text:
# Structure, rotational dynamics, and superfluidity of small OCS-doped He clusters

(December 11, 2002)

## Abstract

The structural and dynamical properties of OCS molecules solvated in Helium clusters are studied using reptation quantum Monte Carlo, for cluster sizes $`n=320`$ He atoms. Computer simulations allow us to establish a relation between the rotational spectrum of the solvated molecule and the structure of the He solvent, and of both with the onset of superfluidity. Our results agree with a recent spectroscopic study of this system, and provide a more complex and detailed microscopic picture of this system than inferred from experiments.

Solvation of atoms and molecules in He nanodroplets provides a way to study their properties in an ultra-cold matrix, and also offers a unique opportunity to probe the physics of quantum fluids in confined geometries. Research in this field has been recently reviewed in Ref. clss01 , with emphasis on experiment and hydrodynamic modeling, and in Ref. khpbw00 , with emphasis on computer simulations.

Carbonyl sulfide (OCS) is one of the most widely studied dopants of He clusters (OCS@Hen) jaeger ; pgw01a , both because of its strong optical activity in the infrared and microwave spectral regions, and also because the OCS@He1 complex is spectroscopically well characterized Higgins ; Tang , thus providing a solid benchmark for the atom-molecule interaction potential which is the key ingredient of any further theoretical investigation.

In the quest of fingerprints of superfluidity in the spectra of small- and intermediate-size He clusters, Tang et al. have recently determined the vibrational and rotational spectra of OCS@Hen at high resolution for $`n=28`$ jaeger . The main results of that investigation are: i) the rotational constant of the solvated molecule roughly equals the nanodroplet (large-$`n`$) limit gtv98  at $`n=5`$, but then undershoots this asymptotic value up to the maximum cluster size ($`n=8`$) attained in that work; ii) the centrifugal distortion constant has a minimum at $`n=5`$, thus indicating that the complex is more rigid at this size; iii) the fundamental vibrational frequency of OCS is not a monotonic function of the number of He atoms, but it displays a maximum at $`n=5`$, again suggesting a stronger rigidity at this size. Findings ii) and iii) suggest—and our study of the rotational spectra confirms—that $`n=5`$ is a magic size related to the structure of solvent atoms around the solvated molecule. Finding i) implies the existence of a (yet to be determined) minimum in the rotational constant as a function of the cluster size. The occurrence of this minimum was interpreted as due to quantum exchanges which would decrease the effective inertia of the first solvation shell and would thus be a signature of the onset of superfluidity in this finite system jaeger .

Quantum simulations are complementary to the experiment for understanding the properties of matter at the atomic scale. In fact, while being limited by our incomplete knowledge of the inter-atomic interactions and by the size of the systems one can afford to examine, simulations provide a wealth of detailed information which cannot be obtained in the laboratory. In this paper we show how state-of-the art quantum Monte Carlo simulations can be used to get an unparalleled insight into the exotic properties of small He clusters. At the same time, some of the dynamical properties thus predicted are so sensitive to the details of the atom-molecule interactions, to provide a very accurate test of the available model potentials.

The structure and the rotational dynamics of OCS@Hen clusters are studied here in the small-to-intermediate size regime ($`n=320`$), using reptation quantum Monte Carlo (RQMC) noantri , a technique by which ground-state properties (such as the density distribution and various static and dynamic correlations) can be determined with high accuracy. In particular, the analysis of the dynamical dipole correlation function allows us to resolve, for the first time theoretically, several rotational components of the spectrum of an interacting quantum system. RQMC combines the best features of the path-integral (PIMC) and diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC) techniques, yet avoiding some of their drawbacks: RQMC is not affected by the systematic errors which plague the estimate of ground-state expectation values in DQMC (the so called mixed-estimate and population-control biases) and gives easy access to time correlations, from which dynamical properties can be extracted noantri ; at the same time, the RQMC technique is specially tailored to the zero-temperature (ground-state) regime, where PIMC becomes inefficient.

Both the He-He and the He-OCS interactions used here are derived from accurate quantum-chemical calculations korona ; hoho01 . The OCS molecule is allowed to perform translational and rotational motions, but it is assumed to be rigid. The trial wavefunction is chosen to be of the Jastrow form: $`\mathrm{\Phi }_T=\mathrm{exp}\left[\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}𝒰_1(r_i,\theta _i)\underset{i<j}{\overset{n}{}}𝒰_2(r_{ij})\right],`$ where $`r_{ij}`$ is the distance between the i-th and the j-th helium atoms, $`r_i=|𝐫_i|`$ the distance of the i-th atom from the center of mass of the molecule, and $`\theta _i`$ is the angle between the molecular axis and $`𝐫_i`$. On account of the high anisotropy of the He-OCS potential, $`𝒰_1`$ is expanded as a sum of five products of radial functions times Legendre polynomials. All radial functions (including $`𝒰_2`$) are optimized independently for each cluster size with respect to a total of 27 variational parameters. The propagation time is set to $`1{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{o}}\mathrm{K}_{}^{1}`$, with a time step of $`10^3{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{o}}\mathrm{K}_{}^{1}`$. The effects of the length of the time step and of the projection time noantri  have been estimated by test simulations performed by halving the former or doubling the latter. These effects were barely detectable on the total energy, and negligible with respect to the statistical noise for the properties on which we base our discussion below.

The absorption spectrum of a molecule solvated in a non polar environment is given by the Fourier transform of the autocorrelation function of its dipole, $`𝐝`$: $`I(\omega )2\pi _n|\mathrm{\Psi }_0|𝐝|\mathrm{\Psi }_n|^2\delta (E_nE_0\omega )=\mathrm{e}^{i\omega t}𝐝(t)𝐝(0)𝑑t`$, where $`\mathrm{\Psi }_0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_n`$ are ground- and excited-state wavefunctions of the system respectively, $`E_0`$ and $`E_n`$ the corresponding energies, and $`.`$ indicates ground-state expectation values. The dipole of a linear molecule—such as OCS—is oriented along its axis, so that the optical activity is essentially determined by the autocorrelation function of the molecular orientation versor: $`c(t)=𝐧(t)𝐧(0)`$. Within RQMC the analytical continuation to imaginary time of this correlation function, $`\overline{c}(\tau )=c(i\tau )`$, can be conveniently calculated without any other approximations than those implicit in the use of a given parametrization of the interatomic potentials noantri . From now on, when referring to time correlation functions, we will mean quantum correlations in imaginary time, and will we drop the bar over $`\overline{c}(\tau )`$. Analytical continuation to imaginary time transforms the oscillatory behavior of the real-time correlation function—which is responsible for the $`\delta `$-like peaks in its Fourier transform—into a sum of decaying exponentials whose decay constants are the excitation energies, $`E_nE_0`$, and whose spectral weights are proportional to the absorption oscillator strengths, $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_0|𝐝|\mathrm{\Psi }_n|^2`$. Dipole selection rules imply that only states with $`J=1`$ can be optically excited from the ground state. Information on excited states with different angular momenta, $`J`$, can be easily extracted from the multipole correlation functions, $`c_J(\tau )`$, defined as the time correlations of the Legendre polynomials: $`c_J(\tau )=P_J(𝐧(\tau )𝐧(0))\frac{1}{2J+1}_{M=J}^JY_{JM}^{}\left(𝐧(\tau )\right)Y_{JM}(𝐧(0))`$. For each value of $`J`$, the value of the lowest-lying excitation energy, $`ϵ_J`$i.e. the smallest decay constant in $`c_J(\tau )`$—as well as the corresponding spectral weight, $`A_J`$, can be extracted from a fit to $`c_J(\tau )`$. We have verified that the values so obtained are rather insensitive to the details of the fitting procedure.

