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# References

A Classification of Incomparable States

Somshubhro Bandyopadhyay♮⋆111 som@ee.ucla.edu, dhom@boseinst.ernet.in , Vwani P. Roychowdhury222 vwani@ee.ucla.edu  and Ujjwal Sen333 dhom@boseinst.ernet.in

*Electrical Engineering Department, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA*

*Department of Physics, Bose Institute, 93/1 A. P. C Road, Kolkata-700009, INDIA*

## Abstract

Let $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ be an incomparable pair of states ($`|\psi |\varphi `$), *i.e.*, $`|\psi `$ and $`|\varphi `$ cannot be transformed to each other with probability one by local transformations and classical communication (LOCC). We show that incomparable states can be multiple-copy transformable, *i.e.*, there can exist a *k*, such that $`|\psi ^{k+1}|\varphi ^{k+1}`$, i.e., $`k+1`$ copies of $`|\psi `$ can be transformed to $`k+1`$ copies of $`|\varphi `$ with probability one by LOCC but $`|\psi ^n|\varphi ^nnk`$. We call such states *k*-copy LOCC incomparable. We provide a necessary condition for a given pair of states to be *k*-copy LOCC incomparable for some *k*. We also show that there exist states that are neither *k*-copy LOCC incomparable for any *k* nor catalyzable even with multiple copies. We call such states strongly incomparable. We give a sufficient condition for strong incomparability.

We demonstrate that the optimal probability of a conclusive transformation involving many copies, $`p_{max}\left(|\psi ^m|\varphi ^m\right)`$ can decrease exponentially with the number of source states $`m`$, even if the source state has *more* entropy of entanglement. We also show that the probability of a conclusive conversion might not be a monotonic function of the number of copies.

Fascinating developments in quantum information theory  and quantum computing  during the past decade has led us to view entanglement as a valued physical resource. Consequently, recent studies have largely been devoted towards its quantification in appropriate limits (finite or asymptotic), optimal manipulation, and transformation properties under local operations and classical communication (LOCC) . Since the specific tasks that can be accomplished with entanglement as a resource is closely related to its transformation properties, it is of importance to know what transformations are allowed under LOCC. Suppose Alice and Bob share a pure state $`|\psi `$ (source state), which they wish to convert to another entangled state $`|\varphi `$ (target state) under LOCC. A necessary and sufficient condition for this transformation to be possible with certainty (denoted by $`|\psi |\varphi `$) has been obtained by Nielsen . If such a deterministic transformation is not possible but $`|\psi `$ has at least as many Schmidt coefficients as $`|\varphi `$, then one can still obtain the target state with some non-zero probability of success. Such transformations are said to be conclusive and an optimal local conversion strategy has been obtained by Vidal . It should be noted that these transformations are in the finite-copy regime and exact as well, in the sense, that the final state is not an approximation of the desired target state. Recently deterministic but approximate transformations in the finite-copy regime has also been studied .

A consequence of Nielsen’s result is the existence of “incomparable states” . A given pair $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ is said to be incomparable if none of them can be converted into the other with probability one (denoted by $`|\psi |\varphi `$). However, Jonathan and Plenio  showed that for certain incomparable pairs one can nevertheless perform entanglement assisted local operations and classical communication (ELOCC), where transformation among previously incomparable states is made possible (only one way, say $`|\psi |\varphi `$) using an auxiliary entangled state. The borrowed entanglement remains intact in the process and can thus be used for further manipulations. This phenomenon is what they termed “catalysis” and the auxiliary state, “catalyst”. This is an interesting twist to the problem of incomparable states because strictly speaking, if $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ is a catalyzable pair, then their entanglement is no more incomparable, in the sense that we can now say that $`|\psi `$ contains at least as much entanglement as $`|\varphi `$.

The present work aims towards a better understanding of incomparable states from their transformation properties under LOCC , strictly in the *finite-copy* regime. We ask:

*Does a given incomparable pair remain incomparable if multiple copies of the source state take part in the transformation, to obtain* as many copies *of the target state under LOCC ?*

*i.e.,* *if $`|\psi |\varphi `$, then can the transformation $`|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k`$ (or $`|\varphi ^k|\psi ^k`$) be realized with probability one by LOCC for some $`k>1`$ ?*

It turns out that such states indeed exist. However there also exist incomparable pairs that remain incomparable with *k* copies for all *k* even under ELOCC. We thus obtain essentially new types of incomparable states and provide a classification from their transformation properties. The main results are the following:

1. We show that there exist incomparable pairs $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ such that $`|\psi ^{(k+1)}|\varphi ^{(k+1)}`$ ($``$ read “transforms to”) by LOCC for some finite $`k`$ with probability one but remain incomparable till *k* copies i.e., $`|\psi ^n|\varphi ^nnk`$. We call such states *k-copy* *LOCC incomparable.* We also provide a *necessary* condition for *k*-copy LOCC incomparability. Here one may note that the existence of the transformation $`|\psi ^{(k+1)}|\varphi ^{(k+1)}`$ with certainty for some *k* rules out the reverse possibility, *i.e.*, *$`|\varphi ^n|\psi ^nn`$.*

2. We show that there exist incomparable pairs $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ such that $`\{|\psi ^k,|\varphi ^k\}`$ remain incomparable for any $`k`$ even under ELOCC. We call such states *strongly incomparable.* Obviously such states are also *k*-copy LOCC incomparable for any *k*. We go on to provide a *sufficient* condition for a pair to be strongly incomparable in $`d\times d`$ for all $`d3`$. This gives an easy method of *generating* such states in $`d\times d`$.

3. For certain incomparable pairs, increasing the number of copies results in an *exponential decrease* in the conclusive transformation probability , i.e., $`p_{max}\left(|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k\right)c^k,c<1`$, even though the source state $`|\psi `$ has *more* entropy of entanglement . This surprisingly shows that collective manipulations need not necessarily be advantageous in the case of conclusive transformations .

4. We also demonstrate that the optimal probability of a conclusive conversion  need *not* be a monotonic function of the number of copies, i.e., $`p_{max}\left(|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k\right)`$ may not behave monotonically with the number of copies *k*.

Let $`|\psi _{AB}=_{i=1}^d\sqrt{\alpha _i}|i_A|i_B`$ and $`|\varphi _{AB}=_{i=1}^d\sqrt{\beta _i}|i_A|i_B`$ be bipartite pure states with Schmidt coefficients, $`\alpha _1\alpha _2\mathrm{}\alpha _d0`$ and $`\beta _1\beta _2\mathrm{}\beta _d0`$, respectively. The eigenvalues of the reduced density matrices $`\rho _\psi Tr_{B(orA)}\left(|\psi _{AB}\psi |\right)`$ and $`\rho _\varphi Tr_{B(orA)}\left(|\varphi _{AB}\varphi |\right)`$ are $`\alpha _1,\alpha _2,\mathrm{},\alpha _d`$ and $`\beta _1,\beta _2,\mathrm{},\beta _d`$ respectively. Denote the vector of the eigenvalues as $`\lambda _\psi (\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _d)`$ and $`\lambda _\varphi (\beta _1,\beta _2,\mathrm{},\beta _d)`$. We then have the following theorem due to Nielsen.

Theorem 1 : *$`|\psi `$ transforms to $`|\varphi `$ using LOCC with probability one if and only if $`\lambda _\psi `$ is majorized by $`\lambda _\varphi `$ (written* $`\lambda _\psi \lambda _\varphi `$*)*, *that is, if and only if* for each $`m`$ in the range $`1,\mathrm{},d`$,

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}\lambda _\psi ^{(i)}\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}\lambda _\varphi ^{(i)}$$
(1)
If Nielsen’s criterion is violated then a deterministic transformation is not possible. However for such cases if the source state has at least as many non-zero Schmidt coefficients as the target state, then a conclusive transformation is possible with the optimal probability given by $`p_{max}\left(|\psi |\varphi \right)=\mathrm{min}_{1ld}\frac{E_l\left(|\psi \right)}{E_l\left(|\varphi \right)}`$, where $`E_l\left(|\psi \right)=1_{i=1}^{l1}\alpha _i`$ .

A consequence of Nielsen’s result is the existence of incomparable states ; the states that are not transformable to one another with 100% probability by LOCC as shown in the following example:

$`|\psi `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{0.4}|00+\sqrt{0.36}|11+\sqrt{0.14}|22+\sqrt{0.1}|33`$ (2)
$`|\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{0.5}|00+\sqrt{0.25}|11+\sqrt{0.25}|22`$ (3)
From Nielsen’s theorem it follows that these two states are incomparable, *i.e.*, neither $`|\psi |\varphi `$ nor $`|\varphi |\psi `$ by LOCC.

Let $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ be an incomparable pair. Suppose now we have *k* copies of the source state at our disposal. Is it possible to obtain *k* copies of the target state after some collective manipulation, for some finite *k* by LOCC ? The answer to this question is both yes and no. We first consider the “yes” case and illustrate with a simple example. We take up the “no” case later.

Consider the incomparable pair given in Eqs. (2) and (3). We now show that two copies of $`|\psi `$ can be transformed to two copies of $`|\varphi `$ by LOCC, i.e., the transformation $`|\psi ^2|\varphi ^2`$ is indeed possible by LOCC with probability one. The corresponding $`\lambda `$-vectors are

$`\lambda _{\psi ^2}`$ $`=`$ $`(.16,.144,.144,.1296,.056,.056,.0504,.0504,.04,.04,.036,.036,.0196,.014,.014,.001)`$ (4)
$`\lambda _{\varphi ^2}`$ $`=`$ $`(.25,.125,.125,.125,.125,.0625,.0625,.0625,.0625,0,0,0,0,0,0,0)`$ (5)
It is easy to check that $`\lambda _{\psi ^2}`$ $``$ $`\lambda _{\varphi ^2}`$ implying that the transformation $`|\psi ^2|\varphi ^2`$ can in fact be realized by LOCC with certainty.

Definition 1: *An incomparable pair, say $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ is said to be* *k-copy LOCC incomparable if either $`|\psi ^{\left(k+1\right)}|\varphi ^{\left(k+1\right)}or|\varphi ^{\left(k+1\right)}|\psi ^{\left(k+1\right)}`$ under LOCC and $`|\psi ^n|\varphi ^nnk`$.*

Note that there cannot exist any incomparable pair *$`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$* for which *$`|\psi ^{\left(k+1\right)}|\varphi ^{\left(k+1\right)}`$* and $`|\varphi ^{\left(k+1\right)}|\psi ^{\left(k+1\right)}`$ hold simultaneously. This follows from the fact that if both transformations hold, then the Schmidt coefficients of the states *$`|\psi `$* and *$`|\varphi `$* must be equal, which is a contradiction.

