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# On T-Duality in Brane Gas Cosmology

## I Introduction

In Brandenberger and Vafa (1989) it was suggested that due to a new string theory-specific symmetry called T-duality, string theory has the potential to resolve the initial singularity problem of Standard Big Bang cosmology, a singularity which also plagues scalar field-driven inflationary cosmology Borde and Vilenkin (1994); Borde et al. (2001).

The framework of Brandenberger and Vafa (1989) was based on an approximation in which the mathematical background space-time is described by the equations of dilaton gravity (see Tseytlin and Vafa (1992); Veneziano (1991)), with the matter source consisting of a gas of strings. The background spatial sections were assumed to be toroidal such as to admit one-cycles. Thus, the degrees of freedom of the string gas consist of winding modes in addition to the momentum modes and the oscillatory modes. Then, both momentum and winding numbers take on discrete values, and the energy spectrum of the theory is invariant under inversion of the radii of the torus, i.e. $`R\alpha ^{}/R`$, where $`\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}`$ is the string length $`l_s`$. The mass of a state with momentum and winding numbers $`n`$ and $`\omega `$, respectively, in a compact space of radius $`R`$, is the same as that of a state with momentum and winding numbers $`\omega `$ and $`n`$, respectively, in the space of radius $`\alpha ^{}/R`$. This symmetry was used to argue Brandenberger and Vafa (1989) that as the radii of the torus decrease to very low values, no physical singularities will occur. Firstly, under the assumption of thermal equilibrium, the temperature of a string gas at radius $`R`$ will be equal to the temperature of the string gas at radius $`\alpha ^{}/R`$. Secondly, any process computed for strings on a space with radius $`R`$, is identical to a dual process computed for strings on a space with radius $`\alpha ^{}/R`$. Therefore there exists a ‘minimal’ radius $`\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}`$ in the sense that physics on length scales below this radius can equally well be described by physics on length scales larger than that.

Since the work of Brandenberger and Vafa (1989) our knowledge of string theory has evolved in important ways. In particular, it has been realized Polchinski (1995) that string theory must contain degrees of freedom other than the perturbative string degrees of freedom used in Brandenberger and Vafa (1989). These new degrees of freedom are Dp-branes of various dimensionalities (depending on which string theory one is considering). Since the T-duality symmetry was used in an essential way (see e.g. Polchinski (1998a)) to arrive at the existence of Dp-branes (p-branes for short in the following), it is clear that T-duality symmetry will extend to a cosmological scenario including p-branes. However, since a T-duality transformation changes the dimensionality of branes, it is useful to explicitly verify that the arguments of Brandenberger and Vafa (1989) for a non-singular cosmological evolution carry over when the gas of perturbative string modes is generalized to a gas of branes. A model for superstring cosmology in which the background space-time is described (as in Tseytlin and Vafa (1992); Veneziano (1991)) by dilaton gravity, and the matter source is a gas of branes, has recently been studied under the name of “brane gas cosmology” Alexander et al. (2000); Brandenberger et al. (2002) (see also Easson (2001); Easther et al. (2002) for extensions to backgrounds which are not toroidal, and Watson and Brandenberger (2002) for an extension to an anisotropic background).

In this Letter, we establish the explicit action of T-duality in the context of brane gas cosmology on a toroidal background. For a solution of the background geometry appropriate for cosmological considerations in which the radii of the torus are decreasing from large to small values as we go back in time, we must consider T-dualizing in all spatial dimensions. We demonstrate that the mass spectrum of branes remains invariant under this action. Thus, if the background dynamics are adiabatic, then the temperature of the brane gas will be invariant under the change $`R\alpha ^{}/R`$, i.e.

$$T(R)=T\left(\frac{\alpha ^{}}{R}\right),$$
(1)
thus demonstrating that superstring cosmology can avoid the temperature singularity problem of standard and inflationary cosmology. In the appendix we make further remarks on why we expect brane gas cosmology to be non-singular. Another crucial assumption is that the string coupling constant $`g`$ is small (compared to one) such that back-reactions of the string and brane gas on the curvature of space-time can be ignored. Similarly, our results can be used to show that the arguments for the existence of a minimal physical length given in Brandenberger and Vafa (1989) extend to brane gas cosmology.

The outline of this Letter is as follows. In the following section we give a brief review of brane gas cosmology. In Section III we (partially re-)derive the energy, the momentum, and the pressure for p-branes. Next, we review the action of T-duality on winding states of p-branes. The main section of this Letter is Section V in which we show that the mass spectrum of a p-brane gas of superstring theory is invariant under T-duality. Section VI contains a discussion of some implications of the result, and conclusions.

## II Review of Brane Gas Cosmology

As already mentioned in the Introduction, the framework of brane gas cosmology consists of a homogeneous and isotropic background of dilaton gravity coupled to a gas of p-branes as a matter source. We are living in the bulk 111In this sense, brane gas cosmology is completely different in ideology than brane world scenarios in which it is assumed (in general without any dynamical explanation) that we live on a specific brane embedded in a warped bulk space-time. From the point of view of heterotic M-theory Horava and Witten (1996), our considerations should be viewed as applying to the 10 dimensional orbifold space-time on which we live..

The initial conditions in the early Universe are ‘conservative’ and ‘democratic’; conservative in the sense that they are close to the initial conditions assumed to hold in standard big bang cosmology (i.e. a hot dense gas of matter), democratic in the sense that all 9 spatial dimensions of critical string theory are considered on an equal basis222For consistency, critical superstring theories need a 10 dimensional target space-time which is in apparent contradiction with the observed four. Usually it is assumed that six dimensions are compactified from the outset due to some unknown physics. However, following the usual approach in cosmology it seems more natural that initially all nine spatial dimensions were compact and small, and that three of them have grown large by a dynamical decompactification process. A corresponding scenario was originally proposed in Brandenberger and Vafa (1989).. Thus, matter is taken to be a gas of p-branes of all allowed values of $`p`$ in thermal equilibrium. In particular, all modes of the branes are excited, including the winding modes.

The background space-time is taken to be $`\times T^9`$ where $`T^9`$ denotes a nine-torus. The key feature of $`T^9`$ which is used in the analysis is the fact that it admits one-cycles which makes it possible for closed strings to have conserved winding numbers 333Recently, the scenario of Brandenberger and Vafa (1989); Alexander et al. (2000) was generalized Easson (2001); Easther et al. (2002) to spatial backgrounds such as Calabi-Yau manifolds which admit 2-cycles but no 1-cycles.. It is also assumed that the initial radius in each toroidal direction is the same, and comparable to the self-dual radius $`\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}`$. Initially, all directions are expanding isotropically with $`R>\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}`$ (the extension to anisotropic initial conditions has recently been considered in Watson and Brandenberger (2002)).

As shown in this Letter, as a consequence of T-duality symmetry, brane gas cosmology provides a background evolution without cosmological singularities. The scenario also provides a possible dynamical explanation for why only three spatial dimensions can become large. Winding modes (and thus T-duality) play a crucial role in the argument. Let us first focus on the winding modes of fundamental strings Brandenberger and Vafa (1989).

The winding and anti-winding modes $`\omega `$ and $`\overline{\omega }`$ of the strings are initially in thermal equilibrium with the other states in the string gas. Thermal equilibrium is maintained by the process

$$\omega +\overline{\omega }\mathrm{loops},\mathrm{radiation}.$$
(2)
When strings cross each other, they can intercommute such that a winding and an anti-winding mode annihilate, producing fundamental string loops or radiation without winding number. This process is analogous to infinite cosmic strings intersecting and producing cosmic string loops and radiation during their interaction (see e.g. Vilenkin and Shellard (1994); Brandenberger (1994) for reviews of cosmic string dynamics).

As the spatial sections continue to expand, matter degrees of freedom will gradually fall out of equilibrium. In the context of string gas cosmology with $`R>\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}`$, the winding strings are the heaviest objects and will hence fall out of equilibrium first. Since the energy of a winding mode is proportional to $`R`$, Newtonian intuition would imply that the presence of winding modes would prevent further expansion. This is contrary to what would be obtained by using the Einstein equations. However, the equations of dilaton gravity yield a similar result to what is obtained from Newtonian intuition Tseytlin and Vafa (1992): the presence of winding modes (with negative pressure) acts as a confining potential for the scale factor.

As long as winding modes are in thermal equilibrium, the total energy can be minimized by transferring it to momentum or oscillatory modes (of the fundamental string). Thereby, the number of winding modes decreases, and the expansion can go on. However, if the winding modes fall out of equilibrium, such that there is a large number of them left, the expansion is slowed down and eventually stopped. If we now try to make $`d`$ of the original 9 spatial dimensions much larger than the string scale, then an obstruction is encountered if $`d>3`$: in this case the probability for crossing and therefore for equilibrating according to the process (2) is zero. On the other hand, in a three-dimensional subspace of the nine-torus, two strings will generically meet. Therefore, the winding modes can annihilate, thermal equilibrium can be maintained, and, since the decay modes of the winding strings have positive pressure, the expansion can go on 444Since quantum mechanically, the thickness of the strings is given by the string length Karliner et al. (1988), it is important for the brane gas scenario that the initial size of the spatial sections was string scale. Otherwise, it would always be the total dimensionality of space which would be relevant in the classical counting argument of Brandenberger and Vafa (1989), and there could be no expansion in any direction.. As a result, there is no topological obstruction to three dimensions of the torus growing large while the other six are staying small (of size $`R\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}`$) 555 When making these considerations we have neglected the possibility that closed strings may break up (in analogy to Hadron fragmentation in QCD). The amplitude of this process should be investigated quantitatively.. Large compact dimensions are not in contradiction with observations if their radius is bigger than the Hubble radius today.

