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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Black holes are interpreted microscopically in string theory as bound states of explicitly specified constituents. It is therefore an important theoretical challenge to identify examples where the quantum bound state problem can be analyzed. The canonical example is the bound state of D1- and D5-branes where the microscopic theory is known in great detail . In this and many other cases the asymptotic degeneracy of states has been determined to agree with the Bekenstein-Hawking formula for the black hole entropy. In all cases where such an agreement has been established with precision the near-horizon geometry of the black hole contains an $`AdS_3`$ factor; and this feature underlies the agreement . It remains an open problem to similarly understand black holes with less symmetric near-horizon geometries; especially black holes with no supersymmetry. The present work reports on progress in this direction, for a specific case.

Consider the original Kaluza-Klein theory in four dimensions, obtained by compactification of five-dimensional pure gravity on a circle. The field content of this theory is a $`U(1)`$ gauge field, a scalar field, and gravity. Stationary black holes solutions to the theory are parametrized by their electric (Q) and magnetic (P) gauge charges, as well as their mass (M) and angular momentum (J). There is a simple embedding of the system into string theory, as follows. First, add six compact dimensions, e.g. a Calabi-Yau three-fold, or a six-torus. Next, interpret the original Kaluza-Klein direction as the M-theory circle so that the electric Kaluza-Klein charge is identified as D0-brane charge, and the magnetic Kaluza-Klein charge similarly becomes the charge of a D6-brane, fully wrapped around the six inert dimensions. The black hole is therefore interpreted at weak coupling as a bound state of D0-branes and D6-branes.

In string theory it is the norm to consider black holes with many independent charges excited simultaneously. The electric and magnetic charges are thus generalized to vectors. It has been the experience that black holes with non-orthogonal charge vectors pose special difficulties: the microscopic description is less constrained , and the corresponding classical solutions are much more complicated . An elementary property of the Kaluza-Klein dyon considered here is that its electric and magnetic charge vectors – being numbers – have nonvanishing inner-product, $`\stackrel{}{P}\stackrel{}{Q}=PQ0`$. The Kaluza-Klein black hole is therefore a simple setting where these problems can be analyzed. In fact, to the present author, this was the original motivation for considering the problem. The study of Kaluza-Klein black holes is further motivated by the “no-frill” character of the system, by fundamental string theory interest in the D0/D6 bound state , and as a means to study black holes .

The black hole metric can be constructed explicitly for arbitrary $`(M,J,Q,P)`$ . This will not be repeated here. Instead the emphasis will be on the qualitative properties of the system. The presentation is based on the article , except for a new result(given in section 3), the microscopic interpretation of the mass formula for the bound state .

## 2 Properties of Extreme Black Holes

For a given value of the conserved charges $`Q,P,J`$ there is a lowest possible value of the mass $`M`$ consistent with regularity. The three parameter family of solutions saturating this bound are the extremal black holes. The physical interpretation is that extremal black holes in some sense are in their ground states. This presentation considers only the extremal case.

### 2.1 Basic Parameters

#### Black hole mass:

First, assume that the rotation is limited according to $`G_4J<PQ`$. In this “slow rotation” case the mass formula is:

$$2G_4M=(Q^{2/3}+P^{2/3})^{3/2}.$$
(1)
This mass formula has been known for some time, for $`J=0`$ ; the striking point emphasized here is the independence of angular momentum. In other words, the system can carry angular momentum at no cost in energy. Other features of the extremal geometry do depend on the angular momentum, as expected.

Next, assume that $`G_4J>PQ`$. In this “fast rotation” case the mass formula is more complicated, the solution of a quartic equation. The mass formula now depends on the angular momentum as well as the charges. It satisfies:

$$2G_4M>(Q^{2/3}+P^{2/3})^{3/2}.$$
(2)
The two branches of extremal black holes are joined by a two-parameter family of black holes satisfying $`G_4J=PQ`$. The geometry degenerates in this critical limit; for example, the black hole entropy approaches zero.

#### Black hole entropy

is also sensitive to the boundary at $`G_4J=PQ`$. Indeed, for slow rotation $`G_4J<PQ`$:

$$S=2\pi \sqrt{\frac{P^2Q^2}{G_4^2}J^2},$$
(3)
while for fast rotation $`G_4J>PQ`$:

$$S=2\pi \sqrt{J^2\frac{P^2Q^2}{G_4^2}}.$$
(4)
The only change is thus the overall sign under the square root. The extremal Kerr-Newman black hole and its four-parameter generalization canonically considered in string theory , coincide for special choices of parameters with the fast rotation case (4). Here the main interest is the slow rotation case (3).

