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# Solitons and Rabi Oscillations in a Time-Dependent BCS Pairing Problem

## Abstract

Motivated by recent efforts to achieve cold fermions pairing near a Feshbach resonance, we consider the dynamics of formation of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) state. At times shorter than the quasiparticle energy relaxation time, after the interaction is turned on, the dynamics of the system is nondissipative. We show that this collective nonlinear evolution of the BCS-Bogoliubov amplitudes $`u_p`$, $`v_p`$, along with the pairing function $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, is an integrable dynamical problem, and obtain a family of exact solutions in the form of single solitons and soliton trains. We interpret the collective oscillations as Bloch precession of Anderson pseudospins, where each soliton causes a pseudospin $`2\pi `$ Rabi rotation. Numerical simulations demonstrate robustness of the solitons with respect to noise and damping.

Dilute fermionic alkali gases cooled below degeneracy  are expected to host the paired BCS state . One of the unique and attractive features of this system which makes it qualitatively different from superconducting metals is the possibility to control the strength of pairing interaction and change it by using the Feshbach resonances . Pairing enhancement near the resonances, as well as the high coherence of atomic systems, can allow to realize the strong coupling BCS regime, as well as to explore the time dynamics of the paired state. Since the characteristic energy scales in atomic vapors are relatively low, one can perform time-resolved measurements on the intrinsic microscopic time scales, and explore a range of fundamentally new phenomena in the time dynamics of the paired state. These new prospects helped to revive interest in some of the basic issues of the BCS pairing problem .

In particular, one of the important questions has to do with the dynamics and characteristic times of formation of the BCS state in cold gases . The dynamics of the superconducting state in metals, described by BCS theory, has been a subject of active research for a long time . Generally, there are two important time scales to be considered: the quasiparticle energy relaxation time $`\tau _ϵ`$, and the characteristic time of the order parameter change, $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }`$, estimated as the inverse increment of Cooper instability . For $`\tau _ϵ\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }`$, quasiparticles quickly reach local equilibrium parameterized by a time-dependent order parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$. In this case the dynamics is described by the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) equation for $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$, with the relaxation time scale ca. $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }`$. However, as noted by Gorkov and Eliashberg , this scenario applies only to relatively exotic situations, including a close proximity of a transition point, $`\mathrm{\Delta }^2/T_c\tau _ϵ^1`$, or a fast pair breaking (e.g., due to paramagnetic impurities).

In the opposite limit, which takes place at the temperatures not too close to critical,

$$\tau _ϵ\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }$$
(1)
the system dynamics is usually described by Boltzmann kinetic equation for quasiparticles and a self-consistent equation for $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$ connecting it with the quasiparticle distribution function locally in time . The validity of this approach requires, in addition to (1), that the variation in time of both the quasiparticle distribution and the external parameters is sufficiently slow on the $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }`$ time scale. The origin of this criterion is seen most easily if one notes that the order parameter can exhibit free oscillations with a frequency ca. $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }^1`$  (also, see below). Thus, at a slow parameter variation the order parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$ and the quasiparticle spectrum will adiabatically follow the changes of the quasiparticle distribution, without exciting the oscillations of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. This approximation is relevant to the majority of situations in superconducting metals because of the relatively big value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and the difficulty of changing the external parameters and making measurements on the time scale of $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

From this point of view, the cold fermionic gases present a completely new situation. The energy relaxation in these systems is quite slow, while the external parameters, such as the detuning from Feshbach resonance, can change very quickly on the time scale of $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Thus the BCS correlations in this case build up in a coherent fashion while the system is out of thermal equilibrium. In such a situation, theory must account not only for the order parameter evolution, but also for the full dynamics of individual Cooper pairs and quasiparticles. It seems to be desirable to understand better this ‘fast BCS buildup’ regime, since the lifetime of the gas samples is finite, while the time-resolved measurements can easily be performed with resolution better than $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

In this article we consider the situation when the pairing interaction is switched on essentially instantly, on a time scale $`\tau _0\tau _\mathrm{\Delta },\tau _ϵ`$. We shall discuss only the spatially uniform situation, relevant for samples of finite size, and explore the time evolution of the unpaired ideal Fermi gas, which is unstable with respect to Cooper pairing. At not too long times, $`t\tau _ϵ`$, the dynamics of the system is governed by nondissipative equations which conserve both the entropy and the total energy. A stationary superconducting state with the same energy as that of the initial state would have more quasiparticles, and thus would have entropy higher than the initial Fermi gas entropy. This argument suggests that the system can reach a stationary (not necessarily equilibrium) state only at a very long time of the order $`\tau _ϵ`$. On shorter times, which nevertheless can exceed $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }`$), the system will exhibit a nonlinear time evolution. During this period of time the concept of the quasiparticle spectrum is irrelevant and theory can rely neither on the kinetic equation, nor on TDGL equation. Below, we present an approach which describes the BCS state buildup and accounts for coherent dynamics of individual Cooper pairs. We shall focus on the zero temperature case, when $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }^1`$, and show that the result of Cooper instability is a periodic oscillation $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$ having the form of a soliton train.

This regime can be described by the BCS hamiltonian

$$=\underset{𝐩,\sigma }{}ϵ_𝐩a_{𝐩,\sigma }^+a_{𝐩,\sigma }\frac{\lambda (t)}{2}\underset{𝐩,𝐪}{}a_𝐩^+a_𝐩^+a_𝐪a_𝐪,$$
(2)
with the coupling turned on abruptly, $`\lambda (t)=\lambda \theta (tt_{})`$.

The main result of this work is that the time-dependent problem (2) is integrable. We generalize the BCS solution, which is exact for the separable pairing Hamiltonian (2), and demonstrate that at $`t>t_{}`$ the many-body state evolves as

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }(t)=\underset{𝐩}{}\left(u_𝐩(t)+v_𝐩(t)a_{𝐩,}^+a_{𝐩,}^+\right)|0$$
(3)
The Bogoliubov mean field treatment, which gives a state of the form (3), relies on the ‘infinite range’ form of the pairing interaction in (2) (i.e., equal coupling strength of all $`(𝐩,𝐩)`$, $`(𝐪,𝐪)`$). Since the latter does not depend on the system being in equilibrium, one can introduce a time-dependent mean field pairing function

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(t)=\lambda \underset{𝐩}{}u_𝐩(t)v_𝐩^{}(t)$$
(4)
The amplitudes $`u_𝐩(t)`$, $`v_𝐩(t)`$ can be obtained from the Bogoliubov-deGennes equation

$$i_t\left(\begin{array}{c}u_𝐩\\ v_𝐩\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}ϵ_𝐩& \mathrm{\Delta }\\ \mathrm{\Delta }^{}& ϵ_𝐩\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}u_𝐩\\ v_𝐩\end{array}\right)$$
(5)
to be solved along with the selfconsistency condition (4).

We recall that the unpaired state is a selfconsistent, albeit unstable, solution of Eqs. (5),(4) with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$, $`T=0`$: $`u_𝐩^{(0)}(t)=e^{iϵ_𝐩t}\theta (ϵ_𝐩)`$, $`v_𝐩^{(0)}(t)=e^{iϵ_𝐩t}\theta (ϵ_𝐩)`$, The stability analysis  shows that the deviation from the unpaired state grows as $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)e^{\gamma t}e^{i\omega t}`$,

$$\delta u_𝐩(t)=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }(t)v_𝐩^{(0)}(t)}{i\gamma 2ϵ_𝐩+\omega },\delta v_𝐩(t)=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(t)u_𝐩^{(0)}(t)}{i\gamma +2ϵ_𝐩\omega }$$
(6)
with the growth exponent $`\gamma `$ and the constant $`\omega `$ given by

$$1=\lambda \underset{𝐩}{}\frac{\mathrm{sgn}ϵ_𝐩}{2ϵ_𝐩\zeta },\zeta =\omega +i\gamma $$
(7)
The electron-hole symmetry near the Fermi level, $`N(ϵ_𝐩)=N(ϵ_𝐩)`$, makes the frequency shift $`\omega `$ vanish. Using the similarity between Eq. (7) and the BCS gap equation at $`T=0`$, the exponent $`\gamma `$ can be shown to be close to the BCS gap value $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. (In fact, in the constant density of states approximation, the two quantities coincide: $`\gamma =\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$.) Thus, we estimate the time $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }_0^1`$.

