text:
# Complete positivity and dissipative factorized dynamics

## Abstract

We show that any Hermiticity and trace preserving continuous semigroup $`\{\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$ in $`d`$ dimensions is completely positive if and only if the semigroup $`\{\gamma _t\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$ is positivity preserving.

Complete positivity is a property of linear transformations of quantum states whose importance for physics is prominent in open quantum system dynamics and quantum communication.

The reduced dynamics of systems in (weak) interaction with their environment is usually generated by equation of motion of Kossakowski-Lindblad form  and thus completely positive . However, it is still being debated whether such a constraint is physically necessary .

On the contrary, in quantum communication theory only completely positive linear maps can describe local operations on quantum states . Locality means that, given a bipartite system $`A+B`$ in a state $`\rho _{AB}`$, only the $`A`$-component is trasformed according to $`\gamma _A𝐈_B`$, where $`𝐈`$ is the identity operation; then, if $`\rho _{AB}`$ is entangled and $`\gamma _A`$ not completely positive, $`\gamma _A𝐈_B[\rho _{AB}]`$ may develop negative eigenvalues and thus lose consistency as a physical state .

The same kind of argument is generally used to motivate why the reduced dynamics of an open quantum system $`A`$ must be described by a semigroup of completely positive dynamical maps $`\gamma _t^A`$; if not, $`(\gamma _t^A𝐈_B)[\rho _{AB}]`$ may become physically inconsistent as the time evolution of an initial entangled state $`\rho _{AB}`$ .

In this case, however, the partner system $`B`$ is not, as in quantum communication theory, a concrete party, making up, for instance, a definite protocol for information transmission. Rather, $`B`$ is a totally uncontrollable entity that may happen to have became entangled with the system of physical interest $`A`$; in this case one should not consider $`\gamma _t^A`$ but $`\gamma _t^A𝐈_B`$ as the effective time evolution acting not on a state $`\rho _A`$, but on the effective initial state $`\rho _{AB}`$ of the compound system $`A+B`$. It is the abstractness of such setting that makes the need of complete positivity physically unpalatable in open quantum system dynamics .

More concretely, one may consider $`A`$ and $`B`$ as systems of the same kind in (weak) interaction with a same environment and thus evolving in time according to an approximate reduced dynamics of the form $`\gamma _t\gamma _t`$.

Actually, there exist some experimental setups where this is the case and, moreover, the compound system $`A+B`$ is initially prepared in a maximally entangled state $`\rho _{AB}`$ . Then, the question is whether, for $`(\gamma _t\gamma _t)[\rho _{AB}]`$ to remain positive, $`\gamma _t`$ need be completely positive or not.

In Theorem 3 we shall prove that, in the case of $`A`$ and $`B`$ $`d`$-dimensional systems, this is indeed so: in order that $`\gamma _t\gamma _t`$ be positivity preserving, $`\gamma _t`$ must be completely positive. The argument in favour of the necessity of complete positivity for semigroup dynamics of open quantum systems results thus strengthened with respect to the argument based on $`\gamma _t𝐈_B`$.

Complete positivity is formulated as a property of linear maps $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ on algebras of operators $`X`$ and by duality transferred to the corresponding transformations $`\gamma `$ of quantum states, according to

$$\mathrm{Tr}(\rho \mathrm{\Gamma }[X])=\mathrm{Tr}(\gamma [\rho ]X).$$
(1)
We shall consider states represented by density matrices $`\rho `$ and restrict our attention to $`d`$-dimensional quantum systems so that the operators $`X`$’s will be represented by $`d\times d`$ matrices as well as the $`\rho `$’s.

Definition 1. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }:M_d(𝐂)M_d(𝐂)`$ is completely positive if $`n𝐍`$, the map $`\mathrm{\Gamma }𝐈_n`$ preserves positivity on $`M_d(𝐂)M_n(𝐂)`$, where $`M_n(𝐂)`$ is any $`n\times n`$ matrix algebra and $`𝐈_n`$ the identity operation on it.

In fact, one need not check all $`n`$ but just $`n=d`$ as stated by a theorem of Choi

Theorem 1.$`\mathrm{\Gamma }:M_d(𝐂)M_d(𝐂)`$ is completely positive if and only if $`\mathrm{\Gamma }𝐈_d`$ is positivity preserving on $`M_d(𝐂)M_d(𝐂)`$.

Remark 1. If the map $`\mathrm{\Gamma }:M_d(𝐂)M_d(𝐂)`$ is positivity preserving, but not completely positive, then there is a positive $`XM_d(𝐂)M_d(𝐂)`$ such that $`(\mathrm{\Gamma }𝐈_d)[X]`$ is not positive. If $`|\psi `$ is an eigenvector of $`(\mathrm{\Gamma }𝐈_d)[X]`$ relative to a negative eigenvalue, via duality, we get

$$\mathrm{Tr}\left((\gamma 𝐈_d)[|\psi \psi |]X\right)=\psi |(\mathrm{\Gamma }𝐈_d)[X]|\psi <0.$$
(2)
Therefore the linear map $`\gamma 𝐈_d`$, dual to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }𝐈_d`$, does not preserve the positivity of $`|\psi \psi |`$. Also, $`|\psi `$ must be entangled, for, if $`|\psi =|\psi _a\psi _a||\psi _b\psi _b|`$, then $`\gamma [|\psi _a\psi _a|]|\psi _b\psi _b|`$ is positive. $`\mathrm{}`$

As stated in the introduction, we are interested in semigroups of positive linear maps, $`\{\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$, on the states over $`M_d(𝐂)`$. In particular, we shall be concerned with Hermiticity and trace-preserving, continuous semigroups on density matrices $`\rho M_d(𝐂)`$,

$`\gamma _t\gamma _s`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma _{t+s}=\gamma _s\gamma _t,s,t0;`$ (3)
$`\mathrm{Tr}\gamma _t[\rho ]`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{Tr}\rho ,\gamma _t[\rho ]^{}=\gamma _t[\rho ];`$ (4)
$`\underset{t0^+}{lim}\gamma _t[\rho ]`$ $`=`$ $`\rho ,`$ (5)
the latter limit being understood in the trace-norm topology .

Proposition 1. Any semigroup $`\{\gamma _t\}`$ satisfying (3-5) is generated by the equation:

$$_t\gamma _t[\rho ]=i[H,\gamma _t[\rho ]]+\underset{a,b=1}{\overset{d^21}{}}c_{ab}\left[F_a\gamma _t[\rho ]F_b^{}\frac{1}{2}\{F_b^{}F_a,\gamma _t[\rho ]\}\right],$$
(6)
where $`H=H^{}`$, $`\mathrm{Tr}H=0`$; $`\mathrm{Tr}F_a^{}F_b=\delta _{ab}`$, $`\mathrm{Tr}F_a=0`$, $`F_{d^2}=\mathrm{𝟏}_d/\sqrt{d}`$ and $`C=[c_{ab}]`$ is a $`(d^21)\times (d^21)`$ self-adjoint matrix depending solely on the choices of the traceless matrices $`\{F_a\}_{a=1}^{d^21}`$.

If one asks the $`\gamma _t`$ to be completely positive, that is dual to completely positive $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_t:M_d(𝐂)M_d(𝐂)`$, then

Theorem 2. The semigroup $`\{\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$ generated by (6) consist of completely positive maps if and only if $`C=[c_{ab}]`$ is a positive-definite $`(d^21)\times (d^21)`$ matrix.

Remark 2. If $`C=[c_{ab}]`$ is positive definite then it can be written $`C=A^{}A`$, $`c_{ab}=_{r=1}^{d^21}A_{ra}^{}A_{rb}`$, and

$$\underset{a,b=1}{\overset{d^21}{}}c_{ab}\left[F_a\rho F_b^{}\frac{1}{2}\{F_b^{}F_a,\rho \}\right]=\underset{r=1}{\overset{d^21}{}}\left[V_r\rho V_r^{}\frac{1}{2}\{V_r^{}V_r,\rho \}\right]$$

takes the Lindblad form  with $`V_r=_{a=1}^{d^21}A_{ra}^{}F_a`$. Vice versa, given a generator in Lindblad’s form, developing $`V_r=_{a=1}^{d^21}v_{ra}F_a`$ over a basis of traceless matrices $`F_a`$, one ends up with a generator as in (6) with $`c_{ab}=_{r=1}^{d^21}V_{ra}V_{rb}^{}`$ making for a $`(d^21)\times (d^21)`$ positive matrix $`C=[c_{ab}]`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

Given a semigroup $`\{\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$ satisfying (3-5) and generated by (6), the justification why $`\gamma _t`$ should be completely positive and thus the matrix $`C=[c_{ab}]`$ positive, is based on the fact that, otherwise, $`\gamma _t𝐈_d`$ would fail to preserve the positivity of entangled states on $`M_d(𝐂)M_d(𝐂)`$ (see Remark 1).

However, while the first factor in $`M_d(𝐂)M_d(𝐂)`$ refers to a concrete open quantum system evolving in time according to (6), because of the interaction with a certain environment, the second factor represents a mere possibility of entanglement with anything described by a $`d`$-dimensional system and generically out of physical control.

Instead, we argue that complete positivity is necessary to avoid physical inconsistencies in compound systems consisting of two $`d`$-dimensional systems that interact with a same environment, but not among themselves, neither directly, nor indirectly, that is through the environment itself. In such a case, the two systems are expected to evolve according to semigroups of linear maps $`\gamma _t\gamma _t`$, $`t0`$, where $`\gamma _t`$ is the single open system dynamics obtained when only one of them is present in the environment.

A necessary request for the physical consistency of such dynamics is that the $`\gamma _t\gamma _t`$’s preserve the positivity of all separable and entangled states of the compound system, which now describe physically concrete and controllable settings.

