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# Possible Hints and Search for Glueball Production in Charmless Rare 𝐵 Decays

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## Abstract

Recent data on $`Bp\overline{p}K`$, $`K^0\pi \pi `$ and $`KK\overline{K}`$ hint at a $`2.3`$ GeV object recoiling against a kaon. This could be the narrow state observed in $`J/\psi \gamma \xi `$. Nonobservation in $`p\overline{p}`$ annihilation implies $`(\xi p\overline{p})`$ few $`\times 10^3`$, consistent with $`\eta _c`$ and $`J/\psi `$ decays, but there are actual hints in $`p\overline{p}\varphi \varphi `$ and $`ppp\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}p`$. Simple modeling shows $`(B\xi K)(\xi p\overline{p})1\times 10^6`$, appearing as a spike in the $`p\overline{p}`$ spectrum, with $``$ 30 events per 100 fb-1; modes such as $`KK_sK_s`$, $`K\varphi \varphi `$, $`K4\pi `$ ($`Kf_2\pi \pi `$) etc. should be explored. The underlying dynamics of $`g^{}g\xi `$ is analogous to $`g^{}g\eta ^{}`$ or gluon fragmentation. Discovery of sizable $`B\xi K`$ could be useful for CP violation studies.

\]

The existence of glueballs as bound states of gluons, the gauge bosons of QCD, has been conjectured ever since the advent of QCD as the fundamental theory of the strong interaction. Alas, it is a unique feature of nonabelian gauge theories that has yet to be unequivocally tested. The main obstacle to identifying glueballs is their possible $`q\overline{q}`$ admixture, which allows the candidates to hide in the richness of $`q\overline{q}`$ resonances. Advances in lattice gauge theories suggest the lowest lying glueballs to be the $`0^{++}`$ scalar with $`m_G`$ 1.4–1.8 GeV and $`2^{++}`$ tensor with $`m_\xi `$ 1.9–2.3 GeV, while the $`0^+`$ glueball $`P`$ is another 150 MeV heavier .

Radiative $`J/\psi \gamma gg\gamma +`$hadrons decay is a prime hunting ground for glueballs. The narrow state $`\xi `$ with width 23 MeV, called $`f_J(2220)`$ by the Particle Data Group (PDG) , was discovered  by the MARK III experiment in such decays. The BES collaboration confirmed  the $`\xi `$ signal in $`J/\psi \gamma \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`\gamma K^+K^{}`$, $`\gamma K_S^0K_S^0`$, $`\gamma p\overline{p}`$ at $`(5.6\pm 2.7)\times 10^5`$, $`(3.3\pm 2.0)\times 10^5`$, $`(2.7\pm 1.4)\times 10^5`$, $`(1.5\pm 0.8)\times 10^5`$, respectively, as well as $`J/\psi \gamma \pi ^0\pi ^0(4.5\pm 2.9)\times 10^5`$, where errors have been combined conservatively. Null results in $`\gamma \gamma \xi `$ search  strengthen the glueball interpretation.

The $`\xi p\overline{p}`$ mode stimulated scans of $`p\overline{p}`$ annihilation around 2230 MeV, resulting in the limits of $`p\overline{p}K_S^0K_S^0`$, $`\varphi \varphi `$, $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$, $`\eta \eta <7.5\times 10^5`$, $`6\times 10^5`$ , $`6\times 10^5`$, $`4\times 10^5`$ , respectively. Combining with the BES result, one finds  that $`(\xi p\overline{p})5\times 10^3`$, and

$`(J/\psi \gamma \xi )`$ $``$ $`2.9\times 10^3,`$ (1)
which seems to support the glueball interpretation. However, the nonobservation in quite a few $`p\overline{p}`$ annihilation modes has lead to doubt  of the very existence of $`\xi `$.

With this impasse, it is desirable to open up new avenues for exploration. The charmless $`bsg^{}`$ process could be  viable ground for glueball search. This was stimulated in part by the CLEO observation of large $`B\eta ^{}K8\times 10^5`$  and $`\eta ^{}+X_s6\times 10^4`$ , which were interpretted  as related to the large glue content of $`\eta ^{}`$ via the gluon anomaly. The $`bsg^{}`$ transition, followed by the anomaly inspired effective $`g^{}g\eta ^{}`$ coupling, could account for  the semi-inclusive $`m_{X_s}`$ spectrum. Replacing $`\eta ^{}`$ by a glueball may be even more effective . In this Letter we point out possible hints for $`B\xi K`$ decay in the $`Bp\overline{p}K`$, $`K_S\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ and $`K^+K^+K^{}`$ modes newly observed by Belle, and discuss directions for further study.

Let us first present the case for charmless $`B`$ decays. The $`Bp\overline{p}K`$ decay  is the first ever charmless baryonic mode to be observed. While modeling the $`m_{p\overline{p}}`$ spectrum by a QCD motivated threshold enhancement, we noted a hint for a $`2.3`$ GeV peak. The data (fitted $``$) and our modeling  are plotted in Fig. 1(a). Threshold enhancement is apparent, in line with our prediction  for $`B\rho p\overline{n}`$ before the discovery of $`Bp\overline{p}K`$. However, some excess $``$ 7–10 events is noticeable in the third, i.e. 2.2–2.4 GeV bin , amounting to $`0.6`$$`1\times 10^6`$ in rate, which we could not accommodated in our simple threshold model. Motivated by this, we find evidence in a few (but not all) other 3-body channels as well.

The $`BK^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ mode observed by Belle  is plotted in Fig. 1(b), with a cut of $`m_{K^+\pi ^{}}>2`$ GeV to suppress background. Despite some activity above 2 GeV, there is not much excess at 2.2–2.3 GeV.

The $`BK_S\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`K_SK^+K^{}`$ modes, also observed by Belle , are plotted in Figs. 1(c) and (d), respectively. The spectrum for $`m_{\pi ^+\pi ^{}}>`$ 2 GeV is very clean, with a striking cluster at 2.3 GeV, albeit with only 5 events. The $`m_{K^+K^{}}`$ spectrum has $``$ 2 events in the same region (but a prominent cluster at $`1.95`$ GeV). In all, $`h^+h^{}`$ has about 7 events, and folding in efficiencies, we find the average over $`K_S\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`K_SK^+K^{}`$ rates in the cluster region is $`2.5\times 10^6`$. The comparison with $`p\overline{p}K`$ case is consistent with the BES observation.

Turning to $`BK^+K^+K^{}`$ , we plot $`m_{K^+K^{}}^{\mathrm{min}}`$ and $`m_{K^+K^{}}^{\mathrm{max}}`$ (for $`m_{K^+K^{}}^{\mathrm{min}}>1.1`$ GeV) spectra in Figs. 1(e) and (f). The $`m_{K^+K^{}}^{\mathrm{min}}`$ spectrum above 2 GeV is quite sizable and rich with structure, like Fig. 1(b) amplified but with much less background. This decay is expected to arise solely from the $`bss\overline{s}`$ penguin. One has $``$ 10 events each at 2.3, 2.45 and 2.65 GeV, and $``$ 20 events at 1.9–2.15 GeV, the latter similar to $`K_SK^+K^{}`$. For $`m_{K^+K^{}}^{\mathrm{max}}`$ one has $``$ 11, 14, 6 events respectively at 2.1, 2.45 and 2.65 GeV, but no 2.3 GeV cluster. Folding in efficiencies, we find a rate of 1.7 to 3.4 $`\times 10^6`$, again consistent with BES and with $`K_Sh^+h^{}`$. We caution, however, that identical particle effects, reflected in two possible $`K^+K^{}`$ pairings, smear the plots.

