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# Isotopic scaling of heavy projectile residues from the collisions of 25 MeV/nucleon 86Kr with 124Sn, 112Sn and 64Ni, 58Ni.

## I Introduction

The isotopic composition of nuclear reaction products contains important information on the role of the isospin on the reaction dynamics Li and Schroeder (2001). Recently, increased interest in the N/Z degree of freedom and its equilibration Yennello et al. (1994); Li and Yennello (1995); Johnston et al. (1996); Rami et al. (2000), as well as in the isospin asymmetry dependent terms of the nuclear equation of state Li et al. (1998); Müller and Serot (1995) has motivated detailed measurements of the isotopic distributions of fragments with Z$``$2 Xu et al. (2000); Laforest et al. (1999); Veselsky et al. (2001); Ramakrishnan et al. (1998). Isotopically resolved data in the region Z=2–8 have revealed systematic trends, but their N/Z properties are unavoidably affected by the decay of the excited primary fragments. It has recently been shown Tsang et al. (2001a) that isospin effects can be investigated by comparing the yields of fragments from two similar reactions that differ only in the isospin asymmetry. In this case, the effect of sequential decay of primary fragments can be bypassed to a large extent. It has been revealed that for statistical fragment production mechanism(s), if two reactions occurring at the same temperature have different isospin asymmetry, the ratio R21(N,Z) of the yields of a given fragment (N,Z) obtained from the two reactions 2 and 1 exhibits an exponential dependence on N and Z of the form:

$$R_{21}(N,Z)=C\mathrm{exp}(\alpha N+\beta Z)$$

where $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are the scaling parameters and C is an overall normalization constant. This scaling behavior is called isotopic scaling or, isoscaling, Tsang et al. (2001a) and has been observed in a variety of reactions under the conditions of statistical emission and equal temperature Tsang et al. (2001b, c); Botvina et al. (2002); Shetty et al. (2003). (If the temperatures are different, a generalized isoscaling can be obtained with appropriate temperature corrections Tsang et al. (2002).) The isoscaling parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are shown to contain information on the early stages of fragment formation (before sequential de-excitation). It remains a matter of further investigation to what extent they may provide information on the type and the details of the reaction mechanism(s).

Up to the present, the isoscaling phenomenon has been systematically investigated with isotopically resolved fragments not heavier than Z=8. It would be interesting to investigate the behavior of heavier fragments up to the region of heavy residues. Heavy residues are known to comprise a large fraction of the reaction cross section at the intermediate energy regime Fuchs and Möhring (1994). However, efficient collection and complete characterization of the residues in terms of their atomic number Z, mass number A, ionic charge state q and velocity requires the use of a magnetic spectrometer. At this point, it should be noted that the scaling behavior of heavy fragment yields from light particle induced reactions at relativistic energies on separated Sn targets has been recently reported Adam et al. (2003). In Adam et al. (2003), the fragment yields were measured with radiochemical techniques. With mass spectrometric techniques, however, apart from isotopically resolved yields, the velocities of the fragments can be obtained with high resolution and can provide information on the excitation energy of the primary fragments.

In the present work, isotopic scaling is investigated for fragments obtained in high-resolution mass spectrometric studies of projectile fragments from the reactions of 25 MeV/nucleon 86Kr with 124,112Sn and 64,58Ni targets. Yield ratios of fragments with Z=10–36 were obtained and isotopic scaling was investigated. Using the velocities of the residues, the excitation energy of the hot primary fragments was characterized. Finally, the values of the isoscaling parameters were used to provide isospin information on the hot emitting sources. The paper is organized as follows. In Section II, a brief description of the experimental apparatus, the measurements and the data analysis is given. In Section III, after examiming the average velocity and N/Z characteristics of the fragments, the isotopic scaling of the fragment yields is studied in detail. Finally, conclusions from the present study are summarized in Section IV.

## II Experimental Methods and Data Analysis

The present study was performed at the Cyclotron Institute of Texas A&M University. A 25 MeV/nucleon 86Kr22+ beam from the K500 superconducting cyclotron, with a typical current of $``$1 pnA, interacted with isotopically enriched targets of 124Sn, 112Sn (2 mg/cm2) and 64Ni, 58Ni (4 mg/cm2). The reaction products were analyzed with the MARS spectrometer Tribble et al. (1989) offering an angular acceptance of 9 msr and momentum acceptance of 4%. The primary beam struck the target at 4.0o relative to the optical axis of the spectrometer. The direct beam was collected inside the target chamber on a square Faraday cup lying outside of the angular acceptance of the spectrometer. Fragments were accepted in the polar angular range 2.7o–5.4o. This angular range lies inside the grazing angle of 6.5o of the Kr+Sn reactions and mostly outside the grazing angle of 3.5o of the Kr+Ni reactions at 25 MeV/nucleon Wilcke et al. (1980). It should be noted that the spectrometer angle setting was chosen to optimize the production of very neutron-rich fragments from the Kr+Sn systems whose detailed study is reported elsewhere Souliotis et al. (2003a). An Al foil (1 mg/cm2) was used to reset to equilibrium the ionic charge states of the projectile fragments. MARS optics Tribble et al. (1989) provides one intermediate dispersive image and a final achromatic image (focal plane). At the focal plane, the fragments were collected in a 5$`\times `$5 cm two-element ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E, E) Si detector telescope. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E detector was a position-sensitive Si strip detector of 110 $`\mu `$m thickness, whereas the E detector was a single-element Si detector of 950 $`\mu `$m, respectively. Time of flight was measured between two PPACs (parallel plate avalanche counters) positioned at the dispersive image and at the focal plane, respectively, and separated by a distance of 13.2 m. The PPAC at the dispersive image was also X–Y position sensitive and used to record the position of the fragments. The horizontal position, along with NMR measurements of the field of the MARS first dipole, was used to determine the magnetic rigidity, $`B\rho `$, of the particles. The reaction products were characterized by an event-by-event measurement of energy-loss, residual energy, time of flight, and magnetic rigidity. The response of the spectrometer/detector system to ions of known atomic number Z, mass number A, ionic charge q and velocity was calibrated using a low intensity 86Kr primary beam and other beams at 25 MeV/nucleon.

The determination of the atomic number Z was based on the energy loss of the particles in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ detector Hubert et al. (1990) and their velocity. The ionic charge $`q`$ of the particles entering MARS was obtained from the total energy Etot=$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E + E, the velocity and the magnetic rigidity. The measurements of Z and q had resolutions of 0.5 and 0.4 units (FWHM), respectively. Since the ionic charge must be an integer, we assigned integer values of q for each event by putting windows ($`\mathrm{\Delta }q=0.4`$) on each peak of the q spectrum. Using the magnetic rigidity and velocity measurement, the mass-to-charge A/q ratio of each ion was obtained with a resolution of 0.3%. Combining the q determination with the A/q measurement, the mass A was obtained as: $`A=q_{int}\times A/q`$ (qint is the integer ionic charge) with a resolution (FWHM) of 0.6 A units. Combination and normalization of the data at the various magnetic rigidity settings of the spectrometer (in the range 1.3–2.0 T m), summation over all ionic charge states (with corrections applied for missing charge states Leon et al. (1998)), and, finally, normalization for beam current and target thickness, provided fragment yield distributions with respect to Z, A and velocity. Further details of the analysis procedure can be found in Souliotis et al. (2002a) and in previous work with heavier beams Souliotis et al. (2002b, 1998, 1997). The yield distributions, summed over velocities, were used to obtain the yield ratios $`R_{21}(N,Z)=Y_2(N,Z)/Y_1(N,Z)`$ employed in the present isotopic scaling studies.

## III Results and Discussion

Before embarking on the discussion of the yield ratios and scaling, we will first examine the velocity and N/Z characteristics of the reaction products. It is well established that reactions between massive nuclei around the Fermi energy Fuchs and Möhring (1994) proceed via a deep inelastic transfer mechanism involving substantial nucleon exchange Veselsky et al. (2000); Veselsky (2002); LeColley et al. (1994); Morjean et al. (1995). This mechanism is responsible for the creation of highly excited primary fragments that deexcite to produce the observed fragments. To obtain information about the excitation energy of the primary fragments from the present reactions, we will first examine the correlation of the measured velocity with the atomic number. Fig. 1 presents the average velocities of the fragments as a function of Z. Closed symbols correspond to the reactions with the neutron-rich targets and open symbols to those with the neutron-poor targets. In this figure, we observe that for fragments close to the projectile, the velocities are slightly below that of the projectile, corresponding to very peripheral, low-excitation energy events. A monotonic decrease of velocity with decreasing Z is observed, indicative of lower impact parameters, higher momentum transfers, and thus higher excitation energies.

For the 86Kr + 124,112Sn reactions (Fig. 1a) , the descending velocity–Z correlation continues down to Z$``$28; for lower Z’s, the velocity appears to increase with decreasing Z. The appearance of a minimum velocity for Z$``$28 can be understood by assuming that these residues originate from primary fragments with a maximum observed excitation energy. Fragments with Z near the projectile down to Z$``$28 originate from evaporative type of deexcitation which does not modify, on average, the emission direction of the residues. Thus, the residue velocities can provide information on the excitation energy. Residues with lower Z arise, as we will discuss below, from primary fragments undergoing cluster emission and/or multifragmentation and the velocity of the inclusively measured fragments is not monotonically correlated with the excitation energy, the mass A or the atomic number Z. For the 86Kr + 64,58Ni reactions, a similar behavior is observed. However, the decreasing velocity–Z correlation is observed only down to Z$``$32. It should be pointed out that fragments from this reaction were measured mostly outside the grazing angle, so that they correspond to more damped collisions, in such a way that the final residues receive a larger recoil during the deexcitation stage and appear within this angular range. For Z$``$30–32, we observe a minimum velocity and for lower Z’s an increase of the velocity with decreasing Z. The average velocities from the reactions with the neutron-rich targets are, within the experimental uncertainties, almost the same as the corresponding from the reactions with the neutron-deficient targets for both pairs of systems. For both reactions, the ascending part of the velocity vs Z correlation for the lower part of the Z range is primarily due to the combined effect of angle and magnetic rigidity selection. The forward angle range (2.7o–5.4o) selects either the forward or the backward kinematical solution in the moving frame of the quasiprojectile undergoing cluster-emission or multifragmentation, whereas the magnetic rigidity range (1.3–2.0 T m) subsequently selects the forward solution.

