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# Rationally connected varieties over finite fields

In this paper we study rationally connected varieties defined over finite fields. Then we lift these results to rationally connected varieties over local fields.

Roughly speaking, a variety $`X`$ over an algebraically closed field is rationally connected if it contains a rational curve through any number of assigned points $`P_1,\mathrm{},P_n`$. See \[Kollár01a\] for an introduction to their theory and for an explanation of the place of rationally connected varieties in the framework of the classification theory of algebraic varieties. There are many equivalent conditions defining this notion, see, for instance, \[Kollár96, IV.3\]. The definition given below essentially corresponds to the case of 2 points. In positive characteristic we also have to be mindful of some inseparability problems.

###### Definition 1.

A smooth, proper variety $`X`$ is called separably rationally connected or SRC, if there is a variety $`U`$ and a morphism $`F:U\times ^1X`$ such that the induced map

$$F(\mathrm{\_},(0:1))\times F(\mathrm{\_},(1:0)):UX\times X$$

is dominant and separable.

If $`X`$ is defined over a field $`k`$ and the $`P_i`$ are also defined over $`k`$, it is of interest to find rational curves defined over $`k`$ passing through these points. In general this cannot be done. For instance, consider the surface

$$S^0:=(x^2+y^2=\underset{i=1}{\overset{2m}{}}(za_i))𝔸^3,\text{where }a_i\text{.}$$

Let $`SS^0`$ be any smooth compactification. The fibers of the projection to the $`z`$-axis $`S^0𝔸_z`$ are conics, thus $`S`$ is ruled over $`^1`$. Therefore $`S`$ is rational over $``$. As a topological space $`S()`$ has $`m`$ connected components. If we pick points $`P_1,P_2`$ in different connected components of $`S()`$ then there is no rational curve defined over $``$ passing through both points (since $`^1()`$ is connected).

The main technical result of the present paper (Theorem 16) implies that for finite fields one can almost always find such rational curves. More precisely, we have the following:

###### Theorem 2.

There is a function $`\mathrm{\Phi }:^3`$ with the following property:

Let $`X^N`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety of dimension $`3`$ over a finite field $`k`$ and $`SX`$ a zero–dimensional smooth subscheme.

If $`|k|>\mathrm{\Phi }(\mathrm{deg}X,dimX,\mathrm{deg}S)`$, then there is a smooth rational curve $`C_SX`$ containing $`S`$, where $`|k|`$ denotes the cardinality of $`k`$.

###### Remark 3.

(1) If $`dimX=2`$ then there are very few smooth rational curves even over $`\overline{k}`$. For instance, in $`^2`$ the only smooth rational curves are lines and conics. If $`S`$ consists of 3 points on a line plus another point then there is no smooth rational curve containing $`S`$.

For all applications considered in this paper, one can work with $`X\times ^1`$ instead of the surface $`X`$ to obtain the relevant conclusions.

One can also see from the proof that if $`X`$ is a surface, we obtain an immersed curve $`^1X`$ through $`S`$.

(2) We can also be more precise about the curve $`C_S`$. For instance, with small modifications of the proof one sees that Theorem 2 remains true if we only assume that $`S`$ has embedding dimension 1.

We can also require that $`C_S`$ avoid a given codimension 2 subset of $`X`$ and that it be transversal to a given divisor at all points outside $`S`$.

(3) The function $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is explicitly computable from the proof though it is rather huge. Even if we allow singular curves $`C_S`$, some condition on $`|k|`$ is needed. For instance, the number of $`k`$-points in $`S`$ cannot exceed $`|k|+1`$, the number of $`k`$-points in $`^1`$. We do not know any other necessary condition with singular $`C_S`$. In the smooth case, there are also problems with too few $`k`$-points. For instance, \[Swinnerton-Dyer81, 5.5\] contains an example of a cubic surface $`S`$ over $`𝔽_2`$ with only one rational point. Thus $`S\times S`$ does not contain any smooth rational curves defined over $`𝔽_2`$. We do not know what a reasonable $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ should be.

(4) By a recent result of \[Esnault02\], an SRC variety defined over a finite field always has a point in that field.

We give two applications of this result to the study of the R-equivalence of points and the Chow group of 0-cycles $`\mathrm{CH}_0(X)`$. The interesting part is the Chow group of degree zero 0-cycles, denoted by $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X)`$.

The Chow group of zero cycles over a finite field is completely described in \[Kato-Saito83\]. Their result implies that if $`X`$ is a smooth, projective variety defined over a finite field which is geometrically simply connected then $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X)=0`$. SRC varieties were recently shown to be geometrically simply connected (see \[Kollár01b\] or \[Debarre01, 3.6\]), so $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X)=0`$ for them. We give a geometric proof of this result for SRC varieties. The advantage of this proof is that it allows one to go from finite fields to local fields. (For our purposes local fields are the quotient fields of complete discrete valuation rings with finite residue field.) Lifting results of this type have been known for cubic surfaces \[Swinnerton-Dyer81\]. Recently this was extended to cubic hypersurfaces \[Madore02\]. For surfaces both results were established by \[Colliot-Thélène83\].

###### Theorem 4.

\[Kato-Saito83\] Let $`k`$ be a finite field and $`X`$ a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety over $`k`$. Then $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X)=0`$.

###### Theorem 5.

Let $`K`$ be a local field with residue field $`k`$ and $`X`$ a variety over $`K`$. Assume that $`X`$ has a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected reduction over $`k`$. Then $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X)=0`$.

R-equivalence on cubic surfaces was introduced in \[Manin72\] in order to study the parametrization of rational points. \[Swinnerton-Dyer81\] proves that R-equivalence is trivial on smooth cubic surfaces over finite fields. Precise computations on certain algebraic groups and related spaces are done in \[Gille98, Gille01, Moret-Bailly01, Moret-Bailly02\].

###### Definition 6.

Let $`X`$ be a proper variety defined over a field $`k`$. Two points $`x,x^{}X(k)`$ are called directly R-equivalent if there is a morphism $`f:^1X`$ (defined over $`k`$) such that $`f(0:1)=x`$ and $`f(1:0)=x^{}`$. The equivalence relation generated by this is called R-equivalence. Informally speaking, two points are R-equivalent if they can be connected by a chain of rational curves over $`k`$. If all the points in $`X(k)`$ are R-equivalent, then we say that R-equivalence is trivial on $`X(k)`$.

###### Theorem 7.

There is a function $`\mathrm{\Psi }:^2`$ with the following property:

Let $`X^N`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety over the finite field $`k`$. If $`|k|>\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{deg}X,dimX)`$ then R-equivalence is trivial on $`X(k)`$.

###### Theorem 8.

There is a function $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}:^2`$ with the following property:

Let $`K`$ be a local field with residue-field $`k`$ and $`X^N`$ a variety over $`K`$. Assume that $`X`$ has a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected reduction over $`k`$. If $`|k|>\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(\mathrm{deg}X,dimX)`$ then R-equivalence is trivial on $`X(K)`$.

The following corollary answers a question of Colliot-Thélène which was the starting point of our investigations. Let $`X`$ be a smooth projective variety over a number field $`K`$. For a prime $`P`$, let $`X_P`$ denote the corresponding variety over the $`P`$-adic completion $`K_P`$. Our results imply that the Chow group of zero cycles and R-equivalence are both trivial for almost every completion. This has been known in several special cases, see \[CT-S77, Colliot-Thélène83, CT-S-SD87, Gille01, Moret-Bailly01, Moret-Bailly02\].

###### Corollary 9.

Let $`X`$ be a smooth projective rationally connected variety over a number field $`K`$. Then $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X_P)=0`$ and R-equivalence is trivial on $`X(K_P)`$ for all but finitely many primes $`P`$. ∎

###### 10Open problems.

There are several unsolved problems closely related to these results. First of all, one may wish to know something about the function $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{deg}X,dimX)`$. Unlike in the case of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, the known examples suggest that here the bound is not needed at all:

###### Question 11.

Do Theorems (7) and (8) remain true without the assumption $`|k|>\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{deg}X,dimX)`$?

More optimistically, one can ask the following question, which could be the strongest version of (2) that does not need any assumption on $`|k|`$.

###### Question 12.

Let $`X`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety over a finite field $`k`$. Let $`C`$ be a smooth curve over $`k`$ and $`TC`$ a zero–dimensional subscheme. Is it true that every morphism $`g_T:TX`$ can be extended to $`g:CX`$?

This is easily seen to be true if $`X`$ is rational over $`k`$.

Our current methods say very little about SRC varieties over local fields with bad reduction. The following basic finiteness result for R-equivalence is known:

###### Theorem 13.

\[Kollár99\] Let $`X`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety over a local field $`K`$. Then $`X(K)`$ has finitely many R-equivalence classes.

The analogous statement about the Chow group is not known, except for surfaces \[Colliot-Thélène83\].

###### Conjecture 14.

Let $`X`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety defined over a local field. Then $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X)`$ is finite.

The separability condition in (5) is essential. Indeed, there are varieties of general type over $`_p`$ whose reduction to $`𝔽_p`$ is smooth and purely inseparably uniruled. (Some very nice examples are given in \[Shioda-Katsura79\].) The Chow group $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0`$ is very large for some of them, see \[Mumford68\].

On the other hand, one would expect that our results hold for Fano varieties even if they are not separably rationally connected. The first case to investigate would be smooth hypersurfaces $`X^n`$ of degree $`n`$. These are all rationally connected but not known to be always SRC in low characteristics. (The examples in \[Kollár96, V.5\] have some mild singularities.)

###### 15.

Let $`X`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety over a field $`k`$ and $`SX`$ a zero–dimensional smooth subscheme. Our aim is to find a rational curve $`CX`$ defined over $`k`$, passing through $`S`$.

If $`X`$ is SRC, there are such curves over $`\overline{k}`$ (cf. \[Kollár96, IV.3.9\]), thus the space $`M\mathrm{Hilb}(X)`$ of smooth rational curves containing $`S`$ is not empty. We want to find a point $`[C]M(k)`$ corresponding to a curve $`C`$. For technical reasons it is easier to concentrate on the case when $`[C]`$ is a smooth point of $`M`$. Suppose that there is a smooth $`k`$-point $`[C]`$ and let $`M_CM`$ denote the unique irreducible component containing $`[C]`$. Then $`M_C`$ is geometrically irreducible since it has a smooth $`k`$-point.

The Galois group $`\mathrm{Gal}(\overline{k}/k)`$ acts on the irreducible components of $`M_{\overline{k}}`$ and it fixes $`M_C`$. Thus a first step to find $`k`$-rational points on $`M`$ is to find an irreducible subvariety $`WM_{\overline{k}}`$ which is Galois invariant; that is, defined over $`k`$ if $`k`$ is perfect. (16) asserts that this is always possible.

For an arbitrary field, for instance for $`k=`$, finding $`W`$ helps very little in finding rational curves defined over $`k`$. The situation is, however, much better over finite fields, as we see in (21).

The main technical result of the paper is a statement about SRC varieties over arbitrary perfect fields:

###### Theorem 16.

Let $`X^N`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety of dimension $`3`$ over a perfect field $`k`$. Let $`SX`$ be a zero–dimensional smooth subscheme.

Then there is a nonempty locally closed subset $`W`$ of the Hilbert scheme $`\mathrm{Hilb}(X)`$ such that

1. $`W`$ parametrizes certain smooth rational curves $`CX`$ of degree $`d(X,S)`$ which contain $`S`$.
2. $`W`$ is geometrically irreducible and smooth.
3. The restriction $`T_X|_{C_w}(S)`$ is ample.
4. $`d(X,S)`$ is bounded from above in terms of $`dimX`$, $`\mathrm{deg}X`$ and $`\mathrm{deg}S`$.

###### Remark 17.

In contrast with some similar results (for instance \[Kollár02, 3\]) we no longer have $`k`$-points in compactifications of $`W`$. We lose this in Step 2 of (22).

