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# Queuing transitions in the asymmetric simple exclusion process

## I Introduction

Queuing is a common nonequilibrium phenomenon in nature. It appears, e.g., in stochastic-type driven transport through narrow channels, where applications can range from electron transport along nanowires to traffic flow on highways. Queuing has received a lot of attention from the theoretical side for over a decade . It is well established that many driven flow processes belong to the same universality class as Kardar-Parisi-Zhang-(KPZ) type growth of one-dimensional (1D) interfaces . In particular, the so-called asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP)  maps exactly onto the so-called body-centered solid-on-solid lattice version of KPZ growth . This model has been used to describe biopolymerization , gel electronics , directed polymers in random media , traffic jams , and the fluctuations of shock fronts . In the case of periodic boundary conditions, the time development of the ASEP is exactly soluble by the Bethe ansatz . For a wider class of setups, the exact stationary state has been constructed as well using the so-called matrix method .

The starting point and motivation for the study presented here was actually not queuing in driven flow but faceting in KPZ growth. Slow flameless combustion of paper produces 1D burning fronts that evolve in time according to KPZ-type growth. The results of early experiments  seemed to deviate from KPZ behavior, but more recent investigations demonstrated that for length scales larger than about 5-10 mm depending on paper structure, random pinning effects do not play a role any more, and that the interface obeys 1D KPZ scaling . In these experiments, the paper is impregnated with KNO3 to provide the oxygen source necessary for maintaining the slow-combustion process. The burning speed can also be controlled by the KNO3 concentration. In particular, the rate can be enhanced or reduced in a narrow strip along the burning direction. The latter experiments nicely illustrate the presence of nonlinear terms in the equation of motion; the burning front facets for enhanced concentrations but not for reduced ones. The details of these experiments, as well as the matching of the experimental data with our numerical results for the slow- and fast-bond ASEP will be published separately . Here we only present the ASEP queuing perspective.

One of the fundamental questions in driven flow is whether a static obstruction, such as a slow bond, always results in a traffic jam, or whether stochastic fluctuations destroy the queue at weak obstacle strengths. Such a vanishing of the queue as a function of the slow-bond strength represents a dynamic phase transition. The size of the queue is the order parameter, i.e., it being finite or infinite in length; or more precisely, whether the number of “cars” in the queue scales and diverges with the system size or remains finite (in obvious analogy with macroscopic occupation of the ground state in equilibrium Bose condensation). The existence of such a transition, its scaling properties, the shape of the density profile near the obstruction, and also whether information percolates through the slow bond, are the most important issues.

The ASEP is one of the simplest nonequilibrium driven dynamic processes displaying queuing phenomena. Particles move stochastically along a chain of sites $`1xN_s`$, only in one direction, with hopping probability $`p`$ under the constraint that the particles can neither pass each other nor occupy the same site, $`n_x=0,1`$. We use random sequential updating of the sites. The obstacle is introduced by modifying the hopping probability to $`rp`$ at one specific bond along the chain. $`0r<1`$ represents a slow bond and $`r>1`$ a fast bond. We choose open boundary conditions with the special bond in the middle of the chain.

Mean-field theory predicts an infinitely long traffic jam for all $`r<1`$ and only a logarithmic depletion density profile near a fast bond . The literature is confused about what happens in reality. The notion of an $`r_c<1`$ queuing transition seems to have been implicitly presumed in the ASEP literature for over a decade. Kandel and Mukamel  presented early numerical data (for a different but related growth model involving parallel updating and polynuclear growth) suggesting a critical point which would correspond to $`r_c0.7`$ in our model. Above the queuing transition, they reported evidence of continuously varying exponents in the density profiles. Some of these aspects have been confirmed by more recent studies , but to the best of our knowledge, the existence of an $`r_c<1`$ has not been resolved unambiguously. For example, in the ASEP studies with a slow bond and periodic boundary conditions, Janowsky and Lebowitz presented their phase diagrams as if $`r_c=1`$ (the mean-field location) . In retrospect $`r_c0.8`$ seems to us consistent with, e.g., their series expansions . Their main focus was however elsewhere, with the fluctuations in the position of the shock front of the queue, at the far end from the slow bond, and not with the precise value of $`r_c`$.

The exact form of the stationary state in the ASEP can often be obtained from the so-called matrix and Bethe ansatz method , but these analytic techniques typically work only for very specific boundary conditions and/or update rules. Schütz , for example, found $`r_c=1`$ for periodic boundary conditions and parallel updating. That is consistent with our results, because parallel updating creates intrinsically weaker stochastic noise than random sequential updating .

The directed polymer community was focused on the slow-bond issue in the mid 1990s . The driving force behind these studies was the realization of such directed polymers in terms of flux tubes in type-II dirty superconductors. The (1+1)-dimensional ASEP is equivalent to (1+1)-dimensional KPZ-type growth, and the latter to a directed polymer in two dimensions subject to a random potential. In these equivalences, the slope of the KPZ interface is the deviation of the local density from a half filling in the ASEP, $`h/x=12\rho (x)`$, and the mapping of the KPZ equation to the directed polymer problem involves the celebrated Hopf-Cole transformation, $`W=\mathrm{exp}[(\lambda /2\nu )h]`$ (with $`\lambda `$ and $`\nu `$ the KPZ coupling constants; for a review see Ref. ). The slow bond transforms into a columnar defect with a short-ranged attractive interaction, and the queuing issue translates into whether the polymer becomes localized to it immediately or only beyond a critical defect strength. The latter is true above a critical dimension $`D_c`$. Power counting in the KPZ equation and associated field-theoretical renormalization studies suggest that $`D_c=1`$, i.e., our ASEP model is at the critical dimension. In such cases one expects that $`r_c=1`$, likely accompanied by essential singularities . Our results presented below seem to contradict these field-theoretical studies, but actually only do so in a limited sense. We find a more complex structure. The queued ASEP phase represents the strongly localized state. It exists only beyond a critical defect strength $`r_c<1`$. The power-law shaped profile that remains for weaker slow bonds, represents a form of weak localization. Earlier numerical studies in the directed polymer representation confirmed localization in $`D=D_c=1`$ for all $`r<1`$  but were likely insensitive to this distinction.

Faced with the realization of this process in terms of slow combustion of paper, our first goal is to settle the location of $`r_c`$ for the sequential update rule, numerically as accurately as possible. We demonstrate here the presence of a dynamic phase transition at $`r_c0.80(2)`$. The queue remains infinite in length all the way up to $`r_c`$. Its density $`\rho _b=\frac{1}{2}(1+\mathrm{\Delta }_b)`$ decreases as $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b|r_cr|^\beta `$ with $`\beta 1.46(4)`$. This is presented in Sec. III after a detailed discussion of our choice of boundary conditions in Sec. II.

Having settled the existence of the critical point, we turn, in Sec. IV, our attention to the density profile near the slow bond, $`\rho (\stackrel{~}{x})=\frac{1}{2}[1+\mathrm{\Delta }(\stackrel{~}{x})]`$, with $`\stackrel{~}{x}`$ the distance from the special bond. It follows always a power law, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(\stackrel{~}{x})\mathrm{\Delta }_b+A\stackrel{~}{x}^\nu `$. Below the transition, $`r<r_c`$, the density profile has a power-law tail with exponent $`\nu =\frac{1}{2}`$. Above the transition, $`r_c<r<1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b=0`$, the density profile has a power-law shape with exponent $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$. Notice that the remaining power-law queue above $`r_c`$ is still infinite in magnitude, since $`\mathrm{\Delta }(\stackrel{~}{x})𝑑\stackrel{~}{x}N_s^{2/3}`$ diverges. In the fast-bond scenario, the queue has always a power-law profile (i.e., $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b=0`$) for all values $`r>1`$, with exponent $`\nu 0.63(3)`$.

These power-law density profiles are very intriguing, in particular, the fast-bond one. They are different from the density profiles near reservoirs, e.g., those in the exact solution of Derrida et al.  for the open boundary conditions with two reservoirs. Those have exponential tails in the reservoir-dominated phases, and power-law tails with exponent $`\frac{1}{2}`$ in the bulk-dominated maximal-current phase. It is well known how to explain these reservoir-related profiles with the help of simple scaling arguments involving the dynamic exponent $`z=\frac{3}{2}`$, the roughness exponent $`\chi =\frac{1}{2}`$, and the absence or presence of a nonzero group velocity for fluctuations (see, e.g., Ref. ).

In Sec. VI, we generalize these heuristic arguments to the density profiles near the slow bond. This reproduces the observed slow-bond values $`\nu =\frac{1}{2}`$ and $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$. A similar line of reasoning for the fast-bond profile yields $`\nu =1/z=\frac{2}{3}`$, but is on shaky grounds, in particular, in the light of the fact that our numerical results give systematically a somewhat smaller value.

Another important result of this study, presented in Sec. V, is that the passage of particles through the slow bond sets itself up in the stationary state as an uncorrelated process both below and above $`r_c`$. Fluctuations travel away from it from both sides. No information passes through the slow bond. The fast bond, on the other hand, acts very much like a normal site, and fluctuations flow through it. In Sec. VII, we summarize our results.

## II boundary conditions

The choice of boundary conditions is important for the accuracy of our numerical analysis. The special bond creates a power-law shaped density profile. Therefore we need to fully control other sources for density profiles and minimize interference. We have chosen open boundary conditions with the special bond halfway along the road, and particle reservoirs on either side, at $`x=1`$ and $`x=N_s`$. Particles can only hop to the right, $`xx+1`$. The hopping probability is equal to $`p`$ for all sites, except for three special sites. The probability to hop through the special bond is equal to $`p^{}=rp`$. The probability to enter (leave) the road from (into) the reservoir at site $`x=1`$ ($`x=N_s`$) is equal to $`\alpha p`$ ($`\beta p`$). It is advantageous to set $`p=1`$, if possible, to maximize the speed of the Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, but in our case that would exclude us from addressing the fast-bond scenario $`r>1`$. We set $`p=\frac{1}{2}`$ throughout this study. There are several alternatives that can speed up the simulations, but we did not feel the need to explore them in this study. For an example, one might set $`p=1`$ everywhere along the chain except at the special bond by increasing the update probability of that bond.