Theorem 3.If $`\{\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$ is a Hermiticity and trace preserving continuous semigroup of linear maps over the states of $`M_d(𝐂)`$, the semigroup $`\{\gamma _t\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$ of linear maps over the states of $`M_d(𝐂)M_d(𝐂)`$ is positivity-preserving if and only if $`\{\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$ is made of completely positive maps.

The proof of Theorem 3 will consist of several steps. We need just show the only if part; indeed, if $`\gamma _t`$ is completely positive, $`\gamma _t𝐈_d`$ and $`𝐈_d\gamma _t`$ are both positive and such is the composite map $`\gamma _t\gamma _t=(\gamma _t𝐈_d)(𝐈_d\gamma _t)`$.

Remarks 3.

1. If the $`\gamma _t`$’s preserve the positivity of states of $`M_d(𝐂)`$, $`\gamma _t\gamma _t`$ preserves the positivity of separable states of $`M_d(𝐂)M_d(𝐂)`$: this follows by a straightforward adaptation of the argument in Remark 1.

2. For generic positive linear maps $`\gamma `$ on the states of $`M_d(𝐂)`$, it does not follow that, if $`\gamma \gamma `$ is positivity preserving, then $`\gamma `$ is completely positive. A counter example is the transposition $`\tau `$ over $`M_2(𝐂)`$: $`\tau \tau `$ is positivity-preserving, but $`\tau `$ is not completely positive. We notice, however, that $`\tau `$ cannot be among the $`\gamma _t`$ of a continuous semigroup over the states of $`M_2(𝐂)`$ since it is not connected to the identity operation.

3. There are experimental situations that are describable by semigroups $`\{\gamma _t\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$. For instance neutral mesons may be imagined to suffer from dissipative effects due to a noisy background determined by Planck’s scale physics. As decay products of spin $`1`$ resonances, these mesons are produced in maximally entangled states and, while independently flying apart back to back, they arguably evolve according to semigroups $`\{\gamma _t\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$ . In such a context, whether $`\gamma _t\gamma _t`$ is positivity-preserving is crucial for concrete physical consistency. $`\mathrm{}`$

Lemma 1.If $`\{\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$ is a semigroup satisfying (3-5) and generated by (6), the semigroup $`\{\gamma _t\gamma _t\}_{t0}`$ consists of positivity-preserving maps only if

$$_{\varphi ,\psi }\varphi |(L𝐈_d+𝐈_dL)[|\psi \psi |]|\varphi 0$$
(7)
for all orthogonal vector states $`|\varphi `$, $`|\psi `$ in $`𝐂^d`$, where $`L`$ is the generator on the right hand side of (6) and $`𝐈_d`$ is the identity operation on $`M_d(𝐂)`$.

Proof: From the request of positivity preservation it follows that $`𝒢_{\varphi ,\psi }(t):=`$ $`\varphi |(\gamma _t\gamma _t)[|\psi \psi |]|\varphi 0`$, for all $`|\varphi `$ and $`|\psi 𝐂^d𝐂^d`$. Choosing $`\varphi |\psi =0`$, if $`\mathrm{d}𝒢_{\varphi ,\psi }(t)/\mathrm{d}t|_{t=0}<0`$, then $`𝒢_{\varphi ,\psi }(t)0`$ is violated in a neighborhood of $`t=0`$. Thus (7) follows. $`\mathrm{}`$

Lemma 2.In the hypothesis of Lemma 1, let $`\{|j\}_{j=1}^d`$ be an orthonormal basis of $`𝐂^d`$, and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ the $`d\times d`$ matrices $`\mathrm{\Phi }=[\phi _{ij}]`$, $`\mathrm{\Psi }=[\psi _{ij}]`$ consisting of the coefficients of the expansion of $`|\varphi `$ and $`|\psi `$ with respect to the basis $`\{|j|k\}_{j,k=1}^d`$ of $`𝐂^d𝐂^d`$. Then

$$_{\varphi ,\psi }=\underset{a,b=1}{\overset{d^21}{}}c_{ab}\left[\mathrm{Tr}(\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Phi }^{}F_a)\mathrm{Tr}(\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Psi }^{}F_b^{})+\mathrm{Tr}((\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Psi })^TF_a)\mathrm{Tr}((\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi })^TF_b^{})\right],$$
(8)
where $`C=[c_{ab}]`$ is the matrix of coefficient and $`F_a,F_b`$ the traceless matrices appearing in (6), while $`X^T`$ denotes transposition of $`X`$ with respect to the chosen basis.

Proof: Let $`|\varphi =_{j,k=1}^d\phi _{jk}|j|k`$, $`|\psi =_{j,k=1}^d\psi _{jk}|j|k`$; then, one calculates

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill _{\varphi ,\psi }& =\underset{ij}{}\underset{kl}{}\underset{pr}{}(\phi _{ij}^{}\phi _{kl}\psi _{pj}\psi _{rl}^{}+\phi _{ji}^{}\phi _{lk}\psi _{jp}\psi _{lr}^{})i|L[|pr|]|k\hfill \\ & =\underset{ik}{}\underset{pr}{}[(\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Phi }^{})_{pi}(\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Psi }^{})_{kr}+(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Psi })_{ip}(\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi })_{rk}]i|L[|pr|]|k.\hfill \end{array}$$
(9)
The commutator and the anticommutator in the generator $`L[]`$ drop from equation (9); this is easily seen by noting that, given any $`KM_d(𝐂)`$, $`i|(K|pr|)|k=K_{ip}\delta _{rk}`$. In (9), we can further sum over either $`r=k`$ or $`i=p`$; in either cases, as $`\varphi |\psi =0`$, we find $`\mathrm{Tr}\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Phi }^{}=(\mathrm{Tr}\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Psi }^{})^{}=0`$ and the result follows. $`\mathrm{}`$

Lemma 3.In the hypothesis of Lemma 1, the matrix $`C=[c_{ab}]`$ in (8) must be positive definite.

Proof: With any $`\stackrel{}{w}=\{w_a\}_{a=1}^{d^21}𝐂^{d^21}`$, we consider $`W=\frac{1}{2}_{a=1}^{d^21}w_a^{}F_a`$, which is a traceless $`d\times d`$ matrix. If matrices $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ exist such that $`\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Psi }^{}=W`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }=W^T`$, then, from Lemmas 1 and 2 and the orthogonality of the matrices $`F_a`$ (compare Theorem 2) it follows

$$_{\varphi ,\psi }=\underset{a,b=1}{\overset{d^21}{}}c_{ab}w_a^{}w_b0,$$
(10)
whence the positivity of $`C=[c_{ab}]`$ and the proof of Theorem 3. Any matrix $`W`$ and its transposed with respect to the given basis, $`W^T`$, have the same elementary divisors; therefore, they are similar to the same canonical Jordan form and thus similar to each other . Let $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Phi }^1W\mathrm{\Phi }=W^T`$, that is we take as vector $`|\varphi 𝐂^d𝐂^d`$ the one whose components $`\varphi _{ij}`$ are the elements of the similarity matrix transforming the given $`W`$ into its transposed $`W^T`$. It then follows that $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}=\mathrm{\Phi }^1W`$ and moreover $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{\Phi }^1W\mathrm{\Phi }=W^T`$, which is what we need. $`\mathrm{}`$

Remarks 4.

1. In the proof of Theorem 2 in , the maximally entangled state $`|\varphi _+=\frac{1}{d}_{i=1}^d|i|i`$ plays a crucial role; however, it concerns a generator of the form $`L𝐈_d`$ instead of $`L𝐈_d+𝐈_dL`$. In such a case, (8) reads

$$_{\varphi ,\psi }=\underset{a,b=1}{\overset{d^21}{}}c_{ab}\mathrm{Tr}(\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Phi }^{}F_a)[\mathrm{Tr}(\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Phi }^{}F_b)]^{}.$$

Choosing $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{\Phi }^{}=\mathrm{𝟏}_d/d`$ given by the components of $`|\varphi _+`$ and $`W=\mathrm{\Psi }^{}=d_{k=1}^{d^21}w_k^{}F_k`$, the result of Theorem 2 in  immediately follows from our argument, for

$$_{\varphi ,\psi }=\underset{a,b=1}{\overset{d^21}{}}c_{ab}w_a^{}w_b0.$$

2. The choice of $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{𝟏}_d/d`$ in the previous Remark is fixed for all traceless matrices $`W`$ and it is $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}`$ which is chosen to be $`W`$. This argument, however, does not work with generic $`_{\varphi ,\psi }`$ as in (7), for, in general, $`W^TW`$. Nevertheless, when the $`F_a`$’s are self-adjoint and $`C=[c_{ab}]`$ symmetric, the choice $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{𝟏}_d/d`$ suffices for proving Theorem 3. In this case, positivity of $`C=[c_{ab}]`$ is checked against real vectors $`\stackrel{}{w}𝐑^{d^21}`$, so that one can restrict to self-adjoint $`W=W^{}`$ and choose a basis $`\{|i\}𝐂^d`$ such that $`W`$ is diagonal; then $`(\mathrm{\Psi }^{})^T=W^T=W`$.