###### Remark 18.

Assume that $`k`$ is algebraically closed. Let $`R(X,S)\mathrm{Hilb}(X)`$ denote the space of all rational curves in $`X`$ passing through $`S`$. If $`\alpha `$ denotes a numerical equivalence class of curves, then $`R(X)`$ decomposes as a disjoint union $`R(X,S)=_\alpha R_\alpha (X,S)`$. It is reasonable to expect that for “general” $`\alpha `$, the spaces $`R_\alpha (X,S)`$ are irreducible. This would be a much stronger statement than (16). There are, however, very few definitive results in this direction. The case when $`X`$ is homogeneous and $`S=\mathrm{}`$ is treated in \[Kim-Pan00\]. Lines on low degree hypersurfaces are discussed in \[HaMaPa98\].

The most straightforward application of (16) is to varieties over pseudo-algebraically closed fields. By definition, a pseudo-algebraically closed field or PAC field is a field $`k`$ such that every geometrically irreducible $`k`$-variety has a dense set of $`k`$-points. (See \[Fried-Jarden86\] for many examples and properties of such fields.) (16) now implies the following:

###### Theorem 19.

Let $`X`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety of dimension $`3`$ over a perfect PAC field $`k`$ and $`SX`$ a zero–dimensional smooth subscheme.

Then there is a smooth, geometrically rational curve $`C_SX`$ which is defined over $`k`$ and contains $`S`$.

In particular, R-equivalence is trivial on $`X(k)`$ and $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X)=0`$.∎

The proof of the implication (19) $``$ (2) is completely formal using the fact that the ultraproduct of infinitely many finite fields whose orders go to infinity is PAC. See, for instance, \[Fried-Jarden86\] for such techniques.

A more classical proof, given below, relies on some basic boundedness results and on the Lang-Weil theorem \[Lang-Weil54\] (which is also at the core of the above ultraproduct result).

For a quasi-projective scheme $`U^N`$ let $`\overline{U}`$ denote its closure and $`U=\overline{U}U`$ its boundary. Define the degree of a reduced projective scheme to be the sum of the degrees of its irreducible components (even if they have different dimensions). We call $`N`$, $`dim(U)`$, $`\mathrm{deg}(\overline{U})`$ and $`\mathrm{deg}(U)`$ the basic projective invariants of a reduced quasi-projective scheme $`U`$.

The set of all reduced quasi-projective schemes with given basic projective invariants is bounded. That is, there is a scheme of finite type $`S`$ and a locally closed subscheme $`US\times ^N`$ such that every reduced quasi-projective scheme with given basic projective invariants occurs among the fibers of $`US`$. (This is an easy consequence of the classical theorem, going back to Cayley, that the Chow variety of pure dimensional reduced closed subschemes of $`^N`$ of a given degree is bounded. See \[Hodge-Pedoe47\] for a classical treatment and \[Kollár96, I.3–4\] for a modern update.)

Conversely, if $`S`$ is a scheme of finite type and $`US\times ^N`$ is a locally closed subscheme then the basic projective invariants of the fibers form a bounded set.

Using basic existence results of the relative Hilbert scheme (see, for instance, \[Kollár96, I.1\]), we get the following:

###### Proposition 20.

Let $`X^N`$ be a projective variety and $`SX`$ a zero–dimensional subvariety. Let $`W_d\mathrm{Hilb}(X)`$ be the locally closed subset of the Hilbert scheme parametrizing all smooth curves of degree $`d`$ containing $`S`$. Let $`W_d^iW_d`$ be any irreducible component.

Then the basic projective invariants of $`W_d^i`$ can be bounded in terms of $`dimX,\mathrm{deg}X,\mathrm{deg}S`$ and $`d`$.∎

###### 21Proof of (16) $``$ (2).

Let us now turn to the situation of (16). Let $`\mathrm{Hilb}(X,S)^s`$ denote the Hilbert scheme of all smooth rational curves of $`X`$ which contain $`S`$. By the deformation theory of Hilbert schemes containing a given subscheme (see, for instance, \[Mori79\]), the assumption (16.3) implies that every point of $`W`$ is a smooth point of $`\mathrm{Hilb}(X,S)^s`$. (In our case $`\mathrm{Hilb}(X,S)^s`$ can be identified with an open subset of the Hilbert scheme of $`B_SX`$, the blow up of $`X`$ at $`S`$, and the more traditional study of $`\mathrm{Hilb}(B_SX)`$ also gives this result, cf. \[Kollár96, I.2.8\].)

Since $`W`$ is geometrically irreducible by assumption (16.2), this implies that $`W`$ is contained in a unique geometrically irreducible component $`W^{}`$ of $`\mathrm{Hilb}(X,S)^s`$.

By (20), $`W^{}`$ is a quasi-projective variety in some $`^N`$, and its basic projective invariants $`N`$, $`dimW^{}`$, $`\mathrm{deg}\overline{W^{}}`$, $`\mathrm{deg}W^{}`$ are bounded in terms of $`dimX`$, $`\mathrm{deg}X`$ and $`\mathrm{deg}S`$.

The Lang-Weil theorem asserts that an $`r`$-dimensional geometrically irreducible projective variety $`W^{}`$ has roughly $`q^r`$ points defined over $`𝔽_q`$, and the error term is bounded by $`Cq^{r1/2}`$ with $`C`$ depending only on the basic projective invariants of $`W^{}`$. The same remains true for quasi-projective varieties, because the boundary has smaller dimension, hence its points change only the error term. (The boundary may not be geometrically irreducible, but an upper bound for the number of points holds without geometric irreducibility.) So one can easily find a lower bound on $`q`$ in terms of the basic projective invariants, such that if $`q`$ is larger than this bound then $`W^{}`$ has $`𝔽_q`$-points.∎

###### 22Main steps of the proof of (16).

The construction of the geometrically irreducible family of curves $`W`$ proceeds in four steps.

1. First, in lemma (23), for every $`PX(\overline{k})`$ we construct geometrically irreducible families (defined over $`k(P)`$) of maps passing through $`P`$

$$V_P\mathrm{Hom}(^1,X;(0:1)P).$$

These families were introduced and used in \[Kollár99\].
2. Then in (24) we find some auxiliary curves $`CX`$ and prove that the space of all maps in $`V_P`$ whose image intersects $`C`$:

$$V_{P,C}:=\{fV_P:f(1:0)C\}$$

is geometrically irreducible. This relies on the Lefschetz–type results of \[Kollár00, Kollár02\] recalled in (25).
3. Third, starting with (26), given $`S=\{P_1,\mathrm{},P_n\}`$, we construct a family $`V_{S,C}`$ of reducible rational curves, called combs, passing through $`S`$. Roughly speaking, over $`\overline{k}`$,

$$V_{S,C}:=V_{P_1,C}\times \mathrm{}\times V_{P_n,C},$$

and the curve corresponding to a point of $`V_{S,C}`$ consists of $`C`$ and $`n`$ curves connecting $`C`$ to the points $`P_1,\mathrm{},P_n`$. (It is better to think of these as a curve mapping to $`X`$, rather than a subscheme of $`X`$.) This is the main new idea of the paper.
4. Finally, in (32), we get the intended $`W`$ by smoothing the reducible curves in $`V_{S,C}`$.

The easiest case, Step 1, is handled in the following, essentially proved in \[Kollár99, 3.2\]. (See also \[Araujo-Kollár02, 44\] or \[Kollár02, Thm.3,Rem.4\] where a much stronger result is proved.)

###### Lemma 23.

Let $`X^m`$ be a smooth, projective, SRC variety over a field $`k`$ and $`PX(k)`$ a point. Then there is a family of rational curves

$$F_P:V_P\times ^1X,$$

defined over $`k`$, with the following properties:

1. $`F_P(V_P\times (0:1))=P`$.
2. $`F_P:V_P\times (1:0)X`$ is smooth, hence dominant.
3. $`V_P`$ is geometrically irreducible and smooth.
4. The pullback of $`T_X`$ to each curve $`_v^1:=\{v\}\times ^1`$ is ample, even after twisting by $`𝒪(3)`$.
5. The degree of the curves $`F_P(_v^1)`$ is bounded in terms of $`dimX`$ and $`\mathrm{deg}X`$. ∎

###### 24Step 2.

Next consider the space of rational curves passing through a given point $`P`$ and meeting a given curve $`C`$. We start with the family of morphisms as in (23) and look at the evaluation map

$$f_P:V_PX$$

which sends $`vV_P`$ to $`F_P(v,(1:0))`$. The inverse image $`f_P^1(C)`$ can be thought of as a family of curves passing through $`P`$ and intersecting $`C`$. We would like $`f_P^1(C)`$ to be geometrically irreducible. We cannot provide a single curve $`C`$ that does the job. For one thing, the curve should work simultaneously for many points $`P`$, and for another, the curve must be defined over the base field. On the other hand, one can find a family of curves such that for each point $`P`$ the general member of the family does work. The precise result we need is the following:

###### Lemma 25.

\[Kollár02, Thm.6,Cor.7,Rem.4\] Let $`X^m`$ be a smooth, projective variety over a field $`k`$. Assume that $`X`$ is SRC. Then there is a nonempty family of rational curves, defined over $`k`$,

$$F:U\times ^1X$$

with the following properties:

1. Let $`Y`$ be a geometrically irreducible variety and $`h:YX`$ a dominant morphism. Then there is a dense open set $`U^hU`$ such that for every $`uU^h(\overline{k})`$ the fiber product $`Y\times _X_u^1`$ is irreducible.
2. $`U`$ is geometrically irreducible, smooth and open in $`\mathrm{Hom}(^1,X)`$.
3. The pullback of $`T_X`$ to each curve $`_u^1`$ is ample.
4. The degree of the curves $`F(_u^1)`$ is bounded in terms of $`dimX`$ and $`\mathrm{deg}X`$.
5. If $`dimX3`$ then $`F`$ is an embedding on every fiber $`_u^1`$.∎

###### 26Step 3.

Now we move to reducible curves passing through several points. Assume that our curves need to go through the conjugation invariant set of closed points $`P_1,\mathrm{},P_n`$. For each $`P_i`$ we choose a family $`V_{P_i}`$ defined over $`k(P_i)`$ as in (23) and also choose another family as in (25). Out of these we get configurations of $`n+1`$ curves: an appropriate rational curve $`C`$ and for each $`P_i`$ a rational curve connecting $`P_i`$ to $`C`$.

###### Definition 27.

A genus zero comb over $`k`$ with $`n`$ teeth is a reduced projective curve of genus 0 (i.e. a curve $`C`$ with $`h^1(C,𝒪_C)=0`$) having $`n+1`$ irreducible components over $`\overline{k}`$. One component, defined over $`k`$, is called the handle. The other $`n`$ components, $`C_1,\mathrm{},C_n`$ are disjoint from each other and intersect $`C_0`$ in $`n`$ distinct points. Every $`C_i`$ is smooth and rational. The curves $`C_1,\mathrm{},C_n`$ may not be individually defined over $`k`$. A comb can be pictured as below:

$$\begin{array}{c}\text{}\\ \text{Comb with }n\text{-teeth}\end{array}$$

###### Definition 28.

Let $`X`$ be a smooth projective variety over $`k`$ and $`SX`$ a zero–dimensional smooth subset. Set $`n=\mathrm{deg}S`$. A $`k`$-comb through $`S`$ is

1. a $`k`$-comb with $`n`$ teeth $`C=C_0\mathrm{}C_n`$,
2. a $`k`$-morphism $`f:CX`$, and
3. a $`k`$-morphism $`\sigma :SCC_0`$ such that $`f\sigma =id_S`$, and each $`C_i,i1`$ contains exactly one point of $`S_{\overline{k}}`$.

Set $`S_{\overline{k}}=\{P_1,\mathrm{},P_n\}`$. Over a perfect field, a comb through $`S`$ can also be given by a $`k`$-morphism $`g_0:^1X`$ and a conjugate set of $`\overline{k}`$-morphisms $`g_i:^1X`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},n`$ such that

1. $`g_i(0:1)=P_i`$, and
2. $`g_i(1:0)=g_0(s(P_i))`$ for $`i=1,\mathrm{},n`$, where $`s:S^1`$ is some embedding.

A family of combs through $`S`$ parametrized by a scheme $`T`$ can be identified with $`n+1`$ morphisms

$$G_i:T\times ^1Xi=0,\mathrm{},n$$

with the expected properties.

