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# Sagnac effect and pure geometry

## I Introduction

The Sagnac effect takes its name from Georges Marc Marie Sagnac, a French physicist who, in 1913, partially interpreting previous experimental evidence, showed that the time of flight of light emitted by a source on a rotating platform and sent back by means of mirrors along a path closed in space was asymmetric. The asymmetry between the forward (in the sense of rotation) and backward beams, in terms of times of flight difference, is proportional to the angular velocity of the platform and appears as a phase difference measured by an interferometer. Sagnac interpreted this result as an evidence against Einstein’s relativity and in favour of a static luminiferous ether.sagnac1 sagnac2  It was however immediately and easily shown that the Sagnac effect is indeed a fully relativistic effect.

Today the Sagnac effect is relevant for various applications, all related to the measurement of rotation rates. On the commercial side we have gyrolasers, developed since the 70’s of the last century, used on planes, ships, submarines, missile guidance systems… The name ’gyrolaser’ is motivated by the fact that the devices replace old mechanical gyroscopes and use a laser to produce the counter-rotating light beams. Instead of exploiting the interference between the two opposed light rays, they measure the beat frequency of the standing wave resulting from the superposition of two waves propagating in opposite directions; that frequency is again proportional to the absolute angular velocity of the apparatus (a thorough description of gyrolaser devices can be found in the review paper chow85 ).

The most sensitive ring lasers (a.k.a. gyrolasers) sense the diurnal rotation of the earth, the wobbles of the terrestrial axis, the tiny rotations of the laboratory hosting the instrument, due to elastic deformations of the ground caused by liquid and solid tides and also by various surface phenomena. These rings are used for high accuracy geophysical measurements.ulli

The extremely high sensitivity obtained in most recent ring lasers is such that now the Sagnac effect is becoming important also for fundamental physics: the possibility has been suggested of using large ring lasers to detect the Lense-Thirring effect on Earth StedLT  and an experiment, under the acronym GINGER, is now in the phase of development and preliminary testing at the National Laboratories of the Italian INFN at the Gran Sasso site.ginger11 ginger12  The Sagnac effect plays a role also in the elaboration of the position of a receiver obtained from the GPS: a Sagnac correction is indeed required because a rotating clock (onboard a satellite or on the surface of the earth) suffers a loss of synchrony with itself at each turn. The relevance of the relativistic effects on clocks carried around, either in the same or in the opposite sense with respect to the rotation of the earth, was experimentally verified by Hafele and Keating.HK  HK1  RSch

The Sagnac effect has been deeply investigated, soon after the realization of Sagnac’s experiments, as a disproval of the theory of relativity, and also more recently, in connection with the issue of synchronization in rotating reference frames (see for instance abs  and the monograph RRF ). All this is well known, but it is also accompanied by a common feeling that the Sagnac effect is essentially due to the presence of a rotating observer or rotating device: in short, to non-inertial motion. Examples of papers elaborating on various aspects of the Sagnac effect, without discussing the issue of the necessity of rotation are AZS  GBab  KKa .

In reality, however, non-inertial motion is not necessary. Indeed, a few years ago some experimental papers have been published which claim that even if no rotation is present, a “generalized Sagnac effect” arises in a uniformly moving fiber.WZYL ; prlbis  In the present paper we aim at addressing the issue, that is we want to show that the real ingredients of the Sagnac effect are two: a) a closed circuit followed by light in opposite directions; b) a relative (even inertial) motion of the emitter/receiver with respect to the physical apparatus supporting the closed path of light. We believe that this approach could be useful in teaching the foundations of relativity, since the calculations involved are simple, and they allow a deep insight into the physics of the problem, that ultimately is connected with the relativity of simultaneity.

## II The Sagnac effect

The physical principles of the Sagnac effect are explained in full details in the well known paper by Post,post67  and they can be summarized as follows. The Sagnac effect may easily be described in classical terms if one assumes that the speed of light is $`c`$ with respect to a static ether. Considering the rotating platform mentioned in the Introduction you see that it will take longer for light to reach again the emission point on the rim of the platform just because, meanwhile, the receiver will have moved forward by a distance $`\mathrm{\Delta }l_+=vt_+`$ where $`t_+`$ is the total time of flight and $`v`$ is the velocity of the emitter with respect to the ether; the geometric length of the path is $`l`$. Hence the time of flight is read from the following relation $`{\displaystyle \frac{l+\mathrm{\Delta }l_+}{c}}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }l_+}{v}}`$. In the opposite sense the receiver will move towards the returning light so that the path will be shorter by $`\mathrm{\Delta }l_{}=vt_{}`$, whence $`{\displaystyle \frac{l\mathrm{\Delta }l_{}}{c}}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }l_{}}{v}}`$. Solving for $`t_+`$ and $`t_{}`$ gives the time of flight difference:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t=t_+t_{}=\frac{2lv}{c^2v^2}$$
(1)
An equivalent deduction can be made adopting the viewpoint of the rotating observer. In his/her reference frame light will be expected to have speed $`cv`$ in one sense (forward) and $`c+v`$ in the other; now the path is the same $`l`$ for both. The times of flight are again different and a trivial calculation brings back again to formula (1). Add that in the example we have $`v=\omega R`$ with $`\omega `$ representing the angular velocity of the platform and $`R`$ the distance of the observer from the rotation axis; simplify the geometry assuming that the path of light is a circle111This would have been practically impossible in Sagnac’s time, but is feasible today with modern optical fibers, as it is done in commercial gyrolasers. at radius $`R`$ so that $`l=2\pi R`$; consider that in all practical cases we have $`v<<c`$, and Eq. (1) will be transformed into:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t4\frac{𝐀𝝎}{c^2}$$
(2)
Here $`𝐀`$ is the area enclosed in the path of the light beams, represented as a vector, whose magnitude is $`\pi R^2`$, perpendicular to the plane containing the trajectory 222Actually the planarity is not needed.; $`𝝎`$ is also a vector and the dot product projects the area in a plane orthogonal to the rotation axis. Equation (2) is the famous Sagnac formula, where the $``$ symbol is currently replaced by a plain $`=`$.

