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# A phase-dependent absorption line in the spectrum of the X-ray pulsar RX J0720.4$-$3125Based on observations with XMM-Newton, an ESA Science Mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member states and the USA (NASA)

## 1 Introduction

The soft X-ray source RX J0720.4$-$3125 was discovered in the ROSAT all-sky survey data by Haberl et al. (1997). The detection of 8.39 s sinusoidal pulsations in the X-ray flux, its black-body-like spectrum with little interstellar absorption and the identification with a faint blue optical star (Motch & Haberl 1998; Kulkarni & van Kerkwijk 1998; Kaplan et al. 2003; Motch et al. 2003) classified this object as a nearby isolated neutron star. It is the second brightest of a group of seven, maybe eight, radio quiet (recently stringent limits were obtained for RX J0720.4$-$3125 and RX J0806.4$-$4123, Johnston 2003) and X-ray dim isolated neutron stars (XDINs; for a recent review see Haberl 2003).

The available low-resolution X-ray spectra obtained by ROSAT from XDINs were all consistent with Planckian energy distributions of temperatures kT in the range 40 – 100 eV and little attenuation by interstellar absorption. More recent observations of RX J0720.4$-$3125 and the brightest object RX J1856.4$-$3754 were performed using the low energy transmission grating spectrometer (LETGS) aboard Chandra and the reflection grating spectrometers (RGSs) of XMM-Newton. Also at high spectral resolution both sources show no significant narrow features in their spectra which can best be modeled by a Planckian spectrum (Paerels et al. 2001; Burwitz et al. 2001) or a modified Planckian spectrum (Burwitz et al. 2003). In particular the high signal to noise LETGS spectrum from a 500 ks Chandra observation of RX J1856.4$-$3754 did not reveal any significant deviation from a smooth continuum spectrum (Burwitz et al. 2003). The statistical quality and energy band coverage of the LETGS and RGS spectra of RX J0720.4$-$3125 are, however, insufficient to detect broad and shallow features in the spectrum.

Cyclotron resonance absorption features in the 0.1–1.0 keV band can be expected in spectra from magnetized neutron stars with field strengths in the range of $`10^{10}`$$`10^{11}`$ G or 2$`\times 10^{13}`$–2$`\times 10^{14}`$ G if caused by electrons or protons, respectively. The X-ray pulsar RBS1223 was the first XDIN for which a significant narrow-band deviation (at $``$300 eV, equivalent width –150 eV, width $``$100 eV) from a Planckian spectrum was discovered (Haberl et al. 2003, hereafter H03). This absorption feature was discussed in terms of proton cyclotron resonance scattering in a magnetic field of (2–6)$`\times 10^{13}`$ G.

H03 also suggested that changes in the soft part of the X-ray spectrum of the pulsar RX J0720.4$-$3125 with pulse phase reported by Cropper et al. (2001, hereafter C01), are caused by variable cyclotron absorption. In this paper we present the results from a spectral analysis of XMM-Newton data on the isolated neutron star RX J0720.4$-$3125. The observed spectra show a broad absorption feature which varies with pulse phase. We discuss this in the framework of proton cyclotron resonance or atomic line transitions in a strong magnetic field.

## 2 XMM-Newton observations

The X-ray pulsar RX J0720.4$-$3125 was observed with XMM-Newton (Jansen et al. 2001) on five occasions. Here we utilize the data collected with the European Photon Imaging Cameras (EPICs) which provide medium energy-resolution X-ray spectra. The cameras are based on MOS (EPIC-MOS1 and -MOS2, Turner et al. 2001) and pn (EPIC-pn, Strüder et al. 2001) CCD technology and are mounted in the focal plane of the three X-ray multi-mirror systems (Aschenbach et al. 2000). Simultaneous high spectral resolution data were obtained with the Reflection Grating Spectrometers (den Herder et al. 2001). The details of the XMM-Newton observations are summarized in Table 1. We do not use the last observation because EPIC-pn was operated in SW read-out mode (less well calibrated at low energies) and with the thick filter. During the first observation the EPIC instruments suffered from strong background flares which were screened out leaving only 36 ks (pn) and 39 ks (MOS) which were used for the spectral analysis. From the other three observations all the data was used.

In processing and preparation of the observational data and model fitting of the spectra we followed H03 (using an extraction radius of 40″ for the EPIC data). We used the same version of the XMM-Newton analysis software SAS and calibration files.

## 3 Pulse-phase averaged spectra

### 3.1 Combined XMM-Newton spectra

H03 reported the analysis of the XMM-Newton spectra of RBS1223. They could not find satisfactory fits using a simple black-body model, non-magnetic neutron star atmosphere models with different element abundances or two black-body components with different temperatures. An acceptable fit was found with a broad absorption line included in the black-body model. In the following analysis of the spectra of RX J0720.4$-$3125 we find very similar residuals when comparing the measured spectra to the simple absorbed black-body model. We therefore also include a Gaussian-shaped absorption line in the modeling of the spectra of RX J0720.4$-$3125. To account for cross-calibration problems between the different instruments we allow the black-body temperature to be fit individually to each spectrum but fit the absorption column density as single free parameter to all sixteen XMM-Newton spectra simultaneously. Similarly, all three parameters of the absorption line (energy, width and normalization) were fit to all spectra simultaneously. The results for both models are reported in Table 2. The line at 271 eV is relatively broad with a width of $`\sigma `$ = 64 eV. The line equivalent width (EW) is about $``$40 eV111All values for EW are obtained with the spectral fitting package XSPEC version 11.2.0., less prominent as measured in the spectra of RBS1223 with EW = $``$150 eV (H03). The XMM-Newton spectra of RX J0720.4$-$3125 together with the best fit models are shown in Fig. 1.

The deviation from a Planckian shape is highly significant as can be seen from the improvement in the $`\chi ^2`$ values (Table 2) when an absorption line is included ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2`$=683 for 3 additional parameters in the fits to the spectra of the EPIC-pn instrument which is most sensitive at energies below 300 eV). In Fig. 2 the incident photon spectrum is shown (for clarity only the summed EPIC-pn spectrum from the three thin filter observations is plotted). This presentation better visualizes the absorption feature as compared to Fig. 1 where the detector response at energies below 500 eV (with relatively bad energy resolution and strong energy redistribution into lower detector channels due to electron losses in the surface layers of the detector) smears out the intrinsically broad feature.

### 3.2 A problem in the spectral calibration?

Paerels et al. (2001) presented a black-body fit to the EPIC-pn spectrum of RX J0720.4$-$3125 obtained from the observation in May 2000. Residuals around 300 eV were attributed to uncertainties in the filter transmission data. However, the modeling was based on early spectral response calibration data and RX J0720.4$-$3125 was the only XDIN observed with XMM-Newton at that time. In addition to RX J0720.4$-$3125 and RX J1856.4$-$3754 four XDINS are now observed with XMM-Newton, partly several times and different instrumental setup and we have access to all the data. The spectral modeling of the spectra is in progress and revealed significant deviations from a Planckian shape for RBS1223 (H03), RX J0720.4$-$3125 (as presented here) and RX J1605.3+3249 (van Kerkwijk 2004).

The best quality X-ray spectrum of any XDIN was obtained from RX J1856.4$-$3754 with the Chandra LETGS. It is well described by a Planckian model222As discussed in Burwitz et al. (2003) the broad-band spectrum of RX J1856.4$-$3754 is even better modeled by a modified black-body spectrum of the form $`E^\beta \times B_\nu `$ ($`B_\nu `$ is the Planck function). We note that the spectral deviations of RX J0720.4$-$3125 discussed in this paper are found in a relatively narrow energy band in contrast to the smooth wide-band modification caused by the power-law component $`E^\beta `$ which mainly changes the black-body parameters. and can be used as a calibration reference for the soft X-ray band. Black-body fits to the EPIC-pn spectrum of RX J1856.4$-$3754, using the same instrument calibration as for RX J0720.4$-$3125 are fully acceptable, with deviations less than 5% at all energies below 1 keV333See the presentation by M. Kirsch at
http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es/external/xmm\_user\_support/usersgroup/ 20030331/presentations.shtml. For clarity and better comparison with RX J0720.4$-$3125 we show the EPIC-pn spectrum of RX J1856.4$-$3754 with best black-body fit in Fig. 3. The residuals in the black-body fit to the spectra of RX J0720.4$-$3125 (Fig. 1) clearly show a strong systematic behavior, which is not seen in the case of RX J1856.4$-$3754. Hence, we conclude that the deviations from a Planckian shape revealed in the EPIC-pn spectra of RX J0720.4$-$3125 are not caused by calibration uncertainties. In addition, the strength of the observed feature varies with pulse phase (see Sect. 4).

However, as can be seen from Table 2, there are still cross-calibration problems between the different instruments which cause systematic uncertainties larger than the statistical errors. The EPIC-MOS spectra are barely consistent to each other at low energies and there seems to be a systematic difference between the residuals of the model fit for thin and medium filter spectra (medium filter spectra better agree with those of EPIC-pn down to 200 eV). We excluded therefore the MOS data below 300 eV in the spectral analysis. The EPIC-pn spectra are in large agreement with each other, although those obtained from the last two observations yield significantly higher black-body temperatures. These temperature differences are caused by apparent gain variations by up to 3% at energies below 1 keV which were measured in emission line spectra of supernova remnants (routine calibration targets to monitor the energy scale) and the instrumental Oxygen K-edge energy determined from strong sources with flat continuum spectra444See the presentation by F. Haberl at
ftp://epic3.xra.le.ac.uk/pub/cal-pv/meetings/tuebingen-2003-02. The origin of this effect is not well understood and can presently not be corrected for. Gain variations shift the spectral part above 500 eV which results in the temperature change, while the spectrum below 500 eV, which determines the NH (and where the deviations from a black-body model are seen), is practically unaffected (allowing NH to vary in the EPIC-spectra yields values consistent within the errors). To account for the gain variations we therefore allowed kT to vary between the spectra. The somewhat higher flux555Errors on the pn fluxes are 7$`\times 10^{14}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 derived from the revolution 175 spectrum may be caused by reduced pile-up losses (see Sect. 3.3).

