text:
# A Web Based Document Database

## I Replacing our old document database

Until the end of 2001, BTeV used a simpler document catalog. A few Perl scripts and flat files were used to store a list of URLs and a small amount of information about each of them. While this system worked, it was under-utilized and had several problems and limitations.

The first problem was how documents were classified. Each document had “topics” (for instance a type of physics or a detector) that were user-defined. This meant there was little consistency from user to another and topics were effectively duplicated. Also, artificial limitations were placed on documents; each document could have only one author, only one file, and the lists of private and public documents were separate. These last two limitations meant that documents were often duplicated. In the worst case scenario, Postscript and PDF files would be provided for a private document which was then released to the public, resulting in four “documents” even though the content was the same.

Two other structural problems also made this old solution inadequate. First, only URLs of documents were stored on a central server. The files themselves remained on the Web at large, meaning that documents could (and did) easily disappear. Finally, updated submissions overwrote the originals so there was no way to keep a history of changes.

From inception in 1995 to decommisioning in 2001, this system was used to categorize about 110 internal and 40 public documents.

## II Design of the new system

In the process of replacing the old database, we wanted to eliminate all of these problems and extend the database to deal with new situations as well. We wanted a document database that would

* Be single place to store and manage talks from collaboration meetings, conference talks and proceedings, and publications *and* to present the relevant information for these special cases.
* Allow each document to have multiple revisions with old revisions still available.
* Allow each revision of each document to have multiple files. This accommodates multiple file types (source and presentable) and/or child files (which is especially useful for web pages).
* Provide the ability to upload files from the user’s local computer or force the document database to download them via http.

BTeV also had some security considerations not met by the document catalog. We have an associated group of computer scientists, BTeV RTES (Real Time Embedded Systems222URL: http://www-btev.fnal.gov/public/hep/detector/rtes/index.shtml) which is developing fault management software for the BTeV trigger system. We want them to be able to fully use the document database, but also to be able to have documents which are not accessible to this group. BTeV is also under active review, so we needed the ability to easily provide certain documents to reviewers.

To accomplish these tasks, we needed a database that

* Had the ability to not only have public and private documents but also documents that are accessible to subgroups (like RTES or reviewers) with their own password. We also want to have documents that are only accessible to sub-groups (like the executive council).
* Could restrict reviewers to viewing selected documents, but not allow them to create or modify documents.
* Provided the ability to easily move documents, or just certain versions of documents, among all these security settings.
* Would restrict knowledge that a document exists to those that have privileges to view it.

We evaluated the NUMINotes system333URL: http://www-numi.fnal.gov/noteSelPublic.html used by the MINOS collaboration. While we found that it didn’t solve most of the problems we were having, its database structure and interface did provide good ideas for solving our problems.

To implement our new document database (called DocDB) we use CGI scripts written in Perl. We choose MySQL as the relational database since Perl bindings are readily available and its (somewhat limited) features were more than adequate for our needs.

The files that make up documents are stored on the web server’s file system. All the meta-data for the documents are stored in a collection of MySQL tables shown in Figure 1. This table structure has allowed us to remove the arbitrary limits on numbers of authors, topics, and files per document. For instance, as shown in Figure 1, revision-author pairings are stored in a separate table and an arbitrary number of these pairings can be associated with each document revision and with each author. Linking between tables is supported with a number of keys.

These different tables are, of course, hidden from the user. When asked for information on a certain document, the information is gathered from a number of different tables (which can be up to four “steps” away from the original table) and all the information is presented in a single summary. An example of such a summary is shown in Figure 2.

### II.1 Adding documents

Users can add or modify information in a number of ways. They can reserve a document number for a future document (for reference purposes). They can create a new document, a new version of an existing document, or just update the document meta-information without supplying new content. They can also add or replace files (perhaps a new presentation format) without creating a new version.

Most of the form used to submit documents is shown in Figure 3. At the top, the user is asked to enter a title, abstract, and any keywords which describe the document. Next is the box (or boxes) to upload the files in the document. In an alternate version, the user may request that the DocDB fetch a file via http or ftp from a server (which may be password protected).

Next, the author must choose a document type, select who he or she is (Requester), who all the authors of the document are, and what groups may view the document. Finally, the user selects all the subtopics which apply to the document. (Here there is one list of subtopics for each topic).

Not shown are the elements to specify a revision date, journal references, and a field to enter other publication information for the document. The appearance of this form is customized based on user preferences and requests; for instance, a user can ask to always have upload boxes for three files. What is shown here is the simplest possible version.

### II.2 Document classification

The document view in Figure 2 shows many of the different ways in which documents can be classified. For example, at the top left, we see the individual responsible for putting the information into the database and the authors of the document. At top middle we see the document ID (BTeV-doc-140-v4) and document type. Underlined text are hyperlinks to a list of documents with, for example, the same author. In the center are the subtopics for the document (explained below). Near the bottom right are links to the actual files in the document; some are designated as primary files and some are designated as supporting files. Near the bottom left are the user supplied keywords for the document and at the bottom center are links to earlier versions of the document.

There are also buttons that the user can use to add a new version, change the meta-information, or add files to this document.

Topics: Because of our earlier, confusing, experience with allowing users to freely define new topics to classify documents, we adopted a centralized approach. We have about ten topics (MajorTopics in the internal nomenclature) each of which is divided into subtopics (MinorTopics internally). These lists can only be modified by the administrators of the database. For instance, “Detectors” is a topic and sub-detectors like “Pixel Detector” are subtopics. For detector subtopics, each is used primarily by a different subgroup of the collaboration numbering about 10–20 people.

Keywords:  In order to give these subgroups the ability to better organize their own documents, we introduced the concept of keywords, which are free form and entered by users. Subgroups are encouraged to form canonical lists of these keywords to be affixed to the relevant documents, so for instance, the pixel detector group may choose the keyword “support” to classify any documents dealing with the pixel support structure.

Authors:  All possible authors are also maintained in a managed list. While there was some initial concern about the flexibility of this, it has worked out well. Duplication and consistency issues, as with topics, were the reason for this choice.

### II.3 Security

In order to achieve our security goals, we have implemented a parent/child security model. Each group has its own password, and parent groups may view any document their child groups may. The security mechanism is based on http Basic Realm Authorization. The meta-information is protected by the Perl scripts, the actual files by .htaccess files; which security method is protecting what is mostly transparent to the user. In the normal mode of operation, any group that may view a document may modify that document (presuming they can modify documents at all), but there is an alternate security model in which the groups that may modify a document are separate from the groups that may view it.

## III Special cases

In addition to storing general documents as they are produced, we realized that there are certain special types of documents which need additional information stored about them, and/or need to be presented to the user in special ways.

### III.1 Conferences and collaboration meetings

Users associate their documents with a conference or meeting by selecting a special topic in addition to the topic(s) of the document. These topics have additional information associated with them, such as dates, location, and a URL for the conference or meeting.

BTeV has collaboration meetings about every six weeks. These are video conferenced, so an accurate and timely record of the meeting is important for remote participants. Since uploading a talk for a meeting is many people’s first interaction with the DocDB, a special form to enter such talks into the database was created. This minimizes the information that a user must fill in and has sensible defaults for group meeting talks. However, users can always use the full-featured entry form as well.

There is also a special default mode to view the list of talks. The files (PowerPoint, PDF, etc.) for the talk are linked directly from the list of talks, since this list of talks is used as the “home page” for the meeting while it is going on. For conferences, there is also a special view of the document list.

### III.2 Publications

Published documents also receive special treatment. When placing a document in the database, publication references for that document can be entered. There may be an arbitrary number of such references for each document (e.g. an arXiv.org and journal reference). There is also an extensible framework to generate external links to the paper on the journal’s website.

## IV Other Features

The most used parts of the system are those allowing addition of documents, showing individual documents, and retrieving lists of documents by an author, etc. However, there are several other features of the DocDB that, while less frequently used, provide needed functionality.

### IV.1 Searching

We have provided a robust search engine that allows searching for individual words, phrases, etc. in all of the text fields and searches on authors, topics, and the other fields in the database. For a database of our size, all the flexibility provided isn’t strictly necessary, but as the number of documents increases it will become more important. Also, listing by keyword uses the search engine to find the relevant documents.

### IV.2 Preferences

The DocDB has lots of options, especially regarding how the document submission page appears. For instance, a user can upload from a local file or submit a document via http. We have provided a preference system, based on browser cookies, to save the user’s preferences for these options.

### IV.3 E-mail notification

We have also provided the ability for the DocDB to send e-mail to users when documents they are interested in have been added or modified in the database. Users can select to be notified based on document topics, keywords, or authors, and they can select to be notified about such changes immediately, nightly, or weekly. They can have separate criteria for each time frame.

### IV.4 Administration interface

Finally, of interest primarily to the administrators of the document database, is a set of tools which allow the administrators to modify the lists of authors, topics, document types, etc. This means that once the database is set up, the administrator should never need to manipulate the underlying SQL database. Everything that needs to be done can be done via the web interface.

For convenience, certain administration functions are left open to all users, such as adding a person to the list of potential authors and adding a conference.

## V Effects on collaborative style

We have generally found the DocDB to be a great benefit in enhancing collaboration within BTeV. In this section, we will give some examples of these benefits.

First, we have been fairly effective in redefining what a “document” is. A document, for us, is not just words written down on a piece of paper, but is any information which someone wants to save and share with others. Users also seem to have accepted a lower threshold of “importance” that they feel information must meet before placing information in the DocDB. While most things in the DocDB still fit a traditional definition of documents, we have a number of photograph collections, videos, musings, and figures which have been placed in the DocDB.

We’ve also been fairly effective in promoting the DocDB as a central repository of information. In the past, most sub-groups (mostly sub-detector projects during this stage of BTeV) maintained, on web pages, lists of various documents. With an easy to use and visible DocDB, more of this information is now being placed in the database. However, migration of older information into the DocDB has been slow or non-existent for most groups.

