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# A broad absorption feature in the X-ray spectrum of the isolated neutron star RBS1223 (1RXS J130848.6+212708) Based on observations with XMM-Newton, an ESA Science Mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member states and the USA (NASA)

## 1 Introduction

The soft X-ray source 1RXS J130848.6+212708 was discovered in the ROSAT all-sky survey data and further studied as part of the ROSAT Bright Survey program (RBS, source number 1223) to optically identify the brightest $``$2000 high-galactic latitude sources (Schwope et al. 2000). Based on similarities to the two best known cases RX J1856.4$-$3754 and RX J0720.4$-$3125 and the lack of an optical counterpart brighter than B$``$26m, Schwope et al. (1999) proposed 1RXS J130848.6+212708 = RBS1223 as isolated neutron star (INS). Using the Chandra observatory Hambaryan et al. (2002) observed RBS1223 on June 24, 2000 with the ACIS instrument and discovered pulsations in the X-ray flux, initially indicating a neutron star spin period of 5.16 s. A probable optical counterpart in the 90% Chandra error circle was reported by Kaplan et al. (2002a) using a very deep observation from the Hubble Space Telescope. The optical brightness of $`m_{50\mathrm{C}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{D}}`$ = 28.6m yields an X-ray to optical flux ratio of log(fx/fopt) = 4.9. The optical flux is a factor of about 5 above the extrapolation of the blackbody fit to the X-ray spectrum, similar as observed for RX J1856.4$-$3754 (e.g. Burwitz et al. 2003) and RX J0720.4$-$3125 (Pavlov et al. 2002).

This confirms RBS1223 as member of a group of X-ray dim INSs which share similar properties (for a recent review see Haberl 2003): soft blackbody-like X-ray spectrum, radio quiet and no known association with a supernova remnant. Four objects are X-ray pulsars with neutron star spin periods in the range 8.39 to 22.7 s (the XMM-Newton observations of RBS1223 revealed a peak in the power spectrum at half the frequency of the main peak which suggests that the genuine spin period is 10.31 s with a double peaked profile, Haberl 2003). All available spectra obtained by the ROSAT PSPC were consistent with Planckian energy distributions with blackbody temperatures kT in the range 40 $``$ 100 eV and little attenuation by interstellar absorption. More recent observations of the two brightest objects RX J1856.4$-$3754 (Burwitz et al. 2001, 2003) and RX J0720.4$-$3125 (Paerels et al. 2001; Pavlov et al. 2002) were performed using the low energy transmission grating (LETG) aboard Chandra and the reflection grating spectrometers (RGS) of XMM-Newton. Also at high spectral resolution both sources show featureless spectra which can best be modeled by a Planckian spectrum with kT of $``$63 eV and $``$86 eV, respectively.

The pulsars among the X-ray dim INSs may allow an estimate of the strength of their magnetic field if their long-term spin period increase can be interpreted in terms of dipolar losses. For the pulsar RX J0720.4$-$3125 Kaplan et al. (2002b) derived an upper limit for the period derivative of 3.6$`\times 10^{13}`$ s s-1 from the analysis of ROSAT, SAX and Chandra data and including first XMM-Newton data, Zane et al. (2002) determined possible values between 3$``$6$`\times 10^{14}`$ s s-1. This implies that the magnetic field strength of RX J0720.4$-$3125 could be as high as a few $`10^{13}`$ G. For such magnetic field strengths an absorption feature at the proton cyclotron resonance energy, Ecp = 63gr(B/$`10^{13}`$ G) eV (gr = (1$``$2GM/c2R)1/2 with M and R the neutron star mass and radius, respectively), may become detectable (Zane et al. 2001; Zavlin & Pavlov 2002) with detectors sensitive at soft X-rays down to 100 eV.

In this letter we present the results from a spectral analysis of two XMM-Newton observations of RBS1223. The spectra show deviations from a Planckian energy distribution which can best be modeled by a broad absorption feature at low energies. We discuss this feature as most likely being caused by proton cyclotron resonance absorption.

## 2 XMM-Newton observations

XMM-Newton (Jansen et al. 2001) observed RBS1223 on two occasions; in the guest observer program (AO1, PI: Schwope) and for calibration purposes at the beginning of the year 2003. Here we utilize the data collected with the European Photon Imaging Cameras (EPICs) and the Reflection Grating Spectrometers (RGSs, den Herder et al. 2001) for a spectral analysis. Two EPIC cameras are based on MOS (EPIC-MOS1 and -MOS2, Turner et al. 2001) and one on pn (EPIC-pn, Strüder et al. 2001) CCD detectors and are mounted behind the three X-ray multi-mirror systems. The details of the XMM observations are summarized in Table 1.

## 3 X-ray spectra

The data from the EPIC instruments were processed using SAS5.4.1 to produce event files for pn, MOS1 and MOS2. RGS spectra and response files were created using rgsproc of SAS5.4.1 with standard settings. The EPIC spectra were extracted from circular regions with 30″ radius around the target position and nearby background regions using single-pixel events (pattern 0) from pn and pattern 0$``$12 events from MOS data. Detector response matrix files were used as available from the EPIC-pn calibration group in February 2003 (version 6.5 which will be implemented in the next SAS release after SAS5.4.1) and were created for MOS using the arfgen and rmfgen tasks of SAS5.4.1. MOS spectra from recent observations suffer from a considerable change in the low energy re-distribution which is not calibrated yet. Therefore, we use MOS spectra from the first observation in Dec. 2001, only. The pn spectra from the two observations, obtained in different read-out modes, are in agreement within the current calibration uncertainties and also are consistent with the MOS spectra from the Dec. 2001 observation.

The spectra were simultaneously fitted with various models, all including photo-electric absorption with element abundances from Anders & Grevesse (1989) and cross-sections from Balucinska-Church & McCammon (1992) and Yan et al. (1998) using XSPEC version 11.2.0. To account for cross-calibration uncertainties between the instruments and the fact that the pn spectra were not corrected for point spread function losses (the SAS5.4.1 task arfgen is not compatible to the response files we used here) the relative normalization between the instruments/observations were allowed to vary individually. The pn fluxes were corrected manually by a factor 1.2 to correct for the PSF loss according to the XMM-Newton users handbook. In addition uncertainties in the low-energy re-distribution were accounted for by allowing individual column density values for pn, MOS1 and MOS2. The RGS spectra show relatively large differences in continuum parameters which were then fit for each spectrum separately.

As first model an absorbed blackbody was used, however, the combined fit to the XMM spectra of RBS1223 is not acceptable with $`\chi _r^2`$ of 5.2 for 639 degrees of freedom (dof). The spectra together with the fit are shown in Fig. 1 and the fit parameters summarized in Table 2. Because of the bad fit we do not give errors and fluxes for this model. In particular, the EPIC spectra with best statistical quality yield high $`\chi ^2`$ values which we report for each instrument separately in Table 2. Since the combined fit is dominated by the high statistics of the EPIC-pn spectra we allowed all model parameters for the RGS spectra to be fit freely, i.e. the RGS fit is completely independent from the pn fit. This allows to judge if the RGS spectra on their own can be well fit by a blackbody model.

We also tried non-magnetic neutron star atmosphere models (e.g. Gänsicke et al. 2002; Zavlin & Pavlov 2002). Iron and solar mixture atmospheres cause too many absorption features and deviations from a blackbody model in particular at energies between 0.5 and 1.0 keV which are not seen in the measured spectra. On the other hand the spectrum of a pure hydrogen model is similar in shape to that of a blackbody and does not fit the data either. It also results in a much lower effective temperature of about 30 eV which would predict a far too high optical flux (see Pavlov et al. 1996). Using the models of Gänsicke et al. (2002) $`\chi _r^2`$ values of 12, 29 and 12 (for the combined EPIC spectra) are obtained for Fe, solar mixture and H atmospheres, respectively. A two-temperature blackbody fit results in $`\chi _r^2`$ = 6.6 with kT1 = 33 eV and kT2 = 94 eV. The strong residuals at energies below 500 eV remain. Such residuals are not seen in fits to the spectra of RX J1856.4$-$3754 with typical reduced $`\chi _r^2`$ values of 1.5 using the same version of spectral response files, clearly excluding calibration problems as origin.

An acceptable fit was found when including a broad absorption line in the model. Because of the low line energy and the large line width the low resolution of the EPIC detectors and the limited band pass of the RGS instruments do not allow to independently vary energy and width of the line. A broad line centered at the lowest energies reachable by the detectors ($``$120 eV) leaks only partially into the sensitive energy band and can therefore not be distinguished from a somewhat narrower line at somewhat higher energy. All we can say is that the absorption feature is extended up to $``$500 eV. Models with an absorption line at 300 eV with $`\sigma `$ = 100 eV or a line at 200 eV with $`\sigma `$ = 150 eV can not be distinguished. Also multiple lines at e.g. 150 eV and 300 eV which are correspondingly narrower can not be excluded. However, too broad lines are probably unrealistic (see e.g. Zane et al. 2001, if interpreted as cyclotron resonance) and we therefore use in our fits a single absorption line of Gaussian shape with fixed $`\sigma `$ = 100 eV. This yields a best fit with $`\chi _r^2`$ = 1.67 for 636 dof (Fig. 1) with parameters listed in Table 2. The line energy was allowed to be fit individually for the two EPIC instruments but is consistent within the errors. Because the sensitive energy band of the RGS instruments covers the broad line only partially, we forced all line parameters to be the same in the fit for the pn and all RGS spectra simultaneously. For the same reason we do not give values for the line equivalent width (EQW) for the RGS spectra. The $`\chi ^2`$ obtained from the RGS spectra for this model is reduced by 31 (without adding additional dofs) as compared to the blackbody model which may be accepted for RGS if treated by its own.

We re-analyzed the ACIS-S spectrum of RBS1223, published by Hambaryan et al. (2002), using the re-processed data available in the Chandra archive and new calibration which allows a spectral analysis down to 350 eV. We fit blackbody with and without absorption line to the spectrum, with all line parameters fixed at the values derived from the fit to the XMM-Newton spectra. The fits are shown in Fig. 2 and the model parameters reported in Table 2. The results are in good agreement to those obtained from the XMM-Newton data.