### 3.3 Pile-up in the EPIC spectra

Bright sources observed with X-ray CCD detectors can be subject to pile-up effects. If the read-out is not sufficiently fast, two or more photons may deposit charge in one or few neighboring CCD pixels during the exposure of a single read-out frame. The energy of the detected event will then be the sum of the energies of the original photons. Therefore pile-up hardens a continuum spectrum. RX J0720.4$-$3125 was observed by the EPIC-pn in full frame mode which provides pile-up free spectra for count rates below $``$6 cts s-1. As can be seen from the count rates listed in Table 1 the EPIC-pn spectra are somewhat affected by pile-up. This probably explains the residuals in the model fits at energies above $``$800 eV (Fig. 1). Also the EPIC-pn spectrum obtained with medium filter (which reduces the total count rate) shows the lowest pn-derived black-body temperature and the highest flux (lowest flux losses).

Pile-up occurs predominantly in the center of the point spread function (PSF) where the probability is highest that two photons are recorded in the same pixel within a single read-out frame. The SAS task ‘epatplot’ can be used to visualize the pile-up effects on the spectrum. The main effect on very soft spectra like those of XDINs is a spectral hardening which leads to a somewhat higher black-body temperature and to some flux-loss when using single-pixel events only. In the case of RX J0720.4$-$3125 we excluded the inner area of the PSF with 20″ in radius (15″ for the medium filter observation with lower count rate) to obtain practically pile-up free spectra. The disadvantage of this procedure is in reduction of the number of extracted counts by a factor of 7.3 (4.0 in the medium filter case). The statistics becomes almost insufficient to investigate the deviations from a black-body spectrum and therefore, we fixed the line energy and width at the values derived in Table 2. Table 3 summarizes the black-body model parameters inferred from the pile-up free EPIC-pn spectra. The derived temperatures are typically 3 eV lower than those obtained from the spectra not corrected for pile-up effects. The column density derived for both cases is consistent within the errors. There is again a significant difference in temperature between the first and last two spectra. However, at the current status of the calibration it is not clear if this is a long-term systematic effect.

### 3.4 Comparison with other instruments

Chandra observed RX J0720.4$-$3125 in February 2000 with the LETGS for a total of $``$38 ks (observation IDs 368, 369 and 745). The LETGS spectrum was found to be consistent with a black-body model with kT $``$80 eV and absorption column density $``$1.7$`\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 (Pavlov et al. 2002). We re-analyzed these data and obtained kT = 82.5$`\pm `$4.0 eV and NH = (1.5$`\pm `$0.5)$`\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 for a single black-body model. To verify that the LETGS spectrum is also consistent with the presence of an absorption feature we added a Gaussian-shaped line, with parameters as derived from the XMM-Newton spectra, to the black-body model. The fit results for both models, with and without line, are listed in Table 2. The statistical quality of the LETGS spectrum is clearly insufficient to discriminate between the models (Fig. 5). The column density inferred from the combined fit to the XMM-Newton spectra is significantly lower than the LETGS value. Allowing individual values of NH for the three XMM-Newton instruments (all other parameters in model B are treated as described in Table 2) results in NH/$`10^{20}`$ cm-2 = 1.23$`\pm `$0.07, 0.66$`\pm `$0.30 and 0.73$`\pm `$0.30 for EPIC-pn, -MOS and RGS, respectively, revealing still cross-calibration uncertainties. The EPIC-pn value is in best agreement with the LETGS value which is probably because the LETGS spectrum of RX J1856.4$-$3754 was used for calibration of the low-energy spectral response of EPIC-pn.

## 4 Pulse-phase variations

Because of the highest sensitivity, better time resolution (Table 1) and full line coverage we investigate only EPIC-pn spectra in our pulse-phase spectroscopic study. In the 0.12-1.2 keV energy band the pulse profile of RX J0720.4$-$3125 is nearly sinusoidal. We fitted a sine wave to the folded light curves obtained from the EPIC-pn data in this band to determine the pulsed fraction. An example is shown in Fig. 6. The pulsed fraction (after background correction) is around 11%. Pulse periods and pulsed fractions inferred from the four EPIC-pn data sets are listed in Table 4. The presented pulse periods are used here to extract the phase-resolved spectra and we refer for a more detailed temporal analysis to Cropper et al. (2004). The smaller pulsed fraction found in the revolution 175 data collected with medium filter (which more strongly absorbs low-energy photons), suggests an energy dependence of the pulse profile. To investigate this further we determined the pulsed fraction as a function of energy as plotted in Fig. 7. We combined the data from the three thin filter observations assuming a period change of 5$`\times 10^{14}`$ s s-1 (Zane et al. 2002) when folding the data. There is an indication that the pulsed fraction is larger below $``$400 eV compared to that at higher energies. We note here that due to the strong re-distribution at low energies the data points below 400 eV are not statistically independent (as discussed in Sect. 3.1 and demonstrated in panel “e” of Fig. 1). Also, this approach is not sensitive to changes in the folded light curves related to the shape of the pulse profiles. In the next step we therefore regard only two energy bands below and above 400 eV. In Fig. 8 the two light curves are plotted together with their ratio (hardness ratio). A dependence of the hardness ratio on pulse phase was first reported by C01. At energies above 400 eV the pulse peak becomes broader and more flat-topped. This results in a hardness ratio minimum near the intensity maximum and two (asymmetric) hardness ratio maxima at the flanks of the intensity peak. A $`\chi ^2`$ test for constancy of the hardness ratio yields a reduced value $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ = 4.6 (for 29 degrees of freedom). The corresponding probability that the hardness ratio is constant is extremely low: 2.5$`\times 10^{15}`$.

We divided the pulse into four phase intervals of equal length in order to investigate the X-ray spectrum as function of pulse phase. The intervals cover the intensity minimum, the rise, the intensity maximum and the decline of the pulse. The latter phase interval is centered at the hardness ratio maximum derived from the EPIC-pn data. Compared to the approach above, spectral modeling has the advantage that the spectral response (energy resolution, re-distribution) is taken into account. However, for statistical reasons only a small number of phase bins can be investigated. The sixteen phase-selected spectra (from four observational data sets) were fit again simultaneously with the model including an absorption line. Because of the reduced statistics the line width was fixed at 64 eV as obtained from the phase-averaged spectra.

To verify if the hardness ratio variations can be caused by changes in the absorption line parameters we fit the column density simultaneously as a single free parameter to all sixteen spectra. The energy of the line (kept equal for the spectra from the same phase interval) and the black-body temperature (for all spectra) were allowed to be fit individually. The resulting fit parameters are summarized in Table 5. The spectra from “soft” and “hard” phases (as defined in Table 5) are presented in Fig. 5. No significant shift of the line energy between the two phase intervals is seen. The depth of the line varies strongly, which results in an EW during the “soft” phase (around intensity maximum) about a factor of two smaller than that during the “hard” phase (at the end of the declining part of the pulse). At the same time, there is a 2-3 eV increase in the black-body temperature found during the intensity maximum. At this phase the softening due to reduced line absorption dominates the spectral hardening caused by increased temperature and yields the hardness ratio minimum.

To see if the variations in the line depth are really required to account for the spectral changes, we forced the line depth to be a single fit parameter, kept the same for all four phase intervals. This results in a fit with $`\chi ^2`$/dof = 2394/1970 in comparison to 2267/1967 with free variation in line depth (Table 5). Comparison of the two models using an F-test yields a probability of 4.3$`\times 10^{23}`$ that the line depth is not variable. Allowing variations in column density NH instead of variable absorption line (depth and energy are constant with phase) yields $`\chi ^2`$/dof = 2336/1970 with reduced NH during “soft” phase as was already reported by C01. Also for this case the F-test probability of 9.7$`\times 10^{13}`$ strongly favors the model with variable line depth. Our new results show that the model with phase-dependent absorption line yields the best description of the phase-resolved spectra of RX J0720.4$-$3125.

## 5 Discussion

From a thorough spectral analysis of four XMM-Newton observations of the isolated neutron star RX J0720.4$-$3125 we find deviations in the spectra from a Planckian shape, similar to those reported by H03 for RBS1223. A model consisting of a black-body continuum attenuated by photo-electric absorption and an absorption line yields acceptable fits to the XMM-Newton spectra and is also consistent with the Chandra LETGS spectrum currently available from RX J0720.4$-$3125. From the pulse-phase averaged spectra we derive a line energy of 271 eV, $`\sigma `$ = 64 eV and EW = $``$40 eV, for a Gaussian-shaped line. These absolute values may still be subject to systematic uncertainties larger than the statistical errors due to cross-calibration problems of the different instruments used for our analysis, but relative changes of model parameters, e.g. with pulse phase, could be determined to high accuracy.

Hardness ratio variations with the pulse phase from RX J0720.4$-$3125 were already reported by C01, indicating spectral variations. When formally fit with an absorbed black-body model the spectrum near intensity maximum with lower hardness ratio yields a reduced NH compared to phases around hardness ratio maximum. C01 suggested that this could be explained by energy-dependent beaming effects. Alternatively, they discuss variable absorption by matter captured by and rotating with the magnetosphere of the neutron star. Taking into account the absorption line revealed in the phase-averaged spectra we find that the modulation of the hardness ratio with pulse phase can be better explained by variations in the absorption line depth which lead to changes in the line EW by about a factor of two. During pulse rise and at intensity maximum, where we see a hardness ratio minimum, the absorption line is weakest. The black-body temperature varies by 2-3 eV between “hard” and “soft” phase spectra, with the highest temperature during intensity maximum. The resulting hardness ratio minimum shows that the decrease of the absorption line depth is the dominating effect near pulse maximum.

H03 suggested cyclotron resonance absorption as a likely origin for the absorption feature seen in the X-ray spectra of RBS1223. Since charged particles as electrons, protons or ions can be the origin of this absorption one cannot uniquely derive the magnetic field strength from the cyclotron line energy without additional independent information. First estimates for the magnetic field strength of RX J0720.4$-$3125 were inferred from measurements of the spin down rate under the assumption of magnetic dipole braking. Zane et al. (2002) give a magnetic field B$``$$`10^{13}`$ G, which would exclude electrons as the origin of the cyclotron line, which is expected at energies around 100 keV for such a strong field. In the case of protons a cyclotron line energy of 271 eV would result in a magnetic field strength of 5.3$`\times 10^{13}`$ G for a neutron star with canonical mass and radius (1.4 M, 10 km). Highly ionized atoms of heavy elements have a mass to charge ratio of $``$2 with respect to protons and would lead to B a factor of $``$2 higher than that derived for protons. Different ionization states would result in a series of lines with energies differing by only a few percent. Smearing out of these lines due to the B field variations in a rotating dipole field may cause a single broad absorption feature, broader than that expected from the B field smearing (Zavlin et al. 1995; Zane et al. 2001) of a single line and hardly resolvable. In a most recent re-analysis of the available archival and new XMM-Newton data of RX J0720.4$-$3125 Cropper et al. (2004) constrain B to (2.8 - 4.2)$`\times 10^{13}`$ G from the pulse period history by interpreting the spin-down rate in terms of magnetic dipole radiation losses. This result is most compatible with the cyclotron line scenario involving protons.

