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# Characterization of low-energy magnetic excitations in chromium

## I Introduction

Although chromium exhibits a simple bcc structure and consists only of a single element the magnetism is very complicated and one of the most intriguing subjects in condensed matter physics. fawcett88 . Below the Néel temperature $`T_\mathrm{N}=311`$ K, the magnetic structure exhibits an incommensurate antiferromagnetic transverse spin-density-wave (TSDW) with the moments oriented perpendicular to the ordering wavevectors $`𝐐_\pm =(2\pi /a)(0,0,1\pm \delta )`$ ($`\delta 0.045`$) Werner67 . Below the spin-flop temperature $`T_{\mathrm{sf}}=122`$ K the moments arrange along $`𝐐_\pm `$ in a longitudinal spin-density-wave (LSDW). The pitch of the modulation is approximately $`a/\delta 20a`$ at low temperatures.

The inelastic magnetic cross section shows also a surprisingly rich behavior (Fig. 1). High-velocity excitations (often called spin waves) emerge from the incommensurate positions $`𝐐_\pm `$ fincher81 ; boeni98 . The excitations exhibit longitudinal and transverse polarization lorenzo94 ; fukuda96 , the former one being assigned to a phason mode fishman96 . In particular, while the longitudinal mode dominates below an energy transfer $`E8`$ meV, the incommensurate excitations become isotropic above 8 meV. These modes are present in the LSDW as well as in the TSDW phase.

In addition to the high-energy excitations at $`𝐐_\pm `$, Fincher et al., fincher79 ; fincher81  Burke et alburke83  and Sternlieb et alsternlieb93  found another magnetic mode in the TSDW phase at low energies that is located between the incommensurate peaks. The dispersion relation of this so-called Fincher-Burke (FB) mode was reported to emanate from the $`𝐐_\pm `$ positions and to merge into the high-energy excitations near $`E=8`$ meV (Fig. 1). The two FB-branches cross each other at $`E_\mathrm{c}4`$ meV and $`𝐐_\mathrm{c}=(0,0,1)`$. (Hereafter, we redefine the two branches as upper and lower FB mode, respectively, with the boundary energy of $`E_\mathrm{c}`$.) By means of neutron scattering with polarized neutrons it was shown that the FB modes are longitudinally polarized pynn92 ; pynn97 ; boeni98 .

Very recently, Hiraka et al. re-investigated the FB mode using unpolarized neutrons and found by means of constant-momentum-transfer scans (constant-Q scans) a new excitation mode hiraka03  that emerges from the point $`(𝐐_\mathrm{c},E_\mathrm{c})`$ towards a direction transverse to $`𝐐_\pm `$ within the $`(h,k,1)`$ plane. Interestingly, the gap-type mode extends with a low velocity up to at least $`h,k=\pm 2\delta `$ and shows a decreasing intensity with increasing $`h,k`$. Using a cold neutron triple-axis spectrometer with high-resolution Böni et al. investigated the FB mode in detail boeni02  using constant-$`𝐐`$ and constant-energy-transfer scans (constant-$`E`$ scans). They pointed out that the FB mode neither shows a simple linear dispersion nor obeys a simple spin-wave picture with respect to intensity. In addition, the intensity contour for $`𝐐_{}<𝐐<𝐐_+`$ indicated that the FB mode is asymmetric with respect to $`𝐐_\mathrm{c}`$. However, it was not clear if this was due to spurious scattering.

In order to obtain a coherent picture of the low-energy excitations in Cr we have performed a detailed investigation of the FB modes in the TSDW phase by means of constant-$`𝐐`$ scans using thermal- and cold-neutron spectrometers. Previous measurements were mostly performed by constant-E scans (Fig. 1). However, the intense high-energy excitations made the quantitative analysis of the weak response of the FB modes difficult.

The major result of this work is a confirmation of the asymmetry of the energy spectra with respect to $`𝐐_\mathrm{c}`$ near $`T_{\mathrm{sf}}`$ using a different sample and different spectrometers. We also observed that the energy spectra become more symmetric at high temperatures. In addition, we show that the FB modes conserve intensity along $`𝐐_\pm `$ (or $`l`$), in contrast to the transverse mode that shows a drastic depression of intensity along $`h`$ and $`k`$ hiraka03 . The nearly energy-independent component shows a strong $`T`$-dependence of the cross section that may be closely related to the commensurate scattering fincher81 ; fukuda96  or the critical scattering discussed by Sternlieb et al. sternlieb93 .

## II Experimental procedure

For the present experiments we have used the identical single crystal of $`4`$ cm3 that was previously investigated hiraka03 . The single-$`𝐐`$ structure pointing along $`[0,0,1]`$ was induced by cooling the sample through $`T_\mathrm{N}`$ in a strong magnetic field yielding a domain population $`99`$ %. The crystal was mounted inside a closed cycle refrigerator with the $`(h,0,l)`$ scattering plane horizontal. The measurements with thermal and cold neutrons were conducted on the triple-axis spectrometer TOPAN installed at the JRR-3M research reactor at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute and the triple-axis spectrometer SPINS at the National Institute for Standard and Technology, respectively. The $`(0,0,2)`$ reflection of pyrolytic graphite was used to monochromate and analyze the neutron energy. The final neutron energy of TOPAN (SPINS) was fixed at 14.7 meV (3.7 meV), and the horizontal-collimation sequence was set to 30’-60’-30’-60’ (guide-40’-40’-open) from before the monochromator to after the analyzer. The energy resolution of the spectrometers was estimated to be less than 1.2 meV and 0.4 meV, respectively. Higher-order neutrons were removed by means of a pyrolytic graphite filter and a BeO filter for TOPAN and SPINS, respectively.

## III Experimental results

In Fig. 2 we show the salient results of the present work. It is clearly seen that spectra evolve from a single peak at $`(0,0,0.97)`$ towards a double-peak structure at $`(0,0,1.02)`$. The significance of this result was confirmed by reproducing the scans under different experimental conditions.

Figure 3 shows detailed measurements at the commensurate position $`(0,0,1)`$ and at the intermediate position $`(0,0,1.02)`$ for temperatures below and above $`T_{\mathrm{sf}}`$. The so-called Fincher peak at $`(0,0,1)`$ fincher79  is broader than the $`E`$-resolution. A broadening of the peaks is also noticed in the scan at $`(0,0,1.02)`$. Below $`T_{\mathrm{sf}}`$, the peak structure disappears completely. At the same time the $`E`$-independent magnetic scattering decreases too, but it is significantly larger than the background of $`3040`$ counts/5 min that was measured at various points in the Brillouin zone. The behavior of the $`E`$-independent component is consistent with “commensurate scattering” which has already been observed before by means of constant-$`E`$ scans using unpolarized fukuda96  and polarized neutrons boeni98 .

In order to parametrize the data we have fitted the peaks in Figs. 2 and 3 after subtraction of the background to one or two Lorentzians plus a constant, $`I_{\mathrm{const}}`$. We express peak heights of the former part as $`I_{\mathrm{UFB}}`$ and $`I_{\mathrm{LFB}}`$ for the upper and lower FB mode, respectively (Fig. 3). The latter $`I_{\mathrm{const}}`$ is considered to be independent of $`E`$ but depends on $`T`$. Figure 4(a) summarizes the $`𝐐`$-dependence of the energy position of the FB mode. The vertical thick bars indicate the width of the peaks which are, roughly speaking, constant against $`𝐐`$. It is clearly seen that the dispersion is extremely asymmetric with respect to $`𝐐_\mathrm{c}`$ because no peaks are observed at the low-$`𝐐`$ side of the lower FB branch.

Figure 4(b) shows the peak intensity defined as a sum of $`(I_{\mathrm{UFB}}+I_{\mathrm{LFB}}+I_{\mathrm{const}})`$ versus $`𝐐`$, being almost constant between the high-energy incommensurate scattering. At this stage, no corrections have been made except taking into account a squared magnetic form factor for Cr2+ free ions. The $`E`$-independent scattering $`I_{\mathrm{const}}`$ contributes about half of the above mentioned peak intensity near $`T_{\mathrm{sf}}`$ and it is insensitive to $`l`$ also. Therefore, the intensity of the FB modes ($`I_{\mathrm{UFB}}+I_{\mathrm{LFB}}`$) is independent of $`𝐐`$. At the high-$`𝐐`$ side a transfer of intensity from the upper to the lower FB branch takes place while keeping the total intensity fixed.

Böni et al. have already found an asymmetry of the FB mode for the first time boeni02  based on an intensity contour map constructed from constant-$`E`$ and constant-$`Q`$ scans. They found a blob of scattering at $`(0,0,1.02)`$ near 3 meV. However, the quality of the data did not allow to clearly establish the pronounced (and unexpected) asymmetry in scattering unambiguously boeni-private . Our new measurements clearly reproduce the asymmetry between the scattering at $`(0,0,0.98)`$ and $`(0,0,1.02)`$ as shown in Fig. 5 using a different single-$`𝐐`$ crystal on a different spectrometer with different resolution.

We notice here once more, that it will be difficult to obtain new insight from constant-$`E`$ scans as shown in the inset of Fig. 5, unless the incommensurate scattering at $`𝐐_\pm `$ can be correctly evaluated and convoluted with the instrumental resolution function. We emphasize that it is the constant-$`𝐐`$ technique that allows the unambiguous determination of dispersion relations and not the constant-$`E`$ technique that leads often to wrong conclusions as proven in the past.

Figures 6 and 7 show the evolution of the inelastic intensity at $`(0,0,1.02)`$ and $`(0,0,0.98)`$ with $`T`$, respectively. The magnetic intensity increases much faster than expected on the basis of the thermal population factor, $`n+1=1/(1\mathrm{exp}(E/k_\mathrm{B}T))`$, indicating that the scattering is not due to spin waves clementyev04 . In particular, a remarkable growth is seen in $`I_{\mathrm{const}}`$ as shown with shades. The increase is also not due to conventional critical scattering near $`T_\mathrm{N}`$ because the measurements were performed far away from $`T_\mathrm{N}=311`$ K, i.e. at reduced temperatures $`t=1(T/T_\mathrm{N})`$ of 0.58 and 0.71 for 180 K and 220 K, respectively. We point out that with increasing $`T`$ the “missing” peak develops at $`(0,0,0.98)`$ near 3 meV (Fig. 7), i.e. the spectrum becomes more symmetric with increasing $`T`$ and approaches the cross section at $`(0,0,1.02)`$ (Fig. 6).

Figure 8 shows (i) once more the asymmetry of the scattering with respect to $`𝐐_\mathrm{c}`$ and (ii) the reduction of unbalance for two peaks at $`(0,0,0.98)`$ with increasing $`T`$. These high-resolution measurements ($`\mathrm{\Delta }E0.4`$ meV in FWHM) confirm the results from Fig. 7 ($`\mathrm{\Delta }E1.2`$ meV) that were performed with thermal neutrons. Due to the very different resolution conditions the asymmetry of the scattering is less pronounced with cold neutrons.

## IV Discussions

We have shown that the FB modes can be measured more precisely by means of constant-$`𝐐`$ scans than by means of constant-$`E`$ scans. As a result, it was possible to clearly identify an asymmetry of the magnetic cross sections with respect to the commensurate position $`𝐐_\mathrm{c}`$. The asymmetry decreases with increasing $`T`$. We have proven by using very different experimental conditions and different spectrometers that the asymmetry is not due to a resolution effect. The asymmetry is also not an artifact of the sample because similar results were obtained using another Cr single crystal and another spectrometer boeni02 . It might be interesting to investigate the asymmetry of the scattering in other Brillouin zones.

Our results also indicate that the FB modes are not spin-wave modes because the peak intensity is independent of $`𝐐`$ (Fig. 4(a)). Moreover, we observe a transfer of intensity between the lower and upper branches of the excitations. Finally, the intensity of the modes increases significantly faster with increasing $`T`$ than given by $`n+1`$, which is in agreement with previous works fincher81 ; clementyev04 . One may speculate that we have to deal with a thermally activated process. Another possible explanation may be reached by considering mode-mode coupling between the upper and lower FB branches harada71 .

