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# Enhancement of the irreversibility field by carbon substitution in single crystal MgB2

## Abstract

We report the detailed study of the irreversibility field $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ of single crystals of Mg(B1-xCx)2 ($`x`$=0, 2, 3.5, 5 and 7%) in strong magnetic fields of up to 40 T. High sensitive torque measurements revealed that the $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ is greatly enhanced by a factor of two ($`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$(0)$``$33 T in $`x`$=5%) by carbon substitution compared to the pristine MgB2 owing to a reduction in the inplane coherence length. We also observed the temperature-dependent $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ anisotropy in all the carbon contents. This fact strongly suggests that the two-gap superconductivity of MgB2 is less influenced by a small amount of carbon substitution. We discuss these results focusing on the impact of carrier doping and impurity scattering on two-gap superconductor.

It is widely accepted that MgB2 nagamatsu  is a two-gap superconductor based upon numerous experimental results szabo ; iavarone ; eskildsen ; bouquet ; angst ; quilty ; tsuda ; souma . In MgB2, two different order parameters reside on two types of distinct Fermi surfaces (FS) kortus  originating from two-dimensional (2D) $`\sigma `$ and three-dimensional (3D) $`\pi `$ bands, respectively. The $`\sigma `$ band, strongly coupled with the inplane $`E_{2g}`$ phonon mode, exhibits a larger superconducting gap than the $`\pi `$ band. The disparity between both bands suppresses impurity interband scattering that causes pair-breaking in a multigap superconductor, and thus two superconducting gaps with different energies are retained, even if the sample quality is not so high mazin .

Carbon substitution for boron in MgB2 takenobu ; ribeiro ; lee  is of great interest from the viewpoint of both carrier doping and impurity scattering in a multigap superconductor. Since carbon has one more electron than boron, it is expected that electrons are doped into the system by carbon substitution. This indicates that the hole $`\sigma `$ band dominating the superconductivity in MgB2 is filled up, and thus the superconducting properties would be substantially modified singh . On the other hand, carbon substitution brings about inplane scattering. As mentioned above, if the interband impurity scattering rate is substantially increased , the two-gap model is no longer valid golubov ; ohashi . Experiments with controlled impurity contents would be a critical test for the two-band model. Another interest in introduction of scattering centers is the enhancement of the upper critical field as usually seen in conventional superconductors. The improved superconducting properties are important from the viewpoint of practical application.

In the present study, we performed high sensitive torque ($`\tau `$) measurements with high quality single crystals of carbon-substituted MgB2 in fields of up to 40 T and at low temperatures down to 0.5 K. In order to investigate the detailed physical properties of anisotropic materials such as MgB2, single crystals are indispensable. In this paper, we report the detailed study of the irreversibility field $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$, one of the most fundamental superconducting properties, of Mg(B1-xCx)2 ($`x`$=0-7.5%). We find that $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ is enhanced by a factor of two in carbon-substituted sample, exceeding 30 T even at 4.2 K. We also observed a monotonous decrease in the $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$-anisotropy $`\gamma `$ (=$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥ab/$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥c) with carbon content as well as the temperature-dependent $`\gamma `$ in all the carbon contents. We discuss these results focusing on the impact of carrier doping and impurity scattering on the two-gap superconductor MgB2.

High quality single crystals of carbon-substituted MgB2 were prepared by a high pressure technique lee . Carbon contents were determined by Auger electron spectroscopy. Samples were of plate-like shape with shiny surfaces (the $`ab`$ plane) with typical dimensions of $``$200$`\times `$200 $`\mu `$m2. In this torque study, we have measured a set of Mg(B1-xCx)2 ($`x`$=0, 2, 3.5, 5, and 7.5%) (hereafter denoted as C0%, C2%, C3.5%, and so on). With increasing carbon content, the superconducting transition temperature $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ monotonically decreased: $`T_\mathrm{c}`$=39 K in C0% sample and $`T_\mathrm{c}`$=20 K in C7.5% sample. Besides, the in-plane residual resistivity substantially increased more than by an order of magnitude in C7.5% sample compared to C0% sample. This is because boron atoms in the conducting layer are randomly replaced with carbon atoms.

High field torque measurement was performed with use of a commercial piezoresistive microcantilever ohmichi  (inset of Fig. 1). A sample is glued at the end of a cantilever beam with a small amount of epoxy. Dimensions of the microcantilever are 120$`\times `$50$`\times `$5 $`\mu `$m3, thus enabling us to measure very small samples such as MgB2. A compensation lever is incorporated in the same platform for the purpose of eliminating temperature drift and magnetoresistance effect of piezoresistor. The eigenfrequency of 250-300 kHz is high enough to use in combination with a long pulse magnet with duration of 60 ms (maximum field of 42 T). The microcantilever was mounted on a rotating stage, and field orientation was changed with resolution of 1. The polar angle $`\theta `$ is defined as the one tilted from the $`c`$ axis.

Figure 1 shows the typical behavior of torque divided by field ($`\tau /H`$) of C0% sample at $`\theta `$=75 at different temperatures. Hysteretic behavior characteristic for type-II superconductor was observed below $`T_\mathrm{c}`$. We define the irreversibility field $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ as the field where the hysteresis vanishes. The $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ determined in this way coincides with the field $`H_{\rho 0}`$ where the resistivity becomes zero. In this paper, we define $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ as the transition onset field and distinguish from $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$. At elevated temperatures, the hysteresis becomes less pronounced, and thus the ambiguity in determining $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ is inevitably large near $`T_\mathrm{c}`$. It is worth noting that the peak effect is clearly observed slightly below $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ as reported angst2 . The peak amplitude becomes small with temperature, and it is almost invisible above 25 K. The detailed analysis will be published elsewhere.

In determining the $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ in the highly symmetric directions such as $`Hc`$ axis or $`Hab`$ plane, field orientation was set to be slightly off the direction (typically 1-2). This is because when magnetic field is aligned to the principle axis, torque signals vanish in principle. The systematic error originating from this field misalignment is estimated to be less than 0.1%, since the anisotropy $`\gamma `$ of carbon-substituted MgB2 is modest (as discussed later, $`\gamma `$2-6) compared to high-$`T_\mathrm{c}`$ cuprates giving $`\gamma `$10-50.

Shown in Fig. 2 are the main results of this paper, the temperature dependence of $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ in field orientations of $`Hab`$ and $`Hc`$ at each carbon content. In C0% sample, the extrapolated $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥ab(0) and $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥c(0) are 16.4 and 2.9 T, respectively, both of which are in agreement with the previously reported values of single crystal zehetmayer ; welp . Surprisingly, C2% and C5% samples exhibit much higher $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ in both $`Hab`$ and $`Hc`$ directions, though $`T_\mathrm{c}`$’s are substantially decreased by carbon substitution: $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥ab(0)= 26.8 T and $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥c(0)= 5.5 T in C2% sample ($`T_\mathrm{c}`$=35 K) and $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥ab(0)=33.4 T and $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥c(0)=8.1 T in C5% sample ($`T_\mathrm{c}`$=27 K). With further increasing carbon content to 7.5% ($`T_\mathrm{c}`$=20 K), $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥ab(0) decreased to $``$20 T while $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥c(0) still increased to $``$9 T C75 . This indicates that the zero-temperature anisotropy $`\gamma `$(0)=$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥ab(0)$`/`$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥c(0) is reduced to about 2 compared to $`\gamma `$(0)=5.5 in C0% sample. Figure 3 summarizes the experimental results shown in Fig. 2. Both $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥ab(4.2K) and $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$∥c(4.2K) exhibit a maximum at around 3.5%-carbon doping (Fig. 3(a)). So far, much effort has been devoted to increase the $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ for practical application. The present data give a high $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ value greater than 30 T even at 4.2 K in bulk single crystals, which exceeds the $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$(0)$``$29 T of Nb3Sn orlando . $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`\gamma `$ monotonously decrease with carbon content in a similar manner (Fig. 3(c)). In the following, we explain these systematic changes from the viewpoint of carrier doping and impurity scattering caused by carbon substitution.