One application that has benefitted most strikingly from using the DocDB is our video conferenced collaboration meetings. In the past we had an agenda with links to talks maintained by a secretary. This caused several problems. First, meetings were often held on weekends which meant updates weren’t made. Even when the agenda was updated, there was a delay before a submission appeared on the list. What this often led to was a flurry of e-mails, sometimes with large attachments, as a person got up to give their talk. The speaker would then be delayed while all the remote groups checked their e-mail and accessed the talk.

Now the process is much smoother. Speakers can easily update a talk just moments before giving it, often incorporating information or ideas from earlier talks. Additionally, talks are archived in the same location as other documents.

As mentioned above, to further ease the process of posting and viewing talks, slight modifications to both the submission and listing interfaces have been made.

External reviews of the experiment are another place where the DocDB has proved its worth. We have a read-only account for reviewers and relevant documents are easily made accessible to them. The group organizing our reviews has been especially effective in using keywords to further organize review documents. Reuse of information is another benefit; our latest review (in Fall 2002) required over 250 documents, but many of these will simply be updated for future reviews.

As mentioned above, our old database was used to catalog about 150 documents over a 7 year period from 1995–2001. From the end of 2001 until mid-2003 we’ve placed over 1750 documents in the new database. Of these, about 400 documents actually predate the DocDB. Our collaboration (about 200 people including engineers, etc.) averages about 3–4 new documents placed in the database per day. The number of “living documents,” or older documents which are regularly updated, remains fairly low.

As mentioned above, our old document catalog enforced lots of artificial limitations on document classification. Currently the average document has 1.6 versions. Each version averages 1.4 authors, 1.8 topics, and 1.8 files, confirming that these earlier limitations were not valid.

## VI Other users

While the DocDB was initially designed for BTeV and not much thought was put into a portable system, other groups have been evaluating or have started to use the code. The underlying Perl code is now completely portable and setting up the DocDB takes just a couple of hours.

Fermilab’s Beams Division is the only other user so far to officially adopt the DocDB and a small number of features were added to the code to facilitate their use. Their use began with the Main Injector group, but the system was quickly adopted by the rest of the division.

The Beams division began using this system at the beginning of 2003 and, as of this writing, has nearly 600 documents in their DocDB. Their usage patterns seem to be similar to BTeV’s.

Like BTeV, they have found the DocDB to be very useful in organizing their frequent reviews and meetings. Previously most of their meeting talks existed in hard copy only, archived in a filing cabinet. However, they now find it just as easy to make an electronic copy and place it in the database before the meeting. Beams also seems to be more effective than BTeV in using keywords to better organize their documents. Their database (http://beamdocs.fnal.gov/cgi-bin/public/DocDB/DocumentDatabase) is a particularly good demonstration of the software since many of the documents are publicly accessible.

The DocDB code and installation instructions are available for use by other groups at the URL http://cepa.fnal.gov/DocDB/doc/install-docdb.html. A working demo of the software will be provided at this address as well, perhaps by the time of publication. We welcome additional users and are willing to provide some help setting up the system. We are also open to extending the DocDB to meet others’ needs.

## VII Lessons learned

While we’ve been very happy with this system, we’ve also made a few mistakes along the way and learned some lessons.

The first thing we’ve learned (or confirmed) is that effectively organizing groups of physicists can be hard. We’ve never had any “official” guidance on using the DocDB on a collaboration wide basis, we’ve only had suggestions on how to go about using the DocDB and organizing documents within it. Some subgroups, often consisting of larger numbers of engineers, have provided such official guidance and they use the database in a more consistent and effective manner. (In fact, the concept of keywords was added to the DocDB o accommodate these groups).

The second thing we’ve learned is that limiting flexibility for fear of misuse was not a good idea. Initially we resisted allowing as much flexibility as we have now in creating or modifying documents because that capability can be used by a knowledgeable (or particularly näive) user to circumvent the versioning and archiving features of the database. However, this has not proved to be a problem as users overwhelmingly use this power in a responsible fashion.

Finally, we’ve learned from our seven year experience with our old catalog system that documents do disappear from the web, that archiving is very useful, and that starting with a flexible system as soon as possible is very helpful. However, we’ve also learned that the initial pain of migration from an inadequate system is well worth the benefits.

## VIII Conclusions

In conclusion, BTeV has built a new document database an has now been using and refining it for a year and a half. This new system is much more flexible than our previous one and the other solutions we looked at. This new software has made noticeable improvements in the way we collaborate and has been a real time saver.

We’ve also shown that this software is easily adaptable to other groups and that they are reaping similar benefits.


format: text

text:
# Long Period Variables in NGC 5128: I. CatalogueBased on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile, within the Observing Programmes 63.N-0229, 65.N-0164, 67.B-0503, 68.B-0129 and 69.B-0292, and at La Silla Observatory, Chile, within the Observing Programme 64.N-0176(B). Tables 3-8 and Figures 7-14 together with the complete Sect. 6 appear only in the electronic version of the article.

## 1 Introduction

In a stellar population older than few hundred Myr the near-IR light is dominated by red giants. Of these, first ascent giants are the brightest among the metal-poor stars older than 1-2 Gyr. In composite stellar populations, like those found in galaxies, the first ascent giants are mixed with asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. The red giants fainter than the tip of the first ascent giant branch are usually referred to as red giant branch (RGB) stars. In the following RGB is used to denote the first ascent giants, although it should be kept in mind that it is not possible to separate RGB and AGB stars that are fainter than the RGB tip.

In intermediate-age populations ($`15`$ Gyr old) numerous bright asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are located above the tip of the RGB. However, among old populations like Galactic globular clusters with $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]1.0`$ dex and in the Galactic bulge, bright stars have also been detected above the tip of the RGB (Frogel & Elias frogel&elias88 (1988), Guarnieri et al. guarnieri+97 (1997)), implying the presence of bright AGB stars in metal-rich and old populations. Essentially all of the bright giants above the RGB tip in globular clusters seem to be long period variables (LPVs; Frogel & Elias frogel&elias88 (1988), Frogel & Whitelock frogel&whitelock98 (1998)). The frequency of LPVs in old metal-rich globular clusters of the MW and in the Bulge has been studied by Frogel & Whitelock (frogel&whitelock98 (1998)). Old populations of lower metallicity are known not to have AGB stars brighter than the RGB tip. The presence or absence of these bright giants located above the tip of the first ascent giant branch has important implications for the magnitude of the surface brightness fluctuations specifically in the near-IR (e.g. Mei et al. mei+01 (2001), Liu et al. liu+02 (2002)), a method used to determine distances to galaxies that are too distant to have their stellar content resolved, but that still present fluctuations due to the underlying light of giant stars (Tonry & Schneider tonry&schneider88 (1988)).

The properties of LPVs have been reviewed by Habing (habing96 (1996)). They are thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars with main sequence masses between 1 and 6 M. They present variability with periods of 80 days or longer, and often the longest period variables show variable or multiple periods. Two main classes of LPVs are Mira variables (Miras) and semiregular variables (SRs). SRs usually have smaller amplitudes as well as shorter periods and more irregular light curves than Miras. SRs are sometimes subdivided into subclasses (SRa, SRb) depending on the regularity and multiplicity of their periods and shape of their light curves. The separation between Miras and SRs is not always clear (e.g. Kerschbaum & Hron kerschbaum&hron92 (1992, 1994)). The classical definition requires that Miras have $`V`$-band amplitudes larger than 2.5 mag and regular periods in the range of 80–1000 days (GCVS Kholopov gcvs (1985)). Mean $`K`$-band amplitudes of Miras are $`0.6`$ mag (e.g. Feast et al. feast+82 (1982), Wood et al. wood+83 (1983)).

In the gE NGC 5128 Soria et al. (soria+96 (1996)), based on $`VI`$ HST CMD, and Marleau et al. (marleau+00 (2000)), based on $`JH`$ NICMOS data, suggested a presence of up to 10% bright AGB stars belonging to an intermediate-age population. Harris et al. (harris+99 (1999, 2000)) on the contrary did not find bright AGB stars in their $`VI`$ CMDs of two halo fields in NGC 5128. However, $`V`$ and $`I`$ bands are not very sensitive indicators of these cool giants and thus some of them might have been confused with the RGB tip or foreground stars and few stellar blends or stars with larger photometric errors.

Our group has obtained VLT images with FORS1 and ISAAC in the halo of NGC 5128 in order to study the bright giants in the halo of the galaxy (Rejkuba et al. rejkuba+01 (2001)). We have observed two halo fields in the $`V`$ and $`K_\mathrm{s}`$-bands finding a large number of bright AGB stars, extending up to bolometric magnitude of –5. Field 1 coincides with the prominent north-eastern diffuse stellar shell (Malin et al. malin+83 (1983), Rejkuba et al. rejkuba+01 (2001)). Crossing it in diagonal there is a chain of young stars (Mould et al. mould+00 (2000), Fassett & Graham fg00 (2000), Rejkuba et al. rejkuba+02 (2002)). Field 2 is located away from the known stellar shells and dust bands, $`9\mathrm{}`$ south from the galactic nucleus. It coincides with the field observed with HST in $`V`$ and $`I`$-bands with WFPC2 by Soria et al. (soria+96 (1996)) and in $`J`$ and $`H`$-bands with NICMOS by Marleau et al. (marleau+00 (2000)). Part of the VLT ISAAC $`K_\mathrm{s}`$-band data analyzed here were already described in Rejkuba et al. (rejkuba+01 (2001)). Already with the first few epochs of $`K_\mathrm{s}`$-band imaging it was obvious that variable stars were present among the bright red giants. The preliminary results of the multi-epoch imaging in $`K_\mathrm{s}`$-band were presented by Rejkuba (rejkubaPhd (2002)).

We present here the full near-IR data-set containing multi-epoch $`K_\mathrm{s}`$-band imaging and single-epoch data in the $`J_\mathrm{s}`$\- and $`H`$-bands obtained over the period of 3 years with ISAAC at the VLT. In this paper the data reduction, the photometry, and the catalogue of the variable stars are presented. In the following papers these data are used to investigate the variability characteristics of the population of stars found above the RGB tip, and to derive the distance to NGC 5128 using the Mira period-luminosity relation in the $`K`$-band. Multicolor information will further be used to investigate the chemical composition of these variables, and to put constraints to their ages. In the next section we briefly present the data and the reduction procedures. Section 3 contains the photometry. The technique used to detect the variable stars is described next. The light curves and periods of the long period variables are derived in Sect. 5. A detailed description of the completeness simulations is given only in the electronic version of the article where also the complete catalogue of all the variable stars can be found. Sect. 6 presents the main results of the our simulations, while the last section summarizes the results.

