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# Spatial Resonator Solitons

## I Introduction: a multidisciplinary view at pattern formation and solitons

In nonequilibrium nonlinear systems of all kinds patterns or ”structures” are known to form. Their properties seem to be determined by a maximum dissipation principle. A system without structure is only able to dissipate as much energy as given by the microscopic dissipation processes. If then the system with structure (compatible with the system equations, parameters, boundary conditions and possibly initial conditions) has a higher dissipation, the structure will appear spontaneously e.g. through a modulational instability. This has been discussed at length in relation with the B nard convection, but is easily found to be true in other fields.

In optics, when pumping a medium enough, then the microscopic relaxation processes do not provide the highest possible dissipation. As is well-known a coherent and structured and well ordered optical laser field can build which gives the system a much higher dissipation. If the pumping is increased, the laser emission may convert to a pulsed instead of a continuous emission in the form of regular or chaotic pulsing as described by the Lorenz Model. This pulsed laser emission is again increasing the system’s capability to dissipate over the continuous emission. Such pulsing means a modulational instability in the temporal domain. Equally modulations or patterns appear in space, such as a hexagonal structure of the field in the emission cross section .

If noise sources act, the ”coherent” structures permitting the high dissipation can appear stochastically. Examples are appearance of vortices in wave turbulence , vortex-antivortex generation in a noise driven Ginzburg Landau equation , and, evidently, phenomena such as earthquakes and stock market crashes . The mentioned vortex-antivortex generation would seem to us to be a good picture for the spontaneous appearance of particle-antiparticle pairs out of vacuum in quantum physics and we would think that it is also the proper model for the enigmatic phenomenon of 1/f noise , particularly since this description contains the two best accepted explanations ”self induced criticality”  and the often mentioned coupled oscillator model as special cases.

”Coherence”, ”structure” or ”order” in space or time occurs thus in nonequilibrium systems to maximize the energy dissipation of the system. If one accepts such a principle (to which to our knowledge no counter examples are known) one can see this world as driven by a ”pressure to dissipate” (where the pump evidently is the sun). In the way in which water pressed through a porous material or through rocks with cracks will form highly complex flow paths through the material, one can visualize by analogy the complex pattern formation in nature, culminating in biological structures, as forming under the pressure to dissipate and in the cracks and pores given by the boundary conditions in the world.

In this picture there is no need for a ”plan” or ”intention” to generate the complex structures which we find developed under the irradiation of the sun (absence of ”teleological” elements). Everything is dictated by a simple extremum principle, which is ”blind” in the sense that it can only find a nearest potential minimum. (And the system will directly head there even if ”death” lurks in this minimum. There are good examples for such ”suicidal” systems in laser physics .) A ”teleological” element or ”planning” and an ”intention” appears only with the appearance of a brain, which can simulate the world and find out that there are several minima of which the nearest may not be the deepest (or that at the nearest minimum ”death” may lurk). Even then it appears that the teleological element seems to be the exception. Even among the most complex structure, the human species, most decisions are done unconsciously.

It is evidently one of the goals of nonlinear physics to clarify and understand the origin of life and of biological structures. Although the path from simple periodic patterns, appearing as a modulational instability, and spatial solitons, to structures as complex as biological ones would seem exceedingly long at first glance, this may not be so at second glance.

A simple periodic pattern such as a hexagonal field structure in the cross section of a nonlinear resonator can disintegrate into spatial resonator solitons . A closer examination of these structures shows many common traits with biological structures.

Spatial solitons in nonlinear dissipative resonators
1) are mobile (allowing them to move to the point in space where they are most stable i.e. find the best ”living conditions” (i.e. they can search around for food));
2) they possess a ”metabolism”: they have internal energy flows and spatially varying dissipation, which stabilize them;
3) they can ”die”: when the field sustaining them (”food”) is reduced, they will extinguish (die). And even a re-increase of the field to a strength which allowed the solitons to exist before will not reignite them, because of their bistability (death is irreversible);
4) they can multiply (”self-replicate”) by repeated splitting .
There are further common traits of dissipative resonator solitons and biological structures, among them the fact that both exist only at medium nonlinearities and not at large or small nonlinearities (see below).

Consequently one could very well conjecture that the simplest biological (”live”) structures are not viruses (as commonly taught) but dissipative solitons. This, by the way, shedding a completely new light on the question of what biological life is: life is usually ascribed to chemistry-based structures (with carbon the central compound). Whereas if one takes the analogies above seriously, ”life” is not bound to chemistry but constitutes itself as organizational ”forms” of matter or fields. Thus the probability of finding ”live” structures is much larger than finding ”life” only in its form bound to carbon or chemistry.

These analogies of dissipative solitons with biological structures are one of the reasons for which one might want to study spatial solitons. Furthermore these solitons are all by definition bistable i.e. they constitute natural carriers of information. As opposed to the information carrying elements in electronic information processing, they are mobile and would therefore perhaps permit processing functions beyond the reach of electronic computing. We have recently studied the ”aggregation” of spatial solitons and find again common traits with biology. Considering that these ”aggregations” of information carriers constitute something like a ”brain” (a collection of information-carrying elements, bound loosely to one another, capable of exchanging information among the elements) there is another motivation for the study: One might hope, in the way there are analogies between solitons and simple biological (”live”) structures, to find operation principles of the brain by studying the structure and properties of the ”aggregations” of spatial solitons.

Optics and particularly resonator optics suggest themselves for the investigations, because of possible photonic applications such as parallel processing, urgently awaited already e.g. in telecom. For this reason we have conducted in the past a series of ”proof of existence”-experiments on resonator solitons as well as of their manipulation and properties . Presently spatial resonator solitons in semiconductor micro-resonators are investigated, which are most likely best suited for applications.

## II Proof of existence experiments of resonator solitons with slow materials

Spatial resonator solitons are self-formed localized structures, which are free to move around. We have investigated several types:

Vortices occur in resonators with a gain medium without phase preference, such as laser resonators. They are helical defects in the wavefront and possess therefore, strictly speaking, ”tristability”: right- as well as left-handed vortices coexist with the wave without defect. We have given an overview of laser vortices in  including examples of their dynamics in Internet films . Vortices were until now not studied with regard to their usefulness as binary information carriers (except for some basic experiments relating to pattern recognition with lasers ).

Bright solitons are more reminiscent of the original idea of optical information processing namely the use of optically bistable resonators. They have therefore been considered more closely for such tasks. In order to convince oneself that such bright solitons in bistable resonators exist generally, we conducted experiments with nonlinear media with slow response - for the purpose of being able to observe the phenomena (which entail 2D space-time dynamics) on a convenient time scale. As opposed to semiconductors which have characteristic times of ps to ns, e.g. photorefractive media and nonlinear absorbers like bacterio-rhodopsine  have time constants of 10 ms to 1 s, quite suitable for recording with ordinary video equipment. In general a resonator containing only such a non-linear absorber is too lossy for bistability. Therefore we used resonators containing additionally gain elements to compensate for the losses. A system like a laser with nonlinear absorber results which is well suited to study these transverse effects such as spatial modulational instabilities, patterns and solitons.

The first of such experiments yielded evidence of the existence of spatial solitons . In refined experiments we showed the existence, the bistability and the manipulations of bright soliton in this system . FIG. 1 shows that the solitons can be ”ignited” anywhere in the cross section of the resonator. FIG. 2 shows the motion of a bright soliton in a phase gradient, and FIG. 3 shows the ”trapping” of a bright soliton in a ”phase-trough”. These are functions as they are required for applications. FIG. 4 shows that large numbers of such bright solitons can exist at the same time , equally as necessary for technical applications.

