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# Surface impedance anisotropy of YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystals: electrodynamic basis of the measurements

## I Introduction

Microwave measurements of the temperature dependence of the complex conductivity tensor $`\widehat{\sigma }(T)=\widehat{\sigma }^{}(T)i\widehat{\sigma }^{\prime \prime }(T)`$ of high-$`T_c`$ superconductors (HTSC) have advanced considerably our understanding of the mechanisms of quasiparticles transport along crystallographic axes of these anisotropic compounds. The real part $`\widehat{\sigma }^{}(T)`$ is susceptible to the scattering rate of quasiparticles, as well as their density of states. The imaginary part $`\widehat{\sigma }^{\prime \prime }(T)`$ is related to the magnetic field penetration depth $`\lambda (T)`$. In the local electrodynamics, which can be applied to HTSC,

$$\widehat{\sigma }(T)=i\omega \mu _0/\widehat{Z^2}(T),$$
(1)
where $`\widehat{Z}(T)`$ is the surface impedance tensor of the sample, $`\omega =2\pi f`$ and $`\mu _0=4\pi 10^7`$ H/m. In HTSC the tensors $`\widehat{Z}`$ and $`\widehat{\sigma }`$ are characterized by two components: $`Z_{ab}=R_{ab}+iX_{ab}`$ (or $`\sigma _{ab}=\sigma _{ab}^{}i\sigma _{ab}^{\prime \prime }`$) in weakly anisotropic $`ab`$-planes CuO2 and $`Z_c=R_c+iX_c`$ ($`\sigma _c=\sigma _c^{}i\sigma _c^{\prime \prime }`$) perpendicular to these planes.

In the temperature range $`TT_c`$, $`R_{ab}(T)=X_{ab}(T)`$ in the $`ab`$-plane of the optimum-doped YBa2Cu3O6.95 Shi ; Ach ; Kit1 ; Tru6 ; Shi1  and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ Shi1 ; Jac1 ; Shov  single crystals, and this relation is equivalent to the condition of the normal skin effect. The common features of these crystals are the linear temperature dependence of the surface resistance ($`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{ab}(T)T`$) and of the surface reactance ($`\mathrm{\Delta }X_{ab}(T)\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}(T)T`$) at temperatures $`TT_c`$ (see Refs. Bonn4, ; Tru2, ; Trunef, ; Trugol,  and references therein). The difference is that the linear resistivity region extends to near $`T_c/2`$ for Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ and terminates near or below $`T<T_c/3`$ for YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystals. At higher temperatures $`R_s(T)`$ of YBa2Cu3O6.95 has a broad peak. In addition, the $`\lambda _{ab}(T)`$ curves of some YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystals have unusual features in the intermediate temperature range Tru6 ; Srik1 .

In comparison with the microwave response of the cuprate layers of HTSC, the data concerning their microwave properties in the direction perpendicular to these layers are scarce. Moreover, the available experimental data are controversial. In this connection, the major electrodynamic problem is the accuracy of the techniques used in determination of $`Z_c(T)`$ and $`\sigma _c(T)`$ in HTSC.

The most convenient technique for measurements of the surface impedance of small HTSC samples in the X-W microwave frequency bands is the so-called ‘hot-finger’ method Tru2 ; Sri7 . The underlying idea of the method is that a crystal is set on a sapphire rod at the center of a superconducting cylindrical cavity resonating at the frequency $`f`$ in the $`H_{011}`$ mode, i.e., at the antinode of a quasi-homogeneous microwave magnetic field. In the experiment the real $`R`$ and imaginary $`X`$ parts of the surface impedance are derived from the following relations:

$$R=\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Delta }(1/Q),X=2\mathrm{\Gamma }\delta f/f.$$
(2)
Here $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the sample geometrical factor; $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/Q)`$ is the difference between the values 1/Q of the cavity with the sample inside and the empty one; $`\delta f`$ is the frequency shift relative to that which would be measured for a sample with perfect screening and no penetration of microwave fields. In the experiment we measure the difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }f(T)`$ between resonant frequency shifts versus temperature of the loaded and empty cavity, which is equal to $`\mathrm{\Delta }f(T)=\delta f(T)+f_0`$, where $`f_0`$ is a constant. In HTSC single crystals the constant $`f_0`$ can be determined from measurements of the surface impedance in the normal state Tru1 . Another quantity essential for determining the values of $`R(T)`$ and $`X(T)`$ from Eq. (2) is the sample geometric factor

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{2\omega W}{\gamma },W=\frac{\mu _0}{2}_VH_\omega ^2𝑑V,\gamma =_sH_t^2𝑑s,$$
(3)
where $`W`$ is the energy stored in the cavity, $`V`$ is the volume of the cavity, $`𝐇_\omega `$ is the microwave magnetic field generated in the cavity, $`s`$ is the total sample surface area, and $`𝐇_t`$ is the tangential component of $`𝐇_\omega `$ on the sample surface. The energy $`W`$ is easily obtained for the resonator mode under use, therefore the task of deriving the impedance value is reduced to defining the integral $`\gamma `$ in Eq. (3). The task simplifies if a typical HTSC crystal in the form of a rectangular plate with dimensions $`ba>c`$ and volume $`v0.1`$ mm3 is radiated by the microwave magnetic field $`𝐇_\omega b`$ ($`L`$-orientation, Fig. 1a).

If this is the case, in the superconducting state at $`T<0.9T_c`$, when the magnetic field penetration depth is smaller than the characteristic sample dimensions, the quantity $`H_tH_0`$ can be taken out of the integral $`\gamma `$, where $`H_0`$ is an amplitude of $`𝐇_\omega `$. Thus we obtain $`\gamma 2H_0^2(ab+bc)`$, so the surface impedance $`Z_{ab+c}`$ for the sample in the $`L`$-orientation will be equal to

$$Z_{ab+c}\frac{abZ_{ab}+bcZ_c}{ab+bc},$$
(4)
where the subscripts of $`Z`$ denote the directions of the screening currents. While deriving formula (4) we neglect not only weak anisotropy in the $`ab`$-plane but also a contribution of the crystal $`ac`$-faces which is apparently minute in comparison with the summands in the numerator in Eq. (4) due to the areas difference $`acbc<ab`$. The cleaving of the crystal along the $`b`$-edge into several needles multiplies up the contribution from the $`c`$-axis, so that measurements of $`Z_{ab+c}`$ before and after the cleaving allowed to extract $`Z_c`$ in the superconducting state of YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystal Hos . However, this procedure has the following disadvantages: (i) it assumes $`abZ_{ab}`$ term in Eq. (4) to be non-alterable, which results in an uncontrolled inaccuracy due to non-ideal sample cleaving into rectangular needles, (ii) as it will be shown below, the size effect takes place at temperatures $`T>0.9T_c`$ in the $`L`$-orientation; this restricts applicability range of Eq. (4) within low temperatures and does not allow to extract $`\lambda _c(0)`$ value, and (iii) in many cases one needs to save the initial sample for further study, e.g., for investigation of evolution of its anisotropic properties with doping level.

Therefore, consecutive measurements of the crystal at first in transverse ($`T`$) orientation $`𝐇_\omega c`$ (Fig. 1b) to obtain $`Z_{ab}`$ and then in longitudinal ($`L`$) one appear to be a more natural way to obtain $`Z_c`$ value. A difficulty in determining of the geometrical factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ or the integral $`\gamma `$ in Eq. (3) in the $`T`$-orientation of the crystal arises while using this technique. As mentioned in Ref. Tru2, , $`\gamma 2H_0^2a^2[\mathrm{ln}(a/c)+1]`$ proves to be a reasonable estimation for a square sample with $`a=bc`$. It is also known that the approximation of a rectangular plate to an ellipsoid inscribed in it results in an overestimated value of $`\gamma `$.

The purpose of this paper is (i) to calculate $`\gamma `$ for a typical HTSC crystal in the $`T`$-orientation, (ii) to generalize formula (4) for the $`L`$-orientation of the crystal to the range of higher temperatures $`T>0.9T_c`$, and (iii) to report on the measurement results for all surface impedance components of high-quality YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystals, grown in BaZrO3 crucibles, in the normal and superconducting states.

## II Geometrical factor in the $`T`$-orientation

Let us consider a rectangular ideal conductor with dimensions $`L_yL_x,L_z`$ placed in a constant magnetic field $`𝐇z`$ (Fig. 2). The problem of obtaining the field distribution around such a conductor becomes two-dimensional and to solve it one can apply the method suggested in Ref. Provost, . The magnetic field outside the conductor satisfies Maxwell equations $`\times 𝐇=0`$ and $`𝐁=0`$. The former equation allows to introduce a scalar potential $`\phi `$, and the latter allows to introduce a vector potential $`𝐀`$: $`𝐇=\phi =\times 𝐀/\mu _0`$. Let $`𝐀`$ be directed along the $`y`$-axis: $`𝐀=(0,A,0)`$.

Then the magnetic field components will be as follows Lan :

$$H_xiH_z=\frac{d\psi }{dw},$$
(5)
where the complex potential $`\psi =\phi +iA/\mu _0`$ is an analytical function of $`w=x+iz`$ variable, which determines the conformal mapping of $`(x,z)`$ plane into $`(\phi ,A/\mu _0)`$ plane. Schwarz transformation

$$\frac{dw}{d\psi }=\frac{i}{H}\sqrt{\frac{(\psi \psi _3)(\psi \psi _3^{})}{(\psi \psi _2)(\psi \psi _2^{})}}$$
(6)
specifies the relationship between the unshaded areas in Fig. 2. Placing the point $`\psi _ϵ`$ into plain $`(\phi ,A/\mu _0)`$ point of origin, we get $`\phi _ϵ=0`$ and $`A=0`$ ($`\psi =\phi `$) along the path $`123ϵ3^{}2^{}1^{}`$. Owing to the task symmetry $`\phi _2=\phi _2^{}`$ and $`\phi _3=\phi _3^{}`$. Integrating Eq. (6), we obtain the following relationship between $`x,z`$ coordinates and potential $`\phi `$ on the conductor surface:

$`x={\displaystyle \frac{\phi _3}{H}}{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{1k^2}}{k}}E(\sqrt{1{\displaystyle \frac{\phi ^2}{\phi _2^2}}},{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{1k^2}}}),`$
$`(z=L_z/2,0xL_x/2),`$
$`z={\displaystyle \frac{\phi _3}{H}}E({\displaystyle \frac{\phi }{\phi _2}},{\displaystyle \frac{1}{k}}),(x=L_x/2,0zL_z/2),`$ (7)
where $`k=\phi _3/\phi _2`$, and $`E(u,v)`$ is an incomplete elliptic integral of the second kind. Eqs. (5) and (7) define an implicit dependence of the magnetic field against coordinates on the conductor surface. The upper inset in Fig. 3 displays the distribution of $`H_z(z)`$ and $`H_x(x)`$ magnetic field components in $`L_zL_y`$ and $`L_xL_y`$ planes, respectively, for three different $`L_z/L_x`$ ratios.

