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# How to escape Aharonov-Bohm cages ?

## I Introduction

The dynamics of a quantum particle in a periodic potential in the presence of a uniform static magnetic field has revealed many beautiful effects and has been the subject of ongoing researches for several decades. The competition between the two characteristic length scales involved, namely the lattice period and the magnetic length produces a very complex pattern of energy levels. In two dimensions, this leads to fractal structures in the spectrum anticipated by Azbel, and further studied by Hofstadter, Claro and Wannier, Rammal, and many others. Some striking experimental manifestations of these effects have been found in macroscopic properties of two-dimensional superconducting wire networks, such as the variation of the critical temperature with respect to the external magnetic field, the magnetization or the critical current. The connection between the linearized Ginzburg-Landau equations used to describe these wire networks close to the superconducting transition, and the tight-binding spectrum of electrons had been established slightly before these experiments by De Gennes and Alexander.

More recently, a surprising effect has been presented in ref.  in a two-dimensional lattice with hexagonal symmetry, the so-called $`𝒯_3`$ lattice displayed in Fig. 1. For some values of the magnetic field corresponding to half a flux quantum per elementary tile, the energy spectrum of a tight-binding model with nearest neighbor hopping collapses into three highly degenerate levels. Furthermore, we have shown that it is possible to build energy eigenstates where the probability to find an electron is non vanishing only in a finite size cluster which we have called an Aharonov-Bohm cage. This corresponds to a localization mechanism due to quantum interferences of Aharonov-Bohm type between paths enclosing a half-integer number of flux quanta. For instance, if an electron is initially located on a given site of the lattice, it will never propagate beyond the boundary of the cage associated to this site, provided the magnetic field is chosen properly, as discussed above.

Since this theoretical observation, several experiments have searched for manifestations of these cages on real systems. A serie of investigations on superconducting wire networks has been completed by Abilio et al. and by Serret et al. providing a good agreement between predictions and measurements of the critical temperature and the critical current. In addition, the unusual nature of the mixed state for half a flux quantum per elementary tile has been clearly indicated by a strong reduction of the critical current, and by magnetic decoration experiments which shows a very highly disordered vortex pattern.

A slightly more direct probe of this localization effect has been provided by transport measurements in mesoscopic lattices carved in a two-dimensional electron gas at the interface of GaAs/GaAlAs heterostructures. In theses systems, the number of tranverse conduction channels in the wires can be very small (a few units), and the mean free path much larger than the distance between two nearest neighbor nodes. At intermediate magnetic fields, Naud et al. have clearly observed a periodic modulation of the magnetoconductance with a period of one flux quantum per plaquette ($`h/e`$). In the same experimental conditions, a square lattice does not show these oscillations. It seems more than plausible that these $`h/e`$-periodic oscillations seen on $`𝒯_3`$ lattice could be attributed to the Aharonov-Bohm cages. Indeed, this localization mechanism establishes a strong difference in the tranport properties between integer and half integer fluxes, which is expected to survive in the presence of a weak enough disorder as discussed in ref. .

These experiments clearly motivate us to address the question of the robustness of these cages in the presence of “real life” perturbations such as disorder, finite size effects and electron-electron interactions. The main purpose of this paper is to attempt to bridge the gap between the very idealized tight-binding model initially studied in ref. , and the experimental systems mentioned above. As a general trend, we will show that if the cages are in themselves very fragile, their existence in the ideal system induces a few remarkable features for the perturbed ones. The underlying reason for this is that these perturbations act on a very degenerate system, and as often in physics, degenerate perturbations are expected to induce some very interesting phenomena. One of the most famous example is, of course, the fractional quantum Hall effect where the degeneracy of the kinetic energy at fractional filling factors opens the way to the formation of strongly correlated many-body exotic states such as the Laughlin liquid.

This paper is organized as follows. Section II presents a detailed discussion of the butterfly-like energy spectrum for a tight-binding model on the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice. Section III focusses on half integer fluxes for which the cages appears. Several viewpoints are given to provide a simple physical intuition of what happens in the system. This enables us to show other examples of lattices for which Aharonov-Bohm cages exist. Section IV discusses disorder effects still within the tight-binding framework. So, it is complementary to the previous study presented in ref.  where the continuous wire model was analyzed, in connection to the experiments on two-dimensional gases. Here, we investigate some properties of one particle eigenstates such as the inverse participation ratio as a function of the disorder strength and the magnetic field. Section V is devoted to edge states. These states are found to be confined in a finite width strip along the boundaries of the sample. We outline the subtleties involved in the translation from the tight-binding model properties to those of the continuous one-dimensional wire networks. Finally, section VI adresses interactions effects in the context of the Hubbard model. Most of the results deal with the two electron case. In agreement with a previous study for the chain of loops, we find that interactions are able to create some extended and dispersive two particle eigenstates. This can be viewed as a kind of interaction induced delocalization phenomenon, similar to the one discussed by Shepelyansky for disordered systems. The presence of the cages in the non interacting case is reflected by the fact that these extended states involve a close binding of the two particles in real space, even if the local interaction is repulsive. We also give some ground state configurations for a finite density of particles and we show that the energy per particle has a singular behaviour when the number of electrons per site becomes larger than 1/3. In the last section, we conclude and discuss the experimental relevance of our work. Technical details for the two interacting particles problem can be found in the appendix A.

## II Spectral properties

We consider the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice displayed in Fig. 1 which is a bipartite periodic structure with 3 sites per unit cell: one 6-fold coordinated site $`A`$ and two 3-fold coordinated site $`B`$ and $`C`$.

This tiling can also be seen as the dual of the most famous Kagomé lattice. We consider a tight-binding hamiltonian defined by :

$$H_0=\underset{<i,j>}{}t_{ij}|ij|$$
(1)
where $`|i`$ is a localized orbital on site $`i`$. When $`𝐇=0`$, the hopping term $`t_{ij}=1`$ if $`i`$ and $`j`$ are nearest neighbors and $`0`$ otherwise. In the presence of a magnetic field, $`t_{ij}`$ is multiplied by a phase factor $`e^{i\gamma _{ij}}`$ involving the vector potential $`𝐀`$ :

$$\gamma _{ij}=\frac{2\pi }{\varphi _0}_i^j𝐀.\text{d}𝐥\text{,}$$
(2)
where $`\varphi _0=hc/e`$ is the flux quantum. In the following, we focus on the case of a uniform magnetic field $`𝐇=H𝐳`$ which can be obtained, for example, with the Landau gauge $`𝐀=H(0,x,0)`$, and we denote by $`\varphi =Ba^2\sqrt{3}/2`$ the magnetic flux through an elementary rhombus.

Let us first briefly analyze the zero field case $`𝐇=0`$. In this case, the one-particle spectrum is given by the following dispersion relation :

$$E_\pm \left(𝐤\right)=\pm \sqrt{6+4[\mathrm{cos}(𝐤.𝐮)+\mathrm{cos}(𝐤.𝐯)+\mathrm{cos}(𝐤.𝐰)]}\text{,}$$
(3)
where $`𝐮=a(3/2,\sqrt{3}/2)`$ and $`𝐯=a(3/2,\sqrt{3}/2)`$ are the vectors of the primitive cell (see Fig. 1), $`𝐰=𝐯𝐮`$, and where $`𝐤`$ is a wave vector lying in the first Brillouin zone. The associated eigenstates are standard Bloch waves. In addition, there is a non dispersive band at $`\epsilon _0=0`$ resulting from the bipartite character of the structure, and whose degeneracy is given by the difference between the number of 3-fold and 6-fold coordinated sites. Since its origin is purely topological, this energy will always be an eigenvalue for any $`𝐇`$, with the same degeneracy. The density of states, originally computed by Sutherland, is shown in Fig. 2.

For $`𝐇0`$, the spectrum is of course much more complex since there remains only one translational invariance along the $`y`$ direction due to the gauge choice, so that the eigenfunctions can be written as :

$$\phi _j(x,y)=\psi _j(x)e^{ik_yy},k_y[0,2\pi /a\sqrt{3}]\text{.}$$
(4)
where the index $`j=A,B,C`$. Thus, the secular equations read :

$`\epsilon \psi _A(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\psi _B(x+a)+\psi _B\left(x{\displaystyle \frac{a}{2}}\right)2\mathrm{cos}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{a}}\left(x{\displaystyle \frac{a}{4}}\right)+\kappa \right]+`$ (6)
$`\psi _C(xa)+\psi _C\left(x+{\displaystyle \frac{a}{2}}\right)2\mathrm{cos}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{a}}\left(x+{\displaystyle \frac{a}{4}}\right)+\kappa \right]`$
$`\epsilon \psi _B(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\psi _A(xa)+\psi _A\left(x+{\displaystyle \frac{a}{2}}\right)2\mathrm{cos}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{a}}\left(x+{\displaystyle \frac{a}{4}}\right)+\kappa \right]`$ (8)
$`\epsilon \psi _C(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\psi _A(x+a)+\psi _A\left(x{\displaystyle \frac{a}{2}}\right)2\mathrm{cos}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{a}}\left(x{\displaystyle \frac{a}{4}}\right)+\kappa \right]\text{ ,}`$ (10)
where $`\kappa =k_ya\sqrt{3}/2`$, and $`\gamma =2\pi \varphi /\varphi _0=2\pi f`$. Note that with the origin $`O`$ chosen in Fig. 1, $`x`$ only takes integer or half-integer values. If one looks for solutions $`\epsilon 0`$ of the secular system, one can substitute (8) and (10) in (6) to obtain an effective one-dimensional equation that only involves six-fold coordinated sites :

$`(\epsilon ^26)\psi _m`$ $`=`$ $`2\mathrm{cos}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{2}}\right)\left\{2\mathrm{cos}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{3\gamma }{2}}\left(m+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right)+\kappa \right]\psi _{m+1}+2\mathrm{cos}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{3\gamma }{2}}\left(m{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right)+\kappa \right]\psi _{m1}+2\mathrm{cos}\left(3\gamma m+2\kappa \right)\psi _m\right\}\text{ ,}`$ (11)
where $`\psi _m=\psi _A(x=3ma/2)`$, $`(m𝐙)`$. As it can be readily seen in Fig. 1, the six-fold coordinated sites form a triangular lattice so that Eq. (11) has to be compared to those derived by Claro and Wannier for the triangular lattice :

$`\epsilon _T\psi _m`$ $`=`$ $`2\mathrm{cos}\left[\gamma _T\left(m+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right)+\kappa \right]\psi _{m+1}+2\mathrm{cos}\left[\gamma _T\left(m{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right)+\kappa \right]\psi _{m1}+2\mathrm{cos}(2\gamma _Tm+2\kappa )\psi _m`$ (12)
with similar notations. So, the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice spectrum can be simply obtained from the triangular lattice spectrum by setting $`\gamma _T=3\gamma /2`$, since one has :

$$\epsilon ^26=2\mathrm{cos}\left(\frac{\gamma }{2}\right)\epsilon _T\text{.}$$
(13)
Since the tiling is bipartite, the spectrum is symmetric ($`\epsilon \epsilon `$). Moreover, Eq. (11) displays a translation symmetry $`ff+n(n𝐙)`$ and a reflection invariance about half-integer values of $`f`$. We thus limit our analysis to $`0f1/2`$. For rational values of $`f=p/q`$ ($`p,q`$ mutually prime), the system (11) becomes closed after a translation by $`q`$ periods and the spectrum is made up of $`2q`$ bands. Note that, when $`q=3q^{}`$ $`(q^{}𝐍)`$, this period is actually reduced by a factor $`3`$ and the spectrum has only $`2q^{}`$ bands. In particular, for $`f=1/3`$, one can exactly compute the dispersion relation :

$$\epsilon ^2(\kappa ,k_x)6=2\mathrm{cos}(2\kappa )+4\mathrm{cos}(\kappa )\mathrm{cos}(k_xa)\text{ , }$$
(14)
where $`(k_x,\kappa )[0,2\pi /a\sqrt{3}]\times [0,\pi ]`$. For this flux, the spectrum spreads from $`3`$ to $`+3`$ and is gapless. Figure 3 shows the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice spectrum support versus the reduced flux $`f`$. The most spectacular and unusual feature is that, for $`f=1/2`$, the spectrum collapses into three eigenvalues $`\epsilon _0=0`$ and $`\epsilon _\pm =\pm \sqrt{6}`$ as it can be readily seen from Eq. (13).

