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# Parity Effects in Eigenvalue Correlators, Parametric and Crossover Correlators in Random Matrix Models: Application to Mesoscopic systems

## 1 Introduction

Recently there is a lot of activity in the field of quantum chaos and mesoscopic systems. This has resulted in the study of eigenvalue correlators in large random matrix models ref. -. This paper summarizes some work I’ve been doing on calculating eigenvalue correlators in random matrix models which show novel properties which maybe useful in the study of transport properties in mesoscopic conductors. The first models are random matrix models with gaps in the eigenvalue spectrum and the second are two-matrix models first considered by Harish Chandra-Itzykson-Zuber ref. . In the first model the ‘fine grained’ correlators are found using the method of orthogonal polynomials ref.. These correlators are unusual in that in the large N thermodynamic limit they tend to different limits depending on whether N goes to infinity through even or odd ref. . This property maybe found in mesoscopic systems which are sensitive to single electron effects. The second models are the two-matrix models of Harish Chandra- Itzykson-Zuber ref. . Here correlators are calculated using the Dyson-Schwinger method and give the long ranged parametric and cross-correlators. Transport experiments involving changes in magnetic fields in which long range eigenvalue statistics are effected will be a testing ground for these results.

I shall first discuss the double well matrix model with potential $`V(M)=\frac{\mu }{2}M^2+\frac{g}{4}M^4`$ where $`M`$ is a random $`N\times N`$ matrix. I will present some results for the two-point density-density correlation functions which show interesting parity effects and further characterizes these models in a new universality class. The original model is $`Z_2`$ symmetric while there is $`Z_2`$ symmetry breaking in the correlation functions. Second, the Chandra-Itzykson-Zuber matrix model is discussed and the results for the smoothed long range parametric and crossover eigenvalue correlators, found using the Dyson-Schwinger equations, are given.

## 2 Notations and Conventions for the Double-Well Matrix Model

We start by establishing the notations and conventions. Let $`M`$ be a hermitian matrix. The partition function to be considered is $`Z=𝑑Me^{NtrV(M)}`$ where $`M=N\times N`$ hermitian matrix. The Haar measure $`dM=_{i=1}^NdM_{ii}_{i<j}dM_{ij}^{(1)}dM_{ij}^{(2)}`$ with $`M_{ij}=M_{ij}^{(1)}+iM_{ij}^{(2)}`$ and $`N^2`$ independent variables. $`V(M)`$ is a polynomial in M: $`V(M)=g_1M+(g_2/2)M^2+(g_3/3)M^3+(g_4/4)M^4+\mathrm{}..`$ The partition function is invariant under the change of variable $`M^{}=UMU^{}`$ where $`U`$ is a unitary matrix. We can use this invariance and go to the diagonal basis ie $`D^{}=UMU^{}`$ such that $`D^{}`$ is the matrix diagonal to $`M`$ with eigenvalues $`\lambda _1,\lambda _2,\mathrm{}..\lambda _N`$. Then the partition function becomes $`Z=C_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}_{i=1}^Nd\lambda _i\mathrm{\Delta }(\lambda )^2e^{N_{i=1}^NV(\lambda _i)}`$ where $`\mathrm{\Delta }(\lambda )=_{i<j}|\lambda _i\lambda _j|`$ is the Vandermonde determinant. The integration over the group U with the appropriate measure is trivial and is just the constant C. By exponentiating the determinant as a ‘trace log’ we arrive at the Dyson Gas or Coulomb Gas picture. The partition function is simply $`Z=C_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}_{i=1}^Nd\lambda _ie^{S(\lambda )}`$ with $`S(\lambda )=N_{i=1}^NV(\lambda _i)2_{i,j,ij}ln|\lambda _i\lambda _j|`$.

This is just a system of N particles with coordinates $`\lambda _i`$ on the real line, confined by a potential and repelling each other with a logarithmic repulsion. The spectrum or the density of eigenvalues $`\rho (x)=\frac{1}{N}_{i=1}^N\delta (x\lambda _i)`$ is in the large N limit or doing the saddle point analysis just the Wigner semi-circle for a (Gaussian probability distribution for the eigenvalues) quadratic potential. The physical picture is that the eigenvalues try to be at the bottom of the well. But it costs energy to sit on top of each other because of logarithmic repulsion, so they spread. $`\rho `$ has support on a finite line segment. This continues to be true whether the potential is quadratic or a more general polynomial and only depends on there being a single well though the shape of the Wigner semi-circle is correspondingly modified. For the quadratic potential the density is $`\rho (x)=\frac{1}{\pi }\sqrt{(xa)(bx)}`$ where $`[a,b]`$ are the end of the cuts. See Fig. 1.

On changing the potential more drastically by having two humps or wells, the simplest example being a potential $`V(M)=\frac{\mu }{2}M^2+\frac{g}{4}M^4`$, the density can get disconnected support. The precise expressions for the density of eigenvalues are as follows:

$`\rho (x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g}{\pi }}x\sqrt{(x^2a^2)(b^2x^2)}a<x<b`$ (2.1)
$`=`$ $`0b<x<a`$
where $`a^2=\frac{1}{g}[|\mu |2\sqrt{g}]`$ and $`b^2=\frac{1}{g}[|\mu |+2\sqrt{g}]`$ and $`|\mu |>2\sqrt{g}`$, which is the condition that the wells are sufficiently deep. The eigenvalues sit in symmetric bands centered around each well. Thus $`\rho `$ has support on two line segments. As $`|\mu |`$ approaches $`2\sqrt{g}`$, $`a0`$ and the two bands merge at the origin. The density is then

$`\rho (x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{gx^2}{\pi }}\sqrt{x^2{\displaystyle \frac{2\mu }{g}}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2|\mu |}{g}}}<x<\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2|\mu |}{g}}}`$ (2.2)
$`=`$ $`0otherwise.`$
The phase diagram and density of eigenvalues for the $`M^4`$ potential is shown in Figs. 2.

The simplest way to determine $`\rho (z)`$ explicitly is to use the generating function $`F(z)=<\frac{1}{N}Tr\frac{1}{zM}>`$ and its saddle point or Schwinger-Dyson equation also known in the mathematics literature as the Riemann-Hilbert problem $`F(z)=\frac{1}{2}[V^{}(z)+\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }}]`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }(z)=V^{}(z)^24b(z)`$ and $`b(z)=gz^2+\mu +g<\frac{1}{N}TrM^2>`$ (see ref. ). The density $`\rho (x)`$ is then determined by the formula $`\rho (z)=\frac{1}{2\pi }Im\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }(z)}`$.

In what follows I will outline the recurrence coefficient method of the orthogonal polynomials for the two-cut matrix model see ref.  for more details. I give the results for the two-point correlators (also known as the ‘smoothed’ or ‘long range’ correlators) for all three ensembles. Then the two-matrix model of Chandra-Itzykson-Zuber is defined and the expressions for the parametric and crossover correlators are given.