## 2 The data

### 2.1 The observations

We have obtained a total of 20 epochs of $`K_\mathrm{s}`$-band photometry in Field 1 and 24 epochs in Field 2 between April 1999 and July 2002. Most of our data were obtained using the ISAAC near-IR imaging spectrometer at the ESO Paranal UT1 Antu 8.2m telescope. These data were obtained in Service Mode. One Field 2 epoch comes from data obtained in Visitor Mode at the ESO La Silla NTT 3.5m telescope equipped with SOFI near-IR imaging spectrometer.

The instrument setup for the observations was the following: all but 2 epochs for each field were observed with the short wavelength arm of ISAAC, which is equipped with a $`1024\times 1024`$ pixel Hawaii Rockwell array with a pixel scale of $`0\stackrel{}{.}148`$. The last two epochs of the $`K_\mathrm{s}`$-band series for both fields were observed with the long wavelength arm of ISAAC with a $`1024\times 1024`$ InSb Aladdin array from Santa Barbara Research Center. The pixel size of the Aladdin array with $`0\stackrel{}{.}1478`$ is almost identical to that of Hawaii detector.

During the service observations of 3 epochs of Field 2, the integration was interrupted before the end of the sequence due to changing weather conditions. Additional observations for these epochs were taken a few days after the original sequences. Thus we reduced them as separate epochs, yielding 24 data points for Field 2, including the epoch observed with SOFI at NTT, and 20 epochs for Field 1. Additional $`J_\mathrm{s}`$\- and $`H`$-band single epoch observations were obtained in April and May 2002 with ISAAC, also in service mode. $`J_\mathrm{s}`$ and $`H`$-band observations were secured with a short wavelength arm of ISAAC. The $`J_\mathrm{s}`$ filter was preferred over the $`J`$ filter, due to the presence of red leaks in the $`K`$-band of the latter. From here on “$`J`$-band” is used to denote observations taken with $`J_\mathrm{s}`$ filter and “$`K`$-band” for $`K_\mathrm{s}`$ observations. The observation taken with $`K_\mathrm{s}`$ filter with SOFI at NTT is described in Rejkuba (rejkuba01 (2001)).

The summary of the observations is given in Table 1, where on the left we describe the Field 1 observations and on the right the Field 2 observations. For each field, the first column is the Julian date of the observation in the form $`\mathrm{MJD}=\mathrm{JD}2400000`$, in the second column the exposure time in minutes is given, the next is airmass, then seeing in arcseconds, and in the last field the filter and the sequential number of the $`K`$-band epoch are presented.

### 2.2 Data reduction

Data reduction followed the procedure described in Rejkuba et al. (rejkuba+01 (2001)). We first correct for the electronic ghost using the ESO supplied routine in the ECLIPSE package. Then we subtract the dark and divide with the sky flats provided from the service observing standard calibrations. The DIMSUM package (Stanford et al. dimsum (1995)) in IRAF was used to subtract the sky in a double sky-subtraction run, the second time masking the objects detected in the registered and combined frames after the first sky subtraction. The double sky subtraction procedure is particularly important for these crowded images. We noticed that in a single sky subtraction pass, bright regions were often over-subtracted producing dark halos around the bright stars. Finally the sky-subtracted images were aligned with IMALIGN and all the images taken in a single jittered sequence were combined with IMCOMBINE task in IRAF.

## 3 The photometry

The PSF fitting photometry was done for each single epoch image individually. First we used DAOPHOT II and ALLSTAR (Stetson stetson87 (1987)) to create a PSF for each frame and to define the coordinate transformations between the frames. The complete star list was created from the median combined image that had only the best seeing epochs (i.e. those with FWHM stellar profiles measured $`<3`$ pix). These included epochs 1Ks01, 1Ks02, 1Ks04, 1Ks05, 1Ks07, 1Ks10, 1Ks15, 1Ks17, 1Ks18 and 1Js for Field 1, and epochs 2Ks01, 2Ks02, 2Ks05, 2Ks09, 2Ks10, 2Ks13, 2Ks16, 2Ks17 and 2Ks18 for Field 2. The total exposure time of these median combined images are 9.4 and 8.4 hours. We found that better results were obtained in this way instead of combining all the images. PSF fitting photometry using this star list and coordinate transformations was performed simultaneously on all images of a single field with the ALLFRAME programme (Stetson stetson94 (1994)). The final photometric catalogue contains 13111 stars in Field 1 and 16435 stars in Field 2, that have been detected on at least 3 $`K`$-band frames and in $`J`$\- and $`H`$-band images. The areas covered with at least three pointings in $`K`$-band are $`2\stackrel{}{.}28\times 2\stackrel{}{.}30`$ and $`2\stackrel{}{.}25\times 2\stackrel{}{.}31`$, and the total exposure times in $`K`$-band are 19.67 and 21.17 hours, for Fields 1 and 2, respectively. These are the deepest near-IR images obtained so far in an external galaxy halo.

### 3.1 The photometric calibration

Not all the epochs were observed in photometric conditions. The $`K`$-band photometry was brought to the system of one of the photometric nights that had excellent seeing: epochs 1Ks07 and 2Ks10 for Fields 1 and 2, respectively, both observed on July 8, 2000. The zero point of $`24.257\pm 0.042`$ for that night has been derived from the observations of Persson et al. (persson+98 (1998)) standards supplied by ESO service observing (Rejkuba et al. rejkuba+01 (2001)). $`J`$\- and $`H`$-band photometric zero points were derived using the observations of Persson standard stars obtained during the same night as the NGC 5128 observations in the corresponding filter (see Table 1) and their values are $`24.737\pm 0.039`$ and $`24.626\pm 0.033`$. For all three filters extinction coefficients measured by ESO observatory staff and reported on ISAAC web pages were assumed (0.06 for $`K_\mathrm{s}`$ and $`J_\mathrm{s}`$-band and 0.05 for $`H`$-band).

The quality of the photometry can be assessed from Figure 1 where we plot differences of individual epoch measurements vs. mean magnitudes. The mean magnitudes were calculated weighting the individual measurements with their photometric errors calculated by ALLFRAME:

$$\overline{K}=\frac{\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{K_i}{\sigma _i^2}}{\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{1}{\sigma _i^2}}$$
(1)
Only the stars with individual ALLFRAME $`\sigma `$ uncertainty measurements smaller than 0.2 mag are plotted. The limiting accuracy of our photometry at the bright end is $`\pm 0.05`$ mag, getting worse at faintest magnitudes. The region around K=20 has more scattered measurements than the mean. This is where most variable stars are found. The mean magnitude calculated with the above equation will, however, be overestimated (too bright) for variable stars with large amplitudes because brighter phases will typically get higher weights.

## 4 Search for variable stars

Variable stars were identified using a procedure similar to the one described by Welch & Stetson (welch&stetson93 (1993)) and Stetson (stetson96 (1996)). First, we selected all the stars with mean of all photometric errors given by ALLFRAME, as measured on each individual epoch frame, smaller than 0.2 mag. We then required for each star to be detected on more than 5 frames and constructed variability indexes J, K and L, following the prescriptions by Stetson (stetson96 (1996); equations 1–3).

In particular the index J is used for single observations assuming $`P_i=\delta _i^21`$, where $`\delta _i`$ is a normalized residual of the measurement from the mean magnitude. The mean magnitude is calculated using a weighting with inverse square of the measurement error (weight $`w_i`$) according to equation 1.

The index J is a robust measure of the external repeatability relative to the internal precision. For single epoch observations containing only random noise its value tends to zero. For a physical variable it is a positive number. The index K is a robust measure of the kurtosis of the magnitude histogram and its value is fixed by the shape of the light curve, with K=0.9 for a pure sinusoid and K=0.798 for a Gaussian magnitude distribution, a limit approached when random measurement errors dominate over physical variation. Including the information about the variability and the shape of the light curve, Stetson defined the final variability index L as:

$$L=\left(\frac{JK}{0.798}\right)\left(\frac{w_i}{w_{all}}\right)$$
(2)
The second term in this expression assigns an additional weight to stars with the highest number of measurements.

Figure 2 is a plot of the variability index L for all the stars in Field 1 and 2 in the left and right panels, respectively. The stars above the solid line (upper panels), plotted with slightly larger symbols, were searched for periodic variations. The limits that separate variable from non-variable sources were determined in the following way: in completeness simulations stars with constant magnitude light curves were added to the frames and their photometry and variability indexes were measured in identical way as for the programme stars. A similar plot of the variability index $`vs.`$ magnitude was used to decide on the separation line between the variable and non-variable stars (Figure 3). With the adopted variable star detection limits (solid lines in the upper panels) less than 2% of sources from these simulations are found above the lines. Note however, that at least some of these may have their light curves contaminated by a neighbouring variable star. Simulations necessary to evaluate the completeness of the variable star search are described below.

With such selection criteria 601 stars in Field 1 and 903 stars in Field 2 are found to be variable. Of these 536 and 878 had at least 10 measurements with individual errors smaller than 0.5 mag, and light curves were constructed for them.