First, we discuss the enhancement of $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ by a factor of two by carbon substitution. To understand this, the change of coherence lengths becomes essential. Shown in Fig. 3(b) are the inplane and interplane coherence length $`\xi _{ab}`$(4.2K) and $`\xi _c`$(4.2K) derived from $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ according to the relations $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$∥c=$`\mathrm{\Phi }_0/2\pi \xi _{ab}^2`$ and $`\mu _0`$$`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$∥ab=$`\mathrm{\Phi }_0/2\pi \xi _{ab}\xi _c`$ by assuming $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$=$`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$. Since $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$$`<`$$`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ in a real material, particularly for $`Hc`$ eltsev ; masui , the estimated $`\xi _{ab}`$ above is regarded as the uppermost value of the inplane coherence length. With increasing carbon content, the resistive transition width becomes narrower, and the broadening effect is small even in $`Hc`$ masui2 . Therefore, the error due to the difference between $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ and $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ is smaller in the higher carbon content region. The radical increase in $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ may be partly due to the reduction in the difference $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$$``$$`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$

It is found in Fig. 3(b) that $`\xi _{ab}`$ monotonically decreases ($`\xi _{ab}`$(4.2K)=10.5 nm in C0% sample and $`\xi _{ab}`$(4.2K)=6 nm in C7.5% sample), while $`\xi _c`$ is almost constant at lower carbon content, and is slightly increasing at higher carbon content. This drastic change in $`\xi _{ab}`$ indicates that carbon substitution has a strong influence on inplane properties as expected. A simple calculation gives that the inplane mean free path $`\mathrm{}_{ab}`$ for C0% sample reaches several ten nm, while it is reduced down to several nm for C7.5% sample owing to the increased impurity scattering rate masui2 . This fact strongly suggests that a crossover from a clean superconductor to a dirty one occurs with carbon content. Therefore, it is considered that $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ is enhanced due to the reduced coherence length according to the well-known relation $`\xi _{ab}^1=\xi _{0ab}^1+\mathrm{}_{ab}^1`$ where $`\xi _{0ab}`$ is the inplane coherence length without impurity scattering. Since $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ also depends on $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ (approximately $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$$``$$`T_\mathrm{c}`$), further carbon substitution, which decreases $`T_\mathrm{c}`$, leads to manifestation of a maximum as shown in Fig. 3(a).

It is not straightforward to explain the reduction in $`\gamma `$(0), because both of impurity scattering and electron doping may affect $`\gamma `$(0). The increase of the interband impurity scattering rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{inter}}`$ wipes out two-gap superconductivity due to mixing of 2D $`\sigma `$ and 3D $`\pi `$ bands, so that we expect the reduced $`\gamma `$(0). However, the change of FS topography accompanied by doping is also directly reflected in $`\gamma `$(0) ($`e.g.`$ $`\gamma `$(0) is given by a square root of effective mass anisotropy in a one-gap superconductor). To answer the question what is the main mechanism for the reduction in $`\gamma `$(0), the temperature dependence of $`\gamma `$ in carbon-substituted samples is a critical test to evaluate the amplitude of interband impurity scattering rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{inter}}`$. In a pure MgB2, the contribution of the 3D $`\pi `$-band superconductivity is strongly suppressed in high magnetic fields, which result in a rapid increase in $`\gamma `$ with lowering temperature, followed by a saturation at low temperatures bouquet2 . In a naive picture, if $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{inter}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{intra}}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{intra}}`$ is the intraband impurity scattering rate, the system is still described by a two-gap model where $`\gamma `$ would be temperature dependent as in C0% sample, while if $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{inter}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{intra}}`$, then the system would behave like a one-gap superconductor with temperature-independent $`\gamma `$.

Figure 4 shows the temperature dependence of the anisotropy $`\gamma `$ in each carbon content. Since ambiguity of $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ is not negligible in the high temperature region, the $`\gamma `$’s obtained from the resistivity measurements are plotted together. We confirmed that both of the torque and resistivity data give consistent $`\gamma `$ values in the intermediate temperature region. In C0% sample, our data showed significant temperature-dependent $`\gamma `$ values ranging from 2 to 5.5, which is consistent with the previous reports angst ; lyard . With increasing carbon content, the value monotonously decreases, but still $`\gamma `$ is temperature-dependent in all the carbon contents ($`\gamma `$(C2%)=2-5, and $`\gamma `$(7.5%)=1-2). This results strongly suggest that the two-gap superconductivity picture is still valid in carbon-substituted samples, and that the smaller $`\pi `$-band gap is robust against carbon substitution in contrast to an appreciable decrease in the larger $`\sigma `$-band gap. Thus, we conclude that the situation $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{inter}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{intra}}`$ holds for small carbon contents. Therefore, the mechanism of the reduction in $`\gamma `$(0) is predominantly attributable to the effect of carrier doping. The evidences for electron doping are found in Hall coefficient masui2  and photoemission spectroscopy tsuda2  measurements indeed.

As demonstrated in the specific heat bouquet2  and discussed theoretically in Ref. miranovic ; dahm , $`\gamma `$ in the low temperature region is dominated by the anisotropy of the $`\sigma `$ band. So, the reduced anisotropy $`\gamma `$(0) indicates more three-dimensional $`\sigma `$ FS. According to the band calculation kortus , the $`\sigma `$ band consists of a pair of quasi two-dimensional hole cylinders. When electrons are doped into a hole cylindrical FS, it gradually shrinks, then becomes an ellipsoidal FS, and is finally filled up completely. Therefore, we consider that the reduction in $`\gamma `$(0) primarily reflects the doping process into the $`\sigma `$ band. This view is supported by the fact that C12% sample shows completely isotropic behavior lee .

Finally, we briefly mention the anomalous behavior of $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$-$`T`$ curves, especially in $`Hab`$ (Fig. 2). $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$(C0%) and $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$(C2%) show conventional negative curvatures, but $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$(C5%) grows almost linearly, and $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$(C7.5%) even exhibits a positive curvature down to the lowest temperature. Since the transition broadening is small for $`Hab`$ and becomes small both for $`Hab`$ and $`Hc`$ in the high carbon contents, similar behavior is also expected in $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$. Here we remind that a positive curvature of $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ was observed at temperature very close to $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ even in a pure MgB2 sologubenko . As is theoretically proposed gurevich , it reflects the fact that $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ is dominated by the $`\pi `$-band gap near $`T_\mathrm{c}`$, while, at $`T<`$$`T_\mathrm{c}`$, the $`\sigma `$ band determines $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$. It is likely that the carbon substitution introduces scattering also in the $`\pi `$ band and makes the $`\pi `$-band gap more robust against magnetic field. The change of $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$-$`T`$ curves observed in Fig. 2 can be understood as the evidence that carbon substitution widens the temperature range where $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ is affected by the $`\pi `$ band.

In conclusion, we have shown the enhancement of the irreversibility field $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ at $`T`$=0 by a factor of two by carbon substitution in single crystal of MgB2, although the transition temperature $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ monotonically decreases with substitution. The enhancement is explained by the crossover from the clean to the dirty limit regime where the inplane mean free path $`\mathrm{}_{ab}`$ is less than the coherence length $`\xi _{0ab}`$ due to increased impurity scattering caused by carbon substitution. The reduced anisotropy in $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ is ascribable to the reduced two-dimensionality of the $`\sigma `$ band as a result of electron doping. We also observed temperature-dependent anisotropy in all the carbon contents (C=0-7.5%), which strongly suggests that the two-gap superconductivity model is still valid in these carbon-substituted MgB2.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We acknowledge F. Sakai for technical support and thank the Materials Design and Characterization Laboratory, Institute for Solid State Physics. This work was supported by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) as Collaborative Research and Development of Fundamental Technologies for Superconductivity, and also by a Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientist from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.


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# Distributed Delays Facilitate Amplitude Death of Coupled Oscillators

(*Physical Review Letters* 91, 094101 (2003). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.094101)

## Abstract

Coupled oscillators are shown to experience amplitude death for a much larger set of parameter values when they are connected with time delays distributed over an interval rather than concentrated at a point. Distributed delays enlarge and merge death islands in the parameter space. Furthermore, when the variance of the distribution is larger than a threshold the death region becomes unbounded and amplitude death can occur for any average value of delay. These phenomena are observed even with a small spread of delays, for different distribution functions, and an arbitrary number of oscillators. (http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v91/e094101)

Coupled oscillators constitute an effective and popular paradigm for the study of interacting oscillatory processes in the physical and biological sciences Linkens (1977). The rich dynamics arising from the interaction of simple units have been a source of interest for scientists modeling the collective behavior of real-life systems. Among the most widely studied phenomena is synchronization, where individual units oscillate at a common frequency and phase when coupled Pikovsky et al. (2001). Synchronization may be observed even under weak coupling; so it has usually been studied through reduced models that retain only the phase information along the limit cycles. With stronger coupling further interesting behavior is possible, whose investigation requires the use of full models that include the amplitudes of the oscillators. An example is amplitude death, which refers to the quenching of oscillations under coupling, as the system evolves to a stable equilibrium Yamaguchi and Shimizu (1984); Bar-Eli (1985). If the information flow through the coupled system is instantaneous, amplitude death occurs when the individual oscillators have sufficiently different frequencies. Aronson et al. (1990); Ermentrout (1990); Mirollo and Strogatz (1990). On the other hand, if the information from one oscillator reaches the others after a certain time delay, which may be due to finite propagation or information processing speeds, then even identical oscillators can experience amplitude death when coupled Ramana Reddy et al. (1998). Recent experimental and theoretical studies have confirmed the role of delays in inducing amplitude death Herrero et al. (2000); Ramana Reddy et al. (2000); Atay (2003).