## 3 Orthogonal Polynomial Approach

The partition function $`Z`$, can be rewritten in terms of the orthogonal polynomials $`P_n`$ where the polynomials are defined as $`_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\lambda e^{NV(\lambda )}P_n(\lambda )P_m(\lambda )=h_n\delta _{nm}`$ then $`P_n=\lambda ^n+l.o.`$ and $`P_0(\lambda )=1`$, $`P_1(\lambda )=\lambda +c`$, $`P_2(\lambda )=\lambda ^2+a\lambda +b`$ …… Then $`Z`$ the partition function in terms of the orthogonal polynomials is

$$Z=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}d\lambda _ie^{N{\scriptscriptstyle V(\lambda )}}\left|\begin{array}{ccc}P_0(\lambda _1)& \mathrm{}.& P_0(\lambda _N)\\ P_1(\lambda _1)& \mathrm{}.& P_1(\lambda _N)\\ .& & \\ .& & \\ .& & \\ P_{N1}(\lambda _1)& \mathrm{}\mathrm{}& P_{N1}(\lambda _N)\end{array}\right|.$$
(3.3)
The partition function $`Z`$ is also known if we know the $`h_n`$’s as the partition function can be expressed in terms of the $`h_n`$’s $`Z=N!h_0h_1h_2\mathrm{}..h_{N1}.`$ For example: N=2 case $`𝑑\lambda _1𝑑\lambda _2e^{NV(\lambda _1)NV(\lambda _2)}(P_0(\lambda _1)P_1(\lambda _2)P_0(\lambda _2)P_1(\lambda _1))^2=h_0h_1+h_0h_1=2!h_0h_1.`$ So the question is how does one find the $`h`$’s?

The $`P_n`$ satisfy recurrence relations

$$xP_n=P_{n+1}+S_nP_n+R_nP_{n1}.$$
(3.4)
Note that $`xP_nP_{n2}e^{NV(x)}𝑑x=0`$ as $`xP_{n2}=P_{n1}+l.o.`$. Thus $`P_{n2}`$ $`\&`$ l.o. terms do not appear on the right hand side of the recurrence relation eq. (3.4). Then as $`h_n=h_{n1}R_n`$ the product $`h_0h_1\mathrm{}\mathrm{}h_{N1}=h_0(h_0R_1)(h_0R_1R_2)\mathrm{}\mathrm{}(h_0R_1\mathrm{}R_N)=h_0^NR_1^{N1}R_2^{N2}\mathrm{}\mathrm{}R_{N1}.`$ The free energy $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{ln}Z=\mathrm{ln}N!+N\mathrm{ln}h_0+_{n=1}^{N1}(Nn)\mathrm{ln}R_n`$ hence we need recurrence coefficients $`R_n`$’s to get the free energy.

## 4 Asymptotic Ansatz for the Orthogonal Polynomials of the Symmetric Double-Well Matrix Model

We have been able to derive in ref.  for the symmetric double-well matrix model the asymptotic ansatz for the orthogonal polynomials $`\psi _n(\lambda )=\frac{P_n(\lambda )}{\sqrt{h_n}}exp(\frac{N}{2}V(\lambda ))`$ which is

$$\psi _n(\lambda )=\frac{1}{\sqrt{f(\lambda )}}[\mathrm{cos}(N\zeta (Nn)\varphi +\chi +(1)^n\eta )(\lambda )+O(\frac{1}{N})]$$
(4.5)
where $`f`$, $`\zeta `$, $`\varphi `$, $`\chi `$ and $`\eta `$ are functions of $`\lambda `$, and $`\psi _n`$ is damped outside of the cuts. We show that $`f(\lambda )=\frac{\pi }{2\lambda }\frac{(b^2a^2)}{2}\mathrm{sin}2\varphi (\lambda )`$ from the orthogonality condition satisfied by the orthogonal polynomials. $`\zeta ^{}(\lambda )=\pi \rho (\lambda )`$ from the relation $`K(\lambda ,\lambda )=\rho (\lambda )`$ where $`K(\mu ,\nu )`$ is the kernel defined by $`\frac{1}{N}_{i=1}^{N1}\psi _i(\mu )\psi _i(\nu )`$ and determines all eigenvalue correlators. While $`\varphi (\lambda )`$ and $`\eta (\lambda )`$ are determined from the recurrence relations satisfied by the orthogonal polynomials $`\mathrm{cos}2\varphi (\lambda )=\frac{\lambda ^2(\frac{a^2+b^2}{2})}{(\frac{b^2a^2}{2})},`$ $`\mathrm{cos}2\eta (\lambda )=\frac{b\mathrm{cos}\varphi (\lambda )}{\lambda },`$ and $`\mathrm{sin}2\eta (\lambda )=\frac{a\mathrm{sin}\varphi (\lambda )}{\lambda }.`$

$`f`$, $`\varphi `$, $`\eta `$ and $`\chi `$ are universal functions independent of the potential, the only dependence on V enters through the endpoints of the cuts a and b. $`\zeta `$ is non-universal since the eigenvalue density depends in general on the detailed form of V. More details are to be found in the ref. . From this one can establish that the gapped matrix model is in a new universality class.

Using the asymptotic ansatz the full density-density correlation function maybe found and is given in ref. . A simpler result are the ‘smoothed’ or ‘long range’ two-point correlation functions found in ref.  using a method of steepest decent which has a constant C which is undetermined unless one is explicitly in the symmetric case where $`C=(1)^N`$ ref.  (ref.  obtain this result using a method due to Shohat), other values for C have been found earlier using the loop equation method ref. . Recently in ref.  it was shown that for double wells with equal depths but unequal widths, in the limit of the symmetric double wells, give the value $`C=(1)^N`$ confirming the results of ref. .

$`4\pi ^2N^2\rho _2^c(\lambda ,\mu )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_\lambda ϵ_\mu }{\beta \sqrt{|\sigma (\lambda )|}\sqrt{|\sigma (\mu )|}}}`$
$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{\sigma (\lambda )+\sigma (\mu )}{(\lambda \mu )^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma ^{}(\lambda )\sigma ^{}(\mu )}{(\lambda \mu )}}+\lambda ^2+\mu ^2{\displaystyle \frac{s}{2}}(\lambda +\mu )+2C\right).`$ (4.6)
Here $`\sigma (z)=(z^2a^2)(z^2b^2)`$, $`s=a_1+a_2+a_3+a_4`$, $`ϵ_\lambda =+1fora_3<\lambda <a_4,ϵ_\lambda =1fora_1<\lambda <a_2`$ and $`\beta =1,2,4`$ depending on whether $`M`$ the matrix is real orthogonal, hermitian or self-dual quartonian. This result is different for even and odd N and hence has broken the $`Z_2`$ symmetry. It would be very interesting to be able to see this effect in experiments of mesoscopic systems which are sensitive to single electron effects.

## 5 The Harish Chandra-Itzykson-Zuber matrix model and density-density correlators

The two-matrix model of Harish Chandra-Itzykson-Zuber is defined by the partition function

$$Z=𝑑A𝑑Be^S$$
(5.7)
where $`S=NSp[V(A)+V(B)cAB]`$ and $`V(A)=\frac{1}{2}\mu A^2`$. For $`\lambda =\frac{1}{2}`$, $`A`$ and $`B`$ are $`N\times N`$ real symmetric matrices (orthogonal ensemble), for $`\lambda =1`$, $`A`$ and $`B`$ are $`N\times N`$ Hermitian matrices (unitary ensemble), and for $`\lambda =2`$ $`N\times N`$ real self-dual quaternions (symplectic ensemble). $`Sp(A)`$ stands for $`TrA`$ for $`\lambda =\frac{1}{2},1`$ and for $`\frac{1}{2}TrA`$ for $`\lambda =2`$. In this model the connected density-density correlator is $`\rho _{AB}(x,y)<\widehat{\rho }_A(x)\widehat{\rho }_B(y)>_c`$, where the density is defined as $`\widehat{\rho }_A(x)\frac{1}{N}Tr\delta (xA)`$, $`<X>\frac{1}{Z}𝑑A𝑑Be^SX`$, and the subscript $`c`$ implies connected part. In ref.  the Dyson-Schwinger equations are used to derive these eigenvalue correlators. Here only the results and physical interpretations are elaborated on.