It is not hard to include p-branes into the above scenario Alexander et al. (2000). Now the initial state is a hot, dense gas of all branes allowed in a particular theory. In particular, brane winding modes are excited, in addition to modes corresponding to fluctuations of the brane. Since the winding modes play the most important role in the dynamical decompactification mechanism of Brandenberger and Vafa (1989); Alexander et al. (2000), we will focus our attention on these modes. The analogous classical counting argument as given above for strings yields the result that p-brane winding modes can interact in at most $`2p+1`$ spatial dimensions. Since for weak string coupling and for spatial sizes larger than the self-dual radius the mass of a p-brane (with a fixed winding number in all of its p spatial dimensions) increases as p increases, p-branes will fall out of equilibrium earlier the larger $`p`$ is. Thus, e.g. in a scenario with 2-branes, these will fall out of equilibrium before the fundamental strings and allow five spatial dimensions to start to grow Alexander et al. (2000). Within these five spatial dimensions, the fundamental string winding modes will then allow only a three-dimensional subspace to become macroscopic. Thus there is no topological obstruction to the dynamical generation of a hierarchy of internal dimensions.

## III Energy, Momentum, and Pressure of p-Branes

This section is devoted to the derivation of physical quantities describing the brane gas which determine the cosmological evolution of the background space-time.

Starting from the Dirac-Born-Infeld action, we obtain expressions for the energy and the momentum of a p-brane in $`D=d+1`$ dimensional space-time. We show that there is no momentum flowing along the p tangential directions. From the energy–momentum tensor one can also define a pressure, and hence an equation of state, for the whole brane gas. Even though some of the results in this section are already known, we find it useful to give a self-consistent overview.

Let $`\sigma =(\sigma ^0,\sigma ^i),i=1,\mathrm{},p`$, denote some intrinsic coordinates on the worldsheet of a p-brane. Its position (or embedding) in D-dimensional space time is described by $`x^\mu =X^\mu (\sigma )`$, where $`\mu =0,\mathrm{},d`$, and the induced metric is $`\gamma _{ab}=\eta _{\mu \nu }X_{,a}^\mu X_{,b}^\nu `$, where $`a,b=0,\mathrm{},p`$.

The Dirac-Born-Infeld action is (in the string frame)

$$S_p=T_pd^{p+1}\sigma e^\varphi \sqrt{\gamma },$$
(3)
where $`T_p`$ denotes the tension (charge) of a p-brane, $`\gamma =\text{det}(\gamma _{ab})`$, and $`\varphi `$ is the dilaton of the compactified theory. For our adiabatic considerations, we assume that it is constant (taking its asymptotic value), and absorb it into a physical tension

$$\tau _p=e^\varphi T_p=\frac{T_p}{g}=\frac{1}{(2\pi )^p}\frac{1}{g\alpha ^{(p+1)/2}},$$
(4)
where in the final step we have used the expression for $`T_p`$ (see e.g. Polchinski (1998a)). Note that for any p-brane $`\tau _p`$ goes like $`1/g`$, and that hence, in the weak string coupling regime which we are considering, the branes are heavy. The action (3) can be written as an integral over D-dimensional space-time

$$S_p=d^Dx\left(\tau _pd^{p+1}\sigma \delta ^{(D)}(x^\mu X^\mu (\sigma ))\sqrt{\gamma }\right).$$
(5)
As the integration domain is a torus, both integrals are finite.

Varying the action (5) with respect to the background metric and comparing with the usual definition of the space-time energy-momentum tensor, one obtains666In curved backgrounds the energy-momentum tensor gets multiplied by $`\sqrt{g}`$.

$`T^{\alpha \beta }(x^\mu )=`$ (6)
$`\tau _p{\displaystyle d^{p+1}\sigma \delta ^{(D)}(x^\mu X^\mu (\sigma ))\sqrt{\gamma }\gamma ^{ab}X_{,a}^\alpha X_{,b}^\beta }.`$
The DBI action (3) is invariant under $`p+1`$ reparametrizations $`\sigma \stackrel{~}{\sigma }(\sigma )`$, and we can use this freedom to choose

$$\gamma _{00}=\sqrt{\gamma },\gamma _{0i}=0.$$
(7)
Notice that $`\text{det}(\gamma _{ij})=\sqrt{\gamma }`$ and $`\gamma ^{ik}\gamma _{kj}=\delta _j^i`$. By choosing this gauge, we do not specify a particular embedding which will be convenient later when treating a brane gas, where the branes have arbitrary orientations. Furthermore, it is consistent to set $`X^0=\sigma ^0`$.

To calculate the energy $`E_p`$ of a p-brane, one observes that in the gauge (7)

$`\gamma ^{ab}X_{,a}^0X_{,b}^0=\gamma ^{00}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{\gamma }}}`$
$``$ $`T^{00}(x^\mu )=\tau _p{\displaystyle d^{p+1}\sigma \delta ^{(D)}(x^\mu X^\mu (\sigma ))}.`$ (8)
Writing $`x^\mu =(t,x^n),n=1,\mathrm{},d`$, and splitting the delta-function into a product, the integral over $`\sigma ^0`$ can be carried out. The energy density of a p-brane in d spatial dimensions is

$$\rho _pT^{00}(t,x^n)=\tau _pd^p\sigma \delta ^{(d)}(x^nX^n(t,\sigma ^i)),$$
(9)
and its total energy is

$$E_p=d^dx\rho _p=\tau _pd^p\sigma =\tau _pVol_p.$$
(10)
The volume of a p-brane in its rest frame, $`Vol_p`$, is finite as the brane is wrapped around a torus. Eq. (10) provides a formula for the lowest mass state, $`M_p=E_p`$, which will be used in section V. As expected intuitively, the minimal mass is equal to the tension times the volume of a brane.

To calculate the space-time momentum $`P_p^n`$ of a p-brane, one first evaluates

$`\gamma ^{ab}X_{,a}^0X_{,b}^n={\displaystyle \frac{X_{,0}^n}{\sqrt{\gamma }}}`$
$``$ $`T^{0n}(x^\mu )=\tau _p{\displaystyle d^{p+1}\sigma \delta ^{(D)}(x^\mu X^\mu (\sigma ))X_{,0}^n}`$ (11)
Proceeding similarly as before, the total momentum of a p-brane is found to be

$$P_p^n=\tau _pd^p\sigma \dot{X}^n(t,\sigma ^i),$$
(12)
where the dot denotes the derivative w.r.t. time $`t`$. The gauge conditions (7) can be written as $`0=\gamma _{0i}=\dot{X}^mX_{m,i}`$, where the sum over $`m=1,\mathrm{},d`$ is the ordinary Euclidean scalar product. This is equivalent to saying that the (spatial) velocity vector $`\dot{X}`$ is perpendicular onto each of the tangential vectors $`X_{,i}^m`$. Therefore, only the transverse momentum is observable 777Note the analogy with topological defects in field theory, where also only the transverse momentum of the defects - here taken to be straight - is observable.. Assuming that the brane is a pointlike classical object w.r.t. the transverse directions, this momentum is not quantized despite of the compactness of space. In particular, the question whether there might exist a T-duality correspondence between transverse momentum modes and winding modes does not arise. Moreover, we neglect the possibility of open strings travelling on the brane which would in fact lead to a non-zero tangential momentum.888A relation between brane winding modes and open string momentum modes, quantized as $`n_m/R_m`$, was shown in Sen (1996). Hence, in what follows, we focus on the zero modes of p-branes.

Finally, the pressure $`𝒫_p`$ of a p-brane is given by averaging over the trace $`T_m^m`$. First, notice that

$`\gamma ^{ab}X_{,a}^mX_{m,b}`$
$`=`$ $`\gamma ^{00}X_{,0}^mX_{m,0}+\gamma ^{11}\gamma _{11}+\mathrm{}+\gamma ^{pp}\gamma _{pp}`$
$`+2\gamma ^{12}\gamma _{21}+\mathrm{}+2\gamma ^{1p}\gamma _{p1}`$
$`+2\gamma ^{23}\gamma _{32}+\mathrm{}+2\gamma ^{2p}\gamma _{p2}+\mathrm{}`$
$`+2\gamma ^{p1,p}\gamma _{p,p1}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{\gamma }}}X_{,0}^mX_{m,0}+p.`$ (13)
In the first step we have used that the products of the embedding functions can be expressed in terms of the induced metric, e.g. $`\gamma _{11}=X_{,1}^mX_{m,1}`$, and in the second step the fact that $`\gamma ^{ik}\gamma _{kj}=\delta _j^i`$. Inserting this into Eq. (6), eliminating the remaining $`\sqrt{\gamma }`$ by $`\sqrt{\gamma }=\gamma _{00}=1+X_{,0}^mX_{m,0}`$, and integrating out the $`\sigma ^0`$ dependence, one finds

$`T_m^m(t,x^n)=`$ (14)
$`\tau _p{\displaystyle d^p\sigma \delta ^{(d)}(x^nX^n(t,\sigma ^i))[(p+1)\dot{X^m}\dot{X_m}p]}.`$
The quantity $`\dot{X^m}\dot{X_m}`$ is the squared velocity of a point on a brane parameterized by $`(t,\sigma ^i)`$. We define the mean squared velocity of the branes in the gas by averaging over all $`\sigma ^i`$, i.e. $`v^2(t)\dot{X^m}\dot{X_m}`$. In the averaged trace, $`T_m^m`$, the velocity term can be taken out of the integral. Comparing with Eq. (9), one obtains the equation of state of a p-brane gas

$$𝒫_p\frac{1}{d}T_m^m=\left[\frac{p+1}{d}v^2\frac{p}{d}\right]\rho _p.$$
(15)
In the relativistic limit ($`v^21`$) the branes behave like ordinary relativistic particles: $`𝒫_p=\frac{1}{d}\rho _p`$, whereas in the non-relativistic limit ($`v^20`$) $`𝒫_p=\frac{p}{d}\rho _p`$. For domain walls this result was obtained in Zeldovich et al. (1974).

