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# A SCUBA Galaxy in the Protocluster around 53W002 at 𝑧=2.4

## 1. Introduction

The extreme luminosities exhibited by the dusty galaxy population which contributes the bulk of the extragalactic background in the far-infrared and submm has emphasized the importance of dust-obscured activity in the early evolution of massive galaxies and black holes (Blain et al. 1999a; Cowie et al. 2002). The majority of the dusty, active systems detected by SCUBA appear to lie at $`z>1`$, their typical bolometric luminosities are $`10^{11}`$–1013 L and their space densities are $`10^4`$ Mpc-3, 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than similar luminosity galaxies at $`z0`$, indicating strong evolution of this population (Smail, Ivison & Blain 1997; Lilly et al. 1999; Blain et al. 1999b; Cowie et al. 2002; Chapman et al. 2002b). However, little is known about the types of environment which these galaxies inhabit. Similar luminosity, dusty systems in the local Universe are typically found in low-density regions and they avoid the dense cores of rich clusters of galaxies (Tacconi et al. 2002). The situation is expected to be very different at high redshifts where, if they truly represent the progenitors of massive ellipticals, the SCUBA galaxies should be clustered around the highest density regions which will subsequently evolve into the cores of rich clusters at the present-day (Ivison et al. 2000b, I00b).

Due to the small samples available in the submm waveband observational evidence of this clustering is tentative at the present-time (Scott et al. 2002; Webb et al. 2002). Nevertheless, there are suggestions that SCUBA galaxies are strongly clustered, in particular associations of SCUBA galaxies with other classes of clustered high-redshift sources, such as Lyman-break galaxies or X-ray sources, have been serendipitously found (Chapman et al. 2001; Ledlow et al. 2002; Almaini et al. 2002). A more direct approach to tackle this question has been undertaken by I00b in a targeted survey of regions around high-redshift, powerful AGN. These are expected to preferentially inhabit high-density regions in the early Universe (e.g. West 1994), a prediction which has some observational support from the discovery of excesses of both Extremely Red Objects and Ly$`\alpha `$ emitters around some high-redshift radio galaxies (e.g. Aragón-Salamanca et al. 1994; Lacy & Rawlings 1996; Pascarelle et al. 1996a; Yamada et al. 1997; Keel et al. 1999; Venemans et al. 2002). The first results from the I00b survey show a significant over-density of SCUBA galaxies around the signpost high-redshift AGN, but confirming this association with redshifts for the SCUBA sources is very demanding.

One of the fields covered in the I00b survey is that surrounding the $`z=2.39`$ steep-spectrum, narrow-line radio galaxy 53W002 (Windhorst et al. 1991, 1998). This region is especially interesting as it has been shown to contain an over-density of compact, Ly$`\alpha `$ emission-line galaxies at $`z2.4`$ (Pascarelle et al. 1996a, P96a, 1998, P98; Keel et al. 1999, K99). Nine of these emission-line galaxies have been spectroscopically confirmed as companions to the radio galaxy, with a velocity dispersion of $`400`$ km s-1 and a spatial extent of $`4`$ Mpc (K99). In this paper we report on the SCUBA observations of the 53W002 field which uncover four luminous, submm galaxies. By matching the submm source position using an astrometrically-precise 1.4-GHz map we show that one of these sources is coincident with a Ly$`\alpha `$-selected galaxy at $`z=2.39`$, confirming the presence of ultraluminous, dusty galaxies in the over-dense structure around 53W002 at a look-back time of 11 Gyrs (we adopt a cosmology with $`q_o=0.5`$, and H$`{}_{\mathrm{o}}{}^{}=50`$ km s-1 Mpc-1).

We discuss new and archival observations of the 53W002 field in the next section, present our analysis and results in §3, discuss these in §4 and give our conclusions in §5.

## 2. Observations and Reduction

### 2.1. Submm Mapping

We observed a $`2.3^{}`$-diameter field centered on 53W002 at 450- and 850-$`\mu `$m during 2001 March 3–6 using the SCUBA bolometer array (Holland et al. 1999) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT)555The JCMT is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the United Kingdom Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and the National Research Council of Canada.. The conditions were good and stable for the four nights when data were taken, with an 850-$`\mu `$m opacity measured every hour of 0.12–0.23 for the first three nights, rising to 0.35 on the final night. Flux calibration used beam maps of Mars and the nightly calibration factors were consistent at the 5% level (r.m.s.) at 850 $`\mu `$m.

To map the field, the secondary mirror followed a jiggle pattern designed to fully sample the image plane, chopping East-West by 30′′ at 7 Hz whilst the telescope nodded between the same positions every 16 s in an on–off–off–on pattern. The total exposure time was 33.3 ks. The 450- and 850-$`\mu `$m maps were created using surf (Jenness & Lightfoot 1997). In order to extract reliable source positions and flux densities, the maps were deconvolved using the symmetric $`1,+2,1`$ zero-flux beam (which arises from chopping and nodding) and a modified version of the clean algorithm (Högbom 1974) as described by I00b. This process produces a restored map at the native resolution of the JCMT, 14′′ FWHM, but without the negative side-lobes from the chopping of bright sources.

### 2.2. Radio Mapping

The radio map of the 53W002 field from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Very Large Array (VLA),666NRAO is operated by Associated Universities Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. is dominated by the 50-mJy central radio source (Windhorst et al. 1991, 1998) and seven bright, nearby sources. The presence of these bright sources makes self-calibration of the radio data trivial, but ultimately limits the dynamic range of the map in the vicinity of the radio source.

For these observations we employed B configuration, obtaining a total of 10.8 ks of useful integration on the 53W002 field during 2001 May 14 and May 17. We scanned the amplitude/phase calibrator, 1725+455, every hour and the flux scale was tied to 0137+331. To ameliorate the effects of band-width smearing the data were taken and reduced in pseudo-continuum, spectral-line mode, using 28 3.25-MHz dual-polarization channels centered at 1.4 GHz, with data recorded every 5 s. After editing and standard calibration of the data (and their associated weights), using aips, the imagr task was used to map a $`34^{}\times 34^{}`$ field, with simultaneous imaging of 16 bright nearby sources identified from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS, Condon et al. 1998). Using these maps, made with robust = 0 weighting of the visibilities, clean boxes were positioned around obvious sources, and imagr was re-run with 5,000 iterations of the clean algorithm (Högbom 1974). The resulting clean components were then used as a model for self calibration (in phase only). The mapping was repeated, after checks on the clean boxes, followed by a further self-calibration step to produce the final map. After correction for the primary beam response of the VLA antennas using pbcor, the resulting map has a noise level of 30 $`\mu `$Jy beam-1, with a $`5.3^{\prime \prime }\times 3.7^{\prime \prime }`$ beam.

### 2.3. Optical and Near-infrared Imaging

Our analysis also exploits archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging of the 53W002 field in both the optical (WFPC2) and near-infrared (NICMOS). We retrieved re-calibrated and reduced WFPC2 imaging of the field from the HST archive at ST-ECF777Based on observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the ESO/ST-ECF Science Archive Facility., comprising three broad-band exposures: 57.6 ks in F450W ($`B_{450}`$), 27.2 ks in F606W ($`V_{606}`$) and 20.4 ks in F814W ($`I_{814}`$), as well as a 40.5-ks exposure in the F410M medium band. The latter filter serves to isolate the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission line at $`z2.4`$. More information on these data is given in P96a and P98.

The acquisition and reduction of the NICMOS imaging of this field, in the F110W ($`J_{110}`$) and F160W ($`H_{160}`$) filters, are described in detail by Keel et al. (2002, K02). A total of 2.4-ks integration was obtained in each filter on two fields around 53W002 using the NIC3 camera during the special NIC3 campaign in January 1999. These observations have a resolution of 0.2′′ FWHM and 3-$`\sigma `$ point-source sensitivities of $`J_{110}24.3`$ and $`H_{160}23.9`$.

While the NICMOS images have exquisite resolution, they cover only a small proportion of the SCUBA map and so we have also obtained wider-field $`K_s`$-band imaging covering the full map. These data were taken with the INGRID near-infrared imager (Packham et al. 2002) on the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (WHT)888Based on observations made with the William Herschel Telescope operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias.. Our observations were obtained on the night of 2001 May 10 and consist of a total of 4.3 ks integration in the $`K_s`$ filter in photometric conditions and $`0.6^{\prime \prime }`$ seeing. The reduction and calibration of these data uses the pipeline described in Gilbank et al. (2002).

### 2.4. Near-infrared Spectroscopy

Near-infrared spectroscopy of several galaxies in the field of 53W002, in particular object #18, was obtained by Motohara et al. (2001a,b). These observations used the newly commissioned OH-airglow Suppression Spectrograph (OHS; Iwamuro et al. 2001) and Cooled Infrared Spectrograph and Camera for OHS, CISCO (Motohara et al. 2002) on the 8.2-m Subaru Telescope.999Based on data collected at Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. More details of the observations are given in Motohara et al. (2001b). The spectra cover the $`JHK`$ bands in two configurations, in both instances the slit was placed at a PA of $``$35 degrees and centered on the redder, southern component in the galaxy (Fig. 1).

The $`JH`$-band spectrum of #18 was obtained on the night of 1999 May 21, using OHS in the light path in front of CISCO to suppress the atmospheric OH emission. A total of 8 ks of data was acquired in $`0.6^{\prime \prime }`$ seeing as a series of 1 ks exposures, with the $`5^{\prime \prime }`$ nods along the slit between exposures. Using a $`0.95^{\prime \prime }`$-wide slit the resolution was $`200`$ in the middle of the $`H`$-band. Atmospheric transmission corrections came from observations of SAO 30245 and wavelength calibration was obtained from the OH lines measured in observations without OHS. Checks of the instrument stability suggest that this calibration is good to $`<5`$ Å.