## 5 Light curves and periods of LPVs

Fourier analysis of the $`K`$-band light curves was used to search for the periodic signal in the data in the range of $`30<P<1700`$ days. Only individual measurements with ALLFRAME uncertainty smaller than 0.5 mag were used. First, an initial guess of the period was obtained using a routine that calculates spectral power as a function of angular frequency ($`\omega =2\pi f`$; Lomb lomb (1976)):

$`P_N(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{[_j(K_j\overline{K})\mathrm{cos}\omega (t_j\tau )]^2}{2\sigma ^2_j\mathrm{cos}^2\omega (t_j\tau )}}`$ (3)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{[_j(K_j\overline{K})\mathrm{sin}\omega (t_j\tau )]^2}{2\sigma ^2_j\mathrm{sin}^2\omega (t_j\tau )}}`$
where $`K_j`$ and $`\overline{K}`$ are the individual and mean magnitudes, $`\sigma `$ is the variance, $`t_j`$ is the Julian Date (JD) of the measurement, and $`\tau `$ is defined as:

$$\mathrm{tan}(2\omega \tau )=\frac{_j\mathrm{sin}2\omega t_j}{_j\mathrm{cos}2\omega t_j}$$
(4)
The period obtained from the frequency with largest power corresponds to the most probable sinusoidal component. It was further improved with a non-linear least-square fitting of the function

$$K(t)=A\mathrm{cos}\left(2\pi \frac{(tt_0)}{P}\right)+B\mathrm{sin}\left(2\pi \frac{(tt_0)}{P}\right)+K_0$$
(5)
From this, the best fitting period (P), amplitude ($`2\times \sqrt{A^2+B^2}`$), mean magnitude ($`K_0`$), and phase ($`t_0`$) were obtained.

In optical passbands Miras often have asymmetric light curves, usually steeply rising to the maximum and with a shallower decline. In near-IR the variations are more regular and nearly sinusoidal (e.g. Whitelock et al. whitelock+00 (2000)). Hence a sine-wave gives a reasonable approximation to most of the LPVs.

Our code that determines the best fitting period was tested on a subsample of data on Mira variables published by Whitelock et al. (whitelock+00 (2000)). Their data are similar to ours, with 10–15 data points per star and photometric errors of the order of 0.05 mag in K. In 8 out of 10 cases we obtain the same period as Whitelock et al. In two cases our periods were significantly different (in one case we derived 74 days period with respect to the published value of 185 days and in the second case our period is 422 days where Whitelock et al. got 327 days), but the light curves folded with these periods looked as good or even smoother than the published light curves. In some cases is possible to obtain more than one acceptable period when there are less than $`15`$ data points. It is not clear however, if these stars really pulsate with two different periods or the insufficient data allow to derive such different periods due to aliases in the sampling of the data.

In Figure 4 we show two examples of a periodogram, the original light curve in time domain and the light curves folded with the period obtained from the highest power frequency from the periodogram and by a sine curve fitting. In a few cases there are evidences for the presence of the second period or a luminosity modulation in the data (e.g. star F2 #194 in Figure 4), but we have determined only the main period, because for most of the variables the data were not good enough for a more detailed analysis. Most of the times when a good period could be derived, the two periods were similar, but sometimes they differed by up to 20-30 days and both light curves were of acceptable quality. This illustrates that the accuracy of the derived periods and amplitudes varies considerably from one star to the next, depending on the number of observations, their individual errors and the stability of the light curve over the sampling interval.

It is interesting to note that some LPVs in the LMC with periods in excess of $`420`$ days, which appear to be rather bright for their periods when compared to other LPVs in the K-band or M<sub>bol</sub> vs. $`\mathrm{log}\mathrm{P}`$ diagram, show a pronounced hump on the rising branch. These stars are tentatively identified as being in the Hot Bottom Burning stage of evolution on account of, for example, the strong Li apparent in some of their spectra (Glass & Lloyd Evans glass&evans (2003)). Star F2 #194 shows such a hump and it is lying 0.28 mag above the mean period-luminosity relation (Rejkuba 2003, in preparation). Reviewing the light curves of all the variables with $`P>420`$ days that are at least 0.3 mag brighter than the mean K-band magnitude at a given period, we found that approximately 1/3 ($`15`$ stars) present a similar hump. For some of the other 2/3 stars the light curve coverage is not sufficiently good to exclude the presence of a hump.

The comparison of the periods obtained through Fourier analysis and by a sine-curve fitting is shown in Figure 6. Variables in Field 1 are shown with open squares and those in Field 2 with crosses. The upper left panel is a direct comparison of the periods determined with the two methods, while the other panels show how the difference depends on period (upper right), on significance of the period obtained from Fourier analysis (lower left) and on reduced $`\chi ^2`$ of the sine-curve fit. There is no significant difference between the two fields. The larger differences are more probable for variables with low $`\chi ^2`$ of the sine-curve fit. This is an expected result due to the fact that not all the variables have strictly sinusoidal light curves. On the contrary, there is no strong dependence on the significance parameter which measures the strength of the peak in the periodogram (e.g. Figure 4). Significance is a smaller number for stronger (more significant) period. We have visually inspected all the variables folded with both periods and in cases where one of the two gave clearly much smoother light curve that period was retained, otherwise the final period is a mean of the two. A more quantitative accuracy of the periods, as well as the completeness of the detection of variables with a given period was derived using Monte Carlo simulations (see next section).

For 99 variable stars in Field 1 and 169 in Field 2 no acceptable periods could be obtained because of the non-sinusoidal variations, large errors combined with small amplitudes, periodicity outside our probed range ($`30<P1000`$ day), presence of multiple periods, irregularity (cycle-to-cycle variations) in Miras or semiregulars, or absence of period (e.g. microlensing, background AGN or SN). More data are necessary to determine the nature of these variables. Among these are also LPVs that have periods longer than $`1000`$ days, for which our observations did not cover much more than 1 period and thus it was not possible to determine an accurate period.

The light curves for 437 variables in Field 1 and 709 in Field 2, for which we could determine periods, as well as the tables with the best fitting parameters for these stars, are presented only in the electronic version of the article. In Figure 5 we show a sample of light curves folded with the periods that are indicated in each panel. In the example there are bright and faint variables from both fields. Table 2 lists for these stars: ID number, x and y position with respect to the reference frame (1Ks07 and 2Ks10 for Field 1 and Field 2, respectively), number of epochs with magnitude measurements with $`\sigma <0.5`$, periods, semi-amplitudes ($`\sqrt{A^2+B^2}`$) as obtained from sine-curve fitting, reduced $`\chi ^2`$ of the fits, significances, the $`J`$\- and $`H`$-band magnitudes, and the $`K`$-band magnitudes from the sine-curve fit. Negative numbers for x and y positions mean that the star was out of the limits of the reference frame. The initial positions (x,y)=(1,1) correspond to $`(\alpha ,\delta )=(13^h26^m17\stackrel{s}{.}5,42^{}51\mathrm{}03\stackrel{}{.}3)`$ for Field 1 and to $`(\alpha ,\delta )=(13^h25^m18\stackrel{s}{.}0,43^{}09\mathrm{}03\stackrel{}{.}0)`$ for Field 2. This table is a subset of Tables 3 and 4 presented in the electronic version. Additionally, in the electronic version of the article we list all the raw $`K`$-band measurements for 1504 variables in both fields (Tables 7 and 8). Magnitude 99.99 and the error 9.99 denote that no measurement for that epoch was obtained. Here we give only first three lines of these tables.

It should be noted that while the large majority of the variables with the determined periods are long period variables with periods in excess of 100 days, there are 27 stars in Field 1 and 13 stars in Field 2 for which most probable periods were shorter than 51 days. However, the significance of these periods is in all cases is very low, with significance parameter $`>0.8`$ for all but two stars in Field 1 for which $`\mathrm{signif}>0.65`$. If the quoted periods are real, these stars could be Cepheids or some other kind of variables. Cepheids are expected to be found among younger populations in star forming regions like that present in our Field 1 (Rejkuba et al. rejkuba+01 (2001)). Unfortunately our sampling is not good enough to determine reliably the variability type from the light curve shape.

## 6 Completeness and contamination

The completeness of the photometric catalogue in the $`J`$, $`H`$ and $`K`$-bands was determined with crowding experiments. In ten different crowding experiments a set of stars with magnitudes uniformly distributed between $`15.7<K<25.2`$ was added to all the images after the appropriate re-scaling for the photometric zero point differences and shifting the stars so that they all fall at the same physical position in the sky coordinates. The $`JK`$ and $`HK`$ colors of the stars were chosen to follow a mean ridge line of the observed red giant branch (Figure 7). A realistic, observed, amount of Poissonian noise was added as well. The photometry was then re-calculated in the same way as described above.

The results of these completeness experiments are shown in Figures 8, 9 and 10. Our photometry is complete more than 50% in the $`K`$ and $`H`$-bands for stars brighter than 22.5 and 21.5 mag for fields 1 and 2, respectively. These numbers for the $`J`$-band are 22.75 and 22.25 mag. Some bins have completeness larger than 100% due to false detections or migrations due to blends with original stars in the images. Note however, that we assume that the simulated star is detected only if its measured magnitude does not differ from the input value by more than 0.75 mag.

The left panels of Figures 8 to 10 show differences between input (added) and recovered (measured) magnitudes which is indicative of photometric errors at a given magnitude. From them it is evident that the stars fainter than 50% completeness have very large photometric errors. Apart from the completeness and photometric error estimations, these simulations were also used to determine criteria for the detection of variable stars. The results are summarized in Figure 3 and are described in Section 4.

Further simulations of variable stars were used to gain information on the completeness and contamination in our LPV catalogue. Since the detection probability of a variable depends not only on the mean magnitude of the star, but also on period and amplitude, as well as on sampling distribution, different sets of simulations were carried out.

Dependence of the probability of the detection of a variable star with a given period on the actual distribution of the observations can be estimated with numerical simulations similar to those by Saha & Hoessel (saha&hoessel90 (1990)) and Bersier & Wood (bersier&wood02 (2002)). Given a period P and initial phase $`\varphi _0`$ at the time $`t_0`$ of the first observation, the phase distribution can be calculated for our set of observations. Assuming that to detect a variable a uniform coverage in phase is required, with (1) at least two observations between phases 0 and 0.2, (2) at least two detections with phases between 0.2 and 0.5 and (3) at least two measurements with phases between 0.5 and 0.8, the resulting period detection probability is presented in Figure 11. Note that for a more realistic estimate this curve should be multiplied by the incompleteness corresponding to the mean magnitude of the variable. An additional factor in the period detection probability is the amplitude of the variable.

A better estimate of the detection probability for variables with given magnitudes, amplitudes and periods, can be obtained through simulations similar to the crowding experiments. In a series of such experiments we have added artificial variable stars with sinusoidal light curves with given periods, amplitudes and magnitudes. The magnitude range was chosen between $`19.5<K<21.5`$, similar to that of detected LPVs in NGC 5128 halo.

