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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Statistical quantum chromodynamics predicts that at sufficiently high densities or temperatures the quarks and gluons confined inside hadrons undergo a deconfining phase transition to a plasma of quarks and gluons. The last two decades of high energy nuclear physics activity has been directed towards the production of this new state of matter through relativistic heavy ion collisions. This has led to experiments at BNL AGS and CERN SPS and to the building of the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and a planning of the ALICE experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. With the reported confirmations of the quark-hadron phase transition at the relativistic heavy ion collision experiments at the CERN SPS , the first step in the search for quark-gluon plasma, which pervaded the early universe, microseconds after the big bang and which may be present in the core of neutron stars, is complete.

The emphasis of the experiments at the BNL RHIC and the CERN LHC will now necessarily shift to an accurate determination of the properties of the quark matter. An important observable for this is the speed of sound in the plasma, defined through:

$$c_s^2=\frac{p}{ϵ}.$$
(1)
Often one writes,

$$p=c_s^2ϵ$$
(2)
for the equation of state of the quark matter, where $`ϵ`$ is the energy density and $`p`$ is the pressure. For the simplest bag-model equation of state (with $`\mu _B=0`$), we write

$`ϵ`$ $`=`$ $`3aT^4+B,`$ (3)
$`p`$ $`=`$ $`aT^4B,`$ (4)
$`a`$ $`=`$ $`\left[2\times 8+{\displaystyle \frac{7}{8}}\times 2\times 2\times 3\times N_f\right]{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{90}},`$ (5)
with $`B`$ as the bag pressure and $`N_f`$ as the number of flavours, so that $`c_s^2=1/3`$. In general $`\mathrm{\Delta }=ϵ3p`$ measures the deviation of the equation of state from the ideal gas of massless quarks and gluons (when it is identically zero) and depends sensitively on the interactions present in the plasma. The lattice QCD calculations show that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ 0, till the temperature is several times the critical temperature . This implies that in general $`c_S^21/3`$. Any experimental information on this will be most welcome.

We show in the present work that the transverse momentum dependence of the survival probability of the $`J/\psi `$ and $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ at RHIC and LHC energies are quite sensitive to the value of the speed of sound. The very long life-time of the plasma likely to be attained at LHC makes it even more sensitive to the details of the equation of state of the quark matter through the transverse expansion of the plasma.

## 2 Formulation

The theory of quarkonium suppression in QGP  is very well studied and several excellent reviews exist , which dwell both on the phenomenology as well as on the experimental situation. We recall the basic details which are relevant for the present demonstration.

The interquark potential for (non-relativistic) quarkonium states at zero temperature may be written as:

$$V(r,0)=\sigma r\frac{\alpha }{r}$$
(6)
where $`r`$ is the separation between $`Q`$ and $`\overline{Q}`$. The bound-states of $`c\overline{c}`$ and $`b\overline{b}`$ are well described if the parameters $`\sigma =`$ 0.192 GeV2, $`\alpha =`$0.471, $`m_c=`$ 1.32 GeV, and $`m_b=`$ 4.746 GeV are used . At finite temperatures the potential is modified due to colour screening, and evolves to:

$$V(r,T)=\frac{\sigma }{\mu (T)}\left[1e^{\mu (T)r}\right]\frac{\alpha }{r}e^{\mu (T)r}.$$
(7)
The screening mass increases with temperature. When $`\mu (T)0`$, the equation (6) is recovered. At finite temperature, when $`r0`$ the $`1/r`$ behaviour is dominant, while as $`r\mathrm{}`$ the range of the potential decreases with $`\mu (T)`$. This makes the binding less effective at finite temperature. Semiclassically, one can write for the energy of the pair,

$$E(r,T)=2m_Q+\frac{c}{m_Qr^2}+V(r,T)$$
(8)
where $`<p^2><r^2>=c=𝒪(\mathcal{1})`$. Radius of the bound state at any temperature is obtained by minimizing $`E(r,T)`$. Beyond some critical value $`\mu _D`$ for the screening mass $`\mu (T)`$, no minimum is found. The screening is now strong enough to make the binding impossible and the resonance can not form in the plasma. The ground state properties of some of the quarkonia reported by authors of Ref.  are given in table 1. We have also listed the formation time of these resonances defined in Ref. as the time taken by the heavy quark to traverse a distance equal to the radius of the quarkonium in its rest frame $`m_Qr_{Q\overline{Q}}/p_{Q\overline{Q}}`$, where $`p_{Q\overline{Q}}`$ is the momentum of either of the quarks of the resonance. It may be recalled that somewhat different values for the formation time are reported by Blaizot and Ollitrault  who solve the bound-state problem within the WKB approximation and define the formation time as the time spent by a quark in going between the two classical turning points.

Now let us consider a central collision in a nucleus-nucleus collision, which results in the formation of quark gluon plasma at some time $`\tau _0`$. Let us concentrate at $`z=0`$ and on the region of energy density, $`ϵϵ_s`$ which encloses the plasma which is dense enough to cause the melting of a particular state of quarkonium. We assume the plasma to cool, according to Bjorken’s boost invariant (longitudinal) hydrodynamics and then generalize our results to include the transverse expansion of the plasma. We assume that the $`Q\overline{Q}`$ pair is produced at the transverse position $`𝐫`$ at $`\tau =0`$ on the $`z=0`$ plane with momentum $`𝐩_T`$. In the collision frame, the pair would take a time equal to $`\tau _FE_T/M`$ for the quarkonium to form, where $`E_T=\sqrt{p_T^2+M^2}`$ and $`M`$ is the mass of the quarkonium. During this time, the pair would have moved to the location $`(𝐫+\tau _F𝐩_T/M)`$. If at this instant, the plasma has cooled to an energy density less than $`ϵ_s`$, the pair would escape and quarkonium would be formed. If however, the energy density is still larger than $`ϵ_s`$, the resonance will not form and we shall have a quarkonium suppression .

It is easy to see that the $`p_T`$ dependence of the survival probability will depend on how rapidly the plasma cools. If the initial energy density is sufficiently high, the plasma will take longer to cool and only the pairs with very high $`p_T`$ will escape. If however the plasma cools rapidly, then even pairs with moderate $`p_T`$ will escape. The transverse expansion of the plasma can further accelerate the rate of cooling giving us an additional handle to explore the equation of state, which as we know, will control the expansion of the plasma.

### 2.1 Longitudinal expansion of the plasma

As indicated, we first take the Bjorken’s boost-invariant longitudinal hydrodynamics to explore the expansion of the plasma. Thus, the energy momentum tensor of the plasma is written as ;

$$T^{\mu \nu }=(ϵ+p)u^\mu u^\nu +g^{\mu \nu }p,$$
(9)
where $`ϵ`$ is the energy-density, $`p`$ is the pressure, and $`u^\mu `$ is the four velocity of the fluid, in a standard notation. If the effects of viscosity are neglected, the energy-momentum conservation is given by

$$_\mu T^{\mu \nu }=0.$$
(10)
The assumption of the boost-invariance provides that the energy density, pressure, and temperature become functions of only the proper time $`\tau `$ and that the Eq.(10) simplifies to

$$\frac{dϵ}{d\tau }=\frac{ϵ+p}{\tau }.$$
(11)
The effect of the speed of sound is seen immediately. Using the Eq.(2), we can now write

$$ϵ(\tau )\tau ^{1+c_s^2}=ϵ(\tau _0)\tau _0^{1+c_s^2}=\text{const.}$$
(12)
so that if $`c_s^2`$ is small, the cooling is slower. Chu and Matsui  explored the consequence of the extremes $`c_s^2=1/3`$ and $`c_s^2=0`$ on the $`p_T`$ dependence of the survival probability. We shall explore the sensitivity of the quarkonium suppression to the equation of state by (some-what arbitrarily) choosing two values of the speed of sound, $`1/\sqrt{3}`$ and $`1/\sqrt{5}`$, in the following.

We now have all the ingredients to write down the survival probability and we closely follow Chu and Matsui for this.

We take a simple parametrization for the energy-density profile:

$$ϵ(\tau _0,r)=ϵ_0\left[1\frac{r^2}{R^2}\right]^\beta \theta (Rr)$$
(13)
where $`r`$ is the transverse co-ordinate and $`R`$ is the radius of the nucleus. One can define an average energy density $`<ϵ_0>`$ as

$$\pi R^2<ϵ_0>=2\pi r𝑑rϵ(r)$$
(14)
so that

$$ϵ_0=(1+\beta )<ϵ_0>.$$
(15)
We have taken $`\beta =1/2`$, which may be thought as indicative of the energy deposited being proportional to the number of participants in the system. In case one feels that the energy deposited may be proportional to number of nucleon-nucleon collisions then one can repeat the calculations with $`\beta =1`$, which will reflect the proportionality of the deposited energy to the nuclear thickness. The average energy-density is obtained from the Bjorken formula:

$$<ϵ_0>=\frac{1}{\pi R_T^2\tau _0}\frac{dE_T}{dy}$$
(16)
where $`E_T`$ is the transverse energy deposited in the collision.