An alternative possibility for the origin of the absorption line is atomic bound-bound transitions. In strong magnetic fields atomic orbitals are distorted into a cylindrical shape and the electron energy levels are similar to Landau states, with binding energies of atoms significantly increased. E.g. for hydrogen in a magnetic field of the order of $`10^{13}`$ G the strongest atomic transition is expected at energy E/eV $``$ 75(1+0.13ln(B13))+63B13, with B13 = B/$`10^{13}`$ G (Zavlin & Pavlov 2002). For the line energy found in the spectra of RX J0720.4$-$3125 this would require B $``$ 3$`\times 10^{13}`$ G. Atomic line transitions are expected to be less prominent at higher temperatures because of a higher ionization degree (Zavlin & Pavlov 2002). Qualitatively, this is in line with the observed anti-correlation between temperature and equivalent width (see Fig. 10). However, the observed effect is much too strong: a temperature change of 2 eV at a temperature of 83 eV would not cause a change of the number of ionization states by a factor of two. In RBS 1223 the effect is even stronger as it shows an EW of –150 eV at similar temperature. At the same time in this source the pulsed fraction is much larger than in RX J0720.4$-$3125 suggesting that the change of angles between the magnetic axis and the line of sight is much larger. We conclude that the anti-correlation between temperature and equivalent width does not reflect a direct physical connection, but is due to the fact that both correlating quantities are depending on the pulse phase.

Therefore, we prefer the interpretation of the observed line feature in terms of the proton cyclotron resonance. The observed dependence of temperature and equivalent width on pulse phase may be due to the change in the viewing geometry of the inclined magnetic rotator. However, a thorough quantitative modeling of cyclotron and atomic bound-bound absorption effects in strong magnetic fields (a few $`10^{13}`$ G) of isolated neutron stars and their observable rotational phase dependences is required to understand the behavior in detail.

###### Acknowledgements.

The XMM-Newton project is supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung / Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (BMBF / DLR), the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and the Heidenhain-Stiftung. We thank the anonymous referee for valuable comments which helped to improve the paper.


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# Predicted electric field near small superconducting ellipsoids

(September 22, 2003)

## Abstract

We predict the existence of large electric fields near the surface of superconducting bodies of ellipsoidal shape of dimensions comparable to the penetration depth. The electric field is quadrupolar in nature with significant corrections from higher order multipoles. Prolate (oblate) superconducting ellipsoids are predicted to exhibit fields consistent with negative (positive) quadrupole moments, reflecting the fundamental charge asymmetry of matter.

Electrostatic fields cannot exist inside normal metals because the mobile electrons will move along any existing electric field lines so as to minimize their potential energy, resulting in an equilibrium configuration with no electric field. Any kinetic energy gained by the electron in this process will be dissipated through inelastic scattering mechanisms.

Electrons in superconductors are also mobile (even more so than in normal metals), hence one is accustumed to think that no electrostatic field can exist inside superconductors either. However, we suggest that such preconception may actually be incorrect for the following reason: in a superconductor there are no inelastic scattering mechanisms that will dissipate the kinetic energy of a superfluid electron moving along an electric field line. As a consequence, as the electron moves along the field line and decreases its potential energy it will gain kinetic energy; when it reaches the minimum potential energy its kinetic energy will be maximum so it will ’overshoot’ and move back to a region of higher potential energy, leaving the electric field unscreened. Thus we argue that at least in principle the existence of electrostatic fields inside superconductors is not ruled out by basic physics principles.

On the contrary, we have recently proposed that an electrostatic field indeed exists inside superconductorscharge ; atom ; efield . The proposal is based on the theory of hole superconductivityhole , that predicts that negative charge is expelled from the interior of the superconductor towards the surface, resulting in a net positive charge density in the interior, a negative charge density near the surface, and an outward pointing electric field inside the superconductor.

In fact, the possibility of an electrostatic field in a superconductor follows directly from London’s equation for the supercurrent $`\stackrel{}{J}`$ in the presence of a magnetic vector potential $`\stackrel{}{A}`$tinkham

$$\stackrel{}{J}=\frac{n_se^2}{m_ec}\stackrel{}{A}$$
(1)
and Faraday’s law in the form that relates the electric field $`\stackrel{}{E}`$ to the electric potential $`\varphi `$ and the magnetic vector potential:

$$\stackrel{}{E}=\stackrel{}{}\varphi \frac{1}{c}\frac{\stackrel{}{A}}{t}.$$
(2)
Taking the time derivative of Eq. (1) and using Eq. (2) yields

$$\frac{\stackrel{}{J}}{t}=\frac{n_se^2}{m_e}(\stackrel{}{}\varphi +\stackrel{}{E})$$
(3)
indicating that an electric field that derives from a potential will not lead to a time variation of the supercurrent, and in particular will not generate a supercurrent if one is not present initially.

The electric potential in the interior of the superconductor is assumed to obey the fundamental equationefield

$$\varphi (\stackrel{}{r})=4\pi \lambda _L^2\rho (\stackrel{}{r})+\varphi _0(\stackrel{}{r})$$
(4)
which is derived from the London equation under the assumption that the magnetic vector potential obeys the Lorenz gauge condictionlondon ; efield . We postulate Eq. (4) to describe the electric potential $`\varphi (\stackrel{}{r})`$ and charge distribution $`\rho (\stackrel{}{r})`$ in the interior of all superconductors, with $`\lambda _L`$ the London penetration depth and $`\varphi _0(\stackrel{}{r})`$ the potential originating from a uniform $`positive`$ charge density $`\rho _0`$:

$$\varphi _0(\stackrel{}{r})=_Vd^3r^{}\frac{\rho _0}{|\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{r}^{}|}$$
(5)
where the integral is over the volume of the superconducting body. The charge density $`\rho _0`$ is a function of parameters describing the superconducting material, of the dimensions of the body, and of temperatureefield . It originates in the ’undressing’ of carriers as the system goes superconducting, as described in the theory of hole superconductivityundressing . In particular, it increases as the temperature is lowered below $`T_c`$ and the superfluid density increases, and it is larger for superconductors with higher $`T_c`$.

The electric potential also obeys the usual Poisson equation

$$^2\varphi (\stackrel{}{r})=4\pi \rho (\stackrel{}{r})$$
(6)
in the interior of the superconductor, and Laplace’s equation in the exterior. Furthermore we assume that $`\varphi (\stackrel{}{r})`$ as well as its normal derivative are continuous across the surface of the superconductor, i.e. that no surface charge density exists.

Equation (4) predicts that $`\rho (\stackrel{}{r})=\rho _0`$ deep in the interior of superconductors of dimensions much larger than the penetration depth, and an excess of negative charge within a layer of thickness $`\lambda _L`$ of the surfaceefield . The solution of Eqs. (4)-(6) was discussed in Ref.efield  for the case of spherical superconductors. For that case, no electric field exists in the exterior of the superconductor and the proposed scenario cannot be detected. Fortunately, the situation is different for superconductors of non-spherical shape.

We consider here ellipsoids of revolution, defined by

$$\frac{\rho ^2}{a^2}+\frac{z^2}{b^2}=1$$
(7)
with $`\rho ,z`$ cylindrical coordinates. The dipole moment of any charge distribution with the symmetry of the ellipsoid is zero, but the quadrupole moment

$$Q=d^3r\rho (\stackrel{}{r})[3z^2r^2]$$
(8)
is not. For the uniformly charged ellipsoid with charge density $`\rho _0`$ the quadrupole moment is

$$Q_0=\frac{8}{15}\pi a^2b(b^2a^2)\rho _0$$
(9)
so that it is positive (negative) for prolate ($`b>a`$) (oblate ($`b<a`$)) ellipsoids for positive $`\rho _0`$.

We solve the differential equation resulting from Eqs. (4)-(6)

$$\varphi (\stackrel{}{r})=\lambda _L^2^2\varphi (\stackrel{}{r})+\varphi _0(\stackrel{}{r})$$
(10)
numerically in the interior of the ellipsoid using the GENCOL algorithmgencol . Initially we assume an arbitrary boundary condition consistent with overall charge neutrality, for example that the normal derivative $`\varphi /n=0`$ everywhere on the surface (Neumann boundary condition), which implies non-existence of electric fields in the exterior of the superconductor. However $`\varphi /n=0`$ on the surface implies $`\varphi `$ is constant on the surface. The first iteration of the procedure yields a $`\varphi `$ on the surface that is not constant (except for the case $`b=a`$), implying that the original assumption of no electric field in the exterior was incorrect.

To achieve self-consistency we obtain the electric potential in the exterior of the superconductor using

$$\varphi (\stackrel{}{r})=_Vd^3r^{}\frac{\rho (\stackrel{}{r}^{})}{|\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{r}^{}|}$$
(11)
where $`\rho (\stackrel{}{r})`$ is obtained from Eq. (4) using the solution obtained for $`\varphi (\stackrel{}{r})`$ in the interior. For the next iteration step we can use as boundary condition for the interior problem the normal derivative $`\varphi /n`$ obtained from the exterior problem or the potential itself, obtained from Eq. (11) on the surface. After a few iterations the procedure converges to a unique solution $`\varphi (\stackrel{}{r})`$ which is continuous and has continuous derivatives across the surface.

For a prolate ellipsoid with $`b/a=1.5`$ and London penetration depth $`\lambda _L/a=0.5`$ the quadrupole moment of the resulting charge distribution is $`Q=.485`$, in units so that $`\rho _0=a=1`$. For comparison the quadrupole moment of the bare positive ellipsoid for this case is $`Q_0=\pi `$ . Figure 1 shows the electric field configuration outside the ellipsoid obtained (the electric field inside is not shown because it is much larger). The electric field points $`out`$ near the surface for $`\rho a,z0`$ and points $`in`$ near the surface for $`\rho 0,zb`$. For an oblate ellipsoid the situation would be reversed. The tangential component of the field on the surface shown in Fig. 1 exerts a force on the electrons in the direction of smaller $`|z|`$. As argued earlier, we interpret that electrons do not rearrange according to this force to screen the field because they will increase their kinetic energy when they move in the direction of the force and decrease it when they move opposite to it. The magnitude of the electric field decays rapidly away from the surface since it is of quadrupolar nature.

