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# Reading-out the state inductively and microwave spectroscopy of an interferometer-type charge qubit

On leave from \]B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering, National Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine, 310164 Kharkov, Ukraine. On leave from \]Department of Solid State Physics, Comenius University, SK-84248 Bratislava, Slovakia.

## Abstract

We implemented experimentally an interferometer-type charge qubit consisting of a single-Cooper-pair transistor closed by a superconducting loop that is in flip-chip configuration inductively coupled to a radio frequency tank circuit. The tank permits to readout the qubit state, acting as inductance measuring apparatus. By applying continuous microwave power to the quantum device, we observed inductance alterations caused by redistributions of the energy level populations. From the measured data, we extracted the energy gap between ground and upper levels as a function of the transistor quasicharge as well as the Josephson phase across both junctions.

Various quantum properties of superconducting structures with small Josephson tunnel junctions have been experimentally demonstrated by several research groups (see, e.g., Ref. Leggett,  and references herein). The results have been widely discussed in literature because such devices might serve as prototypes for quantum bits (qubits).

In this context, the single-Cooper-pair transistor has attracted renewed attention. The device consists of two mesoscopic Josephson junctions coupled by a small island. The Hamiltonian of this system can be written asave

$$H=E_C(nn_g)^2\epsilon _J(\delta )\mathrm{cos}\phi .$$
(1)
Here the first term on the r.h.s. is the charging energy of the island whereas the second one describes its Josephson coupling to the leads. The variable $`n=2m`$ implies the number $`m`$ of excess Cooper pairs on the central electrode, the parameter $`n_g=C_gV_g/e`$ is continuously controllable by the gate voltage $`V_g`$ via the capacitance $`C_g`$. The one-electron Coulomb energy, $`E_C=e^2/2C_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, is expressed through the island’s sum capacitance $`C_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. Furthermore, the coupling strength,

$$\epsilon _J(\delta )=[E_{J1}^2+E_{J2}^2+2E_{J1}E_{J2}\mathrm{cos}\delta ]^{1/2},$$
(2)
is a function of the total phase across both junctions, $`\delta =\phi _1+\phi _2`$ (being here a good quantum variable). $`E_{J1,J2}`$ are the individual Josephson energies and $`\phi _{1,2}`$ the respective junction phases. Note that the observable $`m`$ is conjugated to the island’s phase, $`\phi =(\phi _2\phi _1)/2`$. In order to realize charge qubits, we designed the system parameters to fulfill the domination, $`E_{CP}>\epsilon _J(\delta )`$, of the Cooper pair Coulomb energy, $`E_{CP}4E_C`$, over the coupling strength $`\epsilon _J`$.

In earlier studies, microwave induced transitions between ground and upper energy states in single-charge transistors were observed by measuring the switching currentjoy ; eil ; luk  or by means of the photon-assisted quasiparticle currentNak . Later the quantum coherent oscillations in similar configurations have been detected by making use of microwave-pulsed readouts.NakamuraPashkinTsai ; Esteve

Recently, a new possible solution was theoretically proposed by several authors.Frie ; Zorin  The main idea is to enclose a single-Cooper-pair transistor into a superconducting inductive loop forming an interferometer. The advantage of this circuit is its low dissipation and, therefore, the remarkably weak decoherence.Leggett  For realizing the quantum measuring process, the loop is inductively coupled to a radio frequency tank circuit.

In this paper, we introduce experimentally the conception of an interferometer-type charge qubit in conjunction with a readout procedure managed by measuring the qubit’s reverse Josephson inductance,Zorin ; Krech

$$_J^1=(2e/\mathrm{})^2^2H/\delta ^2.$$
(3)
We put it into practice along the lines of the conventional impedance measuring techniqueRifkin  by means of a high-quality tank inductively coupled to the interferometer loop. Based on this method, we present results of the spectroscopic investigation of the quantum device that is manipulated by a microwave field injected via a coaxial cable (UHF line, Fig. 1). These results demonstrate the utility of the used design relating to development and characterization (weak continuous quantum measuring) of future building blocks (coupled qubits) for quantum information circuits as well.

The principle of measurement is as follows: The expectation value $`m|_J^1(n_g,\delta )|m`$ is determined not only by the quasicharge $`en_g`$ (controlled by the gate voltage) and the phase $`\delta `$ (controlled by an external magnetic flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_e`$ threading the interferometer loop) but also by the band index $`m`$.ind  Within the two-level approximation, the mean values in the upper state ($`m`$=1) and in the ground state ($`m`$=0) have the opposite sign,Krech  $`1|_J^1(n_g,\delta )|10|_J^1(n_g,\delta )|0`$. Consequently, a change of the band index $`m`$ results in a relevant impedance change that causes a shift of the tank resonance frequency.

Quantitatively, we consider only the case when the geometrical inductance $`L_q`$ of the loop is sufficiently small, ensuring in this way a unique relationship between the flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_e`$ and the phase difference $`\delta `$. This requirement can be expressed as follows within the two-band model, :Krech

$$L_q<2\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{2\pi }\right)^2\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }E(n_g=1,\delta =\pi )}{E_{J1}E_{J2}},$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ is the flux quantum and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E=\left[D^2(n_g)+\epsilon _J^2(\delta )\right]^{1/2}$$
(5)
is the local band spacing (with $`DE_{CP}(1n_g)`$). We emphasize the fact that the coupling strength $`\epsilon _J`$ and, therefore, the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ can be significantly reduced in the vicinity of the operating point $`n_g`$=1, $`\delta `$=$`\pi `$ even for relatively large ratios $`E_{J1,J2}/E_C`$.

As discussed above, the observable $`_J^1`$ takes different expectation values for the energy bands $`m`$=0 and $`m`$=1. Therefore, a redistribution of the level populations caused by microwave excitations (in competition with relaxation processes) results in a change of the quantum-statistical mean value $`_J^1`$. In order to prove this effect, the loop was coupled through a mutual inductance $`M=k\sqrt{L_qL_T}`$ (where $`k1`$ is the coupling coefficient) to the tank circuit (with known inductance $`L_T`$ and quality factor $`Q`$). The tank is driven by an rf current $`I_{rf}`$ at a frequency $`\omega `$ close to its resonance frequency $`\omega _T`$. This current generates an rf flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{rf}`$ threading the interferometer ring. Provided that, first, this rf flux is small, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{rf}\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$, and, second, the condition $`L_q|_J^1|1`$ is fulfilled, variations of the interferometer inductance can be described by making use of the formulaIlichev01

$$\mathrm{tan}\alpha k^2QL_q_J^1,$$
(6)
where $`\alpha `$ is the phase shift between drive current $`I_{rf}`$ and tank voltage $`U_T`$ to be measured.

The used measurement setup is shown in Fig. 1. The Nb square-shaped pancake tank coil ($`L_T170`$ nH) was fabricated lithographically on an oxidized Si substrate. An external capacitance $`C_T`$ is used to complete the resonance circuit. This high-quality tank ($`Q700`$) is biased by the rf current $`I_{rf}`$ at the resonance frequency of $`\omega _T/2\pi 28`$ MHz. The rf voltage $`U_T`$ across the tank circuit was measured by means of a sequence of cold and room temperature amplifiers. The angular phase shift $`\alpha `$ was determined using an rf lock-in voltmeter.

The qubit under investigation is placed in the middle of the coil in flip-chip configuration. The transistor was fabricated out of Al by the conventional shadow evaporation technique. The transistor’s gate line is filtered by means of three copper powder filters (with a total length of about 35 cm) at the temperatures 2 K, 50 mK and 10 mK. The attenuation of this line is about 120 dB at 5 GHz and 300 dB at 20 GHz. Microwave irradiation for photon-assisted excitations of the quantum device is fed into the sample via an UHF line consisting of a commercial coaxial cable from room temperature to $``$2 K as well as via a resistive coaxial cable (known as ThermoCoax) from $``$2 K to 10 mK. In order to reduce external interferences, two 20 dB commercial attenuators were installed at the temperature levels 2 K and 10 mK. The external magnetic flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_e`$ applied to the interferometer loop is produced by a dc current $`I_{dc}`$ through the tank coil. In order to feed both currents $`I_{dc}`$ and $`I_{rf}`$ into the tank, a simple bias tee is used (see Fig. 1).

The angular phase shift $`\alpha `$ (6) was measured as a function of the gate voltage as well as of the dc current in the tank coil that generates the external flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_e`$. The coupling coefficient between tank and superconducting loop was obtained experimentallyIlichev01  to be $`k=0.026`$. The mutual inductance is $`M=0.42`$ nH, and the geometrical loop inductance was calculated to be $`L_q=1.5`$ nH. Suitable adjusting the tank drive current $`I_{rf}`$ permitted the qubit operation in the required small-signal limit, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{rf}`$ 10$`{}_{}{}^{3}\mathrm{\Phi }_{0}^{}`$. The layout size of the junctions is 140 nm$`\times `$180 nm. Deviations from these nominal dimensions in the order of 10 $`\%`$ (caused by the fabrication process) were estimated by means of the micrograph of the real structure. In accordance with this fact, the spectroscopically determined Josephson coupling energies showed a certain difference, $`|E_{J1}E_{J2}|5`$ GHz (see below). The measurements were performed in a dilution refrigerator at a nominal temperature of about 10 mK inside magnetic and superconducting shields.

In a first set of experiments, we investigated charging effects in the interferometer. Adjusting the external flux ($`\mathrm{\Phi }_e=\mathrm{\Phi }_0/2`$), we fixed the phase ($`\delta =\pi `$) and measured the dependence of the statistical average $`_J^1`$ (or $`\alpha `$, cf. Eq. 6) on the parameter $`n_g`$. This dependence turned out to be rather weak due to the large ratio between Josephson and charging energies. Nevertheless, the coupling strength could be reduced down to $`\epsilon _J(\delta =\pi )5`$ GHz. Therefore, a variation of $`_J^1`$ with $`n_g`$ was actually measurable for operating values of $`\delta `$ in the vicinity of $`\pi `$. Indeed, the 2e-periodic oscillations of $`_J^1`$ or $`\alpha `$ with respect to the gate charge $`en_g=C_gV_g`$, explicitly demonstrating its quasicharge character, are clearly seen in Fig. 2 (bottom curve).Gotz

Small-amplitude continuous microwave irradiation of the sample varied significantly the obtained dependence: Now distinguished peaks appeared in the $`\alpha (n_g)`$ characteristics (upper curves in Fig. 2). Their positions depend on the frequency $`\omega _{UHF}`$. Increasing microwave amplitudes led to a slight change of the peak width only. Thus we demonstrated that the peaks are originated by resonant excitations of the system from ground to upper states. (In general, the measured peaks disappeared at higher temperatures corresponding to the used frequency. For instance, for a peak induced by the frequency $`\omega _{UHF}/2\pi =8`$ GHz, this temperature is about $`T400`$ mK.) The microwave-induced transitions (at fixed parameters $`\omega _{UHF}`$ and $`\delta `$) from the ground to the upper states should correspond to specific values $`n_g`$. Following this consideration and extracting the peak positions from the $`\alpha `$-$`n_g`$ curves measured at different microwave frequencies, we depicted the energy differences $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=h\omega _{UHF}/2\pi `$ between ground and upper levels as a function of $`n_g`$ (Fig. 3). Then we fitted the spectroscopic data (analogously as reported in Ref. 8) by making use of the band gap (5) within the two-level approximation, providing $`\epsilon _J(\delta =\pi )=4.4`$ GHz and $`E_C=2.2`$ GHz. (A fitting procedure by making use of a numerical treatment of the complete Hamiltonian (1) delivers practically the same values.)

