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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

As is well known, the twofold spin covering $`_2Spin(2)SO(2)`$ is not universal and there are other (nontrivial) coverings with kernel $`_n`$ or $`=\pi _1(SO(2))`$ (for the universal one). They are responsible for such features as the fractional or continuous spin and the associated anyonic statistics (see eg. , ). In dimension three (or greater) $`\pi _1(SO(3))=_2`$ and the spin covering $`_2Spin(3)SO(3)`$ is universal, hence the only (projective) representations are of halfinteger spin (in addition to those of integer spin which are bona fide representations of $`SO(3)`$). The quantum groups offer a possibility to refine this classification. There is indeed a candidate for such a cover, the quantum group $`SL_q(2)`$ at the roots of unity . The case of the third root $`q=e^{\frac{2\pi i}{3}}`$ has been worked out quite extensively mainly in terms of the quantum universal enveloping algebra $`U_q(sl(2))`$ (cf. ,  and references therein) with the perspective to link to the Connes’ algebra for the Standard Model. Also the Hopf algebra $`A(SL_q(2))`$ of ‘polynomials on $`SL_q(2)`$’ at odd roots of unity $`q^{\mathrm{}}=1`$ has been studied. We adopt this ‘quantum function’ point of view since it is better suited to capture such topological properties as quantum (finite) covers, which have to be introduced by hand when working in the universal enveloping algebra language. In Section 2, after recalling the essentials on $`A(SL_q(2))`$, we shall present the coverings of $`Spin(3,)`$ and of $`SO(3,)`$.

The main point we are interested in this paper is to study further this new quantum symmetry and the braiding (statistics) of its corepresentations. The labeling of irreducible corepresentations refines the notion spin. On the dual level, the irreducible representations of $`U_q(sl(2))`$ at roots of unity are well known and the interesting decomposition of their tensor products has been studied , , , . They are not of immediate use for us since the duality between $`A(SL_q(2))`$ and $`U_q(sl(2))`$ degenerates at roots of unity. Actually it descends to a duality between some finite dimensional quotients $`A(F)`$ and $`\overline{U}_q`$ of these Hopf algebras. The irreducible representations of $`\overline{U}_q`$ are also known  and by the (nondegenerate) duality they correspond to irreducible corepresentations of $`A(F)`$, but this is not tantamount to those of $`A(SL_q(2))`$. There exist another Hopf algebra of divided powers , , or a version of it due to , which is dual to $`A(SL_q(2))`$ , . Thus the irreducible corepresentations of $`A(SL_q(2))`$ should be in a correspondence with the irreducible representations of divided powers Hopf algebra, which are known. This reasoning requires however some algebraic subtleties which we avoid. For the sake of physicists’ community, in Section 3 we provide a direct computational proof of the irreducibility. The first nontrivial case $`\mathrm{}=3`$ is discussed in Sect 3.1, where we study the decomposition of tensor products of the irreducible corepresentations of $`A(SL_q(2))`$ and the question if it is possible to built a fundamental spinor out of three ‘fractional’ corepresentations.

As far as the braiding is concerned it is associated to a coquasitriangular structure. In Section 4 we show that the coquasitriangular structure obtained from the standard universal $`R`$ matrix associated to $`U_q(sl(2))`$ leads to a fairly exotic braiding, which however is consistent with the Bose-Fermi statistics of the usual (half)integer spin corepresentations. As the first nontrivial example, the braiding in the case $`\mathrm{}=3`$ is discussed in detail in Section 4.1.

Section 5 contains final remarks and conclusions.

## 2 Preliminaries

We start recalling the basic definitions and our notational conventions.

### 2.1 The quantum group $`SL_q(2)`$

Recall that for $`q0`$, $`A(SL_q(2))`$ is the unital free algebra generated by $`a,b,c,d`$ over $``$ modulo the ideal generated by the commutation relations

$$ab=qbaac=qca,bd=qdb,bc=cb,cd=qdc,adda=(qq^1)bc$$

and by the $`q`$-determinant relation $`adqbc=1.`$ The Hopf algebra structure is given by the following comultiplication $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, counit $`\epsilon `$, and antipode $`S`$ defined on the generators (arranged as a $`2\times 2`$ matrix) by

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& b\\ c& d\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& b\\ c& d\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& b\\ c& d\end{array}\right),`$ (7)
$`\epsilon \left(\begin{array}{cc}a& b\\ c& d\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right),S\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& b\\ c& d\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}d& q^1b\\ qc& a\end{array}\right),`$ (16)
where on the r.h.s. of the first equation the ‘line by columns’ tensor product is understood. As a complex vector space, $`A(SL_q(2))`$ has a basis $`a^ib^jc^k`$, with $`i,j,k`$ and $`b^ic^jd^k`$ with $`i,j,k_+`$. (We denote $`_+=\{1,2,3\mathrm{}\}`$ and $`=\{0,1,2\mathrm{}\}`$.)

### 2.2 Finite quantum subgroups $`F`$ and $`\widehat{F}`$

From now on, unless stated differently, we set the parameter $`q`$ to be a (primitive) $`\mathrm{}`$-th root of unity $`\lambda =e^{\frac{2\pi i}{\mathrm{}}}`$, for odd $`\mathrm{}3`$. We introduce two finite dimensional Hopf algebras of ‘functions on finite quantum subgroups’ $`F`$ and $`\widehat{F}`$ of $`SL_q(2)`$, needed in the sequel.

The Hopf algebra $`A(F)`$ is defined as the quotient Hopf algebra of $`A(SL_q(2))`$ modulo the ideal generated by the relations

$$a^{\mathrm{}}=1=d^{\mathrm{}},b^{\mathrm{}}=0=c^{\mathrm{}}.$$
(17)
Let $`\pi _F`$ denote the canonical projection, and $`\stackrel{~}{t}:=\pi _F(t)`$.

We give now some information on $`F`$ (see ,  for the case $`\mathrm{}=3`$).

###### Proposition 2.1

$`A(F)`$ satisfies the following properties:
i) as a complex vector space $`A(F)`$ is $`\mathrm{}^3`$-dimensional and its basis can be chosen as $`\stackrel{~}{a}^p\stackrel{~}{b}^r\stackrel{~}{c}^s`$, where $`p,r,s\{0,1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}1\}`$.
ii) $`A(F)`$ has a faithful representation $`\varrho `$

$$\varrho (\stackrel{~}{a})=𝐉\mathrm{𝟏}_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{𝟏}_{\mathrm{}},\varrho (\stackrel{~}{b})=𝐐𝐍\mathrm{𝟏}_{\mathrm{}},\varrho (\stackrel{~}{c})=𝐐\mathrm{𝟏}_{\mathrm{}}𝐍,$$
(18)
where for $`i,j\{1,2,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}\}`$

$$𝐉_{i,j}=\{\begin{array}{cc}1& \text{if }i=j+1\text{ mod }\mathrm{}\\ 0& \text{otherwise}\end{array},𝐐_{i,j}=\{\begin{array}{cc}q^i& \text{if }i=j\text{ }\\ 0& \text{otherwise}\end{array},𝐍_{i,j}=\{\begin{array}{cc}1& \text{if }i=j+1\text{ }\\ 0& \text{otherwise}\end{array}.$$
(19)
iii) $`A(F)`$ has the ‘reduced’ quantum plane as a quantum homogeneous space (i.e. the algebra generated by $`x`$ and $`y`$ modulo the ideal generated by the relations $`xy=qyx`$, $`x^{\mathrm{}}=1`$ and $`y^{\mathrm{}}=1`$) which is isomorphic to $`\mathrm{Mat}(\mathrm{},)`$.
iv) $`F`$ has a classical subgroup, defined as the group of characters of $`A(F)`$, which is easily seen to be isomorphic to $`_{\mathrm{}}`$. Namely, for $`i\{1,2,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}\}`$ we have $`\chi _i`$ defined by their action on the generators as $`\chi _i(\stackrel{~}{a})=q^i`$, $`\chi _i(\stackrel{~}{b})=0`$, $`\chi _i(\stackrel{~}{c})=0`$ and $`\chi _i(\stackrel{~}{d})=q^i`$. The Hopf algebra $`A(_{\mathrm{}})`$ appears as a quotient of $`A(F)`$ by the ideal generated by $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{c}`$ (which is also the intersection of the kernels of the characters).

Quite similarly, we define $`A(\widehat{F})`$ as the $`2\mathrm{}^3`$ dimensional quotient of $`A(SL_q(2))`$ modulo the relations

$$a^2\mathrm{}=1=d^2\mathrm{},b^{\mathrm{}}=0=c^{\mathrm{}}.$$
(20)
Notice that the classical subgroup of $`\widehat{F}`$ is the cyclic group $`_2\mathrm{}`$. This group ‘combines’ the cyclic subgroup $`_{\mathrm{}}`$ of $`F`$ with $`_2`$ appearing in the classical spin cover. In fact one has the exact sequence of groups

$$0_2_2\mathrm{}_{\mathrm{}}0$$
(21)
which extends $`_{\mathrm{}}`$ by the kernel $`_2`$ of the classical spin cover. Notice that this extension is actually a semidirect (and not direct) product iff $`\mathrm{}`$ is odd.

### 2.3 Quantum group covering of $`SL(2)`$

The Hopf subalgebra of $`A(SL_q(2))`$ generated by the $`\mathrm{}^{th}`$ powers

$$\alpha =a^l,\beta =b^l,\gamma =c^l,\delta =d^l$$

is isomorphic to the (commutative) Hopf algebra

$$A(SL(2))=[\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma ,\delta ]/<\alpha \delta \beta \gamma 1>$$

with the restricted coproduct, counit and coinverse. It is just the subalgebra of coinvariants of the coaction of $`A(F)`$ (as a quotient Hopf algebra). It is known  (see also , for the case $`\mathrm{}=3`$) that

###### Proposition 2.2

The sequence of algebras

$$A(SL(2))A(SL_q(2))\stackrel{\pi _F}{}A(F)$$
(22)
is:
i) a (right, faithfully flat) Hopf-Galois extension of $`A(SL(2)`$ by $`A(F)`$ (quantum principal fibre bundle)
ii) a principal homogeneous Hopf-Galois extension (i.e., $`A(F)`$ is a quotient of the Hopf algebra $`A(SL_q(2))`$ by a Hopf ideal and $`\pi _F`$ is the canonical surjection)
iii) strictly exact (quantum quotient group)

(Notice that $`\text{iii}\text{ii}\text{i}`$, see , ,  for the relevant definitions).