###### 29Construction of the combs.

Let $`X^N`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety over a perfect field $`k`$ and $`SX`$ a zero–dimensional smooth subscheme. Set $`S_{\overline{k}}=\{P_1,\mathrm{},P_n\}`$.

For a given $`P_iS(\overline{k})`$ choose a family of maps

$$F_{P_i}:V_{P_i}\times ^1X,$$

defined over $`k(P_i)`$, as in (23). For the conjugates $`P_{i_1},\mathrm{},P_{i_s}`$ we choose the conjugate families

$$F_{P_{i_j}}:V_{P_{i_j}}\times ^1X.$$

Going through all the points of $`S`$, we have a conjugation invariant collection of $`n`$ families

$$F_{P_i}:V_{P_i}\times ^1X$$

as in (23).

Let $`F:U\times ^1X`$ denote the family of curves obtained in (25).

For every $`j`$, let $`U(P_j)`$ denote the subset of those

$$(u,v_j)U\times V_{P_j}$$

such that

$$F_{P_j}(v_j,(0:1))F(_u^1).$$

The fiber of the projection

$$\pi _j:U(P_j)U$$

over a point $`uU`$ consists of those maps in the family $`V_{P_j}`$ which map $`(0:1)`$ to a point of $`F(_u^1)`$. Thus by (25) there is a nonempty open subset $`U^jU_{\overline{k}}`$ such that $`\pi _j^1(u)`$ is geometrically irreducible for $`uU^j(\overline{k})`$. We can further assume that the $`U^j`$ are conjugates of each other.

As a $`\overline{k}`$-scheme, let $`U(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)`$ denote the subset of those

$$(u,v_1,\mathrm{},v_n)U\times \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}V_{P_i}$$

such that

$$F_{P_i}(v_i,(0:1))F(_u^1)i=1,\mathrm{},n.$$

By construction

$$U(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)=U(P_1)\times _U\mathrm{}\times _UU(P_n).$$

Set $`U^S=U^1\mathrm{}U^nU`$. Then the fibers of the projection

$$\mathrm{\Pi }:U(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)U$$

are geometrically irreducible over $`U^S`$ since

$$\mathrm{\Pi }^1(u)=\pi _1^1(u)\times \mathrm{}\times \pi _n^1(u)$$

and the product of geometrically irreducible schemes is again geometrically irreducible. Thus we conclude that:

###### Claim 30.

The variety $`U(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)`$ is defined over $`k`$ and it has a unique geometrically irreducible component $`U^0(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)`$ which dominates $`U`$.

By our choices of the families $`V_{P_i}`$, the construction of $`U(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)`$ is invariant under the action of $`\mathrm{Gal}(\overline{k}/k)`$. Thus we can henceforth view $`U(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)`$ as a $`k`$-variety. Not all of the points of $`U^0(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)`$ correspond to combs since the curves $`C_i`$ need not intersect $`C_0`$ in distinct points. In the construction, the intersection of $`C_i`$ and $`C_0`$ can be an arbitrary point of the set $`C_0F_{P_i}(V_{P_i}\times (1:0))`$ which is dense in $`C_0`$ for general $`C_0`$. Therefore the combs correspond to an open subset $`U^c(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)U^0(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)`$. Combined with (23.4) and (25.3) this implies the following:

###### Claim 31.

$`U^c(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)`$ is a geometrically irreducible variety, defined over $`k`$. It parametrizes combs through the subset $`S`$

$$g:C=C_0\mathrm{}C_nX$$

with liftings $`\sigma :SC`$ such that $`g^{}T_X(3\sigma (S))`$ is ample on every irreducible component of $`C`$.

###### 32Step 4 of the proof of (16).

First we work in the space of genus zero stable curves $`\overline{M}_0(X,S⸦\to X)`$ with base point set $`S`$ as discussed in \[Araujo-Kollár02, sec.8\], and then we switch to the Hilbert scheme of $`X`$.

By the universal property of $`\overline{M}_0(X,S⸦\to X)`$, there is a moduli map

$$m:U^c(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)\overline{M}_0(X,S⸦\to X).$$

We claim that there is a unique irreducible component $`U_1\overline{M}_0(X,S⸦\to X)`$ containing $`m(U^c(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n))`$.

Since $`g^{}T_X(3\sigma (S))`$ is ample on every irreducible component of $`C`$, an easy lemma (cf. \[Araujo-Kollár02, 18\]) implies that $`H^1(C,g^{}T_X(\sigma (S)))=0`$. Thus by \[Araujo-Kollár02, 42.1\] the space $`\overline{M}_0(X,S⸦\to X)`$ has a unique irreducible component containing the image of any point of $`U^c(P_1,\mathrm{},P_n)`$. The latter is irreducible, so this must be the same component, call it $`U_1`$, for every point.

Over $`\overline{k}`$, a general point of $`U_1`$ corresponds to an irreducible curve $`g_u:D_u^1X`$ with $`\sigma _u:SD_u`$ by \[Araujo-Kollár02, 42.3\]. By semicontinuity, $`H^1(D_u,g_u^{}T_X(3\sigma _u(S)))=0`$ for $`u`$ in an open subset of $`U_1`$. The pull back $`g_u^{}T_X(\sigma _u(S))`$ is a vector bundle on $`^1`$, hence a direct sum of line bundles. The above vanishing implies that every direct summand of $`g_u^{}T_X(\sigma _u(S))`$ has degree at least $`2\mathrm{deg}S11`$. If $`dimX3`$ then by \[Kollár96, II.3.14.3\] this implies that there is an open subset $`U_2U_1`$ parametrizing embeddings $`^1⸦\to X`$ passing through $`S`$. (If $`dimX=2`$, we get immersions by \[Kollár96, II.3.14.2\].)

Pick any $`uU_2(\overline{k})`$. Since $`g_u:D_u⸦\to X`$ is an embedding, there are no automorphisms of $`D_u`$ commuting with $`g_u`$. Thus over $`U_2`$ we have a fine moduli problem and there is a universal family $`𝐃_2U_2`$, see \[FultPan97, Thm.2.iii\]. The graph of the universal morphism

$$𝐠:𝐃_2⸦\to U_2\times X$$

defines an embedding $`U_2\mathrm{Hilb}(X)`$ with image $`W`$. ∎

###### 33Proof of (7).

Let $`X`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety over the finite field $`k`$. Pick $`P,QX(k)`$. Set $`S=PQ`$. By (2), if $`dimX3`$ and if $`|k|>\mathrm{\Phi }(\mathrm{deg}X,dimX,\mathrm{deg}S)`$, then there is a smooth, rational curve $`C_SX`$ containing $`S`$, hence $`P`$ and $`Q`$ are R-equivalent. If $`dimX=2`$ then we work with $`X\times ^1`$.

Set $`\mathrm{\Psi }(a,b)=\mathrm{\Phi }(a,b,2)`$ for $`b3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(a,2)=\mathrm{\Phi }(3a,2,2)`$. ($`3\mathrm{deg}X`$ is the degree of $`X\times ^1`$ under the Segre embedding when $`X`$ is a surface.) ∎

###### 34Proof of (8).

Let $`X`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety over the local field $`K`$. Pick $`P,QX(K)`$. Set $`S=PQ`$. The base field $`K`$ is the quotient field of a complete valuation ring $`R`$ whose residue field is $`k`$. By assumption there is a model $`X_R\mathrm{Spec}R`$ of $`X`$ such that the special fibre $`X_k`$ satisfies the conditions of (7). Since $`X_R`$ is proper and $`R`$ is a valuation ring, the points $`P,Q`$ give rise to sections $`P_R,Q_R`$ of $`X_R\mathrm{Spec}R`$, hence they have well-defined reductions $`P_k,Q_kX_k`$.

Assume first that $`P_kQ_k`$. By (2), if $`|k|>\mathrm{\Phi }(\mathrm{deg}X,dimX,\mathrm{deg}S)`$, then there is a smooth, geometrically rational curve $`C_SX_k`$ containing $`S_k`$. Moreover, the twisted restriction $`T_X|_{C_{S_k}}(S_k)`$ is ample.

We apply \[Araujo-Kollár02, 51\] to $`X_R\mathrm{Spec}R`$ with base points $`P_RQ_R⸦\to X_R`$. (The current $`R`$ corresponds to $`S`$ of \[Araujo-Kollár02\], the $`PS`$ there is 2 copies of $`S`$ and $`t:PX_R`$ is the imbedding whose image is $`P_RQ_R`$.) By \[Araujo-Kollár02, 51.5\] we obtain a smooth $`R`$-scheme $`UR`$ with a point $`uU(k)`$ and a family of rational curves $`U\times ^1X_R`$ passing through $`P_R`$ and $`Q_R`$. By the Hensel lemma, $`\varphi _k:\mathrm{Spec}ku`$ lifts to $`\varphi _R:RU`$. The image of $`\varphi _R(\mathrm{Spec}K)`$ corresponds to a rational curve $`CX_K`$ going through $`P`$ and $`Q`$. Thus $`P`$ and $`Q`$ are R-equivalent.

If $`P_k=Q_k`$ then we work with $`X\times ^1`$ and consider the points $`P\times (0:1)`$ and $`Q\times (1:0)`$. These have reductions $`P_k\times (0:1)`$ and $`Q_k\times (1:0)`$ which are now different. The previous argument gives a rational curve on $`X\times ^1`$ passing through $`P\times (0:1)`$ and $`Q\times (1:0)`$. This again implies that $`P`$ and $`Q`$ are R-equivalent.

###### 35Proof of (4).

Let $`X`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety over the finite field $`k`$. Let $`Z,Z^{}`$ be two effective zero cycles of the same degree on $`X`$. Let $`S`$ be the support of $`Z+Z^{}`$.

By (2), if $`|L|>\mathrm{\Phi }(\mathrm{deg}X,dimX,\mathrm{deg}S)`$, then there is a smooth rational curve $`C_LX_L`$ containing $`S`$. Thus $`ZZ^{}`$ is trivial in $`\mathrm{CH}_0(X_L)`$.

The pull back followed by the push forward

$$\mathrm{CH}_0(X_k)\mathrm{CH}_0(X_L)\mathrm{CH}_0(X_k)$$

is multiplication by $`\mathrm{deg}(L/k)`$. This proves that $`ZZ^{}\mathrm{CH}_0(X)`$ is torsion whose order divides $`\mathrm{deg}(L/k)`$.

A finite field has extensions of arbitrary degree. Taking two such extensions of degrees $`a`$ and $`a+1`$ for $`a>\mathrm{\Phi }(\mathrm{deg}X,dimX,\mathrm{deg}S)`$, we conclude that $`ZZ^{}\mathrm{CH}_0(X)`$ is torsion whose order divides $`\mathrm{gcd}(a,a+1)=1`$.∎

###### 36Proof of (5).

Let $`X`$ be a smooth, projective, separably rationally connected variety over the local field $`K`$.

Let $`X_RR`$ be a smooth projective model of $`X_K`$ with special fiber $`X_k`$. Every finite extension $`k^{}k`$ corresponds to a unique unramified extension $`K^{}K`$ (This is essentially the theory of Witt rings as explained in \[Serre62, Chap.II\].)

Thus there are two extensions $`K_i/K`$ of relatively prime degree such that $`X(K_i)\mathrm{}`$. As in the previous proof, it is enough to prove that $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X_{K_i})=0`$. Changing notation, it is enough to prove that $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X)=0`$ if there is a point $`PX(K)`$.