In further experiments, we measured the phase shift $`\alpha `$ as a function of the applied magnetic flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_e`$ in the vicinity of $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0/2`$ at varying gate voltage $`V_g`$. At the same time, the microwave frequency was fixed. This way we obtained a spatial representation of the microwave-induced transitions as a function of both parameters $`n_g`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_e`$. The results for the microwave frequency of 8 GHz are presented in Fig. 4. Finally fitting the ring-shaped “crater rim” by means of the band spacing Eq. 5, we found spectroscopic data $`E_{J1}=70.0`$ GHz and $`E_{J2}=74.4`$ GHz for the junctions’ Josephson energies (cf. Fig. 5).

In conclusion, we have successfully implemented an alternative quantum two-level system in a superconducting circuit with readout. In this connection, we demonstrated the suitability of the Josephson quantum inductance term for developing a readout procedure. We performed a microwave spectroscopy of an interferometer-type charge qubit, making use of an rf tank readout. We reconstructed the energy gap between lower and upper energy levels as a function of the gate charge at fixed phase across the double junction. We demonstrated experimentally that the energy gap can be varied by changing both gate charge and external flux threading the interferometer loop. In view of the relatively large ratio $`E_J/E_C`$, effects accompanied with the change of the gate charge were observed in the vicinity of $`\delta `$=$`\pi `$ only. Our results indicate that the investigated qubit device is a potential candidate for realizing solid-state quantum processing in conjunction with weak characterization.

We thank A. Smirnov, A. Zagoskin, and A. Zaikin for fruitful discussions. We also would like to thank A.N. Omelyanchouk for comments and H. Mühlig for technical assistance. This work was partially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under contract No. KR 1172/9-2 and D-wave Sys. Inc.


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# Confrontation of MOND Predictions with WMAP First Year Data

## 1 Introduction

The past decade has seen a remarkable convergence towards a standard cosmological model, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM. A great variety of different and independent data seem to point to very nearly the same set of cosmological parameters. The high precision measurement of the temperature fluctuations in the microwave background by the WMAP satellite (Bennett et al. 2003) has given further impetus to this picture.

While $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM does provide a fairly consistent cosmology, there do remain nagging problems, some of which are potentially quite serious. Perhaps the most embarrassing111For those of us who found the Inflationary solution to the coincidence problem so satisfying, the presently inferred acceleration of the expansion of the universe — which makes the coincidence problem worse than it had been in an open universe — is also rather embarrassing. aspect of our modern cosmology is the dominance of invisible components. Dark matter and dark energy comprise $`95\%`$ of the mass-energy content of the universe, yet we have only ideas about what they are.

In the context of cosmology, it is essential for the dark matter to be non-baryonic (in order to satisfy $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$) and dynamically cold (in order to grow structure). This led to the development of the Cold Dark Matter paradigm, in conjunction with the suggestion from particle physics that a class of supersymmetric, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) might have the right properties to be the CDM. Our modern cosmology absolutely requires CDM, but as yet we have no compelling laboratory evidence that such particles actually exist.

The CDM hypothesis faces serious problems on the scale of individual galaxies (Sellwood & Kosowsky 2001). One widely debated problem is that dark matter halos should have steep central density cusps (e.g., Navarro, Frenk, & White 1997) but appear not to (e.g., de Blok, Bosma, & McGaugh 2003; Swaters et al. 2003; for further references see McGaugh, Barker, & de Blok 2003). While this is an important point, the cusp problem itself is only one aspect of the severe fine-tuning problems one encounters in trying to understand the systematic properties of the rotation curves of spiral galaxies (McGaugh & de Blok 1998a; McGaugh 2004).

The difficulty for CDM encountered in the dynamics of individual galaxies stems from the close coupling observed between baryonic and dark matter components. The distribution of the observed baryons is completely predictive of that of the dynamically dominant dark matter (Sancisi 2003, McGaugh 1999a; 2000a; 2004). One does not naturally expect, and finds difficult to impart (McGaugh & de Blok 1998a), such a close coupling between a small, dynamically cold, thin disk of baryons and a large, dynamically hot, quasi-spherical halo of non-baryonic dark matter.

Into this troubling mix comes the surprising success of the Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) proposed by Milgrom (1983). Long known to provide good fits to the rotation curves of high surface brightness spiral galaxies (e.g., Begeman, Broeils, & Sanders 1991; Sanders 1996), MOND also works in systems ranging from tiny dwarf Spheroidals222Ursa Minor and Draco are often cited as problematic cases for MOND. This is true, but it also happens that for both of these cases, it is unclear (at $`<1\sigma `$) which MOND mass estimator is appropriate: both are very close to the dividing line between internal and external field domination. For the other eight cases with adequate data (Carina, Fornax, LGS3, Leo I, Leo II, Sagitarius, Sculptor, and Sextans) where the choice of mass estimator is not ambiguous, the results are consistent with MOND. (Sanders & McGaugh 2002) to giant Ellipticals (Milgrom & Sanders 2003). While there is a genuine puzzle in rich clusters of galaxies (Aguirre, Schaye, & Quataert 2001), it is not obvious that this problem is more serious than those faced by CDM. One should also bear in mind the surprising success of the very specific a priori predictions made for low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies by Milgrom (1983), which were realized in great detail (McGaugh & de Blok 1998b). All of the things which are so puzzling about the dynamics of these systems from a conventional point of view stem fundamentally from their adherence to the MOND force law. This should not happen if CDM is correct.

As stressed by McGaugh & de Blok (1998b), the dynamical data admit only two interpretations. Either MOND is correct (presumably as the appropriate limit of some more general theory), or the processes of galaxy formation somehow lead to MOND-like behavior. The latter case is discussed elsewhere (McGaugh 1999a; 2000a; 2004), and provides quite stringent empirical constraints on conventional galaxy formation theory. However, should MOND be correct, how else might we tell? The CBR provides a further opportunity to distinguish between the very different cases of a “preposterous” universe filled with dark matter and dark energy and an even more mysterious one in which the mass discrepancies observed in extragalactic systems are caused by a modification of dynamical laws.

MOND itself is not a generally covariant theory. This makes it impossible (not merely daunting!) to derive a proper cosmology and compute the power spectrum of the CBR. However, as is often the case in such situations, a simple ansatz can be very illuminating.

McGaugh (1999b) made the ansatz that the acceleration scale $`a_0`$ of MOND does not vary with time. This is a common assumption (Felten 1984; Sanders 1998) with the consequence that the early universe is not in the MOND regime. In this case, things are normal until sufficiently late times that the usual early universe results (e.g., Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, BBN) are retained.

The point of MOND is to obviate the need for dark matter. If it is essentially correct, then CDM does not exist. This suggests a minimum difference approach: if MOND is active in the early universe, then presumably the effects on the CBR would be larger than what we would infer under the ansatz. If MOND is not active at the time of recombination, and there is no CDM, then the CBR power spectrum should have a distinctive shape. Without CDM, baryonic drag dominates, and one should see only the resultant damping, with each peak being lower in amplitude than the preceding one. If CDM does exist in the required mass density, it must provide some net forcing term for the acoustic oscillations which counteracts the baryonic drag: one should never see a pure damping spectrum in a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM universe.

Since we use only conventional physics under our ansatz, MOND itself is not tested. Thus we can not exclude MOND on the basis of any CBR data simply for lack of a definite prediction. However, we can potentially exclude the existence of CDM. It is very important to have such a test, for once we have convinced ourselves of the need for an all-pervasive, invisible, and perhaps undetectable mass component, it is virtually impossible to falsify the notion should it happen to be wrong (Davis et al. 1992).

To this end, McGaugh (1999b) proposed the no-CDM model as a stand-in for MOND. This provides a minimal first approximation of what we might expect in MOND. Of course, it should fail at some level. We have known for a long time that a purely Newtonian, baryonic model fails — we must have either CDM or MOND. Even under the ansatz that MOND is not important at the time of recombination, there can be late time effects which modify the observed CBR. Given these considerations, McGaugh (1999b) also discussed some of the deviations from a pure no-CDM model which are likely to be caused by MOND. For example, rapid structure formation is natural to MOND (Sanders 1998; McGaugh 1999c). This should lead to early reionization and consequently a large polarization signal. It may also enhance the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect. These are indicators of MOND-like physics beyond the simple no-CDM model.

The amplitudes of the peaks expected in the CBR power spectrum in the absence of CDM is discussed in §2. These are tied to the baryon density, for which independent constraints from BBN are critical. A specific no-CDM model which fits the WMAP data is given, and its predictions for the third and subsequent peaks are checked against higher $`\mathrm{}`$ data from other experiments. Features of the CBR power spectrum which might suggest MOND-like physics beyond the simple no-CDM model are discussed in §3. Further predictions which could help to distinguish between CDM and MOND are discussed in §4.

## 2 The No-CDM Model

### 2.1 The Amplitude of the Second Peak

The difference between a standard $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model and the MOND inspired no-CDM model turns out to be rather subtle. The first difference is a modest one in the amplitude of the second peak relative to the first: the second peak should be somewhat smaller without CDM for the same baryon density. Quite high quality data are required to distinguish between CDM and MOND when only the first two peaks are observed.

McGaugh (1999b) suggested two robust measures. The first is the ratio of the absolute amplitude of the first to second peak:

$$A_{1:2}=\frac{A_1}{A_2}=\frac{C_{\mathrm{},1}}{C_{\mathrm{},2}},$$
(1)
where $`C_{\mathrm{},N}`$ is the peak amplitude of the $`N^{th}`$ peak. (A similar but inverted notation was adopted by Hu et al. 2001: their $`H_2=A_{1:2}^1`$.) The second measure is the peak amplitude ratio relative to the intervening trough ($`C_{\mathrm{},t}`$):

$$R_{1:2}=\frac{R_1}{R_2}=\frac{C_{\mathrm{},1}C_{\mathrm{},t}}{C_{\mathrm{},2}C_{\mathrm{},t}}.$$
(2)
Though both of the ratios $`A_{1:2}`$ and $`R_{1:2}`$ contain much the same information, the peak amplitude ratio relative to the intervening trough ($`R_{1:2}`$) gives a stronger segregation between the model predictions. However, it is sensitive to uncertainties in the trough amplitude, which is harder to measure than the peaks.

