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# Realization of symmetric sharing of entanglement in semiconductor microcrystallites coupled by a cavity field

## I INTRODUCTION

Quantum entanglement plays an important role in the quantum communication and quantum-information processing. One can implement quantum teleportation of a given state from one place to another by virtue of the entangled state Zeilinger ; AB . Entanglement among many particles is essential for most quantum communication schemes. The simplest generalization of the entangled states for more than two particles is the so-called GHZ state ghz . The entanglement of the nearest-neighbor pairs for an infinite collection of qubits arranged in a line was studied by Wootters wootters . For a finite system, Koashi et al. koashi  investigated the completely symmetric sharing of entanglement for an arbitrary pair of $`N`$ qubits. Dür studied not only the symmetric sharing of the pairwise entanglement but also the nonsymmetric sharing in a system of $`N`$ qubits dur . The nearest-neighbor entanglement of $`N`$ qubits in a ring configuration was also studied and further a concrete physical system of $`N`$ spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ particles interacting via the Heisenberg antiferromagnetic Hamiltonian was given kwk . The question arises whether it is possible or not to prepare states with the symmetric sharing of entanglement in some real systems within the present-day technology. And, if yes, how to achieve such entangled states?

Any many-body system with defined qubits, if set in a properly chosen state, will evolve through states containing entangled qubits. Similarly, most of the ground states of real systems contain entangled states. However, for the purposes of quantum computation and quantum information, the most important aspects of quantum entanglement are especially (i) deterministic control over the quantum coherence of states and (ii) time evolution and occurrence of maximally entangled states. In this study, we focus on the latter topic, specifically, on the generation of the maximal pairwise entanglement. As was shown by Koashi et al. koashi  that entanglement cannot be unlimitedly shared among an arbitrary number of qubits and the degree of bipartite entanglement decreases with the increasing number of entangled pairs in an $`N`$-qubit system in which any pair of particles is entangled. The maximum degree of bipartite entanglement, measured in the concurrence, between any pair of qubits is bound by $`2/N`$. Here, we will investigate a physical realization of this maximally possible bipartite entanglement.

Within the past few years, advances in microfabrication technology have allowed researchers to create unique quantum confinement, and thereby have opened up a new realm of fundamental physics. As low-dimensional semiconductor structures, quantum dots attract a considerable interest because of their atomlike properties. They can lead to novel optoelectronic devices that can be applied to the emerging fields of quantum computing computer ; Ima  and quantum-information processing information ; molo . It is well known that Coulomb-correlated electron-hole pairs called excitons can be optically generated and controlled in a single dot ed , and thus can be used to store the quantum information and realize quantum computing Joh . On the other hand, a significant fraction of quantum computing and information schemes relies on the strong-coupling regime of the cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED). The observed Rabi oscillations of excitons in a single quantum dot kam  suggest the possibility that the quantum dot cavity QED will be realized in the near future. However, an essential feature of a quantum dot is that the electronic energy levels are completely quantized, so the behavior of excitons deviates from the bosonic statistics. In the present paper, we will consider some slightly bigger semiconductor microstructures, such as the microcrystallites. In this case, the area of the microcrystallite is larger than that of the Bohr radius of the exciton, and the behavior of the excitons with low excitation are the same as that of the bosonic particles. Chuang et al. Yama  showed that the quantum code of the bosonic mode enables a more efficient error correction. So, the mode of the excitons offers a possible physical implementation for such bosonic-mode coding. We propose a possible scheme to prepare the entangled excitonic states for the symmetric sharing in the system of $`N`$ microcrystallites by virtue of the cavity QED. The cavity field mediates the interaction among semiconductor microcrystallites, and then the entangled excitonic states can be prepared by the cavity field.

We organize our paper as follows. In Sec. II, we will propose a scheme based on the present-day technology and model the Hamiltonian of the whole system. The solutions corresponding to this Hamiltonian are given for the general initial state. In Secs. III and IV, the bosonic exciton operator is used as an approach to deal with qubits uniformly. We will show how to prepare the entangled excitonic states with qubits defined by different excitonic states using various initial conditions of the cavity field. Any physical system cannot be isolated from its environment. The interaction between the system and the environment will result in their entanglement, then coherence of the qubit is destroyed with the time evolution. So, in Sec. V, we will demonstrate the environment effect on the entangled states. Finally, some comments and conclusions will be given.

## II MODEL AND ITS SOLUTION

We assume that there are $`N`$ spatially separated semiconductor microcrystallites (also called large semiconductor quantum dots Han ; Ban ; Eng ) which are placed into an ideal semiconductor microcavity with a single-mode field, for example, the microcrystallites are embedded in a disk structure of the semiconductor, which is similar to the Imamoǧlu model for quantum dots Ima . And we assume that the radius $`R`$ of each microcrystallite is much larger than the Bohr radius $`a_B`$ of excitons, but smaller than the wavelength $`\lambda `$ of the cavity field, that is, $`a_BR\lambda `$. Also the distance between each pair of microcrystallites is larger than the optical wavelength $`\lambda `$ of the cavity field, and the microcrystallites indirectly interact by virtue of the cavity field. We also assume that there are few electrons excited from the valence band to the conduction band such that the exciton density for each microcrystallite is much smaller than the Mott density. So, all nonlinear terms included in the interaction of the exciton-exciton and exciton-photon can be neglected in our model, and the excitons are considered as ideal bosons. The cavity field is assumed to resonantly interact with the zero-momentum excitons in each microcrystallite, the thermalization of the excitons is neglected. Under the above conditions, we can use the effective Hamiltonian under the rotating wave approximation as follows Han ; Ban

$$H=\mathrm{}\omega a^{}a+\mathrm{}\omega \underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}b_j^{}b_j+\mathrm{}\underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}g_j(a^{}b_j+ab_j^{}),$$
(1)
where $`a(a^{})`$ is the annihilation (creation) operator of the cavity field with frequency $`\omega `$, and $`b_j(b_j^{})`$ is the annihilation (creation) operator of the excitons in the $`j`$th microcrystallite with the same frequency $`\omega `$ as that of the cavity field. First, we assume that the coupling constants $`g_j`$ with $`j=1,2,\mathrm{},N`$ between the cavity field and microcrystallites are different. We can give the Heisenberg equations of motion for the operators of the cavity field and the excitons as follows

$`{\displaystyle \frac{A(t)}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}g_jB_j(t),`$ (2)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{B_j(t)}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`ig_jA(t)(j=1,2,\mathrm{},N),`$ (3)
where the transformations $`a(t)=A(t)e^{i\omega t}`$ and $`b_j(t)=B_j(t)e^{i\omega t}`$ are applied. The solutions of Eqs. (2) and (3) can be obtained as

$`A(t)`$ $`=`$ $`a(0)\mathrm{cos}(G^{}t)i{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}f_jb_j(0),`$ (4)
$`B_j(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}\left\{\delta _{jm}+{\displaystyle \frac{g_jg_m[\mathrm{cos}(G^{}t)1]}{G^2}}\right\}b_m(0)`$ (5)
$``$ $`if_ja(0),`$
where $`G^{}\sqrt{_{j=1}^Ng_j^2}`$; $`f_jf_j(t)=g_j\mathrm{sin}(G^{}t)/G^{}`$, $`a(0)`$ and $`b_j(0)`$ $`(j=1,\mathrm{},N)`$ are the initial operators of the cavity field and excitons, respectively. We assume that the initial state of the whole system is $`|\mathrm{\Psi }(0)=|\psi (0)_C|0^N`$, which means that the cavity field is initially in the state $`|\psi (0)_C`$, but there is no exciton in any microcrystallite. Then we can obtain the wave function as follows

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }(t)=U(t)|\psi (0)_C|0^N,$$
(6)
with the time-evolution operator $`U(t)=e^{iHt/\mathrm{}}`$.