In Fig. 1 we display multipole correlations calculated up to $`J=5`$ for OCS@He5 and OCS@He10. For a rigid-top, time correlations are described by a single exponential for each value of $`J`$, $`c_J(\tau )=\mathrm{e}^{ϵ_J\tau }`$, whose decay constant is $`ϵ_J=BJ(J+1)`$. The rigid-top energy levels are displayed as dashed lines. Time correlations deviate from a single-exponential behavior only at short times, thus indicating that the non rigidity of the cluster only affects the spectra at very high frequencies, the deviation being larger the larger the angular momentum. The dependence of $`ϵ`$ on $`J`$ is accurately predicted by the rigid-top model for $`n=5`$, while it is less so for $`n=10`$. In all cases the excitation energies are well described by a formula containing an effective centrifugal distortion constant: $`ϵ_J=BJ(J+1)DJ^2(J+1)^2`$ nota-correlata .

In Fig. 2 we display the rotational constant, $`B`$, and centrifugal distortion constant, $`D`$, as functions of the cluster size. $`B`$ displays a minimum at $`n=89`$, while $`D`$ is minimum at $`n=5`$, indicating a greatest rigidity of the He@OCS complex at this size. In order to discuss these findings and their relation with the structure of the cluster, with the onset of superfluidity, and with the quality of the interaction potential used for the simulation, we first define $`\rho (𝐫)`$ as the He number-density distribution, and $`\varphi (𝐫)`$ as the ground-state expectation value of molecule-atom angular motion correlation: $`\varphi (𝐫)=\mathrm{\Psi }_0|𝐋𝐥(𝐫)|\mathrm{\Psi }_0`$. In this expression $`𝐋`$ indicates the angular momentum of the OCS molecule and $`𝐥(𝐫)`$ is the angular-current operator of He atoms at point $`𝐫`$: $`𝐥(𝐫)=i\mathrm{}𝐫\times _l\left(\frac{}{𝐫_𝐥}\delta (𝐫𝐫_l)+\delta (𝐫𝐫_l)\frac{}{𝐫_𝐥}\right)`$. The angular correlation function, $`\varphi (𝐫)`$, is non-negative and it is large whenever the angular motion of He atoms at point $`𝐫`$ is strongly correlated with the rotation of the solvated molecule, thus contributing to the molecular effective moment of inertia.

In Fig. 3 we display $`\rho (𝐫)`$ and $`\varphi (𝐫)`$, as calculated for cluster sizes $`n=5,8,10,15`$. The He density reaches its maximum where the He-OCS interaction potential is minimum, i.e. in a doughnut surrounding the molecule perpendicular to the OC bond. This doughnut can accommodate up to 5 He atoms which rotate rather rigidly with the OCS molecule, as demonstrated by the large value of the angular correlation function. Each He atom within the doughnut gives a same contribution to the cluster moment of inertia, resulting in a constant slope of $`B`$ vs. $`n`$ for $`n5`$.

Secondary minima of the He-OCS potential exist on the molecular axis near the two poles, the one nearest to the S atom being deeper. For $`n>5`$ He atoms spill out of the region of the main minimum and spread towards other regions of space, preferentially near the molecular poles. A detailed analysis of the He density plots for $`n=6,7,8`$ shows that—due to quantum tunneling to and from the doughnut—both polar regions start to be populated as soon as the doughnut occupation is completed (i.e. for $`n>5`$). The number of Helium atoms near the sulfur pole is 0.2, 0.3, and 0.7, for $`n=6,7,8`$, and 0.5, 0.8, and 1.1 near the oxygen pole. Helium density is larger near the oxygen pole—rather that near sulfur where the potential is more attractive—because a smaller energy barrier and a smaller distance from the absolute minimum in the doughnut make quantum tunneling between the absolute and the secondary minima easier in this case.

Quantum tunneling is the key for understanding the onset of superfluidity, as well as the sensitivity of rotational spectra to the details of the He-OCS interaction. For $`n=6,7,8`$ a sizeable He density is found not only near the molecular poles, but also in the angular region between the doughnut and the oxygen pole, where the energy barrier is small. Non negligible angular correlations indicate that atoms in this region (and not only near the poles) contribute to the effective moment of inertia. For $`n>8`$ He atoms start to fill the angular region between the doughnut and the S pole (see the $`n=10`$ panel of Fig. 3). The closure of He rings in the sagittal planes makes atomic exchanges along these rings possible, thus triggering the same mechanism which gives rise to superfluidity in infinite systems feynman . The onset of superfluidity is responsible not only for negligible angular correlations in this region, but also for the decrease of these correlations in the doughnut region where the largest contributions to the cluster inertia come from. This is demonstrated in the bottom-right panel of Fig. 3, where one sees that the maximum of the angular correlation in the doughnut region starts decreasing for $`n>8`$.

It is also interesting to examine the dependence upon cluster size of the spectral weights, $`A_J`$. It turns out that, while for $`J=1`$ the spectral weight displays a maximum at $`n=45`$ and a minimum at $`n=8`$, the maximum at $`n=45`$ is not followed by any minimum for $`J=5`$. We interpret the maximum of $`A_J`$ at $`n=45`$ as another manifestation of the greatest rigidity of the He@OCS cluster at this size, while the behavior for $`n>5`$ is determined by the number of solvent states available to couple with the lowest-lying molecular rotation. This number increases with the cluster size for $`J=5`$, while it has a maximum at $`n=89`$ for $`J=1`$. These findings are consistent with the emergence of superfluid behavior at cluster size, as characterized by the reduction of low-lying excited states in the He matrix feynman .

This quantum tunneling makes the rotational constants for $`n>5`$ rather sensitive to the height and width of the barriers between different minima of the OCS-He interaction potential. On the other hand, the details of the potential off the main minimum in the doughnut hardly affect the spectra for $`n5`$ and, in particular, that of OCS@He1 which is used as a benchmark for the quality of the potential hoho01 . Our simulations predict rotational constants which are in excellent agreement with experiment for $`n5`$, while for $`n6`$ the predicted values of $`B`$ are too large and display too small a slope as a function of $`n`$. We believe that both these facts are due to the smallness of the barriers between the main and the secondary energy minima, which determines an excessive spill-out of He atoms off the main minimum for $`n=6`$ and an excessive propensity towards atomic exchanges for $`n6`$. We expect that larger energy barriers would result in a better agreement between theory and experiment for $`6n8`$ and, possibly, in a shift of the predicted minimum of the rotational constant towards larger sizes. As a qualitative test, we have redone some of our simulations with a uniformly scaled potential ($`V_{\mathrm{He}\mathrm{OCS}}\alpha V_{\mathrm{He}\mathrm{OCS}}`$). Although not very realistic, this transformation captures the essential modifications to be done to the potential, i.e. it modifies the height of the barriers while leaving the location of the minima unchanged. For $`\alpha =1.2`$, we find that the values of $`B`$ for $`n5`$ are left practically unchanged, while the agreement with experiment is much improved for $`n=6,7,8`$. The resulting minimum value of $`B`$ stays located near $`n=89`$. This lets us believe that our prediction of the position of the minimum rotational constant as a function of the cluster size should be rather robust with respect to possible improvements of the He-OCS effective potential.