## 4 X-ray pulsations

To investigate spectral changes with pulse phase, light curves in the energy bands 0.12$``$0.5 and 0.5$``$1.0 keV were folded with a pulse period of 10.31 s. This long period with double peaked profile is suggested by the presence of a second peak in the power spectrum (Haberl 2003). The different relative strength of the two peaks in the two energy bands and the related significant difference in hardness ratio (Fig. 3) strongly supports a 10.31 s spin period of RBS1223, twice as long as originally thought.

## 5 Discussion

Spectral analysis of the INS RBS1223 using data obtained by the X-ray instruments aboard XMM-Newton revealed significant deviations from a Planckian energy distribution at energies below $``$500 eV. Also, non-magnetic atmosphere models yield unacceptable fits. We find that a model including a broad absorption line on top of the blackbody continuum can reproduce the observed spectra. For a Gaussian line with fixed $`\sigma `$=100 eV we derive an energy of the line of $``$300 eV and an equivalent width of $``$150 eV. However, the spectral resolution of the EPIC instruments at these energies and the restricted energy coverage of the RGS are not sufficient to exclude line energies as low as 100 eV or multiple lines which are unresolved.

Cyclotron resonance absorption features in the 0.1$``$1.0 keV band are expected in spectra from magnetized neutron stars with field strengths in the range of $`10^{10}`$$``$$`10^{11}`$ G or 2$`\times 10^{13}`$$``$2$`\times 10^{14}`$ G if caused by electrons or protons, respectively (see e.g. Zane et al. 2001; Zavlin & Pavlov 2002). A strong magnetic field for RBS1223 of $``$2$`\times 10^{14}`$ G was first derived by Hambaryan et al. (2002) from a first estimate of the spin period derivative based on a ROSAT and a Chandra observation. The first of the two XMM-Newton observations described here, however, put this into question (for preliminary results see Haberl 2003) and placed only an upper limit of $`10^{14}`$ G. A detailed temporal analysis of the two XMM-Newton observations and a re-analysis of the Chandra data will be published in an accompanying paper (Hambaryan et al. in preparation).

Recently, several radio pulsars with magnetic field strength of a few $`10^{13}`$ G with similar long spin period as RX J0720.4$-$3125 and RBS1223 were discovered (Camilo et al. 2000; Morris et al. 2002). If one assumes a comparable field strength for RBS1223 which may be justified if the ROSAT discovered radio-quiet INSs are cases where the radio beam does not cross the Earth (Kaplan et al. 2002b; Motch et al. 2003), but are otherwise similar objects, one would favor cyclotron resonance absorption due to protons to be responsible for the features seen in the spectra of RBS1223. Then our measured line energies between 100 and 300 eV translate into magnetic field strengths of 2$``$6$`\times 10^{13}`$ G for a neutron star with canonical mass (1.4 M) and radius (10 km).

By folding the EPIC-pn data of RBS1223 in two energy bands with a period of 10.31 s we see hardness ratio changes with pulse phase. The two pulses show different hardness which may be explained by variations in cyclotron absorption between two magnetic poles. Detailed phase resolved spectroscopy which exceeds the scope of this letter, is in progress and will be reported elsewhere.

Variations in the hardness ratio with pulse phase were also reported from RX J0720.4$-$3125. Formal fits using a blackbody spectrum attenuated by photo-electric absorption performed by Cropper et al. (2001) to the pulse-phase resolved EPIC-pn spectra around hardness maximum and minimum yielded changes in column density, but little variations in blackbody temperature. This could be explained in terms of energy-dependent beaming effects with softer photons more strongly beamed than harder photons. From their polar cap modeling of the spin pulse profile the authors conclude that the derived geometries are at best marginally compatible with surface temperature variation but more satisfactory explained by an accretion model. However, the possibility of accretion of interstellar matter is now most likely excluded by the measured high proper motion of RX J0720.4$-$3125 (Motch et al. 2003). On the other hand, the variations with pulse phase could be naturally explained by cyclotron absorption, because we may view surface areas with different magnetic field strength and orientation during the rotation of the neutron star. A cyclotron absorption line at the low energy end of the sensitive energy band of the EPIC instruments would cause deviations from a Planckian shape at these energies which, so far, were not recognized due to lack of statistics and/or energy resolution and preliminary calibration of the new generation instruments.

Zane et al. (2001) calculate spectra emerging from ultra-magnetized neutron stars covered by non-degenerate, pure hydrogen plasma. They explored ranges in magnetic field strength from $`10^{13}`$ G to $`10^{15}`$ G and in luminosity from $`10^{34}`$ erg s-1 to $`10^{36}`$ erg s-1. Although the luminosity of RBS1223 may only be around $`10^{3132}`$ erg s-1 their results for the line EQW shows little dependence on luminosity and may be compared to the value of 150 eV we find for RBS1223. Their predictions for cyclotron line widths and equivalent width and the overall blackbody-like continuum for the case of a dipolar magnetic field (which broadens the line due to B field variations in magnitude and direction along the neutron star surface) are consistent with our results for RBS1223. This suggests, that at least for RBS1223 and probably also RX J0720.4$-$3125 a H atmosphere exists on these neutron stars and argues against a condensed matter surface as it was proposed to explain the combined spectral energy distribution in the optical and X-ray bands (Burwitz et al. 2003; Zane et al. 2003). However, an optically thick H atmosphere produces too much optical flux (Pavlov et al. 1996), a problem which may be reduced by thin atmosphere models as was applied by Motch et al. (2003) to RX J0720.4$-$3125.

###### Acknowledgements.

The XMM-Newton project is supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung / Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (BMBF / DLR), the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and the Heidenhain-Stiftung.


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# Electron Spin Relaxation under Drift in GaAs

## Abstract

Based on a Monte Carlo method, we investigate the influence of transport conditions on the electron spin relaxation in GaAs. The decay of initial electron spin polarization is calculated as a function of distance under the presence of moderate drift fields and/or non-zero injection energies. For relatively low fields (a couple of $`kV/cm`$), a substantial amount of spin polarization is preserved for several microns at 300 K. However, it is also found that the spin relaxation rate increases rapidly with the drift field, scaling as the square of the electron wavevector in the direction of the field. When the electrons are injected with a high energy, a pronounced decrease is observed in the spin relaxation length due to an initial increase in the spin precession frequency. Hence, high-field or high-energy transport conditions may not be desirable for spin-based devices.

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the emerging field of spin electronics (spintronics), where the electron’s spin degree of freedom is exploited.  Many devices and applications, including giant-magnetoresistive structures  and magnetic random access memories,  have been suggested with varying degrees of success. Furthermore, the suggestion of utilizing electron spin for quantum information processing is a natural extension of spintronics since the electron provides an ideal condition for a qubit.

Of the potential applications, the hybrid devices  that combine ”traditional” semiconductor electronics with the utilization of the spin state are currently at the center of attention for their increased functionality and the ease of integration. Electron spin states in semiconductor structures relax (depolarize) by scattering with imperfections or elementary excitations such as other carriers and phonons. Therefore, to realize any useful spintronic devices, it is essential to understand and have control over spin relaxation such that the information is not lost before a required operation is completed. So far, most of the studies on spin relaxation have been focused on electrons with a thermal or near-thermal distribution.  However, electron spins in the spin-based devices can be subject to highly non-thermal transport conditions including high drift fields for high-speed transfer of spin information.

In this work, we investigate the influence of transport conditions on electron spin relaxation in n-type GaAs. A Monte Carlo approach is used to simulate electron transport, including the evolution of spin polarization,  to determine spin relaxation lengths and times. A non-parabolic energy-band model (with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }LX`$ valleys) is used along with the relevant momentum relaxation mechanisms such as polar optical and acoustic phonon deformation potential scattering. Of the three main spin relaxation mechanisms \[i.e., Bir-Aronov-Pikus, Elliot-Yafet, and D’yakonov-Perel’ (DP) mechanisms\],  we only consider the DP processes since this is the dominant mechanism in the regime of interest, namely GaAs at 300K. It is also important to note that the current study is limited to the low energy cases, such that electrons are found only in the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ valley. This is due to the lack of materials parameters on spin-orbit spitting in higher energy valleys.

The DP Hamiltonian due to spin-orbital splitting of the conduction band may be written as

$$H=\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{eff};$$
(1)
and

$$\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{eff}=\frac{\alpha \mathrm{}^2}{m\sqrt{2mE_g}}[k_x(k_y^2k_z^2)\widehat{x}+\text{cyclic perm.}];$$
(2)
where $`\alpha `$ is a dimensionless, material-specific parameter which gives the magnitude of the spin-orbit splitting $`\alpha 4\eta m/\sqrt{3\eta }m_0`$ and $`\eta =\mathrm{\Delta }/(E_g+\mathrm{\Delta })`$, $`m`$ is the effective mass, $`\stackrel{}{k}`$ is the electron wave vector, $`E_g`$ is the energy separation between the conduction band and valence band at the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ point, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the spin-orbit splitting of the valence band. The material parameters for GaAs are listed in Table I.

The quantum mechanical description of the evolution of the spin 1/2 is equivalent to the evolution of the classical momentum $`\stackrel{}{S}`$ under an effective magnetic field $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{eff}`$ with the equation of motion

$$\frac{d\stackrel{}{S}}{dt}=\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{eff}\times \stackrel{}{S}.$$
(3)
Figure 1 depicts the average polarization $`<P>`$ of electrons calculated as a function of distance in GaAs. The simulation follows the evolution of $`1\times 10^4`$ spin-polarized electrons from an injection plane. Although all electrons are initially polarized ($`<P_0>=1`$), polarization at $`x=0`$ in this figure is not exactly unity due to the averaging over a finite mesh size. Clearly, $`<P>`$ decays nearly exponentially with an order of magnitude drop (to 0.1) in approximately 4 $`\mu m`$ to 7 $`\mu m`$ (5.5 $`\mu m`$ to 9 $`\mu m`$ when the non-parabolicity is not considered).