Therefore (22) is a good candidate for a quantum covering of the spin group. To be fully worth of this name, it should be checked to be nontrivial. It can be seen that it is not totally trivial in the sense that $`A(SL_q(2))`$ is not isomorphic to $`A(SL(2))A(F)`$. Another accepted notion to substitute the triviality for quantum principal bundles is however that of cleftness (or crossed products), c.f. e.g. . It is not yet known if (22) is cleft and it seems to be a tough problem, which is not tractable by the usual means (e.g. the theory of quantum characteristic classes). A weaker result affirms that $`A(SL_q(2))`$ as a module over $`A(SL(2))`$, which is finitely generated and projective (c.f. ), is actually free . (The associated coherent sheaf of rank $`l^3`$ is free and the corresponding vector bundle $`F`$ over $`SL(2)`$ turns out to be trivial). Moreover a set of $`l^3`$ generators can be chosen as

$$a^mb^nc^s^{},b^nc^{s^{\prime \prime }}d^r,$$

with the integers $`m,n,r,s^{},s^{\prime \prime }`$ in the range $`m\{1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}1\}`$, $`n,r\{0,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}1\}`$, $`s^{}\{m,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}1\}`$ and $`s^{\prime \prime }\{0,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}r1\}`$.

We expect that the quantum principal bundle (22) is actually non cleft and propose to employ it for a quantum spin covering in the next section.

### 2.4 Quantum group covering of $`SO(3,)`$

The (complex) group $`SL(2)`$ is isomorphic to the spin group $`Spin(3,)`$ and thus provides a twofold covering of the (complex) rotation group $`SO(3,)`$. This classical spin covering can be combined with the covering (22) as follows. The Hopf algebra $`A(SO(3,))`$ can be identified with the subalgebra of even polynomials $`A^+(SL(2))`$ in $`A(SL(2))`$. It can be seen that $`A^+(SL(2))`$ coincides with the coinvariants of the coaction of Hopf algebra $`A(\widehat{F})`$. Let $`\pi _{\widehat{F}}`$ denote the canonical projection and $`\widehat{t}:=\pi _{\widehat{F}}(t)`$. In analogy with the proof of Prop. 2.2 it can be shown that

###### Proposition 2.3

The sequence of Hopf algebras

$$A(SO(3,))A(SL_q(2))\stackrel{\pi _{\widehat{F}}}{}A(\widehat{F}),$$
(23)
possesses the same nice properties i)-iii) as the sequence (22).

In particular (23) is a quantum principal bundle and referring to our remarks at the end of the previous subsection, we mention that it is very likely non cleft. In fact the relevant question about (23) is if it is reducible to the subgroup $`_2`$. We expect that it is not the case, consistently with our conjecture about the noncleftness of (22) and thus propose

Definition For any odd $`\mathrm{}`$, $`\mathrm{}3`$, with $`q=e^{\frac{2\pi i}{\mathrm{}}}`$, we call the principal fibre bundle (23) quantum spin covering of the complex rotation group.

## 3 Irreducible corepresentations

There are two natural series of corepresentations of $`A(SL_q(2))`$. The first one comes by restricting the coproduct to $`W_n=\{\alpha ^n,\alpha ^{n1}\gamma ,\mathrm{},\gamma ^n\}`$, i.e. the span of monomials of degree $`n`$ in $`\alpha =a^{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`\gamma =c^{\mathrm{}}`$. The corepresentation $`W_n`$ is a ‘push forward’ of the $`n+1`$ dimensional (spin $`n/2`$) corepresentations of $`A(SL(2))`$ and thus obviously irreducible for all $`n`$. The second one comes by restricting the coproduct to $`Y_m=\{a^m,a^{m1}c,\mathrm{},c^m\}`$, i.e. the span of monomials of degree $`m`$ in $`a,c`$. More explicitly,

$`\mathrm{\Delta }a^{mh}c^h=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{r=1}{\overset{mh}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{s=1}{\overset{h}{}}}q^{r(hs)}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{mh}{r}}\right)_{q^2}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{h}{s}}\right)_{q^2}a^{mhr}b^rc^{hs}d^sa^{m(r+s)}c^{r+s}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{m}{}}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{r+s=k}{}}q^{r(hs)}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{mh}{r}}\right)_{q^2}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{h}{s}}\right)_{q^2}a^{mhr}b^rc^{hs}d^s\right)a^{mk}c^k,`$ (24)
where

$$\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k}{j}\right)_p=\frac{(k)!_p}{(kj)!_p(j)!_p},(k)!_p=(k)_p(k1)_p\mathrm{}(2)_p\mathrm{and}(k)_p=1+p+\mathrm{}+p^{k1}.$$

It is indecomposable but not irreducible in general. As we shall see, for $`m\{0,1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}1\}`$ $`Y_m`$ is indeed irreducible and we shall denote it $`V_m`$. Also, for $`m=n\mathrm{}1`$, $`n_+`$, it is irreducible but in fact equivalent to $`W_{n1}V_\mathrm{}1`$. More generally the corepresentations of the form $`W_nV_m`$, with $`n,m\{0,1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}1\}`$ are all irreducible as can be inferred from , , establishing the duality with a version  of divided powers algebra ,  of which the classification of irreducible representations is known . Although straightforward, here we provide a direct computational proof.

###### Proposition 3.1

Set $`m=m_0+\mathrm{}m_1`$, with $`0m_0\mathrm{}1,m_10`$.
a) For $`m_1=0`$ the comodule $`V_{m_0}:=Y_{m_0}`$ is irreducible.
a ) For every $`m_1>0`$, the comodule $`Y_{\mathrm{}1+\mathrm{}m_1}`$ (i.e. when $`m_0=\mathrm{}1`$) is irreducible as well and it is isomorphic to $`W_{m_1}V_\mathrm{}1`$.
b) when $`0m_0\mathrm{}2`$ and $`m_11`$, $`Y_{m_0+\mathrm{}m_1}`$ has a (maximal) subcomodule isomorphic to $`W_{m_1}V_{m_0}`$. The quotient comodule is irreducible and isomorphic to $`W_{m_11}V_{\mathrm{}2m_0}`$.

Corollary. The corepresentations $`W_nV_m`$ are irreducible for all $`n`$ and $`m\{0,1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}1\}`$.

Proof of Proposition (3.1).  The classical argument working for $`q=1`$ can be directly extended when $`q`$ is considered as an indeterminate and runs as follows. Given a corepresentation $`\rho `$ of a Hopf algebra $`A`$ on a comodule $`U`$, let $`\rho _i^j`$ be a matrix of elements of $`A`$ such that

$$u_i\rho _i^ju_j,$$

with respect to a basis $`u_i`$ ($`i=1,\mathrm{},n)`$ of $`U`$. There exist a coinvariant subcomodule $`U^{}U`$ (with $`dimU^{}=k`$, say) iff up to a conjugation by an invertible matrix $`Z`$ with elements in $`[q,q^1]`$ the matrix $`\rho `$ takes a lower echelon form, i.e. iff

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}\tau _1& 0\\ \tau _3& \tau _4\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}z_1& z_2\\ z_3& z_4\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}z_1& z_2\\ z_3& z_4\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}\rho _1& \rho _2\\ \rho _3& \rho _4\end{array}\right)$$

where $`U^{}`$ is the span of the first $`k`$ elements of the transformed basis and the block decomposition is given by the splitting $`U=U^{}U/U^{}`$. In particular this requires that

$$\tau _1\left(\begin{array}{cc}z_1& z_2\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}z_1\rho _1+z_2\rho _3& z_1\rho _2+z_2\rho _4\end{array}\right).$$

Notice that the $`k\times n`$ matrix $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}z_1& z_2\end{array}\right)`$ has rank $`k`$. Let $`M`$ be an invertible $`k\times k`$ submatrix. We can write

$$\tau _1M=S,\tau _1M^{}=S^{},$$

where $`S`$ is the submatrix of the r.h.s. above corresponding to the columns of $`M`$ in $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}z_1& z_2\end{array}\right)`$ and prime denotes the submatrices with the complementary columns. Substituting, we get $`k\times (nk)`$ linear relations over $`[q,q^1]`$ among the elements $`\rho _i^j`$

$$S^{}=SM^1M^{}.$$

Now let’s have a closer look at the comodules $`Y_m`$. The matrix elements of (3) are linear combinations of monomials of degree $`m`$ in the generators $`a,b,c,d`$. For generic $`q`$, all $`(m+3)(m+2)(m+1)/6`$ of them appear in the sum on the r.h.s. of (3) and every monomial appears exactly in a single matrix element i.e. two different matrix elements contain different monomials. Therefore they are all linearly independent and, by the argument above, the $`Y_m`$ are irreducible.

Recall that when $`q=\lambda `$ is a $`\mathrm{}^{th}`$ root of unity, $`\lambda ^{\mathrm{}}=1`$, the subalgebra generated by $`\alpha =a^{\mathrm{}},\beta =b^{\mathrm{}},\gamma =c^{\mathrm{}},\delta =d^{\mathrm{}}`$ is central and isomorphic to the classical Hopf algebra $`A(SL(2))`$. Now several $`q^2`$-binomial coefficients actually vanish when evaluated at $`\lambda `$. A simple way to control this is to use the fact that the coproduct is an algebra homomorphism;

$$\mathrm{\Delta }a^m=\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha ^{m_1}\mathrm{\Delta }a^{m_0},$$

where $`m=m_0+\mathrm{}m_1`$. Hence

$$\underset{r=0}{\overset{m}{}}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{r}\right)_{\lambda ^2}a^{mr}b^ra^{mr}c^r=$$

$$\underset{i=0}{\overset{m_1}{}}\underset{j=0}{\overset{m_0}{}}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m_0}{j}\right)_{\lambda ^2}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m_1}{i}\right)_1\alpha ^{m_1i}\beta ^ia^{m_0j}b^j\alpha ^{m_1i}\gamma ^ia^{m_0j}c^j,$$

giving the factorization formula (c.f. )

$$\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{r}\right)_{\lambda ^2}=\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m_0}{r_0}\right)_{\lambda ^2}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m_1}{r_1}\right),$$
(25)
where $`m=m_0+\mathrm{}m_1,r=r_0+\mathrm{}r_1,\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0}m_0,r_0\mathrm{}1,m_1,r_10`$ and last factor on the r.h.s. is just the ordinary binomial coefficient. In particular all the binomial coefficients $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m}{r}\right)_{\lambda ^2}`$ with $`r_0>m_0`$ vanish.