## III PREPARATION OF ENTANGLED EXCITONIC STATE BY SINGLE-PHOTON STATE

It is well known that $`N`$ qubits can be defined by the states of $`N`$ spatially separated microcrystallites. The two most interesting states for both experimentalists and theoreticians are the no-exciton and one-exciton states denoted by $`|0`$ and $`|1`$, respectively. So, we choose the computational basis states of the qubit as $`\{|0,|1\}`$ for each microcrystallite. If the cavity field is initially in the single-photon state $`|\psi (0)_C=a^{}|0_C`$, which now can successfully be prepared by the experiment, and no exciton is initially in any microcrystallite, then $`|\mathrm{\Psi }(0)=a^{}|0_C|0^N`$. Based on this initial condition, we interpolate the unit operator $`U^{}(t)U(t)`$ into Eq. (6) and consider the properties of the time-evolution operator $`U^{}(t)OU(t)=O(t)`$ and $`U(t)|0=|0`$, the wave function of the whole system can be obtained as follows

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }(t)`$ $`=`$ $`U(t)a^{}|0_C|0^N=a^{}(t)|0_C|0^N`$ (7)
$`=`$ $`\left[a^{}(0)\mathrm{cos}(G^{}t)i{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}f_jb_j^{}(0)\right]e^{i\omega t}|0_C|0^N`$
$`=`$ $`ie^{i\omega t}|0_C{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}f_j|1_j|0^{(N1)}`$
$`+e^{i\omega t}\mathrm{cos}(G^{}t)|1_C|0^N,`$
which has been returned into the original frame, and $`|1_j|0^{(N1)}`$ means that $`N1`$ microcrystallites have no excitons, and only one exciton is excited by the cavity field in the $`j`$th microcrystallite. We are interested in the entanglement between two subsystems of the excitons, such as, the $`n`$th and $`m`$th microcrystallites, then after tracing out the cavity field and the degrees of freedom of other $`N2`$ microcrystallites, the reduced density operator for this pair of qubits can be obtained as

$`\rho (t)`$ $`=`$ $`f_m^2|1010|+f_mf_n|1001|`$ (8)
$`+f_n^2|0101|+f_mf_n|0110|`$
$`+\left\{\mathrm{cos}^2(G^{}t)+{\displaystyle \underset{l\{n,m\}}{}}f_l^2\right\}|0000|.`$
The entanglement between two qubits can mathematically be described by using the concurrence wt . We assume a pair of qubits whose density matrix is $`\rho _{12}`$. Then the concurrence of the density matrix $`\rho _{12}`$ is defined as

$$C=\mathrm{max}\{\lambda _1\lambda _2\lambda _3\lambda _4,0\},$$
(9)
where $`\lambda _1`$, $`\lambda _2`$, $`\lambda _3`$, and $`\lambda _4`$, given in decreasing order, are the square roots of eigenvalues for the matrix

$$M_{12}=\rho _{12}(\sigma _{1y}\sigma _{2y})\rho _{12}^{}(\sigma _{1y}\sigma _{2y}),$$
(10)
with the Pauli matrix

$$\sigma _{1y}=\sigma _{2y}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& i\\ i& 0\end{array}\right),$$

where the asterisk denotes complex conjugation in the standard basis $`\{|00,|01,|10,|11\}`$, and $`\sigma _{1y}`$ and $`\sigma _{2y}`$ are expressed in the same basis. The entanglement of formation is a monotonically increasing function of $`C`$; and $`C=0`$ ($`C=1`$) corresponds to an unentangled state (maximally entangled state). The concurrence for the reduced density operator (8) can be obtained using Eqs. (9) and (10) as follows

$$C(t)=2f_mf_n=2g_mg_n\frac{\mathrm{sin}^2(G^{}t)}{G^2}.$$
(11)
It is found that the concurrence $`C`$ periodically reaches its maximum value, but the values of the concurrences are different for different pairs, which means that the entanglements between different pairs are different. The coupling constants between the cavity field and microcrystallites determine the entanglement of each pair. So, we can realize symmetric sharing of entanglement of excitonic states in semiconductor microcrystallites only when all microcrystallites have the same interaction with the cavity field, e.g., $`g_1=g_2=\mathrm{}=g_N=g`$, which may be obtained with the development of the microfabrication technology in the near future. Under this condition we can obtain the concurrence as

$$C(t)=\frac{2}{N}(1a^{}a)=\frac{2}{N}\mathrm{sin}^2(Gt),$$
(12)
with $`G=g\sqrt{N}`$, and the concurrence $`C`$ periodically reaches its maximum value of $`2/N`$. Comparing the time evolution of the concurrence and the average photon number $`a^{}a`$ of the cavity field, we can easily find that when the average photon number is zero, the concurrence reaches the maximal value of $`2/N`$ for any number $`N`$ of the microcrystallites and vice versa. As an example for $`N=3`$ and $`5`$, Fig. 1 clearly shows this point.

Under the condition that all microcrystallites have the same coupling with the cavity field, when the concurrence reaches its maximum values, the state of the microcrystallites system is in the generalized $`W`$ state defined xd  to be $`|W_N=N^{1/2}(|10\mathrm{}0+|010\mathrm{}0+\mathrm{}+|0\mathrm{}01)`$ and the cavity field is in the vacuum state, but in the anisotropic case, we cannot obtain the generalized $`W`$ state for any condition. We know that a single exciton can be taken as a boson even for the quantum dots, so the assumption of the microcrystallites is not necessary in the case of the cavity field initially in the single-photon state. In the following two sections, we will mainly focus on the isotropic interaction of the cavity field and microcrystallites to discuss the entangled coherent excitonic states.

## IV PREPARATION OF ENTANGLED COHERENT EXCITONIC STATE

There are other two interesting orthogonal states called the even and odd coherent states (CS). These can be used as a robust qubit encoding for a single bosonic mode subject to amplitude damping, because the error caused by amplitude damping for this encoding can easily be corrected by a standard three-qubit error-correction circuit pmj . So, in this section, we will discuss how to realize symmetric sharing of entanglement between any pair of qubits defined by the even (odd) coherent excitonic states in semiconductor microcrystallites. It is well known that one can define the even CS as the zero-qubit state $`|0`$ and the odd CS as the one-qubit state $`|1`$ to encode a CNOT quantum gate mw , that is

$`|0`$ $`=`$ $`N_+(|\alpha +|\alpha ),`$ (13)
$`|1`$ $`=`$ $`N_{}(|\alpha |\alpha ),`$ (14)
with the normalization constants $`N_\pm =(2\pm 2e^{2|\alpha |^2})^{1/2}`$ and $`|\pm \alpha =\mathrm{exp}(|\alpha |^2/2)_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}[(\pm \alpha )^n/\sqrt{n!}]|n`$ are coherent states of a bosonic annihilation operator, e.g., the coherent states of the annihilation operator $`a`$ for the cavity field. The even and odd coherent superpositions of the photon states in cavity quantum electrodynamics and those of motional states of trapped ions can be created by experimentalists haroche  over the past several years. So, we can assume that the cavity field is initially either in the odd CS or in the even CS, and there are no excitons in any microcrystallite. In order to realize the symmetric sharing of entanglement, we assume that all microcrystallites have the same interaction with the cavity field, then the wave function of the whole system can be written by the factorization of the wave function sun  as follows

