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# Elimination of cracks in self-assembled photonic band gap crystals

(December 15, 2003)

## Abstract

Thin colloidal crystals (or synthetic opals) composed of Stöber silica spheres typically develop cracks when they are utilized to obtain photonic band gap crystals (or inverted opals). We find that by sintering the silica spheres prior to assembly of the opal these cracks can be avoided. We report the effects of temperature and duration of the heat treatment on 850 nm silica spheres using electron microscopy, thermogravimetry, and light scattering. We also find a large dependence of the refractive index of the silica on the temperature of the heat treatment. This may allow tuning of the refractive index of silica spheres.

Photonic band gap crystals are synthetic materials in which a certain range of electromagnetic frequencies is not allowed to exist Yablon87 ; John87 . They have been studied because this property, known as the photonic band gap, can provide a versatile means to control optical signals Joanop97 ; book . However, to obtain a photonic band gap for optical frequencies, one must be able to fabricate structures that are three-dimensionally periodic on an optical length scale and composed of a solid with a high refractive index ($`n`$). One approach to achieve this is through the self-assembly of spherical colloidal particles Vlasov95 ; Pine97 ; Velev97 ; Stein98 ; Vos98 ; Zahidov98 ; Braun02 . Micrometer-scale silica spheres that are nearly monodisperse can be induced to organize into crystals known as synthetic opals. The spheres are close-packed on a face-centered cubic (fcc) lattice. To obtain a photonic band gap, these opals must be infiltrated with a material with a large $`n`$ and the spheres must then be selectively removed by a wet etchant. The resulting structure, referred to as an inverted opal, has been predicted to have a photonic band gap if the infill has $`n>2.85`$ Sozuer92 ; Busch98 . Consequently, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been used to obtain silicon ($`n`$=3.5) inverted opals to explore the photonic band gap in self-assembled materials Blanco00 ; Norris01 .

One issue of concern is that, as with any crystal growth process, a variety of defects (e.g., vacancies, stacking faults, interstitials, etc.) can form during the self-assembly of synthetic opals. These are transferred from the opal to the photonic band gap crystal and, depending on the type of defect, may render it unsuitable for applications Zhang00 . Thus, one focus of recent work has been to reduce defect densities in these structures vanBlaad97 . In particular, methods have been recently developed to deposit thin opals ($``$20 layers) with low defect densities on a flat substrate Colvin99 . Capillary forces in the meniscus between the substrate and a colloidal sol induce the crystallization Denkov93 . Using these methods, thin silicon inverted opals with optical properties consistent with a photonic band gap have recently been grown Norris01 .

However, less attention has been focused on eliminating defects that are formed during the infiltration step. In particular, cracks can appear in thin opaline films under conditions which induce shrinkage of the spheres. For example, in opals assembled from polymer spheres, this can occur due to electron-beam exposure in an electron microscope Colvin99 . Opals assembled from silica spheres (as discussed here) are more resistant to shrinkage, but shrinkage still occurs if the opal is heated to elevated temperatures. Thus, when opals are infiltrated with silicon at temperatures above 5000C Blanco00 ; Norris01 , cracks appear which are transferred to the inverted opals. For applications in photonics, these cracks are a serious problem that can limit their use.

Here, we explore methods to eliminate these cracks. Namely, we show that by pre-shrinking the silica spheres prior to assembly of the opal, the spheres do not shrink significantly during the silicon infiltration step. Thus, inverted opals can be obtained in which the cracks have been eliminated. Two alternative methods to achieve pre-shrinkage of the silica spheres have been studied. First, the spheres were refluxed for prolonged periods in high-boiling-point solvents. Second, the spheres were sintered as dry powders and then redispersed. Below we report the details of our findings.

Our silica particles were produced by the standard Stöber synthesis Stober  which was modified to obtain particles $`>`$600 nm in diameter Giesche94 . As determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the particles used here had an average diameter of 850 nm with a standard deviation of 1.4%. They were obtained from the same batch discussed in Ref. Norris01 . After growth, the particles were redispersed 3 times in deionized water and stored in absolute ethanol. To assemble an opal, the particles were resuspended in methanol ($``$1% by volume) in a small vial, which was then placed in a sand bath. A temperature gradient was applied across the vial (500C at the bottom to 400C at the top) and a substrate was submersed in the suspension. As the solvent evaporated, a thin opal was deposited and occupied a centimeter-scale area on the substrate. The opal was then dried and studied with SEM. The opals had a structure similar to previous reports Norris01 ; Colvin99 . In particular, the opals had no discernible cracks after growth.

Silicon inverted opals were obtained as reported previously Norris01 . In brief, the opal was infiltrated with Si using low-pressure CVD (LPCVD). During the process the sample temperature was maintained at 5500C for 5 hours. After infiltration, the top surface of the opal was exposed by reactive ion etching and the silica spheres were removed with a 5% aqueous solution of HF. A SEM image of a typical Si inverted opal obtained by this process is shown in Fig. 1a. The image indicates that the opal has developed numerous cracks during the deposition process. Moreover, since the cracks are filled with Si, this indicates that the silica spheres shrank and formed cracks early in the process. This implies that if the opal were assembled of pre-shrunken silica spheres perhaps no cracks would develop, thereby suggesting a possible solution to the crack problem.

Our first attempt to pre-shrink the spheres involved refluxing the spheres in high-boiling-point solvents. For example, by dispersing the silica in ethylene glycol, the spheres could be heated to $``$2600C for prolonged periods. However, we found that at elevated temperatures the pH of the dispersion quickly rose, presumably due to release of adsorbed hydroxide ions. At high pH, the size of the spheres was reduced. However, while our goal is to densify the spheres, they were actually just etched due to the higher solubility of silica under these highly basic conditions. Thus, such spheres would still shrink during the high temperature infiltration step. Attempts to eliminate this etching with repeated washings of the initial dispersion or addition of buffers were not successful.

Instead, we moved to another approach — sintering the spheres as dry powders and then redispersing them. This approach was successful, as shown below, and a systematic study of the variation in size and density of the spheres due to variations in time and temperature of the heat treatment were performed to understand the dynamics of the process. To determine changes in mass, loose powders were heated at constant temperature in static air for up to 10 hours using a Perkin-Elmer TG7 thermogravimeter. Changes in the size of the spheres were measured with SEM. In Fig. 2a we plot the relative volume loss of the spheres with time. The reported time does not include that initially required to ramp the sample up to the final temperature (at 200C per min). Thus, values of volume loss are finite at zero time. The data show that after a rapid initial loss, the volume of the silica spheres approaches a constant value. However, the net volume loss increases with increasing temperature, $`T`$. Also, the time at which the volume levels off, decreases with increasing $`T`$. At 6000C, the total volume loss of silica spheres of $``$20% is achieved in 4 hours. In Fig. 2b, we plot the relative weight loss of the spheres with time. The weight loss is seen to be correlated with volume changes. At 6000C, the total weight loss of silica spheres is $``$12%, which is in agreement with previous thermogravimetric studies of silica particles Sacks84 ; Badley90 . As these results show that the weight loss is less than the volume loss, they indicate that the silica spheres are becoming denser. This was confirmed using a helium pycnometer to measure the density of our silica powders. Whereas the density of the original Stöber silica spheres was 1.97$`\pm `$0.05 g/cm3, it increased to 2.10$`\pm `$0.05 g/cm3 and 2.17$`\pm `$0.05 g/cm3 with heat treatments at 3000C and 6000C, respectively, in agreement with previous measurements Giesche94 ; Sacks84 ; Badley90 . The increase in the density of silica spheres is attributed to the removal of water and ethanol from the silica during heating and elimination of pores (see more below) Iler .

Based on the results of Fig. 2, we prepared silica spheres for opal assembly by heating silica powder at 6000C for 4 hours. It is important to note that SEM measurements indicated that the heat treatment caused no significant change in the polydispersity of the silica spheres. The particles shrunk from 850 nm $`\pm `$ 1.4% to 793 nm $`\pm `$ 1.4%. After the sintering, the particles were redispersed in methanol using ultrasonication. Silica aggregates left after sonication were removed by sedimentation. Then, Si inverted opals were fabricated in the same manner as described above. A SEM image of the resulting inverted opal is shown in Fig. 1b. No cracks have developed in the inverted opal formed from the pre-shrunken spheres. Thus, our approach provides a solution to the crack problem in self-assembled photonic band gap crystals.

Finally, we note that, during our study, we also discovered some unexpected behavior in the refractive index of the silica particles. To obtain additional evidence of the densification of the silica after heat treatment, we determined the refractive index of the silica spheres, $`n_{sp}`$, by measuring the optical transmittance through dilute dispersions in mixtures of ethanol ($`n_e`$=1.360 at 589 nm) and 1-bromonaphthalene ($`n_b`$=1.657 at 589 nm). In this case, which is in the single scattering limit, the attenuation of the transmittance due to scattering is a function of the refractive index contrast between the silica spheres and the solvent. The transmittance is at a maximum when the refractive index of the solvent matches $`n_{sp}`$. Using a UV-visible spectrometer, transmittance spectra were obtained for 7 different values of the refractive index contrast, slightly above and below the value of unity, by changing the concentration of 1-bromonaphthalene in ethanol. After correcting for attenuation due to absorption by the solvents, transmittance at 589 nm was fit by a polynomial of the refractive index of the solvent. This polynomial was then solved for the maximum transmittance, corresponding to a refractive index contrast of one.

The results of the analysis are presented in Fig. 3, where $`n_{sp}`$ is plotted versus $`T`$. According to our density measurements of the original and heat-treated silica powders, one might expect an increase in the refractive index of silica spheres with increasing $`T`$. However, $`n_{sp}`$ of the heat-treated silica is actually smaller than that of the original silica and shows an unusual dependence upon $`T`$. The refractive index first decreases with increasing $`T`$; then, at $`T>400^0`$C, it increases with $`T`$, approaching the refractive index of fused quartz, indicated by the dashed line. This unusual behavior may be explained by the ultramicroporous structure of silica Iler ; vanHelden81 . During the heat treatment, we propose that two processes are occurring: material is being eliminated from the pores (which decreases the effective index of the particles) and the pores are eliminated entirely through condensation (which increases the effective index of the particles). A competition between these two effects can explain the results in Fig. 3.

Even more surprising, we found that $`n_{sp}`$ depended upon the storage history of the silica spheres. For example, silica spheres stored in water and then sintered at 6000C for 10 hours exhibited $`n_{sp}`$ of 1.36. This is quite different from $`n_{sp}`$ of 1.44 obtained under the same sintering conditions for spheres stored in ethanol (Fig. 3). These results were very reproducible and may provide one reason why reported values of $`n_{sp}`$ can vary significantly from study to study. However, future work is necessary to completely clarify these effects.

In conclusion, we report a simple method to avoid cracks in silicon-inverted opals. By sintering silica spheres as dry powders at temperatures as high as 6000C prior to the assembly of the opal, cracks do not appear subsequently during the silicon infiltration step. Thus, this method eliminates another class of important defects in these materials. In addition, we find that the heat treatment of the silica spheres can significantly change their refractive index, depending on the temperature and their solvent history. With further understanding, this effect may be useful for controlling the refractive index of silica particles, potentially over a range between 1.36 and 1.44.

We would like to thank Jing Wang for assistance in measuring refractive index of silica spheres. Y.J. acknowledges a partial research fellowship from the Industrial Partnership for Research in Interfacial and Materials Engineering (IPRIME) at the University of Minnesota. This work was supported in part by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation under DMR-0212302.


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# Asymmetrically warped compactifications and gravitational Lorentz violation

## 1 Introduction

The violation of Lorentz symmetry at high energies would be a revolutionary discovery, giving us important clues about the nature of physics beyond the standard model -. It has been argued that such violations are predicted by some theories of quantum gravity . Although string theory does not necessarily predict Lorentz violation, it can do so via background fields which lead to noncommutative geometry , or which explicitly violate Lorentz invariance in the gravitational sector .

Nevertheless, it is not easy to invent fundamental theories which break Lorentz symmetry in a plausible way. Therefore it is useful to consider new possibilities for breaking Lorentz symmetry. A novel approach was presented by Csaki et al. , in the context of the Randall-Sundrum (RS) solution to the hierarchy problem , involving two branes separated by an extra dimension with the geometry of 5D anti-de Sitter space. Although the original RS model had Lorentz symmetry, ref.  (hereafter called CEG) considered a variant in which the 5D bulk contains a black hole of charge $`Q`$ and mass $`\mu `$, giving a metric (the AdS Reissner-Nördstrom black hole solution) with the line element

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`h(r)dt^2+{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{l^2}}d\stackrel{}{x}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{h(r)}}dr^2;`$ (1)
$`h(r)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{l^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu }{r^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{r^4}}.`$ (2)
The extra dimension has coordinate $`r`$, and the length scale $`l`$ characterizes the curvature of the AdS geometry, which is determined by the negative bulk cosmological constant through $`l^2=6/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. (We work in units where the 5D gravitational constant $`\kappa _5=1`$.)

The presence of a bulk black hole (BH) can be physically motivated: it was argued in  that emission of gravitational radiation from a brane in the early universe can lead to the formation of a BH in the bulk. Possible cosmological consequences of gravity traveling faster than light in this scenario were considered in references . However in the cosmological solutions, the brane moves away from the BH as the universe expands, and as a result the presence of the BH quickly becomes irrelevant for the brane observer: its effects are redshifted away. The presence of charge on the BH is motivated by the desire to have a solution in which the brane-BH distance remains constant, and therefore its effects can also be important at late times.

Along any 4D slice of constant $`r`$, the metric (1) is Lorentz invariant, with speed of light given by $`dx/dt=(l/r)h^{1/2}`$. Thus an observer on a D-brane which is restricted to a particular value of $`r`$ does not see direct evidence of Lorentz violation in the matter sector. However gravity propagates in all dimensions, not just along the brane. A 4D observer would find that gravity propagates with a different speed than matter.

It might be thought that the weakness of gravitational interactions would render this mild Lorentz violation phenomenologically harmless; after all, the speed of gravity has not been measured. However, there are ways in which it would be manifested. One possibility is that self-energy diagrams with graviton loops would induce speed differences between observable particles, like photons and electrons (where by “speed” we mean the maximum speed, as the momentum becomes infinite). These kinds of constraints were considered in .

A more powerful constraint exists in the case where gravity travels slower than visible particles, especially protons . The emission of gravitational Čerenkov radiation would very efficiently damp ultra high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR’s) to levels below those which are observed. One of the main observations of the present paper is that this is precisely the situation in asymmetrically warped models in which we are assumed to be living on a negative tension brane, where the weak scale hierarchy can be solved by the warping. In CEG it was assumed that we live on a positive tension brane; in that the speed of gravity is faster than that of light, so that the present strong constraint is not relevant.

In CEG, the asymmetric effects of warping were treated perturbatively. In the present work we also extend their analysis by considering these effects in the nonperturbative regime, and for the Kaluza-Klein (KK) excitations of the graviton. These could be relevant sources of Lorentz violation in colliders, since in RS-like models the KK gravitons couple strongly to the standard model particles .

We begin by reviewing the CEG model and their perturbative derivation of the speed of gravity, and we enumerate the most stringent experimental constraints on Lorentz violation in these models. In section 3 we point out that the perturbative treatment can be misleading if the observer is located on the positive tension brane, whereas it gives reliable predictions for observers on the negative tension brane. In section 4 we show that the KK excitations of the graviton have similar Lorentz-violating properties to the zero mode, considerably strengthening the Čerenkov bound introduced in section 2.

## 2 The Models; perturbative speed of gravity

### 2.1 Model with two branes

Similarly to the RS model, CEG cuts the bulk at two positions, call them $`r_+`$ and $`r_{}`$, by the insertion of branes and the use of $`Z_2`$ orbifold symmetry to define the discontinuity in the derivatives of the metric functions at the branes. The parts of the solution $`r>r_+`$ and $`r<r_{}`$ are discarded, and replaced by mirror copies of the kept part of the solution to create a solution with orbifold fixed points at $`r_\pm `$. Unlike RS, it is not possible to use conventional branes with equation of state $`p=\rho `$ at both positions. There are four junction conditions which relate the energy densities $`\rho _\pm `$ and equations of state $`p_\pm =w_\pm \rho _\pm `$ to the black hole parameters:

$`\mu l^2`$ $`=`$ $`3\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{w_+}{36}}\rho _+^2l^2\right)r_+^4=3(1+{\displaystyle \frac{w_{}}{36}}\rho _{}^2l^2)r_{}^4;`$ (3)
$`Q^2l^2`$ $`=`$ $`2(1+{\displaystyle \frac{1+3w_+}{72}}\rho _+^2l^2)r_+^6=2(1+{\displaystyle \frac{1+3w_{}}{72}}\rho _{}^2l^2)r_{}^6.`$ (4)
It is easy to see that taking $`w_+=w_{}=1`$ implies that $`r_+=r_{}`$. Let us consider the physically interesting case of a large hierarchy, where

$$ϵr_{}/r_+10^{16}.$$
(5)
Physical masses on the negative tension brane at $`r_{}`$ (the “TeV brane”) are suppressed relative to their bare values by the factor $`ϵ`$, giving a resolution of the weak scale hierarchy problem . By solving the jump conditions (3)-(4) for $`ϵ`$, we see that there are two ways of achieving a small value of $`ϵ`$: either by (1) tuning the numerators $`(1+\frac{w_+}{36}\rho _+^2l^2)`$, $`(1+\frac{1+3w_+}{72}\rho _+^2l^2)`$ to be small, or (2) tuning the denominators $`(1+\frac{w_{}}{36}\rho _{}^2l^2)`$, $`(1+\frac{1+3w_{}}{72}\rho _{}^2l^2)`$ to be large.

1. In the first case, $`l\rho _{}/6`$ and $`w_{}(l\rho _{}/6)^2`$ can naturally be of order unity, while $`w_+`$ and $`\rho _+`$ must be tuned to the values

$$w_+12ϵ^4\left(1+\frac{w_{}}{36}\rho _{}^2l^2\right)<1;l\rho _+=6+O(ϵ^4),$$
(6)
implying the relation

$$\mu =c_1\frac{Q^2}{r_{}^2};c_1=\frac{3\left(1+\frac{w_{}}{36}\rho _{}^2l^2\right)}{2(1+\frac{1+3w_{}}{72}\rho _{}^2l^2)}=O(1).$$
(7)
The inequality in (6) is a violation of the weak energy condition (albeit a small one), which states that $`p\rho `$, and would thus require some exotic kind of stress energy on the Planck brane.
2. In the second case, we need

$$w_{}=O(ϵ^2);l\rho _{}=O(ϵ^6),$$
(8)
which implies

$$\mu =c_2\frac{Q^2}{r_+^2};c_2=\frac{3\left(1+\frac{w_+}{36}\rho _+^2l^2\right)}{2(1+\frac{1+3w_+}{72}\rho _+^2l^2)}=O(1).$$
(9)

The relations (7),(9) are useful for computing the speed of electromagnetic radiation (or any relativistic particles) on the branes. Working to first order in the Lorentz violating parameters $`\mu `$ and $`Q^2`$, the deviation in the speed relative to unity is

$$\delta c_{\mathrm{em}}=\frac{\mu l^2}{2r_\pm ^4}+\frac{Q^2l^2}{2r_\pm ^6}=\frac{l^2Q^2}{2r_\pm ^4}\left(\frac{1}{r_\pm ^2}\frac{c_i}{r_i^2}\right),$$
(10)
where the choice $`\pm `$ refers to which brane one is on, and the label $`i`$ refers to the choice of tunings immediately above; hence $`r_1=r_{}`$ and $`r_2=r_+`$.

### 2.2 Model with one brane and a horizon

The preceding discussion assumed the existence of two branes bounding the extra dimensional space. It is also possible to eliminate the TeV brane altogether by not cutting out the small $`r`$ region containing the black hole. In that case one should choose $`\mu `$ and $`Q^2`$ so that $`h(r)`$ vanishes at least once between $`r=0`$ and $`r=r_+`$. This insures there is a horizon shielding the black hole, in accordance with the cosmic censorship hypothesis. In this scenario we would necessarily be living on the Planck brane at $`r=r_+`$. The parts of the jump conditions (3)-(4) involving $`\rho _+`$ and $`w_+`$ would still be valid. CEG showed that it is not possible to embed the brane and still have a horizon shielding the black hole unless the weak energy condition is again violated, $`w_+<1`$. This is most easily studied when the special relation $`4\mu ^3l^2=27Q^4`$ holds; this is the limiting case where the two horizons of the AdS Reissner-Nördstrom black hole degenerate into a single horizon, located at $`r_h/l=(2Q/l^2)^{1/3}/\sqrt{2}`$. One can solve the jump conditions to find that the brane’s equation of state depends on its position, $`r_+`$, and is given by

$$w_+=12\left(\frac{r_h}{r_+}\right)^4+O\left(\frac{r_h}{r_+}\right)^6.$$
(11)
Hence the violation of the weak energy condition becomes small as the brane is moved farther away from the black hole. Ref.  showed that this violation could be moved into the bulk stress-energy tensor, but never eliminated, so long as the horizon exists. The deviation in the speed of light on the brane in this scenario is given by

$$\delta c_{\mathrm{em}}=\frac{3}{2}\left(\frac{r_h}{r_+}\right)^4+\left(\frac{r_h}{r_+}\right)^6.$$
(12)
We mention this case for completeness, but we will not further consider how gravity propagates in this case.

### 2.3 The speed of gravity; experimental constraint

Now we turn to the speed of gravity. Its determination is simplified by CEG’s observation that the dynamics of gravity are the same as those for a massless bulk scalar field, with action and equation of motion

$`S`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle d^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}}x𝑑r\sqrt{g}g^{AB}_A\varphi _B\varphi };`$ (13)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\delta S}{\delta \varphi }}`$ $`=`$ $`_A(\sqrt{g}g^{AB}_B\varphi )=0.`$ (14)
The problem can be further simplified by splitting the metric into a pure AdS part and the perturbation involving the black hole parameters. In other words, one works perturbatively to first order in $`\mu `$ and $`Q^2`$. The solution for the $`n`$th KK mode is separable, $`\varphi _n(x^\mu ,r)=e^{i(\omega _nt\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{x})}\varphi _n(r)`$, where $`\varphi _n(r)`$ satisfies Neumann boundary conditions at the branes, since the jump conditions (3)-(4) have already been satisfied by the background solution. The dispersion relation of the graviton zero mode solution in the tower of KK excitations can be determined analytically (in the model with two branes) for a solution with 3-momentum $`\stackrel{}{q}`$:

$$\omega _0=|\stackrel{}{q}|+\delta \omega _0;\delta \omega _0=\frac{|\stackrel{}{q}|l^2}{4ϵ^2}\left(2\frac{\mu }{r_+^4}+\frac{Q^2}{r_+^6}(1+ϵ^2)\right).$$
(15)
The deviation in the speed of gravity from 1 is given by

$$\delta c_{\mathrm{grav}}=\frac{\delta \omega _0}{|\stackrel{}{q}|}.$$
(16)
The relevant Lorentz-violating observable is the difference $`\delta c_{\mathrm{em}}\delta c_{\mathrm{grav}}`$. In general, the sign of this difference depends on the value of the $`O(1)`$ constant $`c_1`$ or $`c_2`$. However for TeV brane observers, if the hierarchy is very large ($`ϵ1`$), and if we exlude the case (6)-(7) which violates the weak energy condition, the difference is completely dominated by the term $`l^2Q^2/(2r_{}^6)`$ in (10), and leads to

$$\delta c_{\mathrm{em}}\delta c_{\mathrm{grav}}=\frac{l^2Q^2}{2r_{}^6}.$$
(17)
Because the difference is positive, the stringent constraints due to gravitational Čerenkov radiation of UHECR protons is applicable :

$$\delta c_{\mathrm{em}}\delta c_{\mathrm{grav}}<2\times 10^{15}(10^{19}).$$
(18)
where the less stringent limit assumes the UHECR’s are of galactic origin, and the more stringent one applies if they originally come from neutrinos originating from cosmological distances. Therefore we have the bound

$$\frac{\delta h(r_{})}{h(r_{})}\frac{l^2Q^2}{r_{}^6}\text{ }\stackrel{<}{}\text{ }4\times 10^{15}(10^{19}).$$
(19)
Notice that the quantity on the left is the fractional perturbation to the metric function $`h(r)`$ due to the dominant Lorentz violating term, evaluated on the TeV brane: $`h(r)(r/l)^2(1+\delta h/h)`$ It is therefore natural that this is the combination which is experimentally bounded. (19) is one of the new constraints derived in this paper.

If we are willing to entertain the possibility of case 1, with exotic matter on the Planck brane which violates the weak energy condition, then the difference of speeds as measured on the TeV brane becomes dependent on the details of the TeV brane stress energy,

$$\delta c_{\mathrm{em}}\delta c_{\mathrm{grav}}=\frac{l^2Q^2}{2r_{}^6}(1c_1).$$
(20)
If $`c_1<1`$, the Čerenkov bound again applies, in the obvious way. If $`c_1>1`$, gravitational Čerenkov radiation cannot be produced. Then the strongest bounds come from tests for deviations from general relativity in the parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism. A difference between the speed of light and that of gravity implies the existence of a preferred reference frame, the one in which we have been working, where the speeds of gravity and light are independent of direction. In a boosted frame, one of these would become anisotropic, depending upon whether the boost respects Lorentz invariance of the gravitational or the electromagnetic propagation. (One but not both can be preserved, due to the difference in speeds.) In such a situation, the parameter $`\alpha _2`$ of the PPN formalism is nonzero. Essentially, we have two metrics, one for photons and one for gravitons, so the effective theory is Rosen’s bimetric one . Such theories predict a torque which would cause precession of the sun’s spin axis. The latter is closely aligned with the solar system’s planetary angular momentum vector. If we assume that the alignment is not coincidental, then precession due to PPN effects is constrained, and leads to the bound

$$|\alpha _2|=2\frac{|\delta c_{\mathrm{em}}\delta c_{\mathrm{grav}}|}{c_{\mathrm{em}}}<1.2\times 10^7,$$
(21)
which carries over to the quantity $`\frac{l^2Q^2}{r_{}^6}|1c_1|`$.111We thank Guy Moore for discussions on this point.

## 3 Nonperturbative analysis

The above discussion assumed that the dispersion relation of the graviton gets modified in the simple way which was predicted by treating the Lorentz-violating part of the metric, $`\delta h`$, to first order in perturbation theory. However, at large graviton momenta, the perturbative prediction can be modified. To see this, one must examine the equation of motion (14). Let us rewrite it to first order in $`\delta h`$, with $`\varphi _0^{(0)}`$ and $`\varphi _0^{(1)}`$ respectively denoting the zeroth and first order solutions, in powers of $`\delta h`$, for the Kaluza-Klein zero mode. We will also change coordinates to the form $`r/r_+=e^{ky}`$ with $`k=l^1`$. The wave equation for the zero mode with 3-momentum $`q`$ is

$`_y^2\varphi _0^{(1)}(y)4ksgn(y)_y\varphi _0^{(1)}(y)`$ $`=`$ $`e^{2k|y|}\left(2q\omega _0^{(1)}+q^2{\displaystyle \frac{\delta h}{h}}(y)\right)\varphi _0^{(0)}`$
$`=`$ $`e^{2k|y|}\left(2q\omega _0^{(1)}+{\displaystyle \frac{q^2}{k^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu }{r_+^4}}e^{4k|y|}+{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{r_+^6}}e^{6k|y|}\right)\right)\varphi _0^{(0)}.`$
Regardless of how small $`\delta h/h`$ is, at sufficiently large momenta the source term $`q^2(\delta h/h)\varphi ^{(0)}`$ becomes so large that it can no longer be reliably treated as a perturbation.

To explore this, we have numerically solved the full, unperturbed graviton wave equation to find the dispersion relation for the zero mode, $`\omega _0(q)`$, and compared this result to the perturbative prediction (15). To make the problem tractable, we have chosen definite values for the brane stress energy parameters. For the tuning of parameters, we adopt case 2 above, eqs. (8)-(9), so that $`c_2`$ depends on the positive tension brane parameters. These we take to be $`w_+=1`$, while leaving $`\rho _+`$ free to vary. The full wave equation can be written as

$$\varphi ^{\prime \prime }(y)4ksgn(y)\left(\frac{1\delta e^{6k|y|}}{\widehat{h}(y)}\right)\varphi ^{}(y)+e^{2k|y|}\left(\frac{\omega ^2}{\widehat{h}^2(y)}\frac{q^2}{\widehat{h}(y)}\right)\varphi (y)=0,$$
(23)
where

$$\widehat{h}(y)=1+\delta e^{4k|y|}\left(3+2e^{2k|y|}\right);\delta 1\frac{\rho _+^2l^2}{36}.$$
(24)
In this form, it is clear that the Lorentz-violating effects, coming from $`\widehat{h}1`$, are maximized at the TeV brane, where $`y=y_{}`$. For the purposes of comparing exact results to the perturbative ones, we quantify the perturbation by the parameter

$$\mathrm{\Delta }2\delta e^{6ky_{}}.$$
(25)
We expect the perturbative treatment to be valid when $`\mathrm{\Delta }1`$.

With these definitions we can now compare the exact numerical results with the perturbative ones. The deviation of the dispersion relation of the zero mode, relative to its Lorentz-conserving value, is plotted as a function of momentum for several values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and as a function of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for several momenta, in figure 1, where $`\delta \omega `$ and $`q`$ are given in units of $`k=l^1`$. We have taken a very small hierarchy, $`ky_{}=2`$ for this illustration, and will comment on the extrapolation to larger values below. The interesting feature is that the true $`\delta \omega (q)`$ flattens to a constant value at large $`q`$, contrary to the perturbative expectation.

If we compare the speed of gravity to that of hypothetical photons which are trapped on the positive tension brane, a consequence of this behavior of the graviton dispersion relation is that the speed difference (with speed defined using the group velocity $`v=d\omega /dq`$) does not remain constant at large momenta, but rather vanishes as $`q\mathrm{}`$, as shown in figure 2. At large momenta, gravitons tend toward the same speed as radiation on the Planck brane. This can be understood as follows. The graviton zero mode is localized on the Planck brane. At large $`q^2`$, the effect of the terms $`(\frac{\omega ^2}{\widehat{h}^2(y)}\frac{q^2}{\widehat{h}(y)})`$ in the equation of motion (23) is to localize it even more, thus driving the graviton to resemble more closely radiation which is trapped on the Planck brane. This trend becomes evident for momenta $`q\text{ }\stackrel{>}{}\text{ }1/l`$, where the speed difference is significantly reduced relative to its maximum value at $`q=0`$.

As the hierarchy between the Planck brane and the negative tension brane is increased by letting $`y_{}`$ go to larger values, the Lorentz violating effects seen by a Planck brane observer are suppressed, if the parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is held fixed. The magnitude of $`c_{\mathrm{grav}}c_{\mathrm{em}}`$ scales like $`e^{2ky_{}}`$. This can be understood analytically, using the perturbative results of the previous section. One can show that, for the present choice of parameters,

$$c_{\mathrm{grav}}c_{\mathrm{em}}=\frac{1}{2}\left(\mathrm{cosh}(2ky_{})1\right)e^{4ky_{}}\mathrm{\Delta }+O(e^{2ky_{}}).$$
(26)
At the same time, the $`q`$-axis in figure 2 gets rescaled by a factor of $`e^{ky_{}}`$, such that the range of momenta with an appreciable deviation in $`c_{\mathrm{grav}}c_{\mathrm{em}}`$ gets shifted to smaller physical values. In the hierarchy-solving case $`e^{ky_{}}10^{16}`$, this corresponds to the TeV scale.

On the other hand, an observer on the TeV brane will not be concerned with this small momentum-dependence in the graviton speed, because the difference between $`c_{\mathrm{grav}}`$ and $`c_{\mathrm{em}}`$ remains relatively large even at high momenta, as shown in figure 3. Moreover, in contrast to the case of the Planck brane observer, the difference $`c_{\mathrm{grav}}c_{\mathrm{em}}`$ remains constant as the hierarchy is increased, if $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is held fixed. Again, this can be understood by computing the speed difference perturbatively, for the present choice of parameters,

$$c_{\mathrm{grav}}c_{\mathrm{em}}=(\mathrm{cosh}(2ky_{})1)e^{2ky_{}}\mathrm{\Delta }O(1)\times \mathrm{\Delta }.$$
(27)
The conclusion of this section’s analysis is that we can trust the results of the perturbative treatment if we assume that observers are living on the negative tension brane, as one would expect if the hierarchy problem is being addressed. Only for Planck brane observers would it be important to distinguish the perturbative from the exact results.

## 4 Lorentz-violating KK modes

It would be interesting if Lorentz violating kinematics could be observed in the laboratory, in particle collider experiments. In section 2 we noted that the speed difference between gravity and light on the TeV brane should be less than a few parts in $`10^7`$. Such a small effect would probably be impossible to see at the LHC, even though KK gravitons interact strongly (with TeV-suppressed instead of Planck-suppressed couplings) with standard model particles and would be copiously produced, if sufficiently light.

Even if their Lorentz-violating properties cannot be directly detected, an interesting indirect effect is the Čerenkov emission of KK gravitons from UHECR’s, which would strengthen the bound mentioned in section 2. That bound conservatively counted only the damping due to emission of massless gravitons. But KK modes can also be emitted, so long as their mass obeys the inequality

$$\frac{m_{\mathrm{KK}}^2}{2\stackrel{}{p}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}}<c_{\mathrm{em}}c_{\mathrm{grav}}(p),$$
(28)
where $`\stackrel{}{p}`$ is the momentum of the UHECR. This is the condition for Čerenkov emission to be kinematically allowed. In the situation where the warp factor $`ϵ=10^{16}`$, the KK mass gap is of order TeV. The highest energy cosmic ray which has been detected had energy $`3\times 10^{11}`$ GeV ; thus for a speed difference that saturates the solar system bound (21), the number of relevant KK modes is of order $`10^5`$. It is therefore worth exploring whether the KK modes have similar Lorentz-violating kinematics as the graviton zero mode.

We have addressed this problem both numerically and analytically. The analytic approach is to solve the wave equation once again treating $`\delta h`$ to first order in perturbation theory, but now expanding around the zeroth order Lorentz-conserving KK wave function, $`\varphi _n(y)\varphi _n^{(0)}(y)+\varphi _n^{(1)}(y)`$, in order to find the corresponding energy eigenvalue, $`\omega _n(q)\omega _n^{(0)}(q)+\omega _n^{(1)}(q)`$. The solution is described in detail in the Appendix. We have also numerically solved the full wave equation using the shooting method, to find the dispersion relation $`\omega _n(q)`$. The deviation of $`\omega _n(q)`$ from the standard result $`\omega =q`$ is shown for the first two KK modes in figure 4. The comparison between the perturbative and numerical results is shown there.

As we did for the KK zero mode, we can compute the difference in the speed of gravity relative to that of particles trapped on the positive tension brane. In order to highlight the differences which are due to Lorentz violation, we take the conventional trapped particles to have the same rest mass as that of the KK graviton to which it is being compared. The results, shown in figure 5 are qualitatively similar to those for the zero mode: gravity is faster than particles on the Planck brane, but the speed difference becomes smaller at higher momenta.

More interesting is the speed difference relative to particles on the TeV brane. Figure 6 shows that, again like the zero mode, KK gravitons are slower than same-mass particles on the TeV brane. Therefore our expectation that they are produced in gravi-Čerenkov radiation by particles with momenta satisfying (28) is justified, and we should revise the bound. Adapting the result of  to the tower of TeV-mass-gap gravitons whose couplings are only TeV-suppressed, the rate of energy loss of a UHECR with momentum $`p`$ and mass $`m_p`$ is given by

$$\frac{dE}{dt}\frac{p^2}{\mathrm{TeV}^3}_0^{q_{\mathrm{max}}}𝑑qq_0^{M_{\mathrm{max}}}𝑑M\mathrm{sin}^4\theta ,$$
(29)
where $`q`$ is the momentum of the emitted KK graviton, $`M`$ is its mass, and $`\theta `$ is the angle of emission of the Čerenkov radiation. The kinematic limits and $`\theta `$ (in the limit $`\theta 1`$) are given by

$`\theta ^2`$ $`=`$ $`(1q/p)q^2(M_{\mathrm{max}}^2M^2)`$ (30)
$`M_{\mathrm{max}}^2`$ $`=`$ $`q^2\left(2\delta c{\displaystyle \frac{m_p^2}{p^2(1q/p)}}\right)`$ (31)
$`q_{\mathrm{max}}`$ $`=`$ $`p\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{m_p^2}{2p^2\delta c}}\right).`$ (32)
Here $`\delta c=c_{\mathrm{em}}c_{\mathrm{grav}}`$, which must be positive in order for Čerenkov emission to occur. Evaluating the integrals gives

$$\frac{dE}{dt}0.1(\delta c)^{5/2}f(\delta c)\frac{p^5}{\mathrm{TeV}^3},$$
(33)
where the function $`f`$ is approximately 1 for $`\delta c\frac{m_p^2}{2p^2}`$ and drops very rapidly to zero (like $`(1m_p^2/2p^2\delta c)^{11/2}`$) as $`\delta c\frac{m_p^2}{2p^2}`$. The bound on $`\delta c`$ comes from demanding that $`dE/dt`$ be less than $`p/L`$ for a cosmic ray which is propagating over a distance $`L`$. For the highest energy cosmic ray observed, which is identified with a proton, the bound is satisfied by taking $`\delta c`$ to be below the kinematic limit where $`f=0`$. This implies that

$$\delta c<\frac{m_p^2}{2p^2}10^{23}.$$
(34)
## 5 Conclusions

Asymmetric warping can provide a plausible means of introducing Lorentz violation into a theory with extra dimensions, which is essentially a form of spontaneous breaking due to the gravitational background. Since at tree level the violation is confined to the gravitational sector, the effects can be sufficiently weak to be at the borderline of detection. In this paper we have explored some of the consequences of a theory where the asymmetric warping comes from the presence of a charged black hole in the extra dimension. Such a scenario can be compatible with the RS solution to the weak scale hierarchy problem. Unlike RS, in the black hole case it is necessary to allow for nonstandard equations of state for the tensions of at least one of the branes, though it is still possible to respect the weak energy condition. One issue we have not explored is the role of a stabilization mechanism such as that of Goldberger and Wise  for the size of the extra dimension. One might expect that the bulk is already stabilized once the brane energies and equations of state are fixed, since algebraically the ratio of brane positions $`r_{}/r_+`$ is determined. However it is possible the radion mass2 is negative, even though it is not zero. Even if it has the right sign, the distortions of the bulk geometry by a bulk scalar could have an effect on the propagation of gravity. It would also be interesting to know whether pure tension branes could be admitted with the addition of a bulk scalar, as it would be desirable to eliminate the need for an unusual equation of state. Finally, we did not consider how Lorentz violation is manifested in the single brane case, mentioned in section 2.2, although we expect it to be similar to the case of a Planck-brane observer in the two brane model. These subjects could merit further study.

###### Acknowledgments.

We thank Guy Moore for very helpful discussions.

## Appendix A Perturbative KK mode solution

The zeroth order in Lorentz-violation KK graviton wave function (which like the zero mode obeys Neumann boundary conditions) is

$$\varphi _n^{(0)}(y)=\frac{e^{2k|y|}}{N_n}\left(J_2\left(\frac{m_ne^{k|y|}}{k}\right)\frac{J_1\left(\frac{m_n}{k}\right)}{Y_1\left(\frac{m_n}{k}\right)}Y_2\left(\frac{m_ne^{k|y|}}{k}\right)\right),$$
(35)
where $`N_n`$ is a normalization constant. The $`m_i`$ are determined by the boundary conditions; in the limit of a large hierarchy, they satisfy $`J_1(m_ne^{ky_{}}/k)=0`$.

The wave function correction $`\varphi _n^{(1)}(y)`$ is difficult to compute, but as is familiar from perturbation theory in quantum mechanics, we don’t really need it if we are only interested in the correction to the eigenvalue, $`\omega _n^{(1)}(q)`$. In the quantum mechanical analogy, we require only the matrix element of the perturbation to the Hamiltonian. Defining $`\psi _n(y)=e^{2k|y|}\varphi _n(y)`$, the equation of motion becomes

$$H\psi _n(y)=\frac{\omega _n^2e^{2k|y|}}{\widehat{h}(y)}\psi _n(y),$$
(36)
where, to first order in the perturbation,

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`_y(\widehat{h}(y)_y)4k^2\widehat{h}(y)+2ksgn(y)\widehat{h}^{}(y)q^2e^{2k|y|}+4k\widehat{h}(y)\delta (y)`$ (38)
$`=`$ $`\left[_y^24k^2q^2e^{2k|y|}+4k\delta (y)\right]`$
$`+\left[_y(\widehat{h}^{(1)}(y)_y)\left(4k^24k\delta (y)\right)\widehat{h}^{(1)}(y)+2ksgn(y)\widehat{h}^{(1)}(y)\right].`$
$``$ $`H^{(0)}+H^{(1)},`$ (39)
with $`\widehat{h}^{(1)}=\widehat{h}1`$.

We take the inner product with $`\psi _n^{(0)}`$ and use the Hermicity of $`H^{(0)}`$ to cancel the terms involving $`\psi _n^{(1)}`$. This yields

$$\omega _n^{(1)}=\frac{\psi _n^{(0)}|H^{(1)}|\psi _n^{(0)}+(\omega _n^{(0)})^2\psi _n^{(0)}|\widehat{h}^{(1)}e^{2k|y|}|\psi _n^{(0)}}{2\omega _n^{(0)}\psi _n^{(0)}|e^{2k|y|}|\psi _n^{(0)}}.$$
(40)
The inner product in the denominator is unity, with the appropriately normalized wave function. Putting in the explicit form of $`H^{(1)}`$, the expression becomes

$`\omega _n^{(1)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\omega _n^{(0)}}}{\displaystyle _0^y_{}}\psi _n^{(0)}\left(_y(\widehat{h}^{(1)}_y)4k^2\widehat{h}^{(1)}+2k\widehat{h}^{(1)}\right)\psi _n^{(0)}𝑑y`$ (41)
$`+\omega _n^{(0)}{\displaystyle _0^y_{}}\widehat{h}^{(1)}e^{2ky}|\psi _n^{(0)}|^2𝑑y`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\omega _n^{(0)}}}A_n+\omega _n^{(0)}B_n.`$ (42)
Since $`\omega _n^{(0)}=\sqrt{m_n^2+q^2}`$, and $`m_n/ke^{ky_{}}`$, all the terms are roughly comparable for $`qm_n`$. But, for large momentum $`q`$, only the second integral is important. In that case,

$`\omega _n^{(1)}`$ $``$ $`q{\displaystyle _0^y_{}}|\psi _n^{(0)}|^2\widehat{h}^{(1)}e^{2ky}𝑑y`$ (43)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{q}{k^2}}{\displaystyle _+^y_{}}|\psi _n^{(0)}|^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu }{r_+^4}}e^{6ky}+{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{r_+^6}}e^{8ky}\right)𝑑y`$ (44)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{q}{k^2N_n^2}}{\displaystyle _+^y_{}}J_2^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_ne^{ky}}{k}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu }{r_+^4}}e^{6ky}+{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{r_+^6}}e^{8ky}\right)𝑑y`$ (45)
where the last approximation holds in the limit of a large hierarchy. The resulting integral can only be done numerically. However, our analysis is still useful since it tells us that the first correction term to $`\omega _n`$ is proportional to $`q`$ for large momentum, just as for the zero mode. Moreover we can show how the dispersion relation is expected to change. Squaring $`\omega _n`$ gives

$$\omega _n^2=(\omega _n^{(0)}+\omega _n^{(1)}+\mathrm{})^2(m_n^2+q^2)(1+2B_n2A_n)$$
(46)
to first order in the perturbation. Comparing with the usual dispersion relation, one sees that the limiting speed of the $`n\mathrm{th}`$ mode has been modified to

$$c_{\mathrm{grav}_\mathrm{n}}^2=1+2B_n,$$
(47)
and that the mass of the mode changes due to the presence of the black hole perturbation:

$$M_n^2=m_n^2(1+2B_n)2A_n.$$
(48)
In terms of these, the group velocity of the $`n\mathrm{th}`$ mode with momentum $`q`$ is

$$v_{\mathrm{grav}_\mathrm{n}}=\frac{\omega _n}{q}\frac{c_{\mathrm{grav}_\mathrm{n}}^2q}{\sqrt{M_n^2+c_{\mathrm{grav}_\mathrm{n}}^2q^2}}.$$
(49)
As a consistency check, it can be verified that this result reduces to the previous one for the zero mode case where it is possible to do the integrals.


text:
# VLT/NACO infrared adaptive optics images of small scale structures in OMC1 Based on observations collected at the ESO/Paranal YEPUN telescope, Proposal 70.C-0315).

## 1 Introduction

Near infrared (NIR) observations, performed with the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope (ESO-VLT), are described which provide high spatial resolution images of the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC1; distance 460 pc (Bally et al. 2000)). Data are presented in the v=1-0 S(1) line of H2 at 2.121$`\mu `$m and in continuum emission at nearby wavelengths. Earlier NIR imaging of this zone may be found for example in Allen&Burton 1993; Brand 1995; Schild et al. 1997; McCaughrean&MacLow 1997; Chrysostomou et al. 1997; Chen et al. 1998; Stolovy et al. 1998; Schultz et al. 1998; Lee&Burton 1999; Tedds et al.1999; Salas et al. 1999; Vannier et al. 2001 (V2001); Gustafsson et al. 2003 (G2003); Kristensen et al.2003 (K2003). The nature of the Orion Nebula Cluster, in which OMC1 is embedded, is reviewed in O’Dell 2001 and Ferland 2001. As discussed there, OMC1 consists of dense fragments of gas and dust, in part situated within the HII region, which itself constitutes the visible Orion Nebula. The interest in OMC1 and the surrounding zone stems from widespread ongoing star-formation in this region (e.g. Luhman et al. 2000), exemplified through the presence of many protostars, outflows and larger scale flows, for example the explosive Becklin-Neugebauer-IRc2 complex (BN-IRc2) in OMC1 (see O’Dell 2001; Allen&Burton 1993; Doi et al. 2002; O’Dell&Doi 2003).

In the present work we use the VLT-UT4 with NACO, an association of the new adaptive optics system NAOS (Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System) and the CONICA (COudé Near IR Camera) infrared array camera (Lenzen et al. 1998; Rousset et al. 2000; Brandner et al. 2002). This yields, in part of the full image, a spatial resolution two to three times higher than that achieved previously with the HST (Stolovy et al. 1998; Schultz et al. 1998) or with 4m-class telescopes using adaptive optics e.g. the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (V2001; G 2003; K2003).

Our present data allow us to address the issue of the scale sizes of clumps of excited H2 in OMC1 with significantly greater precision and over a region within OMC1 roughly an order of magnitude larger in the plane of the sky than in earlier work (V2001). In this connection, V2001 showed that H2 emitting regions did not exhibit fractal structure but showed a preferred scale of between 3 and 4 10-3 pc. Here we corroborate this finding and also identify a second preferred scale size of about half this value, in a neighbouring region of OMC1, to the west of that studied in V2001.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

Observations of OMC1 were performed with the VLT UT4 during guaranteed NACO time on the 21st of November 2002, for about 4.5 hours in total. The seeing was variable during this night ranging from 0.65” to 1.13”. Two regions have been observed located south-east (SE frame) and east-south-east (ESE frame) from BN and IRc2, with the star TCC016 (Fig. 1) common to both frames. The IR wavefront sensor (WFS) was used for the SE frame using BN (mK$``$8) as the adaptive optics (AO) reference star. The average seeing was $``$0.85” and the resulting FWHM of the PSF measured on several stars in the SE field was $``$0.08”. The ESE frame was recorded using the visible WFS locked on the star TCC016 (mV$``$14) which, combined with an average seeing of $``$1.03”, led to a measured FWHM of the PSF of $``$0.12”. The Strehl ratio was clearly higher in the SE frame, giving nearly full correction by the AO system to the diffraction limit of $``$0.06”. Using camera mode S27, the field of view was 27.6”$`\times `$27.6” and the pixel scale was 0.027”, a size sufficient to satisfy the Nyquist sampling criterion. 0.027” corresponds to 12 AU at the distance of Orion.

Filters were used at 2.121$`\pm `$0.011$`\mu `$m (NB212), which contains the H2 S(1) v=1-0 line, IB224, at 2.24$`\pm `$0.03$`\mu `$m and IB227 at 2.27$`\pm `$0.03$`\mu `$m. IB224 includes the H2 1-0 S(0) line at 2.223$`\mu `$m and the H2 2-1 S(1) line at 2.247$`\mu `$m, as well as \[FeII\] lines at 2.218 and 2.242$`\mu `$m. IB227 includes the H2 2-1 S(1) line and the \[FeII\] line at 2.242$`\mu `$m. The AutoJitter mode was used, that is, at each exposure, the telescope moves according to a random pattern in a 6”$`\times `$6” box. Cross-correlation was used to recenter the images at $``$0.15 pixel. For the ESE frame, an empty background sky has been recorded for the purpose of sky subtraction. For the other less crowded SE frame, the background sky has been created by performing a median filtering of the set of 32 randomly jittered individual frames. The total exposure time on object for each filter was 800 seconds for the SE frame and 1500 seconds for the ESE frame, with exposures of 10 seconds for each data acquisition.

To obtain an image in the H2 v=1-0 S(1) line, the IB244 continuum image was subtracted from the NB212 image after division by a factor of 2.5 as derived from measuring fluxes of a dozen of stars in both filters.The resulting image is shown in Fig.1. The contribution of v=1-0 S(0) and v=2-1 S(1) in IB224, known to be small from spectroscopy, was ignored in image processing. By subtraction of the image in the IB227 filter from that in the IB224, using a conversion factor obtained as before from stellar fluxes, it was possible to obtain an image in H2 S(0) v=1-0, less the weaker emission in v=2-1 S(1). The image in v=1-0 S(0) shows essentially the same structure as that in Fig.1, but is 4 to 5 times weaker. An example of data in v=1-0 S(0) is shown in Fig.3c.

Strong continuum emission is seen for example in the northern part of the ESE region and is shown in Fig.2, which displays emission in the IB227 filter. Data in Fig.2 also include weak emission from v=2-1 S(1) and \[Fe II\] (Schultz et al.1999). Continuum emission is also seen at this position in the data of Schultz et al. 1999.

## 3 Discussion of Results

### 3.1 Origin of the NIR emission

H2 emission in OMC1 arises from heating in J-type and C-type (magnetic) shocks (e.g. Draine et al. 1983, Pineau des Forêts et al.1988, Smith&Brand 1990, Kaufman&Neufeld 1996a,b, Timmerman 1998, Wilgenbus et al. 2000, V2001, Le Bourlot et al. 2002, K2003, G2003) and from photon excitation in photodissociation regions (PDRs) e.g. Störzer&Hollenbach 1999, Sternberg&Dalgarno 1989, Black&vanDishoeck 1987, Black&Dalgarno 1976.

Shocks in the region observed arise from one or more large-scale outflows, thought to originate from the BN-IRc2 region (O’Dell&Doi 2003, Doi et al. 2002, O’Dell 2001 and references therein). Shocks in the zone observed may also arise from local outflows associated with protostars buried within emitting clumps of gas (G2003).

PDRs are generated through the action of the Trapezium stars, to the south of the present region, of which the dominant contributor is $`\theta `$1Ori C. This star generates far-UV radiation fields of $`>`$105 times the standard interstellar field over much of OMC1, and is in addition the chief contributor to the HII region in which dense clumps in OMC1 may be bathed. The BN object is a young and massive B-star (Gezari et al. 1998) and may also provide a source for PDR excitation.

The relative importance of PDR and shock excitation in the strongest emitting regions has been discussed in detail in K2003. The conclusion is that in the subset of clumps studied in that work, which are those to the east of TCC016 in the ESE image, C-type shocks are the major contributor to H2 excitation. However, towards the fringes of bright clumps, J-type shock and PDR excitation by $`\theta `$1Ori C take the place of C-type shock excitation, with shock and PDR excitation contributing roughly equally. In all cases of very bright emission, both in the cores of clumps and at their fringes, the densities are high, exceeding several times 107 to $`>`$108cm-3. Excited gas, formed in numerous, individually unresolved shocks, rapidly accumulates into cold compressed zones and excited H2 is the very rapid progenitor of cold dense gas. Thus the structure of excited H2, discussed in section 3.2 below, provides a measure of the structure of cold H2 clumps, where the latter is the gas from which stars will ultimately form.

In other regions, which are presumably less dense, the correspondingly larger shock structure appears to be clearly resolved in H2 emission. This is illustrated by data in Fig. 3, 4 and 5. Numerous objects in these figures resemble bow shocks. The general appearance of this figure suggests that the region may be permeated by supersonic turbulence giving rise to shocks in all directions. The emission may also in part be due to complex density structure with PDR excitation. At all events, our NACO data allow us to specify the width of the filamentary regions containing excited gas. For example in Fig.5, showing the western part of object c (Fig.4) and of object a (Fig.3) in greater detail, widths of some filaments appear marginally resolved. If these scales of $``$40–50 AU are shock widths, these data provide important constraints on shock models (Le Bourlot et al. 2002, Wilgenbus et al. 2000), in which parameters of density, magnetic field and shock speed determine the shock width. If the features are PDRs, the widths of structures are again valuable parameters, providing a good indicator of the gas density (K2003, Lemaire et al. 1996, Sternberg&Dalgarno 1989). An additional constraint to shock or PDR models is provided by data for the v=1-0 S(0) line, see Fig.3c. In future work, we will pursue modeling of these regions, including constraints arising from absolute brightness in the H2 emission lines.

The origin of the diffuse continuum emission (plus \[FeII\] and some weak H2 emission - see above), for example in Fig.2, is most likely reflected light from dust. In this connection, there is little shock excitation where strong continuum emission is observed, as a comparison of Fig.1 and 2 reveals. Thus little mechanical energy is being injected into this zone. Emission could arise from far-UV photon heating of very small dust particles, as for example in NGC7023 (Lemaire et al. 1996), with $`\theta `$1Ori C and BN as sources in the present case. There is however strong circular polarization in the K-band continuum in the zone shown in Fig.2 (Chrysostomou et al. 2000). Those authors ascribed the origin of circular polarization to scattering from oblate grains oriented in magnetic fields. There is in fact striking spatial correlation, lying within the observational resolution of the circular polarization data, between the regions of strong circular polarization reported in Chrysostomou et al. 2000 and the continuum emission seen in Fig.2 and at other positions throughout the SE and ESE images. If we include the linear polarization data of Geng 1993, then effectively in all regions in which continuum emission is observed, either circular or linear polarized K-band radiation may be found. This lends strong support to the hypothesis that the observed diffuse emission in the continuum is due to scattering from dust. According to Chrysostomou et al. 2000, the source of illumination is not the Trapezium stars, but is intrinsic to OMC1 through some unidentified source.

Weak \[FeII\] emission is present for example in the region shown in Fig.2 (Schultz et al.1999) and most likely arises from photoionization and excitation by $`\theta `$1Ori C in the HII plasma as suggested in Schultz et al. 1999. In this model, \[FeII\] emission is projected over the K-band continuum emission discussed above.

### 3.2 Analysis of small scale structures

V2001 gave the first clear indication that the size distribution of hot H2 clumps in Orion was not fractal, using data for a small region of OMC1, 12.8”$`\times `$12.8”, in the southern part of the ESE region of the present work. In order to analyze the global nature of small scale structure, V2001 used area-perimeter, Fourier, brightness histogram (Blitz&Williams 1997) and direct measurement analyses. All techniques revealed that structure observed in v=1-0 S(1) H2 emission was not fractal and all yielded the same preferred scale size. Here we choose the brightness histogram method for its simplicity and ease of interpretation.

In brief, this method involves counting in the original image the number of pixels N(Bn), binned into some small normalized brightness range, as a function of the pixel normalized brightness, Bn. Bn is defined as the value of brightness in any pixel divided by the value in the brightest pixel in the image. The resolution of the image is then degraded by boxcar averaging over some chosen number of pixels on a square and a new set of N(Bn) and Bn calculated. This process is repeated, successively degrading the resolution of the image. Plots of N(Bn)/NTot vs. Bn, where NTot is the total number of pixels, yield a set of curves which remain unchanged for an image with no preferred scale, that is, a fractal image, as the resolution of the image is degraded. By contrast, for an image with a preferred scale, such plots should change in form as the resolution is degraded to the point at which any preferred scale has been washed out. Beyond this critical smoothing, the form of such plots should remain constant, mimicking a fractal. The amplitude of the critical smoothing is a direct measure of the preferred range of scale in the image. In all cases stars were masked out in the images before the brightness histogram analysis was performed.

A brightness histogram analysis for the ESE image in H2 is shown in Fig.6. We estimate that the preferred scale for regions of excited H2 is encountered when averaging is performed over 90$`\pm `$5$`\times `$90$`\pm `$5 pixels, that is, at a scale of 2.4$`\pm `$0.14” (1075 AU). An exactly similar analysis on the SE region, that is, to the west of TCC016 in Fig.1, yields a preferred scale of 1.2$`\pm `$0.14” (540 AU). If we choose a region which samples approximately equally both the ESE and SE regions and perform a brightness histogram analysis, we encounter two scales present together, of 2.4” and 1.2”. We conclude therefore that the ESE region contains clumps of material of about twice the scale of the material in the SE region, with a well-defined demarcation between them. The same analysis has been applied to the image in the continuum, shown in Fig.2. This yields a scale of 2.15$`\pm `$0.28”. This indicates that dust, and by implication, cold unexcited gas in this region is clumped on the same scale as in the shocked southern region in ESE. The scale size, if one is present, of continuum emission in the SE region could not be determined using the technique described here, but is larger than 2.7 arcseconds. Data covering a more extensive field in OMC1 may yield information in the future.

The scale-size identified in V2001, for a subset of the ESE region, was 2.0$`\pm `$0.1”, in substantial agreement with the present work. As described in detail in V2001, the brightness of emission of H2 may be used in conjunction with C-type magnetic shock models to show that in bright emissions regions the dense gas, swept up by the shock, will achieve densities of several times 107 cm-3, as the post-shock gas cools to 10K. Related data for the v=2-1 S(1) emission line, discussed in K2003, show that densities may be locally even higher, exceeding 108 cm-3 in some regions. Our present estimates of clump size add weight to the conclusion in V2001, based upon Jeans length considerations, that sufficient gas has accumulated through shock induced compression to form gravitationally unstable clumps which are potential sites of star formation, in the ESE region. This shock-induced mechanism would not appear to be presently effective in hastening star-formation in the SE region, since we find that the clump masses are typically an order of magnitude smaller than in ESE and comprise no more than 0.01 to 0.02 M if we assume densities of $`<10^8\text{cm}^3`$ given the observed size of 1.2”. In connection with the interpretation of our data, results in G2003 appear to show that protostars may already have formed in certain of the zones very bright in H2 emission. In some regions we may therefore be observing the aftermath of very recent star formation rather than the period just prior to gravitational collapse.

###### Acknowledgements.

DF and MG acknowledge the support of the Aarhus Centre for Atomic Physics, funded by the Danish Basic Research Foundation. JLL and DR acknowledge support of the french PCMI program, funded by CNRS.


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# Comment faire fondre un cristal d’électrons bidimensionnel sous champ magnétique

## Abstract

C’est un phénomène connu de la vie quotidienne : si l’on augmente la température, la glace fond. Ceci est le paradigme d’une transition de phase solide-liquide, qu’on observe également dans d’autres matériaux : tout cristal fond à température suffisamment élevée. Or de telles transitions de phase existent aussi dans des structures moins bien connues à température zéro, où l’on fait varier un paramètre physique différent de la température. C’est le cas par exemple dans un système d’électrons dont le mouvement est contraint dans un plan sous champ magnétique perpendiculaire. Nous avons montré  qu’une partie de ces électrons peut faire une telle transition de phase solide-liquide. Le paramètre que l’on varie est le champ magnétique même, et l’on observe un phénomène étrange : quand on augmente le champ magnétique, un cristal d’électrons fond pour former un liquide électronique. Contrairement à notre intuition acquise par la fusion de la glace en la chauffant, les électrons liquides forment à nouveau un cristal si l’on augmente davantage le champ magnétique. Une telle alternance de phases en fonction du champ a été récemment observée dans des expériences par Eisenstein et al.  au California Institute of Technology.

1Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Bât. 510, UPS (associé au CNRS), F-91405 Orsay cedex, France.

2Département de Physique, Université de Fribourg, Pérolles, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.

Système d’électrons sans champ magnétique

Avant de décrire le comportement des électrons dans un plan - on parle d’un système d’électrons bidimensionnel (2D) - sous champ magnétique, nous discutons le cas sans champ, qui est plus simple et aussi plus intuitif. Un tel système se trouve par exemple dans les métaux, comme le fer et le cuivre, où les électrons peuvent bouger presque librement, et c’est pour cette raison que les métaux sont de bons conducteurs. Or les objet métalliques sont normalement des objets de notre monde, qui est tridimensionnel (3D). Où trouve-t-on donc des métaux 2D mis à part dans l’imagination de quelques physiciens théoriciens ? L’interface entre deux cristaux (semi-conducteurs) de composition différente en est un exemple. Contrairement à la partie volumique, les électrons sont libres à l’interface mais ne peuvent pas en sortir dans la direction perpendiculaire. Ceci constitue précisément un système d’électrons 2D.

Or quand on dit que ces électrons bougent librement dans le plan, ce n’est qu’à moitié vrai : à cause de leur charge électrique ils interagissent (a) entre eux et (b) avec les impuretés chargées du cristal sous-jacent, qui sont inévitablement présentes dans un échantillon réel. Si la densité d’électrons dans le plan est suffisamment basse, les électrons, chargés négativement, se trouvent plutôt à la position des impuretés de charge positive, puisque des particules de charge opposée s’attirent. Les électrons sont donc piégés par les impuretés. Comme la distance moyenne entre électrons est grande \- ce qui signifie précisement une basse densité -, les électrons n’interagissent que peu entre eux. A cause du piégeage des électrons, aucun courant ne peut être transporté, même si l’on applique une tension entre deux bords du plan. On a donc un isolant; une telle situation est esquissée dans la Fig. 1.

Si l’on augmente la densité électronique, on réduit la distance moyenne entre électrons. Il est donc impossible de négliger leur répulsion mutuelle, qui devient aussi importante, voire plus importante, que leur attraction par les impuretés. Nous négligeons pour le moment l’attraction par ces impuretés. Pour réduire au maximum leur répulsion coulombienne, c’est-à-dire pour s’éviter au maximum, les électrons forment une structure cristalline. La formation d’un tel cristal électronique fut proposée par E. P. Wigner en 1934 , et l’on parle désormais d’un cristal de Wigner quand on se réfère à un cristal d’électrons. Quel est maintenant l’effet des impuretés, qui attirent pourtant les électrons d’un tel cristal de Wigner ? Elles déforment localement le cristal sans trop affecter la structure globale si leur attraction est faible devant la répulsion entre électrons (Fig. 2). De plus, elles accrochent le cristal et empêchent qu’il ne glisse librement. On peut se représenter cette situation par une grille qu’on laisse glisser sur le sol. Si sa surface est bien lisse (e.g. un parquet), la grille glisse sans problème, mais son glissement est supprimé si le sol est rugueux comme c’est le cas pour un tapis. A cause de cette suppression du glissement d’un cristal électronique par les impuretés, aucun transport électronique n’est possible, et le système est à nouveau isolant.

Comment est-il donc possible de trouver des conducteurs dans la nature si les électrons ne peuvent pas bouger librement dans les matériaux ? Il faudrait un liquide d’électrons (Fig. 3), et non pas une phase cristalline ou une phase dans laquelle les électrons soient piégés individuellement par les impuretés pour réaliser un conducteur. C’est précisement le cas dans les métaux. Un tel liquide d’électrons se forme si l’on fait fondre la structure cristalline. Le mécanisme de fusion le plus intuitif est la fusion thermique comme la fusion de la glace : en augmentant la température, les électrons sont soumis à des chocs venant de l’extérieur. Ils sont donc déplacés de leur position initiale, et si l’on augmente la force des chocs (en augmentant d’avantage la température), ils ne reviennent plus à ces positions. C’est le moment où le cristal fond.

Mais les fluctuations thermiques ne sont pas les seules capables de faire fondre un cristal. Un autre mecanisme - moins connu - peut engendrer une telle fusion, même à température zéro, où l’on s’attendrait à trouver des structures cristallines à cause de l’absence de chocs thermiques. Or la mécanique quantique, qui a bouleversé notre compréhension de la nature au début du XXe siècle, nous a appris qu’on ne peut pas mesurer à la fois la position d’une particule et sa vitesse avec exactitude. Si $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ est la barre d’erreur que l’on fait en mesurant sa position, on ne peut mesurer la vitesse d’une particule avec une précision plus grande que $`\mathrm{\Delta }v`$. Les deux barres d’erreurs sont reliées par ce qu’on appelle la relation d’incertitude de Heisenberg

$$m\mathrm{\Delta }x\mathrm{\Delta }v>h,$$

$`m`$ est la masse de la particule et $`h`$ une des constantes fondamentales de la nature (constante de Planck). Il est clair que le concept du cristal est mis en cause par cette incertitude : nous avons dit que dans un cristal, les particules (ici, les électrons) ont une position bien déterminée à laquelle elles restent fixées. On devrait donc connaître à la fois leurs positions et leurs vitesses, ce qui serait en contradiction avec la relation d’incertitude. Est-il donc possible de trouver un cristal dans ces conditions ? Il existe pourtant des cristaux dans la nature, malgré la mécanique quantique. Pour sortir de ce dilemme, il suffit de permettre aux particules de bouger un peu autour de leurs positions dans le cristal sans trop s’en éloigner. Il y a ainsi une certaine probabilité de trouver la particule à un endroit dans le voisinage de sa position initiale, qui joue maintenant le rôle d’une position moyenne (Fig 4). La particule n’est donc plus représentée par un simple point mais par une distribution de probabilité, centrée autour de la position moyenne avec une certaine largeur $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$, qui est exactement la barre d’erreur de la relation de Heisenberg. Ce mouvement quantique, qui est présent également à température zéro - c’est pour cette raison qu’on parle aussi de fluctuations quantiques \- peut causer la formation d’un liquide électronique si la particule atteint avec une certaine probabilité un site voisin dans le cristal. Dans ce cas, l’extension spatiale de la fonction d’onde $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ est de l’ordre de la distance moyenne entre électrons $`d`$, qui est déterminée par la densité électronique. On peut donc faire fondre un cristal d’électrons non seulement en augmentant la température (fusion thermique) mais aussi à température zéro si l’on augmente la densité électronique (fusion quantique). C’est précisement le cas des métaux dans lesquels la densité électronique est tellement élevée qu’on ne trouve pas de phases cristallines, et c’est pour cette raison qu’ils sont de bons conducteurs.