Employing the observed minimum velocities for the Kr+Sn and Kr+Ni reactions and, furthermore, applying two-body kinematics and equal division of excitation energy (which is a reasonable assumption for nearly symmetric systems at this energy regime Madani et al. (1996); Veselsky et al. (2000)), we can estimate an average excitation energy per nucleon for the hot quasiprojectile fragments of E/A$`=`$2.2$`\pm `$0.1 MeV for both Kr+Sn and Kr+Ni systems. Using the Fermi gas relationship $`E^{}=\frac{A}{K}T^2`$, with T the tempretature and K the inverse level density parameter, taken as K=13 MeV Natowitz et al. (2002a), we can estimate the temperature of Kr-like quasiprojectiles as T=5.3$`\pm `$0.2 MeV for both systems. This average temperature is in the range typical for reaction processes near the multifragmentation threshold Veselsky et al. (2001); Natowitz et al. (2002a). In addition, this temperature is rather close to the limiting temperature of excited nuclei of A$``$90 according to the recent systematics of Natowitz et al. Natowitz et al. (2002b). Since these excitation energy estimates are average values obtained from average residue velocities, we may assume that surviving residues with even lower velocities originating from even higher excitation energies are produced in the present measurements. However, due to the inclusive nature of the measurements and the velocity fluctuations due to evaporation, we cannot select residue source velocities lower than those indicated by the average velocities.

In Fig. 2, we present the average N/Z values for each Z for the Kr+Sn reactions (upper panel) and Kr+Ni reactions (lower panel). In the figures, the N/Z values from the reactions involving the neutron-rich targets are shown with full circles and those involving the neutron-poor targets with open circles. The horizontal dashed line (marked “PR”) represents the N/Z of the 86Kr projectile. The thin solid line gives the line of $`\beta `$ stability (marked “SL”) obtained from the relation: $`Z_\beta =A/(1.98+0.0155A^{2/3})`$ Marmier and Sheldon (1970). Finally, the dotted line represents the evaporation attractor line (EAL) Charity (1998) corresponding to the locus of fragment yields produced by evaporation of neutrons and charged particles from highly excited nuclei close to stability. (The statistical deexcitation code GEMINI was used to obtain the position of the EAL Charity (1988).)

For the Kr+Sn reactions, we observe that the average N/Z of the fragments close to the projectile rapidly decreases with deceasing Z down to approximately Z=26–28. For lower Z, the average N/Z appears to be grossly constant with a possible dip around Z=15. The Z value below which the average N/Z of the fragments is roughly constant coincides with the Z value corresponding to the minimum residue velocity, as previously discussed in relation to Fig. 1. As expected, the N/Z of the fragments from the reactions with the neutron-rich 124Sn are larger than those from the reactions with the neutron-poor 112Sn target. This difference appears to be largest below Z$``$26, namely close to the onset of cluster emission and/or multifragmention. In this region, the fragment N/Z deviates from its course towards or beyond (to the neutron-poor side of) the stability line and appears to be roughly constant. This feature of multifragmentation of very neutron-rich heavy systems may be exploited in the production of neutron-rich rare isotopes and it will be the topic of a subsequent study.

For the Kr+Ni reactions, similar observations can be made in Fig. 2b. For these reactions, the rapid decrease of N/Z is observed down to Z=32, corresponding to the Z with the minimum average velocity (Fig. 1b). Below Z=32, the N/Z shows a slight decrease and then, below Z=26 it becomes roughly constant (again with a dip at Z$``$15, as for Kr+Sn).

Having examined the excitation energy and N/Z characteristics of the measured residue data, we turn our discussion to the scaling properties of the fragment yields. According to the equilibrium limit of the grand-canonical ensemble, a thermally equilibrated system undergoing statistical decay can be characterized by a primary fragment yield with neutron number N, and proton number Z of the form Albergo et al. (1985); Randrup and Koonin (1981):

$$Y(N,Z)=F(N,Z)\mathrm{exp}[B(N,Z)/T]\mathrm{exp}(N\mu _n/T+Z\mu _p/T)$$
(1)
where the factor $`F(N,Z)`$ represents contributions due to the secondary decay from particle stable and unstable states to the final ground state; $`\mu _n`$ and $`\mu _p`$ are the neutron and proton chemical potentials; $`B(N,Z)`$ is the ground state binding energy of the corresponding fragment, and $`T`$ is the temperature.

A direct comparison of the observed yield distributions with Eq. 1 is not possible due to the distortions introduced by the sequential decay of the primary fragments. However, it has been shown Tsang et al. (2001a), that the ratio of the yields $`Y_2(N,Z)/Y_1(N,Z)`$ of a given fragment (N,Z) from two different reacting systems, having similar masses and excitation energies, but differing only in N/Z can be used to obtain information about the excited primary fragments. If the main difference between the two systems 2 and 1 is the isospin, then the binding energy terms in Eq. 1 cancel out in the ratio $`Y_2(N,Z)/Y_1(N,Z)`$. Furthermore, if one assumes that the influence of the secondary decay on the yields is similar for the two reactions, then a relation of the form

$$R_{21}(N,Z)=Y_2(N,Z)/Y_1(N,Z)=C\mathrm{exp}(\alpha N+\beta Z)$$
(2)
can be obtained with $`\alpha `$ = $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu _n`$/T and $`\beta `$ = $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu _p`$/T, with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu _n`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu _p`$ being the differences in the neutron and the proton chemical potentials of the fragmenting systems. C is an overall normalization constant. The ratio $`R_{21}(N,Z)`$ is insensitive to the sequential decay and thus it can provide information on the decaying excited primary fragments.

From the present data, we construct the yield ratio $`R_{21}(N,Z)`$ using the convention that index 2 refers to the more neutron-rich system and index 1 to the less neutron-rich one. Fig. 3 shows the yield ratios R21(N,Z) as a function of fragment neutron number N for selected isotopes (top panel) and proton number Z for selected isotones (bottom panel) for the Kr+Sn reactions. The different isotopes and isotones considered are shown by alternating filled and open symbols for clarity. In Fig. 4, the corresponding ratios for the Kr+Ni reactions are shown.

As it can be seen in the top panels of Figs. 3 and 4, the ratios for each element Z exhibit a remarkable exponential behavior. For each element, an exponential function of the form C$`exp`$($`\alpha `$ N) was fitted to the data and also shown in Fig. 4 for the selected elements. In the semi-log representation, the lines for each element are nearly parallel up to Z$``$28 for Kr+Sn and up to Z$``$34 for Kr+Ni (in the latter case exhausting the whole range of observed fragments). For heavier fragments from the Kr+Sn systems, the fits to the data show gradual decrease in the slopes with increasing Z of the fragments. An analogous behavior is observed in the lower panels of Figs. 3 and 4, where the ratio R21(N,Z) is plotted as a function of Z for various isotones. The solid lines correspond to exponential fits using the expression C$`exp`$($`\beta `$Z). The ratios R21(N,Z) appear to lie along straight lines with nearly similar negative slopes $`\beta `$, for all isotones up to N$``$34 for Kr+Sn and N$``$44 for Kr+Ni (again, in the latter case covering the whole fragment range). For larger N from Kr+Sn, the slopes $`\beta `$ increase with increasing N of the fragments. The positive slopes in the upper panels of Figs. 3 and 4 indicate that neutron-rich fragments are more efficiently produced, as expected, from the more neutron-rich systems. Similarly, the negative slopes in the bottom panels of these figures indicate that proton-rich fragments are more efficiently produced from the more proton-rich systems.

In Fig. 5, we present the slope parameters $`\alpha `$ (upper panel) and $`\beta `$ (lower panel) of the exponential fits (obtained as described for Figs. 3 and 4) as a function of Z and N. For the Kr+Sn reactions, the slope parameter $`\alpha `$ is roughly constant with an average value of 0.43 in the range Z=10–26 and then decreases for Z$`>`$26. Similarly, the parameter $`\beta `$ appears to be nearly constant at an average value of –0.50 up to N$``$34 and rise for N$`>`$34. Consequently, for the Kr+Sn systems under the present experimental conditions, isoscaling (as defined in Tsang et al. (2001a)) holds up to Z$``$26 and N$``$34. This fragment range corresponds to primary events with the maximum observed excitation energy of 2.2 MeV/nucleon and temperature of 5.3 MeV, as estimated previously. For the Kr+Ni reactions, the slope parameter $`\alpha `$ appears to be constant in the whole range Z=10–36 at an average value $`\alpha `$=0.27. Similarly, the parameter $`\beta `$ remains constant at an average value of –0.34 in the whole N range. In the case of the Kr+Ni systems under the present experimental conditions (observation outside the grazing angle), isoscaling holds in the whole range of observed fragments, corresponding to primary events having on average excitation energy of 2.2 MeV/nucleon and temperature of 5.3 MeV. The near constancy of the isoscaling parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ (except for near-projectile fragments for the Kr+Sn system) corroborates the statistical nature of the fragment production under the excitation energy and temperature values extracted from the minimum observed residue velocities. In general, the extracted isoscaling parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are in agreement with the corresponding values reported in the literature (e.g. Tsang et al. (2001a); Botvina et al. (2002)).

In the following discussion, we will use the isoscaling parameters herein obtained to extract information about the hot primary fragments. As we have already mentioned, the parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are related to the differences in the neutron and proton chemical potentials of the corresponding primary fragmenting systems via the relations: $`\alpha `$ = $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu _n`$/T and $`\beta `$ = $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu _p`$/T. Using the average values of the parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ and the estimated temperatures, we can obtain the differences in the chemical potentials, as summarized in Table I. As seen in the table, these values are close (apart from a difference in sign) Botvina et al. (2002); Veselsky et al. (2001) to the corresponding differences in the neutron and proton separation energies, as obtained from mass tables Moller et al. (1997). The corresponding values for the protons appear to be remarkably close (Table I).