The present results strongly suggest the existence of magnetic scatterting $`I_{\mathrm{const}}`$ that develops around the commensurate $`𝐐_\mathrm{c}`$ position. Its intensity increases also significantly faster than given by $`n+1`$ and finally dominates the inelastic scattering between $`𝐐_\pm `$ in agreement with previous constant-$`E`$ works fincher81 ; fukuda96 . $`I_{\mathrm{const}}`$ should contribute to the significant critical scattering near $`T_\mathrm{N}`$ fincher81 . In contrast to the FB modes this scattering is polarization independent boeni98  and exists already in the LSDW phase below the spin-flop transition. The energy-independent feature of $`I_{\mathrm{const}}`$ is also present transverse to $`𝐐_\pm `$ but drastically decreases with increasing $`h`$ and $`k`$ hiraka03 . We do not know the origin yet. One may speculate that the FB modes as well as the $`E`$-independent scattering may be explained by the complicated shape of the Fermi surface that gives rise to many different modes. We mention in particular that already a three-band model gives rise to at least 25 magnetic modes fishman96 .

## V Conclusion

We have reinvestigated the low-energy FB excitations of Cr in the TSDW phase by making extensive use of constant-$`𝐐`$ scans. We have observed an asymmetry in the inelastic scattering near $`T_{\mathrm{sf}}`$ that is at variance with the simple centro-symmetric bcc structure of Cr. The asymmetry of energy spectra decreases with raising $`T`$. The observed peak intensity of the FB modes satisfies a sum rule with regard to Q. The intensity of the dispersive excitations and the $`E`$-independent scattering increase with increasing $`T`$ much faster than expected according to the temperature factor $`n+1`$. Therefore, the FB modes are not spin-wave modes. We expect that the present results challenge the development of a theory to explain these results and resolve the puzzle of the magnetic excitations in Cr.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank Y. Endoh, R. S. Fishman, S. A. Werner and B. J. Sternlieb for helpful discussions. Present research was supported by the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Neutron-Scattering Program. Work at Tohoku University was supported by the Ministry of Monbu-Kagaku-shou of Japan. Work at Brookhaven was supported by the Division of Material Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC02-76CH00016. Work at SPINS was based upon activities supported by the NSF under DMR-9986442.


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# Low-temperature transport through a quantum dot between two superconductor leads

## I Introduction

In recent years, the Kondo effect for various mesoscopic systems has been extensively studied in literature. Most investigations have been concerned with a quantum dot between two normal metallic leads.Kondo  In density of states, it has been found an emergence of a sharp Kondo peak near Fermi surfaceSpectrum  and a split of this peak when out of equilibrium.Wingreen  In the voltage-dependent differential conductance, there appears an anomalous zero-bias maximum, ascending with a decrease of temperature.Kondo ; Wingreen ; Hettler  The further studies indicated that the manifestation of the Kondo effect is strongly dependent on the properties of leads, by which the quantum dot is sandwiched. Since in BCS superconductors there are present energy gaps, it is very interesting what the Kondo effect exhibits in the case of two superconductor leads. How are transport properties modified?

For a quantum dot between two superconductors, recent studies have shown that the Kondo effect will cause two sharp peaks near gap edges in the equilibrium density of states.Ishizaka ; Krawiec1 ; Choi  This conclusion agrees with the investigation for dilute magnetic alloy superconductors.Chung  In superconductors, all conduction electrons within energy gap are paired into Cooper singlets and the Kondo-correlated states only can form around the energy-gap bounds. In addition, since the leads coupled to a quantum dot are easily biased to nonequilibrium, it is of course raised the question, out of equilibrium, how the Kondo effect affects on the density of states. Unfortunately, until now, the study about this subject has not been carried out.

In theory, the transport properties have not been well studied yet. Ivanov predicted two surprising maxima in current near biases $`\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$.Ivanov  Moreover, Golub et al. only carried out the current for voltage bias in subgap regime.Golub  Very recently, the nonlinear transport through a quantum dot connected with two superconductors has been reported in experiment and rich phenomena were observed.Buitelaar  In the Kondo regime, except the peaks coming from Andreev reflection, it has been found two peaks at biases $`\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and one peak at zero-bias in the differential conductance. The last one has been explained as the result of Kondo effect and the nature of the remaining two peaks stayed unclear, however.

In present paper, we use the infinite-$`U`$ noncrossing approximation (NCA) to investigate the nonequilibrium Kondo effect for a quantum dot coupled to two superconductors. It is well known, to study the Kondo problem, NCA is a powerful tool and even can yield quantitative results.Wingreen ; Hettler ; Bickers  We find that a voltage bias between two superconducting leads will cause the equilibrium Kondo peaks in density of states to split. The resulting peaks appear at the edges of energy gap of each lead and their amplitudes are suppressed. In the nonequilibrium differential conductance versus bias, there are observed two anomalous peaks at biases $`\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and a small peak at zero bias. Our study indicates that the peaks at biases $`\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$, observed in experiment,Buitelaar  also come from the Kondo effect.

This paper is organized as follows. In section II we introduce the model and NCA for the case of the leads having energy gaps. In section III the numerical results are discussed. Finally, the conclusions are present in section IV.

## II Model and Formulation

We consider a quantum dot coupled to two (left and right) BCS-superconducting leads. Between lead and quantum dot a dc voltage $`eV_\alpha `$ ($`\alpha `$=L or R) is applied. In order to clearly explore the effect of energy gaps on the Kondo resonance, here, we restrict ourself to the case where the superconducting gap energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is much larger than Kondo temperature $`T_\mathrm{K}`$. Hence, the influence of the coupling between leads and the quantum dot on the superconductivity can be neglected.

After performed a gauge transformationRogovin , the Hamiltonian of the system can be written as

$$H=\underset{\alpha =L,R}{}H_\alpha +H_{dot}+\underset{\alpha =L,R}{}H_T^\alpha (\tau ).$$
(1)
Here $`H_\alpha `$ is the Hamiltonian of the superconducting lead $`\alpha `$,

$$H_\alpha =\underset{𝐤\sigma }{}\epsilon _{\alpha 𝐤\sigma }^0c_{\alpha 𝐤\sigma }^+c_{\alpha 𝐤\sigma }+\underset{𝐤}{}(\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha ^{}c_{\alpha 𝐤}c_{\alpha 𝐤}+\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha c_{\alpha 𝐤}^+c_{\alpha 𝐤}^+),$$
(2)
with $`c_{\alpha 𝐤\sigma }^+`$ ($`c_{\alpha 𝐤\sigma }`$) creating (destroying) an electron with momentum $`𝐤`$ and spin $`\sigma `$ in the lead $`\alpha `$. The dot is modelled as an infinite-$`U`$ Anderson impurity having bare energy $`\epsilon _d`$. Its Hamiltonian in the slave-boson representation is given by

$$H_{dot}=\epsilon _d\underset{\sigma }{}f_\sigma ^+f_\sigma .$$
(3)
The $`U\mathrm{}`$ constraint of single occupancy takes the form $`Q=_\sigma f_\sigma ^+f_\sigma +b^+b=1`$. An auxiliary boson operator $`b^+`$ and fermion operator $`f_\sigma ^+`$ create an empty site and singly occupied state, correspondingly. They relate to the ordinary electron creation (annihilation) operator $`d_\sigma ^+`$ ($`d_\sigma `$) in quantum dot by

$`d_\sigma `$ $`=`$ $`b^+f_\sigma ,`$ (4)
$`d_\sigma ^+`$ $`=`$ $`f_\sigma ^+b.`$ (5)
The hopping between the lead $`\alpha `$ and the dot is described by $`H_T^\alpha `$,

$$H_T^\alpha (\tau )=\underset{𝐤\sigma }{}V_{\alpha 𝐤\sigma }\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\varphi _\alpha }c_{\alpha 𝐤\sigma }^+b^+f_\sigma +\mathrm{H}.\mathrm{c}.$$
(6)
with $`\varphi _\alpha =eV_\alpha \tau /\mathrm{}`$.

The NCA is based on a self-consistent Feynman propagator expansion.Bickers ; Wingreen ; Hettler  To make the standard diagram techniques valid, for example the Wick’s theorem, the slave boson perturbation expansion is initially formulated in the grand canonical ensemble, i.e. in the enlarged Hilbert space of pseudo-fermion and slave boson degrees of freedom. In a second step, the exact projection of the equations onto the physical Hilbert space, $`Q=1`$, is performed.

The noncrossing approximation is accurate enough to study the dynamics of the quantum dot between two normal leads. In this approach, only the lowest-order diagrams for the boson and fermion propagators need to be considered. When one or both leads are replaced by superconductors, additional diagrams should be taken into account to include the effect of multi-Andreev reflection.Clerk  In our study, we restrict ourself to the case where the Coulomb interaction $`U`$ in quantum dot is much larger than the gap energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and the coupling constant between the dot and leads $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, i.e. in the infinite $`U`$ limit. Due to the energetically unfavorable of the $`2e`$-charge fluctuation, the contribution of the Andreev reflection can be neglected.Kang  Hence, the usual noncrossing approximation also can be used here.

The resultant equations for the self-energies of the retarded Green functions of the pseudo-fermions, $`G_{f\sigma }^r(\omega )=(\omega \epsilon _d\mathrm{\Sigma }_{f\sigma }^r(\omega ))^1`$ and the slave-bosons, $`D^r(\omega )=(\omega \mathrm{\Pi }^r(\omega ))^1`$, constrained to the physical subspace, can be written as

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_{f\sigma }^r(\omega )=\underset{\alpha }{}\frac{\mathrm{d}\epsilon }{\pi }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \sigma }(\omega \epsilon +eV_\alpha )(1f(\omega \epsilon +eV_\alpha ))D^r(\epsilon ),$$
(7)
$$\mathrm{\Pi }^r(\omega )=\underset{\sigma \alpha }{}\frac{\mathrm{d}\epsilon }{\pi }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \sigma }(\epsilon \omega eV_\alpha )f(\epsilon \omega eV_\alpha )G_{f\sigma }^r(\epsilon ).$$
(8)
Here, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \sigma }(\omega )=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \sigma }\rho _\alpha ^{(s)}(\omega )`$. The normalized density of states of electrons in superconductors $`\rho _\alpha ^{(s)}(\omega )`$ has the form Lin

$$\rho _\alpha ^{(s)}(\omega )=\mathrm{Re}\frac{|\omega |}{\sqrt{\omega ^2\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha ^2}}.$$
(9)
Coupling constant $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \sigma }`$ is defined as $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \sigma }=\pi |V_{\alpha k\sigma }|N_\alpha (0)`$ with $`N_\alpha (0)`$ being the normal density of states in the Fermi level.

Noted that the density of states of electrons in superconductors can be written as Eq. (9), only when the gap energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is much larger than the Kondo temperature. In another case, it needs to be determined self-consistently, as shown in Ref. Chung,  for a magnetic impurity in superconductor.

In the nonequilibrium situation, additional Green’s functions named less Green’s functions of pseudo-fermions $`G_{f\sigma }^<(\omega )`$, and slave bosons $`D^<(\omega )`$, should be considered. Standard manipulation of the nonequilibrium Dyson equations leads to

$$G_{f\sigma }^<(\omega )=G_{f\sigma }^r(\omega )\mathrm{\Sigma }_{f\sigma }^<(\omega )G_{f\sigma }^a(\omega ),$$
(10)
$$D^<(\omega )=D^r(\omega )\mathrm{\Pi }^<(\omega )D^a(\omega ),$$
(11)
where the self-energies are given by

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_{f\sigma }^<(\omega )=\underset{\alpha }{}\frac{\mathrm{d}\epsilon }{\pi }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \sigma }(\epsilon \omega +eV_\alpha )f(\omega \epsilon +eV_\alpha )D^<(\epsilon ),$$
(12)
$$\mathrm{\Pi }^<(\omega )=\underset{\sigma \alpha }{}\frac{\mathrm{d}\epsilon }{\pi }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \sigma }(\epsilon \omega eV_\alpha )(1f(\epsilon \omega eV_\alpha ))G_{f\sigma }^<(\epsilon ).$$
(13)
The physical impurity Green’s function is then obtained from

$$G_{d\sigma }^r(\omega )=\frac{1}{Z}\frac{d\epsilon }{\pi }[\mathrm{Im}D^r(\epsilon )G_{f\sigma }^<(\omega +\epsilon )D^<(\epsilon )\mathrm{Im}G_{f\sigma }^r(\omega +\epsilon )]$$
(14)
with the partition function

$$Z=\frac{\mathrm{i}}{2\pi }𝑑\omega [D^<(\omega )\underset{\sigma }{}G_{f\sigma }^<(\omega )].$$
(15)
## III Numerical Results

We have numerically solved the self-consistent NCA equations. For the evaluations, it is assumed a Gaussian density of states of normal conduction electrons with half width $`D`$. The single level of the quantum dot is chosen to be $`\epsilon _d=0.5D`$. We only treat with a symmetric structure: two s-wave superconducting leads, characterized by $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\mathrm{\Delta }_L=\mathrm{\Delta }_R=0.25D`$, are coupled to a quantum dot with coupling constant $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{L\sigma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{R\sigma }=0.125D`$. In this case the Kondo temperature for normal leads $`T_\mathrm{K}`$ is estimated to be $`0.017D`$.

