text:
# The Birth of a Super Star Cluster: NGC 5253

## 1 Introduction

NGC 5253 is a peculiar dwarf galaxy containing numerous bright super star clusters (Caldwell & Phillips, 1989; Meurer et al., 1995; Gorjian, 1996), with ages of $``$ 2-50 Myr (Calzetti et al., 1997; Tremonti et al., 2001). The current burst of cluster formation may have been induced by accretion of gas from the intergalactic medium via a prominent, minor axis dust lane. A bright source less than 2 pc in diameter (Beck et al., 1996; Turner, Ho, & Beck, 1998) dominates the radio emission of NGC 5253. The Lyman continuum rate for this single source can explain most if not all of the IRAS luminosity of the galaxy, $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{IR}}=1.8\times 10^9\mathrm{L}_{}`$ at 3.8 Mpc (Turner, Beck, & Ho, 2000). Confirmation that the radio source is indeed an HII region came with the detections of a compact mid-infrared source with an infrared/radio flux ratio characteristic of HII regions (Gorjian, Turner, & Beck, 2001) and narrow radio and infrared recombination lines (Mohan, Ananthamariah, & Goss, 2001; Turner et al., 2003). This is a giant ultra-compact HII region, similar in properties to Galactic UCHII regions, but with a much larger ionized volume due to the excitation of thousands of O stars (Turner, Ho, & Beck, 1998). However, the “supernebula” is different from Galactic HII regions in that its embedded cluster is so massive. One difference is that gravitational pull of the cluster may confine the nebular gas to prevent the HII region from expanding (Turner et al., 2003): as yet, this is the only HII region known in which this is the case. The star formation in NGC 5253 is also unusually efficient, consistent with the formation of a bound cluster (Meier, Turner, & Beck, 2002).

We know little about how large bound clusters, such as globular clusters, form. Young super star clusters are found only in other galaxies, where they are difficult to resolve. Enhancements in the high frequency capabilities of the VLA now make it possible to map free-free emission with resolutions of tens of milliarcseconds. At this resolution the great nebula in NGC 5253 can be resolved.

We have mapped NGC 5253 at the highest resolution possible with the NRAO 111The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. VLA. We used the Pie Town antenna link and Q band (7mm) receivers to obtain resolutions higher than 100 mas. Our aims were: to confirm the size of the “supernebula” in NGC 5253; to measure an optically thin free-free flux and refine the number of O stars; and to search for spatial structure.

## 2 Observations

We observed with the VLA in the A configuration, including Pie Town, on 2002 March 9, in good weather. To obtain diffraction-limited images at Q band (43.34 GHz), fast-switching between source and calibrator was used. The phase calibrator was J13161-33390 (J2000), which has coordinates good to $`2`$mas, and the total cycle was 120 seconds. After calibration, we performed a Gaussian deconvolution of the calibrator from the beam and measured a size identical to the beam, east-west, and to within 4 mas north-south. This could reflect real structure within the calibrator, which we assumed to be a point source; however, since the elongation is north-south, it may be due to seeing. The elongation is only $``$5% of the north-south FWHM of the highest resolution images. The flux scale is based on 3C286, which is 1.455 Jy at Q band. We estimate that absolute fluxes are good to a few percent, with the uncertainty dominated by the finite size of 3C286. The expected rms noise level for the 45 minute integration is 0.12 mJy/beam, which is what we measure for our naturally-weighted maps.

## 3 Properties of the Supernebula

With aperture synthesis mapping one has some leeway in adjusting the weighting of different baselines to control the effective “illumination” of the aperture, and thus the beamsize. We present two maps in this paper, with different aperture weightings. Because of missing short baselines, the maps can reliably image only sources less than $``$1.2-1.3″ in diameter.

In Figure 1a we present our highest resolution image of NGC 5253, made with uniform weighting. The image reflects the full contribution of Pie Town, which provides long, mostly east-west baselines. The beam is 74 mas by 17 mas, p.a. 7°, and the rms noise level is 0.37 mJy/beam. In this image, the nebula clearly is resolved out. This is important information since it gives us a brightness temperature. The peak 7mm intensity is 2.2 mJy/beam, corresponding to a Rayleigh-Jeans brightness temperature of 1100K $`\pm `$ 200 K. The surrounding $`\mathrm{T}_\mathrm{b}`$ are $`8001000`$K.

Following Turner, Ho, & Beck (1998) we use the radio spectrum of the HII region to infer its emission measure, EM=$`n_e^2𝑑l`$. The peak brightness temperature at 7mm is 1100 K; thus $`\tau =0.09\pm 0.02,`$ if we assume that $`\mathrm{T}_\mathrm{e}=12000`$ K, similar to the optical nebulae (Walsh & Roy, 1987; Kobulnicky et al., 1997). The turnover frequency of the free-free emission, where $`\tau `$ equals unity ($`\tau \nu ^{2.1}`$), is then 14 $`\pm `$ 1 GHz. From the turnover frequency (Mezger & Henderson, 1967), we find $`\mathrm{EM}=9\pm 1\times 10^8\mathrm{cm}^6\mathrm{pc}`$, a value characteristic of UCHII regions. If we assume that the line of sight dimension is equal to its diameter, the density of the bright core is 3-$`4\times 10^4\mathrm{cm}^3`$.

In Figure 1b, we show a lower resolution image of the supernebula. The beam for this naturally-weighted image is 93 mas $`\times `$ 34 mas, p.a. -1°. With less weighting on the sparse and atmospherically-challenged Pie Town baselines, the map has an rms of 0.11 mJy/beam. While little different in beamsize from the previous image, the core of the nebula has become apparent and we begin to pick up traces of filaments to the north and east, and a kidney-shaped envelope around the core. The bright core is located at RA 13:39:55.9631, Dec: -31:38:24.388 (J2000) $`\pm `$ 4mas, and contains 8.5 mJy of flux at 43 GHz. When deconvolved from the beam assuming a Gaussian source distribution, the core has a size of 99 $`\pm `$ 9 mas by 39 $`\pm 4`$ mas, at p.a. =6°$`\pm 4`$°, or 1.8 pc by 0.72 pc (FWHM).

The 7mm flux for the central 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$2 region is 50 mJy. This corresponds to a Lyman continuum rate of $`N_{Lyc}=7\pm 1\times 10^{52}\mathrm{s}^1`$, the equivalent of 7000 O7 stars for the central 1.2″ (22 pc) region, 20% (8.5 mJy) of which is confined to the central 1-2 pc bright core, and one-third (15 mJy) to the 5 pc region surrounding the core. The total flux is in agreement with previous fluxes, when optical depth is taken into account (Turner, Ho, & Beck, 1998; Turner, Beck, & Ho, 2000; Meier, Turner, & Beck, 2002). From the ionizing flux and a density of $`\mathrm{n}_\mathrm{e}=3.5\times 10^4\mathrm{cm}^3`$, we obtain a total gas mass of $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{HII}}=1900\pm 140(\mathrm{n}_\mathrm{H}/\mathrm{n}_\mathrm{e})\mathrm{M}_{}`$ (corrected for He) for the central 1 by 2 pc core; and $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{HII}}=3000(\mathrm{n}_\mathrm{H}/\mathrm{n}_\mathrm{e})\mathrm{M}_{}`$ for the inner 5 pc region. Since the density is lower outside the main core, 3000 $`M_{}`$ is a lower limit to $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{HII}}`$, which scales inversely with $`\mathrm{n}_\mathrm{e}`$.

## 4 Is the Supernebula Gravity-bound?

One of our goals was to confirm our suggestion that the nebula is gravitationally bound, a finding based on recombination linewidths and the size of the radio nebula (Turner et al., 2003).

Given our new size, and more robust measure of $`\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{Lyc}}`$, we can refine the calculation of the escape velocity. The core of the supernebula requires the excitation of 1200 O stars. Radio and Brackett recombination linewidths are $`75\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, FWHM (Mohan, Ananthamariah, & Goss, 2001; Turner et al., 2003). For a cluster of 1200 O7 stars only, and a radius of 0.36 pc, and if we assume that the cluster is within the nebula ($`\mathrm{\S }5`$), then at the edge of the nebula is $`\mathrm{v}_{\mathrm{esc}}15\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$; for a Salpeter cluster of stars from O3 to G ($`>100\mathrm{M}_{}1\mathrm{M}_{}`$), a more likely mass function, it is $`65\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$; and for a Salpeter cluster extending to K-M stars, $`110\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. In the north-south direction, for a radius of 0.9 pc, these numbers become $`10\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, $`40\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, and $`70\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, respectively. Whatever the cluster IMF may be, the escape velocity is greater than the sound speed. Gravity must play a role in the evolution of the supernebula.