3. When $`d=2`$, the maximally entangled Bell state $`|\varphi =(|1|2|2|1)/\sqrt{2}`$ plays for the generator $`L𝐈_d+𝐈_dL`$ the same role played by the symmetric state $`|\varphi _+`$ for the generator $`L𝐈_d`$ in Remark 4.1 . Namely, given any traceless matrix $`W=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\alpha & \beta \\ \gamma & \alpha \end{array}\right)`$, we can choose $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}=\mathrm{\Phi }^1W=\sqrt{2}\left(\begin{array}{cc}\gamma & \alpha \\ \alpha & \beta \end{array}\right)`$. It turns out that $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\alpha & \gamma \\ \beta & \alpha \end{array}\right)=W^T`$  and the minus sign is not felt by the expressions in (8). $`\mathrm{}`$


format: text

text:
# Fermiology and superconductivity studies on the non-tetrachalcogenafulvalene structured organic superconductor 𝛽-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6

## I Introduction

Recent synthesis of new organic superconductors $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)$`{}_{2}{}^{}X`$ (where BDA-TTP is 2,5-bis(1,3-dithian-2-ylidene)-1,3,4,6,-tetrathiapentalene and $`X^{}`$ = SbF$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{6}{}^{}`$, AsF$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{6}{}^{}`$ and PF$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{6}{}^{}`$) has attracted interest because the $`\pi `$-electron donor molecules have a unique structure.yamada  Most charge transfer salt organic superconductors have $`\pi `$-electron donors with tetrachalcogenafulvalene (TCF) structures, but BDA-TTP is the derivative of BM-TTP (2,5-bis(methylene)-1,3,4,6- tetrathiapentalene) whose structure is different as shown in Fig. 1(a). Though the $`\pi `$-electron overlapping along the donor-stacking directions is known to play an important role in the superconductivity as well as metallic properties in organic conductors, the detailed mechanism is not yet well understood .ishiguro  Since the electron-molecular-vibration (EMV) coupling will be different between TCF and BM-TTP structured molecules, they provide new materials for comparative studies.

The superconductivity of $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 ($`T_c`$ 6.5 K) was characterized from the temperature dependence of the upper critical field $`H_{c2}`$ and the specific heat measurement by Shimojo et al.shimojo  The overall properties were found to be similar to those of the other layered organic superconductors. The specific heat jump at superconducting transition is about $`\mathrm{\Delta }C_e/\gamma T_c`$=1.1, which is smaller than the value 1.43 for weak-coupling BCS superconductor. However, the quantum oscillatory effects, which are powerful tools for determining the electronic structure of organic conductors, have not previously been reported. According to a tight binding band calculation result, a nearly isotropic cylindrical Fermi surface exists as shown in Fig. 1(b), which is characteristic to $`\beta `$-type organic conductors.yamada

In this paper, we report the first observation of Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) effect and the angular-dependent magnetoresistance oscillations (AMRO) of $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 superconductor. We also performed a tunnel diode oscillator (TDO) measurement on the same material and observed quantum oscillations corresponding to the cylindrical Fermi surface. The measured frequency of SdH oscillation is in good agreement with the band calculation result. Superconducting properties are studied by the angular dependent $`H_{c2}`$ and TDO measurements. Finally, fermiological and superconducting properties based on this work and previous reports are compared to other organic superconductors.

## II Experimental Details

Single crystal samples were prepared by typical electrochemical technique.yamada  For the magnetoresistance measurement, the four probe method was employed with low frequency lock-in techniques. Four gold wires were attached to a plate-like samples using graphite paint, and typically 10 $`\mu `$A current was applied perpendicular to the conducting planes ($`ac`$-plane). The samples were mounted on a rotator probe of a dilution refrigerator, which is situated in a 33 tesla resistive magnet at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee. The contact configuration and the definition of rotation angle are shown in Fig. 1(c).

For the TDO measurement, a sample with dimensions $`1.7\times 1.1\times 3.1`$ mm3 was placed inside a solenoid which is a part of a LC tank circuit. The filling factor of the solenoid is about 0.17 and the solenoid and sample was oriented such that conducting planes are perpendicular to the external magnetic field and parallel to the solenoid rf field. The detailed experimental procedure is published elsewhere.brookstdo

## III Data and Results

### III.1 Quantum Oscillations

Fig. 2 shows the magnetoresistance (MR) data at different temperatures between 50 and 800 mK for the magnetic field direction perpendicular to the conducting planes. Resistance as a function of temperature at zero field, shown in the lower inset, is different from the result of Ref. yamada,  who reported a negative temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) at temperatures above about 180 K. However more recent measurementsshimojo  are consistent with our observation of a positive TCR from room temperature to $`T_c`$. Although small offsets are sometimes observed in the resistance below $`T_c`$, the superconducting critical field transitions and quantum oscillations are clearly observed in MR data. $`H_{c2}`$ shifts to higher field with decreasing temperatures, and an anomalous peak in MR can be seen near $`H_{c2}`$. These ”hump” structures, commonly observed in some organic superconductors, will be discussed below. Only one frequency ($`F_\alpha `$) at about 4050 tesla was obtained from the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) as shown in the inset. The angular dependence of this frequency follows a $`1/\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ dependence, which is expected for a two dimensional (2D), cylindrical Fermi surface. The same oscillation frequency was observed in the TDO measurements, also discussed below. Neither beating behavior nor oscillations with different frequencies were observed for the angles measured.

$`F_\alpha `$ corresponds to a Fermi surface with extremal area of 3.86$`\times `$1015cm-2, which is in good agreement with the band calculation result. The effective cyclotron mass ($`m_c^{}`$) and the Dingle temperature ($`T_D`$) can be obtained by fitting the temperature and field dependence of the oscillation amplitude to the Lifshitz-Kosevich (LK) formula.LK  According to the 2D LK formula, the amplitude ($`A`$) of fundamental oscillations can be expressed as,

$`A`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha m_c^{}T/B}{\mathrm{sinh}(\alpha m_c^{}T/B)}}\times \mathrm{exp}(\alpha m_c^{}T_D/B)\times \mathrm{cos}({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\pi gm_b)`$
$`=R_T\times R_D\times R_S,`$ (1)
where $`\alpha `$=14.69 T/K, $`m_c^{}`$ is the effective cyclotron mass, $`T_D`$ is the Dingle temperature, $`g`$ is the spin $`g`$-factor and $`m_b`$ is the band effective mass. Each terms are associated with damping effects due to finite temperature ($`R_T`$), electron scattering ($`R_D`$) and spin splitting ($`R_S`$) respectively. (When the oscillatory part of the magnetoresistance is used to determine the effective mass from $`R_T`$, it is necessary to normalize this signal by the background magnetoresistance, as we have done in the following analysis.

The results of the LK fit are shown in Fig. 3. $`m_c^{}`$ was estimated to be about 12.4 $`\pm `$ 1.1 $`m_e`$, which is quite large compared to other organic conductors. $`T_D`$ is about 1.0 K, which corresponds to a relaxation time $`\tau 1.1\times 10^{12}`$ sec and a mean free path $`l795`$ Å. Due to large $`m_c^{}`$, the condition $`\omega _c\tau >1`$ is satisfied when the magnetic field is larger than 64 T, which is probably why quantum oscillations were not observed at lower fields in previous work.

Fig. 4(a) shows the AMRO data of $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 at 50 mK when the magnetic field is fixed at 32.95 and 26.3 tesla. The AMRO signal can be more clearly seen by subtracting the background MR as shown in Fig. 4(b). Besides the SdH oscillations for $`\theta `$ near 0 and 180, additional oscillations, so called Yamaji oscillations,yamaji  are clearly seen for 20 $``$ $`\theta `$ $``$ 80 and 100 $``$ $`\theta `$ $``$ 160. The peaks in the Yamaji oscillation are periodic in $`\mathrm{tan}\theta `$ as shown in Fig. 5(a), which indicates that the cylindrical Fermi surface is corrugated along the $`b^{}`$-direction. The periodicity of $`\mathrm{tan}\theta `$ is related to the maximum Fermi wave vector projection to the field rotation plane $`k_F`$ by the relation $`bk_F\mathrm{tan}\theta =\pi (n1/4)`$, where $`b`$ is the lattice parameter along the $`b`$-axis. From the slope of Fig. 5(a), $`k_F`$ is estimated to be about 4.89$`\times 10^7`$ cm-1, which gives cross-sectional area $`\pi k_F^2=7.5\times 10^{15}`$ cm-2, two times larger than the area from the SdH oscillation. Furthermore, the $`k_F`$ values is comparable to the distance of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$Z in the momentum space. The discrepancy of Fermi surface areas between two experimental values obtained from AMRO and SdH effect is not unusual and it can be ascribed to higher order terms of Yamaji oscillationsuji  or effective doubling of the interlayer distancemielke .

In Fig. 5(b), a peak in resistance (see also Fig. 4) near $`\theta `$=$`90^{}`$ is clearly shown. A peak in AMRO for the magnetic field parallel to the conducting layers has been observed in many organic conductors, and is used as a proof of coherent interlayer transport.hanasaki  Other experimental results, like a beat frequency in the magnetic oscillations and a crossover from a linear to a quadratic field dependence have also been suggested as a test for coherent transport.moses  However, no beating behavior was observed for our data, which may be ascribed to very small value of interlayer transfer integral ($`t_b`$) compared to the Fermi energy ($`ϵ_F`$). The ratio of the interlayer and the Fermi energy ($`t_b/ϵ_F`$) can be estimated from the relation $`t_b/ϵ_F=(\pi /2\theta _c)/bk_F`$, where $`\theta _c`$ is the critical angle above which the resistance increases rapidly.hanasaki  Using the crystallographic parameters and the experimental value of $`k_F`$ obtained from the SdH oscillation, $`t_b/ϵ_F`$ is estimated to be about 1/250, and 1/350 when $`k_F`$ from AMRO is used. This value is comparable to $`\beta _H`$-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 (1/175) and $`\beta `$-(BEDT-TTF)2IBr2 (1/280) which both show beating behaviorwosnitza1 . Hence the reason why we do not observe a beat frequency in $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 is not clear yet.