To summarize, there is some evidence for a 2.2–2.3 GeV “state” recoiling against a kaon in $`p\overline{p}K`$, $`K_Sh^+h^{}`$ and $`K^+K^+K^{}`$ channels, which could be the $`\xi `$ glueball candidate. The $``$ 2.45 or 2.65 GeV objects might be the pseudoscalar $`P`$ (or a scalar excitation ); there is also some excess in these regions for $`p\overline{p}K`$ (Fig. 1(a)). The absence in $`K^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ is worrisome, but, besides larger background (hence extra cut), there are also amplitude level complications, such as a slower fall-off in $`m_{\pi \pi }`$ vs. $`m_{p\overline{p}}`$, the tree contribution (in contrast to $`K_Sh^+h^{}`$), and multiple interfering resonances. We conclude that glueballs may emerge in higher statistics studies of charmless rare $`B`$ decays, and wish to survey what we know about, and how to gain access to, such glueballs.

The $`J/\psi \gamma K^+K^{}`$, $`\gamma K_S^0K_S^0`$ numbers from BES  are slightly below MARK III results, while the $`p\overline{p}`$ number is just below the bound of $`2\times 10^5`$. But the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ number is $``$ factor 3 above the MARK III bound of $`2\times 10^5`$. Since there are two structures adjacent to the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ peak in BES data, the actual rate is probably smaller. If the 2.2–2.3 GeV “signal” in $`Bp\overline{p}K`$, $`K_Sh^+h^{}`$ and $`K^+K^+K^{}`$ is due to the $`\xi `$, our discussion above indicates that $`J/\psi \gamma \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`\gamma K^+K^{}(3`$$`4)\times 10^5`$ would be more consistent, hence $`J/\psi \gamma K_S^0K_S^0(1.5`$–2)$`\times 10^5`$, slightly lower than BES. The BES result for $`J/\psi \gamma \pi ^0\pi ^0`$  is almost twice larger than implied by their $`J/\psi \gamma \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, and was not used in the PDG estimate  of $`J/\psi \gamma \pi \pi `$.

An intriguing recent result has come from CLEO. Based on 61.3 pb-1 data $``$ 1.45 million $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)`$ mesons, CLEO reports  1, 1, 2 events within $`\pm 34`$ MeV of 2234 MeV in $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}\gamma \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`\gamma K^+K^{}`$, $`\gamma p\overline{p}`$, respectively, with background expected at 0.12, 0.21, 0.28; a lower bound of $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}\gamma \xi \gamma p\overline{p}>0.5\times 10^6`$ is obtained. CLEO chose to drop this by allowing for larger background. However, scaling  the BES $`J/\psi \gamma p\overline{p}`$ result by $`(Q_b^2m_c^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_{J/\psi }/Q_c^2m_b^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{{\rm Y}})0.04`$ gives $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}\gamma p\overline{p}=(0.6\pm 0.3)\times 10^6`$, right in the ballpark. We mention that CLEO has just finished  taking 1.3 fb-1 data on the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)`$, i.e. a 21-fold increase, and we may see the $`\xi `$ popping up in radiative $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ decays, with 10 to 40 events in the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`K^+K^{}`$ and $`p\overline{p}`$ (and other) modes in the near future.

It is the $`p\overline{p}`$ annihilation experiments which cast doubt on the existence of $`\xi `$. These experiments were stimulated by the BES observation of $`\xi p\overline{p}`$ to scan around 2230 MeV, before CERN Lower Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR) shutdown in 1996. The results were all negative. The conservative conclusion is that $`\xi \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`K^+K^{}`$, $`K_S^0K_S^0`$, $`p\overline{p}`$, $`\varphi \varphi `$, $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$, $`\eta \eta `$ are all $`1\%`$. But, together with the narrow $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\xi 20`$ MeV, the stated doubt  grew with time. We offer a critique of the situation.

First, two body decays of $`\xi 1\%`$ is not surprising. The $`\eta _c`$ and $`J/\psi `$ decays via $`gg`$ and $`ggg`$, and their $`p\overline{p}`$ rates are 0.12% and 0.21% , respectively. If the $`\xi `$ is the $`2^{++}`$ two-gluon glueball, having $`(\xi p\overline{p})`$ few $`\times 10^3`$ seems just right. Second, a 20 MeV width for a lowest lying 2.2–2.3 GeV two-gluon glueball is also not unreasonable. On one hand, the “$`\sqrt{\mathrm{OZI}}`$” rule , i.e. taking the geometric mean of the few MeV width of $`\eta _c`$ (scaled down to 2 GeV) and the few hundred MeV width of a typical 2 GeV meson gives 10–50 MeV. On the other hand, the near ideal mixing of $`f_2(1270)`$$`f_2^{}(1525)`$ system implies  that the relevant lowest lying glueball, the $`\xi `$, would be relatively free of $`q\overline{q}`$ content, hence the above narrowness argument holds. Third, the lower bound of Eq. (1) is not unreasonable if $`\xi `$ is really a glueball, but the large $`(J/\psi \gamma \xi )`$ is a bit overstated. It arises from combining the BES result on $`J/\psi \pi ^0\pi ^0`$  with the nonobservation of $`p\overline{p}\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ . As we noted, the BES result for $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ is likely a factor of 2 to 3 too large.

With these points, it should be clear that $`\xi `$ is still viable. We now argue that there is in fact some evidence coming from $`p\overline{p}`$ annihilation or $`pp`$ collisions.

Although the JETSET experiment did not observe a narrow $`\xi `$ in $`p\overline{p}\varphi \varphi `$ channel, they did find  a broad structure just above threshold. In fact, further partial wave analysis  found $`2^{++}`$ dominance, and a resonance behavior in $`2_{D0}^+`$ ($`D`$-wave with $`\varphi \varphi `$ spin zero): a Breit-Wigner structure with phase motion vs. $`2_{D2}^+`$, consistent with $`m2231`$ MeV and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }70`$ MeV. From Fig. 6 of Ref. , comparing $`2_{D0}^+`$ with $`2_{D2}^+`$, $`2_{S2}^+`$ waves, we note that it may be better to fit with two Breit-Wigner resonances (or one resonance with a broad underlying structure). We believe the JETSET data does not preclude a narrow resonance at 2.2 GeV.