This is all the more curious that usually, for an infinite periodic structure and for rational values of $`f`$, the spectrum is absolutely continuous (band-like). Here, it behaves as a super-atom with three infinitely degenerate levels with equal spectral weights $`1/3`$. The existence of these non dispersive bands suggests the possibility to build Wannier-type localized eigenstates. This remarkable fact is, for any electron density, susceptible to induce original physical properties reminiscent of those of a localized system.

## III The Aharonov-Bohm cages

In this section, we shall analyze these properties from the quantum dynamics point of view by characterizing the spreading of a wave packet in the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice, at $`f=1/2`$. To achieve this, it is worth focusing on the spectral charateristics at a local level. The magnetic field being uniform, the whole spectrum is indeed recovered from the local density of states (LDOS) on the two different types of sites. At this point, it is more convenient to shift from the above Landau gauge to a cylindrical (symmetric) gauge defined by $`𝐀=H(y/2,x/2,0)`$ that respects the discrete rotational symmetry existing locally. We proceed to an analytic Lanczos tridiagonalization using the recursion method. The principle of this algorithm is to generate an semi-infinite chain according to the recursive relation :

$$b_{n+1}|\phi _{n+1}=(H_0a_n)|\phi _nb_n|\phi _{n1}$$
(15)
which allows to evaluate the LDOS on the initial orbital $`|\phi _0`$. The diagonal and off-diagonal terms ($`a_n`$,$`b_n`$) are obtained by requiring the normalization of the orbitals $`|\phi _n`$. Note that in our case, all the diagonal elements $`a_n`$ vanish because : (i) the structure is bipartite, (ii) $`H_0`$ is purely off-diagonal.

Let us first compute the recursion chain associated to a six-fold coordinated site and choose, as initial orbital, $`|\phi _0=|0`$ (see Fig .4). One has :

$$H_0|\phi _0=\underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}|ib_1=\sqrt{6},|\phi _1=\frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}\underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}|i\text{ . }$$
(16)
The first recursion orbital $`|\phi _1`$ is a linear symmetric combination of the first shell sites (three-fold coordinated grey sites). At the next step, one obtains :

$$H_0|\phi _1=b_1|\phi _0+2\mathrm{cos}(\pi f)\frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}\underset{i=7}{\overset{12}{}}|ib_2=2\mathrm{cos}(\pi f),|\phi _2=\frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}\underset{i=7}{\overset{12}{}}|i\text{ . }$$
(17)
For $`f=1/2`$, $`b_2=0`$ so that the LDOS is reduced to two values $`\epsilon _\pm =\pm \sqrt{6}`$ with an equal spectral weight $`1/2`$. This effect can be simply understood in terms of Aharonov-Bohm effect. Indeed, the amplitude of probability $`𝒜_{029}`$ to go for example, “in two steps”, from 0 to 9 via 2, is exactly the opposite of $`𝒜_{039}`$, so that the resulting amplitude is zero. Then, any wave packet initially localized on a six-fold coordinated site ($`|\psi (t=0)=|0`$) is completely trapped inside what we have called an Aharonov-Bohm cage whose precise definition is given below. One can easily determine its time evolution that is periodic and given by :

$$|\psi (t)=\mathrm{cos}\left(\sqrt{6}t\right)|\phi _0i\mathrm{sin}\left(\sqrt{6}t\right)|\phi _1\text{ . }$$
(18)
In particular, the autocorrelation function $`|0|\psi (t)|^2=\mathrm{cos}^2\left(\sqrt{6}t\right)`$ for $`f=1/2`$, whereas for $`f=0`$ :

$$|0|\psi (t)|^2=\left(\frac{3\sqrt{3}}{8\pi ^2a^2}_{1BZ}\mathrm{cos}\left(E\left(𝐤\right)t\right)\text{d}𝐤\right)^2$$
(19)
($`1BZ`$ stands for first Brillouin zone) and behaves at large $`t`$ as :

$$|0|\psi (t)|^2\frac{3}{8\pi ^2t^2}\left[\mathrm{sin}\left(3\sqrt{2}t\right)+\sqrt{3}\mathrm{cos}\left(\sqrt{2}t\right)\right]^2\text{ . }$$
(20)
We emphasize that for a generic rational $`f1/2`$, the hamiltonian is periodic and one expects $`|0|\psi (t)|^21/t^2`$. A contrario, when $`f`$ is irrationnal, the hamiltonian is quasiperiodic and one expects, as for the square lattice , $`|0|\psi (t)|^21/t^{2\alpha }`$ with $`\alpha <1`$ since the spectrum should be singular continuous.

The same type of recursion calculation can be made for the three-fold coordinated sites. In this case, one easily obtains :

$`b_1`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{3},`$ (21)
$`b_2`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{4\mathrm{cos}^2(\pi f)+3},`$ (22)
$`b_3`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{8\mathrm{cos}^2(\pi f)+4\left[\mathrm{cos}(\pi f)+\mathrm{cos}(3\pi f)\right]^2}{4\mathrm{cos}^2(\pi f)+3}}}\text{ ,}`$ (23)
so that $`b_3=0`$ for $`f=1/2`$, and the LDOS on this type of site reduces to the $`\epsilon _0=0`$ (spectral weight 1/2), and $`\epsilon _\pm =\pm \sqrt{6}`$ (spectral weight 1/4). The quantum evolution of a wave packet initially localized on such a site is therefore, as previously, confined in a cage displayed in Fig. 5 that is larger than the one obtained for the 6-fold coordinated sites.

Finally, since the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice is only made up of 6-fold and 3-fold coordinated sites, any wave packet (with a finite initial extension) will be confined inside a bound Aharonov-Bohm cage at $`f=1/2`$. We emphasize that this localization phenomenon must be understood from the quantum dynamics point of view. Indeed, contrary to the Anderson localization, the eigenstates of the system are not exponentially localized, and not even localized at all since the high degeneracy allows one to build any type of eigenstates (possibly extended).

To proceed further, it is necessary to give a precise definition of these Aharonov-Bohm cages. For a given wave packet $`|\psi `$ submitted to a magnetic field characterized by a reduced flux $`f`$, we define the Aharonov-Bohm cage $`𝒞_\psi ^f`$ as the set of sites visited by this initial wave packet during its evolution. In general, $`𝒞_\psi ^f`$ is infinite, but as shown previously, it can, for specific values of the magnetic field ($`f=1/2`$ for the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice), be bound. To analyze the cage structures for any independent electron model, it is sufficient to characterize the cages of all inequivalent sites. Indeed, the superposition principle implies that if $`|\psi (t=0)=_{i=1}^n\alpha _i|i`$, one has the following property :

$$𝒞_\psi ^f\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}𝒞_i^f\text{ . }$$
(24)
With this definition, several cases can be encountered :

* all cages are unbound for any $`f`$ (ex : square lattice, triangular lattice, honeycomb) ;
* some cages are bound for particular values of $`f`$ (ex : the Penrose tiling and the octagonal tiling displayed in Fig. 6) ;
* all the cages are bound for the same values of $`f`$ (ex : $`𝒯_3`$ lattice).

This latter case, that we will call fully confined structure, can be met for other tilings. As an example, we have displayed in Fig. 7 , the so-called $`𝒯_4`$ lattice which can be obtained by deforming an approximant with $`14`$ sites per unit cell of the octagonal tiling.

This structure has exactly the same physical properties as the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice at $`f=1/2`$ ($`f`$ refers here to the reduced flux measured in the smallest tile). Thereafter, we shall consider a light version of this tiling obtained by eliminating the sites $``$ and their related bonds (see Fig. 7). The resulting structure is simply a set of connected 8-fold symmetric stars with two different lengths whose ratio is equal to $`\sqrt{2}`$. We thus allow for two different hopping terms $`t_L`$ and $`t_S`$ for long and short edges respectively. For $`f=1/2`$, it is always possible to choose a gauge such that all the $`t_{ij}`$’s are real. A possible choice is represented in Fig. 8.

Note that this gauge has the same periodicity as the structure. This is quite surprising since it is not the generic case (see next section for the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice). It is then easy to diagonalize $`H_0`$ and to obtain the thirteen following eigenvalues : 0 (three-fold degenerate), $`\pm \sqrt{2t_L^2+2t_S^2}`$ (two-fold degenerate), $`\pm \sqrt{t_S},\pm \sqrt{4t_L^2+4t_S^2},`$ and $`\pm \sqrt{4t_L^2+2t_S^2}`$. For any hopping terms $`t_{L,S}`$ these eigenvalues do not depend on any wave vector and thus form the exact analogous of the non dispersive bands obtained in the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice.

We would like to point out that fully confined systems can also be obtained in one dimension. We have shown in Fig. 9 a quasi-one-dimensional structure that clearly displays bound Aharonov-Bohm cages at $`f=1/2`$. Its eigenspectrum is, as for the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice, made up of three non dispersive bands with energies $`0,\pm 2`$.

After this detailed description of this magnetic field induced localization, it is natural to wonder if this phenomenon is robust to various type of “perturbations”. For example, a non uniform magnetic field has been shown to drastically change the energy spectrum and the localization properties of the system providing a complete destruction of the cages. In the next section, we study the effect of different kind of disorder and we show that, the destructive interference that leads to the Aharonov-Bohm cages are partially destroyed.

## IV The disorder

A first natural way to introduce disorder in a system is to directly modify its structure by incorporating defects. In the case of the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice, such defects can be simply generated by a local elementary flip of three tiles as shown in Fig. 10.

For $`f=1/2`$, it is clear that a finite number of flips does not modify the bound nature of the cages since, sooner or later, a given wave packet will be embedded in the “pure” $`𝒯_3`$ lattice geometry which is responsible of the confinement. Nevertheless, one can wonder if this feature still holds for a finite density of such defects. Indeed, if we consider a large number of flips in order to get closer and closer to a random tiling configuration, we expect the destructive Aharonov-Bohm interferences to completely disappear. It would be, in this case, interesting to determine the critical density below which all the cages remains bound. This could be achieved by considering an extended initial state and by computing its time evolution for different realizations of the disorder and for different flip densities. Note that this value should be easily understood in terms of cages percolation threshold.

Another possible way to introduce disorder is to randomly modulate either off-diagonal or diagonal terms in the hamiltonian. In this study, we mainly focus on the latter case and consider the following hamiltonian :

$$H_{dis.}=\underset{i,j}{}t_{ij}|ij|+\underset{i}{}V_i|ii|\text{ , }$$
(25)
where the $`t_{ij}`$ are defined as in (1), and where the on-site energies $`V_i`$ are mutually independent gaussian random variable with variance $`\sigma ^2`$.