The amplitude of SdH oscillations in AMRO data can be obtained by subtracting AMRO and background magnetoresistance. The result is shown in Fig. 6 for $`H`$=32.95 tesla. There are some nodes periodic in $`1/\mathrm{cos}\theta `$, which can be more clearly seen by plotting the locations of nodes and anti-nodes in $`1/\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ against odd and even integers. This behavior in AMRO can be explained by the spin splitting term $`R_S`$ in Eq. III.1, where $`\mathrm{cos}(\pi gm_b/2)`$ will show minima (maxima) when $`gm_b`$ are odd (even) integers. Since the magnetic field is constant in AMRO measurements, the nodes come from the angular dependence of $`m_b`$($`\theta `$). In the framework of Fermi liquid theory, $`m_c^{}`$ can be written as $`m_c^{}`$=$`m_b`$(1+$`\lambda `$), where $`\lambda `$ is the mass enhancement factor. And the angular dependence of $`m_c^{}`$ is known to follow $`1/\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ dependence. From the slope of $`1/\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ plot, we obtained $`gm_b`$ 15.6$`m_e`$, which is about 30% larger than the largest known value in pervious organic conductors.wosbook  The $`gm_b`$ values for representative organic conductors are listed in Table 1.

### III.2 Superconductivity

Fig. 7 shows the angular dependence of $`H_{c2}`$($`\theta `$) at two different temperatures. $`H_{c2}`$ was determined by the field where the first derivative of $`R(H)`$ shows an extremum. The values at $`\theta `$=0 and 90 are in good agreement with the previous report when the $`H_{c2}`$($`T`$) curves in Ref. shimojo,  are extrapolated to lower temperatures. The solid and dashed line in Fig. 7(c)are the fitting curves for the case of a 2D filmtinkham  and using the 3D anisotropic GL theroymoris , respectively. Each can be expressed as

$$1=\left|\frac{H_{c2}(\theta )\mathrm{cos}\theta }{H_{c2}}\right|+\left(\frac{H_{c2}(\theta )\mathrm{sin}\theta }{H_{c2}}\right)^2:2\mathrm{D},$$
(2)
$$H_{c2}(\theta )=\frac{\varphi _0}{2\pi \xi _{}^2\sqrt{\mathrm{cos}^2\theta +\frac{H_{c2}^2}{H_{c2}^2}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta }}:3\mathrm{D},$$
(3)
where $`\varphi `$ is the flux quantum and $`\xi `$ is the coherence length. The validity of the application of these models depends on relative magnitude of the inter-layer coherence length ($`\xi _{}`$) and inter-layer distance ($`b`$), i.e., the 2D model is more appropriate for $`\xi _{}<b`$ and vice versa. Although both fitting curves give approximate fits to the data, the 2D model gives slightly better results. For comparison, $`\kappa `$-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 superconductors show quite satisfactory fitting results using the 2D model, and their quantum oscillation also show peculiar features which were ascribed to nearly perfect two-dimensionality.wosbook ; wankaKI3  If one considers only the criterion of the two lengths, which are $`\xi _{}`$ (26 Å) and $`b`$ (17.6 Å), the 3D model seems to be more appropriate. Nevertheless, $`H_{c2}`$($`\theta `$) is described better by the 2D formula.

The anomalous behavior in MR, a ”hump” structure, near $`H_{c2}`$ is also seen in Fig. 7(b). The hump structure is most significant for $`\theta `$=0 ($`H`$ conducting planes) and almost disappears for $`\theta =90^{}`$ ($`H`$ conducting planes). This behavior was observed for other $`\kappa `$\- and $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$-type organic superconductors, which share several common features.zuo  It is highly anisotropic for both electric current and magnetic field directions; it is most significant when the inter-plane resistance is measured with the magnetic field perpendicular to the conducting planes. And it is suppressed with decreasing temperature and increasing uniaxial stress along the inter-plane direction.choi  In $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6, the temperature dependence (see Fig. 2) and anisotropic features are also apparent, while the hump structure in this material can be still seen at very low temperatures down to 80 mK.

### III.3 Tunnel Diode Oscillator Study

Fig. 8 shows the field dependence of a resonant frequency ($`f_r`$) of TDO at low field regions between 7.0 and 0.45 K. When the temperature is below $`T_c`$, the frequency decreases sharply with increasing field until superconducting-normal transition occurs. In the normal state, the frequency change is less significant showing gradual decrease. The difference in magnitude of the resonant frequency in the superconducting and normal state can be also seen in the zero-field cool-down curve as shown in the inset of Fig. 8. Since the resonant frequency of an LC circuit is $`f_r`$=$`1/(2\pi \sqrt{LC})`$, the change of $`f_r`$ mainly comes from the change of inductance of the coil.

The decrease of $`f_r`$, i.e., the increase of $`L`$ in superconducting-metal transitions can be ascribed to the penetration of the rf field to the sample.mielke ; wu  The rf field will be expelled when a sample is in the superconducting state, which results in a decrease of $`L`$ and increase of $`f_r`$. Following this argument, a $`H`$-$`T`$ phase diagram can be built based on the TDO experiment. $`H_{c2}`$ was defined as a intersection point of extrapolations of $`f_r(H)`$ above and below the transition. And the field where $`f_r(H)`$ show change of curvatures ($`H^{}`$) was defined as a point that $`f_r(H)`$ starts to deviate $`H^{1/2}`$ dependence. Our work shows similar behavior compared with the results of Ref. mielke, , in which $`H^{}`$ in $`\lambda `$-(BETS)2GaCl4 superconductor was ascribed to the change of fluxoid motion in the mixed state. According to this model, fluxoid motion can be explained by a simple harmonic oscillator when $`HH_{c2}`$ and $`H<H^{}`$. In this regime, the frequency change, or equivalently the penetration depth follows $`H^{1/2}`$ dependence. Above $`H^{}`$, the deviation from the $`H^{1/2}`$ behavior was attributed to the flux-lattice melting, which occurs when the thermal displacement of vortex lattice becomes significant compared to lattice parameters.houghton

The resulting $`H`$-$`T`$ phase diagram is shown in Fig. 9, where $`H_{c2}`$ values from the resistance measurement on two samples are also plotted. $`H_{c2}`$ values from the two different experiments overlap at $`T`$ 0.8 K, but $`H_{c2}`$ values from the resistance measurement seem to show more pronounced temperature dependence at lower temperatures. The $`H_{c2}(T)`$ curves do not follow the power law $`H_{c2}(T_cT)^n`$ behavior in the whole temperature range, rather there seems to be a change of curvature around $`T`$=2 K.

The amplitudes of quantum oscillations of $`f_r`$ in the normal state between 25 and 32 tesla is shown as a function of inverse field in Fig. 10. The overall signal to noise ratio is so small that it is difficult to resolve the nature of quantum oscillations directly from the TDO data. However, the oscillation frequency obtained from FFT is about 4070 T, very similar to that of the resistance measurement.

## IV Discussion

The electronic structure and superconductivity of $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 have many common features with other organic superconductors. The molecular packing mode of this material is known to be very similar to that of $`\beta `$-(BEDT-TTF)2I3. Correspondingly, the Fermi surface of $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 resembles the other $`\beta `$-type organic conductors both in the band calculation and experimental results. The superconductivity in $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 also has similar characteristics to other ET and BETS organic superconductors. $`H_{c2}(\theta )`$ measurements revealed the anisotropic nature of the superconductivity in $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6. There could be a possibility of a dimensional crossover due to the increase of the perpendicular coherence length $`\xi _{}`$ at higher temperatures than $`H_{c2}(\theta )`$ measurements were done in this work.wankaKI3  The deviation from the power law of $`H_{c2}(T)`$ curves could be a indication of a dimensional crossover, which was suggested for $`\lambda `$-(BETS)2GaCl4 superconductors.mielke

In Table 1, we have listed some physical parameters related to fermiology and superconductivity of several organic superconductors including $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6. $`F_\alpha `$ and $`m_{c\alpha }^{}`$ denote the FFT frequency and effective cyclotron mass for fundamental orbits and $`F_\beta `$ and $`m_{c\beta }^{}`$ for breakdown orbits. When two orbits coexist, the value for the $`\beta `$-orbit is more appropriate for comparison, since it covers a larger area of the Fermi surface.

The striking difference between $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 and other organic superconductors can be found in values of $`m_c^{}`$ and $`gm_b`$. Since the Fermi surface of $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 is similar to other $`\beta `$-type organic conductors, the difference can be attributed to many body effects which are not considered in the band calculation.

In the framework of Fermi liquid theory, several effective masses can be defined.merino  Experimentally, SdH and dHvA effect can be used to obtain the effective cyclotron mass $`m_c^{}`$ which reflects mass enhancement by both electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions. The dynamic mass $`m_c`$ is influenced only by electron-phonon interactions and can be measured by the cyclotron resonance experiment. The band mass $`m_b`$ has similar value to the optical mass which can be obtained by the plasma frequency measurement. The Sommerfeld constant $`\gamma `$ which can be measured from the specific heat measurement is related to the specific heat mass that is affected by both interactions. The mass enhancement of $`m_c^{}`$ due to electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions can be written as,

$$m_c^{}=(1+\lambda _{EP})(1+\lambda _{EE})m_b=(1+\lambda _{EE})m_c,$$
(4)
where $`\lambda _{EP}`$ and $`\lambda _{EE}`$ are the coupling strength of electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions respectively.