It has been shown Tsang et al. (2001c); Botvina et al. (2002) that the isoscaling parameter $`\alpha `$ is directly related to the coefficient Csym of the symmetry energy term of the nuclear binding energy. The following relation has been obtained both in the framework of the grand canonical limit of the statistical multifragmentation model (SMM) Botvina et al. (2002) and in the expanding–emitting source (EES) model Tsang et al. (2001c):

$$\alpha =4\frac{C_{sym}}{T}((\frac{Z_1}{A_1})^2(\frac{Z_2}{A_2})^2)$$
(3)
where $`Z_1`$,$`A_1`$ and $`Z_2`$,$`A_2`$ refer to the fragmenting quasiprojectiles from reactions 1 and 2 respectively. Using this relation, the extracted values of $`\alpha `$ and T for the fragments corresponding to multifragmentation events and assuming N/Z equilibration (see following discussion and Fig. 6), we get for Csym the values of 27.2 for Kr+Sn and 23.1 for Kr+Ni (Table I). These estimates of the symmetry-energy coefficient are in reasonable agreement with the standard value Csym = 25 MeV Botvina et al. (2002).

In principle, Eq. 3 can serve as the basis for determining Csym for expanded multifragmenting nuclei Tsang et al. (2001c), thus probing the density dependence of the symmetry energy term of the nuclear equation of state. However, such experimental determination requires systematic isotopically resolved yield measurements with good excitation energy characterization. With the present spectrometric approach, in order to avoid the uncertainties in excitation energy division, as well as in N/Z equilibration, such measurements may be performed for symmetric pairs differing in isospin (e.g. 64Ni+64Ni and 58Ni+58Ni or 124Sn+124Sn and 112Sn+112Sn). In such cases, the excitation energies (and temperatures) can be obtained from the residue velocities and the average N/Z of the quasiprojectiles can be taken as that of the reacting system.

Finally, we will employ Eq. 3 to provide an interpretation of the variation of the isoscaling parameter $`\alpha `$ with Z for the Kr+Sn reactions and relate this variation to the isospin equilibration process. After some manipulation, from Eq. 3 we obtain:

$$\alpha =8\frac{C_{sym}}{T}(\frac{Z}{A})_{ave}^3\mathrm{\Delta }(\frac{N}{Z})_{qp}$$
(4)
where $`(Z/A)_{ave}`$ is the average Z/A of the quasiprojectiles, taken to be the average Z/A of the composite systems 86Kr+124Sn and 86Kr+112Sn, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(N/Z)_{qp}`$ expresses the N/Z difference of fragmenting quasiprojectiles corresponding to a given value of fragment Z, isoscaling parameter $`\alpha `$ and temperature T. Assuming that fragments are produced at normal density, using Csym = 25 MeV Botvina et al. (2002), the $`\alpha `$ values obtained from the isoscaling fits and the temperatures determined from excitation energies (obtained from residue velocities), we can determine the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(N/Z)_{qp}`$ as a function of observed fragment Z, as shown in Fig. 6. In this figure, the horizontal line expresses the N/Z difference of fragmenting quasiprojectiles under the condition of isospin equilibration.

The essentially monotonic increase of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(N/Z)_{qp}`$ with decreasing Z can be understood as follows. Fragments close to the projectile are produced in very peripheral collisions in which a small number of nucleons is exchanged and thus, the N/Z difference of the fragmenting quasiprojectiles from 86Kr+124Sn and 86Kr+112Sn is small. Fragments progressively further from the projectile originate from collisions with larger projectile–target overlap in which a large number of nucleons is exchanged. In such cases, the N/Z difference of the fragmenting quasiprojectiles is progressively larger, eventually approaching, for the present energy regime, the N/Z difference corresponding to isospin equilibration. Consequently, the variation of the isoscaling parameter $`\alpha `$ with Z (and, equivalently, $`\beta `$ with N) for near-projectile residues is a result of the variation in the N/Z of the fragmenting quasiprojectiles, directly related to the course towards isospin equilibration. As such, the parameter $`\alpha `$ along with temperature (excitation energy) determination can be used as a sensitive probe to study the isospin equilibration process in collisions of isospin asymmetric massive nuclei at intermediate energies. A detailed account on this approach is reported elsewhere Souliotis et al. (2003b).

The present high-resolution mass spectometric data provided information on the isoscaling properties of heavy projectile fragments and, subsequently, information on the de-excitation of hot primary fragments, as well as, the degree of N/Z equilibration. Along these lines, it should be noted that with the same spectrometric techniques, we recently obtained information on the details of the de-excitation mechanisms of heavy fragments and the onset of multifragmentation in the reaction of 124Sn(25MeV/nucleon) with 27Al Veselsky et al. (2003). These recent efforts in the Fermi energy regime (following earlier work with heavier beams Souliotis et al. (2002b, 1998)), along with similar studies at relativistic energies (e.g. Schmidt et al. (2002); Ricciardi et al. (2003) and references therein) indicate that detailed isotopic and kinematic investigation of heavy residues provides essential information on the reaction mechanisms and the details of the de-excitation processes that can complement the results of full-acceptance devices. As a possible next step, combination of high-resolution mass separators with advanced large-acceptance multidetector arrays may allow novel and exciting studies of reaction dynamics, furthermore taking advantage of the availability of rare isotope beams.

## IV Summary and Conclusions

In summary, the isotopic scaling of heavy projectile residues from the interaction of 25 MeV/nucleon 86Kr projectiles with 124Sn,112Sn and 64Ni, 58Ni targets has been studied. Isotopically resolved yield distributions of projectile fragments in the range Z=10–36 from the above reaction pairs were measured with the MARS recoil separator in the angular range 2.7o–5.4o. For these deep inelastic collisions, the velocities of the residues, monotonically decreasing with Z down to Z$``$26–28, are employed to characterize the excitation energy. The yield ratios R21(N,Z) for each pair of systems are found to exhibit isoscaling, namely, an exponential dependence on the fragment atomic number Z and neutron number N. The isoscaling is found to occur in the residue Z range corresponding to the maximum observed excitation energies. The corresponding isoscaling parameters are $`\alpha `$=0.43 and $`\beta `$=–0.50 for the Kr+Sn system and $`\alpha `$=0.27 and $`\beta `$=–0.34 for the Kr+Ni system. For the Kr+Sn system, for which the experimental angular acceptance range lies inside the grazing angle, isoscaling was found to occur for Z$``$26 and N$``$34. The values of the isoscaling parameters are used to extract the neutron and proton chemical potentials, as well as obtain an estimate of the symmetry energy coefficient of highly excited primary fragments. For heavy fragments from Kr+Sn, the isoscaling behavior breaks down and the parameters are found to vary monotonically, $`\alpha `$ decreasing with Z and $`\beta `$ increasing with N. This variation of the isoscaling parameters for near-projectile residues is found to be related to the evolution towards isospin equilibration and, as such can serve as a tracer of N/Z equilibration. The present isotopically resolved heavy-residue data demonstrate the occurence of isotopic scaling from the intermediate mass fragment region to the heavy-residue region. Such high-resolution mass spectrometric data have the potential to provide important information on the role of isospin and isospin equilibration in peripheral and mid-peripheral collisions, complementary to that accessible from advanced large-acceptance multidetector devices.

## V Ackowledgements

We are thankful to M. B. Tsang and R. T. de Souza for insightful discussions. We wish to thank the Cyclotron Institute staff for the excellent beam quality. This work was supported in part by the Robert A. Welch Foundation through grant No. A-1266, and the Department of Energy through grant No. DE-FG03-93ER40773. M.V. was also supported through grant VEGA-2/1132/21 (Slovak Scientific Grant Agency).


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# First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAPWMAP is the result of a partnership between Princeton University and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Scientific guidance is provided by the WMAP Science Team. ) Observations: Dark Energy Induced Correlation with Radio Sources

## 1 Introduction

The recent WMAP results (Bennett et al., 2003c) place on a firm foundation the emerging standard model of cosmology: a flat adiabatic $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-dominated CDM universe. However, the deficit of power in the CMB anisotropy spectrum on large angular scales (Bennett et al., 2003b; Hinshaw et al., 2003; Spergel et al., 2003) is surprising given that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models predict an enhancement at $`\mathrm{}10`$ due to the late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect (Sachs & Wolfe, 1967). The likelihood of observing so little power due to sample variance is only $`0.15\%`$ (Spergel et al., 2003). Thus new physics may be indicated since the nature of the dark energy is poorly understood. Cross-correlating the CMB with radio sources provides a direct test for the recent acceleration predicted by the favored $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model and observed by the Type 1a supernovae experiments (Perlmutter et al., 1999; Riess et al., 1998). Thus, this test is an important check of the standard model.

Any recent acceleration of the universe will cause local gravitational potentials to decay. This decay is then imprinted on the CMB as the photons, which were blue-shifted on infall, suffer less of a red-shift as they climb out of the potential well. This produces temperature perturbations

$$\frac{\delta T(\widehat{n})}{T_0}=2_0^{\eta _{\mathrm{dec}}}𝑑\eta \frac{d\mathrm{\Phi }}{d\eta }(\eta \widehat{n})$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the Newtonian gravitational potential, $`\eta `$ is conformal lookback time, and the integral runs from today ($`\eta =0`$) to the CMB decoupling surface at $`z_{\mathrm{dec}}=1089`$. Figure 1 shows the recent evolution of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ for a variety of cosmological models. Since $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is related to the matter distribution via the Poisson equation, tracers of the mass will be correlated with the CMB through the late-ISW effect. In this paper we correlate the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) source catalog (Condon et al., 1998) with the WMAP CMB map in search of the late-ISW effect. Boughn & Crittenden (2002) performed a similar analysis using the COBE/DMR map, and found no correlation. However, a recent re-analysis by the same authors using the WMAP data did see evidence for a correlation between the CMB, NVSS, and the hard X-ray background observed by the HEAO-1 satellite (Boughn & Crittenden, 2003). Here we focus on the implications of this correlation for dark energy, specifically $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

We take as our fiducial model the best fit power-law $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model to the combined WMAP, CBI, ACBAR, 2dFGRS, and Ly$`\alpha `$ data sets, with values $`\omega _m=0.133`$, $`\omega _b=0.0226`$, $`n_s=0.96`$, $`h=0.72`$, $`A=0.75`$, and $`\tau =0.117`$ (Spergel et al., 2003, Table 7). Cosmological parameters are drawn from this set unless otherwise noted.

