`t=ϵ`$ or $`u=ϵ`$) or $`u`$ is not a prefix of $`h(d)`$ for any $`d\mathrm{\Sigma }_4`$.
* Suppose there exist letters $`a,b,c\mathrm{\Sigma }_4`$ and words $`s,t,u,v\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}`$ such that $`h(a)=st`$, $`h(b)=uv`$, and $`h(c)=sv`$. Then either $`a=c`$ or $`b=c`$.

Proof.

* This can be verified with a short computation.
* This can also be verified with a short computation. If $`|s|11`$, then no two images of distinct letters share a prefix of length $`11`$. If $`|s|10`$, then $`|t|11`$, and no two images of distinct letters share a suffix of length $`11`$.

Now we resume the proof of Lemma 8. For $`i=1,2,\mathrm{},n`$ define $`A_i=h(a_i)`$. Then if $`h(w)=xyyz`$, we can write

$$h(w)=A_1A_2\mathrm{}A_n=A_1^{}A_1^{\prime \prime }A_2\mathrm{}A_{j1}A_j^{}A_j^{\prime \prime }A_{j+1}\mathrm{}A_{n1}A_n^{}A_n^{\prime \prime }$$

where

$`A_1`$ $`=`$ $`A_1^{}A_1^{\prime \prime }`$
$`A_j`$ $`=`$ $`A_j^{}A_j^{\prime \prime }`$
$`A_n`$ $`=`$ $`A_n^{}A_n^{\prime \prime }`$
$`x`$ $`=`$ $`A_1^{}`$
$`y`$ $`=`$ $`A_1^{\prime \prime }A_2\mathrm{}A_{j1}A_j^{}=A_j^{\prime \prime }A_{j+1}\mathrm{}A_{n1}A_n^{}`$
$`z`$ $`=`$ $`A_n^{\prime \prime },`$
and $`|A_1^{\prime \prime }|,|A_j^{\prime \prime }|>0`$. See Figure 1.

If $`|A_1^{\prime \prime }|>|A_j^{\prime \prime }|`$, then $`A_{j+1}=h(a_{j+1})`$ is a factor of $`A_1^{\prime \prime }A_2`$, hence a factor of $`A_1A_2=h(a_1a_2)`$. Thus we can write $`A_{j+2}=A_{j+2}^{}A_{j+2}^{\prime \prime }`$ with

$$A_1^{\prime \prime }A_2=A_j^{\prime \prime }A_{j+1}A_{j+2}^{}.$$

See Figure 2.

But then, by Fact 9 (i), either $`|A_j^{\prime \prime }|=0`$, or $`|A_{j+2}^{}|=0`$ (so $`|A_1^{\prime \prime }|=|A_j^{\prime \prime }|`$), or $`A_{j+2}^{}`$ is a not a prefix of any $`h(d)`$. All three conclusions are impossible.

If $`|A_1^{\prime \prime }|<|A_j^{\prime \prime }|`$, then $`A_2=h(a_2)`$ is a factor of $`A_j^{\prime \prime }A_{j+1}`$, hence a factor of $`A_jA_{j+1}=h(a_ja_{j+1})`$. Thus we can write $`A_3=A_3^{}A_3^{\prime \prime }`$ with

$$A_1^{\prime \prime }A_2A_3^{}=A_j^{\prime \prime }A_{j+1}.$$

See Figure 3.

By Fact 9 (i), either $`|A_1^{\prime \prime }|=0`$ or $`|A_j^{}|=0`$ (so $`|A_1^{\prime \prime }|=|A_j^{\prime \prime }|`$) or $`A_3^{}`$ is not a prefix of any $`h(d)`$. Again, all three conclusions are impossible.

Therefore $`|A_1^{\prime \prime }|=|A_j^{\prime \prime }|`$. Hence $`A_1^{\prime \prime }=A_j^{\prime \prime }`$, $`A_2=A_{j+1}`$, $`\mathrm{}`$, $`A_{j1}=A_{n1}`$, and $`A_j^{}=A_n^{}`$. Since $`h`$ is injective, we have $`a_2=a_{j+1},\mathrm{},a_{j1}=a_{n1}`$. It also follows that $`|y|`$ is divisible by $`21`$ and $`A_j=A_j^{}A_j^{\prime \prime }=A_n^{}A_1^{\prime \prime }`$. But by Fact 9 (ii), either (1) $`a_j=a_n`$ or (2) $`a_j=a_1`$. In the first case, $`a_2\mathrm{}a_{j1}a_j=a_{j+1}\mathrm{}a_{n1}a_n`$, so $`w`$ contains the square $`(a_2\mathrm{}a_{j1}a_j)^2`$, a contradiction. In the second case, $`a_1\mathrm{}a_{j1}=a_ja_{j+1}\mathrm{}a_{n1}`$, so $`w`$ contains the square $`(a_1\mathrm{}a_{j1})^2`$, a contradiction.