Our choice to employ open boundary conditions might appear surprising. They often introduce edge effects (surface critical phenomena) that are typically more difficult to interpret and control than those for periodic boundary conditions. In the ASEP, however, periodic boundary conditions introduce a shock wave in the density profile at halfway around the chain, opposite to the slow bond. Janowsky and Lebowitz  studied the fluctuations in the position of this shock wave and found for it to fluctuate critically, implying the absence of a characteristic length scale. We like to decouple the slow bond from those fluctuations and do so by using open boundary conditions. The trade-off are density profiles near the edges of the road induced by the particle reservoirs. But these are under full control with the help of the exact solution of the $`r=1`$ ASEP with open boundary conditions . The density profiles near the edges have only exponential tails, provided that we choose suitable values for $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$. At $`r=1`$, for $`\alpha =\beta =\frac{1}{2}`$, the density profile is completely flat and featureless; $`\rho _x=\frac{1}{2}`$ for all $`x`$ . Thus, we select $`\alpha =\beta =\frac{1}{2}`$ throughout this study

Assume that the slow bond creates an infinite queue. In the bulk of that queue, far from both the slow bond and the road edge, the stationary state is uncorrelated, because locally it is indistinguishable from a setup with periodic boundary conditions without the slow bond. Moreover, from the perspective of the sites near the $`x=1`$ edge, this situation is indistinguishable from a setup with $`r=1`$ (no slow bond) where an exit probability $`\beta `$ at the opposite site of the road could be responsible for this enhanced bulk density $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$. From the exact solution of that setup, we know that the density profile near the entry edge is exponential, $`\rho (x)\frac{1}{2}(1+\mathrm{\Delta }_b)+B\mathrm{exp}(x/\xi )`$ with a finite correlation length $`\xi \mathrm{\Delta }_b^2`$. Our simulations confirm this .

Other important features of the density profile are predetermined as well. For all $`\alpha =\beta `$, the density profile has particle-hole symmetry with respect to the special bond, $`\rho (x)=1\rho (N_s+1x)`$. Define $`\mathrm{\Delta }(x)`$ as the deviation of the density from $`\frac{1}{2}`$, $`\rho (x)=\frac{1}{2}[1+\mathrm{\Delta }(x)]`$, such that $`\mathrm{\Delta }(x)=\mathrm{\Delta }(N_s+1x)`$. Then, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$ is the order parameter of our model and represents the spontaneous faceting angle of the slow-combustion interface profile in the KPZ interpretation.

In the steady-state limit, the current along the chain must be uniform. From the fact that the bulk stationary state is uncorrelated, it follows immediately that its value through such a bulk bond is equal to

$$J=p\widehat{n}_x(1\widehat{n}_{x+1})=\frac{p}{4}(1\mathrm{\Delta }_b^2).$$
(1)
This means that we have the option to determine $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$ by measuring $`J`$. The current from the reservoir to the first site

$$J=\alpha p(1\widehat{n}_1)=\frac{\alpha p}{2}(1\mathrm{\Delta }_1)$$
(2)
must be equal to the bulk current in the stationary state. This yields, for $`\alpha =\frac{1}{2}`$, that the density at site $`x=1`$ is equal to $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1=\mathrm{\Delta }_b^2`$.

The density profiles in front and beyond the special bond obey particle-hole symmetry, $`n_L=1n_R`$, with $`x_L`$ and $`x_R`$ the sites immediately in front and beyond the special bond. Moreover, we will demonstrate in Sec. V that the ratio $`=\widehat{n}_L\widehat{n}_R/\widehat{n}_R`$ is very close to $`=\frac{1}{2}`$ for all values of $`r`$. The current through the special bond

$$J=rp\widehat{n}_L(1\widehat{n}_R)=rp\left[(1+)n_L\right]$$
(3)
must again be equal to the bulk current, thus anchoring the value of the density immediately in front of the special bond to the order parameter of our process as $`\mathrm{\Delta }_L=\frac{1}{3}[(1\mathrm{\Delta }_b^2)/r1]`$ if $``$ is exactly equal to $`\frac{1}{2}`$.

Figure 1 summarizes the above discussion. The current, the densities at the first and last sites, the characteristic exponential length scale of the density profile near the reservoir edge (in the faceted phase), and the bulk density are all linked to each other. This leaves only the spontaneous creation of a nonzero $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$ and the density profile near the special bond as independent issues.

## III queuing phase transition

The first issue at hand is to settle by numerical means the burning question whether there exists a queuing transition at an $`r_c<1`$. We perform MC simulations for system sizes up to $`N_s=4096`$ and analyze them by finite size scaling (FSS) techniques. The order parameter of the queuing transition is the offset of the density in the bulk, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$ (far from both the special bond and the edge). There are several ways to measure this.

One can directly measure the density at a site such as $`x=\frac{1}{4}N_s`$ and perform a FSS analysis to determine the asymptotic value. This works, but neither $`x=\frac{1}{4}N_s`$ nor any other fixed site is optimal for such an analysis, because the density profile has a power-law tail at the special bond side and only an exponential one near the reservoir. Instead, we show in Fig. 2 the values for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$ from a power-law density profile fit

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(\stackrel{~}{x})\mathrm{\Delta }_b+A\stackrel{~}{x}^\nu $$
(4)
(with $`\stackrel{~}{x}=x_Rx`$ the distance from the special bond) at our maximum system size $`N_s=4096`$.

As pointed out in the preceding section, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$ is directly linked to various other quantities, such as the average current $`J`$, the density at the first site near the edge $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$, and the characteristic length $`\xi `$ of the exponential tail in the density profile near the edge. We measure these quantities as well, and translate the first two into their predictions for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$. The results, also shown in Fig. 2, are almost indistinguishable from those of the power-law density profile fits. This confirms our analysis of the preceding section.

Figure 2 suggests very strongly the existence of a critical point at about $`r_c0.8`$. However, this is a common optical illusion, which vanishes upon zooming-in to this point, as in Fig. 3. Assume that the order parameter obeys the conventional FSS scaling form

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_b(N_s,ϵ)=b^{x_\mathrm{\Delta }}\mathrm{\Delta }_b(b^1N_s,b^yϵ),$$
(5)
where $`ϵ=r_cr`$. We test how well our numerical data obey this scaling relation and what the best values of $`r_c`$, $`x_\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and $`\beta =x_\mathrm{\Delta }/y`$ are. The order parameter should scale as a function of $`ϵ`$ as $`\mathrm{\Delta }_bϵ^\beta `$. In Fig. 4, we show a log-log plot of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$ versus $`ϵ`$ for various choices of $`r_c`$ at $`N=4096`$. The best straight line is obtained for $`r_c=0.80(2)`$ with slope $`\beta =1.46(4)`$. At the same choice for $`r_c`$, the order parameter also scales perfectly as a power law $`\mathrm{\Delta }_bN_s^{x_\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ with a critical dimension $`x_\mathrm{\Delta }=0.370(5)`$. One should always be on guard for corrections to scaling. For that reason we plot in Fig. 5 the scaling function $`𝒮`$ defined as

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_b(N_s,ϵ)=N_s^{x_\mathrm{\Delta }}𝒮(N_s^yϵ)$$
(6)
for $`r_c=0.80`$, $`x_\mathrm{\Delta }=0.370`$, and $`\beta =x_\mathrm{\Delta }/y=1.46`$. The data collapses very well, implying only minor corrections to scaling.

An alternative scaling form to consider is an exponential essential-singularity-type infinite-order transition, in particular, with $`r_c=1`$, as suggested by the directed polymer renormalization studies . We tried these forms, shown in Fig. 6. They fit our MC data poorly.

## IV density profiles

The density profiles near the special bond have a power-law shape for all values of $`r`$. Figure 7 shows our numerical results for the exponent $`\nu `$ and the amplitude $`A`$ as defined in Eq. (4). We performed also two-parameter fits after determining $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$ independently from the numerical values for the current and the density at site $`x=1`$, using the inter-relations outlined in Sec. II. These results are identical within the MC noise.

The jumps in $`\nu `$ at $`r_c`$ and $`r=1`$ are very pronounced in Fig. 7. It seems safe to conclude, surely as a starting assumption for the discussion in the following two sections, that for slow bonds the exponent takes the value $`\nu =\frac{1}{2}`$ in the $`r<r_c`$ macroscopic queued phase and $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$ in the $`r_c<r<1`$ power-law queued phase. To the best of our knowledge only one earlier study, the one by Slanina and Kotrla , observed this type of power law, but they suggested a value different from $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$. We will present convincing heuristic analytic derivations for our values in Sec.VI.

The power-law queue for fast bonds, $`r>1`$, is quite intriguing. This is where Kandel and Mukamel  sighted a possible continuously varying $`\nu `$. We interpret our data as strong evidence for a nonvarying constant value $`\nu 0.63(3)`$. The drop in the estimates in Fig. 7 near $`r=1`$ resembles conventional (multicritical-type) crossover scaling, but we cannot verify this explicitly, because this power-law decays much faster than in both slow-bond phases, and, e.g., at $`r=1.1`$, the amplitude sinks underneath our MC noise level already at about $`x60`$. We exclude $`x<20`$ from our fits to avoid (short-distance-type) corrections to scaling.

Obviously we would like to “talk” this fast-bond power-law profile towards $`\nu =\frac{2}{3}`$, since that number occurs naturally in 1D KPZ-type processes. However, our heuristic argument for $`\nu =1/z=\frac{2}{3}`$ is not very strong, see Sec.VI, and the fits to the MC data in Fig. 7 remain consistently below that value.

For this reason we also studied the following $`r\mathrm{}`$ like setup. Consider a normal chain without any special bond but with the site in the middle allowed to be doubly occupied, $`n_{N_s/2}=0,1,2`$. In this setup we can increase the hopping probability $`p`$ to $`p=1`$ and thus speed up MC simulations ($`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are again set equal to $`\frac{1}{2}`$). The log-log plot of the density profile, shown in Fig. 8, is quite straight. Still, the slope suggests a somewhat smaller exponent, $`\nu =0.64(2)`$ (using $`20<x<500`$ as the fitting range). $`\nu =\frac{2}{3}`$ is still a possibility, but seems to require a significant subdominant correction to scaling power-law term. A more detailed analysis becomes meaningful only when the noise level is brought down by at least one more order of magnitude from our current $`\delta \rho /\rho 0.001`$ level, which requires vastly longer MC runs.

## V uncorrelated passage

Our numerical observation that the density profile near the special bond follows always a power law, $`\delta \rho \stackrel{~}{x}^\nu `$, in all three phases, is far from obvious. The actual values for $`\nu `$ are even more intriguing. In this and the following sections, we present intuitive heuristic explanations for the slow-bond values, and also address the fast-bond case. An important ingredient in this is that the passage through the slow bond is an uncorrelated random process in both the macroscopic queued phase at $`r<r_c`$ and the power-law queued phase at $`r_c<r<1`$.

In the macroscopic queued phase, the absence of passage correlations is easily understood. Fluctuations travel away from the slow bond, both in front and beyond it. The group velocity of fluctuations $`v_g`$ points away from the slow bond in both directions. $`v_g=\delta J/\delta \rho `$ represents the local response of the current to a density fluctuation. The stationary state is uncorrelated inside the bulk, such that the current is equal to $`J=p\rho _b(1\rho _b)`$ and $`v_g=p(12\rho _b)=p\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$. Fluctuation-type wave packets travel with this velocity along the road, while they broaden spatially as $`\xi t^{1/z}`$, with the 1D KPZ dynamic exponent $`z=\frac{3}{2}`$. In the KPZ growth context, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b`$ represents the average slope of the growing surface, and the traveling wave packet reflects that the interface moves perpendicular to the local surface orientation.