The observed dependence of decay on the applied electric field is non-monotonous with the result of 2.5 $`kV/cm`$ placed between the two cases with smaller fields. This can be explained by the two competing factors that contribute to the spin relaxation distance. As the field becomes larger in the linear regime, the electron momentum and the drift velocity increase in the direction of the field. On the other hand, the increased electron momentum also brings about a stronger effective magnetic field as shown in Eq. (2). Consequently, the electron precession frequency becomes higher, resulting in faster spin relaxation (i.e., shorter spin relaxation time). The interplay of these opposing trends (i.e., higher drift velocity and shorter relaxation time) determines the observed behavior of spin relaxation length as a function of electric field.

To examine the dependence of spin relaxation in detail, we calculate the spin relaxation rate $`\tau _s^1`$ as a function of electric field. The value of $`\tau _s`$ is estimated by approximating the spin decay to be exponentially dependent on length. The slope of Fig. 1 may be taken to be a characteristic length $`L_D`$, such that

$$<P>=A\mathrm{exp}(L/L_D);$$
(4)
where $`A`$ is a normalization factor. The spin relaxation rate may then be computed as $`\tau _s^1=v_{dr}/L_D`$, where $`v_{dr}`$ is the average drift velocity. For comparison, the results for the parabolic energy band are shown in Fig. 2 along with those with the non-parabolic band.

As expected, the spin relaxation rate increases rapidly with the applied electric field, which is also in accord with a recent experimental observation.  Although $`\tau _s`$ for low electric fields is nearly the same in both the parabolic and non-parabolic band models, the spin relaxation rate becomes considerably larger in the non-parabolic case for fields higher than approx. 1.5 $`kV/cm`$. The values for $`\tau _s`$ at the low fields agree well with those obtained for near thermal electrons.

The dependence of spin relaxation on electric field can be best understood by considering the functional form of the effective magnetic field in Eq. (2). When the applied electric field is along the $`x`$ direction, the interaction Hamiltonian reduces approximately to

$$H(k_z\widehat{z}k_y\widehat{y})k_x^2.$$
(5)
Since the average values of $`k_y`$ and $`k_z`$ remain small, it is reasonable to assume that $`\tau _s^1`$ will scale as $`<k_x^2>`$. The solid line in Fig. 2 provides the $`<k_x^2>`$ scaling for the non-parabolic band, which clearly illustrates good agreement over the entire field range under consideration. This finding indicates that the common assumption of electron temperature $`T`$ to the third power dependence \[i.e., $`1/\tau _s^{DP}(k_BT)^3\tau _p`$, where $`\tau _p`$ is the momentum relaxation time\]  substantially overestimates the spin relaxation rates in the drift regime. Considering the nature

of drift in this case, the $`T^2`$ scaling may be more appropriate.

However, the applicability of this scaling rule is also limited. As the electron temperature increases, it is clear that one needs to take into account the effect of non-parabolicity on the spin-orbit splitting (i.e., DP Hamiltonian) itself. By ignoring the higher band contributions, Pikus and Titkov obtained the following estimation in place of $`\alpha m^{3/2}`$ in Eq. (2) with the rest of the terms unchanged:

$$\alpha (E)m^{3/2}(E)=\alpha m^{3/2}\left(1\frac{E(\stackrel{}{k})}{E_g}\frac{97\eta +2\eta ^2}{3\eta }\right).$$
(6)
At the constant electric field of 2.5 $`kV/cm`$, Eq. (6) results in $`\alpha (E)m^{3/2}(E)`$ that is smaller than $`\alpha m^{3/2}`$ by approximately 10%. The deviation shrinks as the electric field decreases, leading to a minor change in the $`T^2`$ scaling of $`\tau _s^1`$. For the fields beyond the range currently under consideration (0.5$``$2.5 $`kV/cm`$), the influence of the additional term in Eq. (6) can become crucial.

In addition to the influence of the drift field, we also investigate spin transport and relaxation with varying injection energies. As mentioned earlier, one of the fundamental challenges in spintronics has been the electrical injection of spin polarized current into a semiconducting material. Noting recent suggestions  for the utilization of tunnel injection, we may anticipate relatively high electron energies at the injection point.

In Fig. 3 we plot the results of simulations where the injection energy and applied electric field are changed. It can be seen that the electrons quickly lose the extra energy and their momentum distribution stablizes within 1 $`\mu m`$ or so, even in the cases of higher energy injection (200 $`meV`$). Therefore, we have two distinct slopes. The first is a more rapid decay in the non-local transport region, corresponding to a large $`\stackrel{}{k}`$ and subsequently a large precession vector $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{eff}`$. Once thermalization occurs, the slope becomes smaller and eventually coincides with those shown in Fig. 1 with corresponding electric fields. For the 200 $`meV`$ case with an applied field of 1 $`kV/cm`$, the reduction in depolarization length is fairly significant, approximately 20 %.

In summary, we have investigated spin-dependent transport in GaAs in the drift regime. Specifically, we calculated the spin relaxation time and characteristic decay lengths based on a Monte Carlo model. The decay of electron spin polarization is found to be nearly exponential and the length at which spin relaxation/depolarization occurs was found to be relatively large, on the order of 5$``$10 $`\mu m`$. It is also found that the spin relaxation depends strongly on the drift conditions, scaling as the square of the electron wavevector in the direction of the field. Hence, the commonly assumed $`T^3`$ scaling is not applicable in the drift regime. When the electrons are injected with a high-energy, a significant reduction is observed in the spin relaxation length. Our calculation results are in good agreement with the data available in the literature.

This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The authors are grateful to Y. Semenov for helpful discussions.


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# Untitled Document

##

In our previous papers  we have presented the arguments in favour of that the Kaluza-Klein picture of the world has been been observed in the experiments at very low energies where the nucleon-nucleon dynamics has been studied. In particular we have found that geniusly simple formula for KK excitations provided by Kaluza-Klein approach gives an excellent description for the mass spectrum of two-nucleon system. In article  we have presented additional arguments in favour of Kaluza and Klein picture of the world. In fact, we have shown that simple formula provided by Kaluza-Klein approach with the fundamental scale early calculated  gives an excellent description for the mass spectrum of two-pion system. Surely, this was quite an event and, certainly, this very nice fact encouraged us to continue the study of the other hadronic systems in this respect. Taking this line we have performed an analysis of experimental data on mass spectrum of the resonance states of three-pion system and compared them with calculated values provided by Kaluza-Klein scenario. In this note we present the results of this analysis.

As in the previous cases let us build the Kaluza-Klein tower of KK excitations for three-pion system by the formula

$$M_n^{\pi ^1\pi ^2\pi ^3}=\sqrt{m_{\pi ^1}^2+\frac{n^2}{R^2}}+\sqrt{m_{\pi ^2}^2+\frac{n^2}{R^2}}+\sqrt{m_{\pi ^3}^2+\frac{n^2}{R^2}},(n=1,2,3,\mathrm{}),$$
(1)
where $`\pi ^i(i=0,+,)=\pi ^0,\pi ^+,\pi ^{}`$ and $`R`$ is the same fundamental scale calculated early from the analysis of nucleon-nucleon dynamics at low energies

$$\frac{1}{R}=41.481\text{MeV}\text{or}R=24.1GeV^1=\mathrm{4.75\hspace{0.17em}10}^{13}\text{cm}.$$
(2)
Kaluza-Klein tower such built is shown in Table 1 where the comparison with experimentally observed mass spectrum of three-pion system is also presented.

We have used Review of Particle Physics  where the experimental data on mass spectrum of the resonance states of three-pion system have been extracted from. Again we see from Table 1 that there is a quite remarkable correspondence of the calculated KK excitations for three-pion system with the experimentally observed mass spectrum of three-pion resonance states, which we consider as an additional strong evidence of Kaluza-Klein picture of the world.

Some known experimental information concerning the experimentally observed mass spectrum of three-pion system is collected in separate tables: Table 2 – Table 8. Certainly, here we have a much more poor experimental data set compared to the case of two-pion system. Nevertheless we can learn from these tables a few remarkable facts as well.

First of all, as it was mentioned in our previous paper , many different three-pion resonances with the different quantum numbers may occupy one and the same storey in KK tower. This is a peculiarity of the systematics provided by Kaluza-Klein picture.

It is especially pleased for us to emphasize that the experimental measurement of the $`a_2`$ meson mass made by Protvino VES Collaboration  with the best world precision

$$M(a_2)=1311.3\pm 1.6(stat)\pm 3.0(syst)MeV$$

is in excellent agreement with the theoretically calculated value

$$M_{10}^{\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0}=1311.55MeV.$$

The same is true for the $`\omega _3`$ meson where the theoretically calculated mass of KK excitation in $`3\pi ^0`$ system $`M_{13}^{3\pi ^0}=1667.68MeV`$ is in a very good agreement with PDG AVERAGE value $`M(\omega _3)=1667\pm 4MeV`$. Moreover, it is very interesting to point out that theoretical calculation of KK excitations in $`\rho \pi `$ system by the formula

$$M_n^{\rho \pi }=\sqrt{m_\rho ^2+\frac{n^2}{R^2}}+\sqrt{m_\pi ^2+\frac{n^2}{R^2}},(n=1,2,3,\mathrm{}),$$
(3)
where we use $`m_\rho =769.3MeV`$ for the $`\rho `$ meson mass from , gives $`M_{10}^{\rho \pi ^0}=1310.28MeV`$ and $`M_{10}^{\rho \pi ^\pm }=1311.67MeV`$ which accurately agree with the experimental measurement of the $`a_2`$ meson mass provided by VES Collaboration. This means that $`a_2`$ meson may manifest itself as a configuration of $`\rho \pi `$ system in the main, and this is a very nontrivial fact. For example, that statement is not true for the $`\omega _3`$ meson.

Of course, it would be very desirable to state new experiments to search a further justification of the systematics provided by Kaluza and Klein picture of the world, e.g. to fill the empty cells in Table 1. We believe that this is a quite promising subject of the investigations in particle and nuclear physics.


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# Entropically-Stabilized Self-compactification in Model Colloidal Systems

## I Introduction

Effects of physical dimensionality on crystallization are among the most important problems in Condensed Matter Physics. As was established by Landau and Pierls LP , the long-range crystalline order in 2D is universally destroyed by thermal fluctuations. The problem has been revisited in 1970s by Kosterlitz and Thouless LP -BKT , who have shown that crystals do exist in 2D, within a new topological definition. Nevertheless, their melting temperature is believed to be always lower than in 3D systems (assuming the same interparticle potential). One of the manifestations of this effect is the phenomenon of surface melting: a microscopic liquid layer normally appear at the interface of a crystalline solid well below its bulk melting temperature.

