VISCOSITY AND LIGHT SCATTERING IN CRITICAL MIXTURES

of the International School of Physics, Enrico Fermi, erences cited therein.

18
Course LI, Critical Phenomena, 1970 (unpublished); For a comprehensive review on this argument see
and also Fisher, Rept. Progr. Phys. 30, 615 (1967). Ref. 1.
4G. Arcovito, C. Faloci, M. Roberti, and L. Mistura, A. Stein, J. C. Allegra, and G. F. Allen, J. Chem.
Phys. Rev. Letters 22, 1040 (1969). Phys. 55, 4265 (1971).
5B. Chu and F. J. Schoenes, Phys. Rev. Letters 21, J. C. Allegra, A. Stein, and G. F. Allen, J. Chem.
6 (1968). Phys. 55, 1716 (1971).
L. P. Kadanoff and J. Swift, Phys. Rev. 166, 89 22
P. N. Pusey and W. I. Goldburg, Phys. Rev. A
(1968) . 3, 766 (1971).
J. Swift, Phys. Rev. 173, 257 (1968). 23
See also P. Gluck and M. Luban, Phys. Letters 28A,
C. Di Castro, Nuovo Cimento 1, 199 (1971), and ref- 607 (1969).

PHYSIC AL REVIEW A VOLUME 6, NUMBER 4 OC TOB ER 1972

Statistics of the Radiation from Astronomical Masers

N. J. Evans II*
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley 94720
and

R. E. Hills~
Radio Astronomy I aboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720

O. E. H. Rydbeck and E. Kollbergt

Onsala Space Observatory and Research Laboratory of Electronics,
Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenberg, Sceeden
(Received 15 May 1972)
The results of an experimental determination of the statistical properties of radiation from
OH maser sources are reported and interpreted. The radiation is found to have Gaussian
statistics with no deviations greater than 1/0.

Radiation from astronomical objects is generally
assumed to arise through processes in which the
individual particles radiate independently. The re-
sulting radiation fields are Gaussian; a complete
description of such fields requires only the evalua-
tion of quantities which are of second order in the
field strength. Consequently, astronomical mea-
surements are normally limited to estimating the
power spectrum and the angular distribution of in-
tensity, which correspond to the second-order tem-
poral and spatial correlation functions of the radia-
tion field. In maser systems, stimulated emission
is dominant so that the radiating particles no longer
act independently. This may produce a non-Gauss-
ian radiation field if the system has nonlinear
properties. In the case where a maser amplifier
provides linear amplification of initially random
signals, such as radiation from a background
source or from spontaneous emission within the
amplifying region, no departures from Gaussian
statistics will develop. However, if saturation oc-
curs, reducing the gain for high intensities, large
amplitudes will appear less frequently in the output
than in a Gaussian field of the same mean intensity.
Conversely, if the gain increases for large signals,
the probability density will show an excess of large
amplitudes. The latter type of nonlinearity might
be produced through the interaction of beams travel-
ing in shghtly different directions through a medium
with population inversion. In such media, the
stronger beam may rob energy from the weaker
beam. ~ In any case, both the coherence of the
individual radiators and the nonlinear gain charac-
teristic are necessary to disturb the Gaussian na-
ture of the original field.
emission sources, '
The extreme brightness of many OH and HzO
usually associated with re-
gions of ionized hydrogen or with cool giant stars,
can be best explained by maser amplification. In
some cases the shapes of the emission lines in the
power spectra indicate saturation of the maser
process. ' Because these conditions bear consider-
able resemblance to laboratory systems which pro-
duce non-Gaussian radiation fields, we have car-
ried out a search for departures from Gaussian
statistics in the radiation from astronomical ma-
sers.
In this experiment we investigated the statistical
 EVANS, HILLS, RYDBEC K, AND KOLLBERG
nature of the signals from the strongest OH emis-
sion sources by estimating the probability density
of the amplitude P(A). P(A) is defined in the usual
'
way, where we interpret P(A) dA as the probability
of measuring an amplitude between A. and A. +dA.
We obtain an experimental estimate of P(A) by
sampling the signal and forming a histogram, so
that N(A;) is the number of samples with an ampli-
tude between A; —2 5 and A;+ 2 5. If the bin size 5
is sufficiently small, the histogram provides an
increasingly reliable approximation to P(A) as the
number of independent samples is increased. One
can generally characterize the probability density
in terms of its moments, defined by
E(A") = J A"P(A) dA,
corresponding to the expectation value of the zth
power of the amplitude. We can estimate these
moments by an analogous averaging over the histo-
gram:
(A") =2;A;"N(A;),
or equivalently by measuring the time average of
the nth power of the amplitude.
The pronounced tendency of natural noise sources
to have Gaussian statistics is a result of the cen-
tral-limit theorem, ' which states that the probabil-
ity density of the sum of signals from many uncor-
related sources tends to a Gaussian as the number
of sources becomes large. Such a probability den-
sity
has the following moments:
&(A") = 1' 3' 5 —1)g" for n even
(n
=0 for g odd . porated several improvements in technique. As
We have used a function with zero mean because
the average value of the field in an electromagnetic
wave must be zero. A Gaussian probability density
is completely determined if we know its second
moment, which is proportional to the mean power
of the signal. To search for non-Gaussian effects
in some signal, we can compare the values of its
higher moments to those predicted for a Gaussian
signal of the same mean power. A suitably nor-
malized measure of non-Gaussian effects is the ex-
cess, defined by
If the signal is Gaussian, & will be zero and an esti-
where m is the number of samples. "
mate of e will have a standard deviation of (24/m)'~2,
In the various experiments described below, we
compared the astronomical signal to a reference
noise source, supplied either by the receiver or by
a gas discharge tube. We selected only a narrow
band of frequencies for analysis. This corresponds
to averaging the noise with a time constant given by
our inverse bandwidth. This time constant is much
longer than the correlation time of a reference
noise source which is given by the inverse of its
natural bandwidth. Hence the noise measured is
the sum of many independent events and, from the
central theorem, we expect that it will have Gauss-
ian statistics. Because the receiver also added
noise to the astronomical signal, the observed ex-
cess is
e = &0/(1+&V/S), (6)
where &0 is the excess that would be observed for
the signal alone and N/S is the ratio of noise power
to signal power. For small signals the observed
excess is proportional to the square of the signal-
to-noise ratio; this fact limits the experiment to
observation of the strongest sources with the best
available receivers.
Our first observations were made at the Qnsala
(2)
Space Research Observatory. The 25. 6-m antenna
was equipped with a traveling-wave maser ampli-
flier giving a noise temperature in the region of 35
K. A narrow band of frequencies covering a single
strong emission line was filtered out, detected, and
recorded on magnetic tape for later analysis in
Berkeley. A reference run was made by pointing
the telescope away from the OH source, so that only
the receiver noise was recorded. These observa-
tions ruled out the existence of large non-Gaussian
effects, but the accuracy of our measurements was
limited by distortion of the detected signal intro-
duced by the tape recorder.
A second series of observations, made at the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, ' incor-
well as recording the signals, we also constructed
an on-line experiment to measure directly the
fourth power of the signal. For a comparison
source we used a noise tube which had been adjusted
to give the same mean power as the astronomical
source. We also mixed the signal down to a fre-
quency low enough that it could be recorded unde-
tected. This procedure is preferable because any
linear operation (such as being recorded and played
back on a tape recorder with an imperfectly flat
pass band) will not introduce non-Gaussian effects
into a Gaussian signal. However, the same opera-
tion on the detected signal, which has a one-sided
(5)
exponential probability density, will alter its sta-
tistics.
A block diagram of the experiment is shown in
Fig. 1. We used the 140-ft antenna, and the re-
ceiver was a cooled parametric amplifier with a
noise temperature of 70 K. The input was switched
between the source and the noise tube at 1 Hz. The
signal was converted to audio frequency and filtered
 STATISTICS OF THE RADIATION FROM. . .

l40 f t. Telescope

Noise Local Oscillator

Source Frequency Switched
l

t I
Switching
Signal
I Hz
I

4
I
8. P. 8. P.
Sync h. Chart Synch. Eilter Filter
Detector Recorder Detector I k, Hz 2 KHz
wide wide

I 4Hz
Square- L. P. Square- x
Law Fil ter law
Detector 5 kHz Detector C
2 kHz
X4 X

Analog Tape Recorder

FIG. 1. Block diagram of the equipment used at the 140-ft telescope.

to select one emission line. The resulting signal
was passed through a square-law detector, filtered
to remove the high-frequency component (which
contained no additional information) and passed
through a second square-law detector. The mean
of this final output was proportional to the fourth
power of the original signal amplitude. The outputs
of both these detectors were then synchronously de-
tected at the 1-Hz switching frequency. This pro-
cedure provided two quantities:
5, = (A~ ) —(A„'T )
5, = (A,') —(A„'T &,
both representing differences between the corre-
sponding values for source and noise tube. For
each emission source, the level of the noise tube
was adjusted to make 6& zero, so that the mean
yower from the noise tube was the same as that
from the source. A nonzero signal in 6z would then
indicate non-Gaussian effects in the source.
The tape recordings were analyzed with the facili-
ties of the Electronics Research Laboratory at
Berkeley. These include an IBM 1800 computer,
analog to digital converters, and a special yurpose
matrix arithmetic unit which is used to perform
such functions as fast Fourier transforms and
scalar products. The analog signals of both source
and noise tube were sampled and digitized, a typi-
cal run yielding 275 000 data points. The computer
then constructed histograms (see Fig. 2) and esti-
mated the moments of the signals from both the
source and noise tube.
We observed 3V of the strongest OH emission
lines, including lines from Sgr B2, NGC 6334, VY
Canis Majoris, NML Cygnus, W 3, W 28, W 49,
and W 51. These represent a broad range of types
of OH sources, and in no case did we observe any
significant deviations from Gaussian statistics.
The signal-to-noise ratio ranged from 0. 5 to 2. V,
depending on the particular line. By monitoring
the on-line experiment we were able to rule out
deviations greater than about 10/0. In addition we
were able to maintain a continuous check on the
equipment and on any interference which might
have confused the later analysis.
The analysis of the recordings yielded a more
sensitive limit and also allowed a more detailed
investigation by estimating the probability density
and the power spectrum. When we computed the
excess for a particular line, we generally found it
to be negative for both source and noise tube,
probably reflecting a slight limiting of large ampli-
tudes in the equipment. The excesses for the noise
tube were always close to those for the source,
illustrating the value of using a reference signal
which closely approximates the mean power in the
 E VANE, HILLS, R YDBE C K,
CA
O
O to laboratory lasers" in which coherent feedback
I
I
I I I I I I I
E TUBE
CA
O
C3
0 statistics approach a Poisson distribution.
0)
E lent of the end mirrors which produce coherent
-4 -2 0 2 4 Studies of the statistical properties of laser ampli-
amplitude (arbitrary units)
FIG. 2. Amplitude distribution histograms of the sig-
nal from the —45. 1-km/sec emission line in source W 3
and of the reference noise tube. The signal was twice
the receiver noise on this particular source.
source. Any difference between the excesses in
the source and those in the noise tube should repre-
sent a measure of non-Gaussian effects unbiased
by the equipment, and in fact me found that the
-
quantity &e = e~ eNT was generally quite small. If
we now assume that all the sources are indeed
Gaussian, we can examine the resulting ensemble
of 3V measurements of 4e to determine our effec-
tive error. The mean of this ensemble is very
nearly zero, mhich indicates that the systematic
errors have been effectively removed. The stan-
dard deviation of the ensemble is 9. 6&& 10 ', which
agrees with the expected error quoted above. This
agreement supports the interpretation that all the
sources are Gaussian and that the residual excess-
es are caused by the expected errors in estima-
tion. The upper limit on &0, the excess intrinsic
to a particular source, is somewhat greater and
depends on the signal-to-noise ratio for that source
as noted above.
In order to understand the apparently Gaussian
nature of these sources, we should first examine
the non-Gaussian effects observed in laboratory
systems and see under what conditions they might
occur in astronomical sources. Besides the spe-
cific cases described below, deviations from
Gaussian statistics are observed under a wide
range of conditions, and our examples are not
xneant to be a complete description.
AND KOLLBERG
If one believes that maser amplification is re-
sponsible for the very intense OH and H2O sources,
he might first construct a model in which each
source is a maser oscillator, completely analogous
is used to stabilize the output intensity. The sta-
tistics of these laser oscillators have been studied
through measurements of the photoelectron count-
ing distribution, which can be predicted from the
probability density of the field. As more laser
oscillator light is mixed with thermal light, the
photoelectron counting statistics begin to deviate
from a Bose-Einstein distribution, which would
be observed if the radiation field were Gaussian.
In the limit of pure laser light, the photoelectron
Because there is no clear astronomical equiva-
feedback in laboratory lasers, a more likely model
for the astronomical sources might be a single
pass maser which amplifies background radiation.
fiers operating in the region of saturation indicate
that considerable excesses may develop. At low
saturation a positive excess appears, apparently
due to instabilities which produce spiking; as the
maser becomes more heavily saturated, large in-
tensities receive reduced gain and the excess be-
comes negative.
The interaction of beams referred to in our
introductory remarks provides another example
of a process which would produce positive excess-
es. The mechanism involved is light-by-light
scattering in which nonlinear terms in the sus-
ceptibility allow two photons in a strong beam to
scatter, producing two photons traveling at small
angles with respect to the original beam. In a
medium with population inversion the sign of the
susceptibility changes, and weaker beams may
feed energy into the stronger beam. 2 Since this
process mould enhance the gain for large signals,
one might expect the output of the masers to display
irregular pulsing, similar to the spiking commonly
observed in laboratory systems.
Since at least some of these models seem plausi-
ble for the conditions in astronomical sources, we
must turn to an examination of what effects might
prevent us from observing non-Gaussian statistics.
As a result of scattering by electrons in the inter-
stellar medium, signals from astronomical sources
travel over many different paths to the observer.
If the differences in the propagation times over the
various paths are large compared to the correlation
time of the signals (-1 msec since the bandwidth of
the signals is typically 1 kHz) the observed signal
will be the sum of many uncorrelated components
which left the source at different times. In this
case, the observed signal mill tend to a Gaussian,
 8TATIS TICS OF THE RADIATION
as a result of the central limit theorem. Multipath
propagation in the interstellar medium is observed
to broaden the pulses from the Crab pulsar by
about 1 msec at 200 MHz. ' Since this effect scales
as A."4, the difference in propagation times at the
OH frequency (-1600 MHz) would be much less
than the correlation times of the OH signals, pro-
vided that the conditions along the paths to these
sources are similar to those along the path to the
pulsar. However, the OH sources are often as-
sociated with compact H zr regions, where the
electron density may be very high. Scattering in
one of these regions within about 1 parsec of the
source could cause differences in propagation
times of as much as 0. 1 sec without increasing the
apparent angular size of the source beyond that
observed.
Scattering processes within the OH maser could
act in a similar way to obscure non-Gaussian ef-
fects. The masing molecules will scatter radiation
at the frequency of the resonance, and this resonant
scattering should be quite appreciable in typical
OH masers. '7 More general considerations also
suggest that the observed signal may be a sum of
uncorrelated components. The size of the sources
(10"-10"m) is large compared to the correlation
length of 3& 10 m; therefore, rather special geo-
metrical conditions would be needed to produce a
signal which is correlated over the entire surface
of the maser. In view of these facts, we consider
the effect of adding ~ uncorrelated signals. For
*Work supported in part by the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration Grant No. NGL 05-003-272.
4Work supported in part by the National Science
FoundationGrant No. GP 24611.
f.Partly
supported by the Swedish National Science
Research Council and the Swedish Council for Applied
Research.
~D. J. Sakrison, Communication Theory: Transmis-
sion of &aveforms and Digital Information (Wiley, New
York, 1968), p. 92.
C. H. Townes (private communication).
3H. F. Weaver, D. R. W. Williams, N. H. Dieter,
and W. T. Lum, Nature 208, 29 (1965).
4W. J. Wilson and A. H. Barrett, Science 161, 778
(1968).
W. J. Wilson, A. H. Barrett, and J. M. Moran,
Astrophys. J. 160, 545 (1970). -
H. Gamo and T. J. Walter, Air Force Cambridge
Research Laboratory Report No. 68-0354 (unpublished).
E. O. Schultz-Dubois, Bell System Tech. J. 43, 625
(1964).
F. T. Arecchi, Phys. Rev. Letters 15, 912 (1965).
D. J. Sakrison,Communication Theory: Transmis-
sion of +'aveforms and Digital Information (Wiley, New
York, 1968), p. 74.
FROM. .. 164V
simplicity, we assume that each signal has the
same statistical properties, which may be non-
Gaussian. The moments of the total signal can
then be expressed in terms of the moments of the
individual signals. The higher moments of the
total signal will show greater departures from
Gaussian statistics, but the errors in estimating
the moments increase rapidly as one goes to higher
moments. Consequently, one can show that the
fourth moment is the most sensitive measure of
non-Gaussian effects, and that the excess in the
total signal is related to the excesses in the indi-
vidual signals by e„, = e/n. If we take an extreme
example and imagine that each individual signal is
a pure sine wave, which has e = -1.
5, then &„,
will be below our observational limits as long as
n'150.
After the completion of this work, we received
a report which described similar measurements on
four sources with results in substantial agreement
with ours. ' The authors would like to thank 8.
Weinreb, C. Moore, and R. Hallman at the Nation-
al Radio Astronomy Observatory for advice and
assistance and for construction of apparatus for
the on-line experiment. We are also grateful to
the Systems Group at the Electronics Research
Laboratory and to Bert Hansson at Onsala. We
thank Professor C. H. Townes for suggesting the
possibility of non-Gaussian signals in astronomical
masers and for advice and encouragement through-
out the observations and analysis.
D. J.Sakrison, Communication Theory: Transmis-
sion of Waveforms and Digital Information (Wiley, New
York, 1968), p. 361.
'M. G. Kendall, The Advanced Theo~ of Statistics
(Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1944), p. 208.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is
operated by Associated Universities, Inc. , under contract
with the National Science Foundation.
'3Most of the laboratory work has been done on lasers,
but masers should be equivalent to lasers with regard to
their statistical properties.
~
R. L. Carman, R. Y. Chiao, and P. L. Kelley,
Phys. Rev. Letters 17, 1281 (1966).
J. M. Rankin, J. M. Comella, H. D. Craft, Jr. ,
D. W. Richards, D. B. Campbell, and C. C. Connselman
III, Astrophys. J. 162, 707 (1970).
P. G. Mezger, W. Altenhoff, J. Schraml, B. F.
Burke, E. C. Reifenstein III, and T. L. Wilson, Astrophys.
J. 150, L157 (1967),
'C. H. Townes, M. W. Werner, and N. J.
Evans II
(unpublished) .
M. I. Paschenko, G. M. Rudnitskij, V. I. Slysh,
and R. Fillit, Astronomical Circular No. 626, 1971
(in Russian) (unpublished).