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# Resistive axisymmetric equilibria with arbitrary flow

## Abstract

An analysis of axisymmetric equilibria with arbitrary incompressible flow and finite resistivity is presented. It is shown that with large aspect ratio approximation or vanishing poloidal current, a uniform conductivity profile is consistent with equilibrium flows. Also a comment made on coexistence of both toroidal and poloidal flows in an axisymmetric field-reversed configuration.

Calculating the equilibrium is one of the fundamental problems of magnetically confined plasmas. Most studies are directed toward finding an ideal (i.e. infinitely conducting) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibria in an axisymmetric plasma. The earliest calculations are those of Grad  and Shafranov , leading to the famous Grad-Shafranov equation . The ideal and static Grad-Shafranov equation is an elliptic differential equation in the magnetic flux function $`\psi `$ with two arbitrary surface quantities as the pressure $`p(\psi )`$ and the poloidal current $`I(\psi )`$.

Consequently, there have been attempts to include various effects e.g. mass flow into the equilibrium equations. An equivalent of Grad-Shafranov equation in an axisymmetric ideal plasma with arbitrary flow has been given by Hameiri . In some recent works, Steinhauer  deals with a generalization of Grad-Shafranov equilibria in a multi-fluid with flow and Throumoulopoulos and Tasso  consider a helically symmetric equilibria with flow. The situation with flow becomes more realistic when one realizes the existence of equilibrium flows both in toroidal and poloidal directions in tokamaks following momentum deposition through heating by neutral beam injection . With equilibrium flows, the resultant governing differential equation does not remain always elliptic . The investigation of a general MHD equilibrium becomes much more complicated when one tries to include the effects of other important factors, say of viscous stress tensor. Recently Ren et al.  have studied the deformation of magnetic island by including the effect of sheared flow and viscosity into an ideal two-dimensional MHD equilibrium configuration. However, there is an element of inconsistency, whether an ideal equilibrium is realistic . Heuristically, one ignores the resistivity in the Ohm’s law while calculating the equilibrium, but then a resistive stability analysis based on a stationary equilibrium remains questionable as long as the field diffusion is not taken into account . Montgomery et al. have investigated the problem on non-ideal static axisymmetric equilibrium. There have also been attempts to calculate resistive axisymmetric equilibrium with only toroidal flow . It has been further argued that tokamak equilibrium flow is either purely toroidal  or the poloidal component is small  and quickly damped by magnetic pumping . So there is a natural tendency to exclude the poloidal flow while calculating an equilibrium. But when one considers finite conductivity with purely equilibrium toroidal flow, the conductivity (hence the resistivity) becomes a function of space. In general, the resistivity is not a flux function  irrespective of equilibrium flow. In this report, we ask the very pertinent question, whether the situation changes in presence of poloidal flow. As we show that a uniform resistivity profile is consistent in presence of poloidal flow, whereas it has been shown that a scalar pressure equilibrium can not have uniform resistivity . Further we show that in a field-reversed (FRC) axisymmetric configuration with no toroidal magnetic field, both toroidal and poloidal equilibrium flows can coexist with finite resistivity, which is not found to be the case with ideal equilibrium .

We consider the equilibrium resistive MHD equations with plasma flow. The equations are

$`(\rho 𝐯)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (1)
$`𝐁=0,\times 𝐄`$ $`=`$ $`0,\times 𝐁=0,`$ (2)
$`𝐄+𝐯\times 𝐁`$ $`=`$ $`𝐣/\sigma ,`$ (3)
$`\rho (𝐯)𝐯`$ $`=`$ $`𝐣\times 𝐁p,`$ (4)
where the symbols have their usual meanings. We use a right handed cylindrical system $`(r,\theta ,z)`$ with $`z`$ as the axis of symmetry, $`\theta `$ as the toroidal angle, and $`r`$ along the major radius of an axisymmetric device. We assume the plasma flow to be arbitrary (toroidal and poloidal) and axisymmetry is assumed i.e. $`/\theta =0`$. The plasma resistivity $`\eta =\sigma ^1`$ is assumed to be an unspecified function of $`r`$ and $`z`$. We have further assumed here that the equilibrium is maintained in a steady-state through resistive diffusion. The magnetic induction equation allows us to write the magnetic field as

$$𝐁=\frac{1}{r}\psi \times \widehat{𝐞}_\theta +\frac{I}{r}\widehat{𝐞}_\theta ,$$
(5)
where $`\psi `$ is the magnetic flux function which is the azimuthal component of the vector potential $`𝐀`$ and $`I`$ is the current function. Similarly, following the continuity equation, Eq.(1), we can express the plasma equilibrium velocity as

$$𝐯=\frac{1}{\rho r}\phi \times \widehat{𝐞}_\theta +\omega r\widehat{𝐞}_\theta ,$$
(6)
where $`\phi `$ is the velocity stream function and $`\omega =v_\theta /r`$ is the toroidal angular velocity. We also assume that the flow is incompressible i.e. $`𝐯=0`$.

Because the flow is now in both toroidal and poloidal direction, the poloidal component of current, $`𝐣_p`$ need not vanish. In general the current can be expressed as

$$𝐣=\frac{1}{r}\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\psi \widehat{𝐞}_\theta +\frac{1}{r}I\times \widehat{𝐞}_\theta ,$$
(7)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ is the elliptic operator defined by $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\psi =r^2\left(\frac{1}{r^2}\psi \right).`$ Taking curl of the Ohm’s law Eq.(3), we have

$$\times (𝐯\times 𝐁)=\times (𝐣/\sigma )$$
(8)
with

$$𝐯\times 𝐁=\frac{1}{\rho r^2}\phi \times \psi \frac{I}{\rho r^2}\phi +\omega \psi .$$
(9)
The $`\widehat{𝐞}_\theta `$ component of Eq.(8) can be now written as

$`\widehat{𝐞}_\theta \omega \times \psi \widehat{𝐞}_\theta \left({\displaystyle \frac{I}{\rho r^2}}\right)\times \phi `$ (10)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sigma r}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sigma }}\sigma I+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{r}}{\displaystyle \frac{I}{r}}^2I\right).`$ (11)
We now invoke the large aspect ratio expansion and assume that toroidal magnetic field, to the first approximation can be written $`B_\theta B_0r_0/r`$. Here, $`B_0`$ is the value of the toroidal magnetic field at center of the cylindrical cross section of the torus at distance $`r_0`$ from the axis of symmetry. To this effect we have the current function $`IB_0r_0=\mathrm{const}`$. Under these assumption, the above equation can be written as

$`\widehat{𝐞}_\theta \omega \times \psi `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{I}{\rho ^2r^2}}\widehat{𝐞}_\theta \rho \times \phi `$ (13)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{2I}{\rho r^3}}\widehat{𝐞}_\theta r\times \phi .`$
The first term on the right hand side of the above equation vanishes by virtue of the incompressibility condition and the continuity equation. We neglect the second term because of its $`1/r^3`$ dependence and find that the toroidal angular velocity $`v_\theta /r=\omega (\psi )`$ becomes a surface quantity. This also further means that $`𝐣=j_\theta \widehat{𝐞}_\theta `$ with $`𝐣_p=0`$. We, however, note that the condition $`\omega \omega (\psi )`$ is identically satisfied in a field-reversed configuration (FRC) where $`I=0`$ and large aspect ratio approximation is not required. It can be noted here that without any approximation, $`\omega `$ becomes a flux function when one considers ideal equilibrium  or resistive equilibrium with only toroidal flow .