FIG. 3: Upper left panel: He-OCS interaction potential. The atoms constituting the molecule are displayed as circles whose radius is the corresponding Van der Waals radius (sulphur on the left). Panels with red background: upper mid panel, He number density; lower mid panel, angular motion correlation function (see text). Colors go from red to violet as in a rainbow, as the value of the function increases. Lower right panel: maximum of the angular motion correlation function, as a function of the cluster size.
In conclusion, we have shown that state-of-the art quantum Monte Carlo simulation provide both a qualitative explanation of the relation existing among structure, dynamics, and superfluidity in small He clusters, and a sensitive test of the quality of atom-molecule potentials, in regions which hardly affect the spectra of the monoatomic molecular complex.

We are grateful to W. Jäger for sending us a preprint of Ref. jaeger  prior to publication, and to G. Scoles for bringing that paper to our attention and for a careful reading of the first draft of the present paper. Last but not least, we would like to thank both K. Lehman and G. Scoles for many illuminating discussions held at the Chemistry Department of the Princeton University where SB was the grateful guest of R. Car while part of this work was being done.


format: text

text:
# Spin-polarized transport through a quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic leads: Kondo correlation effect

## I Introduction

Since the discovery of the giant magnetoresistance effect, extensive theoretical and experimental attention has been paid to the spin-dependent electron transport through systems consisting of two ferromagnetic layers (FM) sandwiched by a nonmagnetic structure of different types, including insulator, semiconductor quantum well, carbon nanotube, and composite structure. Quite a lot interesting spin related transport effects and device functions have been predicted, observed, even realized. These investigations constitute an important part of the rapidly developing field of magnetoelectronics or spin-electronics. Recently, FM/quantum-dot(QD)/FM system has attracted much attention. Different from previously studied nonmagnetic structure, a quantum dot features the strong many-body correlation among electrons in it such that, not only the Coulomb blockade can dominate its electronic transport, but, particularly, a significant Kondo effect may arise when it connects to normal leads, exhibiting zero-bias maximum in the differential conductance in the cases when odd number of electrons resides in. It is of course interesting to see what happens when the normal metal leads are replaced by ferromagnetic leads. How is the Kondo-correlated state affected by the strength and the relative orientation of the spin polarizations of two magnetic leads?

In a recent paper, Sergueev et al. presented a theoretical analysis of the transport characteristics of such a FM/QD/FM system modeled by the Anderson single-impurity Hamiltonian with finite Coulomb repulsion $`U`$, using the ansatz proposed by Ng and the standard equation-of-motion technique for the retarded Green’s function with the usual decoupling procedure for the higher order functions. They found that there is always a sharp single Kondo resonant peak in nonlinear differential conductance at zero bias and that the height of the peak exhibits only a modest change with varying the polarization strength from 0 to 0.6 and with varying the spin orientation angle from 0 to $`\pi `$. Very recently, markedly different results were reported on similar systems in the $`U\mathrm{}`$ limit by two groups, based also on the equation-of-motion technique together with Ng’s ansatz or with some kind of additional assumption to determine renormalized level of the QD. They found that for parallel alignment of the lead magnetizations, the Kondo resonance peak in the differential conductance splits at a polarization value as small as 0.2.

In this paper we investigate the spin-polarized transport through a quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic leads using a finite-$`U`$ slave-boson mean-field (SBMF) approach of Kotliar and Ruckenstein. As an effective nonperturbative technique, different versions of SBMF method have been used to study the equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium Kondo effect in a single QD and double QDs connected to normal leads without and with a magnetic field. It is generally believed that the SBMF approach is reliable in describing the Kondo regime at low temperature but may have problem to deal with strong charge fluctuations. Nevertheless, previous analyses on a single quantum dot with normal leads based on the finite-$`U`$ SBMF approach predicted the linear conductance in reasonable agreement with experiments and with numerical renormalization group calculation within the range $`1.2Uϵ_d0.2U`$ of the dot level $`ϵ_d`$, and predicted the magnetic-field-induced peak splitting of nonlinear differential conductance in Kondo regime in qualitatively agreement with experiments and with exact Bethe-ansatz solution in the voltage range up to several multiples of the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$. Even for shot noise the SBMF treatment was shown to yield good result up to the bias voltage $`eV0.8T_K`$. This indicates that, although the SBMF approach should generally restrict to low temperatures and low voltages ($`eV,TT_K`$), the finite-$`U`$ SBMF method can be used to investigate the linear conductance within a relatively wide dot-level range and to study the nonlinear conductance for Kondo systems covering the bias range $`eV`$ up to several multiples of $`T_K`$, in which the main magnetic-field and magnetization induced features in Kondo transport appear.

Using the SBMF approach of Kotliar and Ruckenstein we have investigated the linear and nonlinear dc transport in FM/QD/FM systems having finite on-site Coulomb repulsion $`U`$. We find that the Kondo effect shows up as a broad zero-bias resonance in the nonlinear differential conductance versus bias voltage for antiparallel spin alignment in the leads. In parallel configuration, with increasing polarization strength this zero-bias Kondo peak descends and greatly widens by the appearance of shoulders, and finally splits into two peaks on both sides of bias voltage at polarization strength around 0.7 until it disappears at even larger polarization. The linear conductance always drops with enhancing the polarization strength at any spin orientation angle, and exhibits a strong angle variation at large polarization. For a given finite value of polarization, the minimum linear conductance always appears at antiparallel configuration.

## II Formulation

We consider a FM/QD/FM system similar to that discussed by Wang et al.: a quantum dot connected to two ferromagnetic leads. When a voltage $`V`$ is applied across two leads a current flows through the QD along the $`x`$ direction. The magnetic moment of the left lead is pointing to the $`z`$ direction, $`𝐌_L=(0,0,M)`$, while that of the right lead is at an angle $`\theta `$ to the $`z`$ axis in the $`y`$-$`z`$ plane, $`𝐌_R=(0,M\mathrm{sin}\theta ,M\mathrm{cos}\theta )`$. The Hamiltonian of the system can be written as

$$H=H_L+H_R+H_D+H_T.$$
(1)
Here

$$H_D=\underset{\sigma }{}ϵ_dc_{d\sigma }^{}c_{d\sigma }+Uc_d^{}c_dc_d^{}c_d$$
(2)
describes the QD with a single orbital level $`ϵ_d`$ and a finite on-site Coulomb repulsion $`U`$ between electrons;

$$H_\alpha =\underset{k,\sigma }{}ϵ_{\alpha k\sigma }C_{\alpha k\sigma }^{}C_{\alpha k\sigma }$$
(3)
stands for the left ($`\alpha =L`$) or the right ($`\alpha =R`$) lead with electron energy $`ϵ_{\alpha k\sigma }=ϵ_{\alpha k}+\sigma M`$; and ($`\overline{\sigma }=\sigma `$)

$`H_T={\displaystyle \underset{k,\sigma }{}}`$ $`[T_{Rk\sigma }(\mathrm{cos}{\displaystyle \frac{\theta }{2}}C_{Rk\sigma }^{}\sigma \mathrm{sin}{\displaystyle \frac{\theta }{2}}C_{Rk\overline{\sigma }}^{})c_{d\sigma }`$ (4)
$`+`$ $`T_{Lk\sigma }C_{Lk\sigma }^{}c_{d\sigma }+h.c.]`$ (5)
describes the tunneling between the QD and the two leads. Note that the small letter symbols $`c_{d\sigma }^{}`$ ($`c_{d\sigma }`$) and $`c_{\alpha k\sigma }^{}`$ ($`c_{\alpha k\sigma }`$) are creation (annihilation) operators of electrons in the dot and in the left and right leads with spin up ($`\sigma =1`$ or $``$) or spin down ($`\sigma =1`$ or $``$) state in respect to the $`z`$-axis. In the above expressions, the capital letter operator $`C_{Lk\sigma }^{}=c_{Lk\sigma }^{}`$ for the left lead, while $`C_{Rk\sigma }^{}=\mathrm{cos}(\theta /2)c_{Rk\sigma }^{}+\sigma \mathrm{sin}(\theta /2)c_{Rk\overline{\sigma }}^{}`$ for the right lead.