For several organic superconductors, $`\lambda _{EP}`$ obtained from the magnitude of $`\mathrm{\Delta }C_e/\gamma T_c`$ shows general tendency with respect to $`T_c`$, which is in agreement with weak and strong coupling limit of BCS theory.elsinger ; wankacp  But $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 does not seem to agree with this tendency considering measured value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }C_e/\gamma T_c`$ and $`T_c`$. The small value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }C_e/\gamma T_c`$ of $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 suggests that it is below the weak coupling limit like $`\alpha `$-(BEDT-TTF)2NH4Hg(SCN)4 , but its $`T_c`$ value is between $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$-(BEDT-TTF)2SF5CH2CF2SO3 and $`\kappa `$-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2 which are in the range of intermediate and strong coupling limit (see Fig. 3 in Ref. elsinger,  and Table 1). This apparent discrepancy suggest that additional parameters should be considered for $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 superconductor.

Considering the large value of $`m_c^{}`$ of $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 which cannot be explained by $`\lambda _{EP}`$ alone, it is likely that electron-electron interactions play an important role in this material. The large values of $`gm_b`$ and $`\gamma `$ are also suggestive that the effective density of states (quasiparticle density of states) is large compared to other organic conductors. Indeed, the largest transfer integrals obtained from the band calculation were about half of those of $`\kappa `$-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2 and $`\beta `$-(BEDT-TTF)2I3,yamada  which suggest that the narrower bandwidth could be the reason for the enhanced electron-electron interactions. At present, it is difficult to estimate the magnitudes of $`\lambda _{EP}`$ and $`\lambda _{EE}`$ until pressure and cyclotron resonance studies are carried out.

In conclusion, the new donor molecule organic superconductor $`\beta `$-(BDA-TTP)2SbF6 is found to have similar properties in the electronic structure and superconductivity to other typical organic superconductors. But the large effective mass indicates that many body effects are significant in this material. In the context, this new type of donor molecules could be a new approach to increase $`T_c`$ of organic conductors by enhanced electron-electron interactions.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by NSF-DMR 99-71474. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is supported by a contractual agreement between the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida. A. Wade and E. Goetz were supported by REU fellowships through the Department of Physics (FSU) and the National Science Foundation(NHMFL) respectively.


text:
# Effect of anharmonicities in the critical number of trapped condensed atoms with attractive two-body interaction

## I Introduction

The experimental realization of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in magnetically trapped weakly interacting atoms  brought a lot of interest in theoretical studies of the properties of condensed atomic systems. For systems with negative two-body scattering length, recently it was reported in Ref. a discrepancy between experimental results and theoretical predictions , in the maximum critical number of trapped atoms, $`N_c`$. In Ref., it was shown that part of the discrepancy can be explained by taking into consideration the axially deformed shape of the trap. The theoretical prediction of the critical number of atoms, for the cylindrical symmetry considered in Ref., has to be adjusted to a number that is lower than the number given by the corresponding spherically symmetric trap. Still, this correction is not enough to obtain a result that is totally compatible with experimental values. So, it is relevant to look for other possible sources of the observed discrepancy, in this specific case; as for example, higher order non-linearities in the mean-field approximation , or possible experimental deviations not already taken into account.

The parameter associated with the critical number $`N_c`$, given in Ref., is defined by

$$k=\frac{N_ca}{\sqrt{\mathrm{}/(m\omega )}},$$
(1)
where $`\omega (\omega _x\omega _y\omega _z)^{1/3}`$ is the geometrical mean value of the trap frequencies, $`m`$ the mass of the atomic species, and $`a`$ the two-body scattering length of the particles in the condensate. With the assumption of a spherical symmetrical trap, $`k0.575`$ . The critical number of atoms for Bose-Einstein condensates with $`a<0`$ have been investigated by the JILA group, taking into account experiments with 85Rb , considering a wide tunning of the scattering length $`a`$, from positive to negative values, by means of Feshbach resonance . The experimental result for the number $`k`$, $`k_{expt}=0.459\pm `$ 0.012 (statistical) $`\pm 0.054`$ (systematic), corresponds to a deviation of about 20% lower than the predicted spherical symmetrical result. Part of this discrepancy was shown to be related to the cylindrical cigar-shaped symmetry employed in the JILA’s experiment, where the frequencies corresponding to the directions $`z`$ and $`r_{}\sqrt{x^2+y^2}`$ are, respectively, given by $`\omega _z=2\pi \times 6.8\mathrm{Hz}`$ and $`\omega _{}=2\pi \times 17.35\mathrm{Hz}`$. So, the parameter of anisotropy is given by $`\lambda \omega _z/\omega _{}=0.3919`$. The theoretical prediction, obtained in Ref. , with the correct cylindrical symmetry given in Ref. , is $`k0.55`$. In this case, the experimental result is smaller than the predicted value by about 16.5%. Such a result is still not enough to include the theoretical result within the error bars of the experimental result.

As explained in Ref. , in the JILA’s experiments with 85Rb, the trap is practically harmonic in the central region, for very low temperatures and for small size condensates. However, one should check how a deviation of the harmonic trap, outside of the central region, can affect the number of condensed atoms. In this case, we are considering the possible existence of imprecisions in the form of the confining potential, generated by the modified Ioffe-Pritchard design used (known as baseball trap). The modification of the ground state solution of the condensed state can alter, correspondingly, the observables associated with it.

In our present investigation we consider a deviation in the harmonic trap potential that is effective only outside the central part of the potential, with the addition of a term that is proportional to a cubic or quartic power of the distance. This work was first motivated by looking for a possible source of the observed discrepancy between theory and the JILA’s experiment. However, we realize that, if exist any deviation from the harmonic trap in the experiments reported in Ref. , it should be of a very small factor considering the kind of trap design used by them . But, one should be aware also of other kind of trap arrangements in the experimental studies of BEC, where an investigation of possible effects in the observables due to anharmonic terms in the interaction can be useful. In this perspective, our present study of the effect of anharmonic terms added to a harmonic trap interaction, is not restricted to the example that we are going to consider. We consider the trap parameters of the JILA’s experiments  as an example, estimating deviations in $`N_c`$ due to anharmonicities, that can easily be extended to other geometrical trap configurations, with the help of previous studies . Presently, we are reporting numerical results obtained for $`N_c`$ when the trap deviates from the harmonic shape. We should also note that there exists a previous study considering the occurrence of anharmonic terms in a time orbiting potential trap .

As shown by our results, a steeper confinement will result in a lower $`k`$, against the naive expectation. At first sight, a steeper confinement should increase the kinetic and potential energies, with stabilization for a larger (and not smaller) value of $`k`$. However, a steeper confinement also means that the relative distance between the atoms is less than in the case of the harmonic potential. Therefore, with the atoms feeling more attraction from the interaction term, this will result in collapse for smaller $`k`$.

Next, we review the formalism used in the present approach, followed by the main results and conclusions.

## II Mean field approximation

The Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) that describes the wave-function of the condensate $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ in the mean-field approximation has the form

$`i\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Psi }}{t}}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}}\stackrel{}{}^2+U_{trap}{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi \mathrm{}^2|a|}{m}}\mathrm{\Psi }^2\right)\mathrm{\Psi },`$ (2)
where the potential $`U_{trap}U_{trap}(\stackrel{}{r};\omega _x,\omega _y,\omega _z)`$ is given by a modified harmonic oscillator trap, and the wave function $`\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Psi }(\stackrel{}{r},t)`$ is normalized to the number of atoms $`N`$. For the stationary solution of Eq. (2), with $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\stackrel{}{r},t)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{i}\mu t/\mathrm{}\right)\mathrm{\Psi }(\stackrel{}{r},0)`$, where $`\mu `$ is the chemical potential, we obtain

$`i\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Psi }}{t}}=\mu \mathrm{\Psi }.`$ (3)
Considering the symmetry used in the JILA’s experiment, where the trap frequencies are given by $`\omega _{}\omega _x=\omega _y\omega _z`$, it is adequate to work in cylindrical coordinates:

$$r_{}=\sqrt{x^2+y^2}\mathrm{and}\theta =\mathrm{arctan}\left(\frac{y}{x}\right).$$
(4)
For the ground state of the condensate, we have $`\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Psi }(r_{},z,t)`$. By using the trapping geometrical average frequency $`\omega \left(\omega _x\omega _y\omega _z\right)^{1/3}`$ and the oscillator length by $`l_o\sqrt{\mathrm{}/(m\omega )}`$, we obtain the following dimensionless coordinates and parameters:

$`\rho `$ $``$ $`\sqrt{2}{\displaystyle \frac{r_{}}{l_o}},\zeta \sqrt{2}{\displaystyle \frac{z}{l_o}},\tau \omega t;`$ (5)
$`\omega _\rho `$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\omega _{}}{\omega }},\omega _\zeta {\displaystyle \frac{\omega _z}{\omega }}.`$ (6)
With the above dimensionless units, redefining $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$,

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(\rho ,\zeta ,\tau )\sqrt{\frac{4\pi \mathrm{}|a|}{m\omega }}\mathrm{\Psi }(\stackrel{}{r},t),$$
(7)
and the trap potential, $`U_{trap}\mathrm{}\omega V(\rho ,\zeta )`$, the Eq. (2) can be rewritten as

$`i{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{\tau }}=\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho }}{\displaystyle \frac{}{\rho }}\left(\rho {\displaystyle \frac{}{\rho }}\right){\displaystyle \frac{^2}{\zeta ^2}}+V(\rho ,\zeta )\mathrm{\Phi }^2\right]\mathrm{\Phi },`$ (8)
where the normalization of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is given by

$$_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\zeta _0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\rho \rho \mathrm{\Phi }^2=4\sqrt{2}\frac{N|a|}{l_0}2n.$$
(9)
In the critical limit, we have $`n=n_c=2\sqrt{2}k`$.

