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# Low-temperature heat transfer in nanowires

## Abstract

The new regime of low-temperature heat transfer in suspended nanowires is predicted. It takes place when (i) only “acoustic” phonon modes of the wire are thermally populated and (ii) phonons are subject to the effective elastic scattering. Qualitatively, the main peculiarities of heat transfer originate due to appearance of the flexural modes with high density of states in the wire phonon spectrum. They give rise to the $`T^{1/2}`$ temperature dependence of the wire thermal conductance. The experimental situations where the new regime is likely to be detected are discussed.

Most often, in dielectrics and semiconductors heat is conducted by means of phonon transfer. At low temperatures it is controlled by the phonon scattering at the surface of the sample, since the internal mechanisms of scattering due to the lattice anharmonicity and intrinsic defects provide the phonon mean free path far above the typical dimensions of the sample. In this case the phonon transfer is similar to the gas flow in small pipes in the Knudsen regime and, strictly speaking, it is impossible to introduce local Fourier law for determination of the heat flux density . However, for the samples in the shape of a wire it is still possible to speak about the thermal conductance, $`\sigma _T`$, that is defined as a ratio of the heat flux through the wire and the temperature difference between the reservoirs connected by the wire. If phonon scattering at the surface is diffusive, then $`\sigma _TT^3`$. Decrease of temperature, however, increases the characteristic phonon wavelength and reduces the scattering probability at the surface. If the probability of the specular phonon scattering at the surface is close to unity, then the phonon spectrum is substantially modified. For ideal wires having constant cross-section it is broken in a set of branches where the phonon frequency $`\omega `$ depends on the1D wavevector $`q`$ directed along the wire axis . In this letter we consider heat transfer at extremely low temperatures. Speaking about the low temperatures, we mean that only the phonon states of the “acoustic” branches with $`\omega 0`$ at $`q0`$ are thermally populated. In other words, we assume $`T\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ is the characteristic value of the frequency gap between the adjacent phonon branches, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega v/a`$, where $`v`$ and $`a`$ are the characteristic sound velocity and dimension of the wire cross-section, respectively. This condition corresponds to the effective reduction of the phonon momentum space dimensionality. It can be realized in the modern suspended films and wires, employed for the fundamental studies of the phonon confinement and electron-phonon interaction , and as elements of ultrasensitive phonon detectors . Normally, condition $`T\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ corresponds to subkelvin temperatures. So, for $`a=100nm`$ and $`v=5000m/s`$, $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ corresponds to the temperature about $`0.4K`$. If the wire structure is perfect enough, then phonons are transferred between the reservoirs ballistically. Ballistic transfer in wires was studied theoretically in Refs., where as thermal conductance, as phonon correlation characteristics have been analyzed. It was found that in the ballistic regime each phonon branch can contribute to the value of the thermal conductance no more than the fundamental quantum $`\pi T/6\mathrm{}^4`$, regardless of the phonon spectrum details. This prediction was recently confirmed experimentally . In this letter we consider the opposite case, when phonons are multiply scattered elastically while being transferred through the wire. Similar problem was analyzed previously in Refs. where the numerical calculations of the phonon transmission through the imperfect wire have been performed. In these works, however, the authors used simplified models of the wire phonon spectrum and miss some qualitative features of heat transfer. We demonstrate in this letter, that for the case of effective phonon scattering at low temperatures the thermal conductance is proportional to $`T^{1/2}`$. This feature is qualitatively different as from the ballistic phonon transfer, as from the surface-scattering-controlled transfer of 3D phonons. We show that the main physical peculiarity of the 1D phonon transfer in wires is due to the special features of the wire phonon spectrum in the low-frequency region. Namely, some of the “acoustic” branches have quadratic dispersion, and, therefore, high density of states and small group velocity. This substantially affects as phonon scattering probabilities, as the partial contributions of the phonons of particular type to the heat flux. Note that similar effects arising due to the high density of states of the low-dimensional phonons for electron-phonon interaction in thin films have been reported recently . In the experiments, the $`\sigma _TT^{1/2}`$ dependence should replace $`\sigma _TT`$, characteristic for the ballistic phonon transfer, with temperature increase. We show, that the temperature interval where the considered regime of heat transfer can be detected grows with increase of the phonon scattering and the length of the wire.

As it is well established , in free-standing wires there are four “acoustic” branches having the following dispersion at $`qa1`$:

$$\omega _{d,t}=v_{d,t}q,\omega _{f1,f2}=v_{f1,f2}aq^2.$$
(1)
Here $`d`$, $`t`$, $`f1`$, and $`f2`$ label the dilatational, torsional, and two flexural branches. The values of $`v_d`$, $`v_t`$, $`v_{f1}`$, and $`v_{f2}`$ are of the order of the sound velocity. Their specific values are determined by the elastic properties of the wire material and by the shape of the wire cross-section. To describe the steady-state heat transfer we use the standard kinetic equation for the phonon distribution function $`f`$:

$$\frac{f_i}{x}g_i=St_i\{f\},$$
(2)
where $`i=d,t,f1,f2`$; $`g_i`$ is the phonon group velocity, $`x`$-axis is directed along the wire, and $`St\{f\}`$ is the integral of collisions. Here we consider only elastic scattering of the phonons by the defects of the wire structure. These defects can be either due to the intrinsic imperfections of the crystal, say, natural isotopes, or can arise in the course of the nanowire fabrication process. Note that in actual suspended nanowires the latter source, in particular, surface roughness, is likely to provide the major contribution to the phonon scattering. We do not take into account three-phonon inelastic scattering due to the crystal anharmonicity. Having evaluated the corresponding phonon mean free path, we have found that it far exceeds typical length of the wires, about tens of microns. Under this approach for $`St\{f\}`$ we have:

$$St_i\{f\}=\underset{j,q^{}}{}\left(W_{q^{}q}^{(ji)}f_j(q^{})(1+f_i(q))W_{qq^{}}^{(ij)}f_i(q)(1+f_j(q^{}))\right),$$
(3)
where $`W_{q^{}q}^{(ji)}`$ is the probability of the phonon transition $`\{q^{},j\}\{q,i\}`$. We consider defects whose dimensions are much less than $`a`$ and typical phonon wavelength which corresponds to the Rayleigh scattering regime. To obtain $`W_{qq^{}}^{(ij)}`$, it is necessary to write down the perturbation of the elastic energy caused by a defect and calculate the phonon scattering probability using the Fermi golden rule. Using the general form of the elastic energy density, the leading term at small $`q`$ for the scattering probability can be written down as

$$W_{qq^{}}^{(ij)}=\frac{2\pi }{L}w_{ij}\frac{q^2q^2}{\omega \omega ^{}}\delta (\omega \omega ^{}).$$
(4)
Here factors $`q^2`$, $`q^2`$ come from the spatial derivatives of the lattice displacements in the expression for the elastic energy density, while $`\omega `$ and $`\omega ^{}`$ in the denominator come from the expressions for the operators of the lattice displacements. In Eq. (4) $`L`$ is the length of the wire, the factor $`2\pi `$ is introduced for simplicity. The factors $`w_{ij}`$ characterize the effectiveness of the scattering and depend on the spatial distribution, concentration, and characteristics of the defects. Note, that the form of Eq. (4) is provided by the defects of the elastic constants only. Contribution due to the mass defects is proportional to $`\omega \omega ^{}`$. As in the case of bulk crystals, for the transitions between the 1D phonon branches having linear dispersion, the elastic-constant and mass defects provide scattering probabilities with identical dependeces on the phonon wavevectors. If, however, $`i`$ or $`j`$ corresponds to the flexural phonons, for small $`q`$ contribution of the mass defects is much less then that of the elastic-constant defects.

For the introduced form of the scattering probabilities we obtain

$$f_i^{(o)}=\tau _ig_i\frac{f_i^{(e)}}{x},$$
(5)
where $`f_i^{(o)}`$ and $`f_i^{(e)}`$ are odd and even parts of the distribution function and $`\tau _i`$ is effective scattering time of $`i`$-th mode:

$$\frac{1}{\tau _i}=\underset{q^{},j}{}W_{qq^{}}^{(ij)}.$$
(6)
Straightforward calculations demonstrate that if $`qa1`$ then the main contribution to the $`1/\tau _i`$ is due to the scattering where the final state belongs to one of the flexural modes, which is the direct result of their high density of states:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\tau _{f1}}}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{w_{f1f2}}{v_{f2}^{3/2}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{w_{f1f1}}{v_{f1}^{3/2}}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{1}{qa^3v_{f1}^{3/2}}},`$ (7)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\tau _{f2}}}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{w_{f2f1}}{v_{f1}^{3/2}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{w_{f2f2}}{v_{f2}^{3/2}}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{1}{qa^3v_{f2}^{3/2}}},`$ (8)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\tau _d}}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{w_{df1}}{v_{f1}^{3/2}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{w_{df2}}{v_{f2}^{3/2}}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{q^{1/2}}{v_d^{3/2}a^{3/2}}},`$ (9)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\tau _t}}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{w_{tf1}}{v_{f1}^{3/2}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{w_{tf2}}{v_{f2}^{3/2}}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{q^{1/2}}{v_t^{3/2}a^{3/2}}}.`$ (10)
As we see, $`\tau _{f1,f2}0`$ as $`q0`$. This means that semiclassical treatment of phonons by means of kinetic equation is invalid for very small $`q`$. Introducing a characteristic frequency $`\omega ^{}`$ according to $`\tau _f|_{\omega =\omega ^{}}=(\omega ^{})^1`$, we restrict ourselves by consideration of regimes where $`\mathrm{}\omega ^{}T`$. In this case, the major contribution to the heat flux is provided by the well-defined phonon modes whose frequency exceeds considerably the scattering rate. Note, that similar wavevector dependence of scattering rate, as for flexural phonons, is inherent for scattering of electrons on short-range fluctuations of potential energy in 1D case.