The definition of these ratios is illustrated in Fig. 1 with the no-CDM models of McGaugh (1999b) and the WMAP peak location estimates of Page et al. (2003). Note that the no-CDM models are consistent with the WMAP peak amplitude estimates, having very similar peak ratios for plausible baryon densities. Coeval $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models generically had larger second peaks.

In order to clarify the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM expectation value for $`A_{1:2}`$ and $`R_{1:2}`$ as it existed prior to CBR constraints, I have produced new models using “$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM 1999” parameters (e.g., Turner 1999). These are completely “vanilla” models with reasonable parameters for the time, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, and $`n=1`$. The only significant difference from the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models discussed by McGaugh (1999b), or for that matter, from current $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models, is the baryon density. This I fix to the value given by Tytler et al. (2000): $`\omega _b\mathrm{\Omega }_bh^2=0.019`$. This is a little higher than the baryon densities I had considered in 1999, which were chosen to sample the range suggested by prior BBN reviews (Walker et al. 1991; Copi, Schramm, & Turner 1995). A higher baryon density produces a lower second peak which is more favorable for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM in the context of subsequent CBR observations. This being the case, I also give a model with $`\omega _b=0.0214`$, which is the 95% c.l. upper limit of Tytler et al. (2000). The result is an upper limit on the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM prior expectation for the amplitude ratio of $`A_{1:2}<2.06`$ (Table 1). This is as generous as it is reasonable to be to the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM paradigm as it existed before stringent CBR constraints, when there was no cause to consider higher baryon densities or exotic effects like a running tilt to the power spectrum.

The first data constraining the first and second peaks were reported by BOOMERanG (de Bernardis et al. 2000). These data could immediately be seen to be more consistent with the no-CDM prediction than with the expectations of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM as they existed at the time (McGaugh 2000b). The second BOOMERanG data release (de Bernardis et al. 2002) measured $`A_{1:2}=2.45\pm 0.79`$. This is to be compared to the prior expectation of $`A_{1:2}<2.06`$ for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM and $`A_{1:2}2.40`$ for no-CDM (Table 1).

With the release of the WMAP first year data both $`A_{1:2}`$ and $`R_{1:2}`$ are measured to high accuracy (Page et al. 2003). The WMAP data are in good agreement with the predictions of McGaugh (1999b) for the case of no-CDM (Table 1). They are, in fact, bang on: $`A_{1:2}=2.40`$ (predicted) vs. $`A_{1:2}=2.34\pm 0.09`$ (measured), and $`R_{1:2}=5.41`$ (predicted) vs. $`R_{1:2}=5.56\pm 0.75`$ (measured). It is striking that the peak amplitude ratio is exactly that predicted in advance by the no-CDM model.

### 2.2 Constraints on the Baryon Density

The parameter with the most leverage on the amplitude of the second peak is the baryon content. Increasing the baryon fraction depresses the amplitude of the second peak relative to the first, as the importance of baryonic drag is increased relative to the forcing of the oscillations by CDM. The observed peak amplitude ratio can thus be obtained by decreasing the CDM density (to zero) at fixed baryon density, or by increasing the baryon density while retaining CDM. In order to be able to distinguish between $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM and no-CDM, we must have a robust independent constraint on the baryon density from BBN.

After the initial BOOMERanG measurements (de Bernardis et al. 2000) failed to detect the large second peak anticipated in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM, it was common to attribute this to a large baryon density ($`\omega _b=0.031`$: Tegmark & Zaldarriaga 2000). This was considerably larger than implied by deuterium measurements at the time ($`\omega _b=0.019`$: Tytler et al. 2000), which were themselves surprisingly high compared to previous BBN estimates ($`\omega _b=0.0125`$: Walker et al. 1991). Later, the baryon density implied by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM analyses of the CBR data dropped somewhat (de Bernardis et al. 2002). This was not because the second peak grew larger; it merely resolved out at the amplitude predicted by no-CDM. However, the lower limit on the amplitude of the peak was considerably improved, excluding the very high baryon densities which would be required to completely suppress the second peak. That these had been consistent with the earliest CBR data somewhat skewed our perspective. After the second peak was clearly detected, the preferred baryon density was still larger than the BBN value, but only by a small amount, and not one which was significant once systematic errors (e.g., tilt) were considered (Netterfield et al. 2002).

The WMAP best-fit model (Spergel et al. 2003) fits the small second peak with a baryon density of $`\omega _b=0.0224\pm 0.0009`$ and a tilt of $`n=0.93`$ with a large running of $`n`$ with scale. Tilting the power spectrum in this manner helps to suppress the second peak relative to the first. The test I had proposed should maintain $`n=1`$, which is perfectly consistent with the WMAP data themselves.333Running is inferred when other types of data are included in the analysis, especially the power spectrum from Lyman $`\alpha `$ clouds. In this case, the baryon density must be higher: $`\omega _b=0.024\pm 0.001`$. It is interesting to compare these to independent BBN constraints.

Estimates of the baryon density $`\omega _b`$ inferred from the light elements 2H, 4He, and 7Li over the past decade are tabulated in Table 2 and plotted in Fig. 2. BBN was already a very well developed field prior to 1995; earlier work is represented by the compilations of Walker et al. (1991) and Copi et al. (1995). The baryon densities implied by analysis of the CBR with CDM are also shown. Without CDM the CBR is not a precision baryometer, as the peak amplitude ratios are very similar for the plausible range of baryon densities. (Fig. 1). The WMAP peak data are consistent with no-CDM models in the range $`0.010\omega _b0.022`$.

The BBN literature contains a wealth of information. When authors have quoted a value for $`\omega _b`$, it is given in Table 2. Often, only a measurement of the abundance of a particular element is reported. In these cases, I have translated the result into a baryon density using the calibration of Burles et al. (1999). For lithium, this determination can be double-valued; in such cases I have adopted the higher $`\omega _b`$.

Fig. 2 shows that the bulk of the data from all three elements fall in the range $`0.005<\omega _b<0.02`$. Taking the data at face value, both gaussian and biweight statistics give $`<`$$`\omega _b`$$`>`$$`=0.014\pm 0.05`$. This value comes from the individual elemental abundances only, and does not include previous compilations or CBR data. This mean is fairly robust to how the data are treated. It does not change if extremal points are rejected, nor if we accept only a single measurement from each independent group.

No-CDM models are consistent with all three of the light elements, to the extent to which they are consistent with each other. In contrast, the baryon density implied by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM analyses of the CBR all have $`\omega _b>0.020`$. No measurement of any element ever implied a baryon density this high until after the first CBR data appeared (see also Steigman, Kneller, & Zentner 2002). So while it is true that the WMAP $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM analysis (Spergel et al. 2003) is consistent with the latest deuterium estimate (Kirkman et al. 2003), the bulk of BBN data are more consistent with no-CDM.

### 2.3 CBR Data and Models: 2000 — 2003

Fig. 3 shows the impressive improvement of CBR data over the past few years, together with the models advanced to explain them. The top panels of Fig. 3 shows the initial data from the BOOMERanG (de Bernardis et al. 2000) and Maxima-1 (Hanany et al. 2000) experiments. The BOOMERanG data are shown both as published (open triangles) and adjusted to agree with the Maxima-1 calibration (filled triangles: McGaugh 2001). On the left the $`\omega _b=0.019`$$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM 1999” model from Table 1 is shown. This case is very similar to the high baryon fraction $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model considered by McGaugh (1999b), and is chosen for illustration as the a priori model which is least inconsistent with the data. A quite generic prediction of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models had been a substantially larger second peak than was subsequently observed.

In contrast, the low amplitude of the second peak is quite natural for the no-CDM model. The $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=0.03`$ model from McGaugh 1999b is shown at right. Parameters of the no-CDM models shown in Fig. 3 are given in Table 3. Note that all of the no-CDM models shown in Fig. 3 existed before the data they are shown with.

The middle panel of Fig. 3 shows the second data release from BOOMERanG (de Bernardis et al. 2002) and the first data from DASI (Halverson et al. 2002). On the left the best fit $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model (with strong priors) of Netterfield et al. (2002) is shown. This has changed substantially from the prior expectation of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM, yet still provides a worse description of the data than does the no-CDM model (at right). The model is only acceptable because of the systematic uncertainty in the beam size, which allows for some play in the tilt of the power spectrum.

In contrast, the improved data have simply moved closer to the no-CDM model as fit to the initial BOOMERang data release (McGaugh 2000b) and normalized to Maxima-1 (McGaugh 2001). There is no need to iterate the fit at all. Indeed, the revised calibration of BOOMERanG was well predicted by the pre-existing no-CDM model.

The bottom panel shows these data and the first year WMAP data. The fit to the WMAP data (Spergel et al. 2003; left) has a larger $`A_{1:2}`$ than the fit of Netterfield et al. (2002), matching that of the no-CDM prediction (right). The WMAP data are good enough to require the first tweak to the no-CDM fit, as the first peak in the WMAP data is slightly narrower than indicated by previous data. This small difference has the interesting consequence of implying a significant neutrino mass.

### 2.4 A No-CDM Model for the WMAP Data

Providing a detailed fit to CBR data are beyond the ambition of the no-CDM model. We expect the new physics entailed by MOND to render standard calculation of the temperature fluctuations incorrect at some level. The peak amplitude ratios are the most robust aspect of the no-CDM prediction since there is no obvious mechanism to deviate from a pure damping spectrum in the absence of CDM.

Nevertheless, pre-existing models do give a tolerable match to the detailed shape of the power spectrum (Fig. 3). It is interesting to see if it is possible to find a no-CDM model which matches the details of the WMAP data, not just the peak amplitude ratio. Such a model is shown in Fig. 4, with details in Table 3.

As a matter of principle, I restrict the free parameters of no-CDM as much as possible with very strong priors. For example, I fix the baryon density to the value advocated by Tytler et al. (2000): $`\omega _b=0.019`$. Other baryon densities are certainly viable, but the question here is not what baryon density the CBR prefer. Rather, we wish to know if there is a no-CDM model motivated by BBN which is consistent with WMAP. Similarly, I fix $`H_0=72\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^{}1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ (Freedman et al. 2001) and $`\tau =0.17`$ (Kogut et al. 2003). Of course, the most important prior for a no-CDM model is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{CDM}}=0`$.