It is well known that, for a quantum dot between two metallic leads, the set of NCA equations can yield correct sharp peak at the chemical potential in the equilibrium density of states. This peak at zero temperature should be understood as the exhibition of the transition from the $`N`$-particle ground state to the ground state with $`N+1`$ or $`N1`$ electrons.Wingreen  These $`NN+1`$ and $`NN1`$ transitions occur only when the correlated ground state has a finite amplitude to have an empty site. Since by definition the ground state energies differ by the chemical potential, the Kondo peak in density of states should be formed at the Fermi level.

When the leads become superconductors with $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_\mathrm{K}`$, all electrons within the gap are paired into Cooper singlets. The occurrence of the $`NN+1`$ and $`NN1`$ transitions should cost additional energy of order $`\pm \mathrm{\Delta }`$. Consequently, in the impurity density of states, the sharp Kondo peaks are expected to be observed near the gap bounds. Indeed, from Fig. 1, these two peaks at $`\pm \mathrm{\Delta }`$ are clearly visible and a gap opens around Fermi surface. We also can see that the sharp peak at $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ shifts towards the center of gap. The shape of this peak is more sharp and its amplitude is more large, by comparison with the peak at $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. When temperature decreases, both peaks become more pronounced. The small weights of these two peaks reflect the fact that the probability of site being unoccupied in the ground state is small. Noted that with lower temperature, the shape of the peak around $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is very sharp and the numerical calculation is difficult to be carried out.

In the impurity density of states, there is another low, broad peak around bare-level energy. This peak is associated with the transition of the empty site to excited states. For finite interaction energy $`U`$, an additional broad peak in the density of states near $`\epsilon _d+U`$ should appear. At the same time, the peak around $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ also will move towards the center of gap, as that shown in Ref. Ishizaka, .

We also have carried out the nonequilibrium density of states of impurity. The results are plotted in Fig. 2. It can be seen that when a voltage bias $`eV_L=eV_R=eV/2`$ is applied, the equilibrium peaks at $`\pm \mathrm{\Delta }`$ split and the resulting peaks are formed around $`\pm eV/2\pm \mathrm{\Delta }`$. In comparison with the corresponding equilibrium peaks, the amplitudes of these split peaks decrease and their shapes become more broadening. For the bias $`eV/2=\mathrm{\Delta }`$, there only three peaks are observed, however. The split peaks near $`eV/2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`eV/2+\mathrm{\Delta }`$ are superposed and a more broadening peak appears. Noted that, the positions $`eV/2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`eV/2+\mathrm{\Delta }`$ also correspond to the lower edge of left-lead gap and upper edge of right-lead gap, respectively.

Physically, out of equilibrium, the quantum fluctuation will produce a finite probability of an empty site. Hence, the Kondo peaks in density of states also can occur at the two edges of energy gap of each lead, i.e. near $`\pm \mathrm{\Delta }\pm eV/2`$.

We also have carried out nonlinear differential conductance after computing the current by formula

$$I_L(V)=\frac{e}{\mathrm{}}\underset{\sigma }{}𝑑\omega \mathrm{\Gamma }_{L\sigma }(\omega \mu _L)[G_{d\sigma }^<(\omega )\mathrm{Im}G_{d\sigma }^{(r)}(\omega )f(\omega \mu _L)],$$
(16)
$$I_R(V)=\frac{e}{\mathrm{}}\underset{\sigma }{}𝑑\omega \mathrm{\Gamma }_{R\sigma }(\omega \mu _R)[G_{d\sigma }^<(\omega )\mathrm{Im}G_{d\sigma }^{(r)}(\omega )f(\omega \mu _R)],$$
(17)
where the lesser Green function of the impurity $`G_d^<`$ can be obtained from the pseudo-fermion and slave boson Green functions via

$$G_{d\sigma }^<(\omega )=\frac{1}{Z}\frac{d\epsilon }{2\pi }G_{f\sigma }^<(\epsilon )D^r(\epsilon \omega ).$$
(18)
Our study is limited to the case of infinite $`U`$. The contribution of Josephson effect to current is small and can be neglected.Ishizaka

Since the NCA is a conserving approximation, the currents computed from the left and the right leads should be the same. In calculation, the current conservation within the NCA has been checked and the agreement between two currents within $`0.5\%`$ is found. We evaluate the differential conductance, $`G(V)=dI(V)/dV`$, by numerical derivative.

We plot the nonlinear differential conductance versus bias in Fig. 3 for several temperatures. A small peak at zero bias always can be seen. In contrast to the case of normal leads, this zero-bias maximum descends with decreasing the temperature. It is also observed two anomalous peaks in differential conductance at biases $`eV=\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$. When temperature falls, the shapes of these two peaks become more sharp and their amplitudes increase. In the following, we will clarify that all these three peaks are produced by Kondo effect.

To explain the absence of anomaly of zero-bias conductance, we rewrite the linear differential conductance as

$$\frac{dI}{dV}(V=0)=\frac{e^2}{h}\underset{\alpha \sigma }{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \sigma }𝑑\omega \rho _\alpha ^{(s)}(\omega )\left(\frac{f(\omega )}{\omega }\right)\mathrm{Im}G_{d\sigma }(\omega ).$$
(19)
Since $`\rho _\alpha ^{(s)}(\omega )`$ only has a nonzero value when out of energy gap, the contributions of the impurity spectrum and the Fermi-function differential to conductance come from the energy regime where $`|\omega |>\mathrm{\Delta }`$. The lower-energy Kondo peak in equilibrium density of states appears within energy gap (see Fig. 1), so its contribution can be neglected. When the temperature falls, the higher-energy Kondo peak increases slowly and the exponential diminution of Fermi-function differential becomes dominant. In results, linear differential conductance is suppressed. Noted that the absence of anomaly of zero-bias conductance also has been carried out for a quantum dot connected with a metallic and a superconductor lead.Krawiec

When the bias deviates from zero, splitting of equilibrium Kondo peaks in density of states and suppression of the resultant peaks in amplitudes should cause a decrease of the differential conductance. However, for $`|eV|2\mathrm{\Delta }`$, from Fig. 2 we can see, in the density of states, there appears a peak produced by superposition of the higher-energy and lower-energy Kondo peaks. The position of this peak coincides with the edges of left and right leads, so perfect transparency occurs. Hence, in differential conductance, two peaks around biases $`\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ emerge. Furthermore, with decreasing temperature, the enhancement of the amplitude of this superposition peak leads to a rapid increase of nonlinear conductance near biases $`\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

In the experiment, besides the peaks induced by Andreev reflection, such three peaks in voltage dependence of nonlinear conductance also have been observed.Buitelaar  However, there, the origin of the peaks at $`\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ was not clear. Our calculation indicated these two peaks are produced by Kondo effect. Unfortunately, the quantitative comparison between our results and experiment can not be made, since our study for $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_\mathrm{K}`$ corresponds to the experimental situations, where have two energy levels of quantum dot down to Fermi surface.

## IV Conclusions

We have studied the nonequilibrium Kondo effect for a quantum dot coupled to two superconductors with energy gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_\mathrm{K}`$. Employing the infinite-$`U`$ noncrossing approximation, we have carried out the nonequilibrium impurity density of states. When a voltage bias is applied to the both side of leads, the peaks, produced by Kondo effect at equilibrium, split and give rise to suppressed peaks around the bounds of energy gap of each lead. We also have evaluated the differential conductance. The Kondo effect in the voltage dependence of differential conductance shows up as two anomalous peaks around biases $`\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and a small peak near zero bias. This result accords with the experimental observation. With descending the temperature, peaks at biases $`\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ ascend and the zero-bias peak falls.


text:
# 1 Problem

## 1 Problem

Magnetostatics can be defined as the regime in which the magnetic fields B and H have no time dependence, and “of course” the electric fields D and E have no time dependence either. In this case, the divergence of the fourth Maxwell equation,

$$\times 𝐇=\frac{4\pi }{c}𝐉_{\mathrm{free}}+\frac{1}{c}\frac{𝐃}{t},$$
(1)
(in Gaussian units) implies that

$$𝐉_{\mathrm{free}}=0,$$
(2)
i.e., that the free currents flow in closed loops. Likewise, the time derivative of the fourth Maxwell equation implies that $`𝐉_{\mathrm{free}}`$ has no time dependence in magnetostatics.

Often, magnetostatics is taken to be the situation in which $`𝐉_{\mathrm{free}}=0`$ and D, E and $`𝐉_{\mathrm{free}}`$ have no time dependence, without explicit assumption that B and H also have no time dependence. Discuss the possibility of waves of B and H, consistent with the latter definition of magnetostatics .

Consider two specific examples of “magnetostatic” waves in which $`𝐉_{\mathrm{free}}=0`$:

1. Ferromagnetic spin waves in a medium subject to zero external field, but which has a uniform static magnetization that is large compared to that of the wave. That is, $`𝐌=M_0\widehat{𝐳}+𝐦e^{i(𝐤𝐫\omega t)}`$, where $`mM_0`$. Here, the quantum mechanical exchange interaction is the dominant self interaction of the wave, which leads to an effective magnetic field in the sample given by $`𝐁_{\mathrm{eff}}=\alpha ^2𝐦`$, where $`\alpha `$ is a constant of the medium.
2. Waves in a ferrite cylinder in a uniform external magnetic field parallel to its axis, supposing the spatial variation of the wave is slight, so the exchange interaction may be ignored. Again, the time-depedendent part of the magnetization is assumed small compared to the static part. Show that the waves consist of transverse, magnetostatic fields that rotate with a “resonant” angular velocity about the axis.

In practice, the spin waves are usually excited by an external rf field, which is to be neglected here.

## 2 Solution

### 2.1 General Remarks

In both definitions of magnetostatics the electric field E has no time dependence, $`𝐄/t=0`$, so the magnetic field B obeys $`^2𝐁/t^2=0`$, as follows on taking the time derivative of Faraday’s law,

$$\times 𝐄=\frac{1}{c}\frac{𝐁}{t}$$
(3)
(in Gaussian units). In principle, this is consistent with a magnetic field that varies linearly with time, $`𝐁(𝐫,t)=𝐁_0(𝐫)+𝐁_1(𝐫)t`$. However, this leads to arbitrarily large magnetic fields at early and late times, and is excluded on physical grounds. Hence, any magnetic field B that coexists with only static electric fields is also static.

There remains the possibility of a “magnetostatic wave” in a magnetic medium that involves the magnetic field $`𝐇_{\mathrm{wave}}`$ and magnetization density $`𝐌_{\mathrm{wave}}`$ which are related by

$$0=𝐁_{\mathrm{wave}}=𝐇_{\mathrm{wave}}+4\pi 𝐌_{\mathrm{wave}}.$$
(4)
If there are no free currents in the medium, and any electric field is static, then the fourth Maxwell equation is simply

$$\times 𝐇=0,$$
(5)
which defines a subset of magnetostatic phenomena.

### 2.2 Ferromagnetic Spin Waves

Consider a ferromagnetic material that consists of a single macroscopic domain with magnetization density $`𝐌=M_0\widehat{𝐳}+𝐦(𝐫,t)`$, where $`M_0`$ is constant and $`mM_0`$. We suppose there are no external electromagnetic fields. Associated with the magnetization M are magnetic fields B and H whose values depend on the geometry of the sample. We suppose that the weak time-dependent magnetic fields due to m lead to even weaker time-dependent electric fields, such that the situation is essentially magnetostatic. The consistency of this assumption will be confirmed at the end of the analysis.