In §2 we briefly describe the NVSS source catalog and its auto-correlation function. In §3 we describe the cross-correlation between the WMAP CMB map and the NVSS source map, and relate it to the late-ISW effect. We conclude in §4 and discuss effects which could mimic the observed signal.

## 2 The NVSS Source Catalog

The NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) is a 1.4 GHz continuum survey, covering the 82% of the sky with $`\delta >40\mathrm{°}`$ (Condon et al., 1998). The source catalog contains over $`1.8\times 10^6`$ sources, and is 50% complete at 2.5 mJy. Nearly all the sources away from the Galactic plane ($`|b|>2\mathrm{°}`$) are extragalactic. The bright sources are predominantly AGN-powered radio galaxies and quasars, while at weaker fluxes the sources are increasingly nearby star-forming galaxies.

Galaxy counts are a potentially biased tracer of the underlying matter distribution, and thus the projected number density of NVSS sources per steradian, $`n(z,\widehat{n})`$, is related to the matter distribution $`\delta (z,\widehat{n})\delta \rho /\rho `$ via

$$n(z,\widehat{n})dzd\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{dN}{dz}\left(1+b_r(z)\delta (z,\widehat{n})\right)dzd\mathrm{\Omega }$$
(2)
where $`dN/dz`$ is the mean number of sources per steradian at a redshift $`z`$ and $`b_r(z)`$ is the radio galaxy bias parameter. Thus the observed fluctuation on the sky in projected source counts is given by

$$\delta N(\widehat{n})=𝑑zb_r(z)\frac{dN}{dz}\delta (z,\widehat{n}).$$
(3)
Since we are only interested in clustering on large scales, and hence the linear regime, the evolution of $`\delta `$ factors as $`\delta (k,z)=D(z)\delta (k)`$, where $`\delta (k,z)`$ is the Fourier transform of the matter distribution, $`\delta (k)\delta (k,0)`$ its current value, and $`D(z)`$ is the linear growth factor (Peebles, 1993, 5.111). While generally a function of time, we take the bias to be constant, as the determination of $`dN/dz`$ is uncertain and we only consider a modest redshift range ($`0<z<2`$).

While the individual NVSS source redshifts are unknown, for our purposes we need only the overall redshift distribution $`dN/dz`$ for the NVSS. We adopt the favored model of Dunlop & Peacock (1990) (model 1, MEAN-$`z`$ data), which was found by Boughn & Crittenden (2002) to best reproduce the NVSS auto-correlation function. Like most models, it divides the sources by spectral index $`\alpha `$ (flux $`S\nu ^\alpha `$) into two populations, flat-spectrum ($`\alpha 0`$) and steep-spectrum ($`\alpha 0.8`$) sources. The model is plotted in Figure 2. We limit the model to $`0.01<z<5`$; the lower limit corresponds to a distance of $`42\text{Mpc}`$. The small peak at $`z0.05`$ is spurious (due to a breakdown in the DP90 fitting function), but has only a minor effect on the integrated predictions.

Given a cosmology, we can determine the radio bias $`b_r`$ from the amplitude of the NVSS auto-correlation function (ACF), by comparing the ACF to the unbiased prediction

$$C^{NN}(\theta )=\delta N(\widehat{n})\delta N(\widehat{n}^{})=\frac{2l+1}{4\pi }[b_l^N]^2C_l^{NN}P_l(\widehat{n}\widehat{n}^{})$$
(4)
where $`[b_l^N]^2`$ is the pixel window function. Substituting equation (3) into this expression and Fourier transforming,

$$C_l^{NN}=4\pi \frac{dk}{k}\mathrm{\Delta }_\delta ^2(k)\left[f_l^N(k)\right]^2$$
(5)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\delta ^2(k)=k^3P_\delta (k)/2\pi ^2`$ is the logarithmic matter power spectrum and $`P_\delta (k)=|\delta (k)|^2`$. We use the WMAP normalization $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^2(k_0)=2.95\times 10^9A`$ where $`k_0=0.05\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ (Verde et al., 2003), giving us $`\delta _H=6.1\times 10^5`$ for our fiducial model. The filter function is given by

$$f_l^N(k)=b_r𝑑z\frac{dN}{dz}D(z)j_l(k\eta ).$$
(6)
where $`j_l(x)`$ is the spherical Bessel function. Note that the bias we measure is complicated by the uncertainty in $`dN/dz`$; errors in the normalization are absorbed into the bias.

To calculate the observed NVSS auto-correlation function (ACF), we made a HEALPix (Górski et al., 1998) resolution-5 map of $`\delta N(\widehat{n})`$, which has $`\mathrm{12\hspace{0.17em}288\; 1.8}\mathrm{°}`$ square pixels111For more information on HEALPix visit http://www.eso.org/science/healpix/. The resolution of a HEALPix map indicates its pixel count. A resolution-$`r`$ map has $`12N_{\mathrm{side}}^2`$ pixels, where $`N_{\mathrm{side}}=2^r`$. A resolution-$`(r+1)`$ map is created by dividing each resolution-$`r`$ pixel into four subpixels.. As a precaution, we removed the $`3\times 10^5`$ sources from the catalog which were resolved. The mean source count per pixel is 147.9, leading to a Poisson uncertainty of $`8\%`$. The ACF is estimated as

$$\widehat{C}^{NN}(\theta _k)=N_iN_jw_i^Nw_j^N/w_i^Nw_j^N$$
(7)
where $`N_i`$ is the number of sources in pixel $`i`$ and the sum is over all pixel pairs separated by $`\theta _k\mathrm{\Delta }\theta /2<\theta <\theta _k+\mathrm{\Delta }\theta /2`$. The bin width $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ is $`2\mathrm{°}`$. We mask out pixels at low Galactic latitude ($`|b|<10\mathrm{°}`$) and those unobserved by the survey ($`\delta <37\mathrm{°}`$); the weights $`w_i^N`$ are determined by the mask. The NVSS ACF is shown is Figure 2. The $`\theta =0\mathrm{°}`$ bin is corrected for Poisson noise by subtracting the mean number of sources per pixel. For the fiducial model parameters (which are used to calculate $`D(z)`$ and $`\eta (z)`$), the derived bias is 1.7. This is somewhat higher than the value of 1.6 found by Boughn & Crittenden (2002). However, they assumed a scale-invariant spectrum (i.e., $`n_s=1`$), and changing $`n_s`$ by $`\pm 0.03`$ changes the bias by $`0.05`$.

As noticed by Boughn & Crittenden (2002), the NVSS catalog mean source density varies with declination, introducing a spurious signal into the auto-correlation function. They corrected for this by adding and subtracting random sources from the map until the structure was removed. We considered two simple corrections; both broke the sources into $`\mathrm{sin}(\delta )`$ strips of width $`0.1`$. The first method subtracted the mean from each strip; the second scaled each strip by the ratio of the global mean to the strip mean. Since the corrections are small, both produced similar results (Fig. 3).

## 3 WMAP–NVSS Cross-Correlation

Combining equation (1) and equation (3) we can calculate the expected cross-correlation spectrum between the NVSS catalog and the CMB:

$$C_l^{NT}=a_{lm}^Na_{lm}^T=4\pi \frac{dk}{k}\mathrm{\Delta }_\delta ^2(k)f_l^N(k)f_l^T(k)$$
(8)
where $`f_l^N`$ and $`f_l^T`$ are the NVSS and ISW filter functions. The ISW filter function is derived analogously to the NVSS filter function. The local gravitational potential is related to the matter distribution via the Poisson equation $`^2\mathrm{\Phi }=4\pi Ga^2\rho _m\delta _m`$, where the gradient is taken with respect to comoving coordinates. Fourier transforming, we have

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(k,\eta )=\frac{3}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_m(H_0/k)^2g(\eta )\delta (k)$$
(9)
where $`H_0`$ is the Hubble constant, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_mH_0^2=8\pi G\rho _m^0/3`$, and $`g(\eta )D(\eta )/a(\eta )`$ is the linear growth suppression factor. Thus

$$f_l^T(k)=3\mathrm{\Omega }_m(H_0/k)^2𝑑\eta \frac{dg}{d\eta }j_l(k\eta ).$$
(10)
We use the fitting function for $`g(\eta )`$ provided by Carroll et al. (1992). In a flat $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=1`$ universe, $`g(\eta )`$ is constant, and thus there is no ISW effect and hence no correlation between the CMB and the local matter distribution. In $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM universes, $`D(\eta )`$ approaches a constant during $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-domination, leading to a decay of $`g(\eta )`$ as time increases.

We computed the WMAP–NVSS cross-correlation function (CCF) as

$$\widehat{C}^{NT}(\theta _k)=N_iT_jw_i^Nw_j^T/w_i^Nw_j^T$$
(11)
where $`T_i`$ is the CMB map, $`N_j`$ the NVSS map (described in the previous section), and the sums are over all pixel pairs separated by $`\theta _k\mathrm{\Delta }\theta /2<\theta <\theta _k+\mathrm{\Delta }\theta /2`$. The bin width $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ is $`2\mathrm{°}`$. As before, we work at HEALPix resolution-5. Since we are working at large scales where the detector noise is negligible, we use the WMAP internal linear combination (ILC) map for the CMB (Bennett et al., 2003b). We limit residual foreground contamination by masking the map with the WMAP Kp0 galaxy mask and the WMAP source mask (Bennett et al., 2003a). The CMB weight $`w_i^T`$ is the number of unmasked resolution-9 subpixels of the resolution-5 pixel $`i`$. The CCF is plotted in Figure 3. The CCF is insensitive to the form of the NVSS declination correction.