As said, however, the Sagnac effect does not need any ether at all. Special (and general) relativity is essentially geometry so we may use a geometric approach in order to work out what happens. In the simplified configuration of the classical example the situation may be represented in a spacetime graph like the one in Fig. (1).

Everything is drawn on the surface of a cylinder and the viewpoint is that of an inertial observer at rest with respect to the axis of the rotating platform.grgmio  The vertical axis of the figure is not the rotation axis of the turntable; it is the coordinate time axis. The worldline of the rotating observer is a helix and the two light beams are represented by two opposite helices as well, which, after one turn, intersect the worldline of the observer at two different events ($`A`$ and $`B`$, in the figure). The interval between $`A`$ and $`B`$ is the proper time difference measured by the observer between the arrival times of the two light rays.

A cylinder is indeed a flat surface, so we may have a simpler view cutting the cylinder along one generatrix, then opening it in a flat spacetime strip like in Fig. 2. Now helices become straight lines and the geometry is evident and simple; the only trick to remember is that the right border of the strip is identified with the left border, so that lines reaching one border reappear at the corresponding point on the other.

The properties of straight lines and triangles are the usual ones, recalling that this is not Euclidean space, but Minkowski spacetime so that the squared length of the hypotenuse is now a squared proper time multiplied by $`c^2`$ and is given by the difference between the squared coordinate time span times $`c^2`$ and the square of the travelled distance. Pure geometry grgmio  leads again, at the lowest approximation order, to Eq. (2).

If one prefers to proceed analytically the starting point can be the line element of Minkowski spacetime written using cylindrical coordinates in space: $`ds^2=c^2dt^2dr^2r^2d\varphi ^2dz^2`$. Introducing the constraints $`r=R=constant`$ and $`z=constant`$, corresponding to all physics taking place on the rim of a disk perpendicular to the $`z`$ axis, the problem is reduced to two effective dimensions and the line element becomes:

$$ds^2=c^2dt_0^2R^2d\varphi _0^2$$
(3)
The label 0 means that the coordinates are those of the inertial observer.

To account for the rotation of the platform it is convenient to introduce axes rotating together with the platform so that the angular coordinate becomes $`\varphi =\varphi _0\omega t_0`$. Then we need a Lorentz transformation between the inertial observer at rest with the axis of the platform and the inertial frame instantaneously comoving with the observer on the rim of the turntable. In Special Relativity the Lorentz transformations leave the line element unchanged, so that in the rotating reference frame it becomes:

$$ds^2=(c^2\omega ^2R^2)dt^2R^2d\varphi ^22R^2\omega d\varphi dt$$
(4)
On writing the previous expression in the form

$$ds^2=g_{00}dt^2+g_{\varphi \varphi }d\varphi ^2+2g_{0\varphi }dtd\varphi $$
(5)
and considering that for light we have $`ds=0`$, it is possible to work out $`dt`$:

$$dt=\frac{g_{0\varphi }d\varphi \pm \sqrt{g_{0\varphi }^2d\varphi ^2g_{\varphi \varphi }g_{00}d\varphi ^2}}{g_{00}}$$
(6)
We are interested in solutions located in the future, so we choose $`dt>0`$, i.e. the $`+`$ sign in the formula. Under the simplified assumption that light moves along a circumference, if we integrate in the two opposite directions (counterclockwise, $`d\varphi >0`$; clockwise, $`d\varphi <0`$) from the emission to the absorption events, we get the expression for the co-rotating ($`t_+`$) and counter-rotating ($`t_{}`$) times of flight, and the difference between them turns out to be

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t=t_+t_{}=2_{\mathrm{}}\frac{g_{0\varphi }}{g_{00}}R𝑑\varphi $$
(7)
where $`\mathrm{}`$ is the circumference of radius $`R`$ 333In the most general case $`\mathrm{}`$ is the integration path and, using arbitrary coordinates, the formula would be $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=2_{\mathrm{}}\frac{g_{0i}}{g_{00}}𝑑x^i`$ (see e.g. shorty ).. Moreover, the observer measures the proper-time difference:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\tau =2\sqrt{g_{00}}_{\mathrm{}}\frac{g_{0\varphi }}{g_{00}}R𝑑\varphi $$
(8)
On substituting the expressions (4) of the metric coefficients, we get the following expressions for the coordinate and proper times of flight difference

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ $`=`$ $`4{\displaystyle \frac{\pi R^2\omega }{c^2(1\omega ^2R^2/c^2)}}`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau `$ $`=`$ $`4{\displaystyle \frac{\pi R^2\omega }{c^2\sqrt{1\omega ^2R^2/c^2}}}`$
At the lowest approximation order in $`\omega R/c`$ the two coincide, and they are in agreement with Eq. (2), with $`𝐀=\pi R^2\widehat{𝐮}_z`$. The unit vector $`\widehat{𝐮}_z`$ points along the $`z`$ direction.