Let $`QX`$ be any closed point of degree $`d`$. It is enough to prove that $`QdP\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X)`$ is zero. Set $`L=K(Q)`$ and let $`Q_1X(L)`$ be a point over $`Q`$. We have proved that $`Q_1`$ and $`P`$ are R-equivalent in $`X_L`$, thus $`Q_1P`$ is zero in $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X_L)`$. Hence its push forward $`QdP`$ is zero in $`\mathrm{CH}_0^0(X)`$. ∎

###### Acknowledgments .

We thank J.-L. Colliot-Thélène for many useful conversations, questions and a long list of corrections and improvements. The above simple proof in (36) is due to him. Partial financial support to the first author was provided by the NSF under grant numbers DMS-9970855 and DMS02-00883. Partial financial support to the second author was provided by OTKA under grant numbers T029525 and T31984. The paper was written while the first author visited the Mathematical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544-1000

```
kollar@math.princeton.edu

```

Mathematical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,

1364 Budapest, PO Box 127

```
endre@renyi.hu

```


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# Theory of a one-dimensional double-X atom interferometer

## I Introduction

Recent advances in atom de Broglie waveguide technology Key ; Muller ; Dekker ; Thy ; Hinds  and its potential applicability to atom interferometry Berman  and integrated atom optics Dekker ; Sch  create a need for accurate theoretical modelling of such systems in the low temperature, tight waveguide regime where transverse excitations are frozen out and the quantum dynamics becomes essentially one-dimensional (1D) (Tonks-gas limit). It has been shown by Olshanii Olshanii , and also by Petrov et al. PetShlWal00 , that at sufficiently low temperatures and densities and high transverse frequencies $`\omega _0`$, where thermal and longitudinal zero-point energies are small compared with $`\mathrm{}\omega _0`$, the transverse degrees of freedom of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in an atom waveguide are frozen in the ground transverse mode and the dynamics becomes one-dimensional. If, in addition, the scattering length is large and positive, the dynamics reduce to those of a 1D gas of hard core, or impenetrable, point bosons Olshanii ; PetShlWal00 . This is a model for which the exact many-body energy eigensolutions were found in 1960 using an exact mapping from the Hilbert space of energy eigenstates of an ideal gas of spinless fermions to that of many-body eigenstates of hard core, and therefore strongly interacting, bosons map ; map2 . Recently two of us have extended this mapping technique in order to treat the exact many-body dynamics of Tonks gases soliton ; breakdown  and the exact many-body ground-state of a trapped Tonks gas 1dsho .

“Waveguide on a chip” technology Folman ; HanReiHom01  has already advanced to achievement of BEC on a magnetic surface microtrap Ott  and construction of a Y-beam splitter on a chip Cassettari , and the theory of a multimode double-Y interferometer has been developed Andersson  in an approximation where atomic interactions are neglected. Here we are interested in the the opposite limit of the Tonks-gas regime Olshanii ; PetShlWal00  where interatomic interactions and two-body correlations play a major role. Such a study is motivated by our previous demonstration breakdown  that fermionization strongly inhibits interference in an adiabatically split and recombined Tonks gas. The Fermi-Bose mapping and dynamics of a pulsed interferometer are more complicated and it is not clear a priori whether significant interference effects will occur in this case. This motivates the present investigation.

We set up our model for the double-X interferometer in Section II as an effective 1D problem. In Sec. III.1 we develop a generalized mapping theorem and thereby map the Tonks state to a 1D Fermi gas of free fermions, in Sec. III.2 we define the boundary conditions at the junctions in terms of single particle wave functions, and in the remainder of Sec. III we examine the limits of validity of the model and we develop a general expression for the bosonic spatial density profiles in terms of simpler Fermi orbitals which are not subject to the X-splitter boundary conditions. Analytical expressions for the interferometric response are developed in Sec. IV and numerical results are presented in Sec. V.

## II Double-X interferometer

The interferometer model of Andersson et al. Andersson  consists of an atom waveguide which is first split into two identical waveguides by a symmetrical Y-junction, followed by a reverse Y-junction which recombines the output of the two arms into a single waveguide, the “exit port”, where interference fringes appear as a result of potential differences between the two interferometer arms. The emphasis there was on effects of multi-transverse-mode propagation, assuming the transverse trap frequency low enough and/or longitudinal density high enough and/or temperature high enough that many transverse modes of the guides are energetically accessible and many-body correlations are negligible. In the opposite Tonks limit where the transverse wave function is frozen, the dynamics fermionizes and multiple longitudinal modes play a crucial role, due to the Fermi-Bose mapping theorem map ; map2 ; soliton ; breakdown ; 1dsho  which introduces a Fermi sea of many longitudinal orbitals into the many-boson dynamics. Rather than the double-Y geometry of Andersson et al., we assume a double-X geometry since its greater symmetry and reversibility makes implementation of unitary straightforward; It is essentially the same model used by Scully and Dowling SD ; SZ  in their treatment of an atom waveguide analog of a Mach-Zehnder optical interferometer. We assume that the entrance arms, upper and lower arms after the X-splitter, and exit arms after the X-recombiner all satisfy the necessary and sufficient conditions for the Tonks regime Olshanii ; PetShlWal00 .

We can retain an effective 1D description despite the splitting and recombination $`(a)`$ by assuming that corresponding upper and lower interferometer arms have the same length, so that the same longitudinal coordinate $`x`$ can be used for both arms and $`(b)`$ by introducing a pseudospin representation with $`s=1(1)`$ labelling atoms in the upper (lower) interferometer arm. Our basic model of a double-X interferometer is shown in Fig. 1, and we remark that the same model applies to an atomic loop mirror employing an X-input-coupler. The inset indicates that the two apparent X-crossings are really “avoided crossings” of the waveguides, with tunneling between the two in their regions of near tangency. We idealize these tunneling regions to points, see discussion following Eq. (11), taking the X-splitter to be at $`x=L_1`$ and X-recombiner at $`x=L_2`$ and treating the effects of tunneling by boundary conditions specifying the wave function discontinuities at these two points. Then $`x`$ specifies the position of an atom in one of the entrance arms if $`x<L_1`$, one of the interferometer arms if $`L_1<x<L_2`$, and one of the exit arms if $`x>L_2`$. Details of these boundary conditions will be given in the following section.

## III Theoretical model

### III.1 Generalized Mapping Theorem

Our objective is to find dynamical solutions for an $`N`$-boson Tonks gas in the X-splitter geometry which are exact solutions of the time-dependent many-body Schrödinger equation (TDMBSE) except when any of the $`N`$ particle positions $`x_j`$ is equal to $`L_1`$ or $`L_2`$ (X-junctions), satisfy a point hard core impenetrability constraint, have Bose symmetry (totally symmetric), and include the effect of tunneling at the X-junctions via appropriate boundary conditions. We do this by generalizing our previous Fermi-Bose mapping theorem map ; map2 ; soliton ; breakdown ; 1dsho  to the present more complicated geometry.

A system of N atoms is described by solutions $`\mathrm{\Psi }(x_1,s_1;\mathrm{};x_N,s_N;t)`$ of the TDMBSE $`\widehat{H}\mathrm{\Psi }=i\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Psi }/t`$. In the Tonks limit (large scattering length, low linear density, tight transverse confinement) Olshanii ; PetShlWal00  the two-particle interaction behaves as a hard core of vanishing diameter $`a0`$. This is conveniently treated as a constraint on allowed wave functions:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=0\text{if}s_j=s_k\text{and}x_j=x_k,1j<kN,$$
(1)
implying that atoms in the same arm cannot interpenetrate whereas those in different arms have no such constraint. We start from fermionic solutions $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F(x_1,s_1;\mathrm{};x_N,s_N;t)`$ of the TDMBSE which are antisymmetric under all space-pseudospin pair exchanges $`(x_j,s_j)(x_k,s_k)`$, hence all permutations. Generalizing the previous definition map ; map2 ; soliton ; breakdown ; 1dsho , define a “unit antisymmetric function” $`A`$ by

$`A(x_1,s_1;\mathrm{};x_N,s_N)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{1j<kN}{}}\alpha (x_j,s_j;x_k,s_k)`$
$`\alpha (x_j,s_j;x_k,s_k)`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _{s_k,s_j}\mathrm{sgn}(x_kx_j)`$ (2)
$`+`$ $`\delta _{s_j1}\delta _{s_k,1}\delta _{s_j,1}\delta _{s_k1},`$
where $`\text{sgn}(x)=+1(1)`$ if $`x>0`$($`x<0`$). For a given antisymmetric $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F`$, define a bosonic wave function $`\mathrm{\Psi }_B`$ by

$`\mathrm{\Psi }_B(x_1,s_1;`$ $`\mathrm{}`$ $`;x_N,s_N;t)=A(x_1,s_1;\mathrm{};x_N,s_N)`$ (3)
$`\times `$ $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F(x_1,s_1;\mathrm{};x_N,s_N;t).`$
It satisfies the impenetrability constraint (1) because any spinless fermion wave function is space-antisymmetric under exchange of like-pseudospin pairs. It is totally symmetric (bosonic) under space-pseudospin permutations, obeys the same boundary conditions as $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F`$, and the Bose TDMBSE $`\widehat{H}\mathrm{\Psi }_B=i\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Psi }_B/t`$ follows from the Fermi one $`\widehat{H}\mathrm{\Psi }_F=i\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Psi }_F/t`$ by staightforward generalization of the previous argument map ; map2 ; soliton ; breakdown ; 1dsho , under the assumption that the Hamiltonian is the sum of kinetic energy operators and ordinary (non-operator) potentials. These potentials may depend on pseudospin, i.e., they may differ between the left and right interferometer arms, as is the case in modelling interferometric detectors. Since the only interatomic interaction in the Tonks limit is the point hard core treated by the constraint (1), and this constraint is satisfied automatically by the $`N`$-fermion wave functions $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F`$ in (3) as a consequence of their antisymmetry, it follows that $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F`$ is a dynamical ideal Fermi gas state which can be written as a Slater determinant

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_F(x_1,s_1;\mathrm{};x_N,s_N;t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{N!}}\underset{n,j=1}{\overset{N}{det}}\varphi _n(x_j,s_j;t),$$
(4)
where $`\varphi _n`$ are $`N`$ orthonormal solutions of the single-particle TDSE.

### III.2 X-splitter boundary conditions

The TDMBSE is

$$\left[\underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}\frac{^2}{x_j^2}+V_s(x_j,t)\right)i\mathrm{}\frac{}{t}\right]\mathrm{\Psi }=0,$$
(5)
where $`V_s(x,t)`$ are longitudinal potentials assumed to be nonzero only within the interferometer arms $`L_1<x<L_2`$. The mapping theorem guarantees that $`\mathrm{\Psi }_B`$ will satisfy this TDMBSE at all points $`(x_1,s_1;\mathrm{};x_N,s_N)`$ where $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F`$ does. However, $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F`$ and hence $`\mathrm{\Psi }_B`$ fail to satisfy the TDMBSE at the points $`x_j=L_1`$ and $`x_j=L_2`$ where tunneling introduces discontinuities in the wave function; at these points the TDMBSE is replaced by boundary conditions specifying the discontinuities. Each of the orbitals in the fermionic solution (4) of the TDMBSE (5) satisfies the single-particle TDSE

$$\left[\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}\frac{^2}{x^2}+V_s(x,t)i\mathrm{}\frac{}{t}\right]\varphi _n(x,s;t)=0,$$
(6)
everywhere except at the X-junctions $`x=L_1`$ and $`x=L_2`$, where this TDSE is replaced by a boundary condition. Since evolution according to the TDSE is unitary, the transformation from the left to the right side of each junction can be implemented by a unitary $`2\times 2`$ matrix. Assume that at the junction half of the probability initially in the upper arm remains in the upper ($`s=1)`$ arm and half tunnels to the lower arm, and similarly for probability entering from the lower arm, and introduce a Pauli pseudospinor notation

$`𝚽_n(x,t)=\left[\begin{array}{c}\varphi _n(x,+1;t)\\ \varphi _n(x,1;t)\end{array}\right].`$ (9)
Then a simple boundary condition which implements the splitting at the first X-junction is SD ; Loudon

$$𝚽_n(L_1+,t)=𝐓𝚽_n(L_1,t),$$
(10)
where $`L_1`$ ($`L_1+`$) denotes the left (right) side of the junction and $`𝐓`$ is the unitary matrix

$$𝐓=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 1& 1\end{array}\right).$$
(11)
Thus the amplitudes which remain in the upper or lower arms as they pass through the avoided crossing junction suffer no phase shifts, that which tunnels from the upper to the lower arm suffers a phase shift of $`\pi `$, and that which tunnels from the lower to the upper arm suffers no phase change. It can be shown that this matrix can be written in the form $`e^{i\widehat{V}}=(1/\sqrt{2})(1\widehat{\sigma }_++\widehat{\sigma }_{})`$ in terms of an interaction $`\widehat{V}=i\lambda (\widehat{\sigma }_+\widehat{\sigma }_{})`$ where $`\widehat{\sigma }_\pm `$ are Pauli pseudospin raising and lowering operators implementing the tunneling and $`\lambda `$ is taken equal to $`\pi /4`$ in order that probability splits equally between the upper and lower arms. More general phase shifts could be used subject to the proviso that $`𝐓`$ must be unitary, but the simple choice here is sufficient. At the recombiner ($`x=L_2`$) the same matrix boundary condition is applied once more to generate the amplitudes in the upper and lower output arms.