The $`K`$-band spectroscopy was obtained on 1999 May 3–4 with just CISCO, at the Cassegrain focus, in $`0.4^{\prime \prime }`$ seeing and non-photometric conditions. The $`0.7^{\prime \prime }`$ slit resulted in a resolution of $`430`$ at $`2.2\mu `$m. A total of 4.8 ks of integration in $`24\times 200`$ s exposures was obtained, nodding the telescope by $`5^{\prime \prime }`$ after every 6 exposures to allow for sky subtraction. Calibration of the atmospheric transmission came from observations of SAO 30082 taken immediately before the science frames on 1999 May 4 and wavelength calibration used the sky lines.

The spectroscopic data were reduced in a standard manner, including flat-fielding, sky subtraction, correction of bad pixels and residual sky subtraction. The spectra of the SAO stars were used to correct for atmospheric extinction. As the seeing was smaller than the slit width for both observations we adopt a quarter of the slit width as our estimate of the absolute calibration error on our wavelength scale. This amounts to 22 Å in the $`JH`$-band spectrum and 13 Å in the $`K`$-band. The spectra were flux calibrated using the broad-band photometry of the source from Yamada et al. (2001) and Motohara et al. (2001b). A $`1.2^{\prime \prime }\times 2.1^{\prime \prime }`$ aperture, aligned with the slit was used in both cases. The final spectrum covering the $`JHK`$ bands is shown in Figure 2 and an initial analysis of this spectrum is described in Motohara et al. (2001a).

## 3. Analysis and Results

We detect four significant sources in the 850-$`\mu `$m SCUBA map of the 53W002 field above a 4-$`\sigma `$ limit of 3.7 mJy, this represents a modest excess over the blank-field expectation of 2 sources at this flux limit.101010We also detect emission from 53W002 at lower significance, with an 850-$`\mu `$m flux of $`3.1\pm 0.9`$ mJy, consistent with the 3-$`\sigma `$ upper limit of $`<3.3`$ mJy from Hughes & Dunlop (1998). Unfortunately, the large JCMT beam means that it is impossible to reliably locate the source of this submm emission. However, by exploiting the smaller beam and better absolute astrometric precision of our VLA map we can provide a more accurate position for any submm source detected at 1.4 GHz. These positions can then be compared to our near-infrared images, with a precision of $`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$, to search for optical/near-infrared counterparts.

Only one of the submm sources is detectable at 1.4-GHz (in addition to 53W002) which we denote as SMM J17142+5016, with a nominal position from the 850-$`\mu `$m map of 17 14 12.18 $`(\pm 0.16^s)`$, +50 16 02.8 $`(\pm 1.8^{\prime \prime })`$ (J2000). This galaxy has an 850-$`\mu `$m flux of $`5.6\pm 0.9`$ mJy and a 3-$`\sigma `$ limit on the 450-$`\mu `$m flux of $`<`$30 mJy. It lies 1.3′′ from a $`260\pm 30\mu `$Jy radio source (at 17 14 12.040 $`(\pm 0.028^s)`$, +50 16 02.92 $`(\pm 0.14^{\prime \prime })`$) in the 1.4-GHz map. This radio source is also detected at 8.4-GHz with a flux of $`37\pm 7\mu `$Jy (Fomalont et al. 2002), indicating a spectral slope of $`\alpha =1.1`$. Using the positions of other radio sources in the INGRID field we place the radio source within $`1.0^{\prime \prime }`$ of an optical galaxy (nominally at 17 14 11.99, +50 16 02.1), identified as #18 in P96a. We conclude that #18 is the likely counterpart to SMM J17142+5016 and in the following discussion we identify the galaxy as SMM J17142+5016/#18.

### 3.1. SMM J17142+5016/#18

SMM J17142+5016/#18, is one of the brightest of the $`14`$ Ly$`\alpha `$ emission-line sources detected at $`z2.4`$ in a narrow-band imaging search around 53W002 (P96a; Pascarelle et al. 1996b; P98; K99; K02; Yamada et al. 2001; Motohara et al. 2001a,b). We summarize some of the relevant, published information on this galaxy here: the HST imaging of SMM J17142+5016/#18 shows that it is distinguished by its large angular size, $`2^{\prime \prime }`$, in contrast to the typically unresolved light profiles of the majority of the Ly$`\alpha `$ emitters in this region (P96a). SMM J17142+5016/#18 consists of pair of components separated by 0.6′′ (4.7 Kpc at $`z=2.39`$), see Fig. 1. The north-eastern component has bluer colors and a more extended light profile than the southern component (whose intrinsic FWHM is only 0.25′′ in the $`I_{814}`$-band, indicating a half-light radius of just 1 kpc at $`z=2.39`$). The restframe UV spectrum published by P96a shows a strong, but relatively narrow Ly$`\alpha `$ line, weak Civ$`\lambda `$1549 and possibly Nv$`\lambda `$1239, confirming its redshift as $`z=2.393`$. In conjunction with the preliminary analysis of the OHS near-infrared spectrum of this galaxy by Motohara et al. (2001a), the spectral properties are very similar to those of a Seyfert-2. Deeper, ground-based Ly$`\alpha `$ imaging of this galaxy by K99 shows that it also possess a very extended Ly$`\alpha `$ halo, $`>50`$ kpc.

Spectral Properties of SMM J17142+5016/#18

| Line | $`\lambda _{\mathrm{obs}}`$ | $`\lambda _\mathrm{o}`$ | $`z^a`$ | Flux | Comments |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | (Å) | (Å) |  | ($`10^{19}`$ W m-2) |  |
| Ly$`\alpha `$ | 4124.9 | 1215.7 | 2.393 | 4.7 | K02 |
| \[Oii\] | 12651.5 | 3727.4 | 2.394 | $`1.2\pm 0.2`$ |  |
| H$`\beta `$ | 16487.3 | 4861.3 | 2.392 | $`0.54\pm 0.20`$ |  |
| \[Oiii\] | 16817.1 | 4959.0 | 2.391 | $`3.22\pm 0.10`$ |  |
| \[Oiii\] | 16975.6 | 5006.9 | 2.390 | $`10.5\pm 0.3`$ |  |
| H$`\alpha `$ | 22260.1 | 6562.8 | 2.392 | $`1.96\pm 0.05`$ | Blended with \[Nii\] |
|  | 22248.9 | 6562.8 | 2.390 | $`1.4\pm 0.1`$ | Deblended |

| a Systematic uncertainties in the redshifts from the wavelength calibration |
| --- |
| are $`\pm `$0.004 for the $`J/H`$-band spectra and $`\pm `$0.002 for the $`K`$-band lines. |

### 3.2. Morphology

Turning now to the new data presented in this paper, we note that the morphology of SMM J17142+5016/#18, showing two components separated by $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ and extended emission, is remarkably similar to that of other optically-bright SCUBA galaxies, SMM J02399$``$0136 (a narrow-line, BAL QSO at $`z=2.80`$, Ivison et al. 1998), SMM J14011+0252 (a star-burst galaxy at $`z=2.56`$, Ivison et al. 2000a, 2001) and Westphal-MMD11 (a submm-bright Lyman break galaxy at $`z=2.98`$, Chapman et al. 2002a). All of these very luminous SCUBA galaxies also exhibit multiple components, apparent tidal features and complex emission-line structures on scales of $`10`$ kpc. We compare the spatial distribution of the high-surface brightness Ly$`\alpha `$ emission (from the F410M image) and UV continuum (given by the $`J_{110}`$-band, although this includes a small contribution from \[Oii\] $`\lambda `$3727, Fig. 2) in the right-hand panel of Fig. 1. This shows that a large fraction of the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission from the system arises in the northern component, even though the underlying continuum in this feature is weak. This component may therefore represent either lower-mass companion, tidal debris or scattered light from an obscured AGN. Unfortunately the precision of the relative astrometry between our radio and near-infrared images precludes us more precisely locating the source of the radio (and hence submm) emission in this system (c.f. Ivison et al. 2001).

### 3.3. Restframe UV/optical spectral properties

We identify a number of strong emission lines in the OHS spectrum of SMM J17142+5016/#18 in Fig. 2, including H$`\alpha `$, H$`\beta `$, \[Oii\] $`\lambda `$3727, \[Oiii\] $`\lambda \lambda `$4959, 5007, the signature of \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$6583 blended with H$`\alpha `$ and perhaps \[S ii\] $`\lambda `$6731. The emission-line properties are listed in Table 1. The redshift for SMM J7142+5016/#18 is $`z=2.390\pm 0.002`$ from the H$`\alpha `$ line, compared to $`z=2.393`$ from the peak of the Ly$`\alpha `$ line (P96a). This small offset may indicate the presence of absorption in the blue wing of Ly$`\alpha `$ line, which would have been missed in the low signal to noise spectrum shown in P96a. The small differences between redshifts from different lines in the JH\- and $`K`$-bands are within the calibration uncertainties of the observations.

The OHS spectra show that the H$`\alpha `$ and \[Oiii\] emission is extended by 1–2′′ along the slit to the North-West from the compact, southern component. In addition the \[Oiii\] $`\lambda `$5007 line shows a velocity gradient of 200–300 km s-1 across this extension. The relatively low resolution of the OHS observations means that, apart from the spatial velocity gradient, none of the emission lines are resolved, with limits of $`\sigma <1500`$ km s-1 for lines in the JH-band and $`\sigma <800`$ km s-1 for those in the $`K`$-band. As an aside, we note that the galaxy lies outside the sensitive area of the CO line searches around 53W002 and so no useful dynamical information is currently available (Scoville et al. 1997; Alloin et al. 2000).

The H$`\alpha `$+\[Nii\] flux measured from the OHS spectrum is $`(1.96\pm 0.05)\times 10^{19}`$ W m-2. This compares to $`6.3\times 10^{19}`$ W m-2 from the narrow-band imaging of K02, further strengthening the claim of a significant, spatially extended component to this line emission, but also underlining the difficulty of extracting reliable line-ratio estimates from the different published long-slit measurements. We estimate the contribution from the blended \[Nii\] $`\lambda `$6583 line to the H$`\alpha `$ in the long-slit spectrum by fitting a model with two Gaussian profiles, assuming both lines have the same FWHM, to the data. We derive a line ratio of \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$6583/H$`\alpha =0.4\pm 0.1`$, similar to that seen in normal star-forming galaxies. However, the low signal to noise of the H$`\beta `$ flux measurement precludes any detailed analysis of the reddening in this system.