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }(t)`$ $`=`$ $`N_\pm U(t)[|\alpha _C\pm |\alpha _C]|0^N`$ (15)
$`=`$ $`N_\pm (|\alpha u(t)_C|v(t)\alpha ^N`$
$`\pm |\alpha u(t)_C|v(t)\alpha ^N),`$
with $`u(t)=\mathrm{cos}(Gt)e^{i\omega t}`$ and $`v(t)=i[\mathrm{sin}(Gt)/\sqrt{N}]e^{i\omega t}`$ and the same coupling constants between microcrystallites and the cavity field are taken. We find that all excitonic coherent states $`|v(t)\alpha `$ in microcrystallites evolve periodically with time evolution and their maximal amplitudes are $`1/\sqrt{N}`$ times the amplitude $`|\alpha |`$ of the coherent cavity field. We are interested in the pairwise entanglement in the system of $`N`$ microcrystallites. After tracing out the cavity field and other degrees of freedom for $`N2`$ microcrystallites, the reduced density operator for any pair can be expressed as

$`\rho (t)`$ $`=`$ $`N_\pm ^2\{(|v(t)\alpha v(t)\alpha |)^2+(|v(t)\alpha v(t)\alpha |)^2`$ (16)
$`\pm P(t)(|v(t)\alpha v(t)\alpha |)^2`$
$`\pm P(t)(|v(t)\alpha v(t)\alpha |)^2\},`$
where $`P(t)=u(t)\alpha |u(t)\alpha (v(t)\alpha |v(t)\alpha )^{N2}=\mathrm{exp}[2|\alpha |^2+4|\alpha |^2\mathrm{sin}^2(Gt)/N]`$. We choose the time-dependent even and odd CS as the basis $`\{|\stackrel{~}{0},|\stackrel{~}{1}\}`$ for each qubit in every microcrystallite as follows kim

$`|\stackrel{~}{0}=N_+(t)(|v(t)\alpha +|v(t)\alpha ),`$ (17)
$`|\stackrel{~}{1}=N_{}(t)(|v(t)\alpha |v(t)\alpha ),`$ (18)
where $`N_\pm (t)`$ are the normalization constants defined as $`N_\pm (t)=(2\pm 2e^{2|\alpha |^2\mathrm{sin}^2(Gt)/N})^{1/2}`$. Then the reduced density operator $`\rho (t)`$ can be given, in the basis $`\{|\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0},|\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1},|\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0},|\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}\}`$, in the following form

$`\rho (t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N_\pm ^2(1\pm P(t))}{8N_+^4(t)}}|\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}|+{\displaystyle \frac{N_\pm ^2(1\pm P(t))}{8N_{}^4(t)}}|\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}|`$ (19)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{N_\pm ^2(1P(t))}{8N_+^2(t)N_{}^2(t)}}\{|\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}|+|\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}|+|\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}|`$
$`+|\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}|\}+{\displaystyle \frac{N_\pm ^2(1\pm P(t))}{8N_+^2(t)N_{}^2(t)}}`$
$`\times \left\{|\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}|+|\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}|\right\}.`$
Following the same steps as for Eqs. (9) and (10), we obtain the concurrence corresponding to Eq. (19) as

$`C_\pm (t)={\displaystyle \frac{e^{4|\alpha |^2\mathrm{sin}^2(Gt)/N}1}{e^{2|\alpha |^2}\pm 1}},`$ (20)
where $`+()`$ means that the cavity field is initially in the even (odd) CS. It is also found that the concurrence periodically evolves. Although there is no simple analytical expression between the concurrence and the average photon number $`a^{}a`$ of the cavity field as Eq. (12), we find that if the average photon number of the cavity field

$$a^{}a_\pm =|\alpha |^2\mathrm{cos}^2(Gt)\frac{1e^{2|\alpha |^2}}{1\pm e^{2|\alpha |^2}}$$
(21)
is zero, then the value of the concurrence reaches maximum and vice versa. So, for the fixed number $`N`$ of the microcrystallites and the intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$ of the cavity field, the relationship of the time evolution between the concurrence and the average number of the cavity field is analogous to Fig. 1.

It is very clear that the values of the concurrence (20) depend on both the number $`N`$ of the microcrystallites and the intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$ of the cavity field. The maximal concurrence with the cavity field initially in even CS or odd CS decreases with the increase of the microcrystallite’s number $`N`$ when the intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$ of the cavity field is fixed. It is because that $`\mathrm{exp}\{4|\alpha |^2\mathrm{sin}^2(Gt)/N\}`$ in Eq. (20) is a decreasing function of the number $`N`$, so a larger number $`N`$ corresponds to a smaller concurrence. In the following, we have plotted Fig. 2 to show the time evolution of the concurrences, and the relationship between the concurrence and the intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$ for different microcrystallite number $`N`$. We find that the concurrence $`C_{}(t)C^{\mathrm{odd}}(t)`$ periodically reaches its maximal value at the evolution times $`Gt=(2n+1)\pi /2`$ ($`n=0,1,\mathrm{}`$), and these points approach the upper bound value of $`2/N`$, which has been illustrated in Fig. 2(a) and Fig. 2(c) by an example for $`N=3`$, when $`|\alpha |^20`$. It is because

the odd CS of the cavity field is reduced to the single-photon state when $`|\alpha |^20`$, so the concurrence $`C_{}(t)`$ with initially the odd CS is reduced to Eq. (12) and approaches upper bound value of $`2/N`$. Figure 2(c) also shows the variation for the maximal value of the concurrence with the intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$ of the cavity field with different number $`N`$ of the microcrystallites, we find that the maximal values of the concurrence decrease with the increase of the intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$, except that $`N=2`$. However, when $`|\alpha |^20`$, the even CS of the cavity field is reduced to the vacuum state, the concurrence $`C_+(t)C^{\mathrm{even}}(t)`$ with initially the even CS tends to zero. The maximal values of $`C_+(t)`$ increase with the increase of the intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$, but when the intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$ is greater than a threshold value, which is determined by

$$N=\frac{4|\alpha |^2\mathrm{cosh}|\alpha |^2}{|\alpha |^2e^{|\alpha |^2}+\mathrm{cosh}|\alpha |^2W\{|\alpha |^2\mathrm{sech}|\alpha |^2e^{|\alpha |^2\mathrm{tanh}|\alpha |^2}\}}$$
(22)
for given number $`N`$ ($`N>2`$), where $`W\{z\}`$ is the product log function defined as the solution for $`w`$ of $`z=we^w`$, then the concurrence gradually tends to zero. The maxima of $`C_+(t)`$ are reached at $`Gt=(2n+1)\pi /2`$ if $`N`$ and $`|\alpha |^2`$ satisfy Eq. (22). We can also find when $`|\alpha |^2`$ is large enough, such that $`|\alpha |^24`$ when $`N4`$ and $`|\alpha |^26`$ when $`N=3`$ \[see Figs. 2(a) and 2(b)\], where bosonic approximation for excitons is still good, then $`|\alpha v(t)`$ is approximately orthogonal to $`|\alpha v(t)`$ when $`u(t)=0`$, that is, $`v(t)\alpha |v(t)\alpha 0`$. Under such condition, we can redefine two approximately orthogonal states $`|1=|\alpha v(t)`$ and $`|0=|\alpha v(t)`$ as one qubit state and zero qubit state, then Eq. (19) for the reduced density operator of two subsystems of $`N`$ ($`N>2`$) microcrystallites can be simplified as

$$\rho \frac{1}{2}[|0000|\pm |1111|],$$
(23)
which means that no entanglement appears for each pair of microcrystallites, then the concurrences are zero for cavity field initially in odd CS or even CS. So when the cavity field is initially in the even CS, the points of the maximal values for the concurrence must be between $`0`$ and $`|\alpha |^2`$, with condition $`v(t)\alpha |v(t)\alpha 0`$. These points are determined by Eq. (22).