There is another hint in central hadron production. The empirical “$`dP_T`$” glueball filter  is defined as the difference between the transverse momenta of e.g. the outgoing protons in $`pppXp`$; $`dP_T0`$ enhances glueball probability of $`X`$. Using data from WA102 experiment with $`X=\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, it was shown that the $`f_1(1285)`$ prominent for larger $`dP_T`$ all but disappeared for $`dP_T<0.2`$ GeV, while the glueball candidate $`f_0(1500)`$ is retained. From Fig. 3(c) of Ref. , however, we find a remarkable single-bin (2320–2340 MeV) spike, absent for $`dP_T>0.2`$ GeV, but popping up for $`dP_T<0.2`$ GeV. With $`100`$ events on $`360`$, it constitutes a $`>5\sigma `$ fluctuation. The detector resolution is $`12`$ MeV  hence the spike seems genuine. A broader structure exists at 2430 MeV. Subsequent spin analysis (Fig. 3(f) of second paper of Ref. ) also show a “spike” at 2240–2280 MeV, and a broader structure at 2400 MeV, all in the $`2^{++}`$ channel of $`f_2\pi \pi `$. By analogy with the large $`\eta _c\eta ^{()}\pi \pi (4`$–5)% , $`\xi f_2\pi \pi `$ could be a major decay mode. These features should be investigated further.

We now turn to simple modeling of the $`Bp\overline{p}K`$ “bump” assuming a $`2^{++}`$ glueball state. That is, we have a $`B\xi K(\pi )`$ transition governed by

$$\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}V_{tb}V_{ts(d)}^{}f_{B\xi K(\pi )}\epsilon _{\mu \nu }^{}p_B^\mu p_{K(\pi )}^\nu ,$$
(2)
where we factor out the quark mixing factor appropriate for the underlying $`bs(d)`$ penguin, The $`\xi p\overline{p}`$ transition is governed by $`g_1^{\xi p\overline{p}}\epsilon _{\mu \nu }\overline{u}\gamma ^\mu p_{\overline{p}}^\nu v`$, where a less effective $`p_p^\mu p_{\overline{p}}^\nu `$ term is dropped. For given $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\xi `$, $`g_1^{\xi p\overline{p}}`$ is fixed by $`(\xi p\overline{p})5\times 10^3`$. Together with the fits in Fig. 1(a), $`f_{B\xi K}`$ is fixed (its sign determines interference; we ignore relative strong phase) to reproduce $`(Bp\overline{p}K)=4.3\times 10^6`$. The results for the $`\overline{B}\xi K^{},p\overline{p}K^{},p\overline{p}\overline{K}^0`$ and $`p\overline{p}\pi ^{}`$ modes are given in Table I for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\xi =23`$ MeV, and their spectra in Fig. 2 for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\xi =70`$ MeV for sake of illustration. The $`p\overline{p}\overline{K}^0`$ case depends on the threshold dynamics, while the $`\xi `$ is far less prominent in $`p\overline{p}\pi ^{}`$ because it is tree dominant.

The underlying dynamics of $`B\xi K`$ is rather analogous to that proposed for $`B\eta ^{}K`$ and $`\eta ^{}X_s`$. We have factored out in Eq. (2) $`G_F/\sqrt{2}`$ and the $`V_{tb}V_{ts}^{}`$ quark mixing factor coming from the penguin loop, as illustrated in Fig. 3. The $`g^{}g\xi `$ coupling is the heavy blob, similar to $`g^{}g\eta ^{}`$ via the gluon anomaly , which gives rise to the glue-content of $`\eta ^{}`$. As argued in Ref.  (see also ) for the case of $`P`$, the production of a bona fide glueball in a similar fashion may be even more effective. How the $`sg\overline{q}`$ system evolves into a kaon is not of concern here since $`B\eta ^{}K`$ is observed , and its large strength, recently confirmed by both Belle and BaBar , is still not explained by theory. Thus, it is plausible that $`B\xi K>B\eta ^{}K`$ and could be $`10^4`$. There has been some perturbative arguments for $`1/q^2`$ damping of the effective $`g^{}g\xi `$ vertex , but since nonperturbative effects — which generate $`m_\xi ^2m_\rho ^2`$ — are bound to enter, we advocate  to leave the case open. Note that several authors have suggested  to search for glueballs in gluon fragmentation. The $`g^{}g\xi `$ process advocated here can be viewed as such, but at only a few GeV energy. This illustrates further the futility to discard the $`g^{}g\xi `$ vertex by perturbative arguments.

One uniquely interesting feature for studying glueball production in charmless $`B`$ decays is the potential it offers for studying $`CP`$ violation . On one hand, the penguin loop implies sensitivity for new physics beyond the Standard Model, e.g. via the dipole $`bsg`$ coupling. On the other hand, if $`B\xi K`$ is really at a few $`\times 10^4`$ and $`\xi `$ is a narrow state, one could accumulate a large number of modes and gain in statistics. $`CP`$ asymmetries could be at 10–30% level even if new physics contributes only 10% in amplitude .

From our survey, additional search modes are: $`BKK_SK_S`$, $`K\varphi \varphi `$, $`K4\pi `$ (e.g. $`Kf_2\pi \pi `$), and perhaps $`p\overline{p}K_2^{}`$, beyond the ones given in Fig. 1. Semi-inclusive studies, i.e. $`B\xi (p\overline{p},\text{etc.})+X_s`$, can also be considered. One can also search for other glueballs such as $`P`$ and $`G`$, e.g. $`BPK`$, $`GK`$ via $`P\eta ^{()}\pi \pi `$, $`K\overline{K}\pi `$. At the same time, the $`\eta ^{}`$ study, both exclusive and inclusive, including $`CP`$ violation effects, should be pursued further.

In summary, we find indication for a narrow state in $`Bp\overline{p}K`$, $`K_S\pi \pi `$ and $`K^+K^+K^{}`$ recoiling against a kaon. This could be the $`2^{++}`$ glueball candidate found in radiative $`J/\psi `$ decays with mass supported by lattice calculations, and with tantalizing hints in $`p\overline{p}\varphi \varphi `$ and $`ppp\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}\overline{p}`$. Glueballs may emerge in the study of charmless rare $`B`$ decays, with confirming evidence from $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}\gamma p\overline{p}`$. Search for $`\xi `$ (and $`P`$) in $`Bp\overline{p}K`$, $`K^+K^+K^{}`$, $`K_Sh^+h^{}`$, $`K^+K_SK_S`$, $`K\varphi \varphi `$, $`K4\pi `$ should be vigorously pursued, with an eye towards uncovering new physics sources of $`CP`$ violation.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank J. Alexander, Y.B. Hsiung, H.C. Huang, A. Palano and M.Z. Wang for discussions, and partial support from the NSC of R.O.C., the MOE CosPA project, and the BCP topical program of NCTS.


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# Introduction

## Introduction

Working voltages for the RPC operated in the avalanche mode is close to values where avalanche transforms into the streamer. If one wants to use RPC in the proportional regime he should be ready to see from time to time the strong streamer signal. At the low threshold of electronics any big pulse is not desirable because it produce a multichannel firing.

An attempt to get better understanding on how streamer grows from the avalanche was done in the present work. A glass RPC with a $`2mm`$ gas gap was exposed to the UV laser beam. The UV laser allow to fix a start point of growth and provide equal conditions for any new avalanche. By variation of the UV light intensity we tried to understand how appearance of the streamer and its characteristics depends on a charge in the avalanche and on the working voltage ($`HV`$). Both: induced signal from pick-up electrode and light emitted by discharge in the RPC were registered.