In this paper, we describe a remarkable example in which the thermal fluctuation *stabilize* a 2D crystalline solid, embedded in 3D physical space, with respect to transition to an alternative 3D structure. The model system discussed below has been introduced in the recent work by one of us AT , in order to describe DNA–assisted self–assembly of colloids. Its essential ingredients are cohesive interparticle interactions and medium–range soft core repulsion. The binary system of same–size spheres (A and B) discussed in Ref. AT , combines the repulsive potential $`U(r)`$ acting between same–type particles, with A–B attraction. As was shown at that work, both interactions may be induced by properly designed DNA. It was found that this colloid–DNA mixture may exhibit an unusually diverse phase diagram as a function of two control parameter: the relative strength of attraction and repulsion, and aspect ratio $`\xi /a`$ ($`\xi `$ is the range of repulsive potential $`U(r)`$, and $`a`$ is the particle diameter).

Among various self–assembled phases expected for that system, it was especially striking to find quasi-2D membrane with the in–plane square order (SQ). In other words, according to our calculations, this 3D system may prefer to self–assemble into a lower–dimensional structure. We will refer to this phenomenon as spontaneous self–compactification. Of course, there are other known examples of self–compactified structures in condensed matter, such as lipid membranes membr . However, our case is quite unique because it is based on *isotropic pair potentials* (in contrast to anisotropic interactions between lipids, or covalent bonding of carbon atoms in graphite). Note also that at the found SQ phase is not a stacking of weakly coupled layers (lamella–like), but rather an isolated membrane–like structure.

In our early calculations, we have only accounted for the interplay of repulsive and attractive energies, while the thermal fluctuations were totally ignored. Even though this approximation is applicable when the characteristic energies considerably exceed $`k_BT`$, the entropic effects are expected to be significant in any realistic case. Given that fluctuations are known to strongly affect 2D crystals, one might wonder whether the phenomenon of self–compactification will still be present if the fluctuations are introduced. Below we present the detailed study of this question.

## II The model and its generic features

Before going into a specific example, we describe our model and its generic features. We start with particles packed into ideal crystalline lattices, whose fluctuation free energies are to be compared. The interparticle potentials will be replaced with linear springs, whose spring constants correspond to the second derivatives of the corresponding potentials. The first derivatives of the potentials will give rise to a pre–existing stresses in those springs. We consider only very short–range interactions, so that any connections beyond second nearest neighbors will be neglected.

Let $`\kappa `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\kappa }`$ be spring constants for the first and second nearest neighbor bonds, respectively. Repulsion between the second nearest neighbors induces tension $`\stackrel{~}{\tau }`$ in $`\stackrel{~}{\kappa }`$–springs, which should be balanced by an appropriate compressive force $`\tau `$ in $`\kappa `$–springs. If the interaction range $`\xi `$ is much shorter than nearest neighbors distance $`a`$, one expects $`\kappa \stackrel{~}{\kappa }`$ , and $`\tau \stackrel{~}{\tau }\stackrel{~}{\kappa }/\xi `$. This gives rise to a hierarchy of elastic constants in this system: $`\kappa \stackrel{~}{\kappa }`$ $`\tau /a`$. Below, we will use harmonic analysis to diagonalize the phonon Hamiltonian and find the fluctational contributions to Free Energies of the competing phases. As an example, we compare 2D square lattice (SQ) (embedded in 3D physical space) to an alternative three–dimensional phase with a very similar local structure. Figure 1 shows this 3D counterpart of SQ (referred below as ”dual phase”), which also has four nearest neighbors lying in one plane around each particle. The difference from SQ is that now there are eight, rather than four second nearest neighbors for each site. Because of this difference in the number of repulsive bonds, SQ phase is generally preferred energetically over its 3D dual, at the zero temperature limit. Below, we will see whether the free energy balance between the two phases may be reversed by the thermal fluctuations.

Before we present the exact results for SQ, and its 3D-dual phase, we discuss certain general features of this problem. Given the hierarchy of the spring constants, one can distinguish between several kinds of phonon modes. Namely, there are *hard* modes, which involve deformations of strong $`\kappa `$–springs, and *soft* modes which only depend on spring constant $`\stackrel{~}{\kappa }`$. There are $`3`$ degrees of freedom per particle, and $`2`$ of them correspond to hard modes, both for 2D lattice and its 3D dual phase. In 3D structure, the third mode is the soft one ($`\stackrel{~}{\kappa }`$-mode). However, if there were no stresses $`\tau `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\tau }`$, within harmonic approximation there would be no restoring force for the out-of-plane fluctuations in the 2D structure. This means that in 2D lattice the effective spring constant for the transverse modes should be of the order of $`\tau /a`$ (since $`k\stackrel{~}{\kappa }\tau /a`$, we may justifiably call these modes of 2D lattice supersoft). Because of the replacement of the soft modes with the supersoft ones, we do expect the entropy of the quasi–2D structure to be higher, which will further shift the free energy balance to its favor. In addition, in small–$`q`$ limit, the out-of-plane modes in 2D structure will universally have dispersion $`q^4`$ (associated with bending rigidity). This will give another negative correction to free energy compared to dispersion $`q^2`$ of regular acoustic phonons. Note that these arguments are quite universal, and can be applied beyond the particular case of SQ lattice.

## III Example: Square vs. its 3D-dual

We now proceed with the discussion of the specific example, 2D SQ vs. its 3D-dual phase. The latter 3D structure may be obtained from a simple cubic lattice, by removing the particles occupying sites . $`(2m,2k,2l+1)`$ and $`(2m+1,2n+1,2k)`$. In this geometry, the equilibrium condition requires $`\tau =2\sqrt{2}\stackrel{~}{\tau }`$ , compared to $`\tau =\sqrt{2}\stackrel{~}{\tau }`$ for SQ. Note that it is tension $`\stackrel{~}{\tau }`$ , not $`\tau `$ which is expected to be nearly identical for the two competing structures, since it is given by derivative of the potential, $`_rU(r)`$ (taken at the distance of the second nearest neighbor). In contrast, $`\tau `$ can be considerably varied by relatively small deformation of the strong $`\kappa `$–spring.

An obvious choice of unit cell for 2D lattice is a square containing one atom. For the 3D structure, consider a cube containing eight smaller cubes, as shown on Figure 1(b). The particles are located at $`(2m,2l,2k)+\stackrel{}{x}`$, where $`\stackrel{}{x}`$ is $`(1,0,0)`$, $`(1,0,0)`$, $`(0,0,1)`$, $`(1,0,1)`$, $`(1,1,1)`$, $`(1,1,0)`$. The translational symmetry in this structure is generated by vectors $`(2,0,0)`$, $`(0,2,0)`$ and $`(1,1,1)`$, i. e. the cube on the picture corresponds to two unit cells. Given the translational symmetry, the particle at $`(1,1,1)`$ is equivalent to $`(0,0,0)`$ (we label them as type ’a’ particles), $`(0,1,1)`$ to $`(1,0,0)`$ (type ’b’) and $`(1,0,1)`$ to $`(0,1,0)`$ (type ’c’). We can now obtain Hamiltonian $`H`$ and calculate the phonon contribution to free energy.

The number of particles per a unit cell is, $`n=1`$ for SQ and $`n=3`$ for its 3D-dual. For the 2D phase, displacement of a particle at (m,n) is $`\stackrel{}{u}(m,l)=_𝐪\stackrel{}{u}\left(𝐪\right)e^{i(mq_1+nq_2)}`$. For the 3D phase, the displacements there are three families of modes, corresponding to the three types of non-equivalent particles, ’a’, ’b’, and ’c’:

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{}{u}(2m+l,2k+l,l)\\ \stackrel{}{u}(2m+l+1,2k+l,l)\\ \stackrel{}{u}(2m+l,2k+l+1,l)\end{array}\right)=\underset{𝐪}{}\left(\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{}{u}_a\\ \stackrel{}{u}_b\\ \stackrel{}{u}_c\end{array}\right)_𝐪e^{i(\left(ml\right)q_1+\left(nl\right)q_2+lq_3)}$$
(1)
The phonon free energy has general form

$$F^{\left(fl\right)}=k_BT\mathrm{log}D\left[u_i\left(𝐪\right)\right]\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{H}{k_BT}\right)$$
(2)
Here index $`i=1,\mathrm{},3n`$ parameterizes all the modes for a given wave vector $`𝐪`$, and Hamiltonian $`H`$ is given by

$$H=\underset{𝐪}{}\gamma _{ij}\left(𝐪\right)u_i\left(𝐪\right)u_j\left(𝐪\right)$$

By performing the Gaussian integration over $`u_i\left(𝐪\right)`$, one can transform Eq. (2) into:

$$F^{\left(fl\right)}=\frac{k_BTN}{2n}\frac{\mathrm{d}𝐪}{\left(2\pi \right)^d}\mathrm{log}\left(det\left[\frac{\widehat{\gamma }\left(𝐪\right)}{\pi k_BT}\right]\right)$$
(3)
The integration here is performed over a single Brilluen zone, i.e. each component of the wave vector runs from $`\pi `$ to $`\pi `$.