Examples of *k-copy LOCC incomparable* pairs: The first example that we have given is single-copy LOCC incomparable. We now provide examples for values of *k* not equal to one.

(a) *2-copy LOCC incomparable pair:*

$`|\psi `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{0.4}|00+\sqrt{0.4}|11+\sqrt{0.1}|22+\sqrt{0.1}|33`$ (6)
$`|\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{0.5}|00+\sqrt{0.27}|11+\sqrt{0.23}|22`$ (7)
Observe that $`p_{max}\left(|\psi |\varphi \right)87\%`$ and $`p_{max}\left(|\psi ^2|\varphi ^2\right)99\%`$. Therefore, as we might expect, transformation probability increases with number of copies. One can easily check, the probability becomes one with three copies of the source state *i.e.*, $`\lambda _{\psi ^3}\lambda _{\varphi ^3}`$ and Nielsen’s theorem then implies $`|\psi ^3|\varphi ^3`$ by LOCC with probability one.

(b) *5-copy LOCC incomparable pair:*

$`|\psi `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{0.4}|00+\sqrt{0.4}|11+\sqrt{0.1}|22+\sqrt{0.1}|33`$ (8)
$`|\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{0.48}|00+\sqrt{0.27}|11+\sqrt{0.25}|22`$ (9)
Existence of such transformations might be useful sometimes. Take for instance the incomparable pair given in Eqs. (2) and (3), which is *single-copy LOCC incomparable*. This pair is catalyzable as well (one can find without much difficulty an appropriate catalyst for this pair, for example the state $`|\chi =0.6|44+0.4|55`$ is a valid catalyst for the pair). Thus to obtain *two* copies of $`|\varphi `$ from *two* copies of $`|\psi `$ one needs *two* such entanglement assisted transformations. But we have shown that the same goal can be reached by a single collective transformation without any catalyst.

It may be noted that in all the above examples, $`p_{max}\left(|\psi ^n|\varphi ^n\right)p_{max}\left(|\psi ^m|\varphi ^m\right)`$ $`n,m;mnk+1`$ for some $`k`$. Thus we have in these examples, as one would also expect, an increase in transformation probability with the number of copies which becomes unity for $`n=k+1`$ for some $`k`$. This is intuitively satisfying because while increasing the number of copies we are accumulating “more” entanglement on the source side. It is worth stressing that this monotonicity might only be expected when one can *a priori* say *definitively* that the pair is *k-copy LOCC incomparable*, for some *k*. We return to this point later in this paper.

Let $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ be a *k*-copy LOCC incomparable pair. Then *$`|\psi ^{(k+1)}|\varphi ^{(k+1)}`$ ,* i.e., *k*+1 copies of $`|\psi `$ transforms to *k*+1 copies of $`|\varphi `$, by LOCC. Can we say that *n* copies of $`|\psi `$ transforms to *n* copies of $`|\varphi `$ when *n* is greater than *k*+1?

Conjecture: If $`|\psi ^{k+1}|\varphi ^{k+1}`$ by LOCC then $`|\psi ^n|\varphi ^nnk+2`$.

Of course $`|\psi ^n|\varphi ^n`$ when $`n`$ is an integral multiple of $`k+1`$. Hence the cases of interest are those values of $`nk+2,\text{ where }nm\left(k+1\right),m`$ is an integer.

We would now like to ask what condtions need to be satisfied for *k*-copy LOCC incomparability. Suppose $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ be an incomparable pair. Would a transformation $`|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k`$ (or *vice versa*) be always possible for some $`k`$ by LOCC or even by ELOCC ? We now give a *necessary* condition for such transformations to exist.

Lemma 1: *Let $`|\psi `$ and $`|\varphi `$ be $`d\times d`$ states, with ordered Schmidt coefficients $`\left\{\alpha _j\right\},\left\{\beta _j\right\},1jd`$ respectively. Then there exists some $`k>1`$ such that $`|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k`$ under LOCC only if $`\alpha _1\beta _1`$ and $`\alpha _d\beta _d`$. The same necessary condition also holds for $`|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k`$ under ELOCC.*

Proof. If there is some *k* such that $`|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k`$, then from Nielsen’s theorem it follows that $`\alpha _1^k\beta _1^k`$ and $`1\alpha _d^k1\beta _d^k`$ which implies *$`\alpha _1\beta _1`$* and $`\alpha _d\beta _d`$. This proves the first part of the lemma.

It has been shown in Ref.  that $`|\psi |\varphi `$ under ELOCC only if *$`\alpha _1\beta _1`$* and $`\alpha _d\beta _d`$. It is straightforward to show that similar condition holds for $`|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k`$ under ELOCC. $`\mathrm{}`$

From lemma 1 it follows that $`3\times 3`$ incomparable states remain incomparable even if *multiple* copies are available. This is due to the fact that for $`3\times 3`$ incomparable states if *$`\alpha _1<\beta _1,`$* then $`\alpha _3<\beta _3`$ . Hence incomparable states in $`3\times 3`$ are neither catalyzable even with multiple copies nor multiple-copy transformable.

The existence of incomparable states that are neither *k-copy LOCC incomparable* for any *k* nor *catalyzable* with multiple copies allows us to define such states in a general way.

Definition 2: *An incomparable pair* $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ *is said to be strongly incomparable if the pair is non-catalyzable even with multiple copies, i.e., $`|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k`$* *under ELOCC for all k.*

Strongly incomparable pairs are obviously *k*-copy LOCC incomparable for all *k*. The following result provides a sufficient condition for strong incomparability.

Theorem 2: *Let $`|\psi `$ and $`|\varphi `$ be $`d\times d`$ states, with ordered Schmidt coefficients $`\left\{\alpha _j\right\},\left\{\beta _j\right\},1jd`$ respectively. A sufficient condition that they form a strongly incomparable pair is $`\alpha _1<\beta _1`$ and* $`\alpha _d<\beta _d`$ *OR* *$`\alpha _1>\beta _1`$ and* $`\alpha _d>\beta _d`$.

Proof. From lemma 1 it follows that if $`\alpha _1<\beta _1`$ and *$`\alpha _d<\beta _d`$* OR $`\alpha _1>\beta _1`$ and $`\alpha _d>\beta _d`$ then *$`|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k`$* under ELOCC for all $`k`$. Hence the proof. $`\mathrm{}`$

As noted earlier, the incomparable states in $`3\times 3`$ are strongly incomparable. Theorem 2 provides a method for constructing strongly incomparable states in $`d\times d`$ for any $`d3`$.

If $`\{|\psi ,|\varphi \}`$ is strongly incomparable then there does not exist any local strategy such that *k* copies of $`|\psi `$ can be converted into *k* copies of $`|\varphi `$ or *vice versa* with certainty under LOCC and even by ELOCC. Hence for any *k,* the transformation $`|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k`$ (or the reverse one) is necessarily conclusive. We would now like to know how the transformation probability changes with the number of copies when the conversion is conclusive. Before that we prove some general results.

Let $`|\psi `$ and $`|\varphi `$ be $`d\times d`$ states with ordered Schmidt coefficients $`\left\{\alpha _j\right\},\left\{\beta _j\right\},1jd`$ respectively and $`|MES`$ be a maximally entangled state in $`d\times d`$.

Lemma 2: *$`p_{max}\left(|\psi |MES\right)<p_{max}\left(|\varphi |MES\right)`$ iff* $`\alpha _d<\beta _d`$.

The proof follows by noting that $`p_{max}\left(|\psi |MES\right)=d\alpha _d`$ and $`p_{max}\left(|\varphi |MES\right)=d\beta _d`$ . We now show that the condition *$`p_{max}\left(|\psi |MES\right)<p_{max}\left(|\varphi |MES\right)`$* is sufficient to ensure that the optimal probability of a conclusive transformation can never increase with the number of copies.

Theorem 3: *If $`p_{max}\left(|\psi |MES\right)<p_{max}\left(|\varphi |MES\right)`$ then $`p_{max}\left(|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k\right)`$ falls off exponentially with the number of copies.*

Proof. Let $`p_{max}\left(|\psi |MES\right)<p_{max}\left(|\varphi |MES\right)`$. Then from lemma 2 we have $`p_{max}\left(|\psi |\varphi \right)`$$`\frac{\alpha _d}{\beta _d}<1`$. Hence $`p_{max}\left(|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k\right)=\mathrm{min}_{ld^k}\frac{E_l\left(|\psi ^k\right)}{E_l\left(|\varphi ^k\right)}\frac{E_{d^k}\left(|\psi ^k\right)}{E_{d^k}\left(|\varphi ^k\right)}=\left(\frac{\alpha _d}{\beta _d}\right)^k<1,k2`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

One can show that under the condition of theorem 3 the optimal probability for the transformation *$`|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k`$* falls off exponentially with *k* even under ELOCC.

From lemma 2 it follows that if *$`p_{max}\left(|\psi |\varphi \right)`$$`\frac{\alpha _d}{\beta _d}<1`$* then $`p_{max}\left(|\psi |MES\right)<p_{max}\left(|\varphi |MES\right)`$, whereby theorem 3 implies that $`p_{max}\left(|\psi ^k|\varphi ^k\right)`$ falls off exponentially with the number of copies. We stress that lemma 2 and theorem 3 hold irrespective of whether the states are incomparable or not. From theorem 2 it follows that if *$`\alpha _1<\beta _1`$* and $`\alpha _d<\beta _d`$ then the states are strongly incomparable. Let us also note that in Ref.  it was shown that if *$`p_{max}\left(|\psi |\varphi \right)=`$$`\frac{\alpha _d}{\beta _d}`$,* then probability of conclusive transformation cannot be increased in presence of any catalyst. Thus we see that there exist incomparable pairs for which the conclusive transformation probability cannot be improved in presence of any catalyst and using multiple copies the probability falls off exponentially.