As an interesting feature of these solitons it was found  that these solitons have quantized velocity magnitudes (including velocity magnitude zero). Although the velocity magnitudes of such solitons are fixed, their direction of motion is completely free, and varies e.g. under the action of noise.

It may be mentioned that in resonators with phase-sensitive gain, such as gain supplied by 4-wave-mixing or degenerate parametric mixing, solitons which concern only the phase structure of the field (phase-solitons) were predicted  and experimentally observed . See FIG. 5.

## III Semiconductor Resonator Solitons

To make bright solitons suitable for technical applications, fast materials have to be used. We found that the optimum system concerning speed of response and nonlinearity is the semiconductor micro-resonator. This is a resonator of $``$ 1 wavelength length which provides the shortest conceivable resonator response time of 100 fs - 1 ps. The finesse of these resonators has to be around 100 - 200 to provide bistability together with a nonlinear medium. For the latter a semiconductor slice of the length of the resonator ($``$ 1$`\lambda `$) is suitable, and we stress that the response time of semiconductor material is well matched to that of the resonator. Importantly: it makes no sense to use ”faster” materials than semiconductors in such resonators. Since the small length of the resonator provides a response time which is at the conceivable limit for optical resonators, a faster nonlinear material does not decrease the system response time. However, since higher speed comes at the cost of a smaller nonlinearity, a faster material would require unnecessarily high light intensities. Thus the $``$ 1$`\lambda `$ microresonator combined with a semiconductor material as the nonlinear ingredient represents the optimum in terms of response time and required light intensity. This structure is incidentally the structure of VCSELs (vertical cavity surface emitting laser) which during the last years have already been developed to a certain degree of perfection. For the existence of spatial solitons in such resonators absorbing (”passive”) as well as population-inverted (”active”) material is suitable. Thus a direct connection with VCSEL technology exists.

FIG. 6 shows the structure of the nonlinear resonator. Its length is $``$ 1$`\lambda `$ while the transverse size is typically 5 cm. The short length and wide area of this microresonator permit only one longitudinal mode (FIG. 7 (a)) while allowing an enormous number of transverse modes so that a very large number of spatial solitons can coexist. The resonator is obviously of the plane mirror type, implying frequency degeneracy of all transverse modes and thus allowing arbitrary field patterns to be resonant inside the resonator. This is another prerequirement for existence and manipulability of spatial solitons.

The resonator soliton existence is closely linked with the plane wave resonator bistability (FIG. 7 (b)) caused by longitudinal nonlinear effects: the nonlinear changes of the resonator length (due to nonlinear refraction changes) and finesse (due to nonlinear absorption changes) . The longitudinal nonlinear effects combined with transverse nonlinear effects (such as self-focusing) can balance diffraction and form resonator solitons. Generally these nonlinear effects can cooperate or act oppositely, with the consequence of reduced soliton stability in the latter case.

### A Model and numerical analysis

As a guide for the experiments we use a phenomenological model of a driven wide area multiquantum well (MQW)-semiconductor microresonator similar to . The optical field $`A`$ inside the resonator is described in the mean-field approximation . The driving incident field $`A_{\mathrm{in}}`$ is assumed to be a stationary plane wave. Nonlinear absorption and refractive index changes induced by the intracavity field in the vicinity of the MQW-structure band edge are assumed to be proportional to the carrier density $`N`$ (normalized to the saturation carrier density). The equation of motion for $`N`$ includes optical pumping $`P`$, carrier recombination and diffusion. The resulting coupled equations describing the spatio-temporal dynamics of $`A`$ and $`N`$ have the form:

(1)
$`A/t=A_{\mathrm{in}}\sqrt{T}A\{[1+C\mathrm{Im}(\alpha )(1N)]+`$ (2)
$`+i(\theta C\mathrm{Re}(\alpha )N_{}^2)\},`$ (3)
(4)
$`N/t=P\gamma [N|A|^2(1N)d_{}^2N],`$ (5)
where $`C`$ is the saturable absorption scaled to the resonator transmission $`T`$ ($`T`$ is assumed to be small since the mirror reflectivity is typically $``$ 0.995). $`\mathrm{Im}(\alpha )(1N)`$ and $`\mathrm{Re}(\alpha )N`$ describe the absorptive and refractive nonlinearities, respectively. $`\theta `$ is the detuning of the driving field from the resonator resonance. $`\gamma `$ is the photon lifetime in the resonator normalized to the carrier recombination time. $`d`$ is the diffusion coefficient scaled to the diffraction coefficient, and $`_{}^2`$ is the transverse Laplacian.

Linear effects in the resonator are spreading of light by diffraction, and carrier diffusion (terms with $`_{}^2`$ in (1)). The material nonlinearity that can balance this linear spreading can do this in various ways. It has a real (refractive) and imaginary (dissipative) part and can act longitudinally and transversely. The nonlinear changes of the resonator finesse (due to nonlinear absorption change) and length (due to nonlinear refractive index change) constitute longitudinal nonlinear effects, also known under the name *nonlinear resonance* . The transverse effects of the nonlinear refractive index can be self-focusing (favorable for bright and unfavorable for dark solitons) and self-defocusing (favorable for dark and unfavorable for bright solitons). Absorption (or gain) saturation (bleaching) leading to *nonlinear gain guiding* (in laser parlance), is a transverse effect. Longitudinal and transverse effects can work oppositely, or cooperate.

There are two principal external control parameters: the driving field intensity $`|A_{\mathrm{in}}|^2`$ and the resonator detuning $`\theta `$. FIG. 8 shows typical existence domains (in coordinates $`\theta `$, $`|A_{\mathrm{in}}|^2`$) for all possible structures (patterns, bright and dark spatial solitons) and plane-wave bistability as calculated from (1) for the case of a mixed absorptive/dispersive nonlinearity. At large resonator detuning the intracavity field is transversely homogeneous and stable. If in this case the driving beam has a Gaussian profile (FIG. 9 (a)) and its amplitude in the maximum exceeds the switching-on threshold then the part of the beam cross section which is limited by so called Maxwellian intensity  is switched, thus forming a dark switched domain in reflection (FIG. 9 (b)).

For small resonator detuning and for driving intensities not quite sufficient for reaching the resonance condition for the whole resonator area, the system ”chooses” to distribute the light intensity in the resonator in isolated spots where the intensity is then high/low enough to reach the resonance condition, thus forming bright/dark patterns (FIG. 10). Instead of saying ”the system chooses” one would more mathematically express this by describing it as a modulational instability. The detuned plane wave field without spatial structure with intensity insufficient to reach the resonance condition is unstable against structured solutions. According to our numerical solutions of (1) a large number of such structured solutions coexist and are stable (see e.g. patterns in FIG. 18).

The bright/dark soliton structures (inset in FIG. 8) can be interpreted as small circular switching fronts, connecting two stable states: the low transmission and the high transmission state. Such a front can in 2D surround a domain of one state. When this domain is comparable in diameter to the ”thickness” of the front, then each piece of the front interacts with the piece on the opposite side of the circular small domain, which can lead, particularly if the system is not far from a modulational instability (see FIG. 8, Patterns), to a stabilisation of the diameter of the small domain. In this case the small domain is an isolated self-trapped structure or a dissipative resonator soliton.

