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# The effect of aging on network structure

## I Introduction

Recently, the computer-aided data acquisition has led to an explosion of interest in probing the complex network systems. So far, many of the various networks in reality, such as the World Wide Web, social networks, and biological networks, etc., are believed to share the following characteristics: (1) a small, relative to their large size, average distance between nodes; (2) a power-law degree distribution, often followed by a truncation; and a (3) highly clustered, (4) hierarchical and (5) correlated structure (explanations see below). Besides, there are many other features that are often not as readily apparent and much less well understood consequently.

Aimed at a theoretical description of these findings, the Watts-Strogatz (WS) Small-World model is useful for systems that are largely regular, and presents properties (1) and (3) listed above. Meanwhile the Barabasi-Albert (BA) Scale-Free model satisfactorily characterizes most of the networks where geological distance is not so important. It considers growth and preferential attachment irrespective of distance, with properties (1) and (2) as outcome. We may notice that, in this model, properties (3) and (4) are still missing, and, as is shown below, a neutral degree-degree correlation is predicted for large degrees (the degree of a node is defined as the number of the its links). This may be due to the highly-simplified assumptions of the model. To develope these two well-established models, theoretical effort has just begun.

In the generalization of the BA model, many novel and realistic aspects have been investigated in the past few years. It is now known that degree distribution in reality may deviate from a pure power law. According to the extent of the deviation, the distribution patterns may be categorized into three groups: scale-free (power law), broad-scale (power law with a sharp cut-off) and single-scale (fast-decaying). In order to explain this deviation, the effect of aging and a consequent loss of activity have been introduced. This is a common mechanism in reality***This effect can be, for example, pictured for the network of actors (the actors are linked if they both appear in the cast of one film). The more famous an actor is, the more chances he will have to act in new movies. But, however famous he may be, every star will become gradually inactive as time passes. This is also supported by the citation rate data of the years 1987-1998, as shown in Fig. 1. Except for the first three years prior to the publication year, the citaiton rate gradually decreases with age. and, combined with the BA model, it results in a tunable truncation of the power law, i.e., the degree distribution can be turned from scale-free with no aging, to broad-scale with slow aging and the single-scale with fast aging. This finding justifies further investigation of its influence on the structure and function of networks, which is the aim of the present work.

This article is organized as follows: In Sec. II, we provide empirical evidence and quantify the aging effect in a model, which reduces to the BA network when the aging effect vanishes. In Sec. III, the effect of aging on network structure is described in four aspects: clustering (Sec. III A), hierarchical structure (Sec. III B), degree-correlation (Sec. III C) and the average distance between nodes (Sec. III D). As the intensity of the aging effect grows, in most cases we witness a continuous transformation of the network structure, while there are also a few abrupt changes. Finally, Sec. IV is the summary with some discussions.

## II The model

As the first step, we give the definition of the model with a tunable effect of gradual aging: At each time step, a newly added node is attached to $`m`$ existing nodes, with the probability proportional (1) to the degree $`k`$ of the considered node, as in the BA model and (2) to a simple function $`f\left(\tau \right)`$, where $`\tau `$ is the age of the considered node. Thus the evolution of the network can be approximately characterized by the following equation,

$$\frac{k(t_i,T)}{T}=\frac{mk(t_i,T)f\left(Tt_i\right)}{_tk(t,T)f\left(Tt\right)},$$
(1)
where $`k(t_i,T)`$ denotes the expected degree at time $`T`$ of the node born at $`t_i`$, and $`_tk(t,T)f\left(Tt\right)`$ is the normalization factor.

If $`f\left(\tau \right)=1`$, the probability that an existing node receives new links becomes solely proportional to its degree, and this model reduces to the BA model,

$$\frac{k(t_i,T)}{T}=\frac{mk(t_i,T)_i}{_tk(t,T)}=\frac{k(t_i,T)}{2T},$$
(2)
where we have used the fact that the normalization factor $`_tk(t,T)=2mT`$. On the other hand, when $`f\left(\tau \right)`$ decays fast enough, we assume that the normalization factor, $`_tk(t,T)f\left(Tt\right)`$, reaches an asymptotic nondivergent value in the limit of infinite network size. Thus, the expected degree of a given node grows as,

$$\frac{k(t_i,T)}{T}=\frac{k(t_i,T)f\left(Tt_i\right)}{M},$$
(3)
where $`M=\frac{1}{m}_tk(t,T)f\left(Tt\right)`$. To test its validity and obtain the factor $`f\left(\tau \right)`$, we apply this model to the scientific citation web, a rather complex network formed by the citation patterns of scientific publications, with the nodes standing for published articles and a directed edge representing a reference to a previously published article.

Fig. 1 shows the citation rate data of the years 1987-1998 obtained from the ISI database. The number of papers published in each year (Fig. 1a) is approximately stable (as we have assumed), and, in order to further get rid of the fluctuation, we use a set of relative values, $`F_{19871998}`$, $`F_{19881998}`$,…, $`F_{19981998}`$, i.e. of the papers published in 1987, 1988, …, 1998, the fraction that is cited in 1998. Then we reinterpret them as the following: each time step corresponds to a year, and as soon as a node is introduced in the $`Y`$th step, its initial degree is taken as $`F_{19981998}`$; within step $`\left(Y+1\right)`$, the degree increases by $`F_{19971998}`$; … within step $`\left(Y+11\right)`$, it increases by $`F_{19871998}`$, to finally $`_{i=1987}^{1998}F_{i1998}`$. Thus we can approximately obtain both $`dk\left(t\right)/dt`$ and $`k\left(t\right)`$ as a function of time. Then $`f\left(t\right)`$ can be calculated as $`\left[1/k\left(t\right)\right]dk\left(t\right)/dt`$, and it is shown to be proportional to, approximately, $`e^{0.28t}`$ (Fig. 1b). In the following we shall choose the factor to be

$$f\left(\tau \right)=e^{\beta \tau },$$
(4)
where $`\beta `$ is a tunable parameter. This particular measurement does not exclude other functions, such as $`\tau ^\nu `$, as possible choices. They are also studied, and found to yield similar results in most respects (while several interesting differences are highlighted below).

In the following we show how structural properties can be changed by the aging effect introduced in the way quantified above.

## III Transformation of network structure

In this section, we study the transformation of network structure by the aging effect. First of all we pay attention to the mostly studied property of complex networks, the vertex degree distribution. It is well known that the aging effect may result in a transformation of the degree statistics, from scale-free with no aging, to broad-scale with slow aging and to single-scale with fast aging. The detailed analytical and numerical study of evolving networks with power-law aging that supports this idea can be found in Ref. . Here, with exponential aging, we have also found by numerical simulations a very similar process.

It may be interesting to turn to the empirical results of the citation web. In Ref. , the network formed by articles citing each other in Physical Review D has been studied and the degree distribution significantly deviates from a power law in the range of relatively small degrees. In Ref. , the study has been extended to the out-degree distributions of the networks formed by articles in a variety of journals. The distributions have a maximum at intermediate out-degrees, followed by an exponential tail for large out-degrees (single scale). These pictures actually can be reproduced by tuning the decay factor $`\beta `$ from small to large. The similar effect can be found in some figures of Ref. .

In the following, we report the investigation of network structure transformation by aging effect in four aspects: clustering, hierarchical structure, degree correlation, and average node distanceOn completion of this work, we have noticed that in Ref. , Vazquez et al. have investigated the deactivation model in similar aspects. Actually, the deactivation model, just like the present model, can be viewed as a specific kind of aging effect. However here we study gradual aging and in most cases a gradual transformation process is demonstrated by tuning the parameter. At the same time, there are some important different results, e.g. those concerning the small-world effect.. The definitions and a brief review of relevant results can be found in the head of each subsection.

### A Clustering

A useful tool to characterize the network structure is the clustering coefficient $`C`$, which is defined as the average probability that a pair of nearest neighbors of a given node is also connected. For example, if the node $`i`$ has $`k_i`$ links, and among its $`k_i`$ nearest neighbors there are $`\epsilon _i`$ edges, then the clustering coefficient of the node $`i`$ is defined by

$`C_i={\displaystyle \frac{2\epsilon _i}{k_i\left(k_i+1\right)}}.`$

The clustering coefficient of the whole network is given by the average value. A common property of, for example, social networks is that cliques form, i.e. friends of yours are much more likely to be friends of each other than people selected at random, thus resulting in a high clustering coefficient. In the BA model, with the highly simplified assumptions, $`C`$ decreases with system size $`N`$ as $`\left(\mathrm{ln}N\right)^2/N`$. It is significantly lower than actual measurement, which is to a high degree unaffected by the system size.

Our study of the aging effect on network structure begins with the investigation of clustering. Fig. 2 shows several typical curves of the clustering coefficient $`C\left(N\right)`$ as a function of network size $`N`$. As aging gradually grows, we observe an interesting transformation process, which can be roughly separated into several stages. (1) $`\beta =0`$: The network reduces to the BA model and $`C`$ decreases to finally $`0`$ as the system grows. (2) $`0\beta 10^3`$: Now a slight aging effect is introduced, and $`C`$ is significantly lowered given a relatively small system size, but, when the size grows, this gap is contracting. (3) $`10^3\beta 10^1`$: As aging is becoming more and more manifest, $`C`$ is greatly enhanced. Given a relatively small system size, it may still be lower than the value obtained in a non-aged network of the same size. However, with a much lower rate of decreasing, it quickly exceeds that non-aged value after reaching a crosspoint. As the system grows larger, the curve is becoming increasingly flat and $`C`$ finally approaches a stable value. (4) As $`\beta `$ continues to grow, this asymptotic value is quickly rising, as shown by the curve at $`\beta =0.5`$. After a certain peak is reached, it quickly falls back to finally zero.