From the formulae (5)-(7) one can easily calculate the magnetic moment of the conductor

$`M=\left|{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle 𝐣\times 𝐫𝑑v}\right|=`$
$`=4L_y\left({\displaystyle _0^{L_x/2}}x|H_x|𝑑x+{\displaystyle \frac{L_x}{2}}{\displaystyle _0^{L_z/2}}H_z𝑑z\right)`$ (8)
and the integral $`\gamma `$ in Eq. (3):

$$\gamma =4L_y\left(_0^{L_x/2}H_x^2𝑑x+_0^{L_z/2}H_z^2𝑑z\right).$$
(9)
In order to obtain this we change from integration over coordinates in Eqs. (8) and (9) to integration over potential, taking formulae (5) and (6) into account:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{M}{L_yH}}={\displaystyle \frac{4}{H}}\left({\displaystyle _{\phi _2}^{\phi _3}}x𝑑\phi {\displaystyle \frac{L_x}{2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\phi _3}}𝑑\phi \right)=`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{\pi (1k^2)L_z^2}{4}}\left(E(k)(1k^2)K(k)\right)^2,`$ (10)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{L_yH^2}}={\displaystyle \frac{4}{H}}({\displaystyle _{\phi _2}^{\phi _3}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\phi _2^2\phi ^2}{\phi ^2\phi _3^2}}}d\phi +`$
$`+{\displaystyle _{\phi _3}^0}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\phi _2^2\phi ^2}{\phi _3^2\phi ^2}}}d\phi )=2(L_xf_x+L_zf_z),`$ (11)
where

$`f_x={\displaystyle \frac{K(\sqrt{1k^2})E(\sqrt{1k^2})}{E(\sqrt{1k^2})k^2K(\sqrt{1k^2})}},`$
$`f_z={\displaystyle \frac{E(k)}{E(k)(1k^2)K(k)}},`$ (12)
with $`K(v)`$ and $`E(v)`$ being complete elliptic integrals of the first and second kinds. Formula (10) coincides with the result obtained previously in Ref. Brandt, . Furthermore, the relationship between the ratio $`L_z/L_x`$ and $`k`$ is required to calculate the values of the moment $`M/v`$ ($`v=L_xL_yL_z`$ is a conductor volume) and the factor $`\gamma /s`$ ($`s=2L_y(L_z+L_x)`$ is a conductor surface area), which we obtain substituting the values $`x=L_x/2`$ and $`z=L_z/2`$ into the left side of Eq. (7):

$$\frac{L_z}{L_x}=\frac{E(k)(1k^2)K(k)}{E(\sqrt{1k^2})k^2K(\sqrt{1k^2})}.$$
(13)
$`M`$ and $`\gamma `$ dependences on $`L_z/L_x`$ ratio, computed from formulae (10) and (11), are presented in Fig. 3. If $`L_zL_x`$, the magnitude of the magnetic field on the sample surface tends to that of the applied one along with the values of $`M`$ and $`\gamma `$ tending to $`(vH)`$ and $`sH^2`$, respectively.

Presently we apply the formulae obtained to determining the HTSC crystal geometrical factor when transversely placed with respect to $`𝐇_\omega `$ field (Fig. 1b). The field distribution on the ideal conductor surface will coincide with alternating magnetic field distribution on the surface of a superconducting sample of the same dimensions ($`L_x=a`$, $`L_y=b`$, $`L_z=c`$) placed in microwave field $`𝐇_\omega =𝐇`$, provided that the penetration depth is smaller than the sample dimensions. It is easy to obtain a simple estimation of $`\gamma `$ in case of a very thin crystal ($`cab`$). Upon keeping the first term from the expansion into $`k1`$ series of the right side of Eq. (13), we get the value $`k\sqrt{4L_z/\pi L_x}`$. Therefore, small values of $`k`$ correspond to $`c/a1`$. The subsequent substitution of $`k=\sqrt{4c/\pi a}`$ into asymptotic forms $`f_x(k)K(\sqrt{1k^2})1`$, $`f_z(k)2/k^2`$ with $`k1`$ in Eq. (12) gives the following from Eq. (11):

$$\gamma 2H_0^2ab\left(\frac{\pi }{2}1+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ln}\frac{4\pi a}{c}\right).$$
(14)
The lower inset in Fig. 3 represents the comparison of $`\gamma `$ values obtained from the general formula (11) and the asymptotic one (14).

Let us now consider the influence of a finite crystal length ($`b`$ dimension) on the $`\gamma `$ quantity. Taking an arising additional contribution from $`ac`$-faces of the crystal (Fig. 1b) into account and assuming a tangential field component on these faces to be the same as that on the other lateral $`bc`$-faces, from Eq. (11) we obtain:

$$\gamma =2H_0^2(abf_x+bcf_z+acf_z).$$
(15)
However, the estimation (15) gives an overestimated value of $`\gamma `$ in the case of a real three-dimensional sample. Indeed, the limitation of the crystal length $`b`$ will result in a decrease of the magnetic field tangential component $`𝐇_𝐭a`$ on the sample surface. The appropriate decrease in $`\gamma `$ will not be compensated by the appearance of $`𝐇_𝐭b`$ component, which is absent when $`b\mathrm{}`$. Thus, formula (15) is an upper limit of $`\gamma `$, and its $`c/a`$ dependence is shown in the lower inset in Fig. 3.

In order to check the accuracy of the above calculations we have measured both magnetic moment $`M`$ and geometrical factor $`\gamma `$ of superconducting slabs with different $`a/c`$ and $`b/a`$ ratios using $`ac`$-susceptibility and cavity perturbation techniques. The discrepancy between theoretical and experimentally obtained values of $`M`$ reached up to $`20\%`$ in case of short $`(b3a)`$ samples and decreased to less than $`5\%`$ for substantially long samples $`(b6a)`$. In contrast to magnetic moment, the values of $`\gamma `$ proved to be in better agreement with the theory. In fact, divergence have never exceeded $`5\%`$, probably, due to weaker (logarithmic) dependence of $`\gamma `$ on $`a/c`$ ratio.

Both $`M`$ and $`\gamma `$ integrals in Eqs. (8) and (9) are convergent. At the same time, as follows from Eqs. (5) and (6), the magnetic field diverges $`1/r^{\frac{1}{3}}`$ at small distances $`r`$ from the edges (point 3 in the Fig. 2). In this connection the question arises about possible nonlinearities on the edges of the superconducting slab. In the resonant circuits we applied small amplitude ($`H_0<0.1`$ Oe) of the $`ac`$ magnetic field. The one-order increase of $`H_0`$ did not give rise to any nonlinear effects under the measurements of YBa2Cu3O6.95 crystals.

## III Electrodynamics of anisotropic crystal

The electrodynamics of a layered anisotropic HTSC is characterized by components $`\sigma _{ab}`$ and $`\sigma _c`$ of the conductivity tensor. In the normal state ac field penetrates along the $`c`$-axis through a skin depth $`\delta _{ab}=\sqrt{2/\omega \mu _0\sigma _{ab}}`$ and in the CuO2 plane through $`\delta _c=\sqrt{2/\omega \mu _0\sigma _c}`$. In the superconducting state all parameters $`\delta _{ab}`$, $`\delta _c`$, $`\sigma _{ab}=\sigma _{ab}^{}i\sigma _{ab}^{\prime \prime }`$, and $`\sigma _c=\sigma _c^{}i\sigma _c^{\prime \prime }`$ are complex. At $`T<T_c`$, if $`\sigma ^{}\sigma ^{\prime \prime }`$ the field penetration depths are given by formulas $`\lambda _{ab}=\sqrt{1/\omega \mu _0\sigma _{ab}^{\prime \prime }}`$, $`\lambda _c=\sqrt{1/\omega \mu _0\sigma _c^{\prime \prime }}`$. In the close neighborhood of $`T_c`$ decay of the magnetic field in a superconductor is characterized by functions $`\mathrm{Re}(\delta _{\mathrm{ab}})`$ and $`\mathrm{Re}(\delta _\mathrm{c})`$, which turn to $`\delta _{ab}`$ and $`\delta _c`$ at $`TT_c`$, respectively.

In the $`T`$-orientation the surface impedance $`Z_{ab}`$ is directly connected with the in-plane penetration depth $`\lambda _{ab}(T)`$ at $`T<T_c`$ and the skin depth $`\delta _{ab}(T)`$ at $`TT_c`$. Both lengths are smaller than the typical crystal thickness. Hence, when the crystal is in the $`T`$-orientation and at an arbitrary temperature the surface impedance $`Z_{ab}`$ is defined as a coefficient in Leontovich boundary conditionLan , and is correlated with the conductivity $`\sigma _{ab}`$ through the local relation:

$$Z_{ab}=R_{ab}+iX_{ab}=\left(\frac{i\omega \mu _0}{\sigma _{ab}}\right)^{1/2}$$
(16)
In case the HTSC microwave conductivity is real in the normal state the real and imaginary parts of the surface impedance are equal. Hence, in the $`T`$-orientation the constant $`f_0`$, essential to determine $`X_{ab}(T)`$ in Eq. (1), may be found as a result of $`R_{ab}(T)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }X_{ab}(T)`$ coincidence at $`TT_c`$. It should be pointed out that thermal expansion of the crystal may essentially affect the $`X_{ab}(T)`$ shape of $`X_{ab}(T)`$ curve in the $`T`$-orientation. Since the resonance frequency depends on the volume occupied by the field, the crystal expansion is equivalent to a reduction in the magnetic field penetration depth and results in an additional frequency shift $`\mathrm{\Delta }f_l(T)`$ of the cavity Tru2 :

$`\mathrm{\Delta }f_l(T)={\displaystyle \frac{f\mu _0}{8W}}{\displaystyle _s}\mathrm{\Delta }l_i(T)H_t^2𝑑s=`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{f\mu _0vH_0^2}{4W}}\left[\epsilon _cf_x+(\epsilon _a+\epsilon _b)f_z\right],`$ (17)
where $`\epsilon _i`$ is a relative change $`\mathrm{\Delta }l_i/l_i`$ of the sample dimension $`l_i`$ $`(a,b,c)`$ resulting from the thermal expansion, and the functions $`f_x`$ and $`f_z`$ are defined according to Eq. (12). In Ref. Tru2,  the contribution (17) to the overall frequency shift is shown to be negligible at low temperatures, however, it becomes noticeable at $`T>0.9T_c`$ in the $`T`$-orientation.

In the $`L`$-orientation at $`T<0.9T_c`$ the penetration depth in an HTSC crystal is still smaller than characteristic sample dimensions. It allows to treat the experimental data in terms of impedance $`Z_{ab+c}`$ averaged over the sample surface in accordance with Eq. (4). In particular, taking account of the measurements of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}(T)=\mathrm{\Delta }X_{ab}(T)/\omega \mu _0`$ in the $`T`$-orientation and the measured value $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab+c}(T)=\mathrm{\Delta }X_{ab+c}(T)/\omega \mu _0`$ in the $`L`$-orientation, we obtain

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _c=\left[(a+c)\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab+c}a\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}\right]/c.$$
(18)
This technique of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _c(T)`$ determination was used in microwave experiments Kit1 ; Jac1 ; Hos ; Shib1 ; Mao ; Bon1 ; Shib2 ; Srik  at low temperatures $`T<T_c`$. Nevertheless, this approach to investigation of the surface impedance anisotropy in HTSC crystals at $`T<T_c`$ does not allow to determine the value of $`\lambda _c(T)`$ from the measurements of quality factor and resonance frequency shift, nor may it be extended to the range of higher temperatures. The point is that the size effect provides with an essential influence in the $`L`$-orientation at $`T>0.9T_c`$, when the penetration depths $`\lambda _c`$ and $`\delta _c`$ turn out to be comparable with the crystal width. As a result, the $`R_{ab+c}(T)`$ temperature dependence measured in the normal state does not coincide with $`X_{ab+c}(T)`$, which makes the previous method of determining $`f_0`$ non-applicable.