One series of completeness experiments tested our detection sensitivity to the amplitudes of variable stars. Variable stars with amplitudes between 0.1 and 1.4 mag for two fixed periods, 100 and 450 days were added to the original frames in 18 different crowding experiments for each field. In each single experiment all the variables had the same amplitude and period, but a range of magnitudes as mentioned above. In Figure 12 the percentage of detected variables, those with $`0.75\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{mag}0.75`$ and $`25<\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{P}<25`$, as a function of amplitude is given for variables brighter than $`K=20.5`$ (triangles) and those with $`K>20.5`$ (crosses). Filled dots denote detection probability (or completeness) as a function of amplitude of variables for all the stars irrespective of their magnitudes. It is obvious from the fact that the bright stars have completeness higher than 100% that there is some migration of faint stars into the brighter magnitude bin.

This effect can also be seen in Figure 13 where we plot differences between detected and input magnitudes (bottom panels) and differences in detected and input amplitudes (top panels) as a function of input amplitude for all the variables. Simulations of Field 1 variables are plotted with filled dots and those of Field 2 with open squares. There is a systematic bias in the sense that we detect stars brighter than they are and with somewhat larger amplitudes. The magnitude of this bias is proportional to the amplitude of the variable. Partially this difference may be due to the way the mean output magnitude is calculated, but using different means still produces a slight bias. In order to have an estimate of bias independent of an a priori knowledge about the period and phase, because for some of the variables we could not determine periods and some stars in the field escaped detection as variable stars, we plot in Figure 13 differences in mean magnitudes as they get calculated by DAOMASTER task in DAOPHOT.

From Fig. 12 it is obvious that most of the large amplitude variables ($`\mathrm{\Delta }K>0.3`$) will be detected for stars with shorter periods. Our variable star catalogue is highly incomplete for stars with amplitudes of 0.2 mag or smaller, irrespective of period. The absolute value of which percentage of variables with a given amplitude will be detected for longer period LPVs depends strongly on our choice of detection criterion. If we consider that a variable star is detected only if its measured period does not deviate from the input one by $`\pm 25`$ days, detection probability at P=450 days is between 50 and 80%, but if we allow a larger uncertainty in period detection, our catalogue is more complete.

In order to see what is the completeness of our catalogue with respect to period of variable stars and how precise our period measurements are we performed a series of experiments in which we have added to our frames artificial variable stars with sinusoidal light curves with typical amplitudes for LPVs ($`\mathrm{\Delta }K=0.7`$ mag) and magnitudes in the range between $`19.5<K<21.5`$, similar to that of detected LPVs in NGC 5128 halo. Periods were chosen at 50 day interval, ranging from 50 to 1100 days. In particular 365 day and 182 day period variable stars were also added. Photometry of all the added stars was performed in the same way as before and the light curve parameters calculated as explained above. The measured detection probability as a function of period is presented in Figure 14. Again we plot the detection probability for all the simulated stars with a given period with filled dots. Open triangles and crosses are used for bright ($`K<20.5`$) and faint ($`K>20.5`$) stars, respectively. In plotting the top panels of Fig. 14 we assumed a variable star to be detected only if (i) its mean magnitude did not differ from the input mean magnitude by more than 0.75 mag, (2) if it was detected in at least 10 frames, and (iii) if its measured period did not differ from the input period by more than $`\pm 25`$ days. Due to this last restriction there is an almost zero probability to detect variables with periods around 700-800 days. However, in our catalogue there are variables with these periods. In fact the bottom panels of Figure 14 show a dependence of the difference between measured and input periods as a function of input period. From this it is obvious that for the variables with periods in the range between 700 and 800 days we systematically overestimate their periods by as much as 50-100 days. In the top panels these variables are considered non-detections. Periods for variables with periods longer than 800 days can be determined more accurately. An additional potential systematic error could come from period aliasing. Our observations do not span time continuously. Rather, they are grouped in three to six month windows with inter-window gaps of 200 to 320 days. Thus, it is possible that stars with actual periods in the range 175 – 200 days were assigned periods of order of one year, because only alternate maxima fell within our observing windows.

## 7 Conclusions

We have presented the first catalogue of variable stars in a giant elliptical galaxy. 1504 red variables were detected in two halo fields of NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) covering 10.46 arcmin square. For 1146 variables with at least 10 good measurements we have determined periods, amplitudes and mean K-band magnitudes using Fourier analysis and non-linear sine-curve fitting algorithms. Periods, amplitudes and $`JHK`$ photometry are given for 1146 long period variables. Additionally, individual K-band measurements are given for all the red variables.

Our extensive completeness simulations show that periods determined for these long period variables are accurate to $`\pm 25`$ days except in the range of 700-800 days where the accuracy does not exceed $`\pm 50`$ to 100 days. Additionally there may be a few cases where an aliasing period may introduce a larger error due to less than optimal sampling.

Mean magnitudes of variable stars are measured to be brighter than simulated mean magnitudes by up to $`0.3`$ mag and this brightening depends on the amplitude of a variable stars. Typically for variables with amplitudes smaller than $`1`$ mag measured mean magnitudes are very similar to the input magnitudes. This brightening is partially due to the way the mean magnitude is calculated. For constant light curve stars in the same magnitude range as the variable stars ($`19.5<K<21.5`$) there is no bias, i.e. the difference between measured and input magnitude is consistent with zero.

Our variable star catalogue is close to 90% complete for short period long amplitude variables. For variable stars with variability amplitudes of 0.2 mag or smaller detection probability is 50% or smaller. There is a strong dependence of the detection probability on the period of a variable. Our simulations show that most variable stars with periods in the range of 700-800 days will have their periods strongly biased toward larger values, overestimating the period by as much as 50-100 days.

In the next paper the complete analysis of the period and amplitude distribution as well as their dependence on the magnitude and color of the variable stars will be presented. The comparison with long period variables in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds will be made.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are indebted to many ESO staff astronomers who took the data presented in this paper in service mode operations at Paranal Observatory. Useful input by Tim Bedding in the early stages of the project is gratefully acknowledged. We wish to thank the referee, Tom Lloyd Evans, for useful suggestions and Ian Glass for communicating their results in advance of the publication. MR thanks Mariarosa Cioni, Manuela Zoccali and Peter Stetson for useful discussions. DM is sponsored by FONDAP Center for Astrophysics 15010003. MR acknowledges the ESO studentship programme during which most of this work was done.


text:
# Measurement-induced decoherence and Gaussian smoothing of the Wigner distribution function

## 1 Introduction

Quantum phase-space distribution functions  offer an alternative means of formulating quantum mechanics to the standard wave mechanics formulation. Some of the properties that these functions possess, however, make it difficult to associate them with a direct probabilistic interpretation. The Wigner distribution function , for example, can take on negative values, while the Husimi distribution function , although nonnegative, does not yield the correct marginal distributions. These functions are therefore usually regarded as a mathematical tool used to describe the quantum behavior of the system being considered and are thus referred to as the quasiprobability distribution functions.
There, however, have been continued theoretical investigations  on the possibility of the physical significance of the Husimi distribution function and more generally of the nonnegative smoothed Wigner distribution function, ever since Arthurs and Kelly  showed that the Husimi distribution is a proper probability distribution associated with a particular model of simultaneous measurements of position and momentum. An operational definition of a probability distribution can be given  that explicitly takes into account the action of the measurement device modeled as a “filter”. The analysis shows that the phase-space distribution connected to a realistic simultaneous measurement of position and momentum can be expressed as a convolution of the Wigner function of the system being detected and the Wigner function of the filter state. If the Wigner function of the filter state is given by a minimum uncertainty Gaussian function, which is the case for an ideal simultaneous measurement with the maximal accuracy allowed by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the distribution can be identified as the Husimi distribution. A generalization to the case of a measurement with less accuracy leads immediately to an identification of the nonnegative smoothed Wigner distribution as a distribution connected to a realistic measurement.
It is then clear that, in the phase-space approach, the act of a measurement is conveniently modeled by Gaussian smoothing, with the widths of the smoothing function identified as measurement errors. The phase-space approach based on the smoothed Wigner distribution function thus provides a convenient framework in which to study any changes that occur in the phase-space distribution of a system as a result of a measurement.
In this paper we aim to investigate effects of a measurement on the phase-space distribution of a system using the phase-space description based on the smoothed Wigner distribution function . We consider some simple one-dimensional systems—a particle in a square-well potential, a particle moving under the influence of a step potential, and a one-dimensional model atom irradiated by high-power laser pulses emitting high-harmonic radiation—and compute their Wigner and smoothed Wigner distribution functions. The pure quantum distribution of the systems unaffected by a measurement is represented by contour curves of the Wigner distribution functions, whereas the “coarse-grained” distribution, i.e., the distribution “contaminated” by a measurement is displayed by contour curves of the smoothed Wigner distribution functions. It may be expected that delicate quantum features are obscured more strongly by a measurement with larger measurement errors. Such effects of a measurement, which may be referred to as measurement-induced decoherence, can be studied by observing changes in the contour curves of the smoothed Wigner distribution functions, as the widths of the smoothing Gaussian function are increased. We also compare the contour curves of the smoothed Wigner distributions we computed with the corresponding contour curves resulting from the classical analysis. This should yield information on what quantum features survive measurement-induced decoherence.
In Section 2 we briefly describe the Wigner and smoothed Wigner distribution functions and discuss their physical significance in relation to a measurement. In Section 3 we choose, as our examples of simple dynamical systems, a particle in an infinite square-well potential and a particle subjected to a step potential and compute their contour curves of the Wigner and smoothed Wigner distribution functions. These contour curves form the basis of our discussion of measurement-induced decoherence. Another example we take for our study is a one-dimensional model atom irradiated by high-power laser pulses, which is described in Section 4. The time-frequency Wigner and smoothed Wigner distributions are computed for high-harmonic radiation emitted from the model atom, and the effect of a measurement on the time-frequency distribution is discussed. Finally a discussion is given in Section 5.