In the large-N limit, the expectation value for the density is given by the well known Wigner semicircle law

$`<\widehat{\rho }_A(x)>=<\widehat{\rho }_B(x)>={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi a^2}}\sqrt{a^2x^2},|x|a,`$ (5.8)
and $`<\widehat{\rho }>=0`$ for $`|x|a`$, where $`a`$, the “end point of the cut” is given by $`a=(\frac{4\lambda \mu }{\mu ^2c^2})`$. The result for the connected density-density correlator to leading order in $`\frac{1}{N}`$, valid over the entire cut, is

$`\rho _{AB}(x,y)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi ^2N^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\lambda a^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}\alpha }}\times `$
$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1+\mathrm{cosh}u\mathrm{cos}(\theta +\alpha )}{[\mathrm{cosh}u+\mathrm{cos}(\theta +\alpha )]^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1\mathrm{cosh}u\mathrm{cos}(\theta \alpha )}{[\mathrm{cosh}u\mathrm{cos}(\theta \alpha )]^2}}\right],`$ (5.9)
where $`uln(\frac{mu}{c})`$, $`|x|,|y|a`$, and we have defined $`\mathrm{sin}\theta =\frac{x}{a}`$ and $`\mathrm{sin}\alpha =\frac{y}{a}`$. For $`\lambda =1`$ the above result was derived in ref.  using different methods from the Dyson-Schwinger method. The Dyson-Schwinger method is capable of generalization to $`\lambda =\frac{1}{2},2`$ with the above result. Then these results are relevant for the calculation of conductance fluctuation of mesoscopic systems in which the magnetic field is changing.

When one is interested in transitions from one symmetry class to another, a hamiltonian $`A`$ is considered consisting of two parts $`B`$ and $`V`$ each drawn from different ensembles $`A=B+V`$. The partition function $`Z`$ and action $`S`$ are modified to have

$`V(A)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mu _1A^2,V(B)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mu _2B^2`$ (5.10)
and

$`c=\mu _1,\mu _2={\displaystyle \frac{\mu _1(1\mu _1N)}{(2\mu _1N)}}.`$ (5.11)
The constant $`\mu _1`$ measures the strength of the perturbation. At $`\mu _1=\mathrm{}`$ we get GOE, while $`\mu _1=\frac{2}{N}`$ gives GUE. However, we will work in the more general case where $`\mu _1`$, $`\mu _2`$ and $`c`$ are independent $`O(1)`$ parameters. This is just the standard two-matrix model except that A and B are drawn from different ensembles. The choice of parameters eq. (5.11), mentioned above corresponds to the crossover from GOE to GUE is then a special case of the formula derived.

We are interested in calculating the connected density-density correlator

$$\rho _{AA}^c(x,y)<\widehat{\rho }_A(x)\widehat{\rho }_A(y)>_c$$
(5.12)
The full smoothed global result for the connected eigenvalue correlator is (see ref. )

$$\rho _{AA}^c(x,y)=\rho _{AA}^I(x,y)+\rho _{AA}^{II}(x,y)$$
(5.13)
where we find

$`\rho _{AA}^I(x,y)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N^2(xy)^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{(a^2xy)}{[(a^2x^2)(a^2y^2)]^{\frac{1}{2}}}}`$ (5.14)
and

$`\rho _{AA}^{II}(x,y)={\displaystyle \frac{c^2\mu _1^2}{N^2(2\mu _1\mu _2c^2)}}[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}(\varphi \theta )1}{2\mathrm{cos}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\theta }}\times `$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{2\mu _1^2(xy)^2\frac{8}{a^2}(\mathrm{cos}2\varphi +\mathrm{cos}2\theta 2\mathrm{cos}(\theta +\varphi ))\frac{8\mu _1}{a}(xy)(\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\varphi )}{(\mu _1^2(xy)^2+\frac{8}{a^2}(1\mathrm{cos}(\theta \varphi ))\frac{4\mu _1}{a}(xy)(\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\varphi )^2)}}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}(\varphi +\theta )+1}{2\mathrm{cos}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\theta }}\times `$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{2\mu _1^2(xy)^2\frac{8}{a^2}(\mathrm{cos}2\varphi +\mathrm{cos}2\theta +2\mathrm{cos}(\theta +\varphi ))\frac{8\mu _1}{a}(xy)(\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\varphi )}{(\mu _1^2(xy)^2+\frac{8}{a^2}(1+\mathrm{cos}(\theta +\varphi ))\frac{4\mu _1}{a}(xy)(\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\varphi )^2)}}]`$ (5.15)
where we have used $`\mathrm{sin}\theta =\frac{x}{a}`$, $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi =\frac{y}{a}`$ and $`a^2=\frac{4}{\alpha }`$. After some algebra we notice that for $`\mu _1=\mathrm{}`$,

$$\rho _{AA}^c(x,y)=\frac{1}{\pi ^2N^2(xy)^2}$$
(5.16)
which is the GOE result and for $`\mu _1=\frac{2}{N}`$,

$$\rho _{AA}^c(x,y)=\frac{1}{2\pi ^2N^2(xy)^2}$$
(5.17)
the GUE result. The expression eq. (5.15) is relevant for crossover from the GOE to GUE ensemble. One application of these correlation functions is to disordered mesoscopic systems using the transmission matrix formalism and the other is in the study of unoriented random surfaces.

## 6 Conclusions

In conclusion we have presented two classes of random matrix models. One in which there are gaps in the eigenvalue distribution and the other in which there are two coupled matrices drawn from the three ensembles (matrices taken from the same and different ensemble have been considered). In each of the models we have derived eigenvalue correlators particularly density-density correlators. In the first case of gapped matrix models we have eigenvalue correlators which dependent on $`N`$ the size of the matrix. This behaviour persists in the large N thermodynamic limit and for the symmetric double-well matrix model parity effects are present. For the coupled matrix models long range smoothed correlators are found. These are the parametric and crossover correlators which maybe found in mesoscopic experiments. Density-density correlators are applicable in calculations of conductance fluctuations of mesoscopic conductors. Our results in these models are valid for all eigenvalues near the center as well as the edge of the semi-circle. The behavior near the edge of the cut is particularly relevant in studies of transport properties of mesoscopic conductors ref. . Thus clever mesoscopic experiments should be devised which will show the effects found in both types of these matrix models.

## 7 Acknowledgments

My best wishes and thanks to Professor N. Kumar on the occasion of the NKFEST. Thanks to E. Brézin, S. Jain and B. S Shastry for encouragement and collaborations.

email:ndeo@vsnl.net, ndeo@rri.res.in.


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# Macroscopically ordered state in exciton system

Macroscopically ordered arrays of vortices in quantum liquids, such as superconductors, He–II, and atom Bose–Einstein Condensates (BEC), demonstrate macroscopic coherence in flowing superfluids Trauble ; Yarmchuk ; Madison ; Abo-Shaeer . Despite of the rich variety of systems where quantum liquids reveal macroscopic ordering, experimental observation of a macroscopically ordered electronic state in semiconductors has remained a challenging unexplored problem. A system of excitons is a promising candidate for the realization of macroscopic ordering in a quantum liquid in semiconductors. An exciton is a bound pair of an electron and a hole. At low densities, it is a Bose quasi-particle. At low temperatures, of the order of a few Kelvins, excitons can form a quantum liquid, i.e., a statistically degenerate Bose gas and eventually BEC Keldysh ; Lozovik ; Butov98 ; Butov01 ; Butov02 . Here, we report the experimental observation of a macroscopically ordered state in an exciton system.