Since the observed linewidths are close to $`\mathrm{v}_{\mathrm{esc}},`$ the gas may actually be in gravitational equilibrium. If so, then the recombination linewidth of 75 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ gives a mass of 4-$`6\times 10^5\mathrm{M}_{}`$. A cluster of this mass is consistent with the observed IR luminosity of 1-$`2\times 10^9\mathrm{L}_{}`$ (Gorjian, Turner, & Beck, 2001). If so, the nebula can be maintained at its small size indefinitely; in the absence of other confinement, such a dense nebula would have expanded past its present size in less than $`10^5`$ yrs.

## 5 Interaction of a Young SSC with its Surroundings: First Indications

Can we learn anything about the young super star cluster from the structure of its nebula? One obvious question is, where are the stars that excite the supernebula? The excitation requirements are extreme: 1200 O7 stars for the pc-sized central core, another 2000 O7 stars within the central 5 pc, and a total of 7000 O stars for the inner 20 pc region. These numbers of O stars should be multiplied by $``$100-200 for total numbers of stars of all masses. And that is assuming the nebula is density-bounded and no dust absorption. The true number of stars could be larger, although it cannot be too much larger with the observed $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{IR}}`$. The bright core suggests that it marks the location of the young super star cluster.

At a radius of only $``$0.4-0.9 pc, the core of the nebula is smaller than the core radius of most Galactic globular clusters. The nebula may be intermixed with the stars. In Galactic UCHII regions, the ionized gas often forms a shell surrounding the stars (e.g., Dreher & Welch, 1981; Turner & Matthews, 1984; Wood & Churchwell, 1989) and probably arises from the ionization of surrounding placental gas. There is little evidence for molecular clouds near the supernebula in NGC 5253, although the limits of a few $`10^5\mathrm{M}_{}`$ (Meier, Turner, & Beck, 2002) are not very stringent. Given the compactness of the nebula, the dominance of gravity, and the general windiness of O stars, the nebula could arise from mass loss from stars within the cluster. 7000 O stars can easily produce 2200 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ of gas over their lifetimes.

If the gas is indeed mixed in with the stars, then it could significantly affect the evolution of the young super star cluster. Intracluster gas provides a source of drag for the orbiting stars and could facilitate stellar collisions and mergers (Bonnell & Bate, 2002). The results of these mergers could be extremely massive stars or other massive objects.

If the gas is intermixed with the star cluster, and the ionized gas of the “supernebula” in NGC 5253 is in virial equilibrium, then it is possible that the shape of the nebula reflects the shape of the underlying mass distribution. The elongation of the nebula could indicate that the young super star cluster is elongated. However, this would not easily explain the larger radio arc, which is beyond gravity’s grasp.

In Figure 2, we overlay our 7 mm radio image atop a false color HST/NICMOS image of the center of NGC 5253 (data described in Scoville et al., 2000; Alonso-Herrero et al., 2003). The red channel is NICMOS 1.90$`\mu `$m continuum, and the blue channel 1.12$`\mu `$m; the 7mm VLA image is in green. There is a diffuse blue “optical source” (source 5 in Calzetti et al., 1997; Gorjian, 1996, source 1) and a bright, very red “IR cluster.” The IR cluster appears only in $`\lambda 1\mu `$m, and is offset $``$0.5″ to the northeast of the blue cluster (see Alonso-Herrero et al., 2003, for SEDs and ages). The absolute pointing accuracy of HST, $``$1″, is inadequate for registration of the infrared and radio images. However, the Keck K-band (2.2$`\mu `$m) image of Turner et al. (2003) shows a single, slightly extended bright source coincident with the compact Brackett line source, and this K-band source is also offset to the northwest of the optical source by $``$ 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5. It is thus reasonable to identify the “IR cluster” with the K-band/ Brackett line/radio source. The Brackett lines indicate a visual extinction of $`15`$ mag internal to the nebula, which would explain the redness of the IR cluster. While the K-band source is extended, and may include emission from nebular dust, the IR cluster at 1.9$`\mu `$m is compact, probably an embedded star cluster.

If we adopt the coincidence of the supernebula core and IR cluster, then the faint arc of radio emission curves around in the direction of the optical source, to the southeast. As shown in Figure 2, the optical source appears diffuse compared to other clusters on the NICMOS images. It is only 10 pc in projected distance from the IR cluster. The nature of any association between the optical source and the IR/radio cluster is at this point speculative. The elongation of the supernebula core and the radio arc indicate that the nebula is “aware” of the nearby optical “cluster.” Given the proximity of the two sources in projection, and the gravity-bound gas, could it be that the arc of ionized gas is a reflection of tidal interaction between two massive star clusters, one still embedded, one visible? How will this double cluster evolve? Or is the nebula a blister feature burning its way into the surface of a molecular cloud? In this case, the optical “cluster” may not be a cluster at all, but merely a reflection nebula from a gap opening in the cocoon around the IR cluster, with the ionizing arc tracing the opening of this gap. A reflection nebula would be consistent with the diffuse morphology of the optical source. This possibility suggests another scenario: that the supernebula is cometary. The direction of the ionized arc would then suggest motion of the HII region/cluster to the west and north, which, incidentally, is the approximate direction of the infalling gas clouds of the minor axis dust lane (Meier, Turner, & Beck, 2002). Is a cometary supernebula in NGC 5253 the last kinematic remnant of the gas stream from intergalactic space that triggered the birth of this super star cluster?

## 6 Summary

We present a 7mm continuum image of the “supernebula” in NGC 5253 made with the VLA including Pie Town. We have resolved the nebula. Its central core is 1.8 pc by 0.7 pc in extent (99 by 39 mas) with an rms density of $`3.5\times 10^4\mathrm{cm}^3`$. It is a giant compact HII region, requiring the excitation of 1200 O7 stars for the pc-sized core, $``$3500 stars for the inner 5 pc, and a total of 7000 O7 stars within the central 20 pc. The overall cluster membership implied by this number of O stars is $`1`$-$`2\times 10^6`$.

We confirm the finding of Turner et al. (2003) that the supernebula is gravity-bound, possibly even in virial equilibrium. In the latter case, we obtain a mass of 4-$`6\times 10^5\mathrm{M}_{}`$ for the embedded stellar cluster.

We overlay the 7mm image on a NICMOS near-IR continuum image. There is a heavily reddened IR cluster not evident in optical images. We suggest that this IR cluster is responsible for the radio nebula. A faint radio arc curves in the direction of a bright optical source 10 pc away. The nature of the optical source is unclear: it may be a reflection nebula. The elongation of the core of the supernebula could indicate that the underlying stellar cluster, which is most likely intermixed with the HII region, is itself elongated. Or, the curved shape of the nebula and faint radio arc may reflect interactions of the young cluster with its surroundings, possibly reflecting motion of the newly-born cluster within the galaxy.

J.L.T. acknowledges the support of NSF Grant AST 0307950. We thank the VLA scheduling committee for scheduling Q band with the Pie Town link, and an anonymous referee, Eric Greisen, and Wes Young for their assistance.


format: text

text:
# The Grand-Canonical Asymmetric Exclusion Process and the One-Transit Walk

## 1 Introduction

Driven physical systems that are out of equilibrium are characterized by steady states in which currents may flow. Examples of such systems are provided by the kinetics of biopolymerization , transport across membranes  and traffic flow . The existence of a macroscopic steady-state current has an important consequence for the microscopic modeling of such systems. Dynamics which are microscopically reversible (i.e. related to an energy function through the detailed balance condition) do not, by definition, admit macroscopic currents. Hence to understand nonequilibrium—and, in particular, driven—systems, it is useful to study closely microscopically irreversible processes.