The pressure $`𝒫_p`$ and the energy density $`\rho _p`$ are the source terms in the Einstein equations for the brane gas Alexander et al. (2000); Tseytlin and Vafa (1992).

## IV Winding states and T-duality

We briefly review some of the properties of T-duality that are needed subsequently.

Consider a nine-torus $`T^9`$ with radii $`(R_1,\mathrm{},R_9)`$. Under a T-duality transformation in n-direction

$$R_nR_n^{}=\frac{\alpha ^{}}{R_n},$$
(16)
and all other radii stay invariant. T-duality also acts on the dilaton (which is constant in our case), and hence on the string coupling constant, as

$$gg^{}=\frac{\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}}{R_n}g.$$
(17)
Note, however, that the fundamental string length $`l_s\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}`$ is an invariant. The transformation law (17) follows from the requirement that the gravitational constant in the effective theory remains invariant under T-duality. In general, T-duality changes also the background geometry. However, a Minkowski background (as we are using here) is invariant.

For a p-brane on $`T^9`$, a particular winding state is described by a vector $`\omega =(\omega _1,\mathrm{},\omega _9)`$. There are $`9!/[p!(9p)!]`$ such vectors corresponding to all possible winding configurations. For illustration take a 2-brane on a three-torus: it can wrap around the (12), (13), (23) directions, and hence there are $`3!/2!=3`$ vectors $`\omega =(\omega _1,\omega _2,0),\omega =(\omega _1,0,\omega _3),\omega =(0,\omega _2,\omega _3)`$.

Whereas T-duality preserves the nature of a fundamental string, it turns a p-brane into a different object. To see this consider a brane with $`p`$ single windings $`\omega =(1,\mathrm{},1,0,\mathrm{},0)`$ which represents a p-dimensional hypersurface on which open strings end. Along the brane the open string ends are subject to Neumann boundary conditions. These become Dirichlet boundary conditions on the T-dual coordinate $`R_n^{}`$ (if n denotes a tangential direction), i.e. for each string endpoint $`R_n^{}`$ is fixed. Thus a T-duality in a tangential direction turns a p-brane into a (p-1)-brane. Similarly, a T-duality in an orthogonal direction turns it into a (p+1)-brane (see e.g. Polchinski (1998a) for more details).

Next, consider a T-duality transformation in a direction in which the p-brane has multiple windings $`\omega _n>1`$. One obtains a number $`\omega _n`$ of (p-1)-branes which are equally spaced along this direction. As an example take a 1-brane with winding $`\omega _1=2`$ on a circle with radius $`R_1`$. This configuration is equivalent to a 1-brane with single winding on a circle with radius $`2R_1`$. T-dualizing in 1-direction gives a single 0-brane on a circle of radius $`\alpha ^{}/2R_1`$ which is equivalent to two 0-branes on a circle of radius $`\alpha ^{}/R_1`$ (see e.g. Hashimoto (1998)). Since applying a T-duality transformation twice in the same direction yields the original state (up to a sign in the RR field), also the inverse is true: a number $`\omega _n`$ of (p-1)-branes correspond to a single p-brane with winding $`\omega _n`$.

So far we have discussed T-duality transformations in a single direction. For applications to isotropic brane gas cosmology we need to consider T-dualizing in all nine spatial directions. Given a gas of branes, $``$, on a nine-torus with radii $`(R_1,\mathrm{},R_9)`$ consisting of a large number of branes of all types admitted by a particular string theory, we want to find the corresponding gas $`^{}`$ on the dual torus $`T^{}`$ with radii $`(R_1^{},\mathrm{},R_9^{})`$. To that end one performs a T-duality transformation in each of the nine spatial directions. From what we have discussed so far, it is now easy to see that a p-brane in a winding state $`\omega =(\omega _1,\mathrm{},\omega _p,0,\mathrm{},0)`$ is mapped into a number $`\omega _1\mathrm{}\omega _p`$ of (9-p)-branes, each of which is in a state $`\omega ^{}=(0,\mathrm{},0,1,\mathrm{},1)`$. The (9-p)-brane wraps in the (9-p) directions orthogonal to the original p-brane. It is clear that the above considerations hold for any winding configuration.

After these preparatory steps, we now turn to the main part of this Letter.

## V Mass spectra and T-duality

### V.1 Masses of p-branes with single winding

In this section we show that each mass state in a brane gas $``$ has a corresponding state with equal mass in the brane gas $`^{}`$. Based on type IIA superstring theory we take $``$ to consist of 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 branes. Then, by the discussion in the preceding section, the brane gas $`^{}`$ contains 9, 7, 5, 3, 1 branes which are the states of type IIB as we have carried out an odd number (nine) of T-duality transformations. Notice that this follows from the T-duality symmetry for fundamental strings, not from T-duality arguments applied to the above brane gases which we actually want to show. Our demonstration is done by carrying out explicitly nine T-duality transformations on a mass state in $``$, and showing that there is a corresponding and equal mass state in $`^{}`$. In this sense the two brane gases are T-dual.

Suppose that the branes in $``$ are wrapped around some of the cycles of a nine-torus with radii $`(R_1,\mathrm{},R_9)`$. Then, the volume $`Vol_p`$ of a p-brane in Eq. (10) is simply the product of the p circumferences, and the minimal masses $`M_p=E_p`$ (in the string frame) are

$`M_0={\displaystyle \frac{1}{g\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}}},`$ (18)
$`M_2=(2\pi )^2R_9R_8\tau _2={\displaystyle \frac{R_9R_8}{g\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}3/2}}},`$ (19)
$`M_4=(2\pi )^4R_9R_8R_7R_6\tau _4={\displaystyle \frac{R_9R_8R_7R_6}{g\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}5/2}}},`$ (20)
$`M_6=(2\pi )^6R_9\mathrm{}R_4\tau _6={\displaystyle \frac{R_9\mathrm{}R_4}{g\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}7/2}}},`$ (21)
$`M_8=(2\pi )^8R_9\mathrm{}R_2\tau _8={\displaystyle \frac{R_9\mathrm{}R_2}{g\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}9/2}}},`$ (22)
(see also Polchinski (1998a)) where in the second step we have used expression (4) for the tension of a p-brane. For notational convenience we have fixed a particular winding configuration. The argument is generalized for arbitrary winding configurations and winding numbers at the end of this section. If, as we have assumed, $`R_n>\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}`$, then the heaviest object in the theory is the 8-brane.

The DBI action (3) is invariant under T-duality. Hence, all formulae derived from it (energy, mass and pressure) are valid in both the original brane gas $``$ and in the dual brane gas $`^{}`$. Thus, the mass spectrum of the $`^{}`$ brane gas is

$`M_9^{}=(2\pi )^9R_9^{}\mathrm{}R_1^{}\tau _9^{}={\displaystyle \frac{R_9^{}\mathrm{}R_1^{}}{g^{}\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}10/2}}},`$ (23)
$`M_7^{}=(2\pi )^7R_7^{}\mathrm{}R_1^{}\tau _7^{}={\displaystyle \frac{R_7^{}\mathrm{}R_1^{}}{g^{}\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}8/2}}},`$ (24)
$`M_5^{}=(2\pi )^5R_5^{}\mathrm{}R_1^{}\tau _5^{}={\displaystyle \frac{R_5^{}\mathrm{}R_1^{}}{g^{}\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}6/2}}},`$ (25)
$`M_3^{}=(2\pi )^3R_3^{}R_2^{}R_1^{}\tau _3^{}={\displaystyle \frac{R_3^{}R_2^{}R_1^{}}{g^{}\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}4/2}}},`$ (26)
$`M_1^{}=2\pi R_1^{}\tau _1^{}={\displaystyle \frac{R_1^{}}{g^{}\alpha ^{}}}.`$ (27)
Since $`R_i^{^{}}<\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}`$, the heaviest brane of the dual gas $`^{}`$ is now the 1-brane. The coupling constant in $`^{}`$ is given by

$$g^{}=\frac{\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}9/2}}{R_9\mathrm{}R_1}g.$$
(28)
Note that if the radii $`(R_1,\mathrm{},R_9)`$ of the initial nine-torus are bigger than the self-dual radius $`\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}1/2}`$, then $`g^{}<g`$, and thus the assumption of a small string coupling constant is safe.

Given the two mass spectra, one can easily verify that each state in the brane gas $``$ has a corresponding state with equal mass in the dual brane gas $`^{}`$:

$$M_{9p}^{}=M_p.$$
(29)
This establishes explicitly that the T-duality of the string gas used in Brandenberger and Vafa (1989) extends to the brane gas cosmology of Alexander et al. (2000).