We studied spatially resolved photoluminescence, PL, of quasi-two-dimensional gases of indirect excitons in GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs coupled quantum wells, QWs (Fig. 1b). Previous studies Butov98 ; Butov01 ; Butov02  have shown that coupled QWs is a unique system where a cold exciton gas, and, more generally, a cold gas of light boson quasiparticles, can be created. The indirect excitons in coupled QWs are characterized by high cooling rates, three orders of magnitude higher than in bulk GaAs, and long lifetime against electron–hole recombination, more than three orders of magnitude longer than in a single GaAs QW. This lifetime is much longer than the characteristic time scale for cooling of initially hot photogenerated excitons down to temperatures well below 1K, where the dilute quasi–two-dimensional Bose gas of indirect excitons becomes statistically degenerate Butov01 . Because the exciton mass, $`M`$, is small, even smaller than the free electron mass $`m_0`$, the quantum degeneracy temperature $`T_0=(\pi \mathrm{}^2n)/(2Mgk_B)`$ ($`g`$ is the spin degeneracy of the exciton state and $`k_B`$ is the Boltzmann constant) exceeds 1 K at experimentally accessible exciton densities, $`n`$, i.e. is several orders of magnitude higher than for atoms.

Yet another important advantage of the system is a repulsive interaction between the indirect excitons which, because of the separation of the electron and hole layers (Fig. 1b), are dipoles oriented perpendicular to the QW plane. This dipole-dipole interaction stabilizes the exciton state against the formation of metallic electron-hole droplets in real space Yoshioka ; Littlewood , reinforces BEC Leggett , and results in a screening of an in-plane random potential (caused by interface fluctuations, impurities, etc. and unavoidable in any real QW sample). Note, that in ideal two-dimensional systems pure BEC is only possible at $`T=0`$, although, a phase transition to a superfluid exciton state is possible at finite temperatures Popov . The latter is characterized by a long-range order at low temperatures KT .

Typically, excitons in semiconductors are generated by a laser photoexcitation and their density is controlled by the laser intensity. The indirect excitons have a small oscillator strength because of the small overlap between electron and hole wavefunctions. Therefore, a much higher density of indirect excitons is achieved by nonresonant laser photoexcitation with energies at or above the direct exciton resonance where the photon absorption coefficient is high (Fig. 1b). In a quasiequilibrium, practically all photoexcited carriers relax to the indirect exciton states as they are lower in energy than the direct exciton states (the ratio between the indirect and direct exciton densities is typically larger than $`10^4`$). The cost to pay for the nonresonant excitation is that the initially photogenerated excitons are hot. However, they quickly cool down to the lattice temperature via phonon emission: e.g. the exciton temperature can drop down to 400 mK in about 5 ns, that is the time much shorter than the indirect exciton lifetime Butov01 . Therefore, there are two ways to overcome the obstacle of hot generation and study cold gases of indirect excitons with effective temperatures close to that of the lattice: (1) use a discrimination in time and study the indirect excitons a few ns after the end of the photoexcitation pulses Butov01 , (2) use a discrimination in space and study the indirect excitons beyond the photoexcitation spot. In the latter case, excitons can cool down to the lattice temperature as they travel away from photoexcitation spot.

Here, exploring the spatially and spectrally resolved PL experiments, we have observed a ring structure in the indirect exciton photoluminescence and a macroscopically ordered state of indirect excitons appearing in the ring the most remote from the excitation spot. First we present a brief description of our experimental findings, that is followed by a discussion of the observed effects.

At the lowest excitation powers, $`P_{ex}`$, the spatial profile of the indirect exciton PL intensity practically follows the laser excitation intensity (Fig. 1a). However, at high $`P_{ex}`$, we observed a nontrivial pattern for that profile. First, we address its radial dependence detailed in Fig. 1. The pattern is characterized by a ring structure: the laser excitation spot is surrounded by two concentric bright rings separated by an annular dark interring region (the ratio between the indirect exciton PL intensities in the external ring and in the dark interring region reaches a factor of 30 at high $`P_{ex}`$). The rest of the sample outside the external ring is dark. The internal ring appears near the edge of the laser excitation spot, and the external ring can be remote from the excitation spot by more than 100 $`\mu `$m. Its radius increases with increasing excitation power. The ring structure follows the laser excitation spot when it is moved over the whole sample area. This nontrivial spatial profile of the indirect exciton PL intensity is only observed at low temperatures. When the temperature is increased the bright rings wash out, the PL intensity in the interring region and outside the external ring increases, and the spatial profile intensity approaches a monotonic bell-like shape (Fig. 1c).

The azimuthal dependence of the indirect exciton PL intensity in the external ring is also nontrivial: that ring is fragmented into circular-shape structures that form a periodic array, Figs. 2a–e. These fragments follow the external ring either when the excitation spot is moved over the sample area or when the ring radius varies with $`P_{ex}`$. The bright fragments always keep the circular shape with equal dimensions in radial and azimuthal directions under all experimental conditions studied. As already mentioned, they form a nearly periodic chain over macroscopic lengths, up to $`1`$ mm. This is demonstrated in Fig. 3e which shows the nearly linear dependence of the fragment positions along the ring vs their number. Along the whole external ring, both in the peaks and the passes, the indirect exciton PL lines are spectrally narrow with the full width at half maximum, FWHM, $`1.3`$ meV, considerably smaller than in the center of the excitation spot, Figs. 2f and 1d. The ring fragmentation is observed at the lowest temperatures only and is already absent at $`T4`$ K, Figs. 3a-c. The PL contrast along the ring washes out as the temperature increases, this can be quantified by the amplitude of the Fourier transform of the variation of the PL intensity along the ring as shown in Fig. 3d.

Besides the mobile features, like the rings and the external ring’s fragments that move with the excitation spot or when $`P_{ex}`$ is varied, the spatial pattern shows also that the indirect exciton PL intensity is strongly enhanced in certain fixed spots on the sample, Figs. 2a–e. We call them localized bright spots (LBS). For any excitation spot location and any $`P_{ex}`$ the LBS are only observed when they are within the area terminated by the external ring, Figs. 2a–e. In the LBS the indirect exciton PL line is spectrally narrow, FWHM $`1.2`$ meV, and its energy is locally reduced. The LBS also wash out with increasing temperature.

All these effects are observed on several mesas studied and all experimental data are reproducible after cycling the sample temperature up to room temperature and back to 1.8 K many times.

We now discuss the nature of the observed effects. Under cw laser excitation a system of photoexcited excitons freely expanding in a QW plane is a thermodynamically open system in a quasiequilibrium. At low densities the indirect excitons are localized by the in-plane potential fluctuations and, therefore, the spatial profile of the indirect exciton PL intensity practically follows the laser excitation intensity, Fig. 1a. At high densities, however, the repulsive interaction between the indirect excitons screens the in-plane potential fluctuations and, therefore, results in a delocalization of the indirect excitons. Their long lifetime allows them to move far away from the excitation spot before they recombine. As we show below, the lifetime is further enhanced by the exciton motion itself. All these factors facilitate the exciton transport over macroscopic distances, up to $`1`$ mm, in our experiments.

It is well known that for delocalized quasi-two-dimensional excitons only the states inside the radiative zone terminated by the photon cone, Fig. 4a, can recombine radiatively by resonant emission of photons Feldmann . Those are the states with small in-plane center of mass momenta $`K_{}K_0=E_g\sqrt{\epsilon }/(\mathrm{}c)`$ ($`E_g`$ is the band gap and $`\epsilon `$ is the dielectric constant). The exciton radiative decay rate and, therefore, the exciton PL intensity are determined by the fraction of excitons inside the radiative zone. In the center of the excitation spot the exciton gas is characterized by a high effective temperature, larger than that of the lattice Butov01 . Under cw photoexcitation, there is a continuous flow of excitons out of the excitation spot due to the exciton drift and diffusion (other mechanisms such as ballistic transport and phonon wind may also be contributing to the exciton cloud expansion). The exciton diffusion originates directly from the exciton density gradient. The exciton drift also originates from the density gradient as the latter gives rise to the gradient of the indirect exciton energy because of the repulsive interaction (see Figs. 1e, f). As the excitons travel away from the excitation spot, the effective exciton temperature, $`T_X`$, decreases with increasing the radial distance due to their energy relaxation. The reduction of $`T_X`$ increases the radiative zone occupation and, therefore, increases the PL intensity, that is seen as onset of the internal ring. The internal ring is therefore the spatial analog of the PL intensity enhancement after an excitation pulse, i.e. the PL jump, observed in Ref. Butov01 . Estimates for the exciton density in the internal ring exceed $`3\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 at the highest $`P_{ex}`$, implying that a statistically degenerate Bose gas of indirect excitons forms in the internal ring (at $`n=3\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 and $`T=2`$ K, the Bose-Einstein distribution function gives the occupation number of the lowest energy state $`\nu =e^{T_0/T}10.3`$ for the excitons in our coupled QWs where $`g=4`$ and $`M=0.21m_0`$).