In this case in order to analyze our measurements in both the superconducting and normal states we shall use the formulae for field distribution in an anisotropic long strip ($`ba,c`$) in the $`L`$-orientation Gou . These formulae neglect the effect of the $`bc`$-faces of the crystal (Fig. 1a), but allow for the size effect correctly. At an arbitrary temperature the measured quantities $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/Q)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f(T)=\delta f(T)+f_0`$ are expressed in terms of a complex function $`\mu (T)=\mu ^{}(T)i\mu ^{\prime \prime }(T)`$ Shov ; Tru4 :

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\left(\frac{1}{Q}\right)2i\frac{\delta f}{f}=\frac{i\mu _0\mu vH_0^2}{2W},$$
(19)
which is controlled by the components $`\sigma _{ab}(T)`$ and $`\sigma _c(T)`$ of the conductivity tensor through the complex penetration depths $`\delta _{ab}`$ and $`\delta _c`$:

$`\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{8}{\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n^2}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{tan}(\alpha _n)}{\alpha _n}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{tan}(\beta _n)}{\beta _n}}\right\}`$ ,
$`\alpha _n^2={\displaystyle \frac{a^2}{\delta _c^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta _{ab}^2}{c^2}}n^2\right)`$ ,
$`\beta _n^2={\displaystyle \frac{c^2}{\delta _{ab}^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta _c^2}{a^2}}n^2\right)`$ , (20)
where the sum is performed over odd integers $`n>0`$.

If $`\sigma ^{}\sigma ^{\prime \prime }`$ in the superconducting state, we get

$`\mu ^{}{\displaystyle \frac{8}{\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n^2}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{tanh}(\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_n)}{\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_n}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{tanh}(\stackrel{~}{\beta }_n)}{\stackrel{~}{\beta }_n}}\right\}`$ ,
$`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_n^2={\displaystyle \frac{a^2}{\lambda _c^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda _{ab}^2}{c^2}}n^2\right)`$ ,
$`\stackrel{~}{\beta }_n^2={\displaystyle \frac{c^2}{\lambda _{ab}^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda _c^2}{a^2}}n^2\right)`$ . (21)
In particular, $`\lambda _{ab}c`$ and $`\lambda _ca`$ at $`T<0.9T_c`$, so we derive from Eq. (21) a simple expression for the real part of $`\mu `$:

$$\mu ^{}=2\lambda _c/a+2\lambda _{ab}/c.$$
(22)
One can easily check up that in the range of low temperatures the change in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _c(T)`$ prescribed by Eq. (22) is identical to that in Eq. (18).

In the normal state the conductivity $`\sigma ^{}\sigma ^{\prime \prime }`$. If the sample dimensions were much more than the penetration depths, we would obtain the following from Eqs. (19), (20):

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\left(\frac{1}{Q}\right)2i\frac{\delta f}{f}(1+i)\frac{\mu _0vH_0^2}{2W}\left(\frac{\delta _c}{a}+\frac{\delta _{ab}}{c}\right),$$
(23)
i.e. the temperature dependences of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/Q)`$ and $`(2\delta f/f)`$ would be identical at $`T>T_c`$, and the values $`R_{ab+c}(T)`$ and $`X_{ab+c}(T)`$, derived from Eqs. (2)-(4), would be equal. In practice, the value $`\delta _c0.1`$ mm ($`f10`$ GHz) proves to be comparable with the crystal width $`a`$ even for YBa2Cu3O6.95 crystals, which can be referred to as weakly anisotropic in comparison with other layered HTSC’s. So to determine the surface impedance components from the measurements in the $`L`$-orientation it is necessary to use the general formulae (19), (20), as shown below.

## IV Experimental results

YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystals were grown using the method of slow cooling from a solution-melt with the use of a BaZrO3 crucible. The initial mixture was prepared from a mixture of oxides with mass portions Y2O3 : BaO2 : CuO = 1 : 25 : 24 and subsequent pressing of the compound into a tablet of 40 mm in diameter under the pressure of 200 MPa. The initial components purities were 99.95% for both yttrium and copper oxides and 99.90% for barium peroxide. Crucible material porosity (2%) was taken into account when choosing a heating regime and homogenization time. Preliminary experiments have demonstrated that the melt under use saturates the crucible walls through the whole width (3 mm) during the period of 5-7 hours at the working temperature. In 10 hours crystals growth terminates due to a complete vanishing of the melt from the crucible. To reduce the melt homogenization time which amounts to 10-20 hours at 1030C, according to Ref. Erb, , the method of accelerated-decelerated rotation of the crucible Shulz  was used, which made intensive mixing of the melt possible. The homogenization time of the melt at 1010C did not exceed one hour. Crystals growth time amounted to 2 hours at a cooling rate of 3-4C/h, after which the remaining melt was decanted at 950C and cooled down to room temperature at a rate of 15-20C/h. The crystals obtained were saturated with oxygen at 500C in an oxygen flow, after which their critical temperature was equal to 92 K. The measurements of the dynamic susceptibility showed that the width of the superconducting transition in the samples did not exceed 0.1 K at 100 KHz.

The surface impedance was measured using the hot-finger technique Tru2  at a frequency of $`f=9.42`$ GHz in the $`T`$\- and $`L`$-orientations.

Fig. 4 displays the typical temperature dependences of $`R_{ab}(T)`$ and $`X_{ab}(T)`$ for YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystal in the normal and superconducting states measured in the $`T`$-orientation. The sample represented a prolate parallelepiped with dimensions $`a\times b\times c=0.4\times 1.6\times 0.1`$ mm3. The sample geometrical factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=90`$ k$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ was calculated from Eqs. (11) and (3).

The upper inset in Fig. 4 displays the measured temperature dependences of $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q^1`$ (squares) and $`2\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ (triangles) in the normal state of the crystal. The curves $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q^1(T)`$ and $`2\delta f(T)/f=2[\mathrm{\Delta }f(T)+\mathrm{\Delta }f_l(T)+f_0]/f`$ (circles) coincide after taking into account the additional frequency shift $`\mathrm{\Delta }f_l(T)`$ from Eq. (17), which arises due to the sample thermal expansion Tru2 ; Mein2 , along with the constant $`f_0`$, which is independent of temperature. The coincidence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q^1(T)`$ and $`2\delta f(T)/f`$ curves and equality $`R_{ab}(T)=X_{ab}(T)`$ at $`T>T_c`$ (according to Eq. (2)) demonstrate the fulfilling of the normal skin effect condition in the $`ab`$-planes of YBa2Cu3O6.95 crystal in the $`T`$-orientation. A linear temperature dependence of resistivity $`\rho _{ab}(T)=1/\sigma _{ab}(T)=0.63T`$ $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$cm in the range $`100T<200`$ K together with the skin depth $`\delta _{ab}(150`$ K)=5 $`\mu `$m are derived from Eq. (16).

The temperature dependence $`R_{ab}(T)`$ has a broad peak in the range $`TT_c/2`$, characteristic of YBa2Cu3O6.95 crystals in the superconducting state. The dependences $`R_{ab}(T)`$ and $`\lambda _{ab}(T)=X_{ab}(T)/\omega \mu _0`$ are linear at $`T<T_c/3`$ (lower inset in Fig. 4). Their extrapolation to $`T=0`$ K results in the values of residual surface resistance $`R_{ab}(0)40`$ $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$ and penetration depth $`\lambda _{ab}(0)150`$ nm.

Equations (19) and (20) are used to analyze the experimental data in the $`L`$-orientation of the crystal. In the normal state the real part of Eq. (19) defines the relationship between $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q^1(T)`$ and the skin depths $`\delta _{ab}(T)`$ and $`\delta _c(T)`$.

Upon measuring the dependence $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q^1(T)`$ (squares in Fig. 5a) at $`T>T_c`$ in the $`L`$-orientation and taking the dependence $`\delta _{ab}(T)=\sqrt{2\rho _{ab}(T)/\omega \mu _0}`$ measured in the $`T`$-orientation into account, from Eq. (20) we obtain the function $`\delta _c(T)=\sqrt{2\rho _c(T)/\omega \mu _0}`$, $`\delta _c(150`$ K)=0.06 mm, and the temperature dependence $`\rho _c(T)=10^4+24T`$ $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$cm in the range $`100T<200`$ K. Using already determined dependences $`\delta _c(T)`$ and $`\delta _{ab}(T)`$ and having computed the real part $`\mu ^{}(T)`$ in Eq. (20), from Eq. (19) we calculate $`(2\delta f/f)`$ versus temperature at $`T>T_c`$, which is shown by solid line in Fig. 5a. This line is approximately parallel to the experimental curve $`2\mathrm{\Delta }f(T)/f`$ in the $`L`$-orientation (triangles in Fig. 5a) at $`T>110`$ K. The difference $`2(\delta f\mathrm{\Delta }f)/f`$ yields the additive constant $`f_0`$. Given $`f_0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f(T)`$ we obtain $`\delta f(T)`$ in the entire temperature range in the $`L`$-orientation.

It should be emphasized that the discrepancy of the curves $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q^1(T)`$ and $`2\delta f(T)/f`$ at $`T>T_c`$ in the $`L`$-orientation does not originate from the thermal expansion of the crystal essential in the $`T`$-orientation, but arises due to the size effect. This discrepancy becomes more noticeable with the decrease in the crystal width $`a`$, when it becomes equal to the skin depth $`\delta _c`$. The computational result for $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q^1(T)`$ (solid line) and $`2\delta f(T)/f`$ (dashed line) from Eqs. (19) and (20) for the above mentioned dependences $`\rho _{ab}(T)`$ and $`\rho _c(T)`$ is shown in Fig. 5b and 5c for $`a=0.2`$ mm and $`a=0.1`$ mm.

It should be noticed that the surface impedance components $`R_{ab+c}`$ and $`X_{ab+c}`$ in Eq. (4) cannot be found from the values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/Q)`$ and $`\delta f/f`$ measured at $`T>0.9T_c`$ in the $`L`$-orientation with the use of Eq. (2) due to the size effect in anisotropic HTSC crystals. Moreover, it is also incorrect to substitute the values $`R`$ and $`X`$ in these formulae by their effective values $`R^{eff}(d)`$ and $`X^{eff}(d)`$ for a thin metal plate of width $`d\delta `$, placed in microwave field $`𝐇_\omega `$ parallel to its infinite surfaces

$`R^{eff}(d)=R{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sinh}\eta \mathrm{sin}\eta }{\mathrm{cosh}\eta +\mathrm{cos}\eta }},`$
$`X^{eff}(d)=R{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sinh}\eta +\mathrm{sin}\eta }{\mathrm{cosh}\eta +\mathrm{cos}\eta }},`$ (24)
where $`\eta =\omega \mu _0d/2R`$, $`R=\sqrt{\omega \mu _0\rho /2}`$. The point is that though allowing the usage of formulae (24) in Eqs. (2) and (4), the solution of Maxwell equations results in an incorrect (one-dimensional) distribution of high frequency currents in the crystal. Indeed, for $`b𝐇_\omega `$ we obtain from Eqs. (2)-(4):

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\left(\frac{1}{Q}\right)2i\frac{\delta f}{f}=\frac{H_0^2}{\omega W}\left[abZ_{ab}^{eff}(c)+bcZ_c^{eff}(a)\right],$$
(25)
where the effective values $`Z_{ab}^{eff}(c)=R_{ab}^{eff}(c)+iX_{ab}^{eff}(c)`$ and $`Z_c^{eff}(a)=R_c^{eff}(a)+iX_c^{eff}(a)`$ are defined by Eq. (24). Figs. (5b) and (5c) display the computational result for $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q^1(T)`$ and $`2\delta f(T)/f`$ from Eqs. (24), (25), and above determined dependences $`\rho _{ab}(T)`$ and $`\rho _c(T)`$ in the case of two plates of dimensions $`a\times b\times c=0.2\times 1.6\times 0.1`$ mm3 and half the width $`a=0.1`$ mm. Presently, having compared these results with the ones obtained from Eqs. (19), (20), we can see that at $`a3\delta _c`$ (Fig. 5b) the approximation (25) proves to be practically insensitive to the size effect, giving rise to weakly differing dependences $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q^1(T)`$ and $`2\delta f(T)/f`$ at $`T>100`$ K. Only in the case of the crystal width $`a=0.1`$ mm ($`a\delta _c`$, Fig. 5c) does the approximation (25) give rise to the result resembling the one obtained with the aid of the formulae (19), (20).