While the importance of time delays in amplitude death is now clear, studies in this area have so far been confined only to discrete, or constant, delays. In other words, it has been assumed that information reaches from one unit to another after a fixed time $`\tau `$ which is unchanging as the system evolves, and moreover, the units act only on the instantaneous value of the received information and forget any previous values. Such discrete-delay models often fail to adequately describe physical systems by neglecting the possibilities that (a) the quantity $`\tau `$ may only be approximately known, (b) it may only represent an average value of a quantity that varies between pairs of oscillators in a network or (c) varies in time through a process involving unmodelled factors, and (d) the oscillators may incorporate “memory” effects by using the past history of the received information. The first possibility is certainly an issue in any experimental situation, (b) is typical when considering large arrays, and (c) and (d) are particularly significant in biology and neurology. Because of these shortcomings, models based on *distributed* delays have been proposed as early as the time of Volterra Volterra (1931), and used in such areas as biology MacDonald (1978), ecology May (1974); Gopalsamy (1992), neurology Baylor et al. (1974), viscoelasticity Drozdov and Kolmanovskii (1994), and economics Haldane (1933). It has especially been pointed out in the biological sciences that distributed delays lead to more realistic models Cushing (1977). In this Letter we consider the effects of distributed delays on amplitude death, and show that even a small spread in the delay distribution can greatly enlarge the set of parameters for which amplitude death occurs.

The oscillators studied here are described by

$$\dot{Z}(t)=(1+\mathrm{i}\omega _0|Z(t)|^2)Z(t),$$
(1)
where $`Z(t)`$ is a complex number and $`\omega _0>0`$. Equation (1) represents the normal form for a supercritical Hopf bifurcation, and has been used to describe limit cycle oscillators where oscillations arise through such a bifurcation. It has an unstable equilibrium at zero, and an attracting limit cycle $`Z(t)=\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{i}\omega _0t)`$ with frequency $`\omega _0`$. Suppose a pair of such oscillators are coupled with general time delays:

$`\dot{Z}_1(t)`$ $`=(1+\mathrm{i}\omega _1|Z_1(t)|^2)Z_1(t)`$
$`+K\left[{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}f(\tau ^{})Z_2(t\tau ^{})𝑑\tau ^{}Z_1(t)\right]`$ (2)
$`\dot{Z}_2(t)`$ $`=(1+\mathrm{i}\omega _2|Z_2(t)|^2)Z_2(t)`$
$`+K\left[{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}f(\tau ^{})Z_1(t\tau ^{})𝑑\tau ^{}Z_2(t)\right].`$ (3)
Here, $`K`$ is a number quantifying the strength of coupling, and $`f`$ represents a distribution of delay values. When $`f`$ is the delta function $`\delta (0)`$ one obtains the system considered in Aronson et al. (1990), where the oscillators interact without delay. Similarly, the choice $`\delta (\tau )`$ with $`\tau >0`$ gives the system with a discrete delay which was studied in Ramana Reddy et al. (1998). In the general case $`f`$ is a probability density over an appropriate interval, which addresses the shortcomings mentioned in the above paragraph. We shall show that the variance of $`f`$ has a significant effect on the dynamics of the system.

When the system (2)–(3) experiences amplitude death its zero solution becomes stable. To investigate the stability, the system is linearized about zero. The characteristic equation is found by making the ansatz $`(Z_1(t),Z_2(t))=\xi \mathrm{exp}(\lambda t)`$, $`\xi 𝐑^2`$, and is given by

$$(1+\mathrm{i}\omega _1K\lambda )(1+\mathrm{i}\omega _2K\lambda )K^2\left[F(\lambda )\right]^2=0$$
(4)
where $`F`$ is the Laplace transform of $`f`$. For definiteness, the analysis of (4) will be illustrated for uniformly distributed delays over the interval $`\tau \pm \alpha `$, i.e. $`f(\tau ^{})=1/(2\alpha )`$ if $`|\tau \tau ^{}|\alpha `$ and zero otherwise. However, the idea is the same for other types of distributions. We first consider oscillators with identical frequencies, $`\omega _1=\omega _2=\omega _0`$. This is the more stringent case for stability, because different frequencies can stabilize coupled oscillators even in the absence of delays whereas identical frequencies cannot Aronson et al. (1990); Ermentrout (1990). The analysis is based on the observation that as parameters are varied the stability of the origin may change only if an eigenvalue $`\lambda `$ crosses the imaginary axis. In this critical situation $`\lambda =\mathrm{i}\omega `$ for some real $`\omega `$, and by (4)

$$(1+\mathrm{i}(\omega _0\omega )K)^2K^2\gamma ^2e^{2\mathrm{i}\omega \tau }=0$$
(5)
where

$$\gamma =\gamma (\omega ,\alpha )=\{\begin{array}{ccc}\mathrm{sin}(\omega \alpha )/(\omega \alpha )& \text{if}& \omega \alpha 0,\\ 1& \text{if}& \omega \alpha =0.\end{array}$$
(6)
Separating (5) into real and imaginary parts and rearranging yields

$`(1\gamma ^2)K^22K+1`$ $`=(\omega \omega _0)^2`$ (7)
$`\mathrm{tan}(\omega \tau )`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{\omega \omega _0}{1K}}.`$ (8)
This pair of equations describe a set of parametric curves on the $`\tau `$-$`K`$ plane in the parameter $`\omega `$. For each value of $`\omega `$, $`K`$ is found from (7), and substitution into (8) gives the corresponding values for $`\tau `$. The stability region is determined by computing the critical curves (7)–(8), and following the direction of movement of the purely imaginary eigenvalues as parameters are varied. The latter information is obtained from the quantities $`\mathrm{Re}(\lambda /K)`$ and $`\mathrm{Re}(\lambda /\tau )`$ calculated from (4) by implicit differentiation on the critical curves. For the parameter values obtained by this procedure, amplitude death is independently confirmed by numerical simulation of the coupled system (2)–(3).

The stability region in the $`K`$-$`\tau `$ parameter plane is shown in Fig. 1 for uniformly distributed delays over $`\tau \pm \alpha `$, with $`\tau \alpha `$ so that the delays involved are not negative. As $`\alpha 0`$, the uniform distribution approaches $`\delta (\tau )`$; hence $`\alpha `$ serves as a parameter to compare the discrete and the uniformly distributed delays having the same mean value $`\tau `$. This is equivalent to quantifying the effects of the distribution by its standard deviation $`\sigma =\alpha /\sqrt{3}`$. When the delay is discrete the stability region consists of three disjoint and bounded sets (Fig. 1a) which deform continuously as $`\alpha `$ is increased from zero (Fig. 1b). The enclosed area increases with the variance of the distribution, and at some critical value the stability region becomes unbounded in the $`\tau `$-direction (Fig. 1c). The critical value of $`\alpha `$ for this qualitative transition depends on $`\omega _0`$ and it can be very small; it is slightly below 0.008 when $`\omega _0=30`$, corresponding to $`\sigma =4.62\times 10^3`$. Increasing $`\alpha `$ further results in a connected and unbounded set of parameter values for amplitude death (Fig. 1d), which persists for all larger values of $`\alpha `$. At this stage, there is a large interval of values for the coupling strength $`K`$ which causes amplitude death regardless of the mean value $`\tau `$. By contrast, the discrete delay can cause amplitude death only for a very limited range of delay values (Fig. 1a). Note that the ratio $`\sigma /\tau `$ of the standard deviation to the mean of the distribution can be quite small, showing that even a relatively small spread in delays may induce amplitude death.

Distributed delays further facilitate amplitude death through the parameter $`\omega _0`$. The stability region in the parameter plane depends on the value of $`\omega _0`$, and there exists a minimum value $`\omega _{min}`$ such that if $`\omega _0<\omega _{min}`$ then amplitude death does not occur for any $`K`$ or $`\tau `$. A value of $`\omega _{min}=4.812`$ has been reported for discrete delays Ramana Reddy et al. (1998). Distributed delays can induce amplitude death even when $`\omega _0`$ is smaller than this value, as Fig. 2 shows. The curve has been numerically calculated by decreasing the value of $`\omega _0`$ at a fixed $`\sigma `$ for the uniform distribution until the stability region disappears.

The local stability change caused by distributed delays is reflected in the global dynamics by the annihilation of the limit cycles of the oscillators. Fig. 3 shows the amplitudes of the oscillators, which gradually decrease with increasing standard deviation of the delay distribution. Near $`\sigma =0.0085`$ the amplitude becomes zero as the limit cycle collapses to the origin and the amplitude death sets in. Numerical simulations with random initial conditions indicate that for $`\sigma `$ beyond this value the origin is the only attractor for the coupled system. Notably, this behavior is largely independent of the particular distribution chosen for the delays, as seen in Fig. 3.

When the oscillators have different intrinsic frequencies the situation is similar, except that amplitude death occurs for even a larger parameter set, since a large frequency difference by itself is known to cause death. Fig. 4 compares the stability regions for discrete and distributed delays. As the spread of the delays increase, the stability region is enlarged and extended towards the horizontal axis, so amplitude death becomes possible also for a small (or zero) frequency difference.