The broad-band colors of the SMM J17142+5016/#18 listed in K02 appear unusual, being blue short-ward of 2500Å in the restframe, $`(BI)=1.3`$, and comparatively red long-ward of this, $`(IK)=3.1`$ (K02; Yamada et al. 2001). The cause of this apparent reddening of the SED is the large contribution to broad-band fluxes from red-shifted Ly$`\alpha `$ and optical emission lines (Fig. 2). These contributions amount to 25% of the light in the $`B`$-band (Ly$`\alpha `$), 10% of the $`J`$-band flux (\[Oii$`\lambda `$3727), 45% in the $`H`$-band (H$`\beta `$, \[Oiii\] $`\lambda `$4959,5007) and 30% in the $`K`$-band (H$`\alpha `$, \[Nii\]). Correcting for this line emission we estimate the colors of the underlying continuum as: $`(BI)=1.6`$, $`(IK)=2.7`$, $`(JH)=1.3`$ and $`(HK)=0.6`$. These colors are similar to those expected for a young stellar population at $`z=2.4`$, although the absence of strong stellar absorption features in the restframe UV spectra (P96a; Keel priv. comm.) suggests that there is a significant AGN contribution to the UV emission.

The restframe optical emission line ratios measured from the OHS spectrum of SMM J17142+5016/#18 also suggest the presence of an AGN. Motohara et al. (2001a) discuss the flux ratios for this galaxy on diagnostic diagrams for \[Oiii\] $`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$, \[Oii\] $`\lambda `$3727/\[Oiii\] $`\lambda `$5007 and \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$6583/H$`\alpha `$. They conclude that the system has emission line ratios similar to those seen in Seyfert-2’s, although a low-metallicity star-burst is also possible.

Fig. 3 — A comparison of the SED of SMM J17142+5016/#18 with a range of well-studied, luminous dusty galaxies at low and high redshifts. The SED appears to very similar to SMM J09431+4700, an ultraluminous, narrow-line Seyfert-1 at $`z=3.39`$ (Ledlow et al. 2002), or a lower luminosity analog of SMM J02399$``$0136 (Ivison et al. 1998). The restframe optical/UV photometry of SMM J17142+5016/#18 comes from K02 and we include a 3-$`\sigma `$ upper limit on the 7 $`\mu `$m emission from the galaxy based on ISO observations (Keel, priv. comm.).

### 3.4. Far-infrared/radio properties

In Fig. 3 we compare the spectral energy distribution (SED) of SMM J17142+5016/#18 to well-studied SCUBA galaxies and other dusty, luminous galaxies. The galaxy’s SED is typical of ultraluminous infrared galaxies and shows strong similarities to the $`z=3.39`$ SCUBA-selected narrow-line Seyfert-1 SMM J09431+4700 (Ledlow et al. 2002). Taking the 850-$`\mu `$m flux of SMM J17142+5016 and assuming a dust spectrum with $`T_d=38`$ K and $`\beta =1.5`$, we estimate a dust mass of $`10^8`$ M, and a bolometric luminosity of $`(8\pm 2)\times 10^{12}`$ L, this translates into a star formation rate for $`>5`$ M stars of $`750`$ M yr-1 (Condon 1992), or $`4\times 10^3`$ M yr-1 accounting for stars with masses of $`>0.1`$ M using a Salpeter IMF.

We can also estimate the star formation rate in SMM J17142+5016 from the H$`\alpha `$ flux (Table 1; K02), this indicates an H$`\alpha `$ luminosity of 0.3–$`1\times 10^{36}`$ W, suggesting a star formation rate in the range $`10^2`$$`10^3`$ M yr-1 (Kennicutt 1983; Barbaro & Poggianti 1997). The contribution from any AGN-powered component of the line will bring this estimate down. Nevertheless, these measurements are far in excess of the estimated star formation rate based on the UV luminosity of $`10`$ M yr-1 (not accounting for any AGN contribution, P96a), indicating a dust-incurred deficit in the UV luminosity which was already noted as a possible cause of the high Ly$`\alpha `$ equivalent width (K02; see also Taniguchi & Shioya 2001).

The radio counterpart to SMM J17412+5016 is unresolved at both 1.4- and 8.4-GHz, which place limits on its FWHM of $`<3^{\prime \prime }`$, or $`<23`$ kpc at $`z=2.39`$. Using the 1.4-GHz and submm fluxes we can also estimate the radio-submm spectral index, $`\alpha _{850}^{1.4}`$ (Carilli & Yun 1999, 2000), at $`\alpha _{850}^{1.4}=0.56\pm 0.06`$, which predicts $`z=1.0_{0.4}^{+0.7}`$ based on the Carilli & Yun (2000) models. This is at odds with the spectroscopic redshift of $`z=2.390`$ (Table 1) and suggests that there is an additional contribution to the 1.4-GHz emission from the AGN (as also indicated by the steep radio spectrum at high frequencies). It will be important to place a precise limit on the bolometric luminosity of the AGN using the Chandra X-ray observations of this field and so constrain the relative contribution from the AGN and star formation to the dust emission from this galaxy (Bautz et al. 2000).

## 4. Discussion

The properties of the components of SMM J17142+5016/ #18 hint at a complex mix of AGN emission, star formation, dust obscuration and scattered radiation, which is difficult to unravel. Taking the southern component first: it is clear that this hosts an AGN, although there is also extended UV light detected from the host galaxy. Assuming the line ratios in the OHS spectrum (Fig. 2) are dominated by this component, then this source should be classified as a Seyfert-2. In contrast the north-eastern component shows weak continuum and very strong Ly$`\alpha `$ emission (Fig. 1) suggesting it may be a lower-mass star-forming companion or tidal debris which is either locally ionized or illuminated by scattered light from the AGN. Support for the latter explanation comes from the apparent detection of Civ emission across this structure (K99; K02). A definitive conclusion about the nature of the north-eastern component awaits the publication of higher-quality, spatially resolved optical spectra of this structure.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of SMM J17142+5016/#18 is the extended Ly$`\alpha `$ halo around this galaxy (K99; K02), which may also have been seen in H$`\alpha `$. This low-surface brightness feature is on a much larger scale than the high-surface brightness Ly$`\alpha `$ emission in Fig. 1, extending out east from the galaxy at least $`6^{\prime \prime }`$ (50 kpc). This extended Ly$`\alpha `$ emission in the same direction as the extended \[Oiii\] $`\lambda `$5007 line discussed earlier, with the velocity gradient then reflecting motion in the halo gas induced by a tidal interaction or a wind. The combination of strong submm emission and an extended Ly$`\alpha `$ cloud is somewhat surprising, given the propensity for dust to absorb Ly$`\alpha `$ photons, although it has been seen before (Chapman et al. 2001, 2002b). Taniguchi & Shioya (2001) have suggested that this phenomenon arises from an extended super-wind driven by a highly-obscured star-burst, the wind then shocks and ionizes the gas halo which surrounds the system. This model can explain several properties of these Ly$`\alpha `$ halos (although other processes are also feasible, see Chapman et al. 2001 and Francis et al. 2001) and hence deserves continued investigation, in particular studying the kinematics of the extended Ly$`\alpha `$ emission around SMM J17142+5016/#18 using an integral-field spectrograph on an 8-m class telescope to confirm the dynamical signatures of a super-wind.

Many of the characteristics of SMM J17142+5016/#18 are shared with other well-studied SCUBA galaxies (Ivison et al. 1998, 2000a): a disturbed morphology, an SED dominated by dust-reprocessed radiation, spectral signatures of a narrow-line AGN and extended Ly$`\alpha `$ emission. The disturbed appearance of #18 sets it apart from the other (typically-compact) Ly$`\alpha `$-selected galaxies and AGN around 53W002, and suggests that, as in local ULIRGs, it is the tidal disturbance of the gas reservoir within the galaxy due to a gravitational interactions which is the root cause of the enhanced activity we see (Chapman et al. 2002a). Yamada et al. (2001) have argued that the Ly$`\alpha `$-selected galaxies around 53W002 have characteristics similar to those seen in the wider Lyman-break population, suggesting that perhaps on-going major mergers are the events which set SCUBA galaxies apart from the broader population of star-forming systems at high redshifts. However, the presence of multiple components on 5–20 kpc scales in $`30`$% of the Lyman-break population (Lowenthal et al. 1997), along with the lack of significant submm emission from the majority of Lyman-break galaxies (Chapman et al. 2000), indicate that the picture is not that simple.

Although the exact trigger of the ultraluminous activity may be ambiguous, it is also true that the power source for this behavior is similarly difficult to identify. The presence of an AGN in SMM J17142+5016/#18 obviously provides the opportunity for some fraction of its far-infrared luminosity to come from AGN-heated dust but, as with $`z0`$ ULIRGS, it is difficult to disentangle the contributions from star formation and AGN-heating to the overall SED. The existence of a large mass of dust, $`10^8`$ M, suggests that massive star formation has occurred in this galaxy, while the lack of X-ray detections for the general SCUBA population (Almaini et al. 2002), along with the constraints on AGN luminosities from a few well-studied SCUBA galaxies (e.g. Frayer et al. 1998; Bautz et al. 2000) both hint that only rarely does the AGN completely dominate the bolometric output from typical, luminous submm-selected sources. Sensitive Chandra X-ray observations will help to resolve this issue for SMM J17142+5016/#18, while SIRTF mid-infrared observations will be key to disentangling the contributions from the AGN to the far-infrared emission from this galaxy. More generally, it is clear from the frequency of weak AGN in SCUBA galaxies that some of the gas from the large disturbed reservoirs in these systems does find its way onto the central black hole and given the easy availability of this fuel, the relatively modest luminosity AGNs which result may indicate that the black holes are of comparatively low mass (or suffer complex dust obscuration).