According to the finite-$`U`$ slave-boson approach,, one can use additional four auxiliary boson operators $`e`$, $`p_\sigma (\sigma =\pm 1)`$ and $`d`$, which are associated respectively with the empty, singly occupied, and doubly occupied electron states of the QD, to describe the above physical problem without interparticle coupling in an enlarged space with constraints: the completeness relation $`\underset{\sigma }{}p_\sigma ^{}p_\sigma +e^{}e+d^{}d=1`$ and the particle number conservation condition $`c_{d\sigma }^{}c_{d\sigma }=p_\sigma ^{}p_\sigma +d^{}d,(\sigma =\pm 1)`$. Within the mean-field scheme we start with the following effective Hamiltonian:

$`H_{eff}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}ϵ_dc_{d\sigma }^{}c_{d\sigma }+Ud^{}d+{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =L,R}{}}H_\alpha +\lambda ^{(1)}({\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}p_\sigma ^{}p_\sigma +e^{}e+d^{}d1)+{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}\lambda _\sigma ^{(2)}(c_{d\sigma }^{}c_{d\sigma }p_\sigma ^{}p_\sigma d^{}d)`$ (6)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k,\sigma }{}}[T_{Lk\sigma }C_{Lk\sigma }^{}c_{d\sigma }z_\sigma +T_{Rk\sigma }(\mathrm{cos}{\displaystyle \frac{\theta }{2}}C_{Rk\sigma }^{}\sigma \mathrm{sin}{\displaystyle \frac{\theta }{2}}C_{Rk\overline{\sigma }}^{})c_{d\sigma }z_\sigma +h.c.]`$ (7)
where three Lagrange multipliers $`\lambda ^{(1)}`$ and $`\lambda _\sigma ^{(2)}`$ are introduced to take account of the constraints, and in the hopping term the QD fermion operators $`c_{d\sigma }^{}`$ and $`c_{d\sigma }`$ are expressed as $`z_\sigma ^{}c_{d\sigma }^{}`$ and $`c_{d\sigma }z_\sigma `$ to recover the many body effect on tunneling. $`z_\sigma `$ consists of all boson operator sets that are associated with the physical process with which a $`\sigma `$-spin electron is annihilated:

$$z_\sigma =(1d^{}dp_\sigma ^{}p_\sigma )^{\frac{1}{2}}(e^{}p_\sigma +p_{\overline{\sigma }}^{}d)(1e^{}ep_{\overline{\sigma }}^{}p_{\overline{\sigma }})^{\frac{1}{2}}.$$
(8)
From the effective Hamiltonian (5) one can derive four equations of motion of slave-boson operators, which, together with the three constraints, serve as the basic equations. Then we use the mean-field approximation in the statistical expectations of these equations, in which all the boson operators are replaced by their expectation values. In the wide-band limit for the leads the resulting equations are as follows.

$`{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{z_\sigma }{e}}K_\sigma +2\lambda ^{(1)}e=0,`$ (9)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{z_\sigma }{p_\sigma ^{}}}K_\sigma +2(\lambda ^{(1)}\lambda _\sigma ^{}^{(2)})p_\sigma ^{}=0,`$ $`\sigma ^{}=\pm 1,`$ (10)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{z_\sigma }{d}}K_\sigma +2(U+\lambda ^{(1)}{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}\lambda _\sigma ^{(2)})`$ $`d=0,`$ (11)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}|p_\sigma |^2+|e|^2+|d|^2=1,`$ (12)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi i}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\omega G_{d\sigma \sigma }^<(\omega )}=|p_\sigma |^2+|d|^2,`$ $`\sigma =\pm 1.`$ (13)
Here

$$K_\sigma \frac{1}{\pi }𝑑\omega \left(z_\sigma \mathrm{Re}(G_{d\sigma \sigma }^r)\left[f_R(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{R\sigma }\mathrm{cos}^2\frac{\theta }{2}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{R\overline{\sigma }}\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{\theta }{2})+f_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_{L\sigma }\right]+\sigma z_{\overline{\sigma }}\mathrm{Re}(G_{d\sigma \overline{\sigma }}^r)f_R(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{R\sigma }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{R\overline{\sigma }})\mathrm{sin}\frac{\theta }{2}\mathrm{cos}\frac{\theta }{2}\right),$$
(14)
with $`f_\alpha (\omega )=1/(e^{\beta (\omega \mu _\alpha )}+1)`$, $`\mu _\alpha `$ the chemical potential of the $`\alpha `$th lead, which is assumed in an equilibrium state at temperature $`1/\beta `$, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \sigma }(\omega )=2\pi _{k\alpha }|T_{\alpha k\sigma }|^2\delta (\omega ϵ_{\alpha k\sigma })`$ the coupling strength function between the QD and the lead $`\alpha `$. $`G_{d\sigma \sigma ^{}}^{r(a)}(\omega )`$ and $`G_{d\sigma \sigma ^{}}^<(\omega )`$ are the elements of the $`2\times 2`$ retarded (advanced) and correlation Green’s function matrices $`𝐆_d^{r(a)}(\omega )`$ and $`𝐆_d^<(\omega )`$ in the spin space of the QD. The retarded (advanced) Green’s function can be written in the form renormalized due to dot-lead couplings,

$$𝐆_d^{r(a)}(\omega )=\frac{1}{\omega 𝐈\stackrel{~}{𝐇}_d\pm i\stackrel{~}{𝚪}}$$
(15)
in which $`𝐈`$ is a unit matrix,

$$\stackrel{~}{𝐇}_d=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_d& 0\\ 0& \stackrel{~}{ϵ}_d\end{array}\right)$$
(16)
reflects the dot-level shifting and splitting between spin-up and spin-down electrons, $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_{d\sigma }=ϵ_d+\lambda _\sigma ^{(2)}`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{𝚪}=\frac{1}{2}(\stackrel{~}{𝚪}_L+\stackrel{~}{𝚪}_R)`$ is the effective line width or the renormalized co-tunneling strength, where $`\stackrel{~}{𝚪}_\alpha `$ ($`\alpha =L`$ or $`R`$) is a $`2\times 2`$ matrix consisting of elements $`\stackrel{~}{𝚪}_\alpha ^{11}=|z_{}|^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{cos}^2\frac{\theta _\alpha }{2}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{sin}^2\frac{\theta _\alpha }{2})`$, $`\stackrel{~}{𝚪}_\alpha ^{22}=|z_{}|^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{cos}^2\frac{\theta _\alpha }{2}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{sin}^2\frac{\theta _\alpha }{2})`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{𝚪}_\alpha ^{12}=\stackrel{~}{𝚪}_\alpha ^{21}=z_{}z_{}(\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha )\mathrm{cos}\frac{\theta _\alpha }{2}\mathrm{sin}\frac{\theta _\alpha }{2}`$, where $`\theta _L=0`$ and $`\theta _R=\theta `$. The correlation Green’s function $`𝐆_d^<`$ can be obtained with the help of the following relation typical for a noninteracting system:

$$𝐆_d^<=𝐆_d^r𝚺_d^<𝐆_d^a,$$
(17)
with $`𝚺_d^<=i(\stackrel{~}{𝚪}_Lf_L+\stackrel{~}{𝚪}_Rf_R)`$.