Assessing the significance of the CCF is complicated by the high degree of correlation between points. Accidental alignments between the NVSS map and the CMB fluctuations at the decoupling surface (which are uncorrelated with those generated by the late-ISW) can produce spurious correlations. We quantified this uncertainty with Monte Carlo simulations, creating 500 realizations of the CMB sky drawn from the $`C_l^{TT}`$ power spectrum for our fiducial model with our estimate of the NVSS-correlated late-ISW contribution subtracted. The covariance matrix $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ was calculated from the resulting CCFs, keeping the NVSS map fixed. Table 1 shows the $`0\mathrm{°}<\theta <20\mathrm{°}`$ submatrix of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, showing that the CCF points are highly correlated. We define $`\chi ^2=\delta C^T\mathrm{\Sigma }^1\delta C`$ where $`\delta C=\widehat{C}^{NT}C^{NT}`$ is the difference between observed (eq. ) and model (eq. ) correlation functions, and we limit $`\theta <20\mathrm{°}`$. For the null model of no correlation ($`C^{NT}=0`$), $`\chi _0^2=17.2`$. Since there are 10 degrees of freedom this a $`1.8\sigma `$ deviation.

How does the measured CCF constrain $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$? Rather than exploring the full parameter space, we assume a flat universe with fixed $`\omega _b`$ and explore the locus of values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ and $`h`$ consistent with the measured location of the first acoustic peak of the CMB TT anisotropy power spectrum. The first peak position is set by the angular scale of the sound horizon at decoupling, $`\theta _A`$, which Page et al. (2003) found to be $`\theta _A=0.6\mathrm{°}`$. Percival et al. (2002) showed that $`\theta _A0.85\mathrm{°}\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{0.14}h^{0.48}`$; this is the horizon angle degeneracy. The normalization $`A`$ is varied to fix the amplitude of the first peak; from a fit to CMBFAST (Seljak & Zaldarriaga, 1996) spectra we found $`A\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{0.248}`$ along the horizon degeneracy. The results are shown in Figure 4. The difference in $`\chi ^2`$ between models with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ (i.e., no correlation) and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.68`$ (the minimum, with $`\chi _{\mathrm{min}}^2=12.5`$) is $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=4.7`$. Since we are varying a single parameter, the significance is $`\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2}`$; thus $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }>0`$ is preferred at the $`2.2\sigma `$ level.

The WMAP team imposed a prior on the Hubble constant, $`h>0.5`$, in determining the cosmological parameters (Spergel et al., 2003). While lower values of the Hubble constant would contradict a host of other experiments, especially the Hubble Key Project (Freedman et al., 2001), models with very low $`h`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m1.3`$ are marginally consistent ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=4.9`$) with the WMAP TT and TE angular power spectra. Since these universes are closed and matter dominated the growth factor $`D(a)`$ grows faster than $`a`$, and $`g(a)`$ is better termed the linear growth enhancement factor. Thus we would expect to observe an anti-correlation between the NVSS and CMB maps, since $`dg/d\eta `$ in equation (10) changes sign (see Figure 1). For $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=1.28`$ and $`h=0.33`$, $`\chi ^2=24.2`$ (with a bias of $`2.7`$). Based on the cross-correlation analysis alone, this model is disfavored by more than $`3\sigma `$.

## 4 Discussion

The recent acceleration of the universe due to dark energy should correlate large-scale CMB anisotropies with fluctuations in the local matter density through the late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. We have correlated the NVSS radio source catalog with the CMB anisotropies observed by the WMAP satellite, and find that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }>0`$ is preferred at the 95% confidence level ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=4.7`$), considering statistical errors only. The statistical uncertainty is due to accidental alignments with the background primary anisotropies generated at decoupling. The likelihood peaks at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.68`$, consistent with the value derived from the CMB angular power spectrum.

The correlation between the NVSS source count and WMAP CMB maps appears robust. We interpret it as arising from the late-ISW, but other effects could correlate the two maps. For instance, obscuration by dust clouds tends to reduce the number of sources observed in their direction. We cross-correlated the NVSS map with the $`E(BV)`$ extinction map of Schlegel et al. (1998) and see evidence for a small negative correlation at separations $`\theta <20\mathrm{°}`$. However, since the extinction map is positively correlated with the CMB map due to dust emission, this effect has the wrong sign to mimic the late-ISW. The extinction correction is estimated as $`r_E(\theta )=ENET/EE`$, where $`N,T,E`$ are the NVSS, CMB, and extinction maps and $`XY`$ denotes the correlation between maps $`X`$ and $`Y`$ evaluated at separation $`\theta `$. We find a value of $`r_E(0)4\mu \mathrm{K}\mathrm{cnts}`$ (compared to $`22\mu \mathrm{K}\mathrm{cnts}`$ for the CCF) and the correction is negligible for $`\theta >15\mathrm{°}`$, except for a few glitches when $`EE`$ crosses zero. Subtracting $`r_E`$ from the CCF, we find the preferred value of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ increases to $`0.76`$; at the minimum $`\chi _{\mathrm{min}}^2=14.8`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=6.1`$.

A potentially more serious concern is that the correlation is due to microwave emission by the sources themselves. However, if this were the case then the CCF should have a similar angular profile as the auto-correlation function (ACF). Yet while the ACF falls steeply with increasing separation \[$`\widehat{C}^{NN}(0\mathrm{°})/\widehat{C}^{NN}(3\mathrm{°})5`$\], the CCF does not \[$`\widehat{C}^{NT}(0\mathrm{°})/\widehat{C}^{NT}(3\mathrm{°})1`$\]. The lack of an enhanced signal in the zero lag CCF bin thus argues against any significant microwave emission from the NVSS radio sources.

We are indebted to Steve Boughn for significant and helpful discussions throughout the preparation of this paper. We also thank Hiranya Peiris and Licia Verde for useful comments. The WMAP mission is made possible by the support of the Office of Space Sciences at NASA Headquarters and by the hard and capable work of scores of scientists, engineers, technicians, machinists, data analysts, budget analysts, managers, administrative staff, and reviewers.


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# References

Comment on “Dynamic behavior of anisotropic non-equilibrium driving lattice gases”

In a recent Letter Albano and Saracco (AS) as-02  study the dynamic behavior of some anisotropic driven lattice gases by Monte Carlo (MC) simulations STMC . They check the scaling of the order parameter $`OP`$ defined in their Eq. (4) and, by data collapse, determine the relevant scaling exponents. Then, they formulate scaling Ansätze (see Eqs. (5) and (8) of AS) in order to relate the measured scaling exponents with the critical exponents analytically computed within different field-theoretical approaches (see Refs. js-lc-86 ; Garrido98 ). Comparing MC results and theoretical predictions they conclude that the universality class of the phase transition in the driven lattice gases considered in the paper is well-described by the field theory proposed in Ref. Garrido98 , ruling out that of Ref. js-lc-86 . In this Comment we point out that the Ansätze (5) and (8) do not take properly into account the strongly anisotropic nature of the phase transition, by implicitly assuming $`z=z_{}=z_{}`$. As a consequence, at variance with AS’s claims, MC data are not conclusive on the issue of the universality class.

Let us outline the argument. During the relaxation of a spin system from an initial uncorrelated state with small magnetization $`m_0`$, the $`k`$-th moment of the magnetization is expected to scale according to STMC  $`M^{(k)}(t,\tau ,L,m_0)=b^{k\beta /\nu }f_k(b^zt,b^{1/\nu },b^{1/\nu }\tau ,b^1L,b^{x_0}m_0)`$, where $`x_0`$ is related to the initial-slip exponent. The generalization of this expression to a system that is strongly anisotropic and has a conserved order parameter requires some care. Using the notations of Ref. sz-95 , one expects $`M^{(k)}(t,\tau ,L_{},L_{},m_0)=b^{k\beta /\nu _{}}f_k(b^z_{}t,b^{1/\nu _{}}\tau ,b^1L_{},b^{\nu _{}/\nu _{}}L_{},b^{x_0}m_0)`$, where $`M`$ can be naturally identified with some suitable order parameter, for instance with the excess density as in AS. Since $`m_0`$ is approximately zero for the initial configurations, taking into account that the $`OP`$ defined by AS is expected to scale as $`\sqrt{M^{(2)}}`$ as-02 , one obtains Eq. (5) of AS with the identification $`z=z_{}`$. Correctly, in Table I, AS report the predictions $`z=4/3`$ and $`z1.998`$ for the two models they consider (see Eqs. (1) and (2) of AS), which refer indeed to $`z_{}`$. Formulae (6) and (7) follow from Eq. (5) and therefore they are correct only if we identify $`z=z_{}`$. In Eq. (8), AS generalize the scaling behavior of $`OP`$ to the case of the relaxation from the ground state configuration. Without attemping a derivation of their equation, we simply note that, as it stands, it is not compatible with Eq. (5) of AS: The exponent $`z`$ appearing in Eq. (8) must be identified with $`z_{}=\nu _{}z_{}/\nu _{}`$ and not with $`z_{}`$. Indeed, whatever the initial condition is, we expect that after a time interval long enough to allow the relaxation of the initial condition, $`OP`$ will display a characteristic long-time behavior, that should be captured by any reasonable scaling form. Now, from Eq. (5) (rewritten as before) it is easy to derive that, in the thermodynamic limit, $`OP(t,\tau )=t^{\beta /\nu _{}z_{}}f_{\mathrm{FD}}(t^{1/\nu _{}z_{}}\tau )`$, while from Eq. (8) $`OP(t,\tau )=t^{\beta /\nu _{}z}f_{\mathrm{GS}}(t^{1/\nu _{}z}\tau )`$. These two equations give the same long-time limit only if in the second case we identify $`z`$ with $`z_{}`$, i.e. $`OP(t,\tau ,L_{},L_{})=b^{\beta /\nu _{}}OP(b^z_{}t,b^{1/\nu _{}}\tau ,b^{\nu _{}/\nu _{}}L_{},b^1L_{})`$. Equations (9) and (10) follow from Eq. (8) and therefore here $`z`$ must be interpreted as $`z_{}`$. As a consequence, some of the theoretical predictions for the quantities measured by AS and reported in Tab. I of Ref. as-02 , change according to the following table

| Model | $`\beta /\nu _{}z(+)`$ | $`c_{}(+)`$ |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Eq. (1) in Ref. as-02 | $`1/4`$ | $`1/4`$ |
| Eq. (2) in Ref. as-02 | $`0.13`$ | $`0.27`$ |

Comparing these corrected predictions with the numerical results reported in Tab. I of AS, we conclude that the value of $`\beta /\nu _{}z`$ is in agreement with Eq. (1), which is exactly the opposite conclusion with respect to AS, while the numerical estimate of $`c_{}`$ differs from the predictions of both field-theoretical models considered in AS’s paper.