The interaction switching, while nonadiabatic, must also be gentle enough not to overheat the fermions above $`T\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. The effective temperature $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ after switching can be estimated from the total energy increase, giving

$$aT_{\mathrm{eff}}^2=\underset{\omega ,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}\mathrm{}4}{}\mathrm{}\omega n_1n_2(1n_3)(1n_4)|\lambda _\omega |^2\delta (\mathrm{}\omega \delta E)$$
(8)
with $`n_i=n(ϵ_{𝐩_i})`$, $`\delta E=ϵ_{𝐩_3}+ϵ_{𝐩_4}ϵ_{𝐩_1}ϵ_{𝐩_2}`$, $`a=\frac{\pi ^2}{6}\nu `$. For the interaction switching from $`0`$ to $`\lambda `$ over a characteristic time $`\tau _0`$, the RHS of (8) is of the order of $`\lambda ^2\tau _0^3`$. Thus the cold $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ condition is $`E_F\tau _0(\lambda n/\mathrm{\Delta }_0)^{2/3}`$, which is compatible with the nonadiabaticity requirement $`\tau _0\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

At $`T=0`$, a soliton solution of Eqs. (5),(4) can be constructed most naturally in terms of the variable

$$w_𝐩=\{\begin{array}{cc}u_𝐩/v_𝐩,\hfill & ϵ_𝐩>0\hfill \\ v_𝐩/u_𝐩,\hfill & ϵ_𝐩<0\hfill \end{array}$$
(9)
Consider first the case $`ϵ_𝐩>0`$. From Eq. (5) we obtain

$$i_tw_𝐩=2ϵ_𝐩w_𝐩+\mathrm{\Delta }(t)\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(t)w_𝐩^2$$
(10)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$ is a function of time determined from (4).

Motivated by the stability analysis (6), (7), we try the ansatz $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)=e^{i\omega t}\alpha ^1(t)`$ with $`\alpha (t)`$ real, and

$$w_𝐩(t)=2ϵ_𝐩f(t)i\dot{f}(t),f(t)\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Delta }^{}}=e^{i\omega t}\alpha (t)$$
(11)
Substituting this in Eq.(10), we obtain an equation

$$i\xi _𝐩\dot{\alpha }+\ddot{\alpha }=\xi _𝐩(\xi _𝐩\alpha i\dot{\alpha })+\frac{1}{\alpha }\left(1(\xi _𝐩\alpha i\dot{\alpha })^2\right)$$
(12)
with $`\xi _𝐩=2ϵ_𝐩\omega `$. Remarkably, the terms with $`\xi _𝐩`$ cancel, and Eq. (12) takes the same form for all the states,

$$\alpha \ddot{\alpha }=\dot{\alpha }^2+1$$
(13)
which justifies the ansatz (11). By a variable substitution $`\alpha =e^\varphi `$, Eq. (13) can be brought to the form $`\ddot{\varphi }=e^{2\varphi }`$. Integrating the latter equation, obtain $`\dot{\varphi }^2+e^{2\varphi }=\gamma ^2`$, with $`\gamma `$ an integration constant. This yields $`\dot{\alpha }^2=\gamma ^2\alpha ^21`$,

$$\alpha (t)=\frac{1}{\gamma }\mathrm{cosh}\gamma (tt_0),\mathrm{\Delta }(t)=\frac{\gamma e^{i\omega t}}{\mathrm{cosh}\gamma (tt_0)}$$
(14)
The modulus $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|`$ time dependence (Fig.1, upper left), growing first, then decreasing and taking the system back to the unpaired state, reflects the absence of dissipation. The time $`t_0`$ at which $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|`$ peaks is set by the initial condition at large negative times $`tt_{}`$.

For $`ϵ_𝐩<0`$, $`w_𝐩=v_𝐩/u_𝐩`$, the form of Eq. (10) remains the same up to a sign change $`ϵ_𝐩ϵ_𝐩`$ and the permutation $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$. Accordingly, the ansatz for $`w_𝐩`$ in this case is $`w_{ϵ_𝐩<0}(t)=2|ϵ_𝐩|f(t)i\dot{f}(t)`$, $`f(t)\mathrm{\Delta }^1=e^{i\omega t}\alpha (t)`$. The resulting equation for $`\alpha (t)`$ is identical to Eq. (13).

The last step is to analyze the requirements on this solution due to the selfconsistency condition (4). For that, we rewrite Eq. (4) in terms of $`w_𝐩(t)`$ as

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(t)=\lambda \underset{ϵ_𝐩>0}{}\frac{w_𝐩(t)}{1+|w_𝐩(t)|^2}+\lambda \underset{ϵ_𝐩<0}{}\frac{w_𝐩^{}(t)}{1+|w_𝐩(t)|^2}$$
(15)
and note that both the right and the left hand side have the same time dependence, and are equal to each other provided that the quantity $`\zeta =\omega +i\gamma `$ satisfies Eq. (7). This means that the gap modulus $`|\mathrm{\Delta }(t)|`$ peak value is equal to the instability exponent $`\gamma `$ defined by (7).

At $`T=0`$, in the case of a constant density of states, $`\gamma `$ is equal to the equilibrium BCS gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, while $`\omega `$ vanishes due to particle-hole symmetry. Thus, remarkably, the modulus $`|\mathrm{\Delta }(t)|`$ in this case peaks exactly at $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$.

To illustrate the collective dynamics in the soliton solution, we plot the trajectories $`u_𝐩(t)`$, $`v_𝐩(t)`$ on the Bloch sphere $`r_1^2+r_2^2+r_3^2=1`$ using the parameterization

$$r_1+ir_2=2u_𝐩v_𝐩^{};r_3=|u_𝐩|^2|v_𝐩|^2$$
(16)
(Fig. 1, left). Here, as well as in the soliton train solutions discussed below (Eq. (26)), each state $`(u_𝐩,v_𝐩)`$ completes a full Rabi cycle per soliton. The trajectories, which are small loops for the pairs with large energies $`ϵ_𝐩`$, turn into a big circle as $`ϵ_𝐩`$ tends to the Fermi level.

To gain further insight, we reformulate the Bogoliubov approach, following Anderson , in terms of pseudospins associated with individual Cooper pair states. ‘Pauli spin’ operators $`\sigma _𝐩^\pm \frac{1}{2}(\sigma _𝐩^x\pm i\sigma _𝐩^y)`$ can be assigned to each pair of fermions with opposite momenta as follows

$$\sigma _𝐩^+=a_𝐩^+a_𝐩^+,\sigma _𝐩^{}=a_𝐩a_𝐩$$
(17)
The identity $`\sigma _𝐩^z[\sigma _𝐩^+,\sigma _𝐩^{}]=a_𝐩^+a_𝐩a_𝐩a_𝐩^+`$ allows to map the problem (2) onto an interacting spin problem

$$=\underset{𝐩}{}^{}ϵ_𝐩\sigma _𝐩^z2\lambda \underset{𝐩,𝐪}{}^{}\sigma _𝐩^+\sigma _𝐪^{}$$
(18)
where $`_𝐩^{}`$ means a sum over the pairs of states $`(𝐩,𝐩)`$. Since all the spins interact with each other equally, the mean field theory here is exact, just like for the BCS problem. The mean field hamiltonian for each spin is

$$_𝐩=𝐛_𝐩\sigma _𝐩,𝐛_𝐩=(\mathrm{\Delta }^{},\mathrm{\Delta }^{\prime \prime },ϵ_𝐩)$$
(19)
Here the $`z`$ component of the effective field $`𝐛_𝐩`$, given by the single particle energy, is spin-specific, while the transverse components, the same for all of the spins, satisfy

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }^{}+i\mathrm{\Delta }^{\prime \prime }=\lambda \underset{𝐪}{}\sigma _𝐪^+$$
(20)
which is analogous to the BCS gap relation. In the ground state each spin is aligned with $`𝐛_𝐩`$, and the spins form a texture near the Fermi surface , with spin rotation described by the Bogoliubov angle.