Figure 2 shows the obtained charge density $`\rho (\stackrel{}{r})`$ in the interior along the axis $`z=0`$ and $`\rho =0`$ and the electric field in the interior along these axis for the parameters of Fig. 1. Because $`\lambda _L`$ is comparable to the size of the body, $`\rho (r)`$ does not reach the value $`\rho _0`$ (=1) deep in the interior. Contrary to the case of the sphere discussed in ref. efield , here the charge density and electric fields are different in the different directions. Furthermore the negative charge near the surface cannot fully screen the electric field as in the case of the sphere, so that the field is finite at the surface of the ellipsoid and leaks out. Note that the obtained negative charge density near the surface is larger in the direction of the larger axis of the ellipsoid. This is found to be the case generally for both prolate and oblate ellipsoids, which implies that the quadrupole moment will always be negative (positive) for prolate (oblate) ellipsoids. This would even be the case if the charge density near the surface was equal in the directions of large and small axis, but this feature enhances the effect even more. For smaller values of the penetration depth the charge density is larger in the interior and more negative near the surface as in the case of the sphereefield , and a finite electric field always occurs at the surface except for $`a=b`$.

Figure 3 shows the electric potential as well as the normal and tangential components of the electric field on the surface of a prolate ellipsoid for the parameters of Fig. 1. The agreement of the results from the inside and outside solutions indicates that the numerical iteration procedure has converged. The electric potential is larger near the equator ($`\theta =0`$) than near the poles ($`\theta =\pi /2`$), consistent with a tangential electric field in the polar direction and a normal field that points out near the equator and in near the poles. The results differ substantially from what would be obtained from a pure quadrupole with rotational symmetry along the $`z`$ axis, where the potential is given by

$$\varphi _Q=\frac{Q}{4}\frac{3z^2r^2}{r^5}$$
(12)
These results are shown in Fig. 3 as dashed lines for comparison. This implies that there is substantial contribution from higher order multipoles. Moving away from the surface we find that the pure quadrupolar behavior predicted by Eq. (12) rapidly becomes dominant. It is easy to obtain the contribution from the different higher order multipoles by either comparing the potential outside for different distances or by computing integrals of the obtained charge distribution inside. A precise experimental study of the field distribution in the neighborhood of superconducting ellipsoids should give detailed information on the charge distribution inside the superconductor.

As $`\lambda _L`$ decreases compared with the dimensions of the body the electric fields increase, and the electric field in the interior approaches the one of a uniformly charged ellipsoid of charge density $`\rho _0`$, given by $`E_\rho =C_\rho \rho _0\rho `$, $`E_z=C_z\rho _0z`$, with $`C_\rho ,C_z`$ scale-independent geometrical constants. The electric fields at the surface are a fraction (whose value depends on $`b/a`$) of the fields at the surface of the uniformly charged ellipsoid. For example for $`b/a=1.5`$ the limiting values for the fields at the surface are approximately $`E_\rho ^s0.13E_\rho ^{max}`$, $`E_z^s0.3E_z^{max}`$, with $`E_\rho ^{max},E_z^{max}`$ the maximum values of the fields inside, i.e. $`C_\rho \rho _0a`$ and $`C_z\rho _0b`$ respectively. The difference in potential at the surface between the poles and the equator reaches a limiting value which for the case $`b/a=1.5`$ is approximately $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi 1.2E_\rho ^sa`$.

As discussed in ref. efield , energy considerations show that $`\rho _0`$ decreases inversely with the linear dimension of the sample. Consequently the electric fields at the surface first increase as the sample size increases and then reach their limiting values once the sample is much larger than the penetration depth. The potential difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ at the surface increases linearly with the linear size of the sample when the fields have reached their limiting values. We estimated in ref. efield  the maximum electric field in the interior of both high $`T_c`$ cuprates and $`Nb`$ to be of order $`10^6V/cm`$, which according to the above discussion then yields for ellipsoids with $`b/a1.5`$ electric fields near the surface of order $`10^5V/cm`$ for samples larger than the penetration depth, and potential difference between polar and equatorial points on the surface $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi 10^5V\times a(cm)`$, with $`a`$ the linear dimension of the body.

Such large electric fields are $`not`$ seen near the surface of macroscopic superconductors. We propose that this is so because when the potential difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ on the surface becomes larger than the work function $`W`$, electrons will ’pop out’ of the superconductor near the region of low potential and migrate to the region of high potential on the surface, and the resulting electronic layer $`outside`$ the superconductor will screen the electric field so that it becomes unobservable. For the example discussed above with a work function $`W5eV`$ this implies that the predicted large electric fields will only be observed for samples with linear dimensions smaller than $`a5000A`$. We emphasize however that this estimate is very rough and depends on intrinsic parameters of the superconducting materialefield  and on the shape parameters. The maximum sample size for which the fields are unscreened will increase as the temperature increases (since $`\rho _0`$ will decrease) and the magnitude of the fields will decrease, such that the potential difference on the surface never exceeds the work function.

Note also that an attractive or repulsive electric force will exist between small superconducting ellipsoids depending on their relative orientation. A set of small superconducting ellipsoids in close proximity will lower their energy by adopting the proper orientation and coming close to each other, thus bunching into spherical aggregates as shown in Fig. 4. We suggest that this may be related to the remarkable experimental finding of formation of superconducting balls reported by Tao and coworkerstao .

Unlike the conventional description that is non-Lorentz invariant, Eq. (1) with $`\stackrel{}{A}`$ in the Lorenz gauge leads to a relativistically covariant description of the electrodynamics of superconductorselectrodyn ; london ; newwork , which we do not believe violates any basic physical law nor contradicts any known experimental fact. The resulting electric field in the interior of superconductors does not lead to a time dependent supercurrent because Eq. (3) replaces the conventional relation between current and electric field for ’perfect conductors’ usually assumed to be valid for superconductors. Further experimental consequences and the relation with microscopic theory will be the subject of future work.

###### Acknowledgements.

The author is grateful to E.N. Houstis, W.F. Mitchell, and J.R. Rice for making their GENCOL software available for public use, and to J. Kuti for help with implementation of the software.


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# Hyperatlas: A New Framework for Image Federation

## 1. Introduction

In this paper we discuss a new and largely unexplored data type in astronomy: large-scale federated imagery. By this, we mean a set of sky images that have been resampled (reprojected) to the same pixel space. The set of images might represent the sky at different wavelengths, times, resolution, polarization, etc. Because they are on the same pixel plane, these resampled images can be stacked and mined together – they can be federated. The benefits of such federation can outshine a possible loss of data quality from resampling. We will describe scientific possibilities of image federation, define the meaning of an atlas, then describe a proposed set of standard atlases (Hyperatlas) that will enable interoperability of images that have been resampled by different groups.

When a sky survey is made, the telescope images different parts of the sky at different times, wavebands, etc, creating a mosaic of images. Traditionally, the images are converted to star/galaxy catalogs through source-extraction, and much of the scientific knowledge is mined from these catalogs. Catalogs are federated by cross-matching, and further knowledge mined from the joint catalog. However, the intrinsic limitation of any source extraction process is that object detection relies on some filter, which is usually optimized for a particular source size and/or contrast, and may not be efficient in detecting useful signals which fall outside its parameter range; an example are low surface brightness objects. Thus, images may contain valuable information not present in the source catalogs.

In this paper, we consider a new paradigm for mining knowledge from the images of the sky surveys: by federating the images directly to a uniform pixel space, so that multiple image sets can be stacked, then doing source detection, pattern matching and other data mining in the resulting multi-channel image. If the pixel spaces (pages) are standardized, then it is much easier to federate data made by different groups in different ways.

## 2. Federation

Even with an ”optimal” source extraction, in some cases even the absence of a statistically significant signal represents a useful information, but $`only`$ in the context of other imagery; an example are high-redshift objects detected with the ”dropout” techniques. Image federation is thus useful in the detection of faint sources \[Szalay 1998\], which may not be detected in a particular (or any given) channel, but may be detected in others; or, a collective of individually marginal detections may have a high significance when considered jointly. We can go fainter in image space because we have more photons from the combined images and because the multiple detections can be used to enhance the reliability of sources at a given threshold.

Astronomers are more and more reaching into the time domain (synoptic), imaging the sky repeatedly for discovery of transient and variable sources. Near-Earth asteroids and Kuiper-belt objects, cataclysmic variables, active galactic nuclei, and quasars are all interesting, as well as lensing events, orphan afterglows, and most exciting would be a rich set of new types of transients. Image federation shows promise for analysis of this kind of data, by forming an average sky, a maximal brightness sky, a sky specialized to non-Gaussian noise sources, and a sky where information from dozens of channels is represented in a single color image. Very faint periodic sources could be found by time autocorrelation of pixel brightness.

A prerequisite for finding differences between sky images is the perfect mutual positioning of sources. We will focus on reconciling images with very different inherent spatial resolution by micro-optimization of astrometry through a fitting process. More generally, we can subtract out “well-fitted” objects (e.g., PSF-like), to leave only the faint, complex structure that may contain new knowledge.

Image federation enables robust detection and flux measurement of complex, extended sources over a range of size, wavelength, and time scales. Larger objects in the sky may have both extended structure (requiring image mosaicking) and a much smaller active center, or diffuse structure entirely. We will be able to combine multiple instrument imagery to build a multi-scale, multi-wavelength picture of such extended objects. We will also make statistical studies of extended, complex sources that vary in shape with wavelength.