### B Experimental arrangement

FIG. 11 shows the optical arrangement for the semiconductor soliton experiments, and in particular for their switching on or off. The semiconductor microresonator consists of a MQW (GaAs/AlGaAs or GaInAs/GaPAs) structure sandwiched between high-reflectivity ($``$ 0.995) DBR-mirrors (FIG. 6) used at room temperature. The microresonator structures were grown on GaAs substrates by a molecular beam epitaxy technique that allows growing MQW structures with small radial layer thickness variation. The best sample used in our experiments has only $``$ 0.3 nm/mm variation of the resonator resonance wavelength over the sample cross section of 5 cm diameter.

The driving light beam was generated by either a tunable (in the range 750-950 nm) Ti:Sa laser or a single-mode laser diode ($``$ 854 nm), both emitting continuously. For experimental convenience and to limit thermal effects, the experiments are performed within a few microseconds, by admitting the light through an acusto-optical modulator. A laser beam of suitable wavelength is focused onto the microresonator surface in a spot of $``$ 50 $`\mu `$m diameter, thus providing quite large Fresnel number ($``$ 100).

Part of the laser light is split away from the driving beam and is superimposed with the main beam in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer arrangement, to serve as a writing/erasing (address) beam. This beam is tightly focused and directed to some particular location in the illuminated area to create or destroy a spatial soliton. The switching light is opened for a few nanoseconds using an electro-optic modulator. For the case of incoherent switching the polarization of the address beam is perpendicular to that of the main beam to avoid interference. For the case of coherent switching the polarizations are parallel and a phase control of the switching field is always needed: for switching on as well as switching off a soliton. One of the interferometer mirrors can be moved by a piezo-electric element to control the phase difference between the background light and the address light.

Optical pumping of the MQW-structures was done by a multi-mode laser diode or a single-mode Ti:Sa laser. To couple the pump light into the microresonator the pump laser wavelength was tuned into the short wavelength reflection minimum as shown in FIG. 7 (a).

The observations are done in reflection (because the GaAs substrate is opaque) by a CCD camera combined with a fast shutter (another electro-optic modulator), which permits to take nanosecond snapshots at a given time, of the illuminated area on the resonator sample. Recording movies on the nanosecond time scale is also possible. To follow the intensity in time in certain points (e.g. at the location of a soliton) a fast photodiode can be imaged onto arbitrary locations within the illuminated area.

### C Results and discussions

Switched (dark) domains exist for small negative resonator detuning in the vicinity of the absorption band edge. The switching front surrounding these domains is defined by the spatial profile of the driving beam. The switching front is located where the driving intensity equals the Maxwellian intensity. FIG. 12 shows snapshots of various switched domains demonstrating that they have the same shapes as the driving beams. When changing the intensity of the driving beam in time the fronts around the switched domains follow obviously an equiintensity contour of the incident light (FIG. 13).

In contrast to these dark Maxwellian switched domains, spatial patterns and solitons are self-sustained objects independent of boundary conditions or a beam profile and can be both bright and dark. FIG. 14 shows snapshots of bright and dark small ($``$ 10 $`\mu `$m) round spots (solitons), at large (negative) resonator detuning, whose shape/size is independent of the shape/intensity of the driving beam . This independence of boundary conditions allows to distinguish between patterns and solitons on the one side and Maxwellian switched domains on the other side.

Resonator solitons can be written and erased by focused optical (coherent) pulses independent of other bright (dark) spots (solitons).

FIG. 15 shows how solitons can be switched by light coherent with the background light . FIG. 15 (a) shows switching a bright soliton on. The driving light intensity is chosen slightly below the spontaneous switching threshold. At $`t`$ $``$ 1.2 $`\mu `$s the writing pulse is applied. It is in phase with the driving light, as visible from the constructive interference. A bright soliton results, showing up in the reflected intensity time trace as a strong reduction of the intensity. FIG. 15 (b) shows switching a soliton off. The driving light is increased to a level where a soliton is formed spontaneously. The address pulse is then applied in counterphase to the driving light, as visible from the destructive interference. The soliton then disappears, showing up in the reflected intensity time trace as reversion to the incident intensity value. The FIG. 15 insets show 2D snapshots before and after the switching pulses for clarity.

Thus depending on conditions we find switched domains, patterns and bright and dark resonator solitons. Periodic patterns can be distinguished from collections of solitons by the mutual independence of the latter.

To find the most stable resonator solitons for applications one can play with the nonlinear (absorptive/dispersive) material response by choice of the driving field wavelength and intensity, with the resonator detuning, and finally with the carrier population inversion (when using pumping). We recall that all nonlinearities change their sign at transparency i.e. at the point where the valence- and the conduction band populations are equal. Going from below transparency (absorption) to above transparency (population inversion, producing light amplification), nonlinear absorption changes to nonlinear gain, self-focusing changes to self-defocusing and vice versa, and decrease of optical resonator length with intensity changes to increase (and vice versa). The population of the bands can be controlled by pumping ($`P`$ in (1)) i.e. transferring electrons from the valence band to the conduction band. We do this by optical excitation , with radiation of a wavelength shorter than the band edge wavelength. If the structures were suited to support electrical currents (i.e. if it were a real VCSEL-structure) pumping could evidently be effected by electrical excitation.

#### 1 Illumination below bandgap (defocusing nonlinearity)

Working well below the bandgap (in the dispersive/defocusing limit) with the driving field wavelength $``$ 30 nm longer than the band edge wavelength we observe spontaneous formation of hexagonal patterns (FIG. 16). The hexagon period scales linearly with $`\theta ^{1/2}`$  indicating that the hexagons are formed by the tilted-wave mechanism , which is the basic mechanism for resonator pattern formation . Dark-spot hexagons (FIG. 16 (a)) convert to bright-spot hexagons (FIG. 16 (b)) when the driving intensity increases. This is in qualitative agreement with numerical simulations (FIG. 10).

At high driving intensity we find that the bright spots in such hexagonal patterns can be switched independently from one another by focused optical (incoherent) pulses . FIG. 17 shows the experimental results. FIG. 17 (a) shows the hexagonal pattern formed. The focused light pulse can be aimed at individual bright spots such as the ones marked ”1” or ”2”. FIG. 17 (b) shows that after the switching pulse was aimed at ”1”, spot ”1” was switched off. FIG. 17 (c) shows the same for spot ”2”. We note that in these experiments we speak of true logic switching: the spots remain switched off after the switching pulse, (if the energy of the pulse is sufficient, otherwise the bright spot reappears after the switching pulse). These observations of local switching indicate that these hexagonal patterns are not coherent patterns. The individual spots are spatial solitons: they are independent, even at this dense packing where the spot distance is about the spot size.

These experimental findings can be understood in the frame of the model (1) . FIG. 18 shows the bistable plane wave characteristic of the semiconductor resonator for conditions roughly corresponding to the experimental conditions. At the intensities marked (a) to (d) patterned solutions exist.

The pattern period in FIG. 18 (a) scales again linearly with $`\theta ^{1/2}`$ due to the tilted wave mechanism: When the driving field is detuned, the resonance condition of the resonator cannot be fulfilled by plane waves travelling exactly perpendicularly to the mirror plane. However, the resonance condition can be fulfilled if the wave plane is somewhat inclined with respect to the mirror plane (the tilted wave mechanism ). The system chooses therefore to support resonant, tilted waves. FIG. 18 (a) is precisely the superposition of six tilted waves that support each other by (nonlinear) 4-wave-mixing. The pattern period corresponds to the resonator detuning as in the experiment for structures FIG. 16 (a). In this pattern (FIG. 18 (a)) the bright spots are not independent. Individual spots cannot be switched as in the experiment FIG. 17.