Three free parameters are required to fit the WMAP data. The aspects of the data which need to be matched are the position (in $`\mathrm{}`$) of the first peak, the amplitude of the temperature fluctuations ($`C_{\mathrm{}}`$), and the width of the peaks. The positions of the peaks are controlled by geometry. The amplitude of the fluctuations is somewhat arbitrary in CMBFAST models, and can be addressed in several ways. In order to match the width of the peaks, it appears necessary to invoke massive neutrinos.

It is perhaps too strong a term to describe what I have done as a “fit” to the WMAP data. In order to match the data, I have adjusted three parameters: $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, $`n_t`$, and $`f_\nu `$. $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is adjusted to match the location of the first peak. A modest tensor component $`n_t=0.04`$ is used to match the amplitude at small $`\mathrm{}`$. The neutrino fraction $`f_\nu `$ is used to slim the peaks, which are a bit too fat in a purely baryonic models. I have only adjusted these far enough to find a tolerable match to the data. I have not attempted an exhaustive exploration of parameter space; modest improvements are no doubt possible. However, I do not believe that this would be a meaningful exercise since I expect MOND to cause real deviations from a pure no-CDM model, especially at $`\mathrm{}<100`$. Each of these three parameters is discussed in turn below.

#### 2.4.1 Geometry

The geometry of an FRW universe is well specified by the matter content $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. A great success of the Inflationary paradigm is the apparent flatness of the universe ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_m+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }1`$) as indicated by the position of the first acoustic peak $`\mathrm{}_1=220`$ (Page et al. 2003). As noted earlier, an oddity of a universe with a significant cosmological constant is that while it is consistent with the Inflationary prediction of geometric flatness, it does not solve the coincidence problem which was one of the important motivations for Inflation. This is not important here; one can have either or both of MOND and Inflation. Neither requires the other, nor are they mutually exclusive.

While the cosmic geometry of an FRW model is understood, that in MOND is not. So while a robust prediction for $`A_{1:2}`$ can be made, there is no prior expectation for the location of the first peak. This is treated as a parameter to be fit.

There are two approaches which can be used to fit the peak location. A model which is flat in the usual Robertson-Walker sense can be scaled by a multiplicative factor $`\alpha `$ to match the peak position, so that $`\mathrm{}_1=\alpha \mathrm{}_{\mathrm{model}}`$ (McGaugh 2000b). Alternatively, one may treat $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ as a free parameter and find the value which places the peak in the right location. Either way, there is a single fit parameter. I have adopted the latter approach here.

In effect, I am using the cosmological constant as a fudge factor to express our ignorance about the geometry in MOND. This is not particularly different from the role it currently plays in standard cosmology. As such, we should not invest too much importance in the particular numerical value obtained.

One curious note is that while the geometry is close to flat, no-CDM models do require a slight but significant positive spatial curvature. Such a model is closed in standard cosmology, but the significance of this fact in MOND is unclear. Perhaps it contains a clue to the nature of the underlying theory, or perhaps it is just a coincidence.

The coincidence problem may be eased by the proximity of the no-CDM geometry to the de Sitter solution, which is an attractor in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$-$`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ space. It is worth noting that in the absence of a repulsive term ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$), a MOND universe may eventually recollapse for any $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ (Felten 1984). Since $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is essentially just a fudge factor encapsulating our ignorance of the geometry, it remains conceivable that we live in such a Felten universe where there is no critical value of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$, and hence no coincidence problem.

#### 2.4.2 Amplitude

As with geometry, the amplitude of a model can be scaled by a multiplicative factor to match the data: $`C_{\mathrm{}}=AC_{\mathrm{},\mathrm{model}}`$. There are many uncertainties in the normalization of CBR models, so this is fair within plausible bounds. This can be seen in the various models presented by Spergel et al. (2003).

Various factors affect the normalization, including the optical depth and neutrino mass. If we get these things right, we should be able to get the normalization right ($`A=1`$). Traditionally, CBR models have been normalized to COBE at $`\mathrm{}=10`$. This is not the best choice for a no-CDM model, as one of the predicted post-recombination effects of MOND is an enhancement of the ISW effect (McGaugh 1999b). This should be most pronounced on large scales.

The ISW effect arises from the variation of metric fluctuations during structure formation. Unfortunately, it is not presently possible to make an explicit calculation of this effect in MOND. However, we do expect MOND to cause rapid structure formation. The rapid variation of the effective potential should enhance the ISW. This will distort the shape of the CBR power spectrum so that there is an excess of power at $`\mathrm{}<100`$ over that in a pure no-CDM model which is normalized to the amplitude of the peaks (at $`\mathrm{}220`$).

The pre-existing no-CDM model shown in the bottom panel of Fig. 3 fits the WMAP data well at $`\mathrm{}>100`$. It under-predicts the observed power at $`\mathrm{}<100`$ (Fig. 5). This is, qualitatively at least, the expected signature of the ISW in MOND. However, it is interesting to see if we can obtain a fit to all of the data. In order to make up the power on large scales, we invoke a modest tensor contribution. This is the only significant difference between the fit in Fig. 4 and the old no-CDM model with neutrinos.

The tensor contribution is the standard inflationary complement to a mildly tilted spectrum: $`n_t=1n=0.04`$. Such a tensor contribution would be consistent with a broad range of inflationary models (e.g., Tegmark et al. 2003). As Inflation occurs very early, and the effects of MOND are only manifest after recombination, it is quite possible to have both.

While it is conceivable that there literally is a tensor component, really this is just a fudge to show that it is possible to fit the low-$`\mathrm{}`$ data with a no-CDM model. For the reasons described above, we do not expect to be able to fit a no-CDM MOND proxy model to $`\mathrm{}100`$. Instead, the deviation at small $`\mathrm{}`$ illustrated in Fig. 5 should be viewed as an empirical constraint on the ISW in MOND. How well low redshift structure should correlate with the temperature fluctuations in the CBR is unclear because of the highly non-linear nature of MOND. But one would naively expect a strong signal in this scenario.

An interesting consequence of this approach is that further scaling (by $`A`$) is hardly necessary. That is, $`n_t`$ not only fits the low-$`\mathrm{}`$ data, but also fixes the overall normalization to well within the uncertainty of the optical depth (fixed to $`\tau =0.17`$: Kogut et al. 2003). It would perhaps be better to normalize no-CDM models at $`\mathrm{}=220`$ than at $`\mathrm{}=10`$.

#### 2.4.3 Neutrino Mass

One peculiar aspect of the fit shown in Fig. 3 is a high neutrino fraction, $`f_\nu 0.65`$. In order to obtain a detailed no-CDM fit to the WMAP first year data, it is helpful to have heavy neutrinos. The CBR parameter space is very large, so it is difficult to say whether these are required. However, models with neutrino densities comparable to or slightly in excess of the baryon density do seem to be preferred.

The need for heavy neutrinos is brought on entirely by the narrowness of the first peak. This is rather subtle, being the difference between the models in the bottom right panel of Fig. 3. While McGaugh (1999b) noted that such an effect was possible, it is only perceptible in data of WMAP quality.

The model in Fig. 3 has three degenerate neutrinos with $`m_\nu =1.1`$ eV. The neutrino mass444The inferred neutrino mass is also very sensitive to the physics of recombination, changing upwards 20% between CMBFAST v4.0 and 4.3. is not well determined. One issue is a degeneracy between neutrino mass and optical depth. Both affect the absolute amplitude of the observed temperature fluctuations in similar ways. If the optical depth were found to be larger than 0.17, the neutrino mass would go down. Another effect is due to the baryon density. The strongest constraint is on the neutrino fraction; the neutrino mass scales roughly with the baryon density. Lower baryon densities are tolerable, so lower neutrino masses would be as well.

There are other indications of a finite neutrino mass in MOND. Perhaps the most significant is the residual mass discrepancy in clusters of galaxies (Aguirre et al. 2001; Sanders 2003). A neutrino mass of 1 to 2 eV would be about right to explain this. Neutrinos of this mass would not be trapped by galaxy scale potentials, but would be by clusters, and would provide about the right amount of mass.

While the neutrino mass is not well constrained at present, it is subject to independent laboratory tests. The prospects for measuring a mass as high as $`m_\nu 1`$ eV in upcoming experiments are good; there is already a claim that $`m_\nu 0.39`$ albeit with a large uncertainty (Klapdor-Kleingrothaus et al. 2001). Such a measurement would give us another means of distinguishing between scenarios. Structure can only form in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM if $`m_\nu <0.23`$ eV (Spergel et al. 2003). A firm laboratory measurement of a neutrino mass heavier than this would constitute a clear falsification of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM. The rapid structure formation in MOND is not so adversely affected to this limit, and some power suppression from heavy neutrinos might even be desirable to prevent MOND from overproducing structure (Nusser 2002; Knebe & Gibson 2003).

Presumably, if MOND is correct, it is only the approximate expression of more general theory from which the proper cosmic geometry should be derived. By that token, the Robertson-Walker geometry would also be an approximation of the deeper theory. We should not expect that one fudge factor ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$) can necessarily connect both. It is conceivable that the approximation to the geometry we are making is inadequate for simultaneously matching the locations and widths of the peaks. These are extremely sensitive to the geometry. It is therefore difficult to exclude the possibility that a deeper, relativistic theory could fit the observations without heavy neutrinos. However, they do seem to be the most obvious way to explain the modest width of the acoustic peaks without CDM.

### 2.5 The Third Peak

The WMAP first year data drop to $`S/N<1`$ for $`\mathrm{}>660`$ (Bennett et al. 2003), so do not, as yet, provide any useful constraint on the amplitude of the third peak (Page et al. 2003). Fig. 6 shows the data from WMAP together with other experiments which probe smaller angular scales: CBI (Mason et al. 2003), ACBAR555Data obtained from http://cosmology.berkeley.edu/group/swlh/acbar/data/index.html. (Kuo et al. 2003), and VSA (Grainge et al. 2003). The other experiments provide some hints, but do not yet define the third peak to the quality required for a clear test.

A critical issue with mixing data from different experiments is the mutual consistency of their calibrations. This is an ancient problem in astronomy from which CBR experiments are not immune. Indeed, a prominent example of the problems faced in comparing such data has already been provided in the first data released by BOOMERanG and MAXIMA-1. Even though the shape of the power spectrum measured by the two experiments has always been consistent, their absolute calibration was clearly offset in the first data release. There is little reason to expect that the calibrations of all the independent experiments are in perfect accord.

It is possible to place the various experiments on a mutually consistent scale by normalizing them to a common reference. Once a reference calibration is adopted, the other experiments can be brought onto a common scale by a multiplicative factor $``$ which maps $`C_{\mathrm{}}C_{\mathrm{}}`$. $``$ is determined by minimizing $`\chi ^2`$ for the difference in $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ between each experiment and the reference over the range of $`\mathrm{}`$ where they overlap.

