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# DETERMINATION OF REDDENING AND EXTINCTION DUE TO DUST IN 𝐴𝑃𝑀 GALAXY CLUSTERS

## 1 Introduction

Dust inside a rich galaxy cluster’s Intracluster Medium (ICM) would be subjected to harsh conditions. Parameters of the hot, X-ray component of the ICM in galaxy clusters have been measured by numerous studies. Typical temperatures are generally observed in the range $`T_{gas}10^710^8K`$, which is equivalent to thermal energies of $`kT214`$ keV (Bahcall, 1999). Grains, which have typical molecular bonding potentials on the order of a few tenths to a few eV, are likely to dissociate by sputtering due to collisions with thermal electrons. The dust grain sputtering timescales are dependent on the size of the grains, $`a`$ and the electron density at a given location in the ICM, $`n_e(r)`$:

$$\tau _{sp}(a,r)10^6\frac{a(\mu m)}{n_e(r)}yrs,$$
(1)
for graphite, silicate or iron grains (Draine & Salpeter, 1979), Electron densities on the order of $`n_e10^3h^{1/2}cm^3`$ have been measured (Jones & Forman, 1992), so typical sputtering timescales are on the order of $`\tau _{sp}10^610^9yr.`$ The shortest sputtering timescales correspond to grains located in the densest regions of the ICM. To estimate whether there will be any dust in rich clusters, dust destruction timescales have to be compared to dust injection timescales. Dust could conceivably be introduced into the ICM through several processes including ram pressure stripping of galaxies as they travel through the ICM, the accretion of primordial dust, galaxy or cluster mergers and collisions, blowout from galaxies that experience multiple supernovæ or intense starbursts, or cooling flows (Popescu et al., 2000). Many of these processes have timescales on the order of $`\tau 10^810^9yrs`$, which is comparable to the longest sputtering timescales. Each of these modes of dust insertion affect different spatial scales and locations within clusters. For example, cooling flows occur near the central regions of a cluster’s gravitational potential while accretion processes such as mergers affect the outer portions of the ICM. Furthermore, hydrodynamical processes may allow dust to reside in clumps, which would be self-shielded from ionizing radiation and electron collisions, resulting in a longer effective sputtering timescale and a smaller covering factor. Therefore, the amount and distribution of dust in a rich galaxy cluster may also be dependent on the history of the various deposition processes in an individual cluster.

The nature of the extinction and reddening from dust in clusters may also depend heavily on environment because the lifetimes of grains with some types of chemistries and structures may be longer than the lifetimes of others under the same ambient conditions. In addition, deposition processes could act as filters. Grain acceleration by radiation pressure from starlight, for example, could impose a bias of grain radius and mass on particles entering the ICM, from galaxies. In process, this could result in differences between the initial and resulting extinction curves of the affect grain populations. Certainly, the ratio of total-to-selective extinction, $`R_V=A_V/E(BV)`$ is known to vary in the range $`3R_V6`$ within the Milky Way (Mathis, 1990) and more strongly in other galaxies, where $`1.5R_V7.2`$ (Falco et al., 1999). These facts together with the uncertainties in grain models for dust in the ICM require a search for dust in the ICM to be flexible in terms of detecting combinations of varying degrees of reddening and obscuration.

Figure 1 gives a compilation of the results from prior searches for dust in rich and poor galaxy clusters, as well as groups. There is some observational evidence for the existence of dust in the central regions of clusters. For example, using IRAS images of 56 clusters, Wise et al. (1993) found two clusters with Far-IR color excesses that are probably due to dust. Meanwhile, Hu (1992) derived an average value of the differential reddening of $`E(BV)0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}19`$ on the basis of observed UV-to-optical emission line ratios (Ly$`\alpha /`$H$`\alpha `$) in a sample of 10 Abell cooling flow clusters. Furthermore, measurements of X-ray spectra have indicated surprisingly high metallicities, $`Z0.20.5Z_{\mathrm{}}`$, in clusters (Bahcall, 1999; Arnaud & Mushotzky, 1998; Voit & Donahue, 1995). Yet it should also be noted that Annis & Jewitt (1993) failed to detect any submillimeter dust emission from the central few tens of kpc in 11 cooling flow clusters.

Evidence for dust in regions outside the central $`>\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0.5}`$ Mpc is inconclusive. Past searches for dust on $`>`$$``$ Mpc scales incorporated several techniques. Zwicky (1962), Karachentsev & Lipovetskii (1969), de Vaucouleurs, de Vaucouleurs & Corwin (1972), and Bogart & Wagoner (1973) looked for the extinction of light from distant galaxy clusters by intervening foreground clusters. The observed depletion in the number density of background clusters led Zwicky (1962) to suggest that there may be as many as 0.4 magnitudes of extinction in the Coma Cluster. Bogart & Wagoner (1973) estimate that to explain the dearth of background clusters, foreground clusters must produce about 0.12 magnitudes of reddening over radii of few Mpc. However, the results of these studies could have been affected by human bias: Distant galaxy clusters are much harder to detect if they are superimposed on foreground clusters, so the apparent depletion of distant clusters in the directions of nearby clusters could be due to causes other than dust.

Romani & Maoz (1992) looked at the apparent anti-correlation of high-redshift QSOs with nearby Abell clusters. They measured a deficit of $`25\%`$ in the quasar number counts within 60′ of rich clusters and noted that such a dearth of QSOs can be explained by $`A_B=0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}15`$ of extinction in these clusters. However, a follow-up work by Maoz (1995) reached a different conclusion. He found no difference in the colors of QSOs found within $`1\mathrm{°}`$ in projection from Abell clusters to those farther than $`3\mathrm{°}`$ away and he placed a $`90\%`$ confidence upper limit on reddening of $`E(BV)=0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}05`$. Biviano et al. (1990) found that blue Tully-Fisher distances to Virgo cluster spirals correlate tightly with their color excess, while no such correlation was seen in field spirals. They suggest that intracluster dust with reddening of $`0.12`$ magnitudes would make more distant galaxies within Virgo appear redder. However, Ferguson (1993) analyzed fits to the correlations between $`BV`$ colors and the reddening-insensitive Mg2 index (the ratio of the Mg $`b`$ line flux to the adjacent continuum flux that straddles the line) for a sample of elliptical galaxies and found no evidence for reddening in either the Virgo or the Coma clusters. He placed $`90\%`$ confidence upper limits of $`E(BV)=0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}06`$ and $`0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}05`$ for the Virgo and Coma clusters, respectively. Dwek, Rephaeli & Mather (1990) were unable to detect any IR emission from dust in the Coma Cluster, despite the earlier optical estimates by Zwicky (1962). In fact, the upper limit placed on the $`100\mathrm{\mu m}`$ emission was $`400`$ times lower than the theoretical estimates of Voshchinnikov & Khersonskij (1984), which were based on the interactions between dust and the hot ICM.

While the amount of dust in extended regions of rich clusters is consistent with zero, there is strong evidence that dust exists in galaxy groups, on $`1`$ Mpc scales. The distributions of group galaxies in redshift are known to be skewed towards positive velocities (Girardi et al., 1992). These redshift asymmetries are most easily explained if galaxy groups are assumed to be in the process of collapse, and the near-side infalling galaxies (redshifted with respect to group center) are less obscured, and hence more numerous, than the far-side (blueshifted) galaxies. The color excess vs. redshift distribution of group galaxies confirms this scenario. A very different type of observation could also suggest the presence of dust in groups. Boyle, Fong & Shanks (1988) find that UV-excess selected sources (mostly QSOs) are anti-correlated with poor galaxy clusters and groups. They estimate that this could be explained by absorption of $`A_V0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}2`$ extending over $`410^{}`$. These values are compatible with the amount and the range of distribution of dust determined from redshift asymmetries by Girardi et al. (1992). However, the Boyle, Fong & Shanks (1988) observations could well be the result of weak gravitational lensing of faint QSOs with shallow number counts slope (Croom & Shanks, 1999; Myers, A.D. et al., 2002).

Motivated by these observations we decided to search for dust in the population of objects intermediate between rich clusters and groups, i.e. moderately rich and poor clusters of galaxies. To that end we develop a new method for determining the reddening and extinction due to dust in galaxy clusters, and apply it to a set of APM galaxy clusters.

Even a relatively small amount of extinction in galaxy clusters would have profound implications for a wide variety of fields. Significant amounts of extant dust would obscure background objects, and could skew statistics in studies that involve collections of distant galaxies, quasars and supernovæ. Observations of light curves of high-redshift Type Ia Supernovæ, for example, have shown that these supernovæ are generally dimmer in comparison with nearer ones than one would expect if one were to assume an Open or Einstein-de Sitter Universe (Perlmutter et al., 1998; Reiss et al., 1998). This has been attributed to the existence of a cosmological constant, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, although Aguirre (1999) has suggested that this could be the result of extinction by intervening grey dust.