In the following we analyze our observations. In networks, clustering is determined by a competition of orderliness and randomness. In the BA model, newly added nodes are more likely to be linked to earlier introduced nodes, which generally have more links. This orderliness, however, is weakened by the increasing randomness as the network size grows, thus resulting in a vanishing $`C`$. When the aging effect is considered, the old nodes gradually lose their activity in network function and growth. For a newly added node, it is more probable to be linked with a temporally closer node, thus forming a chain-like structure on the large scale. The region which a given node may be linked with is of a finite effective size, however large the whole network may actually be. This may explain why the $`C\left(N\right)`$ curve quickly reaches a stable value when the aging effect is considered. Different from the prediction of the BA model, this stable value is finite even with a vanishingly small $`\beta `$. Now we explain how and why this value varies with the intensity of the aging effect. In an aged network, while the global randomness as a result of the large network size is absent, the orderliness that older nodes receive more links is also lacked. The clustering coefficient of a given node is now determined by the structure of its neighboring region. When the aging effect is very weak, the size of this region is relatively large and there is an even distribution of the probability that the considered node is connected with a given member of this region. The randomness caused by such an even distribution results in a small value of $`C`$. As the aging effect grows, the size of this region contracts and the probability distribution becomes more concentrated. Thus the randomness is inhibited, and $`C`$ is significantly enhanced. However, with very strong aging effect, $`C`$ diminishes as the probability distribution becomes increasingly centralized. Finally, $`C`$ approaches zero when each node can be linked only with the node introduced right before it.

The analysis above can be quantified by an approximate calculation of the asymptotic clustering coefficient, $`C\left(\beta \right)`$, as a function of $`\beta `$. The details can be found in the Appendix and the result,

$$C\left(\beta \right)=\frac{6m^3}{2m\left(2m1\right)}e^\beta \frac{\left(1e^\beta \right)^3}{\left(1e^{2\beta }\right)^2},$$
(5)
in comparison with the simulation is shown in Fig. 3. From Eq. (5) we can see that $`C\left(\beta \right)`$ increases linearly with $`\beta `$ for small values of $`\beta `$, and decays as $`e^\beta `$ for large values of $`\beta `$.

When we compare the two decay factors, $`e^{\beta \tau }`$ and $`\tau ^\nu `$, there is an interesting observation. In a network of $`10,000`$ nodes, we measure the average clustering coefficient $`C_1`$ of the first half and $`C_2`$ of the second half (each containing $`5,000`$ nodes) respectively. When $`e^{\beta \tau }`$ is chosen, two sets of approximately equal values are obtained; however, when $`\tau ^\nu `$ is chosen, $`C_2`$ equals $`C_1`$ only with strong or weak aging, and in the middle ground $`C_2`$ is significantly lower (Fig. 4). This interesting disparity justifies further investigation and measurement in the study of real networks.

This finding also reminds us that, on empirical data acquisition, the effect of aging plays a crucial role, since researchers often have a limited access to the whole system, and will probably consider the most recently grown part. Whether such a limited investigation can correctly represent the overall system may strongly depend on the type of the aging effect.

### B Hierarchical structure

Now we go beyond the average clustering coefficient and calculate $`C\left(k\right)`$ as a function of $`k`$. Here $`C\left(k\right)`$ denotes the expected clustering coefficient of a node with $`k`$ degreesThe method of our simulation is as the following: In each of the many independent runs, after a network is generated, the degree $`k`$ and the clustering coefficient $`C`$ of each node is measured. Then we calculate the average $`C`$ of the nodes that have degree $`k`$. Finally the results are further averaged over the independent runs.. For complex networks, this relationship is often of much significance because it is a useful tool to inspect the intrinsic hierarchy of the topology. In the following we briefly discuss the physical ground and then present our results with the aging effect.

In reality, networks are often fundamentally modular: nodes have a tendency to combine into subgroups in which they are highly interconnected but have relatively few links to nodes outside. For example, in society such groups may represent families, and in WWW they can denote communities with shared interests. Numerous such groups then constitute the whole system in a hierarchical manner. In some way the network might look like a fractal graph (see Fig. 1 of Ref. ). This structure can be characterized quantitatively by a simple scaling law: $`C\left(k\right)k^\gamma `$. The coefficient $`\gamma `$ has been measured to be approximately $`0.75`$ on the Internet at the autonomous system level.

When no aging effect is considered, the BA model does not show such a property and we expect to observe $`C\left(k\right)`$ as a horizontal line subject to fluctuations. As aging is gradually introduced, we observe a descending slope emerging first at the leftmost part of the curve (Fig. 5). It becomes increasingly manifest until the scaling law is completely observed. The rate of the slope remains around $`0.75`$ in the whole process. In this specific model, this value is independent of the intensity of the aging effect. This scaling law clearly indicates that a hierarchical structure is produced by the aging effect.

### C Degree Correlation

In the following we discuss the aging effect on the degree-degree correlation (or the mixing pattern, as it is sometimes called). For convenience we shall call a node with $`k`$ degrees a $`Dk`$ node.

The degree correlation of nearest neighboring nodes is an important generic property of networks. It can be quantified by the probability matrix $`P(k,k_{nn})`$, i.e., the probability that a $`D`$-$`k`$ node is connected with a $`Dk_{nn}`$ node. However, in reality, with the available empirical data, a direct plot of $`P(k,k_{nn})`$ often results in a noisy picture difficult to interpret. An equivalent choice is to measure instead the nearest neighbors’ average degree of the $`Dk`$ nodes, $`k_{nn}_k=_{k_{nn}}k_{nn}P(k,k_{nn})`$, as a function of $`k`$. Following Newman’s idea, if the high degree nodes in a network tend to connect to the low (or other high) degree nodes, then we have a disassortative (or assortative) mixing pattern; if there is no obvious bias, then we have a neutral mixing pattern and $`k_{nn}_k=k^2/k`$, a value independent of $`k`$.

Before we discuss the correlation patterns with the aging effect, we provide results of the BA model for comparison. In Ref. , Krapivsky and Redner have obtained in the BA model a useful characterization of correlation, $`N_{kl}\left(t\right)`$, i.e., the number of $`Dk`$ nodes that attach to a $`Dl`$ ancestor. Asymptotically, $`N_{kl}\left(t\right)tn_{kl}`$, and

$$n_{kl}=\frac{4\left(l1\right)}{k\left(k+1\right)\left(k+l\right)\left(k+l+1\right)\left(k+l+2\right)}+\frac{12\left(l1\right)}{k\left(k+l1\right)\left(k+l\right)\left(k+l+1\right)\left(k+l+2\right)}.$$
(6)
Here we consider undirected links and study $`N_{kl}^{}=N_{kl}+N_{lk}`$, the number of $`Dk`$ nodes that are linked with a $`Dl`$ node. Asymptotically

$`N_{kl}^{}/tn_{kl}^{}=n_{kl}+n_{lk}.`$

The probability that a nearest neighbor of a $`Dk`$ node is $`Dk_{nn}`$ is

$`\left(N_{k,k_{nn}}+N_{k_{nn},k}\right)/{\displaystyle \underset{k_{nn}}{}}\left(N_{k,k_{nn}}+N_{k_{nn},k}\right)`$

and the average degree of the nearest neighbors of the $`Dk`$ nodes is

$$k_{nn}_k=\frac{_{k_{nn}}k_{nn}\left(N_{k,k_{nn}}+N_{k_{nn},k}\right)}{_{k_{nn}}\left(N_{k,k_{nn}}+N_{k_{nn},k}\right)}\frac{_{k_{nn}}k_{nn}\left(n_{k,k_{nn}}+n_{k_{nn},k}\right)}{_{k_{nn}}\left(n_{k,k_{nn}}+n_{k_{nn},k}\right)}.$$
(7)
We show it approximately in Fig. 6(a) by taking the summation of $`k_{nn}`$ to $`1.5\times 10^5`$ and $`2\times 10^6`$ (with normalization satisfied) respectively, in comparison with the simulation results at $`N=100`$, $`1000`$ and $`10000`$. It is found that nodes with large $`k`$ show no obvious biases in their associations. But, there is a short disassortative mixing region when $`k`$ is relatively small.

Now we introduce a tunable aging effect. With the parameter $`\beta `$ taking different values, the $`\mathrm{ln}`$-$`\mathrm{ln}`$ plots of $`k_{nn}_k`$ are shown in Fig. 7(a). When $`k`$ is relatively small, they all descend linearly with approximately the same slope. This indicates that in this region $`k_{nn}_k`$ decays as a power-law, $`k^\lambda `$, and the exponent $`\lambda `$ is largely independent of the intensity of the aging effect. But they show different trends as $`k`$ increases. (1) For small values of $`\beta `$ ($`\beta =0.01`$ and $`0.1`$ in Fig. 7(a)), the curves become flatter as $`k`$ increases. (2) For large $`\beta `$ ($`\beta =0.4`$ and $`0.5`$ in Fig. 7(a)), the power-law is truncated with a fast decaying tail and (3) in the middle ground ($`\beta =0.2`$ and $`0.3`$ in Fig. 7(a)), the power-law is maintained. To conclude, the aging effect, possibly above a certain intensity, leads to a disassortative mixing pattern.