The dynamical problem of interest can be cast in the form of Bloch equations for the spins,

$$\dot{\sigma }_𝐩=i[_𝐩,\sigma _𝐩]=2𝐛_𝐩\times \sigma _𝐩$$
(21)
with the field $`𝐛_𝐩`$ defined selfconsistently by (19),(20). Anderson  used Eq. (21), linearized about the texture ground state, to study collective excitations of a superconductor (see also ). Linearized about the unpaired state, Eq. (21) yields an instability identical to (6), (7).

The Bloch dynamics is suitable for simulation (Fig. 2), since Eq. (21) is linear in spin operators and can be replaced by an equation for the expectation values (16). Typical $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$, observed in the presence of thermal noise, is an orderly sequence of the $`\mathrm{cosh}`$ solitons (Fig. 2, top), indicating robustness of soliton solution (cf. Ref.).

The effect of damping can be studied by replacing

$$𝐛_𝐩𝐛_𝐩^{\mathrm{eff}}=𝐛_𝐩\gamma 𝐛_𝐩\times 𝐫_𝐩$$
(22)
with a dimensionless damping constant, $`\gamma 1/(\mathrm{\Delta }_0\tau _ϵ)`$. This destroys integrability and prompts relaxation to BCS equilibrium (Fig. 2, bottom).

In our nonlinear dynamical problem, we have to solve the Bloch equations (21) together with the selfconsistency relation (20). As above, we assume the pairing amplitude time dependence of the form $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)=e^{i\omega t}\mathrm{\Omega }(t)`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }(t)`$ is real and $`\omega `$ is a constant frequency shift to be fixed by the relation (20). In the Larmor frame rotating with the frequency $`\omega `$, Eq. (21), written for the spins average polarization $`r_i=\sigma _𝐩^i`$ components, reads

$$\dot{r}_1=\xi _𝐩r_2,\dot{r}_2=\xi _𝐩r_1+2\mathrm{\Omega }r_3,\dot{r}_3=2\mathrm{\Omega }r_2$$
(23)
with $`\xi _𝐩=2ϵ_𝐩\omega `$, as before. An exact solution can be obtained from the ansatz

$$r_1=A\mathrm{\Omega },r_2=B\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }},r_3=C\mathrm{\Omega }^2D$$
(24)
The first and the third equation (23) are satisfied by (24) provided $`A=\xi _𝐩B`$ and $`B=C`$, while the second equation (23) is consistent with the normalization condition $`r_1^2+r_2^2+r_3^2=1`$, and thus yields

$$C^2\xi _𝐩^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2+C^2\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}^2+(C\mathrm{\Omega }^2D)^2=1$$
(25)
Eq. (25) will take the same form for all the spins,

$$\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}^2+(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^2)(\mathrm{\Omega }^2\mathrm{\Delta }_+^2)=0,\mathrm{\Delta }_{}\mathrm{\Delta }_+$$
(26)
provided that the constants $`D`$, $`C`$ are chosen as

$$(D^21)/C^2=\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^2\mathrm{\Delta }_+^2,2D/C=\xi _𝐩^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_+^2$$
(27)
with the sign factor $`\mathrm{sgn}ϵ_𝐩`$. Eq. (26) defines an elliptic function $`\mathrm{\Omega }(t)`$ oscillating periodically between $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_+`$. At $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}\mathrm{\Delta }_+`$, the solution is a train of weakly overlapping solitons (14) with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_+=\gamma `$ (Fig. 1, left).

The real part of the selfconsistency relation (20),

$$1=\lambda \underset{𝐩}{}\frac{\xi _𝐩\mathrm{sgn}ϵ_𝐩}{\left((\xi _𝐩^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_+^2)^24\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^2\mathrm{\Delta }_+^2\right)^{1/2}}$$
(28)
fixes one of the constants $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\pm `$, the other one being a free parameter that controls the inter-soliton time separation. With the ratio $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}/\mathrm{\Delta }_+`$ varying from $`0`$ to $`1`$, the soliton frequency increases, and the weakly overlapping solitons (14) gradually become overlapping more strongly, turning into weak harmonic oscillations (Fig. 1).

We note that the weak oscillation limit has been investigated by Volkov and Kogan  with the help of linearized Gorkov equation, and earlier by Anderson , who used pseudospin representation. The nonexponential decay of the lianearized oscillations  was interpreted as collisionless damping, related to strong mixing of the oscillations of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ with the states of two excited quasiparticles slightly above the superconducting gap.

The imaginary part of Eq. (20) fixes the value of the frequency shift $`\omega `$ (we recall that $`\omega 0`$ in the presence of charge asymmetry). At $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}\mathrm{\Delta }_+`$, Eq. (28) turns into Eq. (7) which, as we found above, defines the amplitude of a single soliton. In the opposite limit, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}\mathrm{\Delta }_+`$, Eq. (28) coincides with the BCS gap equation.

There is an interesting relation between our problem and the self-induced transparency phenomenon . In the latter, an optical pulse interacting with an ensemble of atoms can dissipate its energy by inducing resonant Rabi transitions in the atoms. However, when the pulse duration is tuned so that the atoms complete a full Rabi $`2\pi `$ cycle as the pulse goes by, the pulse sustains itself and propagates without dissipation. The Bloch equations describing this phenomenon bear striking similarity to our Eqs. (21), while the atoms’ polarization is employed  to provide feedback on the pulse instead of our BCS selfconsistency relation.

Before concluding, we note that the dynamics at finite temperature, in the regime described by Eq. (1), remains an open problem. In particular, we can not rule out the possibility of chaotic behavior. At $`T=0`$ the problem has a relatively simple solution, periodic in time, because in this case the quasiparticles with low energies are strongly coupled to the oscillations of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. In contrast, in the case $`T\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }1`$ there are two groups of quasiparticles: those with energies $`ϵ_𝐩\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }^1`$, which fully participate in the oscillations, as above, and the quasiparticles with $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }^1ϵ_𝐩T`$, coupled to $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$ much weaker and playing the role of a thermal bath, thereby providing dissipation.

In summary, this work provides an exact solution for the BCS pairing formation problem. In the nonadiabatic regime, the dynamics is dissipationless and thus nonlinear. Soliton train solutions are obtained analytically and demonstrated to be generic and robust by a simulation.


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# Ambiguities in the up quark mass

## Acknowledgements

I have benefited from lively discussions with many colleagues, in particular F. Berruto, T. Blum, K. Petrov, H. Neuberger, G. Senjanovic, and Y. Shamir. This manuscript has been authored under contract number DE-AC02-98CH10886 with the U.S. Department of Energy. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.