Studies of weak lensing (anti-)correlations between foreground galaxies and high redshift QSOs would also be affected. Turner (1980) and Canizares (1981) were the first to point out that magnification bias may create statistical associations between foreground galaxies and high-redshift QSOs. The presence of dust in clusters would tend to decrease the number of background QSOs in a flux limited sample, thus complicating the interpretation of results (Myers, A.D. et al., 2002; Rodrigues-Williams & Hogan, 1994).

## 2 Data

### 2.1 APM Catalogue

Our galaxy data originated from APM measurements of 30 $`5\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}8\times 5\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}8`$ UKST sky survey fields. We selected a region of the sky away from the plane of the Galaxy, covering an area that spans $`\alpha 10\stackrel{\mathrm{h}}{\mathrm{.}}015\stackrel{\mathrm{h}}{\mathrm{.}}0`$ and $`\delta 7\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9+2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9,`$ which is roughly a range of $`l237\mathrm{°}361\mathrm{°}`$ and $`b36\mathrm{°}50\mathrm{°}`$ in Galactic coordinates. Each of these UKST fields contain photometry that was measured digitally by the Automated Plate Machine at the University of Cambridge (Irwin, 1996), from the UKST $`B_J`$ and the UKST SES R sky surveys, which have limiting magnitudes of 22.5 and 21 magnitudes, respectively, and are complete, roughly, to magnitudes of $`B_J20.5`$ and $`R19.5`$. Vignetting reduces the plate density of galaxies. Its effects become more pronounced with distance away from plate center, but become severe only beyond $`2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}7`$ from the center. As a result, we selected only those galaxies that lie within $`2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}7`$ of the centers of their respective plates for our analysis. Objects for our study must have been detected and identified as ‘galaxies’ in both the $`B_J`$ and $`R`$ bands.

### 2.2 APM Clusters

The APM Galaxy Cluster Catalogue consists of clusters selected on the basis of spatial overdensities in the APM Galaxy Catalogue (Dalton et al., 1997). Centers of galaxy clusters were found using a percolation technique in which all galaxy pairs with angular separations on the fields less than 0.7 times the mean separation were linked and assigned to the same group. The centroid of galaxy groups containing more than 20 galaxies was considered a candidate cluster center. A starting value for the estimated redshift of each cluster was assumed, which gave estimates of various ordinal galaxy magnitudes (e.g. the $`1^{st}`$ or the $`3^{rd}`$ brightest galaxies in the cluster). These were adjusted along with cluster richness, redshift, and centroid in an iterative routine, until convergence was achieved. The result is a catalogue of galaxy clusters in which each cluster was selected on the bases of an impartial empirical algorithm, rather than by human hand.

The APM clusters have a correlation length of approximately $`r_o=14.3h^1`$ Mpc, which is $`0.5`$ times the correlation length of Abell Clusters (Dalton et al., 1994, 1997). This implies a spatial density of APM clusters $`10`$ times greater than that of Abell clusters, hence APM clusters are moderately rich to poor. We have selected for our sample those clusters that lie on the UKST fields mentioned in Section 2.1 and have estimated redshifts $`z0.08.`$ Since all APM clusters have the same assumed physical radius, $`1.3`$ Mpc (assuming $`h=0.75`$), their angular size on the sky varies from about $`15\mathrm{}`$ to $`90\mathrm{}`$. Clusters which lay sufficiently far from the centers of their APM plates to extend, on the basis of their angular size, beyond the $`2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}7`$ radius described in the last section were not included in our sample.

## 3 Method

If there is extant dust in nearby galaxy clusters, then more distant galaxies along the same line of sight as the foreground cluster should be reddened and obscured to a degree depending on the characteristics of the intervening dust. Because of issues such as grey dust, for example, mentioned in the Introduction, we have developed a procedure to search for dust in galaxy clusters that is sensitive to any ratio of general to selective extinction, $`R_\lambda `$.

Galaxy clusters were selected from the APM Catalogue with redshifts of $`z0.08`$ in order to ensure that the clusters subtended an angle of the sky large enough to contain a significant number of background dust-affected galaxies, and a small number of foreground galaxies, at $`z<z_{clust}`$. The fraction of foreground galaxies is $`10\%`$, given our faint magnitude cutoff and empirical estimates of redshift distribution of flux-limited samples of APM galaxies (Maddox et al., 1996). Selecting nearby clusters also ensures that lensing would not be an issue, considering the fact that the background galaxies are relatively nearby as well. For each APM Cluster two apertures were selected, the “Cluster Group” and the “Control Group”; the method determines the obscuration and reddening of the Cluster Group galaxies relative to those of the galaxies in the Control Group. The Cluster Group was either a circular or annular aperture centered on a galaxy cluster’s center (as indicated by the APM Cluster Catalogue) and containing all galaxies that lie within an angular radius equivalent to the physical radius of $`1.3`$ Mpc at the distance of the cluster. The Control Group contained all of the galaxies located inside a circular annulus concentric with the Cluster Group, with an inner radius of $`1.3`$ Mpc and an outer radius which ensured that the Cluster and Control Groups had the same sky area. If the Cluster Group of a given cluster extended beyond $`2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}7`$ from plate center, the cluster was not used. If a portion of the Control Group’s annulus fell beyond that radius, then that part of the annulus was removed, and the annular thickness of the remaining portion was increased to ensure equal areas. The Cluster and Control Groups for each individual cluster were confined to the same APM plate to avoid issues relating to plate-to-plate magnitude calibration. Since individual clusters do not have enough galaxies to be analyzed using our procedure, galaxies from many clusters were combined to yield merged Cluster and Control Groups (see Section 4).

It should be noted that despite the equal areas of the Cluster and Control Groups for the complete combined dataset, the Cluster Groups contained more galaxies $`(N_{clust}=98059,`$ or roughly 715 per cluster on average$`)`$ than the Control Groups $`(N_{cont}=85884,`$ or 627 per cluster on average$`)`$, because in addition to foreground and background galaxies, the Cluster Groups also contained cluster galaxies. Our method required that the total number of galaxies in the Cluster and Control Groups be about the same. To that end, we tried masking out the central regions of Cluster Groups (which typically have the highest density of galaxies), and adjusting the size of the Control Groups accordingly. However, reducing the fractional difference between the number of galaxies in the Cluster and Control Groups to $`13\%`$ (from $`10\%`$) had little effect on our determinations of extinction and reddening.

Next, we divided the distribution of galaxies in the color-magnitude (CM) plane of both the Cluster and the Control Groups into pixels of size $`\mathrm{\Delta }_pR`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_p(B_JR)`$ (see top panels of Fig. 2). We present results for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_pR=\mathrm{\Delta }_p(B_JR)=0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}025`$. Given the number density of APM galaxies, this is the smallest reasonable pixel size. The CM-plane pixel size determines the sensitivity, or ‘resolution’ of our method. Let $`n_{clust}(i,j)`$ and $`n_{cont}(i,j)`$ be the observed pixellated CM-plane distributions of galaxies from the Cluster Group and the Control Group, respectively. For the combined analysis, $`n_{clust}`$ and $`n_{cont}`$ have maximum values of 44 and 37 galaxies in one pixel, respectively. We have selected rectangular subsets of the distributions, limited on all four sides by the color cut $`2(B_JR)4`$ and magnitude cut of $`14R20`$. The faint end of the magnitude cut ensures a photometrically complete sample. Dust in galaxy clusters would obscure and redden the light coming from galaxies directly behind them, so that background galaxies in the Cluster Groups would be displaced in the CM plane by the corresponding reddening vector, while galaxies in the Control Group would not. (Since the number of cluster member galaxies and foreground galaxies is small compared to the background galaxies, we assume that all galaxies in the Cluster Group are background.) Therefore it is possible to search for dust by comparing the distributions of galaxies on the CM plane from the Cluster and Control Groups.

In the simplest case of constant reddening vector, the reddening and extinction can be found by sliding the Control Group CM plane distribution with respect to the that of the Cluster Group until the shapes of the two distributions match. The actual values of reddening and extinction would then correspond to the pixel displacements $`(k,l)`$ that minimize

$$\xi _{k,l}=\frac{1}{N(k,l)}\underset{i,j}{}\frac{n_{clust}(i,j)n_{cont}(i+k,j+l)}{n_{clust}(i,j)+n_{cont}(i+k,j+l)},$$
(2)
where cell combinations in which $`n_{clust}(i,j)+n_{cont}(i+k,j+l)=0`$ are not included in the analysis or the value of $`N(k,l)`$. The bottom panels of Figure 2 shows two examples of $`(n_{clus}n_{cont})`$ distributions, with specific values of color and magnitude shifts. Note that by applying shifts to the Control Groups, we create regions on all four edges of the CM plane in which pixels from both arrays do not overlap. To compensate for this effect the sum in eq. 2 is over the subset of the CM plane where the $`n_{clust}`$ and $`n_{cont}`$ distributions do intersect, and so $`N`$ is a function of the applied shift, $`(k,l)`$. The greater the relative shift between the Cluster and Control Groups, the smaller the overlap area will be. The maximum shifts we apply in $`R`$ and $`(B_JR)`$ are $`\pm 0.1`$ mag, which is a realistic upper limit on the amount of dust expected to be found in clusters (see Fig. 1). For a maximum shift $`\pm 0.1`$ mag in both CM-plane directions, 4700 pixels out of a total 57600 had to be removed; the fractional decrease in pixel number is small, $`8\%`$.