The precise form of $`v_g`$ for spatially varying densities $`\rho (x)`$ is more complex, but for slowly varying ones, like here, we can assume $`v_g`$ is well represented by

$$v_g(x)=p[12\rho (x)]=p\mathrm{\Delta }(x).$$
(7)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(x)`$ is positive in the macroscopically queued phase, such that the center of mass of a fluctuation packet moves away from the slow bond linearly in time, $`x_{\mathrm{CM}}t`$. During this process, it spreads over a width $`\xi t^{1/z}`$. Fluctuations detach from the slow bond, because the center of mass of the packet propagates faster than its broadening front. Therefore the density fluctuations at the slow bond are uncorrelated in time. No memory remains at the slow bond of anything happening there before. No information passes through the slow bond.

Most of this remains true in the power-law queued phase at $`r_c<r<1`$. Now the group velocity vanishes in the bulk, but remains nonzero near the slow bond, because of the power-law shaped density profile of the queue. The center of mass of a fluctuation packet still moves away from the slow bond, but only as $`x_{\mathrm{CM}}t^{1/(1+\nu )}`$, see Eq. (7). During this, it spreads again over a width $`\xi t^{1/z}`$. Therefore, for all $`\nu <z1=\frac{1}{2}`$ the packet detaches from the slow bond. $`\nu =z1`$ is the critical value. Numerically we find $`\nu \frac{1}{3}`$, see Fig. 7(a). So the density profile near the slow bond organizes itself in a form where the passage fluctuations through the slow bond are uncorrelated in time and density fluctuations originating on the road do not affect it.

It is useful to test this explicitly by numerical simulations, in particular, in the power-law queued phase. Time correlators, such as the current-current autocorrelation function, are the preferred tools for this, but unfortunately they do not yield much useful information. The current-current correlator drops in magnitude by two orders within 10 MC time steps, not only near the slow bond, but everywhere along the road as well. This reflects that, in KPZ growth, $`\delta JN_s^\sigma `$ scales with a large $`\sigma 2`$.

As a second best choice, we focus instead on spatial correlations between the densities across the slow bond. Consider the ratio

$$=\frac{\widehat{n}_L\widehat{n}_R}{\widehat{n}_R},$$
(8)
with $`\widehat{n}_L`$ and $`\widehat{n}_R`$ the density operators at the sites immediately in front and beyond the special bond. For reference, the same type of ratio for two nearest-neighbor sites anywhere along the road, in the bulk, far from edges and slow bonds, is equal to $`\frac{1}{2}`$, because the bulk stationary state is uncorrelated, with $`\widehat{n}_i\widehat{n}_{i+1}=\widehat{n}_i\widehat{n}_{i+1}`$. Near the edges, however, and in particular, inside power-law profiles, the neighbors are correlated, and the ratio moves away from $`\frac{1}{2}`$.

Figure 9 shows that $``$, as defined in Eq. (8), is almost equal to $`\frac{1}{2}`$ for all values of $`r`$. The deviations are only of order $`3\%`$. This is consistent with the picture that fluctuations travel away from the slow bond from both sides.

To quantify this in more detail, we consider the following mean-field-type approach, in which the road in front and beyond the slow bond are treated as reservoirs (devoid of fluctuations as far as the slow bond is concerned). We solve thus the following two-site problem, with only sites $`x_L`$ and $`x_R`$ on either side of the slow bond. Particles hop onto site $`x_L`$ with an effective probability $`\alpha _{\mathrm{eff}}p`$ from the road in front of it, treating the road as a reservoir; then move through the slow bond with probability $`rp`$; and finally hop away from $`x_R`$ onto the road beyond the slow bond with probability $`\alpha _{\mathrm{eff}}p`$, treating that as a reservoir as well. Finally, we tune $`\alpha _{\mathrm{eff}}p`$ to the value where the current takes the same value as in the true system. This approximation yields rather trivially $`=\frac{1}{2}`$ for all $`r`$ and all $`\alpha _{\mathrm{eff}}`$. The dashed line in Fig. 9 shows $``$ for the next level of mean-field theory, with four sites instead of two, taking into account local correlations. These suffice to reproduce already most of the small deviations we observe in the true $``$ as a function of $`r`$, and support the uncorrelated passage nature of the process.

The ratio remains equal to $`\frac{1}{2}`$ for fast bonds, and actually even better than for $`r<1`$. How do fluctuations travel there? The group velocity changes its sign (moving direction), because the power-law queue, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(\stackrel{~}{x})A\stackrel{~}{x}^\nu `$, turns into a depletion zone with negative amplitude $`A`$. Fluctuations travel towards the fast bond from both sides. It might seem therefore that this passage process must be highly correlated. However, fluctuations originating from all over the road bombard the fast bond from both sides, and average each other out. Consider a fluctuation created at a distance $`x`$ from the fast bond. The center of mass of this fluctuation moves towards it, and arrives after a time of flight $`tx^{\nu +1}`$. During this time, it has broadened over a width $`\xi t^{1/z}`$. Ignoring the center of mass movement, its leading edge would arrive at the fast bond after a time $`tx^z`$. For $`\nu >z1=\frac{1}{2}`$ the leading edge arrives well before the center of mass, and the latter can be neglected. Again, $`\nu =z1=\frac{1}{2}`$, is the critical value. For fast bonds we find numerically $`\nu 0.63`$, see Fig. 7(a). This explains why $`=\frac{1}{2}`$. The density profile organizes itself again into a form where the passage correlations remain simple. The fast bond acts very much like an ordinary bulk site, and fluctuations flow through it.

## VI a derivation of the density profiles

In the preceding section we found that the density profiles organize themselves into a form such that the passage through the special bond is an uncorrelated process. Here we give heuristic arguments for the actual values of the exponents: $`\nu =\frac{1}{2}`$ at $`r<r_c`$ and $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$ at $`r_c<r<1`$ for slow bonds. We also explain why for fast bonds $`\nu 1/z`$.

First, consider the slow bond $`\nu =\frac{1}{2}`$ power-law density profile in the macroscopic queued phase at $`r<r_c`$. The total number of excess particles in this queue diverges with system size $`N_s`$ as $`\delta NN_s^{1/2}`$. This has a familiar ring to it. In the Derrida et al.  type open system setup with reservoirs on both sides and no special bonds, the fluctuations in the total number of particles on the road scale as $`\delta NN_s^{1/2}`$. In that setup, this property does not translate into power-law-type density profiles, except when the road is half filled, $`\rho _b=\frac{1}{2}`$. The density profiles are exponential or featureless in the two $`\rho _b\frac{1}{2}`$ phases where either reservoir controls the bulk density.

The parking garage process of Ref.  is closer to queuing dynamics. In that study the two reservoirs were merged into one, such that the road forms a loop starting and ending in the same parking garage. The total number of cars in the system is then conserved, leading to dynamic phase transitions between condensate-type stationary states where the garage is macroscopically occupied and a normal phase where it is not. That process has two parameters, the total number of cars in the system and a modified hopping probability $`\alpha p`$ to jump from the garage onto the first site of the road.

The fluctuations in total number of particles on the road is again equal to $`\delta NN_s^{1/2}`$. The explanation of this goes as follows  for the normal phase, the nonmaximal-current condensate phase, and also at the transition point between them. The group velocity of fluctuations $`v_g`$ is nonzero. This means that the departure of cars from the garage is an uncorrelated process. Fluctuations detach from the garage because they travel away faster (linear in time) than they are spreading backward (as $`\xi t^{1/z}`$ with $`z=\frac{3}{2}`$). Moreover, after a time of flight $`t_{\mathrm{flight}}=N_s/v_g`$ they move around the loop, return to the garage, and are completely erased. So we deal with $`t_{\mathrm{flight}}`$ random uncorrelated deposition events. The fluctuations in the number of cars on the road therefore scale as $`t_{\mathrm{flight}}^{1/2}`$. In the condensate phase, these fluctuations do not lead to an offset in the average density of parked cars, because the garage is macroscopically occupied, and positive and negative fluctuations cancel out against each other. But at the transition point, the bottom of the garage becomes visible. This limits the negative density fluctuations, and therefore introduces a bias towards increased occupation, such that the number of parked cars is enhanced and scales as $`\delta N_PN_s^{1/2}`$.

The same type of reasoning applies to the slow-bond setup. The passage through the slow bond is a stochastic uncorrelated event (as demonstrated in the preceding section), similar to departures from the garage mentioned above. Again, all memory is erased after $`t_{\mathrm{flight}}N_s`$, the time that takes for a fluctuation to travel from the slow bond to the reservoir. The fluctuations in the number of cars passing through therefore scale as $`t_{\mathrm{flight}}^{1/2}`$. These fluctuations are biased again, because the sites immediately in front and beyond the slow bond are not reservoirs. Excess particles waiting to pass are spread out, and not available for immediate passage. The passage process is biased, because slow bonds process particles slower than normal bonds, while the passing probability of vacancies does not depend on the value of $`r`$. (Our process has particle-hole symmetry but only in conjunction with left-right mirroring with respect to the special bond.) The total number of excess cars near the slow bond waiting to pass scales therefore as $`\delta N_PN_s^{1/2}`$. These extra particles must be accommodated over a stretch of road $`x<x_L`$ behind the slow bond. We can imagine two ways to realize this: an exponential density profile with a correlation length diverging as $`\xi N_s^{1/2}`$ or a power-law profile with $`\nu =\frac{1}{2}`$ as we actually observe. The power law is indeed more likely given the intrinsic critical nature of ASEP.

Next, let us generalize this argument to the $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$ power law above the queuing transition, at $`r_c<r<1`$. The time of flight of a fluctuation to travel from the slow bond all the way back to site $`x=1`$, scales now only as, $`t_{\mathrm{flight}}N_s^{\nu +1}`$ since $`v_g=p\mathrm{\Delta }(\stackrel{~}{x})\stackrel{~}{x}^\nu `$. Assume that $`\nu <\frac{1}{2}`$, in which case the fluctuations still detach from the slow bond and the passage through the slow bond remains uncorrelated. The process at the slow bond is still biased toward low density fluctuations. FSS corrections to the total number of cars in the queue is proportional to $`t_{\mathrm{flight}}`$ uncorrelated events:

$$\delta Nt_{\mathrm{flight}}^{1/2}N_s^{(\nu +1)/2}.$$
(9)
This queue heaps up behind the slow bond, and again arranges itself in the form of a power-law shaped density profile, $`\delta \rho \stackrel{~}{x}^\nu `$. Self-consistency implies that $`(\nu +1)/2=\nu +1\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$, in accordance with the observed value.