The ferromagnetism is due to electron spins, whose dominant interaction is the quantum mechanical exchange interaction, in the absence of external fields. For a weak perturbation m of the magnetization, the exchange interaction preserves the magnitude of the magnetization, so its time evolution has the form of a precession ,

$$\frac{d𝐌}{dt}=\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\times 𝐌.$$
(6)
As this is the same form as the precession of a magnetic moment in an external magnetic field , the precession vector $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ is often written as a gyromagnetic factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=e/2m_ec10^7`$ Hz/gauss times an effective magnetic field $`𝐁_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ (or $`𝐇_{\mathrm{eff}}`$). Here, $`e>0`$ and $`m_e`$ are the charge and mass of the electron, and $`c`$ is the speed of light. For a weak perturbation in an isotropic medium ,

$$𝐁_{\mathrm{eff}}=\alpha ^2𝐦,$$
(7)
where $`\alpha `$ is a constant of the medium.

Then, the equation of motion of the magnetization m is

$$\frac{d𝐦}{dt}=\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }^2𝐦\times 𝐌.$$
(8)
For a plane-wave perturbation, whose phase factor is $`e^{i(𝐤𝐫\omega t)}`$, the equation of motion (8) becomes

$$i\omega 𝐦=\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }k^2𝐦\times M_0\widehat{𝐳}.$$
(9)
This is satisfied by a circularly polarized wave,

$$𝐦=m(\widehat{𝐱}+i\widehat{𝐲})e^{i(𝐤𝐫\omega t)},$$
(10)
that obeys the quadratic dispersion relation

$$\omega =\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }M_0k^2,$$
(11)
which implies that $`\omega ck`$ in physical materials, where $`c`$ is the speed of light. Hence, the electric fields are much smaller than the magnetic fields associated with the time-dependent magnetization m, so that $`\times 𝐇=0`$ to a good approximation, and we may use the term “magnetostatic” to describe the waves. These waves of magnetization are, however, better termed “spin waves”, whose quanta are called “magnons”.

### 2.3 Rotating Magnetostatic Modes in a Ferrite Cylinder

In the magnetostatic approximation the fields B and H obey

$$𝐁=(𝐇+4\pi 𝐌)=0,\times 𝐇=0,$$
(12)
where the field B but not H and M must be static (or at least so slowly varying in time that the resulting electric field is small compared to B). We first consider a ferrite of arbitrary shape of characteristic length $`a`$ in a uniform external magnetic field $`𝐁_{\mathrm{ext}}=𝐇_{\mathrm{ext}}=H_0\widehat{𝐳}`$. We suppose that this field is strong enough to induce a uniform magnetization $`M_0\widehat{𝐳}`$ throughout the sample.

For waves with weak spatial dependence as we shall assume, the exchange interaction is negligible, since it varies as the second spatial derivative of M. Then, the spins interact primarily with the local magnetic field B according to

$$\frac{d𝐌}{dt}=\mathrm{\Gamma }𝐁\times 𝐌=\mathrm{\Gamma }𝐇\times 𝐌.$$
(13)
We consider a perturbation m to the magnetization that has frequency $`\omega `$ and wavelength large compared to the size of the the sample. Then the total magnetization can be written

$$𝐌=M_0\widehat{𝐳}+𝐦e^{i\omega t},$$
(14)
where $`mM_0`$. Similarly, we write the magnetic field inside the sample as

$$𝐁=B_z\widehat{𝐳}+𝐛e^{i\omega t},𝐇=H_z\widehat{𝐳}+𝐡e^{i\omega t},$$
(15)
where $`B_z=H_z+4\pi M_0`$ and $`H_z=H_04\pi N_zM_0`$ are the sum of the external field and that due to the uniform magnetization $`M_0\widehat{𝐳}`$, and so are also uniform for spheroidal (and cylindrical) samples whose axis is the $`z`$ axis . The “demagnetization” factor $`N_z`$ varies between 1 for a disk and 0 for a cylinder. The perturbation m exists only inside the sample, but the corresponding perturbations b and h exist outside the sample as well.

Inserting eqs. (14) and (15) in the equation of motion (13), we keep only the first-order terms to find

$$i\omega 𝐦=\mathrm{\Gamma }\widehat{𝐳}\times (M_0𝐡H_z𝐦),$$
(16)
whose components are

$`m_x`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\omega }}(M_0h_yH_zm_y),`$
$`m_y`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\omega }}(M_0h_xH_zm_x),`$ (17)
$`m_z`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$
We solve for m in terms of h as

$`m_x`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha h_xi\beta h_y,`$
$`m_y`$ $`=`$ $`i\beta h_x+\alpha h_y,`$ (19)
where

$$\alpha =\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2H_zM_0}{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2H_z^2\omega ^2},\beta =\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }M_0\omega }{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2H_z^2\omega ^2}.$$
(20)
For later use, we note that in cylindrical coordinates, $`(r,\theta ,z)`$, eq. (19) becomes

$`m_r`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha h_ri\beta h_\theta ,`$
$`m_\theta `$ $`=`$ $`i\beta h_r+\alpha h_\theta .`$ (21)
As we are working in the magnetostatic limit (12), we also have

$$𝐛=(𝐡+4\pi 𝐦)=0,\times 𝐡=0.$$
(22)
Hence, the perturbation h can be derived from a scalar potential,

$$𝐡=\varphi ,$$
(23)
and so,

$$^2\varphi =4\pi 𝐦.$$
(24)
Outside the sample the potential obeys Laplace’s equation,

$$^2\varphi =0\text{(outside)},$$
(25)
while inside the sample we find, using eq. (19),

$$(1+4\pi \alpha )\left(\frac{^2\varphi }{x^2}+\frac{^2\varphi }{y^2}\right)+\frac{^2\varphi }{z^2}=0\text{(inside)}.$$
(26)
The case of an oblate or prolate spheroid with axis along the external field has been solved with great virtuosity by Walker , following the realization that higher-order modes deserved discussion . Here, we content ourselves with the much simpler case of a long cylinder whose axis is along the external field, for which the lowest-order spatial mode was first discussed by Kittel . We consider only the case of waves with no spatial dependence along the axis of the cylinder.

With these restrictions, both eqs. (25) and (26) reduce to Laplace’s equation in two dimensions. We can now work in a cylindrical coordinate system $`(r,\theta ,z)`$, where appropriate 2-D solutions to Laplace’s equation have the form

$`\varphi (r<a,\theta )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{r^n}{a^n}(A_ne^{in\theta }+B_ne^{in\theta })},`$ (27)
$`\varphi (r>a,\theta )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{a^n}{r^n}(A_ne^{in\theta }+B_ne^{in\theta })},`$ (28)
which is finite at $`r=0`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$, has period $`2\pi `$ in $`\theta `$, and is continuous at the boundary $`r=a`$.

The boundary conditions at $`r=a`$ in the magnetostatic limit (22) are that $`b_r`$ and $`h_\theta `$ are continuous. The latter condition is already satisfied, since $`h_\theta =(1/r)\varphi /\theta `$. We note that

$$b_r=h_r+4\pi m_r=(1+4\pi \alpha )h_r4\pi i\beta h_\theta ,$$
(29)
recalling eq. (21). Using eqs. (27) and (28) we find that continuity of $`b_r`$ at $`r=a`$ requires

$$\frac{n}{a}\left[(1+2\pi \alpha +2\pi \beta )A_ne^{in\theta }+(1+2\pi \alpha 2\pi \beta )B_ne^{in\theta }\right]=0.$$
(30)
Nontrivial solutions are possible only if $`2\pi (\alpha \pm \beta )=1`$, in either of which case there is an infinite set of modes that are degenerate in frequency. Using eq. (20), we find the “resonance” frequency to be

$$\omega =\pm \mathrm{\Gamma }(H_0+2\pi M_0),$$
(31)
noting that for a cylinder the demagnetization factor is $`N_z=0`$, so that $`H_z=H_0`$, as is readily deduced by elementary arguments. Since we consider frequency $`\omega `$ to be positive, we see that the two solutions (31) correspond to two signs of $`H_0`$, and are essentially identical.

For spheroidal samples, the modes are enumerated with two integer indices, and are not all degenerate in frequency, as discussed in .

We close our discussion by showing that the electric field of the wave is much smaller than the magnetic field. The scalar potential for mode $`n`$ is

$$\varphi _n(r<a)=\frac{r^n}{a^n}e^{i(n\theta \omega t)},\varphi _n(r>a)=\frac{a^n}{r^n}e^{i(n\theta \omega t)}.$$
(32)
We see that for $`n>0`$ the potential rotates with angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }_n=\omega /n`$ about the $`z`$ axis. The potential is maximal at $`r=a`$, so consistency with special relativity requires that

$$v(r=a)=\frac{a\omega }{n}c,$$
(33)
which appears to have been (barely) satisfied in typical experiments . We also see that for high mode number the spatial variation of the wave becomes rapid, and the neglect of the exchange interaction is no longer justified.

The magnetic field $`𝐡=\varphi `$ of mode $`n`$ has components

$$h_r(r<a)=n\frac{r^{n1}}{a^n}e^{i(n\theta \omega t)}=\frac{n}{r}\varphi _n,h_r(r>a)=n\frac{a^n}{r^{n+1}}e^{i(n\theta \omega t)}=\frac{n}{r}\varphi _n,$$
(34)
$$h_\theta (r<a)=ih_r(r<a),h_\theta (r>a)=ih_r(r>a).$$
(35)
The monopole mode, $`n=0`$, does not exist. The lowest mode is $`n=1`$, which corresponds to a uniform, transverse field h that rotates about the $`z`$ axis with angular velocity $`\omega `$.

From eq. (21) we find the magnetization to be

$$𝐦=\frac{𝐡}{2\pi }$$
(36)
for all modes (for $`r<a`$ only, of course), so the magnetization of mode $`n`$ also rotates with angular velocity $`\omega /n`$.

The magnetic field $`𝐛=𝐡+4\pi 𝐦`$ is then,

$$𝐛(r<a)=𝐡(r<a),𝐛(r>a)=𝐡(r>a).$$
(37)
Using either the $`r`$ or $`\theta `$ component of Faraday’s law, we find that the associated electric field e has only a $`z`$ component,

$$𝐞=\frac{\omega }{c}\varphi \widehat{𝐳},$$
(38)
both inside and outside the cylinder (consistent with continuity of the tangential component of the electric field at a boundary, and with $`𝐞=0`$). The ratio of the electric to the magnetic field of mode $`n`$ at $`r=a`$ is

$$\left|\frac{e_z}{b_r}\right|=\frac{a\omega }{nc},$$
(39)
which is small so long as condition (33) is satisfied. Hence, the condition that $`a\omega /c1`$ is doubly necessary for the validity of this analysis.

Because the magnetization m is moving (rotating), there is an associated electric polarization p according to special relativity ,

$$𝐩=\gamma \frac{𝐯}{c}\times 𝐦.$$
(40)
For mode $`n`$ we have $`𝐯=\omega r\widehat{\theta }/nc`$, so $`\gamma =1/\sqrt{1v^2/c^2}1`$, and

$$𝐩=\frac{\omega rm_r}{nc}\widehat{𝐳}=\frac{\omega rh_r}{2\pi nc}\widehat{𝐳}=\frac{\omega }{2\pi c}\varphi \widehat{𝐳}=\frac{𝐞}{2\pi }.$$
(41)
The electric displacement is related by $`𝐝=𝐞+4\pi 𝐩`$, which has the value

$$𝐝(r<a)=𝐞=\frac{\omega }{c}\varphi \widehat{𝐳},𝐝(r>a)=𝐞=\frac{\omega }{c}\varphi \widehat{𝐳},$$
(42)
The fourth Maxwell equation now implies that

$$\times 𝐡=\times \varphi =\frac{1}{c}\frac{𝐝}{t}=\pm i\frac{\omega ^2}{c^2}\varphi \widehat{𝐳}$$
(43)
Thus, there is a small violation of the magnetostatic conditions (22), but this is second order in the small quantity $`a\omega /c`$ (noting that $`\varphi \varphi /a`$).


text:
# 1 The antihyperon/hyperon (𝑌̄/𝑌) ratio at midrapidity in the SPS-RHIC energy range.

## Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy Grant DE-FG03-97ER41020/A000, the Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung, Germany, the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research (2 P03B 130 23, SPB/CERN/P-03/Dz 446/2002-2004, 2 P03B 02418, 2 P03B 04123), the Hungarian Scientific Research Foundation (T032648, T032293, T043514), the Hungarian National Science Foundation, OTKA, (F034707), and the Polish-German Foundation.


text:
# Electronic band structure of novel 18-K superconductor Y2C3 as compared with YC and YC2.

## Abstract

The electronic band structure of yttrium sesquicarbide Y2C3 (Pu2C3 structural type) reported by Akimitsu et al. (2003) as a novel 18-K superconductor is investigated using the first-principle full-potential LMTO method and compared with those of yttrium mono- and dicarbide: cubic YC and 4-K superconductor YC2 (CaC2 structural type). Our results show that the enhanced Tc of Y2C3 as compared with YC2 may be interpreted by the electronic factors: the near-Fermi DOS for Y2C3 was found to be about 70 $`\%`$ higher that for YC2, and the contribution from the C2p states increases. The Fermi level of the ”ideal” bcc Y2C3 is located near the local DOS minimum, and the superconducting properties of Y2C3-based materials would be very sensitive to synthesis conditions and the presence of impurities and lattice vacancies. We suppose that by changing these factors it is possible to vary Tc for the yttrium sesquicarbide.

E-mail: shein@ihim.uran.ru

I. Introduction.

Metal carbides represent a technologically important group of materials with interesting properties including extreme hardness, high melting temperatures, and superconductivity Toth .
Among superconducting binary compounds, metal carbides are known as conventional low-temperature BCS superconductors (SC) and have long been examined Vonsovsky . Comparison of different classes of binary carbides: semi- (M2C), mono- (MC), sesqui- (M2C3), and dicarbides (MC2) shows (reviews Vonsovsky ; Poople ) that the majority of the known superconductors are found among cubic compounds with a rock-salt structure (B1), in which C and M atoms are in octahedral surrounding. Among these phases, the maximum values of transition temperatures Tc belong to Ta (10.2), W (10 K), Nb (11.1), and Mo (14.3 K) monocarbides Poople . Using the first-principle band structure calculations results, it was proposed that B1-MoC (isoelectronic and isostructural to the 16.6-K superconductor NbN Poople ) was the prime candidate for the ”highest-temperature” SC among all familiar metal carbides with a predicted transition temperature of about 20 K Hart .
The superconducting state is much less pronounced for the dicarbides, in which C atoms are in the form of isolated C2 pairs. Among metal dicarbides, the low-temperature SC was observed only for three compounds MC2 (M = Y, La, Lu) with the highest Tc value of 3.9 K for YC2 Poople . In addition, some superconducting metal sesquicarbides have been also described, for example several compounds with Tc of about 11 K (La2C2.7 and Y2C3) and 15 K (Lu2C3) Poople .
The interest in the properties of the yttrium carbide systems increased in the past years due to the discovery of superconductivity with transition temperatures up to 11.6 K in the layered yttrium carbide halides Y2C2I2 (Tc = 9.97 K) and Y2C2Br2 (Tc = 5.04 K) Henn  and also because of the observation of superconductivity with Tc $``$ 15-23 K Cava ; Cava1  in more complex systems: Y-Ni and Y-Pd-based borocarbides, see also reviews Ivanovskii ; Behera ; Yang . In this context, binary and quasi-binary Y carbides (especially Th-doped yttrium dicarbide (Y1-xThx)C2 Krupka ) also attracted particular attention since their Tc values are close to those of A15 compounds Vonsovsky ; Poople .
Quite recently, Akimitsu et al Amano  have carried out a high-pressure synthesis of a novel superconducting phase in the Y-C system with Tc of about 18 K and assumed that this 18-K SC originated in the yttrium sesquicarbide Y2C3 with the body-centered cubic (bcc) Pu2C3-type crystal structure.
The value of Tc for Y2C3 obtained in magnetic measurements Nakane  was reported earlier to be 11 K. It was pointed out Krupka  that the superconductivity in the Y-C yttrium system is very sensitive to the synthesis conditions, for instance pressure and heat treatment. In particular, the effect of carbon nonstoichiometry was observed. In Ref.Nakane , the bcc Y2C3 has been synthesized by arc-melting and high-pressure techniques. Magnetic susceptibility showed that the material exhibited superconductivity with variable Tc ranging from 6 K to 11.5 K. In Ref.Amano , the superconducting Y2C3 phase was prepared under high pressure using mixed powders (Y+C) in a BN cell. It is noteworthy that the lattice parameter (a) changes for different sintering processes and exists in the range between 0.8181 and 0.8226 nm Amano  as distinct from earlier findings (0.8214 - 0.8251 nm) Krupka . One of the reasons may be the difference in the pressure range (4-5.5 Amano  compared with 1.5-2.5 GPa Krupka ). Furthermore, the authors Nakane  successfully reproduced the result Amano  and reported the synthesis of the 18-K phase with some differences in the experimental technique. In addition, a sample with the nominal composition Y2C2.9B0.1 was prepared to check a possible role of boron impurities from the BN cell used in the experiments Amano . According to data Nakane , the 18-K phase coexists with another phase (the 11-K phase reported in Krupka ) having a trace of a low-Tc phase (4 K). This ”impurity” phase is YC2. Moreover, the Tc for the boron-doped sample (16.4 K) is lower than that of the ”pure” carbide. This means that boron impurities in the C positions play a negative role in the Y-C superconductivity. It was also reported that the magnetization (M-H) curves of the 18-K Y2C3 phase showed a type-II superconducting behavior Amano . While an explanation for the observed Amano ; Nakane  behavior in the 18-K material based on a microscopic theory is still lacking, it is necessary to perform comparative studies of the electronic properties of yttrium carbide phases. In this paper, we report the theoretical results related to the electronic band structure of bcc Y2C3 in comparison with other yttrium carbide phases, namely the B1 monocarbide YC and 4-K SC YC2. The electronic bands, density of states (DOS) and site-projected l-decomposed DOS near the Fermi energy (EF) of these carbides are obtained and analyzed as a function of structures and nominal stoichiometry: YC (C/Y=1) $`>`$ Y2C3 (C/Y=1.5) $`>`$ YC2 (C/Y=2).

II. Models and Method of Calculation.

The yttrium carbides have cubic (YC, Y2C3) and tetragonal (YC2 \- space group I4/mmm) crystal structures. The yttrium sesquicarbide crystallizes in a bcc structure of the Pu2O3 type (space group I-43d) with the lattice parameter a = 0.8233 nm (ICSD-CC No.86290) and eight formula units per a unit cellNovokshonov . The Wyckoff positions for atoms are Y:16c (0.05;0.05;0.05) and C:24d (0.2821;0;1/4). The band structure of the above-mentioned carbides was calculated using the scalar relativistic full-potential linear muffin-tin method (FLMTO) Savrasov  with the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) of Perdew et al. Perdew .The Y2C3 structural parameters are taken from Ref. Novokshonov . The equilibrium values of lattice constants obtained from minimum total energy and are a = 0.5076 nm for YC and a = 0.3699 nm, c = 0.6140 nm, x = 0.3748 for YC2.

III. Results.

In Fig. 1 we show our FLMTO band structure of B1-YC. The YC band structure is very similar to that found for other rock-salt (B1) transition metal carbides, see for example Hart ; Neckel ; Marksteiner ; Gubanov , consist from low-energy C2s band, does not contribute to the bonding. This band exhibits the maximum dispersion (2.35 eV) between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and L points. The next bands separated from the C2s band by a gap at about 3.34 eV originate mainly from mixed C2p-Y4d states. The Y4d bands are decomposed into eg and t2g components with energies 1.82 and 3.49 eV in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ point above the Fermi level (EF). In B1 carbides, the eg-like bands mixed with the C2p states are usually viewed as the bonding part of the d-p hybridization zone, while t2g \- as the antibonding part overlapping the carbon 2p states Hart ; Neckel ; Marksteiner ; Gubanov . The phase instability of stoichiometric YC may be explained based on band filling Gubanov . In YC, the Fermi level intersects the eg-like bands. As a result, the bonding states remain partially unoccupied as distinct for example from the stable B1-ZrC phase, where all bonding states are occupied, whereas antibonding states, on the contrary, are unfilled. The density of states (per formula unit) at the Fermi level N(EF) is quite large (Table 1) and comparable with N(EF) of B1-NbC. At the same time their compositions are different: for YC the contributions from d and C2p states are comparable (Table 1), while the main role in NbC is played by metallic d states. Note also that inter-atomic bonds and charge distribution in B1-YC are quite isotropic, see Fig. 2. The electronic properties of yttrium dicarbide were studied earlier using the tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital atomic-sphere approximation (TB-LMTO-ASA) calculations Gulden ; Zhukov . Our FLMTO YC2 electronic bands and DOSs are shown in Figs. 3, 4 and agree well with those reported in Gulden ; Zhukov . The two lowest bands (Fig. 3) at about 14.4 and 7.1 eV below EF are bonding and nonbonding C2s states respectively. The low-lying bonding C2s band with the maximal dispersion of 1.1 eV is separated from the next band group by a gap of about 6.4 eV. The combination of the C2px,y orbitals forms the quasi-flat bands from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ to Z with the DOS maximum around -4.2 eV, which are hybridized with the Ydxy orbitals, Fig. 4. The C2pz states split up into two bands (peaks A, B in the partial DOS picture around -7.3 and -2.2 eV) hybridized with the Yd$`_{3z^21}`$ states. All these bands contribute to the Y-C metal bonding and are completely occupied. The partially filled near-Fermi bands (Y4yz,xz in the region -2.0 eV $`÷`$ EF and Y4$`_{x^2y^2}`$ in the region -0.95 eV $`÷`$ EF) are strongly dispersive and are hybridized with the antibonding C2px,y orbitals in the direction of axis c. The Fermi level intersects three bands near $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, P, and Z points. These bands form the Fermi surface, which contains, in particular, hole sheets (around points $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and Z), Fig. 5. The composition of N(EF) includes the contributions from the Yd$`_{xz,yz,x^2y^2}`$, and C2px,y orbitals, see Table 1. The value of the other Yd, C2p components, as well as of the Yp,s and C2s valence states are negligibly small. Thus the electronic structure and the chemical bonding type in yttrium mono- and dicarbide differ essentially: isotropic Y-C bonds in YC versus anisotropic Y-C and C-C bonds in YC2, see charge-density contour maps in Fig.2.
The calculated bands and DOS for Y2C3 are shown in Figs. 6, 7. The valence zone of Y2C3 contains four separated band groups (I-IV, Fig. 7). Bands (I) between -14.3 and -13.3 eV are bonding carbon 2s states, whereas antibonding C2s states (with an admixture of C2px and Yd,p,s orbitals) form separate bands (II) in the region -7.1 $`÷`$ -6.4 eV. The higher completely occupied band group (III) between -5.7 and - 2.4 eV comes from Yp,d and C2p orbitals. The Fermi level lies in the middle of bands (IV) composed mostly of Yd-C2p states. The bands intersecting the Fermi level form hole (around H and N points) and electronic sheets of the Fermi surface.
As in YC2, the partial DOSs of Y2C3 demonstrated very anisotropic orbital states distributions (see also Table 1) depending on the non-equivalency of Y-C and C-C bonds (Fig. 8) and the structural peculiarities of the yttrium susquicarbide, which contains carbon pairs in different orientations Novokshonov . Of special interest is a near-Fermi DOS Y2C3, since in the conventional BCS-type superconductors the DOS within the interval EF $`\pm `$ h$`\mathrm{\Theta }_D`$ ($`\mathrm{\Theta }_D`$ \- Debye frequency) at the Fermi level is crucial for superconductivity, we show in Fig. 9 the density of states for Y2C3 within a small energy interval around EF. As is seen from Fig. 9, EF is in the region of DOS minimum between two sharp peaks A and B and falls to a local small DOS peak. Thus, both electronic and hole doping that change the position of EF may decrease or increase N(EF) and accordingly Tc.
Simple estimations based on the rigid-band model show that EF will coincide with maxima A and B, when about 0.7 holes or 0.5 additional electrons are introduced per formula unit of Y2C3. As a result, N(EF) of these doped systems increases almost twice (by 89 and 98 $`\%`$ respectively in comparison with N(EF) of the stociometric yttrium sesquicarbide). This effect may be achieved by several means. The most probable approach is to dope the yttrium sublattice with donor or acceptor dopants. The role of hole dopants may be played also by carbon vacancies. Another important factor N(EF) of the metastable Y2C3 phase may be pressure Gulden ; Amano ; Krupka . The immediate prospects of our studies will involve simulation of pressure effects on fine peculiarities of the electronic band structure of Y2C3. In summary, our FLMTO calculations of the electronic band structure of the bcc yttrium sesquicarbide indicate that the enhanced transition temperature as compared with YC2 may be due to electronic factors: the DOS at the Fermi level for Y2C3 was found to be about 40 $`\%`$ higher than that for 4-K SC YC2, Table 1. In addition, the contribution from the C2p states increases appreciably. Since the Fermi level of the ”ideal” bcc yttrium sesquicarbide is located near the local DOS minimum, the superconducting properties of Y2C3-based materials will be very sensitive to synthesis conditions (for example, pressure and annealing effects) and the presence of lattice defects. By changing these factors it is possible to vary the Tc of the Y-C phase in a wide range.