Now, we consider the momentum equation Eq.(4) and its $`\widehat{𝐞}_\theta `$ component. With the above approximations, we can write Eq.(4) as

$`j_\theta \widehat{𝐞}_\theta \times 𝐁_p`$ $`=`$ $`P+\rho \left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\rho ^2r^2}}(\phi )^2\right]`$ (16)
$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho r^2}}\phi \right)\phi \omega ^{}(\phi \times \psi )`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{2\omega }{r}}{\displaystyle \frac{\phi }{z}}\widehat{𝐞}_\theta \omega ^2rr`$
In the above equation $`𝐁_p`$ is the poloidal component of the magnetic field and $`(^{})`$ denotes derivative with respect to $`\psi `$. Taking the $`\widehat{𝐞}_\theta `$ component of the above equation, we have,

$$\widehat{𝐞}_\theta \phi \times (\omega r^2)=0,$$
(17)
which means that $`\phi \phi (\omega r^2)`$. We take the simplest situation of $`\phi \omega r^2`$ which yields another surface quantity, $`\phi /r^2=\zeta (\psi )`$. However, it is important to note that, $`\zeta (\psi )`$ is not an arbitrary function in the sense that it is proportional to the toroidal velocity $`\omega (\psi )`$ i.e. the toroidal and poloidal flows are no longer independent. Physically, one can understand this by noting that finite resistivity allows plasma motion across the the flux surfaces. Equivalently, toroidal flow, in a resistive axisymmetric plasma, is always associated with poloidal flow.

Because of equilibrium flow, however, plasma pressure $`p`$ is no longer a flux function now. Taking the $`𝐁_p`$ component of the momentum equation (Eq.(16)), we have

$`𝐁_p\left[{\displaystyle \frac{p}{\rho }}+\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\rho ^2r^2}}(\phi )^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\omega ^2r^2\right\}\right]`$ (18)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho }}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho r^2}}(\zeta r^2)\right)𝐁_p(\zeta r^2).`$ (19)
Depending upon the equation of state, now, several options are possible. However, we note that density, in general, is not a flux function in presence of arbitrary plasma flow. this can be easily seen from the equation of continuity Eq.(1), after applying the incompressibility condition,

$$\widehat{𝐞}_\theta \phi \times \rho =0.$$
(20)
It can be seen from the above expression that $`\rho `$ is not a surface quantity. We note here that axisymmetric equilibria with incompressible equilibrium flows are generally associated with constant density magnetic surfaces . One is also free to choose density as a flux function in case of resistive axisymmetric equilibrium with only incompressible toroidal flow .

Taking the $`\widehat{𝐞}_\theta `$ component of Ohm’s law Eq.(3) along with Eq.(9), we have an expression for plasma conductivity,

$$\sigma \left(E_0r_0+\frac{2}{\rho }r\zeta B_r\right)+\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\psi =0,$$
(21)
where $`E_0`$ is the longitudinal externally applied electric field at major radius $`r=r_0`$. We immediately see from the above expression that conductivity, in general, is a space dependent quantity.

In what follows, we shall consider two cases with (i) uniform and constant density and (ii) a nonuniform density. In the second case, we consider isentropic magnetic surfaces. We now assume that plasma density is uniform and constant i.e. $`\rho =\mathrm{const}.`$ and normalize our equations to $`\rho =1`$. We can now write Eq.(19) as,

$`𝐁_p\left[p+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2r^2}}(\phi )^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\omega ^2r^2\right]`$ (22)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{r^2}}\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(\zeta r^2)𝐁_p(\zeta r^2).`$ (23)
Integration of the above equation yields the equivalent Bernoulli’s equation,

$`p+{\displaystyle \frac{(\phi )^2}{2r^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^2r^2}{2}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{dl}{B_p}\frac{1}{r^2}\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(\zeta r^2)𝐁_p(\zeta r^2)}`$ (25)
$`+\chi (\psi ),`$
where the integration is along a magnetic field line and $`\chi (\psi )`$ is an arbitrary surface quantity. The solubility condition further requires that

$$\frac{dl}{B_p}\frac{1}{r^2}\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(\zeta r^2)𝐁_p(\zeta r^2)=0.$$
(26)
We further assume that part of the pressure gradient that varies within a magnetic flux tube has no $`\psi `$ component  i.e.

$$\psi \frac{dl}{B_p}\frac{1}{r^2}\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(\zeta r^2)𝐁_p(\zeta r^2)=0.$$
(27)
Together with Eq.(25) and the above assumption, the $`\psi `$ component of the momentum equation yields the equivalent Grad-Shafranov equation,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\psi +r^2(\chi ^{}+\omega ^{}\omega ^2r)+\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(\zeta r^2)\psi (\zeta r^2)}{|\psi |^2}=0,$$
(28)
with two arbitrary flux functions $`\chi (\psi )`$ and $`\omega (\psi )`$. The primes refer derivative with respect to $`\psi `$.

We now consider the second case where we consider a nonuniform density. With incompressible flow, magnetic surfaces with constant entropy is quite a reasonable approximation in ideal MHD . However, considering long resistive diffusion time, the right hand side of Eq.(3) can be neglected and we can continue to proceed with isentropic magnetic surfaces . The equation of state can now be written as, $`p=S\rho ^\gamma `$, where, $`S(\psi )`$ is the entropy which is a flux function and $`\gamma `$ is the ratio of specific heats. We now write $`𝐁_pp/\rho `$ as $`𝐁_p[\gamma S\rho ^{\gamma 1}/(\gamma 1)]`$, so that equivalent Bernoulli’s equation can be written as,

$`\mathrm{\Theta }(\psi )+{\displaystyle \frac{dl}{B_p}\frac{1}{\rho }\left(\frac{1}{\rho r^2}(\zeta r^2)\right)𝐁_p(\zeta r^2)}`$ (29)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{\gamma 1}}S\rho ^{\gamma 1}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\rho ^2r^2}}(\phi )^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\omega ^2r^2,`$ (30)
where $`\mathrm{\Theta }(\psi )`$ is arbitrary. As we have assumed previously, it requires a solubility condition and the equivalent to the assumption (27). We can then continue to write the equivalent Grad-Shafranov equation by taking the $`\psi `$ component of the momentum equation and applying the Bernoulli’s law Eq.(30),

$`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\psi +r^2\left(\mathrm{\Theta }^{}+\omega ^{}\omega ^2rS^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\rho ^{\gamma 1}}{\gamma 1}}\right)`$ (31)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{\rho |\psi |^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho r^2}}(\zeta r^2)\right]\psi (\zeta r^2).`$ (32)
In the above equation we have four arbitrary surface quantities i.e. $`\mathrm{\Theta }(\psi )`$, $`\omega (\psi )`$, and $`S(\psi )`$ and the primes denote derivative with respect to $`\psi `$.

We have derived the differential equations, equivalent to the Grad-Shafranov equation, for resistive axisymmetric plasma with arbitrary equilibrium flows. These equilibrium equations Eqs.(28, 32) have to be solved subject to conductivity constraint Eq.(21). Further, in a field-reversed configuration (FRC) with no toroidal magnetic field, it can be seen from Eq.(17) that both poloidal and toroidal flow can coexist.

We now show that a uniform conductivity profile is consistent with resistive axisymmetric equilibria with arbitrary flow. A simple examination of Eq.(4), though reveals that uniform conductivity may be possible with scalar pressure equilibrium in presence of flow, it however provides no easier way of proving it. We note that the usual procedure for solving Eqs.(28) and (32) requires specifying a priori dependence of the respective arbitrary functions on $`\psi `$. However, in the presence of finite resistivity, the resistivity constraint Eq.(21) can be used to solve for $`\psi `$, which is uniquely determined if the right hand side of Eq.(21) is specified . It should be noted here with caution whether the resultant solution for $`\psi `$ corresponds to realistic profiles for other physical quantities such as pressure, density, velocity etc. However, our sole aim, here, is to demonstrate the existence of a solution consistent with uniform resistivity in presence of flows.

From Eq.(20) we know that $`\rho \rho (\phi )`$, and assume that $`\rho \phi `$. We now assume that conductivity is uniform in space so that the resulting Eq.(21) can be written as,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\psi +\frac{\alpha }{r^2}\frac{\psi }{z}=\beta ,$$
(33)
where $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are arbitrary constants. It is worthwhile mentioning at this point that Eq.(33) can not be used in case of very small resistivity. In the limit of vanishing resistivity (large $`\beta `$ in the above equation), the solution of Eq.(33) contains short scale spatial dependence (boundary layers), not present in case of ideal equilibrium and may lead to unphysical results.