As an explicit example, consider a 2-brane wrapped around the 8 and 9 directions. Its mass is (19)

$$M_2=\frac{R_8R_9}{g\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}3/2}}.$$
(30)
If we replace the string coupling constant $`g`$ by the dual string coupling constant $`g^{}`$ via (28), and the radii $`R_8`$ and $`R_9`$ by the dual radii $`R_8^{^{}}`$ and $`R_9^{^{}}`$ via (16), one obtains

$$M_2=\frac{R_1^{^{}}\mathrm{}R_7^{^{}}}{g^{}\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}8/2}}=M_7^{}.$$
(31)
In the above example, we have specified a particular winding configuration for simplicity, but clearly the argument holds as well in the general case, where a p-brane wraps around some directions $`n_1\mathrm{}n_p`$:

$$M_p=(2\pi )^pR_{n_1}\mathrm{}R_{n_p}\tau _p=\frac{R_{n_1}\mathrm{}R_{n_p}}{g\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}(p+1)/2}}.$$
(32)
Via the same steps as in the above example, it follows that

$`M_{9p}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`(2\pi )^{9p}R_{m_1}^{}\mathrm{}R_{m_{9p}}^{}\tau _{9p}^{}={\displaystyle \frac{R_{m_1}^{}\mathrm{}R_{m_{9p}}^{}}{g^{}\alpha ^{{}_{}{}^{}(10p)/2}}}`$ (33)
$`=`$ $`M_p,`$
where $`\{m_1,\mathrm{},m_{9p}\}\{n_1,\mathrm{},n_p\}`$.

### V.2 Multiple windings

Consider now a p-brane with multiple windings $`\omega =(\omega _1,\mathrm{},\omega _p,0,\mathrm{},0)`$. Its mass is

$$M_p(\omega )=\omega _1\mathrm{}\omega _pM_p.$$
(34)
In the $`^{}`$ brane gas this corresponds to a number $`\omega _1\mathrm{}\omega _p`$ of (9-p)-branes each with winding $`\omega ^{}=(0,\mathrm{},0,1,\mathrm{},1)`$ and mass $`M_{9p}^{}`$. Since $`M_{9p}^{}=M_p`$, the total mass of this ‘multi-brane’ state is equal to the mass of the original brane, namely

$$(\omega _1\mathrm{}\omega _p)M_{9p}^{}=M_p(\omega ),$$
(35)
which establishes the correspondence of $``$ and $`^{}`$ in the case of multiple windings.

One should also add fundamental strings to the brane gas $``$. Since their mass squared is

$$M^2=\left(\frac{n_n}{R_n}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\omega _nR_n}{\alpha ^{}}\right)^2,$$
(36)
is its clear that every fundamental string state in $``$ has a corresponding state in $`^{}`$ when $`n_n\omega _n`$.

## VI Cosmological Implications and Discussion

We have demonstrated explicitly how T-duality acts on a brane gas in a toroidal cosmological background, and have in particular shown that the mass spectrum of the theory is invariant under T-duality. Thus, the arguments of Brandenberger and Vafa (1989) which led to the conclusion that cosmological singularities can be avoided in string cosmology extend to brane gas cosmology.

Whereas T-duality does not change the nature of fundamental strings, but simply interchanges winding and momentum numbers, it changes the nature of branes: after T-dualizing in all $`d`$ spatial dimensions, a $`p`$-brane becomes a $`(dp)`$-brane which, however, was shown to have the same mass as the ‘original’ brane.

In Alexander et al. (2000) it was shown that the dynamical decompactification mechanism proposed in Brandenberger and Vafa (1989) remains valid if, in addition to fundamental strings, the degrees of freedom of type IIA superstring theory are enclosed. We briefly comment on the decompactification mechanism in the presence of a type IIB brane gas on a nine-torus. As before, we assume a hot, dense initial state where, in particular, the brane winding modes are excited and in thermal equilibrium with the other degrees of freedom. All directions of the torus are roughly of string scale size, $`l_s`$, and start to expand isotropically. For the 9-,7, and 5-brane winding modes there is no dimensional obstruction to continuously meet and to remain in equilibrium, thereby transferring their energy to less costly momentum or oscillatory modes: these degrees of freedom do not constrain the number of expanding dimensions. However, the 3-branes allow only seven dimensions to grow further, and out of these, three dimensions can become large when 1-brane and string winding modes have disappeard. As far as the ‘intercommutation’ and equilibration process is concerned, the 1-branes and the strings play the same role, but since the winding modes of the former are heavier ($`\frac{R}{g\alpha ^{}}\frac{R}{\alpha ^{}}`$ at weak coupling), they disappear earlier.

We have focused our attention on how T-duality acts on brane winding modes. However, since in a hot and dense initial state we expect all degrees of freedom of a brane to be excited, we should also include transverse fluctuations (oscillatory modes) in our considerations concerning T-duality. To our knowledge, the quantization of such modes is, however, not yet understood, and we leave this point for future studies.

Another interesting issue is to investigate how the present picture of brane gas cosmology gets modified when gauge fields on the branes are included. These correspond to $`U(N)`$ Chan-Paton factors at the open string ends. In this case, a T-duality in a transverse direction yields a number $`N`$ of parallel (p-1)-branes at different positions Polchinski (1998b).

## Acknowledgments

We would like to thank S. Alexander, L. Alvarez-Gaume, J. Fernando-Barbon, S. Foffa, S. Lelli, J. Mourad, R. Myers, Y. Oz, F. Quevedo, A. Rissone, M. Rozali and M. Vasquez-Mozo for useful discussions. R.B. wishes to thank the CERN Theory Division and the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris for their hospitality and support during the time the work on this project was done. He also acknowledges partial support from the US Department of Energy under Contract DE-FG02-91ER40688, TASK A.

## Appendix

In this appendix we would like to give some further arguments for why we believe brane gas cosmology to be non-singular. First, let us recall the results of Brandenberger and Vafa (1989). In the case of a string gas, where the strings are freely propagating on a 9-torus, it was shown that the cosmological evolution is free of singularities. The background space-time has to be compact, otherwise the thermodynamical description of strings is not sound, in particular the specific heat becomes negative at large energies. An important assumption in the derivation was that the evolution of the universe is adiabatic, i.e. the entropy of the string gas is constant. Making use of this assumption, one can find the temperature as a function of the scale factor, $`T(R)`$, without referring to the dynamics of gravity or Einstein’s equations. Using a microcanonical approach, it was shown that there exists a maximum temperature, called Hagedorn temperature $`T_H`$, and hence there is no temperature singularity in string gas cosmology. The curve $`T(R)`$ is invariant under a T-duality transformation, $`T(R)=T\left(\alpha ^{}/R\right)`$. Another crucial assumption is that the string coupling constant, $`g`$, is small enough such that the thermodynamical computations for free strings are applicable, and that the back-reaction of the string condensate on the background geometry can be neglected. In lack of knowledge about brane thermodynamics we simply postulate that the statements above extend to brane gases.

We conclude by making a comment on our work in the light of the well-known singularity theorems in General Relativity. These theorems make assumptions about the geometry of space-time such as $`R_{\mu \nu }\xi ^\mu \xi ^\nu 0`$ for all timelike vectors $`\xi ^\mu `$ (for a textbook treatment see e.g. Wald (1984)). By Einstein’s equations this is equivalent to the strong energy condition for matter. However, we do not trust Einstein’s equations in the very early universe as they receive corrections which are higher order in $`\alpha ^{}`$ as well as $`g`$, and also they lack invariance under T-duality transformations $`R1/R`$. Therefore we cannot invoke the energy momentum tensor given in Eqs. (9),(11), (14) to decide whether the universe described by our model is geodesically complete or not.


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# Feshbach-resonance-induced atomic filamentation and quantum pair correlation in atom-laser-beam propagation

## Abstract

We study the propagation of an atom laser beam through a spatial region with a magnetic field tuned to a Feshbach resonance. Tuning the magnetic field below the resonance produces an effective focusing Kerr medium that causes a modulational instability of the atomic beam. Under appropriate circumstances, this results in beam breakup and filamentation seeded by quasi-particle fluctuations, and in the generation of correlated atomic pairs.

It has been recognized for quite some time that the two-body interactions that govern the dynamics of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), and which are expressed most simply in terms of the $`s`$-wave scattering length $`a`$, play a role for matter waves analogous to that of a cubic (Kerr) nonlinearity in optics. This was illustrated in a number of experiments that include matter-wave four-wave mixing phillips , the generation of dark dark  and bright bright  atomic solitons, coherent matter-wave amplification amplify , and the generation of quantum-correlated atomic pairs ketterle2 . It has also been demonstrated that the strength of this nonlinearity can be varied, and its sign changed, using in particular Feshbach resonances feshbach1 ; feshbach2 . In the language of nonlinear optics, changing the sign of the scattering length amounts to switching from a defocusing (for repulsive interactions, $`a>0`$) to a focusing (for attractive interactions, $`a<0`$) nonlinear medium. The tunability of the scattering length offers a degree of flexibility of considerable interest in the study of the manybody properties of atomic condensates, as well as for nonlinear atom optics applications.

As pointed out by Timmermans et al. timmermans , caution is in order when considering the dynamics of a condensate in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance. In the atomic systems under consideration, they correspond to a situation where the total energy of two colliding atoms equals the energy of a bound molecular state. In the vicinity of the resonance, it is essential to properly account for the molecular dynamics. Indeed, it has recently been unambiguously established experimentally that a proper description of the system requires that one accounts for the coherent coupling between the atomic and molecular field, resulting in the onset of atom-molecule coherence in BECs atommolecule . The presence of the molecular state is also predicted to lead to “resonant superfluidity” in quantum-degenerate atomic Fermi systems resonanceSF .