The optimum values of $`|\alpha |^2`$ and $`N`$ maximizing $`C_+(t)`$ obtained from Eq. (22) and checked directly by numerical maximization of Eq. (20) are, e.g., as follows: $`|\alpha |^2=3/2\mathrm{ln}(2)1.04`$ for $`N=3`$, and $`|\alpha |^2=\mathrm{ln}(1+\sqrt{2})0.88`$ for $`N=4`$. While for $`N=5`$ the maximum is at $`|\alpha |^2=\mathrm{ln}[16/9+10^{1/3}20/27+10^{2/3}10/27]/20.81`$. For $`N`$=6 and 8, analytical expressions can also be found. However, for other cases (i.e., $`N=7`$ and $`N9`$) there are no compact-form analytical formulas for $`|\alpha |^2`$ corresponding to the maximal concurrence. The above numerical calculations can be seen from Figs. 2(b) and 2(d). Figure 2 also shows when the number $`N`$ of the microcrystallites is equal to 2, the maximally entangled states can be prepared for any intensity of the cavity field with initially the odd CS, but for the cavity field with initially the even CS, we can approximately prepare a maximally entangled state when the average photon number $`|\alpha |^2`$ is slightly larger than 1, e.g., $`|\alpha |^23`$ \[see Fig. 2 (d)\].

As a comparison, we numerically show that the maximal values of the concurrence in the case of the cavity field initially in the odd or even CS for the different number $`N`$ of the microcrystallites and the different intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$ of the cavity field from Fig. 3(a) to Fig. 3(d). Figure 3 shows that the maximal values of the concurrences with initially the odd or even CS of the cavity field approach each other with increasing the intensity of the cavity field, but they are lower than the upper bound values of $`2/N`$ for the concurrence. From Fig. 3(a), we can also find that the concurrence with the cavity field initially in the odd or even CS gradually approaches its maximal possible values of $`2/N`$ or zero when the intensity of the cavity field tends to zero, that is, $`|\alpha |^20`$.

## V DECAY OF THE ENTANGLED EXCITON STATES

The quantum computation and the quantum information take their power from the superpositions and entanglement of the quantum states, however, the necessary coupling of the system to the environment tends to destroy this coherence and reduces the degree of the entanglement with the time evolution of the total system. So, in this section, we will discuss the decay of the entangled exciton states. For simplification of our discussion, we will model the interaction between the system and environment as follows. We assume that there is no interaction between the cavity field and environment. The dissipation of the system energy comes from the interaction of the excitons in the microcrystallites with environment, here modeled as thermal radiation fields at zero temperature. We limit our discussion to the completely identical $`N`$ microcrystallites, and the coupling constants between microcrystallites and cavity field are the same. Under the above assumptions, the Hamiltonian for the system, environments, and their interactions can be written as

$`H=\mathrm{}\omega a^{}a+\mathrm{}\omega {\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}b_j^{}b_j+\mathrm{}g{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}(a^{}b_j+ab_j^{})`$
$`+\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}\omega _{j,k}a_{j,k}^{}a_{j,k}+\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}g_{j,k}(a_{j,k}^{}b_j+a_{j,k}b_j^{}),`$
where $`a_{j,k}`$($`a_{j,k}^{}`$) are annihilation (creation) operators of radiation fields with frequency $`\omega _{j,k}`$., and $`g_{j,k}`$ are coupling constant between the $`j`$th microcrystallite and radiation fields. For simplicity, we assume that all $`g_{j,k}`$ are independent of the microcrystallite size. We assume that each microcrystallite separately interacts with the environment, but the dissipative dynamics is same for all the microcrystallites. The latter assumption is not necessary but only simplifies the degree of algebra complexity for calculation.

We can obtain the Heisenberg equations of motion for each operator as follows

$`{\displaystyle \frac{B_j}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`igAi{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}g_{j,k}A_{j,k}e^{i(\omega _{j,k}\omega )t},`$ (25)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`ig{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}B_j,`$ (26)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_{j,k}}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`ig_{j,k}B_je^{i(\omega \omega _{j,k})t},`$ (27)
where the transformations $`a(t)=A(t)e^{i\omega t}`$, $`b_j(t)=B_j(t)e^{i\omega t}`$, and $`a_{j,k}(t)=A_{j,k}(t)e^{i\omega _{j,k}t}`$ are made. From Eq. (27), we have

$$A_{j,k}(t)=A_{j,k}(0)ig_{j,k}_0^tdt^{}B_j(t^{})e^{i(\omega \omega _{j,k})t^{}}.$$
(28)
We replace $`A_{j,k}(t)`$ in Eqs. (25) by (28), then obtain the new equation as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{B_j}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`igAi{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}g_{j,k}A_{j,k}(0)e^{i(\omega _{j,k}\omega )t}`$ (29)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}|g_{j,k}|^2{\displaystyle _0^t}dt^{}B_j(t^{})e^{i(\omega _{j,k}\omega )(tt^{})}.`$
We can apply the Laplace transform and the Wigner-Weisskopf approximation lou  to Eqs. (26) and (29), so that we have the solution of the cavity field as

$$A(t)=u^{}(t)a(0)i\underset{j}{}v^{}(t)b_j(0)+\underset{j}{}\underset{k}{}v_{j,k}(t)a_{j,k}(0),$$
(30)
where conditions $`A(0)=a(0)`$, $`B_j(0)=b_j(0)`$, and $`A_{j,k}(0)=a_{j,k}(0)`$ were used, and

$`u^{}(t)`$ $`=`$ $`e^{(\gamma /4)t}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{4\delta }}\mathrm{sin}(\delta t)+\mathrm{cos}(\delta t)\right),`$ (31)
$`v^{}(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g}{\delta }}e^{(\gamma /4)t}\mathrm{sin}(\delta t),`$ (32)
$`\delta `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{Ng^2(\gamma /4)^2},`$ (33)
where the small Lamb frequency shift is neglected and the decay rate $`\gamma =2\pi \rho (\omega _0)|g(\omega _0)|^2`$. We also use the former assumptions under which all microcrystallites are the same and have the same dissipative dynamics so that the decay rates $`\gamma `$ of each microcrystallite and the functions $`v^{}(t)`$ of each term including operators $`b_j(0)`$ are the same. When the environment is considered, the qubits for each microcrystallite should be redefined as