The $`\nu 0.63(3)`$ power law for the fast bond is more challenging. This is a fundamentally different phenomenon. Again fluctuations travel across the system, but now run towards the fast bond instead of away from it. Actually, as shown already in the preceding section, for $`\nu >z1=\frac{1}{2}`$ the time of flight of the center of mass of a fluctuation $`t_{\mathrm{flight}}N_s^{\nu +1}`$ is longer than the time it takes that same fluctuation to spread over the entire system $`tN_s^z`$. In the $`r<1`$ phases, we are allowed to ignore for this reason the spreading of the fluctuations, and only consider their center of mass motion (the time of flight). At $`r>1`$ this is reversed. In the $`r<1`$ phases, the exponent $`\nu `$ was insensitive to the actual value of the dynamic exponent $`z`$ of the dynamic process. In the $`r>1`$ phase, it must depend on $`z`$.

A $`\nu \frac{2}{3}`$ power-law tail is very rare. It does not appear, e.g., anywhere in the Derrida et al.  type two-reservoirs setup. Interestingly, however, this density profile appeared already in the parking garage ASEP study ; at the second-type condensation transition, from the “normal” to the “maximum current” phase. The characteristic feature was that, at the transition point, the garage started to transmit information (seized to act as a reservoir), and that at that point the bulk group velocity was zero. The similarities with the fast bonds are striking. We are clearly looking at the same type of phenomenon. The slow bond does not transmit information, while the fast bond acts very much like a normal site and fluctuations move (i.e., they spread) through it (see also the preceding section).

What might the true value of $`\nu 0.63(3)`$ be? An obvious guess is that $`\nu =1/z`$, but how to explain this? One of the crucial aspects must be again that the processing of fluctuations is biased at the fast bond, leading to a depletion queue with a total deficit of

$$\delta N_0^{N_s/2}𝑑\stackrel{~}{x}\stackrel{~}{x}^\nu N_s^{1\nu }N_s^{1/3}$$

particles. The sign of this in now negative, because at the fast bond the particles are processed faster than at the normal bonds, while the passing rate of vacancies does not depend on $`r`$.

Density fluctuations are created everywhere along the road, all the time, and with a common characteristic amplitude. Each spreads in time over a region $`\xi t^{1/z}`$. A fluctuation created at a distance $`\stackrel{~}{x}`$ from the fast bond arrives there after a time $`t\stackrel{~}{x}^z`$ and with a reduced amplitude (from spreading) of order $`A\stackrel{~}{x}^{1/z}`$. The asymmetry in processing high and low density fluctuations gives rise then to a density deficit of order $`A\stackrel{~}{x}^{1/z}`$ from fluctuation originating at distance $`\stackrel{~}{x}`$. Next, adopting rather frivolously superposition principle concepts, one would guess that the total density deficit in front of the fast bond scales as $`\delta N_0^{N_s/2}𝑑\stackrel{~}{x}A\stackrel{~}{x}^{1/z}N_s^{11/z}`$ in agreement with what we observed numerically.

Although the last argument is reasonably appealing, it is certainly not convincing. A more robust explanation is needed. Moreover, the numerical value $`\nu 0.63(3)`$ is sufficiently lower to cast serious doubts that $`\nu =\frac{2}{3}`$ is correct. On the other hand, the above argument serves as a proper order of magnitude estimate.

## VII summary

In this study, we reconfirmed numerically, and beyond doubt the presence of a queuing phase transition in the ASEP with a slow bond of strength $`r_c0.80(2)`$. We established the two scaling exponents of this transition. The order parameter, the excess density in the queue, vanishes as $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b|r_cr|^\beta `$ with $`\beta =1.46(4)`$. At the transition point, the number of particles in the queue scales with system size as $`\mathrm{\Delta }_bN_s^{x_\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ with $`x_\mathrm{\Delta }=0.370(5)`$.

From a more general perspective, the transition illustrates that weak obstructions do not give rise to macroscopic traffic jams (queues with lengths that scale linearly with the system size). The stochastic fluctuations overwhelm the slow bond above $`r_c`$.

A second result of our study is that above $`r_c`$ a power-law shaped queue (traffic jam) remains, $`\delta \rho A\stackrel{~}{x}^\nu `$, with $`\stackrel{~}{x}`$ the distance from the obstruction and opposite signs for $`A`$ in front and beyond the obstruction. The exponent is equal to $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$. This value is most likely universal, because our heuristic derivation for the general case does not involve specific details of the dynamics. In particular, it does not involve the KPZ value of the dynamic exponent $`z`$, except for the requirement that fluctuations travel faster away from the slow bond than they spread. The argument applies for any process with $`z>1+\nu =\frac{4}{3}`$.

From the directed polymer perspective our results are unexpected. The slow-bond queuing transition represents a crossover from strong to a weaker (but still strong) form of localization, because the $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$ power-law density tail near the slow bond contains still an infinite number of particles; (naively) the polymer distribution behaves as $`W\mathrm{exp}[(\lambda /2\nu )h]\mathrm{exp}(Cx^{1\nu })`$. It will be interesting to see how this weak localized phase, and the above exact self-consistent argument for $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$, can be integrated and reconciled with the field-theoretical descriptions of Refs. .

For fast bonds (such as a local widening of the road), a macroscopic depletion queue (with a length proportional to the road length) never appears. Instead, a power-law shaped depletion queue is always present with exponent $`\nu 0.63(3)`$. It remains yet unclear whether this value is equal to $`\nu =1/z`$. It will be interesting to study how our results extend to other models of driven flow along one-dimensional channels, in particular, to non-KPZ-type dynamics.

## acknowledgments

We would like to thank Joachim Krug for helpful discussions. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMR-9985806, a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), and by the Academy of Finland.


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# Observation of an Exotic 𝑆=+1 Baryon in Exclusive Photoproduction from the Deuteron

## Abstract

In an exclusive measurement of the reaction $`\gamma dK^+K^{}pn`$, a narrow peak that can be attributed to an exotic baryon with strangeness $`S=+1`$ is seen in the $`K^+n`$ invariant mass spectrum. The peak is at $`1.542\pm 0.005`$ GeV/c2 with a measured width of 0.021 GeV/c2 FWHM, which is largely determined by experimental mass resolution. The statistical significance of the peak is $`5.2\pm 0.6\sigma `$. The mass and width of the observed peak are consistent with recent reports of a narrow $`S=+1`$ baryon by other experimental groups.

High-energy neutrino and anti-neutrino scattering experiments perkins  have established that sea-quarks ($`q\overline{q}`$ pairs) are part of the ground-state wave function of the nucleon. In addition, results from pion electroproduction experiments in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-resonance region, together with other experiments, have shown csmith  the presence of a pion “cloud” surrounding the valence quarks of the nucleon. In this sense, 5-quark ($`qqqq\overline{q}`$) configurations are mixed with the standard 3-quark valence configuration. However, it is natural to ask whether a 5-quark configuration exists where the $`\overline{q}`$ has a different flavor than (and hence cannot annihilate with) the other four quarks. Such states are not forbidden by QCD strottman ; lipkin , and definite evidence of pentaquark states would be an important addition to our understanding of QCD. In fact, the question of which color singlet configurations exist in nature lies at the heart of non-perturbative QCD. A baryon with the exotic strangeness quantum number $`S=+1`$ is a natural candidate for a pentaquark state.

The general idea of a five-quark state has been around since the late 60’s pdg86 . Recently, symmetries within the chiral soliton model were used by Diakonov, Petrov and Polyakov diakonov  to predict an anti-decuplet of 5-quark resonances with spin and parity $`J^\pi =\frac{1}{2}^+`$. The lowest mass member, an isosinglet with valence quark configuration $`uudd\overline{s}`$ giving strangeness $`S=+1`$ (originally called the $`Z^+`$, but now renamed as the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$thname ) has a predicted mass of approximately 1.53 GeV/c2 and a width of $`0.015`$ GeV/c2. The narrow width, similar to that of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$(1520) baryon resonance with strangeness $`S=1`$, is largely constrained by symmetries of the coupling constants and the phase space of the decay to a $`KN`$ final state.

The existence of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ has been suggested by several recent experiments. The LEPS collaboration at the SPring-8 facility in Japan recently reported nakano  the observation of an $`S=+1`$ baryon at 1.54 GeV/c2 with a FWHM less than $`0.025`$ GeV/c2 from the inclusive reaction $`\gamma nK^{}(K^+X)`$ where the target neutron is bound in carbon, and the residual nucleus is assumed to be a spectator. This measurement reported a statistical significance of $`4.6\pm 1.0\sigma `$. Also, the DIANA collaboration at ITEP dolgolenko  recently announced results from an analysis of bubble-chamber data for the reaction $`K^+nK^0p`$, where the neutron is bound in a xenon nucleus, which shows a narrow peak at $`1.539\pm 0.002`$ GeV/c2. The statistical significance of the ITEP result is 4.4 $`\sigma `$.

One might wonder how an $`(nK^+)`$ resonance could have evaded earlier searches. The Particle Data Group has summarized these searches most recently in 1986 pdg86  saying that the results permit no definite conclusion for an $`S=+1`$ resonance. A more recent phase shift analysis for $`K^+N`$ scattering by Hyslop et al. hyslop  finds weak resonance behavior in the $`P_{01}`$, $`D_{03}`$, $`P_{13}`$, and $`D_{15}`$ partial waves, but none of these “resonance-like structures” (in the words of Ref. hyslop ) have convincing phase motion. We note that the $`K^+n`$ database is sparse for low-energy $`K^+`$ beams, and a narrow resonance could have escaped detection arndt .

The present experiment is an exclusive measurement on deuterium for the reaction $`\gamma dK^+K^{}p(n)`$ where the final state neutron is reconstructed from the missing momentum and energy. The data presented here were taken at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility with the CLAS detector clas  and the photon tagging system tagger  in Hall B. Photon beams were produced by 2.474 and 3.115 GeV electrons incident on a bremsstrahlung radiator of thickness $`10^4`$ radiation lengths, giving a tagged photon flux of approximately $`4\times 10^6`$ $`\gamma `$’s per second. The maximum tagged photon energy was $`95\%`$ of the electron beam energy. The integrated tagged photon flux above $`1.51`$ GeV was $`1.64\times 10^{12}`$ at 2.474 GeV and $`0.70\times 10^{12}`$ at 3.115 GeV. The tagged photon energy is measured with a resolution of between 0.003 and 0.005 GeV, depending on the energy. The photons struck a liquid-deuterium target of thickness 10 cm.

The event trigger was formed when a charged particle hit two scintillator planes (the “start counter” around the target and a time-of-flight “TOF” counter a few meters away), in coincidence with an electron detected in the tagging system. The particle identification was performed using the reconstructed momentum and charge from tracking, together with the measured TOF. The analysis focused on events with a detected proton, $`K^+`$ and $`K^{}`$ (and no other charged particles) in the final state. Either the $`K^+`$ or the $`K^{}`$ in the event was required to have a time at the interaction vertex within 1.5 ns of the proton’s vertex time. Also, the incident photon time at the interaction vertex was required to be within 1.0 ns of the proton (to eliminate accidental coincidences). The missing mass ($`MM`$) of the selected events is plotted in Fig. 1, which shows a peak at the neutron mass on top of a small background. A fit to the distribution (solid line) yields a mass resolution of $`\sigma =0.009`$ GeV/c2.