While the submm luminosity of SMM J17142+5016/#18 sets it apart from the typical Lyman break galaxy (Chapman et al. 2000), its relative brightness in the optical/near-infrared wavebands also distinguishes it from the other three submm sources in this field. All of these lack obvious counterparts to $`K_s20`$ and are undetectable in our radio map, although they should be detected close to the 3-$`\sigma `$ limit of our radio map if they follow the mean Carilli & Yun (2000) relation and lie at $`z2.4`$. Therefore, if these SCUBA galaxies inhabit the same structure as SMM J17142+5016/#18 they must have lower dust temperatures (this will decrease their radio/far-infrared flux ratios, making them fainter in the radio) and are also likely to be more obscured. We speculate that these characteristics could arise if these submm sources lack the AGN which is seen in SMM J17142+5016/#18. Alternatively, several (or all) of these sources could be unrelated to the structure around 53W002 and may lie at higher redshifts. Unfortunately the limits placed on the sensitivity of the radio map of this region by the presence of 53W002 means that improved radio positions for these other submm sources are unlikely to become available in the near future.

From the current census of star formation activity in the structure around 53W002 it appears that SMM J17142+5016/#18 may be the dominant contributor (at least compared to the Ly$`\alpha `$-selected population). We can thus estimate a crude lower limit to the star formation density in this region, taking the rate calculated above and assuming SMM J17142+5016/#18 is the only ultraluminous galaxy in the entire structure, which conservatively contains a volume of $`4\times 4\times 4`$ Mpc3 (K99), giving a star formation density of $`>60`$ M yr-1 Mpc-3. Even allowing for a significant contribution from the AGN to the bolometric luminosity, this is still one to two orders of magnitude higher than the mean star formation density at this epoch (Smail et al. 2002). This is a higher contrast than the 2–$`3\times `$ over-density of Ly$`\alpha `$ emitters in this region (several of which are also AGN, K99) and suggests that vigorous, obscured star formation may be enhanced in the protocluster environment.

Finally we note that the confirmation of a luminous SCUBA galaxy residing in a protocluster environment strengthens their associated with the formation phase of the massive ellipticals, which dominate rich clusters at the present-day. The identification of this SCUBA source adds an ultraluminous infrared galaxy to the diverse zoo of galaxies inhabiting this structure at $`z=2.4`$, which now includes an ultraluminous narrow-line AGN, a powerful radio galaxy, two broad-line AGN and a large population of Ly$`\alpha `$-emitting galaxies. If these various types of activity are related through a single evolutionary cycle, then environments such as that studied here may provide the best insights into the details of their relationships.

## 5. Conclusions

We have identified the first, spectroscopically-confirmed SCUBA companion to a high-redshift radio galaxy. This is SMM J17142+5016/#18, which lies 330 kpc ($`42^{\prime \prime }`$) and $`<300`$ km s-1 offset in velocity from the steep-spectrum radio galaxy 53W002 at $`z=2.39`$. The restframe optical morphology of this galaxy is strongly reminiscent of other well-studied SCUBA galaxies, showing merger/tidal features (Ivison et al. 1998, 2000a). We present an OHS near-infrared spectrum of this galaxy, which probes the restframe optical spectral properties, as well as a number of long-wavelength constraints on the form of its SED. These show that SMM J17142+5016/#18 is a radio-quiet, narrow-line AGN with a bolometric luminosity of $`(8\pm 2)\times 10^{12}`$ L and an inferred star formation rate of $`10^3`$ M yr-1. The galaxy is also surrounded by an extended emission-line halo (seen in Ly$`\alpha `$ and H$`\alpha `$). These halos are being uncovered in an increasing number of dusty, star-forming galaxies at high redshifts and may signify the presence of starburst-driven super-winds in these systems (Chapman et al. 2001, 2002b; Taniguchi & Shioya 2000). These intense winds and the strong radiation fields produced by this activity will have profound consequences for the evolution of any other galaxies in close proximity to the SCUBA galaxies.

We thank Harald Kuntschner and Graham Smith for undertaking the INGRID observations of this field, Fumihide Iwamuro and Toshinori Maihara for obtaining the OHS spectra of SMM J17142+5016/#18, Clare Jenner for help with the SCUBA survey and Ian Waddington for the NICMOS imaging. We are indebted to all staff members of the Subaru telescope, NAOJ, who helped with the OHS observations. We thank the referee for their quick and concise report. We acknowledge useful conversations with Andrew Blain, Scott Chapman, Len Cowie, Cedric Lacey and Alice Shapley, as well as support from the Royal Society (IRS), the Leverhulme Trust (DGG, IRS) and PPARC (JSD, JAS).


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# Rain, power laws, and advection

## Abstract

Localized rain events have been found to follow power-law size and duration distributions over several decades, suggesting parallels between precipitation and seismic activity \[O. Peters et al., PRL 88, 018701 (2002)\]. Similar power laws are generated by treating rain as a passive tracer undergoing advection in a velocity field generated by a two-dimensional system of point vortices.

PACS numbers: 89.75.Da, 47.27.Eq, 92.40.Ea, 92.60.Ek

Email address: dickman@fisica.ufmg.br

As natural phenomena are probed on ever finer length and time scales, surprising scale-invariant properties are brought to light. A notable instance is the recent discovery that distributions of rainy and dry intervals, and the size of rain events, follow power laws . Analyzing Doppler radar data, Peters, Hertlein and Christensen found that the distribution of local rain-event sizes decays as a power law over at least three decades. Durations of rain-free intervals (‘droughts’) are also power-law distributed over the range of several minutes to about a week, with a significant perturbation reflecting diurnal variation.

The similarity between these observations and scaling laws in seismic activity (the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquake sizes, and the Omori law for waiting times) suggests a parallel between atmospheric precipitation and relaxation of the Earth’s crust at stressed tectonic-plate boundaries . In the latter context, cooperative relaxation due to elastic interactions and nonlinear friction is captured by block-spring models  or, in much-reduced fashion, by sandpile models . But if certain aspects of rain distributions resemble those of avalanches in sandpile-like models, the underlying physics remains obscure. There is no obvious reason for the formation or precipitation of one raindrop to provoke similar events nearby. Given the attendant release of latent heat, one would instead expect a self-limiting tendency in condensation. Thus it appears more promising to seek the explanation for power-law distributions in atmospheric dynamics.

Atmospheric motion involves turbulence, particularly in the vicinity of storms; various aspects of turbulent flow follow power laws over many orders of magnitude . Even in the absence of fully developed turbulence, unsteady flow will stretch and fold any initially compact region, leading to a highly convoluted, nonuniform density of suspended particles or droplets  via chaotic advection . In light of these observations, it is interesting to develop a model in which rain is an ideal passive tracer, following the local fluid velocity u(x$`(t),t`$) . (x$`(t)`$ denotes the instantaneous position of the tracer.) This Letter aims to show that such a model is capable of producing power-law-distributed event sizes and durations.

I adopt a simplified model susceptible to numerical simulation. A convenient alternative to numerical integration of the Navier-Stokes equation is afforded by vortex dynamics . In the two-dimensional case studied here, a system of $`N_V`$ point vortices , each moving in the velocity field generated by all vortices except itself, is a particularly attractive method for simulating incompressible, inviscid flow. Point-vortex systems have been used for some time in studies of two-dimensional turbulence .

The simulation cell is a unit square with periodic boundaries. The velocity of vortex $`i`$ is given by

$$𝐯_i=\underset{ji}{}\frac{K_j}{2\pi r_{ij}^2}\widehat{𝐤}\times 𝐫_{ij},$$
(1)
where $`K_j`$ represents the circulation of vortex $`j`$ (equal numbers of clockwise and anticlockwise vortices are used), and r$`{}_{ij}{}^{}=𝐫_i𝐫_j`$, under period boundaries, using the nearest-image criterion. The velocity u(x,$`t`$) at an arbitrary point x in the plane (not occupied by a vortex) is given by a similar sum including contributions from all vortices. The number of vortices $`N_V`$ ranges from 10 to 126.

I study several types of vortex-strength distributions. The simplest assigns all vortices the same strength $`|K|`$. Other studies employ a hierarchical vortex distribution, defined as follows. The zeroth “generation” consists of a pair of vortices with $`K=\pm K_0`$. Subsequent generations, $`n=1,\mathrm{},g`$ have $`2^{n+1}`$ vortices, with circulation $`|K|=K_0/\alpha ^n`$. I study $`\alpha `$ = 2, 3, and 4, using $`g+1=5`$ or 6 generations. The purpose of the hierarchical distribution is to provide structure on a variety of length scales, without trying to reproduce any specific energy spectrum $`ϵ(k)`$. The vortices are assigned random initial positions, but their subsequent evolution is deterministic. Being point objects, they possess no intrinsic length scale. (Note however that in the presence of other vortices, the ‘sphere of influence’ of vortex $`i`$ is proportional to $`K_i`$.) A characteristic length scale is the mean separation $`1/\sqrt{N_V}`$ between vortices. The vortex system defines a mean speed $`u=|𝐮(𝐱,t)|K_0\sqrt{N_V}`$; an important time scale is $`\tau _C1/u`$, the typical time for a fluid particle to traverse the system.

A large number of tracers, $`N_p=\mathrm{5\hspace{0.33em}000}`$ or $`\mathrm{10\hspace{0.33em}000}`$, are thrown at random into a small region (of linear dimension 0.05) to simulate a localized condensation event. (Alternatively, the tracer-laden region may be interpretated as a parcel of atmosphere of high humidity, destined to generate precipitation.) ‘Rain’ corresponds to the presence of one or more tracers in a very small predefined region or ‘weather station’, of linear dimension 0.01. (To improve statistics, I use 40 - 50 such stations; each is randomly assigned a fixed position.) At each step of the integration ($`\mathrm{\Delta }t=5\times 10^610^4`$), the number of particles $`n_i(t)`$ at each station $`i`$ is monitored. A sequence of nonzero occupation numbers at a given station constitutes a rain event, just as in the radar observations ; the size of a rain event is $`s=_tn_i(t)`$ where the sum is over the set of consecutive time steps for which $`n_i(t)>0`$. In case $`n_i=0`$, station $`i`$ is said to experience a drought. The durations of droughts and of rain events are likewise monitored over a time interval $`T`$.