Acknowledgment.

This work was supported by the RFBR, grant 02-03-32971, and the Russian Foundation for Scientific Schools, grant SS 829.2003.3.


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# GLAST’s GBM Burst Trigger

## 1 The Mission

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is the next NASA general gamma-ray astrophysics mission, which is scheduled to be launched into low Earth orbit in February, 2007, for 5–10 years of operation. It will consist of two instruments: the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM). A product of a NASA/DOE/international collaboration, the LAT will be a pair conversion telescope covering the $`<`$20 MeV to $`>`$300 GeV energy band. The LAT will be $``$30 times more sensitive than CGRO’s EGRET.

The GBM will detect and localize bursts, and extend GLAST’s burst spectral sensitivity to the $`<`$10 keV to $`>`$25 MeV band. Consisting of 12 NaI(Tl) (10–1000 keV) and 2 BGO (0.15–25 MeV) detectors, the GBM will monitor $`>`$8 sr of the sky, including the LAT’s field-of-view (FOV). Bursts will be localized to $`<15^{}`$ (1$`\sigma `$) by comparing the rates in different detectors.

During most of the mission GLAST will survey the sky by rocking $`35^{}`$ above and below the orbital plane around the zenith direction once per orbit. The first year will be devoted to a sky survey while the instrument teams calibrate their instruments. During subsequent years guest investigators may propose pointed observations, but continued survey mode is anticipated because it will usually be most efficient.

Both the GBM and the LAT will have burst triggers. When either instrument triggers, a notice with a preliminary localization will be sent to the ground through TDRSS and then disseminated by GCN. Additional data will be sent down through TDRSS for an improved rapid localization on the ground. “Final” positions will be calculated from the full downlinked data. All positions will be disseminated as GCN Notices, and additional information (e.g., fluences and durations) will be sent out as GCN Circulars.

Using its own and the GBM’s observations, the LAT will decide autonomously whether to slew to the burst location for a 5 hour followup pointed observation. The threshold will be higher for GBM-detected bursts outside the LAT’s FOV.

The GBM’s NaI and BGO detectors will provide the number of counts detected in 8 energy bands every 16 ms; the GBM will trigger off these rates. Rate triggers test whether the increase in the number of counts in an energy band $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ and time bin $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is statistically significant; the expected number of non-burst photons in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$$`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ bin is estimated by accumulating counts before the time bin being tested. Building on our experience with the BATSE trigger, we are performing trade studies to optimize the sensitivity of these triggers. Here we present the results of our studies focusing on the choice of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$.

## 2 Choice of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$t

We consider two $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ hierarchies—$`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ spaced by factors of $`\times `$2 (e.g., 16 ms, 32 ms, 64 ms…) or $`\times `$4 (e.g., 16 ms, 64 ms, 256 ms…)—and three time bin registrations—non-overlapping bins (e.g., bins separated by 1024 ms for $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$=1024 ms bins), half-step bins (e.g., bins separated by 512 ms for $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$=1024 ms bins), and all possible bins (e.g., bins every 16 ms). Varying $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ can maximize the signal-to-noise ratio, while more time registrations permit the bin to be centered over the peak flux, also maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio. To test these 6 triggers we applied them to the 64 ms resolution lightcurves of the 25 brightest BATSE bursts; for each lightcurve we chose 10 starting times at random. Note that the GBM rates will have 16 ms resolution.

The most sensitive trigger would have $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ spaced by $`\times `$2 and every possible time bin. The next most sensitive trigger would have $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ spaced by $`\times `$2 and bins spaced every half step. These triggers would test different numbers of bins—11264 bins vs. 3070 bins tested every 16.384 s.

Besides the increased computational burden, the risk of a false trigger increases as the number of bins tested increases, but the false trigger probability is not proportional to the number of bins because the bins are not independent. Our simulations indicate this is a $`<`$5% effect—for the same false trigger rate the trigger threshold should be raised by a few percent as the number of time bins tested increases.

## 3 Choice of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$

Triggering on the counts accumulated in different $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ can tailor the detector sensitivity to hard or soft bursts. The GBM will be able to trigger on more than one $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, and therefore we seek the set that will maximize the sensitivity for both hard and soft bursts, although hard bursts are a priority since their spectra are more likely to extend into the LAT’s energy band (of course one must be careful of one’s theoretical prejudices). For the study of detector sensitivity to different types of bursts and for comparisons between detectors, the $`F_T`$-$`E_p`$ plane is useful1 (1), where $`F_T`$ is the peak photon flux in a fiducial energy band (here 1–1000 keV) and $`E_p`$ is the energy of the peak of $`E^2N(E)\nu f_\nu `$. Burst spectra are also characterized by asymptotic low and high energy power laws with spectral indices $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$, respectively; the dependence of $`F_T`$ on $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ is not as great as on $`E_p`$. For a given set of spectral indices the detector sensitivity (the threshold value of $`F_T`$ at a give $`E_p`$) is a curve in the $`F_T`$-$`E_p`$ plane.

To calculate these sensitivity curves we need both the number of counts a detector will detect in the nominal $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ band for a given burst spectrum and the number of background counts in this $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$. A code has been developed to calculate these numbers for each GBM detector for a burst in any direction relative to the spacecraft. Currently the code uses response matrices for the flux directly incident on the detectors (without scattering off the spacecraft or the Earth, but with obscuration by other parts of the observatory), and a model of the background on orbit. We used this code to calculate the sensitivity along the normal to the LAT for $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$=1.024 s assuming at least two detectors trigger at $`\sigma _0>5.5`$.

We calculated the sensitivity curves for a variety of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$. The extremes of our spectral index sets were $`\alpha `$=0, $`\beta =2`$ and $`\alpha =1`$, $`\beta =25`$. The first set is similar to the spectra sometimes observed early in a burst; its high energy tail would be more easily detected by the LAT. The second set is a spectrum without a high energy tail.

Figure 1 shows the sensitivity for two sets of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$. To compare the GBM and BATSE burst distributions we would like to include $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$=50–300 keV, which was BATSE’s primary trigger band. As can be seen, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ with a low energy cutoff of $``$50 keV is optimal for high energy sensitivity because it does not include the large low energy background. Conversely, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ should always extend to the highest energy possible because of the low background at high energy.

We find that triggering a single BGO detector with $`\sigma _0=8`$ increases the sensitivity for $`E_p>1`$ MeV for $`\alpha `$=0, $`\beta =2`$. There is no increase in sensitivity for $`\alpha =1`$.

Figure 2 compares the $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$=1 s sensitivity for the GBM (solid) and BATSE (dot-dashed) with the burst intensity (dashed) that when the spectrum is extrapolated to the LAT energy band would result in 25 detected photons per second. The burst is assumed to be on the LAT normal, $`\alpha =1`$, $`\beta =2`$, and the GBM triggers on $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$=5–100 and 50–300 keV.

## 4 Conclusions

The $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ calculations suggest that spacing $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ by factors of $`\times `$2 (i.e., 16 ms, 32 ms, 64 ms…) and staggering the bins by half a timestep (e.g., the 1024 ms bins are accumulated every 512 ms) would be particularly efficient given the number of time bins that would be tested. Choosing two triggers with $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ starting at 5 keV and 50 keV and extending to the detector’s high energy cutoff would provide good high and low energy sensitivity. Using $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$=50–300 keV would reproduce the BATSE trigger, but would reduce the $`E_p>`$500 keV sensitivity for the hardest bursts (which are more likely to have LAT flux); this can be mitigated by adding $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$=100–1000 keV.

Future trade studies will focus on the methodology for measuring the background. GLAST will slew more frequently than CGRO did, and therefore the background rates in GLAST’s different detectors will probably vary more rapidly. We will need to suppress spurious triggers resulting from variations in the background without a major reduction in the GBM’s sensitivity.

Ultimately the trigger design will be constrained by the computational capabilities of the GBM’s processor.


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# Statistical mechanics of random graphs

## Abstract

We discuss various aspects of the statistical formulation of the theory of random graphs, with emphasis on results obtained in a series of our recent publications.

PACS numbers: 02.50.Cw, 05.40.-a, 05.50.+q, 87.18.Sn

, thanks: Presented by Z.B. at Applications of Physics in Financial Analysis 4, Conference, Warsaw 13-15 Nov. 2003 , ,

The backbone of a generic complex system can be represented by a graph: the nodes refer to the system subunits and the links represent the interactions. Such a representation can be used, for example, to describe an ensemble of agents interacting in an economical framework or a telecommunication network. Other examples of natural networks can be found in recent reviews .

In this communication we will discuss a statistical formulation of the graph theory . The basic concept in this approach is that of a statistical ensemble: a configuration space (set of graphs) is endowed with a probability measure. Instead of measuring an observable on a single graph one measures its average in the ensemble. One learns about stability and typicality of graphs by measuring fluctuations in the ensemble. This synchronic approach is complementary to the diachronic one, where graphs are made up step by step, by adding successive nodes and links.

The first step of the construction is to define the configuration space by choosing the set of graphs to be studied. Of course, there is much freedom in this choice. Here, for definiteness and unless specified otherwise, we will consider simple, undirected, labeled graphs with $`N`$ vertices and $`L`$ links. Graphs are, in general multiply connected.

It is convenient to label the nodes of a graph by an index $`i=1,\mathrm{},N`$. A labeled graph can be represented by an adjacency matrix $`A`$ whose elements are $`A_{ij}=1`$ if $`i`$ and $`j`$ are neighbors and $`A_{ij}=0`$ otherwise.