To explain the dark region between the rings we propose the following scenario (Fig. 4). Travelling out of the energy “hill” at the center of the excitation spot excitons acquire an average drift momentum. As the height of the energy hill, several meV (Fig. 1e), is much larger than the radiative zone energy width, $`0.1`$ meV, the average momentum acquired, $`K_{drift}`$, can exceed $`K_0`$. That means that the moving excitons move out of the radiative zone and, therefore, become optically inactive. This explains the existence of the dark region between the internal and external rings. An interesting aspect of this effect is that the optically inactive excitons move at speeds several times faster than the speed of sound: already for $`K=K_0`$ excitons their speed $`v=\mathrm{}K_0/M=1.4\times 10^6`$ cm/s is larger than the speed of sound in GaAs $`v_s=3.7\times 10^5`$ cm/s. This implies that the exciton flow in the dark interring region is diffusive rather than superfluid, because the Landau criterion for superfluidity is not fulfilled for excitons moving with supersonic velocities (the exciton moving with $`vv_s`$ can scatter to a lower energy state with an acoustic phonon emission, and this process causes a dissipation). Far from the excitation spot the main driving force for exciton transport, the energy gradient, vanishes and they relax down to the lowest energy states. This results in the sharp enhancement of the radiative zone occupation and, therefore, the PL intensity, that is seen as the external ring. As excitons in the external ring relax down to the low momentum states, characterized by low velocities, the exciton flow is stopped and there are practically no excitons outside of that ring (Figs. 2a–e).

The most interesting feature of the external ring is its fragmentation into a periodic array. The existence of this periodic ordering shows that the exciton state formed in the external ring has a coherence on a macroscopic length scale. We emphasize that the coherence is not driven by a laser excitation because in our experiment the photoexcited carriers experience multiple inelastic scatterings before the optically active indirect excitons are formed. Instead, the coherence spontaneously appears in the exciton system. The understanding of the microscopic nature of this ordered exciton state warrants future studies. We suggest that the fragments are vortices in the exciton system and that the ordering is the consequence of a repulsive interaction between the vortices. This is confirmed by the fact that the fragments are always of a circular shape. The vortex rotation is continuously supported by the exciton flow out of the excitation spot. Similar to arrays of vortices in atom BEC Abo-Shaeer , the rotation can be initiated even without an apparent external torque. A possible cause for the initiation of the rotation is a small deviation from axial symmetry for the exciton flow due to the in-plane potential fluctuations, which could result in a branching of the exciton flow, e.g. similar to the branching observed for the electron flow Topinka . We note also that a spontaneous macroscopic flow organization with periodic vortical structures is a general property of thermodynamically open systems described by nonlinear partial differential equations Trauble ; Yarmchuk ; Madison ; Abo-Shaeer ; Taylor .

In-plane potential fluctuations could influence also position of the vortices on the external ring due to the pinning effect. However, the pinning effect appears to be small so that vortices remain free to move (e.g. with changing of the excitation spot location on the sample) and the deviation of the vortex position out of the periodic array due to the pinning force is small (Fig. 3e). On the contrary, potential fluctuations can play a crucial role in formation of the LBS observed inside the external ring. Based on the current data, we suggest that in the LBS the optically inactive moving indirect excitons are captured by a potential trap formed by in-plane potential fluctuations, relax to the optically active exciton states, and recombine giving rise to the spectrally narrow emission seen as the LBS. The LBS will be studied in details later. In the context of the model discussed here, we note: (i) the existence of LBS in the dark annular region between the two rings confirms the presence of the optically inactive excitons in this region and (ii) the absence of LBS outside of the external ring confirms the absence of excitons there.

Note that the spatial profiles of the direct exciton PL intensity exhibit none of the above effects and practically follows the laser excitation profile for all temperatures and excitation densities studied, Fig. 1c (this is also the case for the bulk GaAs emission). This is consistent with a short lifetime of direct excitons that limits the distance they can travel before the recombination and does not allow an effective cooling for them.

Methods

$`n^+`$-$`i`$-$`n^+`$ GaAs/AlGaAs CQW structure was grown by MBE. The $`i`$-region consists of two 8nm GaAs QWs separated by a 4nm Al0.33Ga0.67As barrier and surrounded by two 200nm Al0.33Ga0.67As barrier layers. The electric field in the sample growth direction is monitored by the external gate voltage $`V_g`$ applied between the highly conducting $`n^+`$-layers. The narrow PL linewidth indicates a small in-plane disorder. For $`V_g0`$ the ground state of the optically pumped CQW is the direct exciton made of electron and hole in the same layer and similar to the excitons in single QWs. For nonzero $`V_g`$ the ground state is the indirect exciton made of electrons and holes in different layers, Fig. 1b. The indirect exciton lifetime is in the range of tens and hundreds of ns. The indirect exciton energy shift with density, $`\delta E(n)`$, allows us to evaluate their concentration using $`\delta E(n)=4\pi ne^2d/\epsilon `$, where $`d`$ is the effective separation between the electron and hole layers. Radiative recombination is the dominant decay mechanism of indirect excitons in our high-quality sample. The sample was excited with a HeNe laser, $`\lambda =632.8`$nm. The experiments were performed in He4 cryostat with optical windows. Spatially resolved PL spectra were detected using a pinhole in the intermediate image plane. In the image experiment, the spatial pattern of the indirect exciton PL intensity was detected by CCD camera using spectral selection of the indirect exciton emission by the interference filter adjusted to the indirect exciton energy. The spatial resolution was $`5\mu `$m.

Acknowledgements
We thank A.L. Ivanov for discussions, A.V. Mintsev and C.W. Lai for help in preparing the experiment, K.L. Campman for growing the high quality coupled QW samples. This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Science, Division of Materials Sciences, U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098 and by the RFBR.


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# References

ITEP/TH-21/02

Helicity conservation in Born-Infeld theory 111Talk given at the Workshop ”String Theory and Complex Geometry” (Bad Honnef, 8th-12th April, 2002)

A.A.Rosly and K.G.Selivanov

ITEP, Moscow, 117218, B.Cheryomushkinskaya 25

## Abstract

We prove that the helicity is preserved in the scattering of photons in the Born-Infeld theory (in 4d) on the tree level.

1. The Born-Infeld theory  introduced at the outset of the field theory epoch as a non-linear generalization of Maxwell theory has shown up recently as an effective theory of D-branes . From the perturbative point of view, the Born-Infeld theory is quite complicated since its Lagrangian is an infinite power series in $`F^2=F^{\mu \nu }F_{\mu \nu }`$, so that there are infinitely many vertices, which make almost hopeless any attempt to directly analyse the corresponding Feynamn diagrams, to say nothing on the issue of renormalizability. Nevertheless, it might be interesting to notice that the Born-Infeld theory in four dimensions possesses certain curious properties. Recall that the 4d Maxwell equations, $`dF=dF=0`$, are invariant with respect to the duality transformations: $`\delta F=F`$. These transformations extend to the non-linear Born-Infeld theory .