When $`0m=m_0\mathrm{}1`$, this can not occur and the standard argument above yields the point a). For larger $`m`$’s however the comodule $`Y_m`$ is no more irreducible. Using again the homomorphism property of the coproduct, we directly compute

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(a^{mh}c^h)=\mathrm{\Delta }(\alpha ^{(mh)_1}\gamma ^{h_1})\times $$

$$\underset{j=0}{\overset{(mh)_0}{}}\underset{t=0}{\overset{h_0}{}}\lambda ^{j(h_0t)}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{(mh)_0}{j}\right)_{\lambda ^2}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{h_0}{t}\right)_{\lambda ^2}a^{(mh)_0j}b^jc^{h_0t}d^ta^{(mh)_0+h_0(j+t)}c^{j+t}.$$

Notice that

$$mh=\{\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{}(m_1h_1)+(m_0h_0)& \text{if }0h_0m_0\\ & \\ \mathrm{}(m_1h_11)+(\mathrm{}+m_0h_0)& \text{if }m_0+1h_0\mathrm{}1\end{array},$$

and the formula above for $`h_0m_0`$ reads

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(a^{mh}c^h)=\mathrm{\Delta }(\alpha ^{m_1h_1}\gamma ^{h_1})\times $$
(26)
$$\underset{j=0}{\overset{m_0h_0}{}}\underset{t=0}{\overset{h_0}{}}\lambda ^{j(h_0t)}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m_0h_0}{j}\right)_{\lambda ^2}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{h_0}{t}\right)_{\lambda ^2}a^{m_0h_0j}b^jc^{h_0t}d^ta^{m_0(j+t)}c^{j+t}.$$

This sum contains only monomials in $`a,c`$ of degree $`m_0`$. So $`W_{m_1}V_{m_0}`$ is an irreducible subcomodule. If $`m_0=\mathrm{}1`$ this is isomorphic to the whole of $`Y_{\mathrm{}1+\mathrm{}m_1}`$. This proves the point a) and the first statement of the point b). To complete the proof of b) notice that for $`m_0+1h_0\mathrm{}1`$ we have

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(a^{mh}c^h)=\mathrm{\Delta }(\alpha ^{m_1h_11}\gamma ^{h_1})\times $$

$$\underset{j=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}+m_0h_0}{}}\underset{t=0}{\overset{h_0}{}}\lambda ^{j(h_0t)}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}+m_0h_0}{j}\right)_{\lambda ^2}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{h_0}{t}\right)_{\lambda ^2}a^{\mathrm{}+m_0h_0j}b^jc^{h_0t}d^ta^{\mathrm{}+m_0(j+t)}c^{j+t}.$$

Restricting the sum to $`j+tm_0`$ we can factor $`a^{\mathrm{}}=\alpha `$, while restricting to $`j+t\mathrm{}`$ we can factor $`c^{\mathrm{}}=\gamma `$, thus compensating the $`1`$ occurring in the exponent of the classical part of the coproduct and leaving in these two partial sums only monomials of degree $`m_0`$ in $`a,c`$. This cannot be done in the partial sum for $`m_0+1j+tl1`$, which gives

$$\underset{k=m_0}{\overset{l1}{}}\underset{s=0}{\overset{k}{}}\mathrm{}a^{l+m_0h_0k+s}b^{ks}c^{h_0s}d^sa^{l+m_0k}c^k=$$

$$\underset{k^{}=0}{\overset{lm_02}{}}\underset{s}{\overset{m_0+1+k^{}}{}}\mathrm{}a^{m_0^{}h_0^{}k^{}+s}b^{m_0+1+k^{}s}c^{m_0+1+h_0^{}t}d^t(ac)^{m_0+1}a^{m_0^{}k^{}}c^k^{}=$$

$$\lambda ^n[(bc)^{m_0+1}(ac)^{m_0+1}]\mathrm{\Delta }a^{m_0^{}h_0^{}}c^{h_0^{}},$$

where $`m_0^{}=lm_02,h_0^{}=h_0+m_0+1`$. This expression contains monomials of degree larger than $`m_0`$. Thus the quotient $`Y_m/W_{m_1}V_{m_0}`$ is isomorphic to $`W_{m_11}V_{\mathrm{}2m_0}`$ which completes the proof.

We remark that the proof for generic $`q`$ is just the q-analogue of what happens in the classical case. It is enough to notice that replacing the ordinary binomial coefficients the q-analogue one gets (3) up to some nonvanishing factors. This is why the corepresentation theory for generic $`q`$ is the same as the classical one. In particular the argument above yields that the Clebsh-Gordan decomposition holds as in the classical case

$$Y_mY_m^{}=Y_{m+m^{}}Y_{m+m^{}2}\mathrm{}.$$

In the case of $`q`$ being $`\mathrm{}`$-th root of unity it follows from Prop. 3.1 that there is always at least one irreducible corepresentation of arbitrary dimension $`D`$, and there are more (up to $`\mathrm{}`$) of them, according to how many integers in $`\{1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}\}`$ divide $`D`$.

The decomposition rules of the tensor products $`(W_nV_m)(W_n^{}V_m^{})`$ into irreducible corepresentations follow from the usual Clebsh-Gordan decomposition of $`W_nW_n^{}`$ and the decomposition of $`V_mV_m^{}`$, which obey a more complicated pattern.

### 3.1 Decomposition of tensor products for $`\mathrm{}=3`$

The previous discussion can be specified and simplified considerably in the simplest (nontrivial) case $`\mathrm{}=3`$. We have explicitly the following matrices $`\rho `$ of three corepresentations $`V_0`$, $`V_1`$ and $`V_2`$ respectively

$$1,\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& b\\ c& d\end{array}\right)\text{and}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}a^2& q^2ab& b^2\\ ac& ad+q^1bc& bd\\ c^2& q^2cd& d^2\end{array}\right),$$

as well as the usual form of $`W_n`$.

According to the corollary of proposition 3.1 we see that there is one trivial (onedimensional, irreducible) corepresentation $`V_0=W_0`$. In dimension two there are two (inequivalent) irreducible corepresentations $`V_1`$ and $`W_1`$. In dimension three there are also two: $`V_2`$ and $`W_2`$. In dimension four $`Y_3`$ is indecomposable but not irreducible but there are two other irreducible corepresentations $`W_3V_0=W_3`$ and $`W_1V_1`$. In dimension five there is only one irreducible corepresentation $`W_4`$ ($`Y_4`$ is indecomposable but not irreducible). In dimension six there are three irreducible corepresentations: $`W_5`$, $`W_2V_1`$ and $`W_1V_2=V_5`$. A general pattern is that in any dimension $`D`$ there is always at least one irreducible corepresentation, if either $`2`$ or $`3`$ divide $`d`$ there are two irreducible corepresentations and if $`6`$ divides $`D`$ there are three irreducible corepresentations.

We give now the decomposition rules of the tensor products.
Clearly,

$$V_0V_0=V_0,V_0V_1=V_1\mathrm{and}V_0V_2=V_2.$$

Next, it can be seen that

$$V_1V_1=V_0V_2,V_1V_2=V_1W_1V_1\mathrm{and}V_2V_2=V_0V_2(W_1V_1)V_0,$$

where $``$ in an indecomposable corepresentation indicates that the left summand is a subcomodule while the right summand is a comodule only after quotienting the left one. Noting that the tensor products in the opposite order decompose equivalently, and recalling the usual decomposition $`W_nW_n^{}=W_{|nn^{}|}W_{|nn^{}|+2}\mathrm{}W_{|n+n^{}|}`$, these rules permit to find a decomposition of tensor products of any number of $`V_mW_n`$, with $`n`$ and $`m\{1,2,3\}`$.

A interesting question in this simplest (nontrivial) case of $`\mathrm{}=3`$ is if there is a possibility to built a fundamental fermion out of three anyons. The decomposition rules permit to verify easily that the corepresentations $`(V_1)^3`$ and $`(V_2)^3`$ do not contain the fundamental spinor corepresentation $`W_1`$ as a subcorepresentation and the same is true for the tensor cube of the irreducible corepresentations $`(V_mW_n)`$ if $`m\{1,2\}`$. They do however contain $`W_1`$ as a quotient (sub)corepresentation. It is also worth to mention that the fundamental spinor $`W_1`$ subcorepresentation occurs nevertheless in e.g. the reducible but not decomposable representation $`Y_3`$ and thus also in its third tensor power $`(Y_3)^3`$.

