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# Diversity Evolution

## Introduction

During the Phanerozoic (540Mya–present), the diversity of the biosphere (total number of species, also known as biodiversity) has increased dramatically. The trend is most clear for intermediate taxonomic levels (families and orders), as fossil species data is too incomplete and higher taxonomic levels (phylum and class diversity) have been fairly constant since the Paleozoic. A recent review is given by Benton(2001). The most completely documented diversity trend is amongst marine animals, which exhibits a plateau during the Paleozoic (540-300Mya), followed by an accelerating diversity curve since the end of the Permian. The corresponding trend amongst continental, or land animals is characterised by a clear exponential growth since the first species colonised dry land during the Ordovician. Benton argues that the terrestrial trend is more characteristic than the marine trend, owing to the far greater diversity shown amongst land animals, even though the marine fossil record is more complete. Similar trends have been reported for plants(?).

Bedau et al.(1998) introduced a couple of measures to capture the amount of adaptation happening in a general evolutionary system. The basic idea is to compare the dynamics of the system with a neutral shadow system in which adaptation is destroyed by randomly mixing adaptive benefits amongst the components of the system (think of the effects ultra-Marxism might have on an economy!). The amount of adaptive activity (numbers of each component in excess of the shadow model integrated over time) and adaptive creativity (numbers of speciations per unit time exceeding a threshold of activity) is measured. Bedau has also introduced a general neutral shadow model that obviates the need to generate one on a case by case basis(?).

Using these measures, it is possible to distinguish 3 classes of activity:

1. unadaptive evolution, when the mutation rate is so high that organisms have insufficient time to have their adaption tested before being killed off by another mutation
2. adapted but uncreative evolution, when species are highly adapted, but mutation is so low that ecosystems remain in perpetual equilibrium
3. creative, adaptive evolution, when new species continuously enter the system, and undergo natural selection

The Biosphere appears to be generating open ended novelty — not only is it creative, but it is unboundedly creative. Evidence for this exists in the form of the intricate variety of mechanisms with which different organisms interact with each other and the environment, and also in the sheer diversity of species on the planet. Whilst there is no clear trend to increasing organismal complexity(?), there is the clear trend to increasing diversity mentioned above, which is likely to be correlated with ecosystem complexity. Bedau takes diversity as a third evolutionary measure, and distinguishes between bounded and unbounded creative evolution, according to whether diversity is bounded or not. All artificial evolutionary systems examined to date have, when creative, exhibited bounded behaviour111Channon(2001) claims his Geb artificial life system exhibits unbounded creative behaviour. This was also the case of the EcoLab model (?). Bedau has laid down a challenge to the artificial life community to create an unbounded, creative evolutionary system.

## Ecosystem Complexity

The heart of the idea of unbounded creative evolutionary activity is the creation and storage of information. The natural measure of this process is information based complexity, which is defined in the most general form in(?). The notion, drawing upon Shannon entropy and Kolmogorov complexity(?) is as follows:

A language $`_1=(S,\mu )`$, is a countable set of possible descriptions $`S`$, and a map $`\mu :S\{0,1\}`$. We say that $`s,s^{}S`$ have the same meaning iff $`\mu (s,s^{})=1`$. Denote the length of $`s`$ as $`\mathrm{}(s)`$ and $`S_n=\{sS:\mathrm{}(s)=n\}`$. The information content (or complexity) of a description $`s`$ is given by:

$$𝒞(s)=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}\mathrm{log}_2\frac{\mathrm{card}(\{s^{}S_n:\mu (s,s^{})=1\})}{\mathrm{card}(S_n)}$$
(1)
In the usual case where the interpreter (which defines $`\mu `$) only examines a finite number of symbols to determine a string’s meaning, $`C(s)`$ is bounded above by $`\mathrm{}(s)\mathrm{log}_2B`$ where $`B`$ is the size of the alphabet. This is equivalent to the notion of prefix codes in algorithmic information theory.

Now consider how one might measure the complexity of an ecosystem. Diversity is like a count of the number of parts of a system — it is similar to measuring the complexity of a motor car by counting the number of parts that make it up. But then a junkyard of car parts has the same complexity as the car that might be built from the parts. In the case of ecosystems, we expect the interactions between species to be essential information that should be recorded in the complexity measure. But a simple naive counting of food web connections is also problematic, since how do we know which connections are significant to a functioning ecology?

To put the matter on a more systematic footing, consider a tolerance $`\epsilon `$ such that $`x,y`$ are considered identical if $`|xy|<\epsilon `$. Now two different population dynamics $`\dot{x}=f(x)`$ and $`\dot{x}=f^{}(x)`$, where

$$x^{n+}\{x^n:x_i0\},$$

can be considered identical (i.e. $`\mu (f,f^{})=1`$ iff222As an anonymous referee pointed out, trajectories decsribed by $`f`$ and $`f^{}`$ may diverge exponentially in time, and that a better definition of equivalence would also require similarity of the attractor sets as well. The results derived here would only be a lower bound of the ecosystem complexity under this more refined definition of equivalence.

$$|f(x)f^{}(x)|_{\mathrm{}}<\epsilon ,x^{n+}.$$
(2)
At this point for the sake of concreteness, let us consider Lotka-Volterra dynamics:

$$\dot{𝐱}=𝐫𝐱+𝐱\beta 𝐱$$
(3)
where $``$ refers to elementwise multiplication, $`𝐫`$ is the net population growth rate and $`\beta `$ is the matrix of interspecific interaction terms.

Over evolutionary time, the growth coefficients $`r_i`$, the self-interaction coefficients $`\beta _{ii}`$ and the interspecific interaction coefficients $`\beta _{ij},ij`$ form particular statistical distributions $`p_r(r_i),p_d(\beta _{ii})`$ and $`p_o(\beta _{ij})`$ repectively.

Since inequality (2) must hold over all of the positive cone $`^{n+}`$, it must hold for population density vectors $`|x|1`$ and $`|x|1`$. In which case eq. (2) can be broken into independent component conditions on $`𝐫`$ and $`\beta `$ can be written:

$`|r_ir_i^{}|`$ $``$ $`\epsilon ,i`$ (4)
$`𝜷𝜷^{}_{\mathrm{}}`$ $``$ $`\epsilon .`$ (5)
Since these conditions are independent, they contribute additively to the overall complexity (1). The term for the growth coefficients is given by:

$`𝒞_r`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{log}_2{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle _{|r_ir_i^{}|\epsilon }}p_r(r_i^{})𝑑r_i^{}`$ (6)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \mathrm{log}_2p_r(r_i)}D\mathrm{log}_22\epsilon `$
where $`\epsilon 1`$, and $`D`$ is the ecosystem diversity.

The complexity term for the interaction terms is given by

$`𝒞_\beta `$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{log}_2{\displaystyle _{_j|\beta _{ij}\beta _{ij}^{}|<\epsilon }}{\displaystyle \underset{ij}{}}p_o(\beta _{ij}^{}){\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}p_d(\beta _{ij}^{}){\displaystyle \underset{i,j}{}}d\beta _{ij}^{}`$ (7)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{ij}{}}\mathrm{log}_2p_o(\beta _{ij})+{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\mathrm{log}_2p_d(\beta _{ii})+`$
$`D^2\mathrm{log}_22\epsilon 1`$
If $`\epsilon `$ is chosen very small, the total ecosystem complexity is proportional to $`D^2`$. This is because the zeros of the interaction matrix are encoding information. However, if $`\epsilon =\frac{1}{2p_o(0)}`$, then (7) becomes:

$$𝒞_\beta =D^2C\mathrm{log}_2p_o(\beta _{ij})+D\mathrm{log}_2p_d(\beta _{ii})+o(D)$$
(8)
This gives flesh to our intuitive notion that complexity should somehow be proportional to the number of connections making up the food web.

Empirically, Lotka-Volterra dynamics has been shown to exhibit an inverse relationship between connectivity and diversity $`DC^1`$(?). May(1972) demonstrated this relationship in connection with dynamical stability. However, it seems unlikely that an ecology undergoing evolution is often stable. If this result holds more generally, it implies that complexity is directly proportional to diversity, so that diversity indeed is a good proxy for ecosystem complexity. Although earlier foodweb studies demonstrated this hyperbolic diversity-connectivity relationship, more recently collected data suggests a relationship of the form $`DC^{1+ϵ}`$, with $`ϵ`$0.3–0.4 (?). If complexity indeeds scales superlinearly with diversity as suggested by latter data, then a system displaying open-ended diversity growth is indeed growing in complexity, however a system displaying bounded diversity growth may still be growing in complexity.

## EcoLab

EcoLab is an evolutionary ecology, and is to my knowledge the first published account of population dynamics being linked to an evolutionary algorithm(?). The next model to be developed in this genre is Webworld(?), which features a more realistic ecological dynamics, and handles resource flow issues better. Other models in this genre have appeared recently (??).

EcoLab is also the name of a software package used for implementing this model, as well as other models. The software is available from http://parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks/ecolab.

The model consists of Lotka-Volterra ecology:

$$\dot{𝒏}=𝒓𝒏+𝒏𝜷𝒏+\mathrm{𝚖𝚞𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚎}(𝝁,𝒓,𝒏)+𝜸^2𝒏.$$
(9)
$`𝒏`$ is the population density vector, $`𝒓`$ the growth rates (net births-deaths in absence of competition), $`𝜷`$ the interaction matrix, $`𝝁`$ the (species specific) mutation rates and $`𝜸`$ the migration rate. In the panmictic case, the $`𝜸`$ term is left out, and $`𝒏`$ refers to total populations, rather than population densities.

The mutation operator randomly adds new species $`i`$ into the system with phenotypic parameters ($`r_i`$, $`\beta _{ij}`$, $`\mu _i`$ and $`\gamma _i`$) varied randomly from their parent species. A precise documentation of the mutation operator can be found in the EcoLab Technical Report(?).

The $`𝒏`$ vector has integral valued components — in assigning a real valued vector to it, the values are rounded up randomly with probability equal to the fractional part. For instance, the value 2.3 has a 30% probability of being rounded up to 3, and a 70% probability of being rounded down. Negative values are converted to zero. If a species population falls to zero, it is considered extinct, and is removed from the system. It should be pointed out that this is a distinctly different mechanism than the threshold method usually employed to determine extinction, but is believed to be largely equivalent.

Diversity $`D`$ is then simply the number of species with $`n_i>0`$, and connectivity is the proportion of interspecific connections out of all possible connections:

$$C=\frac{1}{D^2}\underset{i,j|\beta _{ij}0,n_i>0,\&n_j>0}{}$$

Spatial EcoLab is implemented as a spatial grid, with the $`^2`$ term being replaced by the usual 5-point stencil.

## Specialisation

A specialist is a species that only depends on a restricted range of food sources, as opposed to a generalist which might depend on many food sources. A specialist has fewer incoming predator-prey links in the food web than does a generalist. Much evolutionary variety is expressed in sophisticated defence mechanisms that serve to suppress outgoing predator-prey links. In this context, I will use the term specialist in a more general sense to refer to species with a small number of food web links. In order for the panmictic EcoLab model to generate an increasing diversity trend, a corresponding specialisation trend must also be present (which it isn’t in the case of the usual mutation operator). Interestingly, specialisation is usually considered to be the default mode of evolution(?). Generalists only exist because they happen to be more robust against environmental perturbation.

This experiment involves modifying the mutation operator to bias it towards removing interaction terms. The usual EcoLab mutation operator operator adds or removes connections according to $`1/r`$, where $`r(1,1)`$ is a uniform random variate(EcoLab Technical Report). In this experiment, a new experimental parameter $`g(1,1)`$ (`gen_bias`) is introduced such that $`r(1+g,1+g)`$ and the number of connections added or deleted is given by $`(1+\mathrm{sgn}(r)g)/r`$. By specifying a very negative value of $`g`$, the mutation operator will tend to produce specialists more often than generalists. The code for this experiment is released as EcoLab 4.2.

A typical run with $`g=0.9`$ is shown in Figs. 14. As described in (?), activity is weighted by the population density, not just presence of a particular species. The results show unbounded creative evolutionary activity (Class 4 behaviour). As can be seen from Fig. 4, the system remains close to the hyperbolic critical surface, yet the dynamic balance has been removed by the specialisation trend. If we assume that $`DC_0/C(D)`$, then unbounded diversity growth can only happen if $`C`$ vanishes at least as fast as $`1/D`$ (see Fig. 5). An ecosystem consisting entirely of specialists has a constant number of foodweb links per species, or $`C1/D`$. The presence of generalists in the ecosystem damps the growth in diversity, and unbounded growth is only possible if the proportion of generalists continually diminishes over time.

## Continental Drift

In (?), I suggested that one possible explanation for the diversity growth since the end of the Permian was the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea. A simple estimate given in that paper indicated that the effect might account for a diversity growth of about 3.5 times that existing during the Permian. This was remarkably similar to the growth reported by(?), however it is worth noting that Benton’s data referred to families, not species. It is expected that the numbers of species per family also increased during that time(?). Furthermore, when continental organism are included, familial diversity today is more like 5 times the diversity during the Permian.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, Vallentine(1973) had proposed essentially the same theory, called biogeographic provincialism (the notion that the number of biological provinces is increased through rearrangement of the continents). The idea received some serious support by Signor(1990), although in a later review he was less enthusiastic(?). Tiffney and Niklas(1990) examined plant diversity in the northern hemisphere and concluded that plant diversity correlated more with the land area of lowlands and uplands, rather than continental breakup. Benton(1990) is characteristically sceptical of biogeographic provicialism as an explanation of the diversity trend through the Phanerozoic. Biogeography theory depends on an assumed dynamic balance between speciation and extinction333Benton calls this a dynamic equilibrium, although it is nothing like what the term equilibrium denotes in dynamical system theory, and characterises biogeograhic theories as equilibrial, which appears to be contradicted by the fossil data for continental animals(?), which shows a strong exponential increase in diversity through the Phanerozoic.

Since the EcoLab model has this dynamic balance between speciation and extinction when the dynamics self-organise to the critical surface $`D(Cs^2)^1`$, I experimented with the spatial version of EcoLab reported in (?). The maximum migration rate $`|𝜸|_{\mathrm{}}`$ was swept up and down exponentially in time according to $`0.9^{t/1000}`$, i.e. with a time constant of about 9500 timesteps, by scaling $`𝜸`$ by 0.9 every 1000 timesteps (and then inverting the scaling factor every 174,000 timesteps). It is a little hard to relate EcoLab figures to biological evolution. The maximum growth rate in EcoLab is $`0.01`$, so the doubling time for the fastest organism in the ecosystem is around 100 timesteps. This might correspond to a year or so of real time. So migration rates are being forced much faster than is typical in the real world. However, in EcoLab we also tend run the mutation rate quite high, with adaptive speciations happening every 1000 timesteps or so. If the mutation rate is too high, natural selection has no chance to weed out non-adaptive species, if too low, too much computing resource is need to obtain interesting dynamics. In practice, the mutation rate is set about 2 orders of magnitude less than the critical amount needed for adaptation. In terms of speciation rates, the migration rate time constant might correspond to something of the order of $`10^4`$ years, instead of the 10 years or so one gets from considerations of doubling times.

This code is released as EcoLab 3.5. Due to a design flaw, performance of this code scales poorly with diversity, unless the code is run in parallel with one cell per execution thread. For this experiment, the runs took place on a $`2\times 2`$ spatial grid, on a four processor parallel computer supplied by the Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications, apart from one run of a $`3\times 3`$ grid on a 9 processor system. Work is currently underway to implement a spatial version of the EcoLab 4.x code, which does not suffer from this performance problem.

The results of a typical run is shown in figure 6. The run started with a maximum migration rate of 0.01 at the bottom right hand corner of the figure and swept down to $`10^{10}`$ before increasing. The migration rate was swept back and forwards 5 times over the 18 million time steps in the run.

The first thing to note was that the expected response of diversity to migration rate was not there. We would expect a response of the form $`DA^c`$, with $`A=4`$ in the $`2\times 2`$ case, and $`c`$ varying smoothly between 1 for the infinite migration (panmictic) case and 2 for zero migration. These results tentatively indicate that possibly $`c`$ does not vary smoothly at all, but is nearly constant for most values of $`|𝜸|_{\mathrm{}}`$. This needs to be resolved with further study.

The second thing to note is the completely unexpected “resonance” at about $`1\times 10^5`$. It is not peculiar statistical aberration, since the same result was obtained with completely different random number seeds, and fixing the migration rate at the resonance value produces an exponential growth in diversity (Figure 7).

3 more tests were performed to determine if this result is an artifact of discretisation, or a feature of the dynamics. The first involved changing the grid to a $`3\times 3`$ grid, which did not affect the location of the resonance. The second involved scaling all parameters in the model ($`𝒓`$, $`𝜷`$, $`𝝁`$) by 0.1, which is equivalent to changing the timescale. If the effect was purely due to dynamics, one would expect the resonance to shift one order of magnitude higher on the scale, however little qualitative different was observed. The third test involved performing the migration operator every 1000 timesteps, instead of 100. This did change the resonance value by 1 order of magnitude, ruling out certain classes of software faults.

## Conclusion

The choice of diversity as a proxy measure for ecosystem complexity is a good choice. Complexity is obviously constrained by diversity, so that bounded diversity dynamics also implies bounded complexity dynamics. However, in the case of evolutionary Lotka-Volterra dynamics, the system will tend to self-organise to a critical surface where speciation is balanced by extinction. This surface defines the maximum allowed complexity for a given diversity value, which turns out to be proportional to the diversity. The analysis presented in this paper could be extended to other evolutionary ecologies as well.

Whilst there is still debate about whether the biosphere is exhibiting unbounded complexity growth, I am persuaded by Benton’s(2001) argument that the growth is nothing short of spectacular. In this paper I examined two possible mechanisms for diversity growth — specialisation which proves capable of delivering unbounded creative evolution in EcoLab, and biogeographic provincialism. Whilst I was only expecting biogeographic changes to deliver a modest impact on diversity, EcoLab delivered a unexpected result of a “resonance”, where if the migration rate was tuned to this value, diversity grew exponentially.

## Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Australian Centre for Adavanced Computing and Communications for the computing resources needed to carry out this project.


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# SIX-FERMION PRODUCTION AT e⁺e⁻ COLLIDERS

## 1 Introduction

The Monte Carlo event generator Lusifer in its first version, which is described in Ref.  in detail, deals with all processes $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}6`$fermions at tree level in the Standard Model. The predictions are based on the full set of Feynman diagrams, the number of which is typically of the order of $`10^2`$$`10^4`$. Fermions other than top quarks, which are not allowed as external fermions, are taken to be massless, and polarization is fully supported. The helicity amplitudes are generically calculated with the spinor method of Ref. . The phase-space integration is based on the multi-channel Monte Carlo integration technique , improved by adaptive weight optimization . Channels and appropriate mappings are provided for each individual diagram in a generic way. More details on the phase-space parametrizations can be found in Refs. . Owing to the potentially large number of Feynman diagrams per final state, an efficient generic approach has been crucial, in order to gain an acceptable speed and stability of the program. Initial-state radiation is included at the leading logarithmic level employing the structure-function approach (see e.g. the appendix of Ref. ).

In the following we collect a few illustrating results of Ref.  that have been obtained with Lusifer. In some cases, the tuned comparison with the combination of the Whizard  and Madgraph  packages is included in the discussion. Specifically, we focus on top-quark pair production, the production of Higgs bosons in the intermediate Higgs mass range, and the scattering of massive gauge bosons. The precise input for the used parameters and phase-space cuts, as well as much more results, can be found in Ref. . We refer to the literature for further discussions of top-quark pair production , Higgs-boson production , vector-boson scattering , and triple gauge-boson production , which are also based on full $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}6f`$ matrix elements.

## 2 Results On Top-Quark Pair Production

In Table 1 we collect some results on cross sections that receive contributions from top-quark pair production, $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}6f`$.

The difference between the cross sections with two and four quarks in the final states roughly reflects the colour factor 3 between leptonically and hadronically decaying W bosons that have been produced in $`\mathrm{t}\mathrm{bW}^+`$. The cross sections are all strongly dominated by the signal diagrams for resonant $`\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}`$ production, which are identical for all considered final states. Differences are entirely due to so-called background diagrams, the size of which is, however, very sensitive to the angular separation cut between outgoing $`\mathrm{e}^\pm `$ and the beams. The inclusion of gluon-exchange diagrams would not influence the integrated cross section significantly. The numbers show that ISR reduces the cross sections at the level of $`4\%`$ at a centre-of mass (CM) energy of $`\sqrt{s}=500\mathrm{GeV}`$. Finally, the comparison of the Lusifer and Whizard & Madgraph results reveals good agreement.

## 3 Results On Higgs-Boson Production

In Figure 1 we show the invariant-mass $`(M_{4q})`$ and production angular $`(\theta _{4q})`$ distributions for the four-quark system (including all $`4q`$ configurations of the first two generations) of the reactions $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}(\nu _\mu \overline{\nu }_\mu /\nu _\mathrm{e}\overline{\nu }_\mathrm{e})+4q`$.

The crucial difference between the $`\nu _\mu \overline{\nu }_\mu `$ and $`\nu _\mathrm{e}\overline{\nu }_\mathrm{e}`$ channels lies in the Higgs production mechanisms: while the former receives only contributions from $`\mathrm{ZH}`$ production, $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{Z}+(\mathrm{H}\mathrm{WW})6f`$, the latter additionally involves W fusion, $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\nu _\mathrm{e}\overline{\nu }_\mathrm{e}+(\mathrm{WW}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{WW})6f`$, which dominates the cross section. Therefore, the cross section of $`\nu _\mathrm{e}\overline{\nu }_\mathrm{e}+4q`$ is an order of magnitude larger than the one of $`\nu _\mu \overline{\nu }_\mu +4q`$. The invariant-mass distributions of the two channels look similar, both showing the resonance peaks for the decays $`\mathrm{H}\mathrm{WW}4q`$ at $`M_{4q}=M_\mathrm{H}`$ which appear over a continuous background. Note that for $`M_\mathrm{H}=190\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`230\mathrm{GeV}`$ the high-energy tails of the distributions show some Higgs mass dependence. This is due to the subprocess of $`\mathrm{ZH}`$ production where the Higgs decays into on-shell Z bosons, $`\mathrm{H}\mathrm{ZZ}(\nu _\mu \overline{\nu }_\mu /\nu _\mathrm{e}\overline{\nu }_\mathrm{e})+2q`$, which is not yet possible for the smaller Higgs mass $`M_\mathrm{H}=170\mathrm{GeV}`$. The corresponding boundary in $`M_{4q}`$, which is clearly seen in the plots for $`M_\mathrm{H}=190\mathrm{GeV}`$, is determined by the two extreme situations where the decay $`\mathrm{H}\mathrm{ZZ}`$ proceeds along the $`\mathrm{ZH}`$ production axis. For $`M_\mathrm{H}=230\mathrm{GeV}`$ this boundary is hidden by the Higgs peak and the upper kinematical limit in the $`M_{4q}`$ spectrum. In contrast to the invariant-mass distributions, the shapes of the $`4q`$ angular distributions of the $`\nu _\mu \overline{\nu }_\mu `$ and $`\nu _\mathrm{e}\overline{\nu }_\mathrm{e}`$ channels look very different. For $`\nu _\mu \overline{\nu }_\mu `$, i.e. for $`\mathrm{ZH}`$ production, intermediate production angles dominate, and this dominance is more pronounced for smaller Higgs-boson masses, where more phase space is available. For $`\nu _\mathrm{e}\overline{\nu }_\mathrm{e}`$, i.e. W-boson fusion, forward and backward production of Higgs bosons is preferred, and the $`M_\mathrm{H}`$ dependence is mainly visible in the overall scale of the distribution, but not in the shape itself.

## 4 Results On Vector-Boson Scattering

Finally, in Table 2 we consider the high-energy behaviour of a typical channel involving the subprocess $`\mathrm{WW}\mathrm{WW}`$, using different schemes for introducing finite decay widths. This comparison is particularly important in order to control gauge-invariance violating effects in several schemes. In the fixed-width scheme all massive boson propagators receive a constant width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_B`$ ($`B=\mathrm{H},\mathrm{W},\mathrm{Z}`$), while in the running width scheme $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_B`$ is multiplied by $`p^2/M_B^2\times \theta (p^2)`$, with $`p^2`$ denoting the virtuality of the propagator. Both schemes violate gauge invariance. In the complex-mass scheme , gauge invariance is restored by consistently using complex masses for the unstable particles in the Feynman rules, i.e. it makes use of the propagators of the fixed-width scheme and appropriately chosen complex couplings. The example confirms the expectation from $`4f(+\gamma )`$ studies  that the fixed-width scheme, in spite of violating gauge invariance, practically yields the same results as the complex-mass scheme. In contrast, the running-width scheme breaks gauge invariance so badly that deviations from the complex-mass scheme are already visible below $`1\mathrm{TeV}`$. Above $`1\mathrm{TeV}`$ these deviations grow rapidly, and the high-energy limit of the prediction is totally wrong. Thus, if finite decay widths are introduced on cost of gauge invariance, the result is only reliable if it has been compared to a gauge-invariant calculation, as it is for instance provided by the complex-mass scheme. Moreover, our numerical studies (see also Ref. ) show that the fixed-width scheme is in fact a good candidate for reliable results also in six-fermion production, although it does not respect gauge invariance. Whether this observation generalizes to all $`6f`$ final states (or even further) is, however, not clear.


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# Magneto-optical trap for metastable helium at 389 nm

## I Introduction

A magneto-optical trap (MOT) is a standard tool in the production of cold atomic gases, allowing investigation of cold-collision phenomena Weiner et al. (1999) as well as the realization of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in alkali species Anderson et al. (1995) and, more recently, in metastable triplet helium (He\*) Robert et al. (2001); Pereira Dos Santos et al. (2001). He\* has a high (19.8 eV) internal energy, which allows for real-time diagnostics and increased sensitivity in BEC probing. Unfortunately, the high internal energy also introduces strong Penning ionization losses in magneto-optically trapped atomic clouds, which imposes limits on the maximum achievable density. The two-body loss rate coefficient related to this process is about $`5\times 10^9\text{ cm}^3/\text{s}`$ for a MOT on the $`2\text{ }^3S_12\text{ }^3P_2`$ transition at 1083 nm Tol et al. (1999), which is about two orders of magnitude larger than the loss rate coefficient in a standard alkali MOT. In BEC experiments, the MOT is used as a bright source of cold atoms to load a magnetic trap with large numbers of atoms. Moreover, as a starting point for evaporative cooling a dense magnetostatically trapped cloud is desired. So ideally, the magneto-optically trapped cloud must provide this high density. In the present work, we explore the feasibility and possible advantages of a MOT using the $`2\text{ }^3S_13\text{ }^3P_2`$ transition at 389 nm for metastable helium, in comparison with the conventional $`2\text{ }^3S_12\text{ }^3P_2`$ (1083 nm) magneto-optical trap.

Although the 389 nm transition was used recently in laser cooling experiments Schumann et al. (1999), it has not found wide application yet. This mainly relates to the fact that $`10\%`$ of the $`3\text{ }^3P_2`$ population decays via the $`3\text{ }^3S_1`$ state (Fig. 1), making a closed laser cooling transition between magnetic substates impossible. In addition, the shorter 389 nm wavelength leads, in combination with a linewidth $`\mathrm{\Gamma }/2\pi =1.5\text{ MHz}`$ Drake (1996), to a relatively high saturation intensity $`I_0=3.31\text{ mW/cm}^2`$ (circular polarization in an optically pumped environment Metcalf and van der Straten (1999)). In comparison, the $`2\text{ }^3S_12\text{ }^3P_2`$ transition at 1083 nm has almost the same linewidth but a saturation intensity of only $`0.17\text{ mW/cm}^2`$. To maximize the number of trapped atoms, dedicated metastable helium magneto-optical traps are operated at large detuning and intensity Tol et al. (1999); Browaeys et al. (2000); Pereira Dos Santos et al. (2002). This implies the need for a high-power laser setup. Nevertheless, the concept of a 389 nm magneto-optical trap is appealing. An attractive feature of the 389 nm transition is the momentum transfer per photon, which is 2.8 times larger than for 1083 nm photons. Since both transitions have nearly equal linewidths, the spontaneous cooling force increases proportional to the photon momentum. This opens the possibility to compress the cloud substantially in comparison to a 1083 nm MOT at the same detuning and power. Unfortunately, compression may lead to increased losses predominantly due to light-assisted two-body collisions. The two-body loss rate coefficient for the 389 nm situation is, however, unknown. In case of a relatively low rate coefficient, the cloud may be compressed without loss of too many metastables. Furthermore, it should be noted that the 1083 nm and 389 nm transitions are electronically alike, which greatly facilitates the comparison between the two MOT types. Finally, the 389 nm MOT differs from the 1083 nm MOT in yet another respect: two 389 nm photons contain sufficient energy to ionize an atom in the $`2\text{ }^3S_1`$ state. This may introduce observable additional losses.

In this article, we report on the study of a prototype 389 nm MOT. In Sec. II we present some typical aspects of the 389 nm MOT from general laser cooling theory. Next, we outline our experimental setup in Sec. III. Results are given in Sec. IV. Conclusive remarks and an outlook are presented in Sec. V.

## II Qualitative description of the 389 nm MOT

### II.1 Spring constant and damping coefficient

The large Doppler cooling force modifies the equilibrium conditions in a 389 nm MOT with respect to the 1083 nm situation. This follows from regarding the motion of an atom, trapped in a one-dimensional MOT, as an overdamped harmonic oscillation Lett et al. (1989); Sengstock and Ertmer (1995). The oscillation frequency $`\omega _{osc}`$ and damping coefficient $`ϵ_d`$ are, for small velocities and small deviations from trap center, given by

$`\omega _{osc}^2`$ $`=`$ $`4\mathrm{}k{\displaystyle \frac{4\delta S\zeta }{m(1+2S+4\delta ^2)^2}},`$ (1)
$`ϵ_d`$ $`=`$ $`4\mathrm{}k^2{\displaystyle \frac{4\delta S}{m(1+2S+4\delta ^2)^2}},`$ (2)
with $`k`$ the wavenumber of the MOT laser light, $`m`$ the atomic mass, $`\delta =2\pi \mathrm{\Delta }/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ the laser detuning from resonance in MHz, $`S=I/I_0`$ the saturation parameter, with $`I`$ the intensity per MOT beam, and $`\zeta `$ representing the spatial derivative of the location-dependent Zeeman detuning. The harmonic oscillator frequency is related to the spring constant $`\kappa `$ via $`\omega _{osc}^2=\kappa /m`$. Two general differences between the 389 nm and 1083 nm MOT follow immediately from Eq. (1) and Eq. (2). First, bearing in mind that $`k_{389}=k_{1083}\times 1083/389`$, it is obvious that for equal saturation parameter and detuning the damping coefficient increases by a factor 7.8 as compared to a 1083 nm MOT. Although this does not alter the temperature in the MOT, which does not depend on wavelength and is expected to be almost equal for the two cases, the damping time $`\tau `$ is shortened to $`0.13\tau _{1083}`$ Lett et al. (1989). Second, and under the same assumptions for the MOT parameters, the spring constant is increased by a factor 2.8. This has implications for the size of the trapped cloud, which is determined by the equipartition of potential and kinetic energy. The volume $`V`$ of the cloud is (following the definition of $`V`$ as given in Sec. III.3.2)

$$V=\left(\frac{2\pi k_BT}{\kappa }\right)^{3/2},$$
(3)
where for simplicity we have assumed an isotropic 3D harmonic oscillator ($`k_B`$ is Boltzmann’s constant). It follows that the volume decreases by a factor 4.5, i.e. the cloud is compressed with respect to the 1083 nm situation.

### II.2 Loading the MOT

All magnetic substates participate in the atom-laser interaction, since the magneto-optically trapped cloud is contained at low magnetic field strengths and irradiated from six directions with circularly polarized light. Therefore, the presence of the second decay channel of the $`3\text{ }^3P_2`$ state will not limit operation of the MOT, as long as there is loading of atoms from the outer regions of the MOT volume. Loading, however, may be frustrated by the nonclosed cycling transition as well as by the relatively large Doppler shift. More specifically, the question arises whether the slowing process of atoms entering the MOT volume can be completed before a spontaneous emission via the $`3\text{ }^3S_1`$ cascade takes the atom to a different, nonresonant magnetic substate. If not, the atom needs to be repumped to the cycling transition; otherwise it will escape from the MOT volume. In order to answer this question, and to obtain a general notion of the loading process and its dependence on the MOT parameters, we employ a simple 1D model for an atom traversing the MOT volume. We calculate the instantaneous photon scattering rate for atoms at a given velocity $`v`$, interacting with a counterpropagating, red-detuned laser beam at 389 nm inducing $`\sigma ^+`$ transitions. This laser beam represents the two MOT laser beams counterpropagating the atomic beam at angles of $`\pm 45^{}`$ with respect to the atomic beam (see Sec. III.1). We assume the atoms to be predecelerated by a Zeeman slower, so that we can choose any initial velocity. We take Zeeman detuning, laser intensity, and Doppler shift into account, the latter of which is taken to be $`kv/\sqrt{2}`$ to correct for the $`\pm 45^{}`$ angle between the atom and (real) laser beams. Furthermore, we consider all three $`\sigma ^+`$ transitions, i.e. $`M=1,0,+1M^{}=0,+1,+2`$ (of which the $`M=+1M^{}=+2`$ will be referred to as the laser cooling or cycling transition). In Fig. 2, plots are shown of the photon scattering rate for the three $`\sigma ^+`$ transitions as a function of the distance from the center of the MOT, measured along the symmetry axis of the Zeeman decelerator. The MOT light boundaries are at about $`\pm 10`$ mm from the MOT center (see also Sec. III.2), and the atoms are moving into the positive direction. Figure 2a shows the familiar behavior of the scattering force in a MOT. An atom, moving into the positive direction at a typical intra-MOT velocity $`v=1`$ m/s, scatters an increasing number of photons from the counterpropagating MOT laser beam as it moves farther away from the MOT center. Consequently, it will be slowed down and eventually pushed back towards the center.

First, we use this model to investigate the capture of atoms, emerging from the Zeeman slower in the $`2\text{ }^3S_1,M=+1`$ state with a velocity $`v=75`$ m/s. We choose a MOT detuning of $`35`$ MHz, an intensity of $`30I_0`$, and a magnetic field gradient of 20 G/cm. These conditions are typical for a 1083 nm MOT. The model shows that the resonance condition is never fulfilled inside the MOT volume, thus preventing any loading of atoms. Next, we lower $`v`$ to 35 m/s. We observe that the atoms now interact strongly with the laser light within the MOT volume (see Fig. 2b). However, the peaks in the scattering rate of the different $`\sigma ^+`$ transitions hardly overlap in space, as a result of their different Zeeman detunings. Slowing these atoms down to zero velocity requires about 190 absorption-emission cycles, whereas it takes about 20 cycles (corresponding to a velocity reduction of only 4 m/s) for the atom to end up in one of the nonabsorbing ($`M=1`$ or $`M=0`$) states. Consequently, the capture process is interrupted. Before this $`M`$-state atom becomes sufficiently resonant again, such that it is optically pumped back to the $`M=+1`$ state, it will have travelled out of resonance with the cycling transition and can no longer be captured by the MOT. Only for velocities $`v20`$ m/s, an atom ending up in the wrong $`M`$ state is repumped fast enough to continue the deceleration towards zero velocity (Fig. 2c). Thus we conclude that the capture velocity of the 389 nm MOT is approximately 24 m/s. This velocity is much smaller than the $`75`$ m/s capture velocity of a typical 1083 nm MOT. Figure 2d illustrates the superior loading capabilities of a 1083 nm MOT of 15 mm radius. The smaller Doppler shift allows for faster atoms to be captured, whereas the closed cycling transition does not impose any constraints on the magnetic field strength. In fact, the 1083 nm MOT diameter sets the maximum stopping distance, and thus limits the capture velocity. Within the picture provided by the model, increasing the diameter of a 389 nm MOT will not solve the problem described above. To avoid optical pumping to nonresonant magnetic substates in the outer regions of the MOT, only small magnetic field gradients can be tolerated. Then, to maintain sufficient confinement of the trapped atoms, only small MOT laser detunings are allowed, thereby limiting the capture velocity. We stress that the model is based on crude simplifications and ignores important features of the MOT. For instance, the orthogonal MOT laser beams, in combination with the spatially varying, three-dimensional magnetic field vector induce $`\sigma `$ as well as $`\pi `$ transitions. Therefore, the conditions required for repumping to the laser-cooled state may be less stringent than predicted by our simple model. So we conclude that a 389 nm MOT will be able to capture sufficiently slow metastable helium atoms.

The smaller capture velocity of a 389 nm MOT is a significant limitation, since a helium atomic beam expands dramatically due to transverse heating during Zeeman deceleration Lethokov and Minogin (1981). Calculations of the rms size of the atomic beam along the slowing trajectory show an increase of the rms atomic beam diameter by a factor 1.7 when tuning the end velocity from 75 m/s down to 25 m/s. This may lead to a decrease of a factor 3 in metastable flux. In conjunction with the limited MOT volume, this inevitably will result in a reduced loading rate.

## III Experimental Setup

### III.1 Atomic beam apparatus

The first stage in our atomic beam apparatus involves a liquid nitrogen cooled He\* DC discharge source, producing an atomic beam that is laser collimated using the curved-wavefront technique. The beam source is a copy of the source described by Rooijakkers et al. Rooijakkers et al. (1996). The collimated beam enters a differentially pumped two-part Zeeman slower that reduces the longitudinal velocity from $`1000\text{ m/s}`$ to $`25\text{ m/s}`$. 1083 nm laser light from a commercial 2W fiber laser (measured bandwidth 8 MHz) is used for slowing and collimation. The laser is stabilized to the $`2\text{ }^3S_12\text{ }^3P_2`$ transition using saturated absorption spectroscopy in an rf-discharge cell. The $`250\text{ MHz}`$ detuning for Zeeman slowing is obtained using an acousto-optical modulator. Downstream the Zeeman slower the MOT vacuum chamber is located, with 20 mm diameter laser windows for the MOT beams (see Fig.3). Two channeltron electron multipliers are mounted inside to separately detect ions and metastables. Both channeltrons are operated with negative high voltage at the front end; however, one of them is put more closely to the cloud, thereby attracting all positively charged particles and leaving only the neutral metastables to be detected by the other. Also, the detector of metastables is hidden behind an aperture in the wall of the vacuum chamber (Fig. 3), which provides additional shielding of its electric field. Two 50 A coils, wound around the vacuum chamber and consisting of 17 turns copper tubing each, produce a quadrupole magnetic field with a gradient of 43 G/cm along the symmetry axis. The field of the second part of the Zeeman slower inside the MOT region is counteracted with a compensation coil, mounted at the position of the Zeeman slower exit. The pressure in the MOT chamber is $`2\times 10^9\text{ mbar}`$, and increases to $`1\times 10^8\text{ mbar}`$ when the He\* beam is switched on.

To minimize atomic beam expansion at the end of the Zeeman slower, we overlap the Zeeman slower laser beam with an additional 1083 nm beam, with identical circular polarization and similar intensity, but different detuning ($`\mathrm{\Delta }=80\text{ MHz}`$). By choosing the same sign of the quadrupole magnetic field gradient along the Zeeman slower axis as that of the Zeeman slower itself, an auxiliary Zeeman slowing stage only centimeters upstream of the MOT volume is established. This should allow trapping of atoms with velocities up to $`75\text{ m/s}`$ at the end of the Zeeman slower. A calculation of the atomic beam diameter for this case indicates that the loading rate may be increased by a factor $`2.4`$ compared to the case where the Zeeman slower decelerates atoms to a velocity of $`24\text{ m/s}`$.

### III.2 389 nm Laser setup

The MOT laser light is obtained by frequency doubling the output of a Coherent 899 Titanium:sapphire (Ti:Sa) laser (778 nm with few-hunderd kHz bandwidth) in an enhancement cavity containing a 10 mm Brewster-cut LBO crystal. The cavity length is locked to the fundamental wavelength using the Hänsch-Couillaud scheme. The Ti:Sa laser is pumped by 10 W at 532 nm from a Spectra-Physics Millennia X laser. We routinely produce 700 mW of 389 nm light; peak values of over 1 W of 389 nm at 2.1 W fundamental power have been achieved. We measured 4% short-term ($`10`$ ms) power fluctuations in the 389 nm output Throughout this paper, presented uncertainties and noise levels correspond to one standard deviation. . The LBO crystal is flushed with oxygen, which increases the output power by about $`10\%`$. A small portion of the UV output is used to stabilize the wavelength to the $`2\text{ }^3S_13\text{ }^3P_2`$ transition with saturated absorption spectroscopy, while Zeeman-tuning the Lamb dip allows continuous adjustment of the detuning between $`0`$ and $`\pm 230\text{ MHz}`$. A combination of cylindrical and spherical lenses transforms the UV beam into a round, parallel and approximately Gaussian beam with 8 mm waist. The beam profile is truncated by a 20 mm circular aperture, followed by a series of nonpolarizing beamsplitters that split the UV beam into four beams. The individual beam intensities are chosen such that two beams in the horizontal plane can be retrorefelected, while the intensity of the two vertical beams along the symmetry axis of the quadrupole field ensures a more or less spherical He\* cloud.

### III.3 MOT diagnostics

#### III.3.1 Time-of-flight measurement

The internal energy of helium metastables can be exploited in measuring time-of-flight (TOF) spectra of a MOT. Electron multipliers directly detect part of the expanding cloud after the atoms in the MOT have been released by suddenly switching off the MOT laser, the magnetic coils, and the slower beams. In our experiment, operating the channeltrons in current mode yields TOF signals resembling a Maxwell-Boltzmann atomic velocity distribution, from which we can deduce the temperature and number of trapped atoms in the cloud. However, this procedure requires knowledge of the channeltron gain which varies with the rate of detected particles and obscures the shape of the TOF spectrum to an unknown extent. To circumvent an elaborate calibration procedure, we count the individual metastables that hit the channeltron. This is, using a properly set amplifier/discriminator, not dependent on the momentary gain. The output of the amplifier/discriminator is subsequently integrated by a calibrated ratemeter. In this way we obtain the total number of detected metastables during the TOF. Knowing the solid angle covered by the detection area, the accuracy in the number of trapped atoms is now determined by the detection efficiency of a low-velocity triplet helium atom, which is estimated to be in the range $`1070\%`$ (see also Refs. Tol et al. (1999); Rooijakkers et al. (1996), and references therein). This measuring method therefore cannot provide better than 50% accuracy in the number of trapped atoms.

#### III.3.2 Fluorescence detection

In addition to the determination of the MOT atom number by time-of-flight measurements, we monitor the fluorescence of the cloud using a calibrated CCD camera to independently determine the number of atoms. Here, the cascade via the $`3\text{ }^3S_1`$ state offers the 706 nm wavelength, which is far more efficiently detected by a camera than fluorescence from a 1083 nm MOT. Moreover, the 706 nm light does not suffer from reabsorption, because of the insignificant population of the $`2\text{ }^3P_2`$ level. Therefore we can safely assume the monitored fluorescence to be proportional to the number of atoms at each point in the cloud image, even at the highest densities obtained in our MOT. To calibrate the camera, we use a small fraction of the Ti:Sa laser output, with the laser tuned to 706 nm. In the atom number determination we use dichroic mirrors to block all other wavelengths scattered from the MOT, most importantly the abundant 389 nm light. To extract the number of atoms $`N`$ from the observed fluorescence power $`P_{fluor}`$ we use the empirical equation of Townsend et al. Townsend et al. (1995), that relates the emitted power to the number of atoms:

$$P_{fluor}=N\mathrm{}\omega \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{2}\frac{6CS}{1+6CS+4\delta ^2}.$$
(4)
In the above equation, $`S=I/I_0`$, where $`I_0`$ is the saturation intensity in the case of $`\sigma ^+`$ transitions in an optically pumped environment, and $`I`$ is the laser intensity of a single MOT beam. The phenomenological factor $`C`$ incorporates the effects of reduced saturation; as the six circularly polarized MOT laser beams traverse the cloud in different directions and at varying angles with the quadrupole magnetic field, all transitions between the ground- and excited-state Zeeman levels must be considered, and the saturation intensity $`I_0`$, as defined above, no longer applies. It is pointed out in Ref. Townsend et al. (1995) that $`C`$ lies somewhere halfway the average of the squared Clebsch-Gordan coefficients of all involved transitions, and 1. For the $`2\text{ }^3S_13\text{ }^3P_2`$ 389 nm transition, the average of the squares of the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients is 0.56. Therefore, we adopt $`C=0.8\pm 0.2`$, as also chosen by Browaeys et al. Browaeys et al. (2000). This value incorporates a realistic estimate and an uncertainty that covers the range of all physically possible values of $`C`$.

The fluorescence image of the cloud is also used to determine the volume of the cloud. From a fit to a Gaussian distribution, we obtain the rms size in the radial ($`\sigma _\rho `$) and axial ($`\sigma _z`$) directions, and the volume $`V=(2\pi )^{3/2}\sigma _\rho ^2\sigma _z`$ ($`V`$ contains 68% of the atoms). For a cloud with Gaussian density distribution, this definition of $`V`$ conveniently connects the number of atoms $`N`$ to the central density $`n_0`$ via $`N=n_0V`$. This provides all necessary information to deduce the density distribution $`n(𝐫)`$.

#### III.3.3 Ion detection

In the MOT vacuum chamber, positive ions are produced in Penning-ionizing collisions of a He\* atom with another He\* atom or with a background gas molecule. These ions are subsequently attracted to and detected by the second channeltron, and the resulting output current provides a rough measure of the number of trapped atoms. This signal is particularly useful for optimization purposes. Moreover, the signal is used to monitor the trap decay after the loading of the MOT has suddenly been stopped (see Sec. IV.2). This channeltron is operated at a sufficiently low voltage, such that the output current can safely be assumed to vary linearly with the detection rate.

## IV results and discussion

### IV.1 MOT results

#### IV.1.1 Temporal fluctuations in the MOT

While observing the fluorescing cloud in real time with the CCD camera we noticed nonperiodic intensity fluctuations on a 50 ms timescale. Also, the cloud was irregularly ’breathing’. To determine the source of these fluctuations, we first took a series of ten pictures of the cloud. The shutter time for each picture was $`1/60`$ s, and the elapsed time between two subsequent exposures about 5 s. Fitting the cloud size for each individual picture we obtain an average MOT volume with a standard deviation of 9%, while the temperature remained constant within 2.5%. According to Eqs. 1 and 3, this may be related to the unstable laser power. In that case the resulting density fluctuations should influence the rate at which ions are produced in two-body Penning collsions. To observe this, we compared the continuous ion signal with the laser intensity as a function of time. It turns out that the 4% laser intensity noise correlates to the ion signal noise, though it does not explain all irregularities in the ion signal. Using Eq. (3) we find that the measured intensity fluctuations may give rise to 6% variations in the deduced MOT volume.

#### IV.1.2 Atom number and density distribution

The maximum number of loaded atoms as derived from the fluorescence is $`2.5(3)\times 10^7`$ at a detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }=35\text{ MHz}`$ and gradient $`B/z=39\text{ G/cm}`$. The total intensity in this case is about $`100I_0`$. It is possible to run the MOT at intensities as low as $`40I_0`$, although the number of trapped atoms increases with intensity. To ensure a reliable estimate of the cloud dimensions and fluorescence intensity we take the average of five subsequent images. The uncertainty in the number of trapped atoms mainly arises from the inaccuracy of the value of the phenomenological constant $`C`$ ($`8\%`$), as well as from an error in the fluorescence measurement. The uncertainty in the fluorescence measurement is set by the 4% inaccuracy in the calibration and by the shot-to-shot fluctuations between the individual images used in the average. To ensure consistency between the results of the fluorescence and TOF measurement, we have to assign a value of 15(2)% to the detection efficiency of the channeltron. A Gaussian density function fits well to the cloud image. From the fit we infer the rms radii in the $`z`$ and $`\rho `$ dimensions and, thus, the volume $`V`$. At optimized trapped atom number, we find $`V=0.020(5)\text{ cm}^3`$. By increasing the magnetic field gradient to $`B/z=45\text{ G/cm}`$, and decreasing the detuning to $`\mathrm{\Delta }=35\text{ MHz}`$, the cloud was compressed to $`V=0.0043(4)\text{ cm}^3`$. Still, it contained $`1.7(2)\times 10^7`$ atoms.

Compared to a 1083 nm MOT, typical values for the volume $`V`$ of the 389 nm MOT are found to be 6 to 25 times smaller Tol et al. (1999). Although the auxiliary laser beam at 1083 nm acts as a seventh MOT beam, its effect on the cloud volume is negligible on account of its large detuning (80 MHz), and the relatively small photon momentum of the 1083 nm light. Using Eq. (1) and Eq. (3), $`V`$ can be corrected for the different magnetic field gradients, saturation parameters, and temperatures for the 389 nm and 1083 nm cases. It follows that the observed compression of the cloud, due to only the increased laser cooling force, is approximately a factor 5, as predicted in Sec. II.1. The optimum number of atoms is achieved with a relatively large magnetic field gradient, about twice as large as in a 1083 nm MOT.

With the knowledge of $`N`$ and $`V`$ we can determine the central density $`n_0=N/V`$, which is $`1.4(5)\times 10^9\text{ cm}^3`$ in the case of optimized trapped atom number. The large error bar, indicating the spread about the mean of the central densities obtained from each picture, is probably due to the correlation between the volume and the 389 nm laser power fluctuations. A sudden increase in power leads to a smaller volume, while the fluorescence intensity increases, resulting in an overestimate of the trapped atom number. The aspect ratio $`\sigma _z/\sigma _\rho `$ of the cloud turns out to be 0.96(2). We compared this with the aspect ratio as predicted by Eq. (1): since at equilibrium $`k_BT=\kappa _\rho \rho ^2=\kappa _zz^2`$, with $`\kappa _\rho `$ and $`\kappa _z`$ the spring constants of the MOT in the radial and axial directions, respectively, it follows that $`\sqrt{\kappa _\rho /\kappa _z}=\sigma _z/\sigma _\rho `$, resulting in an aspect ratio of 0.79. This may indicate a small temperature difference between the $`\rho `$\- and $`z`$-directions, also observed in a 1083 nm MOT Tol et al. (1999).

#### IV.1.3 Temperature

Fitting a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution function to the TOF spectra reveals the temperature $`T`$ of the atoms in the MOT (Fig. 4). The fit is not perfect and the deduced temperature may be somewhat overestimated. Furthermore, a nonzero offset at $`t0`$ is observed which becomes more prominent (at the expense of trapped metastables) when the MOT laser beams are misaligned. The offset may also incorporate loss of metastables due to radiative escape Weiner et al. (1999), but our setup does not allow us to discriminate between different sources of hot metastables. Measured temperatures range from 0.46(1) mK for $`\mathrm{\Delta }=41`$ MHz and $`S=19`$, to 0.25(1) mK at $`\mathrm{\Delta }=9`$ MHz and $`S=15`$. In the latter case, however, the number of atoms in the MOT is limited to only $`2.2\times 10^5`$. To our knowledge, these temperatures are significantly lower than any previously reported 1083 nm MOT temperature, and even surpass temperatures obtained in 1083 nm 3D-optical molasses applied to a large cloud of He\* atoms Tol et al. (1999); Browaeys et al. (2000); Pereira Dos Santos et al. (2002); Kumakura and Morita (1999); Mastwijk et al. (1998); Milic (1999).

Commonly, temperatures observed in a 1083 nm MOT are in good agreement with predictions given by the usual Doppler model Lett et al. (1989):

$$k_BT=\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }}{4}\frac{1+2𝒩S+(2\delta )^2}{2\delta }.$$
(5)
Here, $`𝒩`$ is the dimensionality of the molasses. When using Eq. (5) to calculate the 389 nm molasses temperature in order to test our results, two features that distinguish the 389 nm transition from the 1083 nm transition are relevant. First, the transition strength, determined by the Einstein coefficient $`A_{389}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{389}=2\pi \times 1.5`$ MHz, is slightly less than for the 1083 nm transition ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{1083}=2\pi \times 1.6`$ MHz) Drake (1996). This decreases the 389 nm molasses temperature by 8% (here $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{389}`$ should not be confused with the inverse lifetime: $`(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{389})^1=106`$ ns, whereas the lifetime of the $`3\text{ }^3P`$ state is 95 ns due to the presence of the extra $`3\text{ }^3P3\text{ }^3S`$ decay channel Drake (1996)). Second, the 10% decay via the $`3\text{ }^3S_1`$ cascade slightly reduces the diffusion, as the recoil of the photons involved is randomly distributed. A recalculation of the momentum diffusion constant for this case yields a 3% reduction. Thus, we expect the 389 nm molasses temperature to be 11% lower with respect to the 1083 nm case. Still, the predicted temperature is $`1.1\text{ mK}`$ for $`\mathrm{\Delta }=41`$ MHz and $`S=19`$, and $`0.38\text{ mK}`$ for $`\mathrm{\Delta }=9`$ MHz and $`S=15`$, appreciably higher than measured under the same circumstances.

The low temperatures found in our MOT may indicate that (sub-)Doppler cooling mechanisms are more efficient using the 389 nm transition. The sub-Doppler frictional force is indeed proportional to $`k^2`$. However, the sub-Doppler temperature limit (at low saturation parameter) is independent of $`k`$, as the diffusion coefficient also scales with $`k^2`$. Moreover, the capture velocity for such mechanisms is proportional to the wavelength of the transition and therefore smaller in the 389 nm case. Also, the recoil temperature associated with the absorption and emission of single 389 nm photons ($`32\text{ }\mu `$K) is close to the Doppler limit ($`36\text{ }\mu `$K), and therefore sub-Doppler cooling theory is expected to fail for the temperatures observed in our MOT. At present, the efficiency of sub-Doppler mechanisms in 389 nm molasses compared to 1083 nm molasses remains an open question.

### IV.2 Trap losses

The number of atoms $`N`$ in the MOT is governed by the well-known rate equation

$$\frac{dN(t)}{dt}=L\alpha N(t)\beta n^2(𝐫,t)d^3r$$
(6)
where $`L`$ denotes the loading rate, and $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are loss rate coefficients for processes involving one and two metastables, respectively. Accordingly, when the loading is interrupted the local density $`n`$ changes in time following

$$\frac{dn}{dt}=\alpha n\beta n^2.$$
(7)
Assuming a Gaussian density profile characterized by a time-independent width, the losses can be expressed in terms of the central density $`n_0`$ Bardou et al. (1992):

$$\frac{dn_0(t)}{dt}=\alpha n_0(t)\frac{\beta }{2\sqrt{2}}n_0^2(t).$$
(8)
The losses are largely due to Penning-ionizing collisions, which yield one positively charged ion per loss event. These ions are attracted towards the ion detector, resulting in an ion flux $`\varphi `$.

The loss rate constants are determined from the trap decay when the loading is stopped by simultaneously blocking all 1083 nm laser beams entering the apparatus. This disables the Zeeman slower and collimation section, and prevents the auxiliary Zeeman slower laser beam of contributing to the two-body collision rate via light-assisted collisions. Switching off the collimation minimizes the Penning ionization contribution of metastables from the atomic beam and, thus, reduces the background signal.

#### IV.2.1 Collisional losses

The decay of the MOT is observed by recording the current $`\varphi (t)`$ from the ion-detecting channeltron Tol et al. (1999); Bardou et al. (1992):

$$\varphi (t)=V\left(ϵ_a\alpha n_0(t)+\frac{ϵ_b\beta }{4\sqrt{2}}n_0^2(t)\right)+B.$$
(9)
Here, B is a constant background signal and $`ϵ_a`$ and $`ϵ_b`$ are the efficiencies with which ions are produced and detected for losses due to background and two-body collisions, respectively. Collisions that do not lead to Penning ionization but do result in trap loss, e.g. collisions with groundstate helium atoms, reduce $`ϵ_a`$. Radiative escape may affect $`ϵ_b`$. For the fit procedure, the ratio $`ϵ=ϵ_b/ϵ_a`$ must be known. From the increase in background pressure when the helium atomic beam is running, we deduce that the background gas consists for 80% of helium when the MOT is on. Unfortunately, our setup is not suited for experimental determination of $`ϵ`$, as done by Bardou et al. Bardou et al. (1992). They experimentally found $`ϵ=4\pm 1`$. Since in our case the background gas involves mainly ground-state helium atoms, we expect $`ϵ_a`$ to be smaller than unity. The value of $`ϵ_b`$ is probably close to unity: following Tol et al. Tol et al. (1999), one finds that for the 1083 nm case $`ϵ_b0.98`$. We take the obvious underestimate $`ϵ=1`$, which implies that the result of the fit for $`\beta n_0`$ has to be considered an upper limit. The result for $`\alpha `$ can also be obtained by fitting the tail of the decaying ion signal, where the density is low enough to neglect the contribution of the two-body losses. In this way, the significance of $`ϵ`$ in the determination of $`\alpha `$ is strongly (but not completely) reduced.

A typical example of a decaying ion signal is depicted in Fig. 5. The decay clearly shows nonexponential behavior, indicating that two-body collisions contribute significantly to the total losses. Since laser power fluctuations cause density fluctuations, much noise is visible in the ion signal. Therefore an average of ten decay transients is fitted, as also shown in Fig. 5. Unfortunately, this may affect the reliability of the fitted parameters as the two-body loss rate depends nonlinearly on intensity. However, apart from intensity noise the 389 nm output remained constant over a period sufficiently long to perform the measurements.

The fit procedure yields values for the exponential time constant $`\alpha `$ and the nonexponential time constant $`\beta n_0`$. We typically find $`\alpha =2\text{ s}^1`$ and $`\beta n_0=3\text{ s}^1`$. This gives the rate coefficient $`\beta `$ from the fit parameter $`\beta n_0`$, using $`n_0`$ from the fluorescence measurement. We find $`\beta =1.0(4)\times 10^9\text{ cm}^3/\text{s}`$, at a detuning of $`35\text{ MHz}`$. Assuming a value $`ϵ=4`$, the result becomes $`\beta =6(2)\times 10^{10}\text{ cm}^3/\text{s}`$. The value $`\beta =1.0(4)\times 10^9\text{ cm}^3/\text{s}`$, which we interpret as the upper limit, is significantly below the value for the 1083 nm case of $`5.3(9)\times 10^9\text{ cm}^3/\text{s}`$, reported by Tol et al. Tol et al. (1999) using the same detuning and similar saturation.

The small value for $`\beta `$ may be explained by a simple argument from cold-collision theory. A light-assisted collision can be regarded as two $`2\text{ }^3S_1`$ atoms that are resonantly excited to a molecular complex. For small detunings, this occurs at relatively large internuclear separation, where the molecular potential $`U`$ is well-approximated by the dipole-dipole interaction

$$U_\pm =\pm \frac{C_3}{R^3}.$$
(10)
Here, $`R`$ is the internuclear distance, and $`C_3\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\lambda /2\pi )^3`$ Weiner et al. (1999). The excitation by the red-detuned MOT laser light takes place resonantly when the molecular potential energy compensates the detuning. This sets the so-called Condon radius $`R_C`$:

$$R_C=\left(\frac{C_3}{2\pi \mathrm{}|\mathrm{\Delta }|}\right)^{1/3}.$$
(11)
The red detuning selects an attractive molecular state. Once excited, the two atoms are accelerated towards small internuclear distances, where Penning ionization occurs with high probability. It follows from Eq. (10) and Eq. (11) that the Condon radius for 389 nm excitation is 2.8 times smaller than for 1083 nm. Classically, the cross section for the collision is determined by the square of the Condon radius, and is therefore expected to decrease by almost a factor 8.

To identify the role played by light-assisted collisions in the total two-body losses, we assume that $`\beta `$, as defined in Eq. (7), can be decomposed in two terms: $`\beta _{SS}`$ and $`\beta _{SP}`$. Here $`\beta _{SS}`$ is the rate coefficient for losses due to collisions between $`2\text{ }^3S_1`$ atoms in the absence of light, whereas $`\beta _{SP}`$ takes the light-assisted collisional losses into account and depends (for given detuning and saturation parameter) on the cross section and, thus, on the Condon radius as described above. We neglect collisions between excited-state atoms, since the excited-state population in our far-red-detuned MOT does not exceed 0.01. We can define $`\beta _{SS}`$ and $`\beta _{SP}`$ also via Eq. (7), with the total density $`n`$ replaced by the $`2\text{ }^3S_1`$ density $`n_S`$:

$$\frac{dn_S}{dt}=\alpha n_S(\beta _{SS}+\beta _{SP})n_S^2.$$
(12)
Since the excited-state population is small, $`n_Sn`$. It now follows immediately from Eq. (7) and Eq. (12) that to good approximation $`\beta =\beta _{SS}+\beta _{SP}`$.

$`\beta _{SS}`$ has been measured in a 1083 nm MOT by Tol et al. Tol et al. (1999) to be $`\beta _{1083}^{SS}=2.6(4)\times 10^{10}\text{ cm}^3`$/s. Subtracting this from the total rate coefficient $`\beta _{1083}=5.3(9)\times 10^9\text{ cm}^3`$/s, we infer $`\beta _{1083}^{SP}=5(1)\times 10^9\text{ cm}^3`$/s, which is much larger than $`\beta _{1083}^{SS}`$. In contrast, the upper limit we find for $`\beta _{389}`$ is of the same order of magnitude as $`\beta _{389}^{SS}`$ (since 1083 nm and 389 nm magneto-optical traps, operated under the same conditions, are assumed to lead to similar populations of the 2 $`{}_{}{}^{3}S_{1}^{}`$, $`M=1,0,1`$ levels, we can take $`\beta _{389}^{SS}=\beta _{1083}^{SS}`$). To obtain the upper limit for $`\beta _{389}^{SP}`$, we subtract $`\beta _{389}^{SS}`$ from $`\beta _{389}`$ and find $`\beta _{389}^{SP}7(3)\times 10^{10}\text{ cm}^3`$/s. This is in good agreement with the prediction following our simple argument. In addition to the upper limit found for $`\beta _{389}`$, we can now assign a lower limit equal to $`\beta _{389}^{SS}=2.6(4)\times 10^{10}\text{ cm}^3`$/s. Summarizing, we find $`2\times 10^{10}\text{ cm}^3/\text{s}<\beta _{389}<1.0\times 10^9`$ cm<sup>3</sup>/s.

#### IV.2.2 Two-photon ionization

From the fit to the ion signal decay, we extract the linear loss rate coefficient $`\alpha `$. Unlike the situation in 1083 nm magneto-optical traps, $`\alpha `$ is not solely determined by background-gas collisions, but also by the two-photon ionization rate. We assume that each loss event involves only one He\* atom and ignore photoionization of the molecular complex formed during a light-assisted collision, as this process enters Eq. (8) via $`\beta `$. Hence the loss rate coefficient can be written

$$\alpha =\alpha _{bgr}+\alpha _{2ph},$$
(13)
where $`\alpha _{bgr}`$ denotes the background gas collisional rate, and $`\alpha _{2ph}`$ accounts for the two-photon ionization loss rate. Two processes can be thought to cause the ionization: two-photon ionization of a $`2\text{ }^3S_1`$ atom, or photoionization of an atom in either the $`3\text{ }^3P_2`$ or the $`3\text{ }^3S_1`$ state. The latter state is populated only during the cascade and has a lifetime of only 35 ns, so its contribution will be negligible. The instantaneous two-photon ionization probability $`p_{inst}`$ is, for not too large detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, dependent on intensity $`S`$ and MOT detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ according to

$$p_{inst}\frac{S^2}{\mathrm{\Delta }^2}.$$
(14)
The photoionization probability $`p_{pi}`$ of a helium atom in the $`3\text{ }^3P_2`$ state is simply proportional to the incident laser intensity and the cross-section for photoionization, which varies only slowly with wavelength Chang and Fang (1995). Neglecting this wavelength dependence, the probability of photoionization simply becomes the product of the upper $`3\text{ }^3P_2`$ state population and the ionization probability itself. For the two-step process, this leads to a dependence on intensity and detuning as

$$p_{pi}\frac{S^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }/2)^2}{\mathrm{\Delta }^2+(S+1)(\mathrm{\Gamma }/2)^2}.$$
(15)
When $`\mathrm{\Delta }^2(S+1)(\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{2})^2`$, this dependence takes on a form similar to Eq. (14). We confirmed this behavior by measuring $`\alpha _{2ph}`$ as a function of MOT detuning, as shown in Fig. 6. We also checked the intensity dependence, as shown in Fig. 7. In both cases we determined $`\alpha _{bgr}`$ by measuring $`\alpha `$ as a function of background pressure, while keeping the detuning and intensity fixed. Assuming a linear variation of $`\alpha _{bgr}`$ with pressure, against a fixed background $`\alpha _{2ph}`$, a fit to the data points yields $`\alpha _{bgr}1.5(1)\text{ s}^1`$. Under typical experimental conditions, we find $`\alpha _{2ph}0.5\text{ s}^1`$.

Chang et al. calculated photoionization cross sections of many singlet and triplet states in helium, including the $`3\text{ }^3S`$ and $`3\text{ }^3P`$ states, for various wavelengths Chang and Fang (1995). Using their results we find photoionization rates of about $`2\text{ s}^1`$. Since the fraction of $`n=3`$ atoms in our MOT is typically below the 1% level, the net loss rate due to the two-step process then would be one order of magnitude smaller than the measured value for $`\alpha _{2ph}`$. This suggests that instantaneous two-photon ionization dominates over the two-step ionization losses.

### IV.3 Auxiliary Zeeman slower, loading rate, and MOT capture velocity

To test the performance of the auxiliary Zeeman slower, we first optimized the number of atoms in the MOT in the absence of the extra slowing laser. Then, leaving the MOT parameters unaltered, we unblock the auxiliary laser beam and vary the slower laser intensities and Zeeman coil current iteratively until a new optimum for the number of atoms is established. Indeed, blocking the additional laser beam again interrupts the loading, demonstrating that we have tuned the end velocity of the Zeeman decelerator above the capture velocity of the MOT. With the auxiliary Zeeman slower on, the number of atoms is 40% times larger as compared to the case without the auxiliary Zeeman slower. Making use of Eq. (6), with $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$, and $`n_0`$ known from experiment, we calculate that the auxiliary Zeeman slower enhances the loading rate by a factor 1.6. Despite this improvement, the loading rate remains low. By solving Eq. (6), with the measured values for the loss rate constants and the steady-state number of atoms as input, we find a loading rate slightly below $`10^8\text{ s}^1`$. Tol et al. Tol et al. (1999) state a value of $`5\times 10^9\text{ s}^1`$ for their 1083 nm MOT. This difference is explained by the smaller MOT diameter, the reduced flux of slow atoms from the Zeeman slower due to atomic beam expansion, and imperfect collimation due to the relatively large bandwidth of the 1083 nm laser.

From the Zeeman slower settings it is possible to calculate the end velocity of the atoms and, thus, the capture velocity of the MOT. Therefore, the equations of motion of an atom subject to the decelerating laser beam are solved. We take into account the saturation parameter, the laser beam intensity profile, and the magnetic field (obtained from a detailed calculation). In this way we derive a capture velocity of 35 m/s (without using the auxiliary Zeeman slower). Apparently, the prediction of a 24 m/s capture velocity by the model of Sec. II.2 is an underestimate, and the true capture velocity lies closely to the velocity determined by the resonance condition. Therefore, it is likely that $`\pi `$ and $`\sigma `$ transitions, caused by MOT laser beams orthogonal to the quantization axis, occur at rates at least comparable to the 10% decay via the 3 $`{}_{}{}^{3}S_{1}^{}`$ cascade. Apparently, the nonclosed character of the 389 nm transition plays a minor role, even in the case of relatively large ($`40\text{ }G`$) magnetic fields.

We derive from the settings of the Zeeman slower that atoms with a velocity of at most 75 m/s are further decelerated to a velocity of 35 m/s by the auxiliary Zeeman slower. This translates to an increase in loading rate by a factor 1.7, in reasonable agreement with the result of the test described above.

### IV.4 Comparison with 1083 nm MOT

Table 1 contains MOT results for the 389 nm and 1083 nm case Tol et al. (1999). Both MOTs have similar detuning and saturation parameter, which optimize both density and trapped atom number. The smaller number of atoms $`N`$ in the 389 nm MOT is explained by the small loading rate. Despite this small number, the central density $`n_0`$ is equal to that of a 1083 nm MOT containing over one order of magnitude more atoms. This is the result of the smaller loss rate constant $`\beta `$, the larger laser cooling force, and the larger magnetic field gradient. The latter not only contributes to the compression of the cloud, but also reflects the necessity of a large Zeeman detuning to compensate the larger Doppler shift of the atoms to be captured from the Zeeman-decelerated He\* beam. Furthermore, we observe that the 0.5 s<sup>-1</sup> contribution of two-photon ionization to the losses in the 389 nm MOT is small compared to the 21 s<sup>-1</sup> two-body loss rate in a large 1083 nm MOT.

## V Conclusion and Outlook

We have shown that it is possible to build a magneto-optical trap using the 389 nm transition in triplet helium. Our prototype MOT demonstrates that a 389 nm MOT offers the advantage of a dense, cold cloud of metastable helium atoms, as compared to a 1083 nm MOT. The relatively large density is allowed by the reduced two-body loss rate coefficient $`\beta `$, whereas the large spontaneous force moderates substantial compression of the cloud. Intensity noise on the 389 nm output, however, compromises the measurement accuracy. Together with the high background pressure and the small value of $`\beta `$, this has complicated an accurate determination of its value. We conclude that $`\beta `$ lies between the experimentally determined upper limit $`1.0\times 10^9`$ cm<sup>3</sup>/s, and the two-body loss rate constant in the absence of light, $`2\times 10^{10}`$ cm<sup>3</sup>/s determined in Ref. Tol et al. (1999). Two-photon ionization losses, although present, do not exclude the future possibility of a 389 nm MOT containing large numbers of metastable helium atoms at high phase-space density. To this end, however, the loading rate of the MOT must be improved. A bare 389 nm MOT has limited loading capabilities since the large Doppler shift implies a reduced capture velocity, and the required Zeeman slower settings then give rise to a smaller flux of slow metastables. The nonclosed character of the 389 nm transition, however, does not play an important role in the capture process, as well as in the other physics involved in the MOT.

For the near future we plan an ultimate experiment, in a configuration with a loading rate increased by two orders of magnitude. To realize this, a 1083 nm MOT with $`30`$ mm diameter laser beams will be overlapped with a $`10`$ mm diameter 389 nm MOT. To avoid large two-body losses in the trapped cloud due to the presence of red-detuned 1083 nm light, a $`5`$ mm diameter hole has to be created in the center of the 1083 nm MOT laser beams. This configuration will benefit from the superior loading capability of the 1083 nm MOT, as well as from the low-loss 389 nm environment containing a dense cloud at relatively low temperature. Furthermore, we will test the effectiveness of 389 nm molasses on a metastable helium cloud, precooled by a 1083 nm MOT. This seems promising not only because of the low temperatures observed already in our 389 nm MOT, but also because of the relatively high saturation intensity. This can be seen as follows. In a 1083 nm molasses, starting with a large, dense cloud of helium metastables, the relative absorption is rather large Pereira Dos Santos et al. (2002). Within the cloud, this results in intensity imbalances between two counterpropagating molasses laser beams, and these imbalances are believed to reduce the effectiveness of the molasses. The larger saturation intensity of the 389 nm transition implies lower relative absorption and, thus, a reduced intensity imbalance. Therefore, we expect to obtain lower temperatures in a 389 nm molasses.

## VI Acknowledgements

We are indebted to J. Bouma for his contribution to the design and construction of the setup. We thank P.J.J. Tol and N. Herschbach for stimulating discussions. The Space Research Organization Netherlands (SRON) is gratefully acknowledged for financial support.


text:
# The intriguing case of Sk-69°194

## 1 Introduction

Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 ($`\alpha =5:34:36`$, $`\delta =69:45:37`$, J2000) is one of the brightest stars in the OB association LH 81 (Lucke & Hodge 1970), in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Westerlund  studied that region, and obtained for Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 (which he identified as the star number 10 in Table 28) $`V=12.30`$ and $`BV=0.15`$ (notice that Figs. 7 and 8 are interchanged in Westerlund’s work, i.e. Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 is the star number 10 in his Fig. 7). In its regard, he just pointed out that probably it was a variable star. The name Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 comes from the Sanduleak’s objective prism survey (Sanduleak 1969). Later on, Isserstedt  performed $`UBV`$ photo-electric photometry, obtaining $`V=11.98:`$, $`BV=0.08`$ and $`UB=0.96`$. He also suspected that Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 was a photometric variable. More recently, Massey et al.  classified Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 as B0 I+WN.

LH 81 is one of the regions that we observed when searching new eclipsing binaries. In this paper we announce that Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 is an eclipsing binary system and present its light curve and radial velocity measurements. We have also tried to model our data by means of the Wilson-Devinney (hereafter W-D) programs (Wilson & Devinney 1971, Wilson 1990, Wilson 1993). Based on the spectroscopic data and the results of the W-D model, we discuss the nature of the binary components.

## 2 Observations and Reductions

CCD $`V`$ photometry of Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 was acquired during four observing runs between 1998 and 2001, with the 2.15-m telescope at CASLEO111 Complejo Astronómico El Leoncito, operated under agreement between the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de la República Argentina and the National Universities of La Plata, Córdoba and San Juan.. A focal reducer was used, yielding a circular field of diameter about 9 arcmin and a scale of 0.813 arcsec px-1. The reduction of the data was performed by means of IRAF222 IRAF software is distributed by NOAO, operated by AURA for NSF. routines.

The CCD spectrograms were obtained with a REOSC 333The REOSC spectrograph is on long term loan from the Liège Observatory. spectrograph used in its single dispersion mode, attached to the same telescope between 2000 and 2001. A 600 grooves mm-1 grating was used, giving a reciprocal dispersion of 1.63 Å px-1. Our spectrograms comprise the range from about 3900 to 5500 Å. The reductions and analysis of the spectroscopic observations were also performed by means of IRAF.

Both the photometric and the spectroscopic observations were acquired by means of a CCD Tek $`1024\times 1024`$ detector.

## 3 Photometry

Aperture photometry was carried out using a stand-alone version of DAOPHOT (Stetson 1987, 1991). In order to tie all the instrumental magnitudes to a common instrumental system, we used about 15 stars in the field of Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 as local standards. Just after the first observing run, the photometric data showed deep eclipses, of the order of a half magnitude.

During a photometric night, in December 5, 1998, we also acquired $`B`$ and $`R`$ frames of the Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 field, together with photometric standards of the selected areas SA-92 and SA-98 (Landolt 1992), with the aim of linking the instrumental and standard photometric systems.

From the observations of that night, we derive the following magnitudes and colours for Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 :

$$V=12.378\pm 0.010$$

$$BV=0.013\pm 0.016$$

$$VR=0.010\pm 0.014$$

at HJD=2451153.813. This corresponds to $`\varphi =0.534`$, therefore the colour indexes must be considered with caution. Besides, Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 showed to have slight variations in the shape of its eclipses (see below). The magnitude corresponding to $`\varphi =0.25`$ is $`V=11.83`$. Table 1 displays our $`V`$ aperture photometry (transformed to the standard system), together with the internal errors derived from the local standards, seeing and airmass.

## 4 Spectroscopy

The spectrum of Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 exhibits noticeable changes with phase. Only the spectrum of one of the stars is distinguishable. Based on our data and ultraviolet observations downloaded from the IUE 444 Operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the European Space Agency and the Science and Engineering Research Council of the U.K.  archive, we classified the spectrum according to the classification criteria of Walborn & Fitzpatrick , corresponding approximately to the type BN0 Ia. That spectrum is easily measurable, and shows orbital velocity excursions of $`425`$ kms-1 of amplitude. The emission in the region around Niii 4634–Heii 4686, very weak compared with which is usual in WN stars (as also pointed out Massey et al. 2000), does not show any mensurable velocity variation as far as can be determined from our data. This spectral region also shows the more striking phase changes, due to the blend of the emission with the supergiant’s absorption lines.

We determined the radial velocity at phase 0.016 (when the B supergiant is at inferior conjunction) measuring several absorption lines. The velocities corresponding to the other phases were derived by cross correlation by means of the FXCOR IRAF task, using the spectra taken at phase 0.016 as template and avoiding the range of 4500–4800 Å. The measured velocities are given in Table 2.

Four of the obtained spectra, corresponding to both conjunctions and both quadratures, are displayed in Fig. 2. It is interesting to point out that the Niii 4515 absorption is more notorious in the spectra acquired near quadratures.

## 5 Ephemeris

It was not straightforward to derive an ephemeris only from the photometric observations. This was due to the fact that the shape of the light curve varied between 1998 and 2001, and to the intrinsic incompleteness of our data. With the aid of our radial velocity measurements, we succeeded in deriving a period and a time of minimum,

$$P=12.2252\pm 0.0035$$

$$T_0=2451501.815\pm 0.012$$

The phase-folded light curve is displayed in Fig. 1. The data obtained during different observing seasons are plotted using different symbols, in order to show the shape variation. We emphasize that the data corresponding to secondary eclipse (observed during 1998 as well as during 2000) was obtained, in both cases, during consecutive nights; i.e. the discrepancy can not be ascribed to a period uncertainty.

## 6 Light and Velocity Curve Modelling

Being visible the spectrum of only one binary component, the derivation of masses and absolute dimensions for this system is not straightforward. However, and alternative approach suitable when the system present a Roche-lobe filling geometry and deep eclipses is to obtain the mass ratio solely from the light curve. We attempted to follow that approach, although the variation of the shape of the secondary eclipse between 1998 and 2000 increases the uncertainties of the solution.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to derive a photometric $`q`$ from our light curve. We found solutions with $`q`$ ($`q=M_2/M_1`$, where $`M_2`$ corresponds to the B supergiant) ranging from 0.6 to 1.67, with practically the same degree of significance. The solution with $`q=1.67`$ gives a mass of $`127\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ for the B0 I star, therefore can be disregarded. Only the solutions with lower mass ratio ($`q0.70.8`$) provide masses and radii according whit what is expected for B supergiants. However, for all cases, the solutions correspond to overcontact systems. In these configurations, thermal contact between both components exists, hence the surface temperatures of the stars are similar. It is compatible with the light curve, that shows eclipses of similar depth, but the very different spectra of the stars suggest unlike physical conditions of their atmospheres. In spite of the wide range of mass ratios of the possible solutions, the orbital inclination is $`75\pm 1\mathrm{°}`$ for all of them. This inclination, together with the observed radial velocity curve, yields for $`a_2`$ a value of $`49.1\pm 4.3\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{}}`$.

## 7 Discussion

Massey et al. (2000) classified Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 as B0 I+WN, and pointed out that the weakness of the WR emissions presumably is due to the continuum being dominated by the B supergiant. The temperature inferred from the light curve is compatible with that of a late WN, but all the solutions point to comparable magnitudes. In addition, no orbital movement is detected in the emission, although it would be intrinsically difficult to measure due to its weakness.

On weighing the observational data and the W-D modelling, we speculate about the alternative nature of the companion of the B supergiant:

* May be that it is truly a late WN star, with very weak emissions. The fact that no orbital movement is detectable from HeII 4686 can be ascribed to the difficulty of measuring the radial velocity of a broad emission superposed with the absorption lines of the other star.
* It is possible that we are seeing a thick disk that hide one of the binary components. The HeII 4686 emission can be originated in the region between (or surrounding) the stars.

Both hypothesis, though, do not agree with the overcontact configuration inferred from the W-D solutions. In one case, this contradiction can be ascribed to the interaction effects caused by the WR winds and radiation pressure (see, for example, Drechsel et al. 1995). On the other hand, if we are seeing an accretion disk, the W-D model must be considered with extreme caution, since the system’s shape would be very different from the Roche-lobe geometry. Kondo et al.  reviewed the main problems of close binary modelling, especially that concerning to Roche-lobe geometry. Sk-69$`\mathrm{°}`$194 is a system where such objections appear to be especially pertinent. Anyhow, it is interesting to mention that Walborn et al.  suggest three different ways that leads to the WN stage, one of which being mass transfer binaries. In fact, the lack of discernible spectral features of the B companion can be explained if we suppose that it is behind a thick stream of turbulent matter, hypothesis that can also give account for the eclipse shape variation occurred between 1998 and 2001. A spectroscopic study encompassing a complete orbital period, at a higher resolution than that one can reach at CASLEO, could contribute to enlighten this issue.

The system remarkably resembles HD 163181 ($``$V453 Scorpii) (Josephs et al. 2001, and references there in), in which only one spectrum is visible (BN0.5 Ia). That system has a period of $`12`$ days with radial velocity excursions of nearly 400 km s$`{}_{}{}^{}1`$, also exhibiting enhanced nitrogen abundance and signs of mass transfer.

From the derived values for $`a_2`$ and $`i`$, we have

$$a=49.1(1+q)\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{}}$$

$$M_1=10.65(1+q)^2\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}$$

and

$$M_2=10.65q(1+q)^2\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}.$$

Assuming for the B0 supergiant a mass of $`25\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ (Schmidt-Kaler 1982), the corresponding $`q`$ is $`0.75`$ and $`M_1`$ is $`32.5\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$. However, it is important to have in mind that the derived value for the inclination depends on the assumption of Roche-lobe geometry, although its constant value for a wide range of possible mass ratios suggests that it should not be very far from the actual value.

## Acknowledgments

I would like especially to thank Dr. Claudia Giordano for helping me with English. I also wish to acknowledge Mariela Corti for the acquisition of two of the spectra, as an interchange of telescope time. I also want to thank Dr. Nidia Morrell and Dr Rodolfo Barbá for helpful comments, and Dr. Virpi Niemelä for her power of motivation.

The author acknowledges the use of the CCD and data acquisition system at CASLEO supported through a U.S. National Science Foundation grant AST-90-15827 to R. M. Rich. The focal reducer in use at CASLEO was kindly provided by Dr. M. Shara.