To determine the value of thermal conductivity we assume that $`f_i^{(e)}`$ have Planck form with smooth spatial variation of temperature and obtain the following expressions for the heat fluxes due to the phonons of each type, $`j_i`$:

$`j_{f1}=8\zeta (3){\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}^2}}T^2a^3v_{f1}^{3/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{w_{f1f2}}{v_{f2}^{3/2}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{w_{f1f1}}{v_{f1}^{3/2}}}\right)^1{\displaystyle \frac{dT}{dx}},`$ (11)
$`j_{f2}=8\zeta (3){\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}^2}}T^2a^3v_{f2}^{3/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{w_{f2f1}}{v_{f1}^{3/2}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{w_{f2f2}}{v_{f2}^{3/2}}}\right)^1{\displaystyle \frac{dT}{dx}},`$ (12)
$`j_d=\pi ^{1/2}\zeta (3/2)v_d^3a^{3/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{T}{\mathrm{}}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{w_{df1}}{v_{f1}^{3/2}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{w_{df2}}{v_{f2}^{3/2}}}\right)^1{\displaystyle \frac{dT}{dx}},`$ (13)
$`j_t=\pi ^{1/2}\zeta (3/2)v_t^3a^{3/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{T}{\mathrm{}}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{w_{tf1}}{v_{f1}^{3/2}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{w_{tf2}}{v_{f2}^{3/2}}}\right)^1{\displaystyle \frac{dT}{dx}},`$ (14)
where $`\zeta `$ stands for Riemann function. It is easy to see that at $`T\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ the dilatational and torsional phonons provide major contribution to the heat flux, and, therefore, to the thermal conductivity and thermal conductance $`\sigma _T=\kappa /L`$:

$$\kappa =\pi ^{1/2}\zeta (3/2)\left(\frac{T}{\mathrm{}}\right)^{1/2}a^{3/2}\left(v_d^3\left(\frac{w_{df1}}{v_{f1}^{3/2}}+\frac{w_{df2}}{v_{f2}^{3/2}}\right)^1+v_t^3\left(\frac{w_{tf1}}{v_{f1}^{3/2}}+\frac{w_{tf2}}{v_{f2}^{3/2}}\right)^1\right).$$
(15)
From Eqs. (7,11) we can finally elucidate the role of the flexural phonons in heat transfer. First, their contribution to the heat flux is small due to their slowness and high scattering probability. Indeed, according to Eq. (4) the latter is proportional to the square of the initial phonon wavevector. If we consider phonons having energy about $`T`$, then for the flexural phonon the value of $`q^2`$ is greater than for the dilatational and torsional phonons roughly with the factor $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega /T`$. Second, as a result of their high density of states, the flexural phonons provide very effective scattering for the dilatational and torsional phonons. It is worth to mention that the flexural phonons are important also for the nonstationary heat transfer. The latter is characterized by both thermal conductivity and thermal capacity per unit length, $`c`$. It can be easily obtained that for $`T\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ $`cT^{1/2}`$ and the flexural phonons provide major contribution to $`c`$, again, due to their high density of states.

An important point that is worth to be discussed is about the influence of the phonon localization on the heat transfer. According to the general predictions of the localization theory, if only elastic scattering is present and there is no source of dephasing, the conductance of a 1D system decays exponentially with its length $`L`$ if $`L`$ exceeds the mean free path of a carrier. We believe, however, that the described regime of heat transfer is not cancelled by localization, in general. This is because we deal with the multichannel transfer regime where the role of distinct channels is essentially different. In particular, the main contribution to the heat flux is due to the dilatational and torsional phonons, while the flexural phonons provide major contribution to the overall phonon density of states. Using semi-quantitative arguments of Thouless , we expect that localization is likely to be manifested for $`L>l(\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega /T)^{1/2}l`$, where $`l`$ is the characteristic mean free path of the dilatational and torsional phonons. Nevertheless, we would like to stress that the problem of localization definitely deserves more rigorous consideration. As we demonstrated, the peculiarities of the phonon spectrum of a wire bring about asymptotic behavior of the phonon mean free path which is qualitatively different from that of bulk crystals. This can cause qualitatively new features of localization phenomena.

Finally, it is necessary to analyze the experimental situations where the described regime of heat transfer can be detected. This directly follows from the main assumptions we made. First, the condition $`T\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ must be satisfied. Second, phonons must be multiply scattered during the transfer through the wire. The first condition depends on the wire cross-section and material parameters only, while the second one depends on the wire length and characteristics of defects. Since characteristic phonon mean free path decreases as the temperature increases, the temperature range where the predicted heat transfer regime can be detected expands for the longer and less perfect wires. This is qualitatively illustrated in Fig. 1, where we plot schematically the temperature dependence of the wire thermal conductance. The vertical line marks the temperature where the condition $`T=\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ is reached. The dashed line corresponds to the ballistic phonon transfer, $`\sigma _TT`$, while the two dotted curves describe the case of intensive phonon scattering, considered in this letter, $`\sigma _TT^{1/2}`$. Obviously, if the wire cross-section is fixed, the upper dotted curve corresponds to the wire which is either shorter or more perfect, since $`\sigma _T1/(Lw)`$. The two solid lines show the resulting temperature dependence of the thermal conductance. We see that in the wire that is longer or less perfect the $`T^{1/2}`$ law is realized in the wider temperature range and is likely to be detected. Note, that some additional features, not shown in Fig. 1, can appear at temperatures below the $`T`$ to $`T^{1/2}`$ transition. They arise because the flexural phonons are scattered much more effectively than the dilatational and torsional phonons. Therefore, at some intermediate temperatures only the dilatational and torsional phonons are ballistic. In this case $`\sigma _TT`$, but the value of the coefficient is twice lower, than for the case where all “acoustic” phonons are ballistic. In experiment  sublinear temperature dependence of the wire thermal conductance was detected in some temperature range. However, this feature can appear not only due to the phonon scattering described in this letter, but also due to the imperfect acoustic coupling between the wire and the reservoirs. It is necessary to undertake additional studies to determine which of these two reasons is responsible for the observed behavior.

In conclusion, we have predicted the new regime of heat transfer in nanowires at low temperatures, where only the lowest branches of the wire phonon spectrum are thermally populated. It has been demonstrated that the flexural phonons having quadratic dispersion play especial role. They accumulate most of the wire thermal energy, practically do not contribute to the heat flux, and, finally, provide effective scattering to the dilatational and torsional phonons, that carry most of the heat flux. We have found that in this case thermal conductivity is proportional to $`T^{1/2}`$. Experimentally, this heat transfer regime is most likely to be detected in the samples with relatively high phonon scattering.

The author would like to thank Prof. V. A. Kochelap for fruitful discussions. This work was supported partially by the ERO of US Army under Contract No. N68171-01-M-5166, fellowship of the Institute of Semiconductors, Frankfurt (Oder), and the Russia-Ukraine Program for Nanoelectronics.


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# Energy loss of fast quarks in nuclei

## Abstract

We report an analysis of the nuclear dependence of the yield of Drell-Yan dimuons from the 800 GeV/c proton bombardment of $`{}_{}{}^{2}H`$, C, Ca, Fe, and W targets. Employing a new formulation of the Drell-Yan process in the rest frame of the nucleus, this analysis examines the effect of initial-state energy loss and shadowing on the nuclear-dependence ratios versus the incident proton’s momentum fraction and dimuon effective mass. The resulting energy loss per unit path length is $`dE/dz=2.32\pm 0.52\pm 0.5`$ GeV/fm. This is the first observation of a nonzero energy loss of partons traveling in nuclear environment.

For many years it has been suggested that quark energy loss might give rise to a nuclear dependence of the cross section of Drell-Yan (DY) production. When a proton enters a nucleus the first (soft) inelastic collision liberates a quark, which then loses energy via hadronization (due to confinement) and interaction in the nuclear medium. A lepton pair created from a subsequent interaction then has reduced energy compared with the DY process on a free nucleon. The goal of the present analysis is to search for this effect in the nuclear dependence of the DY process.

Fermilab E772 made a precise measurement of the nuclear dependence of the DY process using 800 GeV/c protons. The experimental details of E772 have been described previously. Briefly we indicate those germane to the present discussion. Muon pairs were recorded from targets of 2H, C, Ca, Fe, and W, in the mass range $`M4`$ GeV/$`c^2`$. Excluding the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ resonance region, $`9M11`$ GeV/$`c^2`$, we reconstruct $`2.5\times 10^5`$ DY dimuons. The spectrometer acceptance for this subset of the data had transverse momentum coverage out to 3.5 GeV/c. Since E772 was designed to make a precision comparison of the yields of dimuons from the heavy targets to that from 2H, relative target-to-target normalization errors were kept to $``$ 2%.

The parton model description of high-energy processes is reference-frame dependent. Because energy loss is most commonly described in the rest frame of the nucleus, it is best to adopt this frame for the description of the DY process as well. In the target rest frame the DY process for proton-nucleon collisions is treated as bremsstrahlung : An incident quark with momentum fraction $`x_q`$ emits a virtual photon that carries a fraction $`x_1^q=x_1/x_q`$ of the quark momentum. The inclusive cross section for the production of lepton pairs with momentum fraction $`x_1`$ is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma _{DY}^{pN}(M^2)}{dx_1}}={\displaystyle _{x_1}^1}𝑑x_qF_q^p(x_q){\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma _{DY}^{qN}(x_1^q,M^2)}{dx_1^q}},`$ (1)
where $`F_q^p(x_q)`$ is the quark distribution function of the proton and $`d\sigma _{DY}^{qN}(x_1^q,M^2)/dx_1^q`$ is the quark-nucleon differential cross section for lepton-pair production.