As the strength of disorder increases, the strongly localized cage eigenstates begin to spread over larger distances. In some sense, a weak disorder increases the one-particle localization typical length ! However, since the system is two-dimensional, we expect the overall localization length to be finite for any value of $`\sigma 0`$ and for any energy. For a given reduced flux $`f`$, as $`\sigma `$ is increased from zero, the one-particle eigenstates first get mixed within the energy bands of the pure model. This regime corresponds to the standard Anderson localization. This lasts until $`\sigma `$ becomes of the order of some energy gaps allowing then for interband mixing.

For $`f=1/2`$, the remarkable structure of the spectrum at zero disorder is responsible for the absence of the first disorder induced localization regime. Therefore, we expect, in this case, that most observables will depend only weakly on $`\sigma `$, as long as $`\sigma `$ remains smaller than the gaps. To analyze this problem, it is interesting to construct an effective model in the lowest energy subspace of $`H_0`$, expressed in the localized cage basis (see Fig. 19 in the next section). Denoting the normalized cage eigenstates associated to $`\epsilon _{}=\sqrt{6}`$ centered around the six-fold coordinated sites $`𝐫`$ by $`|𝐫`$, this effective hamiltonian has the form :

$$H_{eff.}=\underset{𝐫,𝐫^{}}{}\stackrel{~}{t}_{𝐫,𝐫^{}}|𝐫𝐫^{}|+\underset{𝐫}{}\stackrel{~}{V}_𝐫|𝐫𝐫|\text{ , }$$
(26)
where $`𝐫,𝐫^{}`$ stands for the sum over nearest neighbors in the triangular lattice generated by the the six-fold coordinated sites. The effective parameters $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{𝐫,𝐫^{}}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{V}_𝐫`$ depend on the $`V_j`$’s. For simplicity, we use the indexation of Fig. 4 so that :

$`\stackrel{~}{V}_\mathrm{𝟎}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{6}+{\displaystyle \frac{V_0}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{12}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}V_i`$ (27)
$`\stackrel{~}{t}_{\mathrm{𝟎},\mathrm{𝟖}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{12}}(V_1V_2)e^{i\alpha _{0,8}}\text{ ,}`$ (28)
where $`\alpha _{0,8}`$ is a gauge dependent phase factor. The general patterns for $`\stackrel{~}{V}_𝐫`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{𝐫,𝐫^{}}`$ can be easily inferred from these examples. We observe that $`H_{eff.}`$ involves both diagonal and off-diagonal disorder with comparable magnitude since : $`\stackrel{~}{V}_𝐫^2\stackrel{~}{V}_𝐫^2=7\sigma ^2/24`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{t}_{𝐫,𝐫^{}}|^2|\stackrel{~}{t}_{𝐫,𝐫^{}}|^2=\sigma ^2/72`$. It is interesting to note that non vanishing tunneling amplitude from one cage to a neighboring one are induced by an asymmetry between the two diagonal energies of the intermediate 3-fold coordinated sites connecting the cage centers. According to this effective model, the statistical properties of the eigenstates and the energy levels are independent of $`\sigma `$, provided the eigenenergies are rescaled $`\epsilon (\epsilon +\sqrt{6})/\sigma `$.

We have checked this simple picture by numerical diagonalization of finite clusters of size as large as 605 sites with open boundary conditions. As discussed in the next section, this introduces edge states. Here, the shape of the clusters has been properly chosen to minimize the number of these eigenstates whose energy, in the pure system at $`f=1/2`$, differs from $`0,\pm \sqrt{6}`$. To characterize the degree of localization of a given eigenstate $`|\psi `$, it is convenient to compute the inverse participation ratio (IPR) defined by :

$$\text{IPR}(\psi )=\frac{\underset{i}{}|\psi _i|^4}{\left(_i|\psi _i|^2\right)^2}\text{ . }$$
(29)
This quantity reaches a non vanishing constant value in the large system size limit for localized states whereas it behaves as $`1/N_s`$ for extended states, $`N_s`$ being the total number of sites. For each value of $`\sigma `$, we have averaged over $`10^2`$ realizations of the disorder and computed the average value of IPR over the whole energy spectrum. The results are plotted in Fig. 11 for several values of the reduced flux, as a function of the disorder strength $`\sigma `$.

We first notice that, for $`f=1/2`$ the averaged IPR is indeed almost independent of $`\sigma `$ up to $`\sigma 1`$, in agreement with the qualitative picture given before. As $`\sigma `$ is further increased, the averaged IPR increases which is interpreted as a relative relocalization associated to an interband mixing. For $`f<1/2`$, another energy scale $`D(f)`$ related to the mean band width in absence of disorder emerges. If $`\sigma <D(f)`$, the localization length is finite for any $`\sigma `$ and decreases with $`\sigma `$ as indicated, for instance at $`f=0.495`$, by the corresponding increase of the IPR for low $`\sigma `$. This lasts until $`D(f)\sigma 1`$ where eigenstates no longer evolves with $`\sigma `$. The intermediate regime in smoothly connected to the plateau observed for $`f=1/2`$. It is, in some sense, what remains of Aharonov-Bohm cages as the field is no longer fixed to its special value $`f=1/2`$. Finally, the strong disorder regime ($`\sigma 1`$), where the localization length becomes comparable to the lattice spacing, is found not to depend sensitively of $`f`$ which sounds quite reasonable.

Similar conclusions can be drawn by looking at the density of states. Plots of this quantity at $`f=1/2`$ for various values of $`\sigma `$ are shown in Fig. 12. Note that the splitting of the three main peaks for $`\sigma =0.01`$ is due to edge states. The peaks broaden linearly with $`\sigma `$ in the plateau region which clearly ends when they merge.

Finally, we would like to mention a related study concerning the influence of the disorder on the transmission properties of quantum networks. For sufficiently weak disorder, it has been shown that the periodicity with respect to the magnetic flux of the magnetoresistance remains equals to $`h/e`$ in the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice whereas it is completely dominated by the weak localization regime ($`h/2e`$) for more conventional structures, e. g. the square lattice. This indicates that the Aharonov-Bohm cages resists to a small amount of disorder. We emphasize that beautiful experiments by Naud et al. have recently shown up this phenomenon in two-dimensional electron gas (GaAs/GaAlAs), measuring the magnetoresistance of mesoscopic artificial structures with the $`𝒯_3`$ geometry.

## V The edges states

As already mentioned, interesting edge state properties appear at $`f=1/2`$. We could study these states explicitely for the tight-binding hamiltonian $`H_0`$ but, for the sake of comparing with the experimental situations, we shall consider a continuous model where the network is made up of perfectly conducting one-dimensional wires. The Schrödinger equation for a free particle of mass $`m`$ moving along a wire reads :

$$\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}\frac{\text{d}^2\psi }{\text{d}x^2}=E\psi \text{ , }$$
(30)
where $`x`$ denotes the coordinate along the wire. For simplicity, we assume that no magnetic field is present but we will introduce it as soon as we will need it. If the extremities of the wire corresponds to nodes $`i`$ and $`j`$, and if the origin is chosen such that $`x=0`$ for node $`i`$ and $`x=a`$ for node $`j`$, we may write the general solution along the wire $`(i,j)`$ as :

$$\psi ^{ij}(x)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{sin}(ka)}\left[\psi _i\mathrm{sin}(k(xa))+\psi _j\mathrm{sin}(x)\right]\text{ ; }E(k)=\frac{\mathrm{}^2k^2}{2m}\text{ . }$$
(31)
For clarity, we have omit the index $`k`$, and we have set $`\psi _i=\psi ^{ij}(x=0)`$ and $`\psi _j=\psi ^{ij}(x=a)`$. The amplitudes on the nodes are constrained by a linear boundary conditions at each node of the network. A frequently used condition which is compatible with current conservation at the node $`i`$ is :

$$\underset{i,j}{}\frac{\text{d}\psi ^{ij}(x)}{\text{d}x}|_{x=0}=0\text{ . }$$
(32)
Here, the sum is taken over the $`z_i`$ wires emerging from the node $`i`$. If we also impose the continuity condition of the wave function at each node ($`\psi ^{ij}(x=0)`$ independent of $`j`$), we obtain the following set of equations :

$$\lambda z_i\psi _i=\underset{i,j}{}\psi _j\text{ . }$$
(33)
where we have introduced $`\lambda =\mathrm{cos}ka`$. So, a single value of $`\lambda `$ generates an infinite discrete family of eigenstates with energy $`E(k_{n,\lambda })=\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}\left(k_\lambda +\frac{2\pi n}{a}\right)^2`$ provided $`\lambda =\mathrm{cos}k_\lambda a`$. To describe each eigenstate only once, we may impose $`k`$ to lie in the interval $`[\pi /a,\pi /a]`$. Note that Eq. (33) cannot be directly interpreted as an eigenvalue equation for a tight-binding problem since, in the general case, $`z_i`$ varies from one site to another. For an infinite $`𝒯_3`$ lattice, or a finite one with appropriate boundary conditions, the coordination number $`z_i`$ can only be equal to 3 or 6. It is therefore possible to perform the same decimation of the three fold-coordinated sites as for the tight-binding problem to obtain the same equation as Eq. (11) by setting $`\epsilon ^2=18\lambda ^2`$. This simple correspondence between both problems also holds in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. In zero field, since $`\epsilon `$ runs from $`\sqrt{18}`$ to $`\sqrt{18}`$, $`\lambda `$ runs from $`1`$ to $`+1`$ and therefore $`k_\lambda `$ from $`[\pi /a,\pi /a]`$. So, there is no gap in the free electron spectrum on the network. As soon as the magnetic field is present, $`k_\lambda `$ has to be chosen from $`[\pi /a+\delta /a,\delta /a][+\delta /a,\pi /a\delta /a]`$ where $`\mathrm{cos}(\delta a)=\epsilon _{max.}(f)/\sqrt{18}`$, $`\epsilon _{max.}(f)`$ denoting the largest eigenvalue of $`H_0`$ at reduced flux $`f`$. Thus, the free electron spectrum exhibits an infinite number of non overlapping bands, for generic $`f`$. Gaps in the spectrum have two different origins.Most of them corresponds to change the internal motion of the particle along a single link, which amounts to turn $`n`$ into $`n+1`$. Other gaps are induced by the magnetic field, and already appears as gaps in the set of allowed $`\lambda `$ values ($`\lambda `$ spectrum). For the special value $`f=1/2`$, the cage effect is manifested by the presence of a pure point-spectrum at energies $`E_n=\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2ma^2}\left(\pm \pi /2\pm \alpha +2\pi n\right)^2`$, with $`\alpha =\mathrm{arcsin}(1/\sqrt{3})`$. Each of these levels is highly degenerate, reflecting all the possible cage states in the network.