The equation, corresponding to Eq. (3), for the chemical potential $`\beta `$ in dimensionless units ($`\mu =\mathrm{}\omega \beta `$) is given by

$$\left[\frac{1}{\rho }\frac{}{\rho }\left(\rho \frac{}{\rho }\right)\frac{^2}{\zeta ^2}+V(\rho ,\zeta )|\mathrm{\Phi }|^2\right]\mathrm{\Phi }=\beta \mathrm{\Phi }.$$
(10)
As known , the equation (10) is valid in the mean-field approximation of the quantum many-body problem of a dilute gas, when the average inter particle distances are much larger than the absolute value of the scattering length and the wave-lengths are much larger than the average inter particle distance.

The total energy of the system is given by

$`E`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N\mathrm{}\omega }{2n}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}\rho d\rho {\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}d\zeta \{\left[{\displaystyle \frac{}{\rho }}\mathrm{\Phi }\right]^2+\left[{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\mathrm{\Phi }\right]^2`$ (12)
$`+V(\rho ,\zeta )|\mathrm{\Phi }|^2{\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Phi }|^4}{2}}\}.`$
In order to analyze the effect of a deviation of the trap potential from the harmonic behavior, we consider two expressions for $`V(\rho ,\zeta )`$, labeled by $`\nu =1,2`$ as follows:

$$V^{(\nu )}(\rho ,\zeta )=\frac{1}{4}\left[\omega _\rho ^2\rho ^2\left(1+\delta _\rho \rho ^\nu \right)+\omega _\zeta ^2\zeta ^2\left(1+\delta _\zeta \zeta ^\nu \right)\right].$$
(13)
The distortion added to the harmonic potential is cubic when $`\nu =1`$, and quartic when $`\nu =2`$. In both cases, the magnitudes of the distortions in the directions $`\rho `$ and $`\zeta `$ are given by the parameters $`\delta _\rho `$ and $`\delta _\zeta `$.

With Eq. (13), in both cases one can observe that the interaction is approximately harmonic near the center of the trap (at $`\rho =0`$ and/or $`\zeta =0`$). When $`\rho <1`$, the quartic term keeps approximately the harmonic shape of the potential in a more effective way than the cubic term. In Fig. 1, we can see how the shape of the harmonic trap ($`\delta _\rho =0`$) changes in the radial direction, at the position $`\zeta =0`$, when one adds a cubic ($`\nu =1`$) or a quartic ($`\nu =2`$) term in the potential.

## III Results obtained

In this section, we report our main results considering the solutions for the chemical potential, obtained for Eq. (10) with the anharmonic interaction given by Eq. (13), for several combinations of the parameters $`\delta _\rho `$ and $`\delta _\zeta `$, for $`\nu =1`$ and $`\nu =2`$. We have also considered the solutions for the total energy, which is given by Eq. (12). For the numerical solution of Eq. (10), which is given in cylindrical symmetry, we have employed the Crank-Nicolson algorithm in two dimensions, employing the relaxation method propagating in the imaginary time, as earlier described in . The spatial discretization used was 140 $`\times `$ 140, with cut-off $`\rho _{max}=`$ 7 and $`\zeta _{max}=`$ 7. The time discretization was $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau =`$ 0.005 and the relaxation time used for obtaining the solutions of stationary ground state was $`\tau =16`$. The results are more sensitive to the spatial grid spacing, but a lack of precision occurs in the third decimal figure of the values obtained in the numerical simulations. With these grids, we obtain precise results up to the second decimal figure, confirmed by the convergence obtained with a refined spatial grid (160 $`\times `$ 160). We obtain our results for the total energy and the chemical potential of the condensate, as functions of the number of particles, by considering the geometry of the trap given in JILA’s experiment reported in Ref. , where $`\omega _z=2\pi \times `$6.8 Hz and $`\omega _{}=2\pi \times `$17.35 Hz. We consider a range of values for the parameters $`\delta _\rho `$ and $`\delta _\zeta `$, that represents the corresponding anharmonicity. As shown, only positive anharmonic terms added to the original harmonic trap can make the theoretical prediction for the maximum critical number $`k`$ become closer to the JILA’s experimental result. This implies that one should check for possible deviation of the harmonic potential, outside the central region, that makes the trap more confining.

In Table I, we present our results for the maximum critical number $`k`$, which is related to the critical number of atoms $`N_c`$, as given by Eq. (1), considering several possible choices for the anharmonic parameters $`\delta _\rho `$ and $`\delta _\zeta `$, for both cases $`\nu =1`$ (cubic) and $`\nu =2`$ (quartic).

In the Fig. 2, we show some results for the case with $`\nu =2`$, where we have a quartic anharmonic term added to the original interaction, in both directions $`\rho `$ and $`\zeta `$, such that $`\delta _\rho =\delta _\zeta `$. In this example, we are also considering the cigar-like symmetry of the trap used in Ref. , with $`\omega _{}/\omega _z=17.35/6.8`$. We present two frames: for the total energy $`E`$ (lower frame), given in units of $`(N\mathrm{}\omega )/(2n)`$ and for the corresponding chemical potential $`\mu `$ (upper frame), in units of $`\mathrm{}\omega `$, versus $`N|a|/l_o`$.

This picture does not change too much when we switch off the deviation in the $`\zeta `$ direction, with $`\delta _\zeta =0`$ (the trap remains harmonic in the $`z`$direction). For the case with $`\nu =1`$, where we consider cubic anharmonic terms added to the original interaction, our results show that for both $`\delta _z=\delta _\rho `$ and $`\delta _\zeta =0`$ there are no significant qualitative differences in the observables plotted and the values are approximately equal to the quartic case. The behavior is similar for all the cases considered, with the collapse of the condensate occurring for smaller critical number as we add larger positive deviation in the harmonic trap. In this respect, the addition of a quartic term ($`\nu =2`$) in the potential, is more effective in keeping the harmonic shape near the center of the trap.

All the above results can be globally analized by examining Fig. 3, in which we have the behavior of the maximum critical number of atoms in the condensate state, parametrized by $`k`$, as a function of the magnitude of the trapping anharmonic potential, parametrized by $`\delta _\rho `$. We display the effect of both cubic and quartic anharmonicity in confinement, with or without including the deviation in the z-direction. As we can see, the higher is the anharmonic parameter, the smaller is the critical number of condensed atoms. As one can observe, in order to obtain the theoretical results for $`k`$ inside the region covered by the experimental error bars, one needs deviations of about 10% to 20% from the harmonic trap, at distances of the order of the oscillator length.

## IV Conclusions

In summary, we have solved numerically the stationary Gross-Pitaevskii equation in cylindrical symmetry, for condensed systems with attractive two-body interaction, with anharmonic trapping potentials, either with cubic and quartic deviation from the harmonic oscillator. We did the present study in the perspective to observe the real effect on $`N_c`$ of anharmonicities that can occur in the usual confining traps that have been extensively employed in the experiments with atomic BEC. We took the harmonic trap parameters considered in Ref. , to exemplify how much should be the strength of cubic or quartic anharmonic terms in the trap interaction to present a sizable change in the critical parameter $`k`$; in the perspective of a partial explanation of the observed experimental deviations from the previous theoretical estimates. The present results show that only with a deviation of about 10% from the harmonic potential, at distances of the order of the oscillator length, it becomes possible to explain theoretically the experimental results reported in , within the error bars. However, this is quite large strength for the anharmonic term, that is not supported by the detailed analysis and description of the experiments given in Ref. .

In a more realistic perspective, our present work is predicting the quantitative effect in the critical number of atoms due to anharmonicities that can occur in a trap. For the non-harmonic terms we have considered cubic or quartic ones. In cases of other shapes for the anharmonic terms, one can also make qualitative predictions based on the present results. We should point out that our study is not restricted to the example (trap frequencies and symmetry) that we have used; it can be easily extended to other trap arrangements, and can be useful in experimental analysis of condensates with attractive two-body interactions. In this respect, we should note that it has been studied and reported the possible occurrence of anharmonicities in time orbiting potential traps . Our work is considering realistic situations, that are close to the actual experiments. So, our aim in the present work, was to report the effect of a deviation in the harmonic trap that increases as we go to regions outside the center of the system.

We would like to thank Prof. Rajat K. Bhaduri for useful discussions and suggestions, and Dr. Elizabeth Donley for pointing us the Ref. . This work was partially supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP). LT also thanks support from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) of Brazil.


text:
# Why study pulsars optically?

## 1 Introduction

Since the first optical observations of the Crab pulsar in the late 1960s (\[Cocke et al (1969)\] only four more pulsars have been seen to pulsate optically (PSR B0540-69; \[Middleditch & Pennypacker(1985)\]; Vela: \[Wallace et al (1977)\]; B0656+14; \[Shearer et al (1997)\]; Geminga; \[Shearer et al (1998)\]). Four of these five pulsars are probably too distant to have any detectable optical thermal emission using currently available technologies. For the fifth (and faintest) pulsar, PSR 0633+17, spectroscopic studies have shown the emission to be predominantly non-thermal (\[Martin et al (1998)\]). With these objects we are therefore seeing non-thermal emission, presumably from interactions between the pulsar’s magnetic field and a stream of charged particles from the neutron star’s surface. Many suggestions have been made concerning the optical emission process for these young and middle-aged pulsars. Despite many years of detailed theoretical studies and more recently limited numerical simulations, no convincing models have been derived which explain all of the high energy properties. There are similar problems in the radio but as the emission mechanism is radically different (being coherent) only the high energy emission will be considered here. However, the most successful analytical model (both in terms of its simplicity and longevity) has been proposed by \[Pacini (1971)\] and in modified form by Pacini and Salvati (1983; PS83, 1987; PS87). In general the model proposed that the high energy emission comes from relativistic electrons radiating via synchrotron processes in the outer regions of the magnetosphere, and that the location and approximate dimensions of this emission region scales with the magnetic field in the vicinity of the light cylinder. In this paper we examine the validity of their approach and show that it adequately explains the observed phenomena.