On the high intensity pattern FIG. 18 (d) the pattern period is remarkably different from FIG. 18 (a) even though the (external) detuning is the same. This is indication that the internal detuning is smaller and means that the resonator length is nonlinearly changed by the intensity-dependent refractive index (nonlinear resonance). From the ratio of the pattern periods of FIG. 18 (a) and (d) one sees that the nonlinear change of detuning is about half of the external detuning. That means the nonlinear detuning is by no means a small effect. This in turn indicates that by spatial variation of the resonator field intensity the detuning can vary substantially in the resonator cross section. In other words, the resonator has at the higher intensity a rather wide freedom to (self-consistently) arrange its field structure. One can expect that this would allow a large number of possible stable patterns between which the system can choose - or which are chosen by initial conditions.

FIG. 19 shows that at the high intensity corresponding to FIG. 18 (d) the model (1) allows to reproduce the experimental findings on switching individual bright spots. FIG. 19 (a) is the regular hexagonal pattern, at high intensity. FIG. 19 (b) shows the field with one bright spot switched off as a stable solution and FIG. 19 (c) shows a triple of bright spots switched off as a stable solution, just as observed in the experiments .

Thus while FIG. 18 (a) is a completely coherent space filling pattern, FIG. 18 (d) is really a cluster of (densest packed) individual dark solitons. The increase of intensity from (a) to (d) allows the transition from extended ”coherent” patterns to localized structures, by the increased nonlinearity, which gives the system an additional internal degree of freedom. We note that the transition from the coherent low intensity pattern to the incoherent higher intensity structure proceeds through stripe patterns as shown in FIG. 18 (b) . For the intensity of FIG. 18 (c) the individual spots are still not independent, corresponding to the experiment FIG. 16 (b).

#### 2 Illumination near bandgap (absorptive/defocusing nonlinearity)

Working at wavelengths close to the band edge we find bright and dark solitons (FIG. 20), as well as collections of several spots (FIG. 14 (b),(d),(e)) (all independent on the illumination beam profile).

The nonlinearity of the MQW structure near the band edge is predominantly absorptive. For comparing with calculations we can therefore in the first approximation neglect the refractive part of the complex nonlinearity in the model equations (1) and describe the nonlinear medium as a saturable absorber. Numerical simulations for this case (FIG. 21) confirm existence of both bright and dark resonator solitons as they are observed in the experiment (Figs 14, 20). We can contrast these purely dissipative resonator spatial solitons with propagating spatial solitons (in a bulk nonlinear material) : the latter can not be supported by saturable absorption.

FIG. 22 shows details of the spontaneous formation of such bright solitons as in FIG. 14 (c) and FIG. 20 (a). As discussed in  material heating leads in this case to a slow spontaneous formation of solitons, associated with the shift of the semiconductor band edge by temperature . In FIG. 22 at $`t`$ $``$ 1.3 $`\mu `$s (arrow) the resonator switches to high transmission (small reflection). The switched area then contracts slowly to the stable structure FIG. 22 (b), which is existing after $`t`$ $``$ 3.0 $`\mu `$s.

After the resonator has switched to low reflection its internal field and with it the dissipation is high. A rising temperature $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$$`T`$ decreases the band gap energy  ($`E_\mathrm{g}`$ $``$ $`E_{\mathrm{go}}`$ \- $`\alpha `$$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$$`T`$) and therefore shifts the bistable resonator characteristic towards higher intensity. Thus the basin of attraction for solitons which is located near the plane wave switch-off intensity (see locations of the existence domains for the bright solitons and the plane wave bistability in FIG. 21) is shifted to the incident intensity, whereupon a soliton can form. Evidently for different parameters the shift can be substantially larger or smaller than the width of bistability loop, in which case no stable soliton can appear. In consequence, we note that in absence of thermal effects (good heat-sinking of sample) solitons would not appear spontaneously, but would have to be switched on by local pulsed light injection.

Besides the coherent switching (FIG. 15) bright solitons can also be switched by light incoherent with the background field. Under these conditions the switching occurs due to change of carrier density alone. FIG. 23 (a) shows incoherent switch-on of a bright soliton, where a perpendicularly polarized switching pulse of $``$ 10 ns duration is applied at $`t`$ $``$ 4.0 $`\mu `$s. As apparent, a soliton forms after this incoherent light pulse. The slow formation of the soliton is apparent in FIG. 23 (a) (using roughly the time from $`t`$ $``$ 4.0 $`\mu `$s to $`t`$ $``$ 4.5 $`\mu `$s), indicating again the influence of material heating.

It should be emphasized that this heating is not instrumental for switching a soliton on. However, it allows switching a soliton off incoherently . This is shown in FIG. 23 (b) where the driving light is initially raised to a level at which a soliton forms spontaneously. The slow soliton formation due to the heating is again apparent. The incoherent switching pulse is then applied which leads to disappearance of the soliton.

The soliton can thus be switched on and also off by an incoherent pulse. The reason for the latter is thermal effect: Initially the material is ”cold”. A switching pulse leads then to the creation of a soliton. Dissipation in the material at the location of the soliton raises the temperature and the soliton is slowly formed. At the raised temperature the band edge (and with it the bistability characteristic and the existence range of solitons) is shifted so that a new pulse brings the system out of the range of existence of solitons. Consequently the soliton is switched off.

Thus switching on a soliton is possible incoherently with the ”cold” material and switching off incoherently with the ”heated” material. When the driving intensity is chosen to be slightly below the spontaneous switching threshold the nonlinear resonator is cold. An incoherent pulse increases the carrier density locally and can switch the soliton on, which causes local heating. Another incoherent pulse aimed into the heated area can then switch the soliton off and thereby return the resonator to its initial temperature, so that the soliton could be switched on/off again.

This thermal effect combined with electronic nonlinearity can cause spatial and temporal instabilities. A bright soliton switching on spontaneously in the cold material will then heat locally and can thereby destroy the condition for its existence, so that it switches off. After the material has cooled the soliton switches on again etc. Regenerative pulsing of the soliton results, an example of which is shown in the observation FIG. 24.

As opposed to the bright soliton that heats the material locally a dark soliton cools the material locally. This results in a shift of the band edge and with it the switching characteristic opposite to the bright soliton case. The consequence is that the dark soliton moves laterally to places of uncooled material. Here, however, it cools the material again so that a continuous motion results, analogously to what we have described as the ”restless vortex” in . Dark solitons in connection with material heating effects tend therefore to be non stationary. Such motion of a dark soliton was observed e.g. in  and is shown in FIG. 25.

#### 3 Illumination above bandgap (absorptive/focusing case)

At excitation above bandgap bright solitons form  which have the same appearance as the bright solitons below/near band gap (Figs 14 (c) and 20 (a)).

FIG. 26 shows the dynamics of the bright soliton formation for excitation above bandgap. The difference between solitons existing above and below bandgap can be understood from the model. From (1) we obtain the reflected intensity as a function of incident intensity for wavelengths above the bandgap($`\mathrm{Re}(\alpha )>0`$), as well as below the bandgap ($`\mathrm{Re}(\alpha )<0`$), for plane waves (FIG. 27). One sees that the bistability range is large below and small above the bandgap. Solving (1) numerically, the typical bright soliton (top of FIG. 27) is found coexisting with the homogeneous intensity solutions in the shaded regions of FIG. 27 (a), (b).