Since some experiments have been performed on superconducting wire networks, it is worth recalling briefly the connection between the $`\lambda `$ spectrum and the estimate of the superconducting critical temperature as a function of the external flux $`f`$. At the transition, the order parameter builds up from the propagating modes of the linear Ginzburg-Landau equation (written here in zero field for simplicity) along each wire :

$$\frac{\text{d}^2\psi }{\text{d}x^2}+\frac{1}{\xi ^2}\psi =0\text{ . }$$
(34)
The critical temperature is obtained from the largest value of $`\xi `$ denoted by $`\xi ^{}`$, for which eigenvalues exist. $`\xi ^{}`$ is known as the Ginzburg-Landau macroscopic coherence length and we have $`T_c(f)T_c(0)1/(\xi ^{})^2`$. To determine $`\xi ^{}`$, we follow the same procedure as for the free particle spectrum. We then have $`(k^{})^2=(\xi ^{})^2`$ with $`k^{}[0,\pi /a]`$ and $`\mathrm{cos}(k^{}a)=\lambda _{max.}(f)`$. For an infinite lattice, one has : $`\lambda _{max.}(f)=\epsilon _{max.}(f)/\sqrt{18}`$ so that the $`T_c(f)`$ curve is directly related to the edge of the tight-binding spectrum. This mapping has led to accurate comparisons between this simple model and the experimental data. However, for free boundaries system, such a simple correspondence no longer holds, since the coordination number can be different from 3 and 6 on the edges. For these reasons, our discussion of edge states will be given mostly in term of the linear problem (33) rather than in the tight-binding language. The main striking result is the appearance of very sharp edge states at $`f=1/2`$. For those states, the amplitudes $`\psi _i`$’s are vanishing on most of the sites except on a finite width strip concentrated near the boundaries (see in Fig. 13).

For any shape of the boundary, these edge states are always dispersive (along the edges). Note that in the tight-binding version, non dispersive edge states can also appear depending on the boundary shape. Another qualitative difference is that, in the tight-binding problem, the energy of these states always appears inside the main gaps of the infinite lattice spectrum whereas in the wire network, the $`\lambda `$ spectrum exhibits edge states with energy outside the bulk spectrum. We have displayed in Fig. 14 the spectrum of the finite lattice shown in Fig. 13 and the infinite lattice spectrum.

The dispersive edge states are clearly visible. These have important consequences for superconducting networks since they offer the possibility to nucleate superconductivity on the edges of the sample, at temperatures slightly above the bulk $`T_c(f)`$.

Notice that for specific boundaries, the dispersive edge states can run all around the sample as illustrated in Fig. 13, providing possibly an interesting example of a non chiral (quasi) one-dimensional conductor. Some experiments on ballistic networks etched in a two-dimensional electron gas in GaAs heterostructures have given some indications that edge states may have some influence in transport measurement. Indeed, the variation of the conductance through such a $`𝒯_3`$ network with external field seems to depend on the geometry of the current pattern. On some samples, a stronger dip in the conductance at $`f=1/2`$ has been observed when the current is injected directly in the bulk, in comparison to the usual setup where the current is injected and collected on the edges. In this latter configuration, a non vanishing conductance may be found for a perfect system thanks to these propagating edge states. For illustration, we give an analytical expression for edge states ($`\lambda `$ spectrum) coresponding to the semi-infinite $`𝒯_3`$ network displayed in Fig. 15. For these specific edges, the only non vanishing amplitudes are $`A,C`$ and $`D`$ ($`B=0`$). Therefore, we may choose a convenient gauge in the edge region as displayed in Fig. 15.

Assuming propagating waves in the edge direction with wave vector $`k`$, we must satisfy the following set of equations :

$`3\lambda A`$ $`=`$ $`C+2D\mathrm{cos}(ka)`$ (35)
$`0`$ $`=`$ $`2C\mathrm{cos}(ka)D`$ (36)
$`3\lambda C`$ $`=`$ $`A`$ (37)
$`3\lambda D`$ $`=`$ $`2A\mathrm{cos}(ka)\text{ .}`$ (38)
The corresponding $`\lambda `$ spectrum is given by $`\lambda =\pm \frac{1}{3}\sqrt{1+4\mathrm{cos}^2(ka)}`$. This example shows a dispersive edge spectrum $`\lambda [1/3,\sqrt{5}/3]`$ that lies below and above $`\lambda =1/\sqrt{3}`$ which is the maximum value of $`\lambda `$ for the infinite system. As previously discussed, these states are thus more favourable than the bulk states for the nucleation of superconducting regions in a wire network upon cooling from high temperature.

We have also investigated how these very narrow edge states evolve as some perturbations away from the pure system at $`f=1/2`$ are gradually introduced. On Fig. 16, some edge states are represented for a pure system ($`\sigma =0`$) at $`f=0.52`$ and for a disordered system ($`\sigma =0.01`$) at $`f=1/2`$. Both cases are very similar. The main feature is the spatial broadening of the wave function towards the center of the sample. However, we observe a rather smooth evolution of these states as the strength of the perturbation is increased.

Up to now, we have always consider that the electrons were independent. In the last section, we shall try to analyze the importance of the interactions between particles, in the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice. Note that for simpler systems, the two interacting particle problem under magnetic field has already revealed some unusual interesting features.

## VI The interacting case

Of course, the many-body problem is certainly one of the most difficult to tackle. Here, our goal is to study, in a simple approach, the effect of the electron-electron interactions on the Aharonov-Bohm cages. We underline that this type of system provides a good starting point to understand the competition between localization and interaction even if the nature of the confinement is due to the magnetic field and not to disorder. In our case, the main departure from a realistic disordered model is indeed the preservation of the translation invariance in a localized system. In the following, we first focus on the two electron problem that already displays very interesting features, and we fix the reduced flux to its “critical value” $`f=1/2`$. The system is described by the following Hubbard hamiltonian :

$`H_{Hub.}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i,j,\sigma =,}{}}t_{ij}c_{i,\sigma }^{}c_{j,\sigma }+U{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}n_{i,}n_{i,}`$ (39)
$`=`$ $`H_0+H_{int.}\text{ ,}`$ (40)
where $`c_{i,\sigma }^{}`$ and $`c_{i,\sigma }`$ denotes the creation and annihilation operator of a fermion with spin $`\sigma `$ respectively, $`n_{i,\sigma }=c_{i,\sigma }^{}c_{i,\sigma }`$ the density of spin $`\sigma `$ fermion on site $`i`$, and $`\mathrm{}`$ stands for nearest neighbor pairs. Note that, since the particles considered here are fermions, the interaction term $`U`$ is only efficient in the singlet sector where the orbital part of the wave function is symmetric. For simplicity, we completely neglect the coupling between the magnetic field and the electron spin.

Here, we shall mainly discuss the case of the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice but we must mention the work presented in ref. on the chain of loops displayed in Fig. 9. For this system, we have shown that a Hubbard-like interaction term leads to a delocalization which is directly related to the emergence of dispersive bands in the two-particle spectrum. Of course, such a study is much more complex in the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice, but, as we shall see, it is however possible to show that the same effect is present in this two-dimensional structure.

First, let us remark that if, at a given time, both electrons are far from each other, the local particle density is non vanishing in a cage that is simply the superposition of each individual cages. The interesting case thus arises when the electrons get close. We consider, for instance, an initial state where both electrons $``$ and $``$ are located on the same six-fold coordinated site, and compute the coefficients of the recursion chain for this two-particle wave function. With the site numbering given in Fig. 4, we denote this initial state by $`|\phi _0=|0,0`$. More generally, a ket $`|i,j`$ represents a state where the particle with spin $``$ is located on site $`i`$ and the particle with spin $``$ is located on site $`j`$. Note that we must, in principle, work with the symmetrized ket but, as shown below, since our initial ket $`|0,0`$ is already symmetric, it will automatically generate symmetrized kets. Applying the recursion algorithm in the gauge displayed in Fig. 17, one obtains :

$`H_{Hub.}|\phi _0`$ $`=`$ $`U|0,0+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}|i,0+|0,i`$ (41)
$`a_0`$ $`=`$ $`U,b_1=2\sqrt{3},|\phi _1={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\sqrt{3}}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}|i,0+|0,i\text{,}`$ (42)
$`H_{Hub.}|\phi _1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}}{\displaystyle \underset{i,j=1}{\overset{6}{}}}|i,j+b_1|\phi _0`$ (43)
$`a_1`$ $`=`$ $`0,b_2=2\sqrt{3},|\phi _2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}}{\displaystyle \underset{i,j=1}{\overset{6}{}}}|i,j\text{,}`$ (44)
$`H_{Hub.}|\phi _2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{U}{6}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}|i,i+b_2|\phi _1`$ (45)
$`a_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{U}{6}},b_3={\displaystyle \frac{U\sqrt{5}}{6}},|\phi _3={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{5}{6}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}|i,i{\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}}{\displaystyle \underset{ij=1}{\overset{6}{}}}|i,j\right)\text{,}`$ (46)
$`H_{Hub.}|\phi _3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{5U}{6}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}|i,i+{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}|i,i+6|i,i+7+|i+6,i|i+7,i\right)`$ (47)
$`a_3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{5U}{6}},b_4=2\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{6}{5}}},|\phi _4={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\sqrt{6}}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}}|i,i+6|i,i+7+|i+6,i|i+7,i\text{.}`$ (48)
Since $`|\phi _4`$ has a non vanishing amplitude on the second shell sites ($`i7`$) the two-particle wave packet can spread, so that the Aharonov-Bohm cages associated to $`|0,0`$ seems to be unbound or, at least, larger than the one obtained for $`|0`$ at $`U=0`$. Actually, we have checked numerically that the $`b_{i5}`$’s are non vanishing so that the cage is really unbound.

As for the chain of loops, the propagation is made possible by the existence of two-body bound states in the spectrum. The same analysis as in ref. could be done in the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice but the two-dimensional character of this later structure makes it more difficult. Nevertheless, if one focuses on the small interaction case ($`Ut`$) it is possible to show the emergence of dispersive bands near the ground state energy. Indeed, one can, in this case, treat $`U`$ as a perturbation on the infinitely degenerate level $`2\epsilon _{}`$ without considering the higher energy levels.

To solve this problem, we shall use the periodic gauge displayed in Fig. 18 that provides real hopping terms.

Remark that the periodicity of the structure has doubled and we must now distinguish two different types of 6-fold coordinated sites denoted by $`()`$ and $`()`$. If one restricts the two-body problem analysis to the subspace corresponding to $`2\epsilon _{}`$ (for $`U=0`$), it is convenient to build the two-particle state basis as the tensor product of the one-particle orthogonal “cage” basis displayed in Fig. 19.