There is, at present, no unified statistical mechanical theory underlying nonequilibrium systems, and this presents a major barrier against progress towards a general, deep understanding thereof. Nevertheless, there is a class of one-dimensional driven-diffusive systems—typified by the Asymmetric Exclusion Process (ASEP) defined below—that have been exactly solved and shown to exhibit nontrivial steady-state phenomena such as phase transitions , spontaneous symmetry breaking  and jamming . More recently, there have been some advances in extending notions from equilibrium statistical mechanics to nonequilibrium steady states. These include the Lee-Yang theory of partition-function zeros and phase transitions  and, in a separate development, the derivation of nonequilibrium free energy functionals .

It might be that the success of these approaches is due to the ASEP’s steady state being related to certain types of random walks. This is because the latter are objects that are meaningful in the framework of equilibrium statistical physics—see, e.g.,  for a comprehensive overview. The connection between the steady state of the ASEP and One-Transit Walks was investigated in . In particular, it was shown that the transfer-matrix representation of the partition function can be interpreted in the framework of a similar formalism which proved instrumental for the exact solution of the ASEP . In the present work, we show that the connection to random walks is transparent in an ensemble in which the system size of the ASEP fluctuates. In the equilibrium picture, it is the lengths of the random walks that fluctuate, and so we deem the ensemble grand canonical. In the course of this work we will show that the grand-canonical partition function has a surprisingly compact form, but one that nevertheless elegantly encodes the phase behavior of the ASEP in the canonical (fixed system size) ensemble. We conclude our work with some speculation as to the existence of more elementary solutions of the ASEP and related models based on the compactness of this formula.

We begin by recalling the deceptively simple dynamics of the ASEP with open boundaries, indicated in Fig. 1. Particles are introduced at a rate $`\alpha `$ per unit time at the start of an $`N`$-site chain and leave at a rate $`\beta `$ at the other end. They can hop with probability one per unit time to the right if the space is empty, otherwise they remain stationary.

Although the model is a nonequilibrium construct, defined purely in terms of microscopically irreversible transitions, it still displays steady-state solutions of various sorts. A key quantity in describing the behavior of the model is the current of particles, which acts as an order parameter in the different phases.

The model displays a phase diagram that possesses both first- and second-order phase transitions.

In Fig. 2, phase (i) is a high-density phase with a density profile that decays exponentially towards the right boundary and has a current $`J=\beta (1\beta )`$. Phase (ii) on the other hand is a low-density phase that has an exponential decay in the density profile from the left boundary and a current $`J=\alpha (1\alpha )`$. The line $`\alpha =\beta <\frac{1}{2}`$ is a first-order transition line at which the current exhibits a discontinuity in its first derivative. Finally in phase (iii), the current assumes a maximal constant value of $`J=\frac{1}{4}`$. Since $`J`$ has a discontinuity in its second derivative passing from phase (iii) to either (i) or (ii) the horizontal and vertical boundaries are second-order transition lines.

It is at present unknown whether one can define for general nonequilibrium steady states a partition function from which all thermodynamic information can be obtained. Nevertheless it is known that a quantity constructed by summing the statistical weights (unnormalized probabilities) $`f(𝒞)`$ over all configurations $`𝒞`$ in the steady state of the ASEP does at least capture the model’s phase behavior (by applying, e.g., a Lee-Yang analysis ). Denoting this analog of the partition function by $`Z`$, we have

$$Z=\underset{𝒞}{}f(𝒞),$$
(1)
where the weights $`f(𝒞)`$ are defined by the microscopic transition rates $`W(𝒞𝒞^{})`$ in the model and the requirement that probability fluxes in the steady state balance:

$$\underset{𝒞^{}𝒞}{}\left[f(𝒞^{})W(𝒞^{}𝒞)f(𝒞)W(𝒞𝒞^{})\right]=0.$$
(2)
The probability of a configuration $`𝒞`$ is then given by $`P(𝒞)=f(𝒞)/Z`$. Since the weights, $`f(𝒞)`$, are fixed only up to an overall scale by (2), one can ensure that $`Z`$ is uniquely defined by, for example, insisting that it is polynomial in the transition rates $`W(𝒞𝒞^{})`$ with any factors common to all weights $`f(𝒞)`$ removed .

The tour de force in  gives exact formulæ for these weights for an ASEP with $`N`$ sites. The resulting expression for the canonical partition function, $`Z_N`$, reads

$$Z_N=\underset{p=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{p(2N1p)!}{N!(Np)!}\frac{(1/\beta )^{p+1}(1/\alpha )^{p+1}}{(1/\beta )(1/\alpha )}.$$
(3)
The current is given by $`J=Z_{N1}/Z_N`$ and various correlation functions can also be obtained . For later convenience we note that combinatorial factor appearing in (3) is given by the Ballot numbers $`B_{N,p}`$

$$B_{N,p}=\frac{p(2N1p)!}{N!(Np)!},$$
(4)
so that

$`Z_N`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{p=1}{\overset{N}{}}}B_{N,p}{\displaystyle \frac{(1/\beta )^{p+1}(1/\alpha )^{p+1}}{(1/\beta )(1/\alpha )}}`$ (5)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{p=1}{\overset{N}{}}}B_{N,p}{\displaystyle \underset{q=0}{\overset{p}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\alpha ^q}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta ^{pq}}}.`$
Ballot numbers arise in the enumeration of Dyck paths which are walks on a diagonally-rotated square lattice with the following properties: (a) they are constrained to lie above or on the $`x`$-axis; (b) they can only move in the north-east or south-east directions; and (c) they start and end on the $`x`$-axis. The quantity $`B_{N,p}`$ is the number of Dyck paths with length $`2N`$ and $`p`$ returns to the $`x`$-axis, including the final return that is always present .

With this in mind, (5) can be interpreted as a weighted sum over paths as follows. Take a Dyck path from $`(0,0)`$ to $`(2N,0)`$ with $`p`$ returns, and from the $`q^{\mathrm{th}}`$ return onwards ($`q=0,1,\mathrm{},p`$) reflect the path about the $`x`$-axis. The resulting construct is a One-Transit Walk, an example of which is shown in Fig. 3. The weight, $`\alpha ^q\beta ^{(pq)}`$, associated with the walk can be gleaned by assigning a factor $`1/z_1=1/\alpha `$ to each contact with the $`x`$-axis from above, excluding an initial upward step, and similarly a factor $`1/z_2=1/\beta `$ to each contact from below, excluding a final upward step. Note that initial or final downward steps do contribute factors of $`1/z_2`$ and $`1/z_1`$ respectively since these correspond to the cases $`q=0`$ and $`q=p`$.

A slightly different scheme is that implemented in . There, a fugacity, $`z_1`$, is assigned to each down step and $`z_2`$ to each up step, apart from those ending on the $`x`$-axis. The partition function of this model is

$$\widehat{Z}_N=(z_1z_2)^N\underset{p=0}{\overset{N}{}}B_{N,p}\underset{q=0}{\overset{p}{}}z_1^qz_2^{p+q},$$
(6)
which has the same form as $`Z_N`$ up to the analytic factor of $`(z_1z_2)^N`$. This prefactor, which brings (3) into the standard form proposed in , has no bearing on the critical behavior.

## 2 A Grand Canonical ASEP

We now switch to an alternative viewpoint of the ASEP which allows both the phase behavior and the connection to One-Transit Walks to be seen in a very straightforward way. The key step is to relax the constraint of a fixed system size $`N`$. To this end we introduce a fugacity, $`z`$, which is conjugate to $`N`$ and define a grand-canonical partition function, $`𝒵`$, as

$$𝒵(z)=\underset{N=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}Z_Nz^N.$$
(7)
After substituting in the expression (3) for $`Z_N`$ and changing the order of summation, one can use

$$\left(\frac{1\sqrt{14z}}{2z}\right)^p=\underset{N=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{p(2N+p1)!}{p!(N+p)!}z^N,$$
(8)
to give the following remarkably simple result for $`𝒵`$:

$$𝒵(z)=\frac{\alpha \beta }{(x(z)\alpha )(x(z)\beta )}.$$
(9)
In this expression $`x(z)`$ is the generating function for Catalan numbers,

$$x(z)=\frac{1}{2}\left(1\sqrt{14z}\right),$$
(10)
which crops up in numerous combinatorial contexts , such as counting well-bracketed words or bifurcating trees. Writing $`𝒵(z)`$ explicitly in terms of $`z`$, we have

$$𝒵(z)=\frac{4\alpha \beta }{(12\alpha \sqrt{14z})(12\beta \sqrt{14z})},$$
(11)
or, when $`\alpha =\beta `$,

$$𝒵(z)=\left[\frac{2\alpha }{12\alpha \sqrt{14z}}\right]^2.$$
(12)
One can alternatively use the Lagrange inversion formula with $`x=z/(1x)`$ to show that expanding $`𝒵(x(z))`$ also gives the desired result in (7).