Note that in our regime ( $`\kappa \stackrel{~}{\kappa }`$ and $`\kappa \tau /a`$), one can neglect the coupling between hard and soft modes, which allows one represent the determinants entering Eq. (3) in factorized form: $`det\left[\widehat{\gamma }\left(𝐪\right)\right]det\left[\widehat{\gamma }^{\left(hard\right)}\left(𝐪\right)\right]det\left[\widehat{\gamma }^{\left(soft\right)}\left(𝐪\right)\right]`$. Furthermore, the hard modes have essentially identical spectra in the both structures (corresponding to one-dimensional chain of $`\kappa `$-springs). Therefore, the difference of the fluctuational free energies is mainly due to the soft mode contributions. In the case of SQ phase, there is only one soft mode:

$$det\left[\widehat{\gamma }_{2D}^{\left(soft\right)}\left(𝐪\right)\right]=\widehat{\gamma }_{zz}\left(𝐪\right)=\frac{4\sqrt{2}\stackrel{~}{\tau }}{a}\mathrm{sin}^2\left(\frac{q_1}{2}\right)\mathrm{sin}^2\left(\frac{q_2}{2}\right)$$
(4)
For the 3D–dual phase, 3 out of 9 modes are soft, namely $`(u_{ax},u_{by},u_{cz})`$:

$$\widehat{\gamma }_{3D}^{\left(soft\right)}\left(𝐪\right)=2\stackrel{~}{\kappa }\left(1+3\alpha \right)\delta _{ij}+\frac{\stackrel{~}{\kappa }\left(1+\alpha \right)}{4}\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& \chi (q_1,q_2)& \chi (q_1,\stackrel{~}{q}_3)\\ \chi (q_1,q_2)& 0& \chi (q_2,\stackrel{~}{q}_3)\\ \chi (q_1,\stackrel{~}{q}_3)& \chi (q_2,\stackrel{~}{q}_3)& 0\end{array}\right]$$
(5)
here $`\alpha =\stackrel{~}{\tau }/\left(\sqrt{2}\stackrel{~}{\kappa }a\right)`$,$`\chi (q,q^{})=\left[1+\mathrm{cos}\left(q+q^{}\right)\mathrm{cos}\left(q\right)\mathrm{cos}\left(q^{}\right)\right]`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{q}_3=2q_3q_2q_1`$. Thus,

$$det\left[\widehat{\gamma }_{3D}^{\left(soft\right)}\right]8\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^3\left(1+3\alpha \right)^3\left[1\varpi _1\left(\frac{1+\alpha }{8\left(1+3\alpha \right)}\right)^2+\varpi _2\left(\frac{1+\alpha }{8\left(1+3\alpha \right)}\right)^3\right]$$
(6)
Here $`\varpi _1=\chi ^2(q_1,q_2)+\chi ^2(q_1,\stackrel{~}{q}_3)+\chi ^2(\stackrel{~}{q}_3,q_2)`$, and $`\varpi _2=2\chi (q_1,q_2)\chi (q_1,\stackrel{~}{q}_3)\chi (\stackrel{~}{q}_3,q_2)`$. Now we can calculate the fluctuational contribution into the free energy difference between the two structures:

$$\mathrm{}F^{\left(fl\right)}F_{2D}^{\left(fl\right)}F_{3D}^{\left(fl\right)}\frac{Nk_BT}{2}\left[\mathrm{log}\left(\frac{1}{\alpha }+3\right)+2\mathrm{log}2\frac{15}{132}\left(\frac{1+\alpha }{1+3\alpha }\right)^2\right]$$
(7)
Consistent with the above general arguments, we obtain $`F_{2D}^{\left(fl\right)}F_{3D}^{\left(fl\right)}<0`$, i.e. the entropic effects enhance the stability of the self–compactified phase. One can identify the physical origin of each of the three contributions at the above result. The first logarithmic term is due to an entropic gain of a single fluctuation particle with all of its neighbors fixed. One can see that these fluctuations are enhanced in 2D case (for an arbitrary value of parameter $`\alpha `$), mainly due to the smaller number of second nearest neighbors there. The second term, $`Nk_BT\mathrm{log}2`$ represent an additional gain due to $`q^4`$ dispersion of the soft acoustic phonon in SQ phase. In contrast, the soft modes in 3D phase correspond to optical phonons, whose dispersion gives rise to the negligible third term in Eq. (7).

## IV Discussion

Since the effects responsible for the dominant contributions to our result, Eq. (7), are not specific for the above example, we expect our conclusions to be rather universal, and applicable to other self–compactified phases. In fact, the very same binary system introduced in Ref. AT , provides other examples of such phases, e. g. *honeycomb* lattice. This structure has several 3D counterparts 3Dnets , some of which are shown on Fig.(2). We expect the thermal fluctuations to enhance the stability of honeycomb with respect to transition to alternative 3D structures, as in the case of SQ.

Another aspect of our observation is that the region of the phase diagram corresponding to quasi-2D structures (like SQ or honeycomb), should expand when thermal fluctuations are introduced. However, in this study we have not discuss the transition between solid and liquid phases. In fact, the strong fluctuations in 2D structures indicate that they should melt earlier than 3D solid phases, which is consistent with the classical picture. In other words, the thermal fluctuations enhance the stability of quasi-2D latices with respect to transition to 3D crystalline structures, but not to the disordered liquid phase.

Note also that the self-compactified structure need not to be an ideal crystal, even topologically. Introduction of defects such as disclination or dislocation, normally associated with 2D melting, is not expected affect our arguments, as long as the systems remains effectively two-dimensional. That is because the dominant contribution to the free energy is associated with length scales of the order of the interparticle distance. Hence, the macroscopic properties and conformation of these lattices are not relevant for the discussed phenomenon. As long at the large-scale behavior is concern, one might expect their properties to be similar to those of tethered (solid-like) membranes teth . It should be noted that the non-zero bending rigidity is known to stabilize such a membrane with respect to crumpling transition.

One may give a simple qualitative interpretation to the obtained results. The self–compactification in zero-fluctuation limit corresponds to the regime of the interparticle repulsion which is too weak to destabilize the 2D structure, yet strong enough to cause an overall repulsion between two such layers. Introduction of thermal fluctuations results in an additional effective repulsion between these 2D layers, an effect very similar to Helfrich interaction between conventional membranes membr ,helfrich .


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# Electronic and Structural Properties of a 4𝑑-Perovskite: Cubic Phase of SrZrO3

## I Introduction

The class of transition metal oxides constitutes a big family of interesting materials with extra physical properties due to the additional d-electrons they posses. They come in variety of crystal structures and exhibit individually several of these phases. They include insulators, metals, semiconductors and also superconductors. Some have delocalized d-bands providing catalytically active surfaces, some have narrow d-bands with emphasized electron correlations giving rise to diverse properties like high temperature superconductivity, and colossal magnetoresistance. They are well known with their ferroelectric, antiferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. Their use in technological application is also diverse, including optical wave guides, laser-host crystals, high temperature oxygen sensors, surface acoustic wave devices, non-volatile memories, dynamic random access memories, frequency doublers, piezoelectric actuator materials, and high-K capacitors in various applications.

Strontium titanate, SrTiO3, is a generic representative of transition metal oxides which have perovskite crystalline structure. It has been extensively studied both theoretically and experimentally because of its several interesting physical and technological properties. It is highly insulating at room temperature, and in the form of n-type thin films it shows superconductivity at low temperatures. It is a cubic perovskite at room temperature with a tetragonal phase transition at 105 K. Its surfaces are very flat and stable both mechanically and chemically which makes it best electrode in photocatalysis of water erdman , and makes it best buffer layer for the growth of gallium arsenide on silicon droopard , and makes it best substrate for the growth of high Tc cuprate superconductors aruta . Due to its high dielectric constant it is also one of the leading candidates to replace the silica as a gate material in silicon technology.

Another insulating perovskite is the strontium zirconate, SrZrO3, with 4$`d`$-electrons, which is of interest because of its high temperature electronic properties. Large single crystals of SrZrO3 with high perfection can be grown with recent techniques and this enables their usage as laser-host materials and as substrate materials. It was also suggested by Shende et al. shende  that these materials can be used in high-voltage capacitor applications because of their high breakdown strengths as well as high dielectric constant. In addition to this, both SrTiO3 and SrZrO3 are suitable for use in high-temperature applications such as fuel cells, steam electrolysis and hydrogen gas sensors iwahara1 ; kurita ; yajima . This is because when these type of transition metal oxides are doped with acceptor ions they exhibit protonic conduction at high temperatures iwahara2 .

Unlike SrTiO3, at room temperature SrZrO3 has an orthorhombic phase as revealed by the first structural studies which date back to 1960’s roth ; swanson . Later the existence of two additional phases at high-temperature was proposed by Carlsson to be both tetragonal carlsson , however, more recent studies LignyRichet ; brendan ; matsuda  on high temperatures have shown that SrZrO3 undergoes three structural phase transitions summarized as follows: First, orthorhombic ($`Pnma`$) to orthorhombic ($`Cmcm`$) at 970 K, then to tetragonal ($`I4/mcm`$) at 1100 K, and then to cubic ($`Pm3m`$) at 1400 K. This compound has a rather high melting temperature of about 2920 K souptel , consequently it is cubic in a wide range of temperature where most of its useful applications take place.

In this work we have made first-principles pseudopotential calculations of the electronic band structure, density of states and charge densities for SrZrO3 in the cubic perovskite phase. In addition to that we have made a reference calculation for SrTiO3 in order to give a discussion by comparison. We have also made some comparisons with the related experimental data where available.

## II Calculation Method

We used pseudopotential method based on density functional theory in the local density approximation (LDA). The self consistent norm conserving pseudopotentials are generated by using the Troullier-Martins scheme TM  which is included in the fhi98PP package fhi98pp . Plane waves are used as a basis set for the electronic wave functions. In order to solve the Kohn-Sham equations kohn-sham , conjugate gradients minimization method Payne  is employed as implemented by the ABINIT code abinit . The exchange-correlation effects are taken into account within the Perdew-Wang scheme PerdewWang  as parameterized by Ceperly and Alder CeperlyAlder .

Pseudopotentials are generated using the following electronic configurations: For Sr 5$`s`$ electrons are considered as the true valence. Moreover the 4$`s`$ and 4$`p`$ semicore states are added to the valence states. For O only the true valence states (2$`s`$ and 2$`p`$) are taken into account, because these states are enough to have the correct transferability property. For Ti 4$`s`$ and 3$`d`$ true valence states plus the 3$`s`$ and 3$`p`$ semicore states are treated as valence states. Similarly, for the same group element Zr, 5$`s`$ and 4$`d`$ true states and additionally the 4$`s`$ and 4$`p`$ semicore states are considered as valence states. Inclusion of semicore states in the case of Sr, Ti and Zr is required in order to get the correct electronic properties of these elements in various physical systems. In other words, the inclusion of these semicore states make the corresponding pseudopotentials closer to the all-electron potentials. The above configuration is found to be the optimized choice for these materials.