Sometimes the condition $`p_{max}\left(|\psi |MES\right)<p_{max}\left(|\varphi |MES\right)`$ might be satisfied even though $`E\left(|\psi \right)>E\left(|\varphi \right)`$ where *E* is the entropy of entanglement. Consider the following incomparable pair in $`3\times 3`$, which we know to be strongly incomparable:

$`|\zeta `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{0.4}|00+\sqrt{0.4}|11+\sqrt{0.2}|22`$ (10)
$`|\omega `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{0.5}|00+\sqrt{0.25}|11+\sqrt{0.25}|22`$ (11)
We are interested in how the conclusive transformation probability $`p_{max}\left(|source^k|target^k\right)`$ scales with *k, k* being however large but *finite*. Let us first collect the following facts about the above pair:

1. $`E\left(|\zeta \right)>E\left(|\omega \right)`$, which means that in the asymptotic limit, $`|\zeta `$ generates a larger number of maximally entangled states as compared to $`|\omega `$ .

2. Let $`|MES`$ be a maximally entangled state in $`3\times 3`$. Then *$`p_{max}\left(|\zeta |MES\right)<p_{max}\left(|\omega |MES\right)`$,* which means that given a *large but finite* number of copies one can obtain more maximally entangled states from $`|\omega `$ when we use a conclusive conversion protocol.

*Case 1.* *$`|\zeta ,|\omega `$ being the source and target states respectively:*

First note that $`p_{max}\left(|\zeta |\omega \right)=\frac{\alpha _3}{\beta _3}=\frac{4}{5}`$. Hence $`p_{max}\left(|\zeta ^k|\omega ^k\right)\left(\frac{\alpha _3}{\beta _3}\right)^k=\left(\frac{4}{5}\right)^k`$. Therefore for large $`k`$, $`p_{max}\left(|\zeta ^k|\omega ^k\right)`$ falls off exponentially to zero even though $`E\left(|\zeta \right)>E\left(|\omega \right)`$. Since the conversion is *conclusive*, a successful conversion always results in an *exact* outcome. At this point it is instructive to analyze this result by comparing it to an asymptotic conversion. Note that there is no contradiction with the result of Bennett *et al.* . To see this, consider what happens in an asymptotic conversion. It was shown in Ref.  that in an asymptotic conversion, the yield approaches $`\frac{E\left(\xi \right)}{E\left(\omega \right)}`$, the fidelity approaching 1 and the success probability also approaching 1 in the limit of large *k*. Since $`\frac{E\left(\xi \right)}{E\left(\omega \right)}>1`$, in the large *k* limit we would obtain at least *k* copies of *$`|\omega `$.* This apparent contradiction is resolved at once by noting that for any finite *k* however large, the conversion is always *approximate* and the success probability is always *less* than 1.

*Case 2*. *$`|\omega ,|\zeta `$ being the source and target states respectively:*

We present this case through numerical results that indicate a rather surprising feature. We find that as we keep increasing the number of copies the transformation probability shows an approximately damped oscillatory behavior (see Fig. 1). This clearly shows that the transformation probability may not be a monotonic function of the number of copies. Note that the maximum transformation probability occurs when *k*=3. So the transformation probability increases to maximum at *k*=3 and then decays in an oscillatory fashion. What is curious in this behaviour is the lack of monotonicity. Observe that with two copies, the probability is less than that of three copies which in turn is greater than that with four copies.

To summarize, we have obtained new types of incomparable entanglement and proposed a possible classification of incomparable states. In the first class we have those incomparable pairs that admit deterministic transformation (under LOCC) between themselves (one way) by using multiple copies. The second class consists of those states that do not allow deterministic transformation between them even when multiple copies are provided and catalysts are allowed. We call such states strongly incomparable. Exact transformation between these states therefore seems to be inherently probabilistic. For such transformations we have obtained the following in the multiple-copy scenario: (1) collective operations need not always be advantageous for conclusive transformations even when the source state has more entropy of entanglement; (2) conclusive transformation probability might not be a monotonic function of the number of copies.

Our results open up many interesting open questions. A *k*-copy LOCC incomparable pair is (*k*+1)-copy transformable. Based on numerical evidences we have conjectured that it is also (*k*+*m*)-copy transformable for all *m*. But an analytical proof is still wanting. It would also be desirable to know whether the sufficient condition of strong incomparability is also a necessary condition.

We would like to thank Tal Mor and Guruprasad Kar for useful discussions. The work of S.B. and V.R. was sponsored in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project MDA 972-99-1-0017 (note that the content of this paper does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the government and no official endorsement should be inferred), and in part by the U.S. Army Research Office/DARPA under contract/grant number DAAD 19-00-1-0172. U.S. acknowledges partial support by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India, New Delhi.


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# Keck Imaging of the Globular Cluster Systems in the Early–type Galaxies NGC 1052 and NGC 7332

## 1 Introduction

Perhaps the most noteworthy of recent findings in extragalactic globular cluster (GC) research is the discovery of bimodal color distributions in the GC systems of massive elliptical galaxies. Bimodality is taken to indicate the presence of two distinct GC subpopulations.

There are at least three scenarios for producing bimodal color distributions in the GC systems of elliptical galaxies. i) The merger of two gas–rich (spiral) galaxies may lead to the formation of an elliptical galaxy and create an additional population of GCs in the process (Schweizer 1987, Ashman & Zepf 1992). Since the population produced in the merger formed from enriched gas it should be of higher metallicity and redder than the indigenous population. Here the expectation is that the age of the red clusters should be similar to the epoch of the merger event. Note that, according to Worthey (1994) stellar population models, this second metal–rich population will always be redder in (U–V) than the old metal–poor population if it is older than $``$1 Gyr but it will be redder in (B–I) only if it is older than $``$2 Gyr. ii) A multi–phase collapse (Forbes, Brodie & Grillmair 1997) can also produce a bimodal color distribution with the blue clusters forming in an early chaotic phase of galaxy formation from metal-poor gas and the red clusters forming a few Gyr later from enriched gas in the same phase that produces the bulk of the galaxy starlight. iii) Coté, Marzke & West (1998) describe the build-up of the GC systems of bright ellipticals via the accretion of mostly metal-poor GCs from dwarf galaxies In this third picture the red GCs are indigenous and the blue ones acquired. These three scenarios predict a different separation in age between the red and blue GCs. The merger model predicts an old population ($``$age of the universe) plus a young population with the age of the merger. A multi–phase collapse also has an old population and one slightly younger ($``$2–4 Gyr younger) than the other. The accretion scenario predicts that the age distribution of the blue and the red GCs will be similar unless a recent merger product has been accreted.

The key to discriminating between these possibilities is to determine ages and metallicities for both the blue and red GC subpopulations. In principle spectroscopy is the best way to determine age and metallicity independently, however this requires very high signal-to-noise data which is rarely available for extragalactic GCs. Alternatively one can use the difference in colour of the two subpopulations, from photometry, to constrain the age. The latter method has only been applied to a small number of galaxies (Whitmore et al. 1997; Puzia et al. 1999; Brown et al. 2000; Georgakakis et al. 2000).

Here we present data from the same Keck observing run as Georgakakis et al. (2000) for two additional galaxies – NGC 1052 and NGC 7332. Both galaxies reveal signs of a recent merger or interaction, and are therefore ideal candidates to search for young GCs. Details of the data reduction, GC selection process and contamination issues can be found in the initial paper (on the young elliptical galaxy NGC 6702 and its two GC subpopulations).

In section 2 the observations and data reduction techniques are briefly described. Section 3 presents basic results for the host galaxies. Section 4 describes the GC selection, with results given in section 5. A discussion is given in 6. Throughout this paper we adopt $`H_0=75\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

Broad–band imaging of NGC 1052 and NGC 7332, in the B, V and I, filters was carried out at the Keck-II telescope on 1999 August 17th, using the the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS; Oke et al. 1995). The LRIS instrument, equipped with a TEK $`2048\times 2048`$ CCD, is mounted on the Cassegrain focus providing a $`0.215\mathrm{arcsec}\mathrm{pixel}^1`$ imaging scale and a $`6^{}\times 8^{}`$ field–of–view. The total exposure times and seeing conditions are given in Table 1.

The data were reduced following standard procedures, using IRAF software. The reduced images were found to be flat to better than $`2\%`$. Photometric calibration was performed using standard stars from Landolt (1992). The photometric accuracy, estimated using these standard stars, is $`\pm 0.02`$ mag in all three bands.

## 3 Galaxy properties

In Figures 1 and 2 we show the B band Keck images of NGC 1052 and NGC 7332 respectively. Both images reveal numerous unresolved objects. Table 2 lists some basic properties of the galaxies.

The elliptical galaxy NGC 1052 has been modelled by fitting ellipses using the ISOPHOTE task within STSDAS (for the S0 galaxy NGC 7332 we used a median filter technique). During the ellipse fitting process the centre of the galaxy was kept fixed and a $`3\sigma `$ clipping algorithm was employed. Bright objects, as well as the central saturated parts of the galaxy, were masked out. The position angle (PA) and ellipticity ($`ϵ`$) were fit at each radius, until S/N constraints terminated the fitting process at low surface brightness. The ellipticity, position angle, 4th sine (S4) and 4th cosine (C4) Fourier components of the isophotal fits in the $`B`$-band are given in Figure 3. Similar profiles and trends are seen in the $`V`$ and $`I`$ band images.

## 4 Globular cluster selection

To detect sources superimposed on the galaxies we first subtracted the galaxy light from both NGC 1052 and 7332 using a median filter and then followed the techniques described in Georgakakis et al. (2000). Briefly, sources are detected using the SExtractor package (version 2.1.0; Bertin & Arnouts 1996) with a threshold of 2.5$`\times \sigma _{sky}`$. After detecting sources in the three filters separately, they are matched to create a list of common detections. Magnitudes were calculated using 5$`^{^{\prime \prime }}`$ apertures plus small aperture corrections to reach the total derived magnitude.

From the list of common detections, GC candidates are then selected on the basis of colour. In a similar way to Georgakakis et al. (2000), only those objects that fall within a region in colour–colour space corresponding to Galactic GCs but extended to higher metallicity. In particular, objects must lie between $`1.2<BI<2.5`$ and $`0.6<VI<1.7`$ within $`3\sigma `$ photometric error. Based on colour selection alone, we find 513 and 215 GC candidates in NGC 1052 and NGC 7332 respectively. After colour selection, we automatically removed resolved objects based on their $`V`$-band FWHM size. A final visual check was then conducted.

Completeness tests were carried out by adding artificial point sources of different magnitudes to the original image, using MKOBJECTS task which are then recovered using SExtractor. The $`80\%`$ completeness limits for NGC 1052 are found to be B $`26.1`$, V $`25.6`$ and I $`23.6`$ mag. For NGC 7332 the corresponding limits are be B $`26.8`$, V $`25.7`$ and I $`24.0`$ mag. The mean photometric error at these magnitude limits is about $`0.1`$ mag for all three filters. The galaxy background does not significantly affect the completeness limits beyond a galactocentric radius of $`65^{^{\prime \prime }}`$. It should be noted that including GCs brighter than the $`50\%`$ completeness limit for point sources does not change any of our conclusions.