#### The black hole temperature

vanishes in the extremal limit for all values of the angular momentum. This conforms with general expectations for extremal black holes.

### 2.2 Comparison with Supersymmetric Black Holes

The fast rotating Kaluza-Klein black holes are very similar to extremal Kerr-Newman black holes in four dimensions. A more surprising analogy is between the slowly rotating Kaluza-Klein black holes and the rotating BPS black holes in five dimensions, interpreted as excitations of D1/D5-brane bound states . The striking similarities include:

#### 1)

In the D1/D5-case the energy of a supersymmetric ground state is related to its momentum by supersymmetry, ensuring that the black hole mass is independent of the angular momentum. The D1/D5-system therefore also has the property that it can carry angular momentum at no cost in energy.

#### 2)

The supersymmetric ground states of the D1/D5 system are generally charged under the R-charge of the supersymmetry algebra, which is identified with the spacetime angular momentum . The projection on to a given value of the R-charge restricts the available phase space, and so decreases the entropy; it vanishes when the angular momentum is so large that all states are forced to have identical projection of the angular momentum. The black hole entropy has the form:

$$S=2\pi \sqrt{\frac{1}{4}J_3J^2},$$
(5)
where $`J_3`$ is the unique cubic invariant of $`E_{6(6)}`$. This should be compared with the entropy (3), or more generally the U-duality invariant expression:

$$S=2\pi \sqrt{\frac{1}{4}J_4J^2},$$
(6)
where $`J_4`$ is the unique quartic invariant of $`E_{7(7)}`$. The similarity suggests that the Kaluza-Klein black holes are described by a supersymmetric conformal field theory with a structure similar to the one familiar from the D1/D5-system. Specifically, the angular momentum should be identified with an R-charge in such a description.

#### 3)

For slowly rotating Kaluza-Klein black holes the angular velocity of the horizon vanishes $`\mathrm{\Omega }_H=0`$ . The physical interpretation is that the angular momentum is carried by the field surrounding the black hole, rather than by its interior. The unfamiliar combination of angular momentum, but no angular velocity, occurs also for the rotating BPS black holes in five dimensions. For fast rotation, the horizon velocity remains finite in the extremal limit $`\mathrm{\Omega }_H0`$, as for the Kerr black hole.

#### 4)

Outside the horizon of a rotating black hole there is an ergosphere. This is a region where observers cannot remain at rest relative to the asymptotic geometry, because the drag of the geometry force them to rotate along with the black hole. Such observers are nevertheless free to escape to infinity. An important consequence of the ergosphere is that it allows the black hole to shed rotational energy classically by superradiance. This effect renders e.g. the standard extremal Kerr black hole in four dimensions unstable. The D1/D5-system corresponds to rotating black holes in five dimensions and for these, remarkably, the ergosphere disappears in the extremal limit. This saves the stability of the system required by supersymmetry. Interestingly, the ergosphere of the Kaluza-Klein black hole also disappears in the extremal limit, for slow rotation. On the other hand, for fast rotation there is an ergosphere; so the black hole decays classically, even though it is extremal. In a sense, the mass (2) on the large rotation branch is too large, and the black hole seeks to reach the lower bound (1) which apparently is more stable.

At this point it may appear that slowly rotating Kaluza-Klein black holes are precisely analogous to the D1/D5-system. That is far from the truth. The D1/D5 system is supersymmetric; indeed, it is the only case familiar to me where rotation is consistent with the BPS condition . Many of the remarkable properties discussed above follow from this fact. It is thus significant to emphasize that Kaluza-Klein black holes are not supersymmetric.

To see this, embed the simple Kaluza-Klein theory in a theory with at least N=2 supersymmetry. The supersymmetry algebra then implies:

$$2G_4M\sqrt{Q^2+P^2},$$
(7)
with the inequality saturated if and only if the black hole preserves a part of the supersymmetry. The mass formulae (1-2) satisfy this condition; however,they never saturate it, when both electric and magnetic charges are present. Kaluza-Klein black holes are therefore not supersymmetric.

Without supersymmetry, the question of stability should be considered seriously. The energy of two widely separated fragments, each carrying either the electric or the magnetic charge is:

$$2G_4MQ+P.$$
(8)
This inequality is also satisfied by the mass formulae (1-2); so spontaneous fragmentation of the black hole into two parts is consistent with energy conservation.

However, in the present system it is important to consider also angular momentum conservation. The electric and magnetic fragments are charged with respect to the same $`U(1)`$ gauge field; so the total angular momentum of the final state satisfies Dirac’s bound:

$$J\frac{PQ}{G_4}.$$
(9)
The lower bound coincides precisely with the one classifying Kaluza-Klein black holes as having slow or fast rotation. It is interesting that the evident qualitative distinction between slow and fast rotation is related to the Dirac bound on the angular momentum: the geometry “knows” about the Dirac bound. Concretely, the bound implies that angular momentum conservation forbids decay of the slowly rotating black holes into two widely separated electric and magnetic fragments; but the fast rotating ones do decay in this way.