In recent years a number of groups have carried out detailed simulations of the various high-energy emission processes. These models divide into two broad groups - between acceleration and emission low in the magnetosphere (Polar Cap models \[Daugherty & Harding (1996)\]) and those with the acceleration nearer to the light cylinder (Outer-Gap models \[Cheng et al (2000)\] and refs therein). Both models have problems explaining the observed features of the limited selection of high energy emitters. However both models suffer from arbitrary assumptions in terms of the sustainability of the outer-gap and the orientation of the pulsar’s magnetic field to both the observers line of sight and the rotation axis. Furthermore some observational evidence, see for example \[Eikenberry & Fazio (1997)\], severely limits the applicability of the outer-gap to the emission from the Crab pulsar. However they have their successes - the total polar-cap emission can be understood in terms of the Goldreich and Julian current from in or around the cap; the Crab polarization sweep is accurately produced by an outer-gap variant \[Romani & Yadigaroglu (1995)\]. Until we have more detailed observations - and in the optical all aspects of the radiation can be measured (intensity, timing, energy and polarization) - on more objects the situation will not improve.

It is the failure of the detailed models to explain the high energy emission that has prompted this work. We have taken a phenomenological approach to test whether Pacini type scaling is still applicable. Our approach has been to try and restrict the effects of geometry by taking the peak luminosity as a scaling parameter rather than the total luminosity. In this regard we are removing the duty cycle term from PS87. It is our opinion that to first order the peak emission represents the local power density along the observer’s line of site and hence reflects more accurately the emission process within the pulsar’s magnetosphere. Previous work in this area (see for example \[Goldoni et al (1995)\]) looked at the total efficiency, spectral index and found no reasonable correlation with standard pulsar parameters - age, period and spin down rate. Their work was hampered by not including geometry and being restricted to the then three known pulsed emitters. Since then the number of optical pulsars has increased to five. However we are still dealing with very weak statistics in all cases bar that of the Crab pulsar.

## 2 Current Observations - An Overview

### 2.1 Introduction

The three brightest pulsars (Crab, Vela and PSR B0540-69) are also amongst the youngest. Tables 1 and 2 show the current observed limitations of optical pulsars. Only the Crab is sufficiently bright for individual pulse work to be performed. For the faintest objects very high throughput instruments (including polarimetry) are needed to do more than simple photometry.

Table 4 shows the basic parameters for these objects. However all these pulsars have very different pulse shapes resulting in a very different ratio between the integrated flux and the peak flux. Table 4 also shows this peak emission (taken as the emission in 95% - 95% portion of the largest peak). Their distances imply that the thermal emission should be low (in all cases $`<`$ 1% of the observed emission). One observational note the Crab is by far the brightest optical by a factor of 250:1. Only the Crab is bright enough for individual pulse work - of all Stokes’ parameters. Furthermore it is the only one for which Stokes’ parameters can be accurately measured throughout the pulsar’s rotation period.

### 2.2 The Gold Standard - the Crab pulsar

The Crab pulsar’s phase plot is well known - see Figure 1 for R/I (6000-8500 Å) measurements taken with an avalanche photo-diode (APD) on the WHT over 3 nights of observation. Figure 2 shows the peak region indicating the very small plateau. Figure 3 shows 2-d time resolved V band MAMA data - in particular we note emission during the ‘off pulse’ region (phase 0.77-0.84). This is discussed in more detail below.

Over the last thirty years the Crab pulsar has been studied more extensively than any other. It is unique in that its age is known accurately, it is relatively close and bright. One of the main predictions of \[Pacini (1971)\] was the prediction that the Crab luminosity should reduce by $``$ 0.005 mags/year. \[Nasuti et al (1996)\]’s estimate of $`0.008\pm 0.004`$/ year is in agreement with this (see Figure 4). However more detailed observations are required - preferably with the same telescope, detector and filter arrangements to conform this and remove systematic errors.

Smith et al. (1988) made detailed 1-d optical measurements of the phase resolved polarization, displayed in Figures 6 & 7. They noted that the polarization percentage followed the same shape over the main and interpulse. However interestingly they noted that the highest level of polarization was evident in the ‘off’-pulse region. \[Smith et al (1988)\] went to some considerable lengths to remove the background nebular polarization component, and thus viewed this latter result as a consequence of the ‘unpulsed’ component being a cusp region between the two pulses. They also noted that the polarization angle swings in similar way through the main and interpulse which they interpreted as indicating a similar source (and geometry) of the radiation for both pulses, but coming from opposite poles. A similar, albeit slightly phase shifted, result has been observed by \[Romani et al (2001)\] using the new Transition Edge Detector (see Figure 18).

The Crab’s spectrum shows no evidence for a low energy break (see for example \[Sollerman & Flyckt (2002)\] and references therein) towards the IR regime, rather some suggestion of a ‘levelling’ of the spectral index (see Figure 8). Thus far no other optical pulsar has been seen to show evidence for a spectral break at low energies, although we are to some extent constrained by their faintness and the limitations of current high speed detector technology in this waveband. A definitive measurement of the Crab suggested ‘roll-over’ - indicative of some form of optically thick transition such as self-absorption - in the IR is one of the remaining crucial measurements which should be performed in the next few years.

An unpulsed optical component of emission has been noted for some time, since the work of \[Peterson et al (1978)\], although accurate high speed 2-d photometry as always dogged previous efforts to flux the apparent emission. \[Golden et al (2000)\] using a MAMA based system obtained sufficient S/N and critically, excellent background statistics to allow for an accurate determination of the flux of this component - clearly apparent in Figure 3, and broad-band spectra in UBV in Figure 5. This unpulsed region, described by \[Golden et al (2000)\], can be interpreted in two ways - either a chance alignment of (e.g. a knot) or as a near constant background component to the emission. The star like point source unpulsed image in Figure 3 showed no significant positional shift compared to the integrated position - a shift of at least 3 pixels would be expected if was associated with the red knot (0”.65 from the pulsar) (see \[Hester et al (1995)\] and \[Sollerman & Flyckt (2002)\]). Furthermore the intensity of the knot given by \[Sollerman & Flyckt (2002)\], does not explain the R/I background level shown in Figure 10.

### 2.3 The Remaining Optical Pulsars

Table 1 gives a summary of the observational data of the 5 pulsars seen to give pulsed magnetospheric emission. Of all the optical pulsars PSR B0633+17 (or Geminga) is perhaps the most controversial. Early observations (\[Halpern & Tytler (1988)\]; \[Bignami et al (1988)\]) indicated that Geminga was an $``$ 25.5 mV object. Subsequent observations including HST photometry appeared to support a thermal origin for the optical emission combined with a cyclotron resonance feature (\[Mignani et al (1998)\]). The high-speed optical observations of \[Shearer et al (1998)\] combined with spectroscopic observations (\[Martin et al (1998)\]) contradict this view. Figure 11 shows the broadband data plotted on top of the Martin et al Keck spectra, we have also included the pulsed B point acquired via a ground-based MAMA system (\[Shearer et al (1998)\]) and recent Subaru data (\[Kawai et al (2002)\]). This combined dataset indicates a fairly steep spectrum (with spectral index of $``$ 1.9) consistent with magnetospheric emission. It was on the basis of these results that \[Golden & Shearer(1999)\] were able to give an upper limit of R of about 10km by considering the upper limits to the unpulsed fraction of the optical emission from Geminga as an upper limit for the thermal emission. The evolving picture for Geminga is that the soft X-ray and EUV data is predominantly thermal with a magnetospheric component becoming dominant at about 3500 Å.

As regards PSR B0656+14, the pulsar is generally agreed to be predominantly a non-thermal emitter in the optical, becoming a thermal emitter at wavelengths shorter than about 3000 Å\[Pavlov et al (1997)\]. There is a discrepancy between the radio distance based upon the dispersion measure and the best fits to the X-ray data. From radio dispersion measure a distance of $`760\pm 190pc`$ can be derived at odds with the X-ray distance of $`250280pc`$ from $`N_H`$ galactic models. A similar low estimate for the distance was given by \[Kaplan et al (2001)\]. The optical spectrum is best fitted by a two component model with the power law component being significantly steeper than the Crab. Both Geminga and PSR B0656+14 have steep spectra compared their younger cousins. The observed light curve is roughly sinusoidal presumably indicative of closer alignment between the observer and the rotation axis than for the Crab and Geminga.

PSR B0540-69, the second brightest optical pulsar, is also the most distant. It is regarded as a twin of the Crab as it is of similar age, spin-down energy, breaking index and it is embedded within its own plerionic remnant. It has a broad light-curve with two distinct peaks \- see figure 12. The difference between its light curve and that of the Crab is likely due to geometry. This pulsar has also had its braking index measured, $`n=2.2\pm 0.02`$ (\[Boyd et al (1995)\]). This (like the Crab) differs from the pure dipole value of 3. \[Middleditch et al (1987)\] measured no residual polarization from this pulsar - albeit at low significance.

The Vela pulsar has not been studied extensively in the optical. The best light curve from \[Gouiffes & Ogelman (1996)\] shows strong similarity between the $`\gamma `$-ray profile and the optical. More data is required to establish both the detailed structure of the light curve and the pulsar’s polarization properties.