The bright magnitude is set to be about 1 mag. brighter than Omega Cen (the brightest GC in our Galaxy) at the distance of the galaxy. Sources brighter than this are most likely stars. Our magnitude limits are thus 21.0 $`<`$ B $`<`$ 26.1, 20 $`<`$ V $`<`$ 25.6, 19 $`<`$ I $`<`$ 23.6 for NGC 1052, and 21.5 $`<`$ B $`<`$ 26.8, 20.5 $`<`$ V $`<`$ 25.7, 19.5 $`<`$ I $`<`$ 24.0 for NGC 7332. After these various selection cuts we have 359 GC candidates in NGC 1052 and 154 in NGC 7332. The colour–magnitude distribution of the samples is displayed in Figures 4 and 5. Lines in these plots show the colour and magnitude limits described above.

Although we attempt to minimise the fraction of foreground stars and background galaxies in the final GC sample, it is likely that a number of contaminating sources are also selected. Details of how we estimate the contamination level in our Keck images can be found in Georgakakis et al. (2000). Briefly, we used the Galaxy model developed by Bahcall & Soneira (1980) to estimate the contamination by foreground stars. After applying the same magnitude and colour selection, the Galaxy model predicts a total of about $``$ 10 stars in the NGC 1052 GC sample and 24 in NGC 7332. Thus it both cases the number of contaminating stars in the final sample is negligible and will not effect our conclusions.

The number of background galaxies in our images are estimated from the galaxy count studies of Lilly, Cowie & Gardner (1991). From the number of predicted galaxies (within our colour and magnitude range, and field-of-view), we subtract the number of resolved objects suggesting a total of about 70 galaxies. Thus the contamination from relatively compact galaxies is estimated to be 19% for NGC 1052 and 45% for NGC 7332. Simple simulations in Georgakakis et al. (2000) suggest that these contamination rates are an overestimate and the true rate is somewhat less than this. We return to the issue of contamination in section 5.2.

## 5 Results

### 5.1 NGC 1052

The colour distribution for the final NGC 1052 GC sample is plotted in Figure 6. There is evidence for bimodality with peaks in the distribution at $`BI1.5`$ and $`BI1.9`$. This is confirmed by the KMM statistical test (Ashman et al. 1994) which rejects the single Gaussian model at a confidence level better than $`99.7\%`$. Although the exact location of the peaks depend on which GCs at the extremes of the distribution are excluded, the difference in the peaks is nearly constant at around $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$B–I = 0.4 $`\pm `$ 0.1, where the error is estimated assuming an estimated uncertainty of 0.07 mag in defining the peaks of the bimodal distribution. Also shown in Figure 6 is the reddening–corrected colour distribution of Galactic GCs. The blue peak of the NGC 1052 GCs is similar to that of the Milky Way GC distribution, which is dominated by halo GCs. The KMM test finds roughly equal numbers of blue and red GCs.

The contamination from background galaxies (i.e. 19%) is unlikely to significantly alter the results. In particular, the detection of bimodality in the NGC 1052 GC system should be robust. If we assume that the GCs comprise two distinct subpopulations of different age and metallicity but with the same initial mass function, then we can use the separation in the peak colours to constrain the age and metallicity. We further assume that the blue (older) subpopulation has properties similar to those of the Milky Way GC system and therefore consists of old (15 Gyrs) metal–poor ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.5`$) GCs (this is a reasonable assumption given the similarity in colour seen in Figure 6 ). Here we employ the models of Worthey (1994) to predict the colour difference between the red (younger) GC population and the old, metal–poor one.

The model predictions for the B–I colour difference versus age of the red subpopulation for different metallicities are shown in Figure 7. The measured colour difference in the peaks from the KMM statistical test is $`\mathrm{\Delta }(BI)=0.4\pm 0.1`$, where the error is estimated assuming an uncertainty of 0.07 mag in defining the peaks of the bimodal distribution.

In Figure 8 we show the trend of GC colours with galactocentric radius. The mean GC colour for the whole system appears to getter bluer with increased distance from the galaxy centre. However the mean colour of the blue (1.1 $`<`$ B–I $`<`$ 1.7) and red (1.7 $`<`$ B–I $`<`$ 2.3) subpopulations are fairly constant with radius. This suggests that the changing mean colour is due to a changing relative mix of red and blue GCs with radius, rather than any instrinsic radial gradient. The B–I profile for the galaxy starlight is also shown in Fig. 8. It remains fairly constant at B–I $``$ 2.2.

For the same blue and red subpopulations, we have examined their azimuthal distribution. In Figure 9 we show histograms of position angle for GCs within 210 arcsec. Both subpopulations show a slight tendency for the GCs to have an excess at a position angle similar to the galaxy major axis (and a deficit along the galaxy minor axis). This effect is stronger for the red GCs.

The surface density profile of GCs around NGC 1052 has been estimated in the following way. From objects detected in the V band image, we selected point sources (based on their FWHM and visual inspection) brighter than the $`80\%`$ completeness limit. Using detections in a single band, instead of the colour selected GC sample, makes the selection criteria easier to quantify. These objects are then binned into elliptical rings centered on NGC 1052 and having the same mean ellipticity (i.e. 0.2) and position angle (i.e. 115) as the galaxy. The counts in each bin are corrected for geometric incompleteness due to foreground saturated stars, bad columns and the limited size of the field–of–view (but we have not yet corrected these counts for magnitude incompleteness). The surface density profile corresponding to these counts in shown on the left of Figure 10. It is clear that the counts decline from the galaxy centre, confirming that the vast bulk of objects are indeed associated with NGC 1052. After statistically subtracting the background from the number of V band detected objects and after corrections for geometric and magnitude incompleteness (assuming VTO = 23.90 and $`\sigma `$ = 1.15), we estimate 410 $`\pm `$ 45 globular clusters in the LRIS frame. Integration of the surface density profile (assuming a constant density at small radii) returns a similar number of GCs, i.e. 390. We adopt 400 as the total number of GCs (i.e. covering all radii and magnitudes).

By calculating the incompleteness in each radial bin and assuming a standard Milky Way GC luminosity function, we correct the number counts. We also subtract a background level, which at large radii is estimated to be $`\rho _{bg}=7.23\pm 0.05\times 10^4\mathrm{sources}\mathrm{deg}^2`$. The incompleteness-corrected and background-subtracted surface density profile is shown in the right side of Figure 10. A fit to the profile indicates a slope of $`\alpha =2.08\pm 0.13`$. Earlier work by Harris & Hanes (1985) found a GC surface density slope of $`\alpha =2.26\pm 0.27`$. We adopt a total GC system for NGC 1052 of 400 $`\pm `$ 45, this translates into a specific frequency of SN = 3.2 $`\pm `$ 0.37. In a previous ground-based study, Harris & Hanes (1985) estimated a total GC population of 430 $`\pm `$ 80 for NGC 1052. Also shown on the right hand side of Figure 10 is the normalized surface brightness profile of NGC 1052. The GC density profile shows a similar decrease with radius as the starlight.

The density profile separated into red and blue GC subpopulations is shown in Figure 11. The red GCs are slightly more centrally concentrated than the blue GCs.

### 5.2 NGC 7332

The colour distribution for the final NGC 7332 GC sample is plotted in Figure 12. There is evidence for bimodality with the peaks of the distribution at $`BI1.45`$ and $`BI1.95`$. After rejecting a few of the reddest objects, the KMM test rejects the single Gaussian model at a confidence level better than $`97.2\%`$, and indicates a $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$B–I = 0.5. Thus we have tentative evidence for bimodality.

Contamination by background galaxies, and to some extent foreground stars, is more of an issue for NGC 7332. For the final sample of 154 objects, we estimate that 45% may be galaxies and 15% stars. Figure 12 also shows the expected colour distribution of galaxies, superposed on that for the GC candidates. Foreground stars have a very broad colour distribution and so do not significantly modify the observed candidate GC colour distribution. Background galaxies, however, have similar colours. In particular, a significant fraction of the red peak objects are probably galaxies.

We subtract the galaxy colour distribution, and show the residual GC colour distribution in Figure 13. A narrow peak at B–I $``$ 1.5 remains, while the red distribution becomes much broader and less well defined. We also show in Figure 13 is the reddening–corrected colour distribution of Galactic GCs. Like NGC 1052, the blue peak of the NGC 7332 GCs is similar to that of the Milky Way GC distribution (which is dominated by halo GCs).

Given the similarity to the Milky Way colour distribution and the small number of blue galaxies, the reality of the blue GC peak seems fairly secure. However it is more difficult to be confident about the red peak. There are too few sources to investigate the red ones separately with any confidence. We proceed assuming that NGC 7332 does indeed have two GC subpopulations but any results should be regarded as tentative at best.

Following the same assumptions as above for NGC 1052, we can investigate the age and metallicity of the possible two GC subpopulations in NGC 7332. Again, relative to old (15 Gyrs), metal–poor ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.5`$) GCs, the age of the red GCs can be constrained from the measured colour difference of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(BI)=0.5\pm 0.14`$ (we have assumed $`\pm `$0.1 for the individual peak colours). This color difference and the models of Worthey (1994) are shown in Figure 14.

In Figure 14 we show the surface density distribution of GC candidates around NGC 7332. This has been carried out in a similar way to NGC 1052, i.e. using the V band image we correct the counts in elliptical bins for geometric incompleteness and the limited field-of-view. These counts are converted into surface density and shown in the left panel of Figure 14. After background subtraction and correction for magnitude incompleteness, we derive the profile shown in the right panel. A fit to the final surface density profile indicates a slope $`\alpha `$ = –1.50 $`\pm `$ 0.23. The background level is estimated at $`7.85\pm 0.37\times 10^4\mathrm{sources}\mathrm{deg}^2`$. Subtracting this from the V band detections (after corrections for geometry, magnitude incompleteness etc) leaves 164 $`\pm `$ 35 objects. Integration of the surface density profile (assuming a constant density at small radii) returns a slightly higher estimate of 219 GCs. If we adopt 190 $`\pm `$ 30 as the total GC system, then it implies a specific frequency of SN = 2.0 $`\pm `$ 0.3.