As anticipated, the highly irregular velocity field stretches and folds the tracer-bearing region . At certain hyperbolic points the flow bifurcates. Fig. 1 shows the particle positions at a time $`1.3\tau _C`$, in a system with 126 vortices ($`\alpha =3`$). The tracers are widely scattered, but their distribution remains highly nonuniform. At later times ($`50\tau _C`$), tracers are to be found throughout the system, but there are empty regions of various sizes centered on vortices or vortex pairs.

The nonuniform tracer density leads to scale-invariant rain and drought distributions. Fig. 2 shows the number of rain events $`N(s)`$ as a function of size $`s`$, in a study with 126 vortices, $`\alpha =2`$, and $`T\tau _c/2`$ (the mean velocity $`u5`$; statistics are accumulated over a total of 200 realizations). The distribution follows a power law, $`N(s)s^{0.95(1)}`$ over nearly five decades. (Figures in parentheses denote uncertainties.) Fig. 3 shows the drought-duration distribution for the same parameters; it follows a power law, with a decay exponent of 1.14(1), over about three decades. The distribution of rain durations (Fig. 3, inset) is more complicated, decaying first as a power law (with an exponent of about 1), over a decade or so, then attaining a roughly constant value, and finally decaying exponentially.

Note that for durations larger than $`T/\mathrm{\Delta }t=10^4`$, the drought distribution decays exponentially, as expected for independent events. The largest possible rain size is $`N_pT/\mathrm{\Delta }t=10^8`$, corresponding to all of the tracers sitting at a particular station for an entire simulation. The largest rain event observed was $`2.5\times 10^6`$, or 2.5% the maximum possible. Given the small area of a station, this represents a remarkable concentration of tracers for a long time, reminiscent of blocking effects in the atmosphere, that may cause a coherent stucture (possibly a vortex-dipole) to remain stationary over a long interval .

Varying the vortex distribution and observation interval $`T`$, the following trends emerge. For $`T/\tau _C`$ in the range 0.1 - 2, a power-law rain-size distribution, with an exponent in the range of 0.93 - 1.02, is observed over 4 - 5 1/2 decades. The drought-duration distribution decays with a somewhat larger exponent, 1.12 - 1.16, and follows a power law over 3 - 4 decades. Larger exponent values are associated with higher values of $`\alpha `$; these yield somewhat smaller ranges for the power laws. Conversely, the largest power-law range, and smallest exponent values, are observed when all vortices are of equal strength. The is no significant difference between the distributions obtained initially and those found after the vortices have had some time to evolve, suggesting that the equilibration process expected in two-dimensional turbulence  is not important as regards rain and drought statistics .

Even systems with as few as ten vortices yield good power laws; examples are shown in Fig. 4. This indicates that chaotic advection is the essential feature leading to scale invariance, rather than well developed turbulence.

For larger values of $`T/\tau _C`$ the particles are more dispersed, and the rain size and drought duration follow stretched-exponential functions; an example is shown in Fig. 2 (inset) for $`T200\tau _C`$. Even for large values of $`T/\tau _C`$ (up to 200 in the present study), the distributions decay more slowly than an exponential, showing that the tracer density is non-Poissonian.

The simulation results may be summarized as showing scale-invariant rain-size and drought-duration distributions for intervals such that the tracers remain highly clustered. (Taking the scale of the original rain-formation region as $``$1 km, the scale-invariant distributions correspond to rain scattered over a region of $`10100`$ km. If we adopt a typical wind velocity $`u20`$ km/h then the simulation time-step $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is on the order of one second.) Although the decay exponents are somewhat smaller than those obtained from observational data (1.36 and 1.42 for rain size and drought duration, resp. ), the simulations also show the drought duration decaying more rapidly than that for rain event sizes. For conditions under which the rain is more thoroughly dispersed, simulations yield stretched-exponential distributions. While the latter have not been reported, it is well to recall that the observational data come from a single station. Observations from other sites are needed confirm the generality of power laws and the possibility of other (non-scale-invariant) forms.

Clearly, the model employed in the present “proof-of-principle” study contains a minimum of atmospheric physics. A three-dimensional description, allowing for stratification, convection, and vortex stretching would be desirable, as would inclusion of condensation, evaporation, and inertial effects . These improvements, all of which involve significant computational complexity and expense, can be expected to alter detailed properties, and might well change the exponent values. But since chaotic advection is a generic feature of atmospheric models, one should expect scale-invariant distributions to appear. This is supported by the robustness of the power laws found in simulations, to variations in number and strength of the vortices. In this regard it is also interesting to note that simulations of turbulent MHD processes reproduce power-law burst distributions for solar flares , and that tracer patterns similar to those reported here are also found in simulations of two-dimensional barotropic turbulence . Theoretical prediction of the rain and drought distributions, and of the associated exponents, starting from a model velocity field, remains as a formidable challenge.

In summary, I find that tracer distributions in two-dimensional flow, represented by a system of point vortices, exhibit scale invariance during the early stage of the dispersal process. It therefore seems reasonable to attribute power-law rain and drought distributions to turbulent atmospheric flow, and to develop more realistic models, to understand the observations in greater detail.

I thank Kim Christensen, Miguel A. Muñoz, Oscar N. Mesquita, and Francisco F. Araujo Jr. for helpful discussions. This work was supported by CNPq, and CAPES, Brazil.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

FIG. 1. Positions of 104 tracers at time $`1.3\tau _C`$, in a system with 126 vortices, $`\alpha =3`$. The tracers are initially distributed uniformly over the small square near the right edge. Inset: detail of a region of high tracer density, with two vortices.

FIG. 2. Rain size distribution in a study with 126 vortices, $`\alpha =2`$, and $`T\tau _c/2`$. The straight line has slope -0.95. Inset: stretched exponential rain size distribution for $`T200\tau _C`$, $`\alpha =4`$.

FIG. 3. Drought-duration (main graph) and rain-duration (inset) distributions for the same parameters as Fig. 2. The straight line has slope -1.14.

FIG. 4. Rain-size (main graph) and drought-duration (inset) distributions in a system of 10 vortices of equal strength, $`T0.85\tau _c`$. The stright lines have slopes of -1.01 (rain size) and -1.13 (drought).


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# Conditional Density Matrix: Systems and Subsystems in Quantum Mechanics

## 1 Introduction

A problem of a correct quantum mechanical description of divisions of quantum systems into subsystems and reunifications of subsystems into new joint systems attracts a great interest due to the present development of quantum communication.

Although the theory of such processes finds room in the general scheme of quantum mechanics proposed by von Neumann in 1927 , even now they are often described in a fictitious manner. For example, the authors of classical photon teleportation experiment  write

The entangled state contains no information on the individual particles; it only indicates that two particles will be in the opposite states. The important property of an entangled pair that as soon as a measurement on one particles projects it, say, onto

$`|>`$ the state of the other one is determined to be $`|>`$, and vice versa. How could a measurement on one of the particles instantaneously influence the state of the other particle, which can be arbitrary far away? Einstein, among many other distinguished physicists, could simply not accept this ”spooky action at a distance”. But this property of entangled states has been demonstrated by numerous experiments.

## 2  The General Scheme of Quantum Mechanics

It was W.Heisenberg who in 1925 formulated a kinematic postulate of quantum mechanics . He proposed that there exists a connection between matrices and physical variables:

$$variablematrix(\widehat{F})_{mn}.$$

In the modern language the kinematic postulate looks like:

Each dynamical variable $``$ of a system $`𝒮`$ corresponds to a linear operator $`\widehat{F}`$ in Hilbert space $``$

$$dynamicalvariablelinearoperator\widehat{F}.$$

The dynamics is given by the famous Heisenberg’s equations formulated in terms of commutators.

$$\frac{d\widehat{F}}{dt}=\frac{i}{\mathrm{}}[\widehat{H},\widehat{F}].$$

To compare predictions of the theory with experimental data it was necessary to understand how one can determine the values of dynamical variables in the given state. W.Heisenberg gave a partial answer to this problem:

If matrix that corresponds to the dynamical variable is diagonal, then its diagonal elements define possible values for the dynamical variable, i.e. its spectrum.

$$(\widehat{F})_{mn}=f_m\delta _{mn}\{f_m\}isspectrum.$$

The general solution of the problem was given by von Neumann in 1927. He proposed the following procedure for calculation of average values of physical variables:

$$<>=Tr(\widehat{F}\widehat{\rho }).$$

Here operator $`\widehat{\rho }`$ satisfies three conditions:

$$1)\widehat{\rho }^+=\widehat{\rho },$$

$$2)Tr\widehat{\rho }=1,$$

$$3)\psi <\psi |\widehat{\rho }\psi >0.$$

By the formula for average values von Neumann found out the correspondence between linear operators $`\widehat{\rho }`$ and states of quantum systems:

$$stateofasystem\rho linearoperator\widehat{\rho }.$$

In this way, the formula for average values becomes quantum mechanical definition of the notion ”a state of a system”. The operator $`\widehat{\rho }`$ is called Density Matrix.

From the relation

$$(<>)^{}=Tr(\widehat{F}^+\widehat{\rho })$$

one can conclude that Hermitian-conjugate operators correspond to complex-conjugate variables and Hermitian operators correspond to real variables.

$$\widehat{F}^{}\widehat{F}^+,$$

$$=^{}\widehat{F}=\widehat{F}^+.$$

The real variables are called observables.

From the properties of density matrix and the definition of positively definite operators:

$$\widehat{F}^+=\widehat{F},\psi <\psi |\widehat{F}\psi >0,$$

it follows that the average value of nonnegative variable is nonnegative. Moreover, the average value of nonnegative variable is equal to zero if and only if this variable equals zero. Now it is easy to give the following definition:

variable $``$ has a definite value in the state $`\rho `$ if and only if its dispersion in the state $`\rho `$ is equal to zero.