Note that the above equation is a elliptic equation and can be treated as boundary value problem. Following Zheng et al. , we assume a solution of the form

$$\psi _h(r,z)=\underset{n=0,1,2,\mathrm{}}{}f_n(r)z^n$$
(34)
for the homogeneous part of Eq.(33). We however retain the odd terms in the summation to take care of the asymmetric-term in Eq.(33). For simplicity we assume that $`f_n(r)=0`$ for $`n3`$, which, however, can be extended up to any number of terms if required, about which we shall make a comment later. Substituting Eq.(34) in the equivalent homogeneous equation for Eq.(33) we can solve for the functions $`f_{0,1,2}(r)`$. The homogeneous solution of Eq.(33) is then given by,

$`\psi _h(r,z)`$ $`=`$ $`a_1r^2\{4r^2+16z^2\alpha ^2[4(\mathrm{ln}r)^24\mathrm{ln}r+2`$ (38)
$`r^2]+8\alpha z(r^22\mathrm{ln}r)\}+a_2[2r^2(2\mathrm{ln}r`$
$`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1})\alpha ^2\mathrm{ln}r(\mathrm{ln}r+1)+4\alpha z\mathrm{ln}r+4z^2]`$
$`+a_3r^2[\alpha (2\mathrm{ln}r1)+4z]+a_4r^2,`$
where $`a_i`$s are arbitrary constants to be determined from the boundary conditions. A particular solution of Eq.(33) is $`\psi _p=\beta r^2(2\mathrm{ln}r1)/4`$. So the complete solution of Eq.(33) is

$$\psi =\psi _h+\psi _p,$$
(39)
which can be verified by direct substitution. For a conducting circular boundary of a toroidal axisymmetric device, the constant flux ($`\psi `$) contours are shown in Fig.1 (a) which shows a scaler pressure equilibrium. The solution for $`\sigma r^2`$ is shown in Fig.1 (b). Note that $`\sigma r^2`$ is the only possible solution for resistive axisymmetric equilibrium without flow .

In principle the expansion in Eq.(38) should be retained with a large number of terms which will result a equally large number of arbitrary constants for the solution in $`\psi `$. These constants can then be used to shape any arbitrarily shaped plasma boundary.

In passing, we would like to note that resistive field diffusion ($`B/t0`$) is intrinsically involved with non-stationary equilibria ($`v0`$). However, a series of ideal quasi-stationary equilibrium states can be built up with $`B/t=0`$ in which, the effect of finite resistivity is only to slowly evolve the equilibrium in a diffusive time scale .

It is a pleasure to thank A. Sen for the kind hospitality at IPR where part of this work has been completed.


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# The Interstellar Medium of Young Stellar Clusters from the Mid-Infrared Point of View

## 1. Introduction

The subject of stellar cluster formation history and environment has made great headway lately, with the high resolution and sensitivity currently available at optical and near infrared (NIR) wavelengths. In principle, the mid-infrared (MIR) wavelength regime should provide numerous advantages for such studies, since this wavelength range is relatively extinction free (A15μm $``$ 5% AJ) and contains diagnostic ionic lines to probe HII regions. In addition, hot dust emission provides us with another link to the ultraviolet starlight that has been absorbed and reemitted by the nearby grains. Our knowledge of the MIR wavelength window has been limited by the low spatial and spectral resolution provided by the IRAS satellite, and has remained rather sketchy when it comes to detailed studies of the ISM of individual galaxies. The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO; Kessler et al. 1996) has been a recent turning point in this effort, providing high spectral and spatial resolution and unprecedented sensitivity in the MIR through the far infrared (FIR). We have incorporated these MIR and FIR observations in a study of the energy redistribution in starburst galaxies, with the aim of understanding the impact of the star formation on the surrounding gas and dust.

The main limitation in MIR star cluster studies remains the spatial resolution, despite the great improvement over previous instrumentation provided by ISOCAM ($``$ 6′′ at 15$`\mu `$m; Cesarsky, C.J. et al. 1996). ISOCAM resolves about 600 pc at 20 Mpc, the distance of the closest massive merging system, the Antennae. However, even with this limitation, we are able to draw noteworthy conclusions from the MIR, from unique MIR diagnostics. Here, I concentrate primarily on results of the nearer dwarf galaxies, since impacts of the massive clusters on the global dust and gas environment are very pronounced in these relatively small objects.

## 2. What Do MIR Wavelengths Trace?

Figure 1 shows ISOCAM 5-17 $`\mu `$m spectra for the three dwarf galaxies II Zw40, NGC 1140 and NGC 1569, with metallicities of $`{}_{}{}^{1}/_{7}^{}`$ to $`{}_{}{}^{1}/_{3}^{}`$ Z (Madden et al. 2000), along with the spectrum of the notoriously metal poor SBS 0335-052 ($`{}_{}{}^{1}/_{40}^{}`$ Z; Thuan, Sauvage, & Madden 1999). All these spectra show obvious MIR signatures of massive stars.

As often seen in starburst galaxies, the MIR spectra are dominated by steeply rising continua longward of $``$ 10 $`\mu `$m. Thermal emission from hot small grains with mean temperatures of the order of hundreds of Kelvin are responsible for the MIR continuum emission.

The unidentified infrared bands (UIBs) at 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.3 and 12.6 $`\mu `$m, have been attributed to aromatic hydrocarbon particles undergoing stochastic temperature fluctuations (i.e, PAHs: Léger & Puget 1984; Allamendola, Tielens, & Barker 1989; coal grains: Papoular, Reynaud, & Nenner 1991). They are observed to peak in the photodissociation (PDR) zones around HII regions, but are destroyed deep within the HII regions themselves (Verstraete et al. 1996; Cesarsky, D. et al. 1996; Tran 1998). While the UIBs are not obvious in the spectra of II Zw40 and SBS 0335-052, and are only very weakly present NGC 1569, they can be distinguished in the spectrum of NGC 1140. Several ground state fine structure nebular lines are present also in 3 of the spectra, the most prominent being 15.6 $`\mu `$m \[NeIII\] (ionisation potential $``$ 41 eV) and 10.5 $`\mu `$m \[SIV\] ($``$ 35 eV). Weaker, lower energy lines may also present, such as the 8.9 $`\mu `$m \[ArIII\] line and the \[NeII\] 12.8 $`\mu `$m line, which can be blended with the 12.6 $`\mu `$m UIB.

While all of these spectra are very different from one another, all differ significantly from those of normal metallicity starburst galaxies. Normal starburst galaxies show prominent UIBs, in contrast to AGNs, which are devoid of UIBs (e.g. Roche et al. 1991; Dudley 1999, Laurent et al. 2000; Sturm et al. 2000). When compared to spectra characteristic of PDRs and HII regions (e.g. M17, Cesarsky, D. et al. 1996; Verstraete et al. 1996), II Zw40 is remarkably similar to that of an HII region. In contrast, NGC 1140, which has a very flat continuum yet a very strong \[NeIII\] line, does have a more obvious contribution from PDR regions in its spectra. Note that the MIR spectrum of N66, the most prominent HII region in the SMC, also shows a scarcity of UIBs in the vicinity of the most massive central cluster (Contursi et al. 2000), as does the low metallicity source NGC 5253 (Crowther et al. 1999).

In some starburst galaxies, amorphous silicate is seen in absorption centered at 9 and 18 $`\mu `$m (Roche et al. 1991; Dudley 1999; Laurent et al. 2000). We can fit the MIR region of the II Zw40 spectrum with a blackbody at 193 K and an absorption equivalent to Av $``$ 4. Dust temperatures derived assuming blackbodies should be interpreted with care, since the dust emitting in the MIR is expected to be undergoing stochastic processes rather than being in thermal equilibrium with the radiation field. The amount of absorption in II Zw40 (Av $``$ 4) has yet to be confirmed. In SBS 0335-052, Av $``$ 20 has been deduced from the absorption in the ISOCAM MIR spectra (Fig. 1). The presence of a significant amount of dust at a metallicity as low as Z/40 is surprising, especially since star formation in SBS 0335-052 began as recently as 100 Myr ago (Papaderos et al. 1998; Thuan, Izotov, & Foltz 1999). Such high extinction implies that the current star formation rate, hidden by dust, might be underestimated by at least 50% (Thuan, Sauvage & Madden 1999).