We attempted to separate the density profile into the blue and red subpopulations. They show little difference, but do confirm that both subpopulations decline in density from the galaxy centre at least out to 100 arcsec. This suggests that some fraction of both the blue and red subpopulations are indeed associated with the galaxy. This gives us some extra confidence in the reality of the GC colour bimodality.

## 6 Discussion

### 6.1 NGC 1052

Located in a small group, this E4 galaxy contains an active nucleus. Interesting features include a LINER spectrum and variable radio core (Fosbury et al. 1978), luminous H2O maser (Braatz, Wilson & Henkel 1994) and an absorbed X–ray emitting nuclear source (Weaver et al. 1999). Although the outer stellar envelope appears to be relatively undisturbed (it has a relatively low fine structure value of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ = 1.78; Schweizer & Seitzer 1992), it reveals multiple evidence for a past merger:

$``$ Infalling HI gas. HI is seen in absorption redshifted on the nucleus indicating infalling HI gas (van Gorkom et al. 1986).
$``$ HI tidal tails. Extended HI mapping reveals two tidal tails, indicative of a gaseous merger about 1 Gyr ago (van Gorkom et al. 1986).
$``$ Misaligned star/gas axis. The rotation axis of the HI gas (PA = 134o) and ionized gas (125-131o) is misaligned with the stellar rotation axis (28o). This indicates an external origin for the gas (van Gorkom et al. 1986).
$``$ Dust lanes. Optical imaging (Forbes, Sparks & Macchetto 1990) indicates the presence of dust lanes near the galaxy centre. Such a structure is unlikely to arise from in situ stellar mass loss.

Evidence for a past merger/accretion event seems overwhelming. However the time since the merger warrants further study. The HI tails would suggest a very recent merger (i.e. $``$ 1 Gyr), whereas the lack of optical disturbance and a Fundamental Plane residual of +0.07 (Prugniel & Simien 1996) would suggest a long time has elapsed since the last major burst of star formation (Forbes, Ponman & Brown 1998). A reliable spectroscopic age for the galaxy stars is not yet available. To be consistent with the time since the HI tails formed, the red GCs would need to have a metallicity of at least solar (for \[Fe/H\] $``$ 0, the implied age from Figure 7 is $``$ 2.5 Gyrs). If the red GCs were indeed this metal–rich and young, it would support arguments for their formation in the same merger event that formed the HI tails. However, GCs this young would also be expected to be brighter on average than the blue GCs, even if metal–rich (Worthey 1994). Examination of Figure 4 shows that this is not the case, i.e. the red GCs are about 0.5 mag fainter on average than the blue ones. The current HI content, of a few 108 M (van Gorkom et al. 1986), suggests that the most recent merger will not produce significant numbers of GCs for typical gas-to-cluster formation efficiencies. So although a recent merger has occurred in NGC 1052, that event seems very unlikely to be responsible for the population of red GCs. Globular cluster formation in a very old merger, via multi–phase collapse or from accretion would appear more likely indicating that the red GCs are metal–poor, e.g. \[Fe/H\] $``$ –0.5.

The properties of NGC 1052 GC system appear to be unexceptional. We derive a specific frequency, SN, of 3.2. This is typical for ellipticals in groups (Harris 1991). With SN = 3.2 and a GC density profile slope of $`\alpha `$ = –2.08, the galaxy lies is within the SN–slope trend seen by Forbes et al. (1997). Like other galaxies (Geisler et al. 1996; Forbes et al. 1998) the apparent radial gradient in GC mean colour appears to be due to the fact that the red (metal–rich) GCs are more centrally concentrated than the blue (metal–poor) ones. Thus the intrinsic gradient is weak. In a collapse scenario this suggests that dissipation has not played a strong role. The galaxy starlight has a similar (it is redder by about 0.25 mags) colour than the red GCs, as is often seen in other galaxies (e.g. Forbes & Forte 2000). It suggests that the red GCs and the galaxy field stars may have formed at similar times from similar enriched gas. The red, and to a lesser extent the blue, GC systems appear to be aligned in position angle with the galaxy major axis.

In terms of GC formation models, most of the GC system properties would be consistent with those expected from either an old merger (Ashman & Zepf 1992) or the multi–phase collapse (Forbes et al. 1997). One feature that favours the multi–phase collapse idea is the tendency for the red GCs to be more closely aligned in position angle to the galaxy starlight than the blue GCs. This is a direct consequence of the red subpopulation forming during the ‘galactic’ phase in which the bulk of the galaxy stars also form.

### 6.2 NGC 7332

This S0 galaxy reveals evidence for distortions in the outer isophotes. Schweizer & Seitzer (1992) assigned it $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ = 4.00, indicating high optical disturbance. It also lies off the Fundamental Plane by –0.31 dex (Prugniel & Simien 1996) suggesting a young age (Forbes et al. 1998). Indeed spectroscopy of the galaxy centre indicates an age since the last major burst of star formation of 4.5 Gyrs (Terlevich & Forbes 2000). Studies of the ionized gas reveal evidence for two components, one of which is counter–rotating with respect to the stellar distribution (Plana & Boulesteix 1996). Such evidence suggests that NGC 7332 is a good candidate for a recent merger event.

If the red GCs formed in a merger event less than 5 Gyrs ago, then a metallicity of at least solar is indicated by the Worthey (1994) models (see Figure 13). This would be consistent with the spectroscopic age of the galaxy, but we remind the reader of the tentative nature of the bimodal colour distribution. An old age for the red GCs (expected under the accretion and multi–phase collapse models) would require they be metal–poor, e.g. around half solar. Assuming that the red subpopulation is indeed dominated by GCs, we can not currently discriminate between GC formation in a recent merger event or in situ associated with the bulge/disk of the galaxy.

We derive a relatively shallow slope for the radial GC surface density of $`\alpha `$ of –1.5, and a low specific frequency SN of 2.0, however such values remain uncertain due to the possible high contamination rate.

## 7 Conclusions

Here we present multi–colour Keck imaging of two nearby galaxies thought to have undergone a merger. After colour, magnitude and visual selection we detect 359 and 154 globular cluster candidates in NGC 1052 and NGC 7332 respectively. We derive globular cluster density profiles, global specific frequencies and in the case of NGC 1052, globular cluster radial colour gradients and azimuthal distribution. In general these globular cluster properties are normal for early–type galaxies.

Both galaxies also reveal a bimodal globular cluster colour distribution indicating two globular cluster subpopulations (although in the case of NGC 7332 the red subpopulation is heavily contaminated by background galaxies). The KMM test indicates roughly equal numbers in each subpopulation. The blue subpopulation has colours consistent with being very old (age $``$ 15 Gyrs) and metal–poor (\[Fe/H\] $``$ –1.5). The mean colour difference in the two subpopulations is compared to stellar population models. Although both galaxies have undergone a recent merger, we argue that this event has had little effect on the GC systems. If globular clusters formed in a multi–phase collapse or via accretion, the red ones are required to be metal–poor (\[Fe/H\] $``$ –0.5). The key to discriminating between the models is to determine the age and/or metallicity of individual globular clusters with high S/N spectroscopy.

## 8 Acknowledgements

We thank Soeren Larsen for useful comments and suggestions. We also thank the referee Bill Harris for his insightful comments. Part of this research was funded by NATO Collaborative Research grant CRG 971552 and NSF grant AST 9900732. The data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.


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# Effect of the In-Plane Magnetic Field on Conduction of the Si-inversion Layer: Magnetic Field Driven Disorder

## I Introduction

The apparent metallic-like temperature dependence of the resistivity is observed in various two-dimensional (2D) carrier systems  and remains a focus of a broad interest because it challenges the conventional theory of the metallic conduction. The effect manifests itself in a strong drop of the resistivity over a limited range of temperatures, $`T=(0.50.05)T_F`$, from a high temperature value (call it ‘Drude’ value) $`\rho _{\mathrm{high}}=\rho (TT_F)`$ to a low temperature one $`\rho _0=\rho (T0.05T_F)`$, here $`T_F`$ is the Fermi temperature. Upon lowering the temperature further, a strong ‘metallic’ drop in $`\rho `$ was found to cross over to the conventional weak localization type dependence . Recently, it was demonstrated  that the ‘metallic’ drop is not related to quantum interference and in this sense should have a semiclassical origin.

Magnetic field applied in the plane of the 2D system causes a dramatic increase in resistivity . It was proven experimentally  that the magnetoresistance (MR) in Si-MOS samples is mainly caused by spin-effects, though certain contribution of orbital effects  is noticeable at very large fields , bigger than the field of the spin polarization. The two effects, strong metallic drop in resistivity and parallel field magnetoresistance remain puzzling.

In this paper we demonstrate that (i) the strength of both effects is well matched and (ii) the action of magnetic field on conduction is similar to that of disorder and to some extent to that of temperature. In particular, in the presence of in-plane magnetic field the strong temperature dependence of the resistivity for a high mobility sample transforms into a weaker one and shifts to higher temperatures; both these features are typical for low mobility samples. Next, (iii) the effect of the magnetic field on the resistivity is continuous and shows no signatures of a threshold. Finally, (iv) increase in either temperature or parallel magnetic field restores the same high-temperature (‘Drude’) resistivity value while transport remains non-activated. Matching of the actions of the above controlling parameters sets substantial constraints on the choice of theoretical models.

We performed measurements on a number of different mobility (100) $`n`$Si-MOS samples, because this system demonstrates the most dramatic appearance of the discussed effects. Table I below shows the relevant parameters for the four most intensively studied samples whose mobilities differ by a factor of 25; parameters for other samples were reported in Refs. .

In Figures 1 a, c we plotted the temperature dependence of resistivity $`\rho `$ for the highest and lowest mobility samples. At high carrier density (the lower part of Fig. 1 a) the resistivity decreases and demonstrates the metallic-like behaviour. The magnitude of the drop in resistivity, $`(\rho _{\mathrm{high}}\rho _0)/\rho _0`$, obviously depends on the disorder and varies from a factor of 5 (the lowest curves in Fig. 1 a) to a few % in Fig. 1 c. As density decreases below a “critical value” $`n_c`$, the character of the temperature dependence changes to the insulating one. The changes in the character of $`\rho (T)`$ at $`n=n_c`$ are reminiscent of a typical metal-insulator transition (MIT) in 3D systems which is not expected to occur in 2D system. In agreement with earlier observations  the increase in disorder causes the drop in resistivity to weaken, the ‘critical’ density $`n_c`$ to increase and the ‘critical’ resistivity $`\rho _c`$ to decrease.