This completes the proof of part (i).

It now remains to prove (ii). If $`h(w)`$ contains a $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-power $`yyy^{}`$, then it contains a square, and by part (i) we know that $`|y|13`$. We may assume that $`|y^{}|\frac{1}{3}13=5`$, so $`|yyy^{}|31`$. Hence we need only check the image of all $`36`$ squarefree words in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_4^3`$ to ensure they do not contain any $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-power. We leave this computation to the reader.

Next, define the substitution $`g:\mathrm{\Sigma }_3^{}2^{\mathrm{\Sigma }_4^{}}`$ as follows:

$`g(0)`$ $`=`$ $`\{0,3\}`$
$`g(1)`$ $`=`$ $`\{1\}`$
$`g(2)`$ $`=`$ $`\{2\}.`$
Let $`|w|_a`$ denote the number of occurrences of the letter $`a`$ in the word $`w`$. We prove

###### Lemma 10

Let $`w\mathrm{\Sigma }_3^{}`$ be any squarefree word. Then $`h(g(w))`$ is a language of $`2^r`$ words over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_2`$, where $`r=|w|_0`$, and moreover these words are of length $`21|w|`$ and avoid $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-powers.

Proof.  Let $`w`$ be a squarefree word over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_3`$. Then $`g(w)`$ is a language over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_4`$, and we claim that each word $`xg(w)`$ is squarefree. For suppose $`xg(w)`$ and $`x`$ contains a square, say $`x=tuuv`$ for some words $`t,v\mathrm{\Sigma }_4^{}`$, and $`u\mathrm{\Sigma }_4^+`$. Define the morphism $`f`$ where $`f(0)=f(3)=0`$, $`f(1)=1`$, and $`f(2)=2`$. Then $`f(x)=w`$ and $`f(x)`$ contains the square $`f(u)f(u)`$, a contradiction. It now follows from Lemma 8 that $`x`$ avoids $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-powers.

Finally, we obtain

###### Theorem 11

Let $`C_n`$ be the number of binary words of length $`n`$ that are $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-power-free. Then $`C_n=\mathrm{\Omega }(\gamma ^n)`$, where $`\gamma =2^{1/63}1.011`$.

Proof.  Take any squarefree word $`x`$ of length $`m`$ over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_3`$. There must exist a symbol $`a\mathrm{\Sigma }_3`$ such that $`a`$ occurs at least $`m/3`$ times in $`x`$. By replacing each symbol $`b`$ in $`x`$ with $`ba`$ (mod $`3`$), we get a squarefree word $`x^{}`$ with at least $`m/3`$ occurrences of $`0`$.

Now consider $`h(g(x^{}))`$. We get at least $`2^{m/3}`$ words of length $`21m`$, and each word is $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-power-free. Write $`n=21mk`$, where $`0k<21`$. By what precedes, there are at least $`2^{n/63}`$ words of length $`21m`$ that are $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-power-free. Thus there are at least $`2^k2^{n/63}2^{21}2^{n/63}`$ words of length $`n`$ with the desired property.

We have not tried to optimize the value of $`\gamma `$. It can be improved slightly in several ways: for example, by starting with a squarefree word over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_3`$ with a higher proportion of $`0`$’s; see .

For an upper bound on $`C_n`$, we may reason as follows: if $`w`$ is a word avoiding $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-powers, then $`w`$ certainly has no occurrences of either $`000`$ or $`111`$. Let $`E_n`$ denote the number of binary words of length $`n`$ avoiding both $`000`$ and $`111`$. Then $`C_nE_n`$ and it is easy to see that

$$E_n=E_{n1}+E_{n2}$$
(2)
for $`n3`$. Now the characteristic polynomial of the recursion (2) is $`x^2x1`$, and the dominant zero of this polynomial is $`(1+\sqrt{5})/21.62`$. By well-known properties of linear recurrences we get $`E_n=O(1.62^n)`$.