### III.3 Limits of validity

In our simple model the tunneling regions giving rise to the X-splitters are replaced by point boundary conditions, and we now examine the conditions for this to be valid. In particular, in the boundary condition (10) we treat each orbital separately, meaning that the tunneling is assumed to proceed as for single particles and to not be modified by many-body interactions. For a 50:50 X-splitter, and assuming a tunneling region length $`L_{coup}`$, the energy splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }E<<\mathrm{}\omega _0`$ between the symmetric and anti-symmetric transverse modes of the tunnel-coupled waveguides must obey $`(\mathrm{\Delta }E/\mathrm{})(L_{coup}/v_x)=\pi /4`$, where $`v_x`$ is the longitudinal velocity of the atoms entering the X-splitter. Here $`L_{coup}/v_x`$ is the time of flight of the atoms through the tunneling regions, and the $`\pi /4`$ phase-difference between the modes is that required for a 50:50 splitter. For single-particle tunneling to be valid we require that the energy splitting is large compared to the many-body energy per particle of the incoming Tonks gas of mean density $`\rho `$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E>>\mathrm{}^2\pi ^2\rho ^2/6m`$ map ; map2 . When this condition is satisfied the atoms tunnel individually and the transfer characteristics of the X-splitter should therefore be the same for bosons and fermions. For an initial gas in its ground-state which is harmonically trapped with longitudinal frequency $`\omega `$ we have $`\rho N/x_F`$, where $`x_F=\sqrt{2N}x_{osc}`$, $`x_{osc}=\sqrt{\mathrm{}/m\omega }`$ being the single particle ground-state width KolNewStr00 . In order that the tunneling region not create large density gradients in the atomic gas we also require $`L_{coup}x_F`$, that is the coupling region is longer than the width of the initial trapped gas. Furthermore, under the assumption $`L_{coup}<<(L_2L_1)`$ we may treat the tunnel regions as points. Combining these results together, we obtain the following conditions for the action of the X-splitters to be treated by the boundary condition (10)

$`v_x`$ $`>>`$ $`NL_{coup}\omega `$ (12)
$`(L_2L_1)`$ $``$ $`L_{coup}\sqrt{2N}x_{osc}.`$ (13)
We shall hereafter assume these conditions are satisfied.

### III.4 Construction of interferometer solutions

The boundary conditions (10) at the X-splitters can be implemented as follows: Let $`u_n(x,s;t)`$ be solutions on $`x[\mathrm{},\mathrm{}]`$ of the same single-particle TDSE (6) as the $`\varphi _n(x,s;t)`$ satisfy, but now no boundary condition is imposed on these orbitals, so they are continuous with continuous gradient at all $`x`$ including $`x=L_1`$ and $`x=L_2`$. Instead, an initial condition

$$u_n(x,s;t=0)=u_n(x),$$
(14)
is imposed. Note that this initial condition is independent of $`s`$ (the same in both entrance arms). Here $`t=0`$ is a time shortly after loading of the N atoms into the entrance arm and the $`u_n(x)`$, defined for $`1nN`$, are a set of orthonormal orbitals which are negligible at $`t=0`$ for $`xL_1`$. Then for $`t0`$ and $`x<L_1`$, define new orbitals $`\varphi _n`$ by

$$\varphi _n(x,s;t)=u_n(x,s;t)\delta _{s1},x<L_1.$$
(15)
These $`\varphi _n`$, which in our model represent the actual orbitals occupied by the atoms, satisfy the same TDSE (6) as the $`u_n`$ for $`x<L_1`$, but they are nonvanishing only in the upper arm ($`s=1`$), corresponding to our assumption that the atoms are to be loaded only into the upper arm. On the other hand, the $`u_n`$ are nonzero in both the upper and lower arms as a consequence of their initial conditions (14) and TDSE (6). This allows us to first solve the TDSE without imposing boundary conditions at the junctions $`x=L_1`$ and $`x=L_2`$, then construct solutions $`\varphi _n`$ of the TDSE satisfying the proper boundary conditions by defining them in terms of the $`u_n`$ by definitions which are properly discontinuous at the junctions. The effect of the boundary condition at $`x=L_1`$ is such that the upper-arm amplitude $`u_n(L_1,1;t)`$ splits equally, with prefactors $`1/\sqrt{2}`$, between the upper and lower arms at the junction. Note that $`u_n(L_1,1;t)=u_n(L_1,1;t)`$ since $`V_s`$ vanishes for $`x<L_1`$ and the initial condition (14) is independent of $`s`$. It then follows that the solutions of the TDSE in the interferometer arms are simply

$`𝚽_n(x,t)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left[\begin{array}{c}u_n(x,1;t)\\ u_n(x,1;t)\end{array}\right],L_1<x<L_2`$ (18)
In general these $`u_n`$ depend on $`s=\pm 1`$ since the potentials $`V_s`$ in the arms $`L_1<x<L_2`$ do.

At the recombiner $`x=L_2`$ the splitting matrix $`𝐓`$ is applied once more, resulting in the solutions

$`𝚽_n(x,t)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[\begin{array}{c}u_n(x,1;t)u_n(x,1;t)\\ u_n(x,1;t)+u_n(x,1;t)\end{array}\right],x>L_2.`$ (21)
in the output arms, where the potentials $`V_s`$ are again zero.

The above equations uniquely and straightforwardly determine the many-fermion wave function $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F`$ in terms of $`N`$ orbitals $`\varphi _n`$. Then within the limits of validity of our theory given in Sec. (III.3), under which the tunneling occurs as for single-particles and is hence the same for bosons and fermions, the many-boson wave function is given by $`\mathrm{\Psi }_B=A\mathrm{\Psi }_F`$. Since $`A^2=1`$, this has the important consequence that the single-particle densities $`\rho (x,s;t)`$ are the same for the Bose Tonks gas as for the ideal “spinless” Fermi gas of the mapping theorem, allowing us to compute Bose dynamics and interference fringes for this model of a Tonks gas interferometer in terms of the corresponding solutions for the ideal Fermi gas. This will be done in the following sections. In addition to providing the basis for an exact calculation of the behavior of a Tonks gas of bosonic atoms in this interferometer model via the Fermi-Bose mapping theorem, this fermionic calculation is of interest in its own right, since a spin-polarized Tonks gas of fermionic atoms is dynamically equivalent to the same ideal Fermi gas inasmuch as it satisfies the impenetrability constraint (1) automatically as a consequence of spatial antisymmetry.

### III.5 Construction of spatial density profiles

It follows from orthonormality of the $`u_n(x)`$ and the unitarity of Schrödinger evolution that the $`u_n(x,s;t)`$ satisfy the orthonormality relation $`_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}u_n^{}(x,s;t)u_m(x,s;t)𝑑x=\delta _{nm}`$ for each fixed $`s=\pm 1`$. One can then show with Eqs. (15-21) that the spinor orbitals $`𝚽_n`$ are orthonormal in the usual sense

$`(𝚽_n|𝚽_m)={\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝚽_n^{}(x,t)𝚽_m(x,t)𝑑x`$ (22)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm 1}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}\varphi _n^{}(x,s;t)\varphi _m(x,s;t)𝑑x`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm 1}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}u_n^{}(x,s;t)u_m(x,s;t)𝑑x=\delta _{nm},`$
in spite of their discontinuities at the X-junctions $`x=L_1`$ and $`x=L_2`$. Note that the orthonormality of the $`u_n`$ holds for each fixed $`s`$ (separately in each arm), whereas the orthonormality relation for the $`𝚽_n`$ involves both summation over $`s`$ and integration over $`x`$. This is to be expected physically, since the X-junctions mix probability density between both arms. Using the Slater determinantal expression for $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F`$ in terms of the $`\varphi _n(x,s;t)`$ and the fact that $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_B|^2=|\mathrm{\Psi }_F|^2`$, it then follows that the single-particle density for both the Bose and Fermi systems is

$$\rho (x,s;t)=\underset{n=0}{\overset{N1}{}}|\varphi _n(x,s;t)|^2.$$
(23)
To recapitulate, to generate the density profiles we first solve the TDSE for each $`u_n(x,s,t),n=1,\mathrm{},N`$ in both arms, which does not involve the X-splitter boundary conditions. Next the orbitals $`\varphi _n(x,s;t)`$ at the detector are constructed from the boundary condition (21), and finally the density profile is obtained from Eq. (23) above.

## IV Analytical solution

Hänsel et al. HanReiHom01  have demonstrated a magnetic conveyor belt for atoms that could be used to launch an atomic gas into interferometer, and recently transport of BECs by optical tweezers has been achieved by Gustavson et al. Gustavson , who suggested that this technique could be used to load a BEC into a “waveguide on a chip”. We simulate the tweezer loading method by choosing the $`N`$-fermion wave function in the entrance or upper arm arm $`s=+1`$ in Fig. 1 as the ground-state of a harmonic trap of frequency $`\omega `$ with an overall translational velocity $`v_x=\mathrm{}k/m`$, $`k`$ being the longitudinal wavevector. The time when the Fermi wavepacket is released from the optical trap into the entrance arm is taken as the time origin $`t=0`$ and the position of the packet-center at that instant is taken as the space origin $`x=0`$. Then, the orthonormal orbitals defining the initial condition in (14) are conveniently chosen to coincide with the lowest $`N`$ Hermite-Gaussians

$`u_n(x)`$ $`=`$ $`C_ne^{x^2/2x_{osc}^2}H_n\left({\displaystyle \frac{x}{x_{osc}}}\right)e^{ikx}`$
$`C_n`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi ^{1/4}\sqrt{2^nn!x_{osc}}}},`$ (24)
where the N-fermion ground-state has one particle in each of the first $`N`$ modes, and $`x_{osc}=\sqrt{\mathrm{}/m\omega }`$ as before. The Fermi-wavevector associated with this N-atom ground-state is $`k_F=\sqrt{2N}/x_{osc}`$ RCB ; DasLapWri02 , and this serves as a measure of the wavevector on the highest occupied plane-wave orbital. We assume throughout that $`k>>k_F`$ so that the center-of-mass velocity $`v_x`$ of the atomic wavepacket exceeds the expansion of the wavepacket after it is released.

Our goal in this paper is to examine the response of the double-X interferometer to a variety of perturbations $`V_s`$. An interesting choice of perturbing potentials in the interferometer arms is one which is a delta-function pulse in time, $`V_s(x,t)=\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Lambda }_s(x)\delta (tt_0)`$. Then, the orbitals just after such a perturbation are related to those just before by a spatially varying phase-shift $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_s(x)`$:

$$u_n(x,s;t_0^+)=e^{i\mathrm{\Lambda }_s(x)}u_n(x,s;t_0^{}),L_1<x<L_2.$$
(25)
Such an approach was used by Rojo, Cohen, and Berman to study the response of a Tonks gas to a delta-pulsed optical lattice potential RCB , and we have used it more recently to investigate gray solitons in a Tonks gas soliton . It is an idealization to zero pulse length of phase imprinting techniqes used in a number of recent experiments Burger ; Denshlag ; Vogels .