It is possible that the slowly rotating black hole instead decays into two widely separated dyons, with charge assignments $`(Q_1,P_1)`$ and $`(Q_2,P_2)`$, respectively. The Dirac bound (9) on the angular momentum of the fragments is then replaced by:

$$J|P_1Q_2P_2Q_1|/G_4.$$
(10)
For example two identical dyons can have vanishing angular momentum. There are still large classes of black holes that have no possible decays; for example non-rotating black holes with mutually prime quantized charges. In fact, standard stability arguments, using supersymmetry, are similarly subject to conditions on the quantum numbers of the state. The possible decay into two dyons is therefore consistent with the analogy between BPS states and the slowly rotating branch.

These results do not imply that the slowly rotating black holes are absolutely stable. For example, the angular momentum could be carried away by one of the decay products. An example that realizes this possibility is the Callan-Rubakov effect ; here a charged spin-1/2 fermion interacts with a monopole, but the combined system nevertheless supports a spin-0 mode. An alternative decay channel involves a third particle carrying spin, but arbitrarily low energy; e.g. a graviton. Despite the existence of allowed decay channels, it is evident that the slowly rotating extremal black holes exhibit a remarkable degree of stability; in particular, it is suggestive that the most obvious decay channel is forbidden. It would be interesting to make a stronger and more precise statement on this issue.

### 2.3 Quantization Rules

Up to this point, the electric and magnetic charges have been arbitrary parameters. After embedding into quantum theory they are quantized:

$`Q`$ $`=`$ $`2G_4M_0n_Q,`$ (11)
$`P`$ $`=`$ $`2G_4M_6n_P,`$ (12)
where $`n_Q`$ and $`n_P`$ are integral. In the D0/D6 interpretation discussed in the introduction:

$`M_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{l_sg_s}},`$ (13)
$`M_6`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{V_6}{(2\pi )^6l_s^7g_s}},`$ (14)
where the string units are defined so $`l_s=\sqrt{\alpha ^{}}`$ and $`V_6`$ is the volume of the six compact dimensions wrapped by the $`D6`$-brane; as always $`G_4=\frac{1}{8}(2\pi )^6l_s^8g_s^2`$. This gives the relation $`8G_4M_0M_6=1`$ (which in fact is expected from general principles). Thus:

$$\frac{2PQ}{G_4}=n_Qn_P.$$
(15)
As a check on normalizations note that, after this quantization condition is taken into account, the lower bound in (9) quantizes the angular momentum as a half-integer. A related point is that the entropy (3-4) simplifies. After the quantization condition is taken into account it is expressed in terms of pure numbers, i.e. the moduli cancel out. This is promising for a connection to microscopic ideas.

## 3 The Microscopic Description

The analogy with BPS black holes suggests that it is possible to describe Kaluza-Klein black holes precisely in the underlying string theory. As discussed in the introduction, the microscopic interpretation of the Kaluza-Klein black hole is a bound state of $`k=n_Q`$ D0-branes and $`N=n_P`$ D6-branes. The theory on the D6-branes is a field theory in 6+1 dimensions. The field content is the same as maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with $`SU(N)`$ gauge group. D0-branes are described in this theory as excitations with third Chern-class equal to the number of D0-branes, and vanishing first and second Chern-classes. Assuming that the compact dimensions span a six-torus, it is simple to construct examples of this kind using time-independent field strengths of the form:

$$F_{12}=f\mu _1;F_{34}=f\mu _2;F_{56}=f\mu _3,$$
(16)
where the $`SU(N)`$ matrices $`\mu _i`$ satisfy:

$$\mu _i^2=I;\mu _1\mu _2\mu _3=I;\mathrm{Tr}\mu _i=0;\mathrm{Tr}\mu _i\mu _j=0.$$
(17)
The first and second Chern-classes vanish because the trace of $`F`$, and also of $`FF`$, vanish along all cycles. The third Chern-class – and so the number of D0-branes – is:

$$k=\frac{1}{6(2\pi )^3}\mathrm{Tr}FFF=\frac{1}{(2\pi )^3}NV_6f^3.$$
(18)
It is convenient to use (11-14) and rewrite this relation as $`(2\pi )^3l_s^6f^3=Q/P`$.