Far from resonance, however, it is possible to adiabatically eliminate the molecular field from the system’s dynamics, in which case the atomic condensate is subject to an effective, tunable scattering length that describes the binary atomic collisions. The goal of this letter is to illustrate how this tunable scattering length can be exploited to manipulate and control the propagation of a continuous-wave atom laser beam. The specific geometry that we consider consists of an atom laser beam propagating through a region where a spatially dependent magnetic field is applied to switch the nature of the binary collisions from being repulsive, or defocusing, to attractive, or focusing. This results in a spatial change of the interatomic interaction similar to the presence of a Kerr medium in nonlinear optics, albeit with some important differences. We show that under appropriate circumstances, the quasi-particle fluctuations in the initial atom laser beam can seed the filamentation of the atom laser beam, with the generation of pair-correlated atoms in spatial sidebands. This is similar to the amplification of squeezed light by parametric processes in a nonlinear optical Kerr medium, but with the important difference that in the present situation it is not necessary to start from a squeezed input.

We recall that the generation of correlated atomic pairs from BECs has recently been studied by a number of authors pu ; ketterle2 . In these works, correlated atomic pairs are generated either from vacuum fluctuations pu , or grow via four-wave mixing from the combined effects of a seed beam and vacuum fluctuations ketterle2 . In contrast, the proposed scheme involves the generation of a pair-correlated atomic source from quasi-particle vacuum fluctuations, with an atom laser beam as the sole pump beam.

A Feshbach resonance is a scattering resonance where two particles in an open channel collide to form a bound state in the closed channel. In the case of quantum-degenerate atomic fields, such as Bose-Einstein condensates or atom laser beams, the bound state in the closed channel is a coherent molecular state. The dynamical equations describing the atom-molecule coherent coupling can be written as timmermans

$`i\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2^2}{2m}}+U_a\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a^{}\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a+U_{am}\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_m^{}\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_m\right)\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a`$
$`+2\alpha \widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_m\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a^{}`$
$`i\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_m}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2^2}{4m}}+ϵ+U_m\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_m^{}\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_m+U_{am}\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a^{}\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a\right)\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_m`$ (1)
$`+\alpha \widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a^2.`$
Here $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_{a,m}`$ are the atomic and molecular field operators, $`m`$ is the atomic mass, $`U_a=(4\pi \mathrm{}^2/m)a_a`$, $`U_m=(2\pi \mathrm{}^2/m)a_m`$, and $`U_{am}=(3\pi \mathrm{}^2/2m)a_{am}`$ are the atom-atom, molecule-molecule, and atom-molecule binary interaction strengths, with $`a_a`$, $`a_m`$, and $`a_{am}`$ the corresponding scattering lengths, and $`\alpha `$ is the coupling strength the Feshbach resonance. The parameter $`ϵ`$ is the energy difference between the molecular state and the atomic state.

For large resonance detunings $`|ϵ|`$, it is possible to adiabatically eliminate the molecular field, leading to the effective Heisenberg equation of motion

$$i\mathrm{}\frac{\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a}{t}=\left(\frac{\mathrm{}^2^2}{2m}+\mathrm{}\chi \widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a^{}\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a\right)\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a,$$
(2)
for the atomic Schrödinger field. In this expression, the effective coupling constant $`\mathrm{}\chi U_a2\alpha ^2/ϵ`$ accounts for the change of the the strength of the atomic binary collisions resulting from the Feshbach resonance.

We now proceed to study the propagation of an atom laser through a spatially-dependent effective nonlinearity, which for simplicity we take to be of the form

$$\mathrm{}\chi (z)U_a2(\alpha ^2/ϵ)\mathrm{\Theta }(z),$$

where $`\mathrm{\Theta }(z)`$ is a Heaviside step function. In particular, we consider the situation in which the binary collisions change from repulsive for $`z<0`$, to attractive for $`z>0`$. The continuous wave atom laser beam is incident from $`z<0`$, and we describe the incident atomic field as a coherent beam of Bose-condensed atoms propagating along the $`z`$-axis with wave vector $`k_0\widehat{𝐳}=(mv_0/\mathrm{})\widehat{𝐳}`$. We also ignore any atoms that are back reflected at the interface: If we take account of the fact that the magnetic field actually varies over a length $`L`$ around $`z=0`$, then using a WKB analysis we find that back reflections are negligible if $`(2\pi /k_0)(2\alpha ^2/|ϵ|)n_0/Lv_0^2/2m`$ where $`n_0`$ is the density of atoms in the condensate.

An important distinction between this and the generic situation considered in nonlinear optics, where the beam is incident from vacuum, is that the incident atomic field is self-interacting. Hence, a proper description must include the quasi-particle vacuum fluctuations propagating together with the coherent BEC component. As such, a realistic atom laser beam consists of the sum of a moving condensed component, described classically, and quantum fluctuations fetter ,

$$\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_a(𝐫,t)=\left[\sqrt{n_0}+\widehat{\psi }(𝐫,t)\right]e^{i(k_0k_n)zi\omega _0t},z<0,$$
(3)
where $`\sqrt{n_0}`$ describes the coherent BEC component (taken real without loss of generality), $`\mathrm{}\omega _0=\mathrm{}^2k_0^2/2m`$, and $`k_n=\chi n_0/v_0`$ is a nonlinear phase shift. The noise operator $`\widehat{\psi }(𝐫,t)`$ obeys bosonic commutation relations. From the corresponding Heisenberg equation of motion (2), one observes that the binary collisions contribute a term of the form

$$i\mathrm{}\frac{\widehat{\psi }(𝐫,t)}{t}U_an_0\left(\widehat{\psi }(𝐫,t)+\widehat{\psi }^{}(𝐫,t)\right)$$

to the evolution of the noise operator $`\widehat{\psi }(𝐫,t)`$. This form of evolution is quite familiar in quantum optics, where it is known to lead to the generation of squeezed states. Thus, the repulsive self-interaction of the incident atom laser beam for $`z<0`$ is sufficient to provide initial squeezed state vacuum fluctuations at the input port of the (focusing) nonlinear medium $`z=0`$.

We proceed by expanding the noise operator $`\widehat{\psi }(𝐫,t)`$ in terms of plane-waves as

$`\widehat{\psi }(𝐫,t)={\displaystyle }d𝐪{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}dk_z[\widehat{a}_0(𝐪,k_z,t)e^{ik_z(zv_0t)}`$
$`\widehat{b}_0(𝐪,k_z,t)e^{ik_z(zv_0t)}]e^{i𝐪𝐫_{}},`$ (4)
where $`𝐪`$ is the transverse wave vector and the operators $`\widehat{a}_0(𝐪,k_z,t)`$ and $`\widehat{b}_0(𝐪,k_z,t)=\widehat{a}_0(𝐪,k_z,t)`$ describe forward and backward propagating modes in the rest frame of the atomic beam, respectively.

In the incident region with repulsive interactions, $`z<0`$, it is convenient to express the small quantum fluctuations about the condensate wave function in terms of quasi-particles characterized by bosonic annihilation operators $`\widehat{\alpha }(𝐪,k_z,t)`$ and $`\widehat{\beta }(𝐪,k_z,t)=\widehat{\alpha }(𝐪,k_z,t)`$, given by fetter

$`\widehat{a}_0(𝐪,k_z,t)`$ $``$ $`u_k\widehat{\alpha }(𝐪,k_z,t)+v_k\widehat{\beta }^{}(𝐪,k_z,t),`$
$`\widehat{b}_0(𝐪,k_z,t)`$ $``$ $`u_k\widehat{\beta }(𝐪,k_z,t)+v_k\widehat{\alpha }^{}(𝐪,k_z,t),`$
where

$`u_k^2=v_k^2+1={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_k+\mathrm{}\chi n_0}{E_k}}+1\right),`$
with $`k\sqrt{q^2+k_z^2}`$, $`ϵ_k\mathrm{}^2k^2/2m`$, and $`E_k=\sqrt{ϵ_k^2+2ϵ_k\mathrm{}\chi n_0}`$ being the quasiparticle energy associated with $`\widehat{\alpha }(𝐪,k_z,t)`$ and $`\widehat{\beta }(𝐪,k_z,t)`$.

We are now in a position to study the propagation of the atom laser beam as it enters the region of Feshbach resonance, $`z>0`$. Specifically, in this paper we focus on the initiation of the filamentation process before appreciable depletion. For this purpose, it is sufficient to consider a linearized perturbation theory in the slowly varying amplitude approximation. For $`z>0`$ we decompose the atomic field operator in the same manner as Eq. (3) with the substitution of $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}(𝐫,t)`$ in place of $`\widehat{\psi }(𝐫,t)`$ for the fluctuation operator. Furthermore, analogous to Eq. (4), we also decompose the noise operator $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}(𝐫,t)`$ in terms of quasi-plane waves,

$$\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}(𝐫,t)=𝑑𝐪\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_𝐪(z,t)e^{i𝐪𝐫_{}},$$
(5)
where

$`\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_𝐪(z,t)={\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}`$ $`dk_z`$ $`[\widehat{a}(𝐪,k_z,z)e^{ik_z(zv_0t)}`$ (6)
$`+\widehat{b}(𝐪,k_z,z)e^{ik_z(zv_0t)}].`$
Here we allow for a slow $`z`$-dependence of the operators $`\widehat{a}`$ and $`\widehat{b}`$. This approach, familiar from quantum optics, allows one to account for the possible amplification of the quantum noise. Spatial variation of the quasi-particle operators was ignored in the region $`z<0`$ due to the absence of sideband gain for repulsive binary collisions.