Since the problem is invariant under a translation of the center of mass of the two particles, the basis of the singlet states sensitive to $`U`$ can be expressed in terms of the following Bloch waves :

$`|\phi _0(𝐊)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{N_s}}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐫\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}}e^{i𝐊.𝐫}|𝐫,𝐫`$ (49)
$`|\phi _1(𝐊)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{N_s}}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐫\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}}e^{i𝐊.𝐫}|𝐫+𝐯,𝐫+𝐯`$ (50)
$`|\phi _{𝐮_\mathrm{𝟎}}(𝐊)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{N_s}}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐫\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}}e^{i𝐊.𝐫}|𝐫,𝐫+𝐮_S`$ (51)
$`|\phi _{𝐮_\mathrm{𝟏}}(𝐊)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{N_s}}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐫\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}}e^{i𝐊.𝐫}|𝐫+𝐯,𝐫+𝐯+𝐮_S`$ (52)
$`|\phi _{\pm 𝐯}(𝐊)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{N_s}}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐫\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}}e^{i𝐊.𝐫}|𝐫,𝐫\pm 𝐯_S`$ (53)
$`|\phi _{\pm 𝐰}(𝐊)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{N_s}}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐫\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}}e^{i𝐊.𝐫}|𝐫,𝐫\pm 𝐰_S\text{,}`$ (54)
where the origin $`O=(0,0)`$, $`𝐮`$, $`𝐯`$ and $`𝐰`$ are represented in Fig. 18 ; $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the lattice generated by $`𝐮`$ and $`𝐯+𝐰`$ with periodic boundary conditions and containing $`N_s`$ sites ; $`𝐊`$ is a wave vector lying in the first Brillouin zone associated to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Note that the orthogonal basis used here to define the different vectors is different than the basis used in section III. From now on, the ket $`|𝐫,𝐫^{}_S`$ represents the normalized space symmetric state in which one electron is in a cage state (eigenstate of the one-particle non interacting problem) localized around a six-fold coordinated site located in $`𝐫`$ and the other electron is in a cage state localized around a six-fold coordinated site located in $`𝐫^{}`$. Because of the Pauli principle, these kets corresponds to antisymmetric spin wave functions and therefore to singlet states. Note that $`|𝐫;𝐫`$ is automatically symmetric so that we have omit the index $`S`$ for this state. Naturally, if $`|𝐫𝐫^{}|>\sqrt{3}`$, the electrons do not interact so that one may only to consider the 8 two-particle states defined above. Thus, in each irreducible representation indexed by $`𝐊`$, one just has to diagonalize $`H_{Hub.}`$ in the subspace generated by these vectors. Furthermore, as shown in the Appendix A, $`H_{Hub.}`$ can be block diagonalized into two isospectral matrices. After shifting the energies so that for $`U=0`$ the eigenenergies are equal to zero (and not to $`2\epsilon _{}`$), the eigenvalues (in $`U`$ units) are given by the roots of the following characteristic polynomial :

$$P(\epsilon ,𝐊)=\epsilon [10368\epsilon ^3\epsilon ^2(3888+288\mu )+\epsilon (258+20\mu +2\nu )+\mu 3]\text{.}$$
(55)
$`\mu `$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐮)+\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐯)+\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐰)`$ (56)
$`\nu `$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}[𝐊.(𝐮+𝐯)]+\mathrm{cos}[𝐊.(\mathrm{𝟐}𝐮𝐯)]+\mathrm{cos}[𝐊.(\mathrm{𝟐}𝐯𝐮)]\text{.}`$ (57)
Reminding that $`𝐰=𝐯𝐮`$, one can easily check that $`P`$ is unchanged by the tranformation $`𝐮𝐯`$, as it obviously should.

It is readily seen in Eq.(55) that $`\epsilon =0`$ is always an eigenvalue for all $`𝐊`$. The associated eigenvectors have a vanishing amplitude on the kets $`|\phi _0(𝐊)`$ and $`|\phi _1(𝐊)`$ that corresponds to states where both electrons are in the same cage. The absence of dispersion for this family of states suggests that they may be generated by a set localized two particle singlets. As in the one particle problem (see Section III), it is even possible to exhibit such states where the center of mass is confined in a finite area. A possible choice is :

$$|\psi _{Bound}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}\left(|\mathrm{𝟎},𝐮_S|\mathrm{𝟎},𝐮_S|\mathrm{𝟎},𝐯_S+|\mathrm{𝟎},𝐯_S+|\mathrm{𝟎},𝐰_S+|\mathrm{𝟎},𝐰_S\right)$$
(58)
The presence of these localized singlet bound states at zero energy seems to be a particular feature of this lattice.

Apart from this non dispersive band, a close inspection of the polynomial $`P`$ allows one to show that when $`𝐊`$ runs over an elementary cell of the reciprocal lattice, the roots of $`P`$ describe two separate dispersive bands spreading from 0 to 1/12 for the lower one and from 1/4 to 3/8. The corresponding eigenvectors are linear combinations of the 8 vectors introduced above and are actually extended Bloch waves. These two-body bound states are delocalized and thus allow for a propagation of two-particle wave functions as we have already noticed using the recursion analysis (see in Fig. 17). The same perturbative approach in the degenerate ground state can be achieved for the chain of loops. In this latter case, the spectrum, for $`Ut`$ consists in two non dispersive bands with eigenenergies 0 and 1/16, and one dispersive band spreading also from $`1/4`$ to $`3/8`$. Here again these energies are measured in $`U`$ units and shifted such that, for $`U=0`$, the two-body ground state corresponds to a zero energy. We have displayed in Fig. 20 these two spectra.

Two important differences arise between these two structures. First, there is no non dispersive singlet bound state at zero energy for the chain of loops, except the trivial ones involving two remote localized electron states. Non dispersive singlet bound states do exist but their energy is strictly positive and depends on $`U`$. Second, there is a gap between the $`U=0`$ ground state and the first dispersive band (bound state), by contrast to the $`𝒯_3`$ lattice.

The fact that all eigenenergies of the projected hamiltonian are positive is a simple consequence of the same property for the interacting part $`H_{int.}`$. Denoting by $`Q`$ the projector on the lowest energy level of $`H_0`$, the lowest order degenerate perturbation theory proposed above amounts to diagonalize $`QH_{int.}Q`$. For any two-particle eigenstate $`|\psi `$, we have $`\psi |H_{int.}|\psi 0`$ if $`U0`$. In particular, this imposes all eigenvalues of $`QH_{int.}Q`$ to be positive (or vanishing). From this consideration, the appearance of non trivial (degenerate) zero energy bound states in the singlet sector is quite remarkable.

Of course, it would be very interesting to characterize the properties of the system in the presence of a finite density of particles. In the following discussion, we shall always assume $`Ut`$, so that we will only pay attention to the projected hamiltonian $`QH_{int.}Q`$ which is, as discussed above, a positive operator. Denoting by $`N_e`$ the total number of electrons and by $`N_s`$ the total number of sites, we introduce the density $`\rho =N_e/N_s`$ that ranges from 0 to 2 because of the spin degeneracy. In the non interacting case, for $`0\rho 2/3`$, it is possible to put all the electrons, in the ground state of $`H_0`$. Thus, we will restrict our analysis to this interval.

For $`\rho 1/3`$, a possible choice for the ground state is to put each electron in a localized cage state (around 6-fold coordinated sites). In this case, the energy per particle is simply $`\epsilon _{}`$. At low density, if all occupied cages are further isolated from each other (no overlap), the interaction term $`H_{int.}`$ does not affect these configurations which are therefore ground states of $`QH_{Hub.}Q`$. These configurations have a huge spin degeneracy ($`2^{N_e}`$). One can also build ground state configurations containing some connected clusters of singly occupied cage states, provided these clusters are fully spin polarized. Obviously, the total spins of these clusters may be chosen independently from each other without any energy cost. Note that additional configurations with the same energy may also be obtained using the zero energy two particle localized singlet bound states discussed above. An interesting issue would be to determine whether this class of ground states exhausts all the possible ones, for $`\rho 1/3`$. Note that if the density $`\rho `$ lies beyond $`\nu _T/3`$ where $`\nu _T`$ is the site percolation density of the triangular lattice which is formed by the 6-fold coordinated sites, we have an infinite percolating cluster which leads to an infinite magnetization.

As $`\rho `$ approaches $`1/3`$, the ground state thus becomes more and more polarized. If $`N_s`$ denotes the total number of sites, the problem of finding the ground state of the projected hamiltonian becomes more interesting if $`1/3<\rho 2/3`$. A simple class of eigenstates of $`QH_{Hub.}Q`$ is obtained if the magnetization is maximal. It corresponds to a total spin $`S_{max.}=N_s/3N_e/2`$. Indeed, because of the spin rotation invariance, such states can be built from states with $`N_{}=N_s/3`$ and $`N_{}=N_e/2N_s/3`$ after performing a global spin rotation. Here, $`N_{}`$ and $`N_{}`$ denotes the total number of electrons with up and down spins respectively. The condition $`N_{}=N_s/3`$ means that all the single particle ground states of $`H_0`$ are fully occupied by $``$ spin electrons. For these states, the $``$ spin electrons behave as completely localized free fermions with an individual excitation energy equal to $`U`$. To show this, we denote by $`\phi _𝐫(i)=i|𝐫`$ the amplitude at site $`i`$ of the state $`|𝐫`$ which is the single particle cage eigenstates of $`H_0`$ localized around the six-fold coordinated site located at site $`𝐫`$, and we write :

$$QH_{int.}Q=\underset{𝐫_1,𝐫_2,𝐫_3,𝐫_4}{}u(𝐫_3,𝐫_4|𝐫_1,𝐫_2)c_{𝐫_3,}^{}c_{𝐫_4,}^{}c_{𝐫_2,}c_{𝐫_1,}\text{,}$$
(59)
with :

$$u(𝐫_3,𝐫_4|𝐫_1,𝐫_2)=U\underset{j}{}\phi _{𝐫_3}^{}(j)\phi _{𝐫_4}^{}(j)\phi _{𝐫_2}(j)\phi _{𝐫_1}(j)\text{.}$$
(60)
In expression (59), the fermions operator $`c_{𝐫,\sigma }^{}`$ and $`c_{𝐫,\sigma }`$ create and destroy an electron with spin $`\sigma `$ in a state $`|𝐫`$. On a state where all the single particle ground states of $`H_0`$ are fully occupied by up spins electrons, $`c_{𝐫_3,}^{}c_{𝐫_1,}`$ acts as $`\delta _{𝐫_3,𝐫_1}`$ times the identity operator. It is then easy to check that : $`_𝐫u(𝐫_,𝐫_4|𝐫,𝐫_2)=U\delta _{𝐫_4,𝐫_2}`$. As a consequence, for any state $`|\psi `$ such that $`N_{}=N_s/3`$, we have $`QH_{int.}Q|\psi =UN_{}|\psi `$. At this stage, it not clear whether the ground state of the projected hamiltonian has the maximal value $`S_{max.}`$ of the total spin for $`1/3<\rho 2/3`$. Nevertheless, since this is true for $`\rho =1/3`$ according to the previous paragraph, this generalization is plausible. The main question to be adressed is whether a $``$ spin may form a bound state with one or several “magnons”. By magnon, we refer here to particle-hole like excitations which destroy one $``$ spin electron and create one $``$ spin electron. We leave this interesting but more complex problem for future investigations.

To conclude this section, we may say that in spite of the presence of very low lying dispersive bound states for two particles, it is not so easy to turn the finite density system into a good conductor. However, we emphasize that some qualitative changes may arise for finite values of $`U`$, since a sizeable virtual occupancy of excited levels of $`H_0`$ becomes then possible.

## VII Conclusion and perspectives

In this paper, we have studied three types of perturbations which affect the physical properties of a two-dimensional lattice embedded in a magnetic field that presents Aharonov-Bohm cages. Two of them, namely a weak Anderson-like disorder and the finite size effects do not drastically modify the main features of the ideal model. In particular, if the disorder is not too important, the single particle energy eigenstates remain strongly localized for half-integer fluxes per elementary tile, and this independently of the disorder strength. This lasts until the disorder does not introduce a strong mixing between distinct degenerate levels of the unperturbed tight-binding hamiltonian. By contrast, for generic values of the magnetic field, the amount of disorder-induced localization is very sensitive to the disorder strength.

A more delicate situation is obtained in the presence of electron-electron interactions for the many-body system. We have shown how they partially destroy the single particle localization by the generation of extended two particle eigenstates. However, it is not clear at the present stage whether this mechanism is sufficient to induce a metallic behavior for finite electron densities and half a flux quantum per tile. This important question clearly deserves further investigations for the Hubbard model (studied here) and also for more realistic model of continuous narrow wires (few conducting channels), in connection to the experiments on two-dimensional electron gas. We expect to find partially spin polarized ground states in a finite interval of electron density, and a fully polarized state when the number of electron per site equals $`1/3`$. For slightly larger densities, an important question is to understand if the system create some spin textures resembling to skyrmions in quantum Hall effect for filling fractions close to odd integers.