This method was employed by McGaugh (2001) to bring the first BOOMERanG data into accord with the MAXIMA-1 calibration. The result was successful in anticipating the subsequent recalibration of BOOMERanG (Fig. 3). The obvious choice of reference calibration now is WMAP. The scaling $``$ determined relative to WMAP for each experiment is given in Table 4. For the most part, these imply that the normalizations of the experiments which probe high-$`\mathrm{}`$ need to be reduced somewhat to be consistent with WMAP. This can be seen by eye in the top panel of Fig. 6, where the CBI and ACBAR data fall above the WMAP data in the range of $`\mathrm{}`$ where they overlap. This was also noted by Ödman (2003), who pointed out that there is some tension between low-$`\mathrm{}`$ and high-$`\mathrm{}`$ experiments.

After the initial submission of this paper, new data were reported by CBI (Readhead et al. 2004) and VSA (Dickinson et al. 2004). These are shown in the middle panel of Fig. 6. The new results included an explicit evaluation of the calibration difference of these experiments with respect to WMAP based on their observations of Jupiter. This allows us to compute the effective “observed” correction factor $`_{obs}`$ as a check on the previously computed $``$. In the case of the VSA, as with BOOMERanG previously, the two are consistent. In the case of CBI, $``$ is somewhat less than $`_{obs}`$. This appears simply to be due to the large uncertainty in $``$ in this one case: the initial CBI data only have two independent points overlapping the range of $`\mathrm{}`$ constrained by WMAP, and one of those has a very large error bar. The procedure of scaling by $``$ does therefore appear to be valid.

The reduced $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ of the no-CDM model with respect to WMAP and the other CBR experiments are given in Table 4. The match to the WMAP TT data is treated as predictive of what the other experiments should observe: no further adjustment is made to the model. A plot of the $`\chi ^2`$ values of the individual data points is given in Fig. 7.

A few badly fitting points stand out. The single most deviant point is that of WMAP at $`\mathrm{}=40`$. Like the point at $`\mathrm{}=210`$ which gives a notched appearance to the first peak, this point at $`\mathrm{}=40`$ is deviant from any smooth model. Since the use of a tensor contribution to mimic an excess ISW effect from MOND is far from perfect, this is not of great concern. To show the impact of this and the other stand-out points on the $`\chi ^2`$ budget, Table 4 also gives $`\chi _{\nu ,mod}^2`$ without them.

A deviant point of greater concern is that of the VSA at $`\mathrm{}=795`$. This indicates a third peak significantly larger than predicted by the no-CDM model. The absolute value of $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ of this point dropped in 2004 from its previous value in 2003, but the error bar also shrank considerably, making the statistical significance of the deviation greater. Still, the overall fit with respect to this experiment is not terrible, and it is rather odd that the lion’s share of the $`\chi ^2`$ budget is due to this single point.

The situation is similar with respect to BOOMERanG. The $`\chi ^2`$ budget is dominated by the point at $`\mathrm{}=700`$. The overall fit to this experiment is nevertheless acceptable. Indeed, my $`\chi ^2`$ do not account for the tilt in the power spectrum allowed by the systematic uncertainty in the beam size (Netterfield et al. 2002), so would come down somewhat if this were taken into consideration. The no-CDM model is clearly acceptable to the empirical peak location estimates of de Bernardis et al. (2002) (top panel of Fig. 6).

The fit with respect to Maxima (Lee et al. 2001) and Archeops (Benoit et al. 2003) is acceptable without caveats. That with respect to DASI is rather poor. This is in part because of a hint of a large third peak in those data, but roughly half the $`\chi ^2`$ budget is contributed by a point at small $`\mathrm{}`$ where the WMAP data have been given precedence. This would seem to tell us more about the difficulty of error estimation in real experiments than about the model.

The worst $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ is that of ACBAR, with the calibration as published. However, if we scale the ACBAR data by $`=0.78`$ to match the WMAP data in the range where they overlap, $`\chi _{\nu ,mod}^2`$ is quite acceptable. Indeed, once this scaling factor is accounted for, the no-CDM model does an excellent job of predicting the undulations of the ACBAR data, which appear to hit the fourth and fifth peaks and their preceding troughs. Whether these data indicate a large or small third peak hinges entirely on the true value of $``$. There are four points with tolerable error bars overlapping the WMAP data, so $``$ is better determined than for CBI, but not as well as for the other experiments.

Multiple experiments measure power in the vicinity of the third peak in excess of that predicted by the no-CDM model. The agreement between independent experiments is encouraging, but the data are not yet adequate to clearly reject this aspect of the no-CDM model. One must weigh the merits of all the predictions together; as yet the amplitude of the third peak remains the least well constrained of the tests discussed here. To be really sure, we would like to see the first three peaks all measured by the same experiment with high quality so that the third peak is at least as well defined as the second one is in the WMAP first year data.

## 3 Signatures of MOND-like Physics

While the no-CDM ansatz is a good first approximation to what we might expect for the CBR in MOND, it must fail at some level. We have known for a long time that the growth factor between the epoch of recombination and the present epoch is too large to be explained by gravitational collapse with normal gravity and the observed baryons. This does not in itself require CDM: one could also imagine a change to the force-law which results in a faster growth rate.

Recently, the formation of structure under MOND has been considered by a number of authors (Sanders 1998, 2001; McGaugh 1999c; Nusser 2002; Stachniewicz & Kutschera 2002; Knebe & Gibson 2003). A variety of assumptions and approximations have been made in these works, but one generic result is that MOND causes structure to form fast. The onset of structure formation is necessarily delayed until after recombination (there is no CDM component immune to radiation pressure which can clump up earlier) and matter domination (which occurs after recombination for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$). Once these conditions are met and the perturbations enter the MOND regime, the non-linear MOND force law causes structure formation to proceed rapidly. Bright ($`L^{}`$) galaxies can be in place by $`z10`$; clusters by $`z3`$ (Sanders 1998). The growth of structure slows or even saturates in accelerating universes (Sanders 2000), so the resulting picture is one of a very quiescent early universe undergoing a dramatic period of rapid structure formation which then eases off (see Fig. 1 of Sanders 2000). This contrasts sharply with the steady, gradual build up of structure in CDM models, and should leave subtle but recognizable signatures in the CBR.

### 3.1 Early Reionization

Perhaps the most obvious signature of MOND-induced structure formation is an early onset of reionization. In CDM models, no significant mass should form in stars before $`z7`$ (e.g., White & Frenk 1991; Stachniewicz & Kutschera 2003). Consequently, reionization of the universe was expected to occur fairly late (Loeb & Barkana 2001), giving little opportunity for scattering of the CBR by free electrons. This translates to the expectation that there should be little polarization of the CBR and low optical depth to the surface of last scattering. The situation shortly before the WMAP data release was summed up by Peacock (2003): “For reionization at redshift 8, we would have $`\tau 0.05`$; it is unlikely that $`\tau `$ can be hugely larger.”

Kogut et al. (2003) report a surprisingly large polarization signal of $`\tau =0.17\pm 0.04`$. This pushes the epoch of reionization towards $`z17`$, much earlier than nominally expected in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM. While the difference between $`\tau =0.05`$ and 0.17 may not sound large, bear in mind the inverse relation between time and redshift. The universe is $`500`$ Myr old at $`z=8`$; one of the advantages of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM is that it forms structure this “early” (Mo & Fukugita 1996). At $`z=17`$ the universe is only 180 Myr old, a very early time by the standard of any prior expectation in the context of CDM. The observed optical depth is hugely larger than expected.

In contrast, early structure formation is a natural consequence of MOND. There is no need to invoke super-massive Pop. III stars as is currently popular in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models. Stars with a normal IMF simply form sooner. This distinction was noted by McGaugh (1999b), where it was predicted that the polarization signal would be higher than nominally expected in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM.

While the qualitative prediction of early reionization is clearly realized in the WMAP data, it is rather more difficult to estimate a specific number for the optical depth. This depends not only on the timing of structure formation, but also on details of the star formation process and the liberation of ionizing photons which are uncertain in either case. Still, we can make a crude estimate based on the work of Sanders (1998, 2000) and Stachniewicz & Kutschera (2002). Roughly speaking, $`L^{}`$ galaxies may be in place by $`z10`$, with smaller (globular cluster) scale lumps forming even earlier, perhaps as early as $`z100`$ (Stachniewicz & Kutschera 2002). Stars take a finite amount of time to form, and it remains uncertain how long it takes to form a significant number. However, it seems quite plausible for reionization to have occurred at $`z15`$. MOND is therefore quite consistent with $`\tau 0.15`$, and might conceivably produce even larger optical depths (e.g., $`\tau 0.3`$: Fig. 8). This fits nicely with the reionization epoch determined from the cumulative mass function of Lyman $`\alpha `$ systems, $`z=24\pm 4`$ (Popa, Burigana, & Mandolesi 2004). It might also help to explain the excess power at $`\mathrm{}>2000`$ reported by CBI (Bond et al. 2002), as more clusters will be in place earlier than in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM, enhancing the SZ effect.

#### 3.1.1 Are Super-Massive Pop. III Stars Viable?

If the optical depth is really as large as 17%, reionization must occur early and structure must form fast. One way to achieve this in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM is to increase the amplitude of the power spectrum on small scales. However, this would contradict the limits on power in the fluctuation spectrum on small scales at $`z=0`$ (Bullock & Zetner 2002; McGaugh, Barker, & de Blok 2003; Somerville, Bullock, & Livio 2003; van den Bosch, Mo, & Yang 2003).

Ordinary stars and quasars will not suffice to produce the observed optical depth within the limits on the power spectrum. It is necessary to invoke super-massive Pop. III stars, or some other object which is very efficient at producing ionizing radiation. The earliest objects to collapse must be $`50`$ times as efficient at converting mass to ionizing photons as are collapsed objects at the present time (Sokasian et al. 2003a).

Obtaining the required ionizing flux early enough is quite a stretch. Fukugita & Kawasaki (2003) argue that the earliest reionization can occur is $`z13.5`$, with an upper limit on the optical depth of $`\tau <0.17`$ — right at the observed value. Ricotti & Ostriker (2003) find that $`\tau >0.12`$ can only be achieved with great contrivance even with Pop. III. One requisite detail is a remarkably high UV escape fraction (Sokasian et al. 2003b). These considerations make one wonder if it is reasonable to invoke super-massive Pop. III stars.