This procedure may be automated. Noonan and Zeilberger  have written a Maple package DAVID\_IAN that allows one to specify a list $`L`$ of forbidden words, and computes the generating function enumerating words avoiding members of $`L`$. We used this package for a list $`L`$ of $`58`$ words of length $`24`$:

$$000,111,01010,10101,\mathrm{},110110010011011001001101$$

including words of the form $`x^{(1+7|x|/3)/|x|}`$ for $`1|x|10`$. (Words for which shorter members of $`L`$ are factors can be omitted.) We obtained a characteristic polynomial of degree $`39`$ with dominant root $`1.22990049\mathrm{}`$. Therefore we have shown

###### Theorem 12

The number $`C_n`$ of binary words of length $`n`$ avoiding $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-powers satisfies $`C_n=O(1.23^n)`$.

## 6 Avoiding arbitrarily large squares

Dekking  proved that every infinite overlap-free binary word must contain arbitrarily large squares. He also proved that there exists an infinite cubefree binary word that avoids squares $`xx`$ with $`|x|4`$. Furthermore the number $`4`$ is best possible, since every binary word of length $`30`$ contains a cube or a square $`xx`$ with $`|x|3`$.

This leads to the following natural question: what is the largest exponent $`\alpha `$ such that every infinite $`\alpha `$-power-free binary word contains arbitrarily large squares? From Dekking’s results we know $`2<\alpha <3`$. The answer is given in the following theorem.

###### Theorem 13

* Every infinite $`\frac{7}{3}`$-power-free binary word contains arbitrarily large squares.
* There exists an infinite $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-power-free binary word such that each square factor $`xx`$ satisfies $`|x|13`$.

Proof.  For (i), let $`𝐰`$ be an infinite $`\frac{7}{3}`$-power-free binary word. By Theorem 6 and Eq. (1), any prefix of $`𝐰`$ of length $`2^{n+5}`$ contains $`\mu ^{n+2}(0)`$ as a factor. But $`\mu ^{n+2}(0)=\mu ^n(0110)`$, so any prefix of length $`2^{n+5}`$ contains the square factor $`xx`$ with $`x=\mu ^n(1)`$.

For (ii), from Theorem 8 it follows that if $`𝐰`$ is an infinite squarefree word over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_4`$, and $`h`$ is the morphism defined in § 5, then $`h(𝐰)`$ has the desired properties.

We note that the number $`13`$ in Theorem 13 (ii) is not best possible. A forthcoming paper examines this question in more detail.

## 7 Numerical Results

Let $`A_n`$ (resp., $`B_n`$, $`C_n`$, $`D_n`$) denote the number of overlap-free words (resp., $`\frac{7}{3}`$-power-free words, $`\frac{7}{3}^+`$-power-free words, cubefree words) over the alphabet $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_2`$. We give here the values of these sequences for $`0n28`$.

| $`n`$ | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`A_n`$ | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 24 | 30 | 36 | 44 | 48 | 60 | 60 | 62 | 72 | 82 |
| $`B_n`$ | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 24 | 30 | 40 | 48 | 56 | 64 | 76 | 82 | 92 | 106 |
| $`C_n`$ | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 30 | 38 | 50 | 64 | 86 | 108 | 136 | 178 | 222 | 276 |
| $`D_n`$ | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 24 | 36 | 56 | 80 | 118 | 174 | 254 | 378 | 554 | 802 | 1168 |

| $`n`$ | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`A_n`$ | 88 | 96 | 112 | 120 | 120 | 136 | 148 | 164 | 152 | 154 | 148 | 162 |
| $`B_n`$ | 124 | 142 | 152 | 172 | 192 | 210 | 220 | 234 | 256 | 284 | 308 | 314 |
| $`C_n`$ | 330 | 408 | 500 | 618 | 774 | 962 | 1178 | 1432 | 1754 | 2160 | 2660 | 3292 |
| $`D_n`$ | 1716 | 2502 | 3650 | 5324 | 7754 | 11320 | 16502 | 24054 | 35058 | 51144 | 74540 | 108664 |

## 8 Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Ming-wei Wang, who showed the first author the usefulness of Fact 9 (i).