The reaction $`\gamma dK^+K^{}p(n)`$ selects the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ decays to the $`K^+n`$ final state. It is likely that production of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ in this final state proceeds on the neutron via $`t`$-channel $`K^+`$ exchange, similar to the production of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1520)`$ on the proton, where the dominant mechanism is $`t`$-channel $`K^{}`$ exchange lambda . If the proton is a spectator during $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ production, it will not be seen in our detector due to its small momentum minmom . However, in some fraction of events, the $`K^{}`$ and the proton may be involved in the final state interaction (FSI), as shown in Fig. 2. While the production of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ does not require a rescattering, such events increase the probability of detecting the $`K^{}`$’s and the protons in the final state by rescattering them into the acceptance region of CLAS. By requiring an exclusive process, we are able to fully reconstruct the unobserved neutron, which aids significantly in reducing background. Another advantage of this exclusive measurement is that no corrections for the Fermi momentum of the neutron are needed, so the width of the neutron peak in Fig. 1 is limited only by the resolution of the CLAS detector system. Events within $`\pm 3\sigma `$ of the neutron peak were kept for further analysis. The background in this region is about 15% of the total, mostly from pions that are misidentified as kaons.

There are several known reactions, such as photoproduction of mesons (that decay into $`K\overline{K}`$) or excited hyperons (that decay into $`pK^{}`$), that contribute to the same final state. We now discuss the explicit cuts we have made to remove the main background sources from our final event sample in order to enhance our signal relative to background. The $`\varphi `$ meson at 1.02 GeV/c2, which decays into a $`K^+`$ and $`K^{}`$, is produced primarily at forward angles betsch . These events are easily identified using the invariant mass of the $`K^+K^{}`$ pair, $`M(K^+K^{})`$, as shown in Fig. 3 (top). In order to remove the $`\varphi `$ mesons, events with $`M(K^+K^{})<1.07`$ GeV/c2 are rejected.

Similarly, the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$(1520) resonance can be produced by the $`\gamma pK^+\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ reaction with subsequent decay of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ to a proton and $`K^{}`$. A peak corresponding to the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$(1520) is seen in the invariant mass spectrum of the $`pK^{}`$ system, $`M(pK^{})`$, as shown in Fig. 3 (bottom). Unlike $`\varphi `$ mesons, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$(1520)’s can be produced in conjunction with $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$’s and still conserve net strangeness. However, even though there is a large cross-section for producing $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$(1520)$`K^+`$ on the proton followed by $`K^+n`$ rescattering, the kinematics is a poor match for $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ production, since, as was described above, this is likely a $`t`$-channel process with forward production of the $`K^+`$ in the CM frame. In our kinematics the average momentum for the $`K^+`$ in the production of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$(1520) is $`0.8`$ GeV/c, while for the production of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ in $`K^+n`$ interaction, the average momentum of the kaon should be approximately $`0.45`$ GeV/c. For this reason, we reject events with 1.485$`<M(pK^{})<`$1.551 GeV/c2 ($`\pm 3\sigma `$ cut from the peak) to improve our signal to background ratio.

Two other event selection requirements were applied, based on kinematics. The first one requires that the missing momentum of the undetected neutron must be greater than 0.08 GeV/c. Below this value, the neutron is likely a spectator to other reaction mechanisms. Our studies show that increasing the value of this cutoff does not change the final results – in particular it does not eliminate the peak shown below – but does reduce the statistics in the $`M(nK^+)`$ spectrum. The second requirement concerns the $`K^+`$ momentum. Monte Carlo simulations of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ decay from an event distribution uniform in phase space show that the $`K^+`$ momentum rarely exceeds 1.0 GeV/c. The data also show that $`K^+`$ momenta greater than 1.0 GeV/c are associated with an invariant mass of the $`nK^+`$ system above $`1.7`$ GeV/c2. Events with a $`K^+`$ momentum above 1.0 GeV/c were removed to reduce this background.

The final $`nK^+`$ invariant mass spectrum, $`M(nK^+)`$, is shown in Fig. 4 acccor , along with a fit (solid line) to the peak and a Gaussian plus constant term fit to the background (dashed line). For the fit given, there are 43 counts in the peak at a mass of $`1.542\pm 0.005`$ GeV/c2 with a width (FWHM) of 0.021 GeV/c2. The width is consistent with the instrumental resolution. The uncertainty of 0.005 GeV/c2 in the mass is due to calibration uncertainties of the photon tagging spectrometer tagger , the electron beam energy, and the momentum reconstruction in CLAS. The statistical significance of this peak is estimated based on fluctuations of the background over a $`\pm 2\sigma `$ window centered on the peak, giving $`43/\sqrt{54}=5.8\sigma `$. The spectrum of events removed by the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$(1520) cut is shown in Fig. 4 by the dashed-dotted histogram, and does not appear to be associated with the peak at 1.542 GeV/c2.

The shape of the expected $`M(nK^+)`$ mass spectrum was investigated by a Monte Carlo simulation using GEANT geant  based simulation tools for the CLAS detector and the algorithm used for the data analysis. We studied 4-body phase space production of the $`pK^+K^{}n`$ final state, and the production of the 3-body phase space in the $`pK^+K^{}`$ final state ($`K^+K^{}`$ in s-wave). No peak-like structures were visible in the $`M(nK^+)`$ distributions of these two final states. We used the shapes of these distributions to fit the experimental $`M(nK^+)`$ spectrum. The fitted shape of the background is shown by the dotted line in Fig. 4. The relative weights of 3-body and 4-body phase space events determined by the fit was $`3:1`$. The statistical significance of the peak at $`1.542`$ GeV/c2 in the fit using this simulated background was $`4.8\sigma `$.

A separate Monte Carlo study was carried out to examine the production of known resonances via the reaction $`\gamma dK^+Y^{}N`$, where the $`Y^{}`$ decays to a $`K^{}N`$ followed by one of the kaons rescattering off the spectator nucleon. This study meyer  was unable to produce structures narrower than about four times the CLAS resolution, and concluded that these rescattering processes are not responsible for such a narrow structure in the $`M(nK^+)`$ spectrum.

The sensitivity of the peak to the placement of event selection cuts was studied, and the conclusion is that the peak at 1.542 GeV/c2 is very robust. For example, removing the $`K^+`$ momentum limit results in the spectrum shown in Fig. 5a. Alternatively, tightening the cuts on proton-kaon timing, $`|\mathrm{\Delta }t_{pK}|<0.75`$ ns, allows less background into the spectrum, as shown in the inset of Fig. 1. The shape of the $`M(nK^+)`$ spectrum for this selection is shown in Fig. 5b and remains essentially unchanged from Fig. 4. In all we tried 10 variations of event cut placement and/or different fitting functions. All fits reproduce the measured data with reduced $`\chi ^2`$ in the range between 0.6 and 1. The estimated statistical significance in those ten cases ranges from $`4.6\sigma `$ to $`5.8\sigma `$, which we use to derive the conservative estimate for the statistical significance of our result of $`5.2\pm 0.6\sigma `$.

A neutron and $`K^+`$ can couple to both isospin zero and isospin one states. If the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ has $`I=1`$, then there should be two other members of the isotriplet, a neutral and a doubly charged state. The doubly charged state would couple to $`pK^+`$. We examined the invariant mass $`M(pK^+)`$ using the same event selection as before. The statistics are limited, but there is no clear peak in the signal region. It should be noted that the CLAS acceptance for the $`pK^+`$ system is not the same as for the $`nK^+`$ system, so the two spectra are not directly comparable. The featureless $`M(pK^+)`$ spectrum (not shown) suggests that the peak at 1.542 GeV/c2 in the $`M(nK^+)`$ spectrum is an isosinglet, but it is difficult to draw a firm conclusion based on the current data.

These results from CLAS, together with other experiments nakano ; dolgolenko , now provide convincing evidence for the existence of an $`S`$=+1 baryon state at a mass of $`1.542`$ GeV/c2 with a small intrinsic width. In this paper we presented evidence for this state with a statistical significance in the range of $`5.2\pm 0.6\sigma `$, depending on estimates of the background and on the event selection criteria. However, more studies are needed before this $`S=+1`$ state can be conclusively identified with the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ predicted in Ref. diakonov . Further evidence for the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ should be searched for in a variety of reactions, in addition to the ones mentioned here. Spin, isospin, and parity of this state remain to be established in future experiments.

We would like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of the staff of the Accelerator Division and the Physics Division at Jefferson Lab that made this experiment possible. This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, the French Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation, and the UK Engineering and Physical Research Sciences Council. The Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) operates the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-84ER40150.


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# Elements Discrimination in the Study of Super-Heavy Elements using an Ionization Chamber.

## 1 Introduction.

The production of super heavy elements (SHE) and the study of their properties are conducted in several research centers (ANL, GSI Darmstadt, JINR Dubna, LBL Berkeley, GANIL Caen, Riken, Jyväskylä). So far all experiments were done in normal kinematics (projectile much lighter than the target nucleus), which means that the recoiling fusion nuclei and their detected evaporation residues have very low kinetic energies per nucleon, typically in the 0.2-0.5 MeV/u range. Most of the groups use very similar detection and identification techniques. A typical detection setup consists of 2 or 3 carbon foils associated with micro-channel plate detectors which give a time-of-flight information (i.e. the velocity ), and a position silicon detector where the reaction products are implanted and which returns information on the energy and x-y position. Due to the very large mass of the evaporation residues, the ionization defect in the Si implantation detector is very large, the energy signal is small and has a broad distribution (due to fluctuations of the energy loss in the carbon foils and the Si crystal response), so that mass determination through kinetic energy and velocity is not feasible. Neither it is possible to install a $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E detector (thin Si detector or gas chamber) since it would stop the evaporation residues. Therefore no direct identification of the detected reaction product is made. Actually, the fusion evaporation residues and other reaction products are identified via alpha-particle decay chains leading to a known nucleus -. Indirect although unambiguous identification is done. The observed $`\alpha `$-chain or fission decay has to be correlated with the signal from the heavy ion in the implantation detector. This technique is powerful but suffers from two limitations: i) the detection efficiency for $`\alpha `$-particles is not 100 % , so the chains are often not complete. ii) since the evaporation residue cross section becomes very small for compound nuclei above Z$``$106, there are very few such products (1-2 per day or per week) among a background due to other reaction products (transfer reactions) some of which are $`\alpha `$-emitters, so the probability of wrong chain reconstruction and identification may be large , . Therefore any direct information on the mass and/or charge of the implanted product would be very useful, even though it does not offer a resolution of 1 mass or charge unit. In the detection of rare events, it is clear that redundant information is needed in order to eliminate erroneous identifications. Each additional independent physical quantity that can be measured and delivered by a modified detection system is precious.