As a simple but concrete example, suppose that an external force acting on the interferometer exerts a different impulsive force $`F_s=s\mathrm{}[k_p+2Qx]\delta (tt_0)`$ on each arm at a time $`t_0`$ at which the wavepackets are located within the interferometer. (We split the impulsive force between the two arms for ease in the analytic solution but the same physics arises if the force is applied to one arm). The force term proportional to $`k_p`$ represents a spatially uniform force, whereas the term proportional to $`Q`$ represents a spatially inhomogeneous force. The corresponding potential is $`V_s(x,t)=\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Lambda }_s(x)\delta (tt_0)`$ with

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_s(x,t)=s[\phi /2+k_px+Qx^2]\delta (tt_0),$$
(26)
where $`\phi `$ is a phase difference between the two interferometer arms due, for example, to the Sagnac effect if the interferometer is rotating. The factor $`s=\pm 1`$ means that the impulse is oppositely directed in the left and right arms. In the absence of a quadratic phase variation, $`Q=0`$, via the equivalence principle this can be viewed as a simple model of a detector of rotational acceleration, an “atom gyroscope”.

The details of the time evolution of each orbital $`u_n(x,s;t)`$ in either arm from the time of loading until the time of detection are given in the Appendix: The expressions for these orbitals are somewhat cumbersome, but in general they can be written in the form $`u_n(x,s;t)=U_n(x,t)\mathrm{exp}(i\xi _n(x,s,t))`$, where $`U_n`$ are real Hermite-Gaussian functions and $`\xi _n`$ are phase factors, so $`|u_n|^2=|U_n|^2`$. The time-evolution is the same in each arm until the time $`t=t_0`$ when the pulses are applied. That time is chosen so that the pulses are well contained in the interferometer arms and the amplitude of the wavepacket at the junctions is negligible (see Fig. 2). Thus for subsequent propagation the extra phase (25) acquired by each orbital due to the pulsed potentials can be taken to extend over all values of $`x`$ although the potentials are limited to the lengths of the interferometer arms only.

If the potentials have no quadratic spatial dependence $`Q=0`$, the phase acquired is the same for each orbital, as seen from Eq. (A) in the Appendix. In that case the densities in the upper arm ($`s=+1`$) and the lower arm ($`s=1`$) can be expressed in terms of real-valued orbitals $`U_n`$ centered at $`x_\pm =x_0+\mathrm{}(k\pm k_p)(tt_0)/m`$, see Eq. (39):

$`\rho (x,\pm 1;t)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{N1}{}}}\left[U_n^2(xx_+,t)+U_n^2(xx_{},t)\right]`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{cos}[\theta (x,t)]{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{N1}{}}}U_n(xx_+,t)U_n(xx_{},t),`$ (27)
where $`x_0=v_xt_0`$ is the position of the center of the packets at the scaled time of application of the pulse $`\tau _0=\omega t_0`$, and $`x_\pm `$ the centers of the wavepackets in each arm at the time of detection $`\tau =\omega t`$. The spatial phase-modulation $`\theta `$ due to interference and the period $`\lambda `$ of that modulation are given by

$`\theta (x,t)=\phi +2k_p\left[(xx_m){\displaystyle \frac{1+\tau _0\tau }{1+\tau ^2}}+x_0\right]`$
$`\lambda =\left({\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{k_p}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{1+\tau ^2}{1+\tau _0\tau }},`$ (28)
where $`x_m=(x_++x_{})/2`$ is the mean position of the recombined wavepackets at the time of detection. The exact analytic solution (IV) will be used in the following sections to evaluate the response of the double-X interferometer to the input atom wavepacket under varying applied perturbations.

Equation (IV) for the density profile in each arm has an illustrative limiting case. For small applied wavevectors $`k_pk`$, the centers of the wavepackets do not separate much $`x_\pm v_xt`$, and we have $`U_n(xx_+,t)U_n(xx_{},t)`$. In this limit the density in each arm becomes

$`\rho (x,\pm 1;t){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[1\mathrm{cos}[\theta (x,t)]\right]{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{N1}{}}}U_n^2(xx_+,t),`$ (29)
this expression being exact for $`k_p=0`$. The factor $`U_n^2(xx_+,t)`$ is the density profile of the expanding Tonks gas, and is identical in the present approximation to that in the absence of the applied perturbation. Thus, for $`k_pk`$ the response of the interferometer to the perturbation is in the spatially dependent phase factor $`\theta (x,t)`$. For the case $`k_p=0`$ we have $`\theta (x,t)=\phi `$, so the densities in each arm do not show spatial fringes, and we may integrate the density over $`x`$ to find *exact* expressions for the number of atoms $`N_\pm `$ in each output arm

$$N_\pm =\frac{N}{2}\left[1\mathrm{cos}(\phi )\right].$$
(30)
Then if we set $`\phi =\phi _b+\mathrm{\Delta }\phi `$, where $`\phi _b`$ is a bias phase-shift, created, for example, using an optical dipole potential applied to one arm, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi `$ is a phase difference between the two arms due to the Sagnac effect, we find $`(N_+N_{})=N\mathrm{cos}(\phi _b+\mathrm{\Delta }\phi )`$. Setting $`\phi _b=\pi /2`$ we obtain

$$(N_+N_{})=N\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }\phi ).$$
(31)
Thus, measuring the difference in numbers of atoms exiting the two interferometer arms provides a measure of the excess phase-shift $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi =2m\omega _RA/\mathrm{}`$ due to rotation, for example, where $`\omega _R`$ is the rotation frequency and $`A`$ the enclosed area of the interferometer.

When $`k_p0`$ Eq. (IV) shows that the output density in each arm can exhibit spatial fringes with period $`\lambda `$ as the phase $`\theta (x,t)`$ becomes $`x`$-dependent. The fringes become apparent when $`2x_F/\lambda =2\sqrt{2N}x_{osc}/\lambda >1`$, so that there is more than one fringe under the atomic wavepacket width. The condition on the perturbing wavevector to observe fringes is therefore

$$\frac{k_p}{k}>\frac{1}{2\sqrt{2N}}\frac{\pi }{(kx_{osc})}\left(\frac{1+\tau ^2}{1+\tau _0\tau }\right).$$
(32)
However, for momentum kicks $`k_p`$ such that the distance $`(x_+x_{})=2\mathrm{}k_p(tt_0)/m`$ between the wavepacket centers in the two arms becomes greater than the width $`x_F\sqrt{1+\tau ^2}`$ of the expanding Tonks gas at scaled detection time $`\tau =\omega t`$, then the fringes will tend to vanish as the exiting wavepackets from the two arms no longer overlap. This yields the following condition for the exiting wavepackets to not overlap

$$\frac{k_p}{k}>\sqrt{\frac{N}{2}}\frac{x_{osc}\sqrt{1+\tau ^2}}{(x_mx_0)},$$
(33)
where $`x_m`$ is the mean position of the recombined wavepackets at the scaled time $`\tau =\omega t`$ of detection. Furthermore, if $`\tau \omega (x_m/v_x)1`$, then the atomic wavepacket will not spread much during its passage through the interferometer.

## V Numerical results

In this section we present numerical solutions from our model to illustrate the interferometric response of the double-X atom interferometer to a variety of imposed perturbations. These illustrations are intended to display some interesting features of the theory and not to serve as detailed study of a particular mode of inteferometer operation, eg. a rotation sensor.

For our numerical study of the interferometric response of the double-X interferometer we choose parameters corresponding to the optical-tweezer loading experiment of Ref. Gustavson , with longitudinal trap frequency $`\nu =4\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}\omega =25.1\mathrm{Hz}`$, which gives an oscillator length of $`x_{osc}=1.04\times 10^2\mathrm{mm}`$ for sodium atoms. The optimal transfer velocity of $`70\mathrm{mm}/\mathrm{s}`$ is chosen to be the initial velocity $`v_x`$ of the wavepacket launched into the interferometer, which corresponds to a wavevector $`k=267x_{osc}^1`$. The arm-lengths in the interferometer are fixed by taking $`L_1=0.5\mathrm{mm}`$, $`L_2=2.5\mathrm{mm}`$ and the region of detection to be centered at $`x_d=3`$ mm, $`0.5\mathrm{mm}`$ beyond the X-recombiner, see Fig. 1. Figure 2 shows the density in each of the two interferometer arms for $`N=51`$ atoms just before the perturbing pulse is applied, and the wavepacket is seen to be well contained between the two X-splitters at $`L_1`$ and $`L_2`$. In the following discussion the output atom densities are calculated around the point of detection $`x_m=3`$ mm.

The response of the atom interferometer to a net imposed phase-shift $`\phi `$ between the two arms has already been addressed in the discussion leading to Eq. (31), so here we set $`\phi =0`$ and look at the effects of an applied force. Figure 3 shows the output density profiles in the upper $`(s=+1)`$ and the lower $`(s=1)`$ arms of the interferometer for an initial wavepacket of $`N=51`$ atoms moving with velocity $`v_x=70`$ mm/s, pulsed force applied at $`x_0=2`$ mm with (a) $`k_p/k=10^4`$ and $`Q=0`$, (b)$`k_p/k=10^3`$ and $`Q=0`$ and (c)$`k_p/k=10^3`$ and $`Q/k=5\times 10^4\mathrm{mm}^1`$. For a spatially uniform force $`(Q=0)`$ the condition (32) to observe fringes yields $`k_p/k>0.6\times 10^3`$, and this is consistent with case (a) which shows no fringes $`k_p=10^4`$, and case (b) for $`k_p=10^3`$ which shows a couple of fringes. Thus, the period of the density fringes in each arm can act as a measure of the wavevector of the applied force via Eq. (IV). However, as shown in Fig. 3(c), which is the same as (b) except with $`Q0`$, if the force has a spatially non-uniform component the visibility fringe can be reduced. We have found that the density fringes are sensitive to small spatially inhomogeneous compenents of the applied force. As the wavevector $`k_p`$ of the applied perturbation is further increased beyond that used in Fig. 3(b), again with $`Q=0`$, the number of density fringes increases but eventually their contrast decreases. In particular, according to the condition (33) if $`k_p/k>0.05`$ then the exiting atom wavepackets no longer overlap and interference fringes are not possible.

As a second example, Fig. 4 shows the response of the interferometer to a force of varying wavevector $`k_p`$ for $`x_0=2`$ mm and $`N=51`$ as before. (Keeping the position or time of application of the applied force fixed is somewhat artificial but serves to illustrate our theory). In particular, the figure shows the number of atoms exiting each arm as a function of $`k_p`$. For $`k_p/k0.6\times 10^3`$, so that there are no density fringes under the atom wavepacket, the atom numbers exhibit almost complete periodic oscillations. We can understand this behavior from Eq. (29) for the densities in each arm: When $`k_p/k0.6\times 10^3`$ the phase $`\theta (x,t)`$ varies little over the spatial extent of the atom wavepacket, in which case the integrated atom numbers in each arm are given to a good approximation by Eq. (30) with $`\phi `$ replaced by $`2k_px_0`$, which shows periodic exchange. In contrast, for $`k_p/k>0.6\times 10^3`$ the atom number oscillations are much smaller in amplitude and centered around 50:50 splitting. In the regime $`k_p/k0.6\times 10^3`$ the phase $`\theta (x,t)`$ varies significantly over the spatial extent of the atom wavepacket, and upon integrating Eq. (29) over $`x`$ to obtain the atom numbers in each arm, the cosine terms will tend to integrate to zero due to their oscillatory nature, giving 50:50 splitting.

## VI Summary and conclusions

In summary, by introducing a generalization of the Fermi-Bose mapping for coupled waveguides we have developed the theory of a double-X atom interferometer in the Tonks-gas limit Olshanii ; PetShlWal00  of tight transverse confinement and impenetrable interactions between the atoms. We believe this is a significant development in view of current efforts to create 1D integrated atom interferometers, and in waveguide on a chip technology in general, for inertial and other sensors. In particular, we have calculated the interferometric response of the double-X device for a variety of imposed external perturbations to illustrate the utility of our theory. A key result of our work is to show that despite the fact that the we are in the Tonks-gas limit, where the condensed fraction of the initial gas tends to zero for large number of atoms, the interferometer can still show high visibility density fringes at the output. That is, our results show the 1D waveguide devices with ultracold but non-condensate atom sources can still exhibit a high degree of first-order coherence. Furthermore, due to the Fermi-Bose mapping our results apply equally well to a spin-polarized fermionic atom source, for which s-wave scattering is absent.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to Mara Prentiss and Brian Anderson for helpful discussions. This work was supported by Office of Naval Research grant N00014-99-1-0806 and the US Army Research Office.