## III Sagnac without rotation

Despite the widespread tendency to ascribe the Sagnac effect to rotating systems it is easy to show that rotation is not essential. Consider a source/receiver of light in inertial motion at the speed $`v`$ with respect to a set of mirrors rigidly fastened to one another or to an optical fiber so that they guide the light beams emitted by the moving source along a closed path in space. The situation is schematically shown in Fig. 3 where an optical fiber is envisaged.

Repeating the simple reasoning made at the beginning of sec. II we easily arrive to the same result written in formula (1). The only additional clarification is that Eq. (1) is expressed from the view point of an observer at rest with the fiber (or array of mirrors); in the proper time of the moving emitter/receiver it would rather be (we set $`\beta ={\displaystyle \frac{v}{c}}`$):

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\tau =2\frac{Lv}{c^2\sqrt{1\beta ^2}}2\frac{Lv}{c^2}$$
(9)
No rotation, no acceleration, no enclosed area appear. What matters is just the existence of relative (even inertial) motion and of a closed path in space. Of course, with reference to Fig. 3, $`𝐯`$ is parallel to the light rays in $`RF`$.

The effect we have just described and the related formula (9) have been verified by experiment by Wang, Zheng, Yao, and Langley (WZYL).WZYL ; prlbis

Using the geometrical approach the result is rather obvious. In spacetime the world lines are drawn again on a cylinder. The only difference is that on Fig. 1 the cylinder had a circular cross section, now the cross section is rather irregular. In any case the cylinder is a flat bidimensional Minkowski surface and, when opening it in a plane, the graph is exactly like in Fig. 2.

Formula (1) appears also in Ref. ashby  where it is related to the relativity of simultaneity typical of special relativity.

Another aspect to clarify is related to the form (2) of the effect. The accidental presence of the area $`A`$ suggested to some people stedman  EGH  an interpretation of the Sagnac effect (at least for matter waves) as a sort of Aharonov-Bohm effect: however, this is just an analogy, which holds at lowest relativistic order only (see e.g. shorty ).

## IV A simple example

In order to get a deeper insight, let us consider a simple example where the calculation can be carried out in full details. Our interferometer is at rest in the laboratory and is made of four mirrors $`M_1`$, $`M_2`$, $`M_3`$, $`M_4`$, at the corners of a rectangle: if we use Cartesian coordinates, their positions are given in Fig. 4, and the interferometer path length is $`L=4a+4b`$. An observer, moving at speed $`v`$ to the right in the laboratory frame, sends two counter propagating light signals when he is at the origin. The paths of the counterclockwise (CCW) and clockwise rays (CW) are depicted in Fig.s 5 and 6, respectively, as seen in the laboratory frame. Note that in the laboratory frame, the CW path is not closed, and the CCW path overlaps with itself. What we want to show, by the following calculation, is that both paths are closed in the frame moving with the observer.

In terms of Cartesian spacetime coordinates $`(ct,x,y)`$ in the laboratory frame, the events sequence along the CCW path is

* $`e_0`$: $`(0,0,0)`$ (emission)
* $`e_1`$: $`(a,a,0)`$ (reflection by $`M1`$)
* $`e_2`$: $`(a+2b,a,2b)`$ (reflection by $`M2`$)
* $`e_3`$: $`(3a+2b,a,2b)`$ (reflection by $`M3`$)
* $`e_4`$: $`(3a+4b,a,0)`$ (reflection by $`M4`$)
* $`e_5`$: $`(ct_1,vt_1,0)=(\frac{4\left(a+b\right)}{1\beta },\frac{4\left(a+b\right)}{1\beta }\beta ,0)`$ (reception)

In particular, the total propagation time is obtained from $`ct_1=vt_1+4a+4b`$.

As for the CW path, we have the following events:

* $`e_0`$: $`(0,0,0)`$ (emission)
* $`E_1`$: $`(a,a,0)`$ (reflection by $`M4`$)
* $`E_2`$: $`(a+2b,a,2b)`$ (reflection by $`M3`$)
* $`E_3`$: $`(3a+2b,a,2b)`$ (reflection by $`M2`$)
* $`E_4`$: $`(3a+4b,a,0)`$ (reflection by $`M1`$)
* $`E_5`$: $`(ct_2,vt_2,0)=(\frac{4\left(a+b\right)}{1+\beta },\frac{4\left(a+b\right)}{1+\beta }\beta ,0)`$ (reception)

Again, the total propagation time is obtained from $`ct_2=4a+4bvt_2`$. As expected, the CCW is longer than the CW one, since $`t_1>t_2`$, so the two signals reach the observer at different times.