## 3. Effects of the Massive Star Formation on the Gas

As a consequence of the smaller dust abundance of most dwarf galaxies, the ISM throughout these galaxies is affected by the hard radiation field of the massive stellar clusters. All star forming dwarf galaxies contain evidence for Wolf-Rayet stars (Schaerer, Contini, & Pindao 1999) and super star clusters have been detected in NGC 1140 (Hunter, O’Connell, & Gallagher 1994), NGC 1569 (O’Connell, Gallagher, & Hunter 1994) and SBS 0335-052 (Thuan, Izotov, & Lipovetsky 1997). Their harsh radiation fields, which more readily permeate the ISM compared those in solar metallicity environments, are capable of destroying the UIB carriers, for example, over very extensive spatial areas. The effect of the pervasive radiation field can be witnessed in NGC 1569 (Fig. 2), where photodissociation occurs on global scales. Violent activity is revealed by the H$`\alpha `$ distribution (Waller 1991; Martin 1998) and the 15.8 $`\mu `$m \[NeIII\] emission, with giant streamers suspected to originate from the energetic winds of the super star clusters A & B, (black stars in Fig. 2). The UIB, \[SIV\] and \[NeIII\] emission seems to avoid the super star clusters, which blow out much of the gas and dust on relatively short time scales. This effect is also seen in the CO (Taylor et al. 1999), HI (Israel & van Driel 1990) and H$`\alpha `$ (Waller 1991) distributions. Likewise we see the destruction of the UIBs in the beam-averaged spectrum of the entire galaxies II Zw40 and SBS 0335-052 (the available spatial resolution prevents us from seeing more detail within these galaxies in the MIR).

## 4. Modelling the Spectral Energy Distribution

We have compiled broad band data from the literature for II Zw40, NGC 1569 and NGC 1140 and have combined these with our MIR data to construct appropriate stellar spectral energy distributions (SEDs). In so doing, we fit the observed optical and NIR data with population synthesis models of PEGASE (Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange 1997), taking into account the constraints of the MIR line emission by modelling the corresponding photoionisation with CLOUDY (Ferland 1996). After briefly describing the results of this process, we discuss the results of the use of the reconstructed stellar SEDs as input to our dust model.

### 4.1. Combined stellar evolution and photoionisation model results

When assuming instantaneous star formation, a metallicity Z/5 and a Salpeter IMF (with upper and lower mass cut-offs of 0.1 and 120 solar masses), we find solutions to the observed broad band colours for a variety of ages and ionisation parameters. The ISOCAM MIR observations provide the diagnostic lines of neon, sulphur and argon, that have been recently addressed e.g. by Lutz et al. (1998), Crowther et al. (1999), Schaerer & Stasińska (1999) and Genzel et al. (1998).

For example, the \[NeIII\]/\[NeII\] ratio is a measure of Teff, the hardness of the radiation field, and therefore traces the massive stellar population. For the dwarf galaxies, we find \[NeIII\]/\[NeII\] ratios in the range of 5 to 10 - much higher values than those of normal metallicity galaxies ($``$1; Thornley et al. 2000). The extreme values of the \[NeIII\]/\[NeII\] ratios are related to the low metallicities of the systems: the Teff of the stars increases as the metallicity decreases for a specific stellar age. High ratios of \[NeIII\]/\[NeII\] and the prominent \[SIV\] in these spectra limit the age of the present star formation to $`<`$ 5 Myr. Beyond this age, the massive stars have died and the \[NeIII\]/\[NeII\] ratio drops dramatically. The high excitation 24.9 $`\mu `$m \[OIV\] line, covered by the ISO SWS data, is observed in some dwarf galaxies (Lutz et al. 1998) and has been attributed to the presence of Wolf-Rayet stars (Schaerer & Stasińska 1999).

For NGC 1569, NGC 1140 and II Zw40, we construct composite stellar SEDs that require 70 to 95 % of the stellar mass to be provided by an ’older’ population with ages between about 10 and 30 Myr, with the remaining 5% to 30% corresponding to a very young population ($`<`$ 5 Myr). Observational evidence for the presence of Wolf-Rayet stars corroborates the existence of this very young stellar population (Vacca & Conti 1992). The broad band optical and NIR data alone reveal predominantly the older population in our apertures. Fig. 3 shows an example of the resultant composite SED for II Zw 40, including the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation that the young, massive stellar population traces.

### 4.2. Effects of the Massive Star Formation on the Dust

We use the modelled stellar spectra of II Zw40, NGC 1569 and NGC 1140 as input to a dust model to study the effects of this radiation field on the dust properties. This is an important step since dust plays a major role in influencing the chemical and physical state of the ISM. We use the Désert, Boulanger, & Puget (1990) model to fit the various dust components emitting in the MIR and the FIR. This model calculates the IR emission from large silicate grains (BGs), very small amorphous carbon grains (VSGs), and stochastically heated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), for various grain size distributions.

In these three galaxies the MIR spectrum is clearly dominated by emission from VSGs with very little PAH emission. The BG component dominates the overall dust emission with mass fractions ranging from 93% to 99%, while the PAH mass fraction is relatively insignificant — 5 orders of magnitude lower. The model gives a PAH/VSG mass ratio of $`2\mathrm{3\hspace{0.17em}10}^4`$ for NGC 1569 and II Zw 40 and 10 times this value for NGC 1140. For comparison, the Désert et al. model applied to the Galactic cirrus gives a PAH/VSG mass ratio $`1`$. Thus, even compared to the VSG population, we find an insignificant mass fraction of PAHs, reflecting the fact that the PAHs are destroyed throughout the entire galaxies, as a result of the hard radiation fields originating from the few massive stellar clusters. This in an important result, since PAHs are thought to be the primary particles responsible for the photoelectric heating process (Bakes & Tielens 1994) and are incorporated in PDR models (Kaufman et al. 1999). Our preliminary results, while not statistically robust at this stage, suggest that even in the absence of PAHs, the photoelectric effect is efficient, as both II Zw40 and NGC 1569 are relatively prominent \[CII\] sources among the galaxies surveyed (Jones et al. 1997). On the contrary, in NGC 1140, where PAHs are more obvious in the MIR spectra (Fig. 1), we do not detect \[CII\]. VSGs with derived sizes of $``$40 to 300 Å, which are very abundant relative to the PAHs in NGC 1569 and II Zw40 but less so in NGC 1140, may therefore be the more efficient sources of photoelectric gas heating in these environments, rather than PAHs.

This scenario is in contrast to normal metallicity galaxies, where the PAHs are prominently observed, and the effects of the numberous massive stellar activity are much more local rather than global.

## 5. Summary

MIR ISOCAM spectroscopy provides details of ionic lines, UIBs and the distribution of small hot grain emission in dwarf galaxies. The strong MIR \[NeIII\]/\[NeII\] ratios are signatures of the hard radiation fields and indicate the presence of clusters of young massive stars in dwarf galaxies. Because of the increase in Teff in low metallicity environments, this ratio is enhanced in dwarf galaxies to at least 5 to 10 times that observed in normal metallicity galaxies. The penetrating radiation field also affects the dust components, destroying the UIBs in some dwarf galaxies on global scales, as is evident in the MIR spectra and in the dust modeling. This dramatic global effect of the massive stellar population in dwarf galaxies, due to the decrease in attenuation of the UV flux, is not apparant in normal metallicity galaxies, where these effects are experienced much more locally.

#### Acknowledgments.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge my collaborators D. Ragaigne and A. Jones. I wish to also thank W. Waller for his H$`\alpha `$ image of NGC 1569.

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text:
# Is the Multichannel Kondo Model Appropriate to Describe the Single Electron Transistor?

## I Introduction

The single electron box (SEB) and the single electron transistor (SET) are basic elements of mesoscopic devices and have been studied extensively. Both consist of a single small metallic or semiconducting box connected to one (single electron box, or SEB) or two (single electron transistor, or SET) leads. Additionally, in the SET a gate electrode is attached to the box to control the actual charge on the dot (see Fig. 1).