However, in contrast to the common believe that only high mobility samples are subject to the MIT, we demonstrate in the inset to Fig. 1 c that even for such low mobility sample as Si46, there is a clear crossing point, $`n=n_c`$, where $`d\rho (T)/dT`$ changes sign. The difference from that for high mobility samples (Fig. 1 a) is the shift of the events to much higher temperatures, to the range $`T=160K`$, whereas for lower temperatures $`T<1`$ K the weak localization upturn in the resistivity sets in. This upturn is a subject of more detailed consideration  and is not discussed here. The increase in the temperature scale by about 10 times as a function of disorder is anticipated since the Fermi energy, $`E_F`$, at the critical carrier density for disordered sample Si46 are 10 times bigger than that for Si15; correspondingly, in both samples the MIT is observed in similar ranges of $`(T/E_F)`$. Comparing Figs. 1 a and 1 c we arrive at the conclusion that the overall temperature dependence of the resistivity for Si-MOS samples may be roughly scaled by taking into account disorder dependence of the critical density $`n_c`$ and the corresponding energy scale. We ignore at the moment a disorder dependence of the strength in the resistivity drop, which will be considered further.

## II The effect of the parallel magnetic field on conduction

### A Magnetic field driven MI-transition?

It was found in Refs.  that for a fixed carrier density an increase in $`B_{}`$ causes $`d\rho /dT`$ to change sign. At first sight, this effect is reminiscent of a magnetic field driven transition; an analogy to the superconductor-insulator transition was discussed in Ref.  and the corresponding field value is often called “critical magnetic field” $`B_c`$. In Figure 2 we reproduce similar behavior for $`n`$Si-MOS samples.

Similar to that reported in Refs. , the $`\rho (B)`$ traces for different temperatures cross each other around a ‘critical’ magnetic field, $`B_c`$, though in an extended interval rather than in a single point. As carrier density $`n`$ and magnetic field increase, the interval of crossing broadens and finally becomes infinite for $`B6`$ T. Density dependence of $`B_c`$ is plotted in Fig. 2 c in the range of fields where the crossing interval is finite.

In order to understand the driving mechanism of the magnetoresistance we performed more detailed studies of the magnetoresistance and measured its temperature dependence at various values of the in-plane field.

### B Analogy between the effects of parallel field and disorder on conduction

It is rather instructive to trace in detail the influence of the magnetic field on the density and temperature dependences of the resistivity. The most striking and known result of the in-plane magnetic field is the increase in the sample resistivity. Figure 3 demonstrates that the mobility degrades in magnetic field smoothly, without a threshold. Besides decreasing sample mobility, the magnetic field causes its maximum to shift to higher density. Both these effects are typical for the $`B=0`$ case when the mobility is varied by changing the disorder; at low carrier density this is usually described in terms of the increase in the number of scatterers, $`n_i1/\mu ^{\mathrm{peak}}`$ .

In Figures 4, we show the resistivity traces vs density for four fixed temperatures in the range 0.3 to 1 K. All four groups of curves for different $`B_{}`$ values demonstrate a critical behaviour. The well defined crossing point or ‘critical’ density, $`n_c`$, separates regimes of temperature activated (i.e. ‘insulating’, $`n<n_c`$) and non-activated (‘metallic’, $`n>n_c`$) conduction .

The figures clearly demonstrate again that the parallel field progressively increases the critical carrier density $`n_c`$ and decreases the corresponding critical resistivity value $`\rho _c`$. For magnetic fields $`B_{}>6`$ T (not shown), the crossing point spreads into a density interval, though still shifting to higher densities. This is typical for low mobility samples and typical for the effect of the disorder.

From Figure 4, we determined the coordinates of the crossing point, $`n_c`$ and $`\rho _c`$, for each $`B_{}`$ value and plotted them in Figs. 5. These two curves $`n_c(B)`$ and $`\rho _c(B)`$ have a transparent meaning: they separate the regimes of the temperature activated and ‘non-activated’ conduction on the planes $`\rho (B,n)`$ . We find again that both field dependences are qualitatively similar to the ones known for the action of disorder (e.g., inverse sample peak mobility $`1/\mu `$, or $`1/k_Fl`$ value) .

Figure 6 shows for comparison the $`\rho _c(n_c)`$ dependence measured with the sample Si15 in various parallel fields (calculated from Fig. 4) and $`\rho _c(n_c)`$ reproduced from Ref.  for different samples at $`B=0`$. A clear analogy is seen between the decrease in $`\rho _c`$ caused by disorder and magnetic field.

Finally, in order to illustrate the conclusion that the action of the magnetic field is similar to that of the disorder, we plotted in Fig. 1 b, for comparison, $`\rho (T)`$ for the same high mobility sample Si15 but measured with applied parallel field of 12 T. In light of the above discussion, the transformation of Fig. 1 a into Fig. 1 b can thus be treated as a result of a progressive increase in electron scattering introduced by the parallel magnetic field, in steps like those shown in Figs. 4 and 3. The similarity between Figs. 1 b and 1 c supports this conclusion.

### C Magnetoresistance in parallel field and the $`g`$-factor

A number of experimental studies (e.g., Refs. ) demonstrate that the parallel field magnetoresistance in Si-MOS samples is a spin rather than orbital effect. There were, consequently, a number of empirical attempts to extract the $`g^{}`$-factor value from different features of the magnetoresistance $`R(B_{})`$. For comparison, we present in Fig. 7 the density dependences of two characteristic magnetic fields: $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$, corresponding to the saturation of $`R(B_{})`$ (for Si15 and Si43) from Ref. , and the ‘critical magnetic field’ $`B_c`$ (for Si15) re-plotted from Fig. 5.

First of all, it is clear, that $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ does not dependent solely on the carrier density, but does also depend on the disorder. Whereas the empirical dependences $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}=s(nn_b)`$ for different samples have almost the same slope $`s`$, the offset $`n_b`$ was found to be inversely proportional to the sample mobility . For different samples, $`n_b`$ varies from $`0.5n_c`$ for the highest mobility sample Si9 to $`0.7n_c`$ for Si15, $`0.8n_c`$ for Si12, and $`0.96n_c`$ for Si43. On the other hand, the ‘critical field’ $`B_c`$, by definition, extrapolates to zero at $`n=n_c(B_c)`$. For this reason, the two curves, $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}(n)`$ and $`B_c(n)`$ usually intersect. Obviously, $`n_b`$ cannot be identified with $`n_c`$. At low densities, $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ exceeds $`B_c`$ and the saturation of the magnetoresistance takes place in the insulating regime. At higher densities, the saturation occurs in the ‘metallic’ regime; the borderline for the sample Si15 corresponds to $`n=1.75\times 10^{11}`$ cm-2.

For comparison, the dashed-dotted line in Fig. 7 represents the calculated density dependence of the field corresponding to the complete spin polarization of conducting electrons:

$$B_{\mathrm{pol}}=\frac{2E_F}{g^{}\mu _B}=\left(\frac{h}{e}\right)\left(\frac{n}{g^{}m^{}}\right)\frac{2}{g_v},$$
(1)
where the renormalized $`g^{}m^{}`$-values for conducting electrons were directly measured in Ref.  as a function of the carrier density.

For a given density $`n`$, $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}(n)`$ is usually less than the field of complete spin-polarization $`B_{\mathrm{pol}}`$ of the conducting electrons. The deficit, $`B_{\mathrm{pol}}B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$, increases as sample mobility decreases ; for example, $`B_{\mathrm{pol}}B_{\mathrm{sat}}4`$ T for Si43. Whereas $`B_{\mathrm{pol}}`$ is solely determined by the mobile carrier density, $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ turns out to be also dependent on disorder.

For high mobility samples, over a certain range of densities (which is $`(1.22.2)\times 10^{11}`$cm-2 for Si15) the two quantities, $`B_{\mathrm{pol}}`$ and $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$, are rather close to each other. This coincidence is in a good agreement with the observation by Vitkalov et al.  who found that in the range of densities $`n=(1.544.5)\times 10^{11}`$ cm-2, the frequency of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in tilted fields doubles at a field which is equal to $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ to within 5%. However, for more disordered samples (such as e.g. Si43 in Fig. 7), the saturation occurs in magnetic fields essentially lower than the polarization field $`B_{\mathrm{pol}}`$, because of the twice as large $`n_b`$ value (data on $`n_b`$ for a number of samples may be found in Ref. ). We believe therefore that the coincidence of $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ and $`B_{\mathrm{pol}}`$ for some high mobility samples and in a limited density range is rather occasional.

In the analysis of the $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}(n)`$-data in Ref. , it was assumed that $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ remains equal to $`B_{pol}`$ in the $`nn_c`$ limit. With this assumption authors arrived at the conclusion that $`g^{}`$ diverges as the density decreases, and that a ferromagnetic transition takes place at the MIT. As Fig. 7 shows, the coincidence of $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ and $`B_{pol}`$ fails for densities lower than $`1.3\times 10^{11}`$cm-2 (even for the high mobility sample). The $`g^{}`$-factor for conducting electrons measured in Ref.  from Shubnikov-de Haas effect does not diverge at $`n_c`$, but gradually grows as the density decreases; the growth is anticipated within the Fermi-liquid theory .

One might conclude that the non-zero value of $`n_b`$ is the only reason for the difference between $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ and $`B_{\mathrm{pol}}`$, and that by subtracting $`n_b`$ the two parameters may be brought into agreement. However, such procedure performed in Ref.  for different samples, has revealed that the two parameters are indeed related to different physics: the $`(gm)_{\mathrm{MR}}`$ values estimated from the magnetoresistance either as $`(h/e)n/B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$, or $`(h/e)(nn_b)/B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ disagree with the $`(g^{}m^{})_{\mathrm{SdH}}`$-values measured from Shubnikov-de Haas effect. This is also seen in Fig. 7 where (i) at low densities the difference between the measured $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}(n)`$ values and the $`B_{pol}(n)`$ curve can not be eliminated by a horizontal shift (i.e., by varying $`n_b`$) and (ii) the slopes of the $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}(n)`$ and $`B_{pol}(n)`$ curves are different.