To obtain the coordinates of these events in the frame co-moving with the observer, we use the Lorentz transformations:

$$ct^{}=\gamma \left(ct\beta x\right),x^{}=\gamma \left(x\beta ct\right),y^{}=y$$
(10)
where $`\gamma =\left(1\beta ^2\right)^{1/2}`$. As a consequence, the Cartesian coordinates $`(ct^{},x^{},y^{})`$ of the events for the CCW path are

* $`e_0`$: $`(0,0,0)`$ (emission)
* $`e_1`$: $`(\gamma \left(1\beta \right)a,\gamma \left(1\beta \right)a,0)`$ (reflection by $`M1`$)
* $`e_2`$: $`(\gamma \left(1\beta \right)a+2\gamma b,\gamma \left(1\beta \right)a2\gamma \beta b,2b)`$ (reflection by $`M2`$)
* $`e_3`$: $`(\gamma \left(3+\beta \right)a+2\gamma b,\gamma \left(1+3\beta \right)a2\gamma \beta b,2b)`$ (reflection by $`M3`$)
* $`e_4`$: $`(\gamma \left(3+\beta \right)a+4\gamma b,\gamma \left(1+3\beta \right)a4\gamma \beta b,0)`$ (reflection by $`M4`$)
* $`e_5`$: $`(4\gamma \left(1+\beta \right)(a+b),0,0)`$ (reception)

For the CW path we have the following coordinates:

* $`e_0`$: $`(0,0,0)`$ (emission)
* $`E_1`$: $`(\gamma \left(1+\beta \right)a,\gamma \left(1+\beta \right)a,0)`$ (reflection by $`M4`$)
* $`E_2`$: $`(\gamma \left(1+\beta \right)a+2\gamma b,\gamma \left(1+\beta \right)a2\gamma \beta b,2b)`$ (reflection by $`M3`$)
* $`E_3`$: $`(\gamma \left(3\beta \right)a+2\gamma b,\gamma \left(13\beta \right)a2\gamma \beta b,2b)`$ (reflection by $`M2`$)
* $`E_4`$: $`(\gamma \left(3\beta \right)a+4\gamma b,\gamma \left(13\beta \right)a4\gamma \beta b,0)`$ (reflection by $`M1`$)
* $`E_5`$: $`(4\gamma \left(1\beta \right)(a+b),0,0)`$ (reception)

These collections of events show that in the moving frame the two paths are closed.
In particular, CCW path is indeed a polygon whose vertices have the following $`(x^{},y^{})`$ coordinates: $`(0,0)`$, $`(\gamma \left(1\beta \right)a,0)`$, $`(\gamma \left(1\beta \right)a2\gamma \beta b,2b)`$, $`(\gamma \left(1+3\beta \right)a2\gamma \beta b,2b)`$, $`(\gamma \left(1+3\beta \right)a4\gamma \beta b,0)`$. The shape of this polygon is depicted in Fig. 7 and its length is $`\mathrm{}_1=4\gamma \left(1+\beta \right)(a+b)`$; since the traversal time is read from event $`e_5`$, $`t_1^{}=4\gamma \left(1+\beta \right)\frac{(a+b)}{c}`$, we see that the average traversal speed is $`c`$.
On the other hand, the CW path is a polygon whose vertices have the following coordinates: $`(0,0)`$, $`(\gamma \left(1+\beta \right)a,0)`$, $`(\gamma \left(1+\beta \right)a2\gamma \beta b,2b)`$, $`(\gamma \left(13\beta \right)a2\gamma \beta b,2b)`$, $`(\gamma \left(1\beta \right)a4\gamma \beta b,0)`$. The shape of this polygon is depicted in Fig. 8, and its length is $`\mathrm{}_2=4\gamma \left(1\beta \right)(a+b)`$; again, by reading the traversal time $`t_2^{}=4\gamma \left(1\beta \right)\frac{(a+b)}{c}`$ from $`E_5`$, we see that the average traversal speed is $`c`$.

We remark that we can easily explain the tilt of the lateral edges in Fig.s 7 and 8 in terms of the motion of the observer: indeed, when the light ray moves upward at right angles to the x axis in the laboratory frame, it has to move upward and left in the observer’s frame; similarly, when it moves downward, it has to move downward and left in the observer’s frame.

The moving observer measures the proper time difference between the propagation of the CCW and CW rays

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\tau =t_1^{}t_2^{}=8\gamma \frac{(a+b)}{c}\beta 2\frac{Lv}{c^2}$$
(11)
This result is in agreement with the general formula (9). Moreover, this calculation allows to understand the origin of the time difference arising in the moving frame: the two light paths, which are congruent except for their end pieces in the laboratory frame, are no longer congruent in the observer’s moving frame. Consequently, since they have different lengths, light must take different time to propagate through them.

This example shows how to explain the Sagnac-effect in the case of an inertial observer: indeed, a similar approach can be used to do the same thing, for an accelerated one. However, while in our case the observer’s space is Euclidean and everything is unambiguous, care is needed in defining the spatial geometry for an arbitrary accelerated observer: spatial geometry can be defined in terms of congruence of world lines (see e.g. relspace ), so it is not simply related to one observer, rather it depends on a collection of observers.

Things are simple in the case of the uniformly rotating disk, where the ordinary Sagnac effect usually is explained: a natural choice of observers that enables to define the spatial geometry is given by the observers sitting at fixed points on the disk (see again relspace  and kassner1 ). In this case, both the co-rotating and the counter-rotating rays propagate along the same curve. Then, the Sagnac effect can be explained in terms of different speeds of light in the co-rotating and counter-rotating directions, if clocks along the rim of the disk are Einstein-synchronized, or in terms of a time gap, if a different synchronization procedure is used (see e.g. RRS  and KKa ).

## V Possible applications

Not considering the conceptual aspects, the phenomenon we have interpreted and WZYL have measured prompts possible interesting applications, as suggested in prlbis .