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# Stellar matter in the Quark-Meson-Coupling Model with neutrino trapping

## Abstract

The properties of hybrid stars formed by hadronic and quark matter in $`\beta `$-equilibrium are described by appropriate equations of state (EoS) in the framework of the quark meson coupling (QMC) model. In the present work we include the possibility of trapped neutrinos in the equation of state and obtain the properties of the related hybrid stars. We use the quark meson coupling model for the hadron matter and two possibilities for the quark matter phase, namely, the unpaired quark phase and the color-flavor locked phase. The differences are discussed and a comparison with other relativistic EoS is done.

PACS number(s): 95.30.Tg, 21.65.+f, 12.39.Ba, 21.30.-x

During the early stage of a proto-neutron star neutrinos get trapped in it when their mean-free path is smaller than the star radius. The presence of neutrinos generally gives rise to a stiffer EoS. This may have important consequences on the evolution of the star, namely, it can happen that during the cooling process the star decays into a low-mass black hole prak97 . It is worth mentioning that over 20 years ago the importance of neutrino trapping was already pointed out in gb , where the authors claimed that another important effect of including trapped neutrinos is that the collapse is gentler in its presence than it would be without it.

In the present paper we are interested in building the neutrino trapped EoS for mixed matter of quark and hadron phases. We employ the QMC model (QMC) guichon ; ST ; pal  in order to describe the hadron phase. For the quark phase we use two distinct models, the unpaired quark model (UQM), which is given by the simple MIT bag model bag  and the color-flavor locked phase (CFL) raja ; ar  in which quarks are paired near the Fermi surface forming a superconducting phase bl .

In a previous work recente  we have used the same formalism in order to study the properties of hybrid stars at $`T=0`$ MeV. In this work, we verify the effect of including trapped neutrinos in the same spirit as done in mp , where we have seen that the EoS changes considerably and the mixed phase appears at higher energy densities than in the EoS built without the inclusion of neutrinos in accordance with what was seen in other works, as in prak97  for instance. We have also verified that trapping keeps the electron population high so that dense matter contains more protons (and depending on the parametrization used, other positively charged particles) than matter without neutrinos. This fact was also discussed in vbpr .

Proto-neutron stars with a certain baryonic mass at birth keep this mass during its evolution until the final neutrino free star because most of its matter is accreted in the early stages after birth. Hence, stars with trapped neutrinos and a baryonic mass larger than the corresponding ones after deleptonization collapse to a black hole. In mp  we have described the hybrid star within a non-linear Walecka model (NLWM) Glen00  including the baryonic octet and a phase transition to a quark phase. Within this description the maximum baryonic masses supported by neutrino trapped EoSs are larger than the corresponding ones found in neutrino free EoSs, a fact which occurs in other EoS which include the strangeness degree of freedom prak97 ; vbpr . In what follows we investigate whether this behavior is also present in the framework of the QMC model. Because of its importance in understanding the evolution process in a star, we calculate the baryonic masses for the hybrid stars studied in the present work. We also compare the properties of the stars obtained within the UQM model and the CFL model.

We perform all the calculations at $`T=0`$ MeV although the neutrino trapped phase occurs for temperatures in the interior of the star which can vary between 20-40 MeV prak97 ; mp . However, it was shown in mp  that the effect of trapping is much stronger than the finite temperature effect. Therefore, we believe that the main conclusions drawn in the present work are still valid for a finite temperature calculation. On the other hand, the calculation with the CFL phase will give us only an upper limit, since at finite temperature there is a phase transition from the color superconducting state to a normal phase, which, according to rischke , is a second order transition with a BCS critical temperature $`T_c0.57\mathrm{\Delta }`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ being the gap parameter.

Since most of the analytical calculations and formulae used in the present work have already been given in recente  they will be omitted here. As mentioned above, we have used the QMC model with the inclusion of hyperons for the hadron phase. In this model, the nucleon in nuclear medium is assumed to be a static spherical MIT bag in which quarks interact with the scalar and vector fields, $`\sigma `$, $`\omega `$ and $`\rho `$ and these fields are treated as classical fields in the mean field approximation. The quark field, $`\psi _q(x)`$, inside the bag then satisfies the equation of motion:

$`\left[i\text{/}(m_q^0g_\sigma ^q\sigma )g_\omega ^q\omega \gamma ^0+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_\rho ^q\tau _z\rho _{03}\right]\psi _q(x)=0`$
$`q=u,d,s,`$ (1)
where $`m_q^0`$ is the current quark mass, and $`g_\sigma ^q`$, $`g_\omega ^q`$ and $`g_\rho ^q`$ denote the quark-meson coupling constants. After enforcing the boundary condition at the bag surface, the transcendental equation for the ground state solution of the quark (in $`s`$-state) is $`j_0(x_q)=\beta _qj_1(x_q)`$ which determines the bag eigenfrequency $`x_q`$, where $`\beta _q=\sqrt{(\mathrm{\Omega }_qR_Bm_q^{})/(\mathrm{\Omega }_q+R_Bm_q^{})}`$, with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_q=(x_q^2+R^2m_{q}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})^{1/2}`$; $`m_q^{}=m_q^0g_\sigma ^q\sigma _0`$, is the effective quark mass. The energy of the nucleon bag is $`M_B^{}=3\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_q}{R_B}\frac{Z_B}{R_B}+\frac{4}{3}\pi R_B^3B_B`$, where $`B_B`$ is the bag constant and $`Z_B`$ parameterizes the sum of the center-of-mass motion and the gluonic corrections. The bag radius, $`R_B`$, is then obtained through the stability condition for the bag. An interesting fact related to the QMC model is that the bag volume changes in the medium through the mean value of the $`\sigma `$-field. This also implies that the bag eigenvalues are also modified. The onset of hyperons depends on the conditions of chemical equilibrium and charge neutrality discussed below and also on the meson-hyperon coupling constants for which we have chosen the hyperon coupling constants constrained by the binding of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ hyperon in nuclear matter, hyper-nuclear levels and neutron star masses ($`x_\sigma =0.7`$ and $`x_\omega =x_\rho =0.783`$) and assumed that the couplings to the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ are equal to those of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ hyperon Glen00 . The leptons either in the hadron or in the quark phase are considered as free Fermi gases and they do not couple with the hadrons, with the mesons or with the quarks.

The condition of chemical equilibrium is imposed through the two independent chemical potentials for neutrons $`\mu _n`$ and electrons $`\mu _e`$ and it implies that the chemical potential of baryon $`B_i`$ is $`\mu _{B_i}=Q_i^B\mu _nQ_i^e\mu _e`$, where $`Q_i^e`$ and $`Q_i^B`$ are, respectively, the electric and baryonic charge of baryon or quark $`i`$. Charge neutrality implies $`_{B_i}Q_i^e\rho _{B_i}+_lq_l\rho _l=0`$ where $`q_l`$ stands for the electric charges of leptons. If neutrino trapping is imposed to the system, the beta equilibrium condition is altered to $`\mu _{B_i}=Q_i^B\mu _nQ_i^e(\mu _e\mu _{\nu _e})`$. In this work we have not included trapped muon neutrinos. Because of the imposition of trapping the total leptonic number is conserved, i.e., $`Y_L=Y_e+Y_{\nu _e}=0.4`$.

For the quark phase we consider two models. First of all, we take the quark matter EoS as in bag  in which $`u`$,$`d`$ and $`s`$ quark degrees of freedom are included in addition to electrons. Up and down quark masses are set to zero and the strange quark mass is taken to be either 150 or 200 MeV so that we are able check the effect of the $`s`$-quark mass. In chemical equilibrium $`\mu _d=\mu _s=\mu _u+\mu _e`$. In terms of neutron and electric charge chemical potentials $`\mu _n`$ and $`\mu _e`$, one has $`\mu _u=\frac{1}{3}\mu _n\frac{2}{3}\mu _e,\mu _d=\frac{1}{3}\mu _n+\frac{1}{3}\mu _e,\mu _s=\frac{1}{3}\mu _n+\frac{1}{3}\mu _e.`$ In the energy density for the quark matter EoS a term $`+B`$ and in the pressure a term $`B`$ are inserted. This term is responsible for the simulation of confinement. For the Bag model, we have taken B1/4=190 and 200 MeV.