Upon finding the dependences $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q^1(T)`$, $`\delta f(T)`$ and, hence, the function $`\mu (T)`$ in Eq. (19) in the normal and superconducting states of YBa2Cu3O6.95 crystal in the $`L`$-orientation and using the conductivities $`\sigma _{ab}^{}(T)`$ and $`\sigma _{ab}^{\prime \prime }(T)`$ found from Eq. (16), we get the $`c`$-axis conductivity components $`\sigma _c^{}(T)`$ and $`\sigma _c^{\prime \prime }(T)`$ from Eq. (20).

All the conductivity tensor components obtained are shown in Fig. 6. In case of local relationship between the electric field and the current along the $`c`$-axis, the surface impedance $`Z_c(T)=R_c(T)+iX_c(T)`$ is related to the conductivity $`\sigma _c(T)=\sigma _c^{}(T)i\sigma _c^{\prime \prime }(T)`$ through Eq. (1). Fig. 7 displays the components of $`Z_c(T)`$ obtained in this manner. $`R_c(T)`$ and $`\lambda _c(T)=X_c(T)/\omega \mu _0`$ dependences (insets in Fig. 7) demonstrate linear behaviour at $`T<T_c/2`$. The value of the penetration depth along cuprate planes of YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystal is equal to $`\lambda _c(0)1.55`$ $`\mu `$m when extrapolated to zero temperature.

From Eq. (4) one can easily estimate that in the $`L`$-orientation of our crystal the contribution of the $`c`$-axis currents into measurable quantities is about two times greater than that of the $`ab`$-plane ones: $`bcZ_c2abZ_{ab}`$. Taking the accuracy of determination of $`R_{ab}(T)`$ ($`<5\%`$) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{ab}(T)`$ (a few angstroms) values into account, we conclude that linear behaviour of $`R_c(T)`$ and $`\lambda _c(T)`$ at low temperatures is the property of optimum-doped YBa2Cu3O6.95 and is not due to the inaccuracy of the method used. The linear temperature dependence of $`\lambda _c`$ at $`T<T_c/2`$ is also confirmed by the previous microwaveMao ; Srik  and low-frequencyPanagop  measurements of YBa2Cu3O6.95. In contrast to the result of Ref. Hos,  we did not observe an upturn in $`R_c(T)`$ at low temperatures. Our surface resistance $`R_c(T)`$ measurements are in qualitative agreement with other microwave dataKit1 ; Mao .

## V Conclusion

In conclusion, we have developed the electrodynamic approach for HTSC surface impedance anisotropy measurements. The major problems in analyzing these measurements in HTSC single crystals are: (i) determining the crystal geometrical factor in the $`T`$-orientation ($`𝐇_\omega ab`$), which is dependent on the microwave field distribution on the sample surface; (ii) allowing for the size effect, which influences the quantities measured in the $`L`$-orientation ($`𝐇_\omega ab`$) at $`T>0.9T_c`$.

We have shown that both these problems may be solved in the case of a crystal in the form of a plate with dimensions $`ba>c`$. Furthermore, in this case we have calculated the magnetic field distribution on the crystal surface in the $`T`$-orientation and found the simple expression (11) for its geometric factor. In the $`L`$-orientation of the crystal, we have shown that only the use of general formulae (19) and (20) allows to take account of the size effect correctly and to determine the complex conductivity and the surface impedance in the $`c`$-direction of the crystal in the normal and superconducting states. The experimental technique of measuring all the components of the conductivity tensor is described in detail, and we hope that this technique will be useful in comprehensive studies of anisotropic characteristics of HTSC crystals.

The reported electrodynamic approach has been successfully applied to the analysis of the microwave ($`f=9.4`$ GHz) response measurements in both the $`T`$\- and $`L`$-orientations of YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystal, grown in BaZrO3 crucible. The temperature dependences of all conductivity and surface impedance tensors components proved to be linear at $`T<T_c/2`$. Their extrapolation to zero temperature gives the values of residual surface resistance $`R_{ab}(0)40`$ $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`R_c(0)0.8`$ m$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and magnetic field penetration depth $`\lambda _{ab}(0)150`$ nm and $`\lambda _c(0)1.55`$ $`\mu `$m.

## VI Acknowledgments

We thank P. Monod for helpful discussions. This research has been supported by RFBR grants 00-02-17053, 02-02-06578, 02-02-08004 and Government Program on Superconductivity (contract 540-02). M.R.T. thanks Russian Science Support Foundation.


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# Holography and trace anomaly: what is the fate of (brane-world) black holes?

## I Introduction

The holographic principle holography , in the form of the AdS-CFT conjecture AdSCFT , when applied to the Randall-Sundrum (RS) brane-world RS , yields a relation between classical gravitational perturbations in the bulk and quantum fluctuations of conformal matter fields on the brane soda . It was then proposed in Refs. tanaka1 ; fabbri  that black hole metrics which solve the bulk equations with brane boundary conditions, and whose central singularities are located on the brane, genuinely correspond to quantum corrected (semiclassical) black holes on the brane, rather than to classical ones. A major consequence of such a conjecture would be that no static black holes exist in the brane-world bruni , since semiclassical corrections (approximately described by a conformal field theory – CFT – on the brane) have the form of a flux of energy from the source. That black holes are unstable was already well known in the four-dimensional theory, since the Hawking effect hawking  makes such objects evaporate, and the semiclassical Einstein equations should hence contain the back-reaction of the evaporation flux on the metric. The novelty is that, from the bulk side (of the AdS-CFT correspondence), one understands the Hawking radiation in terms of classical gravitational waves whose origin is the acceleration the black holes are subject to, living on a non-geodesic hypersurface of the (asymptotically) anti-de Sitter space-time AdS5 111This argument would suggest that the brane-world is intrinsically unstable under the addition of any matter content, since matter on the brane does not follow geodesics of the five-dimensional metric and is accelerated. From the phenomenological point of view, it is then important to establish the typical times for such an instability to become observable..

In Ref. cm  a method was proposed by which static brane metrics, such as the asymptotically flat ones put forward in Refs. maartens ; germani ; kar ; cfm , can be extended into the bulk 222For more general brane solutions see Refs. visser  and for a nice review of black holes and extra dimensions see Ref. cavaglia .. The method makes use of the multipole expansion (with respect to the usual areal radial coordinate $`r`$ on the brane) and proved particularly well suited for very large black holes with

$`M\sigma ^1,`$ (1)
where $`M`$ is the four-dimensional Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) mass parameter (in geometrical units) and $`3\sigma `$ the brane tension (times the five-dimensional gravitational constant). The main result is that the horizon of an astrophysical size black hole has the shape of a “pancake” (see also Ref. katz ) and its area is roughly equal to the four-dimensional expression (in terms of $`M`$). To the extent at which the employed approximation is reliable, no singular behavior in the curvature and Kretschmann scalars in the bulk was found, contrary to the case of the Black String (BS) of Ref. chamblin . Possible caveats of this approach have already been thoroughly discussed in Ref. cm . In particular, the convergence of the multiple expansion on the axis of cylindrical symmetry which extends into the bulk is hard to test and the resulting metrics are not completely reliable thereon. As a consequence, it is hard to determine whether the bulk geometry contains singularities on the axis (while no singularity seems to occur far from it) and whether it is asymptotically AdS away from the brane near the axis (while it appears asymptotically AdS far from the axis). In fact, in recent numerical works, regular brane metrics were shown to develop singularities in the bulk when extended by a different method shinkai  or problems emerged when trying to describe large black holes in asymptotically AdS bulk kudoh .

If the conjecture of Refs. tanaka1 ; fabbri ; bruni  is correct, it then follows that the static bulk solutions found in Ref. cm  have singularities on the cylindrical axis (possibly far away from the brane) or, at least, are unstable under linear perturbations (of the metric in the bulk), as it occurs for the BS gregory . In either case, it is likely that such metrics will evolve toward different (more stable but yet unknown) configurations bruni . Since the metric elements in Ref. cm  are expressed as sums of many terms (multipoles) and those in Refs. shinkai ; kudoh  are expressed only numerically, it is practically impossible to carry out a linear perturbation analysis on such backgrounds. One could otherwise try to use the AdS-CFT correspondence backwards in order to estimate the overall effect of bulk perturbations from the established knowledge of the Hawking radiation on the brane. Some information on the latter can be determined straightforwardly from standard four-dimensional expressions provided the brane metric is given (see, e.g., Ref. birrell ). One must then check that such information is consistent with known features of the AdS-CFT correspondence before drawing any conclusion about the bulk stability.

In fact, the AdS-CFT correspondence requires some general conditions to hold. First of all, one needs the planar limit of the large $`𝒩`$ expansion of the CFT, that is a large number of conformal fields AdSCFT

$`𝒩\sigma ^2\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^21.`$ (2)
where, in RS models, the four-dimensional Newton constant $`8\pi G_N=\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2`$ ($`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}`$ being the Planck length) is related to the fundamental gravitational length $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{g}`$ in five dimensions by $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2=\sigma \mathrm{}_\mathrm{g}^3`$ RS ; shiromizu . Eq. (2) is therefore tantamount to $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{g}\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}`$ and assures that stringy effects are negligible. Moreover, the presence of the brane introduces a normalizable four-dimensional graviton and an ultra-violet (UV) cut-off in the CFT,

$`\lambda _{\mathrm{UV}}\sigma ^1.`$ (3)
The latter must of course be much shorter than any physical low energy scale $`\lambda _{\mathrm{IR}}`$ of interest,

$`\lambda _{\mathrm{UV}}\lambda _{\mathrm{IR}},`$ (4)
in order for the CFT description of the brane-world to be consistent. A further remark is in order about the relevance of the bulk being asymptotically AdS away from the brane. We have already mentioned that, according to Ref. cm , possible singularities in the bulk (and the corresponding deviations from asymptotic AdS) should be located on the axis. To what extent such singularities restrict the holographic description is hard to tell a priori and a general criterion for the validity of the AdS-CFT correspondence will therefore be given in Section II \[see Eq. (12) and the following discussion\].

So far, no practical advantage seems to emerge from the holographic description over the standard four-dimensional treatment of the back-reaction problem. There is however a point of attack: As we shall review shortly, in the brane-world a vacuum (brane) solution needs to satisfy just one equation, whose analysis is therefore significantly simpler than the full set of four-dimensional vacuum Einstein equations. This will allow us to attempt an approximate description of the late stage of the evaporation which is in qualitative agreement with earlier studies of black holes as extended objects in the microcanonical picture harms ; mfd , and is characterized by a black hole temperature which vanishes along with the mass of the black hole. Let us remark that the total energy of the system (black hole plus Hawking radiation) is conserved in the microcanonical ensemble and this suggests that the final evolution of a black hole is really unitary.

In the next Section we summarize the general concepts with a particular emphasis on the trace anomaly as derived from the point of view of four-dimensional quantum field theory and its comparison with that predicted by the AdS-CFT correspondence. In Section III, we then apply this formalism to candidate static black holes in order to check the reliability of their holographic picture and stability. Our conclusions first of all support the view given in Refs. cm ; wiseman  that static metrics are a good approximation for astrophysical black holes. Moreover, some of the brane metrics analyzed in Ref. cm ; cfm  are shown to allow for a closer holographic interpretation and to be more stable than the BS. This suggests that brane-world black holes might evaporate more slowly than they would do in a four-dimensional space-time already for very large ADM masses 333On considering the very large number of conformal fields required by the AdS-CFT correspondence, the authors of Ref. garcia  however come to the opposite conclusion.. Finally, in Section IV we discuss a possible candidate time-dependent metric to estimate the late stage of the evaporation by self-consistently including the trace anomaly in the relevant vacuum equation.

We shall adopt the brane metric signature $`(,+,+,+)`$ and units with $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$. Latin indices $`i,j,\mathrm{}`$ will denote brane coordinates throughout the paper.