The time $`\tau _s`$ when the energy density drops to $`ϵ_s`$ is easily estimated as

$`\tau _s(r)`$ $`=`$ $`\tau _0\left[{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ(\tau _0,r)}{ϵ_s}}\right]^{1/(1+c_s^2)}`$ (17)
$`=`$ $`\tau _0\left[{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_0}{ϵ_s}}\right]^{1/(1+c_s^2)}\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{R^2}}\right]^{\beta /(1+c_s^2)}`$
As discussed earlier , we can equate the duration of screening $`\tau _s(r)`$ to the formation time $`t_F=\gamma \tau _F`$ for the quarkonium to get the critical radius, $`r_s`$:

$$r_s=R\left[1\left(\frac{\gamma \tau _F}{\tau _{s0}}\right)^{(1+c_s^2)/\beta }\right]^{1/2}\theta \left[1\frac{\gamma \tau _F}{\tau _{s0}}\right],$$
(18)
where $`\tau _{s0}=\tau _s(r=0)`$. This critical radius, is seen to mark the boundary of the region where the quarkonium formation is suppressed. As discussed earlier, the quark-pair will escape the screening region (and form quarkonium) if its position and transverse momentum $`𝐩_T`$ are such that

$$\left|𝐫+\tau _F𝐩_T/M\right|r_s.$$
(19)
Thus, if $`\varphi `$ is the angle between the vectors $`𝐫`$ and $`𝐩_T`$, then

$$\mathrm{cos}\varphi \left[(r_s^2r^2)M\tau _F^2p_T^2/M\right]/\left[2r\tau _Fp_T\right],$$
(20)
which leads to a range of values of $`\varphi `$ when the quarkonium would escape. We also realize that if the right hand side of the above equation is greater than 1, then no angle is possible when the quarkonium can escape. Now we can write for the survival probability of the quarkonium:

$$S(p_T)=\left[_0^Rr𝑑r_{\varphi _{\text{max}}}^{+\varphi _{\text{max}}}𝑑\varphi P(𝐫,𝐩_T)\right]/\left[2\pi _0^Rr𝑑rP(𝐫,𝐩_T)\right],$$
(21)
where $`\varphi _{\text{max}}`$ is the maximum positive angle ($`0\varphi \pi `$) allowed by Eq.(20), and

$$\varphi _{\text{max}}=\{\begin{array}{cc}\pi \hfill & \text{if }y1\hfill \\ \mathrm{cos}^1|y|\hfill & \text{if }1<y<1\hfill \\ 0\hfill & \text{if }y1\hfill \end{array},$$
(22)
where

$$y=\left[(r_s^2r^2)M\tau _F^2p_T^2/M\right]/\left[2r\tau _Fp_T\right],$$
(23)
and $`P`$ is the probability for the quark-pair production at $`𝐫`$ with transverse momentum $`𝐩_T`$, in a hard collision. Assuming that the $`𝐩_T`$ and $`𝐫`$ dependence for hard collisions factor out, we approximate

$$P(𝐫,𝐩_T)=P(r,p_T)=f(r)g(p_T),$$
(24)
where we take

$$f(r)\left[1\frac{r^2}{R^2}\right]^\alpha \theta (Rr)$$
(25)
with $`\alpha =1/2`$. The Eq.(21) can be solved analytically for some limiting cases of $`p_T`$ etc., see Ref. .

## 3 Transverse expansion of the plasma

It is generally accepted that the rare-faction wave from the surface of the plasma will reach the centre by $`\tau =R/c_s`$. For the case of lead nuclei, this comes to about 12 fm/$`c`$. If the life time of the QGP is comparable to this time, the transverse expansion of the plasma can not be ignored. The transverse expansion of the plasma will lead to a much more rapid cooling than suggested by a purely longitudinal expansion.

For the four-velocity of the collective flow we write:

$$u^\mu =(\gamma ,\gamma 𝐯)$$
(26)
where $`𝐯`$ is the collective flow velocity and $`\gamma =1/\sqrt{1v^2}`$. We further assume that the longitudinal flow of the plasma has a scaling solution, so that the boost-invariance along the longitudinal direction remains valid. Assuming cylindrical symmetry, valid for central collisions, it can be shown that the four-velocity $`u^\mu `$ should have the form,

$$u^\mu =\gamma _r(\tau ,r)(t/\tau ,v_r\mathrm{cos}\varphi ,v_r\mathrm{sin}\varphi ,z/\tau ),$$
(27)
with

$`\gamma _r`$ $`=`$ $`\left[1v_r^2(\tau ,r)\right]^{1/2}`$
$`\tau `$ $`=`$ $`(t^2z^2)^{1/2}`$
$`\eta `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{t+z}{tz}}.`$ (28)
Thus all the Lorentz scalars are now functions of $`\tau `$ and $`r`$, and independent of the space-time rapidity $`\eta `$. This reduces the $`(3+1)`$ dimensional expansion with cylindrical symmetry and boost-invariance along the longitudinal direction to:

$$_\tau T^{00}+r^1_r(rT^{01})+\tau ^1(T^{00}+p)=0$$
(29)
and

$$_\tau T^{01}+r^1_r\left[r(T^{00}+p)v_r^2\right]+\tau ^1T^{01}+_rp=0$$
(30)
where

$$T^{00}=(ϵ+p)u^0u^0p$$
(31)
and

$$T^{01}=(ϵ+p)u^0u^1.$$
(32)
We see that the speed of sound which will appear through the dependence of the pressure $`p`$ on the energy-density will affect the time-evolution of all the quantities, especially through the gradient terms. This is of-course extensively documented. We solve these equations using well established methods  with initial energy density profiles as before and estimate the constant energy density contours appropriate for $`ϵ=ϵ_s`$ to get $`\tau _s(r)`$. Rest of the treatment follows as before. In these calculations we have assumed the initial transverse velocity to be identically zero.

We only need to identify the initial conditions. We consider $`Pb+Pb`$ collisions ($`Au+Au`$, for RHIC) with the initial average energy densities:

$$<ϵ_0>=\{\begin{array}{cc}6.3\text{ GeV/fm}\text{3}\hfill & \text{SPS, }\tau _0=0.5\text{ fm}\hfill \\ & \\ 60\text{ GeV/fm}\text{3}\hfill & \text{RHIC, }\tau _0=0.25\text{ fm}\hfill \\ & \\ 425\text{ GeV/fm}\text{3}\hfill & \text{LHC, }\tau _0=0.25\text{ fm}\hfill \end{array}$$
(33)
The estimate for SPS is obtained from assumption of QGP formation in $`Pb+Pb`$ experiments, while those for RHIC and LHC are taken from the self-screened parton cascade calculation . If a formation time for the SPS energies is assumed to be of the order of 1 fm/$`c`$, the estimate given above will drop to about 3 GeV/fm3. A larger initial energy density than the one assumed here for RHIC and LHC could be obtained by using the concept of parton saturation . We are, however, interested in only a demonstration of the effect of equation of state on the quarkonium suppression, and we feel that the values used here are enough for this.

## 4 Results

### 4.1 Speed of sound vs. transverse expansion

It is quite clear that a competition between the speed of sound and the onset of the transverse expansion during the life-time of the deconfining matter can lead to interesting possibilities. In order to illustrate this and to explore the consequences, we show in Fig. 1 the time corresponding to the constant energy density contours which enclose the deconfining matter- which can dissociate the directly produced $`J/\psi `$ (see table 1), at RHIC energies. We see that owing to the (relatively) short time that the QGP would take to cool down to $`ϵ_s^{J/\psi }`$, the effect of the transverse flow is marginal and for $`c_s^2=1/3`$, limited to large radii. Large changes in the contour are seen when the speed of sound is varied. This is very important indeed. Note that the cooling to the value appropriate for $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ suppression is attained too quickly to be affected by the transverse expansion, and even the change due to variation in the speed of sound is quite small. Of-course the duration of the deconfining medium is prolonged if the speed of sound is reduced.

The corresponding results for the LHC energies are shown in Fig. 2. Now we see that at $`r=0`$ the duration of the deconfining medium reduces by a factor of $`2`$ when the speed of sound is $`1/\sqrt{3}`$, and the transverse expansion of the plasma is allowed. This is a consequence of the longer time which the plasma takes to cool at LHC.

The scenario for the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ dissociating matter at LHC is quite akin to the case of $`J/\psi `$ dissociating medium at RHIC; the results are affected by the speed of sound and not by the transverse flow (Fig. 3).

### 4.2 Consequences for survival of quarkonia

Now we return to the transverse momentum dependence of the survival probabilities. As a first step, we plot the survival of the directly produced $`J/\psi `$’s at SPS, RHIC and LHC energies (Fig. 4) when only longitudinal expansion is accounted for and the speed of sound is varied. We see that RHIC energies provide the most suitable environment to measure the speed of sound with the help of $`J/\psi `$ suppression. The variations in the $`p_T`$ dependence is too meagre at SPS (due to a very short duration of the deconfining medium) and at LHC (now, due to a very long duration!) when the speed of sound is varied.