Pop. III stars have long been sought as the first generation of stars with primordial abundances. While very metal poor stars have been discovered (e.g., Norris, Beers, & Ryan 2000), no examples of metal free stars have ever been found. At \[Fe/H\] $`=3.7`$, the star discussed by Norris et al. (2000) is consistent with enrichment by the supernova of a single metal free $`30M_{\mathrm{}}`$ star (Woosley & Weaver 1995). Since the formation time for low mass stars exceeds the lifetime of massive ones, it seems plausible that long-lived stars of the first generation were enriched by the massive stars of the first generation to a sufficient degree that no metal-free stars remain today.

A $`30M_{\mathrm{}}`$ star is perfectly normal, and will not suffice to achieve the early reionization of the universe. Metal free stars have less opacity than Pop. I stars and should therefore be more efficient producers of UV radiation, but the net gain due to this effect is only a factor of $`3`$ (Schaerer 2003). To obtain the desired factor of $`50`$ increase, Pop. III must have had a peculiar IMF which produced many super-massive (200 — $`500M_{\mathrm{}}`$) stars.

It is commonly thought reasonable that Pop. III have an IMF skewed towards massive stars. The line of argument is that since Pop. III stars form from meal-free material, gas cooling is less efficient, leading to a larger Jeans mass and hence a larger characteristic stellar mass. At this hand–waving level, super-massive Pop. III stars seem fairly natural. If we proceed with the logic of this argument, the IMF should be a strong function of metallicity.

A good deal is known about stars. As noted in the review by Hillenbrand (2003), “there is little evidence for substantial variations in the IMF from region to region, or over time.” The IMF appears to be universal, with no evidence for the expected dependence on metallicity (Kroupa 2002). This includes the IMF of massive stars (Oey, King, & Parker 2003). There is no indication that the early-time IMF was different from what it is now, either from direct counts of stars in ancient, low metallicity systems (Wyse et al. 2002), or from the integrated cosmic star formation history (Baldry & Glazebrook 2003). Moreover, dynamical constraints, especially the small scatter in the Tully-Fisher relation, allow very little room to consider a variable IMF (McGaugh et al. 2000; Bell & de Jong 2001; Verheijen 2001; McGaugh 2004), at least when averaged over the scales of galaxies. The hypothesis that metallicity affects the IMF can be tested directly in low metallicity star forming regions like the Magellanic clouds, where again there is no evidence for a systematic variation of the IMF (Massey 2002). There is good evidence that the UV spectral hardness increases with declining metallicity, but this is entirely explained by the lower opacity of lower metallicity stars with the same IMF (McGaugh 1991).

A considerable and diverse body of evidence disfavors the notion that the IMF varies. From what we know empirically about stars over a broad range of metallicity, it seems that the Jeans scale does not play a strong role in determining the IMF. From this perspective, there is no reason to suppose that Pop. III stars would have formed with a radically top-heavy IMF. One can of course imagine some discontinuity at zero metallicity, and there are certainly reasons why such a discontinuity might occur (e.g., Bromm & Loeb 2003). However, this is no guarantee that such stars would form with the required properties. Super-massive Pop. III stars are only inferred to exist in order to cause what for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM is abnormally early reionization. This is not sufficient evidence to prove their existence.

In contrast, early structure formation is natural to MOND. Normal stars suffice; they simply form earlier. There is no need to invoke a population of super-massive Pop. III stars. It remains to be seen whether substantial improvements to the polarization measurement of Kogut et al. (2003) can be made, or if any such refinements would lead to grossly different interpretations. A drop in the optical depth to $`\tau <0.12`$ would favor CDM, while $`\tau >0.12`$ favors MOND.

## 4 Further Tests

Recent measurements of temperature fluctuations in the CBR are a vast advance over the situation of only a few years ago. However, they are not yet sufficient to distinguish between the very different world models of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM and MOND. On the one hand, the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models discussed by Spergel et al. (2003) provide an excellent fit to the WMAP data. On the other hand, the second peak is much smaller than it was predicted to be by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM prior to its measurement, while being exactly the amplitude which was predicted by McGaugh (1999b) for the case of no CDM. In addition, the surprisingly large polarization signal measured by WMAP (Kogut et al. 2003) is also expected from early structure formation with MOND. The confirmation of these two a priori predictions of McGaugh (1999b) would be a remarkable coincidence if $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM were correct.

One might think it also a remarkable coincidence that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM fits the WMAP data so well if it is incorrect. This is not really the case. Until much better constraints on the third peak become available, one expects to be able to fit a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model to the data even if MOND is the correct underlying physics. Indeed, because of the deviation from a pure no-CDM model expected from early structure formation in MOND, conventional fits should imply the need for some CDM.

There are other observations which might help to distinguish between $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM and MOND. A few of these are explored in this section. This is by no means a comprehensive list. It is merely intended to give expectation values which can be tested against new data.

### 4.1 Baryonic Features in the Galaxy Power Spectrum

The acoustic oscillations observed in the CBR will be frozen into the power spectrum if not washed out by dark matter. This predicts (McGaugh 1999c; Sanders 2001) that there will be sharp spikes in the galaxy power spectrum $`P(k)`$ at low redshift. On small scales, these may well be wiped out by the highly nonlinear growth of structure in MOND, which may lead to the exchange of power between wavenumbers (it can not be assumed that individual $`k`$ will remain independent). Indeed, Nusser (2002) finds convergence to a unique slope of the power spectrum irrespective of initial conditions. An overall shape for the power spectrum similar to that of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM is found by Sanders (2001), with a bit more power on large scales relative to small ones.

There is some hope that the baryonic features on the largest scales will survive the nonlinear evolution. If so, they will appear as sharp, narrow, down-going spikes in a power spectrum with an otherwise smooth envelope (McGaugh 1999c; Sanders 2001). Tegmark et al. (2003) note that similar bumps and wiggles are present in three independent data sets: PSCz, 2dFGRS, and SDSS (see their Fig. 36). These are suggestive of the predicted baryonic features, but are hardly convincing detections.

Detecting the narrow spikes predicted as baryonic features is extremely challenging experimentally. It requires not only large scale surveys, but also very fine resolution in $`k`$-space. The window functions typically used in power spectrum analyses are broader than the predicted features, and will act to wash out their appearance if present. The experiment may be easier to perform at high redshift (Blake & Glazebrook 2003), though the rapid growth of structure in MOND may mitigate against this.

Nevertheless, the presence of sharp, strong baryonic features provides another means to discriminate between CDM and MOND. $`P(k)`$ should be smooth and featureless in CDM. In MOND it should contain sharply pronounced features on large scales.

### 4.2 Structures at High Redshift

Another observation which may help to distinguish between CDM and MOND is the amount of structure at high redshift. As noted by Sanders (1998; 2001) and McGaugh (1999c), structure should form considerably more rapidly in MOND than in CDM. There are many indications of early structure formation, and indeed, this was one of the many indicators which pushed us towards $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM. The presence of a finite cosmological constant provides more time to form structure early relative to previously conventional CDM models (e.g., Mo & Fukugita 1996).

Early structure formation is quite natural in MOND (Sanders 1998, 2001; McGaugh 1999c; Nusser 2002; Stachniewicz & Kutschera 2002), so having structure in place at high redshift is quite reasonable. Indeed, the problem MOND suffers may be overproducing structure (Sanders 1998; Nusser 2002; Knebe & Gibson 2003), perhaps by a factor of $`2`$. This is sensitive to a variety of assumptions and the subject is not yet well developed (Sanders & McGaugh 2002), so it is unclear how serious a problem this is. Moreover, it may be mitigated if neutrinos turn out to be heavy. Late times are harder to predict in both CDM and MOND, so the strongest test is at high redshift.

The evidence for structure at high-$`z`$ has grown considerably in recent years. Lyman break galaxies at $`z3`$ are already highly clustered (Steidel et al. 2000, 2003), leading to the inference that the are very highly biased ($`b6`$ as opposed to $`1`$ for galaxies of comparable mass at $`z=0`$), or not massive at all, with luminosities vastly enhanced by collisional star bursts (Somerville, Primack, & Faber 2001). In MOND, these would simply be the early stages of normal galaxies. Chen et al. (2003) find that massive galaxies are surprisingly abundant and metal rich at $`z>1`$. Rocca-Volmerange et al. (2003) find that large ($`M_{}10^{12}M_{\mathrm{}}`$) galaxies are already in place at $`z4`$, much earlier than should be the case with CDM. $`L^{}`$ galaxies can form as early as $`z10`$ in MOND (Sanders 1998), so these observations present no puzzle. Not only should massive objects form early, but they should also form into large scale structures early. Palunas et al. (2003) present evidence for large voids being present in the galaxy distribution already at $`z3`$, for which they find only a $`1\%`$ probability in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM.

The high redshift universe appears to be rich in structure, perhaps surprisingly so for our expectations from CDM. Such early structure formation is quite natural in MOND. If the latter is correct, we would expect to continue to find large numbers of massive galaxies already in place at $`z>3`$, and rich clusters of galaxies at $`z>1`$. Of course, the stellar content of these systems must evolve in either case, and mass evolution from merging may also occur in both. But the expectation is for there to be more structure sooner in MOND than one would nominally expect with CDM.

## 5 Conclusions

McGaugh (1999b) predicted various features of the power spectrum of temperature fluctuations in the CBR for no-CDM universes inspired by MOND. These predict

* a specific first-to-second peak amplitude ratio, $`A_{1:2}=2.4`$; and
* a third peak smaller than the second.

These stem from the stipulation that there should be no CDM in a MOND universe so that baryonic damping dominates the power spectrum. The specific value of $`A_{1:2}`$ follows from the baryon density as given by BBN, with very little variation for plausible values of $`\omega _b`$. Beyond the no-CDM model, one does expect some signature of MOND in the CBR. MOND-specific predictions are

* an early epoch of reionization leading to a large polarization signal; and
* an excess of power on large ($`\mathrm{}<100`$) scales.

I have tested these predictions with the WMAP first year data and other recent CBR experiments.

WMAP provides tests of all of these predictions except the third peak, to which its data do not yet extend ($`S/N<1`$ for $`\mathrm{}>660`$: Bennett et al. 2003). For the three items where WMAP alone provides a strong test, all of the MOND predictions are confirmed. Other data must be invoked to test the third peak. These do not confirm the no-CDM prediction, but do not clearly reject it (§2.5).

The first-to-second peak amplitude ratio measured by WMAP is $`A_{1:2}=2.34\pm 0.09`$ (Page et al. 2003). The amplitude of the second peak is considerably smaller than had been anticipated by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models prior to observational constraints on its value. Yet it is accurately predicted with no free parameters by no-CDM (McGaugh 1999b). It follows simply from setting $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{CDM}}=0`$ and $`\omega _b`$ to its BBN value.