The D6-brane wraps a small compact manifold, so it is legitimate to ignore higher derivatives in the action. The interactions of the theory are therefore given by the Born-Infeld Lagrangean. For static configurations the corresponding mass functional is:

$$M=T_6\mathrm{Tr}\sqrt{\mathrm{det}\left(1+2\pi l_s^2F\right)},$$
(19)
where $`T_6`$ is the tension of the $`D6`$-brane, i.e. its mass density. For the explicit configurations given above the mass becomes:

$$M=T_6V_6N\left(1+(2\pi )^2l_s^4f^2\right)^{3/2}=\left(P^{2/3}+Q^{2/3}\right)^{3/2}/(2G_4).$$
(20)
This is precisely the mass formula (1). A similar computation was presented in , for charges $`N=k=4`$ and moduli chosen such that $`P=Q`$. The generalization given here shows that a full functional dependence is reproduced by the microscopic considerations.

## 4 Discussion

The D0/D6-interpretation of the system is valid at weak coupling, i.e. when the ambient spacetime is mildly curved. In contrast, the black hole description applies at strong coupling. The agreement between the mass formulae obtained in the two mutually exclusive regimes therefore suggests a duality. Indeed, although Kaluza-Klein theory does not admit an $`SL(2,\text{Z}\text{Z})`$ duality group, it preserves a $`\text{Z}\text{Z}_2`$ subgroup interchanging electric and magnetic charges, as well as weak and strong coupling. The mass formula is therefore not necessarily invariant under extrapolation from weak to strong coupling; but the two regimes are related by a discrete symmetry.

It is simple to construct explicit microscopic configurations of the form (16-17); indeed, there are numerous ways to do so. Moreover, if the ansatz is relaxed, there are additional possibilities. The system therefore has considerable microscopic degeneracy which is presumably related to the black hole entropy. However, a precise confirmation of this idea has not yet been achieved.

Another open problem concerns the world-volume interpretation of the angular momentum. As discussed after (6), the black hole entropy formula suggests a relation to the R-charge of a superconformal algebra; or at least some $`U(1)`$ current in a 2D conformal field theory. Unfortunately it seems difficult to identify a specific current with the required properties.

Acknowledgments: I thank V. Balasubramanian, A. Goldhaber, P. Kraus, J. Harvey, J. Maldacena, E. Martinec, and A. Peet for discussions; and the Niels Bohr Institute for hospitality during the preparation of the manuscript. This work was supported by DOE grant DE-FG02-90ER-40560 and by a Robert R. McCormick Fellowship.


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# The Dependence of Tidally-Induced Star Formation on Cluster Density

## 1. Introduction

The remarkable changes in cluster disk galaxy populations between intermediate redshifts (z $``$ 0.5) and the present are well known. Up to 50% of the population of intermediate redshift clusters are comprised of blue, star-forming galaxies, which have been shown to be predominantly normal spiral and irregular galaxies, a fraction of which are interacting or obviously disturbed. By the present epoch, this population has been depleted by a factor of 2 and replaced by a population of S0 galaxies. However the processes by which this has occurred are still not fully understood (cf. Dressler 1980; Dressler et al. 1997)

The processes which cause the transformation of the cluster spiral galaxy population to S0s are expected to have very significant effects on cluster galaxy star formation rates (SFRs). We have undertaken a comparison of SFRs between field and cluster spirals in 8 low redshift clusters in order to investigate whether these SFRs show evidence of continuing morphological transformation of disk galaxies at the present epoch. The comparison survey, details of which are published elsewhere (Moss, Whittle & Irwin 1988; Moss & Whittle 1993; Moss, Whittle & Pesce 1998; Moss & Whittle 1999) uses H$`\alpha `$ emission, resolved into disk and circumnuclear emission, as an estimator of the SFRs.

## 2. Comparison of Star Formation Rates in Cluster and Field Spirals

Our cluster sample (viz. galaxies in 8 clusters Abell 262, 347, 400, 426, 569, 779, 1367 and 1656), and our field sample (viz. galaxies in adjacent supercluster fields) were observed in an identical manner, thus eliminating systematic effects in detection efficiency. Furthermore, both (supercluster) field and cluster samples approximated volume limited samples, largely eliminating the systematic bias between cluster and field detection rates which may have been present in many earlier comparison studies (cf. Biviano et al. 1997).

A difficult question is which criterion to choose to normalise field and cluster disk galaxy samples. Some authors (e.g. Hashimoto et al. 1998; Balogh et al. 1998) have chosen to use bulge to disk (B/D) ratio on the grounds that it is a less subjective and star formation contaminated normalisation parameter. However the relation between B/D ratio and Hubble T-type has considerable scatter (Baugh, Cole & Frenk 1996; Simien & de Vaucouleurs 1986; de Jong 1995) such that an increase in the S0/S ratio in clusters is likely to mask systematic changes of SFR between field and cluster spirals. Since the latter changes are of interest for the present study, the B/D ratio is not a suitable normalisation parameter.