## 4 Braiding

For general $`q`$ the quasitriangular structure on $`U_q(sl(2))`$ given by the well known universal element $`R`$  in (a suitable completion of) $`U_q(sl(2))^2`$, defines a coquasitriangular structure on $`A(SL_q(2))`$. Its explicit form on the generators reads (c.f. )

$$\left(\begin{array}{cccc}aa& ab& ac& ad\\ ba& bb& bc& bd\\ ca& cb& cc& cd\\ da& db& dc& dd\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}q^{1/2}& 0& 0& q^{1/2}\\ 0& 0& q^{1/2}q^{3/2}& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0\\ q^{1/2}& 0& 0& q^{1/2}\end{array}\right).$$
(27)
This structure provides a highly unusual (nonsymmetric and nondiagonal) braiding of corepresentations $`\rho `$ and $`\rho ^{}`$ of $`A(SL_q(2))`$

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(u_iu_r^{})=\underset{j,s}{}\left(\rho _{}^{}{}_{r}{}^{s}\rho _i^j\right)u_s^{}u_j.$$
(28)
In our situation, $`q^{\mathrm{}}=1`$, it is not difficult however to verify that the corepresentations $`W_n`$ for $`n`$ odd (i.e. with halfinteger spin $`n/2`$) are fermionic and the corepresentations $`W_n`$ for $`n`$ even (i.e. with integer spin $`n/2`$) are bosonic, i.e. they obey

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(ww^{})=(1)^{nn^{}}w^{}w\mathrm{for}wW_n,w^{}W_n^{}.$$
(29)
Thus the exotic coquasitriangular structure $``$ passes an important consistency test of the agreement with the usual spin-statistics relation in dimensions $`d3`$. The braiding of $`V`$’s and $`W`$’s is also quite simple:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(vw)=(1)^{mn}wv\mathrm{for}vV_m,wW_n.$$
(30)
Instead the braiding of $`V`$’s among themselves is highly exotic (even comparing with the anyonic one). We report it in the Subsection 4.1 for the case $`\mathrm{}=3`$. Clearly the tensor products $`V_mW_n`$ carry the combined statistics according to the usual hexagon conditions for $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ (see eg. ).

### 4.1 Braiding in the case $`\mathrm{}=3`$

As for general $`\mathrm{}`$, the braiding of the corepresentations $`W_n`$ with $`W_n^{}`$ is exactly the classical one, i.e. the trivial twist except when $`nn^{}`$ is odd when it is (-) the twist. Also, $`W_n`$ have the trivial braiding with $`V_0`$ and with $`V_2`$ and (-) the twist with $`V_1`$. The braiding of $`V`$’s among themselves is as follows:
The braiding of $`V_1`$ and $`V_1`$ reads:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }\left(\begin{array}{c}aa\\ ac\\ ca\\ cc\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}q^{1/2}& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& q^{1/2}& 0\\ 0& q^{1/2}& 1+q^{1/2}& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& q^{1/2}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}aa\\ ac\\ ca\\ cc\end{array}\right).$$
(31)
(Notice that $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ has a nonsiple tensor $`acqca`$ as an eigenvector with eigenvalue 1 and the complex span of $`aa,qac+ca,cc`$ as an eigenspace with eigenvalue $`q^{1/2}`$).
Next, the braiding of $`V_1`$ and $`V_2`$ reads:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }\left(\begin{array}{c}a^2a\\ a^2c\\ aca\\ acc\\ c^2a\\ c^2c\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}q^2& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& q& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& q^2q& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0\\ 0& 0& q& 0& 1q& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& q^2\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}aa^2\\ aac\\ ac^2\\ ca^2\\ cac\\ cc^2\end{array}\right).$$
(32)
The opposite braiding of $`V_2`$ and $`V_1`$ reads:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }\left(\begin{array}{c}aa^2\\ aac\\ ac^2\\ ca^2\\ cac\\ cc^2\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}q^2& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& q& 0\\ 0& q& qq^2& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1& 1q^2& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& q^2\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}a^2a\\ a^2c\\ aca\\ acc\\ c^2a\\ c^2c\end{array}\right).$$
(33)
Finally, the braiding of $`V_2`$ and $`V_2`$ reads:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }\left(\begin{array}{c}a^2a^2\\ a^2ac\\ a^2c^2\\ aca^2\\ acac\\ acc^2\\ c^2a^2\\ c^2ac\\ c^2c^2\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{ccccccccc}q& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& q& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 1q& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 1q^2& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0\\ 0& 0& q^2& 0& q1& 0& (q1)^2& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 1q& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& q^2\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}a^2a^2\\ a^2ac\\ a^2c^2\\ aca^2\\ acac\\ acc^2\\ c^2a^2\\ c^2ac\\ c^2c^2\end{array}\right).$$
(34)
The resulting braiding of the ireeducible corepresentations $`W_nV_m`$ and $`W_n^{}V_m^{}`$ can be obtained from the above braidings of $`V`$’s and $`W`$’s using the hexagon conditions for braiding.

## 5 Final remarks

We remark in a connection with the point iii) of Prop. 2.1 that $`\mathrm{Mat}(3,)`$ occurs as a direct summand of Connes’ interior algebra $`𝒜`$ for the Standard Model . Also, the algebra $`M(3,)M(2,)`$, close to $`𝒜`$, coincides with the semisimple part of the algebra $`U_q(sl(2))`$ at cubic roots of unity, which was extensively studied (cf. , ,  and references therein).

We mention also some related works. In  the braided group $`B(SL_q(2))`$ with the braiding induced by the universal $`R`$-matrix via the right adjoint corepresentation has been described. In  the fractional supersymmetry has been discussed. The interesting papers  and  investigate the spin-statistics relation in the supergroup framework and its bosonisation to an (ordinary) Hopf algebra. In  the noncommutative cohomology and electromagnetism on $`SL_q(2)`$ at roots of unity have been studied.

We summarize our work by saying that in noncommutative geometry the spin and the statistics in dimensions $`3`$ looks more similar to the case of dimension $`=2`$. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, besides the parafermion case, it opens a possibility of unusual statistics in quantum theories in dimension $`3`$. It is however quite encouraging that the corepresentations $`W_n`$ of the usual $`Spin(3,)`$ maintain their Bose-Fermi statistics in agreement with the usual spin-statistics theorem in (local) relativistic quantum field theory.

There are some open problems regarding the noncommutative spin covers. From the mathematical point of view certainly the question about the cleftness of (22) and the (non)reducibility of (23) to $`_2`$ should be settled. Also the issue of reality or \*-structure and the reductions to $`SU(2)`$ and $`SO(3)`$ are very important. Of course the covers of relativistic symmetries (Lorentz and Poincaré) should be then worked out as well. Another task is to employ the quantum covers as structure groups for bundles on (classical or quantum) spaces. These and related topics are currently under investigation.

From the physical point of view, besides the hypothetical relation with quantum symmetries behind the Standard Model, the main question concerns a possible role of the quantum covers of spin, e.g. in local quantum field theory. Indeed from the discussion above we see that the extension (21) is actually nontrivial and hence there is an interesting mixing up between the exotic statistics of $`V`$’s and spin. This may be a key test for physical applications. Also the use in physics of the indecomposable corepresentations, their irreducible subcomodules and of their quotients require a further study.


text:
# Evanescent-wave trapping and evaporative cooling of an atomic gas near two-dimensionality

(August 16, 2002)

## Abstract

A dense gas of cesium atoms at the crossover to two-dimensionality is prepared in a highly anisotropic surface trap that is realized with two evanescent light waves. Temperatures as low as 100 nK are reached with 20.000 atoms at a phase-space density close to 0.1. The lowest quantum state in the tightly confined direction is populated by more than 60%. The system offers intriguing prospects for future experiments on degenerate quantum gases in two dimensions.

Systems with reduced dimensionality have attracted considerable attention in various areas of physics as they exhibit strikingly different properties in comparison to the three-dimensional case. In the field of atomic quantum gases, there has been long-standing interest in two-dimensional systems in view of the phase transition to a quantum-degenerate gas Bagnato and Kleppner (1991), the onset of coherence Kagan et al. (1987), and modifications of interaction properties Petrov et al. (2000). Spin-polarized hydrogen on a liquid-helium surface represents a 2D quantum gas as the adsorbed atoms occupy a single quantum state Walraven , and evidence of quantum degeneracy has been obtained Safonov et al. (1998). The required cryogenic set-up and the lack of efficient optical diagnostics, however, makes detailed experimental studies on 2D gases of hydrogen very difficult, and thus there is great interest to realize analogous systems by using more readily accessible laser-manipulated atoms.

Few experiments with laser-cooled atoms have so far approached 2D. In standing-wave traps conditions were obtained with the predominant population of the lowest quantum state in one dimension Vuletić et al. (1998); Bouchoule et al. (1999, 2002). In such traps, however, many individual traps are populated simultaneously so that phenomena related to individual systems are hardly accessible. Another approach is an anisotropic optical trap made of an elliptically focused laser beam and loaded with a Bose-Einstein condensate Görlitz et al. (2001); this trap however is diffraction-limited and thus provides relatively small level spacing. Optical surface traps combine tight confinement in one direction with a single potential well. Recent surface trapping experiments Gauck et al. (1998); Hammes et al. (2001) have approached 2D by populating a few bound states, yet far away from quantum degeneracy.

In this Letter, we report on trapping and evaporative cooling of a dense gas of Cs atoms in the combined field of two evanescent light waves. In this highly anisotropic surface trap, evaporative cooling is performed by ramping down the trap potential, and temperatures as low as 100 nK are reached with 20.000 atoms at a phase-space density close to 0.1. In the tightly confined direction a ground-state population of more than 60% is achieved, and a gas at the crossover to two-dimensionality is realized.

The double evanescent-wave trap (DEW trap, see illustration in Fig. 1) was suggested by Ovchinnikov, Shul’ga, and Balykin already in 1991 Ovchinnikov et al. (1991) and has been discussed in various contexts, like 2D gases Desbiolles and Dalibard (1996); Perrin et al. , atom coupling to microspheres Mabuchi and Kimble (1994), cavity-induced cooling Domokos and Ritsch (2001), quantum reflection Côté and Segev (2002), integrated optical waveguides Barnett et al. (2000), and nano-traps Burke et al. (2002). Despite of this considerable interest, the DEW trap has not been experimentally realized until now, which may be explained by the difficulty of loading a narrow potential well very close to a material wall. We have accomplished efficient loading by transfer from a cold and dense reservoir of cesium atoms. In our case, this is provided by the non-dissipative optical surface trap introduced in Ref. Hammes et al. . The demonstrated principle of loading from a dense reservoir is universal and may be also implemented with other optical or magnetic trapping schemes.