We now consider another characteristic field, $`B_c`$. In Ref. , the $`B_c(n_c)`$–dependence for 2D holes in (311)GaAs was noted to correspond to such spin alignment in the 2D carrier system where the spin-minority population drops below a threshold (which is approximately independent of the total 2D hole density or the magnetic field); the latter is of the order of the critical density at zero field $`n_c(B=0)`$ . In order to verify such possibility for Si-MOS samples, we fitted in Fig. 5 b the $`n_c(B)`$ data for the high mobility sample Si15 with a linear dependence $`n_c(B)n_b=cB`$, with two adjustable parameters $`n_b`$ and $`c`$. We find that the offset, $`n_b`$, is indeed equal to the anticipated value $`n_c(B=0)=n_c`$ (for sample parameters, see Table 1), however, the slope $`c=0.13\times 10^{11}`$cm-2/T, disagrees with such interpretation. With this interpretation, the slope $`c=dn_c/dB_c`$ would be equal to $`(g^{}m^{})g_ve/2h`$ (where $`g_v=2`$ for $`n`$-(100)-Si); we obtain then $`(1/2)(g^{}m^{})_{\mathrm{MR}}=0.27`$ over the displayed range of densities $`n=(0.91.5)\times 10^{11}`$ cm-2. We repeated the same procedure with the data from Fig. 2 b and found, correspondingly, $`(1/2)(g^{}m^{})_{\mathrm{MR}}0.48`$ for the range $`n=(2.22.7)\times 10^{11}`$ cm-2.

The increase in the slope, $`dB_c/dn`$ with carrier density would mean the decrease of $`g^{}m^{}`$ for lower densities. Such decrease contradicts the results of direct measurements of the $`(g^{}m^{})_{\mathrm{SdH}}`$ for conducting electrons from Shubnikov-de Haas effect ; the contradiction indicates that the slope of the $`B_c(n_c)`$dependence in Si-MOS samples might have a more complex interpretation .

Earlier  we concluded that the saturation of the magnetoresistance (MR) for Si-MOS samples in parallel field $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ is more related to the $`g^{}`$-factor of localized electrons than that of the conducting ones. We think the same is true for the magnetoresistance at $`B=B_c`$. To illustrate this conclusion, we compare in Table II the $`g^{}m^{}`$ values (i) directly measured for mobile electrons from Shubnikov-de Haas effect , (ii) the data which follow from the slope, $`(dn_c/dB_c)`$, of the curves in Figs. 2 and 5, and (iii) the ones which follow from the slope $`(dn/dB_{\mathrm{sat}})`$ of the density dependence of the saturation field .

At $`r_s=5.3`$, the $`g^{}m^{}`$ values determined from Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and from MR in parallel field are comparable. However, at $`r_s=7.6`$ they differ by a factor of two: $`g^{}m^{}`$ determined from the SdH effect increases with $`r_s`$ as expected for conducting electrons ; in contrast, $`(g^{}m^{})_{\mathrm{B}_\mathrm{c}}`$ and $`(g^{}m^{})_{\mathrm{B}_{\mathrm{sat}}}`$ are close to the value $`2m_b`$ ($`m_b=0.19`$ is the bare band mass) anticipated for the localized electrons.

We close this section with a note that the attempts of describing $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ and $`B_c`$ in terms of the diverging $`g^{}`$-factor , face with problems of explaining (a) why the ‘divergence’ takes place at progressively (and essentially) lower $`r_s`$ values (i.e. higher $`n_c`$ values) as disorder increases and (b) why the diverging $`g^{}`$ values are different from those measured in Shubnikov-de Haas effect. The comparison presented in this section illustrates a rather complex behaviour of the magnetoresistance in the parallel field; definitely, a thorough theoretical consideration is needed in order to use this effect for extracting the electron spin properties.

### D Comparing the effects of $`B_{}`$ and temperature on conduction

We would like to point to the interesting similarity between the action of the parallel magnetic field and the temperature on the resistivity. Figure 8 demonstrates that for sufficiently high carrier density, $`nn_c`$, the application of high magnetic field increases resistivity by about 5-6 times and restores nearly the same zero-field ‘Drude’ resistivity value as the temperature does: i.e. $`\rho (B>B_{\mathrm{sat}},TT_F)=\rho (B=0,TT_F)`$. The similarity between the effect of the field and temperature holds only while conduction remains ‘non-activated’ (cf. Figs. 5).

The dashed line in Fig. 8 b, depicts the boundary (same as in Fig. 4) between the temperature-activated and ‘non-activated’ transport regimes. When the carrier density becomes lower than $`n_c(B_{\mathrm{max}})`$ but is still bigger than $`n_c(B=0)`$, the parallel field drives resistivity through this boundary at some field $`B_c(n)`$. As a result, the conduction mechanism in magnetic field changes and the similarity between Figs. 8 a and 8 b breaks. For this reason, the uppermost curves in Fig. 8 b show much bigger increase in the resistance with field than with temperature . It is noteworthy, that at low density, the magnetoresistance saturation takes place in the activated regime, at $`B_{\mathrm{sat}}>B_c`$, whereas at higher density the saturation occurs in the ‘non-activated’ metallic regime (see Fig. 7.

For the same reason, a very low magnetic field may be sufficient to drive the conduction from ‘non-activated’ to the ‘activated’ regime if the density $`n`$ is chosen slightly less than $`n_c`$. In other words, this may be observed when $`\rho (B=0)`$ is chosen very close to but less than $`\rho _c(B=0)`$ (see Figs. 5 a and 8 b). In light of this note the destruction of the metallic conduction in ‘arbitrary small field’  and the $`(B_{}/T)`$ scaling of the resistivity at high $`\rho `$ reported in Ref.  obtain a transparent interpretation .

### E Magnetic field driven disorder

It was verified experimentally  that in Si-MOS structures the parallel field couples to the electron spins only. Our results, therefore relate the action of the spin polarization and the increase in disorder. This may occur for example (i) via weakening of the screening in magnetic field , (ii) due to inter spin-subband scattering , or (iii) via increase in the Coulomb scattering caused by ‘undressing’ (i.e. depopulation and charging) of filled interface traps in any model of the interface traps .

As we demonstrate further, with the only assumption on the disordering role of the parallel magnetic field, we obtain a qualitative description of all presented data. We use this assumption as a phenomenological model; although we are unable to distinguish which one (or a combination) of the microscopic mechanisms is responsible for the parallel field magnetoresistance, we evaluate various options in comparison with the data.

The similarity between the $`\rho (T)`$\- and $`\rho (B_{})`$-traces in Fig. 8 seems easy to explain with the mechanism of screening which is temperature-  and magnetic field-dependent . However, comparing this mechanism with the data we find a number of principle disagreements:

* a) The magnitude of the magnetoresistance (factor of 5 - 5.5 in Fig. 7 in the ‘metallic’ range) is larger than the screening mechanism can provide .
* b) At sufficiently high parallel field, $`B>B_{\mathrm{sat}}`$, magnetoresistance almost saturates; this field was shown to be very close to the complete spin polarization of 2D carriers . For the screening mechanism, even though the spin system is polarized, the temperature dependence of resistivity should be as strong as in zero field. The dashed line in Fig. 1 b corresponds to the density $`n(B_{\mathrm{sat}})`$ at which the magnetoresistance for this sample saturates. Obviously, $`\rho (T)`$ depends on temperature much weaker than that in Fig. 1 a for $`B=0`$.
* c) The Hall resistance data  also does not support the screening mechanism.

Last but not least: in Ref.  a deviation of the weak field Hall resistance from its classical value, was observed close to the critical density, particularly, on the ‘metallic’ side. This means that for $`n`$ close to $`n_c`$ there arises an excess or deficit of delocalized carriers; this observation obviously supports the latter scenario (iii). For this mechanism to work, the filled traps (or localized carriers, which is the same for us) should lift in energy with parallel field. This may take place for example, if the relevant traps form the upper Hubbard band , or if the traps are easy or spontaneously spin-polarized. We considered the latter possibility in Ref.  in order to explain the disorder dependence of the field for saturation of the magnetoresistance. We note that the spin polarization of localized states is favored by the broken inversion symmetry of the interface.

Interface defect charges originating from the lack of stoichiometry are intrinsic to Si/SiO2 system; their typical density is 1012cm-2 for a thermally grown dioxide . As parallel field increases, the band (or upper band) of localized carriers should lift in energy and gets ‘undressed’ after passing through the Fermi energy. This will cause ‘turning-on’ the charged scatterers and corresponding increase in the scattering rate of the mobile carriers.

The carriers released from the traps will join the conduction band and may be detected via a deviation in the Hall voltage as $`n`$ approaches $`n_c(B)`$; the latter may be driven either by decrease in $`n`$ or by increase in $`B_{}`$. The trapped charge apriory may be of arbitrary sign which depends on the interface chemistry and growing processing. Consequently, the deviation in the Hall voltage may be of arbitrary sign as well. Whereas the contributions into the Hall voltage of the released electrons and holes may compensate each other, it is not the case for the spatially separated charged scatterers. The number of ‘turned-on’ scatterers $`N_i`$ is therefore expected to be much bigger than the deviation in the Hall resistance. In Ref. , we observed $`dV_H/V_H`$ of the order of $`(110)`$% in different samples for the carrier density $`n10^{11}`$ cm-2; from this figure a lower estimate for the number of ‘turned-on’ scatterers, $`N_i(10^910^{10})`$ cm-2, follows.

It is noteworthy, the inter(spin)-subband scattering  is not an alternative option but may be supplementary to the mechanism of the magnetic field driven disorder and charged traps. However, recent experiments  have shown that the scattering times in different spin and valley-subbands in (100)-Si are close to each other even though the degree of polarization is $`30`$%. This sets substantial constraints on those two-band models which imply the intra-subband scattering times to be different.

For completeness, we mention that the parallel field magnetoresistance in Si-MOS samples was measured earlier by Bishop, Dynes and Tsui  and by Burdis and Dean  (though as a weaker effect on more disordered samples) and associated with electron-electron interaction and Zeeman splitting . In this interpretation, however, the values of the interaction constant $`F`$ were found to be unomalously large and to decrease as temperature decreases  which is not consistent with theoretical expectations. We obtained qualitatively similar results on high mobility samples . In other words, $`\rho (B_{},T)`$ in the ‘metallic’ range does not scale as a function of $`(B/T)`$ which is expected for the Zeeman term $`\delta \sigma =0.084(F/2)(g^{}\mu _BB/k_BT)^2`$ . It seems therefore unlikely the strong magnetoresistance in Si-MOS samples to be caused by electron-electron interaction.

We limited our consideration by strong changes in resistivity, $`\delta \rho (B)/\rho 1`$. Parallel magnetic field causes an additional small effect on the quantum corrections to the conductivity, by decreasing the phase breaking length ; the latter though does not contradict our concept of the magnetic field driven disorder.