The electric current flowing from the left lead into the QD can be obtained from the rate of change of electron number operator of the left lead:

$$I_L=\frac{ie}{\mathrm{}}\frac{d\omega }{2\pi }\mathrm{Tr}\left\{\stackrel{~}{𝚪}_L(\omega )\left([𝐆_d^r(\omega )𝐆_d^a(\omega )]f_L(\omega )+𝐆_d^<(\omega )\right)\right\}.$$
(18)
In the steady transport state, the current flowing from the QD to the right lead must be equal to the current from the left lead to the QD, and the formula (17) can be directly used for calculating the current flowing through the lead-dot-lead system under a bias voltage $`V`$ between the two leads: $`I=I_L`$.

## III Numerical results and discussions

We suppose that the left and right leads are made from the identical material and, in the wide band limit, assume constant effective coupling strength $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{L\sigma }(\omega )=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{R\sigma }(\omega )=\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma `$ respectively for up- and down-spin orientation. The steady state dc current flowing through the system reads

$$I=\frac{e}{h}𝑑\omega \underset{\sigma }{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma |z_\sigma |^2[2f_L\mathrm{Im}(G_{d\sigma \sigma }^r)+\mathrm{Im}(G_{d\sigma \sigma }^<)].$$
(19)
We will take $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{})/2`$ as the energy units in the following and define the spin polarization as $`P(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{})/(2\mathrm{\Gamma })`$. The Kondo temperature in the case of $`P=0`$, given by $`T_K^0=U\sqrt{\beta }\mathrm{exp}(\pi /\beta )/2\pi `$ with $`\beta =2U\mathrm{\Gamma }/ϵ_d(U+ϵ_d)`$, will be used as the dynamical energy scale in presenting the nonlinear conductance.

In the following we will deal with FM/QD/FM systems having a fixed finite Coulomb repulsion $`U=6`$ and consider effects of changing bare dot level $`ϵ_d`$, polarization strength $`P`$ and relative spin orientation $`\theta `$.

In calculating the dc current from Eq. (17) under a finite bias voltage $`V`$ between the two leads, we choose the energy zero such that the chemical potential $`\mu _L=\mu _R=eV/2`$ for the left and right leads for convenience.

Linear conductance $`G=(dI/dV)_{V=0}`$ is related to the slave-boson parameters $`e^2,p_\sigma ^2,d^2,\lambda ^{(1)}`$, $`\lambda _\sigma ^{(2)}`$ and $`|z_\sigma |^2`$ at zero bias. In antiparallel configuration ($`\theta =\pi `$), all the slave-boson parameters are identical for up and down spin indices and independent of $`P`$. In the parallel configuration ($`\theta =0`$), $`p_\sigma ^2,\lambda _\sigma ^{(2)}`$ and $`|z_\sigma |^2`$ split for up and down spins and all the parameters exhibit strong $`P`$-dependence. As an example we plot in Fig.1 the zero-bias parameters $`e^2,p_\sigma ^2,d^2,\lambda ^{(1)}`$, $`\lambda _\sigma ^{(2)}`$ and the average electron number in the dot $`n=p_{}^2+p_{}^2+2d^2`$ in the parallel configuration at zero temperature for the case of $`ϵ_d=1`$ and $`U=6`$.

Figs. 2 and 3 show the zero-temperature linear conductance $`G`$ as a function of the bare energy level $`ϵ_d`$ of the quantum-dot having a fixed on-site Coulomb repulsion $`U=6`$ at different polarizations $`P=0,0.3,0.5,0.7`$ and $`0.9`$ on two leads in parallel ($`\theta =0`$) and in antiparallel ($`\theta =\pi `$) configurations. Each curve covers three regimes, containing the resonance peak due to the dot level around $`ϵ_d=0`$, the charging peak around $`ϵ_d=U`$, and the Kondo peak centered at $`ϵ_d=U/2`$. In the case of zero polarization $`P=0`$ and in the antiparallel configuration of arbitrary polarization, all the slave-boson parameters are identical for up and down spin indices, and electrons with up-spin and down-spin are equally available in the whole lead-dot-lead system, favoring the formation of the Kondo-correlated state within a relatively wide dot level range centered at $`ϵ_d=3`$. At the same time, since there is no splitting of the renormalized dot levels $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_{d\sigma }`$ for up and down spins, the resonance and charging peaks are relatively narrow. The $`G`$-vs-$`ϵ_d`$ curves appear to be smooth hump-type structures. On the other hand, since there is no spin-flip mechanism in the tunneling coupling and in the antiparallel configuration the available minority-spin (e.g. up-spin) states in the right lead decrease with increasing polarization strength, the transfer of the majority-spin (up-spin) electrons from the left lead to the right lead is suppressed by the finite $`P`$, such that the conductance of the system goes down with increasing $`P`$ and vanishes at $`P=1`$. In the parallel configuration, finite polarization $`P>0`$ splits the dot level for up and down spins and thus broadens the resonance peaks around $`ϵ_d=0`$ and $`ϵ_d=U`$. At the same time the central Kondo peaks is progressively narrowed with increasing $`P`$ due to the decrease of the available minority-spin electrons in the two leads. This two factors lead to the appearance of kinks or splitting peaks in the $`G`$-vs-$`ϵ_d`$ curves for $`P=0.3,0.5,0.7`$ and $`0.9`$ in the parallel configuration. Nevertheless, the unitary limit $`G=2e^2/h`$ can still be reached as long as $`P<1`$. In the case of $`P=1`$, since there is no minority-spin electron in the leads, the formation of the Kondo-correlated state is impossible and the double occupancy probability of the dot level vanishes, $`d^2=0`$. In this case the Kondo peak disappears, together with the charging peak. There remains only a tunneling peak centered around $`ϵ_d=0`$ in the $`G`$-vs-$`ϵ_d`$ curve, which stems from the up-spin electrons.

Fig. 4 shows the calculated zero-temperature linear conductance $`G`$ for a FM/QD/FM system having $`ϵ_d=2`$ and $`U=6`$ as a function of polarization $`P`$ at several different spin orientations $`\theta =0,\pi /4,\pi /2,3\pi /4`$, and $`\pi `$. For each fixed orientation the linear conductance decreases with increasing $`P`$ straightforwardly from the maximum value $`G=1.97e^2/h`$ at $`P=0`$ down to its minimum. The conductance descends generally faster at larger $`\theta `$ except for the case of $`\theta =\pi /4`$ and $`P>0.75`$, where $`G`$ goes down slower than that of $`\theta =0`$. This can be understood as due to the rapid decrease of the conductance (or the swift narrowing of the Kondo peak) with $`P`$ increasing in the parallel configuration, as seen in Fig. 3. For a given large $`P`$ when rotating an angle $`\pi /4`$ from parallel configuration, the conductance increase due to the reduction of the equivalent parallel polarization from $`P`$ to $`P\mathrm{cos}(\pi /4)`$ overcompensates the conductance decrease induced by applying an equivalent polarization $`P\mathrm{sin}(\pi /4)`$ along $`\theta =\pi /2`$. In Fig. 5 we plot the linear conductance $`G`$ versus the angle $`\theta `$ of the relative spin orientation at various polarization strengths $`P=0,0.3,0.5,0.7`$ and $`0.9`$ for the same system as described in Fig. 4. We see a clear angle variation of the linear conductance at a finite spin polarization, with the minimum always at $`\theta =\pi `$. At small $`P`$ the conductance $`G`$ reaches its maximum at $`\theta =0`$, but at large polarization the maximum appears near $`\theta =\pi /4`$.