Such information can be obtained in the case of inverse kinematics or nearly symmetric systems. Indeed the compound nucleus recoil velocity is much larger. It was calculated that an estimate of the mass can be obtained after calibration of the implantation detector response with heavy projectiles at the compound nucleus velocity and with known very heavy nuclei or “light” super-heavy fusion nuclei (formed with a relatively large cross section). Similarly, a thin detector (gas counter) can be installed before the implantation detector to provide a $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E information, so that an estimate of the nuclear charge can be obtained. In GANIL a test experiment was performed with such a detection set-up in inverse kinematics: beam of 208Pb at 5 MeV/u on light targets.

In this paper we show that the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E signal from an ionization chamber can be used to distinguish between different reaction channels leading to SHE. In chapter two we present the detection setup of the GANIL experiment. Next we describe the construction and properties of the ionization chamber. In chapter four some results from the reactions 208Pb+12C and 208Pb+18O are presented stressing the role of the signals received from the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E detector. The last section gives conclusions and some perspectives.

## 2 Experimental detection setup.

The main tool of SHE research at GANIL is the Wien filter at the LISE magnetic spectrometer with crossed magnetic and electric fields (figure 1). It is divided into two identical halves. The ratio of magnetic to electric field is set to select the velocity of the complete fusion fragments (evaporation residues). Their values are chosen so that the projectiles are deflected in the first half of the Wien filter and stopped in a Faraday plate. Two pairs of independently movable slits and a beam profiler were installed at mid- filter. The suppression of unwanted products is improved by a dipole magnet located after the velocity filter.

The reaction chamber contains several rotating targets: a 670 mm diameter wheel bearing 35 targets and rotating at 2000 RPM, allowing targets with a low melting temperature to sustain intense beams, a 16 cm wheel with 8 targets for materials having a higher melting temperature and small rotating targets (diameter 5 cm) used for calibration at low intensity. The time structure of the beam is synchronized with the rotation. A Si detector continuously monitors the status of each target. To equilibrate the charge state of the fusion products before they enter the Wien filter, a 50 $`\mu `$m carbon stripper was placed 40 cm behind the target. After the dipole magnet, the velocity of each product is obtained from the ToF between 2 aluminized mylar foils and micro- channel plate detectors. Then an ionization chamber provides a $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E signal. It is described in the next section. The residual kinetic energy and localization are given by a X-Y Si implantation detector (IMP).

The energy of $`\alpha `$-particles and fission fragments escaping from IMP is measured with a set of 8 Si detectors which form a tunnel. A veto Si detector is installed behind IMP to reject light particles which might punch through it. Special electronics and data acquisition systems were developed. A fast analysis program allowed us to identify $`\alpha `$-decay chains or spontaneous fission events on line.

The transmission of fusion evaporation residue produced at the target position through the quadrupoles, filter and final dipole was studied via a simulation code. The optics was checked and the Wien filter was calibrated using 208Pb ions at several energies, which were also used for calibrating the ToF and IMP response. The transmission efficiency of the whole set-up was checked via fusion reactions with known cross sections and $`\alpha `$-decay chains.

Direct identification of the SHE is done in the two-dimensional plot: energy signal from the IMP vs ToF signal. In the ToF range selected by the velocity filter, there is always a background of scattered projectiles, 208Pb ions in this case. The higher energy signals come from heavier products. This informs us on the mass number of the reaction product. The energy and ToF resolutions are such that the mass resolution is several %. This is sufficient to eliminate many of the heavy transfer products. An additional discrimination between products with different Z’s is necessary to improve the direct product identification.

## 3 Construction and specification of the ionization chamber (IC).

For the production of super-heavy nuclei via complete fusion followed by evaporation of 1 or a few neutrons (detected evaporation residues, ER), projectiles at (about) 5 MeV/u are used. In inverse kinematics experiments (Pb, U projectiles) the kinetic energy of the ER’s can be as high as 2.5 - 3 MeV/u. In nearly symmetric systems (Xe + Sn), it is around 1.2 MeV/u. Such energy is sufficient to install a $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E detector; here it is an ionization chamber.

The process of how an ion with charge Z loses energy passing through matter is quite complicated and has been a subject which received great theoretical and experimental interest. In the few MeV/u energy region mainly electron interactions are responsible for the energy losses while the nuclear interactions are negligible. Here the effective charge becomes the important quantity. The Bethe-Bloch formula is no longer exact and is usually replaced by semi-empirical ones . Experimental data shows that in the vicinity of the Bragg maximum, energy loss is approximately proportional to Z. This dependence can be used to identify the charge of the ion. For our experiment we are interested in discriminating between nuclei with charge Z=82 (projectiles) to 88 (fusion products on 12C material used to support the target material and as stripper foils) and super-heavy compound nuclei (Z$``$106). A resolution in Z of 1 % would allow us to measure Z of the ER. We do not expect such a resolution, but, as one can see, such a detector will be useful if its $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E (charge) resolution is only on the level of 10% or better.

The main factors which influence resolution of the gas detector are:

1. Detector thickness- $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$x. The energy loss $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E=$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$x$``$dE/dx is proportional to the detector thickness, and straggling of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E is proportional to $`\mathrm{\Delta }x^{1/2}`$ ($`\delta (\mathrm{\Delta }E)\mathrm{\Delta }x^{1/2}`$) . That means the relative resolution ($`\delta (\mathrm{\Delta }E)/\mathrm{\Delta }E`$) is inversely proportional to $`\mathrm{\Delta }x^{1/2}`$.
2. Non-uniformity of the detector thickness. In the case of the gas detector non uniformity is due to the window distortions caused by the gas pressure. This effect can by partially corrected by installing additional field wires which define a constant useful length (see below).
3. Non-completeness of charge collection. Part of the charge generated by the passing particle is not collected by the detector mainly due to the recombination process. This effect decreases the detector resolution. If charge collection conditions determined by the electric field are different for various ion trajectories, the recombination process worsens the detector resolution even more.
4. Noise of the associated electronics. The detector signal is broadened by the electronics noise. This broadening depends on the internal noise of the preamplifier and detector capacity.

Considering the above factors we decided to build an ionization chamber as a $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E detector. In such a solution the amount of collected charge is almost insensitive to the anode voltage. This property is a result of absence of avalanche processes, which would be responsible for additional fluctuations of the collected charge. The detector construction is schematically depicted in fig.1. The electric field in the counter is generated by 3 planes of wire grids. The distance between consecutive planes is 1.5 cm and each one has the same dimensions: 5 cm x 5 cm. Within a grid wires are spaced 2 mm apart and their diameter is 10 $`\mu `$m. Such a solution minimizes the electric capacity of the counter as a consequence, electronic noise is reduced . The 2 outer grids are grounded while the middle one is set to a positive voltage around 150 V. The electric field in the counter is parallel to the trajectory of an entering ion. Because of this, the collection of the generated charge is independent on the point of the ion injection. Furthermore, for any given particle trajectory in the IC, the effect of the generated charge on the electric field is identical. This means the same conditions are obtained for the collection of the useful charge. As a result, the rise-time and the shape of the pulse are very similar for each detected particle. It is therefore possible to optimize the shaping times in a spectroscopic amplifier. Additionally, in order to minimize electronics noises, the low noise charge preamplifier was connected directly to the counter output signal . The charge sensitivity of the preamplifier is 940 mV/pC.

The counter thickness is determined by the distance between mylar windows and by the type and the pressure of gas. As said above the gas pressure causes a smearing of the counter thickness. It becomes dependent on the particle trajectory. The cathode grids put just besides the windows minimize this effect. If the window and the screening grid are at the same potential (ground), the electric field between them is approximately equal to zero. As a result, the charge generated in the region of non constant thickness (window-grid to cathode), do not influence the measured pulses. The charge from such a region recombines or is collected by the residual field. If the residual field collects this charge the collection time is long and a slowly increasing component appears in output pulse, but this slow component is eliminated by the spectroscopy amplifier. The effective transmission for the system due to the window support wires and three planes of wires grids was calculated to be around 96%.

This ionization chamber is operating with circulating isobutane under the pressure of 30 mbar. Circulation of the gas is controlled by a GANIL gas flow control system. Mylar windows of 2.5 $`\mu `$m on both sides are used.

## 4 Reactions Pb+12C,18O. Alpha chains and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E signals.

The resolution of the IC is poorer than the difference in the energy loss of adjacent elements passing through the chamber. In order to study this resolution one has to utilize independent information on the Z of the detected ion. For this purpose we use measurements performed to calibrate the detection set-up. These measurements were done with a 5 MeV/u 208Pb beam, delivered by the 1st stage cyclotron of the GANIL facility, impinging on 18O and 12C targets.

With 18O target, the compound nucleus is 226Th and has excitation energy E=35 MeV. Reaction products give $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E signals in the IC and their $`\alpha `$ radioactivity is used to identify them after they implant in the position-sensitive Si detector IMP(see sec.2). In fig.2 is shown the 2-dimensional energy spectrum of $`\alpha `$ particles which are emitted at the same position as an ER implanted in the strip detector. The figure shows that there are well defined groups of $`\alpha `$’s. Using a standard ER-$`\alpha `$-$`\alpha `$ correlation technique alpha chains which start from the parent isotopes 221Th and 223Th can be identified. This means that the compound nucleus 226Th which de-excites by 5n and 3n neutron evaporation channels was produced. In the figure we marked also alphas that are emitted by daughter nuclei. The parent nucleus (implanted residue) is unambiguously identified here because the half life of the first emitted $`\alpha `$ from the residue is long enough and these alphas can be detected by the detection system. The 4n channel, 222Th, must also be present, but the half-life of its daughter 218Ra is 25 $`\mu `$s, below the time resolution, 50$`\mu `$s, of the detection system; for the grand-daughter 214Rn, it is less than 1 $`\mu `$s. Conversely, the grand-grand-daughter 210Po has a much too long half-life: 138 days. Therefore we cannot see them. Only one alpha from the radioactive decay chain of 222Th was identified. This alpha is emitted by the 222Th itself. It has energy 7.98, 7.60 MeV and half live 2.5 ms which lies in the most convenient range of ms-0.1 s acceptable by our detection set up. Background pulses in the IC originate mainly from scattered Pb ions with velocities matching the velocity filter acceptance. This background may broaden the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E distribution of other detected Z’s. Indeed, if one Pb ion implants in the IMP detector at the same x-y position as an ER before this ER emits its alpha, then the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E signal of the Pb ion is attributed to the ER. This contribution depends on the counting rate. Because we use $`\alpha `$ chains to identify Z of the ER, it also depends on the time after which the first $`\alpha `$ is emitted. Such contribution from the Pb background is given approximately by the formula r/($`\lambda `$+r), where r denotes the counting rate at a given x, y position on the IMP detector and $`\lambda `$ is a decay constant that determines life time of the ER. Taking this into account we estimate the background contribution for the Z=90 case on the level of few %.