Substituting Eq. (5) into Eq. (2) yields pairs of coupled operator equations that describe the linearized spatial evolution of the condensate sidebands,

$$i\frac{}{T}\left[\begin{array}{c}\widehat{a}(𝐪,k_z,z)\\ \widehat{b}^{}(𝐪,k_z,z)\end{array}\right]=\left[\begin{array}{cc}\left(ϵ_q+\chi n_0\right)& \chi n_0\\ \chi n_0& \left(ϵ_q+\chi n_0\right)\end{array}\right]\left[\begin{array}{c}\widehat{a}(𝐪,k_z,z)\\ \widehat{b}^{}(𝐪,k_z,z)\end{array}\right].$$
(7)
where $`T=t+z/v_0`$. Assuming a solution to Eq. (7) of the form $`e^{gT}`$ and matching the field operator solutions in the two regions at $`z=0`$ we obtain finally

$`\widehat{a}(𝐪,k_z,z)=\left\{\left[U(q,z)u_k+V(q,z)v_k\right]\widehat{\alpha }(𝐪,k_z)+\left[U(q,z)v_k+V(q,z)u_k\right]\widehat{\beta }^{}(𝐪,k_z)\right\},`$
$`\widehat{b}(𝐪,k_z,z)=\left\{\left[V(q,z)u_k+U(q,z)v_k\right]\widehat{\alpha }^{}(𝐪,k_z)+\left[V(q,z)v_k+U(q,z)u_k\right]\widehat{\beta }(𝐪,k_z)\right\},`$ (8)
where the coefficients $`U`$ and $`V`$ are given by

$`U(q,z)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cosh}\left(g{\displaystyle \frac{z}{v_0}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{i}{g}}\left(ϵ_q+\chi n_0\right)\mathrm{sinh}\left(g{\displaystyle \frac{z}{v_0}}\right),`$
$`V(q,z)`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{\chi n_0}{g}}\mathrm{sinh}\left(g{\displaystyle \frac{z}{v_0}}\right),`$ (9)
with the gain parameter

$$g=\sqrt{(\chi n_0)^2\left(ϵ_q+\chi n_0\right)^2}.$$
(10)
Without loss of generality we have taken $`t=0`$ in order to focus on how the filamentation develops with propagation distance.

We observe that the linearized solution of Eqs. (8) can exhibit gain in the case of a focusing Feshbach resonance, $`\chi <0`$. Specifically, the gain coefficient $`g`$ is real for $`q2\sqrt{m|\chi |n_0/\mathrm{}}`$, with a maximum, $`g_{\mathrm{max}}=|\chi |n_0`$, for the transverse wavevector

$$q_{\mathrm{max}}=\sqrt{2m|\chi |n_0/\mathrm{}}.$$
(11)
Physically, this growth of a range of coupled pairs of spatial sidebands $`\pm 𝐪`$ around the condensate corresponds to a transverse modulational instability with a cone of unstable transverse momenta peaked around $`|𝐪|=q_{\mathrm{max}}`$. If allowed to grow this instability will ultimately lead to the breakup of the incident laser beam into transverse structures or filaments similarly to the situation in nonlinear optics campillo ; boyd . If instead of using a plane-wave condensate we consider a beam with widths $`w_{x,y}`$ in the $`x`$ and $`y`$ transverse directions, we can eliminate the instability in the $`y`$-direction, for example, by choosing $`q_{\mathrm{max}}w_y<1,q_{\mathrm{max}}w_x1`$, so that the most unstable wavevector cannot be supported in the $`y`$-direction. In that case the cone of unstable wavevectors becomes a pair of sidebands that are peaked at $`\pm q_{\mathrm{max}}`$ along the $`x`$-direction. This quasi-one-dimensional geometry may be better to isolate correlated atomic pairs.

This modulational instability is intimately related to the collapse of 85Rb condensates seen in recent experiments feshbach2 . In these experiments, stable repulsive BEC’s with densities of $`n_010^{12}`$ cm-3 are produced in the presence of a magnetic field tuned close to a Feshbach resonance ($`B160`$ G) and then the magnetic field is tuned above $`167`$ G where the interaction becomes attractive. Far from the resonance the interactions are attractive with a background scattering length of $`a_{bg}=23.85`$ nm atommolecule . Using these parameters gives a $`q_{\mathrm{max}}=7.75\times 10^6`$ m-1 or a transverse velocity of $`0.6`$ cm/s for the sideband atoms.

Proceeding with the example of a plane-wave condensate, to quantify the statistical properties of the generated atomic sidebands, we evaluate the field correlation and intensity correlation functions for $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_𝐪(z)`$ defined in Eq. (6). Assuming that the quantum fluctuations in the incident atom laser beam are in the quasi-particle vacuum state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_0`$, i.e., $`\widehat{\alpha }|\mathrm{\Psi }_0=\widehat{\beta }|\mathrm{\Psi }_0=0`$, and with Eqs. (8) and (9) we find,

$`\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_𝐪^{}\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_𝐪^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho (q)\delta _{𝐪,𝐪^{}},`$ (12)
$`\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_𝐪^{}\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_𝐪\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_𝐪^{}^{}\widehat{\mathrm{\Phi }}_𝐪^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho (q)\rho (q^{})+|Q(q)|^2\delta _{𝐪,𝐪^{}},`$ (13)
where all the operators are evaluated at the same longitudinal distance $`z`$ and in Eq. (13), we have taken $`𝐪𝐪^{}`$. Physically, $`\rho (q)`$ is the probability density in momentum space of finding an atom with a transverse momentum $`\mathrm{}𝐪`$ after propagating a distance $`z`$ in the Feshbach region, and $`|Q(q)|^2`$ is the joint probability that if one atom is detected with momentum $`\mathrm{}𝐪`$ a second one will be detected with opposite momentum $`\mathrm{}𝐪`$. They are given by,

$`\rho (q)`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑k_z\left[v_k^2+{\displaystyle \frac{\chi ^2n_0^2}{g^2}}(u_k^2+v_k^2)\mathrm{sinh}^2\left(g{\displaystyle \frac{z}{v_0}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{2\chi n_0}{g^2}}\epsilon _qu_kv_k\mathrm{sinh}^2\left(g{\displaystyle \frac{z}{v_0}}\right)\right],`$
$`Q(q)`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑k_z\left\{u_kv_k+\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\chi n_0}{g^2}}(u_k^2+v_k^2){\displaystyle \frac{2}{g^2}}\epsilon _qu_kv_k\right]\left[\epsilon _q\mathrm{sinh}^2\left(g{\displaystyle \frac{z}{v_0}}\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{ig}{2}}\mathrm{sinh}\left(2g{\displaystyle \frac{z}{v_0}}\right)\right]\right\},`$ (14)
with $`\epsilon _qϵ_q+\chi n_0`$.

As an illustration we assume that atoms are detected after having propagated a distance $`z`$ in the Feshbach region such that the linearized analysis is still valid. The rate at which atoms are detected at an angle $`\theta =\mathrm{tan}^1(q/k_0)`$ relative to the $`z`$-axis will be proportional to $`\rho (q)`$ while the rate of coincidence detections at $`+\theta `$ and $`\theta `$ will be proportional to $`|Q(q)|^2`$. The corresponding probability densities are plotted in Fig. 1,

from which we see that, as expected physically, with increasing propagation distance $`z`$ the most probable transverse wavevector for detecting either an off-axis atom or a correlated atomic pair at $`\pm 𝐪`$ is increasingly $`|𝐪|=q_{\mathrm{max}}`$. These results show that the transverse modulational instability can indeed be an effective source of correlated atomic pairs.

In conclusion, we have studied the propagation of an atom laser beam through a Feshbach resonance region where the effective interaction between atoms is tuned from being repulsive to being attractive. The attractive interaction is equivalent to a self-focusing Kerr medium for the atom laser beam which can generate quantum-pair-correlated atomic filament beams by a modulational instability. This opens up new window to create nonclassical ultracold atomic sources by coherent control of the atomic interactions. The quantum-pair-correlated atomic beam may have potential applications in both fundamental research and applications in quantum information and computation.

This work is supported in part by the US Office of Naval Research under Contract No. 14-91-J1205 and No. N00014-99-1-0806, by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY98-01099, by the US Army Research Office, and by the Joint Services Optics Program.


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# Resonant propagation of fluxons in corner junctions with triplet pairing symmetry

## I Introduction

The order parameter symmetry in the recently discovered superconductor Sr2RuO4  is an active area of current work. The Knight shift shows no change when passing through the superconducting state and this indicates that the pairing state is triplet . The magnetic field is spontaneously induced as shown by $`\mu SR`$ experiment, and this is a clear indication that the time-reversal symmetry is broken . Inelastic-neutron-scattering measurements on single crystals of Sr2RuO4 show that the pairing state is highly anisotropic . Also specific heat measurements support the scenario of line nodes within the gap as in high-$`T_c`$ cuprate superconductors .

In Josephson junctions made of unconventional $`d`$-wave superconductors, the Josephson critical current can be negative depending on the orientation angles of the crystallographic axes with respect to the junction interface. A negative critical current can be thought of as a phase shift of $`\pi `$ at the junction interface. A half fluxon (antifluxon) is trapped at a $`0\pi `$ junction. It’s existence is confirmed experimentally by measurements of the critical current versus the magnetic flux in corner junctions or corner SQUID where a dip appears in the critical current for magnetic field equal to zero . The half magnetic flux quantum, ($`\pi `$ fluxon) has been directly observed using a scanning superconducting quantum interference device microscope in tricrystal frustrated junctions in superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-δ .