Early a good correspondence between electrically induced signals and a light emission from the glass RPC was found in . The correspondence was observed in following aspects: signal shapes, pulse heights and timing. In  one can see pictures of the streamer discharge in the glass RPC taken using image intensifier and the CCD camera. In  was investigated a avalanche to streamer transition and presented pictures of a correspondent process. An estimation of a size of the space propagation of streamer and avalanche discharges was done. It was mentioned about possible mechanism of the discharge in the RPC. In the present work a multi-streamer process were investigated. And laser help as to understand a complex picture of this phenomena.

## 1 Experimental set-up

Fig.1 shows experimental set-up. A LGI-21 pulse laser was a source of the UV with $`337nm`$ wave length. A duration of the laser pulse was $`8ns`$ with a maximal energy is about $`40\mu J`$. A frequency of light pulses can be changed. Taking into account $`1s`$ recovery time of our RPC when it was operated in the streamer mode we chose the pulse frequency so, that the time between of two discharges in the RPC was bigger than $`10s`$. Being a source of a high-level noise laser was installed outside of the test room $`7m`$ far from the RPC. The UV beam was focused in a $`0.3mm`$ spot on the entry glass electrode of the RPC by a long-focus spherical mirror (SM).

At first stage of the present work two photomultipliers (PM1, PM2) were used for monitoring of the laser beam intensity and for to measure spectrum of the light from discharges in the RPC. One of photomultipliers, PM1, was faced to the spherical mirror. This one with UV filter was used to measure part of the light scattered off SM because of mirror imperfection and thus for monitoring of a laser intensity. The second photomultiplier, PM2, faced to the RPC was used for a light registration from discharges occurring in the gas. By changing of optical filters between PM2 and RPC it was possible to measure different ranges of a discharge light spectrum. Signals from both photomultipliers were fed to QDCs.

RPC and PMs were housed in a light shielded box as it is shown in fig.1. The laser UV entered this box through a window made of glass filter transparent for UV only. The laser beam intensity ($`I`$) was changed by installation of grey optical filters between the laser and the shielded box entry window.

At the final stage of the work, second photomultiplier (PM2) was replaced with a image intensifier and TV CCD camera to get picture of a streamer discharge distribution over the RPC area.

Our $`10\times 10cm^2`$ RPC with a $`2mm`$ gas gap was made of $`2mm`$ glass plates. A bulk resistivity of glass was found to be $`5\times 10^{12}\mathrm{\Omega }cm`$. A high voltage cathode was performed by metalization of the glass plate surface. A transparency for the visible light of the thin metallic layer was about 70%. A 2 mm in diameter area in the center of the cathode was free of metalization. The UV beam entered the RPC through this area.

An anode electrode was done with a layer of a carbon paint on the glass surface. And $`2\times 2mm`$ free of paint area was in the center of the anode to the UV light can leave the RPC without producing a scintillation.

An induced signal from the anode was amplified by a U33 amplifier having a gain=$`20`$ and $`400MHz`$ bandwidth. RPC signal and signals from photomultipliers were digitized with a 11-bits P267 module (”SUMMA” standard). The input sensitivity of the P267 is $`0.3pC/count`$. When it was necessary to estimate the RPC efficiency, a discriminator with the $`6mV`$ threshold was used after the amplifier.

In the our study we felt RPC with $`Ar/isoC_4H_{10}/CF_3Br:54/36/10`$ mixture. A composition like this was in use for the beginning of RPC development and allow as to obtain a rich picture of the streamer process.

## 2 Experimental results

A first part of this section presents a behavior of induced charges in the avalanche to streamer transition region. The second subsection shows the data on a spectrum of the streamer light coming from the RPC. Examples of optical images are in the third part.

### 2.1 Avalanche to streamer transition

First of all, we had looked how efficiency ($`ϵ`$) of the RPC excitement depends on the laser pulse intensity ($`I`$). Fig.2 shows $`ϵ`$ versus $`I/I_0`$, where $`I_0`$ is the maximal intensity what we could get with the LGI-21. This result was obtained with the voltage, $`HV=7.8kV`$, at which no streamer signal was observed when our RPC was tested on a cosmic. As fig.2 demonstrates that a reply from the RPC is always seen at $`I/I_0>0.2`$. Below this intensity not every UV pulse produce the discharge. Only one of $`10^3`$ pulses evokes discharge at $`I/I_00.05`$. We think that at this low intensity, $`5\%`$ of $`I_0`$, UV light occasionally knocks out no more than one electron from cathode. This assumption based on a observation of almost $`100\%`$ efficiency for the our chamber on the cosmic when avalanche could start from a one primary ionization cluster. Tests with low intensity are called here as a work in ”one electron” mode.

A mean value of the induced charge ($`<Q>`$) was measured in the ”one electron” mode and is shown in fig.3a as a function of the high voltage. A behavior of $`<Q>`$ in fig.3a looks like what we saw with this gas mixture in cosmic tests: the avalanche signal rising from $`0.05pC`$ to $`1pC`$ with the $`HV`$ growth from $`7.5kV`$ to $`8.2kV`$ and becomes to be accompanied by the strong streamer signal ($`100pC`$) at $`HV>8.18.2kV`$. A fraction of the streamer at different $`HV`$ is given in fig.3b. The avalanche signal caused by the laser beam has a less variation in the amplitude than the charged particle does. It is so because the avalanche growth always starts by the electron knocked out from the cathode and no variation in the primary charge position along the gas gap as it is for the case of crossing particle. That is why the avalanche signal can be easily separated from the noise (pedestal) even at $`<Q>0.05pC`$. A behavior of the streamer induced signal in the ”one electron” mode looks like a set of pulses (sparks) following in time one by one. The delay between the avalanche signal and the first streamer pulse can be up to $`100ns`$. Below we call this type of the streamer as a ”streamer-A”.

It was interesting for us to see how the induced signal changes if to increase a number of knocked out primary electrons. Fig.4a shows the $`<Q>`$ as a function of the ratio $`I/I_0`$. A measurement was carried out at the $`HV=7.8kV`$. The avalanche charge ($`<Q_a>`$, boxes) rises with a growth of the UV intensity. When the $`<Q_a>`$ reaches about $`1pC`$ the streamer signal (triangles) appear. However, this streamer signal differs from the ”streamer-A” observed at more high $`HV`$ in the ”one electron” mode. This new streamer consists of only one pulse with the charge of $`30pC`$. Its amplitude spectrum is rather narrow. The distribution width is few $`pC`$ only. This streamer follows the initial avalanche with the few $`ns`$ delay and its duration is $`710ns`$(FWHM). We call this streamer as a ”streamer-B”. In the range of $`I/I_0=0.21`$ no considerable variation in the ”streamer-B” charge was found. Fraction of the ”streamer-B” at the different $`HV`$ is presented in fig.4b.