## II General framework

The five-dimensional Einstein equations in (asymptotically) AdS5 with bulk cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ can be projected onto the brane by making use of the Gauss-Codazzi relations and Israel’s junction conditions (see Ref. shiromizu  for the details). For the RS case which we consider throughout the paper $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=\sigma ^2\mathrm{}_\mathrm{g}^3/6`$ RS , so that the brane cosmological constant vanishes and the effective four-dimensional Einstein equations become

$`G_{ij}=\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\tau _{ij}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^4}{\sigma ^2}}\pi _{ij}+E_{ij},`$ (5)
where $`G_{ij}=R_{ij}(1/2)Rg_{ij}`$ is the four-dimensional Einstein tensor, $`\tau _{ij}`$ is the energy-momentum tensor of matter localized on the brane (there is no matter in the bulk) and

$`\pi _{ij}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\tau _{ik}\tau _j^k+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{12}}\tau \tau _{ij}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}g_{ij}\tau _{kl}\tau kl{\displaystyle \frac{1}{24}}g_{ij}\tau ^2.`$ (6)
Where no matter appears on the brane ($`\tau _{ij}=0`$), the existence of an extra spatial dimension manifests itself in the brane-world only in the form of the non-local source term $`E_{ij}`$, which is (minus) the projection of the bulk Weyl tensor on the brane and must be traceless shiromizu ; tanaka1 . Vacuum brane metrics therefore satisfy

$`R_{ij}=E_{ij}`$ (7)
$``$
$`R=0.`$ (8)
Of course, Eq. (8) is a weaker condition than the four-dimensional vacuum equation $`R_{ij}=0`$ and, consequently, Birkhoff’s theorem does not necessarily hold for spherically symmetric vacuum brane metrics.

The AdS-CFT correspondence should relate the tensor $`E_{ij}`$ representing (classical) gravitational waves in the bulk to the expectation value of the (renormalized) energy-momentum tensor of conformal fields on the brane soda . Let us denote the latter by $`T_{ij}`$. One should then have

$`E_j^i\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2T_j^i.`$ (9)
Since the left hand side above is traceless, such a correspondence can hold if $`TT_i^i=0`$, that is, if the conformal symmetry is not anomalous. Of course, this requires that the UV cut-off (3) be much shorter than any physical length scale in the system. It also requires a “flat” brane (i.e., the absence of any intrinsic four-dimensional length associated with the background) otherwise the CFT will also be affected by that scale. For a black hole, the gravitational radius $`r_\mathrm{h}M`$ is a natural length scale and one therefore expects that only CFT modes with wavelengths much shorter than $`r_\mathrm{h}`$ 444As is well known, this is also the typical wavelength of the Hawking radiation hawking  and one naively perceives a connection between the two effects. (and still much larger than $`\sigma ^1`$) propagate freely. One then finds that the necessary condition (4) is equivalent to Eq. (1), that is a reliable CFT descritpion of the Hawking radiation might be possible only for very large black holes of the kind considered in Ref. cm .

From the point of view of the AdS-CFT correspondence, it is the value of bulk perturbations at the boundary that acts as a source for the CFT fields and can give rise to $`T_{\mathrm{CFT}}0`$. As a check, one can compare with the trace anomaly induced by the presence of a brane as a boundary of AdS in several theories in which the AdS-CFT applies. Since we are just interested in a four-dimensional brane, the case of relevance to us is that of ($`𝒩`$ stacked) D3-branes (possibly with $`R=0`$) embedded in AdS5. For such a configuration one finds the holographic Weyl anomaly skenderis

$`T_{\mathrm{CFT}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2}}\left(R_{ij}R^{ij}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}R^2\right),`$ (10)
which reproduces the conformal anomaly of the four-dimensional $`=4`$ superconformal $`SU(𝒩)`$ gauge theory in the large $`𝒩`$ limit (2) and vanishes in a four-dimensional (Ricci flat) vacuum 555Notably, the Weyl anomaly evaluated in the Euclidean AdS5 (in which the brane-world is a four-sphere) precisely yields the brane tension $`\sigma `$ hawk  (see also Refs. odintsov ). For the connection between the Euclidean and the Lorentzian versions of the AdS-CFT correspondence, see Refs. AdSCFT ; sato .

On the other hand, the trace anomaly of the pertinent four-dimensional field theory, $`T_{4\mathrm{D}}=T_i^i`$, can be evaluated independently. It is given in terms of geometrical quantities as well and numerical coefficients which depend on the matter fields. Further, it does not usually vanish on a curved background (even if it is Ricci flat) because, contrary to $`T_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$, it also contains the Kretschmann scalar $`R_{ijkl}R^{ijkl}`$. For example, one finds for $`n_\mathrm{B}`$ boson fields (see, e.g. Ref. birrell )

$`T_{4\mathrm{D}}={\displaystyle \frac{n_\mathrm{B}}{2880\pi ^2}}\left(R_{ijkl}R^{ijkl}R_{ij}R^{ij}\mathrm{}R\right).`$ (11)
The term $`\mathrm{}R`$, which is renormalization dependent, would however vanish according to Eq. (8) but we include such term for future reference (see, in particular, Section IV). It is this non-vanishing trace $`T_{4\mathrm{D}}`$ which measures the actual violation of the conformal symmetry on the brane.

If $`T_{4\mathrm{D}}T_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$, one needs more than the AdS-CFT correspondence to describe the brane physics for the chosen background. In other words, this inequality can be interpreted as signaling the excitation of other matter fields living on the brane (with $`\tau \tau _i^iT_{4\mathrm{D}}T_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$). The relative difference with respect to $`T_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$,

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}\left|{\displaystyle \frac{T_{4\mathrm{D}}T_{\mathrm{CFT}}}{T_{\mathrm{CFT}}}}\right|,`$ (12)
can then be used to estimate to what extent classical gravitational waves in the bulk determine matter fluctuations on the brane 666One should be very cautious in applying this argument near the horizon, where the role of (trans)-Planckian physics is not clear (see e.g. c1  and References therein). In the following a (sufficiently) large $`r`$ expansion will always be assumed.. If $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}1`$, then the AdS-CFT conjecture implies that the (quantum) brane and (classical) bulk descriptions of black holes are equivalent. Otherwise, since the holography can just account for that part of the Hawking flux which is responsible for $`T_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$, the ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$ is also a measure of the relative strength of brane fluctuations (involving other matter modes) with respect to bulk gravitational waves.

From the four-dimensional point of view, the trace anomaly is evidence that one is quantizing matter fields, by means of the background field method, on the “wrong” (i.e. unstable) background metric. One should instead find a background and matter state (both necessarily time-dependent) whose metric and energy-momentum tensor solve all relevant field equations simultaneously. This is the aforementioned back-reaction problem of Hawking radiation, whose solution is still out of grasp after several decades from the discovery of black hole evaporation. The authors of Ref. fabbri  argue that, because of the AdS-CFT correspondence, the problem of describing a brane-world black hole is just as difficult as the (four-dimensional) back-reaction problem itself. One could go even further and claim that it is at least as difficult, since for an holographic black hole the AdS-CFT should be exact and $`T_{4\mathrm{D}}=T_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$ (i.e., $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}=0`$), but realistic black holes might involve more “ingredients”. If however one focuses on the brane description, and just considers Eq. (8), the task will simplify considerably.

## III Static black holes?

We first want to analyze both the semiclassical stability and holography of candidate static brane-world black holes. They are described by asymptotically flat, spherically symmetric metrics which solve Eq. (8), and can be put in the form

$`\mathrm{d}s^2=N(r)\mathrm{d}t^2+A(r)\mathrm{d}r^2+r^2\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Omega }^2,`$ (13)
where $`\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Omega }^2=\mathrm{d}\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta \mathrm{d}\varphi ^2`$, and for the functions $`N`$ and $`A`$ we shall now consider several cases previously appeared in the literature.

### III.1 4D and CFT trace anomalies

The first step is to compute $`T_j^i`$, $`T_{4\mathrm{D}}`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$. The ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$ will then give a measure of the reliability of the holographic picture.

#### III.1.1 Black String

We take the Schwarzschild line element (corresponding to the BS chamblin ),

$`N={\displaystyle \frac{1}{A}}=1{\displaystyle \frac{2M}{r}},`$ (14)
as the reference brane metric, whose horizon radius is $`r_\mathrm{h}=2M`$. The trace of the energy-momentum tensor for $`n_\mathrm{B}`$ boson fields on this background is

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{S}}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}={\displaystyle \frac{n_\mathrm{B}M^2}{60\pi ^2r^6}},`$ (15)
and four-dimensional covariant conservation relates it to those parts of the diagonal components of the energy-momentum tensor which do not depend on the quantum state of the radiation christensen . Moreover, in the Unruh vacuum, one also has the flux of outgoing Hawking radiation birrell ; christensen ,

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{S}}T_t^t=^\mathrm{S}T_r^t=^\mathrm{S}T_t^r=^\mathrm{S}T_r^r{\displaystyle \frac{n_\mathrm{B}K}{M^2r^2}},`$ (16)
where $`K`$ is a dimensionless constant. It is therefore expected that the components of the Ricci tensor of the metric which incorporates the back-reaction of the Hawking radiation have a leading behavior

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{S}}E_{j}^{i}{\displaystyle \frac{n_\mathrm{B}\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2}{M^2r^2}}.`$ (17)
The above terms, representing a steady flux of radiation, are consistent within the adiabatic approximation for which the background (brane) metric is held static. In fact, the constant $`K`$ (formally) arises from an integration performed over an infinite interval of (Euclidean) time, so as to include all the poles in the Wightman function of the radiation field which yield the Planckian spectrum (the integral diverges and is divided by the length of the time interval to estimate the average flux per unit time hawking ). During this large time, the change in the ADM mass is neglected. In order to solve for the back-reaction, one should instead consider the full time dependence of the metric and black hole source.

From the point of view of the bulk space-time, the Hawking flux just modifies the junction equations israel  at the brane. The latter, on account of the orbifold symmetry Z2, will in general read shiromizu

$`\left[K_{ij}\right]=\mathrm{}_\mathrm{g}^3\left(T_{ij}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}g_{ij}T\right).`$ (18)
The quantity $`\left[K_{ij}\right]`$ is the jump in the extrinsic curvature of the brane and $`T_{ij}`$ the source term localized on the brane which, for the case at hand, contains the vacuum energy $`3\sigma `$ and the Hawking flux. One thus has

$`\left[K_{ij}\right]=\sigma g_{ij}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2}{\sigma }}\left({}_{}{}^{\mathrm{S}}T_{ij}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}g_{ij}^\mathrm{S}T_{4\mathrm{D}}\right).`$ (19)
Since $`r>2M`$ outside the horizon, the second term in the right hand side above is negligible with respect to the first one everywhere in the space accessible to an external observer if

$`M\sigma {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}}{M}}.`$ (20)
This shows that the Hawking radiation just gives rise to a small perturbation of the bulk metric for black holes of astrophysical size \[for which Eq. (1) holds\]. This is assumed in the approach of Ref. cm  (and also in the numerical analysis of Refs. wiseman ) to justify staticity 777The presence of non-vanishing off-diagonal components of the energy-momentum tensor (16) while $`K_{ij}`$ and $`G_{ij}`$ are diagonal may seem to invalidate this argument. However, let us recall that any comparisons between different contributions should be better made in terms of scalar quantities, such as $`K_i^i`$ and $`K_{ij}K^{ij}`$ on the one hand, and $`T`$ and $`T_{ij}`$$`T^{ij}`$ on the other. In so doing, one precisely obtains conditions of the form given in Eq. (20) with numerical coefficients of order $`1`$..