In this context, it would be very interesting to study interacting hard core bosons on this lattice, which would require numerical diagonalization on finite size clusters. Indeed, this model is closely related to the physics of Josephson junction arrays. In the limit of small capacitance islands quantum fluctuations of the order parameter phase are strong and the corresponding trend to localize Cooper pairs could be enhanced by the cage effect. In the other limit where the Josephson coupling dominates, it is not clear that the system at half-integer fluxes will develop a finite stiffness for spatial gradients of the order parameter phase. In this semi-classical regime, we expect a rather large ground state degeneracy as suggested by vortex decoration experiments on superconducting networks.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank C. C. Abilio, G. Faini, M. V. Feigel’man, D. Mailly, P. Martinoli, G. Montambaux, C. Naud, B. Pannetier, and E. Serret for fruitful and stimulating discussions.

## A Diagonalization of the two-electron problem

As explained in section VI, the non trivial part of the hamiltonian is given, in each irreducible representation indexed by $`𝐊`$, by the subspace generated by the eight vectors :

$$(|\phi _0(𝐊),|\phi _{+𝐯}(𝐊),|\phi _𝐯(𝐊)|\phi _{𝐮_\mathrm{𝟎}}(𝐊),|\phi _{𝐮_\mathrm{𝟏}}(𝐊),|\phi _{+𝐰}(𝐊),|\phi _𝐰(𝐊),\phi _1(𝐊)).$$

In this basis, the shifted hamiltonian $`H^{}(𝐊)=(H_{Hub.}(𝐊)2\epsilon _{}I_8)/U`$ ($`I_8`$ denotes the $`8\times 8`$ identity matrix) writes :

$$H^{}(𝐊)=\left(\begin{array}{cccccccc}\frac{7}{24}+\frac{\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐮)}{36}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72\sqrt{2}}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72\sqrt{2}}& 0& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}e^{2i𝐊.𝐯}}{72\sqrt{2}}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72\sqrt{2}}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72\sqrt{2}}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐯}(\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐯)+\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐰))}{36}\\ & & & & & & & \\ & \frac{1}{36}& 0& \frac{1}{72}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72}& \frac{1+e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72}& 0& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72\sqrt{2}}\\ & & & & & & & \\ & & \frac{1}{36}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72}& \frac{e^{2i𝐊.𝐯}}{72}& 0& \frac{1e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.(𝐯+𝐰)}}{72\sqrt{2}}\\ & & & & & & & \\ & & & \frac{1}{36}& 0& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72}& \frac{1}{72}& \frac{1e^{i𝐊.(𝐯+𝐰)}}{72\sqrt{2}}\\ & & & & & & & \\ & & & & \frac{1}{36}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}}{72}& \frac{e^{2i𝐊.𝐯}}{72}& 0\\ & & & & & & & \\ & & & & & \frac{1}{36}& 0& \frac{1}{72\sqrt{2}}\\ & & & & & & & \\ & & & & & & \frac{1}{36}& \frac{e^{2i𝐊.𝐯}}{72\sqrt{2}}\\ & & & & & & & \\ & & & & & & & \frac{7}{24}+\frac{\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐮)}{36}\end{array}\right)\text{ . }$$
(A1)
Note that since $`H^{}(𝐊)`$ is hermitian, we have only given its upper part. Now, let us introduce the following vectors :

$`|\phi (𝐊)_\pm `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(|\phi _0(𝐊)\pm e^{i𝐊.𝐯}|\phi _1(𝐊)\right)`$ (A2)
$`|\phi _𝐮(𝐊)_\pm `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(|\phi _{𝐮_\mathrm{𝟎}}(𝐊)\pm e^{i𝐊.𝐯}|\phi _{𝐮_\mathrm{𝟏}}(𝐊)\right)`$ (A3)
$`|\phi _𝐯(𝐊)_\pm `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(|\phi _{+𝐯}(𝐊)\pm e^{i𝐊.𝐯}|\phi _𝐯(𝐊)\right)`$ (A4)
$`|\phi _𝐰(𝐊)_\pm `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(|\phi _{+𝐰}(𝐊)\pm e^{i𝐊.𝐰}|\phi _𝐰(𝐊)\right)\text{,}`$ (A5)
that corresponds (up to a phase factor), to symmetric and antisymmetric combinations of the initials vectors. The hamiltonian does not connect the subspace generated by $`_1=(|\phi (𝐊)_{},|\phi _𝐯(𝐊)_{}|\phi _𝐮(𝐊)_+,|\phi _𝐰(𝐊)_+)`$ and the subspace generated by $`_2=(|\phi (𝐊)_+,|\phi _𝐯(𝐊)_+,|\phi _𝐮(𝐊)_{},|\phi _𝐰(𝐊)_{})`$. In each subpace, $`H^{}(𝐊)`$ writes :

$$H__1^{}(𝐊)=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}\frac{7}{24}+\frac{\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐮)+\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐯)+\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐰)}{36}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}e^{i𝐊.𝐰}}{72\sqrt{2}}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}e^{2i𝐊.𝐯}}{72\sqrt{2}}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}e^{i𝐊.𝐯}}{72\sqrt{2}}\\ & & & \\ & \frac{1}{36}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}e^{i𝐊.𝐯}}{72}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐯}e^{i𝐊.𝐰}}{72}\\ & & & \\ & & \frac{1}{36}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐯}+e^{2i𝐊.𝐯}}{72}\\ & & & \\ & & & \frac{1}{36}\end{array}\right)\text{ , }$$
(A6)
$$H__2^{}(𝐊)=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}\frac{7}{24}+\frac{\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐮)\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐯)\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐰)}{36}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.(𝐮+𝐯)}+e^{i𝐊.(𝐯+𝐰)}}{72\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1e^{i𝐊.(𝐯+𝐰)}}{72\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1e^{i𝐊.(𝐮+𝐯)}}{72\sqrt{2}}\\ & & & \\ & \frac{1}{36}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}e^{i𝐊.𝐯}}{72}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐯}e^{i𝐊.𝐰}}{72}\\ & & & \\ & & \frac{1}{36}& \frac{e^{i𝐊.𝐮}e^{i𝐊.𝐰}}{72}\\ & & & \\ & & & \frac{1}{36}\end{array}\right)\text{ . }$$
(A7)
The characteristic polynomia $`P__1(\epsilon ,𝐊)`$ and $`P__2(\epsilon ,𝐊)`$ associated to $`H__1^{}(𝐊)`$ and $`H__2^{}(𝐊)`$ respectively reads :

$`P__1(\epsilon ,𝐊)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon }{10368}}[10368\epsilon ^3\epsilon ^2(3888+288\mu _1)+\epsilon (258+20\mu _1+2\nu _1)+\mu _13]`$ (A8)
$`P__2(\epsilon ,𝐊)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon }{10368}}[10368\epsilon ^3\epsilon ^2(3888+288\mu _2)+\epsilon (258+20\mu _2+2\nu _2)+\mu _23]\text{,}`$ (A9)
with :

$`\mu _1`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐮)+\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐯)+\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐰)`$ (A10)
$`\mu _2`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐮)\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐯)\mathrm{cos}(𝐊.𝐰)`$ (A11)
$`\nu _1`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}[𝐊.(𝐮+𝐯)]+\mathrm{cos}[𝐊.(\mathrm{𝟐}𝐮𝐯)]+\mathrm{cos}[𝐊.(\mathrm{𝟐}𝐯𝐮)]`$ (A12)
$`\nu _2`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}[𝐊.(𝐮+𝐯)]\mathrm{cos}[𝐊.(\mathrm{𝟐}𝐮𝐯)]+\mathrm{cos}[𝐊.(\mathrm{𝟐}𝐯𝐮)]\text{ .}`$ (A13)
In the orthogonal basis chosen in section II where $`𝐮=a(3/2,\sqrt{3}/2)`$, $`𝐯=a(3/2,\sqrt{3}/2)`$ and $`𝐰=𝐯𝐮`$, it is straightforward to show that $`P__1(\epsilon ,𝐊)=P__2(\epsilon ,𝐊^{})`$ if $`𝐊=(k_1,k_2)`$ and $`𝐊^{}=(k_1+\pi /3,k_2\pi /\sqrt{3})`$. Thus, it is sufficient to analyze the roots of the polynomial $`P(\epsilon ,𝐊)=P__1(\epsilon ,𝐊)`$ for all $`𝐊`$ belonging to an elementary cell of the reciprocal lattice.


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# FUSE and HST STIS Observations of Hot and Cold Gas in the AB Aurigae System

## 1 Introduction

AB Aurigae (HD 31293) is one of the brightest and best studied Herbig Ae stars, which are considered to be pre-main-sequence stars of intermediate mass (about 2 – 10 M) (Waters & Waelkens, 1998). The star (spectral type A0Ve+sh) is about 2 Myr old and is located at a distance of 144$`{}_{17}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+23}`$ pc from the Sun (van den Ancker et al., 1998). Like most Herbig Ae/Be stars, AB Aur is surrounded by circumstellar gas and dust, some of which is distributed in a disk about the star. Standard stellar theory predicts that Herbig Ae/Be stars should not have convective layers, and therefore, should not have chromospheres, coronae, or strong stellar winds. However, AB Aur and most other Herbig Ae/Be stars do show chromospheric and wind features (Böhm & Catala, 1993). The *Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer* (*FUSE*) provides high-resolution access to a portion of the AB Aur spectrum previously observed only at low spectral resolution with the *Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope*. In this Letter, we present *FUSE* observations of AB Aur, including the first observation of hot O VI gas ($`T3\times 10^5`$ K) and cold molecular hydrogen. The O VI emission should provide an important constraint on any models of the stellar activity seen in the AB Aur system. We also present a simultaneous observation of AB Aur with the *Hubble Space Telescope* (*HST*) Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS); this observation strongly complements the *FUSE* observations by providing column densities of H I and CO.

## 2 *FUSE* observations and data reduction

AB Aurigae was observed with *FUSE* on 2000 February 27 and 28, for a total exposure time of 13.7 ks. The data were obtained using the low-resolution aperture (LWRS), and alignment of the four channels (LiF 1, LiF 2, SiC 1, and SiC 2) was maintained throughout the whole observation (see Sahnow et al. (2000) for a more detailed explanation). The data were flux calibrated using *calfuse 1.6.8* pipeline processing software, but more recent wavelength solutions (2000 June 19) were used for our analysis. We obtained a S/N of about 5 per 12-pixel resolution element in the LiF 1a segment (near 1060 Å), and about 7 in the LiF 1b segment (near 1140 Å).

The wavelength solutions used provide good relative calibration across the LiF channels. However, they have significant zero-point offsets. In order to establish the absolute wavelength calibration of our spectra, we made use of the simultaneous STIS observation of AB Aur described in §5. Assuming that our H2 gas is located in the same region and is at the same velocity as the carbon monoxide gas observed in the STIS spectrum, we set $`v_{\mathrm{H}_2}=v_{\mathrm{CO}}=10\pm 3`$ km s-1, which is close to the heliocentric radial velocity of the star ($`v_{\mathrm{rad}}=8`$ km s-1).