## 2 Wigner and smoothed Wigner distribution functions

The Wigner distribution function  is defined by

$$W(q,p)=\frac{1}{\pi \mathrm{}}𝑑xe^{2ipx/\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(qx)\mathrm{\Psi }(q+x),$$
(2.1)
where $`q`$ and $`p`$ are the coordinate and the momentum of the system being considered and $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is the wave function. In our study of one-dimensional dynamical systems, we restrict our attention to the simple case when the system is in its energy eigenstate. The wave function $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and the Wigner distribution function $`W`$ is then independent of time. The Gaussian-smoothed Wigner distribution function  is given by

$$G(q,p)=\frac{1}{2\pi \sigma _q\sigma _p}𝑑q^{}𝑑p^{}e^{\frac{(q^{}q)^2}{2\sigma _q^2}}e^{\frac{(p^{}p)^2}{2\sigma _p^2}}W(q^{},p^{}).$$
(2.2)
When the smoothing Gaussian function is a minimum uncertainty wave packet, i.e., when $`\sigma _q\sigma _p=\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}`$, $`G`$ can be identified as the Husimi distribution function,

$$H(q,p)=\frac{1}{2\pi \mathrm{}}\sqrt{\frac{\kappa }{\pi \mathrm{}}}\left|𝑑xe^{\kappa (xq)^2/2\mathrm{}}e^{ipx/\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Psi }(x)\right|^2,$$
(2.3)
where the parameter $`\kappa `$ defined as $`\kappa =\frac{\mathrm{}}{2\sigma _q^2}=\frac{2\sigma _p^2}{\mathrm{}}`$ has the dimension of $`mass/time`$. If $`G`$ is to represent a probability distribution corresponding to a simultaneous measurement of $`q`$ and $`p`$, the widths should satisfy the inequality $`\sigma _q\sigma _p\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}`$, where $`\sigma _q`$ and $`\sigma _p`$, respectively, can be identified as measurement errors in $`q`$ and $`p`$ of the detection apparatus. For general mathematical treatments, however, one may also include the unphysical regime $`\sigma _q\sigma _p<\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}`$ in the analysis . In particular, in the limit $`\sigma _q0`$ and $`\sigma _p0`$, $`G(q,p)`$ approaches the Wigner function $`W(q,p)`$.
In general the Wigner function can be defined in space of any pair of conjugate variables. In particular, in studies of signal processing, the Wigner function in the time-frequency space, $`W(t,\omega )`$, plays an important role . The main tool for our time-frequency analysis of high-harmonic radiation generated by an atom irradiated by laser pulses, which is described in Section 4, is the Wigner time-frequency distribution function of the dipole acceleration

$$W(t,\omega )=\frac{1}{\pi }_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\tau e^{2i\omega \tau }\ddot{d}^{}(t\tau )\ddot{d}(t+\tau ),$$
(2.4)
where the dipole acceleration $`\ddot{d}(t)`$ is given by

$$\ddot{d}(t)=\frac{d^2}{dt^2}d(t)=\mathrm{\Psi }(t)\left|\ddot{x}\right|\mathrm{\Psi }(t).$$
(2.5)
In Eq. (2.5), $`\mathrm{\Psi }(t)`$ represents the wave function of the electron in the atom and $`x`$ is the position of the electron. The Gaussian-smoothed Wigner distribution function in time-frequency space is given by

$$G(t,\omega )=\frac{1}{2\pi \sigma _t\sigma _\omega }𝑑t^{}𝑑\omega ^{}e^{\frac{(t^{}t)^2}{2\sigma _t^2}}e^{\frac{(\omega ^{}\omega )^2}{2\sigma _\omega ^2}}W(t^{},\omega ^{}).$$
(2.6)
When the widths $`\sigma _t`$ and $`\sigma _\omega `$ satisfy $`\sigma _t\sigma _\omega =\frac{1}{2}`$, $`G`$ becomes the Husimi time-frequency distribution function

$$H(t,\omega )=\frac{1}{2\pi }\sqrt{\frac{\kappa }{\pi }}\left|𝑑\tau e^{\kappa (\tau t)^2/2}e^{i\omega \tau }\ddot{d}(\tau )\right|^2,$$
(2.7)
where the parameter $`\kappa `$ given by $`\kappa =\frac{1}{2\sigma _t^2}=2\sigma _\omega ^2`$ has now the dimension of $`(time)^2`$.
Since the measurement errors satisfying the inequality $`\sigma _q\sigma _p\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}`$ (or $`\sigma _t\sigma _\omega \frac{1}{2}`$) belong to the physical regime, the contour curves of $`G`$ associated with the smoothing Gaussian function satisfying this inequality can in principle be observed. Perhaps the most straightforward way of constructing such contour curves from measurements is to make a large number of simultaneous measurements of position and momentum (or time and frequency) upon identically prepared systems. Each measurement should be performed with the same measurement errors $`\sigma _q`$ and $`\sigma _p`$ (or $`\sigma _t`$ and $`\sigma _\omega `$). Each measurement should also be performed on a given system no more than once, because the measurement disturbs the system and its phase-space distribution. From the results of such measurements one can determine the phase-space distribution (or the time-frequency distribution) for the system under consideration. The contour curves of the smoothed Wigner distribution function associated with the widths $`\sigma _q`$ and $`\sigma _p`$ (or $`\sigma _t`$ and $`\sigma _\omega `$) of the smoothing Gaussian function are then obtained by connecting the phase-space points (or the time-frequency points) having the same phase-space probability (or the same time-frequency space probability).
Our main concern here is the effects of a measurement on quantum properties of a system. Information on such effects can be directly obtained by comparing contour curves of the Wigner distribution function and those of various smoothed Wigner distribution functions associated with different values of $`\sigma _q`$ and $`\sigma _p`$ (or $`\sigma _t`$ and $`\sigma _\omega `$). In the next two sections we present results for our computation of the contour curves in phase space for two simple one-dimensional dynamical systems and in time-frequency space for high-harmonic radiation emitted by an atom irradiated by laser pulses.

## 3 One-dimensional dynamical systems in a stationary state

In this section we present results of our computation of contour curves of the Wigner and smoothed Wigner distribution functions for two simple systems in a stationary state; a particle in a symmetric infinite square-well potential and a particle moving under the influence of a step potential. For stationary systems it is possible to obtain contour plots of the Wigner distribution function directly by solving a pair of time-independent equations of motion satisfied by the Wigner function . One can also derive a pair of time-independent equations of motion for the smoothed Wigner distribution function and can thus obtain its contour plots from the solutions of these equations. In the present work, however, we have chosen to numerically integrate the Wigner distribution function according to Eq. (2.2) in order to obtain contour curves of the smoothed Wigner distribution function, because an analytical form for the Wigner distribution function is known for each of the two systems being considered here.

### 3.1 Particle in a square well

We consider a particle in a symmetric infinite square-well potential

$$V(q)=\{\begin{array}{cc}0,\hfill & \text{if }aqa\text{,}\hfill \\ \mathrm{},\hfill & \text{if }q<a\text{, or }q>a.\hfill \end{array}$$
(3.1)
An analytic form for the Wigner distribution function is known for this system in its eigenstate . For all our computation we take the mass of the particle to be 1 and the width of the well to be 20 in an arbitrary unit system in which $`\mathrm{}=1`$.
Shown in Figs. 1(a) and 1(b) are contour plots of the Wigner distribution function and the smoothed Wigner distribution function, respectively, for the particle in its ground state. The smoothing parameters for Fig. 1(b) are chosen to be $`\sigma _q=3.62`$ and $`\sigma _p=0.157`$ ($`\sigma _q\sigma _p=0.57>\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}`$). Comparing Figs. 1(a) and 1(b), we see that the smoothed Wigner distribution function has a simpler structure than the nonsmoothed Wigner distribution function. This reflects the effect of measurement-induced decoherence. The most conspicuous quantum structure which is exhibited in Fig. 1(a) but is not revealed when observed with $`\sigma _q=3.62`$ and $`\sigma _p=0.157`$ is closed orbits off the origin called “islands”. Two pairs of the islands are shown in Fig. 1(a). Close inspection of the contour plot of the Wigner distribution function, however, reveals many such islands, although not shown in the figure. We note that a purely classical dynamical consideration would indicate that the contour lines of the classical probability follow classical trajectories. Thus, for the present case of a particle in a square-well potential, classical contour lines would consist of a set of pairs of straight horizontal lines in the region $`aqa`$. It is interesting to note that the contour curves of the smoothed Wigner function, Fig. 1(b), are not straight lines, which indicate that some quantum characteristics still survive Gaussian smoothing. The quantum dynamical property represented by curved contour curves may be referred to as nonlocality, because these curves lead one to interpret that the particle changes its momentum even before it actually hits the potential wall. (For classical dynamical interpretation of Wigner contour curves and problems arising from it, see  and .) This quantum behavior (curved contour curves) lies within the limits of observation because Fig. 1(b) belongs to the physical regime ($`\sigma _q\sigma _p\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}`$).
Figs. 2(a)-2(d) show contour curves for the same particle in its fifth eigenstate . The contour plot of the Wigner distribution function shown in Fig. 2(a) indicates that there are five maxima along the $`q`$ axis arising from the five-peak standing wave structure of the eigenfunction and two maxima along the $`p`$ axis corresponding to the momenta to the right and left, respectively, of the classical particle of the same energy. Characteristic quantum features such as curved contour lines and the formation of islands are even more evident here. Figs. 2(b) and 2(c) are contour plots of the Husimi distribution function ($`\sigma _q\sigma _p=\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}`$) with $`\sigma _q=0.637`$, $`\sigma _p=0.785`$, and with $`\sigma _q=5.70`$, $`\sigma _p=0.0877`$, respectively. One sees that a choice of a large $`\sigma _q`$ ($`\sigma _p`$) results in strong smoothing along the $`q`$ ($`p`$) axis. These two figures represent the quantum phase-space distribution connected to ideal simultaneous measurements with different degrees of the position vs. momentum uncertainties. The fact that Husimi curves are different for a different choice of $`\sigma _q`$ or $`\sigma _p`$ means physically that the quantum distribution looks different depending on how one observes it. It should be noted that the curves of Figs. 2(b) and 2(c), although simpler in structure than the curves of Fig. 2(a) due to measurement-induced decoherence, still exhibit strong quantum behavior such as the islands even though they belong to the physical regime. This can be understood if we note that the uncertainties $`\mathrm{\Delta }_q\sqrt{q^2q^2}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_p\sqrt{p^2p^2}`$ associated with the fifth eigenstate are given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }_q=5.70`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_p=0.785`$ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }_q\mathrm{\Delta }_p=4.48`$). The widths $`\sigma _q`$ and $`\sigma _p`$ of the smoothing Gaussian function used for Figs. 2(b) and 2(c) are less than the uncertainties $`\mathrm{\Delta }_q`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_p`$ inherent in the fifth eigenstate, and therefore the probabilistic nature of the quantum eigenstate is expected to be displayed by the corresponding contour curves. Fig. 2(d) shows contour plots for the case $`\sigma _q=\mathrm{\Delta }_q`$ and $`\sigma _p=\mathrm{\Delta }_p`$. One sees now that the islands, a clear indication of a strong quantum feature, have disappeared. Note, however, that the nonlocal nature (i.e., curved contour curves) is still indicated by the contour curves of Fig. 2(d), as these curves deviate from the corresponding classical trajectories, i.e., straight horizontal lines.