## 3. Pages and Atlases

Federated imagery is a collection of mosaicked image products, all on the same pixel plane – we call these channels. More precisely:

* We define a Page to be a smooth, continuous, invertable map between the celestial sphere and a plane, with a “pointing center”, at which Jacobian of the map is unit, meaning free of distortion. A Page is just the specification of the projection: it is semantically equivalent to the WCS keywords CRVAL (pointing center), CTYPE (projection type), CDELT (scale), and CD/CROTA (rotation matrix). A page may have a pixel plane of infinite extent, for example the TAN projection stretches to infinity.
* We define a Plate to be a rectangular area on the plane of a Page together with single-channel pixel data filling that rectangle, and each pixel of the plate having the same data types as the FITS standard. Thus a Plate is semantically equivalent to a single-plane FITS image. Besides the data content, a Plate adds the WCS keywords NAXIS (numbers of pixels), CRPIX (shift from the pointing center).
* An Atlas is a coherent collection of Pages. Generally all pages in an atlas have the same scale and projection, and the pointing centers are laid out rationally, perhaps to cover the whole sky, perhaps just a particular region of interest like the galactic plane.
* We define a Channel to be a uniform collection of Plates that is rendered to a given atlas, so that there is at most one pixel for any position in the sky – ie. a monochrome covering. In general there will be overlap of plates – the same point of the sky shown on multiple pages – in which case the channel-values of that point mus be the same independent of which page it is on. The channel could represent fluxes in different wavelength bands, times, polarizations, etc, or it may have been derived from other channels by computation.

## 4. Hyperatlas Standard

In the interests of interoperability, we have specified a number of standard atlases and called the collection the Hyperatlas standard. For more information see \[Williams 2003a\]. We hope that large surveys and vital data can all be resampled to the same set of pages, meaning that their images are on exactly the same pixel grid, and can be compared directly.

Part of the atlas definition is the collection of pointing centers of its pages. In Hyperatlas, there are currently two choices for this layout: TM and HV. The former puts pointing centers on lines of constant declination, the latter on the centers of Hierarchical Triangular Mesh (HTM) \[Kunzst 1999\] triangles. Each layout comes with a parameter: for the TM layout, the parameter means the separation between the declination lines; and for the HV layout it is the level of the HTM hierarchy. In the figure is an atlas made from the TM-5 configuration of pointing centers. Each of these layout types is defined by an algorithm or pseudocode (see \[Williams 2003\]), and also available through redundantly-implemented web services.

The atlas is further specified by the projection type (SIN, TAN, AIT, etc. from the WCS library), and by the nominal scale at the pointing center. We have discretized the scale numbers in powers of two: scale 20 is one arcsecond per pixel, and generally scale $`S`$ is $`2^{20S}`$ arcseconds per pixel.

For example the atlas TM-5-TAN-20 consists of 1734 pages covering the celestial sphere, with every point of the sphere at most 3.5 degrees (= $`5/\sqrt{2}`$) from a pointing center, a scale of 1 arcsecond per pixel, and the projection TAN.

Hyperatlas is not only documents, but is also implemented as web services \[Williams 2003\]. There is a service to provide all the pages of an atlas, or specific page metadata by number or by sky position.

Recently, the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) agreed on a flexible and extensible framework for registering astronomical resources in a distributed virtual registry \[IVOA 2003\]. We expect to enhance the Hyperatlas standard by providing an extension schema for this registry. This would allow Hyperatlas-compliant imagery to be published and discovered through the Virtual Observatory, bringing to full flower the promise of image federation technology.

### Acknowledgments.

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

## References

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

Szalay, A. S., Connolly, A. J., Szokoly, G. P., Simultaneous Multicolor Detection of Faint Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field, AJ, 117, 68, also astro-ph/9811086.

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

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


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# Symmetry breaking and turbulence in perturbed plane Couette flow

## I Introduction

Research on plane Couette flow has long been hampered by the absence of states intermediate in complexity between laminar plane Couette flow and three-dimensional turbulence. Intermediate states can be created, however, if a thin wire oriented in the spanwise direction is inserted in an experimental setup . No longer subject to Squire’s theorem, this perturbed configuration undergoes a bifurcation to a three-dimensional steady or quasi-steady state. The 3D states contain vortices oriented in the streamwise direction and of finite streamwise extent, localized around the ribbon. As the wire radius is reduced, the Reynolds number threshold for the bifurcation and the streamwise extent occupied by the vortices increase, while the range of Reynolds numbers over which the 3D steady states exist decreases.

We have carried out a numerical study corresponding to the experiments of , focusing primarily on the largest wire radius used. In a previous study , we carried out a linear and weakly nonlinear stability analysis of this configuration. Here, we present a detailed bifurcation diagram for this case. Our calculations show a rich bifurcation structure with many types of solutions: stable and unstable; steady, periodic, and aperiodic; and of different symmetries. Some of these solutions persist as the wire radius is reduced.

## II Methods

The time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations have been solved using the spectral element code Prism  written by Henderson. Instead of a wire, we have used a ribbon of infinitesimal streamwise ($`x`$) extent whose cross-channel ($`y`$) height is taken equal to the diameter of the wire and whose length in the homogeneous transverse ($`z`$) direction is infinite. For most of the current study the computational domain is $`|x|32`$, $`|y|1`$, and $`|z|\lambda /2`$ where $`\lambda =2\pi /1.3`$ is approximately the numerically determined critical wavelength. Periodic boundary conditions have been imposed at $`x=\pm 32`$ and at $`z=\pm \lambda /2`$ and no-slip conditions at the channel walls $`y=\pm 1`$ and at the ribbon $`x=0`$, $`|y|\rho `$. The ratio $`\rho `$ of the ribbon height to that of the channel is set to $`\rho =0.086`$ except where otherwise specified. In the $`(x,y)`$ directions, we use $`24\times 5`$ computational elements, each of which is covered by a grid of $`7\times 7`$ collocation points or interpolating polynomials. In the $`z`$ direction, we use 32 Fourier modes or gridpoints. (Simulations were also conducted in a reduced spanwise domain $`|z|<\lambda /4`$ with 16 Fourier modes.) This leads to a total of 143840 gridpoints or basis functions per velocity component. To compute each asymptotic state required between 500 and 10000 nondimensional time units (i.e. units of channel width/velocity difference), which in turn required between 3 and 60 CPU hours on each of 16 processors of a Cray T3E. Some tests of the adequacy of our numerical resolution and streamwise domain size are reported in . The resolution for complex three-dimensional flows has been checked by increasing the polynomial order from 7 to 11 and the number of Fourier modes from 32 to 64.

## III Bifurcation scenario for $`\rho =0.086`$

Figure 1 shows $`E_{3D}`$, the energy in the $`z`$-dependent modes for all the steady states we have calculated for $`Re<500`$, and serves as a bifurcation diagram. Each branch is distinguished by its symmetry. The geometry and basic 2D flow have O(2) symmetry in the periodic spanwise direction $`z`$, i.e. translations $`zz+z_0`$ and reflections $`zz`$, In the $`(x,y)`$ plane, they have centrosymmetry $`(x,y)(x,y)`$.

The 2D branch loses stability via a circle pitchfork bifurcation at $`Re_{\mathrm{CP}}=228`$, breaking the translation symmetry in $`z`$. The critical spanwise wavelength is approximately $`\lambda =4.8`$ and the critical wavenumber $`\beta =1.3`$. The circle pitchfork bifurcation is subcritical, and so the 3D states created branch leftwards and are unstable; we cannot calculate them with the methods used here. These states have reflection symmetry in $`z`$ and centro-symmetry in $`(x,y)`$; we call them 3D symmetric states. The centro-symmetry can visualized as follows: At the ribbon location at $`x=0`$, four small vortices are present. The upper two vortices persist for $`x>0`$, while the lower two persist for $`x<0`$.

The 3D branch changes direction and is stabilized by a saddle-node bifurcation at $`Re_{\mathrm{SN}}=197`$. Its stability is short-lived, however, lasting only until a pitchfork bifurcation at $`Re_{\mathrm{PF}}=201`$. The pitchfork bifurcation creates new stable branches with only the pointwise symmetry $`(x,y,z)(x,y,z)`$; we call these 3D asymmetric states. Figure 3 illustrates this symmetry breaking by showing two different velocity fields at $`Re=240`$. The symmetric 3D field on the left has two different reflection symmetries, satisfying both $`u(x,y,z)=u(x,y,z)`$ and $`u(x,y,z)=u(x,y,z)`$. The asymmetric 3D field on the right satisfies only the single reflection symmetry $`u(x,y,z)=u(x,y,z)`$. The difference between symmetric and asymmetric 3D fields can also be seen in figure 7 discussed below.

Although the symmetric 3D branch is unstable, we can continue to calculate it by imposing reflection symmetry in $`z`$. It is further destabilized, however, by a Hopf bifurcation at $`Re_\mathrm{H}395`$, beyond which we have not followed it.

The asymmetric 3D branches change direction and are destabilized by a second saddle-node bifurcation at $`Re_{\mathrm{SN}^{}}420`$. Surprisingly, time-dependent simulation at $`Re=450`$ from an initial asymmetric state at $`Re=400`$ leads to a metastable state with half the imposed wavelength of $`\lambda =4.8`$, or equivalently, twice the wavenumber of $`\beta =1.3`$. The evolution in time of the energies $`E_1`$ and $`E_2`$ in the $`\beta `$ and $`2\beta `$ spanwise Fourier components is shown in figure 5. The initial field at $`Re=400`$ and the metastable state at $`Re=450`$ are shown in figure 3. This transition is symmetry-restoring since the field is invariant under translation in $`z`$ by $`\lambda /2`$. The metastable state persists during $`4300t5800`$, when $`E_1`$ is near zero.

The metastable state is the $`\lambda /2`$ branch created from the 2D branch by a circle pitchfork bifurcation at $`Re_{\mathrm{CP}^{}}=330`$; see figure 1. Calculations show that it branches rightwards. Each of the two halves of the field is symmetric under reflection in $`z`$ about its midplane $`z=\lambda /4`$ or $`z=\lambda /4`$. The $`\lambda /2`$ branch undergoes another pitchfork bifurcation at $`Re_{\mathrm{PF}^{}}=440`$, analogous to that undergone at $`Re_{\mathrm{PF}}`$, creating branches which do not have this reflection symmetry. From figure 3, it can be seen that the vortices in the $`\lambda /2`$ field remain somewhat circular; their cross-channel height is reduced along with their spanwise extent. The absence of vortices near the upper and lower walls could indicate that the streamwise velocity profile is more stable in this region than that near the center.