In the EoS taking into consideration a CFL quark paired phase, the quark matter is treated as a Fermi sea of free quarks with an additional contribution to the pressure arising from the formation of the CFL condensates. The density of the three types of quarks are identical and the electron density is zero, as shown in raja . The expressions for the energy density and pressure depend on a gap parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ which is taken to be 100 MeV ar .

Once the hadron and quark phases are well established, we have to construct the mixed phase, imposing charge neutrality globally, $`\chi \rho _c^{QP}+(1\chi )\rho _c^{HP}+\rho _c^l=0`$, where $`\rho _c^{iP}`$ is the charge density of the phase $`i`$, $`\chi `$ is the volume fraction occupied by the quark phase and $`\rho _c^l`$ is the electric charge density of leptons. We consider a uniform background of leptons in the mixed phase since Coulomb interaction has not been taken into account. According to the Gibbs conditions for phase coexistence, the baryon chemical potentials, temperatures and pressures have to be identical in both phases, i.e., $`\mu _{HP,n}=\mu _{QP,n}=\mu _n,\mu _{HP,e}=\mu _{QP,e}=\mu _e,T_{HP}=T_{QP},P_{HP}(\mu _n,\mu _eT)=P_{QP}(\mu _n,\mu _e,T),`$ reflecting the needs of chemical, thermal and mechanical equilibrium, respectively.

In fig. 1, the EoSs obtained with both quark models are displayed for different $`B`$ values and two strange quark masses with neutrino trapping ($`Y_L=0.4`$). For the sake of comparison we have also plotted one EoS with no neutrinos ($`Y_{\nu _e}=0`$), and included the EoS obtained within a NLWM formalism for the hadronic phase mp  and an UQM with $`m_s=150`$ MeV and $`B^{1/4}=190`$MeV, with and without neutrino trapping. As already discussed in vbpr ; prak97  the EoSs are harder if neutrino trapping is imposed, independently of the model used. A larger $`s`$-quark mass and a larger $`B`$ parameter make the quark EoSs harder in the mixed phase, a fact that manifests itself on the maximum mass stellar configuration. The main differences between the QMC formalism and the NLWM are: a) the NLWM EoS is harder at low densities and softer at intermediate densities due to the presence of hyperons; b) the transition to a pure quark phase occurs at lower densities in the NWLM. This behavior has consequences on the properties of the corresponding families of stars.

In order to better understand the importance of the neutrinos when neutrino trapping is imposed, in fig. 2 the fraction of neutrinos is shown. The behavior encountered for the neutrino fraction if the UQM is used resembles the one shown in mp : the population of neutrinos decreases in the hadron phase and, contrary to mp , only increases in the mixed and quark phases. The highest yields are of the order of 0.16. In this model, for smaller values of the strange quark mass, the neutrino population at high densities is greater. This occurs because a smaller $`s`$-quark mass gives larger $`s`$-quark densities and therefore, a smaller electron fraction. A fixed lepton fraction then implies a larger $`\nu _e`$ fraction.

If the CFL is chosen for the quark phase, the population of neutrino is higher in the mixed and quark phases. This is due to the fact that in the CFL phase no electrons are present since the number of $`u`$, $`d`$ and $`s`$ quarks are equal, therefore the lepton fraction is kept constant only by the presence of neutrinos. This implies a much greater neutrino flux during deleptonization. However, in a self-consistent calculation at finite temperature we do not expect such a strong effect since pairing will be weaker.

The amount of neutrinos depends on the fraction of charged hyperons and quarks present in each phase, which are determined by the models used and consequently by the bag pressure and the strange quark mass. In the present approach with the CFL phase or UQM for $`B^{1/4}=190`$ MeV the onset of hyperons, if any, occurs for $`\rho >10\rho _0`$. With the UQM and $`B^{1/4}=200`$ MeV the hyperon onset occurs at $`4\rho _0`$ but the charged hyperon fraction, namely $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$, is never larger than 0.004.

Hybrid neutron star profiles can be obtained from all the EoS studied by solving the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations. Even at finite temperature the conditions of hydrostatic equilibrium are nearly fulfilled bl86 . In Table I we show the values obtained for the maximum gravitational and baryonic masses and radii of neutron stars as function of the central density for the EoSs studied in this work. For a fixed bag constant, the stellar and baryonic masses of the most massive stable stars are higher for higher strange quark masses in both models. For the UQM, these critical masses are always higher than for the CFL model, because it also corresponds to harder EoS. The radii and central energy density depend on the model and on the strange quark mass. The radii values are larger for the UQM model and the central energy density are larger for the CFL model, again due to the fact that the UQM EoSs are harder. Comparing the results of table I with the ones presented in recente , where neutrino trapping was not considered, one can see that the inclusion of trapping makes the gravitational masses reasonably higher. The same conclusion was drawn in mp  where the calculations were performed with different relativistic models. In the Table I we have also included properties of maximum mass stars obtained within the NLWM for the hadronic phase mp . Two conclusions are in order: the maximum baryonic masses obtained within the NLWM are larger and the difference of maximum masses for trapped and untrapped matter is smaller for the QMC ($`0.2M_{}`$) than for the NLWM ($`0.4M_{}`$). This means that the number of stars that would decay into a blackhole is much smaller in the QMC model and is probably due to the fact that no hyperons are formed in the interior of stars obtained with QMC for $`m_s=150`$ MeV and $`B^{1/4}=190`$ MeV contrary to the NLWM case. If the quark phase is a CFL state the baryonic mass difference between the neutrino rich stars and neutrino poor is greater than in the UQM, ($`0.35M_{}`$). This is understood because the greater flux of neutrinos carries out more energy. However for a finite temperature calculation we expect a smaller effect.

A similar analysis was done in prak95 , where the authors used a derivative coupling model with hyperons for the hadron phase and the Bag model for the quark matter. They did not obtain any mixed phase for bag values larger than $`B^{1/4}=190`$ MeV in contrast with the present work. Moreover, the maximum masses shown in prak95  ($`1.6M_{}`$) and the differences between maximum masses in neutrino rich and neutrino poor stelar matter are lower than in our calculations.

In fig. 3 we display the baryonic masses versus the gravitational masses for both models. It is seen that neutrino trapped EoSs give rise to greater gravitational masses for the same baryonic mass. The mass difference reflects the binding energy released during the deleptonization and cooling stage prak97 . The maximum baryonic mass of the neutrino rich EoS are larger than the neutrino poor. This will lead to a blackhole formation during the leptonization period for stars with baryonic masses greater than the maximum baryonic mass of the neutrino poor EoS. This behavior has been encountered in other EoS which include strange matter, namely hyperon and/or quark matter mp ; vbpr .

In summary, we have investigated the effects of neutrino trapping in the properties of neutron stars within the QMC framework, including the possibility of hyperon formation and a transition to an unpaired quark-phase or a CFL phase. We have concluded that within the QMC model with hyperons for the hadronic matter, either the hyperons only occur at very high densities or in very small amounts at lower densities (e.g. UQM). Another important point is that the maximum mass of a neutrino rich neutron star decreases after neutrino diffusion leading to the formation of a low mass black-hole. This mass reduction is smaller for a quark phase described within an unpaired quark phase than a CFL phase. If the quark phase is in a CFL state a large fraction of neutrinos is expected in the mixed and quark phases which will carry away more energy as they diffuse out. We also point out that the amount of neutrinos present in the CFL phase is almost the double in comparison with the amount found in the UQM phase. At finite temperature the effect will not be so strong and a self-consistent finite temperature calculation should be performed. We have also seen that the mass reduction of the maximum mass stars during to neutrino diffusion is smaller within a QMC formalism than in a NLWM formalism.