In accordance to general definition of the dispersion of an arbitrary variable

$$𝒟(A)=<A^2>(<A>)^2,$$

the expression for dispersion of a quantum variable $``$ in the state $`\rho `$ has the form:

$$𝒟_\rho ()=Tr(\widehat{Q}^2\widehat{\rho }),$$

where $`\widehat{Q}`$ is an operator:

$$\widehat{Q}=\widehat{F}<>\widehat{E}.$$

If $``$ is observable then $`Q^2`$ is a positive definite variable. It follows that the dispersion of $``$ is nonnegative. And all this makes clear the above-given definition.

Since density matrix is a positive definite operator and its trace equals 1, we see that its spectrum is pure discrete and it can be written in the form

$$\widehat{\rho }=\underset{n}{}p_n\widehat{P}_n,$$

where $`\widehat{P}_n`$ is a complete set of self-conjugate projective operators:

$$\widehat{P}_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{+}=\widehat{P}_n,\widehat{P}_m\widehat{P}_n=\delta _{mn}\widehat{P}_m,\underset{n}{}\widehat{P}_n=\widehat{E}.$$

Numbers $`\{p_n\}`$ satisfy the condition

$$p_n^{}=p_n,0p_n,\underset{n}{}p_nTr\widehat{P}_n=1.$$

It follows that $`\widehat{\rho }`$ acts according to the formula

$$\widehat{\rho }\mathrm{\Psi }=\underset{n}{}p_n\underset{\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }_n}{}\varphi _{n\alpha }\varphi _{n\alpha }|\mathrm{\Psi }.$$

The vectors $`\varphi _{n\alpha }`$ form an orthonormal basis in the space $``$. Sets $`\mathrm{\Delta }_n=\{1,\mathrm{},k_n\}`$ are defined by degeneration multiplicities $`k_n`$ of eigenvalues $`p_n`$.

Now the dispersion of the observable $``$ in the state $`\rho `$ is given by the equation

$$𝒟_\rho ()=\underset{n}{}p_n\underset{\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }_n}{}\widehat{Q}\varphi _{n\alpha }^2.$$

All terms in this sum are nonnegative. Hence, if the dispersion is equal to zero, then

$$ifp_n0,then\widehat{Q}\varphi _{n\alpha }=0.$$

Using the definition of the operator $`\widehat{Q}`$, we obtain

$$ifp_n0,then\widehat{F}\varphi _{n\alpha }=\varphi _{n\alpha }F.$$

In other words, if an observable $``$ has a definite value in the given state $`\rho `$, then this value is equal to one of the eigenvalues of the operator $`\widehat{F}`$.

In this case we have

$$\widehat{\rho }\widehat{F}\varphi _{n\alpha }=\varphi _{n\alpha }p_n,$$

$$\widehat{F}\widehat{\rho }\varphi _{n\alpha }=\varphi _{n\alpha }p_n,$$

that proves the commutativity of operators $`\widehat{F}`$ and $`\widehat{\rho }`$.

It is well known, that if $`\widehat{A}`$ and $`\widehat{B}`$ are commutative self-conjugate operators, then there exists self-conjugate operator $`\widehat{T}`$ with non-degenerate spectrum such that $`\widehat{A}`$ and $`\widehat{B}`$ are functions of $`\widehat{T}`$:

$$\widehat{T}\mathrm{\Psi }=\underset{n\alpha }{}\varphi _{n\alpha }t_{n\alpha }\varphi _{n\alpha }|\mathrm{\Psi },$$

$$t_{n\alpha }^{}=t_{n\alpha },t_{n\alpha }t_{n^{^{}}\alpha ^{^{}}},if(n,\alpha )(n^{^{}},\alpha ^{^{}}).$$

$$\widehat{F}\mathrm{\Psi }=\underset{n\alpha }{}\varphi _{n\alpha }f_1(t_{n\alpha })\varphi _{n\alpha }|\mathrm{\Psi },$$

$$\widehat{\rho }\mathrm{\Psi }=\underset{n\alpha }{}\varphi _{n\alpha }f_2(t_{n\alpha })\varphi _{n\alpha }|\mathrm{\Psi },$$

Suppose that $`\widehat{F}`$ is an operator with non-degenerate spectrum; then

if the observable $``$ with non-degenerate spectrum has a definite value in the state $`\rho `$, then it is possible to represent the density matrix of this state as a function of the operator $`\widehat{F}`$.

The operator $`\widehat{F}`$ can be written in the form

$$\widehat{F}=\underset{n}{}f_n\widehat{P}_n,$$

$$\widehat{P}_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{+}=\widehat{P}_n,\widehat{P}_m\widehat{P}_n=\delta _{mn}\widehat{P}_m,tr(\widehat{P}_n)=1,\underset{n}{}\widehat{P}_n=\widehat{E}.$$

The numbers $`\{f_n\}`$ satisfy the conditions

$$f_n^{}=f_n,f_nf_n^{^{}},ifnn^{^{}}.$$

We obviously have

$$\widehat{F}=\underset{n}{}f_n\widehat{P}_n.$$

From

$$F=\underset{n}{}p_nf_n=f_N,$$

$$F^2=\underset{n}{}p_nf_n^2=f_N^2$$

we get

$$p_n=\delta _{nN}.$$

In this case density matrix is a projective operator satisfying the condition

$$\widehat{\rho }^2=\widehat{\rho }.$$

It acts as

$$\widehat{\rho }\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Psi }_N\mathrm{\Psi }_N|\mathrm{\Psi },$$

where $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is a vector in Hilbert space.

The average value of an arbitrary variable in this state is equal to

$$𝒜=\mathrm{\Psi }_N|\widehat{A}\mathrm{\Psi }_N.$$

It is so-called PURE  state. If the state is not pure it is known as mixed.

Suppose that every vector in $``$ is a square integrable function $`\mathrm{\Psi }(x)`$, where $`x`$ is a set of continuous and discrete variables. Scalar product is defined by the formula

$$\mathrm{\Psi }|\mathrm{\Phi }=𝑑x\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(x)\mathrm{\Phi }(x).$$

For simplicity we assume that every operator $`\widehat{F}`$ in $``$ acts as follows .

$$(\widehat{F}\mathrm{\Psi })(x)=F(x,x^{^{}})𝑑x^{^{}}\mathrm{\Psi }(x^{^{}}).$$

That is for any operator $`\widehat{F}`$ there is an integral kernel $`F(x,x^{^{}})`$ associated with this operator

$$\widehat{F}F(x,x^{^{}}).$$

Certainly, we may use $`\delta `$-function if necessary.

Now the average value of the variable $``$ in the state $`\rho `$ is given by equation

$$_\rho =F(x,x^{^{}})𝑑x^{^{}}\rho (x^{^{}},x)𝑑x.$$

Here the kernel $`\rho (x,x^{^{}})`$ satisfies the conditions

$$\rho ^{}(x,x^{^{}})=\rho (x^{^{}},x),$$

$$\rho (x,x)𝑑x=1,$$

$$\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Psi }(x)𝑑x\rho (x,x^{^{}})𝑑x^{^{}}\mathrm{\Psi }(x^{^{}})0.$$

## 3 Composite System and Reduced Density Matrix

Suppose the variables $`x`$ are divided into two parts: $`x=\{y,z\}`$. Suppose also that the space $``$ is a direct product of two spaces $`_1`$, $`_2`$:

$$=_1_2.$$

So, there is a basis in the space that can be written in the form

$$\varphi _{an}(y,z)=f_a(y)v_n(z).$$

The kernel of operator $`\widehat{F}`$ in this basis looks like

$$\widehat{F}F(y,z;y^{^{}},z^{^{}}).$$

In quantum mechanics it means that the system $`S`$ is a unification of two subsystems $`S_1`$ and $`S_2`$:

$$S=S_1S_2.$$

The Hilbert space $``$ corresponds to the system $`S`$ and the spaces $`_1`$ and $`_2`$ correspond to the subsystems $`S_1`$ and $`S_2`$.

Now suppose that a physical variable $`_1`$ depends on variables $`y`$ only. The operator that corresponds to $`_1`$ has a kernel

$$F_1(y,z;y^{^{}},z^{^{}})=F_1(y,y^{^{}})\delta (zz^{^{}}).$$

The average value of $`F_1`$ in the state $`\rho `$ is equal to

$$F_1_\rho =F(y,y^{^{}})𝑑y^{^{}}\rho _1(y^{^{}},y)𝑑y,$$

where the kernel $`\rho _1`$ is defined by the formula

$$\rho _1(y,y^{^{}})=\rho (y,z;y_{^{}},z)𝑑z.$$

The operator $`\widehat{\rho }_1`$ satisfies all the properties of Density Matrix in $`S_1`$. Indeed, we have

$$\rho _{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(y,y^{^{}})=\rho _1(y^{^{}},y),$$

$$\rho _1(y,y)𝑑y=1,$$

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_1_\mathcal{1}\mathrm{\Psi }_1(y)𝑑y\rho _1(y,y^{^{}})𝑑y^{^{}}\mathrm{\Psi }_1(y^{^{}})0.$$

The operator

$$\widehat{\rho }_1=Tr_2\widehat{\rho }_{1+2},$$

is called Reduced Density Matrix . Thus, the state of the subsystem $`S_1`$ is defined by reduced density matrix.

The reduced density matrix for the subsystem $`S_2`$ is defined analogously.

$$\widehat{\rho }_2=Tr_1\widehat{\rho }_{1+2}.$$

Quantum states $`\rho _1`$ and $`\rho _2`$ of subsystems are defined uniquely by the state $`\rho _{1+2}`$ of the composite system.