We remark that the expression (11) has recently been derived in two distinct contexts. First, it turns out to be instrumental in determining the joint distribution of density and current in the ASEP . To obtain the grand-canonical expression, a novel “relaxed” operator algebra method was invoked . Meanwhile, in a version of the ASEP in which the dynamics allow the system size to fluctuate (thereby giving physical meaning to the grand-canonical ensemble), an expression similar to, but more general than (11) arises by determining a quantity related to the resolvent of a matrix .

Standard results for the asymptotics of expansions of functions  allow us to read off the known large $`N`$ behavior of $`Z_N`$  directly from (11) and (12). The large $`N`$ behavior of $`Z_N`$ is dominated by whichever pole, $`x\alpha `$ or $`x\beta `$, is closest to the origin, or, if $`\alpha ,\beta >1/2`$, by the square root singularity in $`x(z)`$ itself. The first two cases correspond to regions (i) and (ii) in the phase diagram (Fig. 2) and the latter to region (iii). In the latter case, with $`\alpha <\beta `$ for example, the square root singularity in $`\sqrt{14z}`$ in (11) gives rise to a $`4^N/N^{3/2}`$ asymptotic behavior and substituting in $`z=1/4`$ picks up the coefficient

$$Z_N\frac{4^N}{\pi ^{1/2}N^{3/2}}\frac{\alpha \beta }{(\beta \alpha )}\left[\frac{1}{(2\alpha 1)^2}\frac{1}{(2\beta 1)^2}\right],$$
(13)
in perfect agreement with . The $`\alpha =\beta `$ result in region (iii) follows in a similar fashion from (12).

In regions (i) and (ii), on the other hand, it is the pole terms which lead to the dominant asymptotic behavior. For (ii), the pole at $`x=\beta ,z=\beta (1\beta )`$ is dominant since $`\alpha >\beta `$ and the square root singularity at $`z=1/4`$ has not yet been reached. In this case a $`1/(\beta (1\beta ))^N`$ behavior results from the pole term, giving

$$Z_N\frac{\alpha (12\beta )}{(\alpha \beta )(1\beta )}\frac{1}{(\beta (1\beta ))^N}.$$
(14)
Finally, on the second-order boundary lines ($`\alpha =1/2`$, $`\beta >1/2`$) and ($`\beta =1/2`$, $`\alpha >1/2`$) the singularity is of the form $`1/\sqrt{14z}`$ and gives an asymptotic behavior of the form $`4^N/N^{1/2}`$. For ($`\alpha =1/2`$, $`\beta >1/2`$), for instance,

$$Z_N\frac{4^N}{\pi ^{1/2}N^{1/2}}\frac{2\beta }{2\beta 1}.$$
(15)
There is a close link between the grand-canonical partition function for the ASEP and the random walk picture, as we now show. The generating function for Dyck walks with a fugacity $`w`$ for each contact with the $`x`$-axis is known to be given by

$$G_D(w,z)=\frac{w}{1w(1\sqrt{14z})/2},$$
(16)
in which $`z^{1/2}`$ is the fugacity for each step. Comparison with (11) reveals that $`𝒵`$ can be written as

$$𝒵(z)=\alpha \beta G_D(1/\alpha ,z)G_D(1/\beta ,z).$$
(17)
The product form of this expression implies that the grand-canonical ensemble of paths comprises two weakly-interacting Dyck paths of fluctuating length, one with a contact fugacity $`w=1/\alpha `$ and the other with contact fugacity $`w=1/\beta `$. One way in which such paths can be realised is as One-Transit Walks as shown in Fig. 3. Then, the $`\alpha \beta `$ prefactor simply takes account of the unweighted initial and final steps. Furthermore, from (17), it is clear that the critical behavior of the ASEP is a combination of that for two adsorbing Dyck walks where the second-order lines correspond to the adsorbtion/desorbtion transition for one of the walks and the first-order line to a co-operative transition not seen for a single walk. These results are in perfect accordance with those recently derived in  for the canonical ensemble.

## 3 Comparison with parallel dynamics

It is interesting to compare the grand-canonical generating function in (11) with that describing an ASEP with parallel dynamics, which was derived in  using recursion relations rather than a direct summation

$$𝒵_p(z)=\frac{\alpha \beta (1+pz)\left[2(1p)(\alpha \beta p^2z)\alpha \beta b^2(1pz)\alpha \beta b^2\sqrt{(1+pz)^24z}\right]}{2p^4(1\beta )(1\alpha )(zz_{hd})(zz_{ld})},$$
(18)
where

$`b^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{p}{\alpha \beta }}\left[(1p)(1\alpha )(1\beta )\right]`$ (19)
and

$`z_{ld}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha (p\alpha )}{p^2(1\alpha )}}`$ (20)
$`z_{hd}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\beta (p\beta )}{p^2(1\beta )}}`$ (21)
are the poles which govern the low density and high density phases respectively. With a parallel update all possible particle moves into empty spaces are carried out simultaneously with probability $`p`$ at each time step, rather than the random sequential updates implicity used elsewhere in the discussion. The parallel update ASEP is a special case of the Nagel-Schreckenberg  model for traffic flow and the transitions in the model can be interpreted as jamming transitions for the traffic in a one dimensional flow. The phase diagram has a similar topology, and similar phases, to the random sequential update ASEP , but the second order lines now lie at $`\alpha ,\beta =1\sqrt{1p}`$.

It is clear from the definition of the dynamics that substituting $`\alpha =p\stackrel{~}{\alpha }`$, $`\beta =p\stackrel{~}{\beta }`$ and taking the limit $`p0`$ will recover random sequential sequential updates. If we take this limit in (18) we find

$$𝒵_{p0}(z)=\stackrel{~}{\alpha }\stackrel{~}{\beta }\frac{\left[1\stackrel{~}{\alpha }\stackrel{~}{\beta }+2\stackrel{~}{\alpha }\stackrel{~}{\beta }+(1\stackrel{~}{\alpha }\stackrel{~}{\beta })\sqrt{14z}\right]}{(z\stackrel{~}{\alpha }(1\stackrel{~}{\alpha }))(z\stackrel{~}{\beta }(1\stackrel{~}{\beta }))}+O(p)$$
(22)
where the leading term is just a rationalized form of the grand-canonical generating function derived earlier in (11). The limiting process for obtaining random sequential dynamics from parallel dynamics can thus be carried out at the level of the grand-canonical generating function.

It is also noteworthy that it is possible to write

$$𝒵_p(z)=\frac{\alpha \beta (1x_{}(z)^2/p)}{(\alpha x_{}(z))(\beta x_{}(z))}$$
(23)
where $`x_{}(z)`$ is the negative root of

$$z=\frac{x(px)}{p^2(1x)}.$$
(24)
The $`x(z)`$ appearing in the grand-canonical generating function for random sequential dynamics (9) is one of the roots of $`z=x(1x)`$, so the structure of the parallel grand-canonical generating function above is similar. In fact, it turns out that the lattice paths described by this latter generating function generalise the Dyck walks of the random-sequential case in a natural way .

## 4 Discussion

Taking stock, we have found that the introduction of an initially ad-hoc grand-canonical approach to the ASEP leads to an extremely simple, unified description of the entirety of the model’s steady-state phase behavior, not to mention a straightforward confirmation of lattice path equivalences derived for the canonical ensemble in . It is, in fact, possible to go further and relate properties of the lattice paths—obtained using standard *equilibrium* statistical mechanical techniques—to observables in the ASEP’s nonequilibrium steady state. For example, density profiles  and correlation functions  have been calculated in this way. Hence it is evident that the lattice path interpretation of a nonequilibrium partition function can be developed into a useful calculational tool.