This peak ratio $`A_{1:2}`$ is very sensitive to the baryon content of the universe. The range of baryon densities acceptable to no-CDM models is in good agreement with BBN constraints from 2H, 4He, and 7Li. $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM requires a significantly higher $`\omega _b`$ than was indicated by BBN prior to measurement of the second peak (§2.2). Our plain “vanilla” $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM has been spiked with extra baryons.

The large polarization signal reported by WMAP (Kogut et al. 2003) is surprising in the context of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM, but not in MOND. MOND is expected to grow structure much more rapidly than the conventional $`\delta t^{2/3}`$. Consequently, the first stars can readily form by $`z15`$. The high optical depth reported by WMAP confirms this prediction. There is no need to invoke super-massive Pop. III stars. A review of constraints on the sensitivity of the IMF to metallicity suggests that these are rather contrived (§3.1.1).

Early reionization is one clear indication of MONDian physics beyond the simple no-CDM model used to predict the peak amplitude ratios. Another possible signature of MOND is the excess of power at $`\mathrm{}<100`$ over the nominal no-CDM prediction. This may be due to a strong ISW effect as anticipated by McGaugh (1999b). Though the data are qualitatively consistent with this prediction, a quantitative computation of this effect in MOND remains lacking.

Obtaining a detailed fit to the WMAP data (not just the peak ratio) requires three fit parameters: one for the position of the first peak, one for its width, and one for the amplitude. One combination of parameters that works is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.92`$, $`f_\nu =0.65`$, and a tensor component $`n_t=0.04`$. These should not be taken too literally, as they may simply encapsulate our ignorance of the underlying theory. The apparent tensor contribution in particular is simply a fudge to fit the data at $`\mathrm{}<100`$ where a deviation from the standard calculation is expected from an enhanced ISW effect.

One interesting aspect of the detailed no-CDM fit is the apparent need for a massive neutrino ($`m_\nu 1`$ eV). There are a variety of effects which might cause this inference to be incorrect (see discussion in §2.4.3). While a neutrino mass this high may seem unappealing, it provides an additional means of distinguishing between CDM and MOND. $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models can not form sufficient structure if $`m_\nu >0.23`$ eV (Spergel et al. 2003), so a robust laboratory measurement in excess of this value would in principle falsify CDM. While a smaller neutrino mass would not exclude MOND, it would make it difficult to understand rich clusters of galaxies (Aguirre et al. 2001; Sanders 2003).

Three of the four predictions listed above have been realized in the WMAP data. The prediction of a low third peak does not appear to be realized in other data set. If improved measurements confirm a second-to-third peak amplitude ratio $`A_{2:3}1`$, it would favor CDM. In this case, the success of the other MOND predictions may just be a remarkable fluke. On the other hand, a definitive measurement of $`A_{2:3}>1.5`$ would provide the clearest possible falsification of the existence of non-baryonic cold dark matter.

I would also like to thank Bob Sanders for his encouragement and persistent questioning on these issues. I am also grateful to the referee for suggestions which improved the organization of this text. The author acknowledges the support of the University of Maryland through a semester General Research Board award. The work of SSM is supported in part by NSF grant AST0206078 and NASA grant NAG513108.


text:
# Cosmological stretching of perturbations on a cosmic string

## 1 Introduction

Particle physics models that involve symmetry breaking phase transitions  as well as some brane-world scenarios  predict the formation of topological defects. Much work has gone into understanding the evolution of defects (see, for example, ). Among defects, cosmic strings have drawn the bulk of the effort because, unlike monopoles and domain walls, they do not cause cosmological disasters. Indeed, strings are viable candidates for a variety of interesting cosmological phenomena such as gamma ray bursts , gravitational wave bursts  and ultra high energy cosmic rays . The detailed predictions for these phenomena, however, depend sensitively on the spectrum of perturbations present on cosmic strings.

The result of a phase transition that produces strings is a network of long strings that stretch across the horizon and a collection of closed loops. The large scale evolution of a string network is well understood analytically  as well as numerically . Cosmic string networks quickly evolve toward a “scaling” regime in which correlation lengths of long strings and average sizes of loops scale with the cosmic time $`t`$. This solution is made possible by intersections of long strings which produce loops. Gravitational radiation causes loops to decay and so reduces the total length of string in the network. There is much structure present on the long strings arising from the Brownian character of the network at formation as well as a build-up of the sharp edges (kinks)  produced at string intersections.

The lower bound on the size of the structure, also referred to as the small-scale structure cutoff, is thought to be given by gravitational back-reaction. It turns out that a given mode of a perturbation on a string interacts gravitationally only with a narrow range of other modes . The range depends on the amplitudes and wavelengths, and hence the spectrum, of the modes that make up the perturbations. The result of this is that the small-scale structure cutoff depends rather sensitively on the spectrum of perturbations present on strings.

The spectrum of perturbations, in turn, depends on a combination of two effects: 1) the cosmological stretching of the primordial perturbations present on the strings, and 2) the formation and build-up of kinks due to string intersections.

In  a simple model to account for cosmological stretching was used. In this model all modes with wavelengths smaller than the horizon are stretched: their wavelengths grow with the scale factor, while their physical amplitudes are unchanged. In this work we show that this is only true of modes with wavelengths smaller than, but comparable to, the horizon. The evolution of much smaller modes is more complicated: their physical amplitudes again remain unchanged, but while they are being stretched by the expansion of the Universe a change in the arc length of the string acts to decrease their comoving wavelength.

In Section II we review the motion of strings in expanding space-time. In Section III we describe the computational scheme as well as initial conditions used in our simulations and we discuss the results. We conclude in Section IV.

## 2 Motion of strings in expanding space-time

If the typical length scale of a cosmic string is large compared to its thickness, the string can be accurately modeled by a one-dimensional object. The equations of motion are obtained from the Nambu-Goto action, which is proportional to the area swept by the world-sheet of the string.

We consider the dynamics of strings in an expanding FRW space-time with a line element $`ds^2=a^2(\tau )(d\tau ^2d𝐱^2)`$. The comoving spatial coordinates of the string, $`𝐱(\tau ,\sigma )`$, are written as functions of the conformal time $`\tau `$ and a spatial parameter $`\sigma `$.

It is convenient to choose a gauge in which the unphysical parallel components of the velocity vanish

$$\dot{𝐱}𝐱^{}=0.$$
(1)
In this gauge the equations of motion of the string are

$$\ddot{𝐱}+2\left(\frac{\dot{a}}{a}\right)\dot{𝐱}\left(1\dot{𝐱}^2\right)=\left(\frac{1}{ϵ}\right)\left(\frac{𝐱^{}}{ϵ}\right)^{}$$
(2)
with

$$ϵ=\sqrt{\frac{𝐱_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{1\dot{𝐱}^2}}$$
(3)
and

$$\frac{\dot{ϵ}}{ϵ}=2\frac{\dot{a}}{a}\dot{𝐱}^2.$$
(4)
Dots and primes denote derivatives with respect to $`\tau `$ and $`\sigma `$ respectively.

The string’s total energy is given by $`a(\tau )\mu ϵ𝑑\sigma `$, where $`\mu `$ is the string’s mass per unit length, so that $`ϵ`$ can be thought of as the energy per unit $`\sigma `$ in comoving units. There remains some freedom in the choice of parameterization which we can use to set $`ϵ=1`$ in the initial conditions.

In flat space-time Equation (2) reduces to the wave equation. The general solution can be written as the superposition of oppositely moving waves

$$𝐱(\tau ,\sigma )=\frac{1}{2}\left[𝐚(\sigma \tau )+𝐛(\sigma +\tau )\right]$$
(5)
with the constraints

$$𝐚^2=𝐛^2=1$$
(6)
We can express the functions $`𝐚^{}`$ and $`𝐛^{}`$ in terms of $`\dot{𝐱}`$ and $`𝐱^{}`$

$$𝐚^{}(\tau ,\sigma )=𝐱^{}(\tau ,\sigma )\dot{𝐱}(\tau ,\sigma )$$
(7)
and

$$𝐛^{}(\tau ,\sigma )=𝐱^{}(\tau ,\sigma )+\dot{𝐱}(\tau ,\sigma ).$$
(8)
Although these equations are derived for the flat space-time case, they turn out to be useful for the reconstruction of the string shape in curved space-time.

As in , we consider perturbations on a straight static string

$$𝐱(\tau ,\sigma )=𝐜\sigma +\delta 𝐱(\tau ,\sigma )$$
(9)
with $`𝐜`$ constant. In an FRW space-time with power-law expansion $`a(\tau )=\tau ^\alpha `$ the solution to Equations (2) and (4) for small perturbations is a superposition of waves of the form

$$\delta 𝐱(\tau ,\sigma )=𝐀\tau ^\nu J_\nu (\kappa \tau )e^{i\kappa \sigma }.$$
(10)
where $`𝐀𝐜=0`$ and $`\nu =\alpha 1/2`$. The physical wavelength of the perturbations is given by

$$\lambda =a(\tau )\frac{2\pi }{\kappa }$$
(11)
and therefore $`\kappa \tau =2\pi \tau ^{\alpha +1}/\lambda t/\lambda `$, is approximately the ratio of the horizon to the size of the mode. The behavior that follows from Equation (10) is rather simple.

When the wavelength of the mode is large compared to the horizon, $`\kappa \tau 1`$, the small argument expansion for the Bessel function can be used to show that the comoving amplitude is constant in time, namely,

$$\delta 𝐱𝐀\left(\frac{\kappa }{2}\right)^\nu \frac{e^{i\kappa \sigma }}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +1)}.$$
(12)
Therefore both the physical wavelength and amplitude are proportional to the scale factor and the overall size of the string grows while its shape remains fixed.

When the mode is well inside the horizon, $`\kappa \tau 1`$, the large argument expansion of the Bessel function can be used to show that the comoving amplitude goes as the inverse of the scale factor

$$\delta 𝐱𝐀\tau ^\alpha \sqrt{\frac{2}{\pi \kappa }}\mathrm{cos}(\kappa \tau \alpha \pi /2)e^{i\kappa \sigma }.$$
(13)
Therefore the physical amplitude is constant while the wavelength grows. This results in a straightening of the mode: the amplitude to wavelength ratio decreases with the scale factor.

If we ignore any interaction between different perturbations, it is easy to show  that we obtain a power-law spectrum for the amplitude to wavelength ratios. Shorter perturbations have been inside the horizon longer, and therefore have been proportionately more damped than longer ones.

However, if there are simultaneous perturbations of different wavelengths, and their amplitudes are not too small, we expect interactions between them. The effect on the wavelengths of the perturbations can be understood without simulation. Let us consider a string with two perturbations, one with wavelength much less than the other. Suppose that the long excitation is in the form of a standing wave, so that there are periodically times when it does not contribute to the string motion. At such time, we can easily measure the wavelength of the short excitation which is just the length of one cycle along the underlying string.