At the next step we looked for signals from the RPC at the maximal intensity of the UV beam. Fig.6 gives a mean induced charge as a function of the $`HV`$ when the $`I/I_0`$ was $`1`$. Below $`7.4kV`$ only avalanche signal was observed. The mean avalanche charge is shown in the figure with circles. As fig.6 show at $`7.4kV`$ the streamer signal (boxes) with a $`<Q_s>=15pC`$ appears. This streamer signal is the ”streamer-B”: it consists of only one narrow (FWHM$`10ns`$) pulse. The variation in its amplitude is about $`1015\%`$. The time between the ”streamer-B” and the avalanche signal is few $`ns`$. The amplitude of the ”streamer-B” rises slowly with $`HV`$ from $`15pC`$ to about $`30pC`$. A probability to observe ”streamer-B” at different $`HV`$ is shown in fig.6 (boxes). At voltages of $`7.88.3kV`$ ”streamer-B” is only signal what we could see. Starting from $`HV8.3kV`$ both ”streamer-B” and ”streamer-A” (triangles) can be observed. Fraction of the ”streamer-A” rises with $`HV`$ as it is shown in fig.6 (triangles). A presence of the ”streamer-A” can be noticed by eye through the RPC glass wall: it looks like a set of sparks near the point where light enters the RPC. Some of sparks are few $`cm`$ far from this point.

### 2.2 Light coming from discharges

A light coming from discharges through the glass electrode was measured with a photomultiplier ”FEU-87”. To estimate a spectrum of the discharge light a set of measurements was carried out with five different optical filters (BS8, JS4, JS12, JS18 and OS13), installed between the RPC and photocathode. A transparency of these filters at different wave length is given in fig.8.

From the beginning we should say that attempts to measure light from the avalanche were failed. The avalanche light is rather week. It is at level of a background light. The background light appear due to reemission by the glass (and by the dust on the glass surface) during few ten $`ns`$ after UV pulse. As for the streamer a good proportionality between the RPC induced charge and the number of photoelectrons ($`N_{p.e.}`$) was observed. The value of $`N_{p.e.}`$ as a function of the $`<Q>`$ is given in fig.8. The data in this figure were obtained without any optical filter between the RPC and PM. The figure demonstrates a good proportionality between induced charge and light output. A linear approximation of the data brings a scale value of $`1.59\pm 0.02p.e./pC`$. By the same way, $`N_{p.e.}`$ versus $`<Q>`$ was gotten for cases when PM was added with five filters mentioned above. Scales found after approximation with a linear law are presented in the following table for the each filter.

| filter | BS8 | JS4 | JS12 | JS18 | OS13 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`N_{p.e.}/pC`$ | $`1.56\pm 0.04`$ | $`1.46\pm 0.02`$ | $`0.94\pm 0.02`$ | $`0.55\pm 0.01`$ | $`0.12\pm 0.002`$ |

The table gives a possibility to reconstruct the spectrum of the streamer light coming through the glass cathode in $`\lambda 300600nm`$ range. Corrected for the FEU-87 sensitivity characteristic this spectrum is shown in fig.10. As can be seen the spectrum fast decrease as the $`\lambda `$ decrease from $`500nm`$. It could be result of the light absorption in the window glass for the $`\lambda 500nm`$. A range of registered wavelengths correspond to the photon energy of $`24eV`$.

### 2.3 Images of the streamer discharge

As was said above the streamer looks by eye through the glass electrode as one or several bright spots.

To get images of discharges we used the same glass RPC as it was in measurements of the light spectrum. The RPC was viewed with Image Intensifier ($`II`$) ”KANAL” having bialkali photocathode. A high voltage pulse sent to a microchannel plate inside ”KANAL” open the Image Intensifier.

A output screen of the $`II`$ was viewed with the CCD camera. A self-made card inside the IBM PC was used to digitize output signals from the CCD camera. Images were recorded into files. Furthermore, images were observed during the data taking on a computer monitor.

It was found that the streamer looks through the glass window like one or several bright spots. The diameter of each spot is about $`2mm`$. Fig.10 supports a idea that a correlation between the ’optical’ and ’electrical’ information exists. This figure show a number of bright spots ($`N_s`$) observed through the glass as a function of the induced charge. A good enough proportionality between the $`N_s`$ and charge can be seen in the figure.

As examples showing how the streamer develops in the space, figure 11 presents two pictures obtained with the $`II`$ and CCD camera. A real size of the each image is $`3.5\times 5.5cm^2`$. A spot position, which is the most close to the center of the picture, corresponds to the place where UV beam crossed the RPC. Pictures were obtained for the ”streamer-A” process.

## 3 Conclusions

The excitement of the glass RPC by the UV pulse laser provided with interesting information on how the avalanche transforms into the streamer. Two types of the streamer have been observed. One of them, ”streamer-B”, is produced by the field of the primary avalanche - it appears when the avalanche charge (exactly say, induced charge) reaches $`1pC`$ and it weakly depends on the initial electric field in the wide range of $`HV`$. The ”streamer-B” follows the avalanche discharge with few $`ns`$ delay only.

The second type of streamer, ”streamer-A”, appears when $`HV`$ exceeds some value. For our gas mixture it was at $`HV>8.2kV`$. Appearance of the ”streamer-A” does not depend on the primary electrons number. By eye, this streamer looks like several sparks round point where the laser light enters the RPC. Some of sparks are few $`cm`$ far from the primary point. As it was said in  it seems this kind of process in the RPC is connected with a secondary photon emission from primary discharge. Secondary discharges should start from photoelectrons knocked out from cathode by photons from a short wavelength tail of the emission spectrum. Because there is weak electric field around the primary discharge the secondary discharge can start only at some distance from initial.

The estimations of the streamer light spectrum and intensity of the light from discharges in the RPC have been done. We hope these data can be useful in the future for everybody who will try to reconstruct a space-time picture of processes in the RPC by use the optical information.


text:
# Resonance theory of the crossover from Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluidity to Bose-Einstein condensation in a dilute Fermi gas

## I Introduction

The ability to cool a gas of fermionic atoms well into the regime of quantum degeneracy hints at the exciting possibility of allowing one to study the mechanisms of superfluidity in an entirely new context demarco . Since these systems remain extremely dilute and are not complicated by long-range Coulomb interactions or lattice effects, cold degenerate gases seem ideal for the study of the fundamental physics behind the exotic behavior of superfluidity. Unfortunately, temperatures of around $`0.2T_F`$ are the current state of the art in cooling demarco ; hadzibabic ; truscott ; schreck ; granade ; inguscio . To obtain such high critical temperatures a strong coupling mechanism is required forcing the theoretical description to extend beyond the standard Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) approach.

Several theoretical papers have studied the effects of increasing the two-particle interactions stoof ; combescot ; heiselberg , characterizing the coupling processes by large negative scattering lengths. We have focused in detail upon a related yet distinct approach servaas , which is to significantly increase the interatomic couplings by making use of a Feshbach resonance. The difference is that, in the neighborhood of the resonance, the interactions can no longer be adequately described by a scattering length, since the scattering length diverges as one approaches the resonance. This is an artifact of the approximations made in formulating the theory since the full energy-dependent scattering T-matrix, which is the true descriptor of the two-particle interactions, does not diverge at finite scattering energy. This leads us to explicitly incorporate the physics of the resonance into our microscopic description of the interatomic couplings. A much more detailed discussion of this can be found in Ref. servaas .

