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# Jastrow-type calculations of one-nucleon removal reactions on open 𝑠-𝑑 shell nuclei

## I Introduction

Nowadays consistent efforts in the correct treatment of the beyond mean-field nucleon-nucleon (NN) correlations when performing nuclear calculations have been made (see, e.g., Ant88 ; Ant93 ). While collective phenomena have been known since the early times of nuclear physics, effects produced by short-range correlations (SRC) are more difficult to be experimentally singled out. The experimental and theoretical works in the past decade have provided us with a much clearer picture on the consequences of these correlations. There are clear signatures of the presence of correlation effects on some quantities related to the behaviour of the single nucleon in nuclear medium. For instance, NN correlations are responsible for the reduction of the spectroscopic strengths of the nuclear hole states Ant88 ; Ant93 ; Lap93 . The theoretical understanding of this fact requires the knowledge of the removal spectral function which can be represented in a natural way by both overlap functions and single-nucleon spectroscopic factors An95 . They are directly related to observable quantities such as $`(p,d)`$, $`(e,e^{}p)`$ and $`(\gamma ,p)`$ reaction cross sections. The comparison between the theoretically calculated and measured cross sections could serve as a test for the proper account of correlations within the theoretical approach considered.

Recently, a general procedure has been adopted Vn93  to extract the bound-state overlap functions and the associated spectroscopic factors and separation energies on the base of the ground-state one-body density matrix (OBDM). Initially, the procedure has been applied Sto96  to a model OBDM Sto93  accounting for SRC within the low-order approximation (LOA) to the Jastrow correlation method Jas55 . First, the applicability of the theoretically calculated overlap functions has been tested in the description of the 16O$`(p,d)`$ pickup reaction Di97 ; Gai99  and of the 40Ca$`(p,d)`$ reaction Di97 ; Iva2001 . The main result from these investigations is that absolute cross sections of the $`(p,d)`$ reactions are evaluated without any additional normalization in contrast to standard Distorted Wave Born Approximation (DWBA) calculations. Then, a detailed study of the cross sections of the electron- and photon-induced knockout reactions on 16O Gai2000  and 40Ca Iva2001  has been performed. The $`(e,e^{}p)`$ and $`(\gamma ,p)`$ reactions are more suitable to test various single-particle (SP) overlap functions and NN correlations. The theoretical results obtained in Refs. Iva2001 ; Gai2000  reproduce with a fair agreement the shape of the experimental cross sections, in particular at large values of the missing momentum, where correlation effects are more sizable. Of course, the general success of the above procedure depends strongly on the availability of realistic one-body density matrices.

In the various approaches, the OBDM’s are usually constructed for closed-shell nuclei. The 16O nucleus has been studied by variational Monte Carlo Pie92  and Green function Di92 ; Po96  methods. The treatment of heavier nuclei has not yet attained the same degree of accuracy as the light ones. The correlated basis function (CBF) theory, based on the Jastrow approach, has recently been extended to medium-heavy doubly closed-shell nuclei using Fermi hypernetted chain integral equations Co92 ; Sa96 . In addition, 16O and 40Ca nuclei have been examined by the generator coordinate method Iva2000 .

There is no systematic study of the one-body density matrix (and related quantities) which includes both closed- and open-shell nuclei. For that reason, in Mous2000  expressions for the OBDM’s $`\rho (𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ and momentum distributions which could be used for both closed- and open-shell nuclei have been obtained. In Mas99  analytical expressions for the charge form factors and densities of the $`s`$-$`p`$ and $`s`$-$`d`$ shell nuclei have been also derived. The $`\rho (𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ was constructed using the factor cluster expansion of Clark and co-workers Cla70 ; Ris71 ; Cla79  and Jastrow correlation function which incorporates SRC for closed-shell nuclei. This approach was extrapolated to the case of $`N`$=$`Z`$ open-shell nuclei in Ref. Mous2000 . Analyzing three different expansions it has been shown in Mous2001  that they lead to almost equivalent results for important nuclear properties. The expressions for $`\rho (𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ are functionals of the spherical harmonic oscillator (HO) orbitals and depend on the HO parameter and the correlation parameter. The values of the parameters which have been used for the closed-shell nuclei 4He, 16O and 40Ca were determined in Mas99  by a fit of the theoretical charge form factor, derived with the same cluster expansion, to the experimental one. For the open-shell nuclei 12C, 24Mg, 28Si and 32S new values of these parameters have been obtained to give a better fit to the experimental data Mous2000 . Moreover, these nuclei were treated as $`1d`$ shell nuclei and as $`1d`$-$`2s`$ shell nuclei. In the latter case the $`A`$-dependence of the high-momentum components of the momentum distributions becomes quite small.

The aim of the present work is to study the bound-state overlap functions for open-shell nuclei on the basis of Jastrow-type one-body density matrices for such nuclei. Next, the resulting overlap functions are tested in the description of nuclear observables, namely the cross sections of $`(p,d)`$ reactions on 24Mg Kal75 , 28Si Sun69  and 32S Kal75  and of the 32S$`(e,e^{}p)`$ reaction Wes92 . Such an investigation allows us to examine the relationship between the OBDM and the associated overlap functions in that region of nuclei and also to estimate the role of SRC incorporated in the correlation approach used in the reaction cross section calculations.

The paper is organized as follows. A short description of the correlated OBDM of the target nucleus is given in Sec. II together with the procedure to extract the SP overlap functions from it. The results of the calculations are presented and discussed in Sec. III. The summary of the present work is given in Sec. IV.

## II Theoretical approach

### II.1 Correlated one-body density matrix

In order to evaluate the SP bound-state overlap functions, one needs the ground-state OBDM of the target nucleus which is defined by the expression:

$$\rho (𝐫,𝐫^{})=A\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(𝐫,𝐫_2,\mathrm{},𝐫_A)\mathrm{\Psi }(𝐫^{},𝐫_2,\mathrm{},𝐫_A)𝑑𝐫_2\mathrm{}𝑑𝐫_A,$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Psi }(𝐫_1,𝐫_2,\mathrm{},𝐫_A)`$ is the normalized $`A`$-nucleon ground-state wave function. The integration in Eq. (1) is carried out over the radius vectors $`𝐫_2`$ to $`𝐫_A`$ and summation over spin variables is implied. In the present work we start from a Jastrow-type trial many-particle wave function

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(𝐫_1,\mathrm{},𝐫_A)=\mathrm{\Phi }=\underset{i<j}{\overset{A}{}}f(r_{ij})\mathrm{\Phi }(𝐫_1,\mathrm{},𝐫_A),$$
(2)
where $``$ is a model operator which introduces SRC, $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is an uncorrelated (Slater determinant) wave function built up from single-particle wave functions which correspond to the occupied states, and $`f(r_{ij})`$ is the state-independent correlation function which was chosen to have the form

$$f(r_{ij})=1\mathrm{exp}[\beta (𝐫_i𝐫_j)^2].$$
(3)
The correlation function goes to 1 for large values of $`r_{ij}=|𝐫_i𝐫_j|`$ and to 0 for $`r_{ij}0`$. Apparently, the effect of SRC introduced by the function $`f(r_{ij})`$ becomes larger when the correlation parameter $`\beta `$ becomes smaller and vice versa.

For our aims we represent the one-body density matrix $`\rho (𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ by the form

$$\rho (𝐫,𝐫^{})=\frac{\mathrm{\Psi }|𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}|\mathrm{\Psi }^{}}{\mathrm{\Psi }|\mathrm{\Psi }}=N\mathrm{\Psi }|𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}|\mathrm{\Psi }^{}=N𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}},$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}=\mathrm{\Psi }(𝐫_1^{},𝐫_2^{},\mathrm{},𝐫_A^{})`$, $`N`$ is the normalization factor and the integration is carried out over the vectors $`𝐫_1`$ to $`𝐫_A`$ and $`𝐫_1^{}`$ to $`𝐫_A^{}`$. The one-body ”density operator” $`𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}`$ has the form

$$𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{A}{}}\delta (𝐫_i𝐫)\delta (𝐫_i^{}𝐫^{})\underset{ji}{\overset{A}{}}\delta (𝐫_j𝐫_j^{}).$$
(5)
The same one-body operator has been used also in Mor99  \[Eq. (14) of this reference\] for realistic study of the nuclear transparency and the distorted momentum distributions in the semi-inclusive process 4He$`(e,e^{}p)`$X.

In order to evaluate the correlated one-body density matrix $`\rho _{cor}(𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ we consider firstly the generalized integral

$$I(\alpha )=\mathrm{\Psi }|\mathrm{exp}\left[\alpha I(0)𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}\right]|\mathrm{\Psi }^{},$$
(6)
corresponding to the one-body ”density operator” $`𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}`$ (given by (5)), from which we have

$$𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}=\left[\frac{\mathrm{ln}I(\alpha )}{\alpha }\right]_{\alpha =0}.$$
(7)
For the cluster analysis of Eq. (7), after considering the sub-product integrals Cla70 ; Ris71 ; Cla79  and their factor cluster decomposition following the procedure of Ristig, Ter Low, and Clark, one can obtain an expression for the $`\rho _{cor}(𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ Mous2000

$$\rho _{cor}(𝐫,𝐫^{})N[𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}_1O_{22}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\mathrm{g}_1)O_{22}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\mathrm{g}_2)+O_{22}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\mathrm{g}_3)].$$
(8)
The one-body contribution to the OBDM, $`𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}_1`$ and the three terms $`O_{22}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\mathrm{g}_l)`$ ($`l=1,2,3`$), which come from the two-body contribution, have the general forms

$$𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}_1=\rho _{SD}(𝐫,𝐫^{})=\frac{1}{\pi }\underset{nl}{}\eta _{nl}(2l+1)\varphi _{nl}^{}(r)\varphi _{nl}(r^{})P_l(\mathrm{cos}\omega _{rr^{}}),$$
(9)
and

$`O_{22}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\mathrm{g}_l)`$ $`=`$ $`4{\displaystyle \underset{n_il_i,n_jl_j}{}}\eta _{n_il_i}\eta _{n_jl_j}(2l_i+1)(2l_j+1)`$ (10)
$`\times \left[4A_{n_il_in_jl_j}^{n_il_in_jl_j,0}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\mathrm{g}_l){\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{l_i+l_j}{}}}l_i0l_j0k0^2A_{n_il_in_jl_j}^{n_jl_jn_il_i,k}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\mathrm{g}_l)\right],`$
where $`\eta _{nl}`$ are the occupation probabilities of the various states, $`\varphi _{nl}(r)`$ are the radial SP wave functions and

$`A_{n_1l_1n_2l_2}^{n_3l_3n_4l_4,k}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\mathrm{g}_1)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi }}\varphi _{n_1l_1}^{}(r)\varphi _{n_3l_3}(r^{})\mathrm{exp}[\beta r^2]P_{l_3}(\mathrm{cos}\omega _{rr^{}})`$ (11)
$`\times {\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}\varphi _{n_2l_2}^{}(r_2)\varphi _{n_4l_4}(r_2)\mathrm{exp}[\beta r_2^2]i_k(2\beta rr_2)r_2^2dr_2.`$
The matrix elements $`A_{n_1l_1n_2l_2}^{n_3l_3n_4l_4,k}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\mathrm{g}_l)`$ for $`l=2`$ and $`3`$ have similar structure and are given in Ref. Mous2000 . In the above expression $`\omega _{rr^{}}`$ is the angle between the vectors $`𝐫`$ and $`𝐫^{}`$ and $`i_k(z)`$ the modified spherical Bessel function.