The DEW trap relies on the optical dipole force in a combination of a repulsive and an attractive EW field, produced on the surface of a dielectric prism by total internal reflection of two laser beams. The two fields with wavelengths $`\lambda _i`$ $`(i=\mathrm{r},\mathrm{b})`$ are created by laser sources tuned below and above the atomic transition (red and blue detuning), respectively. Normal to the surface the two fields decay exponentially with characteristic lengths of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_i=\lambda _i/2\pi \times (n^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _i1)^{1/2}`$, determined by the angle of incidence $`\theta _i`$, the optical wavelength $`\lambda _i`$, and the refractive index $`n`$. A narrow, wavelength-sized potential well is created close to the surface when the decay length $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{b}`$ of the repulsive EW is short compared to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{r}`$ of the attractive field. This is reached by setting the red-detuned laser beam near to the critical angle $`\theta _\mathrm{c}=\mathrm{arcsin}(1/n)`$ of total internal reflection and the blue one much further away. Typical angles are $`\theta _\mathrm{r}\theta _\mathrm{c}`$ of a few tens of a degree and $`\theta _\mathrm{b}\theta _\mathrm{c}`$ of a few degrees. In addition to this tight confinement normal to the surface, lateral confinement is achieved when the extension of the attractive EW field is smaller than the one of the repulsive EW field; this can be obtained by an appropriate choice of the Gaussian beam waists $`w_i`$ of the two applied laser beams.

In our experiment, the repulsive EW is generated with the beam of a Titanium-Sapphire laser at a wavelength of $`\lambda _\mathrm{b}=850.5`$nm (1.6nm blue detuning with respect to the Cs D2 line at 852.1 nm). The angle of incidence is set to $`\theta _\mathrm{b}=46.8^{}`$, i.e. $`3.2^{}`$ above the critical angle of the fused-silica prism ($`n=1.45`$). The beam for the attractive EW is derived from an Yb fiber laser with $`\lambda _\mathrm{r}=1064`$nm and set to 0.2 above $`\theta _\mathrm{c}`$. The resulting decay lengths are $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{b}=395`$ nm and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{r}=2.0\mu `$m. The beams are focused to waists of $`w_\mathrm{b}=400\mu `$m and $`w_\mathrm{r}=160\mu `$m.

The total trap potential can be written as

$`U(𝐫)`$ $`=`$ $`U_\mathrm{b}(x,y)\mathrm{e}^{2z/\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{b}}U_\mathrm{r}(x,y)\mathrm{e}^{2z/\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{r}}`$
$`\alpha _{\mathrm{vdW}}z^3(1+2\pi z/\lambda _{\mathrm{eff}})^1+mgz`$
where $`U_i(x,y)=\widehat{U}_i\mathrm{exp}(2x^2/w_i^22y^2/w_i^2\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _i`$) are the optical potentials directly at the surface ($`z=0`$). For the maximum potentials in the center of the trap we calculate $`\widehat{U}_\mathrm{b}/k_B=325\mu `$K and $`\widehat{U}_\mathrm{r}/k_B=43\mu `$K at typical beam powers of $`P_\mathrm{b}=1.15`$W and $`P_\mathrm{r}=1.2`$W, respectively; $`k_B`$ denotes Boltzmann’s constant. The laser beams are linearly polarized in the plane of incidence (TM polarization) to maximize the EW field. The third term in Eq. Evanescent-wave trapping and evaporative cooling of an atomic gas near two-dimensionality describes the van der Waals surface attraction Landragin et al. (1996); Shimizu (2001) with a coefficient $`\alpha _{\mathrm{vdW}}=2.8\times 10^{49}`$ kg m5 s-2 and an effective wavelength $`\lambda _{\mathrm{eff}}=866`$nm corresponding to the line center of the D-line dublett; this surface attraction is found to play a minor role for our experimental conditions. The last term in Eq. Evanescent-wave trapping and evaporative cooling of an atomic gas near two-dimensionality represents the gravitational potential with $`m`$ denoting the mass of a Cs atom and $`g`$ representing the gravitational acceleration.

Fig. 1 shows the calculated potential in the center of the trap ($`x,y=0`$). For $`P_\mathrm{r}=1.2`$W, the power that we use for loading, a 13 $`\mu `$K deep well is realized with its minimum located 0.9$`\mu `$m away from the surface. For decreasing power of the attractive EW the well becomes shallower and the minimum moves away from the surface. Without attractive EW (dashed line) the vertical motion is still confined because of gravity, but without any horizontal confinement.

The multi-stage loading sequence proceeds as follows: Atoms are released from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) into the gravito-optical surface trap (GOST) of Ref. Ovchinnikov et al. (1997), where an unpolarized sample in the lower hyperfine state ($`F=3`$) is produced by evanescent-wave Sisyphus cooling. A part of the atoms is then transfered through elastic collisions into a narrow, far-detuned intense laser beam perpendicularly intersecting the evanescent-wave in the center of the GOST Hammes et al. ; this beam has a Gaussian beam waist of 160$`\mu `$m and is derived with an initial power of 7.2 W from the same Yb-fiber laser that later on produces the attractive field of the DEW trap. The repulsive evanescent wave applied at this stage is already the one that is later used in the DEW trap. The sample is then further cooled adiabatically and evaporatively by exponentially ramping down the power of the horizontally confining beam to 2 W in 2 s. In this way, we obtain our surface reservoir of $`1.8\times 10^6`$ atoms at a temperature of 3.0 $`\mu `$K, corresponding to a peak number density of $``$$`10^{13}`$ cm-3. The peak phase-space density is $``$$`10^3`$ under the assumption of a fully unpolarized sample equally distributed among the seven magnetic sublevels.

Transfer into the DEW trap from the reservoir is then accomplished in a time interval of 50 ms by ramping down the power of the red-detuned beam from 2 W to zero simultaneously with ramping up the power of the attractive EW from zero to the optimum loading power $`P_\mathrm{r}=1.2`$ W. The lateral confinement of the reservoir beam and the DEW trap are approximately matched, so that the loading process is governed by the vertical motion. Up to $`10^5`$ atoms are observed in the DEW trap after 150 ms when the unbound atoms remaining from the reservoir have laterally escaped. Measurements of the atom number are performed by recapture into the MOT and detection of the integrated fluorescence signal by means of a calibrated CCD camera; the systematic calibration error is below a factor of 1.5. The observed transfer ratio of $``$5% roughly corresponds to the volume ratio of the DEW trap and the reservoir.

A very important parameter is the vertical trap frequency $`\nu _z`$, corresponding to the vibrational energy quantum $`h\nu _z`$ in the tightly confined direction. We measure the trap frequency as a function of the power $`P_\mathrm{r}`$ by parametric heating Friebel et al. (1998). After loading the DEW trap under fixed conditions ($`P_\mathrm{r}=1.2`$W), we ramp $`P_\mathrm{r}`$ to a variable value in 50 ms and apply a sinusoidal power modulation with a typical depth of 10% to the repulsive EW for 150 ms. We then wait 100 ms to let unbound atoms escape and measure the number of remaining atoms. A typical trap-frequency measurement is shown in Fig. 2(a) for $`P_\mathrm{r}=0.9`$W, it exhibits clear minima at the trap frequency and its second harmonics. Fig. 2(b) shows the measured values for the trap frequency in comparison with the results of a calculation according to Eq. Evanescent-wave trapping and evaporative cooling of an atomic gas near two-dimensionality; the latter is based on a harmonic approximation to the minimum of the trap potential $`U(𝐫)`$ which we calculate for our experimental conditions without any adjustable parameter. The measurements are affected by the lateral thermal spread of the sample and by anharmonicities of the trap and therefore show an sample-averaged frequency which is slightly below the frequencies in the trap center. If this minor deviation is taken into account the measurements well confirm the theoretical frequencies. At $`P_\mathrm{r}=1.2`$ W, we calculate a vertical trap frequency of 10.2 kHz and horizontal frequencies of 59 Hz and 42 Hz. The typical aspect ratio of the trap is thus of the order of 200.

The temperature of the sample is measured with a release-and-recapture method. Both EW fields are turned off simultaneously by acousto-optical modulators. The sample then undergoes a ballistic expansion in the field of gravity and atoms hitting the room-temperature surface are immediately lost. After a short release time the repulsive EW is turned on again to prevent further atoms from hitting the surface, and the number of remaining atoms is measured in the standard way by recapture into the MOT. A theoretical model based on the assumption of a thermal distribution in the known trap potential is then used to fit the data with a single parameter and thus to accurately determine the mean kinetic energy of the released sample. At temperatures down to a few 100 nK a classical approximation holds and the model directly provides the temperature. At lower temperatures the quantum nature of the vertical motion has to be taken into account. We find that, for all measurements reported here, corrections to the classical approximation due to the zero-point energy and the discrete level spacing stay well below 20% and can be introduced within a simple harmonic oscillator model. Fig. 3 shows two examples of temperature measurements obtained for a ‘hot’ (2.7 $`\mu `$K) and a ‘cold’ (100 nK) sample.

Forced evaporative cooling is implemented by ramping down the power $`P_\mathrm{r}`$ of the attractive EW. In this way, a two-dimensional evaporation scheme is realized in which energetic atoms can escape horizontally from the trap. In the vertical direction no evaporation can take place because of the gravitational potential. The scheme decompresses the sample and provides simultaneous adiabatic and evaporative cooling; thus a drastic reduction of the temperature is realized. Immediately after loading we apply an exponential ramp that reduces $`P_\mathrm{r}`$ to 3.5% of its initial value in 400 ms. As it takes about 150 ms for the untrapped reservoir atoms to disappear, we can perform measurements on the number $`N`$ and temperature $`T`$ of the trapped sample for evaporation times $`t_{\mathrm{ev}}150`$ms.

Fig. 4 displays the forced evaporation results. For $`t_{\mathrm{ev}}`$ between 150 ms ($`P_\mathrm{r}`$ reduced to 28%) and 300 ms (8%), an exponential decay of the trapped atom number $`N`$ is observed. In this time interval, the temperature drops from $``$1$`\mu `$K to $``$100 nK. For 150 ms $`t_{\mathrm{ev}}`$ 270 ms the phase-space density $`D`$ of the sample increases by two orders of magnitude from $``$$`10^3`$ to $``$0.1 with a reduction of $`N`$ by only a factor of three. This indicates a highly efficient evaporation process at this stage. At $`t_{\mathrm{ev}}270`$ms the temperature data level off at $`T100`$nK, and for $`t_{\mathrm{ev}}300`$ ms an increased loss is observed and reliable temperature measurements are no longer possible. The highest attained phase-space densities are of the order of 0.1, when an equal distribution among the seven magnetic sublevels is assumed. This compares to the highest phase-space densities so far obtained with cesium Han et al. (2001).