To explain the emergence of this mixing pattern, we directly study the probability matrix $`P(k,k_{nn})`$. In the BA model, Fig. 6(b) shows two characteristic distributions of the probability that a nearest neighbor of a $`Dk`$ node is $`Dk_{nn}`$. They are shown to be declining as approximately $`k_{nn}^2`$ for large $`k_{nn}`$, which is a sign of neutral mixing since the probability of finding a $`Dk_{nn}`$ node in the network is approximately $`k_{nn}^3`$. It also leads to the conclusion that $`k_{nn}`$ will diverge for infinite network size $`N`$ as $`\mathrm{ln}N`$, since the largest possible value of $`kN^{1/2}`$, and approximately

$$k_{nn}\frac{_1^\sqrt{N}k_{nn}k_{nn}^2𝑑k_{nn}}{_1^\sqrt{N}k_{nn}^2𝑑k_{nn}}\mathrm{ln}N.$$
(8)
This trend is observed in Fig. 6(a). A three-dimensional drawing of the matrix $`P(k,k_{nn})`$ without aging can be found in Fig. 6(c). When aging is considered, the effect is remarkable, as is shown in Fig. 7(b) and 7(c). On the one hand, the probability distribution is changed from a power law to a bell-shaped type (Fig. 7(b)); on the other hand, with $`k`$ growing, this bell-shaped distribution is shifting translationally, along the negative direction of the axis of $`k_{nn}`$.

### D Average distance between nodes

Finally we study another fundamental topological feature of complex networks, the average node-node distance, $`d`$. Here the distance between two selected nodes is defined as the number of edges along the shortest path connecting them. In our simulation we calculate $`d`$ as $`_{i=1}^Nd_i/N`$, where $`d_i`$ is the average distance between the node $`i`$ and the rest of the network.

As is mentioned in the Introduction, many complex networks show striking small-world properties and have a relatively small value of $`d`$ compared with their large size. This effect is shared by many models, including the Small-World model, the BA model and the random network. However, with the aging effect strong enough, it is imaginable that each node could only be connected with those introduced shortly before it. Thus we may probably have a chain-like structure, with $`d`$ scaling linearly as $`N`$. In fact, as is shown below, this depends on the choice of the decay factor.

(1) When $`e^{\beta \tau }`$ is applied, we obtain a chain-like structure even with vanishingly small $`\beta `$ ($`\beta =0.01`$ in Fig. 8(a)), and $`d`$ increases linearly as $`N`$. However, a chain-like structure does not necessarily mean a large value of $`d`$. Here $`d`$ is still relatively small compared with $`N`$. (2) When $`\tau ^\nu `$ is applied, we observe a continuous transformation process that can be roughly identified with three stages: The first stage is a small-world network with $`d\mathrm{ln}N`$ ($`\nu =1`$ in Fig. 8(b)); in the second stage the network is similar to a hypercubic lattice with $`dN^{1/D}`$, where $`D`$ is the Euclidean dimension ($`\nu =2`$ and $`D2.73`$ in Fig. 8(c)); finally, in the third stage, the network evolves into a chain-like structure with $`dN`$ (Fig. 8(d)). The difference between the two decay factors becomes more manifest when we take into consideration the position of each node and plot $`d_i`$ as a function of $`i`$. Fig. 9(a), obtained with the decay factor $`e^{0.01\tau }`$, is just a sign of a chain-like structure. By contrast, in Fig. 9(b) with the decay factor $`\tau ^1`$, the nodes born earlier have shorter distance.

For each node, the probability that it is linked with a newly introduced node is proportional to its degree and the decay factor, and the structure of the generated network is decided by such a competition. A major difference between the two decay factors, $`e^{\beta \tau }`$ and $`\tau ^\nu `$, is that $`e^{\beta \tau }`$ decays much faster. With $`e^{\beta \tau }`$, the probability that two temporally distant nodes are connected is so small that a chain-like structure will be produced even with vanishingly small $`\beta `$. However, when $`\tau ^\nu `$ is chosen, the result of the competition depends on the parameter $`\nu `$, and that is why we have observed a continuous transformation. Besides, it is worth mentioning that actually the small-world property can be retained with $`\nu `$ in a remarkably large region.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that, from the observation of an exponential aging in the citation network and the present model, we may predict a linear increase of the average distance between nodes (in the citation web) with the number of nodes in the network. This is against the common expectation of a small ”world behavior”, where a logarithmic increase is observed, but it is certainly what follows from our work. We hope this conclusion will stimulate further statistical measurements of citation networks.

## IV Summary

In network evolution, aging is a universal effect: After all, nothing is perpetual. Here we find in citation networks that the aging effect may be represented by an exponential decay factor, $`e^{\beta \tau }`$, while this particular measurement does not exclude the possibility that other evolving networks may have different types of aging, for example, a power-law decay, which is also studied and compared. It has been found that, as soon as the preferential attachment is modified by such a factor, the produced network will be significantly transformed, besides the change of the degree distribution. In most cases we observe a continuous transformation process by tuning the decay factor, while there are also a few abrupt changes. (1) The network will be clustered even with infinite network size, and the clustering coefficient varies greatly with the intensity of the aging effect, i.e. it increases with $`\beta `$ linearly for small values of $`\beta `$ and decays exponentially for large values of $`\beta `$. At the same time, the aging effect may also result in (2) a hierarchical structure and (3) a disassortative degree-degree correlation, and we observe how the corresponding scaling laws gradually emerge. (4) Generally the aging effect will increase the average node-node distance in a network, but the result depends on the chosen decay factor and the intensity: If exponential decay is applied, the network appears like a one-dimensional chain; but with power law decay a transformation process is demonstrated, i.e., from a small-world, to a hypercubic lattice and to a one-dimensional chain finally.

Presently there are plenty of problems worthy of further investigation. For example, the influence of different choices of the decay factor, hidden behind similar statistical properties, on network structure. In the present research, the interesting disparities revealed, concerning the clustering and the node distance, and probably with other aspects not yet identified, are believed to bear significant meaning for empirical data acquisition. We hope that the measurement conducted in the present work, about the citation web, will be applied to more systems in future empirical studies. The effect of aging on network structure observed in the present article also justifies a parallel study of the effect on network function, which includes topics such as efficiency, information and disease transportation, error and attack tolerance, and percolation features, etc.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank Konstantin Klemm for his help in providing the original data used in Fig. 1. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 10075025.

## A Calculation of the asymptotic clustering coefficient

Because of the decay factor $`e^{\beta \tau }`$, each node can only be linked with a finite region, however large the whole network may actually be. We can use this property to simplify the calculation of the asymptotic clustering coefficient of a infinitely large network.

As is described in Sec. II, the model network is built as the following: at each time step a single node is introduced, and then it is attached to $`m`$ existing nodes. After the network is built, we calculate the clustering coefficient of a randomly selected node, which is numbered as node $`0`$. We number the node introduced $`i`$ time steps before it as node $`i`$ and the node introduced $`i`$ time steps after it as node $`+i`$. As a result of the aging effect, we can assume that each node of this network has the same connectivity $`2m`$. Thus, the probability that two nodes $`i`$ and $`j`$ are connected can be written as (a node cannot be linked with itself)

$`P_{link}(i,j)`$ $`=`$ $`m{\displaystyle \frac{2m\left(e^{\beta \left|ij\right|}\delta _{ij}\right)}{_{l=1}^{\mathrm{}}2me^{\beta l}}}=m{\displaystyle \frac{e^{\beta \left|ij\right|}\delta _{ij}}{_{l=1}^{\mathrm{}}e^{\beta l}}}`$ (A1)
$`=`$ $`m\left(e^\beta 1\right)\left(e^{\beta \left|ij\right|}\delta _{ij}\right).`$ (A2)
The clustering coefficient of the node $`0`$,

$`C\left(\beta \right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_{i=\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}_{j=\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}P_{link}(0,i)P_{link}(0,j)P_{link}(i,j)}{2m\left(2m1\right)}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{m^3\left(e^\beta 1\right)^3}{2m\left(2m1\right)}}\left[2{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}e^{\beta i}e^{\beta j}\left(e^{\beta \left|ij\right|}\delta _{ij}\right)+2{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}e^{\beta i}e^{\beta j}e^{\beta \left(i+j\right)}\right]`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{6m^3}{2m\left(2m1\right)}}e^\beta {\displaystyle \frac{\left(1e^\beta \right)^3}{\left(1e^{2\beta }\right)^2}}.`$
In fact this value does not depend on which node we select, and thus it can be taken as the clustering coefficient of the network. As is shown in Fig. 3, this approximate calculation has a better fit with the simulation results for large values of $`\beta `$. Actually, the difference mainly comes from Eq. (A2), in which we do not consider the degree difference of the nodes.

Caption of figures

Fig. 1 (a) The scientific citation web formed by papers (nodes) and citations (directed bonds). The open squares correspond to papers published in each year between 1987 and 1998 and the solid squares correspond to citations made in 1998 and referring to papers published in a given year. The data have been extracted from the ISI database. The average number of citations a paper published in a given year received in 1998, which is actually a ratio of the other two curves, is shown in diamonds. (b) The natural logarithm of the calculated function $`f\left(t\right)=\left[1/k\left(t\right)\right]dk\left(t\right)/dt`$ versus time step $`t`$ (solid circles). The linear fit (solid line) corresponds to a exponential decay, $`e^{\beta t}`$, with the exponent $`\beta =0.28353`$.

Fig. 2 The clustering coefficient as a function of system size $`N`$, in the model described in text, with $`\beta =0`$ (squares), $`10^3`$ (circles), $`10^2`$ (upward triangles), $`0.1`$ (leftward triangles), $`0.5`$ (downward triangles), and $`7.7`$ (diamonds), respectively. Each newly added node is linked to $`3`$ existing nodes (also in all the following simulations). The data points correspond to system sizes varying from $`100`$ to $`20,000`$, and each is obtained as an average of many independent runs.

Fig. 3 The analytical result of the asymptotic clustering coefficient of an infinitely large network, $`C\left(\beta \right)`$, as a function of $`\beta `$ (line), in comparison with the simulation (squares) results. Here $`m=3`$ and the network size $`N=20000`$ in the simulation.