Accordingly we have chosen Hubble type as the normalisation parameter, and further restricted field and cluster samples to a total of 320 spirals (Sa and later) and peculiars. Some 39% of spirals and 75% of peculiars were detected in H$`\alpha `$ emission. It is estimated that emission detection is 90% complete to an equivalent width limit of 20 Å, and $``$ 29% efficient below this limit (cf. Moss et al. 1998). The detected emission divides approximately equally between diffuse and compact emission which is identified with disk emission and circumnuclear starburst emission respectively. Examples of both types of emission are given in Figure 1.

A particular difficulty which arises in adopting the Hubble type as the normalisation parameter is the relation between the star formation properties of the galaxy and its Hubble type. In particular, a decrease in disk star formation rate may shift a galaxy to an earlier type. This shift in type may not be detected in any comparison of field and cluster spirals (Hashimoto et al. 1998). This makes any comparison of disk emission between field and cluster spirals uncertain. By contrast, circumnuclear emission is relatively independent of type (Kennicutt 1998), and in this case a reliable comparison of field and cluster spirals is possible.

As is characteristic of circumnuclear starburst emission (cf. Kennicutt 1998), the detected compact emission correlates with both a disturbed morphology of the galaxy (significance level, 8.7$`\sigma `$) indicative of tidally-induced star formation, and with the presence of a bar (significance level, 3.1$`\sigma `$). Furthermore this emission correlates with both local galaxy surface density (significance level, 3.9$`\sigma `$) and cluster central galaxy space density (significance level, 5.3$`\sigma `$). Since there is no significant difference in the incidence of galaxy bars between the field and cluster samples, whereas disturbed galaxies are more common in the cluster environment, it is considered that the observed enhancement of circumnuclear emission is due to tidally-induced star formation, whether from galaxy–galaxy, galaxy–group or galaxy–cluster interactions.

Finally, the enhancement of circumnuclear starburst emission with increasing cluster density is not wholly accounted for by the correlation of this emission with local galaxy surface density. A Kendall partial rank correlation test shows an additional ’cluster effect’ (significance level, 3.3$`\sigma `$) such that there is a higher incidence of circumnuclear emission for galaxies in a region of a given local galaxy surface density in richer clusters, as compared to that for galaxies in regions of the same surface density in poorer clusters.

## 3. Discussion

Although Lavery & Henry (1988) first proposed that the Butcher-Oemler effect could be explained as star formation triggered by galaxy–galaxy interactions in intermediate redshift clusters, it was long considered that the typical cluster velocity dispersion ($``$ 1000 $`\mathrm{km}`$ $`\mathrm{s}^1`$) was too high for strong tidal interactions to occur. However recent work (e.g. Gnedin 1999) has shown that a non-static cluster potential can enhance tidal interactions for cluster galaxies. Such a non-static potential can arise in sub-cluster merging, and indeed there is evidence that the two richest clusters in our sample (Abell 1367 and 1656) are recent post-merger systems (Donnelly et al. 1998; Honda et al. 1996). It appears that the merger events in these clusters leading to a rapidly varying cluster potential, may have caused an increase in galaxy tidal interactions and the associated observed enhancement of circumnuclear starburst emission.

Tidal interactions of galaxies in clusters are likely to be an effective mechanism for the transformation of spirals to S0 galaxies (e.g. Gnedin 1999). It was noted above that the observed enhancement of circumnuclear emission in spirals with increasing cluster density is not wholly accounted for by that due to increasing local galaxy surface density. This implies that tidal interactions, and associated morphological transformation of spirals to S0s, proceeds faster in richer as compared to poorer clusters, perhaps because sub-cluster merging is more common for the former. This in turn may explain the hitherto anomalous absence of a type–local galaxy surface density ($`T\mathrm{\Sigma }`$) relation in irregular clusters at intermediate redshift (Dressler 1980; Dressler et al. 1997). Whereas significant morphological transformation of the cluster disk galaxy population may be expected for regular (rich) clusters at $`z0.5`$ (for which the timescale for transformation is shorter) and for irregular (poor) clusters at $`z0`$ (for which a longer time duration for transformation is available), for irregular clusters at $`z0.5`$, there has been insufficient time for this to take place, leading to the observed absence of a $`T\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ relation.

### Acknowledgments.

We thank S.M. Bennett for preparation of the Figure.