When the $`\lambda /2`$ branch is created at $`Re_{\mathrm{CP}^{}}`$, it is necessarily unstable to wavelength doubling in a domain of size $`\lambda `$, because its parent 2D branch is already unstable to $`\lambda `$ modes. We are able to calculate the $`\lambda /2`$ branch from its creation at $`Re_{\mathrm{CP}^{}}`$ (and, for $`Re>Re_{\mathrm{PF}^{}}`$, its asymmetric version) by using a domain of size $`\lambda /2`$. However, we emphasize that during its appearance as a metastable state, it is calculated in the full domain of size $`\lambda `$, i.e. it has been stabilized to wavelength doubling. We propose a possible mechanism for this stabilization: At $`Re_{SN^{}}`$, the asymmetric $`\lambda `$ branches change direction and stability. If the unstable asymmetric $`\lambda `$ branches terminate on the symmetric $`\lambda /2`$ branch in a subcritical pitchfork bifurcation $`Re_{PF^{\prime \prime }}`$, then the symmetric $`\lambda /2`$ branch will be stabilized to $`\lambda `$ perturbations for $`Re>Re_{\mathrm{PF}^{\prime \prime }}`$, as will the asymmetric $`\lambda /2`$ branch for $`Re>Re_{\mathrm{PF}^{}}`$.

However, this bifurcation scenario sheds no light on the subsequent evolution from the metastable $`\lambda /2`$ state to irregular oscillations, as shown in figure 5 for $`t7500`$. Irregular oscillations persist when the Reynolds number is reduced until $`Re<Re_{CH}=300`$, where the flow reverts to the steady asymmetric $`\lambda `$ branch. We believe these states to correspond essentially to the turbulent flow observed in unperturbed plane Couette flow for $`Re325`$ , both because of the closeness of the lower bound in Reynolds number, and because of their appearance and streamwise extent (see figure 7). Because lack of resolution can produce spurious time dependence, we have verified that these dynamics persist with increased numerical resolution.

Figure 5 shows the evolution of the energy $`E_0`$ and $`E_1`$ in the zero and $`\beta `$ spanwise Fourier components at $`Re=350`$. Turbulent states at $`Re=350`$ are illustrated via streamwise velocity contours in figures 7 and 7. Figure 7 shows the symmetric, asymmetric, and $`\lambda /2`$ steady states, in the $`(x,z)`$ midplane ($`y=0`$), as well as two instantaneous snapshots of turbulent states $`t=355`$ and $`t=630`$, where $`E_1`$ is locally maximal and minimal, respectively (see figure 5). Figure 7 shows the asymmetric steady state and two instantaneous snapshots of turbulent states at $`t=355`$, 630 in the $`(x,y)`$ midplane ($`z=0`$). The deviation from plane Couette flow is highly localized around the wire at $`x=0`$ for the steady states, but extends over the entire streamwise domain for the turbulent states.

In the experiments , streamwise vortices are observed for $`Re>150`$, compared to our threshold of $`Re=200`$. Their wavelengths are between 5.2 and 5.7, as compared with our critical $`\lambda 4.8`$. Intermittency is observed experimentally for $`Re>280`$ and turbulence for $`Re>325`$, in close agreement with our observation of $`Re>300`$. Spatial period-halving events are also observed in the experiments , as in our transition from the $`\lambda `$ to the $`\lambda /2`$ metastable state. This period-halving transition should be amenable to bifurcation-theoretic analysis.

## IV Smaller ribbons

An important question is the dependence of this scenario on ribbon height $`\rho `$. Results from calculations performed for two smaller heights, $`\rho =0.071`$ and $`\rho =0.043`$, are given in Table I. For both of these ribbon heights, the 2D flow undergoes a circle pitchfork bifurcation to a 3D eigenmode. Because the critical wavenumber, denoted by $`\beta _c`$, changes very little with $`\rho `$, we have given more precise values for $`\beta _c(\rho )`$ in Table I in order to specify the $`\rho `$ dependence. The fact that $`\beta _c`$ is relatively insensitive to $`\rho `$ provides evidence for the idea that this instability arises from the underlying unperturbed plane Couette flow rather than depending sensitively on the perturbing ribbon. (We have used the same domain with spanwise periodicity $`\lambda =2\pi /(1.30)`$ to calculate all secondary bifurcations.) The critical Reynolds number $`Re_{\mathrm{CP}}`$ increases as $`\rho `$ decreases, as expected from the absence of linear instability at finite $`Re`$ for plane Couette flow. Both aspects of the $`\rho `$-dependence of the transition to three dimensionality are also observed in the experiments.

For $`\rho =0.071`$, the bifurcation scenario is similar to that at $`\rho =0.086`$. $`Re_{\mathrm{SN}}`$ increases more slowly as $`\rho `$ decreases than does $`Re_{\mathrm{CP}}`$, lending support to the hypothesis that branches of steady 3D states might continue to exist as $`\rho `$ approaches zero, although disconnected from the 2D branch. However, $`Re_{SN^{}}`$ decreases, so that the Reynolds number range over which stable steady 3D states exist is smaller, as is also observed experimentally. Specifically, the branch of unstable 3D states bifurcating subcritically from the 2D flow occupies the Reynolds number range $`Re_{\mathrm{CP}}Re_{\mathrm{SN}}`$, which increases from 31 for $`\rho =0.086`$ to 65 for $`\rho =0.071`$, while the branches of stable 3D states occupy the Reynolds number range $`Re_{\mathrm{SN}^{}}Re_{\mathrm{SN}}`$ which decreases from 223 for $`\rho =0.086`$ to 147 for $`\rho =0.071`$. We note that  and  have attempted to compute steady states of plane Couette flow containing streamwise vortices by continuing Taylor vortex flow. In the plane Couette flow limit, they find that the solutions which persist are analogues of wavy Taylor vortex flow, here streamwise traveling waves, and exist for $`Re>125`$.

For $`\rho =0.043`$, we have been unable to find any stable steady 3D states, despite extensive searching. Thus Table I lists only the primary instability $`Re_{\mathrm{CP}}`$ and $`\beta _c`$ for $`\rho =0.043`$. We observe irregular oscillations for all the initial conditions, Reynolds numbers, and spatial resolutions we have tried. This is in contrast to the experiments , in which approximately steady states containing streamwise vortices are observed for $`\rho `$ even smaller than 0.043. Calculations at intermediate ribbon heights would clarify whether, when, and how the stable steady 3D states disappear as $`\rho `$ is reduced.

## V Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Ron Henderson for the use of Prism and IDRIS/CNRS (Institut du Developpement et des Ressources en Informatiques Scientifiques, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) for the computational facilities.


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# A one-channel conductor in an ohmic environment: mapping to a TLL and full counting statistics

## Abstract

It is shown that a one-channel coherent conductor in an ohmic environment can be mapped to the problem of a backscattering impurity in a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL). This allows to determine non perturbatively the effect of the environment on $`IV`$ curves, and to find an exact relationship between dynamic Coulomb blockade and shot noise. We investigate critically how this relationship compares to recent proposals in the literature. The full counting statistics is determined at zero temperature.

A mesoscopic conductor embedded in an electrical circuit forms a quantum system violating Ohm’s laws. The transmission/reflection processes of electrons through the conductor excite the electromagnetic modes of the environment, rendering the scattering inelastic, and reducing the current at low voltage, an effect called environmental Coulomb blockadeingold\_nazarov . This picture, valid in the limit of a weak conductance, changes in the opposite limit of a good conductancejoyez\_multi . The description of tunnelling via discrete charge states becomes then ill defined, raising the question of whether dynamic Coulomb blockade (DCB) survives or is completely washed out by quantum fluctuations. It is quite clear that DCB vanishes for a perfectly transmitting conductor. This property is shared by shot noise which results as well from the random current pulses due to tunneling events. Such similarity was concretized zaikin\_noise ; levy\_yeyati  through a challenging relationship between the DCB reduction of the current in a one-channel conductor in series with a weak impedance and the noise without impedance (see Fig.(1)). More generally, the DCB variation of the n-1th cumulant of the current was related to the n-th cumulant without environmentnazarov\_third\_cumulant ; zaikin . The environmental effect on the third cumulant has been the subject of a recent intensive experimental and theoretical activityreulet ; nazarov\_third\_cumulant .

An ohmic environment could as well simulate the electronic interactions in the coherent conductornazarov\_sov . In this view, one can wonder whether a one channel conductor in series with a resistance is equivalent to a one dimensional interacting system, described by the TLL modelhaldane\_bosonisation . This is already suggested by the power law behavior at small transmission with an exponent determined by $`r=e^2R/h`$, the dimensionless environmental resistance, instead of the microscopic interaction parameteringold\_nazarov . Furthermore, Kindermann and Nazarov nazarov\_small\_z  have shown recently that at low enough energy, a many-channel conductor in series with a weak resistance $`r1`$ behaves as a one-channel conductor with an effective energy dependent transmission $`𝒯(E,r)`$ similar to that obtained in a weakly interacting one-dimensional wire in the presence of a backscattering center glazman . In this framework, the variation of the current due to DCB is rather given by the shot noise computed through $`𝒯(E,r)`$ instead of the bare transmission $`𝒯`$.

In this Letter we fully extend the analogy to a TLL in order to explore the case of an arbitrary resistance $`r`$ in series with a coherent one channel conductor with good transmission. By performing a careful integration over the environmental degrees of freedom, it is shown that there is an entire low energy regime where the conductor embedded in its ohmic environment behaves exactly like a point scatterer in a TLL liquidremarkingold , with an effective parameter $`K^{}=1/(1+r)`$.

In contrast to a renormalization of the TLL exponent by (for instance) electron-phonon couplingchen\_phonons , which tend to make e-e interactions more attractive, here the resistance will rather induce repulsive interactions, which corresponds to $`K^{}<1`$ in the TLL model. This allows to use exact field theory results obtained in the TLL context to propose a novel relationship between the DCB current and shot noise, and more generally between all cumulants.