The adjacency matrix of an unoriented graph with $`N`$ nodes and $`L`$ links is an $`N\times N`$ symmetric matrix with zeros on the diagonal and $`L`$ unities above (and below) the diagonal. Denote by $`M_N`$ the set of all $`N\times N`$ symmetric $`0/1`$ matrices with zeros on the diagonal and by $`M_{NL}`$ the subset where in addition the number of unities above the diagonal equals $`L`$. The partition function for the Erdös-Rényi  ensemble of graphs with $`N`$ nodes and $`L`$ links can be written, up to some irrelevant normalization factor, as:

$$Z=\underset{AM_N}{}\delta \left(L\frac{1}{2}\text{tr}A^2\right)=\underset{AM_{NL}}{}1$$
(1)
Let $`O=O(A)`$ be an observable, a quantity defined on graphs. One is interested in the average over the ensemble

$$O=\frac{1}{Z}\underset{AM_{NL}}{}O(A)$$
(2)
and in the fluctuations: $`O^2O^2`$ and the higher order ones, in the large $`N`$ limit. The number of unities in a row $`i`$ of the matrix $`A`$: $`q_i=_jA_{ij}`$ is equal to the number of links emerging from the node $`i`$, and is called the node degree. The probability that a randomly chosen node of the graph has degree $`q`$ is

$$p(q)=\frac{1}{N}\underset{i}{}\delta (qq_i)$$
(3)
It is not very difficult to calculate $`p(q)`$ in the $`N\mathrm{}`$ limit starting from (1). The result is Poissonian

$$p(q)=\frac{\alpha ^q}{q!}e^\alpha $$
(4)
where the constant $`\alpha `$ is determined by the ratio $`L/N`$, kept fixed in the limit111Notation: given a positive measure and an observable depending on node degrees, say $`w(q)`$ and $`O(q)`$, we write $`O_w`$ for $`_qO(q)w(q)/_qw(q)`$.: $`\alpha q_p=2L/N`$. However, in most interesting real networks the degree distribution is skew. In the so-called scale-free networks it has a fat tail extending over several decades and well fitted with a power law: $`p_{\mathrm{exp}}(q)q^\beta `$ . The most conservative extension of the Erdös-Rényi ensemble consists in introducing an additional statistical weight $`W(A)`$ for graphs, replacing the partition function (1) by :

$$Z=\underset{AM_{NL}}{}W(A)$$
(5)
The corresponding averages read now

$$O=\frac{1}{Z}\underset{AM_{NL}}{}W(A)O(A)$$
(6)
The simplest choice for the statistical weight is:

$$W(A)=w(q_1)w(q_2)\mathrm{}w(q_N)$$
(7)
In the $`N\mathrm{}`$ limit one gets now

$$p(q)=\frac{w(q)}{q!}\mathrm{exp}(AqB)$$
(8)
where the parameters $`A,B`$ are chosen in such a way that $`_qp(q)=1`$ and $`q_p=_qqp(q)=2L/N`$. Moreover, the probability that a randomly chosen graph has degrees $`q_1,q_2,\mathrm{},q_N`$, factorizes:

$$p(q_1,q_2,\mathrm{},q_N)=p(q_1)p(q_2)\mathrm{}p(q_N)$$
(9)
This is why one refers to this model as to the model of ”uncorrelated networks”. For scale-free networks the asymptotic results (8)-(9) are only partly true because finite-size effects strongly affect the tail of the degree distribution: First of all, at finite $`N`$ the tail of $`p(q)`$ cannot extend to infinity because there exists some $`q_{\mathrm{max}}`$ such that the expected number of nodes with $`q>q_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is less than unity. Neglecting correlations one finds the scaling law

$$q_{\mathrm{max}}N^{1/(\beta 1)}$$
(10)
Furthermore, as shown in , the condition that the graphs are simple, i.e. self and multiple connections between nodes are absent, implies that

$$q_{\mathrm{max}}N^{1/2}$$
(11)
which for $`2<\beta <3`$ is stronger than (10). Hence, in this case, not only the degree distribution is cut but also specific correlations are generated at finite $`N`$.

By choosing the appropriate weight function $`w(q)`$ for uncorrelated networks one can reproduce the experimentally observed degree distribution, modulo the above mentioned finite-size effects. We have constructed a numerical algorithm, enabling one to simulate the model on a computer. We have also obtained some further analytic results.

In particular, the model is analytically solvable, when one restricts one’s attention to tree graphs. In this case $`q_p=2`$, since $`L=N1`$. Assume that $`w(q)q^\gamma `$ at large $`q`$. What is the shape of the degree distribution? The general result (8) no longer holds, because trees constitute a negligible fraction of all possible graphs. It turns out that an interesting phase structure emerges :

(a) When $`q_w=2`$ the trees are scale-free, with the degree distribution equal to $`qw(q)`$, up to normalization.

(b) When $`q_w<2`$ one finds that the degree distribution is up to normalization equal to $`qw(q)`$ for most of the range of $`q`$, a singular node showing up at $`q`$ of the order of $`N`$. The winner-takes-all scenario holds.

(c) When $`q_w>2`$ the degree distribution falls exponentially, the scale-free input is forgotten.

Notice, that the scale-free regime is unstable with respect to small distortions of the input weight. Further information is obtained when one calculates the fractal dimension $`d_H`$ controlling the average shortest path $`r`$ between a pair of nodes

$$rN^{1/d_H}$$
(12)
It is known that the generic intrinsic fractal dimension of trees is $`d_H=2`$. This is also what one finds in the case (c) and in the case (a) when $`p(q)`$ falls faster than $`q^3`$, i.e. when $`\beta >3`$. When $`2<\beta <3`$

$$d_H=\frac{\beta 1}{\beta 2}$$
(13)
In the case (b) $`d_H=\mathrm{}`$.

It is interesting to keep the same microstate weights as before, but assume that trees are endowed with a causal structure . We say that this is the case when the node labels always appear in growing numerical order as one moves along the tree from the root - we have rooted trees in mind - towards an arbitrary node. Hence only a subclass of labelings is accepted. It turns out that the most popular growing network models can be reformulated in this static formalism. The original results are recovered in an elegant fashion. This shows that the widely accepted distinction between growing and equilibrium networks is not really correct, the two approaches are just complementary. Among new results is the calculation of the fractal dimension: Remarkably enough, we find that it is generically infinite, $`d_H=\mathrm{}`$, in contrast to what happens in maximally random trees (see above).

Uncorrelated networks have a local tree structure. This is a well known fact in the context of the Erdös-Rényi theory. The same arguments hold in the generalized set-up. This tree structure persists when simple internode correlations are introduced. Actually, a general recipe generating short loops in static graph models was missing in the literature, until recently. We have succeeded to make a progress in this matter . One should mention that short loops are a common feature of natural networks. In particular, the clustering coefficient is relatively large.

The clustering coefficient for a given vertex $`i`$ is defined as $`C_i=\frac{T_i}{q_i(q_i1)/2}`$, where $`T_i`$ is number of triangular loops, called also three-cycles, meeting at $`i`$. The clustering coefficient of a graph is just the average of $`C_i`$ over nodes. The reason why the coefficient is small for uncorrelated graphs is that the number of three-cycles $`T=\frac{1}{6}\text{tr}A^3`$ is small. One can show that for the Erdös-Rényi graphs the total number of three-cycles approaches a fixed constant, $`T=\alpha ^3/6`$ for $`N\mathrm{}`$. A similar result holds for cycles with a larger number of links. Hence, the chance of finding a cycle on a large network is close to zero. This is a manifestation of the local tree structure of graphs.

We consider therefore a generalized model for graphs by adding to the Hamiltonian an interaction term favoring the formation of three-cycles. Hence, the microstate weights (7) are modified as follows222Actually, in ref.  the unperturbed model is that of Erdös-Rényi ($`W(A)=1`$), the general case will be discussed in our forthcoming publication .:

$$W(A)W(A)\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{6}G\text{tr}A^3\right)$$
(14)
The resulting model has two phases: the crumpled and the perturbative one. The crumpled phase is dominated by graphs which maximize the number of three-cycles, which is of order $`N^{3/2}`$. For any $`G>0`$ and for large $`N`$ the term $`GN^{3/2}`$ in the exponent exceeds the entropy . Thus the corresponding configuration plays the role of the ground state of the model for any $`G>0`$. The perturbative phase is obtained by letting the interaction Hamiltonian to act softly on the uncorrelated graphs ($`G=0`$). We have developed the corresponding perturbation theory. It turns out that the two phases are separated by a free energy barrier similar to that in a first order phase transition. Here however the barrier has an additional important feature. When $`N\mathrm{}`$ the barrier and the stability range of the perturbative phase increase. This means that at large $`N`$ a random walker, representing a local process in the configuration space, will never be able to roll over the barrier and to reach the ground state. When the uncorrelated graphs are those of Erdös-Rényi the value $`G=G_{out}`$ of the coupling constant where the system jumps to the crumpled phase scales logarithmically with $`N`$: $`G_{out}=x_{out}\mathrm{ln}N`$. By summing the leading diagrams we get the number of three-cycles in the perturbative phase, $`G<G_{out}`$:

$$T=\frac{\alpha ^3}{6}e^G=\frac{\alpha ^3}{6}N^x$$
(15)
where the effective coupling constant $`x<x_{out}`$ is defined by $`G=x\mathrm{ln}N`$. Thus, in this new theory the number of three-cycles grows with $`N`$. It is a first step towards a theory of graphs with a non-trivial clustering.

The random graph theory formulated in the language of statistical mechanics can be studied using the dynamical Monte-Carlo techniques . Actually, all our analytic results were checked and confirmed by such numerical simulations. The idea behind the Monte Carlo technique is to invent a Markovian process performing a sort of random walk in the configuration space and sampling configurations with the frequency proportional to $`W(A)`$. If the process is ergodic and the transition probability fulfills the detailed balance condition the process generates configurations with the required frequency. A good candidate for such a process is a sequence of rewirings performed with the Metropolis probability. Naively, to encode a $`N\times N`$ adjacency matrix one requires the quadratic ($`N^2`$) storage capacity. However, since the matrix is sparse and only the positions of $`L`$ it’s elements are relevant, one can introduce a linear storage structure  which in practice allows one to code networks with up to $`10^610^7`$ nodes. Finally, let us mention that our code not only produces graphs but also simulates a thermal motion. This was important in refs. .

Acknowledgments: This work was partially supported by the EC IHP Grant No. HPRN-CT-1999-000161, by the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN) grants 2P03B 99622 (2002-2004) and 2P03B-08225 (2003-2006), and by EU IST Center of Excellence ”COPIRA”. Laboratoire de Physique Théorique is Unité Mixte du CNRS UMR 8627.


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# A feasible gate for scalable linear optics quantum computation using polarization optics

## Abstract

Knill, Laflamme, and Milburn (KLM) proved that it is possible to build a scalable universal quantum computer using only linear-optics elements and conditional dynamics \[Nature (London) 409, 46 (2001)Knill \]. However, the practical realization of the quantum logic gate for the scheme is still technically difficult. A major difficulty is the requirement for sub-wavelength level stabilization of the interlocking interferometers. Following our recent experimental work\[Phys. Rev. Lett.92, 017902 (2004)Sanaka2 \], we describe a more feasible scheme to implement the gate that greatly reduces the experimental stability requirements. The scheme uses only polarizing beam splitters and half-wave plates.

preprint: HEP/123-qed

Quantum computers promise unprecedented processing power for certain types of problems like factoring products of large prime numbersShor  and searching database Grover .We have recently experimentally demonstrated many important features of the nonlinear sign shift (NS) operation in a stable, polarization insensitive configuration for the scalable linear optics quantum computationSanaka2 . In this theoretical work, we show how those NS operations can be used, together with additional linear optical elements, to build up a two qubit logic gate.

One of the most promising systems in which to store and manipulate quantum information is the polarization state or spatial mode of single photons. This is due to the photon’s robustness against decoherence and the ease of which certain necessary operations (i.e., single-qubit operations) can be carried out. However it has been very difficult to perform the necessary two-qubit operations since there is no natural interaction between photons; even when atoms mediate photon-photon interactions through nonlinear optical effects, these effects are usually negligible at the quantum level. Nonlinear optics at the quantum level has been demonstrated in cavity QED experimentsTurchette ; Rauschenbeutel , through quantum interferenceResch , and proposed for systems using electromagnetically-induced transparencyHarris ; Kash  and photon-exchange interactionsFranson . In stark contrast to these approaches, Knill, LaFlamme, and Milburn (KLM) showed that effective nonlinear interactions could be implemented using only linear optical elements in conjunction with single-photon sources and conditioning evolution based on successful measurementsKnill . Furthermore, they proved that their scheme could be used, in principle, to build a scalable universal quantum computer. While their two-qubit gate itself is not deterministic, KLM showed that it can be made arbitrarily close to deterministic when used in conjunction with quantum teleportation Gottesman .

In the KLM scheme, the two-qubit gate is achieved by the conditional sign-flip(CS) operation : $`|M_\text{A}|N_\text{B}exp(\pi MN)|M_\text{A}|N_\text{B}`$. Where $`M=\{0,1\}`$, $`N=\{0,1\}`$ show the number of photons in optical mode A and B. The CS gate is constructed by the most fundamental element, so-called nonlinear sign-shift (NS) gates, which performs the transformation: $`\alpha |0+\beta |1+\gamma |2\alpha |0+\beta |1\gamma |2`$ with some probability. Where the kets represents the number of photons in a optical path. CS operation is achieved by placing one NS gate in each arm of a balanced Mach Zehnder interferometer.