As we see from Eq. (9) the time of flight difference for light is proportional to the relative velocity of the source with respect to the fiber or the mirrors. Now consider a ring laser where the active segment is not rigidly connected to the rest of the annular cavity; imagine, for instance, that the active cavity is attached to the rest via an elastic support allowing for relative vibrations. What is usually measured in a ring laser is a beat frequency of two counter-propagating beams. The beat frequency is easily obtained from Eq. (9) and is:

$$\nu _b=\frac{v}{\lambda }$$
(12)
where $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength of the laser. We have a simple speedometer for instantaneous velocities where 1 m/s corresponds roughly to beat frequencies of the order of MHz; but in the obvious case that the active element is subject to an acceleration, a simple differentiation of the output converts the device into an accelerometer.

Of course practical analyses on the stability of the laser modes should be made, but the idea is appealing.

## VI Conclusion

We have shown that the Sagnac effect is due to the closure of the path followed by light and to the relative motion of the observer with respect to the physical system obliging the beam to bend and come back to the observer. After having introduced the foundations of the effect, we have studied in full details a simple example to focus on the origin of the time delay in the inertial frame of the moving observer, and we have made a comparison with the case of the rotating observer. We have proved that the Sagnac effect is not peculiar to rotations and accelerated motion, rather it originates from the closure of the two space paths as seen in the frame co-moving with the emitter/receiver, and from relative motion between the emitter/receiver and the mirrors (or physical device); indeed, its foundations are related to the relativity of simultaneity. On the practical side one may think of interesting applications based on the use of ring lasers as linear accelerometers.

## Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to one of the referees for suggesting the example in section IV.


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# Aging at the edge of chaos: Glassy dynamics and nonextensive statistics

## 1 Introduction

The problem of understanding the dynamics of glass formation is known to be difficult and challenging and therefore continues to be a frontier topic in statistical physics . It is generally thought that ordinary phase-space mixing is not wholly realized during glass forming dynamics, i.e. upon cooling, caged molecules rearrange so slowly that they cannot sample configurations in the available time allowed by the process . The advance to the glass transition is signaled by very pronounced deceleration of relaxation processes since the characteristic times for their completion increase several orders of magnitude within a small interval of temperatures. Because of this extreme circumstances an important theoretical issue is to determine whether under conditions of ergodicity malfunction, and, as a final point, downright failure, the Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) statistical mechanics is still capable of describing stationary states on the point of glass formation or those representing the glass itself. This question and also that about the possible applicability of generalizations of the BG statistics, such as the nonextensive statistics  , to glass formation is a subject of current concern.

As a fresh approach we study the dynamics of a model in which only the essential ergodicity breakdown feature is present and where there is neither molecular structure nor molecular interactions. The general aim is to learn if the occurrence of the key properties of glassy dynamics are due primarily to the approach to a nonergodic state and therefore are observable in completely different types of systems, hence suggesting some degree of universality. Our minimal model for glass dynamics is the prototypical logistic map at the edge of chaos but perturbed by small amplitude noise. It has only one degree of freedom but the consideration of external noise could be thought to represent the effect of many other systems coupled to it, like in the so-called coupled map lattices . Recently , we have proved that the dynamics of this map shows robust similarities with that of supercooled liquids close to vitrification. This is so since two-step relaxation, aging, and a relationship between relaxation time and configurational entropy, are the three main (phenomenologically established) characteristics of glassy dynamics in structural glass formers . The basic ingredient of ergodicity failure is obtained for orbits at the onset of chaos in the limit towards vanishing noise amplitude. Here expand the discussion of our results .

Our view is that glass formation is one in which the system is driven gradually into a nonergodic state by reducing its ability to pass through phase-space-filling configurational regions until it is only possible to go across a (multi)fractal subset of phase space. This situation is generated in the logistic map with additive external noise,

$$x_{t+1}=f_\mu (x_t)=1\mu x_t^2+\chi _t\sigma ,1x_t1,0\mu 2,$$
(1)
where $`\chi _t`$ is Gaussian-distributed with average $`\chi _t\chi _t^{}=\delta _{t.t^{}}`$, and $`\sigma `$ measures the noise intensity  . Notice that the formula (1) can be written as a discrete form for a Langevin equation.

## 2 Dynamics of glass formation

We recall the main dynamical properties displayed by supercooled liquids on approach to glass formation. One is the growth of a plateau and for that reason a two-step process of relaxation, as presented by the time evolution of correlations e.g. the intermediate scattering function $`F_k(\mathrm{\Delta }t)`$ . This consists of a primary power-law decay in time difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ (so-called $`\beta `$ relaxation) that leads into the plateau, the duration $`t_x`$ of which diverges also as a power law of the difference $`TT_g`$ as the temperature $`T`$ decreases to a glass temperature $`T_g`$. An ’ideal’ glass transition has been conjectured to occur at a $`T_c`$ which is not experimentally accessible but that approaches $`T_g`$ at infinitely slow cooling in fragile glass formers . After $`t_x`$ there is a secondary power law decay (so-called $`\alpha `$ relaxation) away from the plateau . A second important (nonequilibrium) dynamic property of glasses is the loss of time translation invariance observed for $`T`$ below $`T_g`$, a characteristic known as aging , that is due to the fact that properties of glasses depend on the procedure by which they are obtained. Remarkably, the time fall off of relaxation functions and correlations display a scaling dependence on the ratio $`t/t_w`$ where $`t_w`$ is a waiting time. A third notable property is that the experimentally observed relaxation behavior of supercooled liquids is effectively described, via reasonable heat capacity assumptions , by the so-called Adam-Gibbs equation, $`t_x=A\mathrm{exp}(B/TS_c)`$, where the relaxation time $`t_x`$ can be identified with the viscosity or the inverse of the difussivity, and the configurational entropy $`S_c`$ is related to the number of minima of the fluid’s potential energy surface (and $`A`$ and $`B`$ are constants) . A first-principles derivation of this equation has not been developed at present. As the counterpart to the Adam-Gibbs formula, we show below that our one-dimensional map model for glassy dynamics exhibits a relationship between the plateau duration $`t_x`$, and the entropy $`S_c`$ associated to the iterate positions (configurations) within the largest number of phase-space bands allowed by the bifurcation gap - the noise-induced cutoff in the period-doubling cascade .