$`|\stackrel{~}{0}=M_+(t)[|v^{}(t)\alpha +|v^{}(t)\alpha ],`$ (34)
$`|\stackrel{~}{1}=M_{}(t)[|v^{}(t)\alpha |v^{}(t)\alpha ],`$ (35)
with the normalization $`M_\pm (t)=[2\pm 2e^{2|v^{}(t)\alpha |^2}]^{1/2}`$. Now, we will investigate the decay when the cavity field is initially in the even and odd CS, but no excitons are initially in any microcrystallite. After tracing out the degrees of the environments and other $`N2`$ microcrystallites for the time-dependent wave function of the whole system, which can also be obtained using the factorized form of the wave function, we get the reduced density operator for any two qubits as

$`\rho _\pm ^{}(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N_\pm ^2(1\pm P^{}(t))}{8M_+^4(t)}}|\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}|`$ (36)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{N_\pm ^2(1\pm P^{}(t))}{8M_{}^4(t)}}|\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}|+{\displaystyle \frac{N_\pm ^2(1P^{}(t))}{8M_+^2(t)M_{}^2(t)}}`$
$`\times \{|\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}|+|\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}|+|\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}|+|\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}|\}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{N_\pm ^2(1\pm P^{}(t))}{8M_+^2(t)M_{}^2(t)}}\{|\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}|+|\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{1}\stackrel{~}{0}\stackrel{~}{0}|\},`$
with $`P^{}(t)=\mathrm{exp}\left[2|\alpha |^2\left(12|v^{}(t)|^2\right)\right]`$. Then the concurrences $`C_\pm ^{}(t)`$ corresponding to Eq. (36) can be obtained as

$$C_\pm ^{}(t)=\frac{e^{4|\alpha v^{}(t)|^2}1}{e^{2|\alpha |^2}\pm 1},$$
(37)
where $`v^{}(t)`$ is determined by Eq. (32). We find that the concurrence (20) is modified and becomes of the form (37) after the effect of the environment is taken into account. Now we will make further approximation. We assume that the couplings of the cavity field with microcrystallites are stronger than the decay of the exciton, i.e., $`g\gamma `$. In this case we can approximately obtain the concurrence $`C_\pm ^{}(t)`$ as

$$C_\pm ^{}(t)\frac{\mathrm{exp}\left[(4|\alpha |^2/N)\mathrm{sin}^2(gt\sqrt{N})e^{(\gamma /2)t}\right]1}{e^{2|\alpha |^2}\pm 1}.$$
(38)
Equation (38) shows that the entanglement between any pair of qubits decays in an oscillating form. It also shows that the increase of the microcrystallite number $`N`$ results in the decrease of the concurrence when the decay rate $`\gamma `$ and the intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$ are fixed. For convenience of discussion, we can rescale time in Eq. (38) as $`t^{}=Gt`$, then we can find that if the coherent intensity $`|\alpha |^2`$ of the cavity field and the number $`N`$ of microcrystallites are given, then the larger ratio between decay rate $`\gamma `$ and the coupling constant $`g`$ corresponds to the faster reduction of the concurrence of the entangled qubits. But if the ratio of $`\gamma `$ and $`g`$ is given and the number $`N`$ is fixed, then the higher intensity of the cavity field corresponds to the smaller concurrence. As an example, Fig. 4 plots the variation of concurrence with $`N=3`$ for a reasonably good cavity $`\gamma /g=0.13`$ \[in Fig. 4 (a) and (b)\] Ima , or for a bad cavity $`\gamma /g=0.5`$ \[in Fig. 4 (c) and (d)\] according to Eq. (37). Figure 4 clearly demonstrates our above discussions.

## VI CONCLUSIONS

We have studied an excitonic-state implementation of the multiparticle entanglement based on $`N`$ spatially separated semiconductor microcrystallites. The interaction among the microcrystallites is mediated by a single-mode cavity field. We find that the entanglement (measured by the concurrence) between any pair of qubits that are defined by the excitonic number states (vacuum and a single-exciton states) or the coherent excitonic states (odd and even CS), depends on the interaction between the cavity field and the semiconductor microcrystallites. The entanglement between any pairs is different from one another for the anisotropic case. When all microcrystallites have the same interaction with the cavity field, the maximal degree of the entanglement between any pair of qubits is the same. This condition can, probably, be satisfied with the development of the fabrication techniques for quantum dots and the semiconductor microcavity quantum electrodynamics. So, the symmetric sharing of the entanglement between any pair of $`N`$ qubits in such a system is realizable only when the interaction between $`N`$ spatially separated semiconductor microcrystallites and the cavity field is isotropic. Under the isotropic-interaction condition, when the excitonic system reaches maximal entanglement, all photons in the cavity are transformed into the excitons in the system of the semiconductor microcrystallites. The generalized $`W`$ state and the maximal degree $`2/N`$ of entanglement can be obtained for the cavity field initially in the single-photon state. But if the cavity field is initially in the odd or even CS, we cannot obtain the maximal degree of entanglement $`2/N`$ only except the special case where the cavity field is initially in the odd CS and there are two microcrystallites in the cavity Liu .

We have also investigated the decay of any pair of the entangled qubits defined by the odd and even CS. The entanglement between any pair of qubits decreases because of the dissipation of the system energy to the environment. If the coherent intensity of the cavity field and the number of microcrystallites are given, then with the rescaled time, the larger ratio between the decay rate $`\gamma `$ and the coupling constant $`g`$ corresponds to the faster reduction of the concurrence of the entangled qubits. For the given ratio between the decay rate $`\gamma `$ and the coupling constant $`g`$ and the coherent intensity of the cavity field, the increase of the microcrystallite number $`N`$ results in the decrease of the concurrence. But if the ratio $`\gamma /g`$ is given, and the number $`N`$ is fixed, then the higher intensity of the cavity field corresponds to the smaller concurrence. Practically, the quality of the entanglement can be improved with the appearance of the new processing techniques and the ultrahigh finesse cavities Ima . Finally, we should point out that our discussion is limited to the preparation of the entangled coherent excitonic states, but we cannot control them using this model.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to Yoshiro Hirayama and Şahin K. Özdemir for most helpful discussions. One of authors (Yu-xi Liu) is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

published in Physical Review A 66, 062309 (2002) and selected to Virtual J. Quantum Information
2 (2002) Issue 12 (http://www.vjquantuminfo.org)


text:
# X-RAYS FROM THE FIRST MASSIVE BLACK HOLES

## INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE OF HIGH-REDSHIFT X-RAY STUDIES

Understanding of the X-ray emission from $`z>4`$ active galactic nuclei (AGN) has advanced rapidly over the past few years. The high sensitivities of Chandra and XMM-Newton have allowed the efficient detection of many $`z>4`$ AGN, and wide-field AGN surveys (e.g., the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, hereafter SDSS; York et al. 2000) have greatly enlarged the number of suitable X-ray targets. The number of X-ray detections at $`z>4`$ has increased to 57 (see Figure 1a).111See http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/niel/papers/highz-xray-detected.dat for a regularly updated list of $`z>4`$ X-ray detections. This increase has allowed the first reliable X-ray population studies of $`z>4`$ AGN, and it has been possible to obtain X-ray detections at redshifts up to $`z=6.28`$ (e.g., Brandt et al. 2002a).