In this work we employed the grand-canonical ensemble as a mathematical device. It is, in fact, possible to give physical meaning to this ensemble if one introduces processes that allow the size of the system to fluctuate at a rate controlled by the fugacity $`z`$. A model with such processes was investigated in . In that work, the $`N`$-site chain is thought of as a ‘cluster’ embedded in a larger system of particles that can attach to and detach from the cluster at its boundaries at various rates. For a particular choice of these rates, in which $`z`$ is the ratio of the attachment to detachment rate, the normalisation given in  corresponds to our expression (11). If particles attach at a rate greater than the current of particles through the cluster, the size of the cluster explodes to infinity, a phenomenon that explains the divergence of the grand-canonical partition function at a critical value of $`z`$ equal to the internal current. In , an analogy was made to a gas-liquid transition.

Given the compactness of the grand-canonical normalisations for the ASEP with both random-sequential (11) and parallel dynamics (23), one might suggest that the grand-canonical approach might be of general utility in establishing equivalences between nonequilibrium and equilibrium steady states. One way in which this hypothesis might be given further weight would be to derive the analogous quantity for the Partially Asymmetric Exclusion Process (PASEP)  in which hops to the left at a rate $`q`$ are also entertained. This model contains an additional phase transition at $`q=1`$ which is of a different nature to the boundary-driven transitions shown in the ASEP phase diagram, Fig. 2. It may well be that a grand-canonical partition function for the PASEP would shed additional light onto this transition.

Finally we remark that the simple form of (11), which required previously known results as input, is somewhat tantalizing. In particular it hints at the possibility that it might be directly calculable from purely physical principles. This would be an avenue worth pursuing since, as noted in the introduction, partition functions appear to have some relevance to nonequilibrium steady states, yet there are as yet no systematic approaches for obtaining them.

## 5 Acknowledgements

WJ and DAJ were partially supported by EC network grant HPRN-CT-1999-00161. RAB is an EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow supported by grant GR/R44768. We would like to thank the referee for bringing  to our attention.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The periods of all known $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars were originally discovered at lower energy wavelengths. Although it has been shown that pulsations could have been discovered from the Crab, Vela, and Geminga pulsars from just the $`EGRET`$ data without a priori knowledge of their pulse periods (Jones 1999), all detections of $`\gamma `$-ray pulsations were achieved by folding the data given an X-ray or radio ephemeris. While there is the hope that blind searches of $`AGILE`$ and $`GLAST`$ data may result in some pulsar detections, the tendency of energetic young pulsars to glitch and have timing noise and the planned default scanning mode of the $`GLAST`$ mission will greatly complicate such searches. Current radio or X-ray ephemerides and precise positions allow any amount of data to be folded coherently without having to search through $`P\dot{P}`$ space. They also make unnecessary the restriction of searches to observations of a few months or less due to the large effective $`\ddot{P}`$ from timing noise and worries about glitches. It is therefore highly desirable to detect potential $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars before the next generation of high energy $`\gamma `$-ray missions are launched.

The $`EGRET`$ mission has left us a legacy of unidentified Galactic $`\gamma `$-ray sources at low and mid-Galactic latitudes, many of which will undoubtably turn out to be pulsars. In recent years, several new young pulsars have been found coincident with unidentified $`EGRET`$ sources. Some of these, such as the 69 ms PSR J1420$``$6048 in the Kookaburra (D’Amico et al. 2001), were discovered in the Parkes Multibeam Survey (Kramer et al. 2003). However, many young radio pulsars are too faint to be detected in general surveys. Fortunately, young pulsars often reveal themselves as X-ray point sources or through the X-ray or radio emission of an associated wind nebula. In fact, about a third of the known pulsar wind nebulae (PWN) are associated with known $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars or are coincident with unidentified $`EGRET`$ sources.

## 2 Finding Potential $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars

An unidentified $`\gamma `$-ray source can serve as a guide to lower energy searches, with the classic case being the discovery of the Geminga pulsar through its X-ray emission (Halpern and Holt, 1992). In general, a strategy of hard ($`>2`$ keV) X-ray imaging of a $`\gamma `$-ray error box followed by radio imaging and deep radio pulse searches has proven successful. This method has resulted in the discovery of at least six pulsar wind nebula, three of which contain radio pulsars which were discovered subsequently (Halpern et al. 2001, Roberts et al. 1999, Roberts et al. 2002).

The case of PSR J2021+3651 is an illustrative example. COS B first detected a high-energy $`\gamma `$-ray source in this part of the Cygnus region. Shallow radio pulse searches (Nice and Sayer 1997), soft X-ray imaging and hard X-ray imaging using an early $`EGRET`$ position failed to discover any sources of note (Mukherjee et al. 2000). A 2-10 keV $`ASCA`$ image based on a revised position derived from $`>1`$ GeV $`EGRET`$ data discovered the compact hard X-ray source AX J2021+3651. The X-ray localization allowed a deep search for radio pulsations using the Arecibo telescope, resulting in the discovery of the young, energetic (but radio faint $`S_{20cm}0.1`$ mJy) 104 ms pulsar PSR J2021+3651 (Roberts et al. 2002). A follow up Chandra observation showed this to be embedded in a compact X-ray pulsar wind nebula with the standard torus and jet morphology (Hessels et al. 2003).

Imaging of these type of nebulae may be important for constraining models of high-energy emission. The orientation of the X-ray jets, presumably aligned with the pulsar’s spin axis, and that of the torus, presumably aligned with the equator, tell us the viewing angle (Ng and Romani 2003). Combined with the polarization sweep (Radhakrishnan and Cooke 1969) and possibly the pulse morphhology, the magnetic inclination angle can also be strongly constrained. Since models of high-energy pulsed emission generally depend on only the spin rate, magnetic field, and pulsar geometry, these observations should allow theorists to predict what $`AGILE`$ and $`GLAST`$ should see from these newly discovered pulsars.

Energetic Pulsars Recently Discovered in $`EGRET`$ Error Boxes

| Pulsar | log $`\dot{E}`$ | log $`B`$ | Da | Ref. |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | erg/s | G | kpc |  |
| J2229+6114 | 37.4 | 12.3 | 3.97 | Halpern et al. 2001 |
| J1420$``$6048 | 37.0 | 12.4 | 5.63 | D’Amico et al. 2001 |
| J2021+3651 | 36.5 | 12.5 | 12.4 | Roberts et al. 2002 |
| J1016$``$5857 | 36.4 | 12.5 | 8.00 | Camilo et al 2001 |
| J1837$``$0604 | 36.3 | 12.3 | 6.4 | D’Amico et al. 2001 |

a Dispersion measure distances using the NE2001 model of Cordes and Lazio.

## 3 Pulsar Wind Nebula Associated with Variable $`\gamma `$-ray Sources

The pulsed emission from the known $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars is very steady on timescales much longer than the pulse period. However, there is good evidence of at least one class of variable Galactic $`\gamma `$-ray sources (McLaughlin et al. 1996, Nolan et al. 2003). $`ASCA`$ 2-10 keV images have been made of nearly all of the sources which are bright above 1 GeV (Roberts, Romani and Kawai 2001). The brightest non-thermal source in the error boxes of the four Galactic GeV sources showing the most evidence of variability appears extended even with the low resolution of the $`ASCA`$ telescopes, suggesting they might all be pulsar wind nebulae. Indeed, one of them is the known PWN around PSR B1853+01 in the SNR W44 which has a trailing plume morphology in radio and X-rays (Frail et al. 1996, Petre et al. 2003). The other three sources have now been imaged in radio and with high resolution X-ray telescopes. Two of them have radio nebulae with the spectral and polarization characteristics of PWN, both with bow-shock morphologies (Roberts et al. 1999, Braje et al. 2002). In X-rays, Chandra imaging of all four sources show a point source with a trailing jet type morphology.

In the table below, we list these four sources with their $`V_{12}`$ and $`\delta `$ values from Nolan et al. 2003. $`10^{V_{12}}`$ is the liklihood that $`\delta <0.12`$, where $`\delta \sigma /\mu `$ (standard deviation over mean) is a measure of how variable a source is with 0.12 being a conservative estimate of the systematic variability of $`EGRET`$ data. The typical time scale of this variability is a few months, and the amplitude of the variability is on the order of the mean flux. Chandra observations of hard X-ray variability in the bright PWN around the Crab, Vela, and PSR J1811$``$1925 in SNR G11.2$``$0.3 have established the dynamic nature of the emission from jet-like structures coming from pulsars (Hester et al. 2002, Pavlov et al. 2003, Roberts et al. 2003). Whether through beaming, magnetic field enhancements, or some other mechanism this emission can extend up to $`\gamma `$-ray energies is an open question.