The electrostatic energy of the box is well-described by the classical expression

$$H_C=\frac{e^2}{2C}\left(n_{\mathrm{box}}\frac{V_gC_g}{e}\right)^2,$$
(1)
where $`C`$ denotes the capacitance of the island, $`C_g`$ is the gate capacitance, $`e`$ is the electric charge, $`V_g`$ stands for the gate voltage, and $`n_{\mathrm{box}}`$ is the number of extra electrons on the island. For box sizes in the $`0.1\mu \mathrm{m}`$ range the capacitance $`C`$ of the box can be small enough so that the charging energy $`E_C=e^2/2C`$ associated with putting an extra electron on the island can safely be around $`\mathrm{mV}`$ range. Therefore, unless $`N_g=\frac{V_gC_g}{e}`$ is a half-integer, it costs a finite energy to charge the island, and at low enough temperatures the number of electrons on the island becomes quantized and a Coulomb blockade develops provided the quantum fluctuations are not too strong. In this Coulomb blockade regime the transport through the island is suppressed.

The situation is dramatically different for dimensionless gate voltages $`N_g=\frac{V_gC_g}{e}n+1/2`$. For $`N_g=n+1/2`$ the two states $`n_{\mathrm{box}}=n`$ and $`n_{\mathrm{box}}=n+1`$ become degenerate, and quantum fluctuations between the island and the leads become important. Assuming that the mean level spacing on the island is smaller than any energy scale (temperature, $`E_C`$, etc.) two scenarios have been suggested: (a) It has been proved by Matveev that if the leads are connected to the island via a single conduction mode then — close to the degeneracy point and at low enough temperature — the physics of the SET (SEB) becomes identical to that of the two-channel Kondo model. Indeed, the fingerprints of the two-channel Kondo behavior have been observed recently on semiconducting single electron transistors. (b) In the opposite limit one assumes that the tunneling to the island happens through an infinite number of identical modes. This model has been applied very successfully for the description of metallic islands. The predictions of this infinite channel model are, however, very different from those of the two-channel Kondo model: the conductance of the SET, for instance, scales to zero as $`T`$ in the two-channel Kondo picture, while it is proportional to $`1/\mathrm{ln}(E_C/T)`$ in the infinite channel scenario.

The purpose of the present paper is to treat the general case of finite conduction modes in the lead and to reconcile the apparent contradiction between the two pictures above. We show that both models capture the physical properties of the SEB (SET), however, they are appropriate in very different regimes. Carrying out a renormalization group analysis we show that there exists a crossover energy $`T^{}`$. Above $`T^{}`$, even for $`N20`$ tunneling modes the system is well characterized by the conductance of the tunnel junctions and the SEB (SET) is satisfactorily described by the $`2N`$-channel model of Ref. . Nevertheless, for small mode numbers pronounced deviations occur, and similar deviations appear for larger values of $`N`$ in the presence of pinholes in the junction, which offer a plausible explanation to the deviations observed in Ref. .

Below $`T^{}`$, on the other hand, the detailed structure of the tunneling matrix becomes important: At very low $`T`$ only a single conductance mode dominates the physics and a two-channel Kondo effect develops. Unfortunately, in most situations $`T^{}`$ (and thus the Kondo temperature $`T_KT^{}`$) turns out to be extremely small, and the two-channel Kondo physics cannot be observed. In fact, very special experimental setups are needed to observe the two-channel Kondo behavior, as we shall discuss it in detail in our concluding section.

The paper is organized as follows: In Sec. II we describe the models applied. Secs. III and IV are devoted to the analysis of the single electron box and the single electron transistor, respectively. Finally, in Sec. V we discuss the possibility of experimental observations of the low-energy Kondo-like behavior and summarize our conclusions.

## II The Models

### A Hamiltonian of the SEB

For the sake of simplicity, let us first concentrate on the single electron box and generalize our results to the SET later on. Usually, the lead is described by means of $`N`$ independent non-interacting one-dimensional electron modes:

$$H_{\mathrm{lead}}=\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}\underset{ϵ,\sigma }{}ϵc_{ϵn\sigma ;\mathrm{lead}}^{}c_{ϵn\sigma ;\mathrm{lead}},$$
(2)
where $`c_{ϵn\sigma ;\mathrm{lead}}^{}`$ crates an electron on the box with spin $`\sigma `$, mode index $`m`$ and energy $`ϵ`$. (Note that to avoid confusion, we do not follow the usual terminology and use deliberately the expression conduction mode instead of the wording ’conductance channels’, more frequent in the literature.)

In the present work we assume that the level spacing $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ at the island is much smaller than any energy scale in the problem, and therefore these discrete levels may be represented as a single particle continuum on the island. This assumption is crucial to obtain the Kondo physics discussed in this paper, since the level spacing provides an infrared cut-off which ultimately kills the logarithmic singularities and the Kondo effect. Based on these assumptions we express the Hamiltonian of the island as

$`H_{\mathrm{box}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{ϵ}{}}ϵc_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}^{}c_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}`$ (3)
$`+`$ $`E_C\left(n_{\mathrm{box}}V_gC_g/e\right)^2.`$ (4)
In Eq. (4) we assumed $`M`$ independent modes on the box, and defined the number $`n_{\mathrm{box}}`$ of electrons on the island as

$$n_{\mathrm{box}}=\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}\underset{ϵ,\sigma }{}:c_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}^{}c_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}:,$$
(5)
where the symbol $`:\mathrm{}:`$ denotes normal ordering.

As usually, in Eq. (4) we implicitly used the assumption that the collective charge excitations decouple from the single particle excitations and that the electron-electron interaction can be fully taken into account by the classical Coulomb interaction term. The validity of this approximation relies heavily on the fact the collective charge excitations relax extremely fast compared to all other time scales involved.

The coupling of the box to the lead is described by a standard tunneling Hamiltonian:

$$H_{\mathrm{tun}}=\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}\underset{ϵ,ϵ^{},\sigma }{}\left(T_{mn}c_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}^{}c_{ϵ^{}n\sigma ;\mathrm{lead}}+\text{h.c.}\right),$$
(6)
where we neglected the energy dependence of the elements of the $`M\times N`$ tunneling matrix $`T_{mn}`$

It is very important that the tunneling is diagonal in the spin indices, however, it is generally non-diagonal in the mode indices. As we shall see later, the twofold spin degeneracy is the basic origin of the very low-temperature two-channel Kondo effect. Once magnetic field is applied the symmetry between spin up and spin down conduction electrons is broken, and the system flows to the single channel Kondo fixed point.

The tunneling Hamiltonian of the SET differs only slightly from that of the SEB. In this case there are two leads that are connected to the island. However, as first shown by Averin and Nazarov, at temperatures larger than the level spacing coherent processes connecting the two leads are strongly suppressed. Therefore, one can formally separate from each-other those single particle states on the island which participate in the tunneling from the first and the second lead, respectively. These tunneling processes are then only correlated by the very fast Coulomb interaction which allows for the presence of only one excess electron on the island.

Thus for the SET the effective Hamiltonian of the island becomes:

$`H_{\mathrm{box}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{ϵ}{}}ϵ(c_{}^{(1)}{}_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}{}^{}c_{}^{(1)}{}_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}{}^{}`$ (7)
$`+`$ $`c_{}^{(2)}{}_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}{}^{}c_{}^{(2)}{}_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}{}^{})`$ (8)
$`+`$ $`E_C\left(n_{\mathrm{box}}^{(1)}+n_{\mathrm{box}}^{(2)}V_gC_g/e\right)^2,`$ (9)
where the indices $`(1)`$ and $`(2)`$ refer to single particle states participating in the tunneling from the first and second leads, respectively, and the number operators $`n_{\mathrm{box}}^{(1)}`$ and $`n_{\mathrm{box}}^{(2)}`$ are defined similarly to Eq. (5).

The tunneling Hamiltonian of the SET reads:

$$H_{\mathrm{tun}}=\underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{f=1,2}{n,m,ϵ,ϵ^{},\sigma }}{}\left(T_{mn}^{(f)}c_{}^{(f)}{}_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}{}^{}c_{}^{(f)}{}_{ϵ^{}n\sigma ;\mathrm{lead}}{}^{}+\text{h.c.}\right),$$
(10)
where the index $`f`$ refers to the two junctions. For the sake of simplicity, we assumed that the number of modes in the two leads ($`N^{(1)}`$ and $`N^{(2)}`$) and the number of tunneling modes on the island ($`M^{(1)}`$ and $`M^{(2)}`$ ) is identical for both junctions($`N^{(1)}=N^{(2)}=N`$ and $`M^{(1)}=M^{(2)}=M`$ ). This simplification does not modify our results because the two tunneling matrices $`T_{mn}^{(1)}`$ and $`T_{mn}^{(2)}`$ are assumed to be completely uncorrelated.