All of the calculations involve 5-atom cubic unit cell arranged in a perovskite structure. We get a good convergence for the bulk total energy calculation with the choice of cut-off energies at 30 Ha for SrTiO3 and at 33 Ha for SrZrO3 using $`4\times 4\times 4`$ Monkhorst-Pack MonkhorstPack  mesh grid. We have found that in the band structure calculations 76 k-points are enough to obtain good results for both of these transition metal oxides. In the density of states calculations, however, the irreducible Brillouin zone was sampled with 560 and 455 k-points for SrTiO3 and SrZrO3, respectively.

## III Results and Discussion

The results for structural parameter calculations are summarized in Table 1. The calculated lattice parameters for SrTiO3 and SrZrO3 are both within 0.5% of the experimental results. Likewise the calculated bulk moduli for SrTiO3 and SrZrO3 are found to be 0.3% and 0.8% smaller than the effective experimental values, respectively. The agreement with the experiments can be considered to be very good. In the case of SrTiO3, comparisons of our results with the theoretical work of Kimura et al. kimura  and with the calculated values of van Benthem et al. vanBenthem  suggest that our pseudopotentials are as reliable and perform slightly better. To our knowledge no first-principles calculation is available for SrZrO3 to compare with.

For the bulk modulus of SrZrO3, we have listed in Table 1 an extrapolated value of 150 GPa by Ligny and Richet LignyRichet , however, such extrapolation is known to give about 15% underestimation for the Zr-compound in a series of CaMO3 Ross , and by the same token we expect the experimental value to be higher than 150 GPa.

Energy band structures and densities of states are given in Fig. 1, where the zero of energy is chosen to coincide with the top of the valence band. The general features of the energy bands are similar for both oxides. An overall look at the two band structures shows that the lower valence bands are composed of O 2$`s`$ and Sr 4$`p`$ semicore states grouped together at about –15 eV. Although the individual bands have similar bandwidths for both materials, those of SrTiO3 do not overlap and separated by a $``$1 eV gap, whereas those of SrZrO3 having stronger interaction with each other, especially around X point, causing an overlap of the corresponding densities of states, and consequently, the combined bandwidth is smaller.

The upper valence bands have the same trend, i.e., wider for SrTiO3 (4.93 eV) and narrower for SrZrO3 (4.32 eV). Top of the valence bands reflect the $`p`$ electronic character mostly due to oxygen-oxygen interaction (down to about –4 eV) for both of the transition metal oxides. This agrees well with the DV-X$`\alpha `$ molecular orbital study of Yoshino et al. yoshino . Even though whole valence band structure is dominated by O 2$`p`$ states, there are, however, a mixture of $`\sigma `$-bands stemming from the $`pd\sigma `$ interactions extending throughout the whole valence band width, and $`\pi `$-bands due to $`pd\pi `$ interactions which are narrower than that.

Both of SrTiO3 and SrZrO3 have their valence band maxima at the R point. The energy values of the uppermost band at $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and M points lie slightly lower than its value at the point R. In SrTiO3 bottom of the valence band occurs at R, whereas in SrZrO3 it occurs at M point. In both cases, however, these energy eigenvalues are close to each other at M and R points with a difference, larger one being for the SrZrO3, of only 0.25 eV.

The lower conduction bands are mainly Ti 3$`d`$ or Zr 4$`d`$ states hybridized with some O 2$`p`$ electrons giving rise to antibonding $`\pi ^{}`$\- and $`\sigma ^{}`$-bands. In the case of SrTiO3 the conduction band ordering is as follows: Ti 3$`d`$ t2g ($`\pi ^{}`$-triplet) bands stand alone next to the gap with no overlap to the Ti 3$`d`$ eg states ($`\sigma ^{}`$-doublet) which lie just above, and upper parts of which are mixed with the lower extension of Sr 5$`s`$ and 4$`d`$ t2g bands. This ordering is slightly different for SrZrO3, especially at high energies. Zr 4$`d`$ t2g states are next to the gap and their upper parts are mixed with Sr 5$`s`$ and 4$`d`$ t2g states. Zr 4$`d`$ eg states lie further up in the energy region between 8.1 eV and 12.5 eV. Conduction band minimum occurs at $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ point in both materials. The lowest conduction band along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$X is more dispersed in strontium zirconate, and consequently the conduction band edge of its density of states is of three dimensional nature. Calculated $`\pi ^{}`$-conduction band widths are 2.83 eV for SrTiO3 and 3.39 eV for SrZrO3.

For SrTiO3 the calculated indirect energy band gap between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and R points is found to be 1.92 eV and the direct band gap is 2.30 eV. Corresponding experimental values are 3.25 eV and 3.75 eV vanBenthem , respectively. The results obtained for SrZrO3 are on the other hand as follows: Indirect band gap is 3.37 eV between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and R points. The direct band gap being 3.62 eV, is again smaller than the experimental value of 5.9 eV lee . This disagreement between the calculations and experimental values resulting in narrower theoretical band gaps is a well known artifact JonesGunnarson  of LDA and does not have any significant effect on the rest of the band structure.

Looking at the density of states pictures one observes several structures common to both materials. Most of these correspond to singularities in the bands. There are three flat bands in the conduction band of both materials. Lowest one is Ti (Zr) t2g band along XM at about 4 eV (6 eV) which causes the well defined $`\pi ^{}`$ peak with a logarithmic van Hove singularity in the density of states characteristic of two dimensionality of these bands. The next one up is the Ti (Zr) eg band along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$X at 4.68 eV (8.24 eV) causing a jump discontinuity in the density of states. Similar $`\sigma ^{}`$ shoulder in density of states is caused by the third flat band which is again Ti (Zr) eg band along MR at about 9 eV (12.5 eV, not shown).

Valence bands are slightly different in terms of van Hove singularities. SrTiO3 has a very significant flat band at –2.87 eV along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$XM$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ which is a non-bonding $`\sigma _0`$ band due to O 2$`p`$ and responsible for the highest peak at the center of the valence band. Ti 3$`d`$ t2g band at the same energy along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$X is rather flat, and at about –4.5 eV along XM and also RX it is quite flat close to the X-side. In addition, the band at –4.25 eV along MR looks almost flat but the corresponding density of states shows three dimensional behavior just slightly. For the SrZrO3 valence band, at about –4 eV, the Zr t2g state along XM, MR and RX are the only flat bands causing the highest peak located at the bottom of the valence band. The band corresponding to the oxygen non-bonding state located at the center of SrTiO3 valence band density of states is dispersed in all directions for SrZrO3.

Charge density plots were obtained for the lowest three conduction bands degenerate at the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ point for a (001) plane containing the transition metal and the four neighboring oxygens. Fig. 2 shows the composition of these bands to be clearly the hybridization between transition metal $`d`$-orbitals with t2g symmetry and O 2$`p`$ orbitals. The corresponding $`\pi ^{}`$ bands shown in Fig. 1 are more singled out for SrTiO3 and consequently the charge is more localized as compared to SrZrO3 whose $`\pi ^{}`$ bands are not separated from the rest of the conduction bands.

## IV Conclusion

The structural and electronic properties of two $`d^0`$-insulator metal oxides, SrZrO3 and SrTiO3, with cubic perovskite structure are studied using an ab-initio pseudopotential method. Structural parameters are found to compare well with the available data in the literature. A detailed description of their energy bands are given. Corresponding density of states are presented and the major structures in them are identified. Charge density functions are displayed for the lower conduction bands for both oxides. Our results for the electronic properties of SrTiO3 are shown to agree with other calculations and experimental findings whereas those of SrZrO3 are compared only with the estimations of Lee et al. lee  from their optical conductivity spectra, since to our knowledge, no theoretical calculations exist in the literature.

## V Acknowledgement

This work was supported by TÜBİTAK, The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, Grants No. TBAG-2036 (101T058).


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# Was ordinary matter synthesised from mirror matter? An attempt to explain why Ω_{𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛}≈0.2Ω_{𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑘}.

April 2003

## Abstract

The cosmological dust has begun to settle. A likely picture is a universe comprised (predominantly) of three components: ordinary baryons ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_B0.05`$), non-baryonic dark matter ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_{Dark}0.22`$) and dark energy ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }0.7`$). We suggest that the observed similarity of the abundances of ordinary baryons and non-baryonic dark matter ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_{Dark}0.20`$) hints at an underlying similarity between the fundamental properties of ordinary and dark matter particles. This is necessarily the case if dark matter is identified with mirror matter. We examine a specific mirror matter scenario where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_{Dark}0.20`$ is naturally obtained.

Data obtained from high redshift supernovae hr , cosmic microwave background anisotropy measurements (culminating with the recent WMAP results cmb ), and other sources, have greatly enriched cosmology. These data are consistent with a spatially-flat universe ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_{tot}1.0`$), composed (predominantly) of ordinary matter ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_B0.05`$), non-baryonic dark matter ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_{Dark}0.22`$) and dark energy ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }0.7`$), although an alternative interpretation of the data with a zero $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ has also been proposed alternative .

One striking feature of these results is the fact that the dark energy is currently of the same order of magnitude as the present mass density, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=\mathrm{\Omega }_B+\mathrm{\Omega }_{Dark}`$, of the universe. Because dark energy and matter densities scale differently with time, it is expected that this feature was not true at earlier epochs. The present day similarity of dark energy and matter densities has been called the cosmic coincidence problem.

A fascinating related feature, which has not been emphasised so much in the literature, is the similarity in magnitude of the ordinary and dark matter densities:

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_{Dark}0.20.$$
(1)
In contrast to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m/\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, the ratio of dark matter to ordinary matter is expected to be constant in time until a very early epoch. This means that the amount of dark matter produced in the early universe is of the same order of magnitude as the ordinary matter, despite their obviously disparate properties.

The observed similarity in the abundances of ordinary and dark matter hints at an underlying similarity between the microscopic properties of the elementary particles comprising the ordinary matter and the dark matter. Clearly, the standard exotic weakly interacting dark matter scenarios seem to offer no hope in explaining this cosmic coincidence because these particles have completely different properties (different masses and interactions) from the ordinary baryons. A priori, a dark matter/ordinary matter ratio of, say, $`10^6`$ would appear to be equally likely in these scenarios.