Our results suggest that the properties known to be basic of glassy dynamics  are likely to manifest too in completely different physical problems, such as in nonlinear dynamics, e.g. the mentioned coupled map lattices , in critical dynamics , and other fields. This hints that new predictions might be encountered in the studies, experimental or otherwise, of slow dynamics displayed by systems other than liquids close to the glass transition. In relation to this, aspects of glassy dynamics have been observed in metastable quasistationary states in microcanonical Hamiltonian systems of $`N`$ classical rotors with homogeneous long-ranged interactions. For special types of initial conditions it has been found that both two-step relaxation , where the length of the metastable plateau diverges with infinite size $`N\mathrm{}`$, and aging ,  are present in these systems. In our simpler one-dimensional dissipative map the amplitude $`\sigma `$ plays a role parallel to $`TT_g`$ or $`TT_c`$ in the supercooled liquid or $`1/N`$ in the system of rotors. Notice that the equivalence between $`\sigma `$ and $`TT_g`$ is not literal as $`\sigma `$ cannot take negative values.

## 3 Dynamics at the edge of chaos

In the absence of noise $`\sigma =0`$ the Feigenbaum attractor at $`\mu =\mu _c(0)=1.40115\mathrm{}`$ is the accumulation point of both the period doubling and the chaotic band splitting sequences of transitions . Except for a set of zero measure, all the trajectories with $`\mu _c(0)`$ and initial condition $`1x_{in}1`$ fall into the attractor with fractal dimension $`d_f=0.5338\mathrm{}`$. These trajectories represent nonergodic states, since as $`t\mathrm{}`$ only a Cantor set of positions is accessible out of the total phase space $`1x1`$. For $`\sigma >0`$ the noise fluctuations wipe the sharp features of the periodic attractors as these widen into bands similar to those in the chaotic attractors, nevertheless there remains a well-defined transition to chaos at $`\mu _c(\sigma )`$ where the Lyapunov exponent $`\lambda _1`$ changes sign. The period doubling of bands ends at a finite value $`2^{N(\sigma )}`$ as the edge of chaos transition is approached and then decreases at the other side of the transition. This effect displays scaling features and is referred to as the bifurcation gap  . When $`\sigma >0`$ the trajectories visit sequentially a set of $`2^n`$ disjoint bands or segments leading to a cycle, but the behavior inside each band is completely chaotic. These trajectories represent ergodic states as the accessible positions have a fractal dimension equal to the dimension of phase space. Thus the removal of the noise $`\sigma 0`$ leads to an ergodic to nonergodic transition in the map and we compare its properties with those known for the process of vitrification of a liquid as $`TT_g`$.

The manner in which the attractor at the onset of chaos $`\mu _c(0)`$ is visited in time was analyzed recently with the use of the initial condition $`x_{in}=0`$ . It was found that the absolute values for the positions $`x_\tau `$ of this trajectory at time-shifted $`\tau =t+1`$ has an structure consisting of subsequences with a common power-law decay of the form $`\tau ^{1/1q}`$ with $`q=1\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}\alpha 0.24449`$, where $`\alpha =2.50290\mathrm{}`$ is the Feigenbaum universal constant that measures the period-doubling amplification of iterate positions . That is, the Feigenbaum attractor can be decomposed into position subsequences generated by the time subsequences $`\tau =(2k+1)2^n`$, each obtained by proceeding through $`n=0,1,2,\mathrm{}`$ for a fixed value of $`k=0,1,2,\mathrm{}`$. The $`k=0`$ subsequence can be written as $`x_t=\mathrm{exp}_{2q}(\lambda _qt)`$ with $`\lambda _q=\mathrm{ln}\alpha /\mathrm{ln}2`$, and where $`\mathrm{exp}_q(x)[1(q1)x]^{1/1q}`$ is the $`q`$-exponential function. These properties follow from the use of $`x_{in}=0`$ in the scaling relation

$$x_\tau =\left|g^{^{(\tau )}}(x_{in})\right|=\tau ^{1/1q}\left|g(\tau ^{1/1q}x_{in})\right|.$$
(2)
In the presence of noise ($`\sigma `$ small) one obtains instead

$$x_\tau =\tau ^{1/1q}\left|g(\tau ^{1/1q}x)+\chi \sigma \tau ^{1/1r}G_\mathrm{\Lambda }(\tau ^{1/1q}x)\right|,$$
(3)
where $`G_\mathrm{\Lambda }(x)`$ is the first order perturbation eigenfunction, and where $`r=1\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}\kappa 0.6332`$. Use of $`x_{in}=0`$ yields $`x_\tau =\tau ^{1/1q}\left|1+\chi \sigma \tau ^{1/1r}\right|`$ or $`x_t=\mathrm{exp}_{2q}(\lambda _qt)\left[1+\chi \sigma \mathrm{exp}_r(\lambda _rt)\right]`$ where $`t=\tau 1`$ and $`\lambda _r=\mathrm{ln}\kappa /\mathrm{ln}2`$.