This advantage of RHIC energies is maintained when the transverse expansion is accounted for (Fig. 5). As one could have expected from the contours (Fig. 1), the results are more sensitive to the variation of the speed of sound than to the transverse flow. The accuracy of the procedure is seen from the fact that the survival probability around $`p_T=`$ 15 GeV for $`c_s^2=1/3`$ is identical for the longitudinal and the transverse expansion of the plasma. This is a direct reflection of the identity of the corresponding contours near $`r=0`$ (Fig. 1).

The $`J/\psi `$ suppression at LHC energies, as indicated, becomes sensitive to the transverse flow, the shape of the survival probability changes and the largest $`p_T`$ for which the formation is definitely possible is enhanced by about 10 GeV (Fig. 6).

The $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ suppression, which in our prescription is possible only at the LHC energy, is seen to be clearly affected by the speed of sound but not by the transverse expansion of the plasma (Fig. 7).

### 4.3 Consequences of chain decays of quarkonia

The entire discussion so far has been in terms of the directly produced $`J/\psi `$’s and $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$’s. However it is well established that only about 58% of the observed $`J/\psi `$ in $`pp`$ collisions originate directly, while 30% of them come from $`\chi _c`$ decay and 12% from the decay of $`\psi ^{}`$. Thus the survival probability of the $`J/\psi `$ in the QGP can be written as:

$$S=0.58S_\psi +0.3S_{\chi _c}+0.12S_\psi ^{},$$
(34)
in an obvious notation. We give the survival probabilities of these resonances for a transversely expanding plasma at RHIC with the speed of sound as $`1/\sqrt{3}`$ in the left panel of Fig. 8. We see that the competition of the formation times and the duration of the sufficient dissociation energies render a rich detail to the suppression pattern of the charmonia. We shall later argue that the $`\psi ^{}`$’s are easily destroyed by a moderately hot hadronic gas as well, as their binding energy is on the order of just 50 MeV. The right panel of the figure shows the survival probability as a function of the transverse momentum when the speed of sound in the plasma is varied from $`1/\sqrt{3}`$ to $`1/\sqrt{5}`$. We see that while the gross features for shape of the survival probability remain similar to Fig. 5, as seen earlier, the survival of the $`J/\psi `$ for larger $`p_T`$ is now enhanced as the $`\chi _c`$’s, which decay to form $`J/\psi `$ start escaping. Thus the complete escape of the $`\chi _c`$ having $`p_T>`$ 10 GeV (for $`c_s^2=1/3`$) lends a distint kink in $`S(p_T)`$ at $`p_T`$ 10 GeV. Its location, which shifts to about 14 GeV when the speed of sound is decreased, can perhaps be more accurately determined by plotting the derivative $`dS/dp_T`$, which will have a discontinuity there. If the statistics is really good (which unfortunately is a somewhat difficult proposition), this discontinuity in the $`dS/dp_T`$ for the $`J/\psi `$ can be a unique signature of melting of the resonance in plasma, as the $`p_T`$ dependence of the survival probability due to absorption by hadrons should be weak  and smooth .

The corresponding results for the LHC energies are given in Fig. 9, in an analogus manner, and we see the characteristic ‘kink’ in $`S(p_T)`$ has shifted to about $`p_T=16`$ GeV, announcing the complete escape of $`\chi _c`$ from the plasma.

The decay contribution of the resonances completely alters the shape of the survival probabilities for $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ from that seen earlier (Fig. 7).

We note that (Fig. 10) both $`\chi _b`$ and $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}^{}`$ get suppressed at the RHIC energies, while the directly produced $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ is likely to escape. However, as only about 54% of the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$’s may be directly produced, while about 32% have their origin in the decay of $`\chi _b`$ and a further 14% in the decay of $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}^{}`$, the resultant (right panel, Fig.10) survival probability is just about 50% for the lowest $`p_T`$, signalling the suppressions of the higher resonances.

The results for LHC energies become quite dramatic (Fig. 11) as now the ‘kink’ in the survival probability is very clearly seen at $`p_T`$20 GeV for $`c_s^2=1/3`$ and at $``$ 26 GeV for the lower speed of sound. If one looks at the $`dS/dp_T`$ then it could be very useful indeed. We may add that fluctuations in the initial conditions etc. may perhaps make it difficult to notice this aspect for $`J/\psi `$’s, though for the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$’s these should survive, provided we have good statistics at these $`p_T`$.

The large difference in this behaviour seen between charmonium and bottomonium suppression has its origin in the large difference in the energy densities required to melt the different resonances of charmonia and bottomonia.

### 4.4 Absorption by nucleons and comovers

So far we have discussed the fate of quarkonia only when the presence of quark gluon plasma is considered. It is very well established that there are several aspects like initial state scattering of the partons, shadowing of partons, absorption of the pre-resonances ( $`|Q\overline{Q}g>`$ states) by the nucleons before they evolve into physical quarkonia, and also dissociation of the resonances by the comoving hadrons . It has been argued that the absorption by co-moving hadrons will be important for $`\psi ^{}`$, due to its very small binding energy, while for more tightly bound resonances it may be weak .

Let us briefly comment on them one-by-one. Shadowing of partons should play an important role in the reduced production of quarkonia, especially at the LHC energies. It is clear that if shadowing is important, we shall witness a larger effect on $`J/\psi `$ than on $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$, because of the smaller values of the $`x`$ for gluons. At the same time, the effect of shadowing should be similar for different resonances of the charmonium (or bottomonium), as similar $`x`$ values would be involved for them.

The absorption of the pre-resonances by the nucleons is another source of $`p_T`$ dependence. It is important, to recall once again that as the absorption is operating on the pre-resonance, the effect should be identical for all the states of the quarkonium which are formed.

This is a very important consideration as it is clear that if we look at the ratio of rates for different states of $`J/\psi `$ or the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ family as a function of $`p_T`$, then in the absence of QGP-effects they would be identical to what one would have expected in absence of nuclear absorption and shadowing, providing a clear pedestal for the observation of QGP .

There is another aspect of $`p_T`$ dependence which needs to be commented upon, before we conclude. The (initial state) scattering of partons, before the gluons of the projectile and the target nucleons fuse to produce the $`Q\overline{Q}`$-pair, leads to an increase of the $`<p_T^2>`$ of the resonance which emerges from the collision. The increase in the $`<p_T^2>`$, compared to that for $`pp`$ collisions is directly related to number of collisions the nucleons are likely to undergo, before the gluonic fusion takes place. This leads to a rich possibility of relating the average transverse momentum of the quarkonium to the transverse energy deposited in the collision (which decides the number of participants and hence the number of collisions). Considering that collisions with large $`E_T`$ may have formation of QGP in the dense part of the overlapping region, the quarkonia, which are produced in the densest part (and hence contributing the largest increase in the transverse momentum) are also most likely to melt and disappear. This may lead to a characteristic saturation and even turn-over of the $`<p_T^2>`$ when plotted against $`E_T`$ when the QGP formation takes place. In absence of QGP, this curve would continue to rise with $`E_T`$.

Obviously, all these (well explored and yet non-QGP) effects need to be accounted for, before we can begin to see the suppression of the quarkonium due to the formation of QGP. It seems that this has been achieved at least at the SPS energies .

The next step would obviously be the one discussed in the present work, that of looking for the $`p_T`$ dependence of the survival probability, to see if we can get more detailed information on the equation of the state of the plasma. This would require high precision data, extending to larger $`p_T`$ at several $`E_T`$. This may prove to be difficult, though not impossible in principle at least. It will however prove to be very valuable, if it can be done.

## 5 Summary and Discussion

We have seen that the survival probability of $`J/\psi `$ at RHIC energies and that of $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ at LHC energies can provide valuable information about the equation of state of the quark matter, as the results are not affected by uncertainties of transverse expansion of the plasma. If the transverse expansion of the plasma takes place, it gives a distinct shape to the survival probability of the $`J/\psi `$ at LHC energies, whose detection will be a sure signature of the transverse flow of the plasma within the QGP phase.

Before concluding we would add that in these exploratory demonstrations we have chosen some specific values  for the deconfining matter which can dissociate quarkonia. These could be different, in particular the $`ϵ_s^{J/\psi }`$ could be much larger than the value used here. This, however, will not change the basic results as the time-scales involved in the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ and the $`J/\psi `$ suppression are so very different.

The other uncertainty comes from the usage of $`ϵ_s`$ as the criterion for deconfinement. One could have as well used the Debye mass as the temperature and the fugacity changed in a chemically equilibrating plasma, to fix the deconfining zone. This can indeed be done, along with the other extreme of the Debye mass estimated from lattice QCD. This has been studied in great detail by authors of Ref.  and can be easily extended to the present case. We plan to do it in a future publication.

In brief, we have shown that the $`J/\psi `$ and $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ suppression at RHIC and LHC energies can be successfully used to map the equation of state for the quark-matter. As the two processes will map different but over-lapping regions, taken together, these results will help us to explore a vast region of the equation of state.