Suppose the system $`S`$ is in a pure state then a quantum state of the subsystem $`S_1`$ is defined by the kernel

$$\rho _1(y,y^{^{}})=\mathrm{\Psi }(y,z)𝑑z\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(y^{^{}},z).$$

If the function $`\mathrm{\Psi }(y,z)`$ is the product

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(y,z)=f(y)w(z),|w(z)|^2𝑑z=1,$$

then subsystem $`S_1`$ is a pure state , too

$$\rho _1(y,y^{^{}})=f(y)f^{}(y^{^{}}),|f(y)|^2𝑑y=1.$$

As it was proved by von Neumann, it is the only case when purity of composite system is inherited by its subsystems.

Let us consider an example of a system in a pure state having subsystems in mixed states. Let the wave function of composite system be

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(y,z)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(f(y)w(z)\pm f(z)w(y)),$$

where $`<f|w>=0`$ and $`<f|f>=<w|w>=1`$. The density matrix of the subsystem $`S_1`$ has the kernel

$$\rho _1(y,y^{^{}})=\frac{1}{2}(f(y)f^{}(y^{^{}})+w(y)w^{}(y^{^{}})).$$

The kernel of the operator $`\widehat{\rho }_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$ has the form

$$\rho _{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}(y,y^{^{}})=\frac{1}{4}(f(y)f^{}(y^{^{}})+w(y)w^{}(y^{^{}})).$$

Therefore, the subsystem $`S_1`$ is in the mixed state. Moreover, its density matrix is proportional to unity operator. The previous property resolves the perplexities connected with Einstein - Podolsky - Rosen paradox.

## 4 EPR - paradox

Anyway, it was Shrödinger who introduced a term ”EPR-paradox”. The authors of EPR themselves always considered their article as a demonstration of inconsistency of present to them quantum mechanics rather than a particular curiosity.

The main conclusion of the paper  ”Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?” published in 1935 (8 years later then the von Neumann book) is the statement:

..we proved that (1) the quantum mechanical description of reality given by wave functions not complete or (2) when the operators corresponding to two physical quantities do not commute the two quantities cannot have simultaneous reality. Starting then with the assumption that the wave function does give a complete description of the physical reality, we arrived at the conclusion that two physical quantities, with noncommuting operators, can have simultaneous reality. Thus the negation of (1) leads to negation of only other alternative (2). We can thus focused to conclude that the quantum-mechanical description of physical reality given by wave function is not complete.

After von Neumann’s works this statement appears obvious. However, in order to clarify this point of view completely we must understand what is ”the physical reality” in EPR. In EPR-paper the physical reality is defined as:

If, without in any way disturbing a system, we can predict with certainty (i.e., with probability equal to unity) the value of physical quantity, then there exists an element of physical reality corresponding to this physical quantity.

Such definition of physical reality is a step back as compared to von Neumann’s definition. By EPR definition, the state is actual only when at least one observable has an exact value. This point of view is incomplete and leads to inconsistency.

When a subsystem is separated ”the loss of observables” results directly from the definition of density matrix for the subsystem. ”The occurrence” of observables in the chosen subsystem when the quantities are measured in another ”subsidiary” subsystem can be naturally explained in the terms of conditional density matrix.

## 5 Conditional Density Matrix

The average value of a variable with the kernel

$$F^c(x,x^{})=F_1(y,y^{})u(z)u^{}(z^{}),|u(z)|^2𝑑z=1,$$

is equal to

$$F^c_\rho =pF_1(y,y^{^{}})𝑑y^{^{}}\rho ^c(y^{^{}},y)𝑑y,$$

where

$$\rho ^c(y,y^{^{}})=\frac{1}{p}u^{}(z)𝑑z\rho (y,z;y^{},z^{})u(z^{})𝑑z^{},$$

$$p=u^{}(z)𝑑z\rho (y,z;y,z^{})u(z^{})𝑑z^{}𝑑y.$$

Since we can represent $`p`$ in the form

$$p=P(z,z^{})𝑑z^{}\rho _2(z^{};z)𝑑z,$$

$$P(z,z^{})=u(z)u^{}(z^{}),$$

we see that $`p`$ is an average value of a variable $`P`$ of the subsystem $`S_2`$. Operator $`\widehat{P}`$ is a projector ($`\widehat{P}^2=\widehat{P}`$). Therefore it is possible to consider the value $`p`$ as a probability.

It is easy to demonstrate that the operator $`\widehat{\rho }^c`$ satisfies all the properties of density matrix. So the kernel $`\rho ^c(y,y^{})`$ defines some state of the subsystem $`S_1`$. What is this state?

According to the decomposition of $`\delta `$-function

$$\delta (zz^{})=\underset{n}{}\varphi _n(z)\varphi _{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(z^{}),$$

$`\{\varphi _n(z)\}`$ being a basis in the space $`H_2`$, the reduced density matrix is represented in the form of the sum

$$\rho _1(y,y^{})=p_n\rho _n^c(y,y^{}).$$

Here

$$\rho _n^c(y,y^{})=\frac{1}{p_n}\varphi _{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(z)𝑑z\rho (y,z;y^{},z^{})\varphi _n(z^{})𝑑z^{}$$

and

$$p_n=\varphi _{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(z)𝑑z\rho (y,z;y,z^{})\varphi _n(z^{})𝑑z^{}𝑑y$$

$$=\widehat{P}_n(z,z^{})𝑑z^{}\rho _2(z^{},z)𝑑z.$$

The numbers $`p_n`$ satisfy the conditions

$$p_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}=p_n,p_n0,\underset{n}{}p_n=1.$$

and are connected with a probability distribution.

The basis $`\{\varphi _n\}`$ in the space $`H_2`$ corresponds to some observable $`\widehat{G}_2`$ of the subsystem $`S_2`$ with discrete non-degenerate spectrum. It is determined by the kernel

$$G_2(z,z^{})=\underset{n}{}g_n\varphi _n\varphi _n,g_n=g_n;g_ng_{n1}ifnn1.$$

The average value of $`G_2`$ in the state $`\rho _2`$ is equal to

$$𝑑y\rho _2(z,z^{})𝑑z^{}G(z^{},z)=$$

$$=\underset{n}{}g_n𝑑y\rho _2(z,z^{})𝑑z^{}\varphi _n(z^{})\varphi _{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(z^{})=\underset{n}{}p_ng_n.$$

Thus number $`p_n`$ defines the chance that the observable $`\widehat{G}_2`$ has the value $`g_n`$ in the state $`\rho _2`$. Obviously, the kernel $`\rho _n^c(y,y^{})`$ in this case defines the state of system $`S_1`$ under condition that the value of variable $`G_2`$ is equal to $`g_n`$. Hence it is natural to call operator $`\widehat{\rho }_n^c`$ as Conditional Density Matrix (CDM) ,

$$\widehat{\rho }_{c1|2}=\frac{Tr_2(\widehat{P}_2\widehat{\rho })}{Tr(\widehat{P}_2\widehat{\rho })}.$$

It is (conditional) density matrix for the subsystem $`S_1`$ under the condition that the subsystem $`S_2`$ is selected in a pure state $`\widehat{\rho }_2=\widehat{P}_2`$. It is the most important case for quantum communication. Conditional density matrix satisfies all the properties of density matrix.

Conditional density matrix helps to clarify a sense of operations in some finest experiments.

## 6 Examples: System and Subsystems

### 6.1  Parapositronium

As an example we consider parapositronium, i.e. the system consisting of an electron and a positron. The total spin of the system is equal to zero. In this case the nonrelativistic approximation is valid and the state vector of the system is represented in the form of the product

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\stackrel{}{r}_e,\sigma _e;\stackrel{}{r}_p,\sigma _p)=\mathrm{\Phi }(\stackrel{}{r}_e,\stackrel{}{r}_p)\chi (\sigma _e,\sigma _p).$$

The spin wave function is equal to

$$\chi (\sigma _e,\sigma _p)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(\chi _\stackrel{}{n}(\sigma _e)\chi _\stackrel{}{n}(\sigma _p)\chi _\stackrel{}{n}(\sigma _p)\chi _\stackrel{}{n}(\sigma _e)).$$

Here $`\chi _\stackrel{}{n}(\sigma )`$ and $`\chi _{(\stackrel{}{n})}(\sigma )`$ are the eigenvectors of the operator that projects spin onto the vector $`\stackrel{}{n}`$:

$$(\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{n})\chi _{\pm \stackrel{}{n}}(\sigma )=\pm \chi _{\pm \stackrel{}{n}}(\sigma ),$$

The spin density matrix of the system is determined by the operator with the kernel

$$\rho (\sigma ;\sigma ^{^{}})=\chi (\sigma _e,\sigma _p)\chi ^{}(\sigma _e^{^{}},\sigma _p^{^{}}),$$

The spin density matrix of the electron is

$$\rho _e(\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})=\underset{\xi }{}\chi (\sigma ,\xi )\chi ^{}(\sigma ^{^{}},\xi )=$$

$$\frac{1}{2}(\chi _\stackrel{}{n}(\sigma )\chi _{(\stackrel{}{n})}(\sigma ^{^{}})+\chi _\stackrel{}{n}(\sigma )\chi _{(\stackrel{}{n})}(\sigma ^{^{}}))=\frac{1}{2}\delta (\sigma \sigma ^{^{}}).$$

In this state the electron is completely unpolarized.

If an electron passes through polarization filter then the pass probability is independent of the filter orientation. The same fact is valid for the positron if its spin state is measured independently of the electron.

Now let us consider quite a different experiment. Namely, the positron passes through the polarization filter and the electron polarization is simultaneously measured. The operator that projects the positron spin onto the vector $`\stackrel{}{m}`$ (determined by the filter) is given by the kernel

$$P(\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})=\chi _\stackrel{}{m}(\sigma )\chi _\stackrel{}{m}^{}(\sigma ^{^{}}).$$

Now the conditional density matrix of the electron is equal to

$$\rho _{e/p}(\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})=\frac{\underset{(\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})}{}\chi _\stackrel{}{m}(\sigma )\chi _\stackrel{}{m}^{}(\sigma ^{^{}})\chi (\sigma _e,\sigma ^{^{}})\chi ^{}(\sigma _e^{^{}},\sigma )}{_{(\xi ,\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})}\chi _\stackrel{}{m}(\sigma )\chi _\stackrel{}{m}^{}(\sigma ^{^{}})\chi (\xi ,\sigma ^{^{}})\chi ^{}(\xi ,\sigma )}.$$

The result of the summation is

$$\rho _{e/p}(\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})=\chi _{(\stackrel{}{m})}(\sigma )\chi _{(\stackrel{}{m})}^{}(\sigma ^{^{}}).$$

Thus, if the polarization of the positron is selected with the help of polarizer in the state with well defined spin, then the electron appears to be polarized in the opposite direction. Of course, this result is in an agreement with the fact that total spin of composite system is equal to zero. Nevertheless this natural result can be obtained if positron and electron spins are measured simultaneously. In the opposite case, the more simple experiment shows that the direction of electron and positron spins are absolutely indefinite.