Above the band gap FIG. 26 shows that the soliton is switched on ”immediately” without the slow thermal process described above. FIG. 27 (a) shows why. The plane wave characteristic of the resonator above band gap is either bistable in a very narrow range, or even monostable (due to the contribution of the self-focusing reactive nonlinearity ) but still with bistability between the soliton state (not plane wave) and the unswitched state. In this case the electronic switching leads directly into the basis of attraction for solitons and the switch-on of the soliton is purely electronic and fast. The widths of the bistability characteristics observed experimentally  correspond to the calculated ones FIG. 27. Conversely the wide bistability range below bandgap requires the (slow) thermal shift of the characteristic to reach the soliton existence range.

Nonetheless, also above bandgap there is strong dissipation after the switch-on. The associated temperature rise influences and can even destabilize a soliton. The destabilization effect can be seen in FIG. 26 (a). Over a time of a few s after the soliton switch-on the soliton weakens (reflectivity increases slowly) presumably by the rise of temperature and the associated shift of the band gap. At 6.5 $`\mu `$s the soliton switches off, although the illumination has not yet dropped.

Thus, while the dissipation does not hinder the fast switch-on of the soliton, it can finally destabilize the soliton. After the soliton is switched off, the material cools and the band gap shifts back so that the soliton can switch on again.

#### 4 Optical pumping

The thermal effects discussed above result from the local heating caused by the high intracavity intensity within the bright soliton. They limit the switching speed of solitons and they will also limit the speed at which solitons could be moved around, thus limiting applications. The picture is that a soliton carries with it a temperature profile, so that the temperature becomes a dynamic and spatial variable influencing the soliton stability.

As opposed, a spatially uniform heating will not cause such problems, as it shifts parameters but does not constitute a variable in the system. The unwanted heating effects are directly proportional to the light intensity sustaining a soliton. For this reason and quite generally it is desirable to reduce the light intensities required for sustaining solitons.

Conceptually this can be expected if part of the power sustaining a resonator soliton could be provided incoherently with the driving field, e.g. by means of optical or electrical pumping. Pumping of the MQW structure generates carriers and allows conversion from absorption to gain. If pumping is strong enough the semiconductor microresonator can emit light as a laser .

FIG. 28 shows the variation of the plane-wave bistability domain with the pump as calculated from (1). The increase of the pump intensity leads to a shrinking of the bistability domain for plane waves (FIG. 28, pump intensities from $`P_1`$ to $`P_3`$) and the resonator solitons’ existence domain while reducing the light intensity necessary to sustain the solitons. This reduction of the sustaining light intensity was observed experimentally (FIG. 29) . When pumping below the transparency point of the material and with the driving laser wavelength near the semiconductor MQW structure band edge, bright and dark solitons form similarly to the unpumped case (FIG. 20). As the pump reduces the sustaining light intensity of the solitons, the heating effects are weak and the solitons switch on fast and unmediated by heating .

When the pump intensity approaches the transparency point of the semiconductor material, the resonator solitons’ domain of existence disappears (FIG. 28, pump intensities between $`P_3`$ and $`P_4`$). It reappears above the transparency point (FIG. 28, pump intensities from $`P_4`$ to $`P_6`$) and expands with the pump intensity (FIG. 30).

Switched structures observed below the lasing threshold are shown in FIG. 31. FIG. 32 shows structures observed slightly above lasing threshold when a driving field is used simultaneously with the laser emission. The structures of FIG. 32 are reminiscent of the solitons in electrically pumped resonators . It becomes clear that these structures (FIG. 32) must be soliton-collections or patterns, and not (linear) mode patterns, when looking at FIG. 32 (c). Here three bright spots are visibly separated by darker lines. In a ”mode-pattern” the phase change from one bright spot to the next is $`\pi `$ (resulting in black lines due to destructive interference separating the bright spots). Therefore a ”flower” mode pattern must have (and has) always an even number of ”petals”, whereas here we observe an odd number, inconsistent with phases in mode patterns. Thus we can conclude that there is no phase change between the bright spots and the latter are formed by self-localization, i.e. they are solitons or patterns in a resonator above transparency of the nonlinear material.

We note that optically pumped resonators allow more homogeneous pumping conditions than electrical pumping . This suggests that optical pumping lends itself more readily for localization and motion control of solitons than electrical pumping.

There is a difference between resonator solitons below bandgap in pumped and unpumped material. The nonlinear resonance mechanism of soliton formation  uses a defocusing nonlinearity below transparency and a focusing nonlinearity above transparency. Defocusing nonlinearity stabilizes dark solitons and focusing nonlinearity stabilizes bright solitons. It follows that dark solitons should prevail for unpumped material and bright solitons for pumped material. FIG. 30 shows typical examples of calculated resonator solitons for a pumped semiconductor microresonator. Bright solitons have a large existence range in the pumped case (FIG. 28, at $`P_6`$), dark solitons exist, though with smaller range of stability, in the unpumped case (FIG. 28, at $`P_1`$).

Thus pumped semiconductor resonators are well suited for sustaining solitons below bandgap: (i) the background light intensity necessary to sustain and switch resonator solitons is substantially reduced by the pumping and therefore destabilizing thermal effects are minimized, (ii) the nonlinear resonance effect and the transverse nonlinear effect (self-focusing) cooperate to stabilize bright solitons, therefore the domain of existence of below bandgap (purely dispersive) bright solitons can be quite large.

## IV Conclusion

We have shown in these experiments that optical solitons generally exist in nonlinear optical resonators. They can be vortices, phase solitons, or bright and dark solitons. For technical applications the experiments on semiconductor microresonators have shown the existence of bright and dark solitons. One can experimentally distinguish switched areas, patterns and solitons from each other and from mode-fields (i.e. fields whose structure is standing transverse waves resulting from boundaries). Thermal effects can lead to spatial and temporal instabilities. They can be controlled in various ways e.g. by working above bandgap or by pumping. Pumping allows furthermore to control the magnitude and the sign of the material nonlinearities, and thus to maximize stability ranges for bright (dark) solitons. Coherent periodic patterns can disintegrate with increasing driving field into independent spatial solitons.

Optical resonator solitons show properties reminiscent of simple biological structures and one may speculate that aggregations of resonator solitons could allow information processing reminiscent of brain functions.

Acknowledgment
This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under grant We743/12-1.


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# Discovery of giant ‘radio arcs’ in cluster Abell 3376: evidence for shock acceleration in a violent cluster merger?

## 1 Introduction

The positive detection of many ultra high energy cosmic ray particles with surprisingly large energies in the range $`10^{18}`$ eV to a few times $`10^{20}`$ eV is one of the outstanding enigmas of Physics \[Takeda et al. 1999, Hillas 1984\]. It can be shown that if such particles are accelerated by some as yet unknown mechanism, the energy requirements for the astrophysical sources are extraordinary \[Hillas 1984\]. Beyond the ‘ankle’ of the cosmic ray spectrum ($`3\times 10^{18}`$ eV), the Larmor radius of UHECR protons in too large to be retained by the $`\mu `$G field of our galaxy and therefore they are widely believed to be of extra-galactic origin. However, beyond the theoretical Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz’min (GZK) energy cutoff ($`50`$ EeV), which is the proton energy threshold for the photo-pion production on collision with cosmic microwave background photons (CMB), significant energy losses result. In case of $`\gamma `$-ray primaries, pair creation through interaction with background photons (CMB, IR and radio waves) is most important in a wide energy range above the threshold of $`4\times 10^{14}`$ eV (cf., review by Nagano & Watson 2000). Due to these ubiquitous energy losses, not only it is extremely difficult to accelerate particles to $`10^{1821}`$ eV, but the high energy cosmic accelerators should probably be found within a horizon of $``$ 100 Mpc of the observer. So far no astrophysical cosmic accelerator is visible in the directions from where UHECRs come, but AGN radio-lobes, AGN central regions, neutron stars, gamma-ray burst sources and galaxy clusters, all have been proposed as the potential sites for UHECR acceleration (Nagano & Watson 2000 and references therein). Therefore, identification of nearby accelerator sources capable of creating highest energy particles is obviously of great importance.