Consider first a coherent one-channel conductor coupled to its environment, and described by the total hamiltonian, restricting for simplicity to spinless electrons:

$$H=H_1+H_2+H_{env}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_T\psi _1^{}\psi _2e^{i\left[e\frac{Vt}{\mathrm{}}\phi (t)\right]}+h.c.$$
(1)
Here $`H_{1,2}`$ is the electronic Hamiltonian for the right and left electrodes, $`H_{env}`$ is a quadratic Hamiltonian describing the electromagnetic modes of the environment and including the capacitance of the junction, and $`V`$ is the potential imposed by the voltage generator. The last term couples the phase across the environmental impedance $`Z(\omega )`$ to the local electronic fields $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{1,2}(0)`$ at the end points of the left/right electrodes, the momentum dispersion of the tunneling amplitude $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_T`$ being ignored. In the following, we consider an ideal Ohmic resistor $`R=hr/e^2`$. Thus one is restricted to energies below $`\omega _R=1/RC`$ since the capacitance of the conductor $`C`$ is included in the total impedance $`Z(\omega )=R/(1+i\omega /\omega _R)R`$ for $`\omega <\omega _R`$. At zero temperature, the large time behavior of the phase fluctuations becomesingold\_nazarov

$$J(t)=\phi (t)\phi (0)\phi ^2=2r\mathrm{ln}(i\omega _Rt).$$
(2)
The differential dimensionless conductance has been computed to lowest order in the tunnelling amplitudeingold\_nazarov

$$G_1=\frac{h}{e^2}\frac{dI}{dV}\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(2r+1\right)}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_T}{hv_F}\right)^2\left[\frac{e|V|}{\mathrm{}\omega _R}\right]^{2r},$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the gamma function. The similarity with the power-law behaviors familiar in TLL is striking. Now it will be shown that it is more than a coincidence.

Since tunnelling is punctual one can use bosonisation for the electronic part: performing a spherical wave decomposition of the modes in the electrodes, tunnelling affects only the s waves, whose dynamics is the same as that of one dimensional leads. One introduces the bosonic field $`\theta `$ with respect to which the electronic Hamiltonian $`H_1+H_2=H_0^{el}`$ in Eq.(1) is quadratic, thus its propagator is similar to Eq.(2):

$$\theta (t)\theta (0)=\mathrm{ln}(i\omega _Ft).$$
(4)
The tunneling term becomes $`\psi _1^{}(0)\psi _2(0)=e^{2i\theta }/2\pi a`$, with $`a`$ a distance cutoff, thus the total Hamiltonian Eq.(1) reads $`H=H_0^{el}+H_{env}+\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_T}{2\pi a}e^{2i\theta }e^{i\left(\frac{eVt}{\mathrm{}}\phi \right)}+h.c.`$ Since $`\theta `$ and $`\phi `$ commute, and both $`H_0^{el}`$ and $`H_{env}`$ are quadratic respectively with respect to $`\theta `$ and $`\phi `$, their sum $`H_0^{}`$ is quadratic with respect to the auxiliary field $`\theta ^{}=\theta +\phi /2`$, and $`H=H_0^{}+\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_T^{}}{2\pi a}e^{2i\theta ^{}(t)i\frac{eVt}{\mathrm{}}}+h.c..`$ Using Eqs.(2,4), one gets $`\theta ^{}(t)\theta ^{}(0)=\frac{1}{2K^{}}\mathrm{ln}(i\omega _F^{}t)`$ up to a constant absorbed in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_T^{}`$, the effective tunneling amplitude. The auxiliary parameter obeys $`\frac{1}{K^{}}1+r`$ and the effective cutoff is $`\omega _F^{}=\mathrm{min}(\omega _R,\omega _F)`$. The problem then is formally equivalent to the strong back scattering limit through an impurity in a TLL with an interaction parameter $`K^{}<1`$ and a cutoff energy $`\omega _F^{}`$. This equivalence holds not only for the Hamiltonian, but also for all the cumulants of the current. As a quick check, the standard first-order perturbative computation of the average current in the TLL problemkane\_fisher  yields Eq.(3). In particular, it vanishes at zero voltage, which is a consequence of the irrelevance of tunneling. Thus any other neglected scattering process, depending on the realistic setup, could dominate the contribution of tunneling processes to $`I`$ at low enough energy, making the prediction Eq.(3) non-universal.

It is much more useful to think instead of the “dual limit” of weak backscattering with amplitude $`v_B`$, thus $`𝒯=(1+(v_B/hv_F)^2)^1`$ close to one. In the absence of coupling to the environment, the problem is nothing but free electrons in the presence of a potential scatterer, whose locality allows to use again bosonisation. A bosonic field $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ determines the electronic density through $`\rho =_x\mathrm{\Phi }/\pi `$, thus the current $`j=e_t\mathrm{\Phi }/\pi `$. For pedagogical reasons, here we only present arguments at the level of the Euclidian action. It is convenient in this limit to integrate the bulk degrees of freedom and formulate the problem purely in terms of the local field at the impurity $`\varphi =\mathrm{\Phi }(x=0)`$kane\_fisher . If $`\tau `$ is the imaginary time and $`\omega _n`$ are the Matsubara frequencies, one has $`\mathrm{}S_{el}=\frac{1}{\beta }_{\omega _n}|\omega _n||\varphi (\omega _n)|^2+\frac{v_B}{\pi a}_0^\beta 𝑑\tau \mathrm{cos}2\varphi (\tau )`$. The coupling to the impedance with a fluctuating potential drop $`eu_{env}=\mathrm{}_\tau \phi `$ is described by a term $`Qu_{env}`$ where the transferred charge $`Q`$ can be identified as $`e\varphi `$. Thus the action acquires an additional part $`\delta S=𝑑\tau \varphi (\tau )(eV/\mathrm{}_\tau \phi )/\pi `$ with $`V`$ the applied voltage. Performing a partial integration over the field $`\phi `$ whose corresponding truncated action is leggett : $`S_{env}=_{|\omega _n|<\omega _R}|\omega _n||\phi (\omega _n)|^2/(2Re^2\pi \beta )`$ leads to a renormalization of the kinetic term, $`|\omega _n||\omega _n|\left(1+r\right)`$. There is a formal equivalence to one impurity problem in a TLL, this time in the weak backscattering limit and at low energy compared to $`\omega _F^{}=\mathrm{min}(\omega _F,\omega _R)`$. Remarkably, one gets the same auxiliary parameter as that found in the strong backscattering regime, $`\frac{1}{K^{}}1+r`$. The auxiliary amplitude $`v_B^{}`$ will be taken as dimensionless in the following: it is proportional to $`v_B`$ but depends non-trivially on the cutoffs. The advantage of this limit is that the cosine term now defines a relevant perturbation. Thus the predictions of the field theory are universal as long as $`v_B^{}`$ is small enough. The generating Keldysh functional for $`\varphi `$ turns out to be identical to that in the auxiliary TLL model. Thus one can exploit known results both for average currentapel\_rice ; kane\_fisher  and higher cumulants defined by saleur\_weiss :

$$I_n=j(t_1)\mathrm{}j(t_n)_c𝑑t_1\mathrm{}𝑑t_{n1},$$
(5)
with $`c`$ indicating the connected part of the $`nth`$ symmetrized current correlator. In the following, we will introduce the differential dimensionless cumulants:

$$G_n=\frac{h}{e^{n+1}}\frac{dI_n}{dV}.$$
(6)
Let us first discuss the differential dimensionless conductance $`G_1`$ as inferred from lowest order perturbation with respect to $`v_B^{}`$, in the limits where $`k_BT/eV`$ is either small or large apel\_rice ; kane\_fisher :

$$G_1=\frac{h}{e^2}\frac{dI}{dV}=K^{}c(K^{})v_B^2\left(\frac{\omega }{\omega _F^{}}\right)^{2(1+K^{})}$$
(7)
where $`\mathrm{}\omega =\mathrm{max}(k_BT,eV)`$, and $`c(K^{})`$ a constant depending on $`K^{}`$. First, observe that for $`v_B^{}=0`$, one has a purely linear regime with Ohm’s law restored. The relation $`I=\frac{e^2}{h}K^{}V`$ is obtained, which translates into $`V=(R+R_q)I`$. This is nothing but the series resistance of a perfect point contact with resistance $`R_q=\frac{h}{e^2}`$ and the resistor $`R`$. Second, a bare amplitude $`v_B^{}`$ is modified into an effective larger amplitude $`v_B^{}\omega ^{1+K^{}}`$ which diverges at low $`\omega `$ because $`K^{}<1`$, thus the above perturbative result is valid above a voltage scale $`V_B^{}\omega _F^{}v_B^{1/(1K^{})}`$. Increasing $`\omega `$ up to $`\omega _F^{}`$ drives $`G_1`$ to its maximum value, $`G_{max}=K^{}c(K^{})v_B^2`$ which is still smaller than the conductance without environment, $`G=1c(1)v_B^2`$. Notice that linearity can be maintained only at $`k_BTeVeV_B^{}`$, but breaks at $`k_BTeV`$. On the other hand, decreasing $`\omega `$ below $`V_B^{}`$ increases the effective barrier height, and the conductance drops to zero at zero $`\omega `$. The low-energy behavior of an almost transparent junction coupled to the environment is thus qualitatively similar to the one of a very poorly transmitting junction. In this limit, one can do perturbation with respect to a dimensionless tunnelling amplitude $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_T^{}`$ related to $`v_B^{}`$ in a a non-universal way. Thus one gets a similar result to Eq.(3) at $`eV_B^{}eVk_BT`$, while $`eV`$ has to be replaced by $`k_BT`$ if $`eV_B^{}k_BTeV`$. All these considerations can be made non perturbative using the exact solution of fendley\_prl\_1 . Thus increasing the bare transparency of the conductor does not wash out DCB but reduces its domain to $`V<V_B^{}`$.