We thank Bikash Sinha for useful discussions.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Powerful radio galaxies are frequently associated with extended emission line nebulosities which extend on radial scales of 5 — 100 kpc from the nuclei of the host early-type galaxies (Hansen et al. 1987, Baum et al. 1988). The morphological and kinematical properties of these nebulae provide important clues to the origins of the gas, and the origins of the activity as a whole. The study of such gas is, for example, important for our understanding of the building of galaxy disks and bulges by infall since their epoch of formation. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the extent to which the observed emission line properties reflect the intrinsic distribution of the warm gas in the haloes of the host galaxies, and the extent to which they reflect the effects of the nuclear activity and interactions with the extended radio sources.

In most low redshift ($`z<0.2`$) radio galaxies the optical emission line regions are broadly distributed in angle around the nuclei of the host galaxies, the correlations between the optical and radio structural axes are weak, and the gas kinematics are often quiescent, with line widths and velocity shifts consistent in most cases with gravitational motions in the host early-type galaxies (Tadhunter, Fosbury & Quinn 1989; Baum, Heckman & van Breugel 1990). However, optical observations reveal a dramatic change in the properties of the nebulosities as the redshift and radio power increase: the emission line kinematics become more disturbed (compare Tadhunter et al. 1989 with McCarthy, Baum & Spinrad 1996) and the optical/UV structures become more closely aligned with the radio axes of the host galaxies (McCarthy et al. 1987, McCarthy & van Breugel 1989). The most recent high resolution HST images of $`z1`$ radio galaxies show that the structures are not only closely aligned with the radio axes, but they are also highly collimated, with a jet-like appearance (Best et al. 1996). The nature of the “alignment effect” is a key issue for our general understanding of powerful radio galaxies, of particular relevance to the use of radio sources as probes of the high redshift universe.

Of the many models which have been proposed to explain the alignment effect, the two which have received the most attention are the anisotropic illumination and the jet-cloud interaction111We use “jet-cloud interaction” as a generic term to describe interactions between the warm ISM and the radio-emitting components, which could include the radio lobes and hot-spots, as well as the radio jets. models.

In the case of anisotropic illumination it is proposed that the gaseous haloes of the host galaxies are illuminated by the broad radiation cones of the quasars hidden in the cores of the galaxies (e.g. Barthel 1989), with the emission lines resulting from photoionization of the ambient ISM by the EUV radiation in the cones (e.g. Fosbury 1989), and the extended optical/UV continuum comprising a combination of the nebular continuum emitted by the warm emission line clouds (Dickson et al. 1995) and scattered quasar light (Tadhunter et al. 1988, Fabian 1989). The alignment of the obscuring tori perpendicular to the collimation axes of the plasma jets then leads to a natural alignment of the extended nebulosities with the radio axes. The best evidence to support the anisotropic illumination model is provided by polarimetric observations of powerful radio galaxies at all redshifts which show evidence for high UV polarization and scattered quasar features (e.g. Tadhunter et al. 1992, Young et al. 1996, Dey & Spinrad 1996, Cimatti et al. 1996, Cimatti et al. 1997, Ogle et al. 1997). It would be difficult to explain these polarimetric results in terms of any mechanism other than scattering of the anisotropic radiation field of an illuminating quasar or AGN. However, despite the success of the illumination model at explaining the polarization properties, a sigificant fraction of radio galaxies — comprising $``$30 – 50% of radio galaxies at $`z1`$, and a smaller proportion of lower redshifts — are dominated by jet-like UV emission line structures, which are more highly collimated than would be expected on the basis of the 45 – 60 opening half-angle illumination cones predicted by the unified schemes for powerful radio galaxies (Barthel 1989, Lawrence 1991). Moreover, the highly disturbed emission line kinematics observed in many high-z sources are also difficult to reconcile with quasar illumination of the undisturbed ambient ISM of the host galaxies.

Jet-cloud interactions have the potential to explain many of the features of powerful radio galaxies which cannot be explained in terms anisotropic quasar illumination. Although the jet-cloud interactions are likely to be complex, at the very least the clouds will be compressed, ionized and accelerated as they enter the shocks driven through the ISM by the jets. Therefore, jet-cloud interactions provide a promising explanation for the high-surface-brightness and extreme emission line kinematics of the structures aligned along the radio axes of high-z sources. Indeed, recent spectroscopic observations of jet-cloud interactions in low redshift radio galaxies provide clear observational evidence for the acceleration and ionization of warm clouds by the jet-induced shocks (e.g. Clark et al. 1998, Villar-Martin et al. 1999). Moreover, theoretical modelling work has demonstrated that jet-induced shocks are a viable, if not unique, mechanism for producing the emission line spectra of radio galaxies (e.g. Dopita & Sutherland 1998).

It is clear that no single mechanism can explain the emission line properties of radio galaxies over the full range of redshift and radio power; some combination of AGN illumination and jet-cloud interactions is required, with the jet-cloud interactions becoming increasingly important as the redshift and/or radio power increases. However, a major problem with such a combined model is that, while the polarimetric results demonstrate that quasar illumination is important in many high redshift sources, the extended structures are often dominated by highly collimated jet-like structures, with no sign of the broad cone-like emission line distributions predicted by the unified schemes for powerful radio galaxies.

How do we explain this dearth of broad cones in the objects with the most highly collimated structures? Possibilities include the following.

* The gas structures are intrinsically aligned along the radio axes of the high redshift sources, so that the emission line nebulae reflect the true distribution of warm/cool gas, rather than the ionization patterns induced by the jets or illuminating AGN. For example, West (1994) has proposed that a general alignment of the gas structures along the radio axis may be a natural consequence of the formation of giant elliptical galaxies in a heirarchical galaxy formation scenario, although it is not clear that the structures formed in this way would be quite as highly collimated as those observed in the high-z radio galaxies.
* The nuclei of the host galaxies do not contain powerful quasars, and the ionization of the extended gas is dominated by the jets: either by direct jet/cloud interactions, or by illumination by the relativistically-beamed jet radiation. This scenario is supported by the discovery at low redshifts of a class of powerful radio galaxies with weak, low ionization nuclear emission line regions (see Laing 1994, Tadhunter et al. 1998). However, at least some high-z radio galaxies with highly collimated UV structures show direct evidence for powerful quasar nuclei in the form of scattered quasar features in their polarized spectra, so this explanation cannot hold in every case.
* The broad-cone radiation of the buried quasars does not escape from the nuclear regions of the host galaxies, because of the absorbing effects of circum-nuclear gas. In this case the ionization of the extended gas in the aligned structures is likely to be dominated by jet-cloud interactions, but quasar or beamed jet radiation may also contribute along the jet axis, if the jets punch a hole in the obscuring material. Direct evidence for requisite obscuring material in the central regions is provided by the relatively high occurrence rate of associated CIV and Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption line systems in the UV spectra of radio-loud quasars (e.g. Anderson et al. 1987, Wills et al. 1995), the relatively red SEDs of steep spectrum radio quasars (Baker 1997), and the detection of significant BLR reddening in a substantial fraction of nearby broad-line radio galaxies (e.g. Osterbrock, Koski & Miller 1995, Hill et al. 1996).
* The dearth of broad ionization cones in the high-z sources is a consequence of an observational selection effect: most of the existing emission line images of the high-z sources have been taken in the light of the low ionization \[OII\]$`\lambda `$3727 line which is emitted particularly strongly by the jet-induced shocks (e.g. Clark et al. 1997, 1998), but is relatively weak in the more highly ionized quasar illumination cones. Thus, given that the published ground-based images of the high-z objects are relatively shallow and have a low spatial resolution, while the published HST images have a higher resolution but are insensitive to low surface brightness structures, the existing images are likely to be biased in favour of the high-surface-brightness shocked structures along the radio axes. In this case, we would expect deep emission images to reveal gaseous structures outside the main high surface brightness structures aligned along the radio axes. If the gas away from the radio axis is predominantly photoionized by quasars hidden in the cores of the galaxies we would expect the extended low surface brightness structures to have a broad distribution, consistent with quasar illumination. Detection of such emission line morphologies in the objects with the most highly collimated structures would lead to a reconciliation between the anisotropic illumination and jet-cloud interaction models, thereby resolving the outstanding uncertainties surrounding the nature of the alignment effect.

In order to test the latter possibility it is important to obtain deep emission line imaging observations for the objects with closely aligned radio and optical structures. We report here pilot observations of two intermediate-redshift radio galaxies — 3C171 ($`z=0.2381`$) and 3C277.3($`z=0.08579`$) — which are nearby prototypes of the high-z radio galaxies, in the sense that they show high surface brightness emission line structures which are closely aligned along their radio axes. The results challenge some commonly-held assumptions about the ionization of the extended gaseous haloes around powerful radio galaxies.