### 3.2 Particle incident on a potential step

As a second example we consider a particle of fixed energy $`E`$ moving under the influence of a step potential

$$V(q)=\{\begin{array}{cc}0,\hfill & \text{if }q<0\text{,}\hfill \\ V_0,\hfill & \text{if }q0\text{.}\hfill \end{array}$$
(3.2)
The wave function and the Wigner distribution function for this particle have been given earlier . The parameter values we have chosen for our computation are $`m=1`$, $`V_0=1`$, $`E=0.5`$ in an arbitrary unit system in which $`\mathrm{}=1`$. Since the particle energy $`E`$ is one half the potential step $`V_0`$, the wave function decreases exponentially with respect to $`q`$ in the region $`q0`$.
Fig. 3(a) shows a contour plot of the Wigner distribution function for the particle. In addition to the quantum features such as curved contour lines and the islands that are already exhibited by the Wigner curves of the particle in a square-well potential, we see that some curves exhibit tunneling into the potential step.
In Figs. 3(b) and 3(c) we show contour plots of the Husimi distribution function for the cases $`\sigma _q=0.5`$, $`\sigma _p=1`$ and $`\sigma _q=1.58`$, $`\sigma _p=0.316`$, respectively. Strong quantum features such as nonlocality, islands and tunneling are still clearly shown, although the curves belong to the physical regime. This can be understood by recalling that, for the particle of energy $`E=0.5`$ being considered here, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_q\mathrm{}`$ (since the particle is extended in the entire half space $`q<0`$) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_p=\sqrt{2mE}=1`$, and the widths $`\sigma _q`$ and $`\sigma _p`$ chosen for Figs. 3(b) and 3(c) are still sufficiently small that the quantum nature of the eigenfunction survives.
Finally in Fig. 3(d) we show a contour plot of the smoothed Wigner distribution function with $`\sigma _q=2.236`$, $`\sigma _p=1`$. Although the islands have disappeared now, the curves still exhibit nonlocality and tunneling. The curves are not quite the same as the classical trajectories which consist of a set of pairs of straight lines in the region $`q<0`$ for $`E<V_0`$.

## 4 High-harmonic radiation generated by a one-dimensional atom irradiated by laser pulses

The phenomenon of high-harmonic generation in atomic gases irradiated by high-power laser pulses has been investigated intensively in the past both theoretically and experimentally . A typical emission spectrum observed experimentally shows a broad plateau extending to high-order harmonics accompanied with a fast cutoff. The mechanism by which high-order harmonics are generated is now well understood. In particular, the simple classical three-step model  has been quite useful in providing the conceptual understanding of this phenomenon.
In this work we focus on the time-frequency distribution of the emitted radiation, i.e., on the relationship between the time of emission and the frequency of emitted radiation. Since the temporal variation of the emitted signal can be represented by the dipole acceleration , the pure quantum-mechanical time-frequency distribution of the emitted radiation is described by the Wigner time-frequency distribution of the dipole acceleration as defined in Eq. (2.4) . Our main interest lies in the effect of measurement on this Wigner time-frequency distribution. In this particular case, the measurement should consist of the simultaneous measurement of time and frequency. One needs to perform a large number of such measurement upon a large number of identically prepared samples (atomic gases irradiated by laser pulses). The time-frequency distribution associated with the measurements with the uncertainties $`\sigma _t`$ and $`\sigma _\omega `$ is given by the Gaussian-smoothed Wigner distribution $`G(t,\omega )`$ of Eq. (2.6). We also compare this smoothed Wigner distribution with the corresponding distribution resulting from classical analysis.
In subsection 4.1 we give a brief description of the system. In subsection 4.2 we then find the classical time-frequency distribution based on the three-step model. The main part of this section is subsection 4.3 in which quantum time-frequency distribution, both Wigner and smoothed Wigner, are presented.

### 4.1 System

The system under consideration is a one-dimensional model atom irradiated by laser pulses. The wave function of the electron in the atom evolves with time according to the time-dependent Schrödinger equation which reads in atomic units

$$i\frac{}{t}|\mathrm{\Psi }(t)=\left[\frac{p^2}{2}+V(x)xE(t)\right]|\mathrm{\Psi }(t),$$
(4.1)
where the atomic potential $`V(x)`$ is modeled upon a soft-core potential of the form

$$V(x)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\beta ^2+x^2}}.$$
(4.2)
We set $`\beta 0.67`$ a.u. in order for the system to have a ground-state energy equivalent to the binding energy $`I_p`$ of Ne. The laser pulse incident on the atom is assumed to be a Gaussian pulse with the electric field $`E(t)`$ given by

$$E(t)=E_0\mathrm{exp}\left[2\mathrm{ln}2\frac{t^2}{(\mathrm{\Delta }t)^2}\right]\mathrm{cos}(\omega _Lt).$$
(4.3)
In our calculations, we take the center frequency of the pulse, $`\omega _L=800`$ nm, the full width at half maximum of the laser pulse, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=160`$ fs, and the peak intensity $`3\times 10^{14}`$ $`\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$.

### 4.2 Classical analysis

Here we consider the question of when each harmonic is emitted. If one uses classical analysis based on the three-step model , it is straightforward to obtain the relation between the time of emission and the frequency of emitted radiation. After tunneling through the Coulomb barrier, different electrons in atoms at different locations in general see the laser field at different phases and therefore follow different classical trajectories. Consequently, different electrons return to their nuclei at different times with different kinetic energies. Let us say that the $`i`$th electron returns to its nucleus at time $`t_i`$ with kinetic energy $`K_i=\frac{1}{2}mv_i^2`$. When this electron recombines with the nucleus, the radiation of frequency $`\omega _i`$ given by $`\mathrm{}\omega _i=I_p+K_i`$ is emitted. Collecting $`\omega _i`$ and $`t_i`$ for all different electrons, one has the answer to the question of when the radiation of a given frequency is emitted. The solid curves in Fig. 4 shows the result of such classical calculations. The curves exhibit the characteristic $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ structure, which indicates that, within one-half optical cycle of the laser field, there exist two different classical trajectories, called “short” and “long” paths, with two different return times that lead to an emission of radiation of a given frequency . The open circles in Fig. 4 represent contributions from multiple recollisions. There is a possibility that recombination does not occur when the electron returns to its nucleus. One thus needs to consider the cases when the electron recombines with the nucleus at the $`n`$th ($`n2`$) encounter with the nucleus. These open circles together with the solid curves of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ structure comprise the classical time-frequency distribution obtained using the three-step model.

### 4.3 Quantum-mechanical analysis

We now turn to a quantum time-frequency distribution of the emitted radiation . For our computation of the Wigner distribution of Eq. (2.4), we first solve the time dependent Schrödinger equation, Eq. (4.1), using the Crank-Nicolson method. Once $`\mathrm{\Psi }(t)`$ is known, the dipole acceleration $`\ddot{d}(t)`$ can be calculated using Eq. (2.5) and then the Wigner time-frequency distribution $`W(t,\omega )`$ can be obtained using Eq. (2.4). The Gaussian-smoothed Wigner distribution $`G(t,\omega )`$ can then be obtained using Eq. (2.6). In particular, the Husimi time-frequency distribution can be computed relatively easily by using Eq. (2.7).
The Wigner time-frequency distribution $`W(t,\omega )`$ we computed shows a very complicated structure, and it is difficult to extract physical meaning out of it. We therefore choose not to show it here and just to mention that it consists of a large number of small islands, a clear indication that strong quantum behavior is exhibited by the time-frequency distribution.
In Figs. 5(a)-5(c), we show Gaussian-smoothed Wigner time-frequency distributions we computed. The widths of the smoothing Gaussian function are $`\sigma _t=2.236`$ and $`\sigma _\omega =0.224`$ for Fig. 5(a). Since $`\sigma _t\sigma _\omega =\frac{1}{2}`$, Fig 5(a) is the Husimi time-frequency distribution. For Figs. 5(b) and 5(c), we have $`\sigma _t=2.236`$, $`\sigma _\omega =0.448`$, and $`\sigma _t=4.472`$, $`\sigma _\omega =0.224`$, respectively. We note that the overall shape of the smoothed Wigner distributions suggests the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ structure of the classical distribution of Fig. 4. The similarity, however, is only qualitative, because the smoothed Wigner distributions have many detailed structures (many islands) absent in the classical distribution. We mention, however, that the smoothed distributions of Figs. 5(a)-5(c) are much simpler than the nonsmoothed Wigner distribution not shown. We see from Figs. 5(a)-5(c) that the distribution in the low-order region takes on the maximum value at times 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, etc, i.e. at times at which the laser field amplitude takes on the maximum or minimum value. The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-like structure in the midplateau region shown in Figs. 5(a)-5(c) indicates that photons in the plateau region are emitted mainly at two different times within one-half cycle of the laser field, in agreement with the classical analysis based on Fig. 4. The separation between these two times decreases and eventually vanishes as the harmonic order is increased toward the cutoff. In the cutoff region, therefore, photons are emitted once within one-half cycle. Figs. 5(a)-5(c) show that the distribution in the cutoff region is maximum at times 0.7, 1.2, 1.7, 2.2, etc, indicating that photons in the cutoff region are emitted at times just before the laser amplitude vanishes.