Expansion (8) of the present work has one- and two-body terms and the normalization of the wave function is preserved by the normalization factor $`N`$. The expressions of $`𝐎_{\mathrm{𝐫𝐫}^{}}_1`$ and the three two-body terms $`O_{22}(𝐫,𝐫^{},\mathrm{g}_l)`$ ($`l=1,2,3`$) given by Eqs. (9) and (10) depend on the SP radial wave functions and so they are suitable to be used for analytical calculations with HO orbitals. These expressions were derived for the closed-shell nuclei with $`N=Z`$, where $`\eta _{nl}`$ is $`0`$ or $`1`$. For the open-shell nuclei (with $`N=Z`$) we use the same expressions as in Refs. Mous2000  and Mas99  where now $`0\eta _{nl}1`$. In this way the systematic study of important quantities such as bound-state overlap functions and spectroscopic factors Di97 ; Gai99 ; Iva2001 ; Gai2000  can be extended to open-shell nuclei within the factor cluster expansion from Refs. Mous2000 ; Cla70 ; Ris71 ; Cla79 .

It should be noted that a similar expression for $`\rho _{cor}(𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ was derived by Gaudin et al. Gau71  in the framework of the LOA mentioned in the Introduction. Their expansion contains one- and two-body terms and a part of the three-body terms so that the normalization property of the OBDM is fulfilled.

### II.2 Overlap functions and their relation to the OBDM

The quantities related to the $`(A1)`$-particle system, such as the overlap functions, the separation energies and the spectroscopic factors for its bound states can be fully determined in principle by the one-body density matrix for the ground state of the $`A`$-particle system Vn93 . This unique relationship holds generally for quantum many-body systems with sufficiently short-range forces between the particles and is based on the exact representation of the ground-state one-body density matrix Vn93 . The latter can be expressed in terms of the overlap functions $`\varphi _\alpha (𝐫)`$, which describe the residual nucleus as a hole state in the target, in the form:

$$\rho (𝒓,𝒓^{})=\underset{\alpha }{}\varphi _\alpha ^{}(𝒓)\varphi _\alpha (𝒓^{}).$$
(12)
In the case of a target nucleus with $`J^\pi =0^+`$ each of the bound-state overlap functions is characterized by the set of quantum numbers $`\alpha nlj`$, with $`n`$ being the number of the state with a given multipolarity $`l`$ and a total angular momentum $`j`$. The asymptotic behaviour of the radial part of the neutron overlap functions for the bound states of the $`(A1)`$-system is given by Vn93 ; Bang85 :

$$\varphi _{nlj}(r)C_{nlj}\mathrm{exp}(k_{nlj}r)/r,$$
(13)
where

$$k_{nlj}=\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}[2m_\mathrm{n}(E_{nlj}^{A1}E_0^A)]^{1/2}.$$
(14)
In Eq. (14) $`m_\mathrm{n}`$ is the neutron mass, $`E_0^A`$ is the ground state energy of the target $`A`$-nucleus and $`E_{nlj}^{A1}`$ is the energy of the $`nlj`$-state of the $`(A1)`$-nucleus. For protons some mathematical complications arise due to an additional long-range part of the interaction originating from the Coulomb force, but the general conclusions of the consideration remain the same. The asymptotic behaviour of the radial part of the corresponding proton overlap functions reads

$$\varphi _{nlj}(r)C_{nlj}\mathrm{exp}[k_{nlj}r\eta \mathrm{ln}(2k_{nlj}r)]/r,$$
(15)
where $`\eta `$ is the Coulomb (or Sommerfeld) parameter and $`k_{nlj}`$ (14) contains the mass of the proton.

The lowest $`n=n_0`$ neutron $`lj`$-bound-state overlap function is determined by the asymptotic behaviour of the associated partial radial contribution of the one-body density matrix $`\rho _{lj}(r,r^{})`$ ($`r^{}=a\mathrm{}`$) and Eqs. (12) and (13) lead to the expression

$$\varphi _{n_0lj}(r)=\frac{\rho _{lj}(r,a)}{C_{n_0lj}\mathrm{exp}(k_{n_0lj}a)/a},$$
(16)
where the constants $`C_{n_0lj}`$ and $`k_{n_0lj}`$ are completely determined by $`\rho _{lj}(a,a)`$. In this way the separation energy

$$ϵ_{n_0lj}E_{n_0lj}^{A1}E_0^A=\frac{\mathrm{}^2k_{n_0lj}^2}{2m_\mathrm{n}}$$
(17)
and the spectroscopic factor $`S_{n_0lj}=\varphi _{n_0lj}|\varphi _{n_0lj}`$ can be determined as well.

The applicability of this theoretical scheme has been demonstrated in Refs. Sto96 ; Di97 ; Gai99 ; Iva2001 ; Gai2000  by means of realistic one-body density matrices of 16O and 40Ca constructed within different correlation methods. In particular, the calculated overlap functions corresponding to the OBDM’s from various approaches to the CBF theory Sa96 ; Vn97  have shown the substantial deviation of their shapes in respect to the Hartree-Fock (HF) wave functions Gai99 . The inclusion of short-range and tensor correlations has caused a depletion of the levels below Fermi level which is reflected in the substantial reduction of the spectroscopic factors for the quasihole states.

Thus having the procedure for calculating such important quantities as the overlap functions and the spectroscopic factors one can apply it to the one-body density matrices of some open $`s`$-$`d`$ shell nuclei. In order to reveal better the nuclear structure properties in this region of nuclei and to draw a parallel with the closed-shell ones, it is desirable to test the resulting overlap functions in calculations of one-nucleon pickup and knockout reactions, which is the aim of the present paper.

In the end of this Section we would like to note that the starting point for the present calculations are OBDM’s which include SRC of central Jastrow type, and which have been computed by a cluster expansion to leading order in the correlation function. Similar approach has been very recently used to study the effects of SRC on the $`(e,e^{}p)`$ exclusive response functions and cross sections Maz2001 . In both calculations the radial dependence of the correlated function \[Eq. (3)\] is restricted to Gaussian like one. As well known Gai99 ; Vn97 ; Fa2001 ; Ryck2001 , the inclusion of state-dependent correlations, in particular of tensor ones, is important when modelling transfer reactions. In addition, long-range correlations also should be taken into account in a consistent way. On the other hand, we use in our calculations HO single-particle wave functions, which do not have the correct exponential behaviour in the asymptotic region, to construct the OBDM. It has been already pointed out in previous works Iva2001 ; Maz2001  that an important condition of the numerical procedure is the exponential asymptotics of the overlap functions at $`r^{}\mathrm{}`$ \[see Eqs. (13) and (15)\], which is related to the correct asymptotics of $`\rho _{lj}(r,r^{})`$ at $`r^{}\mathrm{}`$. This imposed the development of a method, though not unique, in Sto96  to overcome the difficulties arising from the HO single-particle wave function asymptotics. The condition for the correct asymptotics is fulfilled in Iva2001 ; Maz2001  by using of a SP basis obtained with a Woods-Saxon potential. The use of HO wave functions in the present work instead of more realistic Woods-Saxon ones following the method from Sto96  allows us, however, to obtain analytical expressions for the OBDM’s. At present, no model correlated one-body density matrices treating open $`s`$-$`d`$ shell nuclei are available except that of Ref. Mous2000  and, therefore, this work should be considered as an initial attempt to study the relative importance of the effects of both SRC and particular structure of these nuclei on overlap functions, spectroscopic factors and reaction cross sections.

## III Results of calculations and discussion

The one-body density matrices (8) constructed by using of factor cluster expansion have been applied to calculate neutron and proton overlap functions including NN correlations and related to possible $`1p`$-, $`1d`$\- and $`2s`$-quasihole states in the 24Mg, 28Si and 32S nuclei. We note that in our work the extracted overlap functions are not separated in respect to the spin-orbit partners $`j=l\pm 1/2`$. Although the OBDM’s do not allow to obtain different results for $`d_{3/2}`$ and $`d_{5/2}`$ quasihole states, it is useful in some calculations of reaction cross sections for transitions to these states to test the overlap function corresponding to the $`1d`$ bound state.

The values of the spectroscopic factors (SF) and of the separation energies for neutrons and protons deduced from the calculations are listed in Table 1. The separation energies (17) derived from the procedure are in acceptable agreement with the corresponding empirical ones. As a common feature, a substantial reduction of the spectroscopic factors of the states which are below the Fermi level (of the independent-particle picture) is observed for all nuclei considered due to the short-range NN correlations and their particular open-shell structure. For instance, the values of the SF for the states with $`l`$=0 and $`l`$=2 are much smaller than the values obtained for the $`l`$=1 state. The particular features of the nuclear structure in the $`2s`$-$`1d`$ region (in which the $`1p`$ state is not a valence one) are responsible for the larger reduction of the spectroscopic factors of the levels, though partly occupied, in these open $`s`$-$`d`$ shell nuclei in comparison with the ”more occupied” $`1p`$ quasihole state. It can be also seen from Table 1 that the trend of the calculated SF for proton bound states follows that one corresponding to the neutron overlap functions.

We would like to note the larger reduction of the spectroscopic factors corresponding to quasihole states of the open-shell nuclei considered in comparison with the spectroscopic factors for the states in closed-shell 16O Sto96 ; Gai99  and 40Ca Sto96  nuclei when SRC are taken into account. To discuss this point, firstly we give in Table 1 the spectroscopic factors for the $`1d`$ and $`2s`$ quasihole states of the closed-shell 40Ca deduced from the one-body density matrix calculations within the same Jastrow approach Mous2000  used in the present work. For comparison, the SRC accounted for within the LOA to the Jastrow correlation method Sto96  produce spectroscopic factors of 0.892 for the $`1d`$ state and 0.956 for the $`2s`$ in 40Ca nucleus. It turns out that the method from Mous2000  leads to a suppression of the spectroscopic factors for the closed-shell 40Ca nucleus. The reason for the different SF values could be related to the details of the calculations with the Jastrow approach when using the two cluster expansions. Particularly they concern the truncation of the expansions mentioned already in Section II, which causes a different account for the SRC (although they are of the same Jatrow-type), as well as the different asymptotic behaviour of the OBDM obtained in both expansions. In our opinion, the mentioned features of the method from Mous2000  lead to an additional reduction of the values of the SF for open-shell nuclei as well. To support this we would like to note the comparison of both cluster expansions given in Mous2001  on the example of the nucleon momentum distributions $`n(k)`$ of various nuclei. The high-momentum tails of $`n(k)`$ obtained using LOA Sto93  underestimate the corresponding ones obtained with the use of the cluster expansion of Clark and co-workers Mous2000  for the nuclei considered. In this way the smaller values for the spectroscopic factors derived in the present work within Mous2000  for both closed- and open-shell nuclei reflect the stronger accounting for the SRC and can be understood. As a common feature, the spectroscopic factors for the $`s`$-$`d`$ open-shell nuclei are smaller than those for the closed-shell nuclei.

Second, in order to check our theoretically calculated spectroscopic factors it is useful to compare them with some single-particle occupation probabilities available for the considered $`1d`$-$`2s`$ shell nuclei. The HF calculations performed in Amos78  for the $`(p,p^{})`$ scattering analyses treating protons and neutrons equivalently yield values of 0.479 and 0.682 respectively for the $`1d_{5/2}`$ fractional occupancies of 24Mg and 28Si. The $`2s_{1/2}`$ proton occupancy of 0.67(9) derived for 32S was reported in Ref.Wes97 . As can be seen from Table 1 our calculated spectroscopic factors for these states are smaller than the resulting occupancies thus satisfying the general property $`S_{nlj}N_{nlj}^{max}`$, i.e. in each $`lj`$ subspace the spectroscopic factor $`S_{nlj}`$ is smaller than the largest natural occupation number $`N_{nlj}^{max}`$ Vn93 .

Generally, the values of the spectroscopic factors for open-shell nuclei are influenced by the presence of SRC accounted for in our OBDM similarly to the case of the closed-shell nuclei. However, in our approach an additional reduction of the spectroscopic factors for open $`1d`$-$`2s`$ shell nuclei takes place because the SF contain themselves a structure information for the non-complete shell occupancy in these nuclei. This conclusion is confirmed by the check of the normalization condition for the OBDM \[Eq. (12)\].

The DWBA calculations of the pickup reactions on the considered open-shell nuclei were performed using the DWUCK4 code La93  assuming zero-range approximation for the $`p`$-$`n`$ interaction inside the deuteron. The same approach has been adopted in previous analyses of $`(p,d)`$ reactions on 16O Di97 ; Gai99  and 40Ca Di97 ; Iva2001 . The values of the optical potential parameters have been taken in each case to be the same as in the corresponding standard DWBA calculations.