Nuclear effects modify this in two important ways. The first is the possibility of quark energy loss in the nuclear medium – the main subject of this manuscript. The second is shadowing, a phenomenon well known from nuclear dependence studies of a closely related process, deeply-inelastic lepton scattering (DIS). Energy loss and shadowing are shown pictorially in Fig. 1. Since the two processes produce apparently similar effects in proton-nucleus collisions, it is necessary to adopt a consistent analysis where both are considered on the same footing. The framework for accomplishing this is detailed in the following paragraphs, first for energy loss, then for shadowing.

Consider a proton entering a nucleus (Fig. 1). The first inelastic interaction, at point $`z_1`$, removes the coherence among the soft projectile partons, which then move apart losing energy as they would in the vacuum. A quark continues to propagate arriving at point $`z_2`$ where a DY interaction takes place with diminished energy $`\stackrel{~}{x}_qE_p=x_qE_p\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ is the energy loss to be measured and $`E_p`$ is the energy of the proton beam. Correspondingly, one has $`\stackrel{~}{x}_1^q=x_1/(x_q\mathrm{\Delta }E/E_p)`$. Assuming the rate of energy loss is constant, $`\mathrm{\Delta }EL`$, where $`L=z_2z_1`$. Due to energy loss, the ratio of p-A to p-N cross sections versus $`x_1`$ is

$`R_{A/N}^{\mathrm{\Delta }E}(x_1,M^2)={\displaystyle \frac{_{x_1+\mathrm{\Delta }E/E_p}^1𝑑x_qF_q^p(x_q)\frac{d\sigma _{DY}^{qN}(\stackrel{~}{x}_1^q,M^2)}{d\stackrel{~}{x}_1^q}}{\frac{d\sigma _{DY}^{pN}(M^2)}{dx_1}}}.`$ (2)
A distribution of energy losses occurs. We have calculated this distribution using Glauber theory. In the calculation, the relatively small probability for inelastic collisions of the incident proton leads to a significant reduction of $`L=z_2z_1`$ with respect to the mean path length $`L_0`$. For example, for tungsten we find $`L=2.4`$ fm, whereas for a uniform sphere $`L_0=3R_0A^{1/3}/4=4.9`$ fm.

Shadowing is the well-known reduction of the cross section per nucleon, observed experimentally in DIS for $`x`$ less than about 0.07. In proton-nucleus DY production a reduction in the cross section per nucleon at small $`x`$ is seen at the highest available proton energy, 800 GeV/c. It is, however, an open question whether this is shadowing, energy loss, or both. The framework for analyzing shadowing in the rest frame of the nucleus, given below, is crucial to resolving this puzzle.

In both DIS and DY shadowing occurs when the nuclear coherence length grows larger than the distance between nucleons, $`2`$ fm. The coherence length is a measure of the lifetime of the fluctuation of a quark into a virtual photon and residual quark. For the DY process, the mean nuclear coherence length is given by

$$l_c=\frac{2E_qx_1^q(1x_1^q)}{(1x_1^q)M^2+(x_1^qm_q)^2+k_T^2},$$
(3)
where $`E_q=x_qE_p`$ and $`m_q`$ are the energy and mass of the projectile quark which radiates the virtual photon. The resulting lepton pair has an effective mass $`M`$, a transverse momentum $`k_T`$, and carries a fraction $`x_1^q`$ of the initial momentum of the quark. The mean coherence length for the kinematic conditions of E772 has been evaluated in Ref. by integrating over $`x_1^q`$ and $`k_T`$. This is similar to a previous very successful treatment of shadowing in DIS. The result is shown versus $`x_1`$ in Fig. 2 for various fixed values of $`x_2`$. The coherence length is nearly independent of $`M^2`$ at fixed $`x_2`$, but it vanishes at $`x_11`$, violating factorization. We note that the values of $`l_c`$ given by Eq. 3 are significantly smaller than the commonly cited $`l_c1/2m_Nx_2`$ (see discussion in ).

In the weak shadowing approximation,

$$R_{A/N}^{shad}(x_1,M^2)1\frac{1}{4}\sigma _{eff}T_AF_A^2(q_c).$$
(4)
This expression is accurate for the whole kinematic range of E772. Here, $`T_A`$ is the mean value of the nuclear thickness function, $`q_c=1/l_c`$, and

$$F_A^2(q_c)=\frac{1}{AT_A}d^2b\left|\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑ze^{iq_cz}\rho _A(b,z)\right|^2$$
(5)
is the longitudinal nuclear formfactor , where $`\rho _A(b,z)`$ is the nuclear density. The effective cross section is defined as  $`\sigma _{eff}=\sigma ^2(x_1^qr_T)/\sigma (x_1^qr_T)`$, where $`\sigma (x_1^qr_T)`$ is the $`q\overline{q}`$ dipole cross section , and $`r_T`$ is transverse separation between the virtual photon and the quark (Fig. 1); $`\sigma _{eff}`$ is in the range 3.5-5.5 mb for E772 .

Energy loss and shadowing provide mechanisms for nuclear suppression in the DY process that are effective in different regimes. If $`l_c`$ is short, no shadowing occurs ($`F_A^2(q_c)0`$ in Eq. 4), but energy loss can reduce the yield of DY pairs. In the opposite limit, $`l_cR_A`$, shadowing achieves its full strength ($`F_A^2(q_c)1`$). Here, initial state interactions do not affect the DY cross section except for transverse momentum broadening. Our ansatz is that the transition between these limiting regimes is controlled by $`F_A^2(q_c)`$. The only expression which is linear in $`F_A^2(q_c)`$ and has the right limits at $`q_c0`$ and $`q_c\mathrm{}`$ reads

$`R_{A/N}(x_1,M^2)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(R_{A/N}^{\mathrm{\Delta }E}(x_1)1\right)\left(1F_A^2(q_c)\right)`$ (6)
$`+`$ $`R_{A/N}^{shad}(x_1,M^2).`$ (7)
Given the above framework, the energy-loss analysis was accomplished as follows. The quark-nucleon cross section in Eqs. 1 and 2 was assumed to have the form

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma _{DY}^{qN}(M^2)}{dx_1^q}}=K(M^2)\times (1x_1^q)^m,`$ (8)
where $`K`$ and $`m`$ were determined from a fit to the p+$`{}_{}{}^{2}H`$ data with Eq. 1. It was found that $`m`$ did not change significantly with mass bin; thus one slope parameter was sufficient to characterize the full range of the p+$`{}_{}{}^{2}H`$ data. Because the mass-dependent normalization (K) of the $`qN`$ cross section occurs in both numerator and denominator of Eq. 2, the energy loss term in Eq. 7 becomes independent of mass.

Thus, in this formulation, energy loss and shadowing have different kinematic dependence. Therefore is essential to analyze nuclear-dependence ratios that are binned in dilepton mass. This allows $`l_c`$ to be evaluated for each bin in mass and $`x_1`$. A two-parameter fit using Eq. 7 was applied to the heavy-target cross section ratios for C, Ca, Fe, and W; the parameters were $`dE/dz`$ and an overall normalization factor, C. The systematic normalization error, $`\pm 1\%`$, was treated as an additional statistical error. The fit yields a substantial energy loss, $`dE/dz=2.32\pm 0.52\pm 0.5`$ GeV/fm (statistical and systematic), with $`C=1.010\pm 0.006`$, consistent with the E772 normalization uncertainty. The systematic error associated with $`dE/dz`$ arises from uncertainties in cut parameters, the range of applicability of Eq. 8, and the shadowing analysis (discussed below). Fits to $`W/^2H`$ and to $`C/^2H`$ in four mass intervals are shown by solid curves in Figs. 3 and 4.

Our the analysis depends critically on having separated the effects for energy loss and shadowing. Dashed curves show the net shadowing contribution. Nuclear suppression of the DY cross section for tungsten is mainly due to energy loss. On the other hand, energy loss effects for carbon are small, the main contribution to nuclear suppression arising from shadowing. This difference between the $`A`$\- and $`M`$-dependence of energy loss and shadowing permits the two effects to be disentangled.

We have checked the sensitivity of the results by the following tests: (i) eliminated shadowing in Eq. 7 by fixing $`F_A^2=0`$ ($`dE/dz=2.24\pm 0.53`$); (ii) doubled the shadowing corrections, $`1R_{A/D}^{shad}2(1R_{A/D}^{shad})`$ ($`dE/dz=2.64\pm 0.53`$); (iii) mixed energy loss and shadowing effects differently from Eq. 7, $`R_{A/D}=R_{A/D}^{\mathrm{\Delta }E}\times R_{A/D}^{shad}`$ ($`dE/dz=2.35\pm 0.53`$: This is the E866 procedure.); (iv) selected for analysis only data with small $`x_2<x_2^{max}`$: Within error bars $`dE/dz`$ is constant for $`0.3x_2^{max}0.12`$. Thus $`dE/dz`$ is subject to only small variation within the error bars. These modifications all lead to a significant growth of $`\chi ^2`$.