The X-ray emission from AGN provides direct information about their black hole regions, where accretion and black hole growth occur; the emission is thought to be produced by the inner accretion disk and its corona (e.g., Poutanen 1998). Do the early black holes seen at high redshift feed and grow in the same way as local ones? X-ray observations of high-redshift AGN can address this fundamental question. It is plausible that high-redshift AGN could be feeding and growing differently. The comoving number density of luminous quasars changes by a factor of $`\stackrel{>}{}100`$ over the history of the Universe (e.g., Figure 9 of Fan et al. 2001 and references therein), and part of this strong evolution is believed to be due to environmental changes that might also impact the X-ray emission region. There have also been theoretical predictions that AGN accretion rates, relative to the Eddington rate, should change with redshift (e.g., Kauffmann and Haehnelt 2000); such changes can lead to accretion-disk instabilities (e.g., Gammie 1998 and references therein) and radiation “trapping” effects (e.g., Begelman 1979).

X-ray absorption measurements can also be used to probe the large-scale environments of high-redshift AGN. Changes in the amount of X-ray absorption with redshift have been discussed by many authors. The fraction of radio-loud quasars (RLQs) with heavy X-ray absorption appears to rise with redshift, with column densities of $`\stackrel{>}{}2\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 being seen at $`z\stackrel{>}{}3`$ (e.g., Elvis et al. 1998; Fiore et al. 1998; Reeves and Turner 2000). The absorbing gas may be circumnuclear, located in the host galaxy, or entrained by the radio jets. Radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) definitely show less of an absorption increase with redshift than do RLQs (e.g., Fiore et al. 1998). However, as discussed below, the X-ray absorption properties of high-redshift RQQs are only now becoming clear.

We adopt $`H_0=65`$ km s-1 Mpc-1, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{M}=1/3`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=2/3`$ throughout. This review partially updates Brandt et al. (2002b); some of the technical details and references in that review are not repeated here.

## RECENT X-RAY OBSERVATIONS AND RESULTS

### X-ray Observations

Most $`z>4`$ X-ray detections to date have been obtained via moderate-depth \[$``$ (1–20)$`\times 10^{15}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 in the 0.5–2 keV band\] follow-up observations of AGN discovered at other wavelengths (e.g., Kaspi et al. 2000; Vignali et al. 2001; Brandt et al. 2002a; Bechtold et al. 2003; Vignali et al. 2003a, 2003c).222In a handful of cases, moderate-depth X-ray data were serendipitously available for a field in which a $`z>4`$ quasar was subsequently discovered (predominantly using data at other wavelengths). Due to its superb imaging capability, Chandra is particularly effective at such observations; a measurement of only $``$ 2–3 photons at the known position of a quasar constitutes a significant Chandra detection! Chandra “snapshot” observations of only 4–10 ks are now reliably yielding X-ray detections of many $`z`$ 4–6 quasars. For example, we have made 30 such snapshots of $`z>4`$ quasars and have detected 87% of our targets; we have 25 more snapshots scheduled for Chandra Cycle 4. Our targets have included the highest redshift SDSS quasars ($`z\stackrel{>}{}4.8`$; $`M_\mathrm{B}27.0`$ to $`28.5`$) and the most luminous Palomar Digital Sky Survey (DPOSS; Djorgovski et al. 1998) quasars ($`z`$ 4.1–4.5; $`M_\mathrm{B}28.5`$ to $`30.5`$). We are also now targeting RLQs and “exotic” quasars (e.g., the quasars lacking emission lines in Fan et al. 1999 and Anderson et al. 2001) at $`z>4`$. Whenever possible, we have obtained near-simultaneous optical imaging and spectroscopy with the 8-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (Ramsey et al. 1998), so that the X-ray and optical properties can be compared without concerns about variability.

Seven $`z>4`$ AGN have been selected via their X-ray emission, spanning the redshift range $`z=`$ 4.14–5.19 (Henry et al. 1994; Zickgraf et al. 1997; Schneider et al. 1998; Barger et al. 2002; Silverman et al. 2002; Castander et al. 2003). These objects suffer from less selection bias than AGN found at other wavelengths; the $``$ 2–40 keV X-rays detected from $`z>4`$ AGN are extremely penetrating and thus unlikely to be absorbed. In addition, the $`z>4`$ X-ray selected AGN found in deep X-ray surveys (i.e., the Chandra Deep Field-North and the Lockman Hole) are substantially less luminous (with $`M_\mathrm{B}21.4`$ to $`24.4`$) than those found by the SDSS and DPOSS. These moderate-luminosity AGN are likely to be the majority AGN population at $`z>4`$; as such, they deserve at least as much attention as the highly luminous SDSS and DPOSS quasars.

### Basic X-ray Properties: Fluxes and Luminosities

Figure 1b shows the X-ray and optical fluxes for $`z>4`$ AGN with sensitive X-ray observations. Most of these objects, including even the optically brightest ones known, are faint X-ray sources with 0.5–2 keV fluxes of $`\stackrel{<}{}3\times 10^{14}`$ erg cm-2 s-1. The only exception to this rule is a small group of radio-loud blazars which have 0.5–2 keV fluxes up to $`6\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (e.g., Moran and Helfand 1997; Yuan et al. 2000; Fabian et al. 2001a,b). It is also clear from Figure 1b that, as expected from low-redshift AGN, there is a correlation between X-ray and optical flux; Vignali et al. (2003a, 2003c) find this correlation to be significant at the $`>99`$% confidence level and give the best-fit relationship (see their §3.1). The scatter around the best-fit relationship, however, is substantial (a factor of $`3`$ in X-ray flux). Practically, this scatter makes it risky to attempt long X-ray spectroscopic observations before an X-ray flux has been established via a shorter observation.

The 2–10 keV rest-frame luminosities of the AGN shown in Figure 1b span the wide range $`2\times 10^{43}`$ erg s-1 (e.g., Vignali et al. 2002) to $`2\times 10^{47}`$ erg s-1 (e.g., Fabian et al. 1998). Only the radio-loud blazars inhabit the highest X-ray luminosity range; RQQs generally have 2–10 keV X-ray luminosities of $`\stackrel{<}{}3\times 10^{45}`$ erg s-1 (e.g., Vignali et al. 2003a). These luminosities assume isotropic emission and no amplification due to gravitational lensing (e.g., Wyithe and Loeb 2002).

### X-ray Contribution to the Spectral Energy Distribution

In AGN studies the contribution of X-rays to the spectral energy distribution is often parameterized with $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$, the slope of a nominal power law between rest-frame 2500 Å and 2 keV \[$`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}=0.384\mathrm{log}(f_{2\mathrm{keV}}/f_{2500\text{Å}}`$) where $`f_{2\mathrm{keV}}`$ is the flux density at 2 keV and $`f_{2500\text{Å}}`$ is the flux density at 2500 Å\].333For $`z>4`$ AGN we have generally calculated $`f_{2\mathrm{keV}}`$ from the observed-frame 0.5–2 keV flux (assuming an X-ray power-law photon index of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2`$). Thus, the derived $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ values are actually based on the relative amount of X-ray flux in the 0.5$`(1+z)`$ keV to 2$`(1+z)`$ keV rest-frame band. AGN with larger negative $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ values have relatively weaker X-ray emission. The optically selected RQQs at $`z>4`$ have more negative $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ values ($`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}=1.74\pm 0.02`$) than low-redshift comparison samples (e.g., the Bright Quasar Survey RQQs have $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}=1.56\pm 0.02`$; Brandt et al. 2000; see Figure 2a). However, the $`z>4`$ RQQs are also more luminous on average (at 2500 Å; see Figure 2b), and thus one must address if the difference in $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ is due to redshift or luminosity (or both). Previous studies of this topic have generally concluded that $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ primarily depends upon luminosity rather than redshift (e.g., Avni et al. 1995 and references therein), although Bechtold et al. (2003) recently argued that $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ depends primarily upon redshift. Most work on this topic has been limited by heterogeneous AGN selection criteria or limited coverage of redshift or luminosity.