The number of cycles of the short excitation in a comoving box is unchanged by the expansion of the universe, but the arc length of the underlying string is decreased because the amplitude of the long excitation is damped. Thus the comoving wavelength of the short excitations decreases, since the same number of them fit on a string with shorter comoving arc length. In terms of physical length, we expect the short wavelength to still increase, but not as much as it would have, had the long excitation not been present.

On the other hand, the evolution of the amplitude of the short excitation is not at all obvious. One might think that when the horizon is much larger than the short wavelength, the short excitation physical amplitude remains unchanged, or one might think that the amplitude to wavelength ratio of the short excitations evolves in the same way (going inversely with the scale factor) as if the long excitations were not present. To determine which of these ideas is correct, we turn to numerical simulations.

## 3 Numerical simulations of strings in expanding space-time

In our simulations the strings evolve according to discretized versions of Equations (2) and (4). Because of its simplicity we have chosen the high-resolution leapfrog scheme described in .

In order to avoid the numerical instabilities of the scheme, the initial conditions must be such that there are no discontinuities (no kinks) and the velocity of the string is never close to the speed of light (no cusps). For our purposes it is sufficient to investigate the evolution of an initially static cosmic string, with fixed ends and two modes present. We will use transverse modes to simplify the retrieval of information about their amplitudes.

To construct the initial string we start with a single cycle of a sinusoid 111Note that $`y`$ is a sinusoid in $`z`$, not in string length $`\sigma `$. If one uses $`\sigma `$ instead of $`z`$ one finds a maximum amplitude $`A=1`$ and with that value parts of the string (in flat spacetime) move at the speed of light. $`y=A\mathrm{sin}(2\pi z/L)`$, let $`s`$ be its arc length parameter such that $`s[0,S]`$ and let $`x=\alpha \mathrm{sin}(2\pi ms/S)`$. The string’s shape is defined then by

$$𝐱(\tau =0,z)=(\alpha \mathrm{sin}\frac{2\pi ms}{S},A\mathrm{sin}\frac{2\pi z}{L},z).$$
(14)
This can be conceptualized as $`m`$ cycles of a short mode of amplitude $`\alpha `$ and wavelength $`\lambda =S/m`$ that rest on a paper band, which is then deformed to match its long edge with a simple sinusoid of amplitude $`A`$ and wavelength $`L`$ (see Figure 1). Once the values for the string parameters have been chosen and the string has been constructed we reparametrize it with respect to the usual arc length $`\sigma [0,\mathrm{\Sigma }]`$.

To compare the evolution of the amplitude of the short mode in the previous case to one in which the long mode is not present we evolve a second set of initial conditions. In this case the static string is given by

$$𝐱(\tau =0,z)=(\alpha \mathrm{sin}\frac{2\pi mz}{S},0,z)$$
(15)
where $`z[0,S]`$. These initial conditions are such that the length of the string along the $`z`$-direction $`S`$ is the arc-length of the long mode above. In terms of the paper band analogy, in this case the band has been flattened out to lie entirely on the $`x`$-$`z`$ plane (bottom of Figure 1).

We have performed a number of simulations to investigate the parameter space of the initial conditions for the string. Several runs where carried out for radiation- as well as matter-dominated universes. These lead to no substantial differences in the behavior. The figures we show below, which correspond to a universe dominated by radiation, are representative of all the studied cases.

As in , we check the accuracy of our results by numerically evolving $`ϵ`$ through the discretized version of Equation (4) and calculating it independently from the numerical results for $`\dot{𝐱}`$ and $`𝐱^{}`$ and Equation (3). In our simulations the evolved $`ϵ`$ is in agreement with the value computed from $`𝐱^{}`$ and $`\dot{𝐱}`$ to within $`0.1\%`$ for all cases. The initial number of spatial oscillations along the string is conserved, meaning that the equations of motion do not lead to the generation of new modes.

We set the initial ratios of amplitude to angular wavelength, $`_l=2\pi A/L`$ and $`_s=2\pi \alpha /\lambda `$, for the long and short modes respectively, to be unity. These quantities characterize the maximum slope of each mode on the string. We take $`m=10`$ cycles of the short mode, and choose the initial amplitude of the long mode to be $`A=100`$ in arbitrary units. The wavelength of the long mode then becomes $`L=200\pi `$ and the elliptic integral for the arc length yields $`S764.04`$, which gives $`\lambda 76.40`$ and $`\alpha 12.16`$.

For convenience we chose to simulate the string by a series of points with the comoving spatial distance between each and the next exactly 1 at the initial time. To make that possible we decrease $`\alpha `$ and thus $`_s`$ by $`0.7\%`$, obtaining 928 as the total number of points.

In order to understand the behavior of the amplitude of the short mode as a function of time we require a means of extracting its amplitude. As the simulation progresses, the shape of the short mode can be seen to vary along the string, as shown in Figure 2, so that it is not obvious what its amplitude is. The reason for this variation is that the maxima and minima of the oscillations of the short mode are reached at different times depending on whether they were located at nodes or anti-nodes of the long mode initially.

To determine the amplitude we compute $`𝐚`$ and $`𝐛`$ by numerically integrating Equations (7) and (8). As shown in Figure 2, $`𝐚`$ and $`𝐛`$ approximately preserve the original comoving shape of the string, except for slight shifts in the distance separating their nodes, and we can readily determine the amplitude of the short mode from either of them. Here the short mode peaks of $`𝐚`$ and $`𝐛`$ are closer to each other for $`\sigma \mathrm{\Sigma }/4`$ than for $`\sigma `$ either small or $`\mathrm{\Sigma }/2`$. Nevertheless, their physical amplitude is constant along the string.

In Figure 3 we show the physical amplitude of the short mode as a function of $`\tau `$ for two cases. For one of them the short mode is the only perturbation on the string, while for the other both the short and long modes are present. The starting time of the simulation is $`\tau _i=0.1`$ to ensure it is much smaller than both of the scales defining the string. The corresponding initial value of the scale factor is $`a_i=1`$. The general behavior in the two cases is the same and is consistent with the solutions presented in Section II as well the analysis presented in . Thus the amplitude of the short mode is insensitive to the presence of a long one.

The evolution of the physical amplitude of the short mode occurs in three stages. At first, when the wavelength is longer than the horizon, conformal stretching prevails and the amplitude grows with the scale factor, as we expect from Equation (12). The second stage occurs when the short is less than but still comparable to the horizon size. In this stage the amplitude exhibits damped oscillatory behavior. In the final stage the amplitude becomes constant, as expected from Equation (13).

Although the physical amplitude of the short mode is not affected by the presence of the long mode, we have argued in Section II that its wavelength should change as a result of the decreasing arc length of the string. The evolution of the amplitude to wavelength ratio of short modes is therefore sensitive to the presence of long modes.

Figure 4 shows the evolution of $`_s=2\pi \alpha /\lambda `$ for the cases shown in Figure 3. The wavelength of the short mode evolves differently for the two situations presented. For the string with two modes the comoving arc length of the string decreases with time, causing $`_s`$ to decrease at a somewhat slower rate than in the the single-excitation case.

To make the discrepancy more evident we show in Figure 5 the amplitude to wavelength ratio $`_s`$ multiplied by the scale factor $`a`$. For the single-mode case the evolution is exactly the three stage process for the amplitude $`\alpha `$ described above, because the wavelength of the short mode $`\lambda `$ simply scales with the scale factor. On the other hand, the two-mode case shows a more complicated evolution process.

At first both modes are larger than the horizon and conformal stretching prevails; this stage ends with the fall of the short mode into the horizon at $`\tau 10`$. In the second stage the short perturbation is inside the horizon but the long mode is still stretching conformally, thus the situation is the same as in the single mode case. Once the long mode falls into the horizon its amplitude is damped, causing the arc length of the string to grow at a rate smaller than the scale factor. This is observed at $`\tau 50`$ where $`a_s`$ begins growing, deviating from the single perturbation case. The final stage is characterized by the amplitude of the long mode being negligible compared to its wavelength. Its arc length is then comparable to its wavelength, which scales with $`a`$. From then on $`a_s`$ remains constant, albeit larger than in the single perturbation case.

Although here we have only considered the two mode case, in a cosmological setting long modes are always entering the horizon. This means that the fourth stage described above is never reached by a realistic network of strings and the scaled amplitude to wavelength ratio (as in Figure 5) does not stop increasing.

## 4 Discussion and Conclusions

Astrophysical and cosmological effects of a cosmic string network depend sensitively on the small-scale structure present on the strings. That small-scale structure exists at the time of string formation and is further enhanced by intercommutations. The structure then evolves by cosmological expansion, and gravitational back-reaction smooths out all structures smaller than a certain cutoff. Gravitational back-reaction at a given scale, however, depends in turn on the spectrum of excitations at larger scales .

Thus an accurate understanding of cosmological stretching of string modes is necessary to understand small-scale structure. Ref.  used a simple model which neglected interactions between different modes and assumed that once modes enter the horizon their physical amplitudes remain constant while their wavelengths are stretched. This model results in amplitude to wavelength ratios that decrease with decreasing wavelengths. The reason for this is that short modes have been in the horizon longer and have had more time to be stretched.

Here we have argued that there is a coupling between modes of very different wavelengths. While it is true that short modes are being stretched by the expansion of the Universe, the stretching of long modes that have recently entered the horizon produces a decrease in the arc length of the string which acts to decrease the wavelength of the short modes. The net result is that the wavelengths of short modes are not stretched as effectively by the expansion of the universe as the wavelength of long modes.

We have studied the evolution of the amplitudes numerically and found that, in contrast with the wavelength evolution, the amplitude evolution does not couple modes of different sizes: Regardless of the presence of other modes, a mode’s physical amplitude remains fixed once it is well inside the horizon.

Although we have simulated only the case of smooth excitations in transverse directions, we believe our results are generic. The effect on the wavelength of the short mode can be understood analytically as explained in section II, and depends only on the loss of arc length in the long mode, and not on its shape or direction. We found that the amplitude of the short mode is insensitive to the presence of the long one, and we expect that principle to be generic. When there is a significant difference in wavelength, the long mode moves the string underlying the short mode as a whole, and we would not expect the direction of that motion to have any effect on the short mode evolution.

As compared to the previous simple model we expect the amplitude to wavelength ratio of the perturbations on cosmic strings to decrease more slowly as a function of decreasing frequency. The detailed consequences for the spectrum and the small-scale structure cutoff will be examined in detail elsewhere.

## 5 Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Eduardo Calvillo and Alex Vilenkin for helpful conversations. C. S.-O. was supported in part by CONACYT. K. D. O. was supported in part by the National Science Foundation. X. S. was supported by National Science Foundation grants PHY 0071028 and PHY 0079683.

## References