In the following we focus to the vicinity of the degeneracy points, $`VC_G/e=n+1/2`$. As already mentioned in the introduction at these gate voltages the charge states $`n_{\mathrm{box}}=n`$ and $`n_{\mathrm{box}}=n+1`$ become degenerate and quantum fluctuations dominate. For temperatures (energy scales) below the charging energy $`E_C=e^2/2C`$ one can safely project out all the other charging states, represent the two states $`n_{\mathrm{box}}=n+1/2\pm 1/2`$ as two states of a pseudospin $`S_z=\pm 1/2`$, and rewrite the tunneling part of SEB Hamiltonian in the following form:

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{ϵ,\sigma ,\alpha }{}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N_\alpha }{}}}ϵc_{ϵn\sigma ;\alpha }^{}c_{ϵn\sigma ;\alpha }hS_z`$ (11)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{ϵ,ϵ^{},\sigma }{\alpha ,\beta ,n_\alpha ,n_\beta }}{}}(c_{ϵn_\alpha \sigma ;\alpha }^{}T_{n_\alpha ,m_\beta }\sigma _{\alpha \beta }^+S^{}c_{ϵ^{}m_\beta \sigma ;\beta }+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.),`$ (12)
where the ’orbital pseudospins’ $`\alpha ,\beta =({}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{box}_{}^{},{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{lead}_{}^{})`$ indicate the position of an electron and couple to $`S`$, $`\sigma ^\pm =\sigma _x\pm i\sigma _y`$ denote Pauli matrices, and the index $`n_\alpha `$ takes values $`n_\alpha =1,..,N_\alpha `$ ($`N_{\mathrm{lead}}=N`$ and $`N_{\mathrm{box}}=M`$). The effective field $`h=e\delta VC_G/C`$ measures the distance from the degeneracy point, with $`\delta V=Ve(n+1/2)/C_G`$.

For the SET Eq. (11) gets modified in that the two leads provide two conduction electron ’channels’ ($`f=1,2`$) coupled to the charge pseudospin:

$$H_{\mathrm{tun}}=\underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{f,ϵ,ϵ^{},\sigma }{\alpha ,\beta ,n,m}}{}(c_{}^{(f)}{}_{ϵn\sigma ;\alpha }{}^{}T_{n,m}^{(f)}\sigma _{\alpha \beta }^+S^{}c_{ϵ^{}m\sigma ;\beta }^{(f)}+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.).$$
(13)
Note that the ’channel’ label $`f`$ has a role essentially different from that of the real spin of the electrons: While there is a full SU(2) symmetry associated to the latter, the former is merely a conserved quantity (corresponding to a $`U(1)`$ symmetry only).

In the formulation above the case $`M=N=1`$ corresponds to Matveev’s two-channel Kondo model, while in the limit $`M=N\mathrm{}`$ and $`T_{nm}=\delta _{nm}T1/\sqrt{N}`$ we recover the infinite channel model mentioned in the Introduction. Obviously, both limits are somewhat specific: In many realistic systems $`M,N>1`$ and the first approximation seems to be inadequate. The second approximation, on the other hand, contains an artificial $`SU(2N)`$ symmetry: There is no reason for the tunneling matrix element to be diagonal in the mode indices at all, and even more to have identical matrix element in each tunneling mode. In fact, any defect, roughness, etc. present in a real junction will produce cross-channel tunneling, and even the simplest models of a perfect tunnel junction with $`N=M`$ give different tunneling eigenvalues for the different tunneling modes. The philosophy behind this second approach is that the only physically relevant parameter is the conductance of the junction and therefore the artificial symmetry introduced has no effect. As we shall see, this philosophy is only partially justified: cross-mode tunneling — breaking this artificial $`SU(2N)`$ symmetry — is in reality a relevant  perturbation and leads the system ultimately to the two-channel Kondo fixed point.

## III Perturbative scaling analysis of the SEB

It has been shown longtime ago that the Hamiltonian of Eq. (11) generates logarithmic singularities when perturbation theory in the tunneling amplitude is developed. To deal with these logarithmic singularities one has to sum up the perturbation series up to infinite order. The easiest way to do this is by constructing the renormalization group (RG) equations. Fortunately, this straightforward but rather tedious calculation can be avoided by rewriting the Hamiltonian (11) in the following form:

$$H_{\mathrm{int}}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}\underset{\sigma ,ϵ,ϵ^{},r,r^{}}{}V_{rr^{}}^i\tau ^ic_{ϵr\sigma }^+c_{ϵ^{}r^{}\sigma },$$
(14)
and observing that Eq. (14) is formally identical to the Hamiltonian of a non-commutative two-level system. The indices $`r`$ and $`r^{}`$ in Eq. (14) take the values $`r,r^{}=(1,..,M+N)`$, the $`\tau ^i`$’s denote Pauli matrices ($`\tau ^i=2S^i`$), and the $`V_{rr^{}}^i`$’s can be written in a block matrix notation as

$`𝐕^x={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 𝐓\\ 𝐓^{}& 0\end{array}\right),`$ (17)
$`𝐕^y={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2i}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 𝐓\\ 𝐓^+& 0\end{array}\right),`$ (20)
$`𝐕^z=\left(\begin{array}{cc}𝐐& 0\\ 0& \stackrel{~}{𝐐}\end{array}\right),`$ (23)
where we introduced the tensor notation $`T_{mn}𝐓`$. The $`M\times M`$ and $`N\times N`$ Hermitian matrices $`𝐐`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{𝐐}`$ vanish in the bare Hamiltonian, but they are dynamically generated under scaling. They correspond to charging state dependent back scattering off the tunnel junction:

$`H_{\mathrm{back}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{ϵ,ϵ^{},\sigma ,\sigma ^{}}{}}2S_z[{\displaystyle \underset{n,n^{}=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\stackrel{~}{Q}_{nn^{}}c_{ϵn\sigma ;\mathrm{lead}}^{}c_{ϵ^{}n^{}\sigma ^{};\mathrm{lead}}`$ (24)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m,m^{}=1}{\overset{M}{}}}Q_{mm^{}}c_{ϵm\sigma ;\mathrm{box}}^{}c_{ϵ^{}m^{}\sigma ^{};\mathrm{box}}].`$ (25)
The scaling equations of the two-level system have been first derived in Ref.  and its possible fixed points and their stability have been carefully analyzed in Ref. . Using this mapping we can easily construct the RG equations for the SEB:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d𝐭}{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`2(\mathrm{𝐭𝐪}\stackrel{~}{𝐪}𝐭)`$ (26)
$``$ $`2𝐭\left[\mathrm{Tr}\{\mathrm{𝐭𝐭}^{}\}+2\mathrm{T}\mathrm{r}\{\mathrm{𝐪𝐪}\}+2\mathrm{T}\mathrm{r}\{\stackrel{~}{𝐪}\stackrel{~}{𝐪}\}\right],`$ (27)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\stackrel{~}{𝐪}}{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`𝐭^{}𝐭4\stackrel{~}{𝐪}\mathrm{Tr}\{\mathrm{𝐭𝐭}^{}\},`$ (28)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d𝐪}{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{𝐭𝐭}^{}4𝐪\mathrm{Tr}\{\mathrm{𝐭𝐭}^{}\}.`$ (29)
Here we introduced the scaling variable $`x=\mathrm{ln}(E_c/\mathrm{max}\{T,\omega ,..\})`$ and defined dimensionless couplings as $`t_{mn}(\varrho _m^{\mathrm{box}}\varrho _n^{\mathrm{lead}})^{1/2}T_{mn}`$ (and similarly, $`q_{mm^{}}(\varrho _m^{\mathrm{box}}\varrho _m^{}^{\mathrm{box}})^{1/2}Q_{mm^{}}`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{q}_{nn^{}}(\varrho _n^{\mathrm{lead}}\varrho _n^{}^{\mathrm{lead}})^{1/2}\stackrel{~}{Q}_{nn^{}}`$) with $`\varrho _m^{\mathrm{box}}`$ ($`\varrho _n^{\mathrm{lead}}`$) the density of states at the Fermi energy in mode $`m`$ (mode $`n`$) of the box (lead).