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# Printed on Unusually High Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes

## Abstract

Combining equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations with accurate carbon potentials, we determine the thermal conductivity $`\lambda `$ of carbon nanotubes and its dependence on temperature. Our results suggest an unusually high value $`\lambda 6,600`$ W/m$``$K for an isolated $`(10,10)`$ nanotube at room temperature, comparable to the thermal conductivity of a hypothetical isolated graphene monolayer or diamond. Our results suggest that these high values of $`\lambda `$ are associated with the large phonon mean free paths in these systems; substantially lower values are predicted and observed for the basal plane of bulk graphite.

With the continually decreasing size of electronic and micromechanical devices, there is an increasing interest in materials that conduct heat efficiently, thus preventing structural damage. The stiff $`sp^3`$ bonds, resulting in a high speed of sound, make monocrystalline diamond one of the best thermal conductors . An unusually high thermal conductance should also be expected in carbon nanotubes, which are held together by even stronger $`sp^2`$ bonds. These systems, consisting of seamless and atomically perfect graphitic cylinders few nanometers in diameter, are self-supporting. The rigidity of these systems, combined with virtual absence of atomic defects or coupling to soft phonon modes of the embedding medium, should make isolated nanotubes very good candidates for efficient thermal conductors. This conjecture has been confirmed by experimental data that are consistent with a very high thermal conductivity for nanotubes .

In the following, we will present results of molecular dynamics simulations using the Tersoff potential , augmented by Van der Waals interactions in graphite, for the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of nanotubes and other carbon allotropes. We will show that isolated nanotubes are at least as good heat conductors as high-purity diamond. Our comparison with graphitic carbon shows that inter-layer coupling reduces thermal conductivity of graphite within the basal plane by one order of magnitude with respect to the nanotube value which lies close to that for a hypothetical isolated graphene monolayer.

The thermal conductivity $`\lambda `$ of a solid along a particular direction, taken here as the $`z`$ axis, is related to the heat flowing down a long rod with a temperature gradient $`dT/dz`$ by

$$\frac{1}{A}\frac{dQ}{dt}=\lambda \frac{dT}{dz},$$
(1)
where $`dQ`$ is the energy transmitted across the area $`A`$ in the time interval $`dt`$. In solids where the phonon contribution to the heat conductance dominates, $`\lambda `$ is proportional to $`Cvl`$, the product of the heat capacity per unit volume $`C`$, the speed of sound $`v`$, and the phonon mean free path $`l`$. The latter quantity is limited by scattering from sample boundaries (related to grain sizes), point defects, and by umklapp processes. In the experiment, the strong dependence of the thermal conductivity $`\lambda `$ on $`l`$ translates into an unusual sensitivity to isotopic and other atomic defects. This is best illustrated by the reported thermal conductivity values in the basal plane of graphite  which scatter by nearly two orders of magnitude. As similar uncertainties may be associated with thermal conductivity measurements in “mats” of nanotubes , we decided to determine this quantity using molecular dynamics simulations.

The first approach used to calculate $`\lambda `$ was based on a direct molecular dynamics simulation. Heat exchange with a periodic array of hot and cold regions along the nanotube has been achieved by velocity rescaling, following a method that had been successfully applied to the thermal conductivity of glasses . Unlike glasses, however, nanotubes exhibit an unusually high degree of long-range order over hundreds of nanometers. The perturbations imposed by the heat transfer reduce the effective phonon mean free path to below the unit cell size. We found it hard to achieve convergence, since the phonon mean free path in nanotubes is significantly larger than unit cell sizes tractable in molecular dynamics simulations.

As an alternate approach to determine the thermal conductivity, we used equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations  based on the Green-Kubo expression that relates this quantity to the integral over time $`t`$ of the heat flux autocorrelation function by

$$\lambda =\frac{1}{3Vk_BT^2}_0^{\mathrm{}}<𝐉(t)𝐉(0)>𝑑t.$$
(2)
Here, $`k_B`$ is the Boltzmann constant, $`V`$ is the volume, $`T`$ the temperature of the sample, and the angled brackets denote an ensemble average. The heat flux vector $`𝐉(t)`$ is defined by

$`𝐉(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}𝐫_i\mathrm{\Delta }e_i`$ (3)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}𝐯_i\mathrm{\Delta }e_i{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{j(i)}{}}𝐫_{ij}(𝐟_{ij}𝐯_i),`$ (4)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }e_i=e_i<e>`$ is the excess energy of atom $`i`$ with respect to the average energy per atom $`<e>`$. $`𝐫_i`$ is the position and $`𝐯_i`$ the velocity of atom $`i`$, and $`𝐫_{ij}=𝐫_j𝐫_i`$. Assuming that the total potential energy $`U=_iu_i`$ can be expressed as a sum of binding energies $`u_i`$ of individual atoms, then $`𝐟_{ij}=_iu_j`$, where $`_i`$ is the gradient with respect to the position of atom $`i`$.