Below, we make use of these transformations to deduce the conservation of helicity in the tree amplitudes of the Born-Infeld theory. It might be also worthy pointing out that such a conservation law does not appear to be related with any symmetry of the theory: the duality transformations are defined on-shell only and do not correspond to a symmetry of the Lagrangian. Therefore there are also no immediate consequences for the loop amplitudes (cf., however, a discussion in the conclusion). The remarkable helicity conservation (or, better to say, the selection rule) could indicate that the Born-Infeld theory is solvable in a sense. As a matter of fact, it is not only possible to prove the helicity conservation in this theory, but also give a closed analytic expression for all the tree amplitudes (with any number of particles) as we shall show elsewhere .

2. The Born-Infeld theory is the theory of the abelian gauge potential $`A`$ with the Lagrangian

$$L=\sqrt{det(g+F)},$$
(1)
where $`F=dA`$ is the field strength 2-form and $`g`$ is the (flat) space-time metric222 We shall consider this field theory in flat space-time only and adopt the convention $`^2=1`$ for the duality operator $``$, disregarding the conventions related to the signature of the metric and of the reality of the fields: for our aims we shall anyway need complex fields.. The corresponding field equations along with Bianchi identities read as

$$dF=0,dD=0,$$
(2)
where $`D=L/F`$. Let us consider the following infinitesimal transformation:

$$\delta F=D.$$
(3)
Note that $`D`$ is by definition a certain function of $`F`$, namely, $`D(F)=L/F`$, and therefore, the transformation law of $`D`$ follows from that of $`F`$. In fact, one can verify  that

$$\delta D=F.$$
(4)
It is now obvious that the field equations (2) are invariant with respect to such duality rotations. Note that the transformation $`\delta F=D`$ is a non-local non-linear transformation of the fundamental field $`A`$ of the theory and is defined only “on the mass shell”: since $`F=dA`$ implies $`dF=0`$ as an identity, $`\delta F=D`$ is defined in terms of $`A`$ if only $`dD=0`$, i.e. on-shell.

3. In scattering theory we have to determine the quadratic (free-field) part of the Lagrangian and of the field equations. In our case, the latter are, of course, just the Maxwell equations for the gauge potential $`a`$,

$$df=0,df=0,$$
(5)
where $`f=da`$. The plane wave solutions to these linear equations,

$$a=he^{ikx},$$
(6)
are defined by a 4-momentum $`k`$ and a polarization 4-vector $`h`$, where $`k^2=0,kx=k_\mu x^\mu `$, and $`kh=0`$ (the Lorentz gauge). It is convenient to use the basis of self-dual and anti-self-dual plane waves, corresponding to $`f=\pm f`$ and assign a quantum number, the self-duality number, $`s=1`$ to a plane wave (6) with $`f=f`$ and $`s=1`$ to a plane wave (6) with $`f=f`$. This basis of free-field states will be used to describe the scattering — as in- and out-states in a scattering process. We shall also adopt the convention that the in- and out-states are distinguished by the sign of the time component of their 4-momenta $`k_\mu `$, namely: $`k_0>0`$ corresponds to an in-coming particle, while $`k_0<0`$ to an out-going one. Note that the self-duality number $`s`$ of a plane wave is nothing but the helicity: $`s=1`$ means positive helicity for an in-coming photon and negative helicity for an out-going one (and opposite with $`s=1`$).

4. Let us discuss now the scattering amplitude $`𝒜(a_1,a_2,a_3,\mathrm{})`$ for an arbitrary number of particles, that is for in- and out-state given by the plane waves $`a_n=h_ne^{ik_nx},n=1,2,3,\mathrm{}`$, of definite self-dualities $`s_n`$. We are going to show that
the tree part of the amplitude, $`𝒜_{tree}(a_1,a_2,a_3,\mathrm{})`$, vanishes unless the sum of self-dualities, $`_ns_n`$, of all the scattering states is zero.
This means helicity conservation (in the tree scattering), for $`s_n=0`$ implies that the sum of helicities in the initial state is the same as in the final state.

Since the connected part of $`𝒜_{tree}`$ is homogeneous with respect to $`a_1,a_2,a_3,\mathrm{}`$, the above statement amounts to the invariance with respect to the phase rotations of the plane waves:

$$𝒜_{tree}(e^{is_1\alpha }a_1,e^{is_2\alpha }a_2,e^{is_3\alpha }a_3,\mathrm{})=𝒜_{tree}(a_1,a_2,a_3,\mathrm{})$$
(7)
It is this latter form of the conservation law which will be proved below.

5. In order to prove this, we recall first the Lehmann-Symanzik-Zimmermann reduction formula333 It corresponds to applying amputation on diagrams with one external leg off shell. in the following special form:

$$𝒜_{tree}(a_1,a_2,a_3,\mathrm{})=d^4xa_1^\mu (x)\mathrm{}A_\mu ^{ptb}(x|a_2,a_3,\mathrm{}),$$
(8)
where $`a_1=h_1e^{ik_1x}`$ is the plane wave of a chosen, say, the first scattering particle; while $`A_\mu ^{ptb}`$ is a certain solution to the classical (non-linear) field equations. This classical solution, defined in general elsewhere  under the name perturbiner is in fact a generating functional for the tree-level form-factors of the quantum field $`A_\mu (x)`$. For the present needs it is sufficient to mention that $`A_\mu ^{ptb}`$ is a function of the space-time point $`x`$ and the quantum numbers $`h_n,k_n`$ of the scattering states, $`A^{ptb}=A^{ptb}(x|a_n,\mathrm{})`$, and it is uniquely defined (up to a gauge transformation) as an expansion in powers of $`a_n`$’s of the form

$$A^{ptb}(x)=\underset{n}{}a_n(x)+\mathrm{higher}\mathrm{order}\mathrm{terms}\mathrm{in}a_n{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{s},$$
(9)
which obeys the classical field equation (2).

As a classical solution, $`A^{ptb}`$ is subject to the duality transformations; for $`F^{ptb}=dA^{ptb}`$ and $`D^{ptb}=D(F^{ptb})`$, we have infinitesimally:

$$\delta F^{ptb}=D^{ptb},\delta D^{ptb}=F^{ptb},$$
(10)
or, integrating to a finite rotation444 Note that we assume that $`^2=1`$ and that all the fields are complex, so that $`i=\sqrt{1}`$ in the exponent does not really matter much for the present needs.,

$$\begin{array}{ccc}(F^{ptb}+D^{ptb})\hfill & & \hfill e^{i\alpha }(F^{ptb}+D^{ptb}),\\ (F^{ptb}D^{ptb})\hfill & & \hfill e^{i\alpha }(F^{ptb}D^{ptb}).\end{array}$$
(11)
On the other hand, the field $`F^{ptb}(x)`$ is uniquely determined by the quantum numbers of the waves $`a_2,a_3,\mathrm{}`$. Therefore, the transformation (11) should correspond to a transformation of the plane-wave solutions. The latter can be found by observing the transformation of the first order term in the expansion (9) and turns out to be, of course,

$$a_ne^{is_n\alpha }a_n,$$
(12)
which correspond to the duality rotation of (anti-)self-dual fields in Maxwell theory.