### 2.4 Discussion

In Table 1 we have indicated the peak flux normalized to the Crab pulsar. When comparing the individual pulsars (which will have a range of viewing angles and differing magnetic/rotation axes), we have to account for the viewing angle (related to the pulse duty cycle and separation in terms of phase) as well as the total flux. Furthermore for each source, we have to account for the shape of the pulsar’s spectrum. PS87 indicates for emission above the low energy cut-off that the ratio of the fluxes from two different pulsars can be given by Equation 1 if one ignores the effect of duty cycle and pitch angle (the suffixes refer to each pulsar). Here $`F_{\nu ,n}`$ refers to the flux at the observed frequency $`\nu `$ for pulsar n (similarly for the magnetic field strength, B, and period, P). The observed energy spectrum exponent is given by $`\alpha _n`$. The duty cycle can be accounted for by only considering the peak emission. The pitch angle being beyond the scope of this work and assumed to first order to be invariant. Equation 2 shows the same formulation for the outer field case.

$$\frac{F_{\nu ,2}}{F_{\nu ,1}}(\frac{\nu _{1,0}}{\nu })^{\alpha _2\alpha _1}(\frac{B_{2,0}}{B_{1,0}})^{4\alpha _2}(\frac{P_2}{P_1})^{3\alpha 9}$$
(1)
Scaling to the transverse field would give:

$$\frac{F_{\nu ,2}}{F_{\nu ,1}}(\frac{\nu _{1,0}}{\nu })^{\alpha _2\alpha _1}(\frac{B_{2,0}}{B_{1,0}})^{4\alpha _2}(\frac{P_2}{P_1})^3$$
(2)
Given the observed peak luminosities we investigated the correlation between the peak emission and the surface field and the tangential light cylinder field. Figure 14 shows the relationship between the peak luminosity with the outer (tangentially at the light cylinder) magnetic field strength, $`B_T`$, Goldreich-Julian current and canonical age ($`\frac{P}{2\dot{P}}`$). A clear correlation is seen with all these parameters. We are interested in investigating the implications of a correlation between the peak luminosity and the transverse field. We accept the the strong correlation with G-J current would under pin both emission from polar as well as outer regions.

A regression of the form:

Peak Luminosity $`B_T^\beta `$

was performed for the empirical peak luminosity this leading to a relationship of the form :-

Peak Luminosity $`B_T^{2.86\pm 0.12}`$

significant at the 99.5% level and consistent with the high average exponent shown in Table 1. Figure 14 shows the predicted peak luminosity from Equation 2 against our observed peaks accounting for the differing observed energy spectrum exponent at 4500 Å. The slope is 0.95 $`\pm `$ 0.04 and significant at the 99 % level. Whilst informative it still goes no further than previous attempts to understand the phenomena of optical emission. Importantly, we note that the flattening of the peak luminosity relationship for the older, slower pulsars is consistent with their having a significantly steeper energy spectrum than the younger pulsars, see Table 2. Whilst this is consistent with the emission zone being optically thick we consider it to be more likely that it reflects a larger emission region for these pulsars rather than the younger ones. This broadly concurs with PS87 argument of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (the size of the emission zone) scaling with P.

The polarization of the Crab’s ‘off-region’ can be interpreted as coming from a different source to the main pulsed emission. Smith et al’s argument that the off emission represented a cusp between the two main pulses relies upon the ‘off’-pulse being a genuine cusp and not flat as observed by \[Shearer et al (2002a)\]. The flat region - see Figure 10 - covers the peak of polarization noted by Smith et al. Another explanation is that the net polarization is a combination of two components; the remnants of a pulsed ‘normal’ magnetospheric component and a secondary unpulsed ‘off-pulse’ component. The derived polarization profile is then just the intensity normalized combination of these two processes. As the bridge component has twice the intensity of the ‘off’-pulse we would expect the degree of polarization to be half that of the off-pulse region - as observed. The swing in polarization can therefore be understood in terms of the unpulsed component becoming dominated by by the pulsed component during the rising edge of each pulse. The relative contributions being due to normal quadratic addition of the Stokes parameters - i.e. dominated by the relative intensity. Figure 17 shows the derived polarization profile if it only comes from a steady low-level background source. The shape agrees well with the previously measured profile from Smith et al, except in the region around the main and inter-pulse - where the main pulsed polarization component will occur.

It seems clear that from both polarization studies (\[Smith et al (1988)\]; \[Romani & Yadigaroglu (1995)\]) and from this work that we expect that optical emission zone is sited towards the outer magnetosphere. Timing studies of the size of the Crab pulse plateau indicates a restricted emission volume ($``$ 45 kms in lateral extent) (\[Golden et al (2000)\]). This third point, if consistent with the first two, probably points to emission coming from a geometrically defined cusp along our line of sight akin to treatment within the magnetosphere. More importantly the simple relationships we have derived here indicate that there is no need to invoke complex models for this high energy emission. Observed variations in spectral index, pulse shape and polarization can be understood in terms of geometrical factors rather differences in the production mechanism.

We note as well as that similar trends can be seen in $`\gamma `$ rays. Figure 16 shows the correlation between the peak $`\gamma `$ emission as a function of transverse field. This indicates a regression of the form

Peak $`\gamma `$ Luminosity $`B_T^{0.89\pm 0.15}`$

significant at the 99.6 % level, consistent with the observed steeper distribution seen in the high energy $`\gamma `$-ray band (cf. Table 2).

If we take our results and those of \[Goldoni et al (1995)\] we can begin to understand how the high energy emission process evolves with canonically derived pulsar age. Goldoni et al compared the known spectral indices and efficiencies in both the optical and $`\gamma `$-ray regions. They noted that the spectral index flattened with age for the $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars whilst the reverse was true for the optically emitting systems. They also noted a similar trend reversal for the efficiency with the $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars becoming more efficient with age. We note (see the bottom panel in Figures 15 and 16) a similar behaviour with the peak emission. If, as seems likely from the temporal coincidence between the $`\gamma `$-ray and optical pulses, that the source location is similar for both mechanisms. One explanation is that we seem to have a position where by from the same electron population there are two emission processes - expected if we have curvature for the $`\gamma `$-ray photons and synchrotron for the optical ones. It seems likely that the optical photon spectrum has been further modified to produce the reversal in spectral index with age. The region over which the scattering can occur would scale with the size of the magnetosphere and hence with age. With the outer magnetosphere magnetic fields for these pulsars being $`<10^6`$ G electron cyclotron scattering is not an option. However synchrotron self-absorption could explain the observed features. In essence we would expect the most marked flattening to be for the Crab pulsar where the outer field strengths are of order $`10^6`$ G and less so for the slower and older systems.

These results (both optical and $`\gamma `$ rays) are consistent with a model where the $`\gamma `$ and optical emission is coming from the last open-field line at some constant fraction of the light cylinder. The drop in efficiency with age for the production of optical photons points towards an absorbing process in the outer magnetosphere. Clearly more optical and $`\gamma `$-ray observations are needed to confirm these trends.

## 3 Instrumental Considerations

Table 3 summarizes the current range of detectors available for studies of optical pulsars. To obtain the necessary background measurements 2-d imaging detectors are required - these however (e.g. the MAMA detector used in the TRIFFID photometer, \[Butler et al (1998)\]) have limited quantum efficiency. However the limited qe can be offset by reduced effective sky aperture - the TRIFFID photometer uses off-line sky apertures determined by the local seeing conditions.

CCD based detectors, e.g. ULTRACAM (\[Dhillon & Marsh (2001)\]), suffer from read-noise problems - which increase with decreasing period/time resolution. These will be effective for AXP studies but ’conventional’ pulsars have too short a period. Techniques such as on-chip phase locked image shifting and phase locked moving the secondary mirror have limited application due to field crowding.

Avalanche Photodiodes - as used in OPTIMA (\[Straubmeier et al (2001)\]) and TRIFFID - have good quantum efficiency, timing, but, are only single pixel devices. In both Optima and TRIFFID more than one APD is used for different colours and sky background determination. Attempts are currently being made to construct arrays of these items but there are serious cross-talk problems. The next generation of energy sensitive detectors (see for example, \[Perryman et al (1999)\] & \[Romani et al (1999)\]) will give pulsar observers almost all (with the exception of polarization) flux parameters. However given that these devices are still in their relative infancy there is still a place of APDs and 2-d photocathode based systems.

## 4 Conclusion

The number of optically emitting pulsar which have been observed is limited. The observed phenomenology points to emission in the outer region of the magnetosphere - this seems more likely to come from an Outer Gap type model rather than a Polar Cap. However the data is sparse and no definitive statement can be made separating these models on the basis of the optical emission alone. Over the next few years as with the advent of larger telescopes and more sensitive detectors, we can confidently expect the number of optical detections of isolated neutron stars to increase. PSR B1055-52 & PSR B1951+32 are likely early candidates.

In the optical any potential thermal component should be separable from the strongly pulsed magnetospheric emission, allowing for reliable estimates of the neutron star radius to be measured with consequent implications for equation of state models. However before this is done with any degree of confidence the nature of the unpulsed emission must be established - is it a synchrotron knot feature or more localized to the pulsar. Is it unique to the Crab pulsar? Of crucial importance in the future will be determination of the low-energy cutoff and the polarization sweep through the optical pulse (significantly modern instruments are capable of measuring the polarization sweep for both PSR B0540-69 and Vela as well as the Crab). Also of interest will be the shape of the pulse - in particular the size of any plateau which scales as the size of the emission zone. All of these parameters are measurable with existing technologies and telescopes for these pulsars. The advent of new detectors and larger telescopes should herald a period of renewed interest in optical pulsar studies, however there are still important questions that can be answered by observation with existing telescope/instrument systems.

## 5 Acknowledgments

Enterprise Ireland is acknowledged for support under its Basic Research Grant Scheme. Ray Butler and Padraig O’Connor are thanked for help during the preparation of this manuscript. The workshop organizers are thanked for their hospitality.