So far, we have not discussed in detail the role of fluctuations, which can have a significant effect on the critical behavior gorkov . How we incorporate these fluctuations proves crucial in describing the physics correctly within the crossover regime where we find a significant population of tightly bound composite particles. The aim, therefore, of this paper will be to account for fluctuations in such a way as to properly describe the behavior of a superfluid Fermi gas at all detunings from the resonance. Recently, a complimentary treatment was independently developed by Ohashi and Griffin ohashi . The slight quantitative differences between their results for the critical superfluid transition temperature and the values we will present here appear to arise primarily from the use of quite different two-body scattering parameters and a distinct renormalization procedure.

The problem of describing a superfluid Fermi gas at all coupling strengths has been extensively studied in recent years, motivated by a desire to explain the properties of “exotic” high-$`T_c`$ superconductors, whose behavior seems to lie in a region somewhere between BCS and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) superconductivity. An early description of the crossover from BCS to BEC superconductivity was put forth by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink (NSR) nozieres , after the pioneering work of Eagles eagles  and Leggett leggett , and later expanded upon by various authors miscross ; haussmann ; randeria . A functional analysis of the crossover behavior, which is the method that we will employ, was equated to the NSR method by Randeria et al. randeria . We will adapt this method to a resonant system as necessary to describe the relevant physics of superfluidity in dilute atomic gases. It should be stressed that our method contains the multichannel interatomic couplings intrinsic to the Feshbach resonance. This was not considered in previous calculations in the context of condensed matter systems.

## II Resonant Action

We consider the Feshbach resonance verhaar  for $`s`$-wave scattering of atoms in the lowest two hyperfine states of a fermionic alkali atom, denoted symbolically by $`\sigma \{,\}`$. For a homogeneous system we have the following generalized Hamiltonian:

$`\widehat{H}(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle \psi _\sigma ^{}(x)(\widehat{H}_\sigma \mu )\psi _\sigma (x)d^3𝒙}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}{\displaystyle \psi _{m_j}^{}(x)(\widehat{H}_{m_j}2\mu +\nu _j)\psi _{m_j}(x)d^3𝒙}`$
$`+{\displaystyle U(𝒙𝒙^{\mathbf{}})\psi _{}^{}(x)\psi _{}^{}(x^{})\psi _{}(x^{})\psi _{}(x)d^3𝒙d^3𝒙^{\mathbf{}}}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}{\displaystyle }(g_j(𝒙𝒙^{\mathbf{}})\psi _{m_j}^{}({\displaystyle \frac{x+x^{}}{2}})\psi _{}(x)\psi _{}(x^{})+\mathrm{H}.\mathrm{c}.)d^3𝒙d^3𝒙^{\mathbf{}},`$
where the operators $`\psi _\sigma ^{}`$ ($`\psi _\sigma `$) create (annihilate) fermions at $`x=(𝒙,t)`$, and $`\psi _{m_j}^{}`$ ($`\psi _{m_j}`$) create (annihilate) composite bosons. The free dispersion Hamiltonian for fermions (bosons) is $`\widehat{H}_\sigma `$ ($`\widehat{H}_{m_j}`$) and $`\nu _j`$ is the detuning of the $`j^{\mathrm{th}}`$ molecular state from the collision continuum. The collisional interactions are described by both background fermion scattering ($`U`$) and an interconversion between composite bosons and fermion pairs ($`g_j`$).

Functional methods prove to be especially convenient in describing the thermodynamics of the resonant system. For a finite temperature field theory, the connection with statistical mechanics is made by Wick rotating the time coordinate $`ti\tau `$ so that one works in terms of the spatial coordinate $`x`$ and temperature $`\tau `$ abrikosov . In this space, we define the action in the usual way

$`S={\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }𝑑\tau {\displaystyle d^3𝒙\psi _l^{}(𝒙,\tau )_\tau \psi _l(𝒙,\tau )}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }\widehat{H}(\tau )𝑑\tau ,`$
where the sum in $`l`$ runs over both the Fermi and the Bose degrees of freedom. In this functional formulation we treat the fermion fields $`\psi _\sigma `$ as Grassmann variables popov  and the composite Bose fields $`\psi _{m_j}`$ as classical fields.

Let us consider a system comprised of fermions at some finite temperature $`\tau `$ inside a box of volume V (for convenience, let us work in the set of units where $`\mathrm{}=k_b=1`$). By imposing periodic boundary conditions upon the fields $`\psi _\sigma `$ and $`\psi _{m_j}`$, we form the following Fourier series expansions

$`\psi _\sigma (𝒙,\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`(\beta V)^{1/2}{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌,\omega }{}}e^{i(\omega \tau +𝒑𝒙)}a_\sigma ^{}(\mathrm{p}),`$
$`\psi _{m_j}(𝒙,\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`(\beta V)^{1/2}{\displaystyle \underset{𝒒,v}{}}e^{i(v\tau +𝒒𝒙)}b_j(\mathrm{q}),`$ (3)
with even thermal (Matsubara) frequencies for the bosons ($`v=2\pi n/\beta `$, where $`n`$ is an integer) and odd frequencies for the fermions ($`\omega =2\pi (n+1)/\beta `$), to preserve the particle statistics. Here $`a_\sigma ^{}(\mathrm{p})`$ annihilates a fermion at $`\mathrm{p}=(𝒌,\omega )`$ and $`b_j(\mathrm{q})`$ annihilates a molecule at $`\mathrm{q}=(𝒒,\omega )`$.

By making use of the above transformation, Eq. (3), we may write out the action for the resonant system in terms of the Fourier coefficients $`a_\sigma (\mathrm{p})`$ and $`b_j(\mathrm{q})`$. In order to help clarify the following calculation, we split the resulting resonant action into two parts, the first being the usual BCS action:

$`S_{BCS}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{p},\sigma }{}}(i\omega {\displaystyle \frac{p^2}{2m}}+\mu )a_\sigma ^{}(\mathrm{p})a_\sigma ^{}(\mathrm{p})`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta V}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{p}_1+\mathrm{p}_2=\mathrm{p}_3+\mathrm{p}_4}{}}Ua_{}^{}(\mathrm{p}_1)a_{}^{}(\mathrm{p}_2)a_{}^{}(\mathrm{p}_3)a_{}^{}(\mathrm{p}_4).`$
The remaining part of the action we will label the molecular action

$`S_M`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{q},j}{}}(iv{\displaystyle \frac{q^2}{4m}}\nu _j+2\mu )b_j^{}(\mathrm{q})b_j(\mathrm{q})`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{\beta V}}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{q}=\mathrm{p}_1+\mathrm{p}_2,j}{}}g_j\left(b_j^{}(\mathrm{q})a_{}^{}(\mathrm{p}_1)a_{}^{}(\mathrm{p}_2)+a_{}^{}(\mathrm{p}_2)a_{}^{}(\mathrm{p}_1)b_j^{}(\mathrm{q})\right).`$
In deriving Eqs. (II) and (II) we have inserted contact potentials for the couplings $`U(𝒙𝒙^{})U\delta (𝒙𝒙^{})`$ and $`g_j(𝒙𝒙^{})g_j\delta (𝒙𝒙^{})`$. The full partition function for our resonant system, under the model Hamiltonian of Eq. (II) can now be written as

$$Z=\left(\underset{\sigma }{}\mathrm{D}a_\sigma ^{}\mathrm{D}a_\sigma \right)\left(\underset{j}{}\mathrm{D}b_j^{}\mathrm{D}b_j^{}\right)\mathrm{e}^{S_{BCS}+S_M},$$
(6)
with the functional integral, $`\mathrm{D}c_idc^i`$, ranging over all Fermi and Bose fields.