To summarise, we have the possibility to consider two types of transformations: the phase rotation of the plane waves, which is applicable to the functions of $`a_1,a_2,a_3,\mathrm{}`$ (cf. eqs.(12),(7)) and the duality transformation (cf. eqs.(3),(11)), which is applicable to the solutions of the non-linear Born-Infeld equations. If we denote an infinitesimal phase rotation of $`a_n`$’s by $`\widehat{\delta }`$, we have to prove that

$$\widehat{\delta }𝒜_{tree}(a_1,a_2,a_3,\mathrm{})=0,$$
(13)
while for the perturbiner field $`A^{ptb}`$ or, rather, for its field strength, $`F^{ptb}`$, we have that

$$\widehat{\delta }F^{ptb}=\delta F^{ptb},$$
(14)
where $`\delta F^{ptb}=D^{ptb}`$ as earlier. Thus, to prove our proposition we may apply $`\widehat{\delta }`$ to both sides of the reduction formula (8) and, then, use the equality (14) in the right hand side. Before doing this, we rewrite eq.(8) in a more convenient form:

$$𝒜_{tree}(a_1,a_2,a_3,\mathrm{})=f_1(F^{ptb}D^{ptb}).$$
(15)
This latter form is obtained from eq.(8), in principle, by a formal integration by parts; one has only to be careful with poles corresponding to $`k_1+k_2+k_3+\mathrm{}=0`$ 555We have been careful!. The rest is easy now:

$$\begin{array}{cccccc}\widehat{\delta }𝒜_{tree}\hfill & =& \widehat{\delta }f_1(F^{ptb}D^{ptb})\hfill & +& f_1(\delta F^{ptb}\delta D^{ptb})\hfill & =\hfill \\ & =& f_1(F^{ptb}D^{ptb})\hfill & +& f_1(D^{ptb}F^{ptb})\hfill & =\hfill \\ & =& f_1(F^{ptb}D^{ptb})\hfill & +& f_1(D^{ptb}F^{ptb})\hfill & =0.\hfill \end{array}$$
(16)
9. We have just proved the helicity conservation in the Born-Infeld theory at the tree level. Note that this means vanishing of sums of certain diagrams, rather than vanishing of individual diagrams ( helicity is not preserved by the vertices!). At the one-loop level, it may be interesting to note that the unitarity implies vanishing of the imaginary parts of helicity violating amplitudes. The latter are then some rational functions of momenta and we would conjecture that it is possible to find them explicitly, analogously to what was found in the case of maximally helicity violating amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory ().

For the future work we postpone also the question whether helicity conservation survives quantum corrections in maximally supersymmetric Born-Infeld theory, as well as applications of our observations to the string theory.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Grant INTAS-00-334. The work of A.R. was also partially supported by the Grant RFBR-00-02-16530 and the Grant 00-15-96557 for the support of scientific schools. The work of K.S. was also partially supported by the Grant CRDF-RP1-2108 and by the Grant 00-15-96562 for the support of scientific schools.


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# Measurement of the Λ and Λ̄ particles in Au+Au Collisions at √𝑠__{𝑁𝑁}=130 GeV

## Abstract

We present results on the measurement of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ production in Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130`$ GeV with the PHENIX detector at RHIC. The transverse momentum spectra were measured for minimum–bias and for the 5$`\%`$ most central events. The $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ratios are constant as a function of $`p_T`$ and the number of participants. The measured net $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ density is significantly larger than predicted by models based on hadronic strings (e.g. HIJING) but in approximate agreement with models which include the gluon junction mechanism.

In this paper we report on the measurement by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) of the production of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ particles and the ratio $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ as a function of transverse momentum $`p_T`$ and centrality in Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$ = 130 GeV. The production of strange baryons and of strange particles in general has been extensively studied in heavy ion collisions at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) and at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS)  to investigate the flavor composition of nuclear matter at high density and temperature. Furthermore, antibaryon–to–baryon ratios, or alternatively, a net baryon number such as ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$) at midrapidity provide insight into the baryon transport mechanism in these collisions . The systematic study of baryon stopping (transport of baryon number in rapidity space) and hyperon production in proton–proton, proton–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus collisions has been done over the past decade at the AGS  and CERN SPS . The results have shown a high degree of baryon stopping and enhanced hyperon production in heavy nucleus–nucleus collisions. Clearly the measurement of these quantities at RHIC, at the highest energies so far available in the laboratory, is of great importance for our understanding of the sources of these processes.

The results reported here were obtained using the west arm of the PHENIX spectrometer  which covers an angular range of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ = $`\pi `$/4 (during its first year of running) and a pseudorapidity range of $`|\eta |`$ $`<`$ 0.35. The detectors used were the drift chamber (DC), a set of multiwire proportional chambers with pixel–pad readout (PC1) , and a lead–scintillator electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal) . Signals from two sets of beam–beam counters (BBC) and two zero–degree calorimeters (ZDC) provided a trigger sensitive to 92 $`\pm `$ 4$`\%`$ of the 6.8 barn total Au+Au cross section . The centrality selection was done using the correlation between the analog responses of the ZDC and BBC .

The present analysis is based on 1.3 M minimum–bias events with a vertex position of $`|z|`$ $`<`$ 20 cm. To reconstruct the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ particles, their weak decays $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p\pi ^{}`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\overline{p}\pi ^+`$ are used. The tracks of the charged particles from the decay of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ are reconstructed using DC and PC1, and their momentum is determined by the DC with a resolution of $`\delta p/p0.6\%3.6\%p`$ (GeV/c). Although these tracks do not point back to the primary vertex position their momentum is calculated assuming that they come from the interaction point, hence there is in general a shift in the momentum of the reconstructed $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ particles. A Monte Carlo (MC) study shows that the difference is of the order 1–2$`\%`$ over the measured momentum range, within the measured momentum resolution, and thus neglected in the present study. The absolute momentum scale is known to better than 2$`\%`$ . In order to reduce background the tracks are confirmed by requiring a matching hit in the EMCal within $`\pm 3\sigma `$. For the particle identification (PID) of the daughter charged particles the time–of–flight signal of the EMCal with a timing resolution of $``$ 700 ps is used. Using the momentum measured by the DC and the flight–time, the particle mass is calculated and a 2$`\sigma `$ momentum–dependent cut is applied to the mass–squared distribution to identify protons, antiprotons and pions. An upper momentum cut of 0.6 GeV/c and 1.4 GeV/c for pions and protons respectively provides clean particle separation. Then each proton is combined with each pion in the same event and the invariant mass is calculated. If $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ or $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ are produced a peak appears in the mass distribution on top of a background from random combinations of particles. In order to determine the number of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$’s and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$’s from such a distribution an estimation of the background is essential. For this, the mass distribution with combinations of protons and pions from different events with the same centrality class (event mixing) is used. In order to reduce the combinatorial background the decay proton energy is required to be within $`E_p^{min}<E_p<E_p^{max}`$ where $`E_p^{min}`$ and $`E_p^{max}`$ are calculated from the two–body decay kinematics in the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ center–of–mass system. A similar cut is used for the pions. This cut gives an improvement of the signal–to–background ratio by a factor of two and results in the final value of S/B = 1/2 for both $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$. We obtain $``$ 12000 $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $``$ 9000 $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ particles in the mass range 1.05 $`<`$ m$`{}_{p\pi }{}^{}<`$ 1.20 GeV/c2 with mass resolution $`\delta m/m2\%`$ obtained from a Gaussian fit.