If the minimum of $`\xi _{k,l}`$ corresponds to pixel shifts of $`(k_{},l_{})`$, then the reddening and extinction in the cluster are $`A_R=k_{}\mathrm{\Delta }_pR`$, and $`E(B_JR)=l_{}\mathrm{\Delta }_p(B_JR)`$ respectively, while the ratio of total-to-selective extinction is $`R_R=A_R/E(B_JR).`$

If the distribution of dust in clusters is patchy, so that there is a range of reddening and extinction values, then the procedure described above will recover the distribution of the $`A_R`$ and $`E(B_JR)`$ values (averaged over the clusters), to within the resolution limit set by the CM pixel size. However, if the dust is perfectly grey, and the galaxy number counts follow a single power law, then the Cluster Group and the Control Group CM distributions will look very similar except for normalization. In that case our method will not be able to detect the presence of dust. Regardless, this method allows the simultaneous detection of multiple dust populations that have different extinction curves, something that is not possible when simply determining the average galaxy color in the sample. In Section 5 we demonstrate this using clusters which have been ‘artificially’ endowed with dust.

Each set of galaxy clusters that we examine using our procedure contains at least 25 clusters, with most samples containing more than 100, which are widely distributed over $`1000`$ sq. deg. of high Galactic Latitude. Assuming that the distribution of cirrus dust in our own Galaxy does not mimic the distribution of APM clusters, the effects of reddening and obscuration due to Galactic dust on galaxies in our Cluster and Control Groups should average out.

## 4 Analysis of APM Clusters

We generated lists of galaxies lying in the Cluster and Control Groups for approximately 140 APM clusters. The algorithm detailed in the previous section was used on three separate sets of clusters: (i) the complete sample, (ii) sample with clusters whose apparent radii are $`30\mathrm{}`$ (i.e. $`z0.04`$), and (iii) clusters with $`r_{clust}>30\mathrm{}`$ ($`z<0.04`$). Individual clusters cannot be analyzed using our method due to the small number of galaxies per pixel in the CM plane. In the case of the combined set, the average number of galaxies per pixel is on the order of 10s, whereas the number per pixel for an average cluster would be on the order of 1 at most.

Each of the three sets of clusters were divided even further in order to search for dust on various size scales by removing the central, or the outer regions of the Cluster Groups. We show the results of our analysis in Figures 3 and 4, where we plot contour levels of $`\xi _{k,l}`$ (eq. 2) as a function of the applied shift in the CM plane, $`\mathrm{\Delta }R=k\mathrm{\Delta }_pR`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(B_JR)=l\mathrm{\Delta }_p(B_JR)`$. Figure 3 shows the results from selecting various physical scales from our combined data set of roughly 140 APM clusters while Figure 4 shows various subsets of clusters with radii $`30\mathrm{}`$ (upper panels) and $`>30\mathrm{}`$ (lower panels).

In all our analysis of APM clusters, the minima in $`\xi _{k,l}`$ are always at $`(0,0)`$; in other words, we detect no extinction or reddening due to dust in any of the cases. Note that the lowest contour level in the plots is not at 0, but typically at $`0.20.3`$, consistent with what one should expect given the definition of $`\xi _{k,l}`$ (eq. 2) and the level of Poisson noise in the number of galaxies per CM-plane pixel.

To estimate the robustness of our results we implemented a bootstrapping algorithm. We randomly selected 100 sets of galaxy clusters from our sample (keeping the total number of clusters in each set the same, and equal to the original number), performed our analysis of each set separately, and tabulated the $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(B_JR)`$ values corresponding to the minima of $`\xi _{k,l}`$. By selecting random combinations of clusters we are in effect augmenting some and suppressing other random subsets of the data. The degree to which the various subsets of the data agree serves to test the robustness of our results. We interpret the histogram of the number of times that each pixel on the $`(k,l)`$ plane was found to correspond to $`min(\xi _{k,l})`$ over 100 permutations of our data as the $`\chi ^2`$ confidence limits for our sample of galaxy clusters. The bootstrapping results indicate non-detection of widely-distributed dust in each of the trials shown in Figures 3 and 4, with limits of $`|\mathrm{\Delta }R|<0.025`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }(B_JR)|<0.025`$ at a confidence level of $`99\%`$, except for the noisy case in the Upper Left panel of Figure 3, which corresponds to no extinction or reddening ($`|\mathrm{\Delta }R|<0.025`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }(B_JR)|<0.025`$) at the $`66\%`$ level.

We note that in order to determine the average reddening of the Cluster Group compared to the Control Group galaxies, regardless of the ratio of total-to-selective extinction, it would have been sufficient to compute the difference in the average $`\mathrm{\Delta }(B_JR)`$ color of the two Groups, instead of using eq. 2 statistic. The former, which uses galaxy counts integrated along the magnitude direction, has the advantage of yielding results of higher statistical significance. The disadvantages are twofold: First, the ratio of total-to-selective extinction, $`R_R`$ cannot be determined, and second, the properties of non-uniformly distributed dust, of the type considered in the next Section, cannot be easily recovered.

## 5 Confidence Tests and Sensitivity

In Section 4 we found that the $`1.3`$ Mpc regions around APM clusters do not appear to have any dust in them, compared to their surrounding Control annuli. Here we examine whether the technique we have developed is sensitive enough to detect reddening and obscuration if they were non-zero. We artificially introduce ‘dust’ into the Cluster Group galaxies, and leave Control Group galaxies unaltered. Several types of dust were used: (i) uniformly distributed dust of constant total-to-selective extinction ratio, $`R_R`$; (ii) non-uniformly distributed dust of constant $`R_R`$ ratio; (iii) patchily distributed dust, with distinct dust clumps, and unobscured areas. Unless otherwise specified, we used the Rieke & Lebofsky (1985) Interstellar Extinction Law for all types of dust, and their ratios for $`E(RV)/E(BV)`$ and $`A_R/A_V`$ to calculate $`R_R=1.3`$ given $`R_V3.1`$. Other values of total-to-selective extinction ratio could have been used. Our technique’s ability to determine $`R_R`$ is independent of its value.

Since uniformly distributed dust would affect all background galaxies, the first type of dust was implemented by shifting all the galaxies in the Cluster Group by the same amount in magnitude and color. We chose $`\mathrm{\Delta }_aR=0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}025`$, and the corresponding $`\mathrm{\Delta }_a(B_JR)=0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}019`$, where subscript $`a`$ stands for ‘artificial’ dust. This example of dust type (i) is shown in the Upper Left panel of Figure 5. Within our resolution, the minimized statistic recovers the correct values of the shifts in reddening and extinction.

Non-uniformly distributed dust would affect background galaxies to various degrees, so for the second type of dust we assumed an average value for extinction $`\mathrm{\Delta }_aR`$, as well as a dispersion in extinction, $`\sigma _{a,R}`$. The shape of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_aR`$ distribution that we applied was Gaussian. Individual galaxies from the Cluster Groups were assigned values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_aR`$ randomly from the distribution. The corresponding color excess was determined using a fixed ratio or $`R_R=1.3`$ . We present results for case (ii) with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_aR=0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}025`$, and $`\sigma _{a,R}=0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}025,0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}035,`$ and $`0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}05`$ in the Upper Right and Lower panels of Figure 5. As before, the corresponding color shift for each galaxy was obtained assuming constant $`R_R`$ ratio. From these cases, it is clear that the wider the distribution of shifts, the more difficult it is to recover the correct values of the extinction and reddening shifts. This is due to the fact that the signal eventually becomes lost in the noise when implementing wider and wider distributions. Hence, it is necessary to use a deeper catalog with a larger coverage area in order to determine the distribution of extinctions and reddenings inside a set of clusters where dust is distributed non-uniformly.

To implement the third type of dust, which corresponds to dust distributed patchily, i.e. in ‘pockets’ we randomly picked a specified fraction of galaxies from the Cluster Group and assigned them exactly the same ‘dust’ induced shifts in magnitude and color. Other Cluster Group galaxies were assumed to lie behind cluster areas that contained no dust. The fraction of galaxies that were affected by dust is the dust covering factor of the cluster. Figure 6 shows examples of type (iii) dust. The upper right and lower left show results for bimodal dust: a fraction of the sky in Cluster Groups ($`33\%`$ and $`20\%`$, respectively) is assumed to be devoid of dust and results in a local minimum in the $`\xi _{k,l}`$ plane at $`(0,0)`$. The rest of the sky area is obscured, and results in the second local minimum at non-zero values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_aR`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_a(B_JR)`$. The lower right panel shows the expected effect resulting from a cluster that contains unobscured lines of sight as well as two different populations of dust, both having $`R_R=0.5`$ (instead of $`1.3`$ used in all other tests), but different degrees of concentration.