Recently the E866 collaboration analyzed DY nuclear dependence data from targets of Be, Fe, and Cu. The E866 data set, $`1.3\times 10^5`$ muon pairs in the range $`4M8.5`$ GeV/$`c^2`$, was more concentrated at low $`x_2`$ than the present one. E866 subtracted a phenomenological shadowing contribution, yielding new “shadowing-corrected” nuclear dependence ratios. Shadowing was calculated employing the results of the global phenomenological analysis of DIS and DY data by Eskola et al. (EKS). The EKS analysis itself included the DY data from E772, with the presumption that the low-$`x_2`$ nuclear dependence arose entirely from shadowing. This clearly introduced an inconsistency into the E866 search for energy loss. Considering the critical importance of separating shadowing and energy loss, which, at 800 GeV, can be achieved only via mass-binned nuclear-dependence ratios, it is not surprising that the E866 analysis missed the effect.

The value of $`dE/dz`$ determined here is not very different from that found many years ago by Gavin and Milana (GM) using the mass-averaged W-D ratio from E772. In our model shadowing is a very small effect for the mass-averaged W data, so the GM analysis, which ignores shadowing, should not be too far off. The GM value, $`dE/dz`$ 1.5 GeV/fm, should be increased by a factor of $``$ 2 to account for the reduction of the effective nuclear path length, discussed earlier in connection with Eq. (2). Unlike the GM model, our analysis presumes a constant $`dE/dz`$, yielding an energy loss that is independent of laboratory beam energy (see Ref. ).

Much theoretical attention has been devoted in recent years to the elucidation of the QCD analogue of the famous Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect(see Ref. ). Gluon radiation induced when a quark penetrates nuclear matter leads to additional energy loss proportional to the square of the path length traversed. Using the measured transverse-momentum broadening this can be estimated for Tungsten as rising to a maximum value, $`(dE/dz)_{rad}0.2`$ GeV/fm. Thus for cold matter radiative energy loss is not a large contribution to the total.

In light of the present finding that quark energy loss is significant, one should re-examine the role of energy loss in the nuclear dependence of $`J/\psi `$ production (see Ref. ). It was demonstrated many years ago that the $`x_F`$-dependence of $`J/\psi `$ suppression at energies $`150300`$ GeV could be well described by energy loss, with $`dE/dz`$ 3-4 GeV/fm. The larger value for a projectile gluon is consistent with an enhancement due to the Casimir factor, $`9/4`$.

In summary, we have made the first determination of quark energy loss using an analysis that takes into account nuclear shadowing. The result, $`dE/dz=2.32\pm 0.52\pm 0.5`$ GeV/fm, is in approximate accord with the theoretical expectation that energy loss should be at least the order of the string tension, $`\kappa `$ 1 GeV/fm. At 800 GeV mass binning of the nuclear dependence ratios is crucial to the separation of energy loss and shadowing effects. It would be very desirable to have precise measurements of the nuclear dependence of DY production at lower beam energies (100-300 GeV) where shadowing disappears and energy loss would provide the dominant nuclear dependence.


text:
# Patterns of Broken Chiral Symmetry in Quantum Chromodynamics

## Abstract

We establish that in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) at zero temperature, $`SU_{L+R}(N_F)`$ exhibits the vector mode conjectured by Georgi and $`SU_{LR}(N_F)`$ is realized in either the Nambu-Goldstone mode or else $`Q_5^a`$ is also screened from view at infinity. The Wigner-Weyl mode is ruled out unless the beta function in QCD develops an infrared stable zero.

October 18, 2000
This is a revised version of the work previously reported in arXiv:hep-ph/9912389.
(a): electronic address: raghunath.acharya@asu.edu
(b): electronic address: pswamy@siue.edu

We shall begin by summarizing the key results constituting conventional wisdom in standard Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD).

Firstly, in vector-like gauge theories and in QCD in particular, non-chiral symmetries such as $`SU_{L+R}(2)SU_L(2)\times SU_R(2)`$ or $`SU_{L+R}(3)SU_L(3)\times SU_R(3)`$ cannot be spontaneously broken. This is the Vafa-Witten result . In QCD with large $`N_c`$, Coleman and Witten  showed that chiral symmetry is broken to diagonal $`U(N_F)`$ and thus, if chiral symmetry is broken, it must happen in such a manner that flavor symmetry is preserved. Secondly, chiral $`SU_L(3)\times SU_R(3)`$ symmetry in QCD with massless $`u,d,s`$ quarks must be spontaneously broken. However, it is difficult to show  that chiral $`SU_L(2)\times SU_R(2)`$ symmetry in QCD with massless $`u,d`$ quarks is also spontaneously broken. Thirdly, QCD may very well exhibit the Higgs mode for the vector current and the Goldstone mode for the axial vector current i.e.,  the massless scalars arising from Goldstone theorem get ‘eaten up’ by the gauge vector field which consequently acquires a finite mass. This important conjecture was introduced by Georgi in 1989 who called it as a new realization of chiral symmetry (“vector mode” ) since it involves both the Wigner-Weyl and Nambu-Goldstone modes. This is Georgi’s conjecture .

To quote Weinberg , “A recent paper of Georgi, can be interpreted as proposing that QCD at zero temperature is near a second order phase transition, at which the broken chiral $`SU(3)\times SU(3)`$ symmetry has a $`(8,1)+(1,8)`$ representation, consisting of the octet of pseudoscalar Goldstone bosons plus an octet of massless scalars, that on the broken symmetry side of the phase transition, become the helicity-zero states of the massive vector meson octet, $`\mathrm{}`$. It is intriguing and mysterious that at the second order phase transition at which chiral $`SU(2)\times SU(2)`$ of massless QCD becomes unbroken , this symmetry may become local with $`\rho `$ and $`A_1`$ as massless gauge bosons”.

As a final point one may observe that the charges corresponding to spontaneously broken local gauge symmetries are screened and the vector mesons are massive. This is a manifestation of spontaneously broken local symmetries. For instance, the well-known example  is the Abelian Higgs model: in the spontaneously broken phase, the vector field has a finite mass (thus the field is of finite range) and the conserved current does not have a total charge in the physical Hilbert space.

Coleman and Witten  have demonstrated that QCD exhibits spontaneously broken chiral symmetry by examining the large $`N_c`$ limit. In spite of the existence of a great deal of work on this subject using several such approaches , what is lacking is a general rigorous proof of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry in QCD.

The nature of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry is intimately connected to spontaneously broken scale invariance. It has been emphasized by Adler  that there are two examples of relativistic field theories which exhibit spontaneously broken scale invariance where chiral symmetry is also broken. These are Johnson-Baker-Wiley model of quantum electrodynamics  and asymptotically free gauge theories. This indeed may be a general feature as we pointed out recently in our investigation  of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry in QCD. Let us review this connection briefly.

Unbroken scale invariance can be expressed as

$$Q_D(t)|0>=0,$$
(1)
where the dilatation charge is

$$Q_D(t)=d^3xD_0(𝐱,t),$$
(2)
defined in terms of $`D_\mu (𝐱,t)`$, the dilatation current. Equivalently,

$$^\mu D_\mu |0>=0.$$
(3)
Invoking Coleman’s theorem , which is valid for continuous symmetries, we can then prove that the divergence of the dilatation current itself must itself vanish identically:

$$^\mu D_\mu =0.$$
(4)
On the other hand, it turns out that we know the divergence of the dilatation current as it is determined by the trace anomaly  in QCD:

$$^\mu D_\mu =\frac{1}{2}\frac{\beta (g)}{g}G_{\mu \nu }^\alpha G_\alpha ^{\mu \nu }+\underset{i}{}m_i[1+\gamma _i(\theta )]\overline{\psi }_i\psi _i,$$
(5)
where the second term vanishes for massless quarks in the chiral limit. Consequently the beta function must vanish. It is well-known that in an asymptotically free theory of QCD which also exhibits confinement, the behavior of $`\beta (g)`$ is such that it decreases as $`g`$ increases and never turns over. Consequently $`g=0`$ is the only possibility and hence the theory reduces to triviality. We therefore conclude by reductio ad absurdum that scale invariance must be broken spontaneously by the QCD vacuum state

$$Q_D(t)|0>0.$$
(6)
It is important to note that since $`g0`$ in the standard theory of QCD, scale invariance is also explicitly broken by the trace anomaly. In other words, scale invariance is broken both spontaneously by the vacuum state and explicitly by the trace anomaly.

We shall establish that QCD at zero temperature, satisfying both asymptotic freedom and confinement, exhibits the following features: (a) $`SU_{L+R}(N_F)`$ exhibits the vector mode conjectured by Georgi  (Georgi-Goldstone mode). (b) $`SU_{LR}(N_F)`$ exhibits either the Nambu-Goldstone mode or else the axial-vector charge $`Q_5^a`$ is also screened from view at infinity. If the latter case were to occur, then QCD confines without breaking chiral symmetry: both $`SU_{L+R}(N_F)`$ and $`SU_{L+R}(N_F)`$ are realized in the Higgs mode (Georgi-Wigner mode), with no scalar or pseudoscalar Nambu-Goldstone bosons and the vector and axial-vector mesons are degenerate. (c) The Wigner-Weyl mode corresponding to $`Q^a|0=0,Q_5^a|0=0`$ is ruled out: the Callan-Symanzik beta function has to turn over to yield an infrared stable fixed point at a finite value of $`g`$ if chiral symmetry is to be restored.