A.Eistein said ”raffinert ist der Herr Gott, aber boschaft ist Er nicht”.

### 6.2  Quantum Photon Teleportation

In the Innsbruck experiment  on a photon state teleportation, the initial state of the system is the result of the unification of the pair of photons 1 and 2 being in the antisymmetric state $`\chi (\sigma _1,\sigma _2)`$ with summary angular momentum equal to zero and the photon 3 being in the state $`\chi _\stackrel{}{m}(\sigma _3)`$ (that is, being polarized along the vector $`\stackrel{}{m}`$). The joint system state is given by the density matrix

$$\rho (\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})=\mathrm{\Psi }(\sigma )\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(\sigma ^{^{}}),$$

where the wave function of the joint system is the product

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\sigma )=\chi (\sigma _1,\sigma _2)\chi _\stackrel{}{m}(\sigma _3).$$

Considering then the photon 2 only (without fixing the states of the photons 1 and 3) we find the photon 2 to be completely unpolarized with the density matrix

$$\rho (\sigma _2,\sigma _2^{^{}})=Tr_{(1,3)}\rho (\sigma _1,\sigma _2,\sigma _3;\sigma _1,\sigma _2^{^{}},\sigma _3)=\frac{1}{2}\delta (\sigma _2\sigma _2^{^{}}).$$

However, if the photon 2 is registered when the state of the photons 1 and 3 has been determined to be $`\chi (\sigma _1,\sigma _3)`$ then the state of the photon 2 is given by the conditional density matrix

$$\rho _{2/\{1,3\}}=\frac{Tr_{(1,3)}(P_{1,3}\rho _{1,2,3})}{Tr(P_{1,3}\rho _{1,2,3})}.$$

Here $`P_{1,3}`$ is the projection operator

$$P_{1,3}=\chi (\sigma _1,\sigma _3)\chi ^{}(\sigma _1,\sigma _3).$$

To evaluate the conditional density matrix it is convenient to preliminary find the vectors

$$\varphi (\sigma _1)=\underset{3}{}\chi _\stackrel{}{m}^{}(\sigma _3)\chi (\sigma _1,\sigma _3)$$

and

$$\theta (\sigma _2)=\underset{1}{}\varphi ^{}(\sigma _1)\chi (\sigma _1,\sigma _2).$$

The vector $`\theta `$ equals to

$$\theta (\sigma _2)=\frac{1}{2}\chi _\stackrel{}{m}(\sigma _2)$$

and the conditional density matrix of the photon 2 appears to be equal to

$$\rho _{2/\{1,3\}}=\chi _\stackrel{}{m}(\sigma _2)\chi _\stackrel{}{m}^{}(\sigma _2^{^{}}).$$

Thus, if the subsystem consisting of the photons 1 and 3 is forced to be in the antisymmetric state $`\chi (\sigma _1,\sigma _3)`$ (with total angular momentum equal to zero) then the photon 2 appears to be polarized along the vector $`\stackrel{}{m}`$.

### 6.3  Entanglement Swapping

In the recent experiment  in installation two pairs of correlated photons are emerged simultaneously. The state of the system is described by the wave function

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\sigma )=\mathrm{\Psi }(\sigma _1,\sigma _2,\sigma _3,\sigma _4)=\chi (\sigma _1,\sigma _2)\chi (\sigma _3,\sigma _4).$$

The photons 2 and 3 are selected into antisymmetric state $`\chi (\sigma _2,\sigma _3)`$.

What is the state of pair of photons 1 and 4?

Conditional density matrix of the pair (1-4) is

$$\widehat{\rho }_{14/23}=\frac{Tr_{23}(\widehat{P}_{23}\widehat{\rho }_{1234})}{Tr(\widehat{P}_{23}\widehat{\rho }_{1234})},$$

where operator that selects pair (2-3) is defined by

$$P_{23}(\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})=\chi (\sigma _2,\sigma _3)\chi ^{}(\sigma _2^{^{}},\sigma _3^{^{}})$$

and density matrix of four photons system is determined by kernel

$$\rho _{1234}(\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})=\mathrm{\Psi }(\sigma _1,\sigma _2,\sigma _3,\sigma _4)\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(\sigma _1^{^{}},\sigma _2^{^{}},\sigma _3^{^{}},\sigma _4^{^{}}).$$

Direct calculation shows that the pair of the photons (1 and 4) has to be in pure state with the wave function

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(\sigma _1,\sigma _4)=\chi (\sigma _1,\sigma _4).$$

The experiment confirms this prediction.

### 6.4  Pairs of Polarized Photons

Now consider a modification of the Innsbruck experiment. Let there be two pairs of photons $`(1,2)`$ and $`(3,4)`$. Suppose that each pair is in the pure antisymmetric state $`\chi `$. The spin part of the density matrix of the total system is given by the equation

$$\rho (\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})=\mathrm{\Psi }(\sigma )\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(\sigma ^{^{}}),$$

where

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\sigma )=\chi (\sigma _1,\sigma _2)\chi (\sigma _3,\sigma _4).$$

If the photons 2 and 4 pass though polarizes, they are polarized along $`\chi _\stackrel{}{m}(\sigma _2)`$ and $`\chi _\stackrel{}{s}(\sigma _4)`$ then the wave function of the system is transformed into

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(\sigma )=\chi _\stackrel{}{n}(\sigma _1)\chi _\stackrel{}{m}(\sigma _2)\chi _\stackrel{}{r}(\sigma _3)\chi _\stackrel{}{s}(\sigma _4).$$

Here $`\stackrel{}{n},\stackrel{}{m}`$ and $`\stackrel{}{r},\stackrel{}{s}`$ are pairs of mutually orthogonal vectors.

Now the conditional density matrix of the pair of photons 1 and 3 is

$$\rho _{(1,3)/(2,4)}(\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}})=\mathrm{\Theta }(\sigma _1,\sigma _3)\mathrm{\Theta }^{}(\sigma _1^{^{}},\sigma _3^{^{}}).$$

The wave function of the pair is the product of wave functions of each photon with definite polarization

$$\mathrm{\Theta }(\sigma _1,\sigma _3)=\chi _\stackrel{}{n}(\sigma _1)\chi _\stackrel{}{r}(\sigma _3).$$

We note that initial correlation properties of the system appear only when the photons pass though polarizers. Although the wave function of the system seems to be a wave function of independent particles the initial correlation exhibits in correlations of polarizations for each pair. Pairs of polarized photons appear to be very useful in quantum communication.

### 6.5  Quantum Realization of Verman Communication Scheme

Let us recall the main idea of Vernam communication scheme . In this scheme, Alice encrypts her message (a string of bits denoted by the binary number $`m_1`$) using a randomly generated key $`k`$. She simply adds each bit of the message with the corresponding bit of the key to obtain the scrambled text ($`s=m_1k`$, where $``$ denotes the binary addition modulo 2 without carry). It is then sent to Bob, who decrypts the message by subtracting the key ($`sk=m_1kk=m_1`$). Because the bits of the scrambled text are as random as those of the key, they do not contain any information. This cryptosystem is thus provable secure in sense of information theory. Actually, today this is the only probably secure cryptosystem!

Although perfectly secure, the problem with this security is that it is essential that Alice and Bob possess a common secret key, which must be at least as long as the message itself. They can only use the key for a single encryption. If they used the key more than once, Eve could record all of the scrambled messages and start to build up a picture of the plain texts and thus also of the key. (If Eve recorded two different messages encrypted with the same key, she could add the scrambled text to obtain the sum of the plain texts: $`s_1s_2=m_1km_2k=m_1m_2kk=m_1m_2`$, where we used the fact that $``$ is commutative.) Furthermore, the key has to be transmitted by some trusted means, such as a courier, or through a personal meeting between Alice and Bob. This procedure may be complex and expensive, and even may lead to a loophole in the system.

With the help of pairs of polarized photons we can overcome the shortcomings of the classical realization of Vernam scheme. Suppose Alice sends to Bob pairs of polarized photons obtained according to the rules described in the previous section. Note that the concrete photons’ polarizations are set up in Alice’s laboratory and Eve does not know them. If the polarization of the photon 1 is set up by a random binary number $`p_i`$ and the polarization of the photon 3 is set up by a number $`m_ip_i`$ then each photon (when considered separately) does not carry any information. However, Bob after obtaining these photons can add corresponding binary numbers and get the number $`m_i`$ containing the information ($`m_ip_ip_i=m_i`$).

In this scheme, a secret code is created during the process of sending and is transferred to Bob together with the information. It makes the usage of the scheme completely secure.

## 7 Conclusion

Provided that the subsystem $`S_2`$ of composite quantum system $`S=S_1+S_2`$ is selected (or will be selected) in a pure state $`\widehat{P}_n`$ the quantum state of subsystem $`S_1`$ is conditional density matrix $`\widehat{\rho }_{1c/2n}`$. Reduced density matrix $`\widehat{\rho }_1`$ is connected with conditional density matrices by an expansion:

$$\widehat{\rho }_1=p_n\widehat{\rho }_{1n/2n};$$

here

$$\widehat{P}_n=\widehat{E},p_n=1.$$

The coefficients $`p_n`$ are probabilities to find subsystem $`S_2`$ in pure states $`\widehat{P}_n`$.