At each noise level $`\sigma `$ there is a ’crossover’ or ’relaxation’ time $`t_x=\tau _x1`$ when the fluctuations start suppressing the fine structure of the orbits with $`x_{in}=0`$. This time is given by $`\tau _x=\sigma ^{r1}`$, the time when the fluctuation term in the perturbation expression for $`x_\tau `$ becomes unbounded by $`\sigma `$, i.e. $`x_{\tau _x}=\tau _x^{1/1q}\left|1+\chi \right|`$. There are two regimes for time evolution at $`\mu _c(\sigma )`$. When $`\tau <\tau _x`$ the fluctuations are smaller than the distances between neighboring subsequence positions of the $`\sigma =0`$ orbit at $`\mu _c(0)`$, and the iterate positions with $`\sigma >0`$ fall within small non overlapping bands each around the $`\sigma =0`$ position for that $`\tau `$. Time evolution follows a subsequence pattern analogous to that in the noiseless case. When $`\tau \tau _x`$ the width of the noise-generated band reached at time $`\tau _x=2^N`$ matches the distance between adjacent positions where $`N\mathrm{ln}\sigma /\mathrm{ln}\kappa `$, and this implies a cutoff in the progress along the position subsequences. At longer times $`\tau >\tau _x`$ the orbits no longer follow the detailed period-doubling structure of the attractor. The iterates now trail through increasingly chaotic trajectories as bands merge with time. This is the dynamical image - observed along the time evolution for the orbits of a single state $`\mu _c(\sigma )`$ \- of the static bifurcation gap originally described in terms of the variation of the control parameter $`\mu `$ , , . The plateau structure of relaxation and the crossover time $`t_x`$ can be clearly observed in Fig. 1b in Ref.  where $`<x_t^2>`$ $`<x_t>^2`$ is shown for several values of $`\sigma `$.

## 4 Parallels with glassy dynamics

At noise level $`\sigma `$ the orbits visit points within the set of $`2^N`$ bands and, as explained in Ref. , this takes place in time in the same way that period doubling and band merging proceeds in the presence of a bifurcation gap when the control parameter is run through the interval $`0\mu 2`$. Namely, the trajectories starting at $`x_{in}=0`$ duplicate the number of visited bands at times $`\tau =2^n`$, $`n=1,\mathrm{},N`$, the bifurcation gap is reached at $`\tau _x=`$ $`2^N`$, after which the orbits fall within bands that merge by pairs at times $`\tau =2^{N+n}`$, $`n=1,\mathrm{},N`$. The sensitivity to initial conditions grows as $`\xi _t=\mathrm{exp}_q(\lambda _qt)`$ ($`q=1\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}\alpha <1`$) for $`t<t_x`$, but for $`t>t_x`$ the fluctuations dominate and $`\xi _t`$ grows exponentially as the trajectory has become chaotic ($`q=1`$) . This behavior was interpreted  to be the dynamical system analog of the $`\alpha `$ relaxation in supercooled fluids. The plateau duration $`t_x\mathrm{}`$ as $`\sigma 0`$. Additionally, trajectories with initial conditions $`x_{in}`$ not belonging to the attractor exhibit an initial relaxation process towards the plateau as the orbit approaches the attractor. This is the map analog of the $`\beta `$ relaxation in supercooled liquids.

The entropy $`S_c(\mu _c(\sigma ))`$ associated to the distribution of iterate positions (configurations) within the set of $`2^N`$ bands was determined in Ref. . This entropy has the form $`S_c(\mu _c(\sigma ))=2^N\sigma s`$, since each of the $`2^N`$ bands contributes with an entropy $`\sigma s`$, where $`s=_1^1p(\chi )\mathrm{ln}p(\chi )𝑑\chi `$ and where $`p(\chi )`$ is the distribution for the noise random variable. Given that $`2^N=`$ $`1+t_x`$ and $`\sigma =(1+t_x)^{1/1r}`$, one has $`S_c(\mu _c,t_x)/s=(1+t_x)^{r/1r}`$or, conversely,

$$t_x=(s/S_c)^{(1r)/r}.$$
(4)
Since $`t_x\sigma ^{r1}`$, $`r10.3668`$ and $`(1r)/r0.5792`$ then $`t_x\mathrm{}`$ and $`S_c0`$ as $`\sigma 0`$, i.e. the relaxation time diverges as the ’landscape’ entropy vanishes. We interpret this relationship between $`t_x`$ and the entropy $`S_c`$ to be the dynamical system analog of the Adam-Gibbs formula for a supercooled liquid. Notice that Eq.(4) is a power law in $`S_c^1`$ while for structural glasses it is an exponential in $`S_c^1`$ . This difference is significant as it indicates how the superposition of molecular structure and dynamics upon the bare ergodicity breakdown phenomenon built in the map modifies the vitrification properties.