PWN in Error Boxes of Variable $`EGRET`$ Sources

| PWN | $`\delta ^a`$ | $`V_{12}^b`$ | Ref. |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Rabbit | $`1.03_{0.66}^{+0.80}`$ | 1.59 | Roberts et al. 1999 |
| GeV J1809$``$2327 | $`0.71_{0.25}^{+0.42}`$ | 3.93 | Braje et al. 2002 |
| GeV J1825$``$1310 | $`0.88_{0.38}^{+0.57}`$ | 3.22 | Roberts et al. 2001 |
| PSR B1853+01 | $`0.71_{0.43}^{+0.82}`$ | 1.57 | Petre et al. 2003 |

a Variability magnitude parameter from Nolan et al. (2003) with 68% confidence region for $`\delta \sigma /\mu `$; b Variability determination statistic from Nolan et al. (2003). $`V_{12}=1.3`$ rejects constant hypothesis at 95% confidence level.

## 4 A Radio Survey for Pulsars in Mid-Latitude $`EGRET`$ Error Boxes

While the exact nature of most of the low Galactic latitude sources remains a mystery, in many cases plausible low-energy counterparts have been identified which can be confirmed by $`AGILE`$ and/or $`GLAST`$. At latitudes $`|b|>10^{}`$, only one or two non-Blazar candidate counterparts have been suggested for unidentified sources (eg. a neutron star for the singular high-latitude GeV source 3EG J1835+5921, Mirabal et al. 2000). At mid-Galactic latitudes, there is at least one population of sources associated with the Galaxy which on average are weaker and have a significantly steeper spectrum than the unidentified sources along the Galactic plane (Hartman et al. 1999). Spatially, these may coincide with the Gould Belt, a local region of recent star formation, and/or the Galactic Halo (Grenier 2002 and elsewhere in these proceedings). Due to their proximity ($`d50300`$ pc), pulsars born in the Gould belt might appear $`\gamma `$-ray bright for longer periods of time and at larger off-axis angles than pulsars at typical Galactic distances of a few kpc (Harding et al. 2003). It is also possible that millisecond pulsars, whose Galactic scale height is much greater than that of young pulsars, could form a halo population of $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars with a different typical spectra than the young pulsars (Kuiper et al. 2000, Romani 2001).

Practically speaking, these sources will be difficult to identify. The typical 95% confidence $`EGRET`$ error contour for these sources is $`1.5^{}`$ across, much larger than the typically $`<1^{}`$ error boxes of the harder, low-latitude sources. The steep spectra of these sources mean that the great improvements in resolution projected for $`GLAST`$, largely due to its good sensitivity to photons above 1 GeV which have relatively small PSFs, may not be nearly so great for these sources. In fact, for the softest sources, $`AGILE`$ may do nearly as good a job at localization as $`GLAST`$. Since there are no wide-field imaging X-ray telescopes operating in the 2-10 keV range, the strategy outlined above is impractical with the current error boxes. A prime goal of $`AGILE`$ with respect to these sources is to localize them to better than $`30^{}`$ so as to be observable with a single X-ray pointing by XMM.

Radio pulse searches of the error boxes are practical and highly desirable. If there is a significant population of millisecond $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars, a priori knowledge of a current timing ephemeris will be absolutely crucial to their detection as $`\gamma `$-ray sources. The large search space in frequency and frequency derivative required to detect millisecond pulsations in blind searches of $`AGILE`$ or $`GLAST`$ data will be computationally prohibitive and not very sensitive. In addition, the tendency of millisecond pulsars to be found in binary systems further complicates searches. Even with slower, isolated pulsars, a radio ephemeris would greatly facilitate the search for $`\gamma `$-ray pulses.

The Parkes Multibeam system makes deep radio pulse searches of large regions of the sky at 20cm practical. The 13 feeds of the receiver are placed two beam widths apart on the sky, allowing a 4 pointing tesselation pattern to completely cover an area of the sky $`1.5^{}`$ across, matching well the typical mid-latitude $`EGRET`$ error box. We have completed a survey of 56 unidentified $`EGRET`$ sources using the Multibeam receiver (Roberts et al. 2004). Each observation was $`35`$ min. long, with a sampling time of 0.125 ms. This is the same integration time as the highly successful Parkes Multibeam Galactic Survey (Kramer et al. 2003) and 8 times that of the Swinburne mid and high-latitude surveys (Edwards et al. 2001, Jacoby et al. 2003). In order to maintain sensitivity to pulsars in even tight binaries, we performed acceleration searches on all of the data using Presto (Ransom 2001). The sources were selected using the following criteria: $`|b|>5^{}`$ (so as not to overlap with the PMB plane survey), no probable blazar counterpart (Mattox, Hartman, Reimer 2001), declination $`<+20^{}`$ so as to be easily accessible to the Parkes telescope, and a 95% confidence error contour which is well covered by the four pointing tesselation pattern.

Initial processing of the data has resulted in the discovery of three new pulsars in binary systems and the redetection of a fourth. A fifth binary pulsar in the surveyed area discovered in the Swinburne survey (Edwards and Bailes 2001) was not redetected. 5 binary pulsars within the total surveyed area is about twice what would have been expected from a simple extrapolation of numbers detected from previous surveys. Due to the low number, whether this is statistically significant is difficult to say. Since long term timing of these pulsars has only recently commenced, we do not yet know whether any of these new pulsars are energetically capable of producing the $`\gamma `$-ray emission from their coincident $`EGRET`$ sources.

New Binary Pulsars in $`EGRET`$ Error Boxes

| Pulsar | $`P`$ | $`P_B`$ | D | Ref |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | s | d | kpc |  |
| PSR J0407+1607 | 0.0257 | 669 | 1.32 | Lorimer et al. 2003 |
| PSR J1614$``$2238 | 0.00315 | 8.68 | 1.27 | Current Survey |
| PSR J1614$``$2315 | 0.0335 | 3.15 | 1.89 | Current Survey |
| PSR J1744$``$3924 | 0.1724 | 0.19 | 3.05 | Current Survey + PMB |
| PSR J1745$``$0952 | 0.0194 | 4.94 | 1.83 | Edwards and Bailes 2001 (not detected) |

We have also discovered three new isolated pulsars. In addition, we redetected 6 out of 7 previously known pulsars. Again, we do not yet have measured spin-downs for the new pulsars, and none of the previously known pulsars with published period derivatives appear energetically capable of producing $`\gamma `$-rays. We are not certain why we have detected so few isolated, slow pulsars. However, at the sensitivity threshold of this survey, the low-frequency RFI in our data is quite problematic. For slow, low DM pulsars expected from the Gould belt, the pulse dispersion at 20cm is not great enough to distinguish pulsar signals from man-made pulsed signals. While we may be able to extract a few more slow pulsars from this data, it will probably require a longer wavelength survey to have good sensitivity to pulsars in the Gould belt.

Isolated Pulsars in $`EGRET`$ Survey Error Boxes

| Pulsar | $`P`$ | $`log\dot{E}`$ | D | Ref |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | s | erg/s | kpc |  |
| J1632-10 | 0.7176 | - | $`>50`$ | Current Survey |
| J1636-1509 | 1.1794 | - | 1.99 | ATNF not detected |
| J1650-1654 | 1.7496 | 31.4 | 1.47 | ATNF |
| J1725-07 | 0.2399 | - | 1.69 | Current Survey |
| J1741-2019 | 3.9045 | 31.0 | 1.72 | ATNF |
| J1741-3927 | 0.5122 | 32.7 | 3.21 | ATNF |
| J1800-01 | 0.7831 | - | 1.62 | Current Survey |
| J1821+17 | 1.3667 | - | 3.26 | ATNF |
| J1832-28 | 0.1992 | - | 3.32 | ATNF |
| J1904-1224 | 0.7508 | 31.8 | 3.37 | ATNF |

## 5 Conclusion

Both large scale radio surveys and deep radio searches targeting X-ray sources have resulted in the discovery of interesting new pulsars coincident with unidentified $`EGRET`$ sources. X-ray and radio imaging of $`EGRET`$ error boxes has also revealed the presence of energetic new pulsars through the emission of associated wind nebulae. Radio pulse searches of other X-ray sources and ultra-deep observations of the currently known PWN are planned or underway. We have also begun a northern extension of our mid-latitude survey using the GMRT. The goal is to discover and start timing as many potential $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars as possible before the launch of $`AGILE`$. We also hope to obtain deep, high resolution images of PWN to determine accurate morphologies which can constrain pulsar geometry allowing case by case predictions of what will be seen with the next generation of $`\gamma `$-ray satellites.