Interestingly, there is one obvious candidate for the dark matter which does actually require a similarity between the properties of ordinary and dark matter. This is “mirror matter”, a sector whose existence is required if nature respects a fundamental exact parity (mirror) symmetry parity ; parity2 . In this scenario, each ordinary particle has a distinct ‘mirror partner’ of the same mass connected with the ordinary particles via the parity symmetry:

$`xx,tt,`$
$`W^\mu W_\mu ^{},B^\mu B_\mu ^{},G^\mu G_\mu ^{}`$
$`\mathrm{}_{iL}\gamma _0\mathrm{}_{}^{}{}_{iR}{}^{},e_{iR}\gamma _0e_{}^{}{}_{iL}{}^{},q_{iL}\gamma _0q_{}^{}{}_{iR}{}^{},u_{iR}\gamma _0u_{}^{}{}_{iL}{}^{},d_{iR}\gamma _0d_{}^{}{}_{iL}{}^{},`$ (2)
where $`G^\mu ,W^\mu ,B^\mu `$ are the standard $`G_{SM}SU(3)SU(2)U(1)`$ gauge particles, $`\mathrm{}_{iL},e_{iR},q_{iL},u_{iR},d_{iR}`$ are the standard leptons and quarks ($`i=1,2,3`$ is the generation index) and the primes denote the mirror particles. There is also a standard Higgs doublet $`\varphi `$ with a mirror Higgs doublet partner $`\varphi ^{}`$, and it can be shown that $`\varphi =\varphi ^{}`$ for a large range of parameters of the Higgs potential. We adopt this parameter regime, making the mirror symmetry exact (i.e. not spontaneously broken) parity2 .

Clearly, in this theory the properties of the mirror particles exactly mirror those of the ordinary ones. In particular, the mirror baryons are stable and do not couple to ordinary photons so they necessarily have the right broad properties to be the non-baryonic dark matter. Furthermore, recent detailed studies of large scale structure formation have confirmed that mirror baryons are a viable dark matter candidate from that point of view detail . Thus, if mirror symmetry is a fundamental symmetry of nature, it is natural to set $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{Dark}=\mathrm{\Omega }_B^{}`$, the mirror baryon mass density. Of course, if dark matter is identified as mirror matter then mirror stars, mirror planets and even mirror space-bodies should exist; there is actually fascinating evidence for these things (for reviews and references, see Ref.review ).

In this interpretation one would expect $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B=\mathrm{\Omega }_B^{}`$ if the initial conditions of the universe were also mirror symmetric and no macroscopic asymmetry (such as a temperature difference) was produced during the early evolution of the universe. However, the success of standard big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) does suggest that $`T^{}`$ was somewhat less than $`T`$ during the BBN epoch,

$`T^{}/T\stackrel{<}{}0.5\mathrm{at}T1MeV,`$ (3)
in order for the expansion of the universe to have been within an acceptable range. If the temperatures are different, then this means that either the initial conditions of the universe were asymmetric or that the asymmetry was induced during the evolution of the universe, due to, for example, an asymmetric fluctuation that became enhanced in some way. One such way is via inflation. One can imagine having an ‘ordinary inflaton’ coupling to ordinary matter, and a ‘mirror inflaton’ coupling to mirror matter inflation . If inflation is triggered by some random fluctuation, then it can occur in the two sectors at different times, leading to $`TT^{}`$ after reheating in the two sectors. In such a scenario, one expects the baryon number and mirror baryon number to be unequal (since baryogenesis or leptogenesis depends on the temperature and expansion rate).

Provided that the temperatures of the two sectors are not too different this might explain the fact that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B`$ is within an order of magnitude of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B^{}`$. Clearly, the details will depend on the precise model for baryogenesis used by nature, which is of course not known (see the first paper of Ref.detail  for a couple of examples).

We consider instead an alternative possibility: that immediately after reheating, either $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B^{}\mathrm{\Omega }_B`$ or the opposite obtains, perhaps due to a very large initial temperature hierarchy (e.g. $`T^{}T`$). Instead of specifying models in great detail, we will try to explain the ratio $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_B^{}0.2`$ in an almost model independent way using sphaleron krs  and other processes to transfer asymmetries.

In particular, consider the following scenario:

* Step 1. A period of inflation sufficiently long to solve the standard cosmological problems (flatness, homogeneity and so on). If this period of inflation is driven by the vacuum energy of a ‘mirror inflaton’, then after reheating one is left with a large temperature asymmetry, $`T^{}T`$.
* Step 2. At a certain temperature, $`T^{}=T_1`$, an asymmetry generation process takes place: the out-of-equilibrium decay of a heavy mirror lepton fuk , for example. This generates initial $`B^{}`$ and/or $`L^{}`$ asymmetries. No significant $`B`$ or $`L`$ will be generated if the temperature $`T`$ of the ordinary sector is sufficiently low.
* Step 3. Ordinary baryon number (and lepton number) will be generated from $`B^{}`$ or $`L^{}`$ if there is some process that can transfer asymmetries from the mirror sector to the ordinary sector. The simplest interaction that can do this (involving standard model particles and mirror particles) is the non-renormalisable dimension-5 operator,

$$L=\frac{1}{M_N}\overline{\mathrm{}}_L\varphi ^c\mathrm{}_R^{}\varphi ^{}+H.c.,$$
(4)
where $`M_N`$ is a large scale. Such an operator can be related to the neutrino masses, $`m_\nu \varphi ^2/M_N`$, and can be motivated by neutrino physics experiments. This interaction will bring the ordinary and mirror sectors into thermal equilibrium for temperatures $`M_N\stackrel{>}{}T\stackrel{>}{}10^{10}(eV/m_\nu )^2`$ GeV, combining with other interactions (such as those induced by sphalerons) to generate $`B`$ and $`L`$ from the initial $`B^{}`$ and/or $`L^{}`$ asymmetries produced in step 2.
* Step 4. We require a second, but relatively short period of inflation (or some other type of mechanism) to induce the mild hierarchy $`T^{}/T\stackrel{<}{}0.5`$ suggested by BBN. It is tempting to associate the second period of inflation with the existence of an ordinary inflaton \[perhaps the mirror partner of the mirror inflaton of step(i)\]. In addition to generating the temperature asymmetry ($`T^{}/T\stackrel{<}{}0.5`$), the reheating associated with the ordinary inflaton will dilute both the ordinary and mirror baryon numbers relative to the entropy; the amount of reheating after the second period of inflation must therefore be moderate, consistent with the quite mild temperature asymmetry required for consistency with BBN.111Note, however, that neither inflation nor the reheating processes directly affect the final value of the ratio $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_B^{}`$. To see this note that the (current) value of the ratio, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_B^{}`$ can be related to the absolute numbers of baryons ($`N_B`$) and mirror baryons ($`N_B^{}`$) as follows: $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_B^{}=(N_Bm_B/V/\rho _c)/(N_B^{}m_B/V/\rho _c)=N_B/N_B^{}`$ where $`V`$ is the characteristic volume and $`\rho _c`$ is the critical density. Since the absolute numbers of baryons and mirror baryons are not affected by inflation or reheating, it follows that the ratio $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_B^{}`$ is also not directly affected by either of these processes.

It turns out that this scenario allows for a definite prediction of the ratio $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_B^{}`$, typically about $`0.2`$ as we will show, consistent with the observations.

For definiteness, we will assume the existence of only one operator of the form of Eq.(4), coupling to the second generation,

$`L={\displaystyle \frac{1}{M_N}}\overline{\mathrm{}}_{2L}\varphi ^c\mathrm{}_{2R}^{}\varphi ^{}+H.c.`$ (5)
We expect that similar results would arise if the interaction, Eq.(5), was replaced by some other type of interaction, so long as it coupled ordinary to mirror particles. The use of the specific form of Eq.(5) is only meant to provide a definite illustration of our idea.

In order to proceed, we need to know the temperature above which the interaction, Eq.(5), is efficient enough to bring the ordinary sector into equilibrium with the mirror sector. We expect this to be quite high, $`T\stackrel{>}{}T_210^{10}`$ GeV (for $`m_\nu \stackrel{<}{}1`$ eV). For temperatures less than about $`10^{12}`$ GeV, the QCD and electroweak sphaleron processes plus the Yukawa interactions for the $`c,t,b,\tau `$ fermions reviewb  are faster than the expansion rate of the universe. However, until the temperature drops below about $`10^{10}`$ GeV, Yukawa interactions are not strong enough to keep $`e_R`$, $`\mu _R`$, $`s_R`$, $`d_R`$ and $`u_R`$ (and their mirror counterparts) in chemical equilibrium and we can neglect these processes for now. Thus, for a temperature $`T10^{10}`$ GeV, we have the following chemical potential constraints:222Note that the $`SU(2)`$ gauge interactions ensure that $`\mu _{q_{1L}}=\mu _{q_{2L}}=\mu _{q_{3L}}\mu _{q_L}`$ (due to processes such as $`\overline{u}_{3L}d_{3L}\overline{u}_{3L}d_{2L}`$, $`\overline{u}_{2L}d_{2L}\overline{u}_{2L}d_{1L}`$). Also, to simplify notation, we have used the abbreviations $`\mu _{u_i}\mu _{u_{iR}}`$, $`\mu _{d_i}\mu _{d_{iR}}`$, $`\mu _q\mu _{q_L}`$, and $`\mu _\mathrm{}_i\mu _{\mathrm{}_{iL}}`$.

$`9\mu _q`$ $`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}}\mu _\mathrm{}_i=0[\mathrm{Electroweak}\mathrm{sphaleron}],`$
$`6\mu _q`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}}(\mu _{u_i}+\mu _{d_i})=0[\mathrm{QCD}\mathrm{sphaleron}],`$
$`3\mu _q`$ $`+`$ $`2\mu _\varphi +{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}}(2\mu _{u_i}\mu _{d_i}\mu _\mathrm{}_i\mu _{e_i})=0[\mathrm{Hypercharge}\mathrm{neutrality}],`$
$`\mu _q`$ $``$ $`\mu _\varphi \mu _{d_3}=0[\mathrm{Yukawa}\mathrm{interactions}],`$
$`\mu _q`$ $`+`$ $`\mu _\varphi \mu _{u_2}=0[\mathrm{Yukawa}\mathrm{interactions}],`$
$`\mu _q`$ $`+`$ $`\mu _\varphi \mu _{u_3}=0[\mathrm{Yukawa}\mathrm{interactions}],`$
$`\mu _\mathrm{}_3`$ $``$ $`\mu _\varphi \mu _{e_3}=0[\mathrm{Yukawa}\mathrm{interactions}].`$ (6)
For each of the above equations there is a mirror equation (for the mirror particles) which is of the same form except with primes on all the chemical potentials. Note that the dimension-5 operator, Eq.(5), couples the ordinary and mirror particles together, leading to one more equation:

$`\mu _\mathrm{}_2\mu _\varphi +\mu _\mathrm{}_2^{}+\mu _\varphi ^{}=0.`$ (7)
Thus, we have a total of fifteen equations constraining twenty-eight chemical potentials. This leaves thirteen independent linear combinations of chemical potentials, correlated with thirteen easily identified conserved charges.

There are six conserved charges in the ordinary sector and six in the mirror sector,

$`_1`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}BL_1,`$ $`_1^{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}B^{}L_1^{}`$
$`_2`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}BL_3,`$ $`_2^{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}B^{}L_3^{}`$
$`_3`$ $`=L_{e_{1R}},`$ $`_3^{}=L_{e_{1R}}^{}`$
$`_4`$ $`=L_{e_{2R}},`$ $`_4^{}=L_{e_{2R}}^{}`$
$`_5`$ $`=B_{u_{1R}}B_{d_{1R}},`$ $`_5^{}=B_{u_{1R}}^{}B_{d_{1R}}^{}`$
$`_6`$ $`=B_{d_{1R}}B_{d_{2R}},`$ $`_6^{}=B_{d_{1R}}^{}B_{d_{2R}}^{}`$ (8)
where $`L_{1,2,3}`$ are family lepton numbers, $`L_{e_{1R}}`$ is the right-handed electron number (which has a value of one for $`e_{1R}`$ and zero for all other fields) and with the other charges defined similarly. To identify the thirteenth conserved charge, observe that the interaction of Eq.(5) implies that only the sum of $`\frac{1}{3}BL_2`$ and $`\frac{1}{3}B^{}L_2^{}`$,

$`_0={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}BL_2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}B^{}L_2^{},`$ (9)
is conserved. It is straightforward to write down the chemical potential linear combinations that correspond to each of these charges, using, for instance,

$`B`$ $``$ $`6\mu _q+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}}(2\mu _{u_i}+\mu _{d_i}),`$
$`L_1`$ $``$ $`2\mu _\mathrm{}_1+\mu _{e_1},`$ (10)
and so on.

Equations (6) and (7) can be solved to obtain the baryon and lepton numbers (after chemical reprocessing), in terms of the conserved quantities $`_i`$, $`_i^{}`$ and $`_0`$:

$`B`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha _0_0+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}\alpha _i_i+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}\alpha _i^{}_{}^{}{}_{i}{}^{},`$
$`L`$ $`=`$ $`\beta _0_0+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}\beta _i_i+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}\beta _i^{}_{}^{}{}_{i}{}^{}.`$ (11)
Under mirror symmetry, $`BB^{}`$, $`LL^{}`$, $`_i_i^{}`$ (and $`_0_0`$). Hence,

$`B^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha _0_0+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}\alpha _i_{}^{}{}_{i}{}^{}+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}\alpha _i^{}_i,`$
$`L^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\beta _0_0+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}\beta _i_{}^{}{}_{i}{}^{}+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}\beta _i^{}_i.`$ (12)
The values of the $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ parameters are given in Table I.

Table I The $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ coefficients in the expansions of $`B`$ and $`L`$ defined in Eqs.(11) and (12).

| $`\alpha _0=\frac{69}{316}`$ |  | $`\beta _0=\frac{89}{316}`$ |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`\alpha _1=\frac{43263}{98276}`$ | $`\alpha _1^{}=\frac{345}{98276}`$ | $`\beta _1=\frac{55803}{98276}`$ | $`\beta _1^{}=\frac{445}{98276}`$ |
| $`\alpha _2=\frac{7050}{24569}`$ | $`\alpha _2^{}=\frac{414}{24569}`$ | $`\beta _2=\frac{16571}{24569}`$ | $`\beta _2^{}=\frac{534}{24569}`$ |
| $`\alpha _3=\frac{45189}{98276}`$ | $`\alpha _3^{}=\frac{6003}{98276}`$ | $`\beta _3=\frac{31443}{98276}`$ | $`\beta _3^{}=\frac{7743}{98276}`$ |
| $`\alpha _4=\frac{23385}{98276}`$ | $`\alpha _4^{}=\frac{15801}{98276}`$ | $`\beta _4=\frac{59567}{98276}`$ | $`\beta _4^{}=\frac{20381}{98276}`$ |
| $`\alpha _5=\frac{963}{24569}`$ | $`\alpha _5^{}=\frac{2829}{24569}`$ | $`\beta _5=\frac{5515}{24569}`$ | $`\beta _5^{}=\frac{3649}{24569}`$ |
| $`\alpha _6=\frac{963}{49138}`$ | $`\alpha _6^{}=\frac{2829}{49138}`$ | $`\beta _6=\frac{5515}{49138}`$ | $`\beta _6^{}=\frac{3649}{49138}`$ |

Of course the values of the conserved charges, $`_i`$, $`_i^{}`$ and $`_0`$ depend on the initial asymmetry generation mechanism. We consider, for definiteness, the simple case of non-zero $`B^{}`$ and/or $`L^{}`$: $`B^{}=X_0^{}`$, $`L^{}=Y_0^{}`$, $`B=L=0`$ (with $`L_\mathrm{}_1^{}=L_\mathrm{}_2^{}=L_\mathrm{}_3^{}Y_0^{}/3`$ and $`B_{u_{1R}}^{}=B_{d_{1R}}^{}=B_{d_{2R}}^{}`$). In this case the only non-zero conserved charges are $`_1^{}`$, $`_2^{}`$ and $`_0`$ with $`_1^{}=_2^{}=_0=\frac{1}{3}(X_0^{}Y_0^{})Z`$. After chemical processing, with Eqs.(6) and (7) summarising the consequences, we are left with the baryon and mirror baryon asymmetries given by

$`B=Z(\alpha _0+\alpha _1^{}+\alpha _2^{}),`$
$`B^{}=Z(\alpha _0+\alpha _1+\alpha _2),`$ (13)
where Eqs.(11) and (12) have been used. So, the ordinary matter/dark matter ratio is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{B}{B^{}}}={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _0+\alpha _1^{}+\alpha _2^{}}{\alpha _0+\alpha _1+\alpha _2}}0.24.`$ (14)
This is the ratio of ordinary baryon-number density to mirror baryon-number density at $`T10^{10}`$ GeV. The value of this ratio changes somewhat at lower temperatures as different species come into chemical equilibrium. However, at temperatures near the electroweak phase transition, $`T=T_{EW}200`$ GeV, the ‘final’ values of $`B`$ and $`B^{}`$ depend only on the values of $`BL`$ and $`B^{}L^{}`$. These charges are separately conserved for $`T10^{10}`$ GeV, because the interaction in Eq.(5) is slower than the expansion rate. This yields the well-known relation between $`B`$ and $`BL`$ shap , 333Higher order corrections exist, but are quite small ($`\stackrel{<}{}`$ few percent) and depend on whether the electroweak phase transition is first order or second order shap2 .

$`B={\displaystyle \frac{28}{79}}(BL),`$ (15)
with an identical relation for $`B^{}`$ in terms of $`B^{}L^{}`$ (equally well-known to mirror physicists). Thus the final value of the ratio $`B/B^{}`$ , denoted $`B^f/B^f`$ below, is equal to the ratio $`(BL)/(B^{}L^{})`$, that is,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{B^f}{B^f}}={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _0+\alpha _1^{}+\alpha _2^{}\beta _0\beta _1^{}\beta _2^{}}{\alpha _0+\alpha _1+\alpha _2\beta _0\beta _1\beta _2}}0.21.`$ (16)
Of course, if there is some brief period of inflation between $`T10^{10}`$ GeV and $`T_{EW}`$ then the above result is only valid provided that the reheating temperature of $`T^{}`$ and $`T`$ are both greater than $`T_{EW}`$. In the alternative case where the reheating temperatures satisfy $`T^{}<T_{EW}`$ and $`T>T_{EW}`$, then the final asymmetry ratio is

$`{\displaystyle \frac{B^f}{B^f}}={\displaystyle \frac{28}{79}}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _0+\alpha _1^{}+\alpha _2^{}\beta _0\beta _1^{}\beta _2^{}}{\alpha _0+\alpha _1+\alpha _2}}0.20,`$ (17)
which is not very different from the previous result.

While these quantitative results are quite impressive when compared to the observations, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Omega }_{dark}=0.20\pm 0.02`$ according to Ref.cmb , one should be cautious. It is probably unlikely that the standard model description of the ordinary particle interactions remains valid up to $`T10^{10}`$ GeV: new particles and interactions may exist. The interaction of Eq.(5) may not occur, or if it does it might not be strong enough to thermalise the ordinary and mirror sectors. Some other interaction might be responsible for this, perhaps involving other exotic heavy fermions or scalars.

On the positive side, it is quite easy to see why we obtained an $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Omega }_b^{}`$ value of about the right size – given our assumption that $`B`$ and $`L`$ are generated from $`B^{}`$ and $`L^{}`$. The point is that this creates a fundamental asymmetry: there are more non-zero mirror charges than ordinary ones. In the particular scenario studied, the only non-zero conserved charges were $`_{1,2}^{}`$ and $`_0`$. These are mainly mirror charges, with only $`_0`$ involving ordinary particles. Thus, the observation that ordinary matter is a small, yet significant fraction of the total matter density in the universe seems to be explicable, at least in principle, if mirror matter is the dark matter.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council.