The largest and the most massive virialized structures are the galaxy clusters which assemble through the hierarchical process of gravitational infall of smaller mass components. In this process, the accretion of intergalactic matter and collision and merger of smaller groups and clusters take place mainly along the axes of large filaments of galaxies of length of a few Mpc to up to $``$100 Mpc. During a merger, the enormous kinetic energy of colliding subclusters ($`10^{6364}`$ erg) is dissipated in the form of shock-waves which play a pivotal role in heating of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) to the virial temperature. These Mpc size super-sonic ‘merger shock’ fronts (of Mach numbers $`M25`$) have recently been identified in high angular resolution Chandra X-ray observations, showing spatial variations of gas temperature and entropy within the intra-cluster medium (e.g., Forman et al. 2001). It is also expected that in the peripheral regions of evolving clusters, there should form large-scale ‘accretion shocks’ due to supersonic convergent flows of background inter-galactic plasma \[Quilis 1998, Miniati et al. 2000\].

Due to their massive energies, large sizes and long lifetimes, the shocks, in and around the clusters, are potential sites for the acceleration of very high energy cosmic-rays (CR) up to $`10^{18}10^{19}`$ eV, near the ‘ankle’ region of CR spectrum \[Norman 1995, Kang, Ryu & Jones 1996\], and they may also be the seeds for the ICM magnetic fields \[Kulsrud et al. 1994\]. Recently it has been pointed out that the cosmic-ray ions accelerated at intergalactic shocks could accumulate in the formed structure, storing a significant fraction of the total energy there \[Miniati et al. 2001(b)\]. The connection between non-thermal radiation and cluster mergers has been recently highlighted \[Blasi 2001, Sarazin 2002\]. Direct evidence for the ability of cosmic shock waves to accelerate particles is given by the observed association of the so called cluster ‘radio relic’ sources with locations where shock waves are expected from X-ray observations \[Enßlin et al. 1998\]. Diffusive shock acceleration may be operative at these locations and responsible for the radio emitting electrons. In this context, perhaps the strongest evidences are provided by the discovery of large, diffuse ‘radio-arcs’ in merging cluster Abell 3667 by Rottgering et al. (1997), and by the first evidence of shock accelerated relativistic particles and magnetic fields in a super-cluster scale collapsing filament of galaxies ZwCl 2341.1+0000 by Bagchi et al. (2002). Recently, it has been pointed out that some ‘radio relics’ in clusters could be the shock wave rejuvenated fossil remnants of former active radio galaxies \[Enßlin & Gopal-Krishna 1998\]. Although the role of shocks in accelerating cosmic-ray particles up to $`10^{15}`$ eV ‘knee’ energies in supernova blast waves is beginning to be understood (e.g., Enomoto et al. 2002), much remains mysterious about the astrophysical aspects of particle acceleration in large-scale structure formation \[Bagchi et al. 2002\].

This paper describes the optical, X-ray and radio evidence for an energetic merger in A3376 and, reports the discovery of a pair of giant radio arcs (Sect. 2). In Sect. 3, I discuss the possibility of shock acceleration origin of the radio emission and the implied acceleration of higher energy cosmic ray particles. The main conclusions and the outlook for future research are summarised in Sec. 4. For a cluster redshift of 0.046, 1 arcmin corresponds to $`74.16h_{50}^1`$ kpc, with the Hubble constant expressed in units of 50 km s-1 Mpc-1.

## 2 Evidence for merger in optical, X-ray & radio wavelengths

The cluster Abell 3376 (A3376 or DC 0559-40) is an X-ray bright cluster, which was selected for study due to it’s remarkable X-ray morphology. It is a member of the sample of ROSAT X-ray-brightest Abell-type clusters \[XBACs; Ebeling et al. 1996. The 0.1-2.4 keV band luminosity is $`\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{X}=2.48\times 10^{44}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$\], and also of the Einstein Observatory cluster sample (Jones & Forman 1999). This southern cluster (R.A. $`06^h00^m43^s`$ (J2000), Dec. $`40^{}03^{}00^{\prime \prime }`$, Bautz-Morgan class I), at the redshift z=0.046 \[Dressler & Shectman 1988(a)\], is located only $`267h_{50}^1`$ Mpc away and shows several evidences of ongoing energetic merger activity. The optical galaxies are distributed in a bar-like structure (projected), extending along a position angle of $``$ 70o, defining the merger axis. The two brightest cluster members are located near the centers of major subcluster of galaxies which are lined-up along the same position angle \[Dressler & Shectman 1988(b), Escalera et al. 1994\]. Fig. 1 shows the optical photograph where the location of two brightest cluster members (shown encircled), and other catalogued galaxies (‘+’ marks; Dressler & Schectman 1988(a)), have been plotted. A strong radio source MRC 0600-399, showing sharply bent radio jets, is found associated with the bright ‘E’ galaxy positioned at the ROSAT X-ray peak (Fig. 1 & 5). This source also provides important evidence for a merger. The relationship between it’s radio structure and the hydrodynamics generated by merger is further discussed below.

The ASCA observations by Markevitch et al. (1998) report a low emission weighted gas temperature (kT$`=4.0\pm 0.4`$ keV) and absence of any cooling flow, consistent with the previous findings that cluster mergers probably disrupt cooling-flows (e.g., Edge, Steward & Fabian 1992). The X-ray data from ROSAT archives further confirms the merger scenario. It reveals a highly disturbed, non-equilibrium state of the intra-cluster gas, and the bremsstrahlung X-ray emission elongated along the same direction as the optical axis of the colliding groups (i.e., p.a. $``$ 70o, hereafter called the ‘merger-axis’). In addition, there are clear evidences for striking surface-brightness asymmetry: i.e., an off-centered ‘cometary’ shape, centroid shift, and pronounced twisting and compression of the inner isophotes near the X-ray peak (see Fig. 2). All these features are possibly indicative of an off-axis merger scenario \[Ricker 1998, Takizawa 2000\].

The cross-correlation of ROSAT X-ray data with VLA 1.4 GHz NVSS atlas \[Condon et al. 1998\] reveals perhaps the most interesting aspect of this cluster: a pair of very large and diffuse radio sources (the ‘radio arcs’ hereafter), located at the opposite ends of the extended X-ray emitting gas, about 36 or $`2.6\mathrm{h}_{50}^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ apart from each other. These features are shown as radio countours (Fig. 1) and as gray-scale image (Fig. 2), overlaid on the optical and X-ray images of A3376. Fig. 3 & 4 show detailed images, where the radio contours are superposed on the UK Schmidt Telescope optical images. There is no convincing evidence for any optical galaxy obviously associated with the radio arcs, and hence they are unlikely to be the canonical cluster radio galaxies. It is also implausible that they are radio-lobes of a single giant radio galaxy (GRG), as no obvious radio link (jets or plumes) between them and any central optical galaxy is visible, and GRGs of this large size ($`>2h_{50}^1`$ Mpc) are extremely rare \[Schoenmakers et al. 2001\]. On the other hand, the symmetric and tangential juxtaposition of the radio arcs relative to the merger axis, the brightest cluster galaxies, and relative to the X-ray contours (see Fig. 2) argue strongly that they are part of this cluster and very likely originate in a large-scale energetic process linked to the merger activity.