We have been investigating the $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ versus redshift/luminosity issue with a sample of 137 SDSS RQQs at $`z=`$ 0.16–6.28 that lie in pointed ROSAT, Chandra, and XMM-Newton observations (Vignali et al. 2003b, hereafter VBS; also see Vignali et al. 2003c). We have focused on RQQs since they comprise the bulk ($``$ 85–90%; e.g., Stern et al. 2000) of the quasar population and also are “simpler” systems to study (since it is not necessary to decompose the X-ray emission into accretion-disk-linked and jet-linked components). Compared to much of the previous work, our analysis has several significant advantages:

1. The SDSS quasars utilized have been optically selected in a well-defined manner and span large ranges of redshift and luminosity (e.g., Schneider et al. 2002 and references therein).
2. Sensitive radio data from the FIRST and NVSS surveys allow effective selection of only RQQs.
3. We have removed $`z\stackrel{>}{}1.5`$ Broad Absorption Line quasars (BALQs) and quantitatively constrained the effects that unidentified $`z\stackrel{<}{}1.5`$ BALQs can have upon our results. The underlying X-ray emission properties of BALQs are often difficult to measure because their X-ray spectra are “corrupted” by heavy absorption (e.g., Green et al. 2001; Gallagher et al. 2002; see the open squares in Figure 2).
4. We have examined the possible effects of flux amplification due to gravitational lensing of $`z>4`$ quasars (e.g., Wyithe and Loeb 2002). $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ will probably not be changed by gravitational lensing, but the true luminosity will differ from that assumed.
5. We have adopted the observationally favored “$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM” cosmology and have assessed the sensitivity of our main results to the adopted cosmology.

Partial correlation analyses, using the method of Akritas and Siebert (1996), find an anti-correlation between $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ and 2500 Å luminosity at the 3.4–3.9$`\sigma `$ level (controlling for the effect of redshift). By contrast, no highly significant redshift dependence of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ is found (1.7–2.3$`\sigma `$; controlling for the effect of luminosity). Thus, VBS find results that are qualitatively consistent with those of most previous workers: $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ appears to depend primarily upon luminosity rather than redshift.444We note, however, that there is substantial scatter in $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ ($`\pm 0.2`$) at all luminosities and redshifts; the correlations are far from being “tight.”

For $`z>4`$ AGN, the lack of any strong changes in $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ with redshift (after controlling for luminosity effects) is generally consistent with the lack of strong spectral evolution at other wavelengths. For example, the ultraviolet rest-frame spectra of $`z>4`$ quasars are only subtly different from those at lower redshifts (e.g., Schneider et al. 1989; Constantin et al. 2002), and the fraction of RLQs does not appear to change significantly with redshift (e.g., Stern et al. 2000).

### X-ray Spectroscopy

X-ray spectral analyses of $`z>4`$ AGN can determine the photon index of the X-ray power law and the properties (column density and ionization level) of any intrinsic absorption. Aside from the small group of radio-loud blazars mentioned above, detailed X-ray spectral analyses of individual $`z>4`$ AGN have not yet been performed due to their low X-ray fluxes (although see Chartas et al. 2002 and Hasinger et al. 2002 for X-ray spectral analyses of the $`z=3.91`$ gravitationally lensed BALQ APM 08279+5255).

It has been possible, however, to derive average X-ray spectral constraints via the joint fitting of several $`z>4`$ AGN (using the Cash 1979 statistic). Such joint fitting can provide a more stable estimate of average X-ray spectral properties than a single-object spectrum of the same statistical quality (since any single object might be atypical). Vignali et al. (2003a) have recently performed joint Chandra spectral fitting of nine luminous DPOSS quasars at $`z=`$ 4.09–4.51; together these quasars have $`340`$ counts, and only $`2`$ background counts are expected. The results are shown in Figure 3a and constrain the rest-frame 2–30 keV emission. The spectra are well fit by a power-law model with only Galactic absorption. The derived power-law photon index is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.98\pm 0.16`$ (errors are for 90% confidence), entirely consistent with those found for $`z`$ 0–3 samples of RQQs in the 2–10 keV band (see Figure 3b; e.g., George et al. 2000; Reeves and Turner 2000; Page et al. 2002).555We note that, at present, there is no evidence that the photon index of the underlying X-ray power law has a luminosity dependence (after allowing for Compton-reflection effects). The average constraint on neutral intrinsic absorption, assuming solar abundances, is $`N_\mathrm{H}<8.8\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2. If X-ray absorption were present at the level found in high-redshift RLQs, it should have been detected. Vignali et al. (2003c) have also used joint Chandra spectral fitting to constrain the average spectral properties of 13 SDSS quasars at $`z=`$ 4.81–6.28. These objects are well fit by a $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.84\pm 0.31`$ power law and Galactic absorption

We note that Bechtold et al. (2003) have reported X-ray spectral constraints for 16 luminous quasars at $`z=`$ 3.67–6.28. They do not report the results of a joint spectral analysis, but the mean of the photon indices in their Table 2 is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.50\pm 0.15`$. This mean photon index is significantly harder (at the $`2.5\sigma `$ level) than those reported above for the DPOSS and SDSS quasars.

Vignali et al. (2002) have performed X-ray spectral analyses of the three $`z>4`$ moderate-luminosity AGN found in the Chandra Deep Field-North; such analyses are only possible due to the extremely deep 2 Ms exposure. The highest quality X-ray spectrum was obtained for the low-luminosity quasar CXOHDFN J123647.9+620941 ($`z=5.186`$; $`M_\mathrm{B}=23.4`$; 138 counts) and is well fit by a $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.81\pm 0.31`$ power-law model with Galactic absorption. The other two AGN, CXOHDFN J123642.0+621331 ($`z=4.424`$; $`M_\mathrm{B}=21.6`$; 45 counts) and CXOHDFN J123719.0+621026 ($`z=4.137`$; $`M_\mathrm{B}=21.4`$; 117 counts), have Seyfert-like luminosities. They have flatter X-ray spectra with effective photon indices of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ 1.6 and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ 1.1, respectively, when only Galactic absorption is assumed in the fitting (these fits are statistically acceptable). The X-ray spectrum of CXOHDFN J123719.0+621026 can also be acceptably modeled with a $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ 2.0 power law and an intrinsic column density of $`2\times 10^{23}`$ cm-2.

### X-ray Variability

At present, information on the X-ray variability of $`z>4`$ AGN is very limited. The snapshot X-ray observations used to detect most $`z>4`$ quasars to date (see above) cover timescales of only $`20`$ minutes in the rest frame, and most luminous quasars at low redshift do not vary strongly on such short timescales. Highly significant X-ray variability at $`z>4`$ has only been detected from the blazars PMN J0525–3343 (Fabian et al. 2001b), GB 1428+4217 (Fabian et al. 1999; Boller et al. 2000), and GB 1508+5714 (Moran and Helfand 1997). CXOHDFN J123719.0+621026 in the Chandra Deep Field-North may also be X-ray variable (Vignali et al. 2002). There is a tentative claim that quasar X-ray variability increases with redshift in the sense that quasars of the same X-ray luminosity are more variable at $`z>2`$ (Manners et al. 2002).