The aging scaling property of the trajectories $`x_t`$ at $`\mu _c(\sigma )`$ was examined in Ref. . The case $`\sigma =0`$ is readily understood because this property is actually built into the position subsequences $`x_\tau =\left|g^{(\tau )}(0)\right|`$, $`\tau =(2k+1)2^n`$, $`k,n=0,1,\mathrm{}`$ referred to above. These subsequences can be employed for the description of trajectories that are at first held at a given attractor position for a waiting period of time $`t_w`$ and then released to the normal iterative procedure. For illustrative purposes we select the holding positions to be any of those for a waiting time $`t_w=2k+1`$, $`k=0,1,\mathrm{}`$ and notice that for the $`x_{in}=0`$ orbit these positions are visited at odd iteration times. The lower-bound positions for these trajectories are given by those of the subsequences at times $`(2k+1)2^n`$. See Fig. 1 in Ref. . Writing $`\tau `$ as $`\tau =`$ $`t_w+t`$ we have that $`t/t_w=2^n1`$ and $`x_{t+t_w}=g^{(t_w)}(0)g^{(t/t_w)}(0)`$ or

$$x_{t+t_w}=g^{(t_w)}(0)\mathrm{exp}_q(\lambda _qt/t_w).$$
(5)
This fully developed aging property is gradually modified when noise is turned on. The presence of a bifurcation gap limits its range of validity to total times $`t_w+t`$ $`<t_x(\sigma )`$ and so progressively disappears as $`\sigma `$ is increased. Recently  aging has been observed in the subdiffusion associated to a nonlinear map that, as it is the case here, has $`\lambda _1=0`$ .

## 5 Discussion

Thus, the dynamics of noise-perturbed logistic maps at the chaos threshold exhibits the most prominent features of glassy dynamics in supercooled liquids. The existence of this analogy cannot be considered accidental since the limit of vanishing noise amplitude $`\sigma 0`$ (the counterpart of the limit $`TT_g0`$ in the supercooled liquid) entails loss of ergodicity. The incidence of these properties in such simple dynamical systems, with only a few degrees of freedom and no reference to molecular interactions, suggests a universal mechanism underlying the dynamics of glass formation. As definitely proved , the dynamics of deterministic unimodal maps at the edge of chaos is a genuine example of the pertinence of nonextensive statistics in describing states with vanishing ordinary Lyapunov exponent $`\lambda _1`$. Here we have shown that this nonergodic state corresponds to the limiting state, $`\sigma 0`$, $`t_x\mathrm{}`$, for a family of small $`\sigma `$ noisy states with glassy properties, that are noticeably described for $`t<t_x`$ via the $`q`$-exponentials of the nonextensive formalism .

To ascertain the degree of parallelism between the map at $`\mu _c(\sigma )`$ and a thermal system we keep in mind the following criteria: The exponential $`\xi _t`$ (or $`\lambda _1>0`$) of a chaotic state is the counterpart of the BG equilibrium state. On the other hand, a power-law $`\xi _t`$ (or $`\lambda _1=0`$) of an incipient chaotic state represents an ”anomalous stationary state”, $`q1`$, and in the case of $`\mu _c(0)`$ a nonergodic state. Only when $`\sigma =0`$ we have a true anomalous stationary state (of infinite duration) that exhibits a precise aging property. In the map at $`\mu _c(\sigma )`$ we find two regimes separated by $`t_x`$ with presence of aging when $`t<t_x`$. In glass formers the two-step relaxation is seen in equilibrium two-time correlations while aging is a manifestation of the system having fallen out of equilibrium. Because of these apparent differences a more detailed comparison between the map and the thermal system properties is required, and it may be necessary to consider neighbouring states around $`\mu _c(\sigma )`$. These states would be expected to display also slow dynamics. When $`\mu >\mu _c(\sigma )`$ one has $`\lambda _1>0`$ and the analog of BG equilibrium, whereas for $`\mu <\mu _c(\sigma )`$ one has $`\lambda _1<0`$ and a situation ”out of equilibrium”.

The anomalous stationary state has properties akin to both equilibrium and out of equilibrium. Equilibrium-like since it is stationary, an orbit that starts in the attractor remains there forever. Nonequilibrium-like because the finite-time Lyapunov exponents fluctuate and take negative values (implying confinement in phase space). When $`\sigma >0`$ it would be expected that the frequency of these negative values decreases sharply after $`t_x`$. Further studies are needed here. Also, there remains the question about whether some features of glassy dynamics, such as loss of time translation invariance, are due to nonergodicity or to merely being out of equilibrium (i.e. in a non-stationary state).

It has been suggested on several occasions  that the setting in which nonextensive statistics appears to emerge is linked to the incidence of nonuniform convergence, such as that involving the thermodynamic $`N\mathrm{}`$ and very large time $`t\mathrm{}`$ limits. For example, in the rotor problem mentioned above - for specific choices of initial conditions - if $`N\mathrm{}`$ is taken before $`t\mathrm{}`$ the anomalous metastable states with noncanonical properties appear to be the only observable stationary states, whereas if $`t\mathrm{}`$ is taken before $`N\mathrm{}`$ the usual BG equilibrium states are obtained. Here it is clear that a similar situation takes place, that is, if $`\sigma 0`$ is taken before $`t\mathrm{}`$ a nonergodic orbit confined to the Feigenbaum attractor is obtained, whereas if $`t\mathrm{}`$ is taken before $`\sigma 0`$ a typical $`q=1`$ chaotic (ergodic) orbit is observed.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that while the properties displayed by the map capture in a qualitative, heuristic, way the phenomenological issues of vitrification, they are obtained in a quantitative and rigorous manner as the map is concerned. Our map setup is a rarely available ’laboratory’ where every aspect of the dynamics can be studied analytically.

Acknowledgments. I am grateful to Piero Tartaglia for informative discussions and also for his kind hospitality at Dipartamento di Fisica, Universitá degli Studi di Roma ”La Sapienza”. I thank an anonymous referee for important criticism. Work partially supported by CONACyT grant P-40530-F.