The static properties of one dimensional frustrated Josephson junctions between singlet and triplet superconductors have been presented for different nodal and nodeless pairing states . The critical current and the spontaneous flux show a characteristic modulation with the junction orientation, which can be tested by experiment.

The Josephson junction between $`s`$-wave superconductors supports modes of resonant propagation of fluxons . In the plot of the current-voltage ($`IV`$) characteristics these modes appear as near-constant voltage branches known as zero field steps (ZFS) . They occur in the absence of any external field. The ZFS appear at integer multiplies of $`V_1=hc_S/2eL`$, where $`c_S`$ is the velocity of the electromagnetic waves in the junction, and $`L`$ is the junction length. The moving soliton is accompanied by a voltage pulse which can be detected at the junction’s edges.

In Josephson junctions made of unconventional $`d`$-wave superconductors the bound half-fluxon (-antifluxon) reverses its sign and emits an integer fluxon (antifluxon) when biased by an external current . In this work we study the dynamic properties of a frustrated junction, between singlet and triplet superconductors and calculate the $`IV`$ characteristics. For the triplet superconductor Sr2RuO4 we shall assume two possible pairing states of two dimensional order parameter, breaking the time reversal symmetry. The first one is the nodeless $`p`$-wave order parameter with $`E_u`$ symmetry . The other one is the $`f`$-wave state proposed by Hasegawa et al., having $`B_{1g}\times E_u`$ symmetry .

We study both the long and short length junction limit. In the long length junction limit, the external current cannot move the fractional fluxon (antifluxon) $`ff(faf)`$ which is confined at $`x=0`$ and the ZES exist at integer values of the dc voltage $`V_1`$. In the short length junction limit, additional modes in the $`IV`$ diagram are introduced at half integer values of the dc voltage $`V_1`$ and this can be used to distinguish the possible pairing states in the junction.

In the following we present the theoretical model for the corner junction in Sec. II. We present the results for the large junction limit in Sec. III. The case of the shorter junction is presented in Sec. IV and finish with the conclusions.

## II Corner junction model

We consider the junction shown in Fig. 1(a) between a triplet superconductor $`A`$ with a two component order parameter and an $`s`$-wave superconductor $`B`$. The Ginzburg - Landau (GL) equations for isotropic p-wave superconductors have been derived microscopically based on Gor’kov’s theory . This derivation is closely compared to the GL free energy for the superconducting state composed of two degenerate components. Applying the boundary conditions at $`y=0`$ and $`y=W`$ where $`W`$ is the width of the interface we derive the following current phase relation

$$J(\varphi )=\stackrel{~}{J}_c\mathrm{sin}(\varphi +\varphi _c),$$
(1)
where $`\varphi `$ is defined as the relative phase difference between the two superconductors and $`\varphi _c`$ is the intrinsic phase difference. $`\stackrel{~}{J}_c`$ is the Josephson critical current density. For the type of junction that we consider where the insulator has a definite thickness and it is not a point contact as in the case treated by Barash et al. , the Josephson effect is strongly directional dependent and the possibility for the tunneling of the Cooper pairs becomes maximum when the trajectory of the Cooper pair is vertical to the interface. So the total momentum of the order parameter functional depends only on the orientation of the interface. This dependence enters the current phase relation via the $`\stackrel{~}{J}_c`$, and $`\varphi _c`$. We consider a corner Josephson junction between the superconductor $`A`$ and the superconductor $`B`$ as seen in Fig. 1(b). The orientation of the $`a`$ and $`b`$ crystallographic axes are at right angles with the junction edges. We map the two segments of this junction each of length $`l/2`$ into a one dimensional axis. The characteristic phases $`\varphi _{c1}`$, $`\varphi _{c2}`$ for the two segments, for the pairing states that we consider can be seen in table I. The superconducting phase difference $`\varphi `$ across the junction is then the solution of the sine-Gordon equation

$$\frac{d^2\varphi }{dx^2}\frac{d^2\varphi }{dt^2}=J(\varphi )+\gamma \frac{d\varphi }{dt},$$
(2)
where $`\gamma `$ is the damping constant which depends on the temperature. The inline boundary condition reads

$$\frac{d\varphi }{dx}|{}_{x=0,l}{}^{}=\pm \frac{I}{2},$$
(3)
where $`I`$ is the inline bias current. The length $`x`$ is normalized in units of the Josephson penetration depth given by

$$\lambda _J=\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{}c^2}{8\pi ed\stackrel{~}{J}_c}},$$
(4)
where $`d`$ is the sum of the penetration depths in two superconductors plus the thickness of the insulator layer. The time $`t`$ is in units of the inverse of the Josephson plasma frequency

$$\omega _0^1=\lambda _J/c_S.$$
(5)
We can classify the different solutions obtained from Eq. 2 with their magnetic flux content, in units of the flux quantum $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$

$$\mathrm{\Phi }=\frac{1}{2\pi }(\varphi _R\varphi _L),$$
(6)
where $`\varphi _{L(R)}`$ is the value of the phase at the left(right) edge of the junction.

## III large junction limit

A $`4^{th}`$ order Runge Kutta method with fixed time step $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=0.01`$, was used for the integration of the equations of motion. The number of grid points is $`N=1000`$, and the junction length is $`l=20`$. The damping coefficient $`\gamma =0.01`$ is used in all the calculations. The $`IV`$ characteristics for the first and second ZFS (corresponding to one and two fluxons moving into the junction) are seen in Fig. 2(a) for the $`E_u`$ and in Fig. 2(b) for the $`B_{1g}\times E_u`$ pairing state. For the first ZFS two different modes of fluxon propagation exist, corresponding to the presence of bound fractional fluxon or antifluxon respectively at the junction center. For the $`E_u`$ case, due to the difference in the flux content of the bound solutions, the $`ff`$ has smaller critical current than the $`faf`$. This is opposite to the $`B_{1g}\times E_u`$ case. In the $`B_{1g}`$ wave case the $`IV`$ curves for the first ZFS, for the $`ff`$ and $`faf`$ mode have equal critical currents .

For the $`E_u`$ case, the external current cannot move the $`faf`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.75`$ which is confined at $`x=0`$ (see Fig. 3(a)). By applying the external current it emits an integer antifluxon ($`AF`$) which moves to the right and converts to an $`ff`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.25`$. The $`AF`$ hits the right boundary and transforms into a fluxon ($`F`$) which moves to the left. When the $`F`$ reaches the center drags the $`ff`$ with it for a while and forms a fluxon with flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }=1.25`$ which then breaks into a $`ff`$ and a $`F`$ moving to the left. The fluxon hits the left boundary transforms into an antifluxon which moves to the center where it meets the oscillating $`ff`$ and interacts with it forming a $`faf`$ and the period has been completed. A full period of motion back and forth takes time $`t=40`$, and since the overall phase advance is $`4\pi `$, in the relativistic limit where $`u=1`$ reached at high currents, the dc voltage across the junction will be $`V=0.314`$.

We may also have the situation where the $`ff`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.25`$ exists at the junction center as seen in Fig. 3(b). By applying an external current it emits an integer fluxon which moves to the left and converts to a $`faf`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.75`$. The $`F`$ hits the left boundary and transforms to an $`AF`$ which moves to the right. When the $`AF`$ reaches the center it meets the oscillating $`faf`$ and forms a large antifluxon with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=1.75`$ which then splits into a $`faf`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.75`$ and an integer antifluxon moving to the right. The antifluxon hits the right boundary, transforms into a fluxon which moves to the center where it meets the oscillating $`faf`$, interacts with it forming a $`ff`$ and the period has been completed. For the $`B_{1g}\times E_u`$ pairing state the $`ff`$ has magnetic flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.75`$ while the $`faf`$ has magnet flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.25`$ and an integer fluxon or antifluxon propagates into the junction and interacts with the trapped fluxon or antifluxon.

The different character of the various fluxon solutions can also be seen from the plot of the instantaneous voltage $`\varphi _t`$ at the center of the junction for the various fluxon configurations. That plot is seen in Fig. 4 for the solutions regarding the first ZFS for the $`E_u`$ state. During the time of one period three peaks appear in this plot by the time the fluxon (antifluxon) passes through the junction center. Note that the characteristic oscillations of $`\varphi _t`$ between the peaks are due to the oscillation of the bound solution about the junction center. These oscillations become more distinguishable in the $`faf`$ case due its larger fluxon content. Note also the difference in height between successive peaks in the $`\varphi _t`$ vs $`t`$ diagram. This difference become more pronounced in the $`faf`$ case due to its larger flux content. The plot of $`\varphi _t`$ at the edges shows two peaks during the time of one period at time instants which differ by half a period. So for the first ZFS the $`\varphi _t`$ vs $`t`$ plot can be used to probe the existence of $`ff`$ or $`faf`$ at the junction center. For the $`B_{1g}\times E_u`$ pairing state (not presented in the figure) the $`ff`$ has larger flux and the difference in the peak heights and the inter-peak oscillations become more distinguishable in the $`ff`$ case.

For the second ZFS we found four two-fluxon configurations with distinct $`IV`$ curves. Depending on the distance between the two vortices which is kept constant we can categorize the solutions as seen in Fig. 5. So compared to the case of conventional $`s`$-wave superconductors  junction we observe several curves for the second ZFS depending on the relative distance between the fluxons and this may be used to probe the presence of intrinsic magnetic flux.