## 2 Observations

Emission line and continuum observations of 3C171 and 3C277.3(Coma A) were taken using the Taurus Tunable Filter (TTF) on the 4.2m WHT telescope at the La Palma Observatory on the night of the 27th January 1998. A log of the observations is presented in Table 1, while a full description of the TTF is given in Bland-Hawthorn & Jones (1998a,b). Use of the f/2 camera of TAURUS with the Tek5 CCD resulted in a pixel scale of 0.56 arcseconds per pixel; and the seeing conditions were subarcsecond for the observations reported here. The faintest structures visible in the images for both objects have an H$`\alpha `$ surface brightness of $`1\times 10^{17}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 arcsec-2.

Because of ghosting effects in the flat field images, no flat fielding of the data was attempted. However, comparisons between images taken with different filters and/or with the objects placed in different positions on the detector, demonstrate that the ghost images of stars and galaxies in the field do not contaminate the images of the main target objects described below.

The reduction of the images consisted of bias subtraction, atmospheric extinction correction, flux calibration, sky subtraction and registration. From the comparison between the measurements of the flux calibration standard stars taken at various times during the run it is estimated that the absolute flux calibration is accurate to within $`\pm `$30%, and the H$`\alpha `$ emission line fluxes agree at this level with the long-slit spectroscopy measurements in Clark (1996). For the emission line images, the TTF was tuned to the wavelength of H$`\alpha `$ shifted to the redshift of the emission lines in the nuclear regions of the galaxies. However, velocity structure in the haloes of the host galaxies may result in the emission lines in the extended structures not being exactly centred in the TTF bandpass, which has a Lorentzian shape. We estimate that, at maximum, this will result in the fluxes being underestimated by a factor of two for components with extreme $`\pm `$600 km/s shifts, but this will not affect our main conclusions which are based largely on the emission line structures, rather than the emission line fluxes.

In order the facilitate comparison between the radio and optical structures, radio images were obtained for both sources. The radio and optical images were registered by matching the positions of the core radio sources with the positions of the continuum centroids in the optical continuum images, with the pixel scale and rotation of the optical images calibrated using the known positions of stars in the CCD fields.

The radio image of Coma A was made using data taken with the VLA A-array configuration at 1.4 GHz (20cm). This gives a resolution for the final image of 1.14x1.13 arcseconds in p.a. -72. The data, which were extracted from the VLA archive, were originally presented and discussed in great detail by van Breugel et al. (1985). We therefore refer to that paper for all the radio information about Coma A.

The radio image of 3C171 was kindly provided by K. Blundell. The image was made with the VLA at 8 GHz with a resolution of 1.3 arcsec FWHM. More information about the radio characteristics of this source can be found in Blundell (1996).

## 3 Results

### 3.1 3C277.3 (Coma A)

Previous spectroscopic and imaging observations of 3C277.3 by van Breugel et al. (1985) and Clark (1996) show the presence of a series of high surface brightness structures along the radio axis. These include: a high ionization emission line region associated with knots in radio jet some 6 arcseconds to the south east of the nucleus; an enhancement in the emission line flux close to the hotspot in the northern radio lobe; and an emission line arc which partially circumscribes the northern radio hotspot. Although the kinematic and ionization evidence for a jet-cloud interaction in this source is less clear than in some other radio galaxies (e.g. 3C171: see below) — the ionization state is relatively high and the emission lines relatively narrow — van Breugel et al. (1985) found evidence for a jump in the emission line radial velocities across the northern radio lobe, while Clark (1996) noted that the ionization has a minimum, and the electron temperature a peak, at the position of the northern radio hotspot. Note that there is no clear evidence for a powerful quasar nucleus in this source: the nuclear regions show no evidence for scattered quasar light, and the nuclear emission line region has a relatively low luminosity and ionization state compared with the brightest extended emission line regions along the radio axis.

Our deep H$`\alpha `$ images (Figure 1a) show that the emission line regions along the radio axis form part of a spectacular system of interlocking emission line arcs and filaments, which extend almost as far perpendicular as parallel to the radio axis. Of particular interest is the fact that the brightest arc structure wraps a full 180 around the nucleus, with enhancements in the emission line surface brightness where the arc intercepts the radio axis to the north and south of the nucleus. The spatially integrated H$`\alpha `$ fluxes of the bright knots along the radio axis (including the nucleus), the extended low surface brightness filaments, and the nebula as a whole are $`2.5\times 10^{14}`$, $`1.6\times 10^{14}`$ and $`4.1\times 10^{14}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 respectively. For our adopted cosmology222$`H_0=50kms^1kpc^1`$ and $`q_0=0.0`$ assumed throughout. the corresponding H$`\alpha `$ emission line luminosities are $`8.6\times 10^{41}`$, $`5.6\times 10^{41}`$ and $`1.42\times 10^{42}`$ erg s-1 respectively.

The fact that the main arc and filament structures are not visible, or are considerably fainter, in the intermediate-band continuum image (Figure 1b) — which is at least as sensitive to continuum structures as the narrow-band H$`\alpha `$ image — demonstrates that they are predominantly emission line structures. However, a number of faint galaxies and continuum structures are detected within 100 kpc of the nucleus of Coma A, and at least some of these continuum structures (highlighted by arrows in the figure) are intimately associated with the extended H$`\alpha `$ filamentary structures.

Overall, the Coma A system has the appearance of an interacting group of galaxies: the H$`\alpha `$ filaments bear a marked resemblance to the HI tails detected in 21cm radio observations of interacting groups (e.g. the M81 group: Yun et al. 1994); and it is plausible that the faint continuum structures represent the debris of interactions/mergers between the dominant giant elliptical galaxy and less massive galaxies in the same group. The X-ray luminosity of Coma A ($`L_{0.53kev}<8.1\times 10^{42}`$ erg s-1: Fabbiano et al. 1984) is also consistent with a group environment.

Figure 2 shows an overlay of the emission line image and the 6cm radio map. This reveals a striking match between the emission line and radio structures. As well as the high surface brightness features along the radio axis, the brightest arc to the north of the nucleus closely follows the outer edge of northern radio lobe. The emission line structures appear to bound the radio structures: the brighter emission line features have a similar radial and lateral extent to the radio features. It is notable, however, that fainter, more diffuse emission line structures are detected well outside the radio lobes on the northern and eastern sides of the galaxy.

The detection of arc structures circumscribing radio lobes is not without precedent: the intermediate redshift radio galaxies PKS2250-41 (Clark et al. 1998, Villar-Martin et al. 1999), 3C435A (Rocca-Volmerange et al. 1994) and PKS1932-46 (Villar-Martin et al. 1998), the high redshift radio galaxies 3C280 (McCarthy et al. 1995) and 3C368 (Best et al. 1996), and the central elliptical galaxy in the cooling flow cluster A2597 (Keokemoer et al. 1999), all show evidence for arcs associated with radio lobes. In many of these cases there is also spectroscopic evidence that the emission line gas extends beyond the radio lobes.

### 3.2 3C171

3C171 is another example of an object in which high surface brightness emission line structures are closely aligned along the axis of the radio jets (Heckman et al. 1984, Baum et al. 1988). The spectroscopic evidence for a jet-cloud interaction in this source is strong: the emission line kinematics along the radio axis are highly disturbed; and the the general line ratios and ionization minima coincident with the radio hotspots to the east and west of the nucleus provide strong evidence that the emission line gas has been compressed and ionized by jet-induced shocks (Clark et al. 1998). A further possible consequence of the jet-cloud interactions is the highly disturbed radio structure, with the radio lobes showing a greater extent perpendicular- than parallel to the jet axis, giving an overall H-shaped appearance (Heckman et al. 1984, Blundell 1996).

Our deep H$`\alpha `$ and continuum images of this source are shown in Figure 3, while an overlay of the optical emission line image and the radio map is presented in Figure 4. From the continuum-subtracted H$`\alpha `$ image we measure spatially integrated emission line fluxes of $`2.12\times 10^{14}`$, $`6.2\times 10^{16}`$ and $`2.63\times 10^{14}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 respectively for the high surface brightness structures aligned along the radio axis (including the nucleus), the faint filament to the north, and the nebula as a whole. The corresponding H$`\alpha `$ emission line luminosities are $`6.6\times 10^{42}`$, $`1.9\times 10^{41}`$ and $`8.1\times 10^{42}`$ erg s-1 respectively.

Although the emission line structures in 3C171 are clearly different in detail from those detected in Coma A, there are important general similarities. Most notably, as in Coma A, the highest surface brightness emission line features are closely aligned along the radio axis, yet lower surface brightness structures are also detected in the direction perpendicular to the radio axis. The emission line structures have a similar radial extent in the directions perpendicular and parallel to the radio axis. Away from the radio axis, the most striking emission line feature is the filament which extends 9 arcseconds (45 kpc) north of the nucleus. This feature lies along the fringes of the western radio lobe, just as the arc to the north of the nucleus in Coma A skirts the outer edge of the northern radio lobe in that object. A further similarity with Coma A is that, in the radio axis direction, the radio structures are confined within the emission line structures, which have a similar radial extent. We also find evidence for emission line gas that is not clearly associated with radio structures: the faint, diffuse H$`\alpha `$ emission to the south east of the nucleus lies well to the south of the extended eastern radio lobe. However, 3C171 is different from Coma A in the sense that the radio lobes extend further than the emission line structures in the direction perpendicular to the radio axis on the northern side of the galaxy.