## Appendix A Time evolution of the Orbitals

In the absence of external potentials the time evolved orbitals $`u_n(x,s;t^{})`$ at time $`t=t^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ are obtained from those at time $`t`$ by applying the retarded free particle Green’s function

$`u_n(x,s;t)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi i\omega \mathrm{\Delta }t}}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑x^{}u_n(x^{},s;t^{})e^{\frac{(xx^{})^2}{2i\omega \mathrm{\Delta }t}}.`$ (34)
For brevity in notation notation we introduce the scaled variables $`\tau _0=\omega t_0`$ for the time of application of the pulse, $`\tau =\omega t`$ for the time of detection, and $`\tau _d=\omega (tt_0)`$. We also introduce Greek letters to designate the scaled variables $`\chi =x/x_{osc}`$ and $`\kappa =kx_{osc}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }=Qx_{osc}^2`$. The free propagation of each orbital $`u_n(x,s;t)`$ via either arm is identical up until the instant $`t=t_0^{}`$ before the pulses are applied

$`u_n(x,s;t_0^{})={\displaystyle \frac{C_ne^{i\frac{\kappa ^2\tau _0}{2}}}{\sqrt{1+i\tau _0}}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1i\tau _0}{1+i\tau _0}}\right]^{n/2}`$
$`\times e^{i\kappa \chi }e^{\frac{(\chi \chi _0)^2}{2(1+i\tau _0)}}H_n\left({\displaystyle \frac{\chi \chi _0}{\sqrt{1+\tau _0^2}}}\right),`$ (35)
where the new center of the wavepacket is at $`\chi _0=\kappa \tau _0`$. After the pulsed potentials $`V_s(x,t)`$ are applied the orbitals acquire an additional space-dependent phase different in each arm

$$u_n(x,s;t_0^+)=e^{is(\kappa _p\chi +\mathrm{\Omega }\chi ^2)}u_n(x,s;t_0^{}).$$
(36)
Evaluating the subsequent free propagation till a time $`t>t_0`$ after the wavepacket from each arm has completely passed through the recombiner, one finds the functional form of the modes coming from the two arms to be

$`u_n(x,\pm 1;t)={\displaystyle \frac{C_ne^{\frac{i}{2}\kappa ^2\tau _0}}{\sqrt{(1\pm 2\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _d)+i(\tau \pm 2\tau _0\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _d)}}}`$
$`\times \left[{\displaystyle \frac{(1\pm 2\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _d)i(\tau \pm 2\tau _0\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _d)}{(1\pm 2\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _d)+i(\tau \pm 2\tau _0\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _d)}}\right]^{n/2}e^{\frac{F_\pm (\chi ,\tau ,\tau _0)}{G_\pm (\chi ,\tau ,\tau _0)}}`$
$`\times H_n\left({\displaystyle \frac{\chi [\chi _0+(\kappa _\pm \pm 2\chi _0\mathrm{\Omega })\tau _d]}{\sqrt{[1\pm 2\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _d]^2+[\tau \pm 2\tau _0\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _d]^2}}}\right),`$ (37)
with $`\kappa _\pm =\kappa \pm \kappa _p`$, and the argument of the exponential is given by

$`F_\pm (\chi ,\tau ,\tau _0)=(1\pm 2\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _d)\chi _0^2\kappa _\pm \tau _d[2\chi _0+i\kappa _\pm (1+i\tau _0)]`$
$`+2\chi [\chi _0+i\kappa _\pm (1+i\tau _0)][(1\pm 2\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _0)i(\pm 2\mathrm{\Omega })]\chi ^2`$
$`G_\pm (\chi ,\tau ,\tau _0)=2[(1+i\tau )+(\pm 2\mathrm{\Omega })\tau _d(1+i\tau _0)].`$
When the potential has only a linear dependence on $`x`$ i.e. $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0`$ this expression acquires a more transparent form

$`u_n(x,\pm 1;t)={\displaystyle \frac{C_ne^{\frac{i}{2}(\kappa _\pm ^2\tau _d+\kappa ^2\tau _0)}}{\sqrt{1+i\tau }}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1i\tau }{1+i\tau }}\right]^{n/2}`$
$`\times e^{i\chi \kappa _\pm }e^{\frac{[\chi [\kappa _\pm \tau _d+\chi _0]]^2}{2(1+i\tau )}}H_n\left({\displaystyle \frac{\chi (\chi _0+\kappa _\pm \tau _d)}{\sqrt{1+\tau ^2}}}\right).`$ (38)
This expression contains a phase-independent factor which is a Hermite-Gaussian centered at $`x_\pm =x_0+\kappa _\pm \tau _d`$ with width $`\sqrt{1+\tau ^2}`$, that we represent in terms of unscaled variables

$`U_n(xx_\pm ,t)={\displaystyle \frac{C_ne^{\frac{[xx_\pm ]^2}{2[1+(\omega ^2t)^2]}}}{[1+(\omega t)^2]^{1/4}}}H_n({\displaystyle \frac{xx_\pm }{x_{osc}\sqrt{1+(\omega t)^2}}}).`$ (39)


text:
# Optical observations of the supernova remnant G 69.4+1.2

## 1 Introduction

Most of the known supernova remnants have been discovered during radio surveys through their non–thermal synchrotron emission. A few remnants have been discovered by their optical or X–ray emission. The detection of X–ray emission in the direction of G 69.7+1.0 was reported by Asaoka et al. (asa96 (1996)). They found a 3° long arc in the east–west direction in the ROSAT All–Sky survey extending for 0°.8 in the south–north direction. The arc is convex to the north, its west end reaches the area of CTB~80, while the maximum surface brightness is found close to its south central areas. The Wolf-Rayet star WR 132 is found at a close angular distance but it is not expected to contribute to the morphology and energetics of the X–ray arc. WR 132 is considered to be at a distance of 4.4 kpc (Miller and Chu mil93 (1993)), much further than the estimated distance of $``$1 kpc to the arc (Asaoka et al. asa96 (1996), Lu & Aschenbach lu01 (2001)). Yoshita et al. (yos00 (2000)) observed the area adjacent to G 69.7+1.0 using the ROSAT and ASCA satellites. They detected diffuse thermal X–ray radiation with an average temperature of 0.42 keV attenuated by a neutral hydrogen column density of $``$1.6 $`\times `$ 1021 cm-2. This diffuse structure extends for $``$1° in the east–west direction and was designated as AX~J2001+3235 or G 69.4+1.2. Yoshida et al. (yos00 (2000)) proposed that the incomplete shells in radio and optical wavelengths around the X–ray emission are associated to the remnant. The source AX J2001+3235 is actually the central part of the extended arc reported by Asaoka et al. (asa96 (1996)). Lu & Aschenbach (lu01 (2001)) fit the ROSAT pointed data with a two temperature Raymond–Smith model and obtained a neutral hydrogen density of $``$1.3 $`\times `$ 1021 cm-2 and temperatures of 0.24 keV and 1.17 keV. They proposed that the whole 3° long X–ray arc is G 69.4+1.2. Radio emission at 4850 MHz (Condon et al. con94 (1994)) seems correlated with the X–ray emission, although its nature (thermal or non–thermal) is not clear yet since radio spectral data are not available.

In order to improve our knowledge on this new supernova remnant and check whether the large optical shell is related to the X–ray emission we performed deep optical observations of the area around G 69.7+1.0 in major optical emission lines. Information about the observations and the data reduction is given in Sect. 2. In Sect. 3 and 4 we present the results of our imaging observations and the results from the long–slit spectra. Finally, in Sect. 5 we discuss the physical properties of the remnant.

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 Optical images

The observations presented in this paper were performed with the 0.3 m Schmidt Cassegrain telescope at Skinakas Observatory. The field of G 69.4+1.2 was observed in August 20 and 21, 2001. The observations were performed with a 1024 $`\times `$ 1024 Tektronix CCD which had a pixel size of 19 $`\mu `$m resulting in a 70′ $`\times `$ 70′ field of view and an image scale of 4″ per pixel. A journal of the observations including exposure times and filter characteristics are given in Table 1. The appropriate continua, also listed in Table 1, were subtracted from the low and medium ionization images. The final images in each filter are the average of the individual frames where appropriate, while the astrometric calculations utilized the HST Guide star catalogue. Two uncalibrated images in H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ and $`[`$O iii$`]`$ were obtained with the 1.3 m Ritchey–Cretien telescope at Skinakas Observatory and a 1024 $`\times `$ 1024 SITe CCD. The exposure time of each frame was 1800 sec and the image scale is 0″.5 per pixel. These frames were centered close to the position where the spectra were taken (see § 2.2). All coordinates quoted in this work refer to epoch 2000.

We employed standard IRAF and MIDAS routines for the reduction of the data. Individual frames were bias subtracted and flat-field corrected using well exposed twilight flat-fields. The spectrophotometric standard stars HR5501, HR7596, HR7950, HR9087 and HR718 (Hamuy et al. ham92 (1992), ham94 (1994)) were used for absolute flux calibration.

### 2.2 Optical spectra

Long–slit spectra were obtained on July 28, 2001 using the 1.3 m Ritchey–Cretien telescope at Skinakas Observatory. The data were taken with a 1300 line mm-1 grating and a 800 $`\times `$ 2000 SITe CCD covering the range of 4750 Å – 6815 Å. The slit had a width of 7$`\stackrel{}{.}`$7 and, in all cases, was oriented in the south-north direction. The slit center was located at $`\alpha `$ = 20h01m33s, $`\delta `$ = 32°43′30″ and two exposures were obtained, each of 3900 sec. The spectrophotometric standard stars HR5501, HR7596, HR7950, HR9087, and HR718 (Hamuy et al. ham92 (1992), ham94 (1994)) were observed in order to calibrate the spectra.

## 3 Imaging of G 69.4+1.2

### 3.1 The H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ and $`[`$S ii$`]`$ line images

Our field (Fig. 1) includes the known supernova remnant G 69.7+1.0 as well as the strong and extended H ii region LBN 069.96+01.35 (Lynds lyn65 (1965)). We detect diffuse emission and a filamentary structure at the area where G 69.7+1.0 lies, however, it is not clear if this emission is associated with this remnant or G 69.4+1.2. More emission line structures are detected in the south areas of our field. The pulsar PSR 2002+3217 is within the field of view but no emission is detected from this source. In Fig. 1 we also show the radio emission at 4850 MHz (Condon et al. con94 (1994)) in contours scaling linearly from 1.2 $`\times `$ 10-4 Jy/beam to 9 $`\times `$ 10-2 Jy/beam. The radio data were retrieved from SkyView maintained by NASA/HEASARC. The H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ image shows filamentary emission extending from the field center to the south west. Two filaments running parallel for $``$15′ are present around $`\alpha `$ $``$ 20h01m and $`\delta `$ $``$ 32°40′. In addition, more emission features are found to the south between $`\delta `$ $``$ 32°20′ and 32°30′. The same morphological characteristics observed in the H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ image are also seen in the $`[`$S ii$`]`$ image (Fig. 2). However, some differences do exist among the two images. The east one of the two filaments ($`\alpha `$ $``$ 20h01m15s, $`\delta `$ $``$ 32°40′) mentioned above does not appear continuous in the $`[`$S ii$`]`$ image but gaps in intensity along the filament are seen. The emission measured in the $`[`$S ii$`]`$ image itself is quite strong relative to the H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ emission. In Table 2, we list typical fluxes measured in several locations (areas I, II, III in Fig. 2) within the field of G 69.4+1.2 including the H ii region LBN 069.96+01.35 (LBN 159). The $`[`$N ii$`]`$6548, 6584 Å lines and the H$`\alpha `$ line contribute equally in the H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ filter and the corresponding fluxes in Table 2 include all these lines. However, the sulfur lines at 6716 Å and 6731 Å are not transmitted equally in the $`[`$S ii$`]`$ filter because its bandpass is narrower than that of the H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ filter. Thus, the sulfur fluxes quoted in Table 2 include 100% of the 6716 Å line and 18% of the 6731 Å line. Since the images are flux calibrated, the H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ and $`[`$S ii$`]`$ frames can be used to study the nature of the detected emission. We estimate $`[`$S ii$`]`$/H$`\alpha `$ values of $``$0.9 in the south, south–west suggesting emission from shock heated gas, while in several locations of LBN 069.96+01.35 we estimate values of $``$0.4 indicating H ii emission. In order to obtain these quantitative estimates we proceeded as follows. Since our $`[`$S ii$`]`$ filter does not measure the total sulfur flux we assumed a ratio of I(6716 Å)/I(6731 Å) of $``$1.4, appropriate for evolved remnants, and the filter transmissivities (100% at 6716 Å and 18% at 6731 Å) to estimate the total sulfur flux. In addition, we assumed that the H$`\alpha `$ flux is typically $``$90% or greater of the $`[`$N ii$`]`$6548, 6584 Å flux for evolved remnants while for H ii regions this percentage is less than $``$50%–60%. Under these assumptions we estimate that $`[`$S ii$`]`$/H$`\alpha `$ $``$2.7(\[$`[`$S ii$`]`$/H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$)observed.