Système d’électrons en présence d’un champ magnétique

La situation change quand on expose le système d’électrons 2D à un champ magnétique perpendiculaire. Avant de discuter le comportement d’un ensemble d’électrons avec les interactions décrites dans la partie précédente, regardons le cas d’un seul électron, qui entre avec une certaine vitesse dans le champ magnétique. Son mouvement, qui était linéaire en absence du champ, est maintenant soumis à la force de Lorentz : l’électron suit une trajectoire circulaire dans un plan perpendiculaire au champ magnétique (Fig. 5). Le rayon, dit cyclotron, de cette trajectoire circulaire dépend linéairement de la vitesse de l’électron, mais il est inversement proportionnel au champ magnétique. Cela signifie qu’on peut diminuer ce rayon en augmentant le champ. Dans le cas du système 2D dans lequel on injecte des électrons par le contact à gauche (courant $`I`$ dans la figure insérée dans la Fig. 6), cette déviation de l’électron a pour effet une augmentation de la densité électronique au bord inférieur et une réduction au bord supérieur. Ceci cause une tension mesurable entre ces bord et par conséquent une résistance $`R_H`$, dite de Hall. Cette résistance de Hall varie linéairement avec le champ magnétique (Fig. 6) et est inversement proportionnelle à la densité électronique. Cet effet, qui fut découvert par E. Hall en 1879, est encore utilisé aujourd’hui pour mesurer la densité de porteurs libres dans des métaux.

En 1980, un siècle après la découverte de Hall, une expérience de K. v. Klitzing, G. Dorda et M. Pepper a montré que la résistance de Hall à très basse température ne varie pas linéairement avec le champ magnétique mais que quelques valeurs de la résistance sont spéciales  : à certains champs, la résistance reste constante quand on varie légèrement le champ autour de cette valeur, ce qui donne lieu à des paliers dans la résistance de Hall autour de la courbe classique (courbe rouge dans la Fig. 6). La résistance est donc quantifiée, et c’est effectivement une conséquence de cette étrange mécanique quantique dont nous avons parlé dans la section précédente. La découverte de cet effet Hall quantique fut recompensée par le Prix Nobel, attribué à K. v. Klitzing en 1985.

Comment peut-on comprendre cet étrange comportement d’électrons dans le monde quantique - sans trop entrer dans la théorie compliquée de la mécanique quantique ? Nous avons déjà mentionné que l’électron est décrit par une fonction d’onde, qui donne la probabilité de le trouver à une certaine position. En présence d’un champ magnétique, cette fonction d’onde a la forme d’un anneau (Fig. 7) de rayon $`R_c`$. C’est une particularité de la mécanique quantique que ce rayon ne peut plus prendre n’importe quelle valeur mais seulement des valeurs $`R_c=l_B\sqrt{2n+1}`$, où $`n`$ est un entier. La longueur minimale $`l_B`$ joue le rôle de la constante fondamentale $`h`$ dans la relation d’incertitude, introduite en haut. Cela ressemble au cas d’un électron qui tourne dans un atome autour du noyau sur des orbites dont le rayon ne peut prendre que des valeurs précises. Ce cas - le modèle de Bohr - est peut-être plus familier pour le lecteur. Cette quantification du rayon d’orbite de l’électron a aussi pour conséquence que son énergie peut prendre uniquement certaines valeurs précises. Ceci est représenté par des niveaux d’énergie (Fig. 7, droite); toute valeur entre ces énergies est interdite aux électrons. Or chaque niveau contient un certain nombre ($`N_B`$) de places, qu’on appelle les états, dont chacune peut être occupée par un électron. Il est évident que le remplissage de ces niveaux est déterminé par le rapport $`N_{el}/N_B`$$`N_{el}`$ est le nombre d’électrons dans le système.

Regardons d’abord le cas où $`n`$ niveaux sont complètement remplis, et les niveaux supérieurs restent vides. Cela ressemble à une situation chimique : dans les gaz nobles, comme l’hélium ($`He`$), le néon ($`Ne`$) ou l’argone ($`Ar`$), les plus basses couches - elles ne sont pas autre chose que nos niveaux d’énergie - sont complètement remplies. Dans cette situation, les électrons peuvent être traités comme inertes, i.e. même s’ils sont présents, ils ne répondent pas au monde extérieur. C’est pour cette raison que les gaz nobles réagissent si peu avec d’autres éléments. La situation est exactement la même dans notre cas d’électrons soumis à un champ magnétique : les électrons dans un niveau complètement rempli n’influencent pas le comportement des électrons dans un autre niveau. Commençons maintenant à remplir partiellement un niveau supérieur (ce qui peut être effectué en abaissant le champ magnétique car celui-ci définit le nombre de places par niveau). Même si ces électrons n’interagissent pas avec les électrons dans les niveaux inférieurs, ils interagissent à nouveau entre eux avec les impuretés de l’échantillon. Le cas d’un système d’électrons sans champ se reproduit seulement pour les électrons du dernier niveau : à basse densité ces électrons sont piégés par les impuretés, et si l’on augmente leur nombre, ils forment un cristal à cause de leur répulsion (Figs. 1 et 2). Dans les deux cas, nous retrouvons un comportement isolant des électrons dans le niveau partiellement rempli, comme nous l’avons discuté dans la section précédente. Quand on varie le champ magnétique autour d’une valeur qui correspond à un nombre entier de niveaux complètement remplis, les propriétés de transport ne changent donc pas parce que les électrons qui peuplent un niveau supérieur sont isolants et ne contribuent pas au transport. Or les propriétes de transport sont précisément mesurées par la résistance, et c’est pour cette raison que la résistance de Hall ne change pas si l’on varie le champ magnétique autour de cette valeur. Ceci donne lieu à la formation d’un palier dans la résistance de Hall, qui est donc liée au comportement isolant d’électrons dans un niveau partiellement rempli - l’effet Hall quantique (Fig. 6).

Or nous avons vu qu’il y a aussi des phases liquides d’électrons, et l’on peut s’attendre également à les trouver dans un niveau partiellement rempli. On trouve effectivement de telles phases liquides dans le premier niveau excité, i.e. quand le plus bas niveau d’énergie est complètement rempli. Pour déterminer théoriquement quelle phase est réalisée à quel remplissage, nous avons comparé l’énergie des phases cristallines à celle des liquides; c’est la phase avec la plus basse énergie qui gagne . Nos résultats sont schématiquement montrés dans la figure 8 : on trouve des phases liquides dans le voisinage d’un remplissage $`1/5`$ et $`1/3`$ du dernier niveau (partie rouge). Ces phases sont entourées par des phases cristallines (partie bleue) dont celle autour d’un remplissage $`0.42`$ est particulière : il s’agit d’un cristal avec deux électrons par site. Nous soulignons un effet inattendu : en augmentant le remplissage et donc la densité électronique du dernier niveau, le cristal électronique fond d’abord, mais il est reconstitué si l’on augmente davantage la densité. Ceci se repète une fois. Pour se rendre compte à quel point cet effet est étrange, il faut s’imaginer la glace qui fond à température $`T=0^0`$C et qui regèlerait si l’on augmentait encore la température, disons à $`10^0`$C ! Or une telle situation arrive dans le cas d’un cristal électronique à cause des étrangetés de la mécanique quantique. Cette alternance de phases liquides et cristallines nous permet de comprendre une expérience récente d’Eisenstein et al. , qui ont mesuré la résistance de Hall dans ce régime de remplissage (courbe dans la Fig. 8). Ils ont montré qu’à faible remplissage, on trouve le palier dans cette résistance qui indique le comportement isolant des électrons dans le dernier niveau, comme nous l’avons discuté plus haut dans cette section. Autour des remplissages, pour lesquels nos calculs indiquent l’existence d’une phase liquide, cette résistance est abaissée : les électrons liquides sont donc conducteurs, conformément à nos attentes. Autour de demi-remplissage, les électrons sont à nouveau liquides mais l’origine de cette phase n’est pas encore complètement expliquée.

En conclusion, nous avons montré qu’il y a une alternance de phases cristallines et liquides en fonction du remplissage du dernier niveau d’énergie si le plus bas niveau est complètement rempli : en augmentant la densité d’électrons dans ce dernier niveau, on trouve d’abord une fusion du cristal électronique. Le liquide est formé autour d’un remplissage $`1/5`$ avant qu’on ne retrouve le cristal à plus haute densité. Ce serait aussi étrange que si l’eau, quand on augmente la température, se mettait à geler au lieu de bouillir. Ce phénomène est caractéristique de la mécanique quantique. Autour d’un remplissage de $`1/3`$, on retrouve une phase liquide qui se cristallise à nouveau autour de $`0.41`$, mais ce cristal contient deux électrons par site. Dans ce scénario, nous avons expliqué des expériences récentes.

Nous remercions Mathilde Lévêque pour sa contribution à l’essai de rendre compréhensible notre travail pour d’éventuels lecteurs qui n’ont pas de formation scientifique supérieure.

Dictionnaire

Propriétés de conduction :

(a) résistance : grandeur physique par laquelle on caractérise les propriétés de conduction électrique des matériaux. Elle est le rapport entre la tension $`U`$ et le courant $`I`$, $`R=U/I`$. Pour un conducteur, elle prend une valeur finie, tandis qu’elle devient infinie pour un isolant.
(b) résistance de Hall (ou : transversale) : résistance qu’on mesure à travers la tension entre deux bords opposés d’un échantillon rectangulaire quand on laisse passer un courant par les deux autres bords (figure insérée dans Fig. 6).
(c) effet Hall classique : la résistance de Hall varie linéairement avec le champ magnétique (ligne verte dans Fig. 6) et elle est inversement proportionnelle à la densité électronique.
(d) effet Hall quantique : apparition de paliers dans la résistance de Hall à basse température (ligne rouge dans Fig. 6); il est dû au comportement isolant des électrons dans le dernier niveau partiellement rempli.

Phases électroniques et transitions de phase:

Comme pour d’autres particules, on trouve les électrons dans de différents états qu’on appelle phases.
(a) phase désordonnée : les électrons se trouvent dans un état où il n’y a pas d’ordre. Si l’on connaît la position d’un électron, on ne peut rien dire sur la position des autres. En présence d’impuretés de charge positive, qui attirent les électrons, ils sont piégés et ne peuvent pas transporter de courant (isolant).
(b) phase cristalline (ou solide) : les électrons forment un cristal à cause de leur répulsion mutuelle. Si l’on connaît la position d’un électron, on peut déduire la position des autres dans le cas idéal. En présence d’impuretés chargées, ce cristal est accroché et donc isolant.
(c) phase liquide : les électrons bougent librement sans qu’il y ait un ordre qui permette de déduire la position de toutes les particules à partir de la position d’une seule. A cause du mouvement libre des électrons, cette phase est un conducteur.
(d) fusion thermique : transition de phase qui a lieu quand un cristal fond et forme un liquide quand on augmente la température.
(e) fusion quantique : même transition à température zéro quand on fait varier un paramètre physique différent de la température.

Rayon cyclotron $`R_c`$:

Rayon de la trajectoire circulaire d’une particule chargée dans un champ magnétique; il est proportionnel à la vitesse de la particule et inversement proportionnel au champ magnétique. (a) classique : $`R_c`$ peut prendre n’importe quelle valeur; (b) quantique : $`R_c=l_B\sqrt{2n+1}`$ ne peut prendre que des valeurs avec $`n`$ entier (en termes d’une longueur minimale $`l_B=\sqrt{h/2\pi eB}`$).

Relation d’incertitude de Heisenberg :

Relation fondamentale de la mécanique quantique qui constate qu’on ne peut pas mesurer avec exactitude à la fois la position et la vitesse d’une particule. (Il y a d’autres grandeurs physiques dont la mesure est contrainte par une telle relation.)