This work was partially supported by CNPq (Brazil), CAPES(Brazil), GRICES(Portugal) under project 100/03 and FEDER/FCT (Portugal) under the project POCTI/35308/FIS/2000.


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# The vortex depinning transition in untwinned YBaCuO using complex impedance measurements.

## Abstract

We present surface impedance measurement of the vortex linear response in a large untwinned YBCO crystal. The depinning spectra obtained over a broad frequency range (100 Hz- 30 MHz) are those of a surface pinned vortex lattice with a free flux flow resistivity (two modes response). The critical current in the ”Campbell” like regime and the flux flow resistivity in the dissipative regime are extracted. Those two parameters are affected by the first order transition, showing that this transition may be related to the electronic state of vortices.

The linear ac response of a pinned vortex lattice has been observed in the 60’s in conventional type II superconducting materials . At low frequencies, say f $``$ 1 KHz, a small ac field has an apparent penetration characterized by a static regime without any loss (the Campbell regime). It has been recognized as a direct consequence of the vortex pinning, and disagrees with first interpretations based on thermally activated depinning . Note that this linear regime is not the ohmic regime of a vortex lattice free from any pinning (the so called liquid phase). At the same time, the high frequency response (f $``$ 1-10 MHz) is that of a medium with a free resistivity (skin effect). Those two regimes are separated by the depinning frequency, and the shape of the whole spectrum allows to discriminate between different types of pinned vortex states. One of the main interest of this method is that vortex states can be studied even in the presence of a large critical current.

The principle of the experiment is to measure the ac penetration length, due to the vortex response, in a small coil directly glued around the sample. The detailed experimental procedure can be found in . A typical depinning spectrum is shown in the figure 1. It follows closely, over the whole frequency range, the two modes model of surface vortex pinning developed in . At the same time, it was impossible to perform acceptable fits using bulk pinning models. We conclude that the pinning in this YBaCuO sample is due to the surface roughness. We have also performed a precise study of the low frequency behavior close to the temperature of the first order transition. Within experimental accuracy, we do not find any evidence of a thermally assisted depinning regime. As the depinning frequency is directly measured by this method, we can identify the pure skin effect regime and measure the flux flow resistivity. A step in the flux flow resistivity is clearly identified at the temperature of the first order transition. At the same temperature, the low frequency penetration length diverges up to reach the full penetration (no pinning anymore). The first order transition affects both the critical current and the flux flow resistivity. It could suggest that this transition is linked to the pairing symmetry .


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# A mechanism leading from bubbles to crashes: the case of Japan’s land market

## 1 Introduction

The burst of the Japanese real estate bubbles in the early 1990s was the bust following the greatest boom of the late twentieth century. The average land price increased 550 percent between 1981 and 1991. See Figure 1(a). By 1991, the total value of all Japanese property was estimated at nearly 20 trillion dollars, which equaled more than 20 percent of the world’s wealth. Theoretically, the Japanese could have bought all the property in America by selling off metropolitan Tokyo . This anomalous appreciation of land price was created by an irrational exuberance of land speculation that was fueled by a myth that the land prices could never go down in Japan. In 1991, however, the bottom fell out of the castle-in-air market. From 1991 to 2002, the average land price continued . By 2002 the average land price fell by about 70 percent compared with the level in 1991. Figure 1(b) shows the movement of the mean value of the relative change in land prices $`R`$.

Why did the real estate bubble collapse crash? Here we analyze the ensemble distribution of land price in Japan and offer an explanation of a mechanism leading from bubbles to crashes. In our previous work  we investigated a database of the assessed value of land that is made public once a year by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Government of Japan (http://www.mlit.go.jp/ksj/) and found that the complementary cumulative distributions of ensembles of the land prices fits to a very good degree of approximation a power-law distribution111Yamano  found that complementary cumulative distribution of the absolute value of year-on-year percentage changes of land prices has been motivated by the generalized thermostatistics.. Andersson, et. al.  proposed a network model of urban economy that assumed that the market dynamics that generate land values can be represented as a growing scale-free network. We may, therefore, reasonably conclude that the distribution of land prices is accurately described by a power-law distribution. We have attempted in this paper to extend the observation into the 22-years period between 1981 and 2002, to explain a mechanism leading bubble to crashes.

## 2 Power-law for ensemble of land prices

In Figure 1(c), we plot the cumulative probability distribution of ensembles of land prices (S) in the four years 1985, 1987, 1991, and 1998, on the log-log scale. The data for each of the 22 annual intervals from 1981 to 2002 are for land prices over 10,000 points. We found that the tail of the complementary cumulative distribution function of the ensemble of the land prices in the high price range is well described by a power-law distribution, $`P(S>x)x^\alpha `$. We use ordinary least squares (OLS) regression in log-log coordinates in order to determine the exponent $`\alpha `$ for the data of land prices for each of 22 years from the period 1981 - 2002. Overall, the power-law distribution of land prices is very strong. Figure 1(d) indicates the movement of the exponent $`\alpha `$. The exponent $`\alpha `$ continued to decrease toward unity between 1981 and 1987, and during the period of the peak of bubbles from 1987 to 1992 the exponent $`\alpha `$ hovered around unity. In 1991 the bubbles crashed, the trend has reversed, and the exponent $`\alpha `$ continued to increase between 1992 and 2001. This finding suggests that the threshold value of the exponent $`\alpha `$ that cause bubbles to burst is unity. We interpret this findings as follows. The mean of the power-law distribution is equal to $`1/(\alpha 1)`$. Therefore, as the power-law exponent $`\alpha `$ approaches unity, the mean diverges and the bubbles collapse.

From a practical viewpoint let us then consider these empirical findings. It is well known that the exponent $`\alpha `$ of the power-law distribution can be considered as a measurement of wealth inequality in real estate holdings. The Gini coefficient $`(G)`$ , known as the index for wealth concentration, can be written as $`G=1/(2\alpha 1)`$. Theoretically, the Gini coefficient ranges from zero, when all land areas are equal in price, to unity, when one land area has the highest price and the rest none. If the exponent $`\alpha `$ is close to unity, it means the Gini coefficient will be close to unity. Therefore, the bubble is not defined as the generally extraordinary rise of land prices, but rather as the extraordinary enlargement of the inequality of land prices. Figure 1(e) shows the movement of the Gini coefficient. The inequality of the distribution of land prices measured by the Gini coefficient increased drastically from 0.58 in 1981 to 0.77 in 1988, and particularly during the period of 1987 - 1992 the Gini coefficient is bigger than 70 percent, and inequality reached the breaking point. The real estate bubbles caused intolerable inequality for Japanese society. Accordingly, increasing the wealth inequality acted as a trigger to cause the collapse of the real estate bubble.

## 3 Concluding remarks

Many empirical findings of asset time series, which have been proposed recently, have suggested that asset markets including land markets are complex systems in which a large number of agents participate in trade and have interplay with each other. Assuming asset markets are complex systems, crashes in asset markets will be considered as catastrophes in complex systems. Although it is extremely important to elucidate the nature of any catastrophe in complex systems, little is known about the mechanism of such catastrophes. In this study, we investigated land markets quantitatively, and showed causes of market crashes empirically. The next step is to model this finding. The theoretical study will be left for future work.

## 4 Acknowledgement

Financial support by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science under the Grant-in-Aid, No. 06632 is gratefully acknowledged. All remaining errors, of course, are ours.