## 3 Discussion & Outlook for Future

Since the diffuse radio emission is probably the synchrotron radiation, one may ask - what could be the source of relativistic electrons and magnetic fields powering the radio arcs observed so far ($`1.3h_{50}^1`$ Mpc) from the cluster center? In this respect, the problem is similar to that of the origin of radio halos, which require a cluster scale accelerator source in order to energize electrons distributed over Mpc scales \[Jaffe 1977\]. The radiative life time $`t_{IC}`$ of an electron with Lorentz factor $`\gamma `$ in a weak ($`B<3\mu `$G) magnetic field is dominated by inverse Compton scattering (IC) on CMB, which is, $`t_{IC}2.3\times 10^8\left(\frac{\gamma }{10^4}\right)^1(1+z)^4\mathrm{yr}`$. The frequency of associated synchrotron emission is $`\nu _{\mathrm{syn}}4.19\times 10^8\left(\frac{\gamma }{10^4}\right)^2\left(\frac{\mathrm{B}}{\mu \mathrm{G}}\right)\mathrm{Hz}`$, and $`\gamma 18300`$ (energy $`E_e=9.35`$ GeV) for $`\nu _{syn}=1.4`$ GHz, the frequency of radio detection.

The 3D structure of ICM magnetic fields in merging clusters is yet unknown. Nevertheless, according to simulations, it is likely to be both significantly tangled on various spatial scales and turbulent \[Dolag et al. 1999, Roettiger, Stone & Burns 1999\], which will severly restrict the diffusion of charges from their point of injection. In the limit of Bohm type diffusion (diffusion coefficient $`D_B(p)`$ p, the particle momentum), corresponding to scattering on saturated field fluctuations, the diffusion length within the IC cooling time is $`l_{diff}(D_Bt_{IC})^{1/2}=11.36\left(\frac{B}{\mu G}\right)^{1/2}`$ pc. Therefore, initial acceleration at a central source such as an AGN and diffusive transport upto $``$Mpc scale is not possible. The discrepancy between the Bohm diffusion length-scale and the radio structure size is so large that, even with inclusion of advective transport by bulk flows and more effective diffusion in ordered magnetic fields, electrons are still unable to cross the emission region within a radiative life-time. It is clear that some form of in situ acceleration mechanism is called for.

Further detailed multi-wavelength observations and computational study of the phenomenon are underway in order to understand the details of acceleration process involved. Here, it is argued that most plausible explanation is the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) \[Bell 1978, Blandford & Ostriker 1978\] of cosmic ray particles (electrons, protons and ions) on the shock fronts, putatively located near the radio arcs. The prevailing physical conditions of the disturbed ICM: large-scale bulk flows, turbulence, and collisionless MHD shocks, all provide ideal environment for particle acceleration through stochastic Fermi mechanism \[Drury 1983\], and amplification of seed magnetic fields.

Some important clues to the dynamical history and the energetics of acceleration process can be obtained from the morphology, flux density, and position of the radio arc pair relative to the cluster center. The radio peaks of the western and eastern arcs are located at the positions (J2000) R.A. $`06^h00^m3^s.09`$, Dec. $`40^{}04^{}25.0^{\prime \prime }`$ (5 mJy/beam, $`10\sigma `$ detection) and R.A. $`06^h02^m59^s.66`$, Dec. $`39^{}54^{}56.1^{\prime \prime }`$ (4 mJy/beam, $`8\sigma `$ detection), and their 1.4 GHz integrated flux densities are $`82\pm 5`$ mJy and $`32\pm 3`$ mJy respectively. It is noticeable that both of them are curved, with concave side facing the cluster center, and precisely positioned such that a line joining their radio peaks would run parellel to the merger axis at the position angle $``$ 70o. The center of symmetry falls near the center of cluster located on the merger axis at the approximate sky position R.A. $`06^h01^m30^s.0`$, Dec. $`39^{}59^{}50.0^{\prime \prime }`$ (shown by a large cross in Fig. 2). The projected morphology of radio arcs approximately being the arc sectors from a circle of radius $`18^{}1.3h_{50}^1`$ Mpc, centered at this position (see Fig. 2). In addition, they also display a distinctive inversion symmetry – in the sense that if in the western arc radio emission extends to the north of merger axis, the emission extends to the south of this axis in case of the eastern arc, thereby forming a ‘S’ shaped pattern (Fig. 2).

These observations suggest a causal relationship between the radio structures and the outward propagating shock waves that probably originated near the cluster center $`1.3\times 10^9`$ yr in the past (assuming constant shock speed of $`1000`$ km s-1). These shock waves are likely to be gravitationally induced due to observed merger event of subclusters. The integrated radio luminosity of west(east) arc is $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{sync}}=9.84(3.84)\times 10^{40}\mathrm{h}_{50}^2\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (over 10 MHz-100 GHz frequency range and assumed sp. index $`\alpha =1`$). Considering additional IC energy loss, and a magnetic field $`B<3\mu `$G, the total radiative losses add up to $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{sync}+\mathrm{IC}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1.4}\times 10^{42}\mathrm{h}_{50}^2\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Any accelerating process must be energetic enough in order to generate at least this much amount of non-thermal radiation from electrons.

One can obtain some order of magnitude estimates by considering the scenario of particle acceleration in binary cluster merger shocks (e.g., Sarazin 2002). Numerical simulations of cluster merger events \[Ricker 1998, Takizawa 2000, Miniati et al. 2001(a)\] demonstrate that these can be very energetic, liberating gravitational energy of order $`\mathrm{E}_{\mathrm{grav}}2.24\times 10^{63}(\frac{\mathrm{M}}{2\times 10^{14}\mathrm{M}_{}})^2(\frac{\mathrm{d}}{1.5\mathrm{Mpc}})^1\mathrm{ergs}`$, for two cluster masses M, at the collision distance d. The gas dynamics is very complex and the fluid velocities involved are generally super-sonic – typically $`v_{shock}2000`$ km s-1($`v_{shock}`$ is shock velocity). The merger lasts for a duration $`t_{merger}d/v_{shock}10^9\mathrm{yr}`$ (which is also the duration of acceleration ). Consequently, the rate of gravitational energy dissipation is given by $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{grav}}\mathrm{E}_{\mathrm{grav}}/\mathrm{t}_{\mathrm{merger}}7.1\times 10^{46}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Thus, typically $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{grav}}`$ is much larger than $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{synch}+\mathrm{IC}}`$ and only a modest fraction of total energy is needed to accelerate the cosmic ray particles. The main channel of dissipation of this energy would be the shock heating of ICM upto $`\mathrm{T}_{\mathrm{gas}}10^{78}\mathrm{K}`$. Radio observations of supernova shocks with similar $`v10^3`$ km s-1speeds show that they are capable of converting at least a few percent of shock energy into the energy of relativistic electrons (e.g., Blandford & Eichler 1987).

The presence of diffuse radio emissions ahead of merging subclusters, marked by bright optical galaxies, suggests that they may be located at the shock fronts where in situ DSA is a strong possibility. This morphology of arcs is reminiscent of a classical detached bow shock that preceeds a blunt-body in supersonic flight within a fluid. The elongation of X-ray contours and the subcluster of galaxies in the same direction (Fig. 2) suggests that the clusters associated with the bright X-ray core and the cD galaxy are flying away from each other, possibly $`1`$ Gy after their closest encounter. However, the ‘S’ shaped inversion symmetry and curvature of the radio arcs indicate that the leading bow shocks have possibly assumed a spiral shape due to an off-centered collision event (i.e., one with a finite impact parameter, instaed of being head-on), leading to orbital motion of coalescing masses about their common center of mass. It is even possible to infer this sense of rotation from the radio maps shown, which suggest a clock-wise motion. The pronounced clock-wise rotation of isophotes near the ROSAT X-ray peak, directed towards a compressed region on top (Fig. 2), also suggests this point (see Ricker 1998 and Takizawa 2000 for numerical simulations of this geometry).