The scaling equation for the effective field $`h`$ can be obtained from that of the splitting in the two-level system problem:

$$\frac{dh}{dx}=4h\mathrm{Tr}\{\mathrm{𝐭𝐭}^{}\}.$$
(30)
These scaling equations are appropriate provided $`g\mathrm{Tr}\{\mathrm{𝐭𝐭}^{}\}<1`$, otherwise the perturbative RG breaks down. They must be solved with the initial condition $`𝐪(x=0)=\stackrel{~}{𝐪}(x=0)=0`$ and $`𝐭(x=0)=𝐭^{\mathrm{bare}}`$. Away from the degeneracy point the “magnetic field”, i.e. the deviation from the degeneracy point is a relevant perturbation, and the scaling must be cut off at an energy scale $`h^{}`$ determined selfconsistently from the condition $`h(x=\mathrm{ln}(E_C/h^{}))=h^{}`$.

Up to logarithmic accuracy, the conductivity can then be expressed in terms of the scaled dimensionless tunneling rate $`𝐭(x=\mathrm{ln}[E_C/\mathrm{max}\{T,h^{}\}])`$ as

$$G(T)=G_0\mathrm{Tr}\{𝐭(x)𝐭^{}(x)\}$$
(31)
where $`G_0=8\pi ^2e^2/h`$ denotes a universal conductance unit.

The analogues of Eqs. (27-29) have been analyzed very carefully in Refs. , where it was shown by means of a systematic $`1/N_s`$ expansion ($`N_s`$ being the spin of the electrons) that they have a unique stable fixed point, identical to the two-channel Kondo fixed point. At this latter two orbital quantum numbers prevail, and the others become irrelevant. In the present context this statement means that there will be a unique ’effective tunneling mode’ in the lead (it is some combination of the original tunneling modes in the lead), and another unique ’tunneling mode’ in the box (also a linear combination of the original modes in the box): The $`T=0`$ effective Hamiltonian of the model at the degeneracy point corresponds to tunneling between these two modes only, and all the other modes can be neglected. This theorem therefore justifies the use of Matveev’s effective model at very low temperatures even if the number of modes in the lead or the box is larger than one.

However, as we show now, the temperature $`T^{}`$, below which the two channel Kondo behavior appears turns out to be extremely small in most cases. To see this let us consider a tunneling junction with a rough tunneling surface, and a dimensionless conductance $`g=G/G_0`$. Obviously, in this case the matrix elements $`t_{mn}`$ scale as $`t_{mn}\sqrt{g}/N`$ so that $`\mathrm{Tr}\{𝐭^{}𝐭\}g`$, and they have random sign or phase relative to each-other. The occupation dependent back scatterings $`𝐪`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{𝐪}`$ are generated by Eqs. (28) and (29), and their typical matrix elements can easily be estimated to be of order $`1/N^{3/2}`$. Therefore, the first two terms in Eq. (27) can be estimated to be smaller than $`g/N^2`$, while the matrix elements of the last term are dominated by the term proportional to $`\mathrm{Tr}\{𝐭^{}𝐭\}`$ and are of order $`g^{3/2}/N`$. Thus for large enough $`NM`$ one can simply substitute $`𝐪=\stackrel{~}{𝐪}=0`$ and the scaling equations reduce to:

$$\frac{d𝐭}{dx}=2𝐭\mathrm{Tr}\{\mathrm{𝐭𝐭}^{}\}$$
(32)
Multiplying this equation by $`𝐭^{}`$ and taking its trace we finally arrive at the scaling equation:

$$\frac{dg}{dx}=4g^2,$$
(33)
which is identical to the one obtained in Ref.  using the $`2N`$-channel model. The scaling equation for the effective field can also be expressed in terms of the dimensionless conductance:

$$\frac{dh}{dx}=4gh.$$
(34)
The above two scaling equations can readily be integrated to obtain:

$`g(x)={\displaystyle \frac{g_0}{1+4g_0x}},`$ (35)
$`h(x)={\displaystyle \frac{h_0}{1+4g_0x}}.`$ (36)
Obviously, in this approximation the physics of the SEB is completely characterized by the effective field $`h`$ and the conductance of the junction, and the details about the specific structure of the junction or the tunneling amplitudes are unimportant.

It is easy to estimate the crossover scale $`T^{}`$ below which this approximation breaks down. The scaling towards the two-channel Kondo fixed point is generated by the second order ’coherence’ terms in Eqs. (27-29), while the third order terms tend to reduce all couplings to zero. Therefore the scale $`T^{}`$ is determined by the condition that the second and third order terms in Eqs. (27-29) be of the same order of magnitude, giving $`g1/N`$. Replacing Eq. (35) by its asymptotic form $`g(x)1/4x`$ we finally obtain

$$T^{}E_C\mathrm{exp}\{CN\}(N1),$$
(37)
where $`C`$ is a constant of the order of unity. In view of the experimental values of $`E_C`$, this scale is extremely small for $`N>10`$, which justifies the use of the $`2N`$-channel model in many experimental setups.

In Figs. 2 and 3 we show the typical scaling of $`g(x)`$ for various $`N`$ and $`M`$ values, obtained by solving Eqs. (27-29) numerically. While in the Figures the initial hopping amplitudes have been generated completely randomly, similar results have been obtained when we used simple model estimates for the $`t_{mn}`$’s. Eq. (35) approximates very nicely the conductance above $`T^{}`$ even for rather small channel numbers. Below $`T^{}`$, however, the conductance starts to increase until it reaches its fixed point value $`g_{\mathrm{fp}}1`$. In the inset we show that the scale $`T^{}`$ decreases exponentially with the number of modes in agreement with Eq. (37).

## IV Discussion of the SET

To derive the scaling equations for the SET we repeated the derivation of the scaling equations of the two-level system with a generalized version of the interaction Hamiltonian (14). Here we only quote the results.

The scaling equations become:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d𝐭^{(\mathrm{f})}}{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`2(𝐭^{(\mathrm{f})}𝐪^{(\mathrm{f})}\stackrel{~}{𝐪}^{(\mathrm{f})}𝐭^{(\mathrm{f})})`$ (38)
$``$ $`2𝐭^{(\mathrm{f})}{\displaystyle \underset{f^{}}{}}[\mathrm{Tr}\{𝐭^{(\mathrm{f}^{})}𝐭_{}^{(\mathrm{f}^{})}{}_{}{}^{}\}+2\mathrm{T}\mathrm{r}\{𝐪^{(\mathrm{f}^{})}𝐪^{(\mathrm{f}^{})}\}`$ (39)
$`+`$ $`2\mathrm{T}\mathrm{r}\{\stackrel{~}{𝐪}^{(\mathrm{f}^{})}\stackrel{~}{𝐪}^{(\mathrm{f}^{})}\}],`$ (40)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\stackrel{~}{𝐪}^{(\mathrm{f})}}{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`𝐭_{}^{(\mathrm{f})}{}_{}{}^{}𝐭^{(\mathrm{f})}4\stackrel{~}{𝐪}^{(\mathrm{f})}{\displaystyle \underset{f^{}}{}}\mathrm{Tr}\{𝐭^{(\mathrm{f}^{})}𝐭_{}^{(\mathrm{f}^{})}{}_{}{}^{}\},`$ (41)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d𝐪^{(\mathrm{f})}}{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`𝐭^{(\mathrm{f})}𝐭_{}^{(\mathrm{f})}{}_{}{}^{}4𝐪^{(\mathrm{f})}{\displaystyle \underset{f^{}}{}}\mathrm{Tr}\{𝐭^{(\mathrm{f}^{})}𝐭_{}^{(\mathrm{f}^{})}{}_{}{}^{}\}.`$ (42)
Similarly to the SEB, the ’incoherent’ scaling equations can be obtained by dropping all second order ’coherent’ terms in the equations above. In this way we obtain for the dimensionless conductances $`g^{(1)}`$ and $`g^{(2)}`$ of the two junctions and the effective field $`h`$ the following scaling equations:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dg^{(1)}}{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`4g^{(1)}(g^{(1)}+g^{(2)}),`$ (43)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dg^{(2)}}{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`4g^{(2)}(g^{(1)}+g^{(2)}),`$ (44)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dh}{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`4h(g^{(1)}+g^{(2)}).`$ (45)
These equations can be readily solved to give:

$`g^{(1)}(x)={\displaystyle \frac{g_0^{(1)}}{1+4(g_0^{(1)}+g_0^{(2)})x}},`$ (46)
$`g^{(2)}(x)={\displaystyle \frac{g_0^{(2)}}{1+4(g_0^{(1)}+g_0^{(2)})x}},`$ (47)
$`h(x)={\displaystyle \frac{h_0}{1+4(g_0^{(1)}+g_0^{(2)})x}}.`$ (48)
Thus in this approximation the only effect of the presence of several leads is to replace the dimensionless conductance in the denominator of Eqs. (35) and (36) by the parallel conductance of all junctions attached to the island.