However, the holographic Weyl anomaly (10) vanishes for this metric (the ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}\mathrm{}`$) since $`R_{ij}=0`$, and drawing any conclusion from the AdS-CFT correspondence looks questionable.

#### III.1.2 Case I

From Refs. cfm ; germani , we consider the functions

$`N=1{\displaystyle \frac{2M}{r}},A={\displaystyle \frac{\left(1\frac{3M}{2r}\right)}{N\left[1\frac{3M}{2r}(1+\frac{4}{9}\eta )\right]}},`$ (21)
the causal structure of whose geometry was analyzed in details in Ref. cfm . One finds that the non-vanishing Ricci tensor components are given by

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}R_{t}^{t}={\displaystyle \frac{4\eta M^2}{3(2r3M)^2r^2}}`$
$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}R_{r}^{r}={\displaystyle \frac{4\eta M}{3(2r3M)r^2}}`$ (22)
$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}R_{\theta }^{\theta }=^\mathrm{I}R_\varphi ^\varphi ={\displaystyle \frac{4\eta M(rM)}{3(2r3M)^2r^2}}.`$
Note that the corrections in Eq. (17) that one obtains from the Hawking radiation dominate (in the large $`r`$ approximation) over those following from the components in Eq. (22). This is expected since the metric (21) does not contain an outgoing flux and is asymptotically flat. However, the corrections in Eq. (22) certainly overcome the Hawking flux in the interval

$`1{\displaystyle \frac{r}{M}}|\eta |{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2}},`$ (23)
whose extension can be very large for astrophysical black holes (with $`M\sigma ^1\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}`$) provided $`\eta `$ is not infinitesimal 888For the typical solar mass $`M1`$km, and $`\sigma ^11`$mm, one has $`M10^{38}\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}10^7\sigma ^1`$ cm . This makes the upper limit in the interval (23) of the order of $`10^{76}|\eta |`$km or larger, which is practically an infinite extension, even if one considers the experimental bound $`|\eta |10^4`$ will .. Moreover, the trace of the energy-momentum tensor of a boson field on this four-dimensional background has a leading behavior for large $`r`$ given by (see Appendix A for more details)

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\eta }{3}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^2}{24}}\right)^\mathrm{S}T_{4\mathrm{D}},`$ (24)
which is of the same order in $`1/r`$ as the trace in Eq. (15).

The expected trace anomaly from the AdS-CFT correspondence on this background is of the same order as $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}`$, namely

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}T_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^2M^2}{6\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2r^6}}.`$ (25)
Hence, for small $`|\eta |`$, the ratio

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}\left|1{\displaystyle \frac{n_\mathrm{B}\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2}{10\eta ^2\pi ^2}}\right|,`$ (26)
which is finite for $`\eta 0`$ and represents a significant improvement over the BS. In particular, one has that $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}0`$ for

$`\eta \pm {\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{n_\mathrm{B}}\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}\sigma }{\sqrt{10}\pi }}^\mathrm{I}\eta ,`$ (27)
where we used $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}\sigma 1`$. For $`\eta ^\mathrm{I}\eta `$ one expects that the holographic principle yields a reliable description of such black holes. Note however that the rough estimate $`n_\mathrm{B}𝒩`$ from Eq. (2) would yield $`|^\mathrm{I}\eta |0.1`$ which is significantly larger than the experimental bound $`|\eta |10^4`$ from solar system measurements will .

#### III.1.3 Case II

From Refs. cfm ; kar , let us now consider the metric described by the functions (for the causal structure see again Ref. cfm )

$`N=\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\eta +\sqrt{1\frac{2M}{r}(1+\eta )}}{1+\eta }}\right]^2`$
$`A=\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{2M}{r}}(1+\eta )\right]^1,`$
which yield the non-vanishing Ricci tensor components

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{II}}R_{r}^{r}`$ $`=`$ $`2^{\mathrm{II}}R_\theta ^\theta =2^{\mathrm{II}}R_\varphi ^\varphi `$ (29)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\eta (1+\eta )M}{\left(\eta +\sqrt{1\frac{2M}{r}(1+\eta )}\right)r^3}}.`$
These are again subleading at large $`r`$ with respect to the radiation terms in Eq. (17), but of the same order as those of Case I, and the estimate in Eq. (23) applies to this case as well. The trace of the boson energy-momentum tensor is also of the same order in $`1/r`$ as that in Eq. (15) (see Appendix A)

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{II}}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}(1+\eta )^\mathrm{S}T_{4\mathrm{D}},`$ (30)
and the conformal anomaly from the AdS-CFT correspondence is

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{II}}T_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}^\mathrm{I}T_{\mathrm{CFT}},`$ (31)
yielding a finite (for $`\eta 0`$) ratio $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{II}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}^\mathrm{I}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{II}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}0`$ for

$`\eta ^\mathrm{I}\eta /3,`$ (32)
where we again used $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}\sigma 1`$ and $`|\eta |1`$.

#### III.1.4 Case III

Finally, from Ref. maartens , the metric

$`N={\displaystyle \frac{1}{A}}=1{\displaystyle \frac{2M}{r}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\eta M^2}{2r^2}},`$ (33)
has the Ricci tensor components

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{III}}R_{t}^{t}=^{\mathrm{III}}R_r^r=^{\mathrm{III}}R_\theta ^\theta =^{\mathrm{III}}R_\varphi ^\varphi ={\displaystyle \frac{\eta M^2}{2r^4}}.`$ (34)
The interval over which such corrections overcome the Hawking flux is now narrower, namely

$`1{\displaystyle \frac{r}{M}}\sqrt{|\eta |}{\displaystyle \frac{M}{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}}},`$ (35)
but still quite large for astrophysical black holes. The corresponding trace anomaly is given by

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{III}}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}^\mathrm{S}T_{4\mathrm{D}},`$ (36)
to leading order in $`1/r`$ (see Appendix A).

The AdS-CFT trace anomaly is subleading for this case, namely

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{III}}T_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^2M^4}{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2r^8}},`$ (37)
and

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{III}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}n_\mathrm{B}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2r^2}{\eta ^2M^2}},`$ (38)
which is larger than those of cases I and II. This result seems therefore to disfavor such a metric as a candidate holographic black hole.

### III.2 Semiclassical stability

Since the trace $`T_{4\mathrm{D}}0`$ signifies that the chosen background is not the true vacuum (for which one would rather expect a vanishing conformal anomaly and toward which the system will evolve), a quantitative way of estimating the stability of the above solutions with respect to the BS is to evaluate the ratio

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}\left|{\displaystyle \frac{T_{4\mathrm{D}}}{{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{S}}T}}\right|.`$ (39)
In regions where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}1`$, the corresponding metric should be more stable than the BS. This occurs, for instance, for the candidate small black hole metrics which we shall analyze in Section III.2.2 \[see Eqs. (46)\]. Such brane metrics violate the condition (4) and are therefore unlikely to admit an holographic description, as our approach will indeed confirm 999The general criterion introduced in Section II leads to this expected property \[see Eqs. (47) and (50)\]. This result, in turn, supports the validity of our approach..

#### III.2.1 Cases I, II and III

It is interesting to take note of the approximate asymptotic values of the ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}`$ at large $`r`$ for the three cases previously discussed:

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}1+{\displaystyle \frac{\eta }{3}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^2}{24}}`$
$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{II}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}1+\eta `$ (40)
$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{III}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}1.`$
From such expressions, it appears that the preferred solutions are again given by cases I and II, but with $`\eta <0`$ (in Refs. cfm ; cm  we already discussed some reasons why one expects $`\eta <0`$ and the above results further support this conclusion since $`\eta >0`$ always leads to a larger value of the trace than $`\eta 0`$). Case III instead represents no real improvement over the BS.

In details, the ratios $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{II}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}`$ are plotted in Fig. 1 for the typical values $`M=10^7\sigma ^11`$km and $`\eta =10^4`$ cm . Except for the region very near the horizon ($`r_\mathrm{h}=2M`$), the ratios $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{II}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}<^\mathrm{I}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}<1`$. This might signal a stronger instability near the horizon than for the BS which, however, becomes milder at larger distances.

#### III.2.2 Small black holes

There are more candidate metrics for small black holes with $`M\sigma 1`$ (see, e.g., Refs. argyres ; tanaka ; katz ), namely the higher-dimensional Schwarzschild metrics myers

$`N={\displaystyle \frac{1}{A}}=1\left({\displaystyle \frac{r_\mathrm{h}}{r}}\right)^n,`$ (41)
with $`n2`$. Unfortunately one cannot rigorously identify $`r_\mathrm{h}2M`$, since the four-dimensional ADM mass for this background is zero 101010This is the reason why such a metric cannot describe astrophysical black holes ch ., and confronting with the BS (corresponding to $`n=1`$) becomes more subtle. Let us anyways assume $`r_\mathrm{h}M_{(n)}`$ holds from Newtonian arguments (at least for $`n=2`$ add ; argyres ), where the $`M_{(n)}`$’s are now understood as the multipole moments of the energy distribution of the source. One then obtains

$`{}_{}{}^{(n)}R_{t}^{t}`$ $`=`$ $`{}_{}{}^{(n)}R_{r}^{r}={\displaystyle \frac{n}{2}}^{(n)}R_\theta ^\theta ={\displaystyle \frac{n}{2}}^{(n)}R_\varphi ^\varphi `$ (42)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n(n1)}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{M_{(n)}^n}{r^{2+n}}}.`$
Note that the scalar

$`{}_{}{}^{(n)}R=(n1)(n2){\displaystyle \frac{M_{(n)}^n}{r^{2+n}}}`$ (43)
just vanishes for $`n=1`$ (four-dimensional Schwarzschild) and $`n=2`$ (five-dimensional Schwarzschild). These are the only cases which satisfy the vacuum Eq. (8).

The complete expression for the trace anomaly is given in Eq. (66d) which shows that, for $`n=2`$, one has

$`{}_{}{}^{(2)}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}=n_\mathrm{B}{\displaystyle \frac{13M_{(2)}^4}{720\pi ^2r^8}},`$ (44)
while, for $`n>2`$, the leading behavior at large $`r`$ is given by the $`\mathrm{}R`$ term, that is

$`{}_{}{}^{(n>2)}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}n_\mathrm{B}{\displaystyle \frac{(n^21)(n^24)M_{(n)}^n}{5760\pi ^2r^{4+n}}},`$ (45)
both of which never vanish. However, and although the numerical coefficient is questionable because of the aforementioned ambiguity in relating $`M_{(n)}`$ to $`r_\mathrm{h}`$, the ratios

$`{}_{}{}^{(2)}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{(2)}}{r}}\right)^2`$
(46)
$`{}_{}{}^{(n>2)}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{(n)}}{r}}\right)^{n2},`$
tend to zero at large $`r`$ and are less than one for $`n>1`$ and $`rM_{(n)}`$. This makes such metrics better candidates to describe very small black holes on the brane.

It is then interesting to study their extension in the bulk by applying the method of Ref. cm . Details are given in Appendix B for $`n=2`$ (see also Ref. suranyi ). For $`M_{(2)}\sigma =1`$ the value of $`\rho ^2`$ along geodesic lines of constant $`r`$ is displayed in Fig. 2 and the horizon is approximately given by the line $`r=M_{(2)}`$. Note that it is slightly flattened since the maximum value of $`z`$ along such a line is about $`0.7\sigma ^1`$. It would however depart more and more from that curve the smaller $`M_{(2)}\sigma `$ is. For larger values of $`M\sigma `$, one expects a non-vanishing ADM mass ($`2M=M_{(1)}`$), and the line $`r=r_\mathrm{h}`$ is then flatter and a better approximation of the true location for the horizon (see Ref. cm  for the cases I, II and III).