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# Transition from a strongly interacting 1D superfluid to a Mott insulator

(October 16, 2003)

## Abstract

We study one-dimensional trapped Bose gases in the strongly interacting regime. The systems are created in an optical lattice and are subject to a longitudinal periodic potential. Bragg spectroscopy enables us to investigate the excitation spectrum of the one-dimensional gas in different regimes. In the superfluid phase a broad continuum of excitations is observed which calls for an interpretation beyond the Bogoliubov spectrum taking into account the effect of quantum depletion. In the Mott insulating phase a discrete spectrum is measured. The excitation spectra of both phases are compared to the three-dimensional situation and to the crossover regime from one to three dimensions. The coherence length and coherent fraction of the gas in all configurations are measured quantitatively. We observe signatures for increased fluctuations which are characteristic for 1D systems. Furthermore, ceasing collective oscillations near the transition to the Mott insulator phase are found.

Quantum gases trapped in the periodic potential of an optical lattice have opened a new experimental window on many-particle quantum physics. The recent observation of the quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulating phase in a Bose gas Greiner2002a  has offered a first glimpse on the physics which is now becoming experimentally accessible. However, the full wealth of possibilities has yet to be explored. Besides controlling the effect of interactions in the trapped gas, it is conceivable to induce disorder, to change the dimensionality of the system, or to trap Fermi gases or Bose-Fermi mixtures. The realization of these systems is expected to provide a deeper understanding of general concepts related to superfluidity and superconductivity.

Here we use the optical lattice to realize a strongly interacting Bose gas in one spatial dimension and to study the crossover to three dimensions. Emphasis is put on the measurement of excitation spectra which characterize the transition from the superfluid Menotti2003 ; Rey2003  to the Mott insulating state Sheshadri1993 ; Greiner2002a ; Sachdev2002 . Several features observed in the spectra go beyond the description of current theoretical models.

Degenerate Bose gases trapped in the lowest band of an optical lattice can be modelled using the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian Fisher1989 ; Freericks1994 ; Kuehner1998 ; Jaksch1998 , in which the hopping of atoms between neighboring lattice sites is characterized by the tunnelling matrix element $`J`$, while the interaction energy for two atoms occupying the same site is given by $`U`$. The physics of this model is governed by the ratio between $`U`$ and $`J`$, i.e. between interaction and kinetic energy. This parameter can be controlled by changing the depth of the lattice potential. If the ratio $`U/J`$ is below a critical value the atoms are superfluid. Above this value the system becomes Mott insulating. We access the one-dimensional regime Fisher1989 ; Buechler2003 ; Batrouni2002  using an anisotropic optical lattice consisting of three mutually perpendicular standing waves. By choosing large potential depths in two axes we can selectively suppress tunnelling and hopping is possible only along one dimension, so that an array of one-dimensional tubes with periodic modulation along their axis is formed.

We produce almost pure Bose-Einstein condensates of typically $`1.5\times 10^5`$ 87Rb atoms in the $`|F=2,m_F=2`$ hyperfine ground state in a magnetic trap with trapping frequencies of $`\omega _x=2\pi \times 18\text{Hz}`$, $`\omega _y=2\pi \times 20\text{Hz}`$, and $`\omega _z=2\pi \times 22\text{Hz}`$. The optical lattice is formed by three retro-reflected laser beams which are derived from laser diodes at a wavelength of $`\lambda =826`$ nm Moritz2003 . At the position of the condensate the beams are circularly focused to $`1/e^2`$-radii of $`120`$$`\mu \text{m}`$ ($`x`$ and $`y`$ axes) and $`105`$$`\mu \text{m}`$ ($`z`$). The three beams possess mutually orthogonal polarizations and their frequencies are offset with respect to each other by several ten MHz. The linewidth of the lasers is of the order of $`10\text{kHz}`$.

In order to load the condensate into the ground state of the optical lattice, the intensities of the lasers are slowly increased to their final values using an exponential ramp with a time constant of $`25\text{ms}`$ and a duration of $`100\text{ms}`$. The resulting optical potential depths $`V_{x,y,z}`$ are proportional to the laser intensities and are conveniently expressed in terms of the recoil energy $`E_R=\frac{\mathrm{}^2k^2}{2m}`$ with $`k=\frac{2\pi }{\lambda }`$ and the atomic mass $`m`$. To prepare an array of one-dimensional tubes, two lattice axes are ramped to $`V_{}V_x=V_z=30E_R`$ and the third one to a much lower value $`V_{ax,0}V_y`$. In this configuration the transverse tunnelling rates $`J_x`$ and $`J_z`$ are small and contribute a correction of the order of $`J_{x,z}/\mu 1`$ to the 1D characteristics of the individual tubes, where $`\mu `$ is the chemical potential of the sample. It is convenient to include the anisotropic tunnelling between all nearest neighbor sites which yields the resulting $`J=2(J_x+J_y+J_z)`$.

We study the excitation spectrum by employing amplitude modulation of the axial lattice potential $`V_{ax}`$ to perform two-photon Bragg spectroscopy Stenger1999 . The lattice potential takes the form $`V_{ax}(y,t)=(V_{ax,0}+A_{mod}\mathrm{sin}(2\pi \nu _{mod}t))\mathrm{sin}^2(ky)`$. The modulation with amplitude $`A_{mod}`$ and frequency $`\nu _{mod}`$ introduces two sidebands with frequencies $`\pm \nu _{mod}`$ relative to the lattice laser frequency which define the energy $`h\nu _{mod}`$ of the excitation. Due to the Bragg condition atoms scattering two photons receive a momentum transfer of $`0\mathrm{}k`$ or $`2\mathrm{}k`$. In contrast to applying a potential gradient across the lattice Greiner2002a , this method is not susceptible to effects like Bloch oscillations and Zener tunnelling which occur for low axial lattice depths. Furthermore, the excitation energy is precisely determined and does not involve any parameters that need calibration.

After the excitation, the experimental sequence continues by ramping down the lattice potentials linearly in 15 ms to $`V_{ax}=V_{}=4E_R`$ where the atoms are able to tunnel again in all three dimensions between the sites of the lattice. To allow for re-thermalization of the system, the atoms are kept at this lattice depth for $`5\text{ms}`$. Then all optical and magnetic potentials are suddenly switched off. The resulting matter wave interference pattern is detected by absorption imaging after $`25\text{ms}`$ of ballistic expansion. The width of the central momentum peak is taken as a measure of how much energy has been deposited in the sample by the excitation. If the energy increase is small, the peak is well fitted by a bimodal distribution. For resonant excitation there is only a single gaussian component, reflecting that the temperature of the atoms has significantly increased. To be independent of the shape of the peak we use the full width at half maximum (FWHM) as a measure of the introduced energy. Although this underestimates small energy increases, the important resonances and features of the spectra are well shown.

The duration $`t_{mod}=30\text{ms}`$ and amplitude $`A_{mod}=0.2V_{ax,0}`$ of the modulation are chosen such that the resulting excitation of the condensate does not exhibit saturation effects for all measurements presented here. We have verified that all atoms remain in the lowest Bloch band by adiabatically switching off the lattice potentials Greiner2001b  after the modulation. When we load a cold thermal cloud into the lowest Bloch band and apply our modulation scheme, we do not observe excitations.