In view of a 2D gas, we discuss the results in terms of a reduced temperature $`\tau =k_BT/h\nu _z`$ by relating the thermal energy to the vibrational energy quantum of the tightly confined direction. For this purpose, we use the calculated $`\nu _z(P_\mathrm{r})`$ as displayed in Fig. 2(b). The lower graph of Fig. 4 shows that we are presently able to reach the condition $`\tau =1`$. This already corresponds to a mean vibrational quantum number of $`\overline{n}=0.58`$ and a ground state population of 63%. Thus a situation at the crossover to a 2D atom gas is reached.

Our experiment is presently limited by two main factors: First, the unpolarized Cs sample in the $`F=3`$ ground state is not stable against inelastic two-body collisions Guéry-Odelin et al. (1998), which leads to heating and trap loss. Second, the horizontal-vertical thermalization by elastic collisions becomes inefficient for $`\tau 1`$ Bouchoule et al. (2002). In our horizontal evaporation scheme this inhibits vertical cooling when two-dimensionality is appoached and may thus explain our present limitation to $`\tau 1`$.

In future experiments, both limitations can be overcome by polarizing the atoms into the lowest substate ($`F=3`$, $`m=3`$). The polarized sample will be stable against two-body decay and, moreover, offers magnetic tunability of $`s`$-wave scattering by low-field Feshbach resonances Kerman et al. (2001). Gravity can be compensated by using magnetic gradients so that atoms can be evaporated vertically out of the trap. With these modifications, quantum degeneracy of cesium may be reached in the DEW trap under conditions where the trap supports just a single vertical bound state. This would constitute a unique system with strong analogies to H on liquid He, but with full optical access and magnetically tunable interactions.

In conclusion, we have realized a cold and dense gas of Cs atoms in a highly anisotropic optical trap with intriguing prospects for experiments on 2D quantum gases. By evaporative cooling we have already reached conditions at the crossover to two-dimensionality. With further improvements the system opens up a new road to study the fascinating and widely unexplored properties of degenerate quantum gases in two dimensions.

###### Acknowledgements.

We gratefully acknowledge support by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) within SFB 15 (project part 15).


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# A Search for N⁺₂ in Spectra of Comet C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang)

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Knowledge of the nitrogen content of comets is important for an understanding of conditions in the early solar nebula. Nitrogen exists in cometary ices in many forms including N2, NH3, HCN, etc. Most of these species are chemically reactive in the coma gases making it difficult to use coma observations to unravel the nitrogen chemistry of the solar nebula. However, conditions in the early solar nebula were such that the dominant equilibrium species of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen should be N2, CO, and H2O (Lewis & Prinn, 1980). Observations of N2H+ in dense molecular clouds, coupled with chemical models, led Womack et al. (1992) to infer that in potential star-forming regions nitrogen is preferentially in N2, rather than NH3.

N2 is the least reactive of the nitrogen-bearing species and is thus the most appropriate to study to understand the nitrogen chemistry of comets. However, observations of cometary N2 are exceedingly difficult. Ground-based spectra are hampered by the telluric N2 atmosphere; spacecraft flyby mass spectrometer observations are compromised by the fact that N2 shares the mass 28 bin with CO, which is known to be quite common in cometary comae.

A suitable method for measuring the N2 content of cometary ices is by studying its ion, N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$. Generally, observations are obtained of the N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ 1N $`B^2\mathrm{\Sigma }_u^+X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_g^+`$ (0,0) band at 3914Å. Successful observations of this band require that the comet have a well-developed ion tail and that the data be obtained with sufficiently high spectral resolution to isolate the band from other cometary emissions and from any telluric N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ emission.

Comet C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang) was discovered in early February 2002 and reached perihelion on 2002 March 18 at a heliocentric distance of 0.507 au. Our spectral observations showed that it had a strong ion tail containing ions of CO+, CO$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$, CH+, and H2O+. The comet was relatively bright, making it possible to observe at high spectral-resolution. Thus, we obtained spectra of Ikeya-Zhang at both high- and low-resolution in order to search for the signature of N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ in the tail. In this paper, we report on our non-detection of any N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ attributable to the comet and discuss the implications of our derived upper limits.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS

We obtained spectra of comet Ikeya-Zhang during April 2002 using the 2.7-m Harlan J. Smith Telescope at McDonald Observatory. Table 1 gives the parameters of the observations. Two instruments were used: the Large Cassegrain Spectrograph (LCS) is a long-slit CCD instrument with a resolving power of R=$`\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$=550; the 2dcoudé is a cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph with R=60,000. The LCS observations covered the spectral bandpass from 3000–5600Å. The slit was 2 arcsec wide and approximately 2.5 arcmin long, with each pixel imaging 1.28 arcsec on the sky. The 2dcoudé observations covered the spectral region from 3700–5700Å continuously, with coverage to 1.02$`\mu `$m with increasing interorder gaps. The slit was $`1.2\times 8.2`$ arcsec. With both instruments, observations were obtained of the optocenter, as well as of the tail. The LCS data reduction procedure has been described in detail by Cochran et al. (1992); the 2dcoudé data reduction was described in Cochran et al. (2000).

Figure 1 shows spectra obtained with the LCS, both on the optocenter and 31,400 km tailward. The ion spectrum of the tail is quite rich. Note that there is a feature to the red of the CN $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$v=0 band which is labeled as N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ in this figure. Is this really N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ emission? Some of it is certainly contamination from the CO+ (5,1) band. However, the relative fluorescence efficiencies in Table 3 of Magnani & A’Hearn (1986) can be used to predict that CO+ from the (5,1) band contributes no more than 1/4 of the detected feature. Another possible contaminant is an unidentified band of CO$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ with bandheads at 3906 and 3916Å. Evidence from Mrozowski (1947a, b) suggests that the contamination from this band is even less than that of the CO+ (5,1) band. Therefore, most of the observed feature at 3914Å can be attributed to N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$. Is this N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ produced in the cometary coma or is it telluric in origin? We measured the integrated band fluxes of this feature, along with the ionic CO+ (3,0) and the neutral CN $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$v=–1 bands as a function of position within the coma. While the CN and CO+ features are fairly isolated, making them straightforward to measure, the possible N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ feature sits on the wing of the very strong CN $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$v=0 band. Thus, extreme care must be taken when removing the underlying “continuum” of the feature. This was done by fitting the spectra at each position interactively.

Figure 2 shows the derived integrated band fluxes as a function of position within the coma. The CN parent undergoes photodissociation as it flows outwards from the nucleus. In turn, the CN is photodissociated so that there is a monotonic decrease with cometocentric distance for the neutral CN. The CO+ shows an increasing flux until about 25,000 km from the optocenter and then a slight decline. This is a result of ionization within the coma and entrainment in the solar wind. The possible N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ feature is mostly constant across the slit, unlike either the neutral CN or the ionic CO+. The S/N is low for this feature and removing the underlying CN adds uncertainty. If, as we believe, the feature is indeed constant across the slit, it would be the result of the terrestrial atmosphere. However, we cannot rule out that N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ increases similarly to the CO+, implying that there is a cometary contributor.

High-resolution spectra should be more sensitive than low-resolution spectra to weak line emission. Therefore, on 2002 April 22, we obtained echelle spectra to search for the N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ (0,0) band. Figure 3 shows our tail spectrum of this spectral region. The expected location of N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ (0,0) band emission lines are marked above the spectrum. Inspection of the figure reveals no obvious line emission at the wavelengths marked. There is, however, an obvious broad feature at around 3914.5Å. This feature begins just to the red of the N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ P-branch bandhead. A similar, but weaker, feature was seen in comparable spectra of comet 122P/deVico (Cochran et al., 2000). In that paper we argued that the feature was the neutral C3 (0,2,0)-(0,0,0) band. In the deVico spectra, there was a single feature, while close inspection of Figure 3 reveals that in the Ikeya-Zhang spectrum we have actually detected an additional feature at around 3916Å. The first feature coincides with the C3 R-branch bandhead while the second coincides with the Q-branch. The presence of two of the C3 (0,2,0)-(0,0,0) bandheads confirms our identification of these features as C3. Indeed, comparison with the optocenter 2dcoudé spectra taken both before and after the tail spectrum confirm this identification as well.

## 3 UPPER LIMITS

A limitation of the high-resolution 2dcoudé data is that it is not easy to calibrate absolutely the spectra. However, we can calibrate the relative flux of different orders so we can derive ratios of abundances of species for comparison with models. To compute the upper limits of N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$/CO+, we need to measure an upper limit for the N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ non-detection and the integrated intensity of the CO+ (2,0) band.

For the integrated CO+ intensity, we fit a continuum to the region of the detected lines and summed the counts in the band above the continuum. Then, the contribution of the strong CH+ P(3) line was removed. Finally, we multiplied our integrated band intensity by two to reflect the fact that we were observing only the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{}`$(F2) branches. The integrated band intensity was 634 counts.

The N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ upper limit is determined by asking how much signal would we be able to hide within the noise. We measured the rms in the bandpass of the P-branch. Then, the upper limit is just $`1/2\times \mathrm{rms}\times \mathrm{bandpass}`$, in appropriate units. These are $`2\sigma `$ upper limits. To account for the complete N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ band, we multiplied the P-branch upper limits by 2, assuming a comparable R-branch upper limit. This results in a 2$`\sigma `$ upper limit of 4.2 counts.

To convert from the two band intensities to a ratio of the abundances, we need to account for the relative response of the instrument at the two bandpasses. Using solar spectra obtained with the same instrument, we determined that we needed to multiply the counts in the order containing N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ by a factor of 1.6. In addition, we need to account for the relative fluorescence efficiencies of the two species. We used excitation factors of $`7.0\times 10^2`$ photons sec-1 mol-1 for the N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ (0,0) band (Lutz et al., 1993) and $`3.55\times 10^3`$ photons sec-1 mol-1 for the CO+ (2,0) band (the average value from Figure 2 of Magnani & A’Hearn (1986)). Applying these factors, we find that

$$\frac{\mathrm{N}_2^+}{\mathrm{CO}^+}=5.4\times 10^4,$$

comparable to upper limits found for deVico and Hale-Bopp with the same instrument (Cochran et al., 2000).