## 3 Analysis of *FUSE* spectrum

The spectrum in Figure 1a shows signal from AB Aur down to C III at 977 Å, and is rich in emission and absorption features, many of which we have not yet been able to identify. The stellar photosphere flux drops off sharply at around 1270 Å (Figure 1b), so virtually all the observed flux in the *FUSE* bandpass is due to a forest of emission lines and possibly some far-UV excess continuum of uncertain origin.

### 3.1 Emission from highly-ionized species O VI and C III

The O VI emission doublet in the LiF 1a segment spectrum is shown in Figure 2a. The $`\lambda `$1038 line is suppressed by H2 absorption; two narrow H2 lines are also superimposed on the $`\lambda `$1032 line. These two narrow lines were masked out of the data, and a Gaussian model was least-squares fitted to the spectrum between 1029 Å and 1035 Å. A model for the O VI doublet was created using this Gaussian fit, assuming the optically thin line ratio 2:1 to model the $`\lambda `$1038 line. This O VI model was multiplied by the normalized H2 absorption model discussed in §3.2; the result is overplotted on the data in Figure 2a, showing how the strong H2 absorption lines near 1037 Å and 1039 Å cut off the wings of the $`\lambda `$1038 line, reproducing the peculiar line shape quite well. However, this analysis indicates that there should be additional flux visible at 1038.8 Å; absorption from some other atomic species may be responsible for the lack of observed emission. The Gaussian fit to the $`\lambda `$1032 line is redshifted ($`v=105\pm 11`$ km s-1, corrected for the zero-point offset of the wavelength calibration), with a FWHM $`=356\pm 11`$ km s-1.

The O VI line profile does not appear to be a standard type I P Cygni profile (Beals, 1950), because no blueshifted absorption is observed on the small but significant continuum flux around the emission line. While the Gaussian model fits the red wing of the $`\lambda `$1032 line quite well, there is excess emission on the blue wing. This asymmetry in the line-profile suggests that the O VI emission is formed in AB Aur’s stellar wind, but this conclusion is tentative until more detailed modeling is complete.

The C III $`\lambda `$977 line in the SiC 1b segment spectrum is shown in Figure 2b. Again, there are narrow H2 absorption lines superimposed on the emission feature, which were masked out before least-squares fitting a Gaussian to the line. The bulk of the emission is redshifted ($`v=192\pm 11`$ km s-1), but the C III emission feature clearly is not well-described by a single Gaussian. There is an “absorption feature” at $``$ 978 Å, superimposed on the C III emission, that does not arise from H2. The origin of this feature has not yet been determined, but it is not likely to be interstellar, because of its large redshift and width.

### 3.2 Molecular hydrogen

The H2 absorption features visible in our *FUSE* spectrum do not show any evidence of multiple velocity components. The LiF 1a and LiF 2a data were normalized with simple continua found from linear fits to the spectrum between 1040 Å and 1120 Å. Our H2 absorption model was generated using molecular data from Abgrall et al. (1993a) and Abgrall et al. (1993b). Voigt line-profiles were used to create transmission functions, which were then convolved with a Gaussian instrumental line-spread function with $`FWHM=\lambda /15000`$. The $`\chi ^2`$ statistic between the model and the data was minimized to find the best model parameters, with $`1\sigma `$ error bars determined from the contours of $`\chi ^2`$. The velocity of the gas was found by least-squares fitting Gaussians to a number of narrow lines between 1050 Å and 1120 Å. We measured $`v_{\mathrm{H}_2}=103\pm 10`$ km s-1, but set this value to the STIS carbon monoxide velocity, $`v_{\mathrm{CO}}=10\pm 3`$ km s-1, to determine the zero-point offset of our wavelength calibration.

Since the relative populations of H2 energy levels with $`\nu =0`$ and $`J=0,1`$ are determined primarily by thermal collisions, the excitation temperature found from these levels should be close to the kinetic temperature of the gas. However, the populations of the higher levels ($`J2`$) can be inflated by UV and/or formation pumping and by radiative cascade (Shull & Beckwith, 1982). Therefore, the low $`J`$ and high $`J`$ levels were analyzed separately. Windows containing only lines arising from the $`J=0,1,2`$ levels in the five bands between 1048 Å and 1120 Å were cut out of the normalized LiF 1a and LiF 2a data and $`\chi ^2`$ minimization performed using a model containing only these lines. We permitted the model to have a slightly different velocity shift for each of the windows, to eliminate any systematic errors arising from the uncertainty in the H2 velocity determination. The parameters of the model were $`N(J=0)`$, $`N(J=1)`$, $`N(J=2)`$, the column densities in the $`J=0,1,2`$ levels respectively, and $`b`$, the Doppler broadening parameter. From the ratio $`N(J=1)/N(J=0)`$, we calculate the gas kinetic temperature of the H2, $`T=65\pm 4`$ K. To analyze the high $`J`$ lines, we again cut windows containing only lines arising from $`J2`$ out of the data, and performed $`\chi ^2`$ minimization using a model containing only those lines. We find the excitation temperature of the high $`J`$ lines to be $`212\pm 20`$ K. The column densities of molecules in each rotational level were summed to find the total H2 column density, $`N(\mathrm{H}_2)=(6.8\pm 0.5)\times 10^{19}`$ cm-2. The final best two-temperature model is shown overplotted on a portion of the LiF 1a spectrum in Figure 3a.

## 4 STIS Observation and data reduction

AB Aur was observed by *HST* on 2000 February 28. A total exposure time of 1813 s was obtained using the E140M echelle grating and the $`0.\mathrm{}2\times 0.\mathrm{}06`$ spectroscopic slit. The spectrum covered 1150–1725 Å with a resolution of $``$ 46,000. The data were reduced using the STIS IDT software *calstis*. Echelle spectra are subject to interorder scattered light; to compensate for this, we used the algorithm developed by Don Lindler and discussed in Holberg et al. (1999), which accurately achieves zero flux in the trough of the interstellar Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption. The STIS wavelength scale in this mode is accurate to 3 km s-1 (Pagano et al., 2000). The spectrum between 1200 Å and 1300 Å is shown in Figure 1b. Longward of 1300 Å, the spectrum resembles an early A star with the heavy line blanketing typical of Herbig Ae stars in the UV. The STIS spectrum reached a continuum S/N=20.6 near 1471 Å, and S/N=16 near 1504 Å. The S/N at shorter wavelengths is lower, S/N $`3.8`$ per 0.2 Å bin at Lyman $`\alpha `$.

## 5 Analysis of STIS spectrum

The STIS spectrum of AB Aur is rich in emission lines from a wide range of ionization states. The data shortward of 1310 Å show type I P Cygni profiles arising from the low-ionization species O I and N I, and more complex emission profiles in Si III and C III $`\lambda `$1176.

### 5.1 Extinction, Lyman $`\alpha `$, and $`N`$(H I)

The measured color index of AB Aur, (B–V), is 0.12. IUE low-dispersion spectra of AB Aur (SWP 24389) were unreddened using the interstellar excinction law of Cardelli, Clayton, & Mathis (1989). Comparison with unreddened spectral standards suggests that the best overall match in the FUV is $`\gamma `$ UMa, type A0 V (SWP 8198), with (B–V)$`{}_{0}{}^{}=0.04`$ and R = 3.1. We therefore find the selective extinction toward AB Aur, $`\mathrm{E}(\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V})=0.08`$, and the general extinction, $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}=\mathrm{R}\times \mathrm{E}(\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V})=0.25`$.

Lyman $`\alpha `$ emission is formed in the chromosphere of AB Aur, and it appears likely that the chromosphere is expanding, based on profiles of other low-ionization species. Since these line-profiles in the STIS spectrum of AB Aur are observed to be type I P Cygni profiles, with the emission extending down to the stellar radial velocity, it is likely that the intrinsic Lyman $`\alpha `$ profile is a type I P Cygni profile as well. However, the short wavelength edge of the observed emission does not extend down to the stellar radial velocity; this is presumably due to the interstellar Lyman $`\alpha `$ absorption. The wavelength at which the interstellar absorption is no longer optically thick, where the observed flux rises above the zero level, is highly sensitive to the interstellar H I column density, but insensitive to the assumed b-value. We find $`N(`$H I$`)`$ toward the star to be $`3\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2. We obtain roughly the same value using several different assumptions about the underlying continuum flux. However, uncertainty about the exact shape of the stellar line-profile could cause the error in this value to be as much as 50%. Future work will refine $`N(`$H I$`)`$ after detailed modeling of AB Aur’s winds determines the unattenuated stellar flux presented to the interstellar H I atoms.

### 5.2 Carbon monoxide

The (1-0), (2-0), and (3-0) bands of the CO Fourth Positive band system ($`A^1\mathrm{\Pi }X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }^+`$) are visible in the STIS spectrum (Figure 3b). No lines arising from 13CO were observed. The continua in the vicinity of the bands were fitted with fifth-degree polynomials. An absorption model was generated using wavelengths and oscillator strengths from Morton & Noreau (1994) and energies of the ground-state levels were calculated using the Dunham coefficients from Farrenq et al. (1991). $`\chi ^2`$ minimization was performed on all three bands simultaneously to find the best rotational excitation temperature, $`T_{\mathrm{CO}}=7.0\pm 0.7`$ K, Doppler broadening parameter, $`b=3.8\pm 0.4`$ km s-1, column density of 12CO, $`N(\mathrm{CO})=(7.1\pm 0.5)\times 10^{13}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, and velocity centroid, $`v=10\pm 3`$ km s-1.

## 6 Discussion

We find a total column density of hydrogen atoms, $`N_\mathrm{H}=N(`$H I$`)+2N(\mathrm{H}_2)=4.4\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2, which is typical of a diffuse molecular cloud. The fractional abundance of H2, $`f=2N(\mathrm{H}_2)/\mathrm{N}_\mathrm{H}=0.31`$. Only 11 out of 91 stars in the Savage et al. (1977) *Copernicus* survey of interstellar H2 show a larger value of $`f`$, and these sight-lines all have larger values of $`\mathrm{E}(\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V})`$ and $`N_\mathrm{H}`$. This might suggest that our line-of-sight to AB Aur has an anomalously high molecular fraction, but this conclusion is tentative until further *FUSE* H2 measurements of a variety of interstellar environments are complete. The CO$`/`$H2 ratio is $`(1.04\pm 0.11)\times 10^6`$. We find the gas-to-dust ratio, $`N_\mathrm{H}/\mathrm{E}(\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V})=5.5\times 10^{21}`$. The mean ratio for standard clouds within 2 kpc of the Sun is $`5.9\times 10^{21}`$, indicating that our gas-to-dust ratio is not atypical (Bohlin et al., 1978).

Optical coronagraphic images of AB Aur show an extended arc of reflection nebulosity to the east of the system, in addition to the circumstellar disk centered on the star (Nakajima & Golimowski, 1995; Grady et al., 1999). Nakajima & Golimowski (1995) suggest that such nebulosities are the remnants of the original molecular clouds that collapsed to form low-mass stars. Our values of the various parameters describing the cold H2 and CO gasses ($`T_{\mathrm{kin}}`$, $`N_\mathrm{H}`$, $`f`$, CO$`/`$H2 and $`N_\mathrm{H}/\mathrm{E}(\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V})`$) are consistent with this suggestion, and we believe that the H2 and CO gasses toward AB Aur are probably located in a remnant molecular cloud envelope around the star. The fact that the velocity of the CO gas is equal (within measurement error) to the stellar radial velocity supports this conclusion. The molecular gasses are not likely to be located in the circumstellar disk around AB Aur, since the disk inclination is such that our line-of-sight to the star does not pass through the disk (Grady et al., 1999).