In low-dimensional systems, such as nanotubes or graphene monolayers, we infer the volume from the way how these systems pack in space (nanotubes form bundles and graphite a layered structure, both with an inter-wall separation of $`3.4`$ Å) in order to convert thermal conductance of a system to thermal conductivity of a material.

Once $`𝐉(t)`$ is known, the thermal conductivity can be calculated using Eq. (2). We found, however, that these results depend sensitively on the initial conditions of each simulation, thus necessitating a large ensemble of simulations. This high computational demand was further increased by the slow convergence of the autocorrelation function, requiring long integration time periods.

These disadvantages have been shown to be strongly reduced in an alternate approach  that combines the Green-Kubo formula with nonequilibrium thermodynamics  in a computationally efficient manner . In this approach, the thermal conductivity along the $`z`$ axis is given by

$$\lambda =\underset{𝐅_e0}{lim}\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{<J_z(𝐅_e,t)>}{F_eTV},$$
(5)
where $`T`$ is the temperature of the sample, regulated by a Nosé-Hoover thermostat , and $`V`$ is the volume of the sample. $`J_z(𝐅_e,t)`$ is the $`z`$ component of the heat flux vector for a particular time $`t`$. $`𝐅_e`$ is a small fictitious “thermal force” (with a dimension of inverse length) that is applied to individual atoms. This fictitious force $`𝐅_e`$ and the Nosé-Hoover thermostat impose an additional force $`\mathrm{\Delta }𝐅_i`$ on each atom $`i`$. This additional force modifies the gradient of the potential energy and is given by

$`\mathrm{\Delta }𝐅_i`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }e_i𝐅_e{\displaystyle \underset{j(i)}{}}𝐟_{ij}(𝐫_{ij}𝐅_e)`$ (7)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k(j)}{}}𝐟_{jk}(𝐫_{jk}𝐅_e)\alpha 𝐩_i.`$
Here, $`\alpha `$ is the Nosé-Hoover thermostat multiplier acting on the momentum $`𝐩_i`$ of atom $`i`$. $`\alpha `$ is calculated using the time integral of the difference between the instantaneous kinetic temperature $`T`$ of the system and the heat bath temperature $`T_{eq}`$, from $`\dot{\alpha }=(TT_{eq})/Q`$, where $`Q`$ is the thermal inertia. The third term in Eq. (7) guarantees that the net force acting on the entire $`N`$-atom system vanishes.

In Fig. 1 we present the results of our nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations for the thermal conductance of an isolated $`(10,10)`$ nanotube aligned along the $`z`$ axis. In our calculation, we consider 400 atoms per unit cell, and use periodic boundary conditions. Each molecular dynamics simulation run consists of 50,000 time steps of $`5.0\times 10^{16}`$ s. Our results for the time dependence of the heat current for the particular value $`F_e=0.2`$ Å-1, shown in Fig. 1(a), suggest that $`J_z(t)`$ converges within the first few picoseconds to its limiting value for $`t\mathrm{}`$ in the temperatures range below 400 K. The same is true for the quantity $`J_z(t)/T`$, shown in Fig. 1(b), the average of which is proportional to the thermal conductivity $`\lambda `$ according to Eq. (5). Our molecular dynamics simulations have been performed for a total time length of $`25`$ ps to represent well the long-time behavior.

In Fig. 1(c) we show the dependence of the quantity

$$\stackrel{~}{\lambda }\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{<J_z(𝐅_e,t)>}{F_eTV}$$
(8)
on $`F_e`$. We have found that direct calculations of $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ for very small thermal forces carry a substantial error, as they require a division of two very small numbers in Eq. (8). We base our calculations of the thermal conductivity at each temperature on 16 simulation runs, with $`F_e`$ values ranging from $`0.40.05`$ Å-1. As shown in Fig. 1(c), data for $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ can be extrapolated analytically for $`𝐅_e0`$ to yield the thermal conductivity $`\lambda `$, shown in Fig. 2.