## 4 Discussion

The main aim of the deep emission line imaging observations was to attempt to detect the broad emission line cones outside the main aligned structures, and thereby reconcile the AGN illumination and jet-cloud interactions models. The unified schemes predict illumination cones with opening half-angles of 45-60. Although the extended emission line nebulosities in low redshift radio galaxies rarely show the sharp-edged cone structures observed in some Seyfert galaxies (e.g. Pogge 1988, Tadhunter & Tsvetanov 1989), the emission line distributions are generally consistent with broad cone illumination of an inhomogeneous ISM (Hansen et al. 1987, Baum et al. 1989, Fosbury 1989). The detection of similar emission line distributions in 3C171 and Coma A would support the idea that the extended ionized haloes are photoionized by quasars hidden in the cores of the galaxies.

The deep imaging observations presented in this paper have confounded our expectations in the sense that, while they do show extended of emission line gas well away from the radio axis, the emission line distribution cannot be reconciled with any plausible ionization cone model. Not only do some of the features wrap through a full 180 in position angle around the nucleus of Coma A, but there are no sharp boundaries in the surface brightness of the structures, corresponding to the edges of an ionization cone. It is possible for the emission line distributions to appear broader than the nominal 45-60 cones predicted by the unified schemes if the cone axes are tilted towards the observer. However, in order to explain the emission line distributions in 3C171 and Coma A in this way, the cones would have to be tilted to such an extent that the observer’s line of sight would lie within the cone and we would see the illuminating AGN directly. Clearly this is not the case, and it appears highly unlikely that the extended filaments away from the radio axis are photoionized by a central source of ionizing photons.

The most plausible alternative to quasar illumination is ionization by the shocks associated with the expanding radio jets and lobes. The emission lines could be produced as the warm clouds cool behind the shock fronts or, alternatively, as a consequence of photoionization of precursor clouds by the ionizing photons produced in the cooling, shocked gas. In either case we would expect a close morphological association between the radio and optical structures, just as we observe in 3C171 and Coma A. By adapting equation 4.4 of Dopita and Sutherland (1996), and assuming a shock speed through the warm clouds of 200 km s-1, we estimate that the rate of flow of warm ISM through the shocks would have to be at least 1.9$`\times `$104 M yr-1 for 3C171, and 3.2$`\times `$103 M yr-1 for Coma A, in order for the emission line luminosities of the nebulae as a whole to be produced entirely by shock ionization. Energetically, the shock ionization mechanism appears to be feasible in the sense that the total emission line luminosities of the sources are $`<`$10% of the bulk powers of the radio jets (Clark 1996, Clark et al. 1998)333In order to derive this result we have scaled the results of Clark (1996), who considered only the emission line components along the radio axis, to the total emission line fluxes for the nebulae as a whole, as derived from our H$`\alpha `$ images..

However, it is not possible to rule out some contribution to the ionization of the extended structures by a central photoionizing source. As discussed in the introduction, some radio sources with relativistic jets may not have powerful quasar nuclei. If this is the case, the narrow beams of radiation emitted by the jets could contribute to the ionization of the structures along the radio axis, although the ionization of the more extended filamentary structures would continue to be be dominated by interactions with the rdaio lobes.

One further possibility is that the structures are photoionized by young stars associated with the filaments. This is supported by the presence of faint continuum structures associated with the H$`\alpha `$ filaments (see Figure 1(c)), and the spectroscopic detection of excess UV continuum emission to the north and south of the nucleus along the radio axis above the level expected for the nebular continuum emitted by the warm gas (Clark 1996). Without further information on the nature and spectrum of the extended continuum structures it is difficult to test this model at the present time.

An open question for both 3C171 and Coma A is the extent to which the structures reflect the true distributions of ionized gas in the haloes of the host galaxies, and the extent to which the structures are distorted by their interaction with the radio components. It is possible for shock fronts to sweep up material into shell-like structures. However, given that the clouds are likely to be destroyed by hydrodynamical interactions with the fast, hot wind behind the shock fronts within a few shock crossing times (e.g. Klein, McKeee & Collella 1994), and given also the presence of diffuse H$`\alpha `$ emission well away from the radio structures in both Coma A and 3C171, it seems more plausible that these represent pre-existing gas structures. Cloud destruction by shocks may also lead to a relative absence of warm gas in the lobes, further enhancing the shell-like appearance of the emission line structures. In the case of Coma A it is likely that we are seeing the results of interactions between between the radio-emitting components and the gaseous remnants of mergers/interactions in a group of galaxies.

Clearly, detailed measurements of the kinematics, line ratios, and continuum spectra of the filamentary structures are required in order to resolve the outstanding issues concerning the physical state, ionization and origins of the warm gas.

## 5 Implications for high redshift radio galaxies

Our observations demonstrate the presence of extended gaseous structures well away from the high-surface-brightness structures aligned along the radio axes in two nearby radio galaxies. Given that Coma A and 3C171 are similar to the high redshift radio galaxies in the sense that they show high-surface-brightness emission line structures closely aligned along their radio axes, as well as evidence for disturbed emission line kinematics, it seems likely that similar extended gaseous structures also exist in the high-z sources. In this case, the highly collimated structures visible in the existing images of some $`z1`$ 3C radio sources may reflect more the ionization pattern induced by the radio jets than the true distribution of warm/cool gas in the host galaxies.

Note, however, that 3C171 and Coma A have radio and emission line luminosities that are an order of magnitude lower than 3C radio galaxies at $`z1`$. Furthermore, the radio lobes in 3C171 and Coma A extend further in the direction perpendicular to the radio jets than is typical in high redshift 3C radio sources. Therefore, it is difficult to predict the detectability of the extended low surface brightness structures in the high-z radio galaxies ($`z>1`$) based on a straightforward extrapolation of the properties of 3C171 and Coma A. Given the smaller lateral extents of the radio lobes in the high-z sources, the ionization effects associated with the lobes may be less effective at large distances from the radio axes in such objects. In addition, the structures in the high-z sources will be subject to $`(1+z)^4`$ cosmological surface brightness dimming which will make them more difficult to detect relative to nearby sources for similar intrinsic brightness levels. However, set against this is the fact that, in contrast to Coma A and 3C171, there exists good polarimetric evidence that many of the high-z radio galaxies contain powerful quasars hidden in their cores. Provided that the ionizing photons in the broad ionization cones can escape the nuclear regions (but see discussion in introduction), illumination by the quasar cones will enhance the surface brightnesses of the extended structures and render them more easily detectable.

The extended low surface brightness structures may already have been detected spectroscopically in at least one high-z source: deep, long-slit Keck spectra taken along the radio axis of 3C368 ($`z=1.135`$) by Stockton, Ridgway & Kellogg (1996) show the presence of a faint emission line region well outside the main high surface brightness emission line regions closer to the nucleus. The relatively narrow lines and high ionization state measured in this faint, low-surface-brightness region are consistent with quasar illumination of the undisturbed ambient medium of the host galaxy.

Some encouragement may also be drawn from the detection of large Ly$`\alpha `$ haloes around radio galaxies at $`z>2`$ (e.g. Adam et al. 1997). Although the Ly$`\alpha `$ in these haloes may not be formed by direct photoionization by an AGN, but rather by resonant scattering of Ly alpha photons produced in the extended regions around the nuclei (Villar-Martin et al. 1996), these observations at least demonstrate the presence of extensive haloes of cool ISM surrounding the host galaxies of some of the highest redshift radio galaxies.

Thus, we expect future deep emission line imaging of $`z1`$ radio galaxies to reveal the true distribution of the extended ionized gas in the host galaxies, and to provide clues to the origins of the gas and the evolution of the host galaxies.

## 6 Conclusions

Deep emission line imaging observations of two nearby examples of the radio-optical alignment effect have revealed extensive low-surface-brightness emission line structures well away from the radio axes, thus demonstrating that the intrinsic distribution of warm gas is more extensive than previosly suspected.

The general distribution of the gaseous structures is imcompatible with the standard quasar illumination picture, while their association with the extended radio structures provides clear evidence that they are interacting with the radio lobes, hotspots and jets. These may be objects in which the ionization of the extended emission line regions is entirely dominated by shocks induced by interactions between the radio plasma and the ISM.

It is often assumed that broad distribution of ionized gas observed in low redshift radio galaxies without clear signs of jet-cloud interactions imply illumination by the broad ionization cones of quasars hidden in the cores of the galaxies. These new observations suggest that this may not always be the case, and that the lobes as well as the jets may have a significant ionizing effect. Acknowledgments. The Willian Herschel Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roches de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. We thank Katherine Blundell for allowing us to use to her radio image of 3C171. MVM acknowledges support from PPARC. References

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# R-mode runaway and rapidly rotating neutron stars

## 1. Introduction

The launch of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in 1995 heralded a new era in our understanding of neutron star physics. Detailed observations of quasiperiodic phenomena at kHz frequencies in more than a dozen Low-Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXB) strongly suggest that these systems contain rapidly spinning neutron stars (for a recent review, see van der Klis (2000)), providing support for the standard model for the formation of millisecond pulsars (MSP) via spin-up due to accretion.

Despite these advances several difficult questions remain to be answered by further observations and/or theoretical modeling. For example, we still do not know the reason for the apparent lack of radio pulsars at shorter periods than the 1.56 ms of PSR1937+21 (for a review of recent progress in the modelling of rotating neutron stars, see Stergioulas (1998)). The recent RXTE observations provide a further challenge for theorists. Various models suggest that the neutron stars in LMXB spin rapidly, perhaps in the narrow range 260-590 Hz (van der Klis, 2000). Three different models have been proposed to explain this surprising result. The first model (due to White & Zhang (1997)) is based on the standard magnetosphere model for accretion induced spin-up, while the remaining two models are rather different, both being based on the idea that gravitational radiation balances the accretion torque. In the first such model for the LMXB (proposed by Bildsten (1998) and recently refined by Ushomirsky, Cutler & Bildsten (2000)), the gravitational waves are due to a quadrupole deformation induced in the deep neutron star crust because of accretion generated temperature gradients. The second gravitational-wave model relies on the recently discovered r-mode instability (see Andersson & Kokkotas (2000) for a review) to dissipate the accreted angular momentum from the neutron star.

In this Letter we reexamine the idea that gravitational waves from unstable r-modes provide the agent that balances the accretion torque. This possibility was first analyzed in detail by Andersson, Kokkotas & Stergioulas (1999) (but see also Bildsten (1998)). Originally, it was thought that an accreting star in which the r-modes were excited to a significant level would reach a spin-equilibrium, very much in the vein of suggestions by Papaloizou & Pringle (1978) and Wagoner (1984). Should this happen, the neutron stars in LMXB would be prime sources for detectable gravitational waves. However, as was pointed out by Levin (1999) and Spruit (1998), the original idea is not viable since, in addition to generating gravitational waves that dissipate angular momentum from the system, the r-modes will heat the star up (via the shear viscosity that counteracts the r-mode at the relevant temperatures). Since the shear viscosity gets weaker as the temperature increases, the mode-heating triggers a thermal runaway and in a few months the r-mode would spin an accreting neutron star down to a rather low rotation rate. Essentially, this conclusion rules out the r-modes in galactic LMXB as a source of detectable gravitational waves, since they will only radiate for a tiny fraction of the systems lifetime.

Other recent results would (at first sight) seem to emphasize the conclusion that the r-modes are not relevant for the LMXB. Bildsten & Ushomirsky (2000) investigated the effect that the presence of a solid crust would have on the r-mode oscillations. They estimated that the dissipation associated with a viscous boundary layer that arises at the base of the solid crust in a relatively cold neutron star would greatly exceed that of the standard shear viscosity. Thus, Bildsten and Ushomirsky concluded that the r-mode instability would only be relevant for very high rotation rates, and could therefore not play a role in the LMXB.

We have reassessed the effect of the viscous boundary layer (correcting an erring factor in the estimates of Bildsten & Ushomirsky (2000)). Our new estimates show that the presence of the crust is important, but that the instability operates at significantly lower spin rates than suggested by Bildsten and Ushomirsky. Once we combine our estimates with the thermal runaway (now due to heating caused mainly by the presence of the viscous boundary layer), that results as the star is spun up to the point at which the instability sets in, we arrive at a model for the spin-evolution of accreting neutron stars. Remarkably, this simple model agrees well with existing observations of rapidly rotating neutron stars, covering both the LMXB and MSP populations.

## 2. Dissipation due to a viscous boundary layer

The r-mode instability follows after a tug of war between (mainly current multipole) gravitational radiation that drives the mode and various dissipation mechanisms that counteract the fluid motion. In the simplest model, the mode is dominated by shear viscosity at low temperatures while bulk viscosity may suppress the mode at high temperatures. At intermediate temperatures, the r-mode sets an upper limit on the neutron star spin rate. In an interesting recent paper, Bildsten & Ushomirsky (2000) estimate the strength of dissipation due to the solid crust of an old neutron star, and find that the presence of a boundary layer at the base of the crust leads to a very strong damping of the r-modes.

While we agree with the main idea and the various assumptions made by Bildsten and Ushomirsky, we would like to point out one important difference between their results and ones used previously in the literature. Their assumed timescale for gravitational radiation reaction differs significantly from, for example, the uniform density result derived by Kokkotas & Stergioulas (1999) (and subsequently used by several authors, see Andersson & Kokkotas (2000)). This is surprising since the uniform density result, which can be written

$$t_{gw}22\left(\frac{1.4M_{}}{M}\right)\left(\frac{\text{10 km}}{R}\right)^4\left(\frac{P}{\text{1 ms}}\right)^6\text{ s},$$
(1)
(where the negative sign indicates that the mode is unstable) has been shown to be close (within a factor of two) to the results for $`n=1`$ polytropes. $`M`$, $`R`$, and $`P`$ represent the mass, radius and spin period of the star, respectively. In contrast, Bildsten & Ushomirsky (2000) use the $`n=1`$ polytrope result and argue that it corresponds to $`t_{gw}146`$ s for a canonical neutron star rotating with a period of 1 ms, i.e. assume that radiation reaction is almost one order of magnitude weaker than in (1). This difference occurs because Bildsten and Ushomirsky have only rescaled the fiducial rotation frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=\sqrt{\pi G\overline{\rho }}`$ (where $`\overline{\rho }`$ represents the average density) in terms of which the $`n=1`$ polytrope results of Owen et al. (1998) were expressed ($`t_{gw}3.26(\mathrm{\Omega }_0/\mathrm{\Omega })^6`$ for a specific polytropic stellar model). Unfortunately, this procedure is not correct. From the fundamental relations, e.g. the formula for the gravitational-wave energy radiated via the current multipoles, one can see that the gravitational-wave timescale should scale with $`M`$, $`R`$ and $`P`$ in the way manifested in (1). Thus, we believe that Bildsten and Ushomirsky underestimate the strength of radiation reaction significantly, which motivates us to reassess the relevance of the viscous boundary layer.

We should, of course, emphasize at this point that our current understanding of the r-mode instability is based on crude estimates of the various timescales. In order to understand the role of the instability in an astrophysical context we must improve our modelling of many aspects of neutron star physics such as the effect of general relativity on the r-modes, cooling rates, viscosity coefficients, magnetic fields, potential superfluidity, the formation of a solid crust etcetera (see Andersson & Kokkotas (2000) for a description of recent progress in these various directions).

In the following we will mainly consider uniform density stars, i.e. use the gravitational-wave timescale given by (1). In estimating the dissipation timescale $`t_{vbl}`$ due to the presence of the crust, we need to evaluate $`t_{vbl}2E/(dE/dt)`$ where $`E`$ is the mode-energy, and $`dE/dt`$ follows from an integral over the surface area at the crust-core boundary (assumed to be located at radius $`R_b`$), cf. equation (3) of Bildsten & Ushomirsky (2000). To evaluate this integral we use the standard result for the shear viscosity in a normal fluid. To incorporate our uniform density model, we make the reasonable assumption that the density of the star is constant ($`M/R^3`$) inside radius $`R`$. Then it falls off rapidly in such a way that the base of the crust is located at a radius only slightly larger than $`R`$. Hence, it makes sense to use $`R_bR`$. If we neglect the small mass located outside radius $`R`$ we can then immediately compare the result for the viscous boundary layer to the timescales used by Andersson, Kokkotas & Stergioulas (1999). In the end, our estimate for the dissipation due to the presence of the viscous boundary layer is

$$t_{vbl}200\left(\frac{M}{1.4M_{}}\right)\left(\frac{\text{10 km}}{R}\right)^2\left(\frac{T}{10^8\text{ K}}\right)\left(\frac{P}{\text{1 ms}}\right)^{1/2}\text{ s}.$$
(2)
which is a factor of 2 larger than that of Bildsten and Ushomirsky. This difference arises simply because the mode-energy $`E`$ is this factor larger for uniform density models. The star is assumed to have a uniform temperature distribution, with core temperature $`T`$.

In Figure 3 we show the instability window obtained from our revised estimate. As is clear from this Figure, the presence of a viscous boundary layer in an old, relatively cold neutron star is, indeed, important. However, Bildsten and Ushomirsky’s conclusion that the r-mode instability is irrelevant for the LMXB cannot be drawn from Figure 3. On the contrary, the Figure suggests that the instability may well be limiting the rotation of these systems.

## 3. Thermal runaway in rapidly spinning neutron stars

The fact that our revised instability curve for r-modes damped by dissipation in a viscous boundary layer agrees well with the fastest observed neutron star spin frequencies, cf. Figure 3, motivates us to speculate further on the relevance of the instability. We want to model how the potential presence of an unstable r-mode affects the spin-evolution of rapidly spinning, accreting neutron stars. To do this we use the phenomenological two-parameter model devised by Owen et al. (1998), which is centered on evolution equations for the rotation frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and the (dimensionless) r-mode amplitude $`\alpha `$. Complete details of our particular version of this model will be given elsewhere.

At the qualitative level, our results are not surprising. Accreting stars in the LMXB are expected to have core temperatures in the range $`14\times 10^8`$ K (Brown & Bildsten, 1998). For such temperatures the dissipation due to the viscous boundary layer gets weaker as the temperature increases. Consequently, the situation here is essentially identical to that considered by Levin (1999) (see also Spruit (1998) and Bildsten & Ushomirsky (2000)). After accreting and spinning up for something like $`10^7`$ years, the star reaches the period at which the r-mode instability sets in. For our particular estimates this corresponds to a period of 1.5 ms (at a core temperature of $`10^8`$ K). It is notable that this value is close to the 1.56 ms period of PSR1937+21. Once the r-mode becomes unstable (point A in Figure 3), viscous heating (now mainly due to the energy released in the viscous boundary layer) rapidly heats the star up to a few times $`10^9`$ K. The r-mode amplitude increases until it reaches a prescribed saturation level (amplitude $`\alpha _s`$) at which unspecified nonlinear effects halt further growth (point B in Figure 3). Once the mode has saturated, the neutron star rapidly spins down as excess angular momentum is radiated as gravitational waves. When the star has spun down to the point where the mode again becomes stable (point C in Figure 3), the amplitude starts to decay and the mode plays no further role in the spin evolution of the star (point D in Figure 3) unless the star is again spun up to the instability limit. Two examples of such r-mode cycles (corresponding to $`\alpha _s=0.1`$ and 1, respectively) are shown in Figure 3.

The real surprise here concerns the quantitative predictions of our model. As already mentioned, the model suggests that an accreting star will not spin up beyond 1.5 ms. This value obviously depends on the chosen stellar model, but it is independent of the r-mode saturation amplitude and only weakly dependent on the accretion rate (through a slight change in core temperature). In fact, the accretion rate only affects the time it takes the star to complete one full cycle. As soon as the mode becomes unstable the spin-evolution is dominated by gravitational radiation and viscous heating. Once the star has gone through the brief phase when the r-mode is active it has spun down to a period in the range 2.8-4.8 ms (corresponding to $`0.01\alpha _s1`$). Based on these results we propose the following spin-evolution scenario: An accreting neutron star will never spin up beyond (say) 1.5 ms. Once it has reached this level the r-mode instability sets in and spins the star down to a several ms period. At this point the mode is again stable and continued accretion may resume to spin the star up. Since the star must accrete roughly $`0.1M_{}`$ to reach the instability point, and the LMXB companions have masses in the range $`0.10.4M_{}`$, it can pass through several “r-mode cycles” during its lifetime.

Let us confront this simple model with current observations. To do this we note that our model leads to one main prediction: Once an accreting neutron star has been spun up beyond (say) 5 ms it must remain in the rather narrow range of periods $`1.55`$ ms until it has stopped accreting and magnetic dipole braking eventually slows it down. Since a given star can go through several r-mode cycles before accretion is halted one would expect most neutron stars in LMXB and the MSP to be found in the predicted range of rotation rates. As is clear from Figure 3, this prediction agrees well with the range of rotation periods inferred from observed kHz quasiperiodic oscillations in LMXB. The observed range shown in Figure 3 corresponds to rotation frequencies in the range 260-590 Hz (cf. van der Klis (2000)). Our model also agrees with the observed data for MSP, which are mainly found in the range $`1.566`$ ms, see Figure 3. In other words, our proposed model is in agreement with current observed data for rapidly rotating neutron stars.

Finally, it is worthwhile discussing briefly the detectability of the gravitational waves that are radiated during the relatively short time when the r-mode is saturated and the star spins down. As was argued by Levin (1999), the fact that the r-mode is active only for a small fraction of the lifetime of the system (something like 1 month out of the $`10^7`$ years it takes to complete one full cycle) means that even though these sources would be supremely detectable from within our galaxy the event rate is far too low to make them relevant. However, it is interesting to note that the spin-evolution is rather similar to that of a hot young neutron star once the r-mode has reached its saturation amplitude. This means that we can analyze the detectability of the emerging gravitational waves using the framework of Owen et al. (1998). We then find that these events can be observed from rather distant galaxies. For a source in the Virgo cluster (assumed to be at a distance of 15 Mpc) these gravitational waves could be detected with a signal to noise ratio of a few using LIGO II. However, even at the distance of the Virgo cluster these events would be quite rare. By combining a birth rate for LMXB of $`7\times 10^6`$ per year per galaxy with the fact that the the volume of space out to the Virgo cluster contains $`10^3`$ galaxies, and the possibility that each LMXB passes through (say) four r-mode cycles during its lifetime we deduce that one can only hope to see a few events per century in Virgo. In order to see several events per year the detector must be sensitive enough to detect these gravitational waves from (say) 150 Mpc. This would require a more advanced detector configuration such as a narrow-banded LIGO II. We will discuss this issue in more detail elsewhere.

## 4. Additional remarks

Before concluding our discussion, we recall that the initial excitement over the r-mode instability was related to the fact that it provided an explanation for the relatively slow inferred spin rates for young pulsars. In view of this, it is natural to digress somewhat and discuss how the picture of the r-mode instability in hot, newly born neutron stars is affected by the possible formation of a solid crust. Hence, we consider the evolution of a neutron star just after its birth in a supernova explosion. At a first glance, we might expect to model its r-mode amplitude in the standard way, cf. Owen et al. (1998), using the normal (crust-free) fluid viscous damping times for stellar temperatures above the melting temperature of the crust ($`T_m`$), and the viscous boundary layer damping time for temperatures below $`T_m`$. However, the situation is a little more complicated than this. Recall that the latent heat (i.e. the Coulomb binding energy) of a typical crust is $`E_{lat}10^{48}`$ ergs, while the r-mode energy is $`E_m2\alpha ^2(\text{1 ms}/P)^2\times 10^{51}`$ ergs. Provided that the time taken for the star to cool to $`T_m`$ is sufficiently long, the energy in the r-mode (which grows exponentially on a timescale $`t_{gw}20`$ s) will exceed $`E_{lat}`$, preventing the formation of the crust, even when $`T<T_m`$. Then the star will spin down in the manner described by, eg. Owen et al. (1998). This phase will end either because the star leaves the instability region of the $`\mathrm{\Omega }T`$ plot (see, for example, Fig. 1 of Owen et al.), or because the mode energy in the outer layers of the star (where the crust is going to form) has fallen below the crustal binding energy. We can estimate that this would happen at a frequency $`70\text{ Hz}/\alpha _s`$, by equating $`E_{lat}`$ to roughly 10 % of $`E_m`$). A more accurate treatment would take into account the *local* kinetic energy of fluid elements and since the latter is smaller near the poles than near the equator, the crust might form earlier at the poles. Clearly the problem of crust formation in an oscillating star requires further investigation. The final spin period will be around 15 ms, if the r-mode grows to an amplitude of $`\alpha _s1`$, consistent with the extrapolated initial spin rates of many young pulsars. On the other hand, if the mode is not given time to grow very large it will not prevent crust formation at $`T_m`$. Such a scenario was described by Bildsten & Ushomirsky (2000), who noted that the r-mode instability would then not spin the star down beyond a much higher frequency. Using our estimated timescales the resultant spin period would be $`35`$ ms in this scenario. Which scenario applies depends sensitively on the early cooling of the star, the crustal formation temperature and perhaps most importantly the initial amplitude of the r-mode following the collapse. It is, in fact, possible that both routes are viable and that a bimodal distribution of initial spin periods results. A likely key parameter is whether the supernova collapse leads to a large initial r-mode amplitude $`\alpha _s`$ or not. An initial period of $`15`$ ms would fit the long established data for the Crab, while the recently discovered 16 ms pulsar PRS J0537-6910 (Marshall et al., 1998) requires a considerably shorter initial period of a few ms.

In conclusion, we have reexamined the effect that the dissipation due to a possible viscous boundary layer in a neutron star with a solid crust has on the stability of the r-modes. By combining our new estimates with the thermal runaway introduced by Levin (1999) and Spruit (1998), we arrive at a spin-evolution model that agrees with present observations for rapidly spinning neutron stars. In particular, our predictions agree well with observations of both LMXB and MSP. Furthermore, the model can potentially explain the extrapolated spin periods of the young pulsars. Since it brings out this unified picture, our simple model has many attractive features, and we are currently investigating it in more detail.

We thank L. Bildsten, W. Kluzniak, B. Sathyaprakash, H. Spruit and G. Ushomirsky for comments on a draft version of this paper. This work was supported by PPARC grant PPA/G/1998/00606 to NA.