In Fig. 4 we show the conductance calculated from the solution of the full scaling equations Eq. (40-42) for $`N=M=15`$ conduction modes. Initially, both conductances follow Eqs. (47). However, at a temperature $`T^{}10^3E_C`$ a single conduction mode prevails in one of the junctions and starts to induce the two-channel Kondo effect. The conductance of this junction approaches a universal value characteristic to the two-channel Kondo fixed point while the resistivity of the other junction is suppressed to zero below this temperature. Since the tunneling between the island and this latter lead is an irrelevant operator of dimension $`1/2`$ and therefore its conductance scales as $`t^2T`$, the total conductance of the device at the degeneracy point scales as $`GT`$, in agreement with Matveev’s result. Note that the conductance of the other junction is universal, i.e. independent of the number of modes in the junction.

## V Conclusions

In the present work we studied in detail the physics of the single electron box and the single electron transistor close to their degeneracy points using renormalization group methods. In particular, we investigated the effect of cross-mode scattering and showed that this is a relevant perturbation, and drives the system towards a stable two-channel Kondo fixed point, a prototype of non-Fermi liquid fixed points. At very low temperatures we recover Matveev’s mapping to the two-channel Kondo model: In this case at very low temperatures the system dynamically selects a single mode on the box and another one on one of the leads, and all the other modes become irrelevant. This fixed point has an $`SU(2)\times SU(2)\times U(1)`$ symmetry, where the first symmetry is generated dynamically and is connected to the structure of the effective tunneling Hamiltonian, while the second $`SU(2)`$ symmetry is associated to the real spin of the electrons and is responsible for the non-Fermi liquid behavior. The $`U(1)`$ symmetry is simply due to charge conservation.

Due to this two-channel Kondo fixed point the linear coefficient of the specific heat and the capacitance of the SET diverge logarithmically at the degeneracy point, $`c/TC\mathrm{ln}(T)`$, while the resistivity of the device diverges as $`1/T`$.

However, as our detailed analysis demonstrates, if the number of tunneling modes is larger than one, then a new small energy scale $`T^{}E_C\mathrm{exp}(CN)`$ enters into the problem, with $`N`$ the total number of tunneling modes. Above this scale coherent processes leading to the Kondo physics can be neglected, and the properties of the system are very well described solely in terms of the conductances of the various junctions. Neglecting the aforementioned coherent terms we were able to re-derive the equations of Ref. , and generalize them for the case of SET.

At this point we have to make an important remark. Our results for the two-channel Kondo fixed point rely heavily on the fact that the electrons at temperatures $`T`$ larger than the level spacing on it can hardly travel coherently from one junction to another. Neglecting this coherent process then one of the SET conductances scales to zero and so does the total conductance of the SET at the degeneracy point.

Apart from inelastic scattering, the main origin of this loss of coherence is in the random scattering from the wall of the island and the impurities on it. Any model assuming the existence of consecutive coherent tunneling events between different leads gives an essentially different, and very likely in most situations unphysical result at very low temperatures. Indeed, repeating our analysis for the model used in Ref.  we find that at $`T=0`$ both tunnel junctions of the SET have a finite conductance at the degeneracy point, and thus the total conductance of the SET also remains finite even at zero temperature. This result is essentially different from the one obtained by Matveev or the calculations presented here, where coherent tunneling processes between different leads are excluded.

The difference between these two approximations becomes even more striking for the case of an $`M`$-fold degenerate multi-degeneracy points of a multi-dot system. In this case, neglecting the above-mentioned coherent tunneling between different leads, we find that the low-temperature physics is again described by the two-channel Kondo model. In the opposite case, however, the system would scale to another non-Fermi liquid fixed point, the $`SU(M)\times SU(2)`$ Coqblin-Schrieffer fixed point.

How and at what energy scale the crossover between these two behaviors happens, seems to be presently an open question, which can only be answered by somehow incorporating more details about the scattering on the impurities and the energy and spatial dependence of the tunneling matrix elements.

Because of the exponential dependence of $`T^{}`$, even a relatively small number of tunneling modes leads to an extremely small $`T^{}`$ and renders the non-Fermi liquid behavior in most cases inaccessible for the experimentalists. To observe the 2-channel Kondo behavior one can use semiconducting or metallic quantum boxes.

Semiconducting devices have the advantage that using suitable gate electrodes one can realize the idealistic case of a single mode contact, and therefore $`T^{}E_C`$ can be achieved. There is a serious difficulty, however, since one should keep $`E_C`$ large enough in order to have a measurable Kondo temperature while having a small level spacing on the island, the latter playing the role of an infrared cutoff for the Kondo physics. The former requirement immediately sets an upper limit on the size of the box $`d<e^2/E_C1000\AA `$, and therefore a lower limit on the mean level spacing $`\mathrm{\Delta }1/(m^{}d^2)0.11K`$, where we assumed a two dimensional electron gas with effective mass $`m^{}`$. This means that even if one manages to build a semiconducting device with a Kondo temperature in the measurable range, the level spacing will be too large to observe the two-channel Kondo behavior in detail. Indeed, even in the very recent experiments of Ref.  the ratio $`E_C/\mathrm{\Delta }`$ was in the range $`100`$, and consequently only some fingerprints of the two-channel Kondo behavior could have been observed. For smaller islands $`E_C`$ would become larger, however, the ratio $`E_C/\mathrm{\Delta }`$ would get even worse. Therefore there seems to be no hope to investigate the two-channel Kondo behavior with semiconducting devices more in detail.

The other possibility is to prepare metallic boxes. Since these metallic boxes are three dimensional objects and $`m^{}m_e`$ (unlike semiconducting devices with $`m^{}m_e`$), metallic grains of the size of only $`d100\AA `$ may have quite large $`E_C100500K`$, and very small mean level spacing on the other hand. Indeed, using STM devices to tunnel into metallic drops it was possible to observe the Coulomb blockade even at room temperature.

The difficulty in this case is connected to the preparation of the junctions. As emphasized earlier, one needs practically single mode or at most few mode junctions in order to have $`T^{}`$ large enough, which requires atomic size contacts/junctions. To establish such a junction we propose the experimental setup illustrated in Fig. 5. In the suggested experiment a metallic electrode is covered by a thin insulating layer, and a metallic drop is deposited on the top of it. The atomic size contacts can be formed by plugging an STM needle into one of the drops and then gently pulling it out of it. An additional gate electrode should be built in the vicinity of the drop to control the charging of the island. The two-channel Kondo effect would then show up in the gate voltage dependence of the conductance through the island.

The biggest difficulty in the experiment above is to establish a stable contact, so that one has enough time to tune the drop to its degeneracy point and carry out the measurement. It would be much more advantageous to use nanotechnology to build atomic size contacts instead of using an STM, a possibility which may be not too far away any more.

The authors are grateful to G. Schön, and M. Devoret for valuable discussions. This research has been supported by the U.S - Hungarian Joint Fund No. 587, grant No. DE-FG03-97ER45640 of the U.S DOE Office of Science, Division of Materials Research, and Hungarian Grant Nr. OTKA T026327, OTKA F29236, and OTKA T029813.