We now sketch the proof of these interesting assertions. We begin with the vector current $`V_\mu ^a`$ and its conservation

$$^\mu V_\mu ^a(𝐱,t)=0.$$
(7)
This implies the local version

$$[Q^a(t),H(𝐱,t)]=0$$
(8)
where $`H(𝐱,t)=\mathrm{\Theta }^{00}`$ is the Hamiltonian density, if the surface terms at infinity can be discarded. This is clearly justified if the flavor vector charge annihilates the vacuum,

$$Q^a(t)|0=0$$
(9)
which is guaranteed by the Vafa-Witten theorem  i.e.,  non-chiral symmetries cannot be spontaneously broken in vector-like gauge theory. Hence there are no scalar Nambu-Goldstone bosons to produce a long range interaction, which in turn would have resulted in a non-vanishing contribution to the surface terms.

Let the commutator

$$[Q_D(0),Q^a(0)]=id_QQ^a(0)$$
(10)
define the scale dimension $`d_Q`$ of the charge $`Q^a(0)`$. By translation invariance, this can be put in the form

$$[Q_D(t),Q^a(t)]=id_QQ^a(t).$$
(11)
It is important to stress that operator relations such as the above equation are unaffected by spontaneous symmetry breaking as emphasized by Weinberg . Let us consider the double commutator which follows from Eq.(8),

$$[Q_D(t),[Q^a(t),H]]=0,$$
(12)
where $`Q_D(t)`$ is the dilation charge defined in Eq.(2). If we now invoke the Jacobi identity we can recast the above equation in the form

$$[Q^a(t),[H,Q_D(t)]]+[H,[Q_D(t),Q^a(t)]]=0.$$
(13)
Since

$$[H(𝐱,t),Q_D(t)]=i_\mu D^\mu (𝐱,t)0,$$
(14)
by virtue of the trace anomaly, Eq.(5), and making use of Eqs.(11, 8), we arrive at the operator relation

$$[Q^a(t),^\mu D_\mu (𝐱,t)]=0.$$
(15)
Applying this relation on the vacuum state, we obtain

$$[Q^a(t),^\mu D_\mu (𝐱,t)]|0=0.$$
(16)
We may now invoke the result of Vafa-Witten theorem

$$Q^a(t)|0=0,$$
(17)
and conclude that

$$𝒪(𝐱,t)|0Q^a(t)^\mu D_\mu (𝐱,t)|0=0.$$
(18)
The divergence of the dilatation curent is clearly a local operator. Since the vector current $`J_\mu ^a`$ is conserved, the vector charges $`Q^a`$ are time-independent and they have the following important properties: (a) They are constants of motion (i.e., constant operators) and (b) they are also the generators of the vector algebra. It is worthwhile elaborating this point. Let us for instance, consider the vector charge $`Q^a`$ for $`a=3`$. Since the vector meson $`\rho `$ is coupled to a conserved vector current $`J_\mu ^a`$ , where $`a=1,2,3`$, (this is mandatory for a massless vector meson and is valid for a massive vector meson in the Landau gauge), then one can demonstrate, following Kroll, Lee and Zumino , by invoking $`T,C`$ and baryon number invariance of the theory, that one must have $`J_0^3(𝐫,0)d^3r=\lambda T_3`$, where $`\lambda `$ is a constant and $`T_3`$ is the third component of the $`SU_V(2)`$ generator. If any of the quark masses were to vanish, then the theta angle would have no effect and there would be no $`P`$ or $`CP`$ nonconservation in QCD . In other words, Eq.(18) for $`a=3`$ becomes

$$\lambda T_3^\mu D_\mu |0=0.$$
(19)
We can now invoke the Federbush-Johnson theorem and arrive at the result $`\lambda T_3^\mu D_\mu =0`$.

Since $`^\mu D_\mu (𝐱,t)`$ cannot vanish in a theory of QCD which exhibits both asymptotic freedom and confinement except at $`g=0`$, we are led to conclude that $`\lambda =0`$ i.e.,  the third component of the vector charge, $`Q^3`$ is screened: $`Q^30`$. By invoking $`SU_V(3)`$ invariance, this argument generalizes to $`Q^a0`$ where $`a=1,2,\mathrm{}8`$ and thus we arrive at the conclusion that the vector charge must be screened. Hence by the Higgs mechanism, the vector mesons become massive. It is worth stressing that the application of Federbush-Johnson theorem goes through since the locality of $`^\mu D_\mu `$ remains undisturbed upon multiplication by a constant operator. The important result, $`Q^a=0`$, is a manifestation of spontaneously broken local symmetry . The vector mesons become massive and the scalar would-be Nambu-Goldstone bosons disappear.

Let us now consider the axial-vector charges $`Q_5^a`$. The Vafa-Witten theorem does not apply in this case and hence we proceed by the method of reductio ad absurdum as follows. We assume $`Q_5^a|0=0`$ corresponding to the Wigner-Weyl mode of unbroken symmetry and $`Q_5^a`$ are conserved and time independent. We begin by defining the scale dimension of the axial-vector charge by

$$[Q_D(0),Q_5^a]=id_{Q5}Q_5^a.$$
(20)
Repeating the earlier analysis now for the axial-vector charges, exactly as in Eqs.(1118), we obtain

$$Q_5^a^\mu D_\mu (𝐱,t)|0=0.$$
(21)
Since $`Q_5^a`$ is a non-zero constant for the assumed Wigner-Weyl mode, applying the Federbush-Johnson theorem, we arrive at the conclusion

$$Q_5^a^\mu D_\mu (𝐱,t)0.$$
(22)
This in turn requires $`^\mu D_\mu (𝐱,t)=0`$. This would imply that QCD exhibiting both asymptotic freedom and confinement is a free field theory. Hence by reductio ad absurdum we are led to the conclusion: either $`Q_5^a|00`$ or $`Q_5^a0`$. The first alternative is the Nambu-Goldstone realization of chiral symmetry which must hold  for $`N_F=3`$. The second alternative in conjunction with the screening of the vector charges, i.e., $`Q^a0,Q_5^a0`$, is the Higgs mode alternative (Georgi-Wigner mode): both scalar and pseudoscalar Nambu-Goldstone bosons have been devoured. This case corresponds to confinement with exact chiral symmetry. Such a mode is realized in Supersymmetric QCD .

We note that the Kroll-Lee-Zumino argument used above for the vector charge is not valid for the case of the axial-vector charge since the axial baryon number invariance is violated by $`U_A(1)`$ anomaly . This is consistent with the fact that no algebra for the axial-vector charge is assumed.

In conclusion, it is interesting that the Wigner-Weyl mode is ruled out in QCD at $`T=0`$, if both asymptotic freedom and confinement obtains. This follows from Eqs.(19,22). Hence the Wigner-Weyl mode can occur only if the beta function turns over to yield an infrared stable fixed point .

An effective Lagrangian  which realizes the Georgi-Goldstone mode is easily constructed, following the general procedure for building models with vector and axial vector mesons.

Finally, it is important to stress that we have not invoked the $`SU_L(N_F)\times SU_R(N_F)`$ charge algebra in our analysis. In view of the screened charges, i.e., $`Q^a=0,Q_5^a|00`$ for the Georgi-Goldstone mode and $`Q^a=Q_5^a=0`$ for the Georgi-Wigner mode, one must revert back to local current algebra which leads to the Weinberg sum rules in QCD. There still remain some unresolved issues that need to be addressed. First, is the vacuum expectation value of $`\overline{q}q`$ “small” near the vector limit? If so, how does one explain the lattice  results? Secondly, what is the precise criterion which signals the distinction between the Georgi-Goldstone and the Georgi-Wigner modes? Finally in QCD the conserved vector charges for $`N_F=2`$ are just isospin operators. Therefore what is the real meaning behind their vanishing? These and other related issues will be addressed in a forthcoming work.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to Professor S. Adler for drawing our attention to the work of Intrilligator and Seiberg, and Seiberg and Witten; in particular to the phase of confinement without chiral breaking in supersymmetric QCD for $`N_F=N_C+1`$.


text:
# Nonexistence of a 𝜂𝑁𝑁 quasibound state

## Abstract

We have solved the Faddeev equations for $`\eta d`$ elastic scattering using realistic separable interactions for the $`NN`$ and coupled $`\eta N`$-$`\pi N`$ subsystems. We found that including explicitly the pion channel in the integral equations drastically reduces the attraction that is present in the system. As a consequence, the existence of a $`\eta NN`$ quasibound state is excluded by the modern $`\eta N`$ amplitude analysis.

The possible existence of a $`\eta NN`$ quasibound state in the $`\eta d`$ system was first suggested by Ueda . He solved the Faddeev equations of elastic $`\eta d`$ scattering using separable interactions for the $`NN`$ and coupled $`\eta N`$-$`\pi N`$ subsystems. At the time of Ueda’s prediction, however, very little was known about the $`\eta N`$ channel, so that he fitted his $`\eta N`$ and $`\pi N`$ interactions basically to the $`\pi N`$ data only. He found that his model predicted the existence of a $`\eta NN`$ quasibound state very near threshold with a mass of 2430 MeV and a width of 10-20 MeV.

More recent calculations  have used in the case of the coupled $`\eta N`$-$`\pi N`$ subsystem only the $`\eta N`$ subsector by means of a Yamaguchi separable potential with a complex energy-dependent strength. They found that the existence of the quasibound state depended strongly on the value of the real part of the $`\eta N`$ scattering length, such that $`Re`$ $`a_{\eta N}1`$ fm is required in order for the quasibound state to exist. This value of $`Re`$ $`a_{\eta N}`$ is within the range of values given by modern $`\eta N`$ amplitude analysis .