Figure 6 also tests the ability of our technique to detect dust distributed in ‘pockets’ of small covering factors. It appears that dust with covering factors less than about $`20\%`$ would be difficult to detect, at least with the present sample of clusters.

Figures 5 and 6 demonstrate that our technique can detect cluster dust, and distinguish various types of its spatial distribution: smooth, non-uniform, or clumpy, as long as the typical values of $`\sigma _{a,R}`$ are not too large, $`0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}0250\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}05`$, and the covering factor is not too small, $`>\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}20}\%`$. It is important to note that these limitations as well as the CM-plane resolution are not limitations of the method, but are instead due to the limited number galaxies, and the relatively bright flux limit of the APM galaxies. Our technique works well as long as the dust induced shifts in color and magnitude are $`1\%`$ of the total CM-plane extent of the $`n_{clus}`$ and $`n_{cont}`$ distributions. The extent of these in magnitude are limited on the faint side by the flux limit of the galaxy survey, while on the bright side the distributions are effectively limited by the limited sky coverage.

## 6 Summary and Conclusions

In this paper we have developed a technique to detect reddening and obscuration due to widely-distributed dust in galaxy clusters. We have applied the method to a sample of low redshift, $`z0.08`$ high Galactic Latitude APM clusters. Our analysis indicates that the reddening and extinction due to dust within $`1.3`$ Mpc of cluster centers relative to that in annuli immediately surrounding clusters are $`|\mathrm{\Delta }(B_JR)|0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}025`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }R|0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}025`$, at $`99\%`$ confidence. Note that $`|\mathrm{\Delta }(B_JR)|0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}025`$ corresponds approximately to $`|\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)|0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}020`$. Our result is fully consistent with no dust being present on $``$ Mpc scales in moderately rich and poor clusters.

There are several possible reasons for the non-detection of dust in our sample. First, it is possible that dust lying in galaxy clusters may in fact be clumped into self-shielded pockets with a small covering factor, $`20\%`$. Our analysis would be relatively insensitive to this distribution because only a minority of background galaxies would have been affected. It is also possible that dust is distributed over greater spatial regions then those we have tested in this work. Because we are somewhat limited by the size of the APM plates, we tested dust content at $`<1.3`$ Mpc scales. Another possibility is that dust does not exist in significant quantities in the APM Galaxy Clusters. This stance is consistent with Popescu et al. (2000), who on the basis of estimates of dust insertion rates, anticipated an extinction of only $`A_B=0\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}005`$ in the Virgo cluster, insomuch as the Virgo cluster is similar to APM clusters.

The most likely interpretation of our results is that APM clusters do not contain any dust. The spatial regions of moderately rich and poor APM clusters that we probe, $`>`$$``$ Mpc, roughly correspond to the same $`R_{virial}`$–normalized regions that were probed by earlier studies of rich clusters and galaxy groups: $``$ few Mpc regions around rich clusters and $``$ Mpc regions around groups. These are beyond the virial radii of these systems, and probably correspond to regions where infall dominates. Combining our results with those of earlier studies, we conclude that rich, moderately rich, and poor clusters contain no dust in their infall regions, while galaxy groups do (Girardi et al., 1992). The physical implications of this finding are beyond the scope of the present paper.

We tested our method by artificially reddening and obscuring galaxies belonging to the Cluster Groups. We applied various types of dust distribution on the sky: uniform, non-uniform, and clumpy, and demonstrated that our technique correctly recovers the amplitude of reddening and obscuration, the value of total-to-selective extinction, and the approximate dust covering factor. The ability of our method to recover these quantities without relying on a priori assumptions about properties of dust makes the method a powerful tool for detecting widely-distributed dust.

Our technique can be applied to any set of clusters or groups constructed from a homogeneous and uniform catalog of galaxies with at least two colors. The performance of the method will improve if the galaxy distributions cover a large range in magnitude and color. As we pointed out in Section 5, dust induced shifts in color and magnitude are easier to detect if they represent a small fraction of the total extent of the CM-plane distribution. Deeper photometric galaxy surveys would extend the faint magnitude end of the distributions, while surveys with large sky coverage would extend the bright end. Larger sky coverage would also enable the use of smaller CM-plane pixels thus improving the resolution of the method. Because of large plate-to-plate magnitude variation of the APM, our current analysis is restricted somewhat by the angular size of the plates. A large homogeneous survey would not have this restriction. Galaxy catalogs with band passes separated to a larger degree than $`B_J`$ and $`R`$ would provide a longer lever arm which would enable a better estimate of extinction.


text:
# Bouncing gel balls: impact of soft gels onto rigid surface

## 1 Introduction

Impact of spherical objects is concerned with a wide range of subjects from daily life to solid mechanics . Accordingly, it has been studied for a long time in different contexts and still continues to be an important research subject. The Hertz contact theory  is a classic example in the static limit within the linear elastic theory. For larger impact velocities, internal vibrations and dissipative processes such as solid viscosity , plastic deformation should be considered. Impact of solid spheres in a granular medium has been found to be important fundamental processes in granular flow, and has attracted a considerable attention . Impacts of balls of soft matter could also be an interesting problem: unique phenomena are expected due to a variety of constitutive equations and due to large deformations. For example, impact or dynamics of liquid balls has attracted a wide audience .

In this paper, we study another example from soft matter: impacts of soft gel balls vertically impinging onto a solid substrate. There the Hertz contact deformation is observed only for small velocities. For larger velocities, gel balls are flattened globally during the impact on the substrate, i.e., expanded into the lateral direction. We present experimental data on the lateral dimension of balls at the maximal deformation and the contact time as a function of impact velocities to show the existence of a number of scaling relations. These relations are interpreted via a naive physical picture.

## 2 Sample gels

We used a series of acrylamide gels with the same polymer concentration but with different cross-link densities; acrylamide monomer (AA, $`M_w`$ =71.08) constitutes sub-chains while methylenebisacrylamide (BIS, $`M_w`$ =154.17) cross-links. The amount of each reagent for preparing acrylamide gels is shown in Table 1. Ammonium persulphate (1wt % of AA) and tetramethylethlylenediamine (0.25vol % of water) were added to initiate and to accelerate the radical polymerization of AA and BIS. The pre-gel solutions were sealed into a spherical mold ($`R=`$14mm or 31.5mm) consisting of two hemispherical shells. Gelation reaction continued for 24 hours at 30 C.

Rheological characterization was carried out on cylindrical gels with a rheometer (REOGEL, UBM Co.) in an oscillatory compression mode. As a result, we found that the mechanical responses of our samples can be all regarded as *nearly elastic*. The values of $`\mathrm{tan}\delta `$ are less than 0.02 and the real part of the complex modulus $`E^{}`$ is almost constant in the range of strain frequency between 0.1Hz and 100Hz for all samples except BIS4 (Here, $`\delta `$ is the phase difference between the stress and the strain). Even for this softest sample, $`\mathrm{tan}\delta `$ increases by a fairly small amount with $`f`$ (for example, $`\mathrm{tan}\delta 0.02`$ at $`f=0.01`$Hz, $`\mathrm{tan}\delta 0.05`$ at $`f=50`$Hz and $`\mathrm{tan}\delta 0.1`$ at $`f=100`$Hz). Table 1 also shows the modulus $`E^{}`$ at $`f=10`$Hz that is regarded as *the static Young’s modulus* $`E`$ in the following.

## 3 Impact experiment

Gel balls freely fall on a fixed aluminum plate of 20mm thickness. Before the impact, the gel ball is pinned at a height $`L`$ from the plate by a tube sucking air weakly. The gel ball begins to fall by switching-off the sucking, and then impinging onto the aluminium substrate. We coated the surface of balls in white with aluminum oxide powder to avoid sticking of the gel balls to the substrate (this is especially important for low impact velocities). The impact velocity $`V`$ can be determined from the relation $`V=\sqrt{2gL}`$. The impact processes are recorded by a high-speed CCD video camera (Motion Coder Analyzer SR: Kodak Co.) with recording rates of 1000 FPS (samples of $`R=31.5`$mm) or 2000 FPS (samples of $`R=14`$mm).

## 4 Experimental Results

We found experimentally that modes of deformation are rather different depending on the velocities. The form of maximal deformations can be categorized in three classes: (1) the Hertz type for very small impact velocities (Fig. 1a), (2) quasi-ellipsoid for intermediate velocities (Fig. 1b), and pancake for large velocities (Fig. 1c).

For small impact velocities the Hertz-type deformation is theoretically expected: in the static limit, because of the nearly pure elasticity of gel balls, the localized Hertz deformation should be observed. However, this theory should break down for large impact velocities where a ball deforms non-locally. Indeed, the Hertz regime can be observed only for very small velocities: the impact in Fig. 1a was achieved by dropping the gel ball from a low height $`L`$ less than 1cm (without using the sucking system) where a precise determination of $`V`$ is difficult ($`V0.4`$m/s) (We note here that all the data points used in the following plots are limited to the case where velocity determination can be done rather precisely). For moderate impact velocities deformation is no longer localized around the contact area and the ball takes a flattened shape which is quasi-ellipsoidal (Fig. 1b). For large impact velocities the ball is strongly deformed to take a pancake shape (Fig. 1c).

We measured the horizontal radius $`R+X`$ (see Fig. 1) at the maximal deformation and the contact time at various conditions. As shown below, we found that these experimental data can be well characterized by the length scale $`R`$, the sound velocity $`V_c`$ and the corresponding time scale $`\tau _c`$:

$$V_c=\sqrt{E/\rho }$$
(1)
$$\tau _c=R/V_c,$$
(2)
where $`\rho `$ is the density of gel balls ($`\rho 1.05\times 10^3`$kg/m3). Characteristic scales $`V_c`$ and $`\tau _c`$ come out naturally from theoretical considerations presented below.

Fig. 2 shows the maximal deformation $`X/R`$ as a function of reduced velocities $`V/V_c`$. As mentioned above, owing to the characteristic scales $`R`$ and $`V_c`$, the data from the four samples for each size ($`R=14`$mm or 31.5mm) collapse well onto a single behavior which can be divided in two regimes as indicated by two dashed lines with different slopes (8/5 and 1). For large velocities ($`VV_c`$) it scales as $`XV`$ while for small velocities ($`VV_c`$) $`XV^n`$ with $`n`$ being a certain value larger than the unity. A theoretical value of the exponent, $`n=8/5`$, for the small velocity region seems consistent with the data (see below).

Fig. 3 shows a contact time $`\tau `$ as a function of velocities. The two plots collapse well onto a single master curve in Fig. 4, thanks to the characteristic scales $`\tau _c`$ and $`V_c`$ as mentioned above. The contact time $`\tau `$ decreases with increase in velocities, following a scaling law ($`\tau V^{1/5}`$) and seems to approach a constant value (Figs. 3 and 4). The plateau value is of the order of millisecond. This value increases with the size $`R`$ and decreases with the modulus $`E`$. Accordingly, the data from different sizes and moduli collapse by the characteristic scale $`\tau _c`$.

As seen above, both $`X`$ and $`\tau `$ can be divided in two regimes by a characteristic velocity of the order of m/s. This velocity scale increases with a modulus $`E`$ (this can be confirmed due to the data collapse via renormalization of velocity by $`V_c`$).

## 5 Theoretical considerations

As mentioned above and as seen from the snapshots at the maximal deformation, modes of deformation seem to change with increase in impact velocity: from (1) Hertz type, to (2) ellipsoid, and then to (3) pancake (see Fig.1). We shall develop a theory based on these observed forms of deformation. We note in advance that experimental results can be understood by combining only the two limiting regimes (Hertz and pancake). However, we still present the result based on the ellipsoid approximation as reference, which is consistent with the experimental results in the turn-over regime. We start from scaling arguments for the Hertz regime only to reproduce the essential properties of the well-known complete analytical solution. The arguments are then extended to the other regimes.

In the Hertz regime at small impact velocities, the elastic energy stored at the maximal deformation can be estimated dimensionally as $`U_HE\left(Y/a\right)^2a^3`$ with $`E`$ being the elastic modulus of the ball ($`Y`$ is defined as in Fig.1 and $`a`$ is the radius of the contact area); a strain field of the order of $`Y/a`$ is localized in a volume of the order of $`a^3`$ (the deformation field relaxes out at a distance of the order of $`a`$ from the contact surface because the strain field is governed by the Laplace equation). Due to the geometrical relation $`Ya^2/R`$ with $`R`$ being the radius of the ball, the energy reduces to the well-known form:

$$U_HE\sqrt{R}Y^{5/2}$$
(3)
Assumption of the energy conservation between the initial time and the maximally-deformed moment $`MV^2U_H`$ ($`M\rho R^3`$ is the mass of the ball) leads us to an estimate for the contact time $`\tau Y/V`$, which results in the well-known relation,

$$\tau /\tau _c(V/V_c)^{1/5}$$
(4)
where the characteristic scales $`V_c`$ and $`\tau _c`$ given in Eqs. (1) and (2) have naturally come out as announced. This implies a moderate increase of the contact time with decrease in velocity. To obtain a non-trivial $`XV`$ relation, we assume that in our ”Hertz regime” the shape is *a sphere cut out by a plane* (see below) and require the incompressibility condition: the part of the sphere cut out by the substrate is compensated by an increase in radius, i.e.,

$$a^2YR^2X.$$
(5)
Combined with the previous relation of the energy conservation, we have the relation between impact velocity and deformation in the horizontal direction as mentioned above:

$$X/R(V/V_c)^{8/5}$$
(6)
In the ellipsoid regime at intermediate velocities, the maximal elastic energy is given by $`U_EE\left(Y/R\right)^2R^3`$; a strain field of the order of $`Y/RX/R`$ is distributed within the whole volume of the order of $`R^3`$. Note here the relation, $`Y=2X`$, which expresses the condition of volume conservation for small deformation ($`X/R<1`$). Thus, we have

$$U_EERY^2$$
(7)
The energy conservation, $`MV^2U_E`$, allows us to obtain an estimate for the contact time and a velocity-radius relation,

$`\tau `$ $`\tau _c`$ (8)
$`X/R`$ $`V/V_c`$ (9)
In the pancake regime at high velocities, where $`X>R>Y`$, the maximal energy becomes $`U_PE\left((R+X)/R\right)^2R^3`$ (the ideal rubber deformation energy), or a linear spring energy

$$U_PERX^2$$

Noting that, in this case, the contact time might well be estimated not by $`Y/V`$ but by $`X/V`$ due to an analogy with a spring system (physically, we can imagine that after a strong impact the vertical velocity is immediately redirected toward the horizontal direction), we obtain the same scaling relations with the ellipsoid case (Eqs. (8) and (9)).

The transition between the Hertz and the ellipsoid regimes is given by the condition, $`U_EU_H`$, which implies $`YR`$. In terms of velocity this is expressed as $`VV_c`$ (compare Eqs. (4) and (8)). On the other hand, the transition between the ellipsoid and the pancake regimes should be marked by $`X>Y`$, or $`V>V_c`$. Since the transition from Hertz to ellipsoid regimes and that from ellipsoid to pancake regimes are predicted to occur at the same velocity at the level of scaling laws, the ellipsoid regime is not expected to manifest itself clearly.

We summarize the above theoretical predictions which agree with experimental observations: (1) $`X`$ scales as $`X/R(V/V_c)^{8/5}`$ for small velocities but as $`X/RV/V_c`$ for large velocities. (2) The contact time $`\tau `$ is constant for large impact velocities but below a certain velocity it deviates from the plateau value and increases with velocity decrease following a scaling law, $`\tau V^{1/5}`$. Typical plateau value $`\tau _c`$ for our samples is of the order of a few ms. It increases with $`R`$ while decreases with $`E`$. (3) Both $`X`$ and $`\tau `$ can be divided in the two regimes by a transition velocity $`V_c`$. Typical value $`V_c`$ is of the order of a few m/s and it increases with $`E`$. (4) Data should be well characterized by reducing size, time, and velocity variables by scales $`R`$, $`\tau _c`$, and $`V_c`$, respectively.

In our Hertz regime, we assumed that the shape is a sphere cut out by a plane and, in addition, we required Eq. (5), which is natural at least in the case of water drops where the surface energy is dominant . As a result, we have a global strain $`X/R`$ distributed over the whole volume $`R^3`$, in addition to the original local distribution $`Y/a`$ over $`a^3`$. The former extra energy is far smaller than the latter with a small ratio $`(a/R)^3`$; this correction does not change the results of our previous analysis.

## 6 Conclusion

Experimentally, the scaling relation $`XV`$ for large velocities is shown and this relation seems to change into another scaling relation with a stronger power below $`VV_c`$. Another scaling relation $`\tau V^{1/5}`$ for small velocities is also shown while, for larger velocities ($`VV_c`$), $`\tau `$ seems to approach a plateau value. These behaviors of $`\tau `$ and $`X`$ can be explained by the theory which starts from experimentally observed shapes of balls at the maximal deformation and employes the energy conservation. This theory also leads to the prediction $`XV^{8/5}`$ for small velocities, which seems consistent with experimental data.

## 7 Discussion

Experimentally it is difficult to observe a wide plateau region of the contact time predicted by the pancake form and only an asymptotic behavior (or the ellipsoid behavior) to this limiting regime is observed. This is because of (1) it is practically difficult to achieve such high impact velocities by the present experimental setup and (2) it is inherently impossible to exceed a certain high impact velocity above which the impact causes irreversible damages to gel balls.