### 3.2 The $`[`$O iii$`]`$ image

The morphology of the medium ionization line of $`[`$O iii$`]`$ (Fig. 3) is markedly different from that seen in the H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ and $`[`$S ii$`]`$ images. Typical fluxes measured in the $`[`$O iii$`]`$ calibrated image are also given in Table 2. A filament is detected close to the field center around at $`\alpha `$ $``$ 20h01m33s and $`\delta `$ $``$ 32°43′30″. This filament is not continuous over its full extent but there is a gap of $``$4′. This probably reflects inhomogeneities in the interstellar “clouds” resulting in strong variations of the shock velocity upon which the $`[`$O iii$`]`$ flux depends crucially (Cox & Raymond cox85 (1985)). An 8′.5 $`\times `$ 8′.5 square area has been imaged in better angular resolution (0″.5 per pixel) with the 1.3 m telescope through the H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ and $`[`$O iii$`]`$ interference filters (Fig. 4). The arrows in Fig. 4 indicate the location of the slit center. A wider field was observed by Miller and Chu (mil93 (1993)) during their study of the nearby Wolf-Rayet star WR 132. Our images show very narrow filamentary structures as well as diffuse emission. The H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ image shows a $``$1′ wide lane free of emission to the west of the observed filament but across this gap diffuse emission is present. The projected angular width of the filament seen in the low ionization image is $``$16″, while the width of the filament seen in the medium ionization line of $`[`$O iii$`]`$ is only $``$5″. At the very south–west edge of the high resolution image $`[`$O iii$`]`$ filamentary emission is again detected (see also Fig. 3). This emission is enclosed by the dashed ellipse in Fig. 4. The failure to detect $`[`$O iii$`]`$ emission where the H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ emission is strong suggests that these lines are anti-correlated. No $`[`$O iii$`]`$ emission is detected in other areas of the remnant, including those areas where diffuse or filamentary H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ or $`[`$S ii$`]`$ emission is observed.

## 4 The long–slit spectra from G 69.4+1.2

The deep low resolution spectra were taken at the location of the bright $`[`$O iii$`]`$ filament. As is evident from Fig. 4 the corresponding H$`\alpha `$ emission is expected to be weaker. The spectra clearly demonstrate the fact that the observed emission must originate from shock heated gas (Table 3). Note that the fluxes quoted in Table 3 are expected to differ from those given in Table 2 since the latter are averages over a sufficient number of pixels at different locations around the field observed, while the former refer to the very restricted position of the slit. Note also that the slit was placed at the position of bright $`[`$O iii$`]`$ emission and not H$`\alpha `$ emission. The H$`\alpha `$ emission at the slit location is much weaker than at neighbour positions as is evident from Fig. 4. The ratio of the sulfur lines approaches the low density limit indicating low electron densities (e.g. Osterbrock ost89 (1989)). However, given the errors on the individual sulfur fluxes, we estimate that electron densities less than $``$120 cm-3 (1$`\sigma `$) or 200 cm-3 (2$`\sigma `$) are allowed. The spectra display strong $`[`$O iii$`]`$ emission relative to H$`\beta `$ suggesting shock velocities greater than $``$100 km s-1 (Cox & Raymond cox85 (1985), Hartigan et al. har87 (1987)). We note here that the signal to noise ratios quoted in Table 3 do not include calibration errors which are $``$10%.

## 5 Discussion

We performed the first deep optical observations of the immediate vicinity of the new supernova remnant G 69.4+1.2 in major emission lines. The CCD images obtained reveal diffuse and filamentary emission, in the low ionization lines, in the south, south–west areas. The survey of Parker et al. (par79 (1979)) was examined but we were not able to identify the structures that we have detected in this work. This is probably due to the lower resolution and sensitivity of this survey. The supernova remnant G 69.7+1.0 lies within our field but we did not find any strong evidence to claim the detection of optical emission from this remnant. The flux calibrated images allow us to conclude that the bright extended source LBN 069.96+01.35 is an H ii region, while the structures detected in the central and south areas of our field result from emission of shock heated gas since their $`[`$S ii$`]`$ emission is strong relative to H$`\alpha `$. Note here that LBN 069.96+01.35 is found in the north part of the large optical shell reported by Yoshida et al. (yos00 (2000)) to be associated with the X–ray emission. In order to understand better the properties of G 69.4+1.2 we combined published data on G 67.7+1.8 and CTB 80 (Mavromatakis et al. 2001a , 2001b ) with the current data to create a 2°.8 $`\times `$ 1°.8 mosaic in H$`\alpha +[`$N ii$`]`$ (Fig. 5) . In this figure we overlaid the 4850 MHz radio data (thin contours; Condon et al. con94 (1994)) as well as public ROSAT All–Sky survey data (thick contours; see also Lu & Aschenbach lu01 (2001)). It is clear from the wide–field optical image that the filamentary structures detected in the south–west (Figs. 1, 2) extend further to the west, up to $`\alpha `$ $``$ 19h54m. The radio emission, although weak, is very well correlated with the optical line emission all the way from $`\alpha `$ $``$ 19h54m to 20h01m (Figs. 1, 5). Even though good quality radio data at other wavelengths are not available, the nature of the radio emission is probably non–thermal given the strong sulfur line emission seen in the optical data. Thus, we propose that the detected line emission is the optical counterpart of the radio emission seen at 4850 MHz. The question that naturally arises is whether the optical or radio emission is related to the soft X–ray emission. Clearly, the possibility that they are not related and simply overlap cannot be excluded. In this case we would have to propose the detection of a candidate remnant, different from G 69.4+1.2, based on our observational evidence. However, the nature of the optical emission and possibly that of the radio, the common orientation of the observed emission (south–west to north–east) and the fact that the outer soft X–ray contours roughly trace the south boundaries of the optical and radio emission would favor the association of the optical radiation with the emission detected in the ROSAT All–Sky survey.

The image in the medium ionization line of $`[`$O iii$`]`$ shows a filament close to the field center, while no other $`[`$O iii$`]`$ emission is detected except from the H ii region. We note that this remnant belongs to the class of remnants which show prominent $`[`$O iii$`]`$ emission only in a specific portion of their emission like CTB 1 (Fesen et al. fes97 (1997)), CTB 80, G 114.3+0.3 (Mavromatakis et al. 2001b , mav02 (2002)) and G 17.4-2.3 (Boumis et al. bou02 (2002)). The failure to detect $`[`$O iii$`]`$ line emission in several locations suggests that the velocity of the shock propagating into the interstellar “clouds” is less than $``$100 km s-1, while the detection of strong $`[`$O iii$`]`$ emission relative to H$`\alpha `$ at a specific position implies shock velocities in excess of $``$120 km s-1 (Hartigan et al. har87 (1987)) assuming complete recombination zones. The relation

$$\mathrm{n}_{[\mathrm{S}\text{ii}]}45\mathrm{n}_\mathrm{c}\times \mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{s},100}^2,$$
(1)
given by Fesen & Kirshner (fes80 (1980)) can be used to limit the preshock cloud density nc. The electron density derived from the sulfur line ratio is denoted by $`\mathrm{n}_{[\mathrm{S}\text{ii}]}`$ and Vs,100 is the shock velocity into the clouds in units of 100 km s-1. This relation allows us to set an upper limit on the preshock cloud density of $``$2 cm-3. Here we assumed a shock velocity of 120 km s-1 and made use of the upper limit of 120 cm-3 on the electron density (Table 3). However, the relatively high $`[`$O iii$`]`$ to H$`\beta `$ ratio in connection with the different morphologies seen in Fig. 4 could suggest that incomplete recombination zones are present in that area. Adopting the calculations of Raymond et al. (ray88 (1988)), a distance of $``$1 kpc (Asaoka et al. asa96 (1996), Lu & Aschenbach lu01 (2001)) and an edge–on geometry, we estimate an average filament density of $``$4 cm-3. We note here that in this case a shock velocity of $``$80 km s-1 would be sufficient to produce the strong $`[`$O iii$`]`$ emission. However, it is not clear if this velocity could also produce the prominent sulfur emission seen in the images.

We estimate from the flux calibrated images that the total sulfur emission at 6716 Å and 6731 Å is comparable in strength to the total nitrogen emission at 6548 Å and 6584 Å. In addition, emission from $`[`$O iii$`]`$ is practically absent since it is only present in a very limited area compared to the field observed (Fig. 3). Examination of shock models with full recombination zones shows that these conditions are satisfied only for low shock velocities around 40–60 km s-1 (Hartigan et al. har87 (1987)). Clearly, such velocities can account for the gross absence of the $`[`$O iii$`]`$ emission. In order to obtain more quantitative estimates we will also use the relation

$$\mathrm{E}_{51}=2\times 10^5\beta ^1\mathrm{n}_\mathrm{c}V_{\mathrm{s},100}^2\mathrm{r}_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{3},$$
(2)
given by McKee & Cowie (mck75 (1975)). The factor $`\beta `$ is of the order of 1–2, $`\mathrm{E}_{51}`$ is the explosion energy in units of 1051 erg, and rs the radius of the remnant in pc. Assuming rs = 28 (Lu & Aschenbach lu01 (2001)), Vs,100 $``$ 0.5, nc $``$ 1 and $`\beta `$ $``$ 1, we estimate an explosion energy of 0.1 which is not far from the value of 0.5 given by Lu & Aschenbach (lu01 (2001)) considering the estimates of the physical quantities and the assumptions made in the equations involved. Furthermore, we can check if pressure equilibrium exists between the cloud and intercloud regions. Using as before the same values for the shock velocity and precloud density and a velocity of the main shock front of $``$700 km s-1 (Lu & Aschenbach lu01 (2001)), we calculate an intercloud density of 0.01 cm-3. This value is very close to that of 0.02 cm-3 given by Lu & Aschenbach (lu01 (2001)) based on the Sedov–Taylor solution of the X–ray data. These simple calculations show that the optical data are compatible with basic supernova remnant parameters derived from the X–ray data. Nevertheless, new X–ray observations are needed with a better spatial resolution in order to perform a detailed comparison with the optical and radio data. Radio observations are also needed to determine the actual nature of the radio emission in the south, south–west as well as in the north.

## 6 Conclusions

The area around the new supernova remnant G 69.4+1.2 was observed in major optical lines. New diffuse and filamentary structures were detected in the south, south–west. The flux calibrated images suggest that the majority of the structures result from emission of shock heated gas. Variations in the shock velocity are also observed, while the long–slit spectra taken at the position of prominent $`[`$O iii$`]`$ emission suggest low electron densities. The optical data seem correlated with the radio data at 4850 MHz and there is also good agreement with the X–ray data although the spatial resolutions are quite different. It is very likely that the optical emission is related to the radio emission and to the extended X–ray arc.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank the referee F. Winkler for his comments which helped to clarify the scope of this paper. We would also like to thank B. Aschenbach for providing us a preprint on G 69.4+1.2 (Lu & Aschenbach lu01 (2001)). Skinakas Observatory is a collaborative project of the University of Crete, the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas and the Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik. This research has made use of data obtained through the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Online Service, provided by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.