However, in a very recent paper  we have pointed out that a true measure of the attraction or repulsion present in a three-body system can only be obtained by assuming two-body interactions which are real and energy independent. Therefore, in Ref.  we constructed separable potential models of the coupled $`\eta N`$-$`\pi N`$ subsystem in which the strength of the potentials is real and energy independent, so that the imaginary part of the $`\eta N`$ scattering length is generated by the coupling to the $`\pi N`$ channel. These models were required to fit not only the $`\eta N`$ scattering length but also the $`\eta N`$ amplitude in the vicinity of the $`S_{11}`$ resonance as obtained by the recent $`\eta N`$ data analysis . In Ref.  we used the diagonal $`\eta N\eta N`$ part of the full $`\eta N`$-$`\pi N`$ amplitude to calculate $`\eta d`$ elastic scattering in a truncated approximation where the pion was not included explicitly in the integral equations but only implicitly through his contribution in the propagator of the $`\eta N`$ interacting pair. We used for the $`NN`$ interaction in the $`{}_{}{}^{3}S_{1}^{}`$ channel the so-called PEST separable potential  which takes into account the $`NN`$ repulsion at short distances. We found in Ref.  that the truncated model does not give rise to a $`\eta NN`$ quasibound state for any of the models based on modern $`\eta N`$ amplitude analyses. However, two question that immediately arise are a) how important is the explicit contribution of the pion? and b) is it attractive or repulsive? We will answer these two questions in this paper.

In Ref.  we constructed 6 different phenomenological models of the coupled $`\eta N`$-$`\pi N`$ subsystem which were fitted to the amplitudes of recent data analyses . All the 6 potentials have separable form

$$<p|V_{\eta \eta }|p^{}>=g_\eta (p)g_\eta (p^{}),$$
(1)
$$<p|V_{\pi \pi }|p^{}>=g_\pi (p)g_\pi (p^{}),$$
(2)
$$<p|V_{\eta \pi }|p^{}>=\pm g_\eta (p)g_\pi (p^{}),$$
(3)
with

$$g_\eta (p)=\sqrt{\lambda _\eta }\frac{A+p^2}{(\alpha _2^2+p^2)^2},$$
(4)
$$g_\pi (p)=\sqrt{\lambda _\pi }\frac{1}{\alpha _\pi ^2+p^2}.$$
(5)
The parameters of the six models are given in table III of Ref. . If one substitutes the potentials (1)-(3) into the Lippmann-Schwinger equation of the coupled $`\eta N`$-$`\pi N`$ subsystem one obtains that the T-matrices are of the form

$$<p|t_{\eta \eta }(E)|p^{}>=g_\eta (p)\tau _2(E)g_\eta (p^{}),$$
(6)
$$<p|t_{\pi \pi }(E)|p^{}>=g_\pi (p)\tau _2(E)g_\pi (p^{}),$$
(7)
$$<p|t_{\eta \pi }(E)|p^{}>=\pm g_\eta (p)\tau _2(E)g_\pi (p^{}),$$
(8)
where

$$\tau _2(E)=[1G_\eta (E)G_\pi (E)]^1,$$
(9)
$$G_\eta (E)=_0^{\mathrm{}}p^2𝑑p\frac{g_\eta ^2(p)}{Ep^2/2\mu _2+iϵ},$$
(10)
$$G_\pi (E)=_0^{\mathrm{}}p^2𝑑p\frac{g_\pi ^2(p)}{E+p_0^2/2\mu _\pi p^2/2\mu _\pi +iϵ}.$$
(11)
$`\mu _2`$ and $`\mu _\pi `$ are the $`\eta N`$ and $`\pi N`$ reduced masses respectively while $`p_0`$ is the $`\pi N`$ relative momentum at the $`\eta N`$ threshold, i.e.,

$$p_0^2=\frac{[s_0(m_\pi +m_N)^2][s_0(m_\pi m_N)^2]}{4s_0},$$
(12)
with

$$s_0=(m_\eta +m_N)^2.$$
(13)
Thus, the Faddeev equations for $`\eta d`$ elastic scattering take the form diagrammatically depicted in Fig. 1. In the second equation of this figure, there is only a term with a nucleon-nucleon interaction proceeding while a meson (the $`\eta `$) is a spectator, since the term where the spectator meson is a pion involves an intermediate state (formed by a pion and a $`NN`$ state in the $`{}_{}{}^{3}S_{1}^{}`$ channel) of isospin 1, while the $`\eta d`$ system has isospin 0. Similarly, the intermediate state where a pion is the spectator and the $`NN`$ state is in the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ channel can not proceed either due to the fact that this state has total spin 0, while the $`\eta d`$ system has total spin 1.

The integral equation depicted in Fig. 1 has the analytical form

$$T_2(q_2;E)=2K_{21}(q_2,q_{10};E)+_0^{\mathrm{}}q_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}𝑑q_2^{}M(q_2,q_2^{};E)\tau _2(Eq_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2\nu _2)T_2(q_2^{};E),$$
(14)
where the kernel $`M(q_2,q_2^{};E)`$ is given by

$`M(q_2,q_2^{};E)`$ $`=`$ $`K_{23}(q_2,q_2^{};E)K_{23}^\pi (q_2,q_2^{};E)`$ (16)
$`+2{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}q_1^2𝑑q_1K_{21}(q_2,q_1;E)\tau _1(Eq_1^2/2\nu _1)K_{12}(q_1,q_2^{};E).`$
If one drops the term $`K_{23}^\pi `$, Eqs. (14) and (16) are identical to Eqs. (2) and (3) of Ref. . The kernels $`K_{ij}`$ have been defined in  and the new term $`K_{23}^\pi `$ is equal to $`K_{23}`$ except that particle 1 is now a $`\pi `$ instead of a $`\eta `$.

We note at this point that the $`\eta `$N $``$ $`\pi `$N transition amplitude, describing a pion exchange followed by an $`\eta `$ exchange, enters an even number of times at every order of iteration of the integral equation in Fig. 1 (i.e. equation (15)). Therefore, the ambiguity in sign in the $`\eta `$N $``$ $`\pi `$N transition amplitude, explicit in equations (3) and (8), is immaterial for this calculation.

The most important point in Eq. (16) is that $`K_{23}`$ and $`K_{23}^\pi `$ appear with opposite signs. These signs come from the reduction of the Faddeev equations when one has two identical fermions . Since we are assuming that the meson is particle 1 so that 2 and 3 are the two fermions and all orbital angular momenta are equal to zero, then following the reduction procedure of Refs.  leads to the result that the kernel $`K_{23}`$ must by multiplied by a factor $`F_{23}`$, where

$$F_{23}=F_{23}^{Identical}F_{23}^{Spin}F_{23}^{Isospin},$$
(17)
and

$$F_{23}^{Identical}=()^{s_1+s_3S_2+i_1+i_3I_2},$$
(18)
$$F_{23}^{Spin}=()^{S_3+s_3S}\sqrt{(2S_2+1)(2S_3+1)}W(s_3s_1Ss_2;S_2S_3),$$
(19)
$$F_{23}^{Isospin}=()^{I_3+i_3I}\sqrt{(2I_2+1)(2I_3+1)}W(i_3i_1Ii_2;I_2I_3),$$
(20)
with $`W`$ the Racah coefficient, and $`s_i`$, $`S_i`$, and $`S`$ ($`i_i`$, $`I_i`$, and $`I`$) are the spins (isospins) of particle i, of the pair jk, and the three-body system. It is straightforward to see that the factor $`F_{23}`$ is equal to 1 when particle 1 is a $`\eta `$ but it is equal to -1 when particle 1 is a $`\pi `$. All other spin-isospin recoupling coefficients that would appear in Eqs. (14) and (16) are equal to 1.

In Eq. (14) the propagator $`\tau _2(Eq_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2\nu _2)`$ is the one appropriate for a $`\eta N`$ interacting pair since $`\nu _2`$ is the reduced mass of a nucleon and a $`\eta N`$ pair. In principle, one should have two $`\eta `$-N amplitudes corresponding to the two possibilities of decay for the $`S_{11}`$ isobar, into a $`\eta N`$ or a $`\pi N`$ pair. However, if one assumes that

$$\tau _2(Eq_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2\nu _2)=\tau _2(Eq_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2\nu _\pi ),$$
(21)
where $`\nu _\pi `$ is the reduced mass of a nucleon and a $`\pi N`$ pair, one obtains a single equation. We have checked numerically that the effect of separating Eq. (14) into two equations, that is of considering

$$\tau _2(Eq_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2\nu _2)\tau _2(Eq_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}/2\nu _\pi ),$$
(22)
is to produce changes in the $`\eta d`$ scattering length of less that 1 %. We should point out that in a relativistic Faddeev theory  the energy of the isobar is independent of the mode into which it decays so that the equivalent of Eq. (21) always holds.

We solved the integral equation (14) using the method of contour rotation . We give in table I the results for the $`\eta d`$ scattering length for the case of the impulse approximation and for the full calculation with and without the pion contribution. As one sees, the effect of including the pion channel explicitly is quite large and it reduces the $`\eta d`$ scattering length. This reduction is a direct consequence of the minus sign in front of the kernel $`K_{23}^\pi `$ representing the pion contribution. The equations for $`\eta d`$ elastic scattering without the pion contribution were not attractive enough to produce a $`\eta NN`$ quasibound state (the signal that a quasibound state exists for a given model is that the real part of $`A_{\eta d}`$ becomes negative while the imaginary part becomes large), but it turns out that the inclusion of the pion reduces even further the attraction, completely ruling out the existence of a quasibound state in this system. It is worth pointing out that the minus sign for the second term of the right-hand-side of equation (15) is critical: if one takes the pion contribution with a plus sign instead of the correct minus sign, the six models of the coupled $`\eta N`$-$`\pi N`$ subsystem will give rise to a quasibound state in the $`\eta d`$ system.