Fig. 4 In a $`10,000`$-node network with the decay factor chosen to be $`\tau ^\nu `$, the ratio of the average clustering coefficient $`C_2`$ of the second half and $`C_1`$ of the first half, as a function of $`\nu `$.

Fig. 5 The $`\mathrm{ln}`$-$`\mathrm{ln}`$ plot of the clustering coefficient $`C\left(k\right)`$ versus the connectivity $`k`$, with $`\beta =0.01`$ (squares), $`0.1`$ (circles), $`0.2`$ (upward triangles), $`0.3`$ (downward triangles), $`0.4`$ (diamonds), $`0.5`$ (crosses), and the system size $`N=10,000`$. The solid line is a power-law decay, $`k^\gamma `$, with the exponent $`\gamma =0.75`$.

Fig. 6 Degree-degree correlations in the BA model without aging. (a)Average degree $`k_{nn}`$ of the neighboring nodes of the $`Dk`$ nodes as a function of $`k`$. There is no aging effect and $`\beta =0`$. Squares, circles and upward triangles correspond to the simulation results with system size $`N=100`$, $`1000`$ and $`10000`$ respectively. The dashed line and the solid line represent the theoretical results with $`k_{nn}`$ up to $`1.5\times 10^5`$ and $`2\times 10^6`$ respectively. (b) Degree distributions of the nearest neighbors of $`D3`$ nodes (squares) and $`D20`$ nodes (circles) respectively. The dashed lines are the corresponding theoretical results. The solid line with slope $`2`$ serves as a guide to the eye. (c) The probability matrix $`P(k,k_{nn})`$. In both (b) and (c) system size $`N=10,000`$.

Fig. 7 Degree-degree correlations with aging effect. (a) The $`\mathrm{ln}`$-$`\mathrm{ln}`$ plot of $`k_{nn}_k`$ versus $`k`$, at $`\beta =0.01`$ (squares), $`0.1`$ (circles), $`0.2`$ (upward triangles), $`0.3`$ (downward triangles), $`0.4`$ (diamonds), $`0.5`$ (leftward triangles), with system size $`N=10,000`$. The solid line corresponds to a power-law decay $`k^\lambda `$, with the exponent $`\lambda =0.183`$. (b) Degree distributions of the nearest neighbors of $`D6`$ nodes (circles) and $`D14`$ nodes (squares) respectively. (c) The probability matrix $`P(k,k_{nn})`$. Both (b) and (c) are obtained with $`N=3,000`$.

Fig. 8 Average distance between nodes as a function of network size $`N`$ with different decay factors: (a) $`f\left(\tau \right)=e^{0.01\tau }`$, and $`dN`$; (b) $`f\left(\tau \right)=\tau ^{1.5}`$, and $`d\mathrm{ln}N`$; (c) $`f\left(\tau \right)=\tau ^2`$, and $`dN^{1/2.73}`$; (c) $`f\left(\tau \right)=\tau ^3`$, and $`dN`$. The results are obtained with $`m=2`$.

Fig. 9 The average distance between each given node in the network and all the other nodes, with the decay factor as (a) $`f\left(\tau \right)=e^{0.01\tau }`$ and (b) $`f\left(\tau \right)=\tau ^1`$. Here $`N=20000`$ and $`m=2`$.


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# Comment on “Conduction states in oxide perovskites: Three manifestations of Ti3+ Jahn-Teller polarons in barium titanate”

We have a remark to Sec. 6 were the authors Schirmer  discuss polarons bound to doubly charged oxygen vacancies $`V_\mathrm{O}^{++}`$.

By using EPR spectroscopy, Scharfschwerdt et. al. Scharf  found in reduced BaTiO3 a signal which they attributed to a symmetry broken state of Ti3+ bound to $`V_\mathrm{O}^{++}`$ ($`V_\mathrm{O}^{++}`$Ti3+). Later on, theoretical studies performed in the framework of a Green function approach considered possible reasons for such symmetry breaking. Osipenko ; JETP  Within that study the electron’s activation energies were obtained in accordance with data on electroconductivity Raevski  which we will discuss below.

Theoretical studies Osipenko ; JETP  did not consider the states of the $`F`$-center-type (a vacancy centered, symmetric electron density), but, later, computations showed that the states of the $`F`$-center type , in the single charged oxygen vacancy ($`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$), can have lower energy than the states of the $`V_\mathrm{O}^{++}`$Ti3+-type Donnerberg ; Bunin1 ; Bunin2 . However, the EPR signal of such states has not been found experimentally. Schirmer

Hence, there is a seeming contradiction between the experiment Scharf  and results of theoretical computations. Donnerberg  In order to resolve this contradiction, Lenjer et. al. Schirmer  suggest that the oxygen vacancy $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ in BaTiO3 is a negative-$`U`$ center. This could explain the absence of the EPR signal of $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$. The presence in experiment Scharf  of the EPR signal of a symmetry broken state Lenjer et. al. Schirmer  relate to an overpopulated state of the oxygen vacancy having 3 electrons ($`V_\mathrm{O}`$Ti3+). The third electron, in the authors’ opinion,Schirmer  sits at the Ti site nearest to $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ but the source of the existence of this third electron on $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ was not discussed, but, probably, it can arise due to Nb doping of BaTiO3 which Scharfschwerdt et. al. Scharf  employed in their experiment in order to compensate acceptor-type Na impurities.

The main assumption of Lenjer et. al. Schirmer  regarding the negative-$`U`$ center seems to contradict the theoretical computations Donnerberg ; Eglitis  which obtained that $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ is a positive $`U`$-center. There can be also contradictions with experimental data Raevski  on electroconductivity which we want to discuss in more details.

It is well-known that the electroconductivity of perovskites strongly depends on the degree of the reduction of the sample.Raevski  The crystals in which the donors are nearly fully compensated by acceptors are transparent and have low conductivity. The strongly reduced samples are often dark (and even black) and have a strong conductivity of n-type. Notice that, during the reduction process, only the $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ concentration is increased. Hence, the average number of electrons on $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ in this experiment cannot be more than 2. However. in order that the room conductivity is high, the electron energy levels of $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ should be small, about 0.1 eV.Raevski  The activation energy of $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ we will discuss below.

In disagreement with these experimental facts INDO computation Eglitis  predicts that the $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ electronic energy level in KNbO3 is about 0.6 eV above the *top of the valence band* (2.7 eV below the bottom of the conduction band), and the difference between the energies of $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ and $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ is positive, and it is about 0.3 eV. This is a mystery, how it is possible to explain the high electric conductivity and black color of the heavily reduced samples of perovskites together with the high activation energy of electrons in $`V_\mathrm{O}`$? However this computation is in line with other computations of $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ in perovskites showing the presence of deep $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ states of the $`F`$-center type. Donnerberg ; Park ; Christensen ; Bunin1 ; Bunin2  This puzzle should be resolved somehow.

Experimental data on electroconductivity in SrTiO3 show that, depending on the degree of reduction, the Fermi energy $`E_F`$ in the expression $`\sigma \mathrm{exp}\left[(E_FE)/k_BT\right]`$ changes (here $`E`$ is the energy of the bottom of the contactance band): there were observed $`EE_F=`$ 0.35 eV, 0.18 eV, and $``$ 0.1 eV. The first value was related to the case when the population of $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ is very small and $`E_F`$ coincides with the electronic energy level of $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$. The second value (0.18 eV) corresponds to the case when the population of $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ is high and $`E_F`$ lies in the middle between the energy level of $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ and the bottom of the conduction band. The final, $``$ 0.1 eV, small energy was related to the case of $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ with 2 electrons. From similar analysis for BaTiO3 the following Fermi energies were obtained: 0.55 eV, 0.28 eV, 0.1 eV. In CaTiO3: 0.15 eV, 0.08 eV, and $``$ 0.1 eV. From these data it was deduced that, in BaTiO3, the activation energies of $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ are about $`E_1=0.55`$ eV and the activation energy of $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ is $`E_20.1`$ eV; in SrTiO3, $`E_1=0.35`$ eV and $`E_2<0.1`$ eV; and in CaTiO3, $`E_1=0.15`$ eV and $`E_2<0.1`$ eV Raevski . Notice that these energies were observed in samples having different degrees of reduction and, in particular, different color, black or gray (very small activation energies) or light-yellow (comparatively deep levels). No other donors besides VO were used (there are no Na and Nb additions in these experiments in contrast to the experiment of Scharfschwerdt et. al. Scharf ).

In semiempirical theoretical studies Osipenko ; JETP ; Raevski  it was obtained that the symmetry broken electronic state $`V_O^{++}Ti^{3+}`$ has the energy about 0.2 eV with respect to *the conduction band bottom* plus the polaronic energy connected with the interaction of the microscopic dipole with lattice polarization. This is in very good agreement with the data on electroconductivity. Raevski  However this scheme contradicts the results of modern embedded cluster computations. Donnerberg

In principle, one could connect the first two values of the Fermi energy (for instance, in BaTiO3, 0.55 eV and 0.28 eV with respect to the bottom of the conduction band) Raevski  with $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ and $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ respectively. However, it is not clear again the origin of the value $`EE_F0.1`$ eV as well as the large gain of electroconductivity in heavily reduced samples and their black color. Besides the explanation given above, one could also consider $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ clusters, surface conductivity, and a strong decrease of the polaronic energy in reduced samples. In this connection we want to cite reference \[Scott \] in which it was shown that the oxygen vacancies have a tendency to ordering, especially when their concentration increases. The $`F`$-center state can be destroyed in such pairs and this can help appearing the low-energy electronic states.