Niveaux d’énergie :

En mécanique quantique, l’énergie d’un système physique (ici : système d’électrons) ne peut souvent prendre que des valeurs discrètes (quantification de l’énergie). Ces valeurs définissent les niveaux d’énergie, qui peuvent contenir plusieurs places (états). Ces places sont soit vides, soit remplies chacune exactement par un électron (principe de Pauli). C’est précisément le cas des électrons dans un champ magnétique $`B`$, dont l’énergie est quantifiée en niveaux équidistants qui contiennent chacun $`N_BB`$ places. Le remplissage de ces niveaux est déterminé par le rapport $`N_{el}/N_B`$, où $`N_{el}`$ est le nombre total d’électrons dans le système.


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# INTRODUCTION

## INTRODUCTION

The representation of fundamental processes in the theory of elementary particles proceeds mainly by means of the so-called Feynman diagrams. this is the case, for instance, for the gauge theories (QED, Weak interactions, QCD), Higgs scalars, and others. These diagrams, as is well-known, are drawn on a plane, on which different kinds of lines represent the various elementary particles entering the interactions. Therefore (see Appendix), they are similar to the maps of different countries which have given rise to the well-known four-color map theorem (K. Appel & W. Haken, 1977) .

We shall say that “normal maps”, as defined by Kempe , summarize the set of rules in terms of vertices, planarity, boundaries of adjacent countries, number of neighbors and so on. Coloring those countries, demands that two countries with an adjacent border must have different colors. And the fact that four colors are always enough to color any normal map is the Appel-Haken four-color theorem.

In the present paper we shall consider the case of countries that represent a planar self-energy of an electron, in QED with any number of photons emitted and then reabsorbed, forming the photon cloud of the physical electron. This is a spinor quantum electro-dynamics problem. The rules are, for the most important: energy conservation, electric charge conservation and Furry’s theorem (which stems from the properties of Clifford algebra. In other words from the algebra of a Dirac gamma-matrices in four dimensions). The grammar is more restrictive, and therefore simplifies the problem of coloring the countries, the borders of which are both photon and electron lines (resp. wavy and full lines).

In a first section, we shall examine the case when the electron line only emits and reabsorbs photons in a planar way. This fundamental case will be called the “rainbow case”. The various colors will refer to the numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4. It will be shown that such a configuration needs only four colors for the represented countries. Then in a second section, we consider the inclusions of fermion loops: vacuum polarization, scattering of light by light, generally electron–positron boxes with interaction of any even number of photons. It will be shown that those inclusions will not destroy the result of the first section, the rainbow case. We conclude therefore that the four-color map theorem for coloring the regions of an electron self-energy planar diagram in spinor quantum electrodynamics is confirmed without the use of a computer.

### Addendum to the Introduction:

As a warm up exercise, the interested reader can try to color diagrams of the planar $`\phi ^4`$-theory, and find that only two colors are enough in order to color the regions of any diagrams.

## 1 RAINBOW CASE

We start by dealing with the electron self-energy case in QED planar theory. That is, the electron emits $`n`$ photons which are all reabsorbed when reaching the final state. Planarity means that photons-lines do not cross and we are therefore in the so-called ‘rainbow’ case. We shall not enter in this note into the technicalities of rainbow diagrams. Several exhaustive investigations have been made in various cases .

We draw an horizontal fermion line (full line) and cross this line vertically by a cut in its middle. If a total of $`n`$ ‘photons’ lines (wavy lines), are exchanged from one side of the cut to the other side and if the cut is ‘maximal’ (in other words if all emitted photons cross the cut before being reabsorbed), there will be $`C_{n\kappa }^n`$ combinations for the emission of $`n\kappa `$ lines in the upperhalf plane and $`\kappa `$ lines in the lower half plane. Similarly, $`C_{n\kappa }^n`$ ways of absorbing these photons lines.

We call this the ‘maximal rainbows’ at order $`n`$. As it is well known in the theory of Feynman diagrams, there are also rainbow of order $`n`$ ($`n`$ wavy lines) which are not maximal. They have, along the electron line, between the emission or absorption of two photons lines of the main rainbow, on each side of the cut, some so called ‘subrainbows’ with $`\mathrm{}`$ photons lines. These subrainbows have the same properties as the maximals but are of the order $`\mathrm{}`$ . To analyse them, if it is not evident to the reader, one can also define subcuts for them and the results follows with $`\mathrm{}`$ instead of $`n`$ lines. The combinatorics, in those case, is trivial and we leave the alert reader to verify it.111The case of a subrainbow connected to another subrainbow only by the electron line and no photon line is not considered. By cutting the electron line between the rainbows one is led to two disconnected diagrams.

The above consideration allow ourselves to formulate the following theorem:

Theorem: In the pure rainbow case (no electron loops), for every planar configuration, at any $`n`$, the partition of colors can be the following: colors 1 and 3 for the upper half-plane; 2 and 4 for the lower half plane. If follows that four colors are always enough to color the rainbow configurations of an electron self-energy. Two adjacent regions will always have borders with different colors on each side. The trick is to start with color 1 upside the most upper photon line. Then alternating with color 3, once the photon boundary of this upper region is crossed. Since photon lines do not cross (planarity), one always ends with colors 1 or 3 along the electron line boundary.

## 2 THE INSERTIONS OF PLANAR FERMION BOXES IN THE RAINBOW DIAGRAMS

The rainbows diagrams dealt with in Section 1 are subject of corrections due to the insertions of planar electron boxes (ex. vacuum polarization, scattering of light by light, hexagons …). The electron lines of these boxes are in turn, corrected by rainbows themselves containing boxes and so on until the maximum order is reached, order which can tend to infinity. Finding a rule of coloration for all kind of boxes inserted in a rainbow diagram, say the maximal rainbow at order $`s<n`$, such that this corrected rainbow is of order $`n`$, will give the rule for the corrections (photons propagators, boxes of all sizes) to the boxes insertions themselves by recursion.

This rule of coloration stems fundamentally from a property of Clifford algebra in four-dimensions: the algebra of Dirac $`\gamma `$-matrices. For each electron box, corresponds a Trace of the product of $`\gamma `$-matrices. It turns out to be identically zero, if the number of $`\gamma `$’s is odd. Therefore, only boxes with an even number of sides survive. This is all we need in order to show that boxes’ insertions in any simple rainbow diagrams do not need more then four colors. Indeed, suppose we are dealing with a rainbow in the lower half-plane. The boxeshaving only an even number of neighbors, if we alternate for this rainbow the colors 2 and 4, a single box insertion, with color 1 and inside photon corrections with colors 1 and 3 alternating, will provide, trivially, configurations with no two adjacent neighbors with the same color. The box internal photon rainbows corrections, are of colors 1 and 3, whereas the external photon rainbows corrections to the box will be of colors 2 and 4 (the same alternating colors as the lower half-plane rainbows). Finally the insertion of further (or several) box(es) inside the box-corrections themselves, will alternate with the other pair of colors 2 and 4 and so on and so forth222It is easy to notice the self-similarity of the corrections at all scales, from which is derived the recursive procedure. By all scales, we mean dominant, sub-dominant, sub-sub-dominant and so on (see also Section 3).. All the previous properties aredue to the main fact that no boxes with odd neighbors will ever appear. This fact spots the crucial difference between the general geographic case of Appel and Haken, and the planar Feynman diagrams for quantum electrodynamics. It explains that the constraints of an additional grammar-rule (no odd neighbors countries to boxes) to the general ‘normal case’ for drawing countries, makes the problem so considerably simpler, that it can be dealt with, without recourse to the computer’s aid. The way used to color any planar spinor Q.E.D. self-energy diagrams uses a systematic alternance of pairs of colors (1, 3) and (2, 4) and provides the rule of coloring we were looking for. That is:

Theorem: four colors are sufficient in order to color any planar electron self-energy diagram in spinor quantum electrodynamics.

## 3 CONCLUSIONS AND REMARKS

Why only planar graphs have been considered in this paper is self-evident. Non-planar diagrams have indeed parts in common in the plane and are therefore meaning less for the color-problem we have investigated. The restriction to planar diagrams (here the self-energy) does nevertheless have a link with physical situations. An example is discussed in  for a $`(\stackrel{}{\varphi }^2)^2`$ field theory with O(N) symmetry. One sees that, in the calculations of the critical exponents, the leading and subheading terms in a 1/N expansion are all planar. The same happens when considering a field theory, involving one scalar field an N massless Dirac fermion-fields $`\psi ^i`$ and $`\stackrel{}{\psi }^i`$ coupled via a Yukawa type interaction. And then performing a 1/N expansion.

Here, however, our aim was simply to figure out a non trivial example where maps (here Feynman diagrams) need four colors and are sufficient to avoid two countries with the same color on each side of the border which separates them. As emphasized, the grammar for the drawing of countries is more restrictive:

* No odd-sized fermion polygons;
* Two kinds of borders: fermions (full lines) and photons (wavy lines);
* All vertices of order three, with two fermion-lines and one photon lines ending at these vertices.

The proof proceeds by recursion, since the same patterns of diagrams, reduced in scale, always appear at a lower level, showing a patent self-similarity. Physically this can be translated in the following way: each particle has a virtual accompanying cloud which surrounds it as it propagates. And each of the virtual particles in the cloud also drags along, its own virtual cloud and so on ad infinitum. Paraphrasing R. Péter , recursion is based on the same thing happening on several different levels at once.

Appendix

As we said in the Introduction, in physics (especially in field theory) it is well known that the representation of interactions between elementary particles can be visualized by means of the so-called Feynman diagrams. For a given process, described by Green functions, the usual way of calculating its contribution is to use perturbation expansions in terms of a given interaction density Lagrangian, which characterizes the theory one is dealing with. One of the most popular examples is spinor Quantum Electrodynamics (QED for short) for which the Lagrangian is eu\*Au with u the electron field and A the photon field vector product with Dirac matrices (4-dimensional). If one wants to draw all conceivable Feynman diagrams corresponding to a given process to the perturbative order n, the standard method is the derivation of all these diagrams from a generating functional W(Ji) (Ji being the sources of the various particles)(Ref. ). W(Ji) is obtained as the logarithm of the partition functional Z(Ji). This method is described with full details in all quantum field theory textbooks, so we shall not develop it here. Our main interest in this note is coloring planar Feynman diagrams according to Tait’s method of coloring edges of a diagram. This means that at each cubic vertex corresponding to a given process to the perturbative order n, the three edges segments starting from this vertex are of different colors, three colors having been fixed once for all (Ref.) . The generating functional, when expanded in powers of the coupling (e in the case of QED), will give rise, as already said, to all possible cubic diagrams at each order n. But here, we are, for evident reasons, only interested in planar diagrams of which we want to color the facets (countries). So we must first proceed to a filtering and eliminate a plethora of non-planar and improper diagrams which are of no interest for our scope. The residue of this filtering will provide all conceivable diagrams and can be shown to be topologically equivalent to all conceivable geographical cubic maps. By Wick ordering and contractions (contractions give rise to propagators (=edges)), and since at each vertex three different colors meet, all the edges are 3-colored according to Tait’s coloring; and from this, the Petersen conjecture on hamiltonian paths and disjoint even subcircuits (Ref.) is also demonstrated. This conjecture is equivalent to the 4-color problem. This proof has already been done in the case of QED, using straightforward methods. But according to the present note, is valid for any cubic geographical map. In conclusion, the Feynman diagrams of QED have the crucial advantage, over other methods of coloring maps, that one can always follow the path of the electric charge, which is a conserved quantity. Thus, deleting all wavy lines (photons), one is dealing with the fermionic motion of the charge, which is a hamiltonian circuit or a collection of mutually disjoint even subcircuits. And this is the Petersen condition for the 4-color map theorem to hold.