In fig.3 we present measured distributions of the energy loss for different nuclei. The empty squares are for Z=90, while full circles are for Z=82. Of course, the distribution for Z=82 (Pb) ions comes from the analysis of the Pb ions which pass the filter. Solid lines in the figure are gaussian fits. The FWHM for both cases is about 6%. Mean values extracted from two $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E distributions (Z=82, 90) are presented in the upper panel. The straight line is drawn to interpolate the region of Z’s between these two cases and also to extrapolate to higher elements. The energy loss is a function of the ion velocity but as it is shown on the fig.4 this dependence on the ion velocity is very weak in the considered energy region. So this line can be used as a “calibration” line.

For reactions on the carbon target, the compound nucleus is 220Ra (E=23 MeV) and we tried to select $`\alpha `$ chains to identify the ER’s, like for oxygen. But in this case the interpretation of the data is more complicated. In the expected $`\alpha `$ chains following xn de-excitation after the compound nucleus formation, the 1n chain starting from 219Ra (half-life: 10ms) and ending at 211Po is easily identified. In addition, there are alphas with very short emission time, especially the first one in the 2n, 3n and 4n chains: 218Ra: 25.6 $`\mu `$s, 217Ra: 1.6 $`\mu `$s, 216Ra: 2/180 ns. If these chains are populated the alpha energy piles up with the ER kinetic energy pulse and they are missed by the IMP detector. Because of that we can only identify the emitters of the observed alphas and cannot identify the implanted ion. The incident energy we used was chosen for other targets and is a few MeV below the Bass barrier for fusion with 12C. Measurements of 3, 4 and 5 n channels were made at higher incident energies . Extrapolation to our energy (4.85 MeV/u at mid-target) leads to expect less than a few mb in the 2n channel, i.e. 218Rn which we cannot identify. 1n and 3n channels could be present with much smaller cross sections. 1n (219Ra) could be identified but no event was found. The excitation energy is too low for feeding the 4n channel; anyway 215Ra has a quite convenient half-life (1.6 ms) but unfortunately its daughter 211Rn has a too long half-life: 14.6 days, so no chain could be seen. During the analysis the only events we could unambiguously identify were the alpha-chains going through 211Po or 213Rn. In the case of 211Po there are two possible candidates as implanted ER’s : 215Rn - residue from the two $`\alpha `$ transfer reaction followed by evaporation of 1 neutron, or 211Po itself - residue from one $`\alpha `$ transfer followed by evaporation of 1 neutron . For the 213Rn (25 ms) emitter the implanted father can be 217Ra (1.6 $`\mu `$s) i.e. 3n channel after fusion or just 213Rn - from two $`\alpha `$ transfer reaction. One can not affirm which scenario is the right one. For Rn the background contribution is negligible while for Po it is of the order of 20%.

In order to determine what was really implanted in these two cases we plot the energy loss distribution as shown in fig.3: open circles for implants associated with 211Po and full squares for implants which produce the 213Rn emitter. Mean values from these two distributions were then marked on the “calibration” line (upper picture in the same figure) assuming that open circles and full squares correspond to Z=84 and Z=86 respectively. These two points fit well on the line. In this way we may settle that the implanted nuclei are exactly the emitters which were identified from alpha-residue correlations. We conclude that, as expected, the fusion process has a low cross section at this energy. 1 or 2 alpha particle transfer reactions are favored (3 alpha structure of 12C).

In figure 3 we have put also the Gaussian line which corresponds to the nucleus Z=114. As one can see from the predicted location of the line the IC should be able to separate Z=114 from most actinide products.

## 5 Conclusions and remarks.

The specific thin ionization chamber, we developed, was found to be very useful and quite powerful for resolving ambiguities in the identification of some nuclei produced in reactions of 208Pb projectiles on a 12C target.

This detector will be used in experiments on the production of super-heavy nuclei via fusion reactions in inverse or symmetric kinematics. It will provide a signal related to the nuclear charge of the detected nuclei. Although element resolution is not achieved, this signal will make it possible to eliminate most of the ”background” of other reaction products. Also in inverse or symmetric kinematics, a large kinetic energy signal (several hundreds of MeV) will be obtained in the implantation detector. After calibration of this signal and of the time-of-flight with heavy projectiles and evaporation residues with known velocities, a rough value of the mass will be obtained. Together, these values of mass and charge will provide direct and immediate information on the implanted nucleus, independently of its subsequent decay, thus reducing very much the number of erroneous identifications and strongly improving the quality of the data.

Acknowledgments: The authors want to thank all the technicians and engineers who made it possible to overcome the specific difficulties of these experiments: the electronics, detectors and mechanics groups at LPC Caen, Ganil and Dapnia Saclay, the data acquisition group GIP Ganil, the users support group and the accelerator staff of Ganil for their continuous support and efficient performances. They are also indebted to the technicians of Smoluchowski Insitute of Physics and LPC Caen for their help during the construction and operation of the detector, and to the target laboratory of IReS Strasbourg and the isotope separator of CSNSM Orsay for the targets used in the experiments. This work was partly supported under the Polish-French IN2P3(CNRS)-KBN agreement contract no. 101-01.

Figure captions.

Fig.1 Schematic view of the experimental setup. Reaction chamber, two halves of the Wien filter as well as detection set-up is depicted here. Details of detection chamber are presented on the right panel. The left panel sketches more detailed construction of the ionization chamber: three wires planes cathode-anode-cathode and schematic electronics.

Fig.2 Energies of two detected $`\alpha `$ particles from the radioactive decay chains. The chains are identified from the condition that $`\alpha `$’s are emitted from the same position as an ER implanted in the strip detector (IMP). Observed groups of events (chains) come from two ERs: 221Th and 223Th. The arrows in figure denotes $`\alpha `$’s which come from parent 223Th or 221Th, daughter 219Ra, grand-daughter 213Rn, and grand-grand daughter 211Po nuclei. 208Pb+18O reaction.

Fig.3 Lower panel: measured distributions of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E signals for ions with different Z’s. Full circles present energy loss distribution for Z=82 while empty squares are for Z=90. Distribution denoted by empty circles and full squares are attributed (see text) to Z=84 and Z=86 respectively. The spectra were fitted with a gaussian to get the mean value and FWHM of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E for each distribution. In the upper panel the extracted mean values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E for each identified Z are presented. “Calibration” line shown in this panel is drawn through two points Z=82 and Z=90. It extrapolates to higher values of atomic number. The curve marked as Z=114 (lower panel) presents the predicted location of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E signals for this super-heavy element.

Fig.4 Energy loss in the ionization chamber for ions with atomic numbers marked in the figure as a function of their velocity, full lines. Calculation were done with a modified version of Hubert code. Symbols in the figures are experimental values of mean $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E for ions from fig.3. They were normalized in the way that measured mean $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E for Z=82 corresponds to the calculated one.


text:
# Quantized phase shifts and a dispersive universal quantum gate

## Abstract

A single 40Ca+-ion is trapped and laser cooled to its motional ground state. Laser radiation which couples off-resonantly to a motional sideband of the ion’s $`S_{1/2}`$ to $`D_{5/2}`$ transition causes a phase shift proportional to the ion’s motional quantum state $`|n`$. As the phase shift is conditional upon the ion’s motion, we are able to demonstrate a universal 2-qubit quantum gate operation where the electronic target state $`\{S,D\}`$ is flipped depending on the motional qubit state $`|n=\{|0,|1\}`$. Finally, we discuss scaling properties of this universal quantum gate for linear ion crystals and present numerical simulations for the generation of a maximally entangled state of five ions.

Trapped ions are successfully used for quantum information processing PhysQI00 ; CHUANG00 ; ARDA  as experiments with a single ion MONROE95 ; ROOS99 ; GUL03  and two-ion crystals LEIB03 ; SCH03  have proven. Even four-ion crystals SACK00  have been transferred into an entangled state. For the implementation of quantum algorithms, single- and two-qubit operations are required CHUANG00 . For most implementations of two-qubit gate operations, a well defined phase shift is induced, depending on the control qubit’s quantum state. Its origin might be either a geometric phase SJOK00 ; DUAN01  as the quantum state follows a closed loop in phase space LEIB03 , or the sign of the wave function is changed as a resonant $`2\pi `$-Rabi rotation is performed CIR95 ; MONROE95 ; SCH03 . Alternatively, the phase shift which is required for the gate operation may be derived from a non-resonant laser-atom interaction. The resulting quantum phase gate $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ transforms the state of two qubits $`|a,b\mathrm{exp}(i\varphi \delta _{1,a}\delta _{1,b})|a,b`$, where $`\delta _{1,a}`$ and $`\delta _{1,b}`$ denote Kronecker symbols with $`\delta _{1,a}=1`$ if qubit $`a`$ is in the state $`|1`$ and $`\delta _{1,a}=0`$ otherwise. Only for both qubits in $`|1`$, the quantum state’s phase is shifted by $`\varphi `$. This phase gate may be converted into a controlled-NOT operation (CNOT) by single qubit rotations before and after performing $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ to yield $`|a,b|a,ab`$, where $``$ represents an addition modulo 2.

A quantum phase gate RAUSCH99  also has been demonstrated using long lived superpositions of Rydberg atoms which traverse a high-Q microwave cavity. The phase $`\varphi `$ of a superposition $`(|0+\text{e}^{i\varphi }|1)/\sqrt{2}`$, where $`|0`$ and $`|1`$ denote the qubit states, is changed conditioned on the quantum state of the cavity mode. If the cavity resonance is detuned slightly from that of the atomic qubit transition, superpositions acquire a significant light shift already by a single photon stored in the microwave cavity BRUNE94 .

In this paper we study experimentally and theoretically the dispersive (off-resonant) coupling of laser radiation for quantum information processing with trapped ions. The quantum information is encoded in the ion’s electronic ground state $`S_{1/2},(m=1/2)|S`$ and a long lived metastable state $`D_{5/2},(m=1/2)|D`$ (see Fig. 1a). The qubit can be manipulated by laser radiation near 729 nm on the corresponding quadrupole transition.

The motional state of the ion is prepared in a Fock state (see Fig. 1b) and serves as control qubit. The interaction with off-resonant laser light (see Fig. 1c) induces a phase shift of the target qubit (electronic states) conditioned upon the ion’s motional state. In our experiment, a single 40Ca+ ion is stored in a linear Paul trap with a radial and axial frequency of $`\omega _{rad}/2\pi =4.9`$ MHz and $`\omega _{ax}/2\pi =1.712`$ MHz, respectively. Doppler cooling, followed by sideband ground state cooling and optical pumping leads to a population of the state $`S_{1/2},(m=1/2)|S`$ and its lowest motional quantum state $`|n=0`$ with more than 98$`\%`$ probability. The internal state is detected by electron shelving ROOS99  with an efficiency $`>99\%`$. We determine the occupation probablity of the $`|D`$ state, $`P_D`$, by averaging over 100 experimental sequences. Details of the cooling method and the experimental apparatus are described elsewhere HAEFF03 ; ROOS99 . Starting from the state $`|S,n=0`$, laser pulses resonant to the blue axial sideband $`(|S,n|D,n+1)`$ and resonant to the carrier transition $`(|S,n|D,n)`$ of the qubit transition are used to transfer the motional state to Fock states ROOS99 . The transfer quality of blue sideband $`\pi `$-pulse and carrier $`\pi `$-pulse exceed $`98\%`$ and $`99\%`$, respectively. Thus we yield the desired motional Fock state with fidelities better than $`96\%`$, $`94\%`$ and $`92\%`$ for $`n`$=1, 2 and 3, respectively.