## III Saddle-point approximation

From the form of the action in Eq. (6), it should be apparent that all of the resonant contributions are contained within the molecular action. In practice this gives rise to the integral of a displaced Gaussian that can be easily evaluated. After integrating out the molecular degrees of freedom, we are left with the partition function:

$$Z=\left(\underset{j}{}Z_{B_j}(q_j^2/4m+\nu _j2\mu )\right)\mathrm{D}a_\sigma ^{}\mathrm{D}a_\sigma \mathrm{e}^{S_{BCS^{}}}.$$
(7)
Here $`Z_{B_j}(q_j^2/4m+\nu _j2\mu )`$ is a Bose partition function describing the formation of bound molecules and $`S_{BCS^{}}`$ is the BCS action with a potential that is now dependent on both thermal frequencies and momentum. The interaction potential in the BCS action is, therefore, modified in the presence of a Feshbach resonance in the following way:

$$UU\underset{j}{}\frac{g_j^2}{q_j^2/4m+\nu _j2\mu iv}.$$
(8)
With the above partition function, Eq. (7), we may go on to calculate all thermodynamic properties of interest. Here, we are primarily interested in calculating the critical temperature of the superfluid phase transition. This can be done by solving for the gap and number equation, and then self-consistently solving these two equations for both the chemical potential and the critical temperature. The procedure is straightforward since the full resonant calculation has been reduced to the usual BCS calculation, only with a more complicated potential. Following Popov’s derivation popov , introducing the complex auxiliary Bose field $`c(\mathrm{q})`$ and expanding about the neighborhood of its zero value (which is equivalent to saying that we expand about the zero of the gap near $`T_c`$), we derive the gap equation at the critical point

$$1=\left(U+\underset{j}{}\frac{g_j^2}{\nu _j2\mu }\right)\underset{k}{}\frac{\mathrm{tanh}(\beta (k^2/2m\mu )/2)}{2(k^2/2m\mu )}.$$
(9)
The second self-consistent equation, the number equation, is found in the saddle-point approximation by expanding the action to lowest order, i.e. $`c(\mathrm{q})=c^{}(\mathrm{q})=0`$, and using the thermodynamic identity $`N=\mathrm{ln}Z/\mu `$ giving

$`N`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \underset{j,k}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta (k^2/4m+\nu _j2\mu )}1}}+2{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta (k^2/2m\mu )}+1}}.`$
Thus, our number equation counts all free fermions, $`N_f`$, plus an additional boson population $`N_b`$. Equations (9) and (III) provide for us a set of equations for determining $`T_c`$ and $`\mu `$ at the critical point. In the usual BCS theory, this level of approximation proves reasonable for calculating $`T_c`$ in the BCS limit (small negative scattering length) but diverges as the scattering length grows, and is wholly inapplicable for positive scattering lengths. The reason for this is that the primary mechanism for the phase transition within the weak coupling BCS limit is the formation and disassociation of Cooper pairs. As the coupling increases the particles tend to pair up at higher and higher temperatures which means that the critical transition is no longer signaled by the formation of Cooper pairs, but rather by a coherence across the sample caused by condensation of preformed Cooper pairs. Since we are interested in describing the resonant system at all detunings, the equations that we have derived so far are insufficient because they do not account for this process. We should, therefore, next focus on how to more accurately incorporate atom pairing into our model.

## IV Beyond the saddle-point approximation

To account for fluctuations in the fermion field, we follow the method of Nozières and Schmitt-Rink nozieres  in its functional form as put forth by Randeria et al. randeria . This procedure will introduce a next order correction to the saddle point calculation of the previous section. By expanding the action to second order in $`c(\mathrm{q})`$, and then calculating the number equation in the same way as was done when deriving Eq. (III), we introduce an additional population into the equation. The action becomes

$$S(c(\mathrm{q}),c^{}(\mathrm{q}))_{BCS^{}}S_{BCS^{}}(0,0)+\underset{\mathrm{q}}{}|c(\mathrm{q})|^2\chi (\mathrm{q}),$$
(11)
where we have defined the auxiliary function $`\chi (\mathrm{q})`$ as

$`\chi (\mathrm{q})=\left(U{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{g_j^2}{\frac{q^2}{4m}+\nu _j2\mu i\omega }}\right){\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1f(ϵ_{\frac{q}{2}+k})f(ϵ_{\frac{q}{2}k})}{ϵ_{\frac{q}{2}+k}+ϵ_{\frac{q}{2}k}i\omega }}.`$
Here $`f(ϵ_k)`$ is the Fermi distribution function and $`ϵ_k=k^2/2m\mu `$. The resulting modified number equation is

$`N`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \underset{j,k}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta (k^2/4m+\nu _j2\mu )}1}}+2{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta (k^2/2m\mu )}+1}}`$ (13)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta }}{\displaystyle \underset{𝒒,\omega }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{}{\mu }}\mathrm{log}[1\chi (𝒒,i\omega )].`$
This inclusion of the first order fluctuations introduces a population of atom pairs, $`N_p`$, that behave like bosons. We are now able to solve for the fluctuation corrected critical temperature from a self-consistent solution of Eqs. (9) and (13).

Due to the contact form of the couplings that we have chosen, however, we are immediately plagued with problems of divergences in our equations. This can be remedied by a proper renormalization, which means replacing the ‘bare’ couplings and detunings by the correct renormalized forms depending on the actual physical parameters as well as a momentum cut-off $`K_{cut}`$. This same procedure is needed to renormalize the usual, nonresonant BCS theory abrikosov  and is done by relating the bare potential to the two-particle scattering matrix, $`T`$, through the Lippman-Schwinger equation. This leads to a renormalization of the coupling as $`U=\mathrm{\Gamma }\overline{U}`$, where the bar notation represents a bare parameter. We make the definition $`\alpha =mK_{cut}/(2\pi ^2)`$ and introduce the dimensionless factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=(1\alpha \overline{U})^1`$. This renormalization incorporates the true microscopic physics into the problem, removing the unphysical divergence.