The effect of gravity can be another source of increase in contact time with decrease in impact velocity as might be the case in some bouncing water drops . In the present case, however, this possibility seems to be excluded; the ratio $`MgY/U_H\rho gR(R/Y)^{3/2}/E`$ suggests that the gravitational energy $`MgY`$ becomes important only for $`Y0.04R`$, which is outside of our experimental region. Furthermore, if we define the length $`l_g`$ by $`\rho gl_gE`$, which is a counterpart of the capillary length, this is about $`1`$m and is well beyond the characteristic length scale $`R`$ (of the order of cm). This also suggests a weak gravity effect. These arguments, in turn, suggest that the gravity may play a role for very small deformations, which are not studied here.

The effect of viscosity is possibly more important and will be discussed in detail elsewhere. In fact, if we closely look at Fig. 4 we find that the behavior of the softest sample with the highest dissipation seems to deviate slightly from the others (if we removed these points from these plots, the data collapse would be much better). This suggests a possibility that viscous effects become important already for the softest sample.

The characteristic velocity $`V_c`$ that emerged as the result of the static energy evaluation turned out to coincide with the velocity of the shear wave propagation, at the level of scaling laws. To understand this meaning, a systematic study on the static large deformations of soft gel balls would be helpful, and thus such measurements are now under study.

## 8 Acknowledgements

Y. T. thanks Yuji Kozono and Yoshi Miyamoto for their instruction in the rheological measurements. Y. T. also thanks Takanobu Sato for his cooperation at the early stage of this study. Y. T. and Y. Y. thank Mitsugu Matsushita for his encouragement. K. O. benefited a lot from David Quéré through useful discussions. K. O. is very grateful to P.-G. de Gennes for his third stay in Paris financially supported by Collège de France. K. O. also appreciates Christophe Clanet and Frédéric Chevy for discussions. This work is also supported by an internal grant of Ochanomizu University.


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# Single-electron transport through the vortex core levels in clean superconductors

## Abstract

We develop a microscopic theory of single-electron transport in N-S-N hybrid structures in the presence of applied magnetic field introducing vortex lines in a superconductor layer. We show that vortex cores in a thick and clean superconducting layer are similar to mesoscopic conducting channels where the bound core states play the role of transverse modes. The transport through not very thick layers is governed by another mechanism, namely by resonance tunneling via vortex core levels. We apply our method to calculation of the thermal conductance along the magnetic field.

Electron transport through various hybrid structures is in the focus of current nanoscale physics research. Of a special interest are normal metal (N) - superconductor (S) - normal metal (N) trilayers where a superconducting gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ suppresses single-particle transport, making charge transfer transparency very sensitive to the external controlling parameters. The electron transmission through such N-S-N structure at low energies is associated with two-particle Andreev processes. If the thickness $`d`$ of the superconducting slab is much larger than the coherence length $`\xi `$ the electrons incident on the slab are reflected as holes, and the normal current converts into the supercurrent. Single-electron tunneling through an N-S-N structure decays exponentially with the slab thickness giving rise, in particular, to the exponential drop off of the electronic contribution to the thermal conductance shikin ; demers . A single-particle transport through NSN recovers by applying a strong magnetic field, which creates vortex lines where the gap in the spectrum is suppressed. In the present Letter we develop a regular theoretical description of the low-energy single-particle transfer through the vortex core states in clean type II superconductors. Since the single particle contribution to electric conductivity is short-circuited by supercurrent, we focus on the thermal conductivity which in this case is the experimentally accessible characteristic of the one-electron transport.

Taking the simplest view of a vortex core as a normal channel with a density of states as in the normal metal, we arrive at a single-electron Sharvin conductance of a normal wire with the radius of the order of $`\xi `$:

$$G_{se}(e^2/\pi \mathrm{})(k_F\xi )^2$$
(1)
where $`k_F=p_F/\mathrm{}`$ is the Fermi wave vector. A little bit more attentive second thought shows that in clean superconductors the only trajectories that do not hit vortex core “walls” contribute to a single-particle conductivity. Indeed, if a vortex core is a normal cylinder surrounded by a superconductor, an electron flying into the core boundary is Andreev reflected as a hole back along its incidental path. Thus the single-electron transport along such a trajectory is blocked, and the only contribution to the conductance of the “Andreev wire” comes from trajectories that traverse freely the normal region. Within this model, such trajectories must have incident angles $`\theta \xi /d`$, i.e., are confined to a solid angle $`\xi ^2/d^2`$. This would result MelVin1  in $`G_{se}(e^2/\pi \mathrm{})(k_F\xi )^2(\xi /d)^2`$. Considering below the realistic gap profile inside the core in the framework of the developed approach we will show that the drop of conductance with the thickness $`d`$ is even more rapid and proportional to $`d^6`$.

However, the low energy transport associated with the Caroli–deGennes–Matricon (CdGM) states degen  propagating along the core should obviously saturate for very thick superconducting slabs. The CdGM spectrum $`ϵ_\mu (k_z)`$ as a function of the quantized angular momentum $`\mu =n+1/2`$ varies from $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ to $`+\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ crossing zero as the impact parameter $`b=\mu /k_r`$ of the particle varies from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`+\mathrm{}`$. Here $`k_r=\sqrt{k_F^2k_z^2}`$ is the wave vector in the plane perpendicular to the vortex, $`(r,\varphi ,z)`$ is a cylindrical coordinate system with the $`z`$\- axis chosen along the vortex line. For small $`\mu `$ the spectrum is $`ϵ_\mu (k_z)\mu \mathrm{\Delta }_0/(k_r\xi )`$. Transport carried by the quantized transverse modes is described by the Landauer formula. In the limit $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0/(k_F\xi )T\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, the number of modes is $`(T/\mathrm{\Delta }_0)k_F\xi `$, and for the resonant contribution to the single-particle conductance one gets MelVin1 :

$$G_{se}=(e^2/\pi \mathrm{})\underset{\mu }{}𝒯_\mu (e^2/\pi \mathrm{})(T/\mathrm{\Delta }_0)(k_F\xi ).$$
(2)
Here $`\mu `$ numerates the transverse modes with transparencies $`𝒯_\mu `$ open in the vortex core. This estimate can also be obtained from Eq. (1) provided the group velocity is taken as $`v_g=\mathrm{}^1ϵ_\mu /k_zϵ_\mu /\mathrm{}k_F`$ instead of the velocity $`v_zv_F`$ as in a normal tube. The conductance of Eq. (2) is by a factor $`(k_F\xi )^11`$ smaller than that of Eq. (1). One thus expects that the single-particle Andreev-wire conductance of the vortex core would transform into Eq. (2) with increasing $`d`$.

As we already mentioned, the single-electron transport determines the behavior of thermal conductivity. The Wiedemann–Franz law would result in $`\kappa TG_{se}/e^2`$ for the thermal conductance along the vortex line. In the vicinity of $`H_{c2}`$, the thermal conductivity has been studied theoretically in a number of papers (see, for instance, Caroli ; Maki ; Tes ). In dirty superconductors, the electron contribution to the thermal conductance along the vortices for a small concentration of vortex lines Kopnin/heat  agrees conceptually with Eq. (1): $`\kappa (B)(B/H_{c2})\kappa _N`$, where $`\kappa _N`$ is the electron thermal conductivity in the normal state. Unfortunately, in clean superconductors this simple estimate fails to describe the experimental data Lowell ; vinen : the thermal conductance in the magnetic field direction appears to be two orders of magnitude smaller. It was noted first in vinen  that this obvious conflict can be caused by a very small group velocity of the CdGM modes as discussed above. Analysis of quantum transport through individual vortices is of particular importance for understanding the properties of mesoscopic superconductors. The exotic vortex states in these systems are nowadays the focus of a considerable attention geim ; Peeters ; chibotaru .

Hereafter we concentrate on the low-energy single-particle transport through vortex cores in clean ($`\mathrm{}d`$) type II superconductors in the low-field limit of separated vortices and develop a systematic approach for calculation of the thermal conductance along vortex cores. We study the transmission of an electron wave incident on the superconducting slab placed between two bulk normal metal electrodes assuming ideally transparent boundaries and neglecting the normal scattering. Considering two extremes of infinite and finite slab thicknesses we confirm the intuitive picture discussed above: For a not very thick slab, the transmission is determined by the semi-classical resonant tunneling through the energy gapped region when the energy coincides exactly with one of the levels in the vortex core. The transmission is proportional to the large Sharvin conductance; however, it decays exponentially with the slab thickness except for the trajectories that go almost parallel to the vortex axis. The exponential decay is thus replaced with a $`(\xi /d)^6`$ power law, which gradually transforms the Andreev-like thermal conductance into a thickness-independent expression Eq. (2) as $`d`$ increases.

Wave functions.– Quasiparticles in the superconductor obey the Bogolubov-de Gennes (BdG) equations:

$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2m}}\left(i\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{e}{c}}𝐀\right)^2E_F\right]u+\mathrm{\Delta }v`$ $`=`$ $`ϵu,`$ (3)
$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2m}}\left(i\mathrm{}+{\displaystyle \frac{e}{c}}𝐀\right)^2E_F\right]v\mathrm{\Delta }^{}u`$ $`=`$ $`ϵv.`$ (4)
The wave vector $`k_z`$ along the vortex axis is a good quantum number, $`u=e^{ik_zz}u_{k_z},v=e^{ik_zz}v_{k_z}`$. We put $`\mathrm{\Delta }=|\mathrm{\Delta }|e^{i\varphi }`$, and $`u_{k_z}=e^{i\varphi /2+i\mu \varphi }U`$, $`v_{k_z}=e^{i\varphi /2+i\mu \varphi }V`$. Equations (3), (4) have eigenvalues $`ϵ_\mu (k_z)`$ for the CdGM bound states. We establish first a simple identity for the localized states. Calculating the derivative with respect to $`k_z`$ from the both sides of Eqs. (3), (4) and using the normalization of the CdGM wave functions we find

$`{\displaystyle }[u_{\mu k_z}^{}(\mathrm{}k_z{\displaystyle \frac{e}{c}}A_z)u_{\mu k_z}`$ (5)
$``$ $`v_{\mu k_z}^{}(\mathrm{}k_z+{\displaystyle \frac{e}{c}}A_z)v_{\mu k_z}]d^2r={\displaystyle \frac{m}{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_\mu }{k_z}}.`$
There is a considerable cancellation in Eq. (5): the r.h.s. is by a factor of $`(k_F\xi )^1`$ smaller than each term in the l.h.s. This is why Eq. (2) gives much smaller conductance than Eq. (1). We will use Eq. (5) later to derive the thermal conductance for a thick slab.

However, the cancellation does not take place for a finite-thickness slab where the CdGM states are not truly localized. To consider this in more detail we use a semi-classical approach and look for $`\widehat{𝒰}=(U,V)`$ in the form

$$\widehat{𝒰}=H_l^{(1)}\left(k_rr\right)\widehat{w}^{(+)}+H_l^{(2)}\left(k_rr\right)\widehat{w}^{()}$$

where $`H_l^{(1,2)}`$ are the Hankel functions, $`l=\sqrt{\mu ^2+1/4}`$, assuming that $`\widehat{w}=(w_1,w_2)`$ are slow functions of $`r`$ and $`z`$. Following Bardeen  we put $`x=\sqrt{r^2b^2}`$, $`b=\mu /k_r`$ and define the trajectories $`dx=\pm ds_\pm \mathrm{sin}\theta `$, $`dz=ds_\pm \mathrm{cos}\theta `$ for $`\widehat{w}^{(\pm )}`$, respectively, where $`k_z=k_F\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ and $`ds_\pm `$ is the distance along the corresponding trajectory. For a point $`(x,z)`$ on the trajectory $`z=z_0\pm x\mathrm{cot}\theta `$ we obtain

$`{\displaystyle \frac{i\mathrm{}^2k_r}{m}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\widehat{w}^{(\pm )}}{dx}}\widehat{\sigma }_z\left(ϵ+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2k_rb}{2m(x^2+b^2)}}\right)\widehat{w}^{(\pm )}`$
$`+i\widehat{\sigma }_y|\mathrm{\Delta }|\widehat{w}^{(\pm )}=0.`$ (6)
For the functions $`w_{1,2}^{(+)}(x,z)`$, the limit $`x\mathrm{}`$ corresponds to a wave radiating from the vortex into the bulk while $`w_{1,2}^{()}(x,z)`$ corresponds to a wave incident on the vortex. The condition of regularity at $`r=0`$ requires $`\widehat{w}^{(+)}(0,z)=\widehat{w}^{()}(0,z)`$ at the classical turning point, $`x=0`$. Let us put $`\widehat{w}^{(+)}(x,z)=\widehat{w}(x,z)`$, $`\widehat{w}^{()}(x,z)=\widehat{w}(x,z)`$. The functions $`w_{1,2}(x,z)`$ satisfy Eq. (6) with the upper sign along the entire $`x`$ axis.

We introduce new functions $`\eta `$ and $`\zeta `$ through $`w_1=e^{\zeta +i\eta /2}`$, $`w_2=e^{\zeta i\eta /2}`$ and arrive at the equations

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\eta }{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2mϵ}{\mathrm{}^2k_r}}+{\displaystyle \frac{b}{(x^2+b^2)}}{\displaystyle \frac{2m|\mathrm{\Delta }|}{\mathrm{}^2k_r}}\mathrm{cos}\eta ,`$ (7)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\zeta }{dx}}`$ $`=`$ $`m|\mathrm{\Delta }|\mathrm{}^2k_r^1\mathrm{sin}\eta .`$ (8)
The requirement that $`w`$ vanishes at $`x\pm \mathrm{}`$ is $`\eta =\pm \pi /2(ϵ/|\mathrm{\Delta }_0)+2\pi k`$. These values, however, are not stable for a general choice of the integration constants. A general solution for not very large positive $`x`$ is

$`\eta `$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{arctan}{\displaystyle \frac{x}{b}}+\eta _0e^{2K(x)}`$ (9)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{2m}{\mathrm{}^2k_r}}{\displaystyle _0^x}\left[ϵ|\mathrm{\Delta }(x^{})|{\displaystyle \frac{b}{|x^{}|}}\right]e^{2K(x)2K(x^{})}𝑑x^{}`$
where $`\eta _0`$ is a constant and

$$K(x)=m\mathrm{}^2k_r^1_0^x|\mathrm{\Delta }(x^{})|𝑑x^{}.$$

For $`\eta _01`$ and $`ϵ\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, the function $`\eta `$ is close to $`\pi /2`$ for $`bxx_0`$ where $`x_0\xi \mathrm{ln}(1/|\gamma |)`$ and

$$\gamma =2m\mathrm{}^2k_r^1_0^{\mathrm{}}\left[ϵ(b/x)|\mathrm{\Delta }|\right]e^{2K(x)}𝑑x.$$
(10)
$`\gamma `$ measures the distance from a CdGM level: $`\gamma =0`$ exactly when $`ϵ=ϵ_\mu (k_z)`$. The validity of Eq. (9) is restricted by the condition $`\gamma 1`$ which generally holds if $`ϵ\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. The function $`\eta `$ grows with $`|x|`$ at distances $`xx_0`$. To find its behavior in the region $`\eta 1`$ we can neglect small terms with $`ϵ`$ and $`b/x`$ in Eq. (7). The solution is

$$\mathrm{tan}\left(\frac{\eta }{2}\frac{\pi }{4}\right)=Ce^{2K(x)}.$$
(11)
Matching with Eq. (9) at $`\xi xx_0`$ gives $`C=\left(\gamma +\eta _0\right)/2`$. For $`\gamma +\eta _0>0`$, the function $`\eta 3\pi /2`$ while $`w`$ diverges exponentially as $`x\mathrm{}`$. If $`\gamma +\eta _0<0`$, the function $`\eta `$ approaches $`\pi /2`$, and $`w`$ diverges again. However, if $`\gamma +\eta _0=0`$, the value $`\eta =\pi /2`$ is stable (see Fig. 1) and the wave function decays for $`x\mathrm{}`$.

The solution at $`|x|x_0`$ for negative $`x`$ is obtained from Eq. (9) by replacing $`K(x)`$ with $`K(x)`$. The function $`\eta `$ is close to $`\pi /2`$ for $`b|x|x_0`$. Its behavior for $`|x|x_0`$ is determined by Eq. (11) where $`C=2/\left(\gamma \eta _0\right)`$. Equation (11) then shows that $`3\pi /2<\eta (\mathrm{})<\pi /2`$ if $`\gamma \eta _0>0`$. The function $`\eta `$ grows and approaches $`\eta (\mathrm{})3\pi /2`$ while $`w`$ diverges. Similarly, $`\pi /2<\eta (\mathrm{})<\pi /2`$ if $`\gamma \eta _0<0`$ so that $`w`$ also diverges. The value $`\eta =\pi /2`$ is stable if only $`\gamma \eta _0=0`$. The wave function thus decays at both ends if $`\gamma =\eta _0=0`$, which corresponds to a standard CdGM state.