### X-ray Imaging

X-ray imaging of $`z>4`$ AGN can allow searches for spatial extent due to gravitational lensing, small-scale X-ray jets, or X-ray scattering by dust in the intergalactic medium. The only $`z>4`$ AGN with published evidence for X-ray spatial extent is SDSS J103027.10+052455.0 at $`z=6.28`$, and Schwartz (2002) suggests that this extent may be due to gravitational lensing. The putative X-ray extent needs to be confirmed with a deeper Chandra observation, and lensing will be tightly constrained with an HST observation. Telis et al. (2003) have set a direct upper limit on the density of cosmological dust from the absence of an X-ray scattering halo around the $`z=4.30`$ blazar GB 1508+5714; they find that intergalactic extinction is unlikely to have significantly affected the Hubble diagram of Type 1a supernovae.

X-ray imaging can also search for companion objects such as clustered AGN in large-scale structures (e.g., Djorgovski 1999; Djorgovski et al. 2003) or large-scale X-ray jets. Schwartz (2002) tentatively reported the detection of a large-scale X-ray jet associated with the $`z=5.99`$ quasar SDSS J130608.26+035626.3, although such a detection would have been somewhat surprising given that this object (and its putative jet) is not a powerful radio source (i.e., its Kellermann et al. 1989 radio-loudness parameter is $`R<8.7`$). Deep $`I`$-band imaging of the putative jet (Ivanov 2002) suggests the X-ray emission is probably associated with an unrelated foreground galaxy. Nevertheless, jets should be searched for from other $`z>4`$ AGN. Vignali et al. (2003a) and Vignali et al. (2003c) have searched for statistical overdensities of companion X-ray sources near DPOSS and SDSS quasars, but no overdensities are found.

## CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

From a general perspective, the main conclusions from the X-ray analyses reviewed above are the following:

1. To the limits of current observation, AGN at $`z`$ 4–6 and $`z`$ 0–3 have reasonably similar X-ray and broad-band spectra (after controlling for luminosity effects upon the broad-band spectra). Specifically, the distributions of X-ray power-law photon index and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ appear consistent.
2. The current X-ray data do not provide any hints for different accretion mechanisms at low and high redshift. The X-ray data are consistent with the idea that early black holes at high redshift feed and grow in the same way as local ones. If the accretion mechanism does change at high redshift, it does so without dramatically affecting the X-ray emission made in the immediate vicinity of the black hole.
3. The small-scale X-ray emission regions of AGN appear relatively insensitive to the strong large-scale environmental changes that have occurred from $`z`$ 0–6. The quasar population evolves strongly over this time, but individual quasar X-ray emission regions appear to evolve much less.
4. The X-ray data provide support that, at least to first order, the spectral energy distributions of local AGN can be used when (1) estimating the black hole masses of high-redshift AGN via the Eddington argument \[$``$ (1–5)$`\times 10^9`$ M for luminous SDSS quasars; e.g., Fan et al. 2001\] and (2) calculating the effects of early AGN upon the intergalactic medium (e.g., Venkatesan et al. 2001; Cen 2003; Machacek et al. 2003).
5. X-ray emission appears to be a universal property of luminous AGN, even at $`z`$ 4–6. The X-rays also do not appear to be generally blocked from view by material in nascent AGN host galaxies.666Due to its low metallicity and relatively low integrated column density, the intergalactic medium should not prevent the X-ray detection of AGN even to very high redshift (e.g., Aldcroft et al. 1994; Miralda-Escudé 2000).

There are a number of ways the work described above can be extended including the following:

1. At present, there is only a limited number of X-ray detections at $`z>5`$ (see Figure 1a). It is important to increase this number as further $`z>5`$ AGN are discovered, so that strong statistical conclusions can be drawn about X-ray emission at the highest redshifts. For example, the SDSS should find $`100`$ quasars with $`z>5`$ and $`30`$ with $`z>6`$; it can find quasars up to $`z6.5`$ (e.g., Fan et al. 2003). Hopefully X-ray (e.g., Alexander et al. 2001; Barger et al. 2003) and infrared (e.g., Warren 2002) selection can be exploited to discover even higher redshift AGN. Ultimately, with missions such as Generation-X, it should be possible to detect $`10^4`$ M black holes in proto-AGN at $`z10`$; these objects will have X-ray fluxes of $`5\times 10^{20}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (compare with Figure 1b).777For further discussion see the Generation-X white paper submitted to the NASA Structure and Evolution of the Universe roadmap at http://universe.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/roadmap/submissions.html.
2. Minority AGN populations at $`z>4`$ need to be investigated better in the X-ray regime. These include quasars lacking emission lines (e.g., Fan et al. 1999; Anderson et al. 2001; Vignali et al. 2001), BALQs (e.g., Brandt et al. 2001; Goodrich et al. 2001; Vignali et al. 2001, 2003a, 2003c), and RLQs.
3. The constraints on $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ evolution with redshift and luminosity can be greatly improved as the SDSS AGN sample increases in size. Ultimately it should be possible to perform analyses like those in VBS with $`3,400`$ SDSS RQQs. Further X-ray studies of faint, moderate-luminosity AGN at $`z>4`$ will also be very useful for breaking the degeneracy between redshift and luminosity.
4. The current X-ray spectral constraints on $`z>4`$ AGN are admittedly limited; these need to be improved. In addition to the underlying power law, low-redshift AGN show X-ray spectral complexity including neutral and ionized absorption, iron K$`\alpha `$ lines, reflection continua, and soft excesses. The X-ray constraints on neutral absorption are already becoming interesting, but constraints on other types of spectral complexity are weak. With 40–100 ks exposures, XMM-Newton can obtain moderate-quality ($``$ 1000–2000 count) $``$ 1–50 keV rest-frame spectra of luminous $`z>4`$ quasars with 0.5–2 keV fluxes of $`\stackrel{>}{}1.5\times 10^{14}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (see Figure 1b). Efficient X-ray spectroscopy of the majority of the $`z>4`$ AGN population, however, will require future missions such as Constellation-X, XEUS, and Generation-X (see Vignali et al. 2001, 2003a for relevant simulations).
5. Systematic variability studies of $`z>4`$ AGN would allow the tentative claim that quasar X-ray variability increases with redshift (Manners et al. 2002) to be tested in extremis.
6. Further X-ray imaging studies of $`z>4`$ AGN will ultimately help to pin down the incidence of X-ray jets and gravitational lensing. Constraints will also be placed upon the amount of dust in the intergalactic medium and AGN clustering in large-scale structures.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank all of our collaborators on the work reviewed here. We thank G. Brunetti, S.C. Gallagher, D.A. Schwartz, and M.A. Strauss for useful discussions. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of NASA LTSA grant NAG5-8107 (WNB, CV), NASA grant NAG5-9918 (WNB, CV, DPS), Chandra X-ray Center grant G02-3134X (WNB, CV, DPS), NSF grant AST99-00703 (DPS), Chandra X-ray Center grant G02-3187A (DMA, FEB), and NASA grant NAS 8-01128 (GPG).