Besides detecting pulsations, goals for $`AGILE`$ include confirming $`\gamma `$-ray variability and possibly correlating it with X-ray variations. In addition, every effort should be made to constrain the mid-latitude source error boxes to be within the field of view of imaging X-ray satellites. This will allow counterpart searches to commence before or concurrent with the launch of $`GLAST`$.

## Acknowledgements

I thank C.-Y. Ng for the sample PWN model image. I also thank Jason Hessels, Cindy Tam, Vicky Kaspi, and Scott Ransom for comments.


text:
# Optical realization of optimal unambiguous discrimination for pure and mixed quantum states

## Abstract

Quantum mechanics forbids deterministic discrimination among non-orthogonal states. Nonetheless, the capability to distinguish nonorthogonal states unambiguously is an important primitive in quantum information processing. In this work, we experimentally implement generalized measurements in an optical system and demonstrate the first optimal unambiguous discrimination between three nonorthogonal states, with a success rate of 55%, to be compared with the 25% maximum achievable using projective measurements. Furthermore we present the first realization of unambiguous discrimination between a pure state and a nonorthogonal mixed state.

Quantum measurement theory poses fundamental limitations on the amount of information that can be obtained about the state of a single quantum system. Specifically, it is impossible to perfectly discriminate between two or more nonorthogonal quantum states. However, by appropriately choosing a set of measurements, nondeterministic state discrimination is possible if the system has been prepared in a member of a previously specified set of nonorthogonal states. Quantum state discrimination plays an important role in quantum information and quantum communications CheflesQSD  and is at the heart of quantum cryptography protocols BB84 .

Several different strategies have been developed to accomplish state-discrimination tasks. “Minimum-error discrimination” (MD) seeks a “best guess” on every trial, minimizing the rate of incorrect guesses. Helstrom showed Helstrom  that, for MD of two states, the optimal strategy can always be achieved by a (von Neumann) projective measurement. “Unambiguous state discrimination,” (UD), on the other hand, seeks to determine with certainty which state the system was in. This can only be done on some fraction of the trials, the others being termed “inconclusive,” and the optimal UD success rate cannot always be achieved with projective measurements. For the case of two pure nonorthogonal quantum states with equal a priori probability, the maximum probability of success was derived by Ivanovic, Dieks and Peres IvanDieksPeres . Clearly, these two strategies may be regarded as limiting cases of a more general approach with both a finite inconclusive rate and a finite error rate tradeoff . Of course, in any experimentally realistic situation, even an ideal “unambiguous” discrimination strategy will not be error-free. It is of great importance to understand the theoretical and practical limitations, since state discrimination is part of quantum key distribution protocols, and because the effect of a hypothetical eavesdropper’s attack on such cryptosystems requires knowledge of the maximum information she could extract.

As for the experimental state-of-the-art, for two nonorthogonal states UD was qualitatively demonstrated by Huttner et al. Huttner , while MD was demonstrated by Barnett and Riis firstex . Clarke et al. demonstrated UD quantitatively for a pair of nonorthogonal states Clarke1 . In a second experiment, using highly symmetric trine and tetrad states (linearly dependent states in two dimensions), they performed optimum MD and also a projective measurement which could indicate that a qubit was not prepared in one out of three or four possibilities Clarke2 . Thus, all of the previous experiments have been limited to nonorthogonal pure states of a qubit in a two-dimensional Hilbert space. In the present work, by constructing a multirail optical interferometer enabling us to perform a large class of generalized measurements, we extend these results to higher-dimensional Hilbert spaces with no restriction on the symmetry of the states and explicitly demonstrate that we can achieve a significantly higher success rate than any projective measurement. We perform the first optimal unambiguous state discrimination for three nonorthogonal states, showing that the experimental success rate may be as much as twice as high as for any von Neumann measurement scheme. We also demonstrate the first optimal quantum state “filtering,” discriminating between two subsets of a set of three nonorthogonal states. This is equivalent to discrimination between a pure and a mixed state HB ; Terry .

Unambiguous state discrimination between $`N`$ states has $`N+1`$ outcomes: the $`N`$ possible conclusive results, and the inconclusive result. Since no projective measurement in an $`N`$-dimensional Hilbert space can have more than $`N`$ outcomes, generalized measurements are required. Generalized measurements (or positive-operator valued measures, POVMs) provide the most general means of transforming the state of a quantum system Helstrom ; Nielsen . POVMs can be implemented by embedding the system into a larger Hilbert space and unitarily entangling it with the extra degrees of freedom (ancilla) syssubsys . Postselection (projective measurement) of the ancilla induces an effective non-unitary transformation of the original system. By an appropriate design of the entangling unitary, this effective non-unitary transformation can turn an initially nonorthogonal set of states into a set of orthogonal states with a finite probability of success. The optimum strategy is the one that maximizes the average probability of success for this procedure. The generalization of IvanDieksPeres  to more than two states was developed by several groups linearindep ; CheflesBarNSD .

The problem of distinguishing among two subsets of a set of $`N`$ nonorthogonal quantum states has been termed “quantum state filtering” for the case when one subset contains $`1`$ state and the other $`N1`$ HB . Unambiguous filtering has been studied by Bergou et al. for $`N=3`$ in BergouSF1  and for arbitrary $`N`$ in BHH . Quantum state filtering can also be interpreted as unambiguous discrimination between two mixed states. Let us consider the case of three nonorthogonal states, $`\{|\psi _1,|\psi _2,|\psi _3\}`$ with a priori probabilities of $`\eta _1,\eta _2`$ and $`\eta _3`$. Filtering is the optimal strategy that can distinguish the state $`|\psi _1`$ from the subset $`\{|\psi _2,|\psi _3\}`$. This is equivalent to discriminating the pure state $`|\psi _1\psi _1|`$, with a priori probability of $`\eta _1`$, from the mixed state $`(\eta _2|\psi _2\psi _2\left|+\eta _3\right|\psi _3\psi _3|)/(\eta _2+\eta _3)`$, with a priori probability of $`\eta _2+\eta _3`$.

Here, we present our experimental data for implementing the optimal POVM both for the case of full UD of and filtering from $`N=3`$ linearly independent nonorthogonal states. In our experiment the generalized measurement was realized by utilizing linear optical elements and photodetectors, based on the proposal of BergouSD . This can be accomplished by a single-photon representation of the initial states and output states, a multirail optical network for performing the unitary transformation Reck ; ZukowskiZeilinger , and photodetectors at each output port to carry out the required nonunitary transformation. The $`N+1`$-dimensional unitary operation can be implemented by an appropriate multi-path optical interferometer Reck ; BergouSD . For the case of three nonorthogonal states, $`\{|\psi _1,|\psi _2,|\psi _3\}`$, living in a 3-D Hilbert space, an eight-port optical interferometer was constructed to perform transformations in the 4-D system + ancilla space. All beam splitters in this interferometer were designed (using a combination of polarizing beam splitters and waveplates) to have variable reflectivity, so that the appropriate interferometer could be implemented for any desired discrimination problem (see Fig. 1).

By using beam splitters to send one photon into some linear superposition of the first three rails, we can generate arbitrary quantum states in this three-dimensional Hilbert space, represented as $`|\psi _{in}=_{j=1}^3c_j\widehat{a}_j^{}|0`$, where $`_{j=1}^3\left|c_j\right|^2=1`$, and $`\widehat{a}_j^{}`$ is the creation operator for the $`j^{th}`$ optical rail. Note that the fourth rail, which acts as the ancilla, never contains a photon. The interferometer is designed to perform the unitary operation $`U`$ which optimizes state discrimination. It maps the input field operators $`\widehat{a}_k^{}`$ into output field operators as $`\widehat{a}_k^{}=_{j=1}^4U_{jk}\widehat{a}_{j_{out}}^{}`$, such that the initial state evolves into $`|\psi _{out}=_{j=1}^{j=4}_{k=1}^{k=3}U_{jk}c_k\widehat{a}_{j_{out}}^{}|0`$. A photon in mode 4 now indicates an inconclusive result. On the other hand, a photon in mode $`1,2`$ or $`3`$ unambiguously indicates that the initial state was $`|\psi _1,|\psi _2`$ or $`|\psi _3`$, respectively.