Sergio Caracciolo,1 Andrea Gambassi,2 Massimiliano Gubinelli,3 and Andrea Pelissetto4
1 Dipartimento di Fisica and INFN, Università di Milano, and INFM-NEST, I-20133 Milano, Italy
2 Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung and Institut für Theoretische und Angewandte Physik der Universität Stuttgart, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany
3 Dipartimento di Matematica Applicata and INFN, Università di Pisa, I-56100 Pisa, Italy
4 Dipartimento di Fisica and INFN, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, I-00185 Roma, Italy


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# A Secure Infrastructure For System Console and Reset Access

## I Area of operation

Our LHC Grid system consists of several thousand111Current estimates show that our farm will grow to about 6000 machines by 2007. ‘worker nodes’, namely Linux-based PCs, connected via Ethernet network and used for large distributed calculations. These *nodes* have different designated administrators who reinstall them rather often according to current user needs. It is mainly during installation or when system administrators experiment with new kernel patches etc. that *console access* is most important.

Moreover, these computers can not be considered reliable and experience shows that sometimes PCs tend to ‘hang’ without any reproducible reason. In this case (or when, for example, the kernel encounters an internal programming error) nodes may need to be restarted by some hardware means, e.g. pushing their *reset button*.

Up to now both these operations have been done ‘by hand’, e.g. by having to go physically to our Computer Center to connect a monitor/keyboard to the nodes in question or to push their reset button. In addition to being inconvenient and time-consuming, this practice increases the possibility of a human mistake.

We have moved the machines’ console from the VGA screen and keyboard to using a serial line. Serial console systems are easy to implement, have been long since supported by Linux as well as being a ‘tradition’ in the computer industry.

The drawback of having a serial console instead of connecting a monitor to the node is that most BIOSes are unable to operate on a serial line, therefore at least the Linux boot loader has to start before the serial line can be used as console.

On the other hand, a ‘normal’ PC console provides an interface for human access only. But why is machine control important? For example, an automated monitoring system could restart non-responding machines a number of times (within a given time period) before raising an alarm, thus reducing the necessary amount of human intervention in case of ‘spontaneous hangs’. An automated installation system could watch over the console of the nodes being installed and take appropriate action based on pattern-matching on console messages.

Our system offers controlled remote access for administrators to the consoles and reset buttons of the nodes they are in charge of.

## II Implementation

### II.1 Hardware architecture

We wanted the smallest amount of and possibly the cheapest extra hardware to be added. In principle, it would be possible to have two serial ports in each computer and ‘daisy-chain’ them using null-modem serial cables so that one of the ports is the node’s own console and it acts as a *console server* to one other node. Provided that the console server is accessible via the network, console operations can be performed on its client remotely.

Having as many console servers as worker nodes is not generally a good idea though as, apart from possible scaling problems, taking down e.g. ten daisy-chained nodes would mean that only the first one’s console remains accessible from the network (the console server of which is outside these ten nodes).

Therefore we utilised special 8-port PCI serial boards222Currently: ExSys EX-41098 (http://www.exsys.ch) and have successfully installed up to three of them in the same PC, which means that 24 ports can be served from a single console server. These provide standard RS-232 DB9 serial lines similar to the ones usually on PCs.

Reset button pressing is implemented using serial-line-controlled programmable relay boxes. These have eight relay ports each and can be cascaded into a chain of eight boxes, allowing up to 64 potential clients controlled via a single *reset server* serial port. The relays are programmed to give a one-second impulse to the reset connector on the machines’ mainboard.

### II.2 Software and user interface

Users connect to a single web/application server using any HTTPS and X.509 capable browser. Authentication is done via X.509 user certificates, issued by CERN’s own CA, and authorisation information is stored in the same database as other system data. This interface is where *reset requests* are submitted (e.g. ‘I want to reset this-and-that node for a given reason’) as well as where serial console interconnection information is retrieved from the database. A user can then connect to the console server responsible for given node at the push of a button with a Java-based SSH client offered on the web page or use his/her own SSH program to do so.

On the console/reset servers themselves Linux file access control and permissions are used to separate privileges. For each serial port a local Linux user is created under the same name (e.g. user ttyS5 for /dev/ttyS5) and its password is set so that the only way to log in is via key-authenticated SSH.These users have their login shell set to a very minimalistic terminal program and the permissions on the TTY devices are set so as to make it accessible only to the corresponding user.

RSA keys are used to let users in into the console server as the given ‘tty-user’. The RSA public keys are stored in the database and distributed to console servers whenever authorisation data changes. This is work in progress and we consider using two keys for each user a weak solution (see Section III for the current status).

The same web interface is used for administrative tasks (adding new users, modifying authorisation information etc). A *console client detection* procedure can also be run from here which helps maintaining a consistent interconnection database333Of course, reset button interconnections can not be automatically detected..

The system is scriptable through direct database queries (and SSH in case of console access). We use Oracle 8i as database backend.

### II.3 Network security

Our network is far too large to be considered trusted and, therefore, encrypted and authenticated communication is in use.

The web interface can be reached via HTTPS.Both users and the server hold a certificate issued by the CERN CA the validity of which is checked.

Console services (from user’s machine to console server) and internal data communication between web server and console servers use SSH (protocol version 2) with RSA authentication.

Secure connections to the database server are implemented using SSH tunnels (we tried to use the built-in SSL capability of Oracle 8i on our Linux boxes but failed). The server’s identity is ensured by checking its host key.

### II.4 Costs (as of March 2003)

#### Serial consoles:

8-port serial boards and cabling:

CHF32.25 / node = $23.54 / node

*(compare: standard console MUX with SSH access: $110-$300 / node)*

#### Remote reset:

Hand-made cables, connectors, relay boxes:

CHF23.2 / node = $17 / node

## III Work in progress

The early deployment and test systems were considered a success as ‘proof-of-concept’ and we have learned much from the first version. Now we have started the general integration of the system into CERN’s already working services.

We aim at the utilisation of a still-in-development system which provides a generic solution, based on a central information store, to the distribution (and update) of configuration files to our nodes. Both interconnection data and user authorisation information can be managed this way thus eliminating the need for a separate database and a separate access control method.

That is, we distribute SSH key files for console access and small text-based configuration files (about which host is on which TTY port, needed for logging). The same distribution system will pass the results of the automatic detection procedure, generated into a file, back to the central information store.

Moreover, the system will not be as much ‘distributed’ as we first aimed at. Instead of using our PC farm nodes themselves to act as console/reset servers for each other, we dedicate machines for management purposes, one for each of our ‘rack’ units (about 44 machines). This solution is more costly as it needs an extra PC and special serial hardware444Digi Acceleport Xem, for example (http://www.digi.com) but these management nodes will be used for purposes other than being console servers as well.

We have also dropped the web based management interface — Linux command line tools are going to be more easily scriptable. All configuration etc. will be done through the generic data modification interface to the central information store.

Our software was re-written in order to increase efficiency and simplify the code (removing database access parts etc). Certain parts though, especially most of the low-level serial port access and client detection code were reused from the previous version.

Currently, major features include:

* Constant serial console logging (via syslog)
* Automatic console client detection (on request)
* Full integration into local environment, authentication/authorisation systems
* High security — controlled access to consoles and restarting
* Command line interface for enhanced scriptability

In the near future, we plan to roll the system — the above-mentioned second version — out on a larger scale.

## IV Contact information

Please feel free to direct any questions or comments to *Andras.Horvath@cern.ch*.

###### Acknowledgements.

Guner Passage and Preslav Konstantinov wrote the initial version of the software for controlling the relay boxes.


text:
# REFERENCES

Comment on ”Quantum Interferometric Optical Lithography: Exploiting Entanglement to Beat the Diffraction Limit”

In a recent Letter  it was suggested to exploit the entanglement of photons to concentrate $`N`$-photon absorption spotsizes below half the wavelength $`\lambda `$ of the employed light, thus beating the diffraction limit. The obvious application of this idea is known as ’quantum lithography’ for which the description of an associated $`N`$-photon absorption process is modelled by the dosage operator $`\delta _N=(\widehat{e}^{})^N(\widehat{e})^N/N!`$ . However, the rates for such spatially concentrated $`N`$-photon absorption processes are critically low, as is shown in this Comment.

In reference  it was concluded that ”the $`N`$-photon absorption cross section, with $`N`$ entangled photons, scales similar to $`I`$ and not $`I^N`$ expected classically” . But the authors did not mention that there is a very low threshold intensity $`I_c`$, which must not be exceeded.

The absorption process is a coherent $`N`$-photon process, one therefore has to avoid the presence of any photons other than those forming the specifically designed quantum states. Their associated coherence volume is $`Ac\tau `$, where $`A`$ is the wave packet cross section and $`\tau `$ its coherence time. For the two-photon case there consequently exists a critical intensity value $`I_c=\mathrm{}\omega /A\tau `$ above which uncorrelated multi-photo absorption processes start to take over . Analogously, for general $`N`$-photon quantum states the maximum flux is $`N`$ photons per coherence time, above it, competitive processes from non-entangled photons will contribute to the multi-photon absorption rate , drastically degrading the quantum lithography schemes’ performances. Hence, the intensity threshold $`I_c`$ implies that only one $`N`$-photon wave packet may arrive per coherence time $`\tau `$.

Note, that there is an extension to the quantum lithography proposal using squeezed states . Having components which are unbounded in photon number, these states show no critical intensity behaviour, as those of proposals  but the image contrast also degrades with increasing intensity.

We now want to find out what the chances are that all those $`N`$ photons in one coherence volume hit the same small absorber.

In  it is said: ”Recall that the photons are correlated in space and time, as well as number. Hence, if the optical system is aligned properly, the probability of the first photon arriving in a small absorptive volume of space-time is proportional to $`I`$. However, the remaining $`N1`$ photons are constrained to arrive at the same place at the same time, and so each of their arrival probabilities is a constant, independent of $`I`$.”

Fortunately, there is no such constraint, if there was, we could not concentrate the photons below the classical diffraction limit since the arrival probability of the first photon follows the classical intensity distribution $`I\delta _1`$ and we would, because of the assumed arrival constraint $`\delta _1\delta _N`$, find $`\delta _NI`$ which contradicts all the other beautiful results reported in reference . For an explicit counterexample use the number entangled state $`|\psi _N=(|N_C|0_D+e^{iN\phi }|0_C|N_D)/\sqrt{2}`$ of reference : for $`K<N`$ we find $`\delta _K`$ is independent of $`\phi `$, whereas $`\delta _N1+\mathrm{cos}(2N\phi )`$ shows the desired multi-photon periodicity factor $`N`$ in the argument of the interference pattern. We are led to conclude that the photons are not spatio-temporally constrained as claimed in the above citation.

That the photons are in general not spatio-temporally constrained in the way suggested by the above citation is also indicated by the absorption curves of $`\delta _1\mathrm{}\delta _4`$ for four photon reciprocal binomial states displayed in FIG. 7 of reference .

In order to estimate an upper limit on the photons’ joint arrival probability, let us assume (unrealistically) that the photons could somehow be concentrated below the classical diffraction limit and all be made to impinge upon an area corresponding to the minimal spotsize $`(\lambda /2N)^2`$ resolvable by quantum lithography. Even this area is still orders of magnitude larger than a single molecule’s absorption cross-section. The ratio of spotsize (for 200 nm light) of $`N^210^{14}\text{m}^2`$ compared to a large single-photon absorption cross-section of less than $`10^{19}\text{m}^2`$ leads to a relative coverage by the molecule of $`rN^210^5`$ at most. Having absorbed the first photon the molecule’s chance of absorbing the following $`N1`$ photons is less than $`r^{N1}`$. This discussion has not included the effects due absorption suppression in non-resonant multi-photon absorptions. In either case the low absorption probability seems to render the quantum lithography proposal in its present form unviable.
O. Steuernagel, Dept. of Physical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK
ole@star.herts.ac.uk

PACS numbers: 42.50.Hz, 42.25.Hz, 42.65.-k, 85.40.Hp


text:
# JACKSON’S 𝑞-EXPONENTIAL AS THE EXPONENTIAL OF A SERIES

## Abstract

Jackson’s $`q`$-exponential is expressed as the exponential of a series whose coefficients are obtained in closed form. Such a relation is used to derive some properties of the $`q`$-exponential.

Running head: Jackson’s $`q`$-Exponential

Keywords: Basic special functions; $`q`$-exponential

PACS Nos.: 02.20.Uw, 02.30.Gp

Since the advent of quantum groups, Jackson’s $`q`$-exponential  has found a lot of applications in physics. As an example, we may quote its use to describe some generalized coherent states in quantum optics .

Properties of the $`q`$-exponential are often derived from its expression as an infinite product . For practical purposes, however, it may be useful to know the link between the $`q`$-exponential and an elementary function, such as the ordinary exponential. It is the purpose of the present letter to establish such a relation.

Jackson’s $`q`$-exponential, defined by aaaJackson has actually introduced two different kinds of $`q`$-exponentials, but the other one is related to the inverse of that considered here.

$$E_q(z)=\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{z^k}{[k]_q!},$$
(1)
where

$$[k]_q!\{\begin{array}{cc}1\hfill & \mathrm{if}k=0,\hfill \\ [k]_q[k1]_q\mathrm{}[1]_q\hfill & \mathrm{if}k=1,2,\mathrm{},\hfill \end{array}$$
(2)
and

$$[k]_q\frac{1q^k}{1q}=1+q+q^2+\mathrm{}+q^{k1},$$
(3)
has a finite radius of convergence $`[\mathrm{}]_q=(1q)^1`$ if $`0<q<1`$, but converges for all finite $`z`$ if $`q>1`$ . In the appropriate region of definition, let us try to express it as the exponential of some series,

$$E_q(z)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}c_k(q)z^k\right).$$
(4)
This amounts to expanding in Taylor series the logarithm of the $`q`$-exponential,

$$\mathrm{ln}E_q(z)=\underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}c_k(q)z^k.$$
(5)
In Ref. , it has been shown that if the functions $`f(z)=_{k=0}^{\mathrm{}}a_kz^k`$ and $`h(z)=\mathrm{ln}f(z)=_{k=1}^{\mathrm{}}c_kz^k`$, where $`a_0=1`$, are analytic in some neighbourhood of zero, then the Taylor coefficients of $`h(z)`$ satisfy the recursion relation

$$c_k=a_k\frac{1}{k}\underset{j=1}{\overset{k1}{}}ja_{kj}c_j,k=2,3,\mathrm{},$$
(6)
with $`c_1=a_1`$. Applying this result to the logarithm of the $`q`$-exponential leads to the relations

$`c_k(q)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{[k]_q!}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{k}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{k1}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{j}{[kj]_q!}}c_j(q),k=2,3,\mathrm{},`$ (7)
$`c_1(q)`$ $`=`$ $`1.`$ (8)
It is straightforward to check that the solution of Eq. (7), satisfying condition (8), is provided by

$$c_k(q)=\frac{(1q)^{k1}}{k[k]_q},k=1,2,3,\mathrm{}.$$
(9)
Inserting such an expression in Eq. (7) converts the latter into the relation

$$\underset{j=1}{\overset{k}{}}\left[\begin{array}{c}k\\ j\end{array}\right]_q(1q)^{j1}[j1]_q!=k,k=2,3,\mathrm{},$$
(10)
where

$$\left[\begin{array}{c}k\\ j\end{array}\right]_q\frac{[k]_q!}{[j]_q![kj]_q!}$$
(11)
denotes a $`q`$-binomial coefficient . Equation (10) can be easily proved by induction over $`k`$ by using the recursion relation

$$\left[\begin{array}{c}k\\ j\end{array}\right]_q=q^j\left[\begin{array}{c}k1\\ j\end{array}\right]_q+\left[\begin{array}{c}k1\\ j1\end{array}\right]_q,j=1,2,\mathrm{},k1.$$
(12)
We indeed obtain

$`{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{k}{}}}\left[\begin{array}{c}k\\ j\end{array}\right]_q(1q)^{j1}[j1]_q!`$ (15)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{k1}{}}}\left[\begin{array}{c}k1\\ j\end{array}\right]_qq^j(1q)^{j1}[j1]_q!+{\displaystyle \underset{j=0}{\overset{k2}{}}}\left[\begin{array}{c}k1\\ j\end{array}\right]_q(1q)^j[j]_q!`$
$`+(1q)^{k1}[k1]_q!`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{k1}{}}}\left[\begin{array}{c}k1\\ j\end{array}\right]_qq^j(1q)^{j1}[j1]_q!+1`$ (26)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{k1}{}}}\left[\begin{array}{c}k1\\ j\end{array}\right]_q(1q)^{j1}(1q^j)[j1]_q!`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{k1}{}}}\left[\begin{array}{c}k1\\ j\end{array}\right]_q(1q)^{j1}[j1]_q!+1`$ (29)
$`=`$ $`(k1)+1,`$ (30)
where in the last step use has been made of the induction hypothesis.

Equations (4) and (9) are the central result of this paper. To illustrate their usefulness, one can apply them to derive the following properties of the $`q`$-exponential, already quoted in Ref.  (where we have corrected some misprints),

$$E_q(z)E_{q^1}(z)=1,$$
(31)
$$E_q(z)E_q(z)=E_{q^2}\left(\frac{1q}{1+q}z^2\right),$$
(32)
$$E_q([n]_qz)=\underset{m=0}{\overset{n1}{}}E_{q^n}(q^mz),n=2,3,\mathrm{},$$
(33)
as well as a generalization of Eq. (32),

$$\underset{m=0}{\overset{n1}{}}E_q(e^{2\pi \mathrm{i}m/n}z)=E_{q^n}\left(\frac{(1q)^{n1}}{[n]_q}z^n\right),n=2,3,\mathrm{}.$$
(34)
The proof of these relations is based upon the multiplicative property of the ordinary exponential, $`\mathrm{exp}(x)\mathrm{exp}(y)=\mathrm{exp}(x+y)`$, and on some elementary properties of the coefficients $`c_k(q)`$, defined in (9),

$$c_k(q^1)=(1)^{k1}c_k(q),$$
(35)
$$2c_{2k}(q)=\left(\frac{1q}{1+q}\right)^kc_k(q^2),$$
(36)
$$[n]_{q^k}c_k(q^n)=([n]_q)^kc_k(q),$$
(37)
$$nc_{nk}(q)=\left(\frac{(1q)^{n1}}{[n]_q}\right)^kc_k(q^n).$$
(38)
We think that the expression of Jackson’s $`q`$-exponential as the exponential of a series whose coefficients are known in closed form may find some interesting physical applications. As a final point, it is worth noting that such a simple result does not seem to hold true for the $`q`$-exponential defined in terms of symmetric $`q`$-numbers.

The author is indebted to K. A. Penson for informing her about Ref.  and for a valuable discussion. Thanks are also due to R. Jagannathan and K. Srinivasa Rao for some interesting comments. The author is a Research Director of the National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), Belgium.


text:
# Online and Offline Computing systems in the PHENIX experiment

## I Introduction

PHENIX  consists of 4 large spectrometer arms, two central arms and two forward Muon arms. There is a total number of about 350,000 readout channels, giving a typical event size of about 110 KB/event. The typical sustained readout rate is slightly more than 1 KHz, which results in a data rate of about 120 MB/s. The so-called Run 3 of RHIC was set up with d-Au beams at 200 GeV/c per nucleon, and, in the second half, polarized protons at 200 GeV/c.

In the months leading up to Run 3, which started in January 2003, we upgraded several key components of the data acquisition and the online computing system.

* we replaced essentially all servers running the Solaris operating system with machines running Linux;
* we replaced a component in the data transfer, the “ET” system, with a server process that significantly reduces overhead and allows a data logging rate of about 120 MB/s.
* we commissioned another computing farm at the experimental site that is used for online calibration-related analysis and event filtering.

## II Data Flow in PHENIX

Fig. 1 shows a schematic view of the data flow in PHENIX. The detector signals are digitized in Front-End Modules (FEM) with a number of channels ranging between 12 and several hundred, depending on the detector. The digitized data are sent via optical fiber to Data Collection Modules (DCM), which receive the data, package them, and send the data on to the Event Builder, which assembles the event fragments into whole events (fig. 2).

The SubEvent Buffers (SEB) receive the data from the DCMs and send the parts from one event through an ATM-based crossbar switch to an Assembly and Trigger Processor (ATP). While the number of SEBs is fixed by the way the front-end connections are structured, the number of ATPs is not fixed and more machines can be added to increase the computing power. The ATPs assemble the event fragments into a whole event and, because this is the first time that the data of a whole event are available in one place, runs a Level-2 trigger on the data.

The ATPs pass the data on to “Buffer Boxes”, two PC’s with 2 TB disk space each, which temporarily store the data on disk until they are shipped off to an HPSS-based tape robot in the RHIC Computing Facility (RCF). Those PC’s have dual Alteon Gigabit network interface cards, one on the local network and the other one on a high-speed network connecting to the RCF. The latter network uses Jumbo frames (9000 bytes MTU size).

The buffering of the data on the buffer disks allows the sending of data to the RCF to gracefully survive any short-term service interruptions of the tape robot. This buffering also enables us to feed the tape robot a steady stream of data independent of the ebb and flow of the DAQ system. And since the transfer to HPSS does not need all the capacity of the buffer machines, the data are available for near-line analysis processes such as detector calibrations and event filtering for several hours before we need to make room for new data.

The data logging mechanism was replaced recently. Before, we used a system called “ET” (“Event Transfer”) timmer  (explained in more detail later) to merge the data streams from the ATPs. Events get injected into an ET system and retrieved by the logger and written to disk. For efficient network transfers, the ATPs send buffers of data of variable length with an average number of about 15 events. In the old system, this buffer would get disassembled into individual events which got injected into the pool, then re-assembled into buffers by the logger. This caused a lot of overhead that limited the data rate to about 25 MB/s per buffer machine.

We replaced this system with the *Advanced Multi-threaded Logger* (AML). The AML spawns a thread for each incoming network connection from the ATPs, and the threads receive the data from the network in parallel. When a buffer is received, the thread obtains a lock on the output file and writes the buffer as it was received without any disassemble and re-assemble overhead. The reason why threads are used is to make the locking mechanism efficient. This change boosted the data rate to about 60 MB/s per buffer machine.

Fig. 3 shows a strip chart of the data transfer rates measured in the system. For the two buffer machines, we measure the data throughput through the two network cards for both machines. The data represent approximately 60 minutes of data. The snapshot shown starts toward the end of a RHIC fill, and one can see the luminosity decrease over the course of the first 30 minutes, giving modest data rates of about 65 MB/s with those beam conditions (solid line). When the beam got dumped, our trigger detectors were sprayed with particles, and the data rate surges to about 120 MB/s for a short moment. We then ended the run, and started the data transfer to HPSS (dashed line), which runs at about 175MB/s for both machines combined.

## III Online- and Near-line Monitoring

PHENIX has a successful tradition of using just one analysis software package in online and offline. In this way, users have just one learning curve, and there is only one set of libraries. In offline and batch processing, the online capabilities are just not used.

We make use of the multi-threading capabilities of ROOT ROOT  to look at histograms and other information while data are being processed by a background thread, which is required for online monitoring. This framework, called *pMonitor*, is used for all online monitoring tasks. It can read all supported types of data streams (file, ET pools, and others), which is fully transparent to the user. Other packages (reconstruction, online calibrations, monitoring) build on that basic framework.

For the data distribution among the various online monitoring processes we use the “ET” system. The system consists of data pools, into which processes can inject events, and other processes can retrieve the events in various ways. The system supports a virtually unlimited number of writers and readers. The ET system supports a variety of access modes. Data can be tagged with additional information (for example, the trigger type of that event) at the time when they get inserted into the pool. Processes can then request only events whose tags meet certain requirements and so request only events they are truly interested in. Another access mode is “shared stream”, where a stream normally delivered to one consumer process is split among two or more on a first-come, first-serve basis for load balancing purposes. Normally, the same events get delivered to each consumer.

Before the switch to the AML, a consumer process would request data from the main ET pool where the data from the ATPs got merged, and feed them into a secondary pool where all monitoring process read from. With the AML, the ET system is no longer part of the logging mechanism. However, the logger breaks the output stream up into files of about 1.5 GB, and at full speed, a new file is opened and the old one closed approximately every 30 seconds. We now wait for a file to be closed, and read a few hundred events from it and insert them into the ET pool where the monitoring processes read from. In this way, we did not need to change anything in the setup, and the only difference is a time lag of about 30 seconds before the data reach the monitoring processes.

A DAQ run in PHENIX is about one hour worth of data taking, which yields a data volume of approximately 400GB at full speed, which gives about 250 files of 1.5 GB. Several quantities, such as calibration constants, are valid for a whole run and usually need to be derived from the data of the whole run. The time when the data are still in the buffer disks is the last time when all run fragments are conveniently together in the same place, and we use that opportunity to analyze the data in various ways.

One of the goals is to have all the required calibrations constants for the event reconstruction ready by the time the data have to be deleted from the buffer disks. This will reduce the load on the offline computing farm and the tape robots because fewer data retrieval operations will be needed, and allow a faster analysis of the data. In addition, if the calibration constants can be derived within hours, the Level-2 trigger algorithms can make use of them as well.

Another goal is to extract events taken with certain triggers in order to determine the trigger efficiencies. We write those events to other files and analyze them in various ways. For example, we fully reconstruct events, determine the invariant mass of photon-like clusters in the electromagnetic calorimeter, fit the peak corresponding to $`\pi ^0`$ mesons, and extract the mass from the fit parameters. Obtaining the expected $`\pi ^0`$ mass is taken as a sign that the current calibrations are roughly correct.

## IV Software Choices

When making software choices, we had to take into account the fact that the collaboration consists of more than 400 scientists from many countries. Software in everyday use has to be freely available to all collaborators, and must be free of export and other restrictions. As much as possible, PHENIX uses Open-Source software or software under the *GNU Public License* (GPL), which makes the software available to everyone. Also, open-source and GPL software is virtually guaranteed to be available for the operating systems we use, which is not always the case for proprietary software.

There is only one proprietary software package in use that is needed by most collaborators, the Objectivity Database system. A special license arrangement makes the software available to all collaborators, and the company has been forthcoming in resolving perceived licensing conflicts. Still, the software is available only for a certain compiler version, which imposes restrictions on operating system upgrades. We will try to reduce the use of the software as much as possible in favor of open-source database systems.

In the data acquisition system, two more proprietary packages are in use. One is a CORBA implementation from Iona, *ORBIX*, which is used for all inter-process communications. The proprietary VxWorks operating system is used in several front-end processors. Since the software is not used outside the DAQ system, the availability is not an issue, but there is concern about the market-driven direction of the future development.

## V Data management

With multiple-TB data sets, the management of the data becomes an important aspect. Early on, we restricted the database to management of meta-data, data about file locations, and properties, but not the raw data itself. In routine running, we need to distribute files automatically across file servers to balance the server load, and we also need to avoid the replication of files and resolve ownership issues (when can a file be deleted? When copied?). Also, there is the aspect of replicating popular files and accessing the “nearest copy”.

We are using a *Data Carousel* interface to the HPSS system that pools file requests and minimizes tape mounts. This gives us a performance boost of about a factor of 7 over an unmanaged first-come, first-serve model. On top of that we implemented a package called *ARGO*, which is a file catalog system that keeps track of where files are located. We also added a name-based identification of files which queries a database to locate a file. This system is called *FROG* (“File Replica On a Grid”) which has been integrated into pmonitor. There are also APIs and Web interfaces to ARGO.

## VI Future Plans

Several enhancements are planned for the Run 4, which will start in fall of 2003. We will replace the ATM switch in the Event builder with a Gigabit switch, and increase the number and capacity of the buffer machines.

Another planned enhancement has been made possible with the AML. PHENIX has long had a raw data standard that includes a compressed raw data format (which is *not* a compressed data file, which would need to get uncompressed before reading). A buffer that would normally be written out to a file is instead compressed with the gzip-compression algorithm. The resulting smaller sequence of data is then put into another buffer whose header specifies that the payload is a complete compressed buffer. This new, smaller buffer gets written out instead. On readback, the I/O system recognizes the buffer header, uncompresses the buffer into the original one, and passes this uncompressed buffer on to the next software layer. In this way, the compression is handled completely on a relatively low level of the I/O system, and is transparent to the higher-level layers.

The compressed data format shrinks the size of the buffer to approximately 45% of the original buffer size. However, the compression algorithm is very CPU time-consuming; on a fast CPU, one second worth of data would need 3 seconds to get compressed. Before the use of the AML, buffers to be written out were assembled in the logger, and the CPU of the buffer machines would need to perform that compression. This is much too slow and prevented the use of the compressed data scheme in the data acquisition so far.

However, the AML now just receives and writes out ready-made buffers from the ATPs, which could send already compressed buffers. In this way, it is possible to distribute the load over many CPUs, and add more processors as the need arises. For the next run we will try to write compressed data routinely, which would essentially double the disk capacity or the data rate, or a combination of both.

## VII Summary

For the Run 3 of the RHIC accelerator, we have upgraded out data acquisition system and the online computing infrastructure in several ways. We were able to boost the recorded data rate to about 120 MB/s, and perform online calibrations, event filtering, and online reconstruction of selected events before the data leave the counting house.

We have integrated a resource management system with our core analysis packages, which will help to manage our resources better and increase the throughput in the reconstruction processes.

For the next run, we will complete the transition to Gigabit networks in all core DAQ components, and try to implement the routine compressed data output.