We show in Fig. 2 the results for the cross section of $`\eta d`$ elastic scattering in the region near threshold again for the cases of the impulse approximation and the full calculation with and without the pion contribution. As one sees, the strong enhancement of the cross section near threshold is greatly reduced when the pion contribution is included. Unexpectedly, one re-encouters here the pattern of cancellation between the $`\pi `$ and $`\eta `$ re-scattering processes found in reference , in a one-loop calculation for the $`\pi `$d $``$ $`\eta `$NN reaction.

To conclude, we have shown that the explicit contribution of the pion drastically reduces the amount of attraction that is present in the $`\eta d`$ system, such that there is no possibility for a $`\eta NN`$ quasibound state to exist in this system.

This work was supported in part by COFAA-IPN (México) and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, MCT, under contracts PRAXIS XXI/BCC/18975/98 and PRAXIS/P/FIS/10031/1998 (Portugal).


text:
# Does the radioactive decay obey the Poisson statistics?

## Abstract

It is shown that a nontrivial quantum structure of our space at macroscopic scales, which may exist as a relic of quantum gravity processes in the early universe, gives rise to a new fundamental phenomenon: spontaneous origin of an interference picture in every physical process. This explains why statistical distributions in radioactivity measurements may be different from the Poisson distribution.

In this letter I would like to draw attention to the strange phenomenon which was claimed to be observed in radioactivity measurements . The phenomenon pointed out represents the fact that an instant shape of the probability density distribution for the number of fissions, which should obey the conventional Poisson distribution, apparently exhibits the existence of a fine structure111 The claims of Ref.  are more ambitious. However, from our point of view the most important fact, which can be extracted from this work, is the possible violation of the Poisson statistics.. Presumably, this structure evolves and disappears after averaging over some period of time. The last fact would explain why it is difficult to observe this structure in consecutive measurements (as in the case of radioactive decay) and why in Ref.  it was used a rather nonstandard procedure to analyze measurement data.

The oddity (from the modern physics standpoint) of such a phenomenon causes strong doubts in the existence of the effect itself and makes people to think about artifacts or mistakes in the procedure of analyzing data (e.g., see Ref. ). Doubts are supported, in the first place, by the absence of any theoretical scheme which could explain the mechanism of the origin and properties of this structure.

In this paper we show that such a mechanism really does exist. We suggest one as an indirect result of quantum gravity effects, though this is surely not the only possibility. It suffice to recall that the environment and the structure of the radioactive sample itself should also leave an imprint on the shape of the probabilistic distribution (e.g., simular effect exists in energy $`\beta `$decay spectra ). Besides, there exists the standard and more direct way to verify the existence of the fine structure which (unlike the method used in Ref. ) can be used by any experimental group.

Now, let us recall the method of observing and analyzing the fine structure used in Ref.  and explain why we suppose the results to be credible. First, one obtains long enough time series of measured signal, e.g., a set of numbers of fissions $`n`$ during an interval $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the shortest period of the measurement. Then, one takes portions of this signal with a length $`T`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ and constructs a set of histograms $`P_j\left(n\right)=N\left(n\right)/N`$ (where $`j=t/T`$, $`N\left(n\right)`$ is the number of intervals $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ in which the number of fissions has the value $`n`$, and $`N`$ $`=T/\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the total number of intervals). This construction presumes that the function $`P\left(n\right)`$ is a stationary function. However, as was pointed out above this function depends on time and, therefore, the period $`T`$ should not be too big (it should be smaller than a characteristic time of variation of histograms). Thus, to approach the instant picture one has to minimize the possible value $`T`$ which reduces the number of points on the histogram (usually in Ref.  $`N60100`$). The small value of $`N`$ causes strong statistical fluctuations in the shape of histograms (typically $`\mathrm{\Delta }N^2\left(n\right)1/N\left(n\right)`$) and, therefore, one has to distinguish somehow the fine structure and fluctuations. In Ref.  this problem was solved as follows. Consider two signals $`n\left(t\right)`$ and $`m\left(t\right)`$ from independent radioactive samples and construct two series of histograms $`P_j\left(n\right)`$ and $`W_j\left(m\right)`$. The fact that this signals are statistically independent means that the standard analysis will show the absence of correlations between the two signals. However, one can compare shapes of histograms $`P_j\left(n\right)`$ and $`W_j^{}\left(m\right)`$ (upon the transformation to the normal variables $`x=\left(n<n>\right)/\sqrt{<n>}`$) and build the function $`\nu \left(k\right)`$ which is the number of coincidences as a function of $`k=jj^{}`$. In the case of infinite series, if there are only ordinary statistical fluctuations (caused by insufficient statistics), one should find that $`\nu `$ does not depend on $`k`$ at all (finite series with a length $`L`$ produce the dependence on $`k`$ as follows: $`\nu _0\left(k\right)=\nu _0L/\left(Lk\right)`$) and indeed, computer simulations of a random process give $`\nu =\nu _0=const`$ . However, radioactivity processes were shown to produce a function $`\nu \left(k\right)`$ with a strong peak at $`k=0`$, with $`\nu \left(0\right)\nu _0`$ (there also exists the so-called nearest zone $`\nu \left(1\right)\nu _0`$) .

Unfortunately, this method speaks nothing about the fine structure itself but shows the existence of a correlation between shapes of simultaneous histograms. The most subtle moment here is the method used for comparison of shapes of histograms and just this point causes main debates . It is important, however, that the method was tested on real random signals (computer simulations) which makes me think that the results are credible.

The correct way to solve all doubts should be the direct measurement of the instant picture. This means that one should prepare a sufficiently big number of identical samples, which will produce independent random quantities $`n_i`$ ($`i=1,\mathrm{}M`$), and obtain $`M`$ simultaneous signals $`n_i\left(t\right)`$. Such a measurement will directly produce the probability distribution as a function of time $`P_t\left(n\right)=\frac{1}{M}_i\delta \left(nn_i\left(t\right)\right)`$. On practice it may be rather difficult to increase the number of simultaneous experiments and one will probably have to combine both methods. Nevertheless, we stress, that this is the only direct way to investigate the instant probability density distribution. In fact, in the case of radioactivity it is possible in principle to prepare a sufficiently big ($`10^3`$) number of equal samples to take the instant picture.

Now consider the mechanism which can impose a fine structure on the Poisson distribution in radioactivity processes. There exists a universal (though rather trivial) mechanism which can be applied to physical processes of diverse nature. It consist in the fact that our Universe (being a classical system) can be in a quantum state which represents a mixture of two different topologies.

Topology changes are expected to take place only at Planck scales and cause an essential interest in quantum gravity . In particular, such processes are known to cause the loss of quantum coherence and should be suppressed now, at least, there exist very strong experimental restrictions, which come from oscillation experiments ($`K\overline{K}`$ and $`\nu _\mu \nu _\tau `$ oscillations), e.g., see, Ref.  and references therein. This means that in the present Universe topology changes should have a virtual character (the spacetime foam) and do not affect (at least directly) all the standard physical processes. We may expect, however, that in the early universe (during the quantum stage of the evolution) such processes were real. After the quantum period, processes with topology variations are suppressed and the topological structure of space has to be preserved. Thus, we may hope that remnants of such processes do survive till our days and may somehow display themselves (possible effects of this sort were discussed in Ref. ). Moreover, due to the expansion of the Universe a nontrivial topological structure should display itself in the first place at macroscopic scales . Thus, if a portion of space was initially in a quantum state which mixes two topologies, then now the topology of that region should not be fixed. This hope is supported by the presumption that there is no a natural physical process which is able to enforce the Universe to distinguish, on the quasiclassical stage, one particular topology, if the initial quantum state was a mixture of different topologies.

Let a portion of our space $`V`$ be in a quantum state which mixes two topologies. The simplest state of this kind is described by the wave function of the type

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_V=a|V+b|V^+,V^{},$$
(1)
where $`|V`$ represents the simple topology state and the state $`|V^+,V^{}`$ describes two copies of the region $`V`$ ($`V^+`$ and $`V^{}`$). In what follows, the origin of such a state is not important. In the third quantization picture  this state can be considered as if there is a small probability $`\left|b\right|^2`$ that the Universe has two copies. Schematically this can be illustrated by the graph

$$\frac{}{}=\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}+_{\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}}^{\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}}.$$
(2)
From the other hand side, such a state appears if the region $`V`$ cuts a portion of the space with a nontrivial topology, e.g., a gigantic wormhole, which can be illustrated by the graph

$$\frac{}{}=\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}+\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\begin{array}{c}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\\ \frac{}{}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}\end{array}\frac{}{}\frac{}{}.$$
(3)
Moreover, in the case when the scale of the wormhole exceeds the horizon size, both cases are indistinguishable for an observer who lives in the middle of the wormhole. The normalization condition gives $`\left|a\right|^2+\left|b\right|^2=1`$ (we suppose the states $`|V`$ and $`|V^+,V^{}`$ to be normalized and orthogonal $`V|V^+,V^{}=0`$).