The actual experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1(b). To demonstrate unambiguous discrimination, and characterize the success and error rates of our setup, we performed the experiment using a large ensemble of identically prepared photons from a diode laser operating at 780 nm. The nonorthogonal states were prepared by using an arrangement of polarizing beam splitters (PBS), half-wave plates and phase shifters. A 1-mm-thick glass slide, at an angle of 55 to the incident beam, was used as a phase shifter. At this angle a differential rotation of 0.05 of the phase shifter produces a $`\pi `$ phase shift and causes a beam displacement of less than a micron. Each nonorthogonal state consisted of a different superposition of light in rails 1-3, with the relative field amplitude being adjusted to generate the appropriate coefficients $`c_j`$. Rail 4 contained the vacuum for all input states footnote . We designed a variable beam splitter (VBS) that could be placed at each crossing of the beams in Fig. 1(a), in order to perform arbitrary 4-D unitaries. The VBS consists of three half-wave plates and two polarizing beam splitters (PBS) masoud . The polarizing beam splitters are used to convert information between spatial and polarization degrees of freedom, such that instead of arbitrary coupling between two spatial modes, we only need to implement arbitrary coupling between two polarizations, easily accomplished using waveplates. The setup was designed such that in all interferometers, all the spatial path lengths are always balanced.

To perform the discrimination or filtering for a specific set of three nonorthogonal states, with equal a priori probabilities, the optimal success probability and output states were calculated following the method in BergouSF1 . Using the input and output states in the larger Hilbert space, the corresponding unitary transformation was then calculated and factorized into a sequence of beam splitter transformations. By rotation of the half-wave plates in each of the VBS’s the desired transmission and reflectivity were achieved. The experiments were carried out by preparing one of the three nonorthogonal states at a time and measuring the current at the photodiodes PD1 through PD4. For obtaining the probability of an individual photon reaching each detector, the signals at these detectors were normalized to their sum.

In order to demonstrate state discrimination with this experimental setup we examined the set of three nonorthogonal pure states $`|\psi _1=(\sqrt{2/3},0,1/\sqrt{3})`$ and $`|\psi _{2,3}=(0,\pm 1/\sqrt{3},\sqrt{2/3})`$. The optimal output states, in the total Hilbert space, are found to be: $`|\psi _1_{out}=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}1/\sqrt{3},& 0,& 0,& \sqrt{2/3}\end{array}\right)`$, $`|\psi _2_{out}=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0,& \sqrt{2/3},& 0,& \sqrt{1/3}\end{array}\right)`$ and $`|\psi _3_{out}=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0,& 0,& \sqrt{2/3},& \sqrt{1/3}\end{array}\right)`$. The desired unitary transformation was achieved by using two VBSs with the transmission coefficients $`t_{14}=t_{34}=1/\sqrt{2}`$ (and $`t=1`$ for the rest of the VBSs), and an additional 50/50 beam splitter to couple output rails 2 and 3.

The experimental results are shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 2(a) pertains to the case when all states are discriminated. The average probability of success was measured to be 54.5%. The probability of obtaining an erroneous result was about 3%. These errors were mainly the result of imperfect visibility (due to imperfect alignment and angular uncertainty in the waveplate settings), drift and uncertainty in phase adjustment, where a $`12^{}`$ phase error on one beam corresponds to a 2% error rate. For this set the optimal POVM is predicted to yield conclusive outcomes 55.6% of the time. By comparison, any projection valued measurement (PVM) strategy has a success probability of less than 33.3%. This is because the only way a PVM can guarantee that we had $`|\psi _i`$ is to project onto the unique state orthogonal to all input vectors $`|\psi _{ji}`$. In this case, all three such vectors are nonorthogonal, so no orthonormal set of projectors can include more than one of them; no more than one of the three states can be unambiguously distinguished. Given equal a priori probabilities, this means that PVMs can succeed no more than 33.3% of the time. In fact, for our input states the optimum PVM is the one that picks out $`|\psi _2`$ (or $`|\psi _3`$, their success probabilities being equal), with a 25.4% probability of success. In the above example we have shown an improvement of more than a factor of 2 over any possible projective measurement.

For quantum state filtering we considered a family of three-state sets, $`|\psi _1=(\sqrt{1a^2},0,a)`$ and $`|\psi _{2,3}=(0,\pm 1/\sqrt{2},1/\sqrt{2})`$, characterized by the real parameter $`a>0`$. The goal was to unambiguously distinguish $`|\psi _1`$ from the other two states $`\{|\psi _2,|\psi _3\}`$, each of which has an overlap of $`\frac{a}{\sqrt{2}}`$ with $`|\psi _1`$. The optimal output states are $`|\psi _1_{out}=(\sqrt{1a},0,0,\sqrt{a})`$ and $`|\psi _{2,3}_{out}=(0,\pm 1/\sqrt{2},\sqrt{(1a)/2},\sqrt{a/2})`$. The unitary transformation for optimal filtering was achieved by beam splitters with parameters $`t_{14}=1/\sqrt{1+a}`$ and $`t_{34}=\sqrt{1a}`$, and $`t=1`$ for the other VBS’s in the setup. For these sets of states, the optimal success probabilities PVMs and POVMs are $`\left(2a^2\right)/3`$ and $`1(2a)/3`$, respectively.

The experiments were performed for $`a=0.25`$ and $`a=0.5`$. Fig. 2(b) pertains to the case $`a=0.25`$. The average probability of success for discriminating the state $`|\psi _1`$ from $`\left\{|\psi _{2,3}\right\}`$ was measured to be about 82%, consistent with the theoretical prediction of 83.3%. There was an error rate of about 1.7%. The advantage of the POVM measurements over error-free projective measurements was found to be about 17.4% for this case. For $`a=0.5`$, Fig. 2(c), the probability of success was found to be about 66%, with an error probability of less than 1.3%. This can be compared with the theoretical predictions of 66.6%. In this case the advantage over PVMs reduces to 7.7%. As we argued above, these filtering experiments are equivalent to discrimination between the pure state $`\rho _1=|\psi _1\psi _1|`$, with $`\eta _1=1/3`$, and the mixed state $`\rho _{23}=(|\psi _2\psi _2|+|\psi _3\psi _3|)/2`$, with $`\eta _{23}=2/3`$. The experimental results are summarized in Table 1.

In conclusion, we have presented the first explicit experimental demonstration that POVMs can achieve a lower inconclusive rate than any projective measurements for unambiguous discrimination between nonorthogonal states, using an optical interferometer to implement arbitrary unitary operations in a 4-dimensional Hilbert space. We have demonstrated the first optimal unambiguous discrimination between three linearly-independent nonorthogonal pure states, as well as the first experimental realization of unambiguous discrimination between a pure and a mixed quantum state (“quantum state filtering”). A significant advantage of generalized measurement over projective measurement was observed. Unambiguous state discrimination plays an important role in the field of quantum information processing and has applications to quantum cryptography BB84 , quantum cloning cloning , quantum state separation stateseparation  and entanglement concentration linearindep ; CheflesQSD . Some quantum information tasks are likely to take advantage of 3- or higher-dimensional Hilbert spaces Zeilinger , where the advantage of POVMs becomes increasingly significant, as observed here. We believe that generalized optical networks like the one demonstrated here will be of use for a wide variety of small-scale quantum information tasks CerfKwiat ; masoud , and prove particularly important for devices such as repeaters and cloners in quantum communications systems.

This work was supported by the DARPA-QuIST program (AFOSR agreement No. F49620-01-1-0468), NSERC, and Photonics Research Ontario. The research of JB was supported by ONR. We would like to thank Jeffrey Lundeen, Kevin Resch, Mark Hillery, Ulrike Herzog and Yuqing Sun for many helpful discussions.