Turning to the hot, highly-ionized gasses, FUV emission lines from O VI and C III are observed in the solar spectrum, and are produced in the transition zone between the chromosphere and the corona. However, detailed modeling of the N V ($`T1.4\times 10^5`$ K) emission previously observed from AB Aur with GHRS found that a homogeneous, spherically-symmetric high-temperature zone could not produce the observed N V emission without producing strong N IV or C IV emission as well, which is not seen (Bouret et al., 1997). Bouret et al. (1997) concluded that small, hot clumps, formed by shocks in a stellar wind, could reproduce the FUV emission lines, as well as the weak X-ray flux observed from AB Aur. Future work will determine if the wind-shock model can reproduce the observed emission from C III and the higher-temperature ($`T3\times 10^5`$ K) species O VI.

This work is based on observations made with the NASA-CNES-CSA *Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer* and on NASA-ESA *Hubble Space Telescope* observations obtained at the STScI under the Guaranteed Time Observer program 8065. *FUSE* is operated for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University under NASA contract NAS5-32985. The work performed by J.-C. Bouret was supported by a National Research Council-(NASA GSFC) Research Associateship.


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# GENIUS and the Genius TF: A New Observatory for WIMP Dark Matter and Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

## 1 Introduction

The topic of Dark Matter search has lately gained particular actuality by the results of the DAMA  and CDMS  experiments. The DAMA collaboration claims to see positive evidence for WIMP dark matter using the annual modulation signature, whereas the CDMS experiment seems to almost exclude fully the DAMA allowed cross-sections for WIMP dark matter. It is, therefore, of utmost importance to independently test these results using both experimental approaches: to look for the WIMP-nucleus recoil signal and for the annual modulation effect. However, should the positive DAMA WIMP evidence be disproven, a large step forward in terms of increasing the sensitivity of Dark Matter experiments is needed in order to obtain relevant data concerning WIMP dark matter. In this article we shortly highlight the physics potential of the GENIUS project  regarding WIMP Dark Matter search, neutrinoless double beta decay and the real time observation of Solar neutrinos and we introduce the Genius TF , a new experimental setup to probe the evidence region favoured by the DAMA experiment  and to test the prerequisites neccessary to realize the Genius project.

## 2 The GENIUS experiment

In order to achieve a dramatic step forward regarding background reduction, a new experimental technique is needed. The GENIUS project uses the concept of application of standard detection techniques while removing all dangerous contaminations from the direct vicinity of the detectors.

### 2.1 The concept of the GENIUS experiment

The GENIUS project  is based on the idea to operate ’naked’ HPGe crystals directly in liquid nitrogen . The naked Germanium crystals are located in a huge nitrogen tank (diameter 12-13 m). This way all dangerous contaminations from the direct vicinity of the crystals are removed. This has the great advantage that the liquid nitrogen which is very clean with respect to radiopurity due to its production process (fractional distillation), can act simultaneously as cooling medium and shield against external activities. The conceptual design of the experiment is shown in figure 3.

It has been shown that with this approach a reduction of background by three to four orders of magnitude can be achieved . The final reachable background index with a 12 m diameter GENIUS tank is estimated to be around $`10^2`$ counts/(kg keV y) in the low-energy region below 50 keV. The sensitivity regarding WIMP Dark Matter search reachable with this background and a total detector mass of 100 kg of natural Germanium can be seen in Fig. 1.

With a background of $``$ 0.1 counts/(t keV y), which can be reached with this device in the energy region around the Q-value of the neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge at 2038.5 keV, and with 1 tonne of enriched 76Ge, GENIUS would be sensitive to an effective Majorana neutrino mass down to $``$0.01 eV. This will allow already to test many different neutrino mass scenarios (see figure 2). If the sensitivity of GENIUS would be increased to a level of $``$m$`{}_{\nu }{}^{}`$ 0.001 eV (using 10 tonnes of 76Ge), this would allow to test all neutrino mass scenarios allowed by present neutrino oscillation experiments - except for one, the (not favoured) hierarchical LOW solution. For a detailed discussion see .

With a background index of 10-3counts/(kg keV y) in the energy region below 200 keV, which can be reached with a tank size of 13 m diameter and some improved shielding, GENIUS (10 tons) would be able to see the full solar pp neutrino spectrum in real time , with a count rate being a factor of 30-60 larger than a 20 tonnes LENS detector, and with a threshold of 11 keV or 19 keV.

### 2.2 Tritium production in HPGe at sea level

As evident from previous considerations of the expected background , great care has to be taken about the cosmogenic isotopes produced inside the HPGe crystals at sea level. However, with an additional shield against the hard component of cosmic rays during fabrication, the good sensitivity for dark matter can be maintained.

Especially the production of 68Ge from the isotope 70Ge can affect the sensitivity due to the 10.37 keV X-ray emitted by the decay of 68Ge to 68Ga. In the main reaction leading to 68Ge enhancement tritium is produced through the process 70Ge(n,t)68Ge. Tritium has a half life of 12.35 years and can thus not be deactivated within a reasonable time. 3H is a $`\beta `$ emitter with a Q-value of 18.6 keV.

The cosmogenic production rate of 3H in natural germanium has been estimated through simulations in  using the cosmic neutron fluxes cited in . For natural germanium it is estimated to be less than $``$ 200 atoms per day and kg material. Using this upper limit for tritium production at sea level with an overall fabrication time of ten days this would mean a tritium abundance of $``$ 2000 atoms per kilogram material. With the half life of 12.3 years this results in a decay rate of $``$3.6 $`\mu `$Bq/kg equivalent to $``$113 decays per year (this is in very good agreement with the result in ). Even assuming an energy threshold of 12 keV and taking into account the spectral shape of tritium decay this yields an event rate of approximately 2 counts/(kg keV y) in the energy region between 12 keV and 19 keV, which is by two orders of magnitude above the allowed count rate required for GENIUS as a dark matter detector.

This consideration drastically shows the importance of proper planning of the crystal production and transportation. To avoid major problems with cosmogenic isotopes it is therefore essential to minimize the exposure of the crystals to cosmic rays at sea level.

It is therefore planned to shield the detector material during the complete 78 hours of production after the zone refining and approximately one week of transportation periods using concrete with a thickness equivalent to $``$ 5 mwe. Heavy concrete can be produced with a density up to 5.9 g/cm3. Thus an additional heavy concrete layer of 1 m could act as a shield of roughly 5 mwe. This reduces the hard nucleonic component mainly responsible for the cosmogenic isotope production by up to two orders of magnitude . A further increase of shielding strength does not seem to be reasonable since the cosmogenic production through fast muons which is by approximately two orders of magnitude less than through the hadronic component can not be shielded whatsoever.

With such a protection a reduction of the tritium production by a factor of $``$ 30 (see figures 2 and 3 in ) can be obtained. In this way the final background from tritium in the energy interval between 12 keV and 19 keV would be $``$1.6$`\times 10^2`$ counts/(kg keV y) without additional transportation and $``$5.6$`\times 10^2`$ counts/(kg keV y) with a week of transport from the fabrication site to the site of the experiment.

## 3 The Genius-TF

It has been shown that with a setup using a conventional shield, a sensitivity can be reached which allows for a test of the DAMA evidence region within a short time period. With an active mass of the detector of approximately 40 kg, projected for the Genius-TF (see Fig. 4), in which the background index will be maintained, not only the WIMP-nucleon recoil spectrum, but also the expected signature of WIMP dark matter in form of the annual modulation signal could be tested within a reasonable time window with a sensitivity probing the full DAMA evidence region .

The Genius Test Facility could test the following points: the long term stability of ’naked’ HPGe-detectors in liquid nitrogen, the possibility of constructing a feasible holder system and in addition the DAMA evidence contour, through testing the expected signal and signature. The GENIUS-TF will also be a suitable place to develop and test the electronics needed for the GENIUS experiment. The data acquisition system should be based on a modular structure being capable of taking data from up to 300 detectors simultaneously.

### 3.1 The Test Facility

The concept of the GENIUS proposal has the great advantage that no individual cryostat system is needed. Instead the HPGe crystals are surrounded by liquid nitrogen of much higher radiopurity which in addition provides ideal cooling and shielding against external radiation. This opens the new research potentials for the Genius project .

It is proposed to install a setup with up to fourteen detectors on a small scale in order to be sensitive in the range of the DAMA result  on a short time scale and to prove the long term stability of the new detector concept.

The design is shown in figure 4. It is based on a dewar made from low-activity polystyrene and on a shield of zone refined germanium bricks inside the dewar and low activity lead outside the dewar. A layer of boron loaded polyethylene plates for suppression of neutron-induced background completes the shield.

340 kg of zone-refined high-purity Germanium bricks will serve as the inner layer to shield the ’naked’ HPGe detector against the less radio-pure polystyrene. Also the first 5cm layer outside the polystyrene-dewar needs to be of extreme radiopurity. The same type of copper as installed in the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment, and/or some complementary low-level lead could be used. To shield the external $`\gamma `$ rays (natural radioactivity from the surroundings) an overall lead layer of approximately 35 cm is needed.

Using this concept an inner detector chamber of 40 cm$`\times `$40 cm$`\times `$40 cm would be sufficient to house up to seven HPGe-detectors in one layer or 14 detectors in two layers. This will allow for the development and test of a holder system for the same amount of crystals.

The overall dimension of the experiment will be 1.8 m$`\times `$1.8 m$`\times `$1.8 m thus fitting in one of the buildings of the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment which is used momentarily for material measurements.

The background considerations and simulations discussed in , which extend those of  suggest that a reduction of the background by a factor of $``$5-10 with respect to the Heidelberg-Moscow-Experiment can be attained with the proposed setup.

Assuming a final target mass of 40 kg, an energy threshold of 12 keV and a background index of 4 counts/(kg keV y) corresponding to $``$ 0.01 counts/(kg keV d) in the energy region between 12 keV and 100 keV the Genius TF would need a significance of 190 kg y to see the claimed DAMA annual modulation with 95% probability and 90%C.L. (see ). This corresponds to an overall measuring time of approximately five years which would correspond to the life time of this experiment.

However, the new detectors will have an energy threshold of 0.5 keV (four detectors with 2.5 kg weight each, and this threshold have been produced already) thus allowing for the use of the experimental spectrum in the energy range between the threshold and the X-ray peaks seen from the cosmogenically produced isotopes. This will significantly improve the sensitivity of the Genius TF on the annual modulation effect.

In the energy region around the Q-value of the double beta decay of 76Ge at 2038.5 keV a background index of $`7\times 10^3`$counts/(kg keV y) could be reached, leading to a sensitivity for the effective Majorana neutrino mass down to 0.15 eV with 90% C.L.

The construction of the setup will be started in 2001. First results may be expected in the end of the year 2002.

## 4 Conclusions

The large physics potential of the GENIUS project regarding WIMP Dark Matter search, neutrinoless double beta decay search and real time observation of solar pp-neutrinos has been briefly outlined. We presented the Genius TF, a test facility for the GENIUS project, whose construction started in early 2001. The Genius TF can, according to Monte Carlo simulations, reach a background of $``$ 2-4 counts/(kg keV y) in the energy region between 11 keV and 100 keV. Thus it could for the first time probe the DAMA evidence region using both, the WIMP-nuclear recoil signal and the annual modulation signature.