Fig. 6 shows the calculated differential conductance $`dI/dV`$ versus the bias voltage under antiparallel configuration ($`\theta =\pi `$) at various polarizations $`P=0,0.3,0.5,0.7`$ and $`0.9`$ for a FM/QD/FM system having a single dot level $`ϵ_d=1`$ and a finite on-site Coulomb repulsion $`U=6`$ ($`T_K^0=0.4`$). All the curves exhibit a single zero-bias peak having essentially the same width but with peak height going straight down with growing $`P`$ from the highest value $`1.79e^2/h`$ at $`P=0`$. As pointed above, in antiparallel configuration electrons with up-spin and down-spin are equally available in the lead-dot-lead system, in favor of the formation of the Kondo-correlated state for all values of $`P`$. However, since the up-spin states are almost unavailable in the right lead in the case of large polarization $`P`$, the transfer of electrons (almost up-spins) from the left lead to the right lead is largely suppressed. The conductance of the system goes down to zero with increasing $`P`$ to 1.

The situation becomes different in the case of parallel configuration, where the available down-spin electrons are less than the up-spin ones in the leads when $`P>0`$. Although the former can still provide screening for dot electrons to form Kondo correlation to certain degree at small values of $`P`$, the effect gradually weakens with growing $`P`$ for this $`ϵ_d=1`$ system (somewhat away from the unitary limit), leading to the decrease in linear conductance from the peak value at $`P=0`$. In the case of large polarization, the number of minority-spin electrons is too small to form the Kondo-correlation state and Kondo-induced conductance enhancement disappears rapidly with $`P`$ increasing. On the other hand, even when there is no down-spin states ($`P=1`$), the up-spin states are always available in both left and right leads, allowing the up-spin electrons to carry a current through tunneling. Fig. 7 illustrates the calculated differential conductance $`dI/dV`$ for $`\theta =0`$ at various polarizations $`P=0,0.3,0.5,0.7`$ and $`0.9`$. We can see that the zero-bias Kondo peak in the $`dI/dV`$-vs-$`eV`$ curve of $`P=0`$, descends and widens by the appearance of shoulders on both sides of bias voltage at $`P=0.3`$ and $`P=0.5`$. This is apparently due to the weakening of the Kondo correlation and the splitting of the renormalized dot level $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_d`$ (see Fig. 1). At $`P=0.7`$, the level splitting is large enough and there are still sufficient down-spin electrons for the formation of Kondo state, we see the splitting of the zero-bias anomaly into two peaks on both sides of the applied voltage at a distance around twice the renormalized level splitting ($`\lambda _{}^{(2)}\lambda _{}^{(2)}0.27`$) (see Fig. 1). At $`P=0.8`$, almost no down-spin electron exists in the dot and no Kondo-related $`dI/dV`$ behavior shows up for this $`ϵ_d=1`$ system.

Similar trend can also be seen in Fig. 8, where we plot the differential conductance $`dI/dV`$ versus the bias voltage $`eV`$ in the case of $`P=0.8`$ at various relative spin orientations $`\theta =0,\pi /4,\pi /2,3\pi /4`$ and $`\pi `$. At this strength of polarization, there is no Kondo-correlated state to appear for the $`ϵ_d=1`$ system in the parallel configuration ($`\theta =0`$). In the case of $`\theta =\pi /4`$, however, the dot level splitting is large enough and there are sufficient down-spin electrons to survive the reduced effective parallel polarization $`P\mathrm{cos}(\pi /4)`$ for the formation of the Kondo correlation. A clear appearance of nonzero-bias maximum in the voltage-dependent conductance can be seen.

In spite of dealing with the same system ($`U=6`$ and $`ϵ=1`$), the behavior of the linear and nonlinear conductance obtained here is quite different from that reported in Ref.. In parallel configuration, our predicted linear conductance $`G`$ goes down with increasing $`P`$ at least up to $`P=0.7`$ (see Fig. 7) in contrast to their $`G`$ which increases with rising $`P`$ (Fig. 5a in Ref.). In the bias-dependent differential conductance our results show the clear trend of the zero-bias peak broadening with increasing $`P`$ and finally splitting at large $`P`$ under parallel and nearly parallel spin alignments due to the splitting of the renormalized dot level, while Ref.  predicts a single zero-bias peak narrowing with growing $`P`$. In antiparallel configurations we obtain a much wider zero-bias peak in nonlinear differential conductance than theirs. Our predicted splitting of the zero-bias anomaly in nonlinear differential conductance under parallel and nearly parallel spin alignments for large $`P`$, is in general agreement with Refs.  in the large $`U`$ limit. However, in both parallel and antiparallel configurations, the zero-bias peaks and the split peaks seen in the voltage-dependent differential conductance in the present investigation are broader than those reported in Refs. . It should be noted that the present analysis yields a smaller dot-level spltting than theirs. For instance, for systems with $`U=\mathrm{}`$, $`ϵ_d=2`$, Ref. reported a distance $`e\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ around $`0.5`$ between the split peaks in the voltage-dependent differential conductance in the parallel configuration at a polarization strength of $`P=0.2`$, that is about the same split-peak distance obtained at $`P=0.6`$ in this paper for the system of $`U=6`$ and $`ϵ_d=1`$.

## IV Summary

We have theoretically investigated the linear and nonlinear electron transport of a spin-valve system consisting of a quantum dot connected to two ferromagnetic leads in Kondo regime but somewhat apart from the unitary limit. Based on the finite-$`U`$ slave-boson mean field approach we find markedly different transport behavior when changing the relative spin orientation. In the antiparallel configuration where electrons with up-spin and down-spin are equally available in the system, a single zero-bias Kondo peak always appears in the voltage-dependent differential conductance through the whole range of polarization $`0P<1`$, but the peak height drops down with increasing $`P`$ and vanishes at $`P=1`$. In the parallel configuration, with increasing the spin polarization from zero, Kondo peak descends and greatly widens by the appearence of shoulders and finally splits into two peaks on both sides of bias voltage at polarization around $`P0.70.8`$, until disappears at even larger $`P`$. At any spin alignment angle, the linear conductance generally drops with increasing spin polarization. It is shown that a Kondo-dominant FM/QD/FM system may exhibit strong angle variation in linear conductance at large polarization, forming an effective spin valve.