The phase evolution of the atomic wavefunction due to interaction with non-resonant laser radiation is probed in a Ramsey experiment: A resonant $`\pi /2`$ pulse ($`R1`$ in Fig. 1d) on the quadrupole transition prepares the the electronic qubit in the superposition state $`(|S+|D)/\sqrt{2}`$. A second resonant $`\pi /2`$ laser pulse, $`R2`$ is applied with opposite laser phase and a delay of $`t=260\mu `$s. If the atomic wavefunction does not acquire any additional phase during the delay time, $`R2`$ would undo the operation of $`R1`$ and transfer the electronic state back to $`|S`$.

For generation of a deterministic phase shift during the delay time, the ion is exposed to laser light which is blue-detuned by $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ from the blue axial sideband of the qubit transition. The resulting phase shift is due to i) off-resonant coupling to dipole transitions (see Fig. 1a), ii) off-resonant coupling to carrier transitions of the $`S_{1/2}`$ to $`D_{5/2}`$ Zeeman manifold and iii) off-resonant coupling to the motional sidebands of the qubit transition. An extensive study of the first two contributions is given in HAEFF03 .

The relative strengths of the three contributions scale with their respective Rabi frequencies. Thus, the light (AC Stark) shift $`\delta _{(\text{iii})}=\mathrm{\Omega }_{n,n+1}^2/4\mathrm{\Delta }`$ due to the third contribution is weaker by almost two orders of magnitude compared with (i) and (ii), as the resonant Rabi frequency of the blue sideband between $`|S,n`$ and $`|D,n+1`$ is given by

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{n,n+1}=\eta \mathrm{\Omega }_0\sqrt{n+1}$$
(1)
with the Lamb-Dicke factor $`\eta =0.0681`$. As $`\delta _{(\text{iii})}`$ strongly depends on the motional quantum number it can be utilized to generate conditional phase shifts. However, the stronger contributions (i) and (ii) mask this effect. Therfore we cancel (i) and (ii) using an additional off-resonant light field with equal, but opposite phase shift (”compensating” light field) which illuminates the ions during the phase shift operation HAEFF03 . This light field is derived from the same laser source near 729 nm which we use for the qubit transition using an acousto-optical modulator. By optimizing the compensation light field parameters, i.e. laser intensity and detuning, we also cancel the light shift for the motional Fock state $`|n=0`$. For this state the compensation leads to a residual light shift of $`\delta _{\text{res}}/2\pi 300`$ Hz (see Fig. 2). Thus, after compensation, the phase shift $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =\delta _{\text{res}}t`$ is directly proportional to the motional quantum number $`n`$ of the ion,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =\frac{\eta ^2\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2t}{4\mathrm{\Delta }}n$$
(2)
where $`t`$ denotes the duration of the phase shift operation in the sequence. For the Fock states $`|n=1`$ to $`|n=3`$, we observe a linear slope of $`\delta _{\text{res}}/2\pi =2.71(6)`$ kHz per phonon (see Fig. 2).

In order to realize a phase gate operation, we chose $`t=t_0`$ such that the residual phase shift for states with $`n=1`$ yields precisely $`\pi /2`$. This accomplishes a quantum gate in the two-qubit computational space composed by the states $`|S,0`$, $`|D,0`$, $`|S,1`$ and $`|D,1`$: The states $`|S,1`$ and $`|D,1`$ acquire phases of $`e^{\pm i\pi /2}=\pm i`$, respectively, while $`|S,0`$ and $`|D,0`$ do not acquire any phase. Thus the phase shift operation $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ reads:

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(t_0)=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}1& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& i& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& i\end{array}\right).$$

The Ramsey pulses $`R1`$ and $`R2`$ are represented by

$$\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\begin{array}{cccc}1& \pm i& 0& 0\\ \pm i& 1& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& \pm i\\ 0& 0& \pm i& 1\end{array}\right),$$

where the + (-) sign refers to $`R1`$($`R2`$). The full sequence $`C`$ represents a universal two-qubit gate:

$$C=R2\mathrm{\Phi }(t_0)R1=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}1& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1\\ 0& 0& 1& 0\end{array}\right).$$

In the experiment, the truth-table of this gate is probed by preparing the four computational basis input states. After the gate operation $`C`$ the internal state $`\{S,D\}`$ which served as the target qubit is detected by electron shelving. For detection of the motional state $`n=\{0,1\}`$, i.e. the control qubit, we drive Rabi oscillations on the blue axial sideband. These Rabi oscillations are plotted in Fig. 3. In a first step we determine the Rabi frequencies by fitting the data with pure sine-functions. From this fit we determine $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{0,1}/2\pi `$=11.9 kHz and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{1,2}/2\pi =\sqrt{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_{0,1}`$ (c.f. Fig. 3). In a next step we fit the respective experimental data in Fig. 3 a-d with a model function:

$`P_D(\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`a_{S0}\mathrm{sin}^2(\mathrm{\Omega }_{0,1}\tau )+a_{D0}+a_{S1}\mathrm{sin}^2(\mathrm{\Omega }_{1,2}\tau )+`$ (3)
$`a_{D1}\mathrm{cos}^2(\mathrm{\Omega }_{0,1}\tau )`$
The coefficients $`a_{S0},a_{D0},a_{S1},a_{D0}`$ account for the contributions of the four computational basis states $`|S,0,|D,0,|S,1,|D,1`$ and obey $`a_{S0}+a_{D0}+a_{S1}+a_{D1}=1`$. Table 1 lists these coefficients for the four different input states. We find transfer efficiencies between the ground state $`|S,0`$ and the desired output states of $`81\%`$. The measured efficiencies are attributed to the following experimentally determined imperfections: (i) state preparation as mentioned above (ground state cooling and preparation pulses) (ii) the chosen gate interaction time $`t_0=200\mu `$s which has been off by $`+8\%`$ from its ideal value, (iii) the independently measured loss of coherence ($`6\%`$) of the qubit SCH03b  within the delay time between $`R1`$ and $`R2`$ and (iv) off-resonant sideband excitations during $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ STEA00 , measured here to account for an error of 4%.

The demonstrated dispersive two-qubit gate can be extended to a larger number of $`N`$ qubits. An important advantage of dispersive gates, like e.g. the gate presented in ref. LEIB03 , is that the computational subspace is conserved automatically as the off-resonant interaction $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ only modifies the phase. Other gate schemes need auxiliary levels MONROE95 ; CIR95  or composite pulse techniques GUL03  thus increasing the technical complexity of the experimental sequence.

For the entangling operation, we select a symmetric vibrational mode (bus mode) where the absolute values of all the ions’ Lamb-Dicke parameters are equal, e.g. the center of mass mode. Similar to the one-ion gate operation, the $`N`$-ion string is assumed to be cooled close to the motional ground state (e.g. by EIT-cooling FSK01 ). To create an entangled state, we use a pulse sequence $`R1\mathrm{\Phi }(t_0)R2^{}`$ acting in the following way: $`R1\mathrm{\Phi }(t_0)R2^{}|SS\mathrm{}S=|SS\mathrm{}S+\text{e}^{i\varphi }|DD\mathrm{}D`$. First we consider the two ion case. The two ions are excited by a $`R1`$ pulse as defined above yielding the superposition state $`1/2\left(|SS+|SD+|DS+|DD\right)`$. The phase operation $`\mathrm{\Phi }(t_0)`$ then couples the ions via the bus mode. The phase of the final $`\pi /2`$ Ramsey pulse $`R2^{}`$ has to be chosen $`\pi (\pi /2)`$ relative to $`R1`$ for an odd (even) number of ions. Note that this scheme only requires the same Rabi frequency for all ions, but no individual addressing of the ions. This can be conveniently achieved by illuminating the ions along the trap axis. The crucial part of the operation is contained in $`\mathrm{\Phi }(t_0)`$: The fraction of the superposition being in the $`|DD`$-state is dark and thus remains completely unchanged. Similary to the one-ion case, the $`|SS`$-part, however, acquires a phase factor without a change in population. Choosing the pulse length $`t_0`$, Rabi frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of the sideband interaction such that $`t_0=\mathrm{\Delta }/(\eta ^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2)`$ the acquired phase factor of the $`|SS`$-state is $`1`$. For ions where both qubit levels are populated, Raman processes take place (see Fig. 4) where the populations of the $`|SD`$ and $`|DS`$ are exchanged and a phase factor of $`1`$ is acquired.

The entangling mechanism is reminiscent of the Mølmer-Sørensen scheme which, however, uses a non-resonant bichromatic light field MOE99 .

A similar reasoning holds for $`N`$ ions as verified by numerical simulations. Taking $`N=5`$ as example, we chose the parameters $`\mathrm{\Omega }=2\pi \times 230`$ kHz, $`\mathrm{\Delta }=2\pi \times 60`$ kHz, and $`\eta =0.068/\sqrt{5}`$. In addition to the bus mode (center of mass) the two closest spectator modes were taken into account. After an interaction time of 900 $`\mu `$s a state

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{0.48}|SSSSS,000+\text{e}^{ı\varphi }\sqrt{0.45}|DDDDD,000`$ (4)
$`+\sqrt{0.07}|ϵ`$
is achieved, were $`|\mathrm{},n_bn_{s_1}n_{s_2}`$ refers to the phonon numbers of the bus-mode and two of the spectator modes, respectively. $`|ϵ`$ is a superposition of all undesired states with mostily zero phonon excitation. The population in $`|ϵ`$ could be reduced further by reducing the gate speed. The simulations take into account most of our current experimental parameters and imperfections.

A spin-echo technique reduces the influence of frequency fluctuations which are slow compared to the entangling time. Applying this technique, we observe an interference contrast of more than 0.9 over 2 ms with a single ion. Thus, we find that –for our current experimental imperfections– it is reasonable to entangle 5 ions with fidelities of about 80$`\%`$. Unlike most other proposals the entangling time is $`\sqrt{N}`$ and works for any number of ions.

In conclusion, we have demonstrated a dispersive quantum gate operation employing light shifts conditional on the vibrational quantum number in a single ion. With numerical simulations, we explore the scheme for larger ion numbers and propose the generation of maximally entangled states for ion crystals (Eq. 4) with high fidelities.