The stabilizing effects of distributed delays carry over to any number of oscillators. This is illustrated in the following system of $`N`$ globally coupled oscillators:

$`\dot{Z}_j(t)`$ $`=(1+\mathrm{i}\omega _j|Z_j(t)|^2)Z_j(t)`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{2K}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{\begin{array}{c}k=1\\ kj\end{array}}{\overset{N}{}}}\left[{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}f(\tau ^{})Z_k(t\tau ^{})𝑑\tau ^{}Z_j(t)\right]`$ (9)
where $`j=1,\mathrm{},N`$. In this model the use of distributed delays is further motivated by the fact that in a physical network the delays between units cannot be expected to be identical but can be more naturally described by a probability distribution for large $`N`$. For $`N=2`$, (9) reduces to (2)–(3). The system (9) was studied in Ermentrout (1990); Mirollo and Strogatz (1990) with no delays, and in Ramana Reddy et al. (1998) with discrete delays. For identical oscillators an analysis similar to above yields the region of amplitude death for (9). The limiting shape of this region as $`N\mathrm{}`$ is depicted in Fig. 5 for uniformly distributed delays and $`\omega _j=10`$ for all $`j`$. As before, distributed delays enlarge the stability region, and there exist values of $`K`$ for which amplitude death occurs regardless of the mean value $`\tau `$ of the delays. (The stability region is enlarged further if the frequencies $`\omega _j`$ are not identical, similar to the case shown in Fig. 4.) It is interesting to compare the results to those in Ermentrout (1990); Mirollo and Strogatz (1990), where it was shown that a sufficiently large spread in the frequencies $`\omega _j`$ can cause amplitude death. Here a similar conclusion holds for a spread in the delays.

A detailed mathematical analysis of stability under distributed delays is too lengthy to include here; however, a brief description of the basic ideas will help clarify the role of delay distributions. Thus consider the characteristic equation (4). If $`F0`$ the eigenvalues are $`\lambda =1K+\mathrm{i}\omega _j,`$ $`j=1,2`$, so the system is asymptotically stable for $`K>1`$. It follows that stability can also be achieved for $`|F|`$ sufficiently small. Letting $`\lambda =\beta +\mathrm{i}\omega `$,

$$F(\lambda )=_0^{\mathrm{}}f(\tau ^{})e^{\beta \tau ^{}}[\mathrm{cos}\omega \tau ^{}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{sin}\omega \tau ^{}]𝑑\tau ^{}$$

which can be interpreted as a (weighted) average of the quantity in brackets over an interval determined by $`f`$. If $`\omega 0`$ the integrand is oscillatory about zero, and smaller values of $`|F|`$ may be obtained if the average is taken over a larger interval, i.e. if $`f`$ has a large variance. It can be assured that $`\omega `$ is bounded away from zero provided $`K`$ is not too large. In this way, an interval of values of $`K`$ is obtained for which the origin is stable. A rigorous argument involves assuming $`\beta 0`$ and obtaining a contradiction resulting from $`|F|`$ being small. It is also intuitively plausible that if $`f`$ has a sufficiently large variance, then $`|F|`$ is small regardless of the mean value or the precise shape of $`f`$. This explains Figures 1d and 5, which show stability for a range of coupling strengths and arbitrary mean value of delay, as well as Fig. 3, which shows similar behavior for different distribution functions.

The importance of amplitude death has been noted by many authors in relation to various physical and biological phenomena, ranging from Belousov-Zhabotinskii reactions to cardiac arrhythmias Bar-Eli (1985); Mirollo and Strogatz (1990); Ramana Reddy et al. (1998). For instance, the cessation of rhythmic activity in biological systems may be related to certain pathologies. Our findings suggest that in certain cases the variance of the delays, rather than their average value, could be the relevant quantity responsible for the quenching of oscillations. Delay distributions has a stabilizing effect on the interconnected system, similar to that of frequency distributions treated in previous works Ermentrout (1990); Mirollo and Strogatz (1990). This implies that amplitude death is a rather common and robust dynamical behavior for interacting oscillatory processes, since real-life networks inevitably involve variances in both the frequencies and the connection delays. From a practical point, the properties of distributed delays are expected to be helpful in modelling observed phenomena. For instance, a situation where amplitude death is experimentally observed but not predicted by an existing model might imply the presence of distributed delays in the physical system. Introducing a small variance in delays may in many cases lead to a better reconciliation of theory with experiments. Finally, distributed delays give a natural way to model memory effects in interacting systems. They are thus particularly suitable in fields of neuroscience, cognition, and the general analysis of complex systems. Delays are expected to be a source of further interesting results in these highly active areas of investigation.


text:
# Atlasmaker: A Grid-based Implementation of the Hyperatlas

## 1. Introduction

Often the combination of multiple datasets reveals more knowledge than is present in the components. An optical survey may show clusters of galaxies, and an Xray survey may show emitting sources. The combination, however, reveals that the Xrays come from the space between the galaxies of the clusters, and we infer the hot intracluster gas that was not obvious in either waveband. This phenomenon is known as data federation. Extracting knowledge from federated catalogs is well-understood; the next logical step is large-scale federated imagery. This means that images are resampled to a common pixel plane, and catalogs extracted from the joint pixel space.

The set of images being federated might represent the sky at different wavelengths, times, resolutions, polarizations, etc. Images may have been drived from combining and computing with other images. In many cases there is knowledge in the federated imagery that is not present in the federation of catalogs derived from the same original images. It is our contention that the value of this federation can outshine the loss of data quality in the resampling; indeed it is our contention that image federation opens a new data-centric window on the Universe. \[Jacob 2001, Williams 2000\].

This paper describes the Atlasmaker software \[Williams and Feldmann 2003\] that builds mosaics from NVO-compliant image sets – ie. images that are exposed through the VO Simple Image Access Protocol \[IVOA 2003a\]. Atlasmaker scavenges a grid for enough computational resources to build terabyte-size atlases, which are then available for federation and data-mining.

Previous papers \[Williams 2003a, Williams 2003b\] discusses much of the scientific motivation for image federation, and the resulting need for a standard to ensure interoperability. This standard (Hyperatlas) is a discretization of the space of possible projection from sphere to plane. The standard describes sets of pages that form atlases, where a page is defined as a projection of sphere to plane that has a distortion-free point (also called the pointing center). The Hyperatlas standard also specifies discrete values of the scale at which data is rendered on each page, being a power of two arcseconds per pixel.

When image data are resampled to a standard hyperatlas, they will automatically be co-registered at the pixel level with other images, even though each may have been computed by different software. Atlasmaker is an example of such resampling software, and it computes, stores, and delivers this kind of federated image, working in a service economy (i.e., grid), possibly on-demand.

The creation of federated imagery with scientific value requires great care. The core computation is the resampling algorithm, which degrades the data to some (hopefully small) extent. The degradation can be measured by degrading of the effective PSF (de-focus), an astrometric shift at the subpixel level, and/or a change in total source flux. We could simply resample to a very fine scale, reducing the degradation, but then the computing and data-handling requirements are increased – by the inverse square of the scale.

Atlasmaker offers a choice of two trusted codes for the resampling kernel: Montage \[Prince 2003\] from NASA IPAC/JPL/Caltech and Swarp \[Bertin 2003\] from the French Terapix project. These offer different advantages in terms of quality and speed.

These two codes produce mosaics of multiple images. This requires an averaging procedure on the areas of overlap, and a means to subtract “background”. The separating of background from signal is a challenge in all areas of science, and each of the codes used by Atlasmaker has their own chosen method for doing this – see the references for more information.

## 2. Computing Architecture

Atlasmaker is available on the open-source model \[Williams & Feldmann 2003\], and is based on a grid architecture of relocatable programs and web services, as shown in Figure 1.

When a user requests a given data product, the manager will check for its existence in the cache that stores already computed products, and if it is found, it is returned to the user. If it is not found, then it will be computed. The names of surveys are resolved by the registry to get required metadata, including current URLs for the NVO services that can provide external image data.

The Atlasmaker code is written in Python, a highly portable and powerful scripting language, with a central core of pixel manipulation written in C (Montage and Swarp). The applications obtain flexibility through the use of services that may reside anywhere on the net; the services are replicated for fault tolerance. Data is stored and retrieved from a distributed file system based on SRB (Storage Resource Broker), a central pillar of the Teragrid data system.

The job can be wrapped into a self-contained package for execution in a number of different environments. Currently we have implementations for the Teragrid queue manager, PBS, and also for the Condor environment.

Atlasmaker has parallel execution modes, allowing resampling of different images to occur via either message-passing or thread-based parallelism. Images have background estimated and subtracted, then are coadded to a mosaic. Completed mosaic images are returned to the user, but also stored in the data cache in case the same request comes again.

The Virtual data model (below) encourages use of both on-demand and scavenger grid utilization. A single mosaic requested by a human would require on-demand, perhaps anonymous, compute services, whereas a multi-terabyte sky survey would be resampled over a period of weeks on whatever resources can be found — a process known as grid scavenging.

Hyperatlas services are used to convert requested atlas pages to sky positions. If a user has made a request by sky position, it is converted first to pages of an atlas, then that page rendered.

For the image data, Atlasmaker uses a standard service type, the IVOA Simple Image Access Protocol (SIAP) \[IVOA, 2003a\]. These services can access data through multiple protocols: current implementations are ordinary HTTP or the high-performance grid protocol SRB (Storage Resource Broker).