Fig. 1 shows the invariant mass spectra for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p\pi ^{}`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\overline{p}\pi ^+`$. The results represent the primary $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ and contributions from the feed–down from heavier hyperons (mainly $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$). The reconstructed number of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ particles is corrected for the acceptance, pion decay–in–flight, momentum resolution and reconstruction efficiency. For this, single–particle MC events were generated over the full azimuth $`\varphi `$ (0 $`<\varphi <2\pi `$) and one unit of rapidity $`y`$ (–0.5 $`<`$ $`y`$ $`<`$ 0.5). The simulated particles were passed through the entire PHENIX GEANT  simulation. The correction function is defined as the ratio of the input (generated) transverse momentum distribution to the $`p_T`$ distribution of the particles reconstructed in the spectrometer. However this correction does not take into account the decreasing track reconstruction efficiency due to the high multiplicity environment in more central events. A well established method to obtain this efficiency drop is the embedding procedure . We use single–particle MC tracks embedded into real events and analyze the merged events with the same analysis code as used for the reconstruction of the data set. The track reconstruction efficiency decreases from 90$`\%`$ for minimum–bias to 70$`\%`$ for central events. The $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ hyperons decay to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ with a branching ratio of essentially 100$`\%`$. We have verified, using HIJING, that the kinematic properties ($`p_T`$ and $`y`$ distributions) of primary $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and those produced by $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ decay are the same (within a few percent). We conclude that the correction function determined for primary $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is valid for all $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Since there are no reliable data available for the yields of those hyperons at RHIC energies, we cannot quantitatively state the contributions from those heavier hyperons to our $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ production. Therefore, our data include the primordial $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$, as well as the feed–down from the heavier hyperons.

Using the correction function determined from single–particle MC and multiplicity–dependent track reconstruction efficiency derived from the embedding procedure we correct the transverse momentum distributions of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$. The invariant yields as a function of the transverse momentum $`p_T`$ for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ are shown in Fig. 2 for minimum–bias events (circles). Over the measured transverse momentum range (0.4 $`<`$ $`p_T`$ $`<`$ 1.8 GeV/c) both the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ spectra can be described by a distribution of the form $`dN/dp_{T}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}p_Te^{p_T/T}`$ as shown in Fig. 2 by the solid line. The total yield $`dN/dy`$ is obtained by integrating the functional fit from zero to infinity. In the same Fig. 2 we show the invariant yield for the 5$`\%`$ most central events (squares). In Table I the total yields $`dN/dy`$ together with the average transverse momentum $`<p_T>`$ and the slope parameters $`T`$ are listed for both minimum–bias and for the 5$`\%`$ most central events.

There are several sources which contribute to the systematic uncertainties of the total yield $`dN/dy`$ and average transverse momentum $`<p_T>`$ determination. One of the sources, the uncertainty in the correction function determination, is found to be 13$`\%`$. A second contribution is due to the fitting function used for the extrapolation beyond the measured $`p_T`$ range: the fraction of the extrapolated yield is 29 $`\pm `$ 9 $`\%`$. There is also an additional contribution to the systematic error which originates from the combinatorial background subtraction which is 3$`\%`$. Combining the above uncertainties in quadrature gives a total systematic error in the yield of 16$`\%`$ (see Table I).

The $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ yield ratio determined in the mass window defined above versus $`p_T`$ is shown in Fig. 3 (top panel). The ratio is constant over the whole $`p_T`$ range 0.4 $`<p_T<`$ 1.8 GeV/c. There is also no significant variation of the $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ratio as a function of the number of participants (bottom panel) which is calculated using a Glauber model together with a simulation of the ZDC and BBC responses . The average $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ratio is 0.75 $`\pm `$ 0.09 (stat). Both the $`p_T`$–dependence and the integral $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ratio are consistent with statistical thermal model calculations  at RHIC energies.

The present measurement of the total yield of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ enables us to take the previously reported inclusive $`p`$ and $`\overline{p}`$ spectra , and construct a feed–down correction for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decays. As the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ yield has not been measured, we do not inlcude feed–down from $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^\pm `$ decays, but this is expected to be $`<5\%`$, based on HIJING calculations. The feed–down corrections were done bin by bin on the proton (antiproton) $`p_T`$ spectrum by the following method:

$$\frac{dN^p}{dydp_T}(i)=\frac{dN^m}{dydp_T}(i)\underset{j=1}{\overset{N_{bins}}{}}\frac{dN^\mathrm{\Lambda }}{dydp_T}(j)\times BR\times w(j,i)$$
(1)
where $`dN^p/dydp_T`$ is the total yield of the primary protons, $`dN^m/dydp_T`$ – the total yield of the measured protons, $`dN^\mathrm{\Lambda }/dydp_T`$ – the total yield of the measured $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, BR – branching ratio of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p\pi ^{}`$, $`i`$ is the $`p_T`$ bin number, $`N_{bins}`$ is the number of bins, $`w(j,i)`$ is the fraction of protons from $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay from bin number $`j`$ which fall into the proton bin number $`i`$. These fractions were extracted from MC. The feed–down corrected proton and antiproton $`p_T`$ spectra are shown in Fig. 4. We calculated the total yield, $`dN/dy`$, for protons and antiprotons by fitting them to the same distribution as used for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and integrating from zero to infinity. The results for the total yields $`dN/dy`$, the average transverse momentum $`<p_T>`$ and the slope parameters $`T`$ for minimum–bias and for the 5$`\%`$ most central events are also listed in Table I. The measured $`\mathrm{\Lambda }/p`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\overline{p}`$ ratios after feed–down corrections are found to be 0.89 $`\pm `$ 0.07 (stat) and 0.95 $`\pm `$ 0.09 (stat).

The net baryon numbers are indicative of the baryon transport mechanism in relativistic heavy ion (RHI) collisions. In Table II we compare our results for minimum–bias and for the 5$`\%`$ most central events with the predictions of the HIJING  model which assumes that the primary mechanism for baryon transport in RHI is due to quark–diquark hadronic strings. Vance et al.  implemented a non–perturbative gluon–junction mechanism in a new version of HIJING (called HIJING/B) to explain the enhanced baryon stopping at CERN SPS energies. The predictions of this model are also shown in Table II. For a valid comparison with the experimental data, the HIJING and HIJING/B results for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ also include the feed–down from the heavier hyperons, and the results for protons and antiprotons the feed–down from $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^\pm `$. The Table shows a clear difference (by a factor of $``$ 4) between HIJING and HIJING/B for the net $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ number, with the HIJING/B predictions in much better agreement, in particular for the minimum–bias data, where the experimental errors are relatively small. The difference between the two models for the net proton number is less obvious and although the data seem to favor HIJING/B the present accuracy does not allow for a clear preference between the two models.

In conclusion, we have measured the transverse momentum spectra of the of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ particles in the $`p_T`$ range 0.4 $`<p_T<`$ 1.8 GeV/c in minimum–bias and the 5$`\%`$ most central Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130`$ GeV at RHIC with the PHENIX experiment. The absolute yields of $`dN/dy`$, at mid–rapidity, of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ hyperons are determined by extrapolating to all values of $`p_T`$. The average $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ratio is found to be 0.75 $`\pm `$ 0.09. The ratio is constant over the whole $`p_T`$ range and there is also no significant variation of the $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ratio as a function of the number of participants. Using the measured $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ yields, the $`p`$ and $`\overline{p}`$ yields corrected for feed–down from $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decays are determined. The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }/p`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\overline{p}`$ ratios after feed–down corrections are found to be 0.89 $`\pm `$ 0.07 and 0.95 $`\pm `$ 0.09. The measured net $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ number is substantially larger than predicted by HIJING as already seen at CERN SPS and which may indicate enhanced baryon stopping at RHIC energies. The newly available high statistics data at $`\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200`$ GeV will allow us to further study baryon transport and strangeness production in RHI collisions.

We thank the staff of the Collider–Accelerator and Physics Departments at BNL for their vital contributions. We acknowledge support from the Department of Energy and NSF (U.S.A.), MEXT and JSPS (Japan), RAS, RMAE, and RMS (Russia), BMBF, DAAD, and AvH (Germany), VR and KAW (Sweden), MIST and NSERC (Canada), CNPq and FAPESP (Brazil), IN2P3/CNRS (France), DAE and DST (India), KRF and CHEP (Korea), the U.S. CRDF for the FSU, and the US–Israel BSF.