Using the flux of the N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ feature detected in the low-resolution spectra, we can derive a ratio of N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$/CO$`{}_{}{}^{+}=5.5\times 10^3`$, a factor of 10 greater than our upper limit derived from the high-resolution spectra. This demonstrates that we would have easily detected the signal seen in the low-resolution spectra had it been present in the high-resolution spectra, regardless of whether it was telluric or cometary. If the N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ in the low-resolution spectra is cometary, it indicates a very variable parent.

If the N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ in the low-resolution spectra was telluric, why didn’t we see it in the high-resolution spectra at the appropriate Doppler shift? The N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ $`B^2\mathrm{\Sigma }_u^+`$ state requires 18.6eV to be populated. Therefore, in the Earth’s atmosphere, it can only be found in dayglow or auroral spectra. There are no photochemical reactions which can produce this emission in nightglow (Torr et al., 1992). The geomagnetic $`K_p`$ indices for the nights of our observations were very similar and showed relatively quiescent ionospheric conditions. Thus, the presence of the telluric N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ in the low-resolution data cannot be the result of auroral activity.

The explanation for the presence of telluric N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ in only some of the spectra lies in the position of the comet in the sky at the times of the observations. While both the low- and high-resolution spectra were obtained at approximately the same hour of the night, around astronomical twilight, the orbit of the comet results in our observing the comet at very different zenith distances during the two observing runs. During the early April timeframe of the low-resolution data, the zenith distance of the comet was between 70 and 80 degrees; during the 2dcoudé observations, the zenith distance was between 42 and 52 degrees. Recall that the telluric N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ emission is a dayglow feature. It is also excited high in the ionosphere, with only 5% of the N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ vibrationally excited at 100 km and 50% at 450 km (Fox & Dalgarno, 1985). Thus, we could only detect it when the slant-path of the Sun illuminated the part of the atmosphere we were observing through, or only at very high zenith distances. Thus, if the N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ was telluric, it is consistent that we only obseved it in the low-resolution, high-zenith distance observations.

## 4 IMPLICATIONS

Ikeya-Zhang represents the third comet for which we have obtained very high-quality, high-resolution spectra in which we did not detect N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ and could place tight constraints on the relative abundances of N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ and CO+. Even if our low resolution N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ detections were of cometary origin,we have observed very little N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ relative to CO+ and this ratio is variable for a single comet. Previous detections and upper-limits from other observers were discussed in Cochran et al. (2000). In general, almost none of these previous observations were obtained at comparable resolutions and high sensitivity as our observations.

There is an expectation that neutral N2 and CO should be very common in the early solar nebula (Lewis & Prinn, 1980) and thus, they are quite likely deposited in ices in proportion to their source. The quantity of these species deposited in the ices is dependent on several factors, including the deposition temperature of the ice. Current models of the dynamical evolution of the early Solar System suggest that the Oort cloud comets we have studied were formed in the Uranus-Neptune region prior to perturbation into the Oort cloud (c.f. Weissman (1991); Duncan et al. (1987)). The temperature in this region was probably around $`50\pm 20`$ K (Boss et al., 1989). Indeed, evidence confirms this deposition temperature for Oort cloud comets (Meier et al., 1998a, b).

The implications for the expected quantities of CO and N2 ices in cometary nuclei is then dependent on what form of H2O ice is deposited in the nucleus. If the solar nebula ices never experienced warm temperatures, the H2O ice would be amorphous at the time of the deposition of the nucleus. Laboratory experiments of the deposition of CO and N2 gas in amorphous H2O ices have shown that CO is trapped 15–30 times more efficiently than N2 in amorphous ice if the temperature of the amorphous ice is around the temperatures expected for the solar nebula (Bar-Nun et al., 1988; Notesco & Bar-Nun, 1996). Using these results, Owen & Bar-Nun (1995) concluded that icy planetesimals which formed in the Uranus-Neptune region would have N2/CO$`0.06`$ in the gases trapped in the ice if N2/CO$`1`$ in the nebula. This value is much higher than any of our upper limits (or pssible detection) for comets Ikeya-Zhang, deVico or Hale-Bopp.

Mousis et al. (2000) suggested that the H2O was not deposited in its amorphous state because of turbulence in the nebula at the time of deposition. Instead, the water ice infalling in the presolar cloud would first have vaporized (Chick & Cassen, 1997) and subsequently been condensed in the nebula in the form of crystalline ice (Kouchi et al., 1994). As the nebula continued to cool and H2O ice crystallized, the other volatiles would be trapped in hydrate clathrates (Iro et al., 2002).

The trapping of the other volatiles via clathration is dependent on the quantity of H2O ice since clathration consumes water. Iro et al. (2002) pointed out that if H2O/H2 when water condensed was less than 2.8 times the solar O/H ratio, the clathration process would stop prior to trapping all of the volatiles. Then, the ratio of the trapped volatiles would be dependent on the curve of stability for that species (Lunine & Stevenson, 1985). Inspection of Figure 2 of Iro et al. (2002) shows that CO would condense at warmer temperatures than N2. Thus, Iro et al. (2002) suggested that our upper limits for N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$/CO+ imply that H2O/H2 $`<2.8\times `$ solar O/H when deVico and Hale-Bopp condensed. Our new upper limit for N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$/CO+ obtained for Ikeya-Zhang is consistent with this picture.

The three comets for which we have firm upper limits for N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$/CO+ are consistent with formation of cometary nuclei from crystalline H2O ice and subsequent incomplete trapping of volatiles in hydrate clathrates. All three of the comets are Oort cloud comets. Iro et al. (2002) pointed out that conditions for comets formed further from the proto-Sun, e.g., in the Kuiper belt, might allow for the deposition of amorphous H2O ice. Thus, it would be desirable to obtain high-resolution spectra of the ion tail of any Kuiper belt comet which is bright enough in the future to test our understanding of the conditions for deposition of ices in the outer solar nebula. However, such observations might not be conclusive because short-period comets have undergone a great deal of volatile-depleting processing during repeated solar passages.

This work was supported by NASA Grant NAG5-9003. We thank Drs. Michael Endl and Edwin Barker for their assistance obtaining some of the spectra.


text:
# Discovery of Enhanced Germanium Abundances in Planetary Nebulae with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, the progenitors of planetary nebulae (PNe), are believed to be the primary synthesis site for heavy element isotopes produced by the slow neutron-capture or s-process (Käppeler et al. 1989; Käppeler 1999). Since enhanced surface abundances of *s*-process products are observed in evolved red giants (e.g. Smith & Lambert 1990), it is reasonable to expect such enrichments in PNe as well. Péquignot & Baluteau (1994) reported optical emission lines indicating overabundances for a large number of n-capture elements in the PN NGC 7027, and Dinerstein (2001) identified two near-infrared lines commonly seen in PNe as fine-structure transitions of the light *n*-capture elements Kr and Se (*Z*=34, 36). Germanium ($`Z`$=32) is more abundant than Kr and Se in the solar system, and, like these elements, can be synthesized in AGB stars of roughly solar metallicity (Busso et al. 1999; 2001).

In this Letter, we report the discovery of the strong resonance line Ge III $`\lambda `$1088.46 in four PNe observed with *FUSE*, and present evidence that Ge has been self-enriched in their precursor stars.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS AND DATA REDUCTION

*FUSE* (Moos et al. 2000; Sahnow et al. 2000) observations of BD+30o3639 and SwSt 1 were obtained for General Investigator (GI) programs A085 and B069 (P.I. Dinerstein) in time-tag mode using the LWRS aperture ($`30\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}0\times 30\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}0`$). NGC 3132 was observed for program P133 (P.I. Bianchi), also with the LWRS in time-tag mode, while IC 4593 was observed with the HIRS aperture ($`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}25\times 20\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}0`$) in histogram mode for GI program B032 (P.I. Gruendl). The *FUSE* data and observational information may be accessed from the MAST archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute under the indicated GI programs.

The individual exposures were calibrated with CALFUSE v2.0.5, and all exposures for a given object were cross-correlated and co-added to increase the signal-to-noise ratio S/N. We based our subsequent analysis on the detector segments with the highest S/N in the salient wavelength regions: LiF 2A for Ge III $`\lambda `$1088.46 and the Fe III lines at $`\lambda \lambda `$1122-1132, and LiF 1A for S III $`\lambda \lambda `$1012–1021. In cases of overlapping coverage, the results were reasonably consistent in both detector segments. The spectra were rebinned by 3 pixels, increasing the S/N near 1088 Å to 15–25 per rebinned sample, and broadening the sampling interval from $``$ 7 mÅ to $``$ 20 mÅ.

The continua were normalized and flattened by fitting low-order Legendre polynomials to the continuum shape and dividing them out. We then fit the lines with single or multi-component Gaussian profiles after Sembach et al. (1993) convolved with a single Gaussian instrumental profile of FWHM 20 km s-1 ($`R=15,000`$). The normalized profiles are shown in Figure 1, with the fits for nebular features overplotted as thick solid lines. Other lines which were modeled to constrain the fit of the nebular features are shown as dashed lines. The dotted vertical lines indicate nebular absorption velocities from Na I (Dinerstein et al. 1995) or from other lines in the FUSE spectrum.

In Table 1 we summarize the values of central velocity $`<v>`$ and equivalent width Wλ from the line fits. The Doppler widths $`b`$ are poorly determined because they are small compared to the *FUSE* instrumental resolution element; typical fitted values were $`b`$10 km s-1. The errors are 1$`\sigma `$ values based on uncertainties in continuum placement and statistical errors in the fitting process; upper limits are 3$`\sigma `$. Wavelengths and data for atomic transitions are from Morton (1991, 2000). Data on H2 transitions were obtained from S. McCandliss (private communication based on Abgrall et al. 1993 a,b; also see http://www.pha.jhu.edu/$``$stephan/H2ools/h1h2data/).