Curation metadata from the IVO registries will be used to annotate computed data, to give it provenance, citations, and other metadata.

## 3. Future

We expect to use Atlasmaker to generate atlas pages both dynamically and in batch mode, the key concept being Virtual Data. Virtual data as provides a nexus between the worlds of data, publication, and computing. Data need not be copied and stored, but another option is available: having the data generated on-demand. A dataset may be represented by a recipe for its creation, with the assumption that computing services will be available for its instantiation when required. That recipe can then be published to a small or large circle through the Virtual Observatory registry structure \[IVOA 2003b\], and hypotheses, excerpts, and conclusions made.

We expect there to be many sequences of data products stemming from the original set of mosaicked plates, and we use Virtual Data to manage them. Virtual Data ensures that derived datasets will respond in a timely way to changes in the underlying archives, for example from recalibrations, new data releases, etc. If a mistake is discovered in an image, we do not want to recompute the entire multi-terabyte survey again, but only downstream products that are directly affected.

### Acknowledgments.

We are grateful to the National Science Foundation for support of this work through the National Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure and through the National Virtual Observatory project. SGD thanks the NASA AISRP program for support. JCJ thanks the NASA for his support.

## References

Bertin, E., SWarp Resample and Coadd Software,
http://terapix.iap.fr/cplt/oldSite/soft/swarp/index.html

IVOA, International Virtual Observatory Alliance, 2003a, Simple Image Access Protocol,
http://us-vo.org/news/simspec.html

IVOA, International Virtual Observatory Alliance, 2003b, Registry Framework
http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaResReg

Jacob, J. C. and Husman, L. E., Virtual Observatories of the Future Conference, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 225, 2001, eds. Brunner, R. J., Djorgovski, S. G., and Szalay, A. S., pp. 192-196.

Prince, T. A., Montage Mosaicking Software, 2003,
http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu

Williams, R. D., Virtual Sky, 2000, http://virtualsky.org

Williams, R. D., The NVO Hyperatlas Standard, 2003a,
http://bill.cacr.caltech.edu/usvo-pubs/files/hyperatlas.pdf

Williams, R. D., Djorgovski, S. G., Feldmann, M. T., and Jacob, J. C., Hyperatlas, A New Framework for Image Federation, 2003b, astro-ph/0312195.

Williams, R. D., Feldmann, M. T., Atlasmaker, Software to build Atlases of Federated Imagery, 2003,
http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/projects/nvo/atlasmaker/


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# A Strong Test of Electro-Weak Theory using Pulsating DB White Dwarf Stars as Plasmon Neutrino Detectors

## 1. INTRODUCTION

Not long after Fermi’s theory of the weak interaction was first generalized to include, among other things, the possibility of a direct interaction between the electron and the relevant neutrino (e.g., Feynman & Gell-Mann , 1958), a variety of theoretical papers pointed out that this interaction, though extremely feeble, could have a major impact in the hot dense plasmas to be found in the astrophysical domain (see Fowler & Hoyle, 1964, for an early review). However, given the weakness of neutrino interactions, direct measurements of these rates in astrophysical objects have proved a great challenge. These measurements rely on enormous detecting volumes in order to obtain a significant number of events. In fact, only in the case of the Sun and SN 1987A have direct links been made between detections of neutrinos and particular astronomical objects.

It is possible to measure neutrino rates, albeit indirectly, in a third class of objects, the white dwarf stars. For both the hot white dwarf and a pre-white dwarf stars the theoretical neutrino energy losses exceed the photon energy losses, and so essentially control the evolutionary timescale. The astrophysical significance of neutrino emission in hot pre-white dwarf stars has been investigated extensively by many authors, building on the foundations of work undertaken at the University of Rochester (e.g. Vila, 1966; Kutter & Savedoff, 1969; Savedoff, Van Horn & Vila, 1969). The principal observable signature of these neutrinos was thought to be in the white dwarf luminosity function (e.g., see Lamb & Van Horn, 1975). In the mid-eighties we (e.g., Kawaler, Winget, & Hansen, 1985) demonstrated that evolutionary frequency drifts in the non-radial gravity modes present in pulsating hot pre-white dwarf (DOV) stars might provide a very sensitive probe of plasmon neutrino emissions in just the temperature range where the neutrino luminosity was near its maximum. We later reported the observational detection of an evolutionary rate of period change for one DOV, PG 1159-035 (Winget et al., 1985; Costa, Kepler, & Winget, 1999), but the theoretical interpretation of this result remains elusive (see O’Brien & Kawaler, 2000, for a recent summary). Theoretical models for PG 1159-035 have been unable to reproduce the observed period structure and the rate of period change simultaneously. Since the mechanical and thermal structure is more closely coupled than in cooler white dwarf stars, it is more difficult to identify the source of this problem.

No such difficulties should arise for the helium atmosphere DBV white dwarfs, since their cooler temperatures lead to greater degeneracy and hence a decoupling of their thermal and mechanical structure (see section 3.1 below). As a consequence, we should be able to measure the plasmon neutrino flux from these objects, testing the calculations of Itoh et al. (1996) and measuring the net effect of plasmon neutrinos.

## 2. PLASMON NEUTRINOS

Of the many possible neutrino emission processes, it is the plasmon neutrino process that dominates neutrino production in hot white dwarf interiors—the bremsstrahlung process comes a distant second. The existence of plasmon neutrinos is an important test of our understanding of the universality of the weak interaction. The nature of the process that creates them is well described by Clayton (1968), and we summarize it here.

A free photon cannot decay into a neutrino and an anti-neutrino because the constraint of coupling to a spin-1 particle requires the neutrinos to be emitted in opposite directions; as a result, energy and momentum cannot simultaneously be conserved and the process is forbidden. A photon propagating in a plasma does not have this problem—it conserves both energy and momentum by coupling to the plasma; such a coupled photon is referred to as a “plasmon”. A plasmon with sufficient energy can decay into a neutrino and an anti-neutrino; the neutrinos created in this process are termed plasmon neutrinos:

$$\gamma ^{}\nu +\overline{\nu }.$$

Under normal stellar conditions, including white dwarf interiors, we expect the neutrinos created in this way to leave the star without further interaction, resulting in net energy loss.

For a physical picture of what a plasmon actually is, we can consider the photon to be a classical electromagnetic wave moving through a dielectric medium. If $`\omega `$ is the frequency of the photon, then we have

$$\omega ^2=k^2c^2+\omega _0^2,$$

where $`\omega _0`$ is the plasma frequency. Since $`E=\mathrm{}\omega `$ and $`p=\mathrm{}k`$ for a photon, this can be re-written as

$$E^2=p^2c^2+m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2c^4,$$

where

$$m_{\mathrm{pl}}=\frac{\mathrm{}\omega _0}{c^2}$$

acts as the effective mass of the plasmon. Thus, the plasmon behaves like a particle with a non-zero rest mass, and it is this effective mass that enables it to decay into a neutrino and anti-neutrino pair.

The size of this “rest mass” energy, $`\mathrm{}\omega _0`$, is important for two reasons. First, in a general stellar environment these plasmon states will be in thermal equilibrium with their surroundings, so significant numbers of plasmons will be excited only if the typical thermal energy, $`k_BT`$, is larger than the plasmon energy, $`\mathrm{}\omega _0`$. Second, the amount of energy liberated by the decay of a plasmon is related to its mass, with high mass plasmons liberating more energy than low mass ones. In low density non-degenerate gases, the plasma frequency is given by

$$\omega _0^2=\frac{4\pi n_ee^2}{m_e},$$

and we typically find that $`\mathrm{}\omega _0k_BT`$. Thus, even though there are many plasmons, their rest mass energy is so small that their decay releases little energy. In the dense plasmas of degenerate stellar interiors the plasma frequency, now given approximately by

$$\omega _0^2=\frac{4\pi n_ee^2}{m_e}\left[1+\left(\frac{\mathrm{}}{m_ec}\right)^2\left(3\pi ^2n_e\right)^{\frac{2}{3}}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}},$$

is much larger, and plasmon neutrino production can lead to significant energy loss. However, if the density is too large then only the highest energy fluctuations out on the thermal tail will be large enough to excite plasmons, leading to a suppression of energy losses through neutrino emission.

This has important observational consequences. Theoretical evolutionary calculations show that for temperatures greater than $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}35,000`$K (see Figure 1a), the ratio of neutrino to photon luminosity is highest for massive white dwarf models. Higher plasma frequencies result from higher central densities in more massive pre-white dwarf models, yielding higher plasmon energies and correspondingly higher neutrino energy fluxes. Eventually, as the models cool, the thermal energies become too small for photons to excite plasmons. This happens first for the more massive model, and accounts for the fact that the neutrino rates of the less massive models dominate for temperatures less than 35,000 K. For the temperature range in which we are most interested, the DBV instability strip, neutrino losses still dominate for models with masses near the typical mass of the white dwarf stars, while they are completely negligible for the more massive models.