The trace anomaly from the AdS-CFT correspondence is given in Eq. (67d), and just vanishes for $`n=1`$. Neglecting numerical coefficients, one thus obtains, for $`n=2`$, a ratio

$`{}_{}{}^{(2)}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}1n_\mathrm{B}{\displaystyle \frac{13\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2}{720\pi ^2}},`$ (47)
which vanishes for

$`n_\mathrm{B}{\displaystyle \frac{720\pi ^2}{13\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2}}1,`$ (48)
where the inequality follows from the condition (2). For such a number of boson fields one has

$`{}_{}{}^{(2)}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{M_{(2)}^4}{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2r^8}}.`$ (49)
For $`n>2`$, instead

$`{}_{}{}^{(n>2)}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{r}{M_{(n)}}}\right)^n,`$ (50)
which is an increasing function of $`n`$ and diverges for $`r\mathrm{}`$ as occurred for case III. It thus seems that, although such brane metrics are semiclassically more stable, they significantly depart from the holographic description for increasing $`n`$. This is not contradictory, since the condition (4) \[or, equivalently, Eq. (1)\] is now violated and one expects that the CFT description fails. Moreover, one also expects that the smaller the black hole (horizon), the finer the space-time structure is probed, and one eventually needs to include stringy effects.

## IV Time-dependent black holes: a conjecture

Solving Einstein equations for time-dependent metrics is in general a formidable task, unless symmetries are imposed to freeze enough degrees of freedom, and there is little hope to find analytic solutions for the present case 111111There is an interesting exception: the metric (III.1.3) has $`R=0`$ for $`\eta `$ and $`M`$ arbitrary functions of the time (we thank S. Kar for pointing this out to us).. Let us then begin with a qualitative remark based on the results we have shown in the previous Section: Just looking at the trace anomaly (15) one is led to conclude that the natural time evolution of a four-dimensional black hole is toward smaller and smaller ADM masses, since $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{S}}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}=0`$ for $`M=0`$. However, such an evolution seems to make the black hole less and less stable, its specific heat being more and more negative and the temperature diverging, as is argued in the usual canonical picture of the Hawking radiation hawking . But the picture might change if one considers a fully dynamical description (for a recent four-dimensional analysis of Hawking evaporation and trace anomaly, see Ref. vilasi ).

In order to substantiate our argument, let us replace Eq. (8) with the semiclassical brane equation

$`R=\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2T_{4\mathrm{D}},`$ (51)
and note that, for a metric of the form (41) and time-independent $`r_\mathrm{h}`$, the scalar curvature $`R`$ always falls off more slowly at large $`r`$ than the corresponding trace anomaly (66d). Hence, Eq. (51) cannot be solved by such an ansatz. However, the situation changes when the metric is time-dependent: for an asymptotically flat brane metric, on expanding to leading order at large $`r`$, the term $`\mathrm{}R`$ becomes of the same leading order as $`R`$ and dominates in the expression of the trace anomaly 121212The precise coefficient in front of this term depends on the renormalization scheme. However, since all other possible contributions to the trace anomaly would still fall off faster then $`R`$ at large $`r`$ and we are just interested in a qualitative result, we shall assume such a factor is of order 1.. In particular, Eq. (51) becomes

$`Rn_\mathrm{B}\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\ddot{R},`$ (52)
where a dot denotes the derivative with respect to $`t`$. We then reconsider the Schwarzschild metric (14) with the simple expression for the ADM mass

$`M=M_0e^{at},`$ (53)
where $`a>0`$ so as to enforce decreasing mass. The Ricci scalar and the trace anomaly for this metric, to leading order at large $`r`$, are given by

$`R=2a^2e^{at}{\displaystyle \frac{M_0}{r}}+𝒪\left(e^{2at}{\displaystyle \frac{M_0^2}{r^2}}\right)`$ (54)
$`T_{4\mathrm{D}}={\displaystyle \frac{n_\mathrm{B}a^4e^{at}M_0}{1440\pi ^2r}}+𝒪\left(e^{2at}{\displaystyle \frac{M_0^2}{r^2}}\right)`$ $`,`$ (55)
and Eq. (51) is thus solved to leading order at large $`r`$ for

$`a={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2880}\pi }{\sqrt{n_\mathrm{B}}\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}}}.`$ (56)
The CFT trace anomaly in this case is subleading,

$`T_{\mathrm{CFT}}{\displaystyle \frac{a^4e^{2at}M_0^2}{6\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2r^2}},`$ (57)
and one then concludes that the AdS-CFT correspondence is wildly violated. As we mentioned at the end of Section III.2.2, this is not necessarily a flaw.

Finally, the non-vanishing components of the energy-momentum tensor, again to leading order at large $`r`$, are given by

$`\begin{array}{c}T_r^tT_t^r{\displaystyle \frac{2ae^{at}M}{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2r^2}}\hfill \\ \\ T_\theta ^\theta T_\varphi ^\varphi {\displaystyle \frac{a^3e^{at}M}{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2r}},\hfill \end{array}`$ (61)
and the luminosity is

$`\dot{M}aM_0e^{at}.`$ (62)
In order to fix a reasonable value for $`M_0`$, we can now assume that, for sufficiently large ADM mass, the standard Hawking relation holds hawking ,

$`\dot{M}n_\mathrm{B}K{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2}{M^2}},`$ (63)
where $`K`$ is the same coefficient which appears in Eq. (16). The transition to the new regime would then occur when the two expression of the luminosity, Eqs. (62) and (63), match (at $`t=0`$), that is for

$`M_0`$ $``$ $`\left(n_\mathrm{B}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2}{a}}\right)^{1/3}0.1n_\mathrm{B}^{1/2}\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}`$ (64)
$``$ $`0.1\sigma ^10.1\mathrm{mm},`$
where we have estimated $`n_\mathrm{B}`$ as in Eq. (2) in the second line. Since $`\sigma M_0<1`$, it is no more a surprise that the holographic description fails for the present case. Note that the luminosity (62) vanishes for $`M=0`$ \[whereas the expression in Eq. (63) diverges\], that is the temperature of such black holes is much lower than the canonical one. This is just the kind of improvement one expects from energy conservation and the use of the microcanonical picture for the system consisting of the black hole and its Hawking radiation harms  near the end-point of the evaporation mfd  131313Analogous results have been obtained in two dimensions easson  for dilatonic black holes which satisfy a principle of least curvature trodden ..

Of course, the above calculations are just suggestive of how to tackle the problem, and are not meant to be conclusive. One point is however clear, that in a brane-world scenario one has to accommodate just for the one vacuum condition in Eq. (51), which is therefore easier to approach than the four-dimensional analogue. The hard part of the task is then moved to the bulk: the brane metric we have considered must not give rise to spurious singularities off the brane. If the evaporation is complete, this is obviously true for the Schwarzschild metric and (53) in the limit $`t\mathrm{}`$, but a complete analysis of the bulk equations for such a time-dependent brane metric is intractable analytically.

Let us finally speculate on the basis that a vanishing four-dimensional ADM mass is not equivalent to zero proper mass, since terms of higher order in $`1/r`$, such as those considered in Eq. (41), may survive after the time when $`M`$ has vanished (or, rather, approached the critical value $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{g}`$). They are in general expected to appear as generated by the non-vanishing $`E_{ij}`$ and the trace anomaly (66d) they give rise to is smaller for larger $`n`$ (and the same value of the “mass” parameter $`M_{(n)}`$). This opens up a wealth of new possibilities for the brane-world. Since we have shown evidence that the late stage of the evaporation is likely a (slow) exponential decay, one can capture an instantaneous picture of its evolution in time \[i.e., apply the adiabatic approximation in order to obtain the static form (13)\] and expand that in powers of $`1/r`$,

$`N=1{\displaystyle \underset{n=\overline{n}}{}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{(n)}}{r}}\right)^n,`$ (65)
where $`M_{(1)}2M`$ and $`n=\overline{n}`$ is the smallest order for which the coefficient $`M_{(n)}0`$, so that, although the black hole remains five-dimensional, its profile looks like it is higher-dimensional. Then, one would also have a “remnant” trace anomaly which is approximately given by the expression in Eq. (66d) with $`n=\overline{n}`$. If $`\overline{n}`$ increases in time, the corresponding trace anomaly decreases in time and the black hole appears as a higher and higher dimensional object from the point of view of an observer restricted on the four-dimensional brane-world. Correspondingly, the space-time (brane) around the singularity looks flatter and flatter \[see the Ricci tensor elements in Eq. (42)\]. More precisely, once the horizon radius has approached $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{g}`$, a geometric description of the space surrounding the central singularity becomes questionable, and just the large $`r`$ limit of the metric can be given sense. The latter is practically flat for $`r>M_{(\overline{n})}`$ when $`\overline{n}2`$.

###### Acknowledgements.

I thank G. Alberghi, F. Bastianelli, C. Germani, B. Harms and L. Mazzacurati for comments and suggestions.

## Appendix A Trace anomalies

We display here the complete expressions of the trace anomalies for the static cases I, II and III of Section III, and $`n_\mathrm{B}=1`$. In obvious notation:

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\left(1\frac{3M}{2r}\right)^4M^2}{25920\pi ^2r^6}}[18(24+8\eta +\eta ^2)16(162+81\eta +10\eta ^2){\displaystyle \frac{M}{r}}`$ (66a)
$`+12(486+315\eta +49\eta ^2){\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{r^2}}+216(27+21\eta +4\eta ^2){\displaystyle \frac{M^3}{r^3}}+9(243+216\eta +48\eta ^2){\displaystyle \frac{M^4}{r^4}}],`$
$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{II}}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(1+\eta )^2M^2}{240\pi ^2r^6}}(\eta +\sqrt{1{\displaystyle \frac{2M}{r}}(1+\eta )})^4[4+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}\eta ^2(9+\eta ^2)+\eta (12+7\eta )\sqrt{1{\displaystyle \frac{2M}{r}}(1+\eta )}`$ (66b)
$`(1+\eta )(16+27\eta ^2+24\eta \sqrt{1{\displaystyle \frac{2M}{r}}(1+\eta )}){\displaystyle \frac{M}{r}}+16(1+\eta )^2{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{r^2}}],`$
$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{III}}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{60\pi ^2r^6}}\left(1\eta {\displaystyle \frac{M}{r}}+{\displaystyle \frac{13\eta ^2M^2}{48r^2}}\right),`$ (66c)
$`{}_{}{}^{(n)}T_{4\mathrm{D}}^{}={\displaystyle \frac{M_{(n)}^n}{5760\pi ^2r^{4+n}}}\left[(n^21)(n^24)(3n^48n^323n^2+4){\displaystyle \frac{M_{(n)}^n}{r^n}}\right].`$ (66d)
From the AdS-CFT correspondence skenderis  one instead obtains

$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{I}}T_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}={\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^2M^2}{6\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2r^6}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{3M}{2r}}\right)^4\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{8M}{3r}}+{\displaystyle \frac{2M^2}{r^2}}\right),`$ (67a)
$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{II}}T_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}={\displaystyle \frac{3\eta ^2(1\eta )^2M^2}{2\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2r^6}}\left(\eta +\sqrt{1{\displaystyle \frac{2M}{r}}(1+\eta )}\right)^2,`$ (67b)
$`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{III}}T_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}={\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^2M^2}{4\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2r^8}},`$ (67c)
$`{}_{}{}^{(n)}T_{\mathrm{CFT}}^{}={\displaystyle \frac{n^2+8n+4}{24}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1n)^2M_{(n)}^{2n}}{\mathrm{}_\mathrm{p}^2\sigma ^2r^{2(2+n)}}}.`$ (67d)
## Appendix B Small black holes

In the approach of Ref. cm  the bulk metric is taken of the form

$`\mathrm{d}s^2=N(r,z)\mathrm{d}t^2+A(r,z)\mathrm{d}r^2+\rho ^2(r,z)\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Omega }^2+\mathrm{d}z^2.`$ (68)
For the brane metric in Eq. (41) with $`n=2`$, the computed metric components (to order $`1/r^6`$, for the sake of simplicity) are then given by