## 3 RESULTS

### 3.1 Identification of $`\lambda `$1088.46 as Ge III

We identify the feature centered at rest wavelength $`\lambda `$1088.46 as an intrinsically strong Ge III line (oscillator strength $`f`$=1.84, Morton 2000). Since Ge++ is located in the H II region, it should have the same velocity as other ionized species. SwSt 1 and IC 4593 show good agreement (Table 1), while the Ge III lines appear at slightly more negative velocities in BD+30o3639 and NGC 3132. However, these discrepancies are probably not significant given the resolution of *FUSE*.

Since the ionization potentials (IPs) of Ge II and Ge III are 15.9 eV and 34.2 eV respectively, we expect Ge III to contain a large fraction of the gas-phase Ge in PNe with relatively cool central stars, where O II comprises a significant fraction of O. (In comparison, IP(O I) = 13.6 eV and IP(O II) = 35.1 eV.) SwSt 1 and BD+30o3639 have cool ($`T`$ 35,000 K), late Wolf-Rayet (\[WR\]) type central stars and relatively high (O+)/(O++). IC 4593 also has a fairly cool central star (Kaler & Jacoby 1991). The central star of NGC 3132 is a visual binary consisting of an A2 V star plus a hotter, low-luminosity companion (Méndez 1978). We set upper limits on $`N`$(Ge+3) based on non-detections of Ge IV $`\lambda `$1229.84 ($`f`$=0.25) in STIS spectra of SwSt 1 (De Marco et al. 2002) and BD+30o3639, and on $`N`$(Ge+) from $`\lambda `$1237.06 ($`f`$=1.23) for SwSt 1 and BD+30o3639, and $`\lambda `$1098.71($`f`$=0.55) for IC 4593 and NGC 3132.

We found no plausible alternate identifications for the feature near $`\lambda `$1088.46. The nearest lines are Cl I $`\lambda `$1088.05, with a wavelength offset corresponding to $``$111 km s-1 relative to the rest wavelength of Ge III, and H2 P(4) 2-0 $`\lambda `$1088.79, at +91 km s-1, neither of which interfere with Ge III in these objects. This wavelength region also contains several lines from $`v1`$ levels of H2, e.g. Lyman 2-3 $`R(0)`$, 2-3 $`R(1)`$, 0-1 $`R(11)`$, and 9-1 $`R(11)`$. Of our four targets, only BD+30o3639 and possibly NGC 3132 contain observable amounts of vibrationally excited H2. However, unblended lines from these levels with similar $`f`$-values have Wλ $``$ 15 mÅ in BD+30o3639 (Dinerstein et al., in preparation), and SwSt 1, with the strongest $`\lambda `$1088.46 feature, does not show nebular H2 absorption at all. We therefore conclude that the observed features are primarily due to Ge III.

We also searched the archival *FUSE* spectra of 23 other PNe, but found no other detections of Ge III. However, various factors could be responsible for this, such as a weak UV continuum, central star hot enough to ionize most of the Ge beyond Ge++, or lack of sufficiently large column of ionized gas along the line of sight. Many PNe have asymmetrical structures, and because these measurements require a bright FUV continuum there is a selection bias in favor of nebulae for which the central star is seen along a low-extinction, low column-density sight line.

### 3.2 Determination of Gas-Phase Column Densities

The column densities listed in Table 1 were computed from the measured Wλ values, assuming that the lines are on the linear part of the curve of growth. In fact, some of the lines are marginally saturated. If the line widths were purely thermal ($`b`$ = 1.5 km s-1 for Ge, 2.3 km s-1 for S), the line center optical depths would be $`\tau _0`$ 5. However, the fitted $`b`$ values are $``$ 10 km s-1, probably due to turbulence or shear motions, so that $`\tau _0<`$ 1 except for lines from the ground levels of the more abundant ions. In those cases we use lines from excited fine-structure levels, which are less saturated, to infer populations in the ground level.

The quantity of most interest is the Ge abundance with respect to an element which is unaffected by internal nucleosynthesis. Whenever possible, we use S as the reference element since it is not depleted into dust (Savage & Sembach 1996), and assume that (Ge/S) $``$ (Ge++)/(S+ \+ S++), as S II and S III together span a similar ionization range as Ge III (15.9–34.2 eV for Ge III; 10.4–23.3 eV for S II and 23.3–34.8 eV for S III). We take Fe III (IP range 16.2–30.7 eV) as the reference species for NGC 3132 since we did not detect S III (see below).

Whereas Ge III has a 4s2 ground configuration and therefore only one low-lying energy level, S III and Fe III possess several fine-structure levels which may contain significant populations. Ideally one should measure absorption lines from each level, but this is not always feasible. For S III, lines from both excited levels could be measured in all but NGC 3132. We used the web-based multi-level atom program of Shaw & Dufour (1995; http://stsdas.stsci.edu/nebular) to predict the population ratios among the three fine-structure levels at the temperature and density of the ionized gas, and compared these with our derived column densities. If the measured population ratio of the excited levels agreed with the multi-level calculation, we use the latter to obtain the ground level population and total ionic column density.

SwSt 1 is the only object for which S II and transitions from all three levels of the ground 3P term of S III are observable. The lines from the excited levels, S III\* $`\lambda `$1015.78 and S III\** $`\lambda `$1021.33, are free of blending, but the corresponding transition from the ground level at $`\lambda `$1012.50 is potentially saturated and contaminated by several strong resonance ($`v`$ = 0) H2 lines. The value derived from this line is about 40% lower than the ground-level population inferred from the excited levels, which we attribute to saturation. We used S II $`\lambda `$1250.58, a low-$`f`$ line in the STIS band, to derive $`N`$(S II).

For BD+30o3639, S III $`\lambda `$1012.50 is not observable due to strong H2 absorptions from the nebula and foreground ISM, so $`N`$(S III) in Table 1 is from S III $`\lambda `$1190.21. However, since this line is saturated, we computed the ground-state population from the excited levels as described above, yielding a value about 2.6 times higher than measured. All of the S II lines are saturated, so we adopt S II/S III = 0.79 from Pwa et al. (1986) to infer $`N`$(S II). We used a similar approach to determine ground state and total S III column densities for IC 4593, and obtained $`N`$(S II) by assuming the S ionic ratio from optical emission lines (Bohigas & Olguín 1996).

Since S is not detected in NGC 3132, we were forced to use the less satisfactory species Fe III. The 5D ground term of Fe III has several fine-structure levels, although the populations of the higher levels are likely to be small due to their low statistical weights. We marginally detect $`\lambda `$1124.88, the strongest ($`f`$=0.052) line from the first excited level, 5D3. The surprising strength of $`\lambda `$1130.40 from the 5D0 level suggests that this line may be blended or incorrectly identified. However, not only is the ground-level $`\lambda `$1122.52 line saturated, it is also contaminated by C I and possibly by vibrationally-excited H2. Since these effects tend to offset each other and the measurements of the excited levels are uncertain, we did not apply a multi-level calculation. For these reasons as well as the uncertain depletion of gas-phase Fe (see §3.3), our abundance estimate of Ge in NGC 3132 is less certain than for the other PNe.

### 3.3 Correction for Dust Depletion

The degree to which each element is depleted out of the gas and into the solid (dust) phase is an important issue for interpreting our results. As mentioned above, S is not significantly depleted in the ISM (Savage & Sembach 1996). On the other hand, Fe is depleted by varying amounts in different components of the ISM: –1.25 dex in the warm ionized medium (WIM); as much as –2.27 dex in cold, neutral material (CNM; Savage et al. 1992). The Ge depletion has been measured along only a handful of sight lines; a value of –0.62 dex was determined by Cardelli et al. (1991), and Welty et al. (1999) found similar values, with slightly less depletion in WIM than in CNM gas.

Table 2 summarizes the Ge abundances we derive for each PN relative to the indicated reference ions. The two listed values correspond to the depletion patterns of the CNM and WIM, where we take the Fe depletions cited above. For Ge, we assume –0.62 dex for the CNM case, and no depletion for the WIM, providing lower limits to the Ge abundances. It seems probable that conditions in PNe are most similar to those of the WIM, or intermediate, but the values in Table 2 cover the likely range of values.

### 3.4 Ge Abundances and Implications

The derived Ge abundances in these objects range from $``$ 3–30 times solar, depending on the object and assumed depletion factors. We emphasize that the depletion of Ge is particularly uncertain, and that our values might be underestimates. Regardless, the qualitative result of this study is that Ge significantly enriched in the observed PNe.

It is interesting that the two best detections of Ge III, in SwSt 1 and BD+30o3639, involve PNe with \[WR\] central stars. The surface compositions of these stars have presumably been altered by their prior evolution, since they exhibit severe H deficiencies and C enrichments. While the detailed evolutionary path which produces a \[WR\] central star is not well understood, it is likely to involve late thermal pulses, deep mixing, and/or heavy mass loss (Iben et al. 1993; Herwig 2001; Blöcker 2001). Therefore it is plausible that nucleosynthetic products such as s-process nuclei may be enhanced to a greater degree in nebulae with \[WR\] central stars than in other PNe.

## 4 SUMMARY

We report the discovery of Ge III $`\lambda `$1088.46 in four PNe observed with the *Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer*. This line, which arises in the ionized zone, is used to estimate the abundance of Ge in the nebular gas relative to the elements S and Fe, whose abundances are not altered by the star’s evolution. We find convincing evidence for elevated abundances $``$3–10 times solar (depending on assumed depletion factors) and therefore self-enrichment of Ge by s-process nucleosynthesis in the progenitor stars. This result demonstrates the potential of UV absorption-line spectroscopy to shed light on the operation of the s-process in PN progenitor stars. By determining the abundances of various heavy elements in PNe, one can set constraints on models of stellar nucleosynthesis and mixing in late stellar evolutionary stages, and directly investigate the process of chemical enrichment of the ISM by stars that evolve through the AGB and PN phases.

We are grateful to the *FUSE* operations and science teams, whose exceptional efforts have made this facility available to the astronomical community. We thank S. McCandliss for providing data on H2, O. De Marco for sharing her STIS spectrum of SwSt 1, and D. Lambert and C. Sneden for helpful comments. Financial support was provided by NASA contracts NAG5-9239, NAG5-11597, and NSF grant AST 97-31156.