## 3. EVOLUTIONARY CALCULATIONS

For the present work, we have computed several white dwarf evolutionary sequences in order to explore the effects of plasmon neutrinos in the DBV temperature range. We have calculated sequences using polytropic starting models as well as full evolutionary sequences calculated from various main-sequence progenitor models, including different parametric treatments of mass loss. As has been well established by numerous authors (e.g. Kawaler, Winget, Iben, & Hansen, 1986), the thermal history is erased by the time these models cool to 35,000 K and the model sequences become indistinguishable for our purposes. We have calculated sequences with and without plasmon neutrino emission included, using the rates of Itoh et al. (1996) in our models (see Figure 1). At the energies relevant to our calculations, the difference between these newer rates and the older Beaudet, Petrosian, & Salpeter (1967) rates are $``$10 percent. For more complete details about the computation of the models, see Metcalfe, Nather, & Winget (2000).

### 3.1. Period Structure

The problem of the coupling of the mechanical and thermal structure, prominent in the DOVs, is nearly nonexistent by the time the models reach the temperature domain of the DBV stars. For example, we calculated the periods of models with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ 28,000 K from two sequences: a sequence including plasmon neutrino energy losses, and a sequence with the neutrino production rates set to zero. The differences between the corresponding pulsation periods of these models were always $``$1 second, with a typical difference of 0.24 seconds. We note that current uncertainties in the interior mechanical structure, such as the detailed C/O abundance profiles and the “double-layered” envelopes discussed by Fontaine & Brassard (2002) and Metcalfe, Montgomery & Kawaler (2003), only affect the periods at this same level of 1 second or less.

The energy loss to plasmon neutrinos primarily results in a reduced central core temperature compared to models without neutrinos (for the case considered above, this reduction in core temperature was $``$20 percent). The pulsation periods are only slightly affected because the Brunt-Väilsälä frequency is small in the core, where the pressure support is dominated by the strongly degenerate electrons. As a consequence, the g-mode pulsations are largely insensitive to the thermal structure in the core, which is the only thing that changes dramatically as a result of plasmon neutrino production.

### 3.2. Rates of Period Change

Although the change to the thermal structure due to plasmon neutrinos does not significantly alter the period structure, it does have a significant effect on DBV models; it shortens the evolutionary timescale in the temperature range 30,000 K $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ 25,000 K. This is easily seen in Figure 2, where we show the effect of plasmon neutrinos on the time rate of change of the effective temperature. The dashed lines indicate the temperature estimates of Beauchamp et al. (1999) for two DBV stars: the hotter one is EC 20058$``$5234, and the cooler one is GD 358. This should correspond roughly to the hot half of the DBV pulsation instability strip (Bradley & Winget, 1994).

Although the temperature of EC 20058 deduced by Beauchamp et al. (1999) is relatively uncertain due to a poor quality spectrum, a comparison of the observed periods in the two stars provides independent asteroseismological evidence that EC 20058 is significantly hotter than GD 358. This is because the dominant pulsation periods in a white dwarf should be tracers of the thermal timescale at the base of the partial ionization/convection zone. Since the observed periods are much shorter in EC 20058 than in GD 358, EC 20058 should have a shallower convection zone, and hence a higher effective temperature (e.g., see Winget, 1998, and references therein).

At these effective temperatures the evolution is dominated by cooling, with gravitational contraction playing a diminishing role. The cooling depletes the thermal energy stored in the ions. In models that include neutrinos, the thermal energy deep in the core is further depleted by the emission of plasmon neutrinos, and the evolutionary timescale is shorter than in models that ignore the effects of neutrinos. Figure 2 makes it clear that the effect of the plasmon neutrinos on the evolution is not subtle. Near the high temperature end of the observed DBV instability strip the evolutionary timescales of the models differ by a factor of about four, and by the middle of the instability strip they still differ by a factor of two.

This suggests that measurement of the evolutionary period change in hot DBV white dwarf stars would make an excellent probe of the plasmon neutrino production rates. As a proof of principle, we show in Figure 3 the rates of period change for theoretical evolutionary models with temperatures in the hot half of the DBV instability strip.

We have already established that model uncertainties at the current level do not alter the individual periods in a significant way for these measurements, and Figure 3 shows that exact radial order identification is also unnecessary. If we know the observed period and the spherical harmonic degree of a mode, then we can determine the radial order within $`\pm `$1, which corresponds to a period range of 60–80 s for models with masses near $`0.6M_{\mathrm{}}`$. For a typical range of periods, this gives us sufficient information to measure the plasmon neutrino production rates with a precision of $``$10 percent. We note that the these values are only sensitive to spherical harmonic degree ($`\mathrm{}`$) at $`10`$ percent: the difference between $`\mathrm{}=1`$ and $`\mathrm{}=2`$ for the same period is $``$10 percent, and the difference between $`\mathrm{}=2`$ and $`\mathrm{}=3`$ is $`1`$ percent.

## 4. DISCUSSION

Our work demonstrates the potential of directly measuring the effect of plasmon neutrino energy loss rates in the hot DBV white dwarf stars. Currently only one known DBV, EC 20058$``$5234, has both the high temperature and period stability necessary to measure an evolutionary period change. After its discovery by Koen et al. (1995), this object was observed in a 1997 multi-site Whole Earth Telescope campaign (xcov15, Sullivan et al., 2003), with regular single-site observations since then (Sullivan, 2003). Work on this particular object is in progress, but to fully exploit the potential of the DBV stars as plasmon neutrino detectors we need to undertake a comprehensive research program that includes the following components.

First, it will be important to expand the sample of known DBV stars well beyond the 9 currently known. This should provide access to a selection of hot DBV pulsators that have the required period stability for measuring evolutionary period changes. Fortunately, this goal appears to be feasible using candidate white dwarfs identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, as has been adequately demonstrated by the recent large increase in the number of known DAV stars using this source (Mukadam et al., 2003).

Second, we must obtain better effective temperatures for the hot DBV stars of interest. Although not as important, it will also be useful to identify the $`\mathrm{}`$ values of relevant pulsation modes. Appropriate HST observations will be an important factor here. Both Figure 2 and Figure 3 indicate that the more accurately we can determine the temperature, either asteroseismologically, spectroscopically, or both, the better limits we can place on dP/dt. The model rates of period change also depend on the pulsation mode $`\mathrm{}`$ value, so knowledge of this index will minimize the uncertainties.

Third, the overall program will be strengthened by access to a range of DBVs with different masses. Figure 1a shows that massive white dwarf stars ($``$0.9 M) are not producing significant plasmon neutrinos in this temperature range, and so can serve as a control. The rates of period change for these stars should be insensitive to plasmon neutrino production rates. In this way they will allow us to calibrate out any possible systematic effects. Comparative plasmon neutrino fluxes will also allow us to calibrate the fluxes as a function of density, and therefore plasmon energy.

Fourth, we need to undertake long-term photometric campaigns (in addition to the on-going EC 20058 observations) on suitable DBV candidate stars. We estimate that an observational timebase of between three and six years duration, depending on individual timing accuracies, will be required to achieve the goal of observing the predicted rates of period change. Two-meter class telescopes and efficient frame transfer time-series photometers will probably be required to undertake these campaigns, since the newly detected DBVs will undoubtedly be, on average, significantly fainter than those in the existing sample.

In summary, our work suggests that not only can we demonstrate the reality of the plasmon neutrino process, but we can also quantitatively constrain the production rates in the temperature-density domain relevant to white dwarf interiors.

The authors thank S.J. Kleinman, A. Nitta, R.E. Nather, F. Mullally, and A. Mukadam for many useful discussions. The work was supported in part by grants NAG5-9321 from NASA’s Applied Information Systems Research Program, and ARP-0543 from the Texas Advanced Research Program.


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# Andreev reflection eigenvalue density in mesoscopic conductors.

## Abstract

The energy-dependent Andreev reflection eigenvalues determine the transport properties of normal-superconducting systems. We evaluate the eigenvalue density to get an insight into formation of resonant electron-hole transport channels. The circuit-theory-like method developed can be applied to any generic mesoscopic conductor or combinations thereof. We present the results for experimentally relevant cases of a diffusive wire and a double tunnel junction.

Scattering theory provides a intuitive physical picture of transport in mesoscopic conductors been97 ; blan00 ; nazarov:03 . A large number of transport properties are characterized by the transmission eigenvalues $`\{T_n\}`$ of the conductor, the eigenvalues of the matrix product $`tt^{}`$, where $`t`$ is the matrix of the transmission amplitudes and $`n`$ the channel index. Examples are the Landauer formula for the conductance $`G_nT_n`$, the shot noise power $`P_nT_n(1T_n)`$ butt90  or, more general, the full counting statistics $`_n\mathrm{ln}[1+T_n(\mathrm{exp}(i\chi )1)]`$ levitov:93 . Knowledge of the density of the transmission eigenvalues for a given mesoscopic conductor allows one to calculate the ensemble averaged transport properties. The transmission eigenvalue density has been derived for generic conductors such as diffusive wires wire ; naz94a , chaotic cavities cavity , double barrier junctions double ; naz94b , dirty tunnel barriers dirty , or combinations thereof naz94b .