From very general principles based on DSA framework, one can derive the critical parameters of particle acceleration in a merging system such as A3376. The mean acceleration time-scale $`t_{acc}(E)`$ for a particle to reach energy E is determined only by velocity jump at the shock and the diffusion coefficients \[Drury 1983\], i.e., $`t_{acc}(E)=\frac{3}{(u_1u_2)}[(D_1/u_1)+(D_2/u_2)](8/u_1^2)D_B`$. Here $`u_1(u_2)`$ is the up(down) stream flow velocity and $`D_{1,2}`$ are the respective diffusion coefficients. The approximation assumes a strong shock of compression ratio $`r=(u_1/u_2)=4`$, a frozen-in field condition $`(B/\rho )=const.,(D/u)=const.`$ across the shock, and Bohm diffusion limit. Under these conditions $`t_{acc}=8.45\times 10^5u_3^2E_{15}B_\mu ^1Z^1`$ yr, where $`E_{15}=(E/10^{15}eV)`$, $`u_3=(u_1/10^3`$ km s-1), $`B_\mu =(B/10^6G)`$, and $`Ze`$ is the nuclear charge. The DSA naturally results in a power-law for particle energy or momentum function $`f(p)`$ such that $`f(p)p^b`$, where p is momentum and b is the power-law slope. The synchrotron spectrum should also be a power-law of the form $`I(\nu )\nu ^\alpha `$, where spectral index $`\alpha =(b3)/2`$. The index b is related to the compression ratio r such that $`b=3r/(r1)`$, and $`r=4`$, $`\alpha =0.5`$ for a strong shock in a gas of specific heat ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=5/3`$. Downstream of the ‘acceleration zone’, a ‘diffusion zone’ showing gradually steepening spectrum is to be expected, which forms due to electrons undergoing diffusion and advection with the fluid flow and suffering IC and synchrotron energy losses. Detailed VLA and GMRT radio spectral and imaging observations of this cluster are underway in order to test these predictions from the DSA theory. The Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray telescopes would possibly be able to detect the temperature and density jumps associated with the shock fronts. These future observations would provide a more definite proof of the particle acceleration scenario proposed for this cluster.

For protons, which suffer negligible radiative losses (below 50 EeV), the highest acceleration energy ($`E_{max}^P`$) is probably limited by the finite life time of shocks, i.e., $`t_{acc}=t_{merger}10^{910}`$ yr, thus giving $`E_{max}^P10^{1819}`$ eV. The heavier nuclei with $`Z>1`$ would be accelerated to even higher energies compared to protons. For cosmic ray electrons the situation is different due to their significant radiative losses in synchrotron and IC radiation. The maximum energy attained by electrons ($`E_{max}^e`$) is governed by condition that $`t_{acc}t_{rad}<t_{merger}`$, and if IC loss dominates over the synchrotron ($`B<3\mu `$G), one obtains $`E_{max}^e3.73\times 10^{13}u_3B_\mu ^{1/2}`$ eV. More detailed hydrodynamic simulations by Kang, Ryu & Jones (1996) show that during gravitational in-fall and mergers at the sites of evolving clusters, energetic protons can be accelerated upto the GZK cut-off energy $`50`$ EeV, provided a magnetic field of $`1\mu G`$ is available to diffusively trap the charge particles near the shock region, and if about $`10^4`$ fraction of infalling kinetic energy can be converted as high energy particles.

It is likely that A3376 is a potential source which fits these conditions. The magnetic field strength in A3376 cluster is not known yet, but could be $`1\mu G`$ \[Bagchi, Pislar & Lima Neto 1998, Clarke, Kronberg, & Böhringer 2001\]. The diffuse synchrotron emission of radio arcs are ‘sign-posts’ for the existence of relativistic electrons and magnetic fields at $``$Mpc distances from cluster center. Since diffusive Fermi-I process accelerates all type of charges (electrons, protons and ions), it is argued above that these structures can in fact be the efficient particle accelerators of very energetic cosmic rays. A3376 is near enough that some of these cosmic rays could actually be detected by the existing or future cosmic ray observatories, particularly the energetic inverse Compton X-ray and $`\gamma `$-ray photons upto extreme energies $`h\nu 100\gamma _{7}^{e}{}_{}{}^{2}`$ GeV (where $`\gamma _7^e`$ is the maximum electron Lorentz factor in units of $`10^7`$). Observation of such particles would constitute a strong proof of the cluster shock origin of UHECR particles – evidence not available at the moment. On the other hand, compared to number of merger events, such cluster collision mediated dual shock-fronts appear to be quite rare, because as of today the only other known example of this phenomenon is a similar radio, optical and X-ray morphology observed in southern Abell cluster A3667 \[Rottgering et al. 1997\].

The NVSS radio survey has detected the catalogued strong radio source MRC 0600-399 \[Large et al. 1981\], associated with the bright ($`m_{pg}14`$) E-galaxy ($`z=0.04552`$) positioned at the ROSAT X-ray peak (Figs. 1 & 2). The higher resolution VLA 4.8 GHz radio map shows that both the radio jets are bent backwards from the radio core in a wide ‘C’ shape (Fig. 5), characterizing it as a wide-angle tail (WAT) source. WATs are only found in galaxy clusters and are excellent probes of the gas-dynamical processes occuring during a merger \[Gomez et al. 1997\]. Interestingly, here the northern and southern radio jets both appear to be swept back along position angles of $`72\pm 5`$o and $`60\pm 5`$o. Therefore, even though affected by projection effects, they appear to be roughly following the merger axis delineated by optical, radio and X-ray data (Fig. 5). This not only indicates correlated structural distortion, but could also be a good proof of the plausible hypothesis (e.g., Roettiger et al. 1996) that ram-pressure from bulk gas flows of speed $`10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, resulting from mergers, are responsible for bending of radio-jets in WAT objects in clusters, and not the actual motion of the parent galaxy with such high speed. Thus one can actually use this radio source as a ‘wind-sock’ to infer which way the cluster wind blows. Hence, more detailed radio and X-ray observations and modelling of this radio source are likely to prove very instructive.

## 4  Conclusions

In this paper, I have presented several new observational evidences which show that the nearby cluster of galaxies A3376 is undergoing a major merger event of subclusters. The most striking is the discovery of a pair of optically unidentified, diffuse, giant radio arcs, located $`2.6\mathrm{h}_{50}^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ apart, symmetrically straddling the hot intra-cluster gas imaged by ROSAT. It is argued that the likely origin of this Mpc scale radio emission is in situ acceleration of relativistic charged particles in gas-dynamical shock-waves, which occur naturally during cluster formation. Probably the energetics of shocks in A3376 are strong enough to accelerate cosmic ray particles upto ultra-high energies of $`E_{max}10^{1819}`$ eV. Thus this cluster is an ideal test-bed for elucidating the origin of enigmatic UHECR particles in structure formation shocks. Hence, Abell 3376 is also a target of choice for more detailed multi-wavelength observations in near future.

## 5 Acknowledgments

Based on photographic data obtained using The UK Schmidt Telescope. The UK Schmidt Telescope was operated by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, with funding from the UK Science and Engineering Research Council & Anglo-Australian Observatory. This work has used data from the NRAO conducted New VLA All Sky Survey (NVSS) and the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope.