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# Kinematical classification of two-pion production on the nucleon

## I Introduction

Theoretically, photo- and electroproduction of two pions on the nucleon is notoriously difficult due to the complexity and numerous processes involved. A serious attempt would require close to a hunderd distinct diagrams. Model assumptions often appear in the data analysis by the restricted choice of processes. Therefore it is necessary to make a systematic study, and catagorizes these processes. This paper has the limited goal of classifying all the processes by their kinematical properties and showing their characteristics, similar to the $`s`$-, $`t`$-, and $`u`$-channel distinction of 2-to-2 scattering.

The two-pion production on the nucleon plays a pivotal role in the analysis of baryon resonances in the intermediate energies as it is the dominant final state. However, the analysis is often restricted. Most of the time the analysis is performed on integrated quantities, where only a subset or a projection of the five-dimensional data is used. Experiments with almost $`4\pi `$ acceptance would still have problems to fill the last gaps at forward angles, where certain $`t`$-channel processes are important. Furthermore, the analysis is often of the type of an isobar model, which focuses on $`s`$-channel processes.

In the two-pion data the contact, or Kroll-Ruderman, term plays a dominant part. It is the contact photo-production of a pion on the nucleon, and has the structure given by the $`\pi NN`$ coupling where the derivative in the interaction $`i^\mu `$ is replaced by the minimal photon coupling $`eA^\mu `$. The nucleon can be left in the excited state. For example, Murphy and Laget Murphy:1996ms  included $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`N^{}`$ excitations for the nucleon, which decayed under the emission of a second pion.

The width of a resonance can only be reproduced by an infinite summation of a perturbative series. From this and the strength of the interaction it can be argued that a perturbative approach has a limited applicability, especially once the energy is larger, such as for the second resonance region around 1.6 GeV. However, Gómez Tejedor and Oset GomezTejedor:1995pe  did pursue chiral perturbation theory to analyse different isospin channels up to this energy. They were able to trace certain channels back to particular baryon resonances. A similar, but more limited analysis was performed by Ochi, Hirata, and Takaki. Ochi:1997ev ; Hirata:gr  The Valencia group also restricted itself to particular subprocesses and the structure of the $`N(1520)`$ resonance GomezTejedor:1995kj  and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1700)`$ resonanceNacher:2000eq  as seen in the two-pion production.

Although polarization is important to distinguish different angular momentum states, and in, for example, the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum rule Nacher:2001yr , the polarized large acceptance data is not common. Hence at the moment it seems more important to focus on kinematical separation of the different production processes, which we do in this short paper.

## II Theory

If one lumps all the baryon and baryonic excitations together, and do the same with all the mesonic states one is still left with seventeen possible production tree diagrams, which are shown in Fig. 1. We ignored the Vector Meson Dominance diagrams where the photon oscillates to a rho-meson, which we consider a vertex function, or form factor. These diagrams, apart from the possible vertex functions we will discuss later, depend only on a restricted set of invariant momenta, which are indicated by the letters in the figure. If we denote the incoming nucleon four-momentum by $`p_{ni}`$, the outgoing nucleon momentum by $`p_{nf}`$, and the two pion momenta by $`p_{\pi 1}`$ and $`p_{\pi 2}`$, we have the following set of functions of a single momentum squared:

$`s\mathrm{channel}\mathrm{production}`$ $`:`$ $`S(p_{nf}+p_{\pi 1}+p_{\pi 2}),`$ (1)
$`t\mathrm{channel}\mathrm{production}`$ $`:`$ $`T(p_{nf}p_{ni}),`$ (2)
$`u\mathrm{channel}\mathrm{production}`$ $`:`$ $`U_\alpha (p_{ni}p_{\pi \alpha }),`$ (3)
$`\mathrm{cascade};\mathrm{decay}\mathrm{product}`$ $`:`$ $`C_\alpha (p_{nf}+p_{\pi \alpha }),`$ (4)
$`\pi \pi \mathrm{channel}`$ $`:`$ $`R(p_{\pi 1}+p_{\pi 2}),`$ (5)
$`\pi \mathrm{photon}\mathrm{interaction}`$ $`:`$ $`P_\alpha (p_{nf}+p_{\pi \alpha }p_{ni}),`$ (6)
$`\mathrm{late}\mathrm{photon}\mathrm{absorption}`$ $`:`$ $`X(p_{ni}p_{\pi 1}p_{\pi 2}).`$ (7)
If the pions are identical one should sum $`p_{\pi 1}p_{\pi 2}`$, otherwise there are two functions $`\alpha =1,2`$ for $`U_\alpha `$, $`C_\alpha `$, and $`P_\alpha `$. Excluding final-state interactions, the amplitude is the particular linear combination of the functions of these variables, shown in Fig. 1. Furthermore, the functions $`S,U,X,`$ and $`C`$ can only contain the baryonic resonances, while the functions $`P,R,`$ and $`T`$ only the mesonic resonances. As they stand, the kinematical diagrams, which contain only the denominator of the propagators, indicated by a single letter have the dimension of $`[\mathrm{energy}]^2`$ and the double letter diagrams $`[\mathrm{energy}]^4`$, together with vertex functions and dimensionful coupling constants they should yield a dimensionless invariant amplitude.

Of course, a careful spin, isospin, and partial wave analysis will exclude particular combinations for spin-isospin quantum numbers of the final state. For example, the neutral pion will not generate photo-pion interactions, hence, that amplitude will not depend on $`P`$. However, at the moment we are more interested to determine the kinematical signatures of each of the processes. It has been the custom to ignore the $`t`$\- and $`u`$\- processes, however, at the typical scattering energies nowadays where pions are fully relativistic, there is no a priori reason to do so.

It is difficult to represent five-dimensional differential cross sections. For two-pion data one often plots the Dalitz plot, which is the density of events for a given invariant mass $`m_{n1}^2=(p_{nf}+p_{\pi 1})^2`$ and $`m_{n2}^2=(p_{nf}+p_{\pi 2})^2`$. These two variables determine the length of each of the 3-momentum $`|𝐩_{nf}|`$, $`|𝐩_{\pi 1}|`$, and $`|𝐩_{\pi 2}|`$, in a given frame. However, their orientation with respect to the initial scattering direction $`𝐩_\gamma `$ is not fixed. For unpolarized scattering there are two angles, which give the rigid-body rotation of the triangle $`𝐩_{nf}𝐩_{\pi 1}𝐩_{\pi 2}`$ in the center-of-mass frame with respect to the vector $`𝐩_\gamma `$, while for a polarized photon there is an additional angle with respect to the polarization direction $`𝐞_\gamma `$. For unpolarized production processes in the $`s`$-channel ($`S`$), the amplitude is constant for these angles. For all the others there is an angular dependence, which might be weak.

The propagators are taken to be polarization averaged. If all the spin projections of a state are summed, it yields a projection on the relative momenta $`k_1k_2`$ of the decay products orthogonal to the momentum $`p`$ of the decaying particle. Hence

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }^{(l)}(p,k_1,k_2)=p^0,𝐩|k_1^0,𝐤_1;k_2^0,𝐤_2=\left(((k_2k_1)p)^2p^2(k_2k_1)^2\right)^{l/2}.$$
(8)
The general effect of such a vertex factor is a suppression at threshold of the decay product. It is not difficult to insert factors like these in the invariant amplitudes, however, since we are interested in a general classification only, we use unit vertex functions everywhere. For each channel we insert a single resonance:

$`S(p^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{p^2M_s^2+i\mathrm{\Gamma }_s}},`$ (9)
$`C(p^2)=U(p^2)=X(p^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{p^2M_c^2+i\mathrm{\Gamma }_c}},`$ (10)
$`T(p^2)=R(p^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{p^2m_r^2+i\mathrm{\Gamma }_r}},`$ (11)
$`P(p^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{p^2m_\pi ^2+iϵ}},`$ (12)
where we have taken the general idea of a second, or higher resonance in the $`s`$-channel, a lower resonance in the $`c`$, $`x`$, and $`u`$-channel, and a meson resonance in the $`t`$ and $`r`$ channel. The pion is taken as an elementary particle in the photon interaction. The invariant amplitude corresponds to the complex multiplication of the corresponding functions. To investigate the angular dependence, we study two cases: the incoming nucleon parallel to the outgoing nucleon ($``$), and the incoming nucleon perpendicular to the outgoing momenta in the center-of-mass frame ($``$). (See Fig. 2.) This does not exhaust the angular dependence, but will give a good indication for each of the processes.

## III Results

We calculated the invariant amplitude squared $`\sigma _M`$ on a $`100\times 100`$ grid for each of the seventeen diagrams for the two angular cases and three values of the invariant mass $`E=\sqrt{s}`$. The values we inserted are not necessarily realistic, but archetypical: $`M_s=1.6`$GeV, $`M_c=1.35`$GeV, $`m_r=0.77`$GeV, and $`m_\pi =0.14`$GeV. The widths are all set to $`\sqrt{\mathrm{\Gamma }}=0.14`$GeV, except the pion which has a small width of $`\sqrt{ϵ}=0.003`$GeV. It takes about five seconds to calculate these 102 Dalitz plots independently on a normal desktop computer, which makes a fitting procedure in this approach feasible. The results are shown in Figs. 3-11, the trivial case of “1” is not given.

The $`S`$ process gives a flat invariant amplitude across the Dalitz plot. The $`s`$-resonance can be recovered from comparing different scattering energies. All the $`S`$ processes have no angular dependence as expected, so do the $`R`$ and $`C`$ processes. Vertex functions will introduce angular dependence in the latter cases. The $`U`$ and $`X`$ processes have signatures that depend on the angle, however, they are not particularly peaked for parallel kinematics. Unlike the $`P`$ process, which is largely in the forward direction, where the intermediate pion momentum is close to shell, which is also the reason for the large values for this amplitude. The $`T`$ process is somewhere in between: it has a larger amplitude in parallel kinematics. Only the $`S`$, the $`C`$, and the $`R`$ processes give a clear resonance structure. It is clear why many theoretical studies focus on these diagrams, including combinations like $`SC`$, and $`SR`$. However, from this kinematical study it is clear that none of the other processes is obviously suppressed. One of the most complete studies by Murphy and Laget Murphy:1996ms  included the diagrams: $`C_\mathrm{\Delta },`$ $`C_N^{},`$ $`(U_\mathrm{\Delta }C_\mathrm{\Delta }),`$ $`(S_pC_\mathrm{\Delta }),`$ $`(S_{D_{13}}C_\mathrm{\Delta }),`$ $`(S_{P_{11}}C_\mathrm{\Delta }),`$ $`(S_{D_{13}}R_\rho ),`$ $`(S_{P_{11}}R_\sigma ),`$ $`(PC_\mathrm{\Delta }),`$ $`(PC_N^{}),`$ $`R_\rho ,`$ and $`(T_{\mathrm{Pomeron}}R_\rho )`$, which is clearly still a small subset of all diagrams. In some two-body baryon resonance analysis effective two-pion states are included, labeled by their angular momentum $`\sigma (S=0)`$ or $`\rho (S=1)`$. It would be appropriate to check these channels against the data. However, even from this small kinematical study it is clear that this is not a trivial task.

Furthermore, assuming that $`SC`$ and $`C`$ and the dominant parts of the amplitude, we explored possible non-trivial interference in the amplitude. However, in the case of just the single product of two production amplitudes nothing unexpected happens; the interference is more or less the product of the two amplitudes.

## IV Conclusions

For the analysis of the data the complexity is significantly reduced if the data is fitted only with arbitrary functions $`S,T,U,C,X,R,P`$, possibly separated in partial waves for $`S`$ and $`C`$. However, it is clear that partial wave analysis might have to yield to combined analysis in problems like these. To first order, the functions are sums of simple single channel resonances, which masses and widths should be recovered, taking care of all the interference among the different parts. The angular information turned out to be important to separate the large non-resonant background from the closed channels.

However, the widths are the direct result of the coupling of a particular resonance to its decay channels. In a proper analysis the coupling strengths and the widths are highly correlated. Therefore, in order to recover this consistency one has to go beyond the perturbation theory described in this paper and typically applied to this problem, and include final-state and intermediate-state interactions in the analysis. This analysis is under investigation. The results presented in this paper, of all the possible production processes, are a first step in this analysis.


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# A Magnetic Bomb Scenario for Relativistic Jet Events in the Microquasar GRS 1915+105

## 1 Introduction

Since the initial discovery of their relativistic jets (Mirabel & Rodríguez (1994) ; Tingay, et al. (1995) ; Hjellming & Rupen (1995)), the Galactic microquasars have shown great potential as a laboratory for studying the formation of relativistic jets in black hole systems. These systems contain black holes of a few stellar masses, i.e.: $`M_{BH}7M_{}`$ for GRO 1655-40 (Orosz, et al., 1997) and $`M_{BH}14M_{}`$ for GRS 1915+105 (Greiner, et al., 2001), as opposed to the supermassive black holes of $`10^810^9M_{}`$ in quasars and active galactic nuclei. As a consequence, the timescales for variability are typically much shorter in microquasars, ranging from milliseconds to hours, as opposed to years to centuries in quasars and AGN. This allows studies of repeated patterns of jet-producing behaviors on timescales feasible for human investigation.

GRS 1915+105 is perhaps the most promising observational target for understanding the microquasar phenomenon, due to its continued violent activity in X-ray, infrared, and radio wavebands. Mirabel & Rodríguez (1994) first discovered relativistic jets in GRS 1915+105 through observations of oppositely-directed, collimated radio blobs moving with $`v0.92c`$. Several years later, Fender et al., (1997) observed fast infrared (IR) flares and, later the same day, radio flares, hypothesized to be smaller-scale versions of the ejections seen by Mirabel & Rodriguez. Subsequent multiwavelength observations revealed a rich phenomenology of X-ray flares and dips, IR flares, and radio flares. This confirmed that GRS 1915+105 provided the first time-resolved observations of relativistic jet formation (Eikenberry, et al. (1998a); Eikenberry, et al. (1998b) ; Mirabel, et al. (1998) ; Fender & Pooley, (1999)).

GRS 1915+105 shows (at least) three types of jet-forming activities (Eikenberry, et al., 2001). The first of these, Type A, produces the major ejection events (Mirabel & Rodríguez, 1994), and is associated with a reduction in hard X-ray flux on long timescales (Harmon, et al., 1997). The second of these types, Type B, shows smaller radio/infrared flares associated with X-ray dips/spikes (Eikenberry, et al. (1998a); Mirabel, et al. (1998)), and also exhibits apparent superluminal motions (Dhawan, et al., 2001). The third type, Type C, shows much fainter IR flares and associated radio flares with soft X-ray dips.

We present here a magnetic bomb scenario as a new mechanism for the multiwavelength behavior of Type B events. Our scenario is based on the suspended accretion model for long gamma-ray bursts (van Putten, 2001) and the van Putten-Levinson stability criterion for magnetized disks (van Putten & Levinson, 2003). This posits a rapidly spinning Kerr black hole (Kerr, 1963) surrounded by a uniformly magnetized inner accretion disk, represented by two counter-oriented current rings which support a inner toroidal magnetosphere around the black hole, as well as an outer toroidal magnetosphere which extends to infinity. Prompt disconnection of the inner torus magnetosphere from the black hole releases magnetic energy in the form of radiation – a magnetic explosion (“B-bomb”). We shall quantify the energies and timescales of this mechanism, as well as the preceeding evolution of build-up of the torus and its magnetosphere. This analysis describes a proposed two-state three-way “hole-torus-jet” connection in the low-hard dip state of Type B events. We note also that as we finished preparing this work for submission, Livio et al. (2003) have independently announced some very interesting, related work on a two-state “disk-jet” connection in GRS 1915+105.

The interaction of the black hole and the surrounding uniformly magnetized torus operates similarly to pulsar magnetospheres when viewed in poloidal topology. The inner face of the torus facing the black hole event horizon is equivalent to a pulsar, once we identify the event horizon of the black hole with a “compactified infinity” endowed with non-zero angular velocity (van Putten, 1999). The geometry of this black hole and torus system viewed in poloidal cross-section shows a leading-order effect in the magnetic coupling (Figure 1), so that most of the black hole event horizon surface provides the asympotic end point for the open magnetic field lines of the inner torus magnetosphere. A rapidly spinning black hole will rotate much faster than the inner accretion disk for nominal values of the disk radius. By the equivalence to pulsar magnetospheres described above, the torus and the black hole interact, whereby (a) most of the black hole spin energy is dissipated in the event horizon and (b) most of the black hole luminosity is incident onto the inner face of the torus (Figure 2).

In the weak magnetic field limit, extraction of energy from a Kerr black hole by a torque to surrounding matter in the accreting state is described by Ruffini & Wilson (1975). We appeal to the above equivalence to pulsars for the extension to the strong magnetic field-limit. This torque creates a “magnetic wall” around the black hole (van Putten & Levinson, 2003) blocking passage of accreting material through the inner disk – a “suspended accretion” state (van Putten & Ostriker, 2001) develops a torus as matter continues to build up by accretion in the extended disk. The black hole gradually spins down by conservation of energy and angular momentum.

Note that the equivalence to pulsar magnetospheres establishes causality in the extraction of black hole-spin energy by horizon Maxwell stresses, circumventing the criticism of Punsly & Coroniti (1990) to the force-free limit of Blandford and Znajek (1977) – see van Putten & Levinson (2003). Also, the field-lines connecting the black hole with the disk are equivalent to those on the outer face of the torus which extend to infinity and are open, not closed as claimed wrongly by (Li, 2000). Closed field-lines in the inner and outer torus magnetosphere each form a toroidal ’bag’ (van Putten, 1999).

In §2 below, we describe the multiwavelength phenomenology of Type B events. In §3, we present the overall picture for the magnetic bomb scenario, based on the suspended accretion model for long gamma-ray bursts (van Putten, 2001). In §4, we identify the time-scales, energetics and spectral evolution of the X-ray lightcurves in transition through a critical point of stability of the inner disk surrounding the black hole. In §5, we discuss the implications of this scenario for relativistic jet formation in GRS 1915+105 and future prospects for investigating its validity. Finally, in §6, we present our conclusions.

## 2 The Overall Multi-wavelength Pattern of Type B Events

Eikenberry, et al. (1998a) observed GRS 1915+105 on August 13-15, 1997 using the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) instrument of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), as well as an infrared camera mounted on the Palomar 200-inch telescope. As reported in Eikenberry, et al. (1998a) and Eikenberry, et al. (1998b), on August 14-15 GRS 1915+105 exhibited a complex, but repeating, pattern of X-ray activity associated with IR flares. The pattern begins with the onset of a spectrally-hard X-ray dip, shown in Figure 3, where the emission is dominated by a non-thermal power-law spectral component. This is the so-called “$`\beta `$” class of variability described by Belloni, et al. (2000). After a duration of $`T_{dip}600`$s, the end of the dip is marked by a spectrally-soft X-ray spike, followed by a recovery to a higher count rate, which is dominated by thermal emission from the accretion disk (see e.g. Belloni, et al. (1997)). The X-ray lightcurve then transitions to an oscillating state characterized by rapid changes in the blackbody spectral component coupled with soft flares in the power-law component (Eikenberry, et al., 2000). Finally, a new hard dip begins.

Figures 4 and 5 show X-ray spectroscopic parameters for GRS 1915+105 during this time period. We extracted X-ray spectra in the $`325`$ keV range at a time resolution of 1 second. We applied standard procedures for response matrix generation for background estimation and subtraction, and corrected for PCA deadtime. We used the XSPEC v.11.2 software package to fit each spectrum with a standard model for black hole candidates consisting of a “soft” component modeled as a multi-temperature disk black body (e.g. Mitsuda, et al. (1984)) and a “hard” component modeled as a power-law, plus hydrogen absorption fixed to a column density of $`6\times 10^{22}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (Muno, et al., 1999). We added a systematic error of 1% to each spectrum before the fit was performed. We obtained typical reduced chi-squared values $`\chi _\nu ^21.5`$. (We present more detailed discussion of this behavior in Section 4.1.)

The lightcurve of the dip-terminating X-ray spike itself has several important features. The X-ray count rates rise to maximum on a timescale of $`T_{spike}68`$ seconds, and then fade rapidly away (Figure 6). During the spike, there are occasional episodes of rapid large-amplitude fading in the count rates, such as seen at the end of the spike shown in Figure 3 (Figure 7a). The timescales for such episodes are remarkably uniform. Whenever a drop of large enough amplitude ($`>\frac{1}{e}`$) is observed, it has an e-folding timescale of $`\tau 32`$ ms (Figure 7b). After examining $`20`$ such fading episodes on 14 August 1997 and on 9 September 1997, we find a full range of $`2540`$ ms for the e-folding timescales of these events. Based on the spectrosopic results above, the X-ray spikes are found to have typical X-ray fluences of $`E_X4\times 10^{39}\mathrm{ergs}`$.

The IR lightcurve (Figure 3b) shows large amplitude flares that begin near the end of the X-ray hard dip (Eikenberry, et al., 1998a). They are attributed to synchrotron emission from a plasma blob ejected at relativistic speeds (Fender et al., (1997) ; Eikenberry, et al. (1998a); Mirabel, et al. (1998) ; Fender & Pooley, (1999) ; Dhawan, et al. (2001)), and similar to the larger ejections seen by Mirabel & Rodríguez (1994). The IR lightcurve also shows a much fainter excess associated with the oscillating portion of the X-ray lightcurve (Eikenberry, et al., 2000). The large IR flares reach their peak $`1200`$ seconds after the onset of the hard X-ray dip, or equivalently $`600`$ seconds after the X-ray spike. Mirabel, et al. (1998) and Fender & Pooley, (1999) also both observed associated radio flares delayed $`900`$ seconds from the IR flares. Invoking a simple model for synchrotron emission from an expanding plasma blob, Mirabel, et al. (1998) noted that the extrapolated time for the onset of the blob is near the time of the X-ray spike (see also Yadav (2001)).

## 3 The B-Bomb Scenario

We present here a magnetic bomb scenario associated with the formation and disruption of an accretion torus, and its similarly shaped magnetosphere, which accounts for the two time-scales of

$`T_{dip}600\text{s},T_{spike}6\text{s},`$ (1)
the energetics, and the X-ray spectral evolution. This discussion is based on critical points of magnetic stability in the suspended accretion model for long gamma-ray bursts (van Putten (2001)). We first present a cartoon outline of this scenario, and then identify specific features in the observed lightcurves with physical events in the magnetic bomb scenario.

### 3.1 Cartoon Outline

We envision a rotating black hole and a thin accretion disk extending to somewhere near the last stable orbit (Figure 8a). As many have contemplated, a seed magnetic field in the accretion disk may develop a large-scale magnetic field by a dynamo process or, equivalently, winding of magnetic field-lines. For instance, in the magneto-rotational instability (MRI) of Balbus & Hawley, (1991), differential rotation in a Keplerian disk will shear magnetic loops, winding field lines and amplifying the magnetic field (Figure 8b).

We conjecture that this leads to the creation of a net poloidal magnetic flux, associated with an approximately uniform magnetization of matter in the inner accretion disk. This produces a toroidal magnetosphere around the black hole (Figure 8c). A torus magnetosphere around the black hole with net poloidal flux is represented by two counter-oriented current rings, concentric about the black hole (Figure 1). Through this current configuration, most of the output of a rapidly rotating black hole in equilibrium with the surrounding torus magnetosphere satisfies (adapted from Thorne et al. (1986); van Putten (1999, 2001))

$`L_H4\times 10^{39}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\eta }{0.1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{B}{3\times 10^9\text{G}}}\right)^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{BH}}{14M_{}}}\right)^2\text{erg s}^1`$ (2)
is incident on the inner face of the surrounding torus by the equivalence to pulsar magnetospheres viewed in poloidal topology (Goldreich and Julian, 1969; van Putten, 1999). Here, $`\eta =\mathrm{\Omega }_T/\mathrm{\Omega }_H`$ denotes the ratio of the angular velocity of the torus to that of the black hole, and $`B`$ the strength of the poloidal component of the magnetic field. The MRI activity is initially driven by the power output of the black hole, $`L_H`$. The associated e-folding time for growth of the magnetic field energy is about 0.2 s (van Putten & Levinson, 2003), whereby the magnetic field energy $`_B`$ rapidly builds up to equilibrium values on the order of the kinetic energy $`_k`$ of the torus on the time-scale of seconds. The magnetic field-energy ceases to grow in this equilibrium state (see (van Putten, 2003) for a detailed calculation) – the dominant dissipation mechanism of the magnetic field is not well-known, but probably is associated with turbulent reconnection as considered in van Putten (2001).

In the weak magnetic field limit, a rotating black hole may provide a torque to surrounding matter in the accreting state (Ruffini & Wilson, 1975). Recalling that most of the black hole power output is, in fact, incident on the inner face of a surrounding torus, we see that this creates a “magnetic wall” around the black hole (van Putten & Levinson, 2003) blocking the passage of accreting material through the inner disk. This is the “suspended accretion” state (van Putten & Ostriker, 2001). Matter then builds up in the torus at a rate determined by the rate of accretion in the extended disk (Figure 8d). As the mass in the torus increases, so does the associated equilibrium total magnetic field-energy $`_B`$. At the same time, the black hole gradually spins down by conservation of energy and angular momentum. This establishes causality in the extraction of black hole spin energy by horizon Maxwell stresses as proposed in (Ruffini & Wilson, 1975; Blandford and Znajek, 1977) – see also van Putten & Levinson (2003).

We here consider the possibility that this evolution reaches a critical point of instability, which triggers the prompt release of the stored magnetic energy $`_B`$ – the “magnetic bomb” explosion (Figure 8e). We equate the total energy released with the energy $`_X`$ in the observed X-ray spike. As individual field lines disconnect from their anchor point, poloidal magnetic field dissipates on a dynamical timescale. In this process, particles accelerate, producing X-ray emission from synchrotron, curvature, and inverse Compton processes. While individual field lines disappear quickly, the overall disconnection and release of energy over the entire region occurs in a sound crossing time. This is expected to be accompanied by outgoing shock fronts in the accretion disk. By continuing accretion from the outer disk, the system gradually returns to our inital state (Figure 8f), and the cycle begins anew.

### 3.2 B-Bomb Features in the Lightcurves

Our cartoon highlights the following connections to the observations of Type B events.

The hard dips $`[T_{dip}600`$s$`]`$ represent the suspended accretion state – a uniformally magnetized torus pressing against a magnetic wall around the black hole (Figure 8d). Halting of accretion through the hot inner disk results in a dip in the X-ray lightcurve. The suspended accretion torus evolves on the long timescale of accretion towards increasing mass and associated magnetic field-strength. As shown in van Putten & Levinson (2003), this magnetic field reaches its equilibrium value on the time-scale of seconds when driven by input from the black hole. While the equilibrium magnetic field strength is not known ab initio, it is subject to a fundamental limit set by the condition of magnetic stability of the torus against buckling, given in terms of the Van Putten-Levinson criteria (van Putten & Levinson, 2003)

$`{\displaystyle \frac{_B}{_k}}|_c<1/15`$ (3)
of the poloidal magnetic field energy-to-kinetic energy. (Note that van Putten & Levinson (2003) also consider a tilt instability with a value of $`1/12`$. Since these are similar values, we take the smaller limit here for simplicity.) In what follows, we express the critical magnetic field energy as

$`_B=ϵ_B_k`$ (4)
where $`ϵ_B<1/15`$ corresponds to magnetic stability.

The X-ray spike $`[T_{spike}6`$s$`]`$ at the end of the dip corresponds to the disconnection event and the associated sudden release of the energy stored in the magnetic field (Figure 8e). This is triggered by instability of the inner torus magnetosphere, associated with violating the stability bound (3). The observed IR/radio synchrotron emission give considerable evidence for prompt jet ejecta from this disconnection event.

Recovery begins promptly following the spike, as the inner disk begins to refills the suspended accretion zone (Figure 8f). This accounts for the observed X-ray recovery phase.

## 4 Comparison with Observations

In the sections below, we discuss the detailed qualitative and quantitative features of the Type B events in the context of the magnetic bomb scenario, including spectral evolution, timescales, and energetics.

### 4.1 X-ray Spectral Evolution

The X-ray spectral evolution observed from GRS 1915+105 during Type B events matches expectations for the magnetic bomb model. At the beginning of the hard dip, the blackbody temperature at the inner edge of the disk decreases as the disk inner radius itself expands (Figure 4). This behavior was first noted in GRS 1915+105 by Belloni, et al. (1997). The power-law emission component hardens at the same time. This is the initiation of the suspended accretion state, during which the torus mass and its associated kinetic energy and magnetic field-strength grow, increasing the energy stored in the “bomb”. As the inner edge of the optically-thick accretion flow moves to larger radii, the apparent inner radius of the disk is moved out with an accompanying temperature drop, in accordance with the observations.

The torus thus formed is connected to the extended accretion disk through a shock front. The formation of this shock in the accretion zone alters the non-thermal emission from the system, providing the observed hardening. The magnetic field in the inner region may also provide some additional non-thermal X-ray emission from synchrotron processes. The blackbody component quickly reaches an apparent equilibrium (although at the low temperatures of mid-dip, RXTE is not very sensitive to rather large changes in $`T_{disk}`$ and $`R_{disk}`$), while the power-law index and normalization show some weak evolution. The inner radius of the disk (the boundary with the suspended accretion zone) is at $`R150200\mathrm{km}`$. Note, however, that the radii inferred from the RXTE spectral fits should be viewed as approximations, with poorly known systematic correction factors.

As the inner torus magnetosphere becomes unstable, it disrupts and produces significant spectral evolution, notably the X-ray spike – representing the magnetic bomb explosion. At the onset of the spike, the inner disk radius begins to shrink and the blackbody temperature goes up (Figure 5). At the same time, the power-law normalization goes up, while the index remains constant at first. Once the spike reaches its peak and rapidly fades, the power-law index softens rapidly, and the normalization seems to stop its increasing trend momentarily, while the blackbody trends continue on. This behavior shows the infall of the suspended accretion zone boundary as the magnetic field strength decreases during the explosion. The power-law evolution during the spike is dominated by the explosion itself, and only after this fades away does the underlying “soft” component reveal itself. Note that after the spike has ended, the spectral evolution is essentially over – thus, the spike seems to reveal an actual state change in the X-ray emission of GRS 1915+105, rather than simply a momentary “blip” in the lightcurve. This is confirmed explicitly by the analyses of similar events by Migliari & Belloni (2003).

Based on this correspondence, the magnetic bomb scenario seems compatible with the rather complicated X-ray spectral evolution of the Type B events.

### 4.2 B-Bomb Energetics and Timescales

The identification of certain observed features with counterparts in the magnetic bomb scenario also enables identification of timescales, particularly of the hard dip itself. We assume here that the observed energy release in the X-ray spike is equal to the magnetic energy stored in the bomb itself:

$`_B=_X,`$ (5)
where

$`_B={\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}\pi R^3(B_{pol}^2/8\pi )f_B,_X4\times 10^{39}\mathrm{ergs}.`$ (6)
Here, $`f_B`$ is a filling factor of order unity which describes the volume of the inner torus magnetosphere as a fraction of $`4\pi R^3/3`$. In what follows, we shall take $`f_B=1`$. The critical magnetic field-strength for stability of the torus satisfies (3), where $`_k=M_{ID}M_{BH}/2R`$. This gives

$`GM_{BH}M_{ID}/R=2ϵ_B^1_X,`$ (7)
where $`M_{BH}=14M_{}`$ is the mass of the black hole and $`M_{ID}`$ is the mass of the inner disk region in question. From the X-ray spectral fits, we see an apparent $`R150200\mathrm{km}`$ during long dips. Solving for $`M_{ID}`$, we derive an estimate of

$`M_{ID}8\times 10^{20}\mathrm{g}\left(ϵ_B/0.085\right)^1`$ (8)
This is the amount of accreted matter needed to contain the magnetic bomb energy. We note that the mass (8) thus accumulated in a torus against the magnetic wall around the black hole satisfies

$`M_{ID}={\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{3}}\rho R^3=7.5\times 10^{20}\text{g}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\rho }{0.1\text{g/cm}^3}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{R}{6M}}\right)^3\left({\displaystyle \frac{M}{14M_{}}}\right)^3\left({\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_B}{0.0667}}\right)^1,`$ (9)
corresponds to an average density of about 0.1 g/cm<sup>3</sup>.

The torus builds up while matter accretes against the magnetic wall around the black hole. We can estimate the accretion rate $`\dot{M}`$ from the X-ray luminosity during the accreting state, where $`L_X0.15\dot{M}c^2`$ refers to a canonical value. Between the hard dips, GRS 1915+105 typically shows $`L_X1\times 10^{39}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1`$, giving $`\dot{M}6\times 10^{18}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Set by the outer accretion disk, the accretion rate is continuous. Hence, $`\tau _{acc}=M_{ID}/\dot{M}`$ defines the time to build the torus in the suspended accretion state, i.e.:

$`\tau _{acc}130\mathrm{s}\left({\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_B}{0.0667}}\right)^1.`$ (10)
This lower limit is in good agreement with the observed timescales $`500700s`$ of hard dips.

As a cross-check on the energetics, we may rewrite (2) following the condition (5),

$`L_H3\times 10^{39}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\eta }{0.1}}\right)^3\left({\displaystyle \frac{_X}{4\times 10^{39}\text{erg}}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{14M_{}}{M}}\right)\text{erg s}^1`$ (11)
as an upper bound in the limit of rapid rotation of the black hole. In the suspended accretion model, most of the black hole-luminosity $`L_H`$ is incident onto the inner face of the torus, for reprocessing in magnetic winds and dissipation. Dissipation is due to turbulent magnetohydrodynamical flow, in response to competing torques on the inner and the outer face of the torus (van Putten, 1999). These competing torques promote super-Keplerian and sub-Keplerian motions, and hence the torus assumes a geometrically thick shape. The modal power density spectrum of magnetohydrodynamical turbulence will be flat up to the first geometrical break in the azimuthal mode-number $`m`$, set by the ratio of the major-to-minor radius of the torus $`a/b`$ (van Putten, 2001, 2003). We may approximate the angular velocity distribution in the torus by $`\mathrm{\Omega }(r)=\mathrm{\Omega }_T(R/r)^q`$, where the rotation index $`1.5<q<2`$ is bounded between the Keplerian value and Rayleigh’s critical value for stability of the $`m=0`$ mode. In this event, the balance equations describing the suspended accretion state give rise to a dissipation rate

$`P_dq\left({\displaystyle \frac{b}{R}}\right)L_H<0.27\left({\displaystyle \frac{b}{M}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\eta }{0.1}}\right)^{3/2}`$ (12)
which is carried off in X-ray emissions, while the remainder of $`L_{wind}=L_HP_d`$ is carried off in magnetic winds. (Here, $`b`$ denotes the minor radius of the torus in the equatorial plane). These winds may in fact be the root source of the observed jets associated with the Type B events.

For GRS 1915+105 during the hard dips, we typically observe an X-ray luminosity $`L_X3\times 10^{38}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Our theoretical prediction of the upper bound $`L_X10^{39}`$ erg s<sup>-1</sup> according to (12) and (11) is in good agreement with this observational constraint for rapidly rotating black holes, and nominal values $`\eta 0.1`$ (corresponding to $`R7M_{})`$ and $`bM`$.

We also note that if the magnetic torus winds are baryon-rich (see Figure 2), they will decrease the effective $`\dot{M}`$ during the suspended accretion state. According to (12), the observed X-ray luminosity during the hard dip $`L_X[sas]3\times 10^{38}`$erg s<sup>-1</sup> represents about 25% of the combined luminosity in X-rays and winds from the torus. Hence, we estimate $`L_{wind}1\times 10^{39}`$erg s<sup>-1</sup> for the torus wind. This may carry off matter at an approximate rate of $`\dot{M}_{wind}=\frac{L_{wind}}{c^2}`$, or $`\dot{M}_{wind}=3.3\times 10^{18}`$g s<sup>-1</sup>. This would then revise our estimate of the time required to build the torus (10) to:

$`\tau _{acc}>300\mathrm{s}\left({\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_B}{0.0667}}\right)^1.`$ (13)
This lower bound is again in agreement with the observed timescales $`500700s`$ of hard dips.

### 4.3 Timescales for the X-ray Spike

The spike itself shows two important timescales which can be explained under the magnetic bomb scenario. As noted above, the X-ray spike emission is identified with the disruption of the inner torus magnetosphere surrounding the black hole, releasing its magnetic energy on the dynamical timescale of the torus. The field lines should not all disconnect simultaneously, but rather over the sound speed crossing time of the inner disk region. That is, a single field line disconnects, creates a magnetosonic wave disturbance that propagates through the disk causing subsequent field lines to disconnect, and initiates a chain reaction propagating at the sound speed. For the limited ratio of magnetic-to-kinetic energy of the flows under consideration here, the magnetosonic speed is close to the sound speed. For a disk temperature of $`0.5`$ keV, the corresponding sound speed is $`c_s100`$ km/s. Thus, the sound crossing time over a diameter of $`400`$ km is $`t_s4`$ seconds. Given the crude estimation we are making, this is a very close match to the $`6`$s duration of the X-ray spikes.

As the disconnection wave progresses, it encounters inhomogeneities in the B-field. Whenever there is an absence of field lines to detach and radiate, the observed X-ray flux should fade on the timescale of the radiative lifetime (approximately equal to the dynamical timescale) of the last detached field lines. For a radius of $`200`$ km, the corresponding dynamical timescale for a black hole of $`14M_{}`$ is $`15`$ ms. The observed range in timescales for fading events during the spike is $`\tau _s=2540`$ ms, corresponding to Keplerian radii of $`R=300400`$ km. Again, for such crude estimation this is a very close match.

## 5 Discussion

This magnetic bomb scenario for GRS 1915+105, based on the more detailed suspended accretion model for gamma-ray bursts from rotating black holes (van Putten, 2001), seems to provide a good match to many features in multiwavelength observations of Type B jet events. To our knowledge, it is the first such physical model to do so at the level of qualitative and quantitative lightcurve/timing features, spectral evolution, and the observed recurring timescales in the dips and spikes. Therefore, this physical framework seems to be a promising one within which to proceed in investigating the formation of relativistic jets in this system. However, there is still significant work to be done on this general scenario. Particular outstanding issues in the work mentioned above include the problem of creating net poloidal magnetic flux in forced shear flow and the radiative physics of prompt disconnection events of magnetospheres.

Furthermore, there are complex observational phenomena associated with the Type B events which we have not addressed here. For instance, Markwardt, et al. (1999) showed that 1-10 Hz quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO) are intimately linked to the system evolution during the hard dip (suspended accretion state in our model), and disappear outside the dip. This leads us to advance the notion that Type B events represent a magnetic flip-flop between a ’dirty’ accreting state, corresponding to the observed oscillatory/fluctuating state, and and a ’clean’ suspended accretion state, corresponding to the observed long-duration and smooth hard-dip. We describe these states as follows:

(1) The dirty state is produced by an accreting inner disk of small radius with negligible or disordered poloidal magnetic field. The inner disk is turbulent and accretes on a viscous timescale. Only short-lived QPOs are allowed, by limited or short-range coherence in hydrodynamical wave-modes in the disk, whose convective motion spirals into the black hole.

(2) The clean state is produced by the suspended accretion state with a torus of extended radius and significant ordered poloidal magnetic field of about $`10^9G`$. The torus develops on the viscous timescale of accretion, while it supports an inner torus magnetosphere of increasing magnetic energy. Long-lived QPOs are allowed (such as those of Markwardt, et al. (1999)), by large-scale coherence in wave-modes in the torus, whose convective motion forms closed circular orbits.

We attribute the transition from the accreting state to the suspended accretion state to a switch-on of poloidal magnetic flux. This transition is smooth and non-explosive. The timescale for pushing out the inner disk into the resulting torus is on the order of seconds, set by the black hole luminosity onto the inner disk. We have not determined the cause of the appearance of such ordered magnetic field, or the trigger thereof. We attribute the transition from the suspended accretion state back to the “dirty” accreting state to a switch-off of the poloidal magnetic flux: our B-bomb scenario. The timescale for remnants of the torus to fall back and form an inner disk (of smaller radius) is a viscous timescale, possibly shortened by additional angular momentum loss in magnetic winds.

Other observational phenomena not treated here during these events include the fact that Type B infrared flares often show significant substructure ( see e.g. Eikenberry, et al. (1998a)), spectral line evolution (Eikenberry, et al., 1998b), as well as extended low-level excesses (Eikenberry, et al., 2000). Given the link between the disconnection event (X-ray spike) and the launching of the long-wavelength flares under our scenario, we also expect that there may be some correlation between these IR flare properties and features in the X-ray spike.

We also mention here a conceivable link between the detailed observations and other models detailing various behaviors in GRS 1915+105 and microquasars in general. For instance, the Accretion Ejection Instability (AEI) model (Tagger & Pellat,, 1999) shows some promise for explaining the 1-10 Hz QPO above in terms of a spiral shock wave in the disk (Rodriguez, et al. (2001) ; Varniere & Tagger, (2001)). Conceivably, our magnetic bomb scenario is compatible with a “magnetic flood” suggested in the context of AEI by Tagger, (2001). Furthermore, our scenario explains invokes a strong poloidal field component in the inner disk. Recent MHD models of relativistic jet formation in the innermost radii around a Kerr black hole consider a similar agent to produce powerful jets such as those observed in GRS 1915+105 (Koide, et al.,, 2002).

Finally, we point out that the timescale arguments above may be applicable to bomb models in general. Specifically, the X-ray spike duration ($`6`$s) corresponds to the sound crossing time for the inner disk region defined by the X-ray spectral fits ($`R200`$ km). In addition, the rapid fading timescale ($`32`$ms) observed during the spikes is similar to the dynamical timescale at this same radius. Finally, the energy released in the spike is equivalent to $`10\%`$ of the accretion energy accumulated during the duration of the hard X-ray dip immediately preceding it.

## 6 Conclusions

We have presented a magnetic bomb scenario for Type B relativistic jet events in GRS 1915+105, based on the more detailed suspended accretion state model of van Putten (2001) originally developed for gamma-ray bursts. This scenario posits episodic formation and disruption of a torus and a similarly shaped magnetosphere in response to the interaction between a rotating black hole and the inner accretion disk.

The inner disk couples to the black hole, receiving energy and angular momentum from it. This results in a suspended accretion state, halting accretion through the (X-ray-emitting) innermost disk radii, and storing magnetic energy in the resulting torus. This is observed as the $`600`$s hard X-ray dip. Once this energy level reaches a critical value, the inner disk and black hole disconnect through a magnetic buckling instability, and the stored magnetic energy is released – the “B-bomb” explodes. We identify the X-ray spike with the prompt disconnection of the inner torus magnetosphere. After the explosion, the inner disk refills and the cycle begins anew. This scenario provides general agreement with three observed timescales, energetics and spectral evolution in the X-ray waveband, as well as with key features in infrared and radio wavebands.

SSE is supported by an NSF CAREER grant (NSF-9983830), SSE thanks D. Rothstein for discussions and suggestions, and MVP thanks A. Levinson for discussions. The LIGO Observatories were constructed by Caltech and MIT with funding under cooperative agreement PHY 9210038. The LIGO Laboratory operates under cooperative agreement PHY-0107417. This paper has been assigned LIGO document number LIGO-P03xxxx-00-R.


text:
# Doped 𝑡-𝐽 Model on a Triangular Lattice: Possible Application to NaxCoO₂⋅𝑦H20 and Na1-xTiO2

## Abstract

We report the finding of time-reversal-symmetry-breaking $`d_{x^2y^2}+id_{xy}`$ superconducting ground state in the slave-boson mean-field theory for the t-J model on triangular lattice. For $`t/J=5`$ ($`t/J=9`$) pairing exists for $`x<13\%`$ ($`x<8\%`$) upon electron doping, and $`x<56\%`$ ($`x<13\%`$) upon hole doping. These results are potentially relevant to doped Mott insulators NaxCoO2.yH2O and Na1-xTiO2.

There is now broad agreement that the physics of the high Tc cuprate is that of the doped Mott insulator. However, 17 years after its discoverybednorz  the layered cuprates remain the only materials which exhibit the phenomenon of high Tc superconductivity. There are three reasons which make the cuprates unique: (1) The parent compound is a Mott insulator with $`S=\frac{1}{2}`$ and no orbital degeneracy; (2) the structure is two dimensional; and (3) the exchange energy $`J`$ is very large ($`J1500`$ K). Andersonanderson  has stressed the strong quantum fluctuation of the $`S=\frac{1}{2}`$ system in two dimensions. His resonating valence bond (RVB) theory describes a liquid of spin singlet which becomes a superconductor when the holes are phase coherent. If this is a general property of a doped Mott insulator, it will clearly be desirable to examine other examples which satisfy these three criteria. Recently Takada et al.takada  reported the discovery of superconductivity in NaxCoO2.yH2O with a Tc of 5 K for $`x`$ = 0.35. As these authors pointed out, this system may be viewed as a Mott insulator with electron doping of 35%. The Co atoms are in a triangular lattice and the Co4+ atom is in a low spin $`(S=\frac{1}{2})`$ state. Thus this material satisfies the first two criteria listed above. The value of $`J`$ is not known at present, but the new discovery offers hope that a second system which exhibits superconductivity by doping a Mott insulator may be realized. A summary of what is known about this material and a discussion in terms of RVB physics was given by Baskaran.baskaran  In this paper we argue that the $`t`$-$`J`$ model on a triangular lattice is a reasonable starting point to model these materials. We estimate the value of $`J`$, and compute the slave boson mean field phase diagram for both electron and hole doping. We find $`d_{x^2y^2}+id_{xy}`$ pairing over significant range of doping for both $`t/J=5`$ and $`t/J=9`$. The appearance of superconductivity shows an interesting particle-hole asymmetry. We propose that Na1-xTiO2 may be an example of the hole-doped system.

The transition metal oxide layers in NaxCoO2 and Na1-xTiO2 form a common structure where the transition metal is surrounded by an octahedral oxygen cage. The cages are edge sharing, forming a layered structure. The stacking of the oxide layers is different in the two materials and we first describe the structure of Na1-xTiO2. A way to visualize the structure which is convenient for understanding the electronic structure

is given in Fig.1(a) (adopted from Ref.sawatzky ). It shows a piece of the crystal structure in a co-ordinate system which is standard for the oxygen octahedron. The hexagonal layered structure is visualized by looking down on this structure along the (1,1,1) direction. Thus the axis $`z^{}`$ becomes the $`c`$-axis in the layered hexagonal structure notation. One can see stacking of O-Ti-O or O-Co-O hexagonal layers, highlighted in Fig.1(b), separated by a Na layer. In Na1-xTiO2, the Na sits directly over the oxygen in the layer below Ti (vertices of the dashed triangle), whereas in NaxCoO2, the Na site is on top of the Co. The next CoO2 layer has Co on top of Na but the stacking order of the oxygen layer is reversed (solid triangle now lies below Co) thereby doubling the unit cell along $`c`$. This difference in stacking does not affect the electronic structure of the CoO2 layers and will be ignored from now on.

From Fig.1(a) it is clear that the $`d`$ states are split into $`t_{2g}`$ and $`e_g`$ orbitals by the octahedral environment. A shift of the oxygen along the (1,1,1) direction splits the $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals intosawatzky

$$A_{1g}=(d_{xy}+d_{yz}+d_{zx})/\sqrt{3}$$
(1)
and a doublet (labelled $`E_g`$ to distinguish from $`e_g`$)

$$E_g=((d_{zx}d_{yz})/\sqrt{2},(2d_{xy}+d_{yz}+d_{zx})/\sqrt{6}).$$
(2)
The band calculation of Singhsingh  showed that the splitting is fairly large in Na0.5CoO2 with $`A_{1g}`$ lying higher than $`E_g`$. As shown in Fig.1(c), in Co4+ the unpaired spin occupies the non-degenerate $`A_{1g}`$ orbital. We note that the $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals have lobes which point to the mid-point of lines connecting the oxygens in the octahedral cage. From Fig.1(a) and Eq.(1) we see that the $`A_{1g}`$ orbitals on nearest neighbor Co have components which point directly at each other. Thus unlike the cuprate, where the hopping is via the Cu-O covalent band, in the cobalt compounds, the direct overlap between the $`A_{1g}`$ orbitals form a band. Due to band overlap, it is difficult to extract the $`A_{1g}`$ bandwidth from Singh’s calculations singh  but we estimate it to be between 1 to 1.4 eV. From this we extract the hopping integral $`t`$ for the $`t`$-$`J`$ model

$$H=t\underset{ij}{}(Pc_{i\sigma }^{}c_{j\sigma }P+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.)+J\underset{ij}{}(𝐒_i𝐒_j\frac{1}{4}n_in_j)$$
(3)
to be $`t=0.11`$ to $`0.15`$ eV. In Eq. (3) the projection operator $`P`$ removes double/zero occupancy for hole/electron doping respectively. We note that the overlap between $`A_{1g}`$ orbitals is positive and the negative sign of $`t`$ is a consequence of the sign convention chosen in Eq.(3). As emphasized by Baskaran,baskaran  there is no particle-hole symmetry in the triangular lattice and the sign of $`t`$ is important. Singh’s band structure singh  shows a maximum in the band structure at $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, confirming the negative sign of $`t`$. The Fermi surface of Na0.5CoO2 consists of a hole pocket of area $`\frac{1}{4}`$ around the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ point.singh  This is consistent with photoemission results.valla

It is much more difficult to estimate the exchange constant $`J=4t^2/U`$ because the $`U`$ parameter is highly uncertain due to screening. We appeal to another $`t_{2g}`$ $`S=\frac{1}{2}`$ system where $`J`$ has been determined experimentally. In TiOCl the $`t_{2g}`$ orbital is orbitally ordered and forms one-dimensional $`S=\frac{1}{2}`$ spin chains.seidel  The exchange interaction was found to be 660 K by fitting the spin susceptibility to the Bonner-Fisher curve. In this case the $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals are pure $`d_{yz}`$ and point directly at each other. The bandwidth from band structure calculations is also about 1 eV, leading to $`t1/4`$ eV. Note that $`t`$ for NaxCoO2 is considerably smaller even though the Co-Co distance at 2.84 angstrom is shorter than the Ti-Ti distance (3.38 angstrom). This is because only one component out of three in Eq.(1) points directly towards each other. Assuming that $`U`$ is similar, our best guess for $`J`$ is 12 to 24 meV and $`|t/J|`$ 6 to 9. Note that our estimate of $`J`$ for NaxCoO2 is about an order of magnitude smaller than that for the cuprates.

It is interesting to consider another $`S=\frac{1}{2}`$ system which corresponds to single occupation of the $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals. NaTiO2 has similar layer structure as NaxCoO2 but the Na layer is nominally fully occupied. The Ti3+ has $`d^1`$ configuration giving rise to unpaired $`S=\frac{1}{2}`$. Contrary to Na0.5CoO2, the $`A_{1g},E_g`$ splitting is much smaller than the bandwidth, according to LDA calculations.sawatzky  However, an LDA+U calculation shows that the $`A_{1g}`$ orbital is occupied preferentially, so that the single electron again occupies the nondegenerate $`A_{1g}`$ band.sawatzky  Reduction of the Na occupation (Na1-xTiO2) corresponds to doping by $`x`$ holes. The undoped system is of great interest because it is one of the few known examples of the $`S=\frac{1}{2}`$ triangular antiferromagnet. However, the control of Na stoichiometry presents a serious materials challenge and relatively few studies have been carried out to date.clark

As we mentioned earlier the occupation constraint of Eq. (3) is different for the electron and hole doping. In the case of electron doping we shall perform a particle-hole transformation $`c_{i,\sigma }c_{i,\sigma }^{}`$ so that the constraint always means no double occupancy and the sign of $`t`$ is reversed. Consequently $`t<0`$ for hole-doped Na1-xTiO2 and $`t>0`$ for electron-doped NaxCoO2.

The starting point of our calculation is the following U(1) slave-Boson mean-field Hamiltonianbl  for the t-J model at hand, $`H_{MF}=H_{nm}+H_m`$ with

$`H_{nm}`$ $`={\displaystyle \underset{ij\sigma }{}}[(t\sqrt{x_ix_j}+{\displaystyle \frac{3J}{8}}\chi _{ij}^{})f_{i\sigma }^{}f_{j\sigma }+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.]`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{3J}{8}}{\displaystyle \underset{ij\sigma \sigma ^{}}{}}[\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}^{}f_{i\sigma }f_{j\sigma ^{}}ϵ_{\sigma \sigma ^{}}+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.]{\displaystyle \underset{i\sigma }{}}\mu _in_{i\sigma };`$
$`H_m`$ $`=J{\displaystyle \underset{ij}{}}(𝐒_i𝐦_j+𝐒_j𝐦_i).`$ (4)
Here $`x_i=1_\sigma n_{i\sigma }`$ and $`\mu _i`$ is the corresponding local Lagrange multiplier. The doping level is given by $`x=_ix_i/N`$ with $`N`$ the lattice sites. The mean field order parameters are $`\chi _{ij}=_\sigma f_{i\sigma }^+f_{j\sigma }`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}=_{\sigma \sigma ^{}}ϵ_{\sigma \sigma ^{}}f_{i\sigma }f_{j\sigma ^{}}`$, and $`𝐦_i=𝐒_i`$ with $`𝐒_i=_{ss^{}}\sigma _{ss^{}}f_{is}^{}f_{is^{}}/2`$. Note that a general non-collinear magnetic order is allowed.

Our search for the mean-field solution proceeds in two stages. First we assume the density to be uniform and perform an unrestricted search of the parameters $`\chi _{ij},\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}`$ and $`𝐦_i`$ (over $`6\times 6`$ elementary unit cells in a large lattice). For $`x<x_c`$ we find $`\chi _{ij}`$ to be a real constant as long as $`x`$ is nonzero and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}=0`$ while the spins form the $`\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3}`$ non-collinear structure identified by Huse and Elserhuse  for $`x=0`$. If we denote the lattice by $`𝐫_i=n𝐚+l𝐛`$, $`𝐚=\widehat{x}`$ and $`𝐛=\frac{1}{2}\widehat{x}+\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}\widehat{y}`$, then a representative solution has $`m_i^z=0`$ and $`m_i^x+im_i^y=|𝐦|e^{i𝐐𝐫_i}`$, where $`𝐐=(2\pi /3,2\pi /\sqrt{3})`$ and $`𝐐𝐫_i=\frac{2\pi }{3}(n+l)`$. $`|𝐦|=\frac{1}{2}`$ at zero doping, and decreases gradually with increasing doping. It is roughly $`0.350.38`$ (depending on our choices of $`t/J`$) at $`x=x_c`$, where the long-range ordered magnetic state undergoes a first order phase transition into a uniform $`d_{x^2y^2}\pm id_{xy}`$ superconducting state. The value of $`x_c`$ is $`3.8\%,3.7\%,2.2\%,2.1\%`$ for $`t/J=5,5,9,9`$ respectively. Even if the pairing channel is removed, the magnetic order extends only up to $`x_{}=4.5\%,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4.2}\%,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2.4}\%,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2.4}\%`$ for the same set of $`t/J`$. This is significantly different from the mean-field solution of the square lattice with $`t/J=3`$ as appropriate for the cuprates. In that case the system is inhomogeneous with alternating stripes of superconducting and magnetic regions at roughly $`2\%x12\%`$, and the magnetic order becomes commensurate with coexisting uniform pairing order at higher doping levels up to $`x_c20\%`$. hanwanglee  For the hexagonal lattice, the stable region of the anti-ferromagnetic solution is greatly reduced. This is reasonable in view of the frustration of the lattice, which disfavors magnetic order and was the original motivation of the RVB as a competing stateanderson .

In the second stage of the calculation we concentrate on doping greater than $`x_c`$. In view of the first-order nature of the transition to magnetic order, we shall present results without magnetic order even for $`x<x_c`$, with the understanding that the solution is only locally but not globally stable. We suppress magnetic order and perform an unrestricted search for solutions of $`H_{nm}`$ in Eq. (4) on a $`400\times 400`$ lattice. In the elementary unit cell (varied from $`1\times 1`$ up to $`4\times 8`$) we put random initial values for $`\chi _{ij}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}`$, $`x_i`$ and $`\mu _i`$, and evolve them so that the mean-field free energy is minimized at the desired doping level. Note that this time we allow nonuniform charge density. However, with our choice of parameters, we found spatially non-uniform solutions only for $`x<x_u`$, where $`x_u`$ is always less than $`x_c`$ and these will be ignored from now on. Due to the uncertainty of $`t/J`$ we have studied two cases $`|t/J|=5`$ and $`|t/J|=9`$. It turns out that in both cases there is a significant doping range in which the ground state is superconducting. The pairing symmetry is always $`d_{x^2y^2}+id_{xy}`$, hence breaks the time reversal symmetry. It is interesting to note that if one ignores the magnetic order parameter at zero doping the same mean-field theory predicts a degenerate family of ground states. Among them the $`d_{x^2y^2}+id_{xy}`$ paired state and the $`\pi /2`$ flux state are two examples.laughlin ; tk  To visualize the pairing pattern, consider an arbitrary site. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}`$ associated with the six bonds stemming from it has the form $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}=\mathrm{\Delta }e^{i2\theta _{ij}}`$ for $`d_{x^2y^2}+id_{xy}`$ pairing and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}=\mathrm{\Delta }e^{i2\theta _{ij}}`$ for $`d_{x^2y^2}id_{xy}`$ pairing. To generate the pairing field over the entire lattice, simply translate the above pattern to other sites. In the absence of a magnetic field the $`d_{x^2y^2}+id_{xy}`$ and $`d_{x^2y^2}id_{xy}`$ pairing are degenerate.

The doping dependence of the zero temperature pairing order parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }=|\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}|`$ is plotted in Figs.2 (solid lines) for $`t=5J`$ (a), $`9J`$ (b), $`5J`$ (c), and $`9J`$ (d), where we observe that pairing exists for $`x13\%`$ (a), $`8\%`$ (b), $`56\%`$ (c) and $`13\%`$ (d). The peak in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ at $`x=0.5`$ in Fig.2(c) is explained by the Van Hove peak in the free electron density of states. Also shown in Figs.2 is the hopping order parameter $`\chi =|\chi _{ij}|`$ (dashed lines). It is weakly dependent on $`x`$ for $`x<30\%`$. Interestingly $`\chi _{ij}`$ has the same sign of $`t`$ from our calculation. This is a reasonable result as it increases the band width of the fermions so that the kinetic energy is lowered. Finally, a much more important feature in Figs.2 is the considerable asymmetry between electron doping ($`t>0`$) and hole doping ($`t<0`$). This is due to the particle-hole asymmetry in the free-electron dispersion on the triangular lattice. Indeed, the stronger pairing for hole doping is due to the increases in the Fermi level density of state as the averaged occupation decreases from half-filling.

We have also computed the onset temperature of the RVB fermion pairing and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of holons.note  The mean-field superconducting transition is the smaller of the RVB and BEC curves (Figs.3). As usual, the Bose condensation temperature is an overestimate of the phase coherence temperature of the slave bosons. More generally because of the proximity to the Mott insulator limit, we expect that the superconducting transition temperature will be determined by the superfluid density at low doping, and by the onset of pairing at higher doping, forming a phase diagram similar to that of the cuprates. It is worth noting that in the case of cuprates, the thermal excitation of nodal quasi-particles significantly reduces the superfluid density and therefore the transition temperature at low doping.pal ; corson  The existence of a full gap in the $`d_{x^2y^2}+id_{xy}`$ state suppresses this possibility and everything else being equal, we can expect a higher $`T_c`$ in this case.

We conclude that within the slave boson mean field theory, the systems exhibits non-colinear antiferromagnetism for $`x<x_c`$. Above this lower critical concentration and below certain upper critical concentration the system exhibit time reversal symmetry breaking $`d_{x^2y^2}+id_{xy}`$ pairing state. The orbital moment produces a magnetic field which can be detected by $`\mu `$SR. The field has been estimated to be 15 Gauss for the anyon model halperin  but a calculation based on the slave boson mean field theory yields a smaller estimate of 1 Gauss near a vacancy. blw  If the orbital moment in neighboring layers are parallel, this state has been predicted to exhibit fascinating new effects such as quantized spin Hall conductance and anomalous Hall thermal conductivity.hall  The orbital moment corresponds to roughly $`\frac{1}{20}\mu _B`$, and field cooling in a modest magnetic field may line up the orbital moments. It will clearly be desirable to achieve such a state in the laboratory. For $`|t/J|=5`$ ($`|t/J|=9`$), the $`d_{x^2y^2}+id_{xy}`$ superconductor is expected to exist over a low doping range $`x<13\%`$ ($`x<8\%`$) for electron doping, and a wider range $`x<56\%`$ ($`x<13\%`$) for hole doping. Thus some ingredient in addition to the t-J model may be needed to explain the experimental observation of superconductivity at $`x=0.35`$ in electron-doped NaxCoO$`{}_{2}{}^{}y`$H2O. Exploration of the Na1-xTiO2 system may be more promising. We also note that Na0.7CoO2 is a metal which exhibits unusual behavior such as linear $`T`$ resistivity and large magnetic-field-dependent thermal power.tp  This is also inconsistent with the mean field prediction of Fermi liquid in the overdoped region, suggesting that some additional physics may be at work. In any event, the new observation opens up the possibility of changing the doping concentration in a controlled way by intercalation and much new physics surely remains to be discovered.

After the completion of this work we have seen a paper by Kumar and Shastry kumar  reaching similar conclusions. However, we do not agree with their identification of the sign of $`t`$.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank Fangcheng Chou, Joel Moore, T.K. Ng, and N.P. Ong for helpful discussions. QHW is supported by NSFC 10204011 and 10021001, and by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (NKBRSF-G1999064602). He also thanks Z. D. Wang for hospitality in the University of Hong Kong. DHL is supported by DOE grant DE-AC03-76SF00098. PAL is supported by NSF DMR-0201069. He also thanks the Miller Institute at Berkeley for support.


text:
# Field-induced thermal metal-to-insulator transition in underdoped LSCO

## Abstract

The transport of heat and charge in cuprates was measured in undoped and heavily-underdoped single crystal La2-xSrxCuO4+δ (LSCO). In underdoped LSCO, the thermal conductivity is found to decrease with increasing magnetic field in the $`T0`$ limit, in striking contrast to the increase observed in all superconductors, including cuprates at higher doping. The suppression of superconductivity with magnetic field shows that a novel thermal metal-to-insulator transition occurs upon going from the superconducting state to the field-induced normal state.

, , , , , , , , ,

thanks: Permanent address: Inst. Surf. Chem., N.A.S. Ukraine.thanks: Current address: Department of Physics, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada J1K 2R1.

In underdoped La2-xSrxCuO4+δ (LSCO), resistivity measurements have revealed the field-induced normal state to be a charge insulator . On the other hand, the superconducting state of underdoped LSCO is a thermal metal, in the sense that there is a clear $`T`$-linear contribution to the thermal conductivity at $`T0`$ . Given that in all superconductors investigated to date (including cuprates) heat transport at $`T0`$ is always seen to increase as one goes from the superconducting state to the field-induced normal state, these two observations point to a violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law in underdoped cuprates.

In this article, we show the natural assumption that heat conduction will increase upon going from the superconducting state to the field-induced normal state to be incorrect in underdoped LSCO. Indeed, in the $`T0`$ limit the thermal conductivity decreases in the vortex state and the residual linear term drops to a value below our resolution limit in the field-induced normal state. This result argues strongly for a thermally insulating normal state and reveals a novel thermal metal-to-insulator transition.

Measurements of the thermal conductivity ($`\kappa `$) were performed down to 40 mK in fields up to 13 T on single crystals of La2-xSrxCuO4+δ with $`x=0`$ (not superconducting) and 0.06 ($`T_\mathrm{c}`$ = 5.5 K). Additional sample and measurement details are provided elsewhere .

In Fig. 1 the thermal conductivity is plotted as $`\kappa /T`$ vs. $`T^{\alpha 1}`$, where $`\alpha `$ is a free fitting parameter. This type of plot is used to separate the electronic ($`\kappa _{\mathrm{el}}`$) and lattice ($`\kappa _{\mathrm{ph}}`$) contributions to $`\kappa `$ by making use of their different power-law temperature dependences in the $`T0`$ limit. In the limit $`T0`$, $`\kappa _{\mathrm{el}}`$ is linear in $`T`$ for a $`d`$-wave superconductor on account of nodal quasiparticle excitations . Quite generally, a linear contribution to $`\kappa `$ at $`T0`$ is direct evidence for fermionic excitations. The phonon contribution can be modelled as $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ph}}T^\alpha `$ for phonons limited to scattering from the boundaries of the sample (see Ref. ). Thus, $`\kappa _{\mathrm{el}}`$ and $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ph}}`$ can be separated by fitting the data at low-temperatures to

$$\frac{\kappa }{T}=\frac{\kappa _0}{T}+BT^{\alpha 1}.$$
(1)
The two distinct contributions are identified in Fig. 1 as the intercept and slope of the curves, respectively, when plotting the data as $`\kappa /T`$ vs. $`T^{\alpha 1}`$.

Having described our analysis, several observations can be made. Firstly, in zero field (solid circles) the $`x=0.06`$ data reproduces the results of Refs.  and  whereby a finite residual linear term in $`\kappa (T)`$ is observed at all superconducting dopings. This proves the existence of delocalized zero-energy quasiparticles in the superconducting state. In other words, the $`d`$-wave superconducting state is a thermal metal (see also ). In the $`x=0`$ sample, however, $`\kappa _0/T`$ becomes extremely small ($`3\mu `$W K-2 cm-1). Now, even though Eq. 1 provides a good description of the data, all the way up to 0.4 K, the fact that $`\kappa _0/T`$ is 5 times smaller than the value of $`\kappa /T`$ at the lowest data point (40 mK) means that one has to view the extrapolated value with caution. The conservative position is to assume that the parent compound $`x=0`$ is a heat insulator as well as a charge insulator, and regard this minute linear term of $`3\mu `$W K-2 cm-1 as the resolution limit of our technique, and treat the $`x=0`$ data as our reference (for an insulating state in LSCO). By contrast, the linear term in the $`x=0.06`$ sample (at 0T) of $`12\mu `$W K-2 cm-1 is clearly above the reference limit (by a factor 4) and is thus unambiguously a thermal metal.

This brings us to the principal observation of this article: $`\kappa `$ decreases with increasing field for the x=0.06 sample, as shown in Fig. 2 by the field evolution of $`\kappa _0/T`$. This decreasing field dependence is in stark contrast to the increase in the electronic heat conductivity in all other known superconductors at $`T0`$, including cuprates at higher doping . Note that $`\kappa `$ is totally independent of magnetic field in our reference sample ($`x=0`$). This shows that field dependence is a property of the superconducting state. We can therefore use this criterion to establish that the non-superconducting normal state is reached in the bulk by 11 T in sample $`x=0.06`$. Indeed, as seen in Fig. 1a, a further increase of the field to 13 T causes no further change in $`\kappa `$. This claim is supported by resistivity measurements on the same sample where the resistive onset of superconductivity is entirely absent for fields of 12 T and above (down to 40 mK) . We take this as an additional indication that the field-induced (non-superconducting) normal state has been reached by 13 T at $`x=0.06`$ (in the bulk). Moreover, as seen in Fig. 2, $`\kappa _0/T`$ drops by a factor 4 from $`H=0`$ to $`H=13`$ T, where it reaches a value equal to that of the reference sample, namely $`\kappa _0/T=3\mu `$W K-2 cm-1. We thus conclude that the field-induced normal state in underdoped LSCO is a thermal insulator. This implies the existence of an unprecedented kind of thermal metal-to-insulator transition. The superconducting state is a thermal metal by virtue of its delocalized nodal quasiparticles, while the field-induced normal state in the same sample is a thermal insulator, with either no fermionic excitations or localized fermionic excitations.

In summary, we have observed in underdoped LSCO a decrease in thermal conductivity with magnetic field upon going from the superconducting state to the field-induced normal state. We show that this result is due to a novel thermal metal-to-insulator transition.

This work was supported by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and NSERC of Canada. We would like to thank H. Dabkowska, B.D. Gaulin and G. Luke for use of their image furnace.