When a mesoscopic conductor is connected to a superconductor, the electronic properties of the conductor are modified by the induced proximity effect prox . On a microscopic level, the proximity effect results from Andreev reflection at the normal-superconducting (NS) interface. In analogy to the normal conductor, the transport properties in the most interesting regime, at energies well below the superconducting gap, are naturally expressed in terms of the Andreev reflection eigenvalues $`\{R_n\}`$. The $`\{R_n\}`$ are the eigenvalues of the matrix product $`s_{eh}^{}s_{eh}^{}`$, where $`s_{eh}`$ is the matrix of the Andreev reflection amplitudes. The conductance nscond  $`G_{NS}_nR_n`$ and shot-noise power nsnoise  $`P_{NS}_nR_n(1R_n)`$ are the most investigated quantities.

Due to the dephasing of electrons and holes with an energy difference $`2E`$, the Andreev reflection eigenvalues depend on energy on the scale of the Thouless energy $`E_c`$. Only at low energies $`EE_c`$ are the Andreev reflection eigenvalues simply related been92  to the transmission eigenvalues as $`R_n=T_n^2/(2T_n)^2`$, providing a direct relation between the density of Andreev reflection eigenvalues (ARED) and the density of transmission eigenvalues. To extend this relation to finite energies, one would need not only the correlations between transmission eigenvalues at different energies, but also the energy dependent correlations between the transmission eigenvectors, i.e. the statistics of the whole energy dependent scattering matrix. Apart from being a complicated approach, this statistics is known only for a few generic conductors been97 . This makes it highly desirable to find a way to directly calculate the ARED, without going via the energy dependent statistics of the scattering properties of the normal conductor.

In this paper we present a theoretical approach to the energy dependent ARED for mesoscopic conductors. It comes in the form of a circuit theory for quasiclassical Green’s functions naz94a ; naz94b ; naz97 . The theory is applied to a diffusive wire junction, both with and without a tunnel barrier at the NS-interface, and to a double tunnel-barrier junction. In all cases, the induced proximity effect leads to an opening of electron-hole channels, $`R_n1`$, at energies of the order of $`E_c`$. Our results provide a unified and physically intuitive explanation for a large number of theoretical and experimental results on current and noise in NS-systems.

We consider a generic mesoscopic conductor with a large number of transverse channels $`N1`$ contacted to one normal and one superconducting reservoir (see Fig. 1). An electron, incident from the normal reservoir in channel $`n`$, has the amplitude $`(s_{eh})_{nm}`$ to be backreflected as a hole in channel $`m`$. To derive the ARED we follow Ref. naz94a  and define a function in terms of the Andreev scattering amplitudes (depending on energy) as

$`H(E,\zeta )=\text{Tr}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{s_{eh}^{}s_{eh}^{}}{1\zeta ^2s_{eh}^{}s_{eh}^{}}}\right]={\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{R_n}{1\zeta ^2R_n}}`$ (1)
which gives all moments Tr$`\left[(s_{eh}^{}s_{eh}^{})^n\right]`$ when expanded in $`\zeta `$. From this function, the ARED $`\rho (R,E)=_n\delta (RR_n)`$ is given as

$`\rho (R,E)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi R^2}}\text{Im}\left[H\left(E,\zeta ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{R+i0}}}\right)\right]`$ (2)
where $`\mathrm{}`$ denotes average over impurity (or sample) configurations. Next, the Andreev reflection amplitudes are related to the retarded anomalous Gorkov Green’s function $`F^R(𝐱,𝐱^{})`$, constructed from the scattering state solutions Datta  to the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation. Introducing $`F_{nm}^R(x,x^{})=𝑑y𝑑z𝑑y^{}𝑑z^{}\theta _n(y,z)\theta _n(y^{},z^{})F^R(𝐱,𝐱^{})`$, with $`\theta _n(y,z)`$ the transverse wavefunction, we get

$`\left(s_{eh}\right)_{nm}=i\mathrm{}\sqrt{v_nv_m}F_{nm}^R(x,x^{})`$ (3)
with $`F_{nm}^R(x,x^{})`$ evaluated at the normal reservoir ($`x=x^{}=0`$) and where $`v_n`$ is the velocity in channel $`n`$. Using that $`F^A(x^{},x)=[F^R(x,x^{})]^{}`$, the trace becomes

$`\text{Tr}\left[s_{eh}^{}s_{eh}^{}\right]=\mathrm{}^2{\displaystyle \underset{n,m}{}}v_nv_mF_{nm}^R(x,x^{})F_{nm}^A(x^{},x).`$ (4)
Introducing the generalized quasiparticle current $`I(𝐱,𝐱^{})=_n\mathrm{}v_n\theta _n(y,z)\theta _n(y^{},z^{})\delta (x)\delta (x^{})`$, going from summation over modes to integration over transverse coordinates, we can write

$`\text{Tr}\left[s_{eh}^{}s_{eh}^{}\right]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑𝐱_1𝑑𝐱_2𝑑𝐱_3𝑑𝐱_4I(𝐱_1,𝐱_2)}`$ (5)
$`\times `$ $`F^R(𝐱_2,𝐱_3)I(𝐱_3,𝐱_4)F^A(𝐱_4,𝐱_1).`$
As pointed out in Ref. naz94a , the right side of the expression can be evaluated at an arbitrary cross-section of the normal conductor. To obtain the traces of $`s_{eh}^{}s_{eh}^{}`$ to all orders in Eq. (1), we introduce a 4$`\times `$4-matrix Green’s function in a fictitious $`\zeta `$-dependent field, coupling the advanced and retarded components as

$`\stackrel{ˇ}{G}(𝐱_1,𝐱_2)`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{ˇ}{G}^0(𝐱_1,𝐱_2)+{\displaystyle 𝑑𝐱_3𝑑𝐱_4\stackrel{ˇ}{G}^0(𝐱_1,𝐱_3)}`$ (6)
$`\times `$ $`\zeta I(𝐱_3,𝐱_4)\left[\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_1+\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_2\right]\stackrel{ˇ}{G}(𝐱_4,𝐱_2).`$
Here the unperturbed Green’s function is

$$\stackrel{ˇ}{G}^0=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\widehat{G}^R& 0\\ 0& \widehat{G}^A\end{array}\right),\widehat{G}^{R/A}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}G^{R/A}& F^{R/A}\\ F^{R/A}& G^{R/A}\end{array}\right),$$
(7)
suppressing coordinate dependence, and $`\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_j`$ are matrices with the only nonzero element being $`(\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_1)_{42}=1`$ and $`(\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_2)_{13}=1`$. With these definitions, it follows from the perturbation expansion in $`\zeta `$ that

$$𝑑𝐱𝑑𝐱^{}I(𝐱,𝐱^{})\text{tr}\left[\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_1\stackrel{ˇ}{G}(𝐱,𝐱^{})\right]=\zeta H(E,\zeta ),$$
(8)
where the trace from now on is in the $`4\times 4`$ matrix space. Starting from this expression, we can now apply the standard techniques for impurity averaged quasi-classical Green’s functions, elaborated in detail for the circuit theory in Refs. naz94b ; naz97 ; bel03 . This gives the relation

$$\text{tr}\left[\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_1\stackrel{ˇ}{I}(E,\zeta )\right]/G_Q=i\zeta H(E,\zeta )$$
(9)
where $`\stackrel{ˇ}{I}(E,\zeta )`$ is the energy dependent matrix current naz97  through the junction and $`G_Q=2e^2/h`$. As described in detail in Ref. bel03 , the terms in Eq. (6) containing $`\zeta `$ can be gauged away from the interior of the junction, giving rise to renormalized boundary conditions for the normal reservoir

$$\stackrel{ˇ}{G}_N=e^{i\zeta (\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_1+\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_2)}\stackrel{ˇ}{G}_{N0}e^{i\zeta (\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_1+\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_2)}$$
(10)
where $`\widehat{G}_{N0}^{R/A}=\pm \widehat{\sigma }_z`$ with $`\widehat{\sigma }_z`$ denoting a Pauli-matrix in Nambu space. The boundary conditions in the superconductor are not modified, i.e we have $`\widehat{G}_S^{R/A}=\widehat{\sigma }_x`$. We can then, within the circuit theory for matrix Green’s functions Ref. naz97 , calculate the matrix current $`\stackrel{ˇ}{I}(E,\zeta )`$. Knowing $`\stackrel{ˇ}{I}(E,\zeta )`$, the ARED can be obtained from Eq. (2) and (9) as

$$\rho (R,E)=\frac{1}{G_Q}\frac{1}{\pi R^{3/2}}\text{Re}\left\{\text{tr}\left[\stackrel{ˇ}{\tau }_1\stackrel{ˇ}{I}\left(E,\zeta =\frac{1}{\sqrt{R+i\eta }}\right)\right]\right\}.$$
(11)
This relation is the main technical result of the paper.