The important question which arises here is how this state may be in agreement with the classical nature of space and what an observer will see living in the space of this sort. The first question has a simple answer. It is the fact that properties of all three regions $`V`$, $`V^+`$, and $`V^{}`$ should be very close to each other (matter distribution, etc.). Otherwise there will appear a rather big minimal inevitable uncertainty in all observable physical quantities. However small difference may (and probably must) exist. To answer the second question we note that there exist at least two approaches. First one comes from the third quantization scheme  in which the state (1) means that the observer will be either in a single Universe $`V`$, or in one of the two universes $`V^+`$ or $`V^{}`$. It is important, however, that both universes $`V^+`$ and $`V^{}`$ are indistinguishable, so the observer is not able to know exactly which one he belongs to and, therefore, any observation will mix information about both universes. We may say that the observer lives in both universes simultaneously. However a portion of information about the state is lost and this leads, in the general case, to the loss of quantum coherence widely discussed in Refs.  (see also discussions in Refs. ). We note, however, that in this picture the loss of coherence is not a dynamical process, for there is no a real change of the topology of space. The dynamical change took place in the early Universe (but not now) and the loss of the coherence happened then. Rather, in such a space pure states are not reachable in principle and all physical objects are described by a density matrix from the very beginning.

The second approach was proposed in Ref. . In this approach the state with two universes will effectively look as if all observables acquire a double-valued character. In this case there also holds the identity principle for both values of every observable and a part of information about the quantum state also can be lost. This depends already on the nature of measurements, e.g., if we measure the number of particles we will loose the information about the double-valued nature of fields . However, in principle, there may exist a detector able to distinguish double-valued and single valued quantities and, thus, to read all the information about the quantum state.

For the sake of simplicity in what follows we discuss the third quantization approach, though the same consideration (with minor modification) remains valid in the second approach too.

Consider a quasiclassical system which is in the region $`V`$. Since the structure of the space is not defined, the evolution of the system cannot be described from the classical standpoint and, therefore, dynamics of the system has to be described by a wave function. If the space had a simple topology, the system would be described by a wave function of the form

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_1\left(q\right)=A_1\left(q\right)e^{iS\left(q\right)},$$
(4)
where $`S\left(q\right)`$ is the classical action, $`q`$ is a configuration variable describing the system, and $`A`$ is a slow function of $`q`$ such that $`P_1\left(q\right)=A_1^2(q)`$ gives the probability distribution for the observable $`q.`$ One usually supposes that this distribution is the ordinary Gaussian distribution around an average value $`q_{cl}=q`$. The value $`q_{cl}`$ traces the classical trajectory which can be found from the Hamilton-Jacobi equations

$$\frac{S}{t}=H(q,p),p=\frac{S}{q},$$
(5)
Here $`S\left(q\right)`$ is the action functional for the system and $`H(p,q)`$ is the appropriate Hamiltonian. In the case of the state (1) the wave function acquires the form

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=a\mathrm{\Psi }_1\left(q\right)+b\mathrm{\Psi }_2(q^+,q^{})$$
(6)
and contains one extra variable. Thus, to get the probability distribution for the variable $`q`$ we have to integrate out the extra variable

$$P\left(q\right)=\left|a\right|^2P_1\left(q\right)+\left|b\right|^2P_2\left(q\right)=\left|a\right|^2\left|\mathrm{\Psi }_1\left(q\right)\right|^2+\left|b\right|^2\left|\mathrm{\Psi }_2(q,y)\right|^2𝑑y$$
(7)
and the quantum state of the system will be described by a density matrix. In general this results in the loss of quantum coherence discussed in Refs. . It is important that the degree of the loss of information depends essentially on the choice of the quantum state and it can be shown that oscillation experiments  do not impose severe restrictions on the choice of that state. It turns out that the state (1) leads, in general, to spontaneous origin of an interference picture.

Indeed, the identity principle for the two regions $`V^+`$ and $`V^{}`$ implies that the function $`\mathrm{\Psi }_2`$ has the property

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_2(q^+,q^{})=\pm \mathrm{\Psi }_2(q^{},q^+),$$
(8)
where the sign $`\pm `$ depends on the choice of the statistics (Bose or Fermi statistics). The quasiclassical nature of the system gives

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_2(q^+,q^{})=\frac{1}{r}\left(\mathrm{\Psi }_+\left(q^+\right)\mathrm{\Psi }_{}\left(q^{}\right)\pm \mathrm{\Psi }_+\left(q^{}\right)\mathrm{\Psi }_{}\left(q^+\right)\right),$$
(9)
where $`r`$ is the normalization constant and ($`\alpha ,\beta =\pm `$)

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha \left(q^\beta \right)=A_\alpha \left(q^\beta \right)\mathrm{exp}\left(iS_\alpha \left(q^\beta \right)\right).$$
(10)
We suppose that these functions are normalized $`𝑑q\left|\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha \right|^2=1`$. Then from (7)-(10) we get

$$P_2\left(q\right)=\frac{1}{r^2}\left(P_++P_{}\pm 2f\sqrt{P_+P_{}}\mathrm{cos}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }S\mathrm{\Delta }\right)\right),$$
(11)
where $`P_\pm =A_\pm ^2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=S_+S_{}`$, and constants $`f`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ are determined as follows

$$fe^{i\mathrm{\Delta }}=\mathrm{\Psi }_+^{}\left(q\right)\mathrm{\Psi }_{}\left(q\right)𝑑q.$$
(12)
The normalization condition gives the relation $`r^2=2\left(1\pm f^2\right)`$. As was pointed out above, physical properties of the three regions $`V`$, $`V^+`$, and $`V^{}`$ should be very close to each other. This means that all the functions $`A\left(q\right)`$, $`A_+\left(q\right)`$, and $`A_{}\left(q\right)`$ are very close and in the first approximation we can put them to be equal $`A\left(q\right)=`$ $`A_\pm \left(q\right)`$ (it is so if the difference of classical values $`\delta q_{cl}^\pm =q_{cl}q_{cl}^\pm `$ is sufficiently small $`\delta q_{cl}\mathrm{\Delta }q`$). The same is also correct with respect to the phases $`S_\pm `$ and we can use the decomposition

$$\mathrm{\Delta }S=\delta p_{cl}q+\theta \left(t\right).$$
(13)
Thus, we find (here $`\phi =\theta \mathrm{\Delta }`$)

$$P_2\left(q\right)P_1\left(q\right)\frac{1}{1\pm f^2}\left(1\pm f\mathrm{cos}\left(\delta p_{cl}q+\phi \right)\right)$$
(14)
and for the total distribution we get

$$P\left(q\right)P_1\left(q\right)\left(C_1+C_2\mathrm{cos}\left(\delta p_{cl}q+\phi \right)\right).$$
(15)
where

$$C_1=\left|a\right|^2+\left|b\right|^2\frac{1}{1\pm f^2},C_2=\pm \left|b\right|^2\frac{f}{1\pm f^2}.$$
(16)
It is important to note that in general the phase $`\phi `$ and the value $`q_{cl}\left(t\right)=q`$ depend on time $`t`$ and so does the probability distribution $`P\left(q\right).`$ In simplest cases this dependence can be considered as a periodic function with some period $`T`$. Then, after averaging over the period $`T`$ we get already a stationary distribution $`\overline{P\left(x\right)}_T=P_1\left(x\right)`$ (where $`x=qq_{cl}`$) which reduces to the single Universe case.

We note that in (15) the set of parameters $`\delta p_{cl}`$, $`\phi `$, and those which define $`P_1\left(q\right)`$ are specific parameters for any given quasiclassical system. On the contrary, the parameter $`\left|b\right|^2`$ which defines the depth of modulation of the standard distribution $`P_1`$ should represent a common for all physical systems parameter which reflects the quantum structure of the region $`V`$.

Consider now a set of radioactive atoms. In the simplest case this set can be well-modeled by a two-level system. Then it is easy to find that the wave function takes the form

$$\mathrm{\Psi }\left(n\right)=\sqrt{\frac{N!}{n!\left(Nn\right)!}}\left(\mathrm{sin}\alpha \right)^n\left(\mathrm{cos}\alpha \right)^{Nn}e^{inpiEt},$$
(17)
where $`N`$ is the total number of radioactive atoms, $`n`$ is the number of fissions, $`\mathrm{sin}^2\alpha =\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Delta }t=\frac{m\left(\mathrm{\Delta }t\right)}{N}`$ is the probability of a fission (in general $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ depends on the energy of the products of the fission), $`m\left(t\right)=n`$ is the mean number of fissions after the time $`t`$, $`E`$ is the total energy of the system and $`p`$ is a phase parameter which is defined by the tunneling process. In real experiments the time interval $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is such that the mean number of fissions is large enough, $`m1`$ and, therefore, with very good approximation one gets ($`\alpha =1,\pm `$)

$$A_\alpha \left(n\right)=\left(2m_\alpha \pi \right)^{1/4}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\left(nm_\alpha \right)^2}{4m_\alpha }\right),S_\alpha =p_\alpha nE_\alpha t.$$
(18)
Thus, the existence of a small difference in the parameters $`p_\pm `$, $`E_\pm `$, which may exist in regions $`V_\pm `$, will impose a fine structure (modulation) on the standard Poisson distribution which changes with a characteristic period $`T\left(\delta E\delta p\frac{d}{dt}m\right)^1`$ (here $`\delta E=E_+E_{}`$ and we suppose that $`m_\alpha =m`$).

The main aim of this letter was to present one of possibilities of the origin of the fine structure in probability distributions, while the further investigation of the problem discussed requires, in the first place, the experimental confirmation of the effect by at least independent experimental groups. We also note, that if such an effect really does exist, it may become a principally new probe for the structure of our space.

I am grateful to S.E. Shnoll and D. Turaev for valuable discussions, and M. Rainer for hospitality in Potsdam University where the main part of this work was done. This research was supported by RFBR (Grant No. 98-02-16273) and DFG (Grant No. 436 Rus 113/23618).