Figure 1 displays the fundamental change in the excitation spectrum for a 1D Bose gas when the crossover from the superfluid to the Mott insulating phase occurs: The broad continuum of the superfluid contrasts with the discrete spectrum of the Mott insulator. One surprising feature is that we can excite the superfluid with our scheme at large $`h\nu _{mod}`$ contrary to predictions for the weakly interacting superfluid in an optical lattice formed by a single standing wave Menotti2003 . In our experiment strong interactions lead to a significant quantum depletion, which is $`50\%`$ for the 1D configuration even with $`U/J=2.3`$ Kraemer2003 . Therefore this parameter may not be regarded small as in standard Bogoliubov theory, but higher order excitations should be taken into account Hugenholtz1959 . In combination with the broken translational invariance in the inhomogeneous trap, this could explain the non-vanishing excitation probability observed in the experiment at high energies BuechlerTBP .

A full series of spectra for different values of $`U/J`$ ranging from the superfluid via the crossover region to the Mott insulating phase is shown in figure 2. Figure 2a displays the 1D situation with $`V_{}=30E_R`$. The crossover from one to three dimensions (figure 2b) is achieved by reducing the transverse confinement of the optical lattice to $`V_{}=20E_R`$. Then the tunnelling time between the 1D tubes is of the order of $`t_{mod}`$ and thus the interaction between the tubes is not negligible any more Giamarchi2003 . Finally, figure 2c shows the three-dimensional case with $`V_{}=V_{ax,0}`$.

In one dimension (figure 2a) we observe the appearance of the discrete structure, which is characteristic for the Mott insulating phase, between $`U/J=4`$ and $`U/J=8`$. Above $`U/J=20`$ there is no more background due to the vanishing superfluid component. Our results are in accordance with the prediction $`U/J=5.8`$ for entering the $`n=1`$ Mott insulator based on a mean-field theory Fisher1989 ; Jaksch1998 . Calculations beyond the mean-field approach give an onset of the Mott insulating phase in the homogeneous 1D system at $`U/J1.8`$ Kuehner1998 . However, the finite size of the trap prohibits a sharp transition Batrouni2002 , so that the fraction of Mott insulating atoms increases gradually with $`U/J`$.

For the superfluid we obtain spectra which differ significantly from the results of ref. Greiner2002a , since the superfluid excitations decrease at higher energies. This decrease is rather slow for the 1D gas but becomes more pronounced when the tunnelling between the 1D gases is increased (Figure 2b and Figure 2c). Our excitation scheme does not induce dephasing that occurs when the strongly interacting condensate is accelerated near the edge of the Brillouin zone Bronski2001 . This might cause the broadening and the background in the tilted lattice experiments at high energies in ref. Greiner2002a . The width of the superfluid spectra for the 1D gas is on the same order as twice the width of the lowest band for Bogoliubov excitations Kraemer2003b .

In the Mott insulating phase we find the first resonant peak for all data sets close to the calculated value of $`U`$. A second peak appears at $`(1.91\pm 0.04)`$ times the energy of the first resonance, somewhat smaller than the value of 2 reported in Greiner2002a . This resonance might be attributed to defects where lattice sites with $`n=1`$ atom next to sites with $`n=2`$ atoms are being excited. For the 1D system and in the dimensional crossover regime (Fig. 2a and b) a much weaker resonance appears at $`(2.60\pm 0.05)`$ times the energy of the first resonance which could indicate higher order processes of two atoms tunnelling simultaneously. In figure 3a we plot the rms width of the first resonance in the excitation spectrum of the Mott insulating phase when fitted by a gaussian. In figure 3b we show the ratio of the amplitudes of the second and the first peak. Apparently, in the 1D system the first peak is wider and the second peak more pronounced as compared to the 3D situation, which could be an indication of increased fluctuations in 1D systems.

Compared to the superfluid properties the coherence properties of the system provide complementary information about the state of the gas. They are probed by studying the matter wave interference pattern Orzel2001 ; Greiner2002a . Here we first prepare the array of 1D systems as above but do not apply our excitation scheme. Instead, after holding the atoms at the final lattice depth for $`t_h=30\text{ms}`$, we increase $`V_{ax}`$ rapidly ($`<40\mu \text{s}`$) to about $`25E_R`$ and then abruptly switch off all optical and magnetic trapping potentials. This procedure projects the different initial configurations onto the same Bloch state. To extract the number of coherent atoms $`N_{coh}`$ from the interference pattern, the peaks remarkInterference  at $`0\mathrm{}k`$, $`\pm 2\mathrm{}k`$ and $`\pm 4\mathrm{}k`$ are fitted by gaussians (Fig. 4b). Incoherent atoms give rise to a broad gaussian background which dominates for higher $`V_{ax,0}`$. Taking this fit as a measure of the number of incoherent atoms $`N_{incoh}`$, we calculate the coherent fraction $`f_c=\frac{N_{coh}}{N_{coh}+N_{incoh}}`$. As shown in figure 4a, $`f_c`$ decreases slowly to zero for increasing values of $`U/J`$ and appears almost independent of the dimensionality. This coincides with the prediction that for strongly interacting Bose gases in optical lattices the superfluid fraction can be significantly different from the coherent fraction, and that the decrease of $`f_c`$ is not a sufficient signature of entering the Mott insulating phase Roth2003 . In figure 4c we plot the width of the central peak of the interference pattern, which is a measure of the coherence length of the gas. An increasing width is a good indicator for the presence of a Mott insulating phase since even a small Mott insulating domain reduces the coherence length of the sample, as elucidated in numerical calculations Kollath2003 . Our data shows that the increase in width starts at much lower values of $`U/J`$ for the 1D gas than for the 3D gas. This supports the expectation that due to the more pronounced quantum fluctuations in the 1D geometry the gas enters the Mott insulating state at lower values of $`U/J`$ Kuehner1998 ; Batrouni2002 ; Buechler2003 ; Kollath2003 . Experimentally, thermal fluctuations may also contribute to the observed width. However, by comparing the width of the interference peak for different hold times ($`t_h=1`$ ms and $`t_h=30`$ ms) we find that the primary effect of the additional heating is an overall increase of the width rather than a change of the slope of the curve.

One feature of the Mott insulating phase is its lack of compressibility Fisher1989 . If a potential gradient is applied across the lattice, the inability to redistribute atoms in the lattice results in a breakdown of the flow of atoms. Even if only a fraction of the atoms in our inhomogeneous trap is locally incompressible and pinned in the Mott insulating state Batrouni2002 , collective oscillations should suspend. In the experiment, the array of one-dimensional gases is prepared in the same way as before. Then, we apply a small potential gradient (far less than any resonance gradients Greiner2002a ) for $`1\text{ms}`$ to accelerate the atoms in the axial direction. We observe a very strong increase in the damping of the small amplitude dipole oscillations even for very low $`V_{ax,0}`$, a behaviour which is different from the three-dimensional gas. Critical damping is reached at $`V_{ax,0}=3E_R`$, and at $`V_{ax,0}=10E_R`$ we can not displace the atom cloud any more.

In conclusion, we have prepared an array of one-dimensional strongly interacting Bose gases and measured the excitation spectra in the superfluid and the Mott insulating regime. The spectrum of the superfluid exhibits excitations at high energies which are not predicted by current theories for weakly interacting bosons in an optical lattice and have so far only been discussed in the context of superfluid Helium. This shows that the strong interactions and the significant quantum depletion change the properties of the Bose gas considerably, already much below the crossover to the Mott insulator. The effect of reduced dimensionality on the crossover from superfluid to Mott insulator was most pronounced in the measurements of the coherence length of the gas.

We would like to thank H. P. Büchler and G. Blatter for insightful discussions, and SNF and QSIT for funding.


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# A Method to Unambiguously Determine the Parity of the Θ⁺ Pentaquark

## Acknowledgments

We thank Takashi Nakano for discussions and comments. AWT and KH would like to acknowledge the hospitality of the Research Centre for Nuclear Physics (RCNP) at Osaka University. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council and the U. S. National Science Foundation.