Motivated by the recurrence relation between cumulants suggested in previous works with a restriction to a weak resistance $`r1`$ zaikin\_noise ; levy\_yeyati ; nazarov\_third\_cumulant , we now establish a more general relation holding for an arbitrary $`r`$, starting by a comparison of $`G_1`$ to the (dimensionless) differential noise $`G_2`$ (Eqs.(5,6)). Let us stick first to the two perturbative regimes so far discussed, and to $`k_BTeV`$, such that the noise is poissonniankane\_fisher\_noise . More precisely $`G_22G_1`$ for $`VV_B^{}`$, while $`G_22K^{}(K^{}G_1)`$ for $`VV_B^{}`$. Together with the expressions of $`G_1`$ in Eqs.(3) and (7) respectively at low and high voltages, one can check the relation, for an arbitrary $`r`$, and for $`n=2`$:

$$\frac{G_{n1}(V,r)}{\mathrm{log}V}=2rG_n(V,r).$$
(8)
Notice that the left hand side would vanish at $`r=0`$, because $`G_1`$ becomes voltage-independent in this limit, thus this quantity is purely related to the presence of the environmental resistance. This relation expresses that the dynamical Coulomb blockade contribution to the conductance is related to the total noise in the presence of the environment. It holds not only at leading order in $`V/V_B^{}`$ or $`V_B^{}/V`$, but to any order. This truly non perturbative observation was dubbed a “generalized fluctuation dissipation theorem” in fendley\_prl\_1 . In order to compare this relation to the recent related works dealing with a small resistance $`r`$, we now restrict to $`K^{}`$ close to one. At strictly vanishing $`r`$, $`K^{}=1`$, and both the low and high energy series of the exact differential conductance fendley\_prl\_1  can be trivially re-summed to give the transmission probability $`𝒯G_1=\frac{1}{1+v_B^2}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_T^2}{1+\mathrm{\Gamma }_T^2}`$. To lowest order in $`r`$, it is tempting to replace $`G_n`$ on the r.h.s of Eq.(8) by its value at $`r=0`$, here $`G_2(V,r)G_2(V,0)`$: doing this would suggest that the DCB contribution of a small resistance $`r`$ to the current would be proportional to the shot noise without environment as argued in zaikin ; nazarov\_third\_cumulant . But one has to be careful with the limit $`r1`$, as can be seen already in the two dual limits where the noise is poissonnian (3,7), $`G_2\mathrm{\Gamma }_T^2V^{2r/(1+r)}`$ or $`G_2v_B^2V^{2r}`$; even if $`r1`$, $`G_2`$ can be replaced by its noninteracting value only if $`V`$ is not too small. A more quantitative comparison of $`G_2(V,r)`$, inferred from the exact solution of fendley\_prl\_1 , to its noninteracting value is given by the continuous curve of Fig.(2): the ratio $`x=G_2(V,r)/G_2(r=0)`$ is plotted as a function of $`\mathrm{log}V`$ at $`r=0.05`$. Here, $`G_2(r=0)=𝒯(1𝒯)`$ is obviously voltage-independent. $`x`$ is close to one for an intermediate values of voltages, but deviates from one in the limit of small or large voltages, a manifestation of the breakup of perturbation theory with respect to $`r`$. But the quality of this agreement depends on the value of the transmission coefficient, and will be discussed in more details elsewhere.

The mapping to a TLL at an arbitrary $`r`$ and the subsequent exact solution can be used as well to shed some light on Ref. nazarov\_small\_z  which are in the spirit of Ref.glazman  where an effective energy-dependent transmission coefficient $`𝒯(E,r)`$ is introduced, and argued to satisfy the following RG equation in the limit of small $`r`$: $`𝒯(E,r)/\mathrm{log}E=2r𝒯(E,r)(1𝒯(E,r))`$. This formula suggests approximating the differential noise on the r.h.s of Eq.(8), for $`r1`$, as $`G_2(V,r)G_1(V,r)(1G_1(V,r))`$. However this is not satisfactory at high voltages, when $`G_1(V,r)K^{}=1/(1+r)`$. Rather, a better approximation is obtained by defining $`𝒯(V,r)=(1+r)G_1(V,r)`$ such that $`G_2(V,r)𝒯(V,r)(1𝒯(V,r))`$, as shown through their ratio $`x`$ in Fig.(2) (the dashed curve). This approximation is good up to an accuracy of $`r`$ in intermediate to high voltage regimes.

Remarkably, for an arbitrary resistance $`r`$, Eq.(8) can be extended to all cumulants, i.e. to $`n>2`$ where $`G_n`$ in Eqs(5,6) is computed with the environmental resistance in series, i.e. at $`K^{}<1`$saleur\_weiss . Again, the limit $`r1`$ requires care: replacing $`G_n`$ on the r. h. s. by its value without environment, $`G_n(V,r)G_n(r=0)`$ yields the prediction of zaikin\_noise ; nazarov\_third\_cumulant , but with a restricted validity domain. Rather, a better fit to nazarov\_small\_z  is expected if one replaces $`G_n(V,r1)`$ by that expressed in the scattering approach through the effective transmission $`𝒯(V,r)=(1+r)G_1(V,r)`$, which needs to be checked.

A study of the various properties for arbitrary $`K^{}`$ and temperature requires complex Bethe ansatz calculations, and is identical to the examples carried out in fendley\_prl\_1 . The case $`K^{}=1/2`$ is particularly simple, especially to introduce the finite temperature. This corresponds to a crossover value, $`R`$ being a quantum resistance: $`R=h/e^2`$. While the average current and noise have been expressed analytically, it would be interesting to compute the higher cumulantsremark\_2 .

An interesting extension of these results can be done for a point scatterer in a TLL of parameter $`K`$ coupled to an Ohmic environment: the auxiliary parameter becomes $`\frac{1}{K^{}}=\frac{1}{K}+r`$, which increases the effective interactions by making $`K`$ smaller, thus the power law exponent is a combination of effects of the environment and the microscopic interactions. Note however that the role of the reservoirs, like in ordinary quantum wires, will have to be carefully understood.

In conclusion, we have first seen in this Letter how the coupling to an Ohmic environment induces effective repulsive e-e interactions. While this idea is not entirely new neto\_prl , the setup of a well transmitting element coupled to an arbitrary resistance provides a concrete realization, which seems very amenable to experimental study, especially in view of the recent progress in good transmitting atomic contactslevy\_2 . It is particularly exciting to have a potential new way of seing TLL physics circuittll , and the dramatic effect of a weak backscattering barrier at low energy. Conceptually, the relationship between TLL and dissipation is not that surprising: starting inversely from a TLL, an electron can view the surrounding electrons with which it interacts as an effective electromagnetic environmentnazarov\_sov . Thus a TLL can as well be viewed as the simplest one-channel conductor coupled to a resistorneto\_prl ! Beyond its qualitative interest, the mapping has allowed us to make contact with exact field theoretic calculations, yielding the full counting statistics for the current at zero temperature. We have then been able to propose a more general link between the dynamic Coulomb blockade and the shot noise, embodied in the exact relation (8), a “non-equilibrium fluctuation dissipation theorem”, whose deep origin remains somewhat mysterious, and which extends to higher cumulants. In particular, the mapping yields the third cumulant at arbitrary environmental resistance and transmission, opening the perspective to include the finite temperature, especially feasible at $`r=1`$.

This problematic was motivated by D. Estève, P. Joyez and C. Urbina : we thank them for their numerous suggestions, and a critical reading of the manuscript. I. S. would like to thank H. Bouchiat, F. Hekking, A. Levy-Yeyati, Y. Nazarov for interesting discussions, as well as B. Trauzettel for discussions and providing Fig. 2.


text:
# 1 The image of the intensity-fields for flat slabs. (a1) and (b1) refer to two arrangements. In (a1), all the arrangements including the source, the field resolution, and the cylinders are identical to the experiment(). (a2) and (b2) plot the fields inside the slabs corresponding to those in (a1) and (b1) respectively. The scales for the fields for the left and right sides are shown in the figure.

Flat lens imaging does not need negative refraction

Chao-Hsien Kuo and Zhen Ye

Wave Phenomena Laboratory, Department of Physics, National Central University, Chungli, Taiwan 320, Republic of China.
(cond-mat/0312288; an extended version will appear in J. Appl. Phys.)

Sir, in a recent communication Parimi et al. Nature  reported the experimental results on imaging by a flat lens made of photonic crystals. They attributed the observed focusing to all-angle negative refraction, which may be expected for the Left-Handed-Materials (LHMs). Here we demonstrate that the experimental observation is irrelevant to all-angle negative refraction. Rather, the phenomenon is a natural result of the anisotropic scattering by an array of scatterers.

We consider the system in the experimentNature : the two-dimensional flat slab made of a photonic crystal fabricated from a square array of cylindrical alumina rods. All the parameters are taken exactly from the experimentNature . The dielectric constant of the rods is 9.2 and the lattice constant is 1.8 cmNature . Two arrangements of the cylinders are considered. The first is exactly identical to that in the experiment. A slab has the size of 10x19 lattice constant. The microwave source is placed at a distance of 2.25 cm from the left side of the slab. The frequency is taken as 9.3 GHz. As the comparison, we also consider another arrangement: the square array is added with one more layer of cylinders to become 10x20, and the source is moved upward by a half lattice constant. The transmitted wave from the source is scattered multiply by the cylinders and the scattering can be solved exactly by the standard multiple scattering theoryMST .

Figure 1 shows the imaging fields across the slabs. In (a1) and (b1), we plot the fields outside the slabs, and the fields inside the corresponding slabs are plotted in (a2) and (b2), with (a) referring to the case in the experiment. The result in (a1) remarkably reproduces the experimental observation. A focused image is obviously seen on the far side. Parimi et al.Nature  suggested “… to focus a diverging beam from a point source, the material must exhibit all-angle negative refraction, …” We find that this perception is invalid. If the image were caused by the all angle-negative refraction, one would expect that (1) another focused image should exist inside the slab; (2) both images should not be sensitive to the lattice size, nor the source location. Our simulation shows that there is no image inside the slab and the image on the far side is sensitive to both the size of photonic crystal slab and the location of the source. This has been clearly depicted by Fig. 1(a2), (b1) and (b2). Fig. 1(a2) shows the image field inside the slab used in the experiment. No focused image prevails. Rather, the waves more or less go straight across the slab. For the second slab, the image field on the far side is changed completely, while the general features of the field inside the slab remain unchanged.

The focusing effect by the flat slab in Fig. 1(a1) is caused by the anisotropic scattering of the regular arrays of cylinders. Figure 2 shows the band structure result and the transmission across the slab used in the experimentNature . The simulation setup complies with the experimental arrangement listed on the webpageNEU . The intensity transmission in the two principal directions, i. e. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }X`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }M`$, is plotted. The result for the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }X`$ direction agrees with the experimental resultNEU . We note that the dielectric constant used in the transmission experimentNEU  is 8.9, while it is 9.2 in the imaging experimentNature . To be consistent with the imaging experiment, we use 9.2 throughout. It is seen that the transmission in the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }X`$ direction is much stronger than that in the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }M`$ direction at the experimental frequency 9.3 GHz. Due to the anisotropic scattering, the waves rather prefer to travel along the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }X`$ than along the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }M`$ direction. Such an anisotropy-caused imaging phenomenon has also been discussed for frequencies located in the partial bandgap regimes in a variety of situationsneg2 .

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Z.Y. (e-mail: zhen@shaw.ca).