To illustrate the approach, we first consider a diffusive wire with conductance $`G_N`$ and length $`L`$ in good contact with a normal and a superconducting reservoir. This system is described by the quasiclassical Usadel equation usadel  $`D_x\stackrel{ˇ}{G}_x\stackrel{ˇ}{G}=iE[\widehat{\sigma }_z,\stackrel{ˇ}{G}]`$, where $`D`$ is the diffusion coefficient. At low energies $`EE_c=\mathrm{}D/L^2`$, where the proximity effect is fully developed, the density is obtained directly from the transmission eigenvalue density of the wire wire , giving

$$\rho _{\text{diff}}=\frac{G_N}{4G_Q}\frac{1}{R\sqrt{1R}}.$$
(12)
This is just the same bimodal density as for the transmission eigenvalues wire , with a prefactor $`1/2`$. In the opposite, incoherent limit, $`EE_c`$, the proximity effect is suppressed. It was recently shown Belzig03b  that in this limit, not only the current and the noise Nag , but all moments of the current, can be found by mapping the wire onto an effective normal junction consisting of two diffusive wires in series. The same mapping procedure can be used for the matrix Green’s functions giving the ARED. As a result the ARED is just given by the transmission eigenvalue density of the effective junction (with conductance $`G_N/2`$ and the replacement $`TR`$, yielding $`\rho (R,EE_c)=\rho _{\text{diff}}`$, which is the same density as for low energies.

For energies of the order of $`E_c`$ the density differs from $`\rho _{\text{diff}}`$. In this regime, the ARED was calculated numerically, following the prescription given in Ref. Belzig . The result is shown in Fig. 2 (normalized to the ARED at $`E=0`$). Increasing the energy from zero, the density of open channels, $`R1`$, is enhanced in comparison to the density of closed channels, $`R0`$, until $`E5E_c`$. For even higher energies, the density becomes qualitatively similar to $`\rho _{\text{diff}}`$ again, but with an overall enhancement ared . The induced proximity effect thus results in an opening of electron-hole channels at energies of the order of $`E_c`$. This provides a complementary picture to the explanation prox  that an interplay of suppressed density of states and long-range pair-correlations leads to a modification of the transport properties of energies around $`E_c`$.

In particular, the opening of additional electron-hole channels provides a simple explanation to the reentrant conductance peak NazStoof . Moreover, the qualitative difference between the regimes $`E5E_c`$ and $`E5E_c`$ explains the suppression of the effective charge $`q_{\text{eff}}(E)=(4/3)e_nR_n(1R_n)/_nR_n`$ predicted theoretically in Belzig  and found experimentally in Reulet:03 . The overall enhancement of the ARED for $`E5E_c`$ cancels from the effective charge and explains why $`q_{\text{eff}}=2e`$ for $`E5E_c`$. In the regime of strong proximity $`E5E_c`$ the enhancement of the density of open channels results, due to the factor $`1R_n`$, in a lowering of $`q_{\text{eff}}`$.

In the presence of a tunnel barrier ($`I`$) at the NS-interface (see Fig. 1a), it was found experimentally that due to the proximity effect the zero-voltage conductance is strongly enhanced NISexp  compared to what was expected from classical addition of resistances of the wire and the NIS-interface. This was explained in Ref. reflectionless  as reflectionless tunneling. Backscattering by disorder in the wire enhances the chances for Andreev reflection and thus increases the conductance. Quantitatively, the ARED for a tunnel barrier with conductance $`G_T`$ at the NS-interface can be calculated numerically in the same way as without the barrier. In Fig. 2b we present the ARED for different energies in the case $`G_T=G_N`$. For low energies $`EE_c`$ there is a finite fraction of completely open channels, $`R=1`$. Increasing the energy, the whole density shifts towards lower eigenvalues and the open channels start to close, i.e. there is a gap in the density above a maximum reflection eigenvalue $`R_{\text{max}}<1`$. A similar behavior is seen for $`G_N<G_T`$, except that the opening of the gap occurs for a finite energy. In the example, shown in Fig. 2c for $`G_T=2G_N`$, the gap opens for $`E10E_c`$. Note, that in the limit $`G_NG_T`$ where the tunnel barrier can be neglected and there is a fraction of open channels for all energies. For a dominating tunnel barrier resistance, $`G_T<G_N`$, there are no completely open channels even for $`E=0`$. In the limit $`G_TG_N`$ the shot-noise was recently observed experimentally Lefloch:03  and studied theoretically nsnoisetheory . A doubling of the full Schottky noise was found which can be understood by our results as a consequence of a concentration of the ARED at small $`R`$ for $`G_TG_N`$.

As a second example, we investigate the ARED in a double tunnel-barrier junction (see Fig. 1b), a diffusive conductor with negligible resistance connected to one superconducting and one normal reservoir via tunnel barriers with conductance $`G_1`$ (to $`N`$) and $`G_2`$ (to $`S`$). The relevant energy scale for the proximity effect is now $`E_c=(G_1+G_2)\delta /(4G_Q)`$, the inverse escape time from the diffusive region. Here $`\delta `$ is the level spacing in the normal region. For this system the ARED can be obtained analytically. The solution for the Green’s function of the diffusive conductor for arbitrary energies is given in Refs. Sam . Eq. (11) gives after some algebra the ARED $`\rho \rho (R,E)`$

$`\rho `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G_1^2G_2^2}{2\pi G_QR^{5/4}}}\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{p\sqrt{p\alpha \sqrt{R}}},& 0<R<R_I\\ \frac{1}{q\sqrt{q\alpha \sqrt{R}}},& R_I<R<R_{II}\end{array}`$ (15)
where $`p=(4G_1^2G_2^2R\beta ^2)^{1/2}`$, $`q=(R(\alpha ^2+\beta ^2)4G_1^2G_2^2)^{1/2}`$ $`\alpha =G_1^2+G_2^2(E/E_c)^2(G_1+G_2)^2`$ and $`\beta =2G_1(G_1+G_2)E/E_c`$. The limiting eigenvalues are $`R_I=4G_1^2G_2^2/(\alpha ^2+\beta ^2)`$ and $`R_{II}=4G_1^2G_2^2/\beta ^2`$ (see Fig. 3), noting that the region $`R_I<R<R_{II}`$ in the density in Eq. (15) is present only for $`\alpha <0`$.

The ARED is plotted in Fig. 3 for $`G_2=5G_1`$, where the various properties of the ARED are clearly seen. For low energies $`E<E_c(G_1^2+G_2^2)^{1/2}/(G_1+G_2)`$, i.e. $`\alpha >0`$, the ARED is limited by an upper bound $`R_I`$ and is bimodal, see the upper term Eq. (15). In the limit $`EE_c`$ the ARED reduces to the one obtained from the known naz94b  transmission eigenvalue density for the normal double tunnel-barrier junction. For higher energies, $`E>E_c(G_1^2+G_2^2)^{1/2}/(G_1+G_2)`$, the lower term in Eq. (15) contributes as well. This leads to a qualitatively new behavior of the ARED. The peak at the upper bound of the ARED splits and an extra bimodal band of Andreev reflection eigenvalues between $`R_I`$ and $`R_{II}`$ emerges. Such a peculiar distribution with three singular peaks has to our knowledge not been observed before. We attribute this to a rigidity in position of the electron-hole resonaces in double barrier junctions, most pronounced for $`G_1G_2`$. Upon changing the impurity configuration, each resonance fluctuates in energy between values related to the conductances $`G_1`$ and $`G_2`$. As a consequence, for energies below the lowest resonance, $`\alpha >0`$, the reflection eigenvalues take on values between $`0`$ and $`R_I`$ and the density is bimodal. For higher energies, $`\alpha <0`$, the peaks at $`0`$ and $`R_I`$ persist, but there is an additional peak at the maximum reflection eigenvalue $`R_{II}`$ on resonance. In a junction dominated by impurity scattering, this rigidity effect is washed out.

There are two physically different regimes for the ARED, depending on the relation between the conductances $`G_1`$ and $`G_2`$. On one hand, for dominating coupling of the diffusive conductor to the normal reservoir, $`G_1>G_2`$, the value of $`R_{\text{max}}\text{max}(R_I,R_{II})`$ never reaches unity, i.e. we have no completely open channels. This situation resembles the NIS-junction investigated above, i.e. the tunnel barrier to the normal reservoir plays the same role as the diffusive wire. On the other hand, for dominating coupling to the superconductor, $`G_2>G_1`$, there is always an energy, $`E_c\sqrt{(G_2G_1)/(G_2+G_1)}`$, for which $`R_{\text{max}}`$ reaches unity. Of particular interest is the limit $`G_2G_1`$. In this limit, a proximity gap of magnitude $`E_c`$ is induced in the diffusive conductor. Only at energies very close to $`E_c`$, which is exactly at the edge of the induced gap, there are now open channels.

In conclusion, we have provided a theory for the Andreev reflection eigenvalue density in mesoscopic normal-superconducting junctions. We find quite generally that the proximity effect leads to an opening up of resonant electron-hole channels at energies of the order of the Thouless energy $`E_c`$. This was exemplified by studying a diffusive wire and a double tunnel-barrier junction.

The work was supported by the Swiss network MaNEP (P.S.), the NCCR Nanoscience and the Swiss NSF (W. B.).