Some other types of CS that are not based on the KLM NS gate have also been proposed Knill2 ; Koashi ; Pittman ; Zou ; Hofmann ; Sanaka , however Lund et al. shows that the two-qubit gate using the NS gates is the most resilient with non-ideal ancilla mode production and detectionLund . Ralph et al. simplified the KLM NS gate using non-polarizing beam splitters with unequal reflectivitiesRalph . This considerable flexibility makes it possible to construct the CS gate with much lower effort than original KLM scheme. However the sub-wavelength level stabilization for the whole setup is still essential because the injected photons are spatially superposed with the two arms of Mach Zehnder interferometer and the phase correlation between the arms must be maintained during the operations.The sensitivity on the optical phase makes the practical realization of their CS gate extremely difficult. Here we show that a significant simplification is possible to implement the CS gate by using the different polarization states in a same spatial mode by removing or strongly reducing the phase sensitivity of the system.

A simplified version of NS operation is shown in Fig.1(a). An input state, $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_{\text{IN}}=|n`$, impinges on a beam-splitter (BS) with reflection probability $`R`$; a single ancilla photon, $`|1`$impinges from the other side of the beam splitter. The two input modes, 1 and 2, undergo a unitary transformation into two output modes, 3 and 4, described by $`\widehat{a}_1\sqrt{R}\widehat{a}_3+\sqrt{1R}\widehat{a}_4`$and $`\widehat{a}_2\sqrt{1R}\widehat{a}_3+\sqrt{R}\widehat{a}_4`$. The NS operation is successful when one and only one photon reaches the detector in mode 4. Provided the photons are indistinguishable, the two paths leading to exactly one photon in mode 4 will interfere. Either all $`n+1`$ photons are reflected or $`n1`$ of the photons in mode 1 are reflected and 1 photon in each of modes 1 and 2 are transmitted. When a single photon ends up in mode 4, the photon number state undergoes the following transformation:

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_{\text{IN}}=|n\stackrel{\text{NS}}{}|\mathrm{\Psi }_{\text{OUT}}=(\sqrt{R})^{n1}[Rn(1R)]|n,$$
(1)
where the unusual normalization of the output state reflects the probability amplitude of success. The sign of the phase shift depends on the number of incident photons and the reflection probability of the BS. For $`n<R/(1R)`$, the sign of the amplitude is unchanged and for $`n>R/(1R)`$ it picks up a negative sign. For $`n=R/(1R)`$ the critical case, where , the output probability amplitude becomes zero. This is due to the generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel-style interference effectHong . In our proposal, the extension of the NS operation to include a second polarization mode is straightforward. We inject a horizontally-polarized ancilla photon into the BS in Fig. 1 and consider only the cases where the single photon detected in mode 4 is horizontally polarized. The transformation for the horizontal polarization is as in (1). There is only 1 possible path which leads to no vertically-polarized photons in mode 4; that is for all vertically-polarized photons to be reflected. This operation for the input state with $`m`$ vertically-polarized photons and $`n`$ horizontally-polarized photons is given by:

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }_{\text{IN}}`$ $`=`$ $`|m_\text{V};n_\text{H}`$
$`\stackrel{\text{NS}}{}|\mathrm{\Psi }_{\text{OUT}}`$ $`=`$ $`(\sqrt{R_\text{V}})^m(\sqrt{R_\text{H}})^{n1}[R_\text{H}n_\text{H}(1R_\text{H})]|m_\text{V};n_\text{H},`$ (2)
where $`R_\text{V}`$ and $`R_\text{H}`$ are the reflection probabilities for vertical and horizontal polarization respectively. As expected, the vertical photon number, $`m`$, does not appear in the square bracket nonlinear-sign term. The only change the vertically-polarized photons contribute is the reflection amplitude raised to the power of $`m`$.

The operation of CS gate is constructed on the setup using two such polarization-based NS gates and linear-optics element shown in Fig. 2. The inset shows the detail of the polarization-based NS gate. It is constructed using a beam splitter with polarization-sensitive reflectivity probabilities $`R_\text{V}`$ and $`R_\text{H}`$ and single-photon detectors. Single-photon sources, $`|1_\text{H}`$ are injected into one input port of BS’s as ancilla. The successful operation is signaled when the single photon detector monitoring the horizontal mode in each NS operation detects exactly one photon and no vertically-polarized photons are detected using a polarizing beam-splitter (PBS) and single-photon detectors.

We consider input states $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_\text{0}`$ that are superpositions of $`|0_\text{A}|0_\text{B}`$, $`|0_\text{A}|1_\text{H}_\text{B}`$, $`|1_\text{H}_\text{A}|0_\text{B}`$ and $`|1_\text{H}_\text{A}|1_\text{H}_\text{B}`$ ,where all of the photons are horizontally polarized. This forms a computational space for 2 qubits. The general input state for the gate is described as:

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_\text{0}=a|0_\text{A}|0_\text{B}+b|0_\text{A}|1_\text{H}_\text{B}+c|1_\text{H}_\text{A}|0_\text{B}+d|1_\text{H}_\text{A}|1_\text{H}_\text{B}.$$
(3)
The two input optical modes are combined into a single spatial mode using a HWP that rotates the polarizations by 90 degrees and a PBS. Once in the same spatial mode, second HWP rotates the polarizations by 45 degrees. Following the transformation by the setup, the combined state in mode C is described as:

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }_\text{1}`$ $`=`$ $`a|0_\text{V};0_\text{H}_\text{C}+{\displaystyle \frac{bc}{\sqrt{2}}}|0_\text{V};1_\text{H}_\text{C}+{\displaystyle \frac{b+c}{\sqrt{2}}}|1_\text{V};0_\text{H}_\text{C}`$ (4)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{\sqrt{2}}}|0_\text{V};2_\text{H}_\text{C}+{\displaystyle \frac{d}{\sqrt{2}}}|2_\text{V};0_\text{H}_\text{C}.`$
The first NS operation is applied for $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_\text{1}`$ and affects only the horizontal component of the state. Following the polarization based NS operation (2), the state in mode C is undergoes the following transformation:

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }_\text{2}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{R_\text{H}}a|0_\text{V};0_\text{H}_\text{C}`$ (5)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{(12R_\text{H})(bc)}{\sqrt{2}}}|0_\text{V};1_\text{H}_\text{C}+{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{R_\text{V}R_\text{H}}(b+c)}{\sqrt{2}}}|1_\text{V};0_\text{H}_\text{C}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{R_\text{H}}(23R_\text{H})d}{\sqrt{2}}}|0_\text{V};2_\text{H}_\text{C}+{\displaystyle \frac{R_\text{V}\sqrt{R_\text{H}}d}{\sqrt{2}}}|2_\text{V};0_\text{H}_\text{C}.`$
A HWP that rotates the polarizations by 90 degrees after the first NS gate exchanges the roles of horizontal and vertical polarization. Then, the second NS operation is applied and affects the horizontal component of the state.

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }_\text{3}`$ $`=`$ $`R_\text{H}a|0_\text{V};0_\text{H}_\text{C}`$ (6)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{R_\text{V}R_\text{H}}(12R_\text{H})}{\sqrt{2}}}\{(b+c)|0_\text{V};1_\text{H}_\text{C}(bc)|1_\text{V};0_\text{H}_\text{C}\}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{R_\text{V}R_\text{H}(23R_\text{H})d}{\sqrt{2}}}(|0_\text{V};2_\text{H}_\text{C}|2_\text{V};0_\text{H}_\text{C}).`$
Using the final HWP rotates the polarizations by 45 degrees and a polarizing beam-splitter (PBS), and HWP rotates the polarizations by -90 degrees combination, the photons are split up again into two different spatial modes and returned to the same polarization states.

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }_\text{4}`$ $`=`$ $`R_\text{H}a|0_\text{A}|0_\text{B}`$ (7)
$`+\sqrt{R_\text{V}R_\text{H}}(12R_\text{H})(b|0_\text{A}|1_\text{H}_\text{B}+c|1_\text{H}_\text{A}|0_\text{B})`$
$`R_\text{H}R_{\text{}}(23R_\text{H})d|1_\text{H}_\text{A}|1_\text{H}_\text{B}.`$
When the BS has reflection probabilities:

$`R_\text{V}`$ $`=`$ $`53\sqrt{2}0.76,`$ (8a)
$`R_\text{H}`$ $`=`$ $`(3\sqrt{2})/70.23,`$ (8b)
then achieving $`R_\text{H}=\sqrt{R_\text{V}R_\text{H}}(12R_\text{H})=R_\text{H}R_{\text{}}(23R_\text{H})`$ and the two-qubit CS gate is implemented because all probability amplitudes of the output states for $`|0_\text{A}|0_\text{B}`$, $`|0_\text{A}|1_\text{H}_\text{B}`$, $`|1_\text{H}_\text{A}|0_\text{B}`$ and $`|1_\text{H}_\text{A}|1_\text{H}_\text{B}`$ become equal. The required reflectivities are the same as those of non-polarizing beam splitters for the Ralph’s gate and both of the gates give the same probability of successful operationRalph . The success probability is given by $`R_\text{H}^20.05`$. This two-qubit gate is non-deterministic, however near deterministic operation is possible when the gate is used in conjunction with a quantum teleportation protocol Knill ; Gottesman . Universal quantum computation is then possible with this two-qubit gate together with all single-qubit rotations from a universal set Sleator ; Barenco .

One could, in principle, build a custom optical beam splitter (i.e. dielectric filters) with the desired reflectivities to satisfy (8a) and (8b) - in this case the scheme has no phase sensitivity whatsoever. However, building such an optic might have technology (and cost) constrains; here we describe a simple method to construct such a polarization-sensitive beam splitter using standard polarization optical components with the tradeoff of accepting some phase sensitivity. This polarization sensitive variable beam splitter can be constructed constructed by two PBS’s and four HWP’s that is shown in Fig. 3. The first (last) HWP that is placed on mode 2 (4) rotate the polarization state 90 (-90) degrees. The middle two HWP’s in the interferometer rotate the polarization state arbitrary angles $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$. The two input modes, 1 and 2, undergo a unitary transformation into two output modes, 3 and 4. The vertically-polarized photon is described by

$`\widehat{a}_{\text{V1}}\mathrm{cos}\alpha \widehat{a}_{\text{V3}}+\mathrm{sin}\alpha \widehat{a}_{\text{V4}},`$ (9a)
$`\widehat{a}_{\text{V2}}\mathrm{sin}\alpha \widehat{a}_{\text{V3}}+\mathrm{cos}\alpha \widehat{a}_{\text{V4}},`$ (9b)
and the horizontally-polarized photon is described by

$`\widehat{a}_{\text{H1}}\mathrm{cos}\beta \widehat{a}_{\text{H3}}+\mathrm{sin}\beta \widehat{a}_{\text{H4}},`$ (10a)
$`\widehat{a}_{\text{H2}}\mathrm{sin}\beta \widehat{a}_{\text{H3}}+\mathrm{cos}\beta \widehat{a}_{\text{H4}}.`$ (10b)
$`R_\text{V}`$ and $`R_\text{H}`$ are determined by the rotation angles $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$, and become $`R_\text{V}=\mathrm{cos}^2\alpha `$ and $`R_\text{H}=\mathrm{cos}^2\beta `$. When the angles are set $`\alpha `$ 29.5 degrees and $`\beta `$ 61.6 degrees, required reflectivities (8a) and (8b) is satisfied.

This theoretical paper details how our recently demonstrated nonlinear sign shift gate can be used to construct the requisite two-qubit conditional phase gate for scalable linear optics quantum computationSanaka2 . The typical 50/50 BS, where $`R_\text{V}=R_\text{H}=1/2`$, is used for the experiment. The presented scheme is the readily feasible extension of the experiment by simply using two NS gates and changing the reflectivity of the BS. The scheme herein is also designed to eliminate all or most of the phase sensitivity inherent in other linear optics gates to simplify the experimental implementation. We have also described a simple method for building polarization sensitive variable beam splitters - such an object may have other uses in quantum optics like optimal phase covariant cloning of photonic qubitsFiurasek . This work and the recent results bring linear optics quantum computation and information processing closer to a reality.

This work was supported by the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF), project numbers M666 and SFB 015 P06, NSERC, and the European Commission, contract number IST-2001-38864.