$`N`$ $`=`$ $`e^{\sigma z}\{1{\displaystyle \frac{M_{(2)}^2}{r^2}}+(1e^{\sigma z})^2{\displaystyle \frac{M_{(2)}^2}{\sigma ^2r^4}}`$
$`[2+\sigma ^2M_{(2)}^22e^{\sigma z}(6+\sigma ^2M_{(2)}^2)+e^{2\sigma z}(6+\sigma ^2M_{(2)}^212\sigma z)+4e^{3\sigma z}]{\displaystyle \frac{M_{(2)}^2}{\sigma ^4r^6}}\}`$
$`A`$ $`=`$ $`e^{\sigma z}\{1+{\displaystyle \frac{M_{(2)}^2}{r^2}}+[\sigma ^2M_{(2)}^2+(1e^{\sigma z})^2]{\displaystyle \frac{M_{(2)}^2}{\sigma ^2r^4}}`$
$`\{3(1+e^{\sigma z})^2\sigma ^2M_{(2)}^23\sigma ^4M_{(2)}^4+2[16e^{\sigma z}+3e^{2\sigma z}(12\sigma z)+2e^{3\sigma z}]\}{\displaystyle \frac{M_{(2)}^2}{3\sigma ^4r^6}}\}`$
$`\rho ^2`$ $`=`$ $`r^2e^{\sigma z}\left\{1\left(1e^{\sigma z}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{M_{(2)}^2}{\sigma ^2r^4}}+\left[16e^{\sigma z}+3e^{2\sigma z}\left(12\sigma z\right)+2e^{3\sigma z}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{4M_{(2)}^2}{3\sigma ^4r^6}}\right\}.`$ (69c)
Note that, as we commented upon in Ref. cm , the function $`\rho ^2`$ vanishes for a finite value of $`z`$, with $`r`$ held fixed, and that locates the axis of cylindrical symmetry in the Gaussian normal reference frame. The latter covers the whole bulk manifold of such black holes, since no crossing occurs between lines of different constant $`r`$ (see Fig. 2).


text:
# New results from an extensive aging test on bakelite Resistive Plate Chambers

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) detectors have been proposed to cover a large fraction (about 48%) of the Muon System  of the LHCb experiment . The LHCb apparatus covers the forward part of the solid angle and is therefore subject to a very large particle flux. In particular, the particle rates expected in the Muon System are significantly larger than those expected in the corresponding sub–detectors in ATLAS  and CMS experiments . In the regions covered by RPCs, the maximum particle rate is expected to vary between 0.25 and 0.75 kHz/cm2, depending mainly on the polar angle. To cope with such high rates, LHCb RPCs are operated in avalanche mode , allowing to obtain a rate capability up to some kHz/$`\mathrm{cm}^2`$ . In these conditions, the rate capability of an RPC is determined by the volume resistivity $`\rho `$ of the electrodes and scales roughly as $`1/\rho `$. For this reason, RPCs used in experiments working at high rates are generally built with bakelite electrodes, that can be produced with resistivities as low as $`10^9\mathrm{\Omega }`$cm.

Variations of the electrode resistivity affect directly the rate capability of the RPCs: it is therefore very important to be able to monitor this parameter during the chamber operation. These variations can be due to changes in environmental parameters like temperature and humidity  or to possible aging effects due to operating conditions.

To study these effects, we have devised, in the framework of the aging studies for the LHCb muon chambers, an extensive series of tests which started in January 2001 and is expected to last until December 2002, exploiting the large CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility .

In this paper we present the latest results from these studies. Results from a systematic series of measurements of the resistivity of the bakelite electrodes of two RPC prototypes are presented. A study of the RPC rate capabilities is also discussed.

## 2 SETUP OF THE AGING TEST

The aging tests have been performed at the Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF) at CERN. The GIF is a test area where particle detectors are exposed to an adjustable photon flux from an intense 137Cs radioactive source with an activity of about 655 GBq. A muon beam from the SPS accelerator traverses the test area, so that various measurements can be performed on detectors in presence of the high background flux of photons from the source. In our case the source was also used to perform an accelerated aging test of the detectors . A system of remotely controlled filters allows us to vary the photon rate by four orders of magnitude. The photon rate has been found to depend from the filter absorption factor $`Abs`$ as $`\mathrm{\Phi }=1/Abs^{0.7}`$

In our tests, two equal RPC detectors were operated in the GIF area. The detectors ($`50\times 50\mathrm{cm}^2`$ with a 2 mm gas gap) were built using bakelite plates (2 mm thick) of nominal resistivity $`10^{10}\mathrm{\Omega }`$cm, and treated internally with linseed oil.

Both detectors were operated with the same gas mixture, normally 95% $`\mathrm{C}_2\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{F}_4`$, 4% $`\mathrm{i}\mathrm{C}_4\mathrm{H}_{10}`$ and 1% $`\mathrm{SF}_6`$. High-voltage $`V_0`$, gas mixture composition, currents and temperature were continuously monitored and recorded during all the test period.

The test setup is schematically shown in Figure 1. Normally during the aging test one detector (RPC A) was placed in position 1, very close to the source and almost continuously exposed to radiation, whereas the second (RPC B) was placed far from the source (position 2), to serve as a reference.

Position 3 was used to perform efficiency measurements with the particle beam. In this case the signals from the RPCs were read out on 3 cm wide strips using fast electronics. A telescope of scintillator counters, also shown in Figure 1, provided the trigger and a hodoscope measured the particle position ($`xy`$) with an accuracy better than 1 cm. At the minimum source attenuation the measured flux density in Position 3 was about 1 kHz/$`\mathrm{cm}^2`$ .

## 3 BEHAVIOUR OF RPCs UNDER HIGH FLUX CONDITIONS

We have observed that the current drawn by RPC detectors subject to a high particle flux, shows a characteristic behaviour:

* it depends linearly on the applied voltage, above a certain threshold;
* it saturates with increasing flux values;
* it depends exponentially from the temperature at a fixed applied voltage.

We have interpreted these effects with a model, described in details in . In this model we assume that the onset of the avalanche in the detector arises only above a threshold voltage $`V_T`$. Due to space charge effects, the avalanche charge depends linearly on the effective voltage $`V_{\mathrm{gap}}`$ across the gas gap: $`qV_{\mathrm{gap}}V_T`$. Due to the voltage drop across the RPC electrodes, we have: $`V_{\mathrm{gap}}=V_0IR`$, where $`V_0`$ is the nominal applied voltage, $`I`$ is the current drawn by the RPC and $`R`$ is the total volume resistance of the two electrodes. The current $`I`$ depends linearly on $`q`$ through the incident flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$: $`I=\mathrm{\Phi }q(V_{\mathrm{gap}})`$. In the limit of infinite flux, in order to keep the current finite, we should have $`V_{\mathrm{gap}}=V_T`$ and in these conditions we get a saturation value for the current $`I_{\mathrm{max}}=(V_0V_T)/R`$. At finite flux values, one obtains :

$$I=\left(\frac{X}{1+X}\right)\frac{V_0V_T}{R}=\frac{V_0V_T}{R_{\mathrm{eff}}},$$
(1)
where $`X\mathrm{\Phi }R`$ and $`R_{\mathrm{eff}}=R(1+X)/X`$. Equation 1 is the central equation of the model: it shows that the current depends indeed linearly on $`V_0`$ and that it saturates at high flux values and incorporates the temperature dependence of the current through the electrode resistance $`R`$.

Typical $`IV_0`$ curves of the two detectors under test, taken for $`Abs=1`$ are shown in Figure 2. A perfect linearity is observed above the threshold voltage $`V_T`$ (about 8500 V in this case). The resistance $`R`$ can thus be measured by fitting these curves with Equation 1 and obtaining the parameter $`X`$ by measuring the RPC current at fixed $`V_0`$ for different flux values. In this way, the electrode resistance can be measured in a non destructive way and easily monitored during detector operation.

## 4 RESULTS ON RPC RESISTANCE MEASUREMENTS

In the framework of the RPC aging tests, we have performed a systematic set of measurements of the RPC electrode resistances using the method described above.

In order to compare measurements taken at different ambient temperatures $`T`$, we have rescaled the values of $`R`$ to 20C assuming an exponential dependence from $`T`$ . Figure 3 shows the measurement of $`R`$ for the two RPCs at different temperatures. An exponential fit gives an average temperature coefficient of $`\alpha =0.126\pm 0.008^{}\mathrm{C}^1`$ in nice agreement with that obtained for the bakelite slabs themselves. This confirms that $`R`$ is indeed the volume resistance of the RPC electrodes.

The measurements of $`R`$ rescaled to 20C are shown in Figure 4 and 5 for RPC A and RPC B respectively. The time scale starts at the beginning of the aging test in January 2001. In the first 200 days, RPC A was subject to an intense photon flux and integrated a charge of about 0.4 C/cm2 which corresponds to about 10 years of operation in LHCb . As shown in Figure 6 the current drawn by the detector decreased by a factor of six in the same period. This behaviour was interpreted as a corresponding increase of the electrode resistance due to the current flowing through the electrodes themselves. This is indeed clearly visible in Figure 4. In the remaining time, the chamber was again operated at the GIF but, because of the large resistance, the current drawn by the detector was negligible. Still, a large increase of $`R`$ by another factor four is observed. This effect is confirmed by the measurements performed on the prototype B (Figure 5) that was exposed to the intense photon flux only for a short time. These results seem to indicate that the resistivity of the bakelite electrodes tends to spontaneously increase at a rate much larger than that observed when the RPCs are subject to the particle flux expected in the LHCb experiment. It is clear that this would be by far the main aging effect over 10 years of operation in LHCb.

We don’t have yet a quantitative interpretation of these phenomena, although we believe that this is probably related to a decrease of water content in the bakelite plates. While water evaporation from the plates is always present, it is probably enhanced both by the current flowing in the electrodes and by the flux of dry gas in the chambers. To cross–check this interpretation we are going to start a series of measurements, flushing our RPCs with a gas mixture containing water vapour.

## 5 ANALYSIS OF RATE CAPABILITIES

The maximum incident particle rate that an RPC can stand is roughly proportional to the inverse of the electrode volume resistivity. It is therefore essential to check what is the effect of the increase of the bakelite resistivity described above on the detector rate capability. To study quantitatively this effect, we define the rate capability $`r_{max}`$ of our prototypes as the maximum rate where their efficiency is at least 95%, at a maximum operating voltage of 10.6 kV (this guarantees a plateau of about 400 V below the threshold of streamer regime), as shown in Figure 7. The results of three beam tests performed over a three years period are summarised in Table 1. In the 1999 test, the maximum available particle rate at the GIF was about 3 $`\mathrm{kHz}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ but, at this rate, the chamber efficiency was well above 95%; the rate capability was therefore much larger than 3 $`\mathrm{kHz}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$. We can clearly see that the rate capability is dropping roughly as $`1/R`$ as expected. The rate capability extrapolated to the latest measurements of $`R`$ is therefore about 0.15 $`\mathrm{kHz}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ which is well below the rates foreseen in LHCb ($`>0.25\mathrm{kHz}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$). These results have recently brought the LHCb collaboration to abandon the RPC technology for the Muon System of the experiment.

## 6 CONCLUSIONS

We have developed and applied a method to measure RPC electrode resistance $`R`$, on–line, during chamber operations, in an easy and non destructive way. Using this method we have studied extensively the aging effects on bakelite RPCs. We have observed an increase of $`R`$ by two orders of magnitude in about three years. Pure spontaneous aging is the dominant effect. The RPC rate capability dropped correspondingly from a few $`\mathrm{kHz}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ to less than 0.15 $`\mathrm{kHz}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$. These results brought the LHCb collaboration to abandon the RPC technology for the Muon System of the experiment.