We would like to thank Dr. S.Y. Liu and Dr. W.S. Liu for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China, the Special Funds for Major State Basic Research Project, and the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Science and Technology.


text:
# Latest Results from CERES/NA45

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Along with the deconfinement phase transition to the quark gluon plasma (QGP), chiral symmetry is expected to be restored. The energy density at which the phase transition is predicted by two-flavor lattice calculations is $`ϵ0.7`$ GeV/fm3  with large errors due to uncertainties in the critical temperature. Simple estimates employing the Bjorken expansion scenario  show that the initial energy density reached in central Pb$`+`$Pb collisions is about 3 GeV/fm3 at the full SPS energy. The totality of the observables has led to the announcement that a new state of matter is indeed formed in central heavy ion collisions at the SPS . The measurement of $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs is particularly well suited to study this matter since they are emitted throughout the entire collision and are themselves not subject to the strong final state interaction. In this context, the decay of the $`\rho `$ vector meson into $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs is of particular interest, due to its direct link to chiral symmetry restoration. Because of the short lifetime (1.3 fm/c), $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs from $`\rho `$ decays are dominated by decays within the hot and dense medium, directly mirroring its properties. Experimentally, however, the study of $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs is notoriously difficult, because of the small production cross section as well as the large combinatorial background in heavy ion collisions.

In the following we briefly describe the experimental setup, followed by a description of the electron analysis procedure. We then present results from a combined analysis of all the data that were taken at the full SPS energy of 158 AGeV. Then the final results of the data taken at 40 AGeV are shown. We conclude after a comparison of the data to models and a discussion of the fireball evolution.

## 2 CERES SETUP

The CERES spectrometer is optimized to measure $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs in the mass range up to about 1 GeV/c2 in the range 2.1$`<\eta <`$2.65 close to midrapidity. A cross section through the azimuthally symmetric setup is shown in Figure 1.

A segmented micro target (8 disks of Au of 25 $`\mu `$m thickness and 600 $`\mu `$m diameter evenly spaced along 22 mm) is followed by a set of two Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD1/SDD2) at a distance of 10 cm and 13 cm respectively. The segmentation minimizes conversions of photons in the target. The set of silicon drift detectors provides precise determination of the angles of all charged particles, determination of the event vertex, and the total charged particle multiplicity for each event. Along with the position measurement the specific energy loss is recorded for each charged particle.

Electrons are identified with two Ring Imaging Cherenkov counters (RICH1/2) which are operated at a threshold of $`\gamma _{th}=32`$ suppressing more than 99% of all charged hadrons. In 1995/96 the spectrometer was operated with a radial magnetic field provided by two air coils with counter-running current in between the two RICHes . With this setup a mass resolution of about 5.7% was reached in the mass region of the $`\rho /\omega `$.

For the runs in 1999/2000 the experiment was upgraded by the addition of a radial TPC  inside a separate radial magnetic field (Bmax=0.5 T). Over the total length of 2 m a maximum of 20 hits are recorded for each charged particle track. In the 1999 analysis a mass resolution of about 4.2% was achieved in the $`\rho /\omega `$ region. For the 2000 data the goal is to reach with better calibration about 2%. For runs with the TPC the magnetic field between the RICHes was switched off and electrons were identified by combining the two RICHes, improving the electron efficiency to about 90% (as compared to about 70% in 1995/1996).

A compilation of all Pb$`+`$Au events taken with different configurations of the CERES spectrometer is shown in Table 1.

The data taken in 1995 and 1996 used the original CERES setup without the TPC. All data taken thereafter employed the upgraded setup shown in Figure 1. The new read-out of the experiment was only partially operational for the low energy run at 40 AGeV/c in 1999 limiting both statistics and performance. The large data sample taken in 2000 at the full SPS energy is still being analyzed.

## 3 ELECTRON ANALYSIS

While $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs are an attractive probe, they are notoriously hard to measure due to the small production cross section and the enormous combinatorial background from unrecognized photon conversions and $`\pi ^0`$ Dalitz decays. The analysis steps for the 1995/96 data are detailed in Ref. . Here, we only describe the analysis of data taken with the TPC and the field between the RICHes turned off. Electron candidates are selected when ten or more photon hits in RICH1 and RICH2 form a ring with asymptotic radius. To those candidates a transverse momentum cut of 200 MeV/c is applied reducing contributions from $`\pi ^0`$ Dalitz decays and conversions by about a factor of 10. Electron identification is further improved,removing high-$`p_t`$ pions and accidental matches between the RICHes and the TPC, by a cut on specific energy loss in the TPC vs. momentum as shown in Figure 3. Those conversions and Dalitz pairs with very small opening angles that do not lead to separate rings in the RICHes are efficiently removed by rejecting tracks with large specific energy loss in both silicon drift detectors as shown in Figure 3. Further, electron candidates without a match in the TPC within 70 mrad of an electron track are also removed. The complete set of cuts employed in the analysis is shown in detail in Ref. . Finally, the invariant mass spectrum of $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs is obtained by subtracting twice the geometric average of the remaining like-sign pairs from the remaining unlike-sign pairs ($`N_{e^+e^{}}2\sqrt{N_{e^+e^+}N_{e^{}e^{}}}`$).

## 4 Pb$`+`$Au AT 158 AGeV/c

### 4.1 Invariant mass spectrum of $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs

Analyses of the invariant mass spectra of $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs from the runs in 1995/1996 have been published . In all cases cuts on the pair opening angle ($`\mathrm{\Theta }_{ee}>35`$ mrad) and the transverse momentum of the single electron track ($`p_t>200`$ MeV/c2) have been applied, and the spectra were compatible within their respective statistical and systematic errors. Recently  the data of 1995 and 1996 were combined in a unified analysis approach. For the two runs the trigger cross-section was slightly different. The cross section for the combined data corresponds to the 32% most central events. The average charged particle multiplicity is $`N_{ch}=dN_{ch}/d\eta \mathrm{\Delta }\eta =2450.55=135`$ for the quoted rapidity interval. Since the efficiency for detecting $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs depends on multiplicity, an efficiency correction is applied on an event-by-event basis. In the combination, the data were averaged bin-by-bin with weights according to the inverse squares of the relative errors of the individual measurements.

The combined data are shown in Figure 5. The yield of pairs with $`m_{ee}>0.2`$ GeV/c2 for the entire data sample is 2666$`\pm `$260 with a signal-to-background ratio of 1/12. On top of the statistical errors, the spectrum has systematic errors of 20% for $`m_{ee}<0.2`$ GeV/c2 and 28% on average for $`m_{ee}>0.2`$ GeV/c2, larger here due to the background subtraction and smoothing procedure. The background smoothing procedure introduces an additional 7% uncertainty in the overall normalization of the spectrum for m$`{}_{ee}{}^{}>`$0.2 GeV/c. A detailed description of all errors can be found in Ref.

In Figure 5 the data are compared to the yield from hadron decays obtained from a cocktail containing particle ratios from a statistical model fitted to measured particle ratios in Pb$`+`$Pb collisions. Rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of the particles are taken from systematics of Pb$`+`$Pb collisions. The resulting distribution has been folded with the experimental mass resolution (5.7% in the $`\omega `$ region). In the region $`m_{ee}>0.2`$ GeV/c2 the data exceed the yield from the cocktail by a factor of 2.3$`\pm `$0.2(stat)$`\pm `$0.6(syst). An additional systematic error of 0.7 is connected to the decay cocktail. The enhancement is not observed in proton induced reactions .

An independent analysis was performed using event mixing to generate the background . The shape of this background is found to be identical to that of like-sign pairs, and the resulting invariant mass spectrum agrees well with the one in Figure 5. In addition, a lower single electron $`p_t`$-cut $`>`$ 100 MeV/c2 was used resulting in a factor of two more statistics for $`e^+e^{}`$-pair masses above 0.2 GeV/c2 at a factor of three worse signal-to-background ratio. Again the resulting invariant mass spectrum agrees well with the one shown in Figure 5.