The standard DWUCK4 procedure is performed by calculating the bound-neutron wave function using the separation energy prescription (SEP) and different sets of proton and deuteron optical model parameters. The optical potential is defined to be

$$V_{opt}=Vf(x_0)i(W4W_D\frac{d}{dx_D})f(x_D)\left(\frac{\mathrm{}}{m_\pi c}\right)^2V_{s.o.}(𝐋.\sigma )\frac{1}{r}\frac{d}{dr}f(x_{s.o.})+V_c,$$
(18)
where

$$f(x_i)=[1+exp(x_i)]^1,x_i=(rr_iA^{1/3})/a_i,$$
(19)
and $`V_c`$ is the Coulomb potential of a uniformly charged sphere of radius $`r_cA^{1/3}`$. The proton and deuteron optical model parameters we use are those of Källne and Fagerström Kal75  for 24Mg and 32S and those of Sundberg and Källne Sun69  for 28Si at $`E_p`$=185 MeV incident energy.

The results for the differential cross sections for the 24Mg$`(p,d)`$, 28Si$`(p,d)`$ and 32S$`(p,d)`$ reactions at incident proton energy $`E_p`$=185 MeV compared with the experimental data are presented in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, respectively. In each panel, the results obtained with overlap function, with bound-state wave function following the standard DWBA procedure within the SEP and with uncorrelated shell-model wave function are plotted. As can be seen, in general, the use of overlap functions derived from the one-body density matrix calculations leads to a qualitative agreement with the experimental data reproducing the amplitude of the first maximum and qualitatively the shape of the differential cross section. In this case no extra spectroscopic factor is needed, since our overlap functions already include the associated spectroscopic factors. In the examples of some reactions the standard DWBA form factor is also able to reproduce the shape of cross sections, while the uncorrelated wave functions fail to describe correctly neither the size nor the shape of the angular distributions. The differences between the three types of calculations are observed mostly at larger angles where the curves corresponding to the uncorrelated case overestimate substantially the experimental data. Thus, the relevant importance of SRC included in our approach becomes clear for a correct description of pickup processes and this makes it possible to conclude that the replacement of the overlap integral by a single-particle wave function is a rough approximation.

We would like to note that our results for the $`(p,d)`$ cross sections with the use of overlap functions are obtained without any additional normalization while the standard DWBA curves and those corresponding to the uncorrelated case need an adjustment by a fitting parameter, i.e., the phenomenological spectroscopic factor. The values of these spectroscopic factors are given in Table 2 and can be compared with our theoretically calculated spectroscopic factors from Table 1. For instance, the values of the phenomenological spectroscopic factors deduced from the traditional DWBA calculations for the transitions to $`5/2^+`$ and $`3/2^+`$ in 23Mg are very close to the empirical values obtained in Kal75 , although a clear physical interpretation could not be done.

Fig. 1 shows the differential cross sections for the transitions to the ground $`3/2^+`$ state and to the excited $`5/2^+`$ \[at excitation energy $`E_x`$=0.45 MeV\] and $`1/2^{}`$ \[at $`E_x`$=2.76 MeV\] states in 23Mg nucleus. A comparison with the experimental data from Kal75  is also made. As can be seen our calculations using the overlap function for the transition to the ground $`3/2^+`$ state agree fairly well with the experimental angular distribution for the same transition reproducing the amplitude of the first maximum and qualitatively the shape of the differential cross section. We emphasize that this result is obtained without any additional normalization since the calculated overlap function for $`3/2^+`$ state already includes the spectroscopic factor of 0.4 (see Table 1). Moreover, at larger angles our calculations lead to better agreement with the experimental data comparing with the standard DWBA analysis. In the latter the overlap function is replaced by a SP wave function corresponding to a given mean-field potential. In such calculations the NN correlations are included approximately by adjusting the mean-field potential parameter values. Another reason for the observed discrepancies in Kal75  is that a spherical potential has been used for generating the bound neutron state in DWBA instead of a more realistic deformed one. We would like to mention here the principal role of the overlap function for the good description of the differential cross section for the transition to the ground $`3/2^+`$ state in 23Mg. It is obtained on the basis of a correlated OBDM and allows one to account for the short-range correlations in the case of pickup reaction. The results of the calculations carried out additionally for the transitions to the excited states are less satisfactory for angles larger than 10 degrees. One of the reasons for this is the unrealistic (HO) asymptotic behaviour of the Jastrow-type OBDM Mous2000  which has been used to calculate the overlap functions following the method described in Section II. Concerning the similarity of the shape of the theoretical curves (though different by one order of magnitude) in the upper and middle panels of Fig. 1 we note that for the ground state the $`1d_{3/2}`$ overlap function is needed while for the first excited state the $`1d_{5/2}`$ overlap function is needed. The usage of a common $`1d`$ overlap function in our work obviously gives a larger deviation from the data for the latter case. On the other hand, a large fragmentation of the single-particle strengths is a common feature of the studied $`2s`$-$`1d`$ nuclei. For example, pickup from the $`1p_{1/2}`$ an 0 $`1p_{3/2}`$ sub-shells in $`2s`$-$`1d`$ nuclei has been an intriguing topic from experimental point of view Kal75  indicating several $`1p`$ states observed in 23Mg.

Fig. 2 shows the ground-state differential cross section of the reaction 28Si$`(p,d)^{27}`$Si with $`1d_{5/2}`$ neutron pickup, while the angular distributions of the reaction 32S$`(p,d)^{31}`$S for the transition to the ground $`1/2^+`$ state and to the excited $`3/2^+`$ \[at $`E_x`$=1.24 MeV\], $`5/2^+`$ \[at $`E_x`$=2.24 MeV\] and $`1/2^{}`$ \[at $`E_x`$=7.71 MeV\] states in 31S nucleus are shown in Fig. 3. In general, a quantitative agreement of the calculations with the experimental cross sections in the region of the first maximum is obtained for all states of the residual 27Si and 31S nuclei. The presence of admixtures of various states observed in the ground state of 32S Kal75  is responsible for a poorer description of these $`(p,d)`$ data. The behaviour of the theoretically calculated angular distribution and the comparison with the data for the transition to the strongly excited $`1/2^{}`$ are similar to those for $`l=1`$ transfer in 24Mg$`(p,d)^{23}`$Mg.

In order to see the sensitivity of the results to the optical potential parameters, we examine the transition to the ground $`5/2^+`$ state in 27Si nucleus. In Fig. 4 three different theoretical curves are given in respect to deuteron optical potential parameter values used in the calculations. Particularly, the effects of changing the radius of the real part of this potential $`R_d`$ is shown. The best agreement with the experimental data is achieved with the value of $`R_d`$=0.80 fm giving also the best DWBA fit in Sun69 . It can be noted that the choice of the radius of the real part of the deuteron optical potential within the interval from 0.65 fm to 0.95 fm (considered in the standard DWBA analyses) does not influence strongly the good overall agreement of the cross sections obtained by means of the theoretically calculated overlap function with the experimental data. Apart from the shown sensitivity of the calculations to the deuteron optical potential, in general, we should mention that the $`(p,d)`$ reaction is more sensitive to the reaction mechanism adopted than to the choice of the bound-state wave function. Nevertheless, it is seen from Fig. 4 that our theoretically calculated overlap function corresponding to the $`1d`$ bound state is able to reproduce well the absolute cross section.

We have analyzed the $`(p,d)`$ pickup reaction in 24Mg, 28Si and 32S at proton incident energy of 185 MeV. Unfortunately, little is known about the deuteron optical potentials at high energies and the discrepancies with the experimental data might be partly attributed to the uncertainties in the determination of the optical potentials. This makes also difficult to separate clearly the role of the overlap functions associated with the single-neutron bound states. We emphasize, however, the important general necessity the overlap functions to be calculated on the basis of realistic OBDM’s and only then the sensitivity to all other ingredients of the theoretical schemes to be analyzed.

It turned out from the previous analyzes of one-nucleon removal reactions Iva2001 ; Gai2000  that the quasifree nucleon knockout is more suitable to investigate the role of overlap functions as bound-state wave functions. An example of electron-induced proton knockout from 32S for the transition to the ground $`2s_{1/2}`$ state of 31P is given in Fig. 5. Calculations have been done with the code DWEEPY DWEEPY , which is based on the nonrelativistic distorted wave impulse approximation (DWIA) description of the nucleon knockout process and includes final-state interactions and Coulomb distortion of the electron waves Oxford . The latter has been treated with a high-energy expansion in inverse powers of the electron energy DWEEPY . In the figure the result obtained with the proton overlap function for the $`2s`$ state of 32S and the optical potential from Schwandt  is compared with the NIKHEF data from Wes92 . A reasonable agreement with the experimental data for the reduced cross section is obtained. In the analysis of Wes92  the calculations are performed within the same DWIA framework and with the same optical potential, but a phenomenological single-particle wave function is used with a radius adjusted to the data. We emphasize that in the present work the overlap function is theoretically calculated on the basis of the Jastrow-type OBDM of 32S and does not contain any free parameters. It can be seen from Fig. 5 that our spectroscopic factor of 0.5648 gives a good agreement with the size of the experimental cross section and, in addition, it is in accordance with the integrated strength for the valence $`2s_{1/2}`$ shell in 32S Wes92  which amounts to 65(7)% of the SP strength obtained using the shell-model bound-state function. The result for the 32S$`(e,e^{}p)`$ cross section obtained with the harmonic-oscillator bound-state wave function is also illustrated in Fig. 5. It has been computed with the same oscillator parameter value $`b`$=2 fm for the $`2s_{1/2}`$ ground-state wave function as in the original calculations of the OBDM without SRC Mous2000 . In order to perform a consistent comparison with the result when considering theoretically calculated overlap function, we have applied the same spectroscopic factor of 0.5648. In this case, the size of the reduced cross section is also reproduced, but the HO wave function gives much worse description of the experimental data. Thus, the comparison made in Fig. 5 shows the important role of the SRC accounted for in our approach for the correct description of knockout reactions.

We have performed also calculations for the transition to the excited $`1d_{5/2}`$ state at $`E_x`$=2.234 MeV and have found a good agreement with the shape of the experimental momentum distribution. In our opinion, however, the comparison for the $`1d`$ states is not very meaningful since our approach cannot discriminate between the $`d_{5/2}`$ and $`d_{3/2}`$ states and the proton overlap function is calculated for the $`1d`$ state. From the experimental point of view, it is noted in Wes92  that it is also impossible to distinguish strengths originating from both $`1d`$ shells for the integrated $`l=2`$ strength. In this sense, our spectroscopic factor of 0.6636 fits well the integrated spectroscopic strength in the $`1d`$ shell up to 24 MeV excitation energy (the value 6.04(60) from Table 5 in Wes92 ) thus representing a depletion of about 60% of the full $`1d`$ shell.

## IV Conclusions

The results of the present work can be summarized as follows:
i) Single-particle overlap functions, spectroscopic factors and separation energies are calculated from the Jastrow-type one-body density matrices, which were derived using factor cluster expansion, for the ground state of the open-shell 24Mg, 28Si and 32S nuclei.
ii) Taking into account both short-range correlations and specific nuclear structure it is found that the deduced spectroscopic factors $`S_{nlj}`$ of the hole states of open-shell nuclei in our particular Jastrow approach are substantially smaller than those of the closed-shell ones satisfying at the same time the general relation with the natural occupation probabilities $`N_{nlj}`$, namely $`S_{nlj}N_{nlj}^{max}`$.
iii) The absolute values of the differential cross sections of $`(p,d)`$ reactions on 24Mg, 28Si and 32S as well as of 32S$`(e,e^{}p)`$ reduced cross section are calculated by using the theoretically obtained overlap functions which already contain NN correlations. The acceptable agreement with the experimental data shows that this method is applicable also to the case of open-shell nuclei. The description of the cross sections might be improved including the deformation effects in the even-even $`Z`$=$`N`$ nuclei in the $`2s`$-$`1d`$ region.
iv) Using more realistic OBDM’s with a correct asymptotic behaviour one can expect that the resulting overlap functions will be able to describe more accurately the experimental cross sections of the one-nucleon removal reactions on open $`s`$-$`d`$ shell nuclei. In this case more definite conclusions about the role of the SRC in open- and closed-shell nuclei can be drawn.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors are grateful to Dr. L. Lapikás for providing us the experimental data from Wes92  and for the fruitful discussions with him and Prof. K. Amos. This work was partly supported by the Bulgarian National Science Foundation under the Contracts Nrs.$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$–809 and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$–905.

Table 1: Neutron and proton spectroscopic factors (SF) and separation energies ($`ϵ_n`$ and $`ϵ_p`$ in MeV) calculated on the basis of the one-body density matrices Mous2000  for 24Mg, 28Si, 32S and 40Ca. Comparison is made with the experimental data $`ϵ_n^{exp}`$ and $`ϵ_p^{exp}`$ for the separation energies Kal75 ; Sun69 ; Wes92 ; End67 ; Mah91 .

|  |  |  | neutrons | | |  | protons | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nucleus | $`nl`$ |  | $`ϵ_n`$ | $`ϵ_n^{exp}`$ | SF |  | $`ϵ_p`$ | $`ϵ_p^{exp}`$ | SF |
| 24Mg | $`1p`$ |  | 18.85 | 19.29 | 0.9474 |  | 14.13 | 14.33 | 0.9798 |
|  | $`1d`$ |  | 16.94 | 16.53 | 0.4026 |  | 11.02 | 11.69 | 0.4586 |
|  | $`2s`$ |  | 18.37 | 18.89 | 0.4706 |  | 13.63 | 14.08 | 0.5414 |
| 28Si | $`1p`$ |  | 21.34 | 21.35 | 0.8528 |  | 15.21 | 15.64 | 0.9788 |
|  | $`1d`$ |  | 17.29 | 17.18 | 0.5071 |  | 11.49 | 11.59 | 0.6265 |
|  | $`2s`$ |  | 17.32 | 17.96 | 0.3958 |  | 12.09 | 12.43 | 0.4675 |
| 32S | $`1p`$ |  | 22.54 | 22.80 | 0.7454 |  | 15.68 | 16.29 | 0.8856 |
|  | $`1d`$ |  | 16.98 | 17.33 | 0.5682 |  | 9.82 | 10.13 | 0.6636 |
|  | $`2s`$ |  | 14.75 | 15.09 | 0.4712 |  | 8.53 | 8.86 | 0.5648 |
| 40Ca | $`1d`$ |  | 15.45 | 15.64 | 0.7691 |  | 8.34 | 8.33 | 0.6729 |
|  | $`2s`$ |  | 17.86 | 18.19 | 0.8001 |  | 10.33 | 10.94 | 0.8051 |

Table 2: Phenomenological spectroscopic factors $`S_{DWBA}`$ deduced from the standard DWBA calculations and $`S_{SM}`$ deduced from the calculations with uncorrelated shell-model (SM) OBDM’s of Ref. Mous2000  for the reactions considered in Figs. 1-3.

| Reaction |  | $`nl_j`$ | $`S_{DWBA}`$ | $`S_{SM}`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 24Mg$`(p,d)`$23Mg |  | $`1d_{3/2}`$ | 0.25 | 0.10 |
|  |  | $`1d_{5/2}`$ | 2.50 | 1.00 |
|  |  | $`1p_{1/2}`$ | 1.11 | 0.75 |
| 28Si$`(p,d)`$27Si |  | $`1d_{5/2}`$ | 2.13 | 2.13 |
| 32S$`(p,d)`$31S |  | $`2s_{1/2}`$ | 0.33 | 0.56 |
|  |  | $`1d_{3/2}`$ | 1.43 | 1.00 |
|  |  | $`1d_{5/2}`$ | 4.00 | 1.00 |
|  |  | $`1p_{1/2}`$ | 1.00 | 0.11 |


text:
# Probing thermal fluctuations and inhomogeneities in type II superconductors by means of applied magnetic fields

## I Introduction

A primary effect of a magnetic field on a type II superconductor is to shift the specific heat peak to a lower temperature. Indeed, this shift provided some of the earliest evidence for type II superconductivity. In a mean-field treatment this behavior can be comprehended as follows: To retain the continuous character of the zero field transition the Ginzburg-Landau correlation length $`\xi =\xi _0\left|1T/T_c\right|^{1/2}`$ is supposed to diverge along the so called upper critical line of continuous phase transitions defined by

$$t_{c2}\left(H\right)=1\frac{T_{c2}\left(H\right)}{T_c}=\frac{2\pi \xi _0^2H}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0},H_{c2}\left(T\right)=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{2\pi \xi _0^2}\left(1\frac{T}{T_c}\right).$$
(1)
Calculations of the specific heat within the framework of the Abrikosov theory and its generalizations yield at this mixed state to normal state phase boundary for the jump in the specific heat coefficient the expression $`\mathrm{\Delta }c(H_{c2},T_{c2})/T_{c2}\left(dH_{c2}/dT\right)^2|_{T_{c2}}`$, where the factor of proportionality is of order unity and takes the effect of the vortex lattice into account. Matching with the zero field jump then requires that

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }c(H_{c2},T_{c2})/T_{c2}}{\mathrm{\Delta }c\left(T_c\right)/T_c}\frac{T_{c2}\left(H\right)}{T_c}=1\frac{2\pi \xi _0^2H}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}.$$
(2)
Thus, the magnetic field reduces both, the transition temperature and the jump in the specific heat. Although this mean-field scenario describes the experimental data of various type II superconductors with comparatively large correlation length amplitude $`\xi _0`$ , including MgB2, 2H-NbSe2, and Nb77Zr23, reasonably well, it neglects an essential effect of an applied magnetic field. In analogy to liquid 4He in a uniformly rotating container, the magnetic field applied to a type II superconductor is an external perturbation which drives the system away from criticality. Close to the transition temperature $`T_c`$ the correlation length $`\xi `$ increases strongly when $`T_c`$ is approached. However, for nonzero rotation frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ or magnetic field $`H`$ the average distance between vortex lines , $`L_\mathrm{\Omega }\sqrt{\left(\pi \mathrm{}\right)/m_4\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ or $`L_H\sqrt{\mathrm{\Phi }_0/\left(H\right)}`$ is a limiting length scale. For this reason $`\xi `$ cannot grow beyond $`L_{\mathrm{\Omega },H}`$. Consequently, for finite $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ or $`H`$, the thermodynamic quantities like the specific heat are smooth functions of temperature. As a remnant of the singularities along $`T_{c2}\left(H\right)`$ the quantities exhibit a maximum or an inflection point along $`T_p\left(H\right)`$. Such a finite size effect also occurs in zero magnetic field due to inhomogeneities with length scale $`L`$.

In this context it is instructive to refer to the early literature focused on fluctuation effects in type II superconductors. Implicit in most of these treatments is the assumption that fluctuations do not interact; that is, only Gaussian fluctuations are considered. Although this assumption breaks down in the critical region, it captures some of the qualitative aspects of fluctuations in zero magnetic field. If the Gaussian approximation is used to calculate thermodynamic properties of a type II superconductor near the mean-field phase boundary $`T_{c2}\left(H\right)`$, singular behavior of thermodynamic and transport properties is predicted to occur. However, the fluctuations of a bulk superconductor in a magnetic field become effectively one dimensional, as noted by Lee and Shenoy ; and a bulk superconductor behaves like an array of rods parallel to the magnetic field with diameter $`L_H`$. Since fluctuations become more important with reduced dimensionality and there is a limiting magnetic length scale $`L_H`$ it becomes clear that the critical line $`T_{c2}\left(H\right)`$ is an artefact of the approximations. Indeed, calculations of the specific heat in a magnetic field which treat the interaction terms in the Hartree approximation and extensions thereof, find that the specific heat is smooth through the mean-field transition temperature $`T_{c2}\left(H\right)`$. In the context of finite size scaling this is simply due to the fact that the correlation length of fluctuations which are transverse to the applied magnetic field are bounded by the magnetic length $`L_HH^{1/2}`$.

A main point of this paper is to show that in a type II superconductor the correlation length cannot grow beyond the magnetic length scale

$$L_H=\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aH}},$$
(3)
where $`a`$ is a universal amplitude when critical fluctuations dominate. Hence, the correlation length $`\xi ^{}\left(t\right)`$ is bounded by

$$\xi ^{}\left(t\right)=\xi _0^{}\left|t\right|^\nu =L_H,$$
(4)
where $`\nu `$ is the critical exponent of the correlation length. Beyond the mean-field approximation it differs from $`\nu =1/2`$. Due to this finite size effect the maximum of the specific heat peak is shifted to a lower temperature $`T_p`$ given by

$$t_p\left(H\right)=1\frac{T_p\left(H\right)}{T_c}=\left(\frac{\xi _0^{}}{L_H}\right)^{1/\nu }=\left(\frac{a\left(\xi _0^{}\right)^2H}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}\right)^{1/2\nu }.$$
(5)
Although this finite size scaling result agrees formally with the mean-field expression for $`t_{c2}`$ (Eq.(1)) with $`\nu =1/2`$ and $`a=2\pi `$, $`t_p\left(H\right)`$ is not a line of continuous phase transitions. Along this line the specific heat peak adopts its maximum value and the correlation length attains the limiting length scale $`L_H`$ . On the other hand, there are sample inhomogeneities with length scale $`L`$, as well. They imply that the correlation length $`\xi ^{}`$ cannot grow beyond $`L`$,

$$\xi ^{}\left(t\right)=L.$$
(6)
Thus, the zero-field specific heat singularity is rounded. Replacing in Eq.(5) $`L_H`$ by $`L`$, it is seen that the maximum of the zero field specific heat shifts to the lower temperature $`T_p\left(L\right)`$. However, in contrast to the magnetic counterpart, where the length scale $`L_HH^{1/2}`$ can be varied at will in terms of the magnetic field strength, the length scale of the inhomogeneities remains fixed. In type II superconductors where inhomogeneities are unavoidable, two limiting regimes, characterized by

$$L_H<L,L_H>L,$$
(7)
can be distinguished. For $`L_H<L`$ the magnetic field induced finite size effect limits $`\xi `$ to grow beyond $`L_H`$, while for $`L_H>L`$ it is the length scale of the inhomogeneities. Since $`L_H`$ can be tuned by the strength of the applied magnetic field (Eq.(3)), both limits are experimentally accessible. $`L_H<L`$ is satisfied for sufficiently high and $`L_H>L`$ for low magnetic fields. Thus, the occurrence of a magnetic field induced finite size effect requires that the magnetic field and the length scale of inhomogeneities affecting thermodynamic properties satisfy the lower bounds

$$H>\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aL^2},L>\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aH}}.$$
(8)
It is important to recognize that these bounds hold, whenever fluctuations are at work. Noting that thermodynamic and transport measurements are usually performed up to $`12`$ T, it becomes clear that the magnetic field induced finite size effect allows to trace fluctuations, to extract critical properties of the homogeneous system and to derive a lower bound for the length scale of inhomogeneities which affect the thermodynamic properties of type II superconductors. Such an analysis may also help to distinguish between possible mechanisms where the length scale of the inhomogeneities enters in an essential way. Below, we give a summary of the main results of this paper. A related analysis of expansivity measurements on YBa2Cu3O7-δ exposed to a magnetic field was recently performed by Lortz, in terms of a comparison with a model for uniformly rotating 4He.

We show that in isotropic extreme type II superconductors and nonzero magnetic field $`H`$ the correlation length cannot grow beyond the limiting length scale $`L_H=\sqrt{\mathrm{\Phi }_0/\left(aH\right)}`$, where $`a`$ is a universal amplitude. Since $`a`$ turns out to be of order one, $`L_H`$ is comparable to the average distance between vortex lines. Given this limiting length scale, we derive the scaling expression for the line $`T_p\left(H\right)`$, along which the correlation length attains the limiting magnetic length scale $`L_H`$. It turns out that close to zero field criticality the ratio between $`T_p\left(H\right)`$ and the melting line $`T_m\left(H\right)`$ is a universal number. These results, extended to anisotropic type II superconductors are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results of Schilling *et al*. and Roulin *et al*. for YBa2Cu3O7-δ. Moreover, we find that the data of Roulin *et al*. for the temperature and magnetic field dependent specific heat coefficient, properly rescaled, falls on a single universal curve, which is the finite size scaling function. The phase diagram which emerges consists of the lines $`T_p\left(H_i\right)`$ and $`T_m\left(H_i\right)`$, where $`H_i`$ is the $`i`$-th component of the applied magnetic field $`𝐇`$. Our analysis of the data for the optimally doped sample provides consistent evidence for critical properties falling into 3D-XY universality class, while the data of the underdoped sample uncovers the characteristics of a 3D-2D crossover. Although the mean-field scenario describes the experimental data of various type II superconductors with comparatively large correlation length amplitudes, including MgB2, 2H-NbSe2 and Nb77Zr23, remarkably well, we find that this treatment underestimates the relevance of fluctuations. Indeed the experimental data for the specific heat coefficient is fully consistent with a magnetic field induced finite size effect, although the critical regime is not attained. As a by-product we deduce for the length scale of the inhomogeneities affecting the thermodynamic properties of YBa2Cu3O7-δ, MgB2, 2H-NbSe2 and Nb77Zr23 lower bounds ranging from $`182`$ A to $`814`$ A. Surprisingly enough, $`814`$ A applies to the cubic superconducting alloy Nb77Zr23. Since the available data does not extend to very low fields larger values are conceivable. In any case, these lower bounds are consistent with the estimates obtained from a finite size scaling analysis of the zero field specific heat data of nearly optimally doped YBa2Cu3O7-δ single crystals, giving length scales ranging from 290 to 419 A . This raises serious doubts on the relevance of the nanoscale spatial variations in the electronic characteristics observed in underdoped Bi-2212 with scanning tunnelling microscopy. As STM is a surface probe, it appears to be that these nanoscale inhomogeneities represent a surface property. Furthermore, in spite of the consensus that in type II superconductors in an applied magnetic field a phase transition to a state of zero resistance should occur, we show that the magnetic finite size effect points to the opposite conclusion. This is in agreement with the work reported in Refs. and .

The paper is organized as follows: In Sec.II we present a short sketch of the finite size scaling theory and show that in isotropic extreme type II superconductors and nonzero magnetic field $`H`$ the correlation length cannot grow beyond the limiting length scale $`L_H=\sqrt{\mathrm{\Phi }_0/\left(aH\right)}`$, where $`a`$ is a universal constant. Since $`a`$ turns out to be of order one, $`L_H`$ is comparable to the average distance between vortex lines. Given this magnetic field induced limiting length scale, we derive the scaling expression for the line $`T_p\left(H\right)`$, along which the correlation length attains the limiting magnetic length scale $`L_H`$. It turns out that close to zero field criticality the ratio between $`T_p\left(H\right)`$ and the melting line $`T_m\left(H\right)`$ is a universal number. These results are then extended to anisotropic type II superconductors. Moreover, we find that the data for temperature and magnetic field dependent specific heat coefficient, properly rescaled, should fall on a single universal curve, which corresponds to the finite size scaling function. In Sec.III we analyze experimental data for the temperature dependence of the specific heat coefficient in various magnetic fields in terms of the inhomogeneity and magnetic field induced finite size effects. We concentrate on under- and optimally doped YBa2Cu3O7-δ, where single crystal data for fields applied parallel and perpendicular to the ab-plane are available  and extend to the critical regime. Accordingly, the full potential of the magnetic field induced finite size effect can be explored. The analysis of the data for the optimally doped sample provides consistent evidence for critical properties falling into 3D-XY universality class, while the data of the underdoped sample uncovers the characteristics of a 3D-2D crossover. Although the mean-field scenario describes the experimental data of various type II superconductors with comparatively large correlation length amplitudes, including MgB2, 2H-NbSe2 and Nb77Zr23, remarkably well, we find that this treatment underestimates the relevance of fluctuations. Indeed, the experimental data for the specific heat coefficient is fully consistent with a magnetic field induced finite size effect, although the critical regime is not attained. As a by-product we obtain for the length scale of the inhomogeneities affecting the thermodynamic properties of YBa2Cu3O7-δ, MgB2, 2H-NbSe2 and Nb77Zr23 lower bounds ranging from $`182`$ A to $`814`$ A. Surprisingly enough, $`814`$ A applies to the cubic superconducting alloy Nb77Zr23. Since the available data does not extend to very low fields larger values are conceivable. This raises serious doubts on the relevance of the nanoscale spatial variations in the electronic characteristics observed in underdoped Bi-2212 with scanning tunnelling microscopy. Although we concentrate on the specific heat, it is shown that the magnetic field induced finite size effect also affects the other thermodynamic and the transport properties, including the magnetoconductivity.

## II Sketch of the scaling theory for the magnetic field induced finite size effect

The finite size scaling theory is based on the assumption that the system feels its finite size when the correlation length becomes of the order of the confining length $`L`$. For a physical quantity $`Q`$ this statement can be expressed as

$$Q(t,L)=Q\left(t,L=\mathrm{}\right)f\left(x\right),$$
(9)
where

$$x=\frac{L}{\xi \left(t,L=\mathrm{}\right)},t=\frac{T}{T_c}1.$$
(10)
$`L`$ denotes the relevant confining length, $`T_c`$ the transition temperature and $`\xi \left(t,L=\mathrm{}\right)`$ the correlation length of the bulk system. Thus, the correlation length, $`\xi ^\pm \left(t,L=\mathrm{}\right)=\xi ^\pm =\xi _0^\pm \left|t\right|^\nu `$, with critical amplitude $`\xi _0^\pm `$, critical exponent $`\nu `$, where $`\pm =\mathrm{sign}(t)`$, cannot grow beyond $`L`$ as $`t0`$. Thus at $`T=T_p`$, where

$$\xi ^\pm \left(T_p\right)=L,$$
(11)
there is no singularity and the transition is rounded. Due to this finite size effect the maximum of the specific heat peak occurs at a temperature $`T_p`$ shifted by

$$\left|t_p\right|=\left|\frac{T_p}{T_c}1\right|=\left(\frac{\xi _0^{}}{L}\right)^{1/\nu }$$
(12)
Given the singular behavior of the specific heat coefficient of the perfect system

$$\frac{c}{T}=\frac{A^\pm }{\alpha }\left|t\right|^\alpha +B^\pm =\frac{1}{\alpha }\left(\frac{R^\pm }{\xi _0^\pm }\right)^3\left|t\right|^\alpha +B^\pm ,$$
(13)
the magnitude of the peak located at $`T_p`$ scales then as

$$\frac{c\left(t_p\right)}{T_p}=\frac{A^{}}{\alpha }\left|t_p\right|^{\alpha /\nu }+B^{}=\frac{1}{\alpha }\frac{\left(R^{}\right)^3}{V_c^{}}\left(\frac{\xi _0^{}}{L}\right)^{\alpha /\nu }+B^\pm .$$
(14)
Here we used the universal relation

$$A^\pm V_c=\left(R^\pm \right)^3,V_c^\pm =\left(\xi _0^\pm \right)^3$$
(15)
between the critical amplitudes of the specific heat coefficient $`A^\pm `$, correlation length and correlation volume $`V_c`$. $`\alpha `$ is the critical exponent of the specific heat singularity and $`R^\pm `$ are universal numbers. Since superconductors fall in the experimentally accessible critical regime into the 3D-XY universality class, with known critical exponents and critical amplitude combinations, we take the universal properties, including

$$\alpha =23\nu =0.013,\nu =0.671,\frac{A^+}{A^{}}=1.07,R^{}=0.815,$$
(16)
for granted. In superconductors the order parameter is a complex scalar for which one has to define below $`T_c`$ the transverse correlation length $`\xi ^T`$. It is proportional to the helicity modulus, related to the London penetration depth via

$$\xi ^T=\frac{16\pi ^3k_BT\lambda ^2}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0^2}.$$
(17)
Since real systems are not only inhomogeneous but are almost always impure, it is important to clarify whether or not quenched disorder affects the critical behavior. In general, the critical behavior of disordered systems is complicated, but there is a criterion, due to Harris . It states that the critical behavior of disordered systems does not differ from that of the pure system when $`\alpha <0`$. This is the case when the critical exponent $`\alpha `$ of the specific heat is negative.

Rewriting Eq.(14) in the form

$$\left(\frac{c\left(T_p\right)}{T_p}B^{}\right)\left(\frac{\xi _0^T}{L}\right)^{\alpha /\nu }=\frac{A^{}}{\alpha }=\frac{1}{\alpha }\frac{\left(R^{}\right)^3}{V_c^{}},V_c^{}=\left(\xi _0^T\right)^3$$
(18)
we realize that the $`L`$ dependence of the specific heat coefficient at $`T_p`$ allows to determine critical amplitude and exponent combinations. A useful generalization of this relation is obtained from Eqs.(9) and (10), namely

$$\left(\frac{c\left(T\right)}{T}B^{}\right)/\left(\frac{A^{}}{\alpha }\left|t\right|^\alpha \right)=g\left(y\right),y=x^{1/\nu }=\left(\frac{L}{\xi }\right)^{1/\nu }=t\left(\frac{L}{\xi _0}\right)^{1/\nu },$$
(19)
where $`g\left(y\right)`$ is the finite size scaling function of its argument. In the limit $`L\mathrm{}`$ and at small but fixed values of $`t`$, $`g\left(\pm y=\mathrm{}\right)=1`$. When we leave $`L`$ fixed and consider the limit $`\pm t0`$, we obtain $`g\left(y\right)\left|y\right|^\alpha `$, while at $`T_p`$, where $`y=y_p=t_p\left(L/\xi _0^T\right)^{1/\nu }=1`$, Eq.(14) requires that $`g\left(1\right)=1`$. This scaling form allows to determine how far the specific heat of a system with restricted extent can be described in terms of a universal scaling function.

The study of finite size effects in the $`\lambda `$-transition of 4He, as the bulk is confined more and more tightly in one or more dimensions, as well as computer simulations of model systems , have been a very good ground for testing such finite size scaling predictions. In this context it is essential to recognize that a finite size scaling analysis allows to assess the importance of critical fluctuations and to extract universal critical point properties of the homogeneous system. Moreover, a systematic analysis also allows to determine the length scale and even the shape of the inhomogeneities.

In type II superconductors and nonzero magnetic field $`H`$ there is an additional limiting length scale. To derive this magnetic length scale we note that the free energy density of an anisotropic type II superconductor adopts below but close to the zero field transition temperature $`T_c`$ the scaling form

$$f_s=\frac{k_BTQ_3^{}}{\xi _x^T\xi _y^T\xi _z^T}G_3^{}(z),G_3^{}(0)=1,z=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}\left(\left(\xi _x^TH_x\right)^2+\left(\xi _y^TH_y\right)^2+\left(\xi _z^TH_z\right)^2\right)^{1/2}.$$
(20)
$`\xi _i^T`$ is the transverse correlation length along direction $`i`$, diverging in zero field as $`\xi _i^T=\xi _{i,0}^T|t|^\nu `$, $`Q_3^{}`$ is a universal number  and $`G_3^{}(z)`$ a universal scaling function of its argument. Furthermore, $`\pm =\mathrm{sign}(t)`$, $`t=T/T_c1`$ and $`𝐇=(H_x,H_y,H_z)`$ is the applied magnetic field. In zero field (i.e. $`z=0`$) one recovers for $`G^{}(0)=1`$ the scaling expression of the 3D XY universality class, leading to the universal relation (15). In the isotropic case ($`\xi _x^T=\xi _y^T=\xi _z^T`$) this scaling form was confirmed by perturbation theory. This scaling should give an adequate description of the physics of extreme type II single crystal superconductors in an intermediate critical regime, where gauge fluctuations are suppressed, leaving a quenched vector potential. In establishing the limiting magnetic length scale we consider the isotropic case, to simplify the notation. In analogy to uniformly rotating superfluid 4He it does not depend on temperature. For this reason we set $`T=T_c`$ so that in zero field $`\xi ^T\left(T_c,H=0\right)=\mathrm{}`$ and for small magnetic fields the scaling variable , while for low magnetic fields the scaling variable $`z=z=\xi ^TH^2/\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ tends to infinity. In this limit $`G^{}\left(z\right)`$ adopts the form

$$G_3^{}(z\mathrm{})=\frac{2C_{\mathrm{}}^{}}{3}z^{3/2}.$$
(21)
where $`C_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ is a universal constant. Substitution into Eq.(20) yields for the singular part of the free energy density the expression

$$f_s=\frac{Q_3^{}k_BT_c}{\left(\xi ^T\right)^3}G_3^{}(z)\frac{2}{3}Q_3^{}C_{\mathrm{}}^{}k_BT_c\left(\frac{H}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}\right)^{3/2}=Q_3^{}\frac{k_BT_c}{L_H^3}=Q_3^{}\frac{k_BT_c}{\left(\xi ^T(T_c,H)\right)^2},$$
(22)
where

$$L_H=\xi ^T(T_c,H)=\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aH}\right)^{1/2},a=\left(\frac{2C_{\mathrm{}}^{}}{3}\right)^{2/3},$$
(23)
and $`a`$ is a universal constant. This relationship between the limiting magnetic length scale and the transverse correlation length is also obtained from the scaling form

$$\left(\xi ^\pm (T,H)\right)^2=\frac{\left|t\right|^{2\nu }}{\left(\xi _0^T\right)^2}S\left(z\right)=\frac{H}{z\mathrm{\Phi }_0}S^{}\left(z\right),S^{}\left(z=0\right)=1.$$
(24)
The divergence of $`\xi ^T(T_c,H)`$ for $`H0`$ requires,

$$S^{}\left(z\mathrm{}\right)=\stackrel{~}{a}z,$$
(25)
so that

$$\left(\xi ^T(T_c,H)\right)^2=\frac{\stackrel{~}{a}H}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}=\frac{\stackrel{~}{a}}{a}L_H^2=L_H^2,$$
(26)
because $`\stackrel{~}{a}/a=1`$ follows from Eq.(22), rewritten in the form $`f_s/\left(k_BT_cQ_3^{}\right)=\xi ^T(T_c,H)^{3\text{ }}=L_H^3`$. Noting that the limiting magnetic length scale $`L_H`$ does not depend on temperature it applies above and below the zero field transition temperature. In particular, below $`T_c`$ the transverse correlation length $`\xi ^T(T,H)`$ is bounded by $`L_H`$,

$$\xi ^T(T,H)L_H.$$
(27)
This implies that in the $`(H,T)`$-phase diagram there is no line of continuous phase transitions requiring $`\xi ^T(T,H)`$ to diverge. Furthermore, in the presence of a weak magnetic field the thermodynamic property, $`O`$, of a type II superconductor takes below $`T_{c\text{ }}`$the scaling form

$$Q(t,H)=Q(t,H=0)G_Q^{}\left(z\right),..z=\frac{aH\left(\xi ^T\right)^2}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}=\left(\frac{\xi ^T}{L_H}\right)^2.$$
(28)
It establishes the connection to the scaling form (9) for a system in a confined geometry of length $`L`$.

In practice there are also inhomogeneities of length scale $`L`$. As aforementioned, two limiting regimes characterized by $`L_H<L,L_H>L`$ (Eq.(7)) can be distinguished. For $`L_H<L`$ the magnetic field induced finite size effect sets the limiting length scale, because $`\xi ^T(T,H)`$ is bounded by $`L_H`$, while for $`L_H>L`$, $`\xi ^T(T,H)`$ is limited by $`L`$, the length scale of the inhomogeneities. Since $`L_H=\sqrt{\mathrm{\Phi }_0/\left(aH\right)}`$ (Eq.(23)), both limits are experimentally accessible. $`L_H<L`$ requires sufficiently large and $`L_H>L`$ small magnetic fields. Moreover, the occurrence of a magnetic field induced finite size effect requires that the magnetic field strength exceeds the lower bound $`H>\mathrm{\Phi }_0/\left(aL^2\right)`$(Eq.(8)). On the contrary its absence up to the field $`H`$ provides a lower bound for the length scale of the inhomogeneities $`L>\sqrt{\mathrm{\Phi }_0/\left(aH\right)}`$ (Eq.(23)).

Supposing that $`L_H<L`$ is satisfied, the singularity in the specific heat is replaced by a broad peak reaching its maximum value at $`T_p<T_c`$ which decreases with increasing field strength. From Eq.(12) we obtain for the shift and with Eq.(14) for the height of the peak in the specific heat coefficient the expressions

$$\left|t_p\right|=\left|\frac{T_p}{T_c}1\right|=\left(\frac{\xi _0^T}{L_H}\right)^{1/\nu }=\left(\frac{\left(\xi _0^T\right)^2a}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}\right)^{1/2\nu }H^{1/2\nu },$$
(29)
and

$$\frac{c\left(T_p\right)}{T_p}=\frac{A^{}}{\alpha }\left|t_p\right|^\alpha +B^{}=\frac{\left(R^{}\right)^3}{\alpha }\left(\xi _0^T\right)^{3\alpha /\nu }\left(\frac{aH}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}\right)^{\alpha /2\nu }+B^{},$$
(30)
respectively. We note that for $`\alpha <0`$ (Eq.(16)) the peak height decreases monotonically even for small fields. Since for fixed magnetic field strength $`H`$, $`\left|t_p\right|\left(\xi _0^T\right)^{1/\nu }`$, while $`c\left(T_p\right)/T_p\left(\xi _0^T\right)^3=V_c^1`$, it becomes clear that the critical regime considered here can be attained in superconductors with sufficiently small correlation length amplitude only. Here$`\left|t_p\right|`$ can be tuned into the experimentally accessible range by increasing the magnetic field, while $`c\left(T_p\right)/T_p`$ is controlled by the small inverse correlation volume.

Since the transverse correlation lengths which are parallel to the applied field are limited by the length scale $`L_H`$, Eq.(29) is readily extended to the anisotropic case for magnetic fields applied parallel to the a, b or c-axis:

$$\left|t_p\right|=\left(\frac{\xi _{0a}^T}{L_{H_a}}\right)^{1/\nu },\left|t_p\right|=\left(\frac{\xi _{0b}^T}{L_{H_b}}\right)^{1/\nu },\left|t_p\right|=\left(\frac{\xi _{0c}^T}{L_{H_a}}\right)^{1/\nu }$$
(31)
where

$$L_{H_a}^2=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aH_a},L_{H_b}^2=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aH_b},L_{H_c}^2=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aH_c}.$$
(32)
The specific heat coefficient at $`T_p`$ adopts then the form given by Eq.(5) with the correlation volume appropriate for the anisotropic case. This behavior applies when the condition $`L_H<L`$ (Eq.(7)), extended to the anisotropic case,

$$L_{H_a}^2<L_bL_c,L_{H_b}^2<L_aL_c,L_{H_c}^2<L_aL_b,$$
(33)
is satisfied. $`L_i`$, $`i=(a,b,c)`$ denote the length scales of the sample inhomogeneities. Accordingly, the occurrence of a magnetic field induced finite size effect requires that the magnetic field strength exceeds the lower bounds

$$H_a>\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aL_bL_c},H_b>\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aL_aL_c},H_c>\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aL_aL_b}.$$
(34)
Otherwise the finite size effect is due to inhomogeneities. When the magnetic field induced finite size effect dominates, the scaling form (19) of the specific heat coefficient adopts then with Eq.(31) or Eq.(28) the form,

$$\left(\frac{c(t,H_c)}{T}B^{}\right)/\left(\frac{A^{}}{\alpha }\left|t\right|^\alpha \right)=g\left(y\right),y=t\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aH_c\left(\xi _{0c}^T\right)^2}\right)^{1/2\nu }.$$
(35)
Accordingly, given estimates for $`A^{}/\alpha `$, $`B^{}`$ and $`\xi _{0c}^T`$, determined from experimental zero field data or the magnetic field dependence of $`t_p`$ (Eq.(31)), their consistency can be checked in terms of this scaling relation. Consistency is achieved whenever the data for the specific heat coefficient in a magnetic field, plotted according to Eq.(35), falls on a single curve, which is the scaling function $`g\left(y\right)`$. At $`T_p`$, where $`y=y_p=1`$, we have $`g\left(1\right)=1`$ and Eq.(18) is recovered, while for $`\pm y0`$ it diverges as $`g\left(y\right)\left|y\right|^\alpha `$ for $`\alpha <0`$.

At the first-order melting transition there is a discontinuity in the internal energy associated with coexistence of the Abrikosov lattice and the vortex liquid. This in turn gives rise to a $`\delta `$-function peak in the specific heat and to a singularity in the scaling function $`G_3^{}(z)`$ of the free energy density (Eq.(20)) at some universal value $`z_m`$ of its argument. According to Eq.(20) the melting line $`T_m\left(H_i\right)`$ is then fixed by

$$\left|t_m\left(H_i\right)\right|=\left(\frac{H_i\left(\xi _{0i}^T\right)^2}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0z_m}\right)^{1/2\nu }.$$
(36)
On the other hand there is the $`T_p\left(H_i\right)`$, where $`\xi _i^T(H_i,T)`$ attains the limiting magnetic length scale $`L_{H_i}`$. Using Eqs.(31) and (32) we find

$$\left|t_p\left(H_i\right)\right|=\left(\frac{aH_i\left(\xi _{0i}^T\right)^2}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}\right)^{1/2\nu },$$
(37)
and the ratio

$$\frac{\left|t_p\left(H_i\right)\right|}{\left|t_m\left(H_i\right)\right|}=\left(az_m\right)^{1/2\nu },$$
(38)
turns out to be universal. Because a limiting length scale, like $`L_H`$ $`H^{1/2}`$, also leads to a rounding of first-order transitions, the vortex melting transition is expected to broaden with increasing magnetic field.

We we are now prepared to analyze experimental data in terms of the finite size scaling theory.

## III Comparison with experiment

We have seen that measurements of thermodynamic properties in an applied magnetic field open a rather direct route to trace thermal fluctuations, to estimate various critical properties, to derive an upper bounds for the length scales associated with inhomogeneities, to assess the relevance of critical fluctuations and to probe the interplay of the finite size effects stemming from sample inhomogeneities and the applied magnetic field. In particular, the relevance of thermal fluctuations is established whenever there is a remnant of the zero field singularity at $`T_p`$, shifting to a lower value with increasing magnetic field strength. In this case condition (31) is satisfied and the field dependence of the relative shift $`t_p`$ should evolve according to Eq.(37). However, due to unavoidable inhomogeneities the available experimental data do not extend to the asymptotic critical regime, as required to deduce estimates for the critical exponents. Since type II superconductors fall in the experimentally accessible critical regime into the 3D-XY universality class, we take the critical exponents and critical amplitude combinations, listed in Eq.(16), for granted.

In Fig.1 we displayed the data of Schilling *et al.* for the temperature dependence of the heat coefficient of a YBa2Cu3O7-δ single crystal with $`T_c=91.87`$ K at various magnetic fields applied parallel to the c-axis ($`H_c`$). As a remnant of the zero field singularity, there is for fixed field strength a broad peak adopting its maximum at $`T_p`$ which is located below $`T_c`$. As $`T_p`$ approaches $`T_c`$, the peak becomes sharper with decreasing $`H`$ and evolves smoothly to the zero-field singularity, smeared by the inhomogeneity induced finite size effect. The spike at $`T_m<T_p`$ is due to the melting transition. Since $`T_p`$ increases systematically with increasing field, condition (33) is satisfied and there is a magnetic field induced finite size effect. Accordingly Eq.(37) for the field dependence of the relative shift should apply as long as 3D critical fluctuations dominate. In Fig.2 we displayed $`t_p`$ versus $`H`$ for the data shown in Fig.1. The solid line is Eq.(37) with

$$\left|t_p\right|=0.012H_c^{1/2\nu },$$
(39)
$`H`$ in T and $`\nu `$ given by Eq.(16). In the low field regime, where this asymptotic form applies it describes the data remarkably well, while for $`\left|t_p\right|0.04`$ deviations pointing to corrections to scaling become manifest. To fix the universal constant $`a`$ entering Eq.(23) we use for $`\xi _{0c}^T`$ the estimate $`\xi _{0c}^T=\sqrt{\xi _{a0}^{}\xi _{b0}^{}}=\sqrt{12.414.7}=13.5`$A, derived from magnetic torque measurements, Eqs.(37) and (39) then yield for the universal constant $`a`$ entering the limiting length scales the estimate

$$a3.12.$$
(40)
In 4He this value leads with $`L_\mathrm{\Omega }=\sqrt{h/\left(2am_4\mathrm{\Omega }\right)}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\left(2\pi \right)^1`$s-1 to $`L_\mathrm{\Omega }5`$ $`10^2`$cm, which compares reasonably well with $`5`$ $`10^2`$cm, the estimate derived by Haussmann. Since at the lowest attained magnetic field, $`H_c=1`$T, (see Fig.1) a shift from $`T_c`$ to $`T_p`$ occurs, Eq.(37) yields for the inhomogeneities in the ab–plane the lower bound $`L_{ab}>257A`$, which is close to the estimates derived from the finite size effect in the zero field specific heat coefficient of untwined YBa2Cu3O7-δ single crystals .

The existence of the first order melting transition of the vortex lattice, seen in Fig.1 in terms of the spikes with numbers on the top, implies that the scaling function $`G_3^{}(z)`$ in the free energy density (Eq.(20)) exhibits at some universal value $`z_m`$ of its argument a smeared singularity. For a magnetic field applied along the c-axis the melting line is then given by Eq.(37). In Fig.2b we compare this prediction with the experimental melting line, derived from the data shown in Fig.1, in terms of the solid line, which is

$$\left|t_m\right|=0.029H_c^{1/2\nu }.$$
(41)
Together with $`\xi _{0c}^T=13.5`$A, the value used to estimate $`a`$ (Eq.(LABEL:Eq38)), we obtain for the universal value of $`z_m`$ the estimate

$$z_m0.1.$$
(42)
Since a limiting length scale, like $`L_H`$ $`H^{1/2}`$, leads also to a rounding of first-order transitions, the vortex melting transition is expected to become broader with increasing magnetic field. This behavior appears to be confirmed by the extended study of the vortex melting transition in YBa2Cu3O7-δ single crystals of Roulin *et al.*.

To explore variations between data and single crystals of different provenance we show in Fig.3 tp versus $`H_{ab}`$ and $`H_c`$ for YBa2Cu3O6.9 single crystal with $`T_c=92.56`$K derived from the data of Roulin *et al.*. The solid lines are

$$\left|t_p\left(H_{ab}\right)\right|=0.0033H_{ab}^{1/2\nu },\left|t_p\left(H_c\right)\right|=0.0132H_c^{1/2\nu },$$
(43)
corresponding to Eq.(37) with $`H`$ in T and $`\nu `$ given by Eq.(16). They yield with $`a=3.12`$ (Eq.(40)) the estimates

$$\xi _{0ab}^T=5.7\text{A},\xi _{0c}^T=14.4\text{A, }V_c^{}=\left(\xi _{0ab}^T\right)^2\xi _{0c}^T=469\text{A}^3$$
(44)
Since at the lowest attained fields $`H_c=0.25`$T and $`H_{ab}=2`$T a shift from $`T_c`$ to $`T_p`$ is still present, we derive from Eq.(34) for the length scales of the sample inhomogeneities the lower bounds

$$L_{ab}>515\text{A},\sqrt{L_{ab}L_c}>182\text{A}.$$
(45)
The reported specific heat data also revealed melting lines consistent with the scaling form (37), namely

$$\left|t_m\left(H_{ab}\right)\right|=0.008H_{ab}^{1/2\nu },\left|t_m\left(H_c\right)\right|=0.032H_c^{1/2\nu },$$
(46)
with $`\nu =2/3`$, which is close to the 3D-XY value (Eq.(16)). Together with the expressions for the $`t_p\left(H_i\right)`$ lines (Eq.(43)) we obtain for the universal ratio $`\left|t_p\left(H_i\right)\right|/\left|t_m\left(H_i\right)\right|=\left(az_m\right)^{1/2\nu }`$ (Eq.38)) the estimates, $`\left|t_p\left(H_{ab}\right)\right|/\left|t_m\left(H_{ab}\right)\right|=0.41`$ and $`\left|t_p\left(H_c\right)\right|/\left|t_m\left(H_c\right)\right|=0.42`$, which agree with $`\left(az_m\right)^{1/2\nu }=\left(\mathrm{3.12\; 0.1}\right)^{3/4}`$, derived from the independent estimates for $`a`$ (Eq.(40) and $`z_m`$ (Eq.(42)).

As the data of Roulin *et al.* are rather dense and extend close to zero field criticality, a more detailed finite size scaling analysis appears to be feasible. Using Eq.(35), it is seen from Fig.4a that data collapse is obtained over a rather wide range of the scaling variable. Indeed, finite size scaling requires the data to collapse on the universal curve $`g\left(y\right)`$ with $`y=t\left(\mathrm{\Phi }_0/\left(aH_c\left(\xi _{0c}^T\right)^2\right)\right)^{1/2\nu }`$. Furthermore, scaling also requires that at $`T_p`$, where $`y=y_p=1`$, and for $`\pm y0`$, $`g\left(1\right)=1`$ and $`g\left(y\right)\left|y\right|^{\left|\alpha \right|}`$ for $`\alpha <0`$ should hold, respectively. Using $`\xi _{0c}^T=14.4`$A (Eq.(44)), it is seen from Fig.4a that at $`y_p`$, where $`\left|t\right|/H_c^{1/2}=0.013`$, the scaling function is close to $`1`$, as required. In addition, the solid line which is

$$\frac{c(T,H_c)/TB^{}}{\left(A^{}\left|t\right|^\alpha /\alpha \right)}=0.957\left(\frac{t}{H_c^{1/2}}\right)^\alpha ,$$
(47)
also confirms the divergence of the scaling function at $`\pm y=0`$. To qualify the remarkable collapse of the data we note that the estimates for $`\stackrel{~}{A}^{}=A^{}/\alpha `$ and $`B^{}`$ have been derived from the zero field data displayed in Fig.4b. The solid line for $`t<0`$ is Eq.(13) with

$$\frac{A^{}}{\alpha }=\stackrel{~}{A}^{}=0.073\text{(J/K}^2\text{gat)},B^{}=0.179\text{(J/K}^2\text{gat), }B^+=0.181\text{(J/K}^2\text{gat), }T_c=92.56\text{K}$$
(48)
and the critical exponent $`\alpha `$ listed in Eq.(16), to indicate the inhomogeneity induced deviations from the leading zero field critical behavior of perfect YBa2Cu3O6.9. Since the data collapse onto the universal finite scaling function has been achieved without any arbitrary fitting parameter, the consistency with the magnetic field induced finite size scenario is well confirmed. Furthermore, Fig.4b shows how the broad anomaly in the specific heat coefficient sharpens and that the maximum height at $`T_p\left(H_c\right)`$ increases, evolving smoothly to the zero field peak, rounded by inhomogeneities.

To estimate the correlation volume from the specific heat coefficient in terms of the universal relation Eq.(15) we note that $`A^{}=T_c\alpha `$ $`\stackrel{~}{A}^{}`$, $`A^{}`$(cm-3)$`=\left(10^4/k_B/V_{gat}\right)A^{}`$(mJ/K/cm3) and $`V_{gat}=8`$cm3 give $`A^{}=\mathrm{7.96\; 10}^4`$A-3, yielding with $`R^{}=0.815`$ (Eq.(16)) the correlation volume $`V_c^{}680`$A3, which is reasonably close to the value derived from the magnetic field induced finite size effect (Eq.(44)). As in zero field the correlation volume $`V_c^{}\left|t_p\right|^{3\nu }`$ cannot grow beyond the volume $`V_i`$ of the inhomogeneities, this limiting volume scale is obtained from

$$V_i=V_c^{}\left|t_p\right|^{3\nu }.$$
(49)
and $`t_p`$ evaluated in zero field. With $`V_c^{}=469`$A3 (Eq.(44)) and $`\left|t_p\right|=0.0025`$ taken from Fig.4b, we obtain the estimates $`V_i=\mathrm{7.5\; 10}^7`$A3 and $`V_i^{1/3}=422`$A which is consistent with the aforementioned lower bounds listed in Eq.(45).

Noting that the critical amplitudes, the anisotropy $`\gamma `$ $`=\left(\xi _{ab0}^T/\xi _{c0}^T\right)^{1/2}`$ and the length scale of the inhomogeneities depend on the dopant concentration it is instructive to analyze the data of Junod *et al.*  for underdoped YBa2Cu3O6.6 with $`T_c=64.2`$K and $`\gamma 20`$. In Fig.5 we displayed the data for $`\left|t_p\right|`$ versus $`H_c`$ together with

$$\left|t_p\left(H_c\right)\right|=0.045H_c^{1/2\nu },$$
(50)
corresponding to Eq.(37) with $`H`$ in T and $`\nu `$ given by Eq.(16). It yields with $`a=3.12`$ (Eq.(40)) the estimate

$$\xi _{0c}^T=32.6\text{A,}$$
(51)
compared to $`\xi _{0c}^T=14.4`$ A (Eq.(44)) obtained close to optimum doping. Thus, the critical amplitude of the correlation length $`\xi _{0c}^T`$ increases in the underdoped regime, reflecting the approach to the 2D quantum superconductor to insulator transition in the underdoped limit, where $`\gamma `$ tends to infinity. Typically, the leading scaling behavior becomes valid when $`\left|t\right|`$ becomes small and $`H`$ is small. However, one needs to know: How small is small enough? As there are corrections to the leading scaling behavior we know, when $`\left|t\right|`$ is no longer small, the temperature dependence of the transverse correlation length scales as

$$\xi _c^T\left(t\right)=\xi _{0c}^T|t|^\nu (1+a_{\xi _c^T}|t|^{\omega \nu }+..)$$
(52)
where $`\omega \nu `$ is the correction to scaling exponent, adopting in the 3D-XY universality class the value

$$\omega \nu =0.53.$$
(53)
The dimensionless correction amplitude $`a_{\xi ^T}`$will in general become larger near a crossover. As YBa2Cu3O7-δ undergoes with reduced oxygen concentration a 3D-2D crossover, $`a_{\xi _c^T}`$ is expected to increase, while the critical regime where the leading term dominates shrinks. To substantiate this expectation and to illustrate the effect of the corrections to scaling, we set $`\xi _c^T(T,H)=L_{H_c}`$, to obtain with Eqs.(31) and (32) for $`H_c\left(t_p\right)`$ the expression

$$H_c\left(t_p\right)=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{a\left(\xi _{0c}^T\right)^2}\left|t_p\right|^{2\nu }\left(1+a_{\xi _c^T}\left|t_p\right|^{\omega \nu }\right)^2.$$
(54)
A fit to the experimental data shown in Fig.5b yields

$$H_c=33.97\left|t_p\right|^{2\nu }\left(11.61\left|t_p\right|^{\omega \nu }\right)^2,$$
(55)
with $`\nu `$ and $`\omega \nu `$ given by Eqs.(16) and (53), respectively. This gives $`\xi _{0c}^T=40.86`$A which is considerably larger than $`\xi _{0c}^T=32.6`$A, the value derived without the correction to scaling. On the contrary, a fit to the data displayed in Fig.3b yields $`H_c=319.66\left|t_p\right|^{2\nu }\left(10.014\left|t_p\right|^{\omega \nu }\right)^2`$, revealing that close to optimum doping the correction is up to $`\left|t_p\right|=0.04`$ negligibly small, while in the underdoped sample it is significant down to $`\left|t_p\right|=0.02`$. This confirms the expectation whereupon the 3D-2D crossover in the underdoped regime enhances the correction to scaling and reduces the critical regime where the leading scaling term dominates. From the data of Junod *et al.*  we also deduce that at the lowest attained field, $`H_c=0.2`$T, a shift from $`T_c`$ to $`T_p`$ occurs. This yields with Eq.(34) the lower bound

$$\sqrt{L_aL_b}>576\text{A}$$
(56)
compared to $`515`$ A, the value close to optimum doping (Eq.(45)).

Next we turn to Nb77Zr23, 2H-NbSe2 and MgB2, type II superconductors supposed to have comparative large correlation volumes. In Fig.6 we displayed $`\left|t_p\right|`$ versus $`H`$ derived from the respective experimental data. In contrast to the corresponding plot for nearly optimally YBa2Cu3O7-δ (Fig.3), the data points to a linear relationship. Consequently, the critical regime, where $`\left|t_p\right|`$ $``$ $`H^{1/2\nu \text{ }}`$with $`\nu 2/3`$ holds (Eq.(37)), is not attained. Nevertheless, there is clear evidence for a magnetic field induced finite size effect, because $`T_p`$ shifts monotonically to a lower value with increasing magnetic field. Since the data points to an effective critical exponent $`\nu 1/2`$ which applies over an unexpectedly extended range, we use Eq.(37) with $`\nu =1/2`$ to derive estimates for the amplitude of the respective transverse correlation lengths and the correlation volume in terms of

$$\left|t_p\right|=b_iH_i=\frac{\left(\xi _{0i}^T\right)^2}{L_{H_i}^2}=\frac{aH_i\left(\xi _{0i}^T\right)^2}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0},$$
(57)
with $`a=3.12`$ (Eq.(40). The respective straight lines in Fig.6 are this relation with the parameters listed in Table I. For comparison we included the corresponding parameters for YBa2Cu3O6.9 and YBa2Cu3O6.6 where the critical regime is attained. It is evident that Nb77Zr23, 2H-NbSe and MgB2 are type II superconductors with comparatively large correlation lengths. Compared to YBa2Cu3O6.9 and YBa2Cu3O6.6 the correlation volume is 3 orders of magnitude larger, which renders the amplitude of the specific heat singularity very weak (see Eq.(13). Nevertheless, the unambiguous evidence for the magnetic field induced finite size effect reveals that fluctuations, even though not critical, are at work. For this reason there is no critical line $`T_{c2}\left(H\right)`$ of continuous phase transitions, but a line $`T_p\left(H\right)`$ where the specific heat peak, broadening and decreasing with increasing field, adopts its maximum value and the correlation length attains the limiting magnetic length scale $`L_H`$. Because the fluctuations are also subject to the finite size effect arising from inhomogeneities with length scale $`L`$, the magnetic finite size effect is observable as long as $`L>L_H`$. The resulting lower bounds for the length scale of inhomogeneities affecting the thermodynamic properties are also included in Table I. Noting that these bounds stem from studies where no attempt was made to explore the low field behavior, it is conceivable that the actual length scale of the inhomogeneities is much larger. To our best knowledge, the only absolute reference stems from the finite size scaling analysis of the zero field specific heat data of nearly optimally doped YBa2Cu3O7-δ, where $`L`$ was found to range from $`290`$ to $`419`$A . Interestingly enough, the largest bound found here applies to the cubic superconducting alloy Nb77Zr23. In any case, the lower bounds ranging from $`182`$ to $`814`$A raise serious doubts on the relevance of the nanoscale spatial variations in the electronic characteristics observed in underdoped Bi-2212 with scanning tunnelling microscopy.

|  | $`T_c`$(K) | $`b,b_{ab}`$ | $`b_c`$ | $`\xi _0^T,\xi _{0ab}^T`$(A) | $`\xi _{0c}^T`$(A) | V$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{c}{}^{}`$(A3) | $`L,L_{ab}`$(A) | $`\sqrt{L_{ab}L_c}`$(A) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nb77Zr23 | $`10.79`$ | $`0.1`$ | $``$ | $`55.1`$ | $``$ | $`\mathrm{1.7\; 10}^5`$ | $`>814`$ | $``$ |
| 2H-NbSe2 | $`7.1`$ | $`0.068`$ | $`0.22`$ | $`42.91`$ | $`93.87`$ | $`\mathrm{1.7\; 10}^5`$ | $`>258`$ | $`>258`$ |
| MgB2 | $`35`$ | $`0.09`$ | $`0.28`$ | $`51.73`$ | $`110.24`$ | $`\mathrm{2.9\; 10}^5`$ | $`>364`$ | $`>258`$ |
| YBa2Cu3O6.95 | $`92.56`$ | $`0.0033`$ | $`0.0132`$ | $`5.7`$ | $`14.4`$ | $`\mathrm{4.7\; 10}^2`$ | $`>515`$ | $`>182`$ |
| YBa2Cu3O6.6 | $`64.2`$ | $``$ | $`0.045`$ | $``$ | $`32.6`$ | $``$ | $`>576`$ | $``$ |

Table I: Summary of the estimates for the transverse correlation length amplitudes, correlation volume $`V_c=\left(\xi _{0ab}^T\right)^2\xi _{0c}^T`$, lower bounds for the length scales $`L_{ab}`$ and $`\sqrt{L_{ab}L_c}`$ of inhomogeneities, derived from the magnetic field induced finite size effect. For Nb77Zr23, 2H-NbSe2 and MgB2 we used Eq.(57), describing the intermediate critical behavior displayed in Fig.6. Using the fact that at the lowest attained magnetic fields, $`H=0.1`$T (Nb77Zr23) , $`H_{ab}=H_c=1`$T (2H-NbSe2)  and $`H_{ab}=1`$T, $`H_c=0.5`$T (MgB2), a shift from $`T_c`$ to $`T_p`$ was observed, we obtain with Eq.(34) the quoted lower bounds for the length scale of the inhomogeneities which affect the thermodynamic properties. For YBa2Cu3O7-δ the estimates stem from the critical behavior shown in Figs.3 and 5, quoted in Eqs.(43), (44), (50) and (51), and the lower bounds are Eqs.(45) and (56).

The occurrence of fluctuations in type II superconductors with comparatively large correlation lengths also implies a rounding of the specific heat peak in zero field, where inhomogeneities set the limiting length scale. Such a rounding was found in the specific heat data of polycrystalline Mg11B2, obtained with high resolution ac calorimetry. Further evidence for the relevance of fluctuations can be deduced from the specific heat coefficient at $`T_p`$. In Fig.7 we show the experimental data for Nb77Zr23. For comparison we included Eq.(2) in the form

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }c(H,T_p)}{T_p}=c\left(1bH\right)$$
(58)
with the parameters

$$c=18.1\text{mJ/K}^2\text{gat, }b=0.12\text{T}^1.$$
(59)
Here fluctuations enter via the coefficient $`b`$ (Eq.(57)). For $`H>0.2`$T the data is consistent with a linear relationship and the coefficient $`b`$ derived from the field dependence of $`T_p`$ (see Table I). The difference between the zero field value $`\mathrm{\Delta }c\left(H=0,T_c\right)/T_cc=21`$mJ/K2gat and the limit $`\mathrm{\Delta }c\left(H0,T_p\right)/T_p`$ $`=c=18.1`$mJ/K2gat is due to the triangular vortex lattice, for which the ratio between these coefficients should be $`1.16`$.

Although we concentrated hitherto on the specific heat, it should be kept in mind that the magnetic field induced finite size effect also affects other thermodynamic and the transport properties, including the magnetoconductivity. As an example we consider the linear magentoconductivity of a bulk sample. In the isotropic case the fluctuation contribution scales in zero field as $`\sigma \left(\xi ^T\right)^{z1}`$, where $`z`$ is the dynamic critical exponent. Together with the evidence for static 3D-XY critical exponents there is mounting evidence for $`z=2`$  deduced from zero field data of the fluctuation contribution to the conductivity. In the presence of a magnetic field we obtain from Eq.(28) the scaling form

$$\sigma \left(\xi ^T\right)^{z1}F(y),\text{ }y=\frac{aH\left(\xi ^T\right)^2}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}=\left(\frac{\xi ^T}{L_H}\right)^2$$
(60)
where $`F(y)`$ is a universal scaling function of its argument Since in an applied field the correlation length cannot grow beyond $`L_H`$, there is at $`T_p`$ the residual conductivity

$$\sigma \left(H_p\right)\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{aH_p}\right)^{\left(z1\right)/2}F(1),$$
(61)
where, using Eq.(23),

$$H_p\left(T\right)=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{a\xi _0^2}t^{2\nu }=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{a\xi _0^2}\left(1\frac{T}{T_c}\right)^{2\nu },$$
(62)
This implies that type II superconductors in a magnetic field do not undergo a phase transition to a state with zero resistance. In particular there is no resistive upper critical field $`H_{c2}\left(T\right)`$. It is replaced by the line $`H_p\left(T\right)`$ where the resistivity attains the residual value $`\rho \left(H_p\right)=1/\sigma \left(H_p\right)`$. A characteristic feature is the positive curvature, $`d^2H_p\left(T\right)/dT^2>0`$, for $`\nu >1/2`$. This anomalous behavior has been found in a variety of cuprate superconductors and close to $`T_c`$ the data appears to be consistent with $`2\nu 4/3`$, the value for 3D-XY critical behavior (Eq.(16)).

To summarize, we have shown that in type II superconductors subject to a magnetic field the correlation lengths cannot grow beyond the magnetic length scale $`L_H`$. Invoking the finite size scaling theory and the scaling form of the of the scaling form of the free energy density of an anisotropic type II superconductor close to zero field criticality we determined $`L_H`$ and explored the resulting finite size effect. In contrast to its inhomogeneity induced counterpart, arising from inhomogeneities with length scale $`L`$, $`L_HH^{1/2}`$ can be varied continuously in terms of the magnetic field strength. Thus, as long as $`L>L_H`$ the magnetic field induced finite size effect is observable and allows to assess the importance of fluctuations, to extract critical point properties of the homogeneous system and to derive a lower bound for the length scale of inhomogeneities which affect thermodynamic properties. Our analysis of specific heat data for under- and optimally doped YBa2Cu3O7-δ, where the critical regime is attained, revealed remarkable agreement with the finite size scaling scenario. On the other hand the existence of the limiting magnetic length scale does have even away from the regime where critical fluctuations dominate essential consequences. Since the correlation length $`\xi ^T`$ cannot grow beyond $`L_H`$, there is no critical line $`H_{c2}\left(T\right)`$ retaining the continuous character of the zero field transition. To illustrate this point we considered MgB2, 2H-NbSe2 and Nb77Zr23, type II superconductors with comparatively large correlation lengths. Although the analyzed experimental data do not extend to the critical regime, we have shown that there is a magnetic field induced finite size effect and with that fluctuations at work. Furthermore, lower bounds for the inhomogeneities affecting the thermodynamic properties have been derived. Their length scales range from $`182`$ A to $`814`$ A. Since the available data does not extend to low fields, much larger values are conceivable. This raises serious doubts on the relevance of the nanoscale spatial variations in the electronic characteristics observed with scanning tunnelling microscopy. In any case, we have shown that the various predictions we have made here are experimentally verifiable. In particular, the analogy with finite size scaling is robust and it should be possible to determine in exactly what regions the data collapses onto a one-variable scaling formulation and to what extent corrections to scaling can describe any deviations. Furthermore, in spite of the consensus that in type II superconductors in an applied magnetic field a phase transition to a state of zero resistance should occur, we have shown that the magnetic finite size effect points to the opposite conclusion. This is in agreement with the work reported in Refs. and .

We thank H. Angst, H. Keller and C. Meingast for useful comments and suggestions.