Lenjer et al. Schirmer  also argue that, in experimental study Mueller , $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ was not found. We stress that $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ exists in a thin interval of the relative donor/acceptor concentration. In order to see these states one should slowly vary the degree of the reduction or oxidation of the sample. Raevski  At a given donor/acceptor concentration ratio there are vacancies with presumably one charge state because of a strong difference between the electronic energies of $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ and $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$. Raevski

The electroconductivity data Raevski  are consistent with the existence of three possible states of VO having zero, one or two electrons respectively (the first state having zero electrons does not contribute to the conductivity). The small value of one of the activation energies is connected with the state of $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ having two electrons: the electrostatic interaction between these electrons makes this state rather shallow. The comparatively large activation energy is connected with $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$. The large difference between these energies in BaTiO3 and CaTiO3 was explained by stronger polaronic effect in BaTiO3 due to softer lattice dynamics Raevski . We want also to cite a study in which it was shown that reduced samples of barium titanate exhibit paramagnetic susceptibility Kvantov . All these experimental findings are consistent with the assumption of the existence of $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ although its appearance requires rather strong inequalities on the donor/acceptor concentration ratio Raevski . Other possible explanations of these data and new schemes of computations should be explored in order to understand the origin of the contradiction of this scheme with present time computations.

Unfortunately, it is not clear from the experimental data on EPR Schirmer  if the thermal activation energy of the “third electron on VO” is comparable with the activation energy of “V$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{\mathrm{O}}{}^{}`$” obtained from electroconductivity. Raevski  In any case, it would be helpful to analyze the EPR data together with data on electroconductivity and, perhaps, also on optics (see discussions, for instance, in Bursian ; Raevski ). In our opinion, first-principles computations should be also developed further in order to explain the experimentally observed activation energies connected with $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ and their tendencies in sequences of perovskites. Raevski  Finally, the electronic structure of $`V_\mathrm{O}`$ and $`V_\mathrm{O}^+`$ remain a mystery and further studies are necessary.

This study is partially supported by RFBR grants 01-02-16029 and 01-03-33119.


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# Quantum Corrals, Eigenmodes and Quantum Mirages in s-wave Superconductors

## Abstract

We study the electronic structure of magnetic and non-magnetic quantum corrals embedded in $`s`$-wave superconductors. We demonstrate that a quantum mirage of an impurity bound state peak can be projected from the occupied into the empty focus of a non-magnetic quantum corral via the excitation of the corral’s eigenmodes. We observe an enhanced coupling between magnetic impurities inside the corral, which can be varied through oscillations in the corral’s impurity potential. Finally, we discuss the form of eigenmodes in magnetic quantum corrals.

The interaction of nanoscale impurity structures with fermionic quantum many-body systems has led to the observation of a large number of novel physical phenomena Man00 ; Hol01 ; Der02 ; Chi02  over the last few years. In superconducting (SC) systems, quantum interference of electronic waves that are scattered by a small number of impurities can lead to the splitting of impurity states, as observed in the one-dimensional chains of the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O6+x Der02 , and discussed theoretically for these chains chains  as well as two-dimensional (2D) $`d_{x^2y^2}`$-wave dwave  and $`s`$-wave superconductors (SSC) swave ; Morr03b . In more complex impurity structures, such as quantum corrals, the existence of discrete eigenmodes can be employed for the creation of quantum mirages. This effect was beautifully demonstrated by Manoharan et al. Man00  who used the Kondo-resonance of a magnetic impurity located in the focus of an elliptical quantum corral as the “electronic candle” whose quantum image was projected into the empty focus. A nice theoretical explanation of this phenomenon was subsequently provided in a series of articles theory .

Of particular interest is the possibility that nanoscale impurity structures can provide insight into the nature of complex electronic systems. In general, one expects that strong electronic correlations or changes in the electronic structure due to broken symmetries affect the spatial patterns of eigenmodes in quantum corrals and provide novel “electronic candles” whose spectroscopic signatures can be projected. As a first step in the investigation of this idea, we study in this Letter quantum corrals that are embedded in an $`s`$-wave superconductor with non-trivial correlations arising from particle-hole mixing. We consider a variety of quantum corrals consisting of non-magnetic or magnetic impurities with constant or oscillating scattering potentials. Magnetic impurities that are placed inside the corral induce bound states whose spectroscopic signature are peaks in the density-of-states (DOS). We utilize these peaks as the “electronic candle” to investigate the corral’s electronic properties. We demonstrate that by placing a magnetic impurity in one of the corral’s foci, a quantum image of its bound state peaks is projected into the empty focus via the excitation of the corral’s eigenmodes. These eigenmodes also lead to an enhanced coupling between magnetic impurities inside the corral. We illustrate how the spatial pattern of eigenmodes can be changed through oscillations in the corral’s impurity potential or the relative alignment of impurity spins in magnetic corrals. These results provide a new tool for manipulating the interaction between magnetic impurities, a topic of great current interest in the field of spin electronics and quantum information technology spinQC .

To study the electronic structure of quantum corrals we employ a $`\widehat{T}`$-matrix formalism chains ; Morr03b ; Shiba68 ; Balatsky  which was generalized to describe electronic scattering off a large number of impurities. In a fully gapped SSC, magnetic impurities with spin $`S`$ can be treated as classical variables Shiba68  since no Kondo-effect exists for sufficiently small coupling between the impurity and delocalized electrons Sat92 , in full agreement with experiment Yaz97 . In the Nambu-formalism, the electronic Greens function in the presence of $`N`$ impurities located at $`𝐫_i`$ is

$`\widehat{G}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\omega _n)`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{G}_0(𝐫,𝐫^{},\omega _n)`$ (1)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{i,j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\widehat{G}_0(𝐫,𝐫_i,\omega _n)\widehat{T}(𝐫_i,𝐫_j,\omega _n)\widehat{G}_0(𝐫_j,𝐫^{},\omega _n),`$
where one has for the $`\widehat{T}`$-matrix

$`\widehat{T}(𝐫_i,𝐫_j,\omega _n)`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{V}_i\delta _{i,j}`$ (2)
$`+\widehat{V}_i{\displaystyle \underset{l=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\widehat{G}_0(𝐫_i,𝐫_l,\omega _n)\widehat{T}(𝐫_l,𝐫_j,\omega _n),`$
and

$`\widehat{G}_0^1(𝐤,i\omega _n)=\left[i\omega _n\tau _0ϵ_𝐤\tau _3\right]\sigma _0+\mathrm{\Delta }_0\tau _2\sigma _2;`$
$`\widehat{V}_i={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(U_i\sigma _0+J_iS\sigma _3\right)\tau _3.`$ (3)
$`\widehat{G}_0(𝐤,i\omega _n)`$ is the electronic Greens function of the unperturbed (clean) system in momentum space, $`\sigma `$, $`\tau `$ are the Pauli-matrices in spin and Nambu-space, respectively, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ is the SC gap. We assume that the corral is located at the surface of an SSC, and thus consider for simplicity a 2D electronic system. Its normal state dispersion is given by $`ϵ_𝐤=k^2/2m\mu `$ ($`\mathrm{}=1`$), where $`\mu =k_F^2/2m`$ is the chemical potential and $`k_F=\pi /2`$ is the Fermi wave-vector (lattice constant $`a_0=1`$). We set $`1/(m\mathrm{\Delta }_0)=30`$, yielding a SC coherence length of $`\xi _c=k_F/(m\mathrm{\Delta }_0)=15\pi `$. Moreover, $`\widehat{V}_i`$ is the scattering matrix at $`𝐫_i`$, with $`U_i`$ and $`J_i`$ being the potential and magnetic scattering strengths of the impurity. Unless otherwise noted, we take for definiteness $`U_i/2\mathrm{\Delta }_0=30`$ ($`J_i=0`$) for non-magnetic impurities, and $`J_iS/2\mathrm{\Delta }_0=30`$ ($`U_i=0`$) for magnetic impurities. These values are taken to demonstrate the qualitative features of our results which are robust against changes in the scattering strengths or in the form of the fermionic dispersion. The DOS, $`N(𝐫,\omega )`$, is obtained from a numerical computation of Eqs.(1) and (2) with $`N(𝐫,\omega )=A_{11}+A_{22}`$, $`A_{ii}(𝐫,\omega )=\mathrm{Im}\widehat{G}_{ii}(𝐫,\omega +i\delta )/\pi `$, and $`\delta =0.02\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$.

We first study an elliptical corral with semi-axes $`a=20`$, $`b=15`$, and eccentricity $`e=\sqrt{7}/4`$, that consists of 100 non-magnetic impurities. Defining the center of the corral as $`(0,0)`$, we place a magnetic impurity in the corral’s focus at $`f_+=(13,0)`$, while leaving the other focus at $`f_{}=(13,0)`$ empty. In Fig. 1a, we present the DOS in the foci at $`f_\pm `$. As expected, the magnetic impurity induces a bound state resulting in a particle- and hole-like peak in the DOS at frequencies $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=0.4`$, respectively. A quantum mirage of these peaks emerges in the empty focus at $`f_{}`$. The formation of this quantum image through excitations of the corral’s eigenmodes becomes evident when we consider the spatial DOS pattern at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(2)}`$ as shown in Fig. 1b. All plots of the spatial DOS shown in the following possess the same intensity scale to facilitate a direct comparison, with light (dark) color indicating a large (small) DOS. In addition to the quantum mirage, we observe DOS oscillations, representing the excited eigenmodes of the corral. By increasing the corral’s impurity potential Morr03c , the eigenmodes as well as the impurity bound state become more confined inside the corral. The presence of two bound state peaks at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}`$ that arise from particle-hole mixing in the SC state allows us to study eigenmodes at different excitation energies. Note, e.g., that the spectral weight in the DOS at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1)}`$ (Fig. 1c) is much more concentrated around $`f_+`$ than at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(2)}`$ (Fig. 1b) concomitant with a weaker excited eigenmode and quantum mirage. It was noted earlier theory , that eigenmodes can only be excited if the excitation (via the impurity bound state) takes place at a position where the spectral weight of the eigenmode is large, and if the excitation energy, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}`$, is close to the eigenmode’s energy. For $`U_i=\mathrm{}`$, no eigenmodes exist inside the SC gap, and the eigenmodes closest to the Fermi energy and large spectral weight close to the foci are located at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{(\pm )}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=\pm 1.1`$. Since the mode’s amplitude at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{(+)}`$ is considerably larger than that at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{()}`$, the DOS oscillations and thus the quantum mirage at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1)}`$ are weaker, leading to a concentration of spectral weight around $`f_+`$. This demonstrates that the eigenmodes act as “waveguides” for the projection of the bound state peaks into a quantum image Man00 ; theory .

The effect of a corral on the DOS strongly depends on the ratio of the decay length, $`\xi _d=\xi _c/\sqrt{1(\mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Delta }_0)^2}`$, and the corral’s semi-axes. In the above case, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=\pm 0.4`$, $`\xi _d=16.4\pi a,b`$ and the spatial DOS pattern at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(2)}`$ is significantly different for a magnetic impurity at $`f_+`$ with (Fig. 1b) and without a corral (Fig. 1d). Note that the presence of a corral also shifts $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}`$ from $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=\pm 0.575`$ (no corral) to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=\pm 0.4`$. In contrast, if $`\xi _da,b`$ the bound state wave-function at the position of the corral wall is exponentially suppressed, no eigenmodes can be excited, and the spatial DOS pattern of a single magnetic impurity remains unchanged in the presence of a quantum corral Morr03c . Note, however, that $`\xi _d`$ can become arbitrarily large by increasing $`JS`$ such that $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}|/\mathrm{\Delta }_01`$.

We next study the evolution of the DOS pattern when the magnetic impurity is moved off the focus for a corral with 88 impurities, $`a=20`$, $`b=10`$, eccentricity $`e=\sqrt{3}/2`$ and $`f_\pm =(\pm 17,0)`$. In Fig. 2a we present the DOS at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(2)}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=0.475`$ for a magnetic impurity located at $`f_+`$. The DOS exhibits a similar pattern, including a quantum mirage at $`f_{}`$, as in Fig. 1b, albeit with only one instead of three “side wings” in the excited eigenmode. When we move the impurity off the focus to $`(13,0)`$ (Fig. 2b), the bound state energy increases to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=0.5`$, and only a much weaker quantum mirage emerges at $`f_{}`$. The DOS pattern changes significantly when the magnetic impurity is located at the center of the corral at $`(0,0)`$ (Fig. 2c) with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=0.725`$. Thus, changing the location of the excitation, i.e., the magnetic impurity, leads to different excited eigenmodes and a simultaneous shift in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1,2)}`$. In Fig. 2d we plot the DOS in the presence of an oscillating impurity potential along the corral’s wall with $`U(\varphi )=U_0\mathrm{cos}\varphi `$, $`U_0/2\mathrm{\Delta }_0=30`$, and $`\varphi `$ being the angle between the x-axis and the line connecting the center of the ellipse with the impurity. This oscillating potential, which might arise, e.g., from charge oscillations in the corral’s wall, weakens the eigenmodes, particularly along the vertical axis of the corral where $`U(\varphi )`$ is small, and almost completely destroys the quantum mirage of the bound state peak.

It was argued in Ref. swave ; Morr03b  that quantum interference effects between two magnetic impurities leads to the formation of bonding and antibonding bound states and thus to a frequency splitting of the bound state peaks. We find that this splitting can be enhanced if the magnetic impurities are placed in the foci of a corral. We consider the same corral as in Fig. 1 and assume for definiteness that the spins of the impurities are parallel, however, qualitatively similar results are obtained for arbitrary angle between the impurity spins. As shown in Fig. 3, in the absence of a quantum corral, the energy splitting of the bound state peaks is small, $`\delta \mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=0.1`$, due to the large distance between the impurities. However, in the presence of the corral the splitting increases to $`\delta \mathrm{\Omega }_b^{}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=0.65`$, implying that the coupling between the two magnetic impurities is enhanced (in the normal state, this effect was discussed in Ref. interaction ). Note that for an oscillating impurity potential, as that discussed in Fig. 2d, the splitting decreases to $`\delta \mathrm{\Omega }_b^{\prime \prime }/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=0.175`$.

Finally, we present in Fig. 4 the DOS inside a quantum corral ($`a=20`$, $`b=10`$) consisting of 88 magnetic impurities. The corral’s impurity spins are antiferromagnetically aligned and an additional magnetic impurity is located at $`f_+=(17,0)`$.

Since the bound states associated with the magnetic impurities are coupled, the DOS exhibits a large number of peaks (Fig. 4a), and we do not observe a well defined quantum image in the empty focus. The DOS pattern changes qualitatively between different bound state energies, as shown in Fig. 4b and c where we present the DOS at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1)}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=0.1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(2)}/\mathrm{\Delta }_0=0.575`$ (see Fig. 4a). For $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(1)}`$ the spectral weight of the excited eigenmode is predominantly centered around the empty focus, while for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{(2)}`$ most of the spectral weight is located in the vicinity of the occupied focus. Thus, in contrast to non-magnetic corrals, the eigenmodes in a magnetic corral can be concentrated near the occupied or empty focus. For ferromagnetic alignment of the corral spins (not shown) there also exists a large number of bound state peaks in the DOS Morr03c . However, the spatial distribution of spectral weight associated with these peaks is much more homogeneous, likely due to the stronger scattering for ferromagnetically aligned spins Morr03b  and the resulting larger number of excited eigenmodes.

Finally, we comment on the relevance of pair-breaking effects near magnetic impurities. Since the suppression of the SC gap close to a single magnetic impurities does not alter the DOS’s qualitative features Balatsky , our results presented in Figs. 1-3 are likely robust against pair-breaking effects. In magnetic corrals, on the other hand, the suppression of the SC gap is potentially relevant and its magnitude could depend on the ferro- or antiferromagnetic alignment of the corral’s spins. Work is currently under way to study the significance of pair-breaking effects and gap suppression in both cases Morr03c .

In summary, we demonstrate that a quantum mirage of an impurity bound state peak can be projected from the occupied into the empty focus of a non-magnetic quantum corral via the excitation of the corral’s eigenmodes. We observe an enhanced coupling between magnetic impurities inside the corral, which can be varied through oscillations in the corral’s impurity potential. This provides a novel tool to manipulate the interaction between magnetic impurities, a topic of great relevance in spin electronics and quantum information technology spinQC .

We would like to thank J.C. Davis and A. de Lozanne for stimulating discussions.


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# Dependence of Striped Domain Growth on Background Wavenumber

## I Introduction

When a system experiences a sufficiently large, sudden change of an external parameter, referred to as a quench, the current state of the system will lose stability and a transition will occur to a new state. When there is more than one possibility for the new state (such as spin up or down in a magnetic system), domains will form. At late times, these domains coarsen, or grow. The dynamics of this coarsening process has been the subject of substantial research and is important in many applications Bray (1994). In general, the domains are characterized by a single length scale, $`l(t)`$, that grows according to a power-law, $`l(t)t^n`$. Here $`n`$ is referred to as the growth exponent. This process is usually referred to as domain coarsening. Some examples of systems for which domain coarsening has been studied in detail Bray (1994), either theoretically or experimentally, include the Ising model, binary fluids, liquid crystals, diblock copolymers Harrison et al. (2000, 2002), and electroconvection Purvis and Dennin (2001).

There are a number of ways to categorize systems undergoing coarsening. First, one must distinguish between cases where the order parameter is conserved, such as in a binary fluid, and where it is not conserved, such as in the Ising model. Second, the domains that are growing may be uniform, such as in both the Ising model and binary fluids, or they may consist of a pattern, such as stripes in the case of diblock copolymers and electroconvection. Finally, the initial and final states can either be thermodynamic equilibrium states or steady states of the system. Most of the studies have focused on the case where the initial state prior to the quench and the final state well after the quench are thermodynamic equilibrium states Bray (1994). We will refer to this type of system as a thermodynamic system. For isotropic, thermodynamic systems, where the domains are uniform, the exponents are well known. For systems with a non-conserved order parameter, $`n=1/2`$. Systems with a conserved order parameter have $`n=1/3`$. In this report, we focus on coarsening in a system in which the domains are composed of stripes. An added feature of the system we consider is that the initial and final states are not states of thermodynamic equilibrium, though they are steady-states of the system. We refer to this as a driven system.

For systems in which the domains are composed of stripes, theoretical studies of the power-law scaling of the late-time domain growth has focused on simulations and analysis of the Swift-Hohenberg equation Elder et al. (1992); Cross and Meiron (1995); Christensen and Bray (1998); Boyer and Vinals (2001, 2002); Taneike et al. (2002); Qian and Mazenko (2002). Experiments have been performed in both a thermodynamic system, diblock copolymers Harrison et al. (2000, 2002), and a driven system, electroconvection Purvis and Dennin (2001); Kamaga et al. (2003). This work has raised two related issues. First, two length scales are important in the problem: the wavelength of the pattern and the scale of a domain. This has an interesting impact on the measured growth exponents. Traditional studies of domain growth focus on the structure factor, $`S(k)`$. This measures both variations in wavenumber and domain size, with information about both lengths scales mixing in a nontrivial way. For striped systems, one can also consider orientational correlation functions, defect densities, or domain wall lengths. These quantities are independent of the local wavenumber and are expected to provide information about domain size only.

Numerical simulations have considered both the scaling of the structure factor, $`S(k)`$, of the system and the orientational correlation function. The evolution of the structure factor is found to be consistent with a length scale that grows as $`t^{1/5}`$ for both potential and nonpotential versions of the Swift-Hohenberg equation Cross and Meiron (1995); Christensen and Bray (1998). However, the growth exponent determined from the orientational correlation function is $`1/4`$ for the potential case and $`1/2`$ for the nonpotential case Cross and Meiron (1995). The orientational correlation function and defect densities are measured experimentally in diblock copolymers Harrison et al. (2000). The results agree with the potential case of the Swift-Hohenberg model, $`n=1/4`$. For a particular case of electroconvection, it was shown that the wavenumber and domains evolve differently Purvis and Dennin (2001). It was found that the growth exponent measured using $`S(k)`$ is consistent with $`n=1/5`$ and measurement of the domain size gave $`n=1/4`$. This is in agreement with simulations for the potential case Cross and Meiron (1995). In addition, the distribution of local wavenumbers was measured separately. This distribution was essentially independent of time, providing an explanation for the difference between $`S(k)`$ and domain wall measurements.

The second issue associated with striped domains is the interaction between defects in the pattern and the background stripe pattern. This has been studied using the Swift-Hohenberg equation. One important consequence is that the growth of domains can be strongly affected by pinning of grain boundaries Boyer and Vinals (2001, 2002). In these simulations, the measured growth exponents depends on the depth of the quench, something that does not occur in uniform systems. The growth exponents are also found to depend on the level of noise in the system Elder et al. (1992); Taneike et al. (2002). This is attributed to the fact that noise can provide a source of “depinning” for the defects. Finally, the evolution of the average wavenumber provides a possible explanation for differences in simulations of the potential and nonpotential versions of the Swift-Hohenberg equations. The average wavenumber in each case evolves to different values, and this was suggested as one possible explanation for the two different growth exponents Cross and Meiron (1995).

We report on an experimental study of the impact of changes in the average wavenumber on the growth of domains. We utilize a particular example of electroconvection that is ideally suited for controlling the average wavenumber of the pattern: electroconvection in the nematic liquid crystal I52 Dennin et al. (1998); Dennin (2000a). A nematic liquid crystal is a fluid in which the molecules are aligned on average de Gennes and Prost (1993). The axis along which the average alignment points is referred to as the director. For electroconvection Kramer and Pesch (1995), a nematic liquid crystal is placed between two glass plates that have been treated so that the director is everywhere parallel to the plates. An ac voltage is applied perpendicular to the plates. Above a critical value of the voltage, a pattern of stripes forms. Because the system is anisotropic (the director selects a preferred axis), the states are usually characterized by the angle between the wavevector of the pattern and the undistorted director, $`\theta `$. States with the same wavenumber and angle $`\pm \theta `$ are degenerate and referred to as zig and zag, respectively. For the system discussed in this paper, the initial pattern consists of four travelling stripe states Dennin et al. (1996a): right- and left-travelling zig and zag rolls. It has been established for this system that above a critical value for a modulation of the applied voltage at twice the travelling frequency, the system consists of either standing zig or zag rolls Dennin (2000a). Therefore, a sudden quench of the system from below this critical value to above it results in the nucleation of domains of standing zig and zag rolls, which proceed to coarsen.

Previous measurements of growth exponents for this system focused on quenches that used exactly twice the travelling frequency. Reference Purvis and Dennin (2001) reports a value of $`n=1/4`$ for the growth of the domain size and $`n=1/5`$ for the scaling of $`S(k)`$. A single initial experiment for a modulation frequency slightly different from twice the travelling frequency suggested similar behavior. However, a systematic exploration of changes in the wavenumber, by varying the modulation frequency, is possible for this system Dennin (2000a), and has not been carried out. In this paper, we report on such a study. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II provides the details of the experimental system and the techniques used to analyze the domain growth. Section III presents the results of the experiment. Section IV provides a discussion of the results.

## II Experimental Details

We used the liquid crystal I52 Finkenzeller et al. (1989) doped with iodine. Due to the nature of I52, $`8\%`$ iodine by weight was used initially. However, a significant fraction of the iodine evaporates before the cells are filled, so the final concentration is not well controlled. We used commercial liquid crystal cells EHC  composed of two transparent glass plates coated with a transparent conductor, indium-tin oxide. The cells were 2.54 cm x 2.54 cm, with the conductor forming a square 1 cm x 1 cm in the center of the cell. The glass was also treated with a rubbed polymer to obtain uniform planar alignment of the director. We define the direction parallel to the undistorted director to be the x axis and the direction perpendicular to the undistorted director to be the y axis.

The apparatus is described in detail in Ref. Dennin (2000b). It consists of an aluminum block with glass windows. The temperature of the block was kept constant to $`\pm 0.001^{}\mathrm{C}`$. Polarized light is applied from the bottom of the cell. Above the cell, there is a ccd camera to capture the image of patterns using the standard shadowgraph technique Rasenat et al. (1989).

We apply an ac voltage of the form $`V(t)=\sqrt{2}[V_o+V_mcos(\omega _mt)]cos(\omega _dt)`$ perpendicular to the glass plates. Here $`V_o`$ is the amplitude of the applied voltage in the absence of modulation, $`V_m`$ is the modulation amplitude, $`\omega _m`$ is the modulation frequency, and $`\omega _d`$ is the driving frequency. For all of the experiments reported on here, $`\omega _d/2\pi =25\mathrm{Hz}`$. The critical voltage, $`V_c`$ is defined as the value of $`V_o`$ for which the system makes a transition from a uniform state to the superposition of travelling rolls in the absence of modulation. There are two relevant control parameters: $`ϵ=(V_o/V_c)^21`$ and $`b=V_m/V_c`$.

For the experiments discussed here, the system is initially at $`ϵ=0.04`$ and $`b=0`$, i.e. above onset with no modulation. As mentioned in Sec. I, there are only four modes needed to describe the observed convection rolls: zig and zag, right and left travelling oblique rolls. This state is an example of spatiotemporal chaos in that the amplitude of the four modes varies irregularly in space and time Dennin et al. (1996b). For each $`ϵ`$ and $`\omega _m`$, there exists a critical value of $`b`$, $`b_c`$, above which the system consists of standing zig and zag rolls. A quench corresponds to a sudden change of $`b`$ to some value $`b>b_c`$. At and below $`V_c`$, the modulation frequency with the strongest coupling to the pattern, and correspondingly smallest value of $`b_c`$, is twice the Hopf frequency, $`\omega _h`$. The Hopf frequency is the travelling wave frequency at $`V_c`$. As one increases $`ϵ`$, the natural frequency of the pattern shifts. Because we worked at a finite value of $`ϵ`$, the smallest value of $`b_c`$ occurs for a modulation frequency, $`\omega _m=2\omega ^{}`$, where $`\omega ^{}`$ is the natural frequency of the pattern at the given value of $`ϵ`$. Because it is the relative shift in frequency that matters, we will consider the behavior as a function of $`\delta f=f^{}f_m/2`$, where $`f^{}=\omega ^{}/2\pi `$ and $`f_m=\omega _m/2\pi `$. Figure 1 is a plot of $`b_c`$ as a function of $`\delta f`$ for $`ϵ=0.04`$. We focus almost exclusively on the negative values of $`\delta f`$ because for $`\delta f>+0.01\mathrm{Hz}`$, the pattern stabilized by modulation is standing waves that are a superposition of zig and zag rolls, and not individual domains of standing zig and zag rolls.

Quenches were performed for a range of $`\delta f`$. The final value of $`b`$ in each case was selected so that the quench depths all corresponded to $`\mathrm{\Delta }b=0.02`$, as measured from the onset of standing waves (solid curve in Fig. 1). The camera was triggered to take the images at the same point in the modulation cycle. This ensured that the pattern was imaged at the same point in the standing wave cycle. Each image covered a region of $`4.1\mathrm{mm}\times 3.1\mathrm{mm}`$ of the cell. Time is scaled by the director relaxation time, $`\tau _d\gamma _1d^2/(\pi ^2K_{11})=0.2\mathrm{s}`$. Here $`\gamma _1`$ is a rotational viscosity; $`K_{11}`$ is the splay elastic constant; and $`d`$ is the thickness of the cell.

An example of a small region of the pattern after a quench is given in Fig. 2. Two different quenches are illustrated: $`\delta f=0.008\mathrm{Hz}`$ and $`\delta f=0.23\mathrm{Hz}`$. The images for $`\delta f=0.008\mathrm{Hz}`$ illustrate the type of patterns on which we focused: standing zig and zag rolls separated by domain walls. The domain walls are relatively “thick”, and the superposition of zig and zag rolls in a domain wall is visible. The quench at $`\delta f=0.23\mathrm{Hz}`$ illustrates qualitatively different behavior. In this case, there are regions of superposition that are “domains” in their own right, though most of the regions of superposition can be considered to be domain walls. As we will show, this qualitative difference is apparent in various characterizations of the growth. As the focus of the paper is the impact of varying the wavenumber on the domain growth in the zig/zag system, we will only report on this single quench in the regime where domains of the superposition of zig and zag rolls occurs. Further increasing $`|\delta f|`$ results in patterns that are entirely the superposition of zig and zag rolls. Future work will consider in more detail this other class of patterns.

A number of features of the domains were analyzed. First, the power spectrum, $`S(k)`$, of each image was computed. This was used to determine the average wavenumber ($`<k>kS(k)𝑑k/S(k)𝑑k`$) for the zig and zag rolls. The widths of the fundamental peak in $`S(k)`$ in both the x ($`\sigma _x`$) and y ($`\sigma _y`$) directions were determined using the second moment of $`S(k)`$. This gives $`\sigma _x\sqrt{<k_x^2><k_x>^2}`$, with $`<k_x^2>k_x^2S(k)𝑑k/S(k)𝑑k`$, and a similar definition for $`\sigma _y`$. (Note: all of the integrals were taken as sums over a finite region around the fundamental peak, as described in Ref. Purvis and Dennin (2001).) $`\sigma _x`$ and $`\sigma _y`$ contain information about the typical size of a domain and the distribution of wavenumbers, in the respective directions.

We also analyzed the images by first converting them to a scaled image of zig and zag domains, referred to as the angle map. This was done using the procedure detailed in Ref. Purvis and Dennin (2001). Briefly, the local angle of the wavenumber is computed using the algorithm reported in Ref. Egolf et al. (1998). This is used to produce an image with black and white domains representing regions of zig and zag, respectively. Regions of superposition of zig and zag rolls (the domains wall for most of the quenches) are represented by gray. Figure 3 illustrates a typical image (Fig. 3a) and the results after conversion to an angle map (Fig. 3b). Once these images are produced, two measures of the domain growth that are independent of variations in the local wavenumber are computed. First, one can determine the total domain wall length per viewing area, $`L`$. This quantity scales as the inverse of a characteristic domain size (the area of the viewing scales as a length squared). In our case, $`L`$ was defined as the total number of gray pixels divided by the total area of the image. For all of the quenches except the ones at $`\delta f=0.23\mathrm{Hz}`$, the width of the domain walls was constant during the domain growth. Therefore, this is a consistent measure of the total domain wall length. For the quench at $`\delta f=0.23\mathrm{Hz}`$, we still used this definition for consistency, even though it represents a transitional behavior. In this case, some of the regions of superposition of zig and zag rolls (gray pixels) are more appropriately considered domains in their own right. Still, most of the gray pixels corresponded to domain walls between zig and zag domains. We also computed the power spectrum of the angle map image, $`S(q)`$. In this case, the peak is centered at $`q=0`$, as the angle map domains are uniform. Therefore, the width of the peak is related to the typical domain size only. Again, we separately considered the width in the x direction ($`w_x`$) and y direction ($`w_y`$), where the widths are defined in the same manner as for $`S(k)`$.

## III Results

Figure 4 shows the time evolution of the average wavenumber ($`<k>`$) for the different quenches of interest. A number of features of the evolution are evident. First, as claimed, the steady-state value of the $`<k>`$ is dependent on $`\delta f`$ (see Fig. 4a). However, for all quenches, the $`<k>`$ is still evolving even at late times. After $`t/\tau _d1000`$, the evolution is consistent with a very slow logarithmic growth: $`<k>=a\mathrm{log}_{10}(t/\tau _d)`$, with $`a0.01`$. This is illustrated in Fig. 4b. However, for all but the largest value of $`|\delta f|`$, there is a weak dependence on when the logarithmic growth begins (with values ranging from $`2.7<\mathrm{log}_{10}(t/\tau _d)<3.1`$) and on the coefficient ($`a`$) of the logarithmic growth (with values ranging from $`0.006`$ to $`0.02`$. In general, for larger $`|\delta f|`$, evolution consistent with logarithmic time dependence occurs at a later time. As referred to in Sec. II, for $`\delta f=0.23\mathrm{Hz}`$, the pattern is qualitatively different. In this case, the evolution of $`<k>`$ is also very different, with logarithmic growth setting in significantly later ($`\mathrm{log}_{10}(t/\tau _d)3.5`$) and with a coefficient of $`0.05`$.

Figure 5 shows the evolution of the width of the power spectrum for both the pattern ($`\sigma _x`$ and $`\sigma _y`$) and the angle map ($`w_x`$ and $`w_y`$). There are a number of features that become apparent in these plots. First, if one were to assume that a scaling regime is reached, the growth exponent measured from $`S(k)`$ is very different from that measured for $`S(q)`$. Based on $`\sigma _x`$ and $`\sigma _y`$, one observes very slow growth for the system. For late times, assuming $`\sigma t^n`$, the exponents $`n`$ are on the order of $`0.1`$. In contrast, the length scales characterized by the inverse of $`w_x`$ and $`w_y`$ grow faster. In this case, one obtains growth exponents of $`n=0.33`$ or larger. This difference is consistent with earlier results comparing $`S(k)`$, which includes information about the variation in local wavenumber, to more direct measures of the domain size Cross and Meiron (1995); Purvis and Dennin (2001).

The second feature of the growth is the differences between the growth in the x- and y-directions. For the quench with $`\delta f=0.008\mathrm{Hz}`$, both $`w_x`$ and $`w_y`$ have the same magnitude and time dependence. This suggests that the system is evolving in a relatively isotropic manner. For $`\sigma _x`$ and $`\sigma _y`$, the time evolution is similar, though the magnitudes are different. This suggests that there is more anisotropy in the local wavenumber distributions than there is in the domains. This anisotropy contributes to the difference in magnitude between $`\sigma _x`$ and $`\sigma _y`$, but does not impact the time evolution. For the case of $`\delta f=0.23\mathrm{Hz}`$, the situation is roughly reversed. In this case, $`\sigma _x`$ and $`\sigma _y`$ have roughly the same magnitude throughout the evolution. In contrast, $`w_x`$ and $`w_y`$ have different magnitudes and slightly different time evolution, at late times. This qualitative difference is probably due to the increased area of the pattern that is given by a superposition of zig and zag rolls, and thus, the change in the nature of the domain boundaries.

As an alternative measure of the domain growth, we also considered the total domain wall length present in a fixed viewing area. This measure is an isotropic measure of the domain growth. Its time evolution is a good measure of how rapidly the overall size of a domain changes. However, it does not provide any information about the relative rate of change in the x- and y-direction. Figure 6 shows the evolution of the total domain wall length for a number of values of $`\delta f`$. Also shown are two straight lines that provide a guide to the eye. The dashed line has a slope of $`0.7`$, and the solid line has a slope of $`0.3`$. It is clear from this plot that the evolution of the domain size occurs more rapidly for the larger values of $`|\delta f|`$.

At this point, it is important to emphasize one of the challenges of interpreting data used to characterize domain growth. In studies of domain coarsening, it is standard to assume that a late-time scaling regime exists in which the lengths characterizing the domain size grow as a power-law in time. One experimental difficulty with this assumption is determining when such a scaling regime is reached. This is especially true in the studies reported on here, where the average wavenumber is still evolving in time for all of the conditions that we studied (even if it is only logarithmic in time). However, independent of whether or not a true scaling regime has been reached, for similar times during the evolution of the domains, the data is consistent with a power-law of the form $`l(t)t^n`$, where $`l`$ is some characteristic length. Therefore, the values of $`n`$ provide information about the relative rate of growth of domains under different circumstances. This is our main motivation for looking at $`n`$. Any claims of a true scaling regime would be premature at this point, though the consistency of the data with power-law behavior suggests that it is possible such a regime has been reached.

Figure 7 summarizes the impact of variations in the wavenumber on the domain growth by comparing growth exponents $`n`$ for $`w_x`$, $`w_y`$, and the total domain wall length per viewing area $`L`$. The results from $`\sigma _x`$ and $`\sigma _y`$ exhibited no strong dependence on $`\delta f`$. One observes that the growth of the domains is significantly faster for larger $`|\delta f|`$, as measured by the total domain wall length in a given area. In this case, $`n`$ increases in magnitude monotonically with $`|\delta f|`$. However, the trends in $`w_x`$ and $`w_y`$ are less obvious. If anything, one observes a small change in the magnitude of $`n`$ for $`w_x`$ and $`w_y`$ as $`|\delta f|`$ is increased. Also, the growth appears to become more anisotropic as $`|\delta f|`$ increases.

## IV Summary

The experiments reported on here demonstrate the close connection between the dynamics of domain growth in patterned systems and the evolution of the background wavenumber. We performed a series of quenches in which the steady-state average wavenumber after the quench is varied. The resulting domain growth depends on the evolution and steady-state value of $`<k>`$. However, different measures of the domain growth are impacted to different degrees. A direct measure of the typical domain size, the average domain wall length in a fixed viewing area, showed the strongest dependence on the average wavenumber, with the rate of growth increasing as the wavenumber is varied away from its “natural” value.

If one assumes that the average domain wall length scales as a power in time, exponents in the range of $`0.3`$ to $`0.7`$ are observed. As discussed in the introduction, such a large variation in growth exponent is consistent with simulations of the two different Swift-Hohenberg equations Cross and Meiron (1995). In Ref. Cross and Meiron (1995), the calculated exponent is found to increase from $`0.25`$ to $`0.5`$ with a variation in wavenumber of approximately 20%. This difference in average wavenumber was suggested as the source of the different exponents. The work in Ref. Cross and Meiron (1995) does not directly apply to this system because it considered the isotropic Swift-Hohenberg equation, and our system is anisotropic. However, the similarity between the two results suggests that it is worth further work to determine how universal the impact of wavenumber variation is on domain growth in patterned systems.

An interesting feature of the growth is that as one forced the average wavenumber to be different from the “natural” wavenumber of the system, the rate of growth was increased. In our case, the maximum variation in wavenumber was only 6%, but the exponent changed from $`0.3`$ to $`0.7`$. If these results carry over to other patterned systems, such as diblock copolymers, one can have a relatively significant impact on the rate of growth of domains by inducing a change in the average wavenumber away from the “natural” wavenumber. This increase in the rate of domain coarsening could have a practical impact in various processing situations.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by NSF grant DMR-9975479. M. Dennin also thanks the Research Corporation and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for additional funding for this work.