For the resonant case, a more sophisticated approach is required, which we have extensively studied previously servaas . In the case of a single resonance (i.e., the $`j`$ sum has only a single term) the renormalization is performed by the following relations: $`U=\mathrm{\Gamma }\overline{U}`$, $`g=\mathrm{\Gamma }\overline{g}`$, and $`\nu =\overline{\nu }+\alpha g\overline{g}`$. The chemical potential of each atomic state is modified to $`\mu =\overline{\mu }<T(k)n_k>`$ to include the proper mean-field shifts induced by all two-body scattering processes, where $`n_k`$ is the Fermi distribution, $`T(k)`$ is the two-body scattering matrix for the resonant system servaas , and $`<>`$ denotes an averaging. This shift, however, is sufficiently small to neglect; inclusion has demonstrated corrections of the order of 1% or less. By replacing the bare values in Eqs. (9) and (13) with the renormalized values, all of the results to be discussed have been shown to be independent of the introduced momentum cutoff $`K_{cut}`$.

The renormalization of the resonance theory forces us to take a closer look at the bound state physics of the system. In Fig. (1) we show the bound state energies for a single resonance system with a positive background scattering length. The figure results from a coupled square well calculation of the bound state energies servaas , and shows the avoided crossing of two molecular states. The upper state behaves to a fairly good approximation as $`E_b=(ma_{\mathrm{eff}}^2)^1`$, which is the molecular binding energy regularly associated with a contact interaction newton . The lower state, however, is offset from the detuning by an energy $`\kappa `$ and goes linear with the detuning. We find a similar behavior as in the lower state in the first term of Eq. (13). Taking the cutoff to infinity, which is justified since this term does not diverge, the renormalized detuning approaches $`\nu \overline{\nu }\overline{g}^2/\overline{U}`$. This produces a constant shift of $`\overline{g}^2/\overline{U}=\kappa `$ between the detuning and the molecular binding energy. Keeping this term in the number equation would incorrectly cause a transfer of the entire population into the wrong molecular state. In order to avoid this unwanted behavior we set this term to zero, i.e. $`N_b=0`$. In the case of a negative background scattering length, we would not have encountered this problem, and only one molecular state would have appeared (see Fig. 2). We will show in the next section that the pairing term fully accounts for the correct population of molecules in this system with $`a_{\mathrm{bg}}>0`$.

Before we present the full crossover solution for the case of $`{}_{}{}^{40}\mathrm{K}`$, let us look at the analytical solutions to Eqs. (9) and (13) in the strong (BEC) and weak (BCS) coupling regimes. We will first turn our attention to the weak coupling (BCS) regime. In this limit we would expect only free fermions to contribute to the population, so from equation (13) we find that the chemical potential is at the Fermi surface ($`\mu =E_\mathrm{F}`$). With this information, we solve the gap equation for the critical temperature. The result is the usual exponential dependence on the effective scattering length

$$T_c/T_F\frac{8}{\pi }e^{\gamma 2}\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2k_\mathrm{f}|\mathrm{a}_{\mathrm{eff}}|}),$$
(14)
where $`\gamma 0.5772`$ is the Euler-Mascheroni constant, $`k_\mathrm{f}`$ is the Fermi wave number, and $`\mathrm{a}_{\mathrm{eff}}<0`$ is the effective scattering length produced by the Feshbach resonance $`\mathrm{a}_{\mathrm{eff}}=a_{\mathrm{bg}}(1\kappa /\nu )`$.

The other limit we may consider is the strong coupling (BEC) limit. When the argument of the $`\mathrm{tanh}`$ function in the gap equation (9) becomes sufficiently negative, it is a good approximation to use its asymptotic value of unity. What this means physically is that the fermion statistics are unimportant in determining the value of the gap. This allows us to solve the gap equation for the chemical potential as a function of detuning. In the limit of large negative detuning we find that $`\mu E_b/2`$, where $`E_b1/ma_{\mathrm{eff}}^2`$. Within this limit the entire population has been converted to molecules and we can solve the number equation to get the BEC condensation temperature of $`T_c/T_F0.218`$.

## V Numerical results

To study the transition between the BEC and BCS regimes, we numerically solve Eqs. (9) and (13) for $`{}_{}{}^{40}\mathrm{K}`$. The single resonance curve is produced using a background scattering length of $`176a_0`$ and $`\kappa =7.68\mathrm{G}`$ at a density of $`10^{14}\mathrm{cm}^3`$.

Figure 3 shows the critical temperature as a function of magnetic field detuning. The crossover calculation clearly merges with the BEC result for large-positive detunings and smoothly connects between positive and negative detunings, limiting to the Bose condensation temperature of $`T_c/T_F0.218`$ for large negative detuning. This approach gives a maximum near zero detuning ($`T_c/T_F0.26`$) , but the maximum critical temperature we find is less than the predictions of the HFB approach in our earlier papers ($`T_c/T_F0.5`$) chiofalo . We believe this is due to the inclusion of fluctuations in the beyond saddle point approximation which act to reduce the gap at zero temperature and therefore the critical temperature for the formation of a superfluid.

Figure 4 shows the chemical potential as a function of detuning, beginning at the Fermi energy for positive detuning and approaching half the bound state energy at large negative detuning $`\mu E_b/2`$. Figure (5) shows the change in population as a function of detuning. For large positive detuning, the system is composed solely of free fermions. As the detuning is decreased (i.e. from positive to negative) the contribution of the fermions begins to decrease until all the population is transferred into the atom pairs at $`\nu 0.5G`$. The chemical potential is then equal to $`E_b/2`$ and we may identify the atom pairs from that point as the molecules. The superfluid behavior then comes from the condensation of these molecules, which are no longer disassociating into free fermions.

## VI Conclusion

We have presented a crossover model to describe the behavior of a gas of fermionic atoms for all detunings from a Feshbach resonance. The model is able to smoothly connect between the BCS and BEC regimes and accounts for the microscopic two-body physics throughout. We find a smooth behavior of the transition temperature in the entire crossover regime, with a maximum near zero detuning of $`T_c/T_f0.26`$, and agreeing with the appropriate BEC and BCS behaviors in the respective large detuning limits. The maximum is below the value predicted by the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory for the uniform gas derived in earlier work. This result is a direct indication of the important role of preformed atom pairs which are neglected above $`T_c`$ in the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory. Such atomic pairing is represented as fluctuations in the fermion pairing field and modify the elementary excitation spectrum even in the normal phase. We emphasize, however, that in this paper we have only accounted for the pairing physics by including the second order fluctuations in order to be able to account for the correct molecular binding energy as derived from the two-body scattering physics. While the inclusion of this order of fluctuations is the main ingredient necessary to encapsulate essential aspects of the behavior of the system in the crossover regime, it would be interesting to extend the approach to consider the effect of higher order interactions which have not been accounted for. For example, we have only included interactions between free fermion atoms, neglecting all other contributions such as the interactions between pairs. This is most clearly seen in the BEC limit, where our solution adopts the thermodynamic behavior of the ideal Bose gas, rather than the dilute interacting Bose gas. A more sophisticated treatment could extend our approach to consider all these factors. Nevertheless, the results we have presented here illustrate the realistic potential in this realizable system for increasing the superfluid transition temperature, with the aid of the Feshbach resonance, to a significant fraction of the Fermi temperature. This is an important and timely aspect from a practical perspective, because the maximum value we predict is in the region of the temperature range which is currently experimentally accessible.

###### Acknowledgements.

Support is acknowledged for J. M. and S. K. from the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences via the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, and for M. H. from the National Science Foundation.