## III Implementation of the model for analysis of other data

In order to verify the above model we compared it with all available data for Si-MOS sample and found rather good agreement. For the sake of shortness, we present here the comparison only with those data for which it was explicitly stated in Ref.  that “the enormous response observed at low temperatures is a consequence of effects other than parallel magnetic field-induced changes in carrier density or disorder strength”.

### A Example 1.

We begin with results obtained by Shashkin et al. and reproduce them from Fig. 9 of Ref. . These data shown in Fig. 9 “dramatically demonstrate an extreme sensitivity of the resistance to parallel field” at $`T=30`$ mK. The localized behaviour which appears to be absent for the curve at $`B=0`$ is restored in a magnetic field” (cited from Ref. ). Based on this contrast it was stated in Ref.  that the effect of the parallel field is something different from the increase in disorder.

We plot in Fig. 9 the model curves using a conventional temperature activated dependence

$$\rho (T)=\rho _0+\rho _1\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Delta }/T).$$
(2)
The effect of the magnetic field in our model is presented in the magnetic field dependence of the activation energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }(B_{})\mathrm{\Delta }(nn_c(B_{}))`$. We fitted the curves to the data using three adjustable parameters $`\rho _0`$, $`\rho _1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$; their numerical values are indicated on the figure. Whereas there is a certain correlation between $`\rho _0`$ and $`\rho _1`$, we focus on the activation energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ which is well defined and almost independent of other parameters.

The carrier density $`n=0.75\times 10^{11}`$ cm-2 is set equal to the critical density, $`n=n_c(B=0)`$. By definition, the almost horizontal curve for $`B=0`$ corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$. Fitting the upper curve we obtained $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{fit}=0.8`$ K which is reasonably consistent with a value calculated on the basis of our results from Fig. 5: $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{calc}=(d\mathrm{\Delta }/dn)[nn_c(B=1T)]=0.6`$ K. For this estimate we used the coefficient $`d\mathrm{\Delta }/dn=(45)`$ \[K $`10^{11}`$ cm2\] measured earlier  for variety of high mobility samples. The lowest temperature point deviates substantially from the fitting curve; we presume this is due to either electron overheating by $`0.07`$ K  or by a crossover to another $`T`$dependence. We also didn’t care about a minor discrepancy for $`T>1.5`$ K; this may be eliminated by a simple modification of the model as demonstrated further.

Anyhow, the increase in the measured resistivity by four orders of magnitude (which authors of Ref.  considered as an extraordinary effect) is at least 10 times smaller than the increase demonstrated by the conventional exponentional dependence Eq. (1) (dashed curve). In general, the model curve fits the data rather well and some further improvement may be obtained by varying the critical index; an example is illustrated in Fig. 8 by the dash-dotted curve and the lower formula. The success of this fitting, as well as the consistency between the calculated and fitted values for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ confirm that the action of the magnetic field is simply described by the increase in the critical density value $`n_c(B)`$ related to the magnetic field induced disorder.

### B Example 2

We now turn to the data by Simonian et al.  and reproduce them in Fig. 10 a; it shows the temperature dependence of $`\rho `$ for Si-MOS sample measured in fixed various in-plane fields between 0 and 1.4 T. The data were discussed in Ref.  as a demonstration of an abrupt onset of the metallic behaviour and abrupt development of the magnetoresistance.

We note first that the overall $`\rho (T)`$ behavior for this sample is different from that shown in Fig. 9: here is no room for a temperature independent curve in the range 2 K$`>T>0.2`$ K and the ‘separatrix’ $`\rho (T,n=n_c)`$ is tilted . Correspondingly, the resistivity curves for this sample plotted vs density, for various temperatures (in the range (0.2-2) K) would not cross each other at a single density .

The carrier density $`n=0.883\times 10^{11}`$ cm-2 in Fig. 9 a was set close to $`n_c`$ so that the effect of the field is large. Initially, at $`B_{}=0`$, the resistivity demonstrates a ‘metallic’ temperature dependence typical for high mobility Si-MOS samples (cf. Fig. 1 a), but as field increases, it transforms to a typical ‘insulating’ one. We estimate the transition between ‘metallic’ and ‘insulating’ behaviour to occur in the region marked with a horizontal arrow, $`n_c(B=0.93T)=n`$. From this number and using the empirical dependence $`n_c(B)`$ from Fig. 5 we estimated the critical density at zero field, $`n_c(B=0)=0.76\times 10^{11}`$ cm-2; this agrees within 5% with the number (0.802) given in Ref. .

We fitted all curves first with the exponential dependence $`\rho =\rho _0+\rho _1\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{T})`$, same as Eq. (2). For the ‘metallic’ region (curves 1, 2, 3), this empirical dependence with $`\mathrm{\Delta }<0`$ is known to describe $`\rho (T)`$ for different samples . For the ‘insulating’ region (curves 4, 5, 6), Eq. (2) with $`\mathrm{\Delta }>0`$ has a meaning of the temperature-activated dependence (though the same might be done with a variable-range hopping exponent). The three adjustable parameters, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, $`\rho _0`$ and $`\rho _1`$, where fitted for each curve; their values are given in Table 2. We found the fit is rather good for low temperatures, $`T<2`$ K.

Eq. (1) can not obviously describe the high temperature region $`T>2`$ K, therefore we also applied a modified expression which takes into account the non-exponential ‘tilt’ of the experimental data:

$$\rho =\left(\rho _0+\rho _1\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{T})\right)\left(1\alpha \frac{T}{T_F}\beta \left(\frac{T}{T_F}\right)^2\right).$$
(3)
The two additional parameters $`\alpha =0.194`$ and $`\beta =0.460.66`$ are uncorrelated with the other ones, and are directly obtained from the tilt at high temperatures.

Figure 10 shows that Eq. (3) fits the data rather well over the whole range of $`T`$ whereas for low temperatures, $`T<2`$ K, both fits, with Eqs. (2) and (3), are almost indistinguishable. The resulting parameters for both fits are given in Tables 2, and 3, correspondingly. Comparing the fitting curves with data, we conclude that the “abrupt changes” discussed in Ref.  are nothing more than just a conventional exponential dependence.

The field dependence of the two principle parameters, $`\rho _0`$ and $`\rho _1`$ is shown in Fig. 10 b: $`\rho _0`$ increases with field demonstrating the disordering role of the field (though we don’t think that the almost linear increase is a universal feature for different samples). The strength of the ‘resistance drop’ in the ‘metallic’ range, $`(\rho _0+\rho _1)/\rho _0`$, decays with field, also similar to the decay induced by disorder . The critical resistivity, $`\rho _c`$, in our model is given by the sum $`\rho _0+\rho _1`$; we find a qualitative similarity between the two independently calculated curves, $`\rho _c(B)`$ in Fig. 5 and $`\rho _0+\rho _1`$ vs $`B`$ in Fig. 10 b.

For the curve 3, the fit is not perfect because it oscillates vs temperature, which is beyond the frameworks of the model. The only steep feature may be found in the field dependence of $`\rho _1`$ at the transition from insulating to metallic behavior; this however may be caused by a minor mismatching of the oversimplified model curves in the metallic and insulating ranges.

The ‘activation energy’ $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ depends on the choice of the model and on average is 2-3 times larger than the values estimated from Fig. 5 (cf. the right columns in Table 2). This discrepancy is presumably caused by the admixture to the data of a non-exponential temperature dependence which is essentially strong for the considered sample and which can not be separated at low temperatures from the exponential one. For example, we were able to achieve a reasonable fit of the data with Eq. (2), using the calculated in Table 2 values $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{calc}}=(d\mathrm{\Delta }/dB)\times (n_cn)`$ when we modeled the ‘tilted separatrix’ in Eq. (3) by a power low factor, $`T^p`$, rather than by the polynomial factor.

In Ref.  it was stated that “the effect of magnetic field cannot be ascribed solely to a field-induced change in the critical electron density”. We verified this possibility and arrive at the opposite conclusion. The success of our fitting confirms that the action of the parallel field, at least, to the first approximation consists in progressive increase of disorder. This is described by increasing the $`T`$-independent scattering rate $`\rho _0(B_{})`$, decreasing the magnitude of the resistivity drop, $`(\rho _1+\rho _0)/\rho _0`$, and increasing the critical carrier density $`n_c(B_{})`$; the three parameters are not independent and within the same material system may be reduced only to the single parameter, e.g. $`n_c(B_{})`$.

## IV Summary

To summarize, the results reported in this paper demonstrate that the effect of the parallel magnetic field on resistivity in high mobility Si-MOS samples (though via Zeeman coupling) is similar to that of disorder and, to some extent, to that of temperature. In other words, parallel magnetic field increases disorder. The temperature dependence of resistivity for various disorder and magnetic fields may be reduced to the dependences of the ‘critical’ density $`n_c`$ on magnetic field and on disorder; the changes in the resistivity drop with temperature, $`(\rho _0+\rho _1)/\rho _0`$, caused by disorder and magnetic field may be also mapped onto each other. We find a similarity between the action of the parallel field and temperature for the region of carrier density and field where conduction remains ‘non-activated’. These findings set constraints on the choice of the developed microscopic models.

The analogy between the parallel field and disorder points to the existence of a sub-band of localized carriers. Such band of localized carriers should lift in energy as a function of the parallel field, gets ‘undressed’ after passing through the Fermi energy and cause the increase in the scattering rate. The strong evidence for this mechanism is the variation in the Hall voltage observed in the vicinity of the metal-insulator transition. We can not exclude also the contribution of the inter spin-subband scattering, as a complementary feature to the above mechanism. However, our Shubnikov-de Haas data  indicates that the mobility in different spin and valley sub-bands of conducting electrons are almost equal and the intersubband scattering does not play a major role in the themperature- and parallel field- dependence of the resistance. Applying the model of a field dependent disorder, we find a qualitative explanation of the whole set of presented results.

## V Acknowledgements

One of the authors (V.P.) acknowledges hospitality of the Lorenz Centre for theoretical physics at Leiden, where part of this work was done and reported at the workshop in June, 2000. The work was supported by NSF DMR-0077825, Austrian Science Fund (FWF P13439), INTAS (99-1070), RFBR (00-02-17706), the Programs ‘Physics of solid state nanostructures’, ‘Statistical physics’, ‘Integration’ and ‘The State support of the leading scientific schools’.