In Figure 5 the data are compared to the yield from various models based on $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ annihilation with an intermediate $`\rho `$ vector meson. The hadron decay cocktail is added without any contribution from the $`\rho `$ to avoid double counting (thin line). Using the vacuum $`\rho `$ spectral function produces the thick dashed line. The other two model calculations both contain modifications of the $`\rho `$ spectral function. They involve in-medium $`\rho `$ spectral functions with either a dropping $`\rho `$ mass  (thick dash-dotted line) or with a spread $`\rho `$ width  (thick line). Clearly, a modification of the $`\rho `$ properties in the medium is needed to reach agreement with the experimental data. Unfortunately, the data do not allow to discern between the two different scenarios.

### 4.2 Multiplicity dependence of the enhancement

The combined data sample was subdivided into four different multiplicity bins. For each of these bins and for three different intervals in invariant mass, the ratio of the integral yield of $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs to the expected yield from the hadron decay cocktail was evaluated. The results are shown in Figure 6. The mass region below 0.2 GeV/c2, dominated by $`\pi ^0`$ Dalitz decays, is well reproduced by the cocktail for all centralities. In the mass region 0.2 GeV/c$`{}_{}{}^{2}<m_{ee}<`$0.6 GeV/c2 the enhancement with respect to the cocktail rises approximately linearly with multiplicity indicating that the rise of the integrated $`e^+e^{}`$-pair yield is consistent with a quadratic multiplicity dependence; this is roughly expected for a two-body process like $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ annihilation.

## 5 Pb$`+`$Au AT 40 AGeV/c

In 1999 the SPS delivered a 40 AGeV/c Pb-beam when the upgraded CERES spectrometer had just been commissioned. Preliminary results of what is presented in the following have already previously been shown . The data contain central events with an average multiplicity density at this energy of $`dN_{ch}/d\eta =216`$.

### 5.1 Invariant mass spectrum of $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs

The analysis leading to the invariant mass spectrum for the 40 AGeV/c data shown in Figure 7 has been outlined in Section 3 and is described in detail in . The resulting spectrum contains 249$`\pm `$28 $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs in the mass range below 0.2 GeV/c2 at a signal-to-background ratio of 1/1. The integrated yield for high mass pairs above 0.2 GeV/c2 is 185$`\pm `$48 pairs at a signal-to-background ratio of 1/6. The systematic errors are 16% and 20% for the low and high mass region, respectively.

For the comparison to the hadron decay cocktail the particle ratios have again been taken from statistical model fits adjusted to measured ratios from Pb$`+`$Pb collisions at 40 AGeV/c. Also the rapidity distributions and transverse momentum spectra follow the systematics of measurements at 40 AGeV/c. Again the cocktail has been folded with the experimental mass resolution (4.2% in the $`\omega `$ region).

In the low mass region $`m_{ee}<0.2`$ GeV/c2 excellent agreement between the data and the cocktail is obtained. Here the ratio of data/decays is 0.98$`\pm `$0.11(stat)$`\pm `$0.16(syst). In the high mass region $`m_{ee}>0.2`$ GeV/c2, however, the data exceeds the cocktail by a factor of 5.1$`\pm `$1.3(stat)$`\pm `$1.0(syst) with an additional systematic error of 1.5 from the cocktail. This enhancement is larger than that observed at full SPS energy as quoted above, while the yield itself is not much larger than at 158 AGeV/c. Note that in the comparison of the enhancement factors between the two energies the additional systematic uncertainty from the cocktail essentially drops out.

Along with the data, model predictions  are presented for this energy. Again, a treatment of the $`\rho `$ unmodified by medium effects is clearly ruled out. However, once more the data do not allow to discern the two scenarios involving in-medium modifications of the $`\rho `$ propagator with a shifted mass, i.e. Brown/Rho scaling , or with a spread width .

### 5.2 Invariant transverse momentum spectra of $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs

The invariant differential pair tranverse momentum spectra ($`p_t^{ee}`$) are shown in Figure 8 for masses $`m_{ee}<`$0.2 GeV/c2 and $`m_{ee}>`$0.2 GeV/c2 respectively. It can be seen that the Dalitz region with $`m_{ee}<`$0.2 GeV/c2 is well reproduced by the hadron decay cocktail without significant contributions from pion annihilation. The steep cut-off below $`p_t^{ee}<`$0.4 GeV/c is due to the minimum transverse momentum cut of 0.2 GeV/c for the single electron. The pair transverse momentum distribution for pairs with $`m_{ee}>`$0.2 GeV/c2, however, is strongly enhanced for pairs with $`p_t^{ee}<`$0.6 GeV/c compared to the cocktail. Here, all model calculations (also the one using the vacuum $`\rho `$ spectral function) describe the pair transverse momentum spectra reasonably well. Therefore, the shape of the spectrum appears to mostly exhibit the basic feature of $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ annihilation rather than medium effects, while the latter affect the shape of the invariant mass spectrum.

## 6 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

We find, both at 158 AGeV/c as well as at 40 AGeV/c, that the production of $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs with $`m_{ee}>`$0.2 GeV/c2 is significantly enhanced as compared to expectations from hadron decays. Moreover, the enhancement is larger at 40 AGeV/c compared to 158 AGeV/c. In both cases, theories based on $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ annihilation are only able to describe the data, if medium modifications of the $`\rho `$ propagator are included .

Comparison of the two energies sheds light on the interesting question whether changes in the properties of the $`\rho `$ propagator are more sensitive to changes in the temperature or changes of the baryon density as favored by theory . In order to evaluate the e+e--rates one would need complete knowledge of the dynamical evolution of the fireball. There is no direct handle on the time spent in the various stages of the collision (with the exception of the emission duration of at most 2-3 fm/c and the thermal freeze-out time of 6-8 fm/c from HBT measurements ). The evolution in terms of temperature and baryochemical potential can, however, be determined at chemical and thermal freeze-out. At chemical freeze-out the total baryon density can be estimated from statistical model calculations fitted to measured particle ratios. It is found to be approximately 0.75 in units of normal nuclear matter density $`\rho _0`$ at associated temperatures of 168(145) MeV for 158(40) AGeV/c . The baryon density at thermal freeze-out can be derived from the measured HBT-radii  and rapidity densities . It is 0.34(0.53) at temperatures of 120(120) MeV for 158(40) AGeV/c. Note that after chemical freeze-out these baryon densities are all below $`\rho _0`$. Adding in results on initial baryon densities from transport calculations , the baryon density appears to be consistently higher all the way along the fireball trajectory at the lower beam energy, including a part before reaching chemical equilibrium.

Theoretical calculations which evolve the system through such higher baryon densities are in agreement with the observed increased enhancement at the lower beam energy . Taken together, these observations therefore support the importance of coupling the $`\rho `$ propagator in the medium to baryon density rather than temperature.

The TPC calibration for the 2000 data has been completed; the analysis of the large number of events taken at the full SPS energy is about to start. With this data it should also be possible to study the behavior of the $`\omega `$ and the $`\varphi `$. It would further be interesting to compare the invariant mass spectrum of $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$-pairs  to that from $`e^+e^{}`$-pairs, which may allow to discriminate between earlier and later stages of the collision.

## 7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful for support by the German BMBF, the U.S. DoE, the Israeli Science Foundation, and the MINERVA Foundation.