## 5 Discussion

In this paper we have studied effects of a measurement on the phase-space (time-frequency) distribution using the approach based on the smoothed Wigner distribution function. The physical significance of the phase-space (time-frequency) contour curves differs depending on the widths $`\sigma _q`$ and $`\sigma _p`$ ($`\sigma _t`$ and $`\sigma _\omega `$) of the smoothed Wigner distribution function used. While the contour curves of the nonsmoothed Wigner distribution function with $`\sigma _q0`$ and $`\sigma _p0`$ ($`\sigma _t0`$ and $`\sigma _\omega 0`$) represent the unobservable pure quantum distribution, the Husimi curves with $`\sigma _q\sigma _p=\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}`$ ($`\sigma _t\sigma _\omega =\frac{1}{2}`$) represent the quantum distribution observed in ideal simultaneous measurements with the maximal accuracy allowed by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In general, contour curves in the physical regime corresponding to $`\sigma _q\sigma _p\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}`$ ($`\sigma _t\sigma _\omega \frac{1}{2}`$) represent the quantum distribution associated with a coarse-grained observation caused by measurement errors. We have seen that quantum features such as the islands tend to disappear and the resulting quantum distribution becomes simpler in structure, as the measurement errors are increased. In general, however, the smoothed Wigner distributions associated with relatively large measurement errors have more structures than the corresponding classical distributions.
In conclusion we have shown, with simple one-dimensional model systems as examples, that the phase-space formulation based on the smoothed Wigner distribution function provides a very natural framework in which to study how the quantum phase-space distribution is affected by a measurement.

This research was supported by Korea Research Foundation under Contract No. 2001-015-DP0107.

Figure Captions

Figure 1. Contour plots for a particle in a symmetric infinite square-well potential in its ground state. The mass of the particle is 1 and the width of the potential well is 20 in an arbitrary unit system in which $`\mathrm{}=1`$. (a) Wigner function, (b) smoothed Wigner function with $`\sigma _q=3.62`$ and $`\sigma _p=0.157`$.

Figure 2. Same as Figure 1 except that the particle is in its fifth eigenstate. (a) Wigner function, (b) Husimi function with $`\sigma _q=0.637`$, $`\sigma _p=0.785`$, (c) Husimi function with $`\sigma _q=5.70`$, $`\sigma _p=0.0877`$, (d) smoothed Wigner function with $`\sigma _q=5.70`$, $`\sigma _p=0.785`$.

Figure 3. Contour plots for a particle moving under the influence of a step potential. The mass and energy of the particle are 1 and 0.5, respectively, and the value of the potential is 0 for $`q<0`$ and 1 for $`q0`$, in an arbitrary unit system in which $`\mathrm{}=1`$. (a) Wigner function, (b) Husimi function with $`\sigma _q=0.5`$, $`\sigma _p=1`$, (c) Husimi function with $`\sigma _q=1.58`$, $`\sigma _p=0.316`$, (d) smoothed Wigner function with $`\sigma _q=2.236`$, $`\sigma _p=1`$.

Figure 4. Classical time-frequency distribution for high-harmonic radiation. The solid curves represent contributions from the short and long paths, and the open circles represent contributions from multiple recollisions.

Figure 5. Contour plots for high-harmonic radiation. (a) Husimi function with $`\sigma _t=2.236`$, $`\sigma _\omega =0.224`$, (b) smoothed Wigner function with $`\sigma _t=2.236`$, $`\sigma _\omega =0.448`$, (c) smoothed Wigner function with $`\sigma _t=4.472`$, $`\sigma _\omega =0.224`$.


text:
# Observation of a nonmonotonic transverse voltage induced by vortex motion in a superconducting thin film

Now at \] Institute for Physical High Technology, P.O. Box 100239, D-07702 Jena, Germany

## Abstract

A vortex-induced transverse voltage in a superconducting film, previously predicted theoretically, has been seen experimentally for the first time. The magnitude of this voltage and its nonmonotonic current dependence are explained on the basis of a curvature of the trajectory of vortices resulting from their interaction. A good agreement between theory and experiment is found.

An interaction between magnetic flux vortices of opposite signs in a current-carrying superconducting thin film can result in the appearance of a voltage in the direction transverse with respect to the transport current. This effect was discussed theoretically by Glazman Glazman . In this letter we are reporting an experimental confirmation of this effect.

Glazman’s theory can be outlined as follows: The magnetic field of the transport current penetrates into a strip of film in the form of vortices of opposite sign, because of the different field directions at the opposite edges of the film. The attraction of the vortices to each other causes their trajectories to become curved if they enter the film from the opposite edges in regions displaced along the current. The result is the appearance of a transverse voltage. The transverse current-voltage characteristic is not monotonic.

The sample preparation procedure consisted of the following basic steps: (1) vacuum deposition of tin to a thickness $`d=400700`$ Å on silicon substrates; (2) the formation of a pattern in the resist by electron lithography; (3) etching of the film in an argon plasma. The inset in Fig. 1 shows the central part of a sample. The sample is a film strip of width $`w=48`$ $`\mu `$m with transverse potential contacts. The penetration of flux vortices into the film is facilitated by some notches $`A`$ displaced along the current direction by the width of the potential contacts, $`s=35`$ $`\mu `$m. The size of these notches is $`0.20.7`$ $`\mu `$m.

Longitudinal and transverse dc current-voltage characteristics are recorded in a superconducting shield, cooled in such a manner than the geomagnetic field is expelled from the shield when it goes superconducting. A magnetic field perpendicular to the film is produced by a copper solenoid inside the superconducting shield. The temperature is determined from the helium vapor pressure and is regulated by a membrance evacuation regulator. The derivative of the I-V characteristic is measured by means of a sonic-frequency modulation of the current.

Figure 1 shows some typical I-V characteristics, longitudinal (the upper curve) and transverse, recorded in a zero magnetic field. On the transverse curve we see the voltage surges predicted in Glazman . There are some differences between the experimental and theoretical curves. First, the voltage peaks arise at currents well above the $`I_c`$ of the film, while according to Glazman  these peaks should appear at current near $`I_c`$. The other regions of the film apparently have a lower critical current. The reason may lie in an inhomogeneity of the film or in a current spreading in the crossing region, since the width of the potential contacts is on the order of the film width. Second, it was predicted in Glazman  that the voltage would drop to zero after a surge on the theoretical transverse current-voltage characteristic. We see a different picture: The voltage drops to a certain level and then exhibits a linear behavior with increasing $`I`$. We believe that the reason for this discrepancy is the nonaxial arrangement of the potential contacts, due in particular to the presence of notches $`A`$. To test this interpretation, we measured a transverse I-V characteristic with the sample in its normal state, at $`T>T_c`$. The curve turned out to be linear, with a resistance $`10^2`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ for this particular structure. This result corresponds to a $`0.25\mu `$m misalignment of the potential contacts.

We can work from the experimental data to estimate the size of the voltage surge which we would expect on the transverse current-voltage characteristic as the result of the motion and annihilation of a vortex-antivortex pair. The curves in Fig. 1 were found for a structure with $`w=7`$ $`\mu `$m, $`s=4`$ $`\mu `$m, $`d=600`$ Å , $`R_{square}=0.31`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and $`T_c=3.94`$ K at $`T=3.89`$ K. We use the expression from Glazman , which takes into account the displacement of the vortex entry points, $`s`$:

$$V\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Phi }_0^2/8\pi ^2we\eta d\lambda _{}s.$$
(1)
Here $`e`$ is the charge of an electron, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0=hc/2e`$ is the flux quantum, and $`\lambda _{}=2\lambda ^2/d`$, where $`\lambda `$ is the magnetic-field penetration depth. The viscosity $`\eta `$ can be estimated from Bardeen  $`\eta \mathrm{\Phi }_0H_{c2}/\rho c^2`$. Using $`H_{c2}=\mathrm{\Phi }_0/2\pi \xi ^2`$ and $`\rho /d=R_{square}`$, we then find the product

$$\eta d\mathrm{\Phi }_0^2/2\pi c^2\xi ^2R_{square}.$$
(2)
The electron mean free path $`l`$ can be estimated from the resistance at liquid-helium temperature under the assumption Mermin  $`\rho `$ $`l1.6\times 10^{11}`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }cm^2`$. This estimate yields $`l900`$ Å. Since the coherence length for tin is $`\xi _0=2300`$ Å Duzer , the subsequent calculations are carried out for the case of a dirty superconductor: Gorkov

$$\xi (T)=0.85(\xi _0l)^{1/2}(1T/T_c)^{1/2}.$$
(3)
The penetration depth can be estimated from the value of $`R_{square}`$ Likharev :

$$\lambda _{}(\mu m)0.83R_{square}(\mathrm{\Omega }m)/(T_cT).$$
(4)
The calculations yield $`\lambda _{}5`$ $`\mu `$m and $`\eta d2\times 10^{15}`$ cgs units. We thus find $`V1`$ $`\mu `$V. These rather simple estimates agree well with the experimental results (Fig. 1). Equating the Lorentz force to the friction force (ignoring pinning), we can estimate the vortex velocity: $`\upsilon =\mathrm{\Phi }_0I/cwd\eta 1\times 10^6`$ cm/s. This value is on the order of the sound velocity in the material.

Figure 2 shows the derivative of the transverse voltage, dU/dI, versus $`I`$, according to measurements in various magnetic fields. At $`H=0`$ the curve is symmetric. With increasing field, an asymmetry with respect to the direction of the transport current arises, and in a field $`H=2.3`$ Oe the structural features in the transverse voltage disappear completely. We believe that this asymmetry occurs because notches $`A`$ are not exactly equivalent.

In summary, the effect predicted by Glazman Glazman  has been observed, and there is a quantitative agreement between theory and experiment.

We wish to thank V. T. Volkov and A. N. Pronin for etching the structures.