## IV shorter junction limit

We now consider the case where the junction is of relative short length $`l=2`$. We plot in Fig. 6 the $`IV`$ characteristics for the ZFS. We see that additional steps appear at half integer values of the dc voltage $`V_1`$ besides the ones that exist at integer values. In Fig. 7(a) we present $`\varphi (x)`$, for the first ZFS, for one period ($`T=4`$) at various instances in time, which are separated by $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau =0.2`$. For the $`E_u`$ case, for $`t=0`$ a $`faf`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.75`$ exists at the junction center. By applying the external current it converts to a $`ff`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.25`$ and a $`faf`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.75`$. The $`faf`$ drags the $`ff`$ with it forming a combination of fractional fluxon-antifluxon ($`fffaf`$), with negative magnetic flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.5`$ which moves to the right. It hits the right boundary and the fractional antifluxon with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.75`$ goes to a fractional fluxon with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=1.25`$, while the fractional fluxon with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.25`$ goes to a fractional antifluxon with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.75`$, forming again a combination of fractional fluxon-antifluxon ($`fffaf`$) with total flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.5`$, which moves to the left. Although the total flux is half integer the moving fluxon to the right direction has different structure than the combination that moves to the left and this explains the asymmetry between successive peaks in the $`\varphi _t`$ diagram seen in Fig. 8(a). The $`fffaf`$ hits the left boundary transforms into an $`fffaf`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.5`$ which moves to the center where the period is completed. A full period of motion back and forth takes time $`t=4`$, and since the overall phase advance is $`2\pi `$, in the relativistic limit where $`u=1`$ reached at high currents, the dc voltage across the junction will be $`V=\pi /2`$. This is indeed the value obtained from the numerical simulation as seen in Fig. 6 for the solution labeled as $`1/2`$. Note that this value is half than the case where a full fluxon moves into the junction.

In Fig. 7(c) we present $`\varphi (x)`$, for the case where a bound combination of two fractional vortices with total magnetic flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }=1.5`$ is propagating into the junction. In a junction of length $`l=2`$ the propagating fluxon accomplishes an overall phase advance of $`6\pi `$ in a full period $`T=4`$. Thus the dc voltage across the junction will be $`V=3\pi /2`$. The ZFS seen in Fig. 6 corresponds to a solution labeled as $`3/2`$. Note the the structure of the fluxon moving in the forward and backward direction is not the same and the successive peaks in the $`\varphi _t`$ vs $`t`$ at the center of the junction do not have equal heights as seen in Fig. 8(c).

In Fig. 7(d) we present $`\varphi (x)`$, for the case where the moving combination corresponds to magnetic flux equal to $`2`$. Thus the dc voltage across the junction will be $`V=2\pi `$. The corresponding ZFS is labeled as $`2`$ in Fig. 6. Due to symmetry the $`\varphi _t`$ vs $`t`$ at the center of the junction will have the same height for the forward and backward direction as seen in Fig. 8(d).

For the $`B_{1g}\times E_u`$ state for the first ZFS, by increasing the bias current, the $`faf`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.25`$ is transformed into a $`ff`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.75`$ and a $`faf`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=1.25`$ forming a fractional fluxon with total flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.5`$ that moves to the right. The reflected fluxons has $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.5`$ but differently to the $`E_u`$ case it is composed by a $`ff`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.25`$ and a $`faf`$ with $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0.75`$. This difference can be seen in the $`\varphi _t`$ vs $`t`$ diagram at the center which is displaced in time by half a period compared to the $`E_u`$ case. However the resulting $`IV`$ are similar to the $`E_u`$ case.

## V conclusions

We analyzed the dynamics of fluxons moving in a frustrated Josephson junction with triplet pairing symmetry, and calculated the $`IV`$ characteristics. The external current cannot move the $`ff(faf)`$ which is confined at $`x=0`$. However the external current is able to reorient the $`ff(faf)`$ and emit an integer fluxon(antifluxon). For the first ZFS we found two distinct curves with different critical currents, which correspond to the case where the moving fluxon or antifluxon interacts with a bound fractional fluxon and antifluxon respectively. The critical currents are different for the $`E_u`$ and the $`B_{1g}\times E_u`$ pairing states and this can be used to distinguish the pairing symmetry. When there are more than one integer vortices moving in the junction, there is a possibility of different modes of fluxon propagation which correspond to different critical currents.

In the small junction limit, due to the presence of the internal flux, the moving integer or half integer vortices will have internal structure that is formed from the combinations of the static solutions. The different modes in the $`IV`$ diagram exist both at integer and half integer values of the dc voltage. However the $`IV`$ is similar for the $`E_u`$ and $`B_{1g}\times E_u`$ and therefore it can not be used to distinguish between the two pairing states.

## VI acknowledgements

Part of this work was done at the Department of Physics, University of Crete, Greece.


text:
# Symbiotic Miras vs. Planetary Nebulae in the Near Infrared

## 1. Introduction

Nebulae around symbiotic Miras are very similar to planetary nebulae (PNe) in terms of morphology, excitation conditions, and chemical abundances, although they are formed in a slightly different way (Corradi 2002). While they are hard to distinguish by means of optical spectroscopy, their near infrared (NIR) colors differ noticeably. We obtained NIR photometry of a sample of 155 PNe and (known or suspected) nebulae around symbiotic Miras observed with DENIS (Deep Near Infrared Southern Sky Survey; Epchtein et al. 1997) in Gunn-$`I`$ (0.82 $`\mu `$m), $`J`$ (1.25 $`\mu `$m), and $`K_\mathrm{s}`$ (2.15 $`\mu `$m). The catalog is presented in Schmeja & Kimeswenger (2002a, 2003), details on the selected sample and on the data reduction are given in Schmeja & Kimeswenger (2001).

## 2. Results and Discussion

The dereddened NIR two-color diagram of our sample of PNe and symbiotic Miras is shown in Fig. 1. A vector corresponding to a reddening of $`E_{\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V}}=1`$ is also shown, indicating the direction the objects would move in the diagram when the extinction values are increased. The symbiotic Miras are clearly separated from the genuine PNe as well as from the classical Miras. So the colours do not only represent the cool component.

Whitelock (1987) used a model of a 2500 K star and a 800 K envelope with a circumstellar extinction $`0.^\mathrm{m}3<A_\mathrm{K}<1.^\mathrm{m}5`$ to explain the $`JHK`$ colors of symbiotic Miras. This simple extinction+cold emission model describes the 1-5 $`\mu `$m colors well. Such a circumstellar extinction would lead to a circumstellar reddening of at least the same amount in case of $`(IJ)`$. However, we measure colors that are even bluer than those of classical Miras, so a modification of this view is needed. Also the spread in $`(IJ)`$ is significantly higher than in the $`JHK`$ two-color diagram. $`(IJ)`$ is therefore indicating the strength of the emission originating from ionized gas and the hot component. Those parts cannot be obscured by the circumstellar shell as proposed by the model of Whitelock. More sophisticated models are needed to describe the spectral energy distribution (SED).

All the PNe suspected to be symbiotic Miras (except 19W32) also lie in the mentioned region: Mz 3, M 2-9, H 2-43, He 2-25, Th 2-B, and 19W32 are discussed in detail in Schmeja & Kimeswenger (2001), He 2-90 has been recently suspected to be a symbiotic by Guerrero et al. (2001). Two objects shall be discussed briefly: SaSt 1-1 (AS 201) is a nebula around a symbiotic star, but shows colors like a genuine PN. However, this object is not a symbiotic Mira, but a yellow symbiotic where the cool component is a G5 star. The nebula is most likely the current PN of the white dwarf. NGC 2346 is a bipolar PN placed among the symbiotic Miras in our diagram. Although it has a binary central star, there are no hints that it is a symbiotic system. However it might be a triple system (Phillips & Cuesta 2000), perhaps with a Mira? Other types of objects shown in the diagram, like Infrared-\[WC\] PNe and peculiar PNe are discussed in Schmeja & Kimeswenger (2002b).

Fig. 2 shows a plot of the dereddened near infrared magnitudes of the nebulae versus the logarithm of their 5 GHz (6 cm) radio flux. The radio fluxes are taken from the literature and are listed in our catalog (Schmeja & Kimeswenger 2002a, 2003). The lines indicate the predicted radio-infrared relation for a plasma with a temperature of 104 K (Whitelock 1985). Most of the genuine PNe lie close to the theoretical line, in J there is a small systematic infrared excess. This corresponds well with the results of Whitelock (1985) and Peña & Torres-Peimbert (1987). Whitelock (1985) attributes this excess to strong emission in the helium triplet line at 1.083 $`\mu `$m. As expected, the objects with peculiar colors in the two-color diagram show an infrared excess, especially in K: The symbiotic Miras (marked as open squares) show a much higher flux in K than expected from their radio flux. These results underline the conclusions from the two-color diagram that a significantly higher K flux causes the peculiar colors of those objects.

## 3. Conclusions

The DENIS NIR two-color diagram is an excellent and easily applicable tool to distinguish nebulae around symbiotic Miras from genuine PNe. Unfortunately, it does not apply to yellow symbiotics, however. Several (but certainly not all) bipolar PNe, like Mz 3 or M 2-9 turn out to be in fact symbiotic Miras. A widely ignored fact is the inconsistent classification of the discussed objects: Whereas many nebulae around symbiotic Miras (e. g. He 2-104, He 2-147) are classified as PNe, others, like BI Cru, that shows a similar nebula, are not. Whether those objects are accepted or rejected as PNe, or whether a new designation like “symbiotic proto-PNe” (Kohoutek 2001) is introduced, at least this should be done consistently for all objects of that kind.

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