Reflection and transmission probabilities.– For a superconducting slab with a thickness $`d`$ we thus have a linear combination of two solutions $`\widehat{w}=A_>\widehat{w}^>+A_<\widehat{w}^<`$ where $`A_>`$ and $`A_<`$ are constants. The first solution $`w_{1,2}^>`$ has $`\eta _0=\gamma `$ and decays at $`x\mathrm{}`$. Thus $`\eta _>(+|x|)=\pi /2`$ for $`x\xi `$ while $`\eta _>(|x|)`$ satisfies

$$\mathrm{tan}\left[\frac{1}{2}\eta _>(|x|)\frac{\pi }{4}\right]=\gamma ^1e^{2K(|x|)}$$
(12)
according to Eq. (11). For $`\gamma 0`$ the phase $`\eta _>=3\pi /2+2\pi n`$ at $`x=|x|\mathrm{}`$. The amplitude factor for $`x=|x|`$ is found from Eqs. (8) and (11)

$$\zeta _>(|x|)=K(|x|)+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{\gamma ^2+e^{4K(|x|)}}{1+\gamma ^2}\right).$$

For $`x=|x|`$ it is simply $`\zeta _>(+|x|)=K(|x|)`$. The other solution $`w_{1,2}^<(x)=w_{1,2}^>(x)`$ grows at $`x+\mathrm{}`$.

The particle transmission $`D_e`$ and hole (Andreev) reflection $`R_h`$ probabilities, $`1=R_h+D_e`$, are determined such that $`D_e=\left|w_1(z=d)/w_1(z=0)\right|^2`$ provided there are no transmitted holes, $`w_2=0`$ at $`z=d`$. We denote the $`x`$-coordinates of the end points of the trajectory at $`z=0`$ and $`z=d`$ as $`x_{}`$ and $`x_+`$, respectively, such that $`d\mathrm{tan}\theta =x_+x_{}`$. For trajectories crossing the vortex axis, $`0<x_+<d\mathrm{tan}\theta `$, $`x_{}=|x_{}|`$, we find

$$D_e=\left(\gamma ^2+a^2\right)^1\mathrm{cosh}^2\left[K(|x_+|)+K(|x_{}|)\right]$$
(13)
where

$$a=\mathrm{cosh}\left[K(|x_+|)K(|x_{}|)\right]/\mathrm{cosh}\left[K(|x_+|)+K(|x_{}|)\right]$$

is the half-width of the level $`\gamma =0`$ proportional to the escape rate of excitations from the level through the gapped region far from the vortex. For $`\gamma 0`$, the transmission coefficient becomes $`D_p=\mathrm{cosh}^2\left[K(|x_+|)K(|x_{}|)\right]`$. It is $`D_p=1`$ for resonant trajectories that go through the middle of the vortex, $`|x_{}|=|x_+|=(d/2)\mathrm{tan}\theta `$. For trajectories that do not cross the vortex axis, $`x_{},x_+<0`$ or $`x_{}>0,x_+>d\mathrm{tan}\theta `$, we find $`D_p=\mathrm{cosh}^2\left[K(x_+)K(x_{})\right]`$ where $`x_+x_{}=d\mathrm{tan}\theta `$ .

Equation (13) suggests that the largest contribution to the transmission through the energy gapped region comes from the resonant tunneling when the energy coincides exactly with one of the levels in the vortex core. The transmission probability is then unity if the trajectory crosses the vortex close to the half of its length. However, the width of the resonance $`a`$ is exponentially small which leads to a small number of transmitted particles. This exponent, however, corresponds to only a half of the slab thickness, not to the entire slab thickness as it would be without vortices. The exponential decay of the number of transmitted particles disappears for trajectories which go almost parallel to the vortex axis because the projection of the trajectory on the plane perpendicular to the vortex axis shrinks as $`\theta 0`$. The transport is thus determined by trajectories almost parallel to the vortex axis; its exponential dependence on the slab thickness is replaced with a power-law behavior.

The heat current.– The energy current along $`z`$ is

$`I_{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle }d^2r{\displaystyle \underset{\mu }{}}{\displaystyle }{\displaystyle \frac{dk_z}{2\pi m}}[ϵ_\mu u_{\mu k_z}^{}(\mathrm{}k_z{\displaystyle \frac{e}{c}}A_z)u_{\mu k_z}n(ϵ_\mu )`$
$`ϵ_\mu v_{\mu k_z}^{}(\mathrm{}k_z+{\displaystyle \frac{e}{c}}A_z)v_{\mu k_z}[1n(ϵ_\mu )]].`$
Particles $`u^{}u`$ with the distribution $`n(ϵ)`$ carry the energy $`+ϵ`$ while the holes $`v^{}v`$ with the distribution $`1n(ϵ)`$ carry the energy $`ϵ`$. If the electrodes are in equilibrium, $`1n(ϵ)=n(ϵ)`$ in each electrode.

Consider first an infinitely thick slab. Using Eq. (5) the energy current between the two electrodes becomes

$$I_{}=\underset{\mu }{}ϵ_\mu n(ϵ_\mu )\frac{ϵ_\mu }{k_z}\frac{dk_z}{2\pi \mathrm{}}.$$

Excitations with positive group velocity $`\mathrm{}^1ϵ_\mu /k_z`$ have the distribution $`n_1=[e^{ϵ/T_1}+1]^1`$ as in the electrode 1. For those with negative group velocity the distribution is $`n_2=[e^{ϵ/T_2}+1]^1`$ as in the electrode 2. Therefore

$$I_{}=\underset{\mu }{}_{p_z>0}ϵ_\mu \left[n_1(ϵ_\mu )n_2(ϵ_\mu )\right]\left|\frac{ϵ_\mu }{k_z}\right|\frac{dk_z}{2\pi \mathrm{}}.$$
(14)
By the order of magnitude, the heat current is $`I_{}(T/\mathrm{})(k_F\xi )(T/T_c)(T_1T_2)`$ with the thermal conductance

$$\kappa (T/\mathrm{})(k_F\xi )(T/T_c)$$
(15)
in compliance with Eq. (2).

For a finite slab thickness, $`I_{}`$ can be expressed through the transmission and reflection coefficients,

$`I_{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑ϵ|v_z|\left[ϵn_1(ϵ)ϵR_h\left[1n_1(ϵ)\right]ϵD_en_2(ϵ)\right]}`$
$`=`$ $`2\nu _F{\displaystyle _{v_z>0}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\mathrm{\Omega }}{4\pi }}|v_z|{\displaystyle 𝑑x_{}𝑑bD_eϵ\left(n_1n_2\right)𝑑ϵ},`$
where the sum is over all the trajectories; $`\nu _F`$ is the single-spin density of states at the Fermi level. The first two terms in the upper line are due to incoming particles and Andreev reflected holes on one side of the slab. The third term is due to transmitted particles from the other side.

Using Eq. (13) we find that for the resonant trajectories $`d\mathrm{tan}\theta <x_{}<0`$ the integration over $`dx_{}`$ selects $`|x_{}|`$ close to $`|x_+|`$. The angles along the vortex core axis are small such that $`k_r=k_F\mathrm{sin}\theta k_F`$ and $`K(x)=(m/2\mathrm{}^2k_r)\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(0)x^2`$. The localization radius of the wave function in the $`x`$ direction is $`\lambda =\mathrm{}\left(k_F/\pi m\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(0)\right)^{1/2}\theta ^{1/2}\xi \theta ^{1/2}`$. Let us put $`x_0=\left(|x_{}||x_+|\right)/2`$ while $`|x_{}|+|x_+|=d\mathrm{tan}\theta `$. For small $`\theta `$ we have $`K(|x_+|)K(|x_{}|)=x_0(md/\mathrm{}^2k_F)\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(0)`$ and $`K(|x_+|)+K(|x_{}|)\theta (md^2/\mathrm{}^2k_F)\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(0)d^2\theta /\xi ^2`$. Therefore, $`x_0\xi ^2/d`$ and $`\theta (\xi /d)^2`$. As a result,

$$I_{}\nu _F\mathrm{}^4v_F^5d^6\left(\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(0)\right)^4\left(T_1^2T_2^2\right).$$
(16)
Trajectories that do not cross the vortex but pass within an angle $`\theta \xi ^2/d^2`$ near its axis give the same order of magnitude. The thermal conductance is $`\kappa (T/\mathrm{})(k_F\xi )^2(\xi /d)^6`$. The semi-classical approach requires $`k_r\lambda 1`$, which restricts the angle by $`\theta (k_F\xi )^{2/3}`$. As a result, Eq. (16) applies for $`d/\xi (k_F\xi )^{1/3}`$. However, transition to the Landauer equation (15) occurs already at smaller $`d`$. Thus the crossover region has be considered separately, taking into account non-quasiclassical corrections to the wave functions.

In conclusion, we have shown that with respect to the single-electron transport the vortex core in a thick clean superconductor is equivalent to a mesoscopic conducting channel where the conductance is determined by the Landauer formula with CdGM states playing the role of transverse modes. For a finite slab thickness $`d`$, the vortex core behaves like an Andreev wire: the thermal conductivity along it drops off as $`d^6`$ due to a finite order parameter everywhere except at the vortex axis.

This work was supported in part by the US DOE Office of Science under contract No. W-31-109-ENG-38, by Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant 02-02-16218, the Program “Quantum Macrophysics” of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and NATO Collaborative Linkage Grant No. PST.CLG.978122. A.S.M. is grateful to the Low Temperature Laboratory at the Helsinki University of Technology for hospitality.