Our results for the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of an isolated $`(10,10)`$ carbon nanotube, shown in Fig. 2, reflect the fact that $`\lambda `$ is proportional to the heat capacity $`C`$ and the phonon mean free path $`l`$. At low temperatures, $`l`$ is nearly constant, and the temperature dependence of $`\lambda `$ follows that of the specific heat. At high temperatures, where the specific heat is constant, $`\lambda `$ decreases as the phonon mean free path becomes smaller due to umklapp processes. Our calculations suggest that at $`T=100`$ K, carbon nanotubes show an unusually high thermal conductivity value of $`37,000`$ W/m$``$K. This value lies very close to the highest value observed in any solid, $`\lambda =41,000`$ W/m$``$K, that has been reported  for a 99.9% pure 12C crystal at 104 K. In spite of the decrease of $`\lambda `$ above 100 K, the room temperature value of $`6,600`$ W/m$``$K is still very high, exceeding the reported thermal conductivity value of $`3,320`$ W/m$``$K for nearly isotopically pure diamond .

We found it useful to compare the thermal conductivity of a $`(10,10)`$ nanotube to that of an isolated graphene monolayer as well as bulk graphite. For the graphene monolayer, we unrolled the 400-atom large unit cell of the $`(10,10)`$ nanotube into a plane. The periodically repeated unit cell used in the bulk graphite calculation contained 720 atoms, arranged in three layers. The results of our calculations, presented in Fig. 3, suggest that an isolated nanotube shows a very similar thermal transport behavior as a hypothetical isolated graphene monolayer, in general agreement with available experimental data . Whereas even larger thermal conductivity should be expected for a monolayer than for a nanotube, we must consider that unlike the nanotube, a graphene monolayer is not self-supporting in vacuum. For all carbon allotropes considered here, we also find that the thermal conductivity decreases with increasing temperature in the range depicted in Fig. 3.

Very interesting is the fact that once graphene layers are stacked in graphite, the inter-layer interactions quench the thermal conductivity of this system by nearly one order of magnitude. For the latter case of crystalline graphite, we also found our calculated thermal conductivity values to be confirmed by corresponding observations in the basal plane of highest-purity synthetic graphite  which are also reproduced in the figure. We would like to note that experimental data suggest that the thermal conductivity in the basal plane of graphite peaks near 100 K, similar to our nanotube results.

Based on the above described difference in the conductivity between a graphene monolayer and graphite, we should expect a similar reduction of the thermal conductivity when a nanotube is brought into contact with other systems. This should occur when nanotubes form a bundle or rope, become nested in multi-wall nanotubes, or interact with other nanotubes in the “nanotube mat” of “bucky-paper” and could be verified experimentally. Consistent with our conjecture is the low value of $`\lambda 0.7`$ W/m$``$K reported for the bulk nanotube mat at room temperature .

In summary, we combined results of equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations with accurate carbon potentials to determine the thermal conductivity $`\lambda `$ of carbon nanotubes and its dependence on temperature. Our results suggest an unusually high value $`\lambda 6,600`$ W/m$``$K for an isolated $`(10,10)`$ nanotube at room temperature, comparable to the thermal conductivity of a hypothetical isolated graphene monolayer or graphite. We believe that these high values of $`\lambda `$ are associated with the large phonon mean free paths in these systems. Our numerical data indicate that in presence of inter-layer coupling in graphite and related systems, the thermal conductivity is reduced significantly to fall into the experimentally observed value range.

This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research and DARPA under Grant No. N00014-99-1-0252.


text:
# Transport Theoretical Approach to the Nucleon Spectral Function in Nuclear Matter11footnote 1Work supported by BMBF, DFG and GSI Darmstadt

## Abstract

The nucleon spectral function in infinite nuclear matter is calculated in a quantum transport theoretical approach. Exploiting the known relation between collision rates and correlation functions the spectral function is derived self-consistently. By re-inserting the spectral functions into the collision integrals the description of hard processes from the high-momentum components of wave functions and interactions is improved iteratively until convergence is achieved. The momentum and energy distributions and the nuclear matter occupation probabilities are in very good agreement with the results obtained from many-body theory.

PACS numbers: 21.65.+f, 24.10.Cn

Keywords: nuclear matter, many-body theory, nucleon spectral function

A longstanding problem of nuclear many-body theory is the question to what extent short-range correlations are contributing to the properties of nuclear matter. While the bulk properties of nuclear matter are mainly affected by long-range mean-field dynamics, the picture, however, changes if nuclei are probed at large energy and momentum transfer. The spectral functions, obtained for example from $`A(e,e^{}p)X`$ experiments , are in energy and momentum much wider spread than predicted by mean-field dynamics. Obviously, the high momentum and energy structure of spectral functions has important consequences for dynamical processes, e.g. sub-threshold particle production on nuclei.

An overall measure of short-range correlations in nuclear matter is the depletion of occupation probabilities in ground state momentum distributions by about 10%. The processes behind this number are such that states from inside the Fermi sphere are scattered into high momentum configurations which clearly are not of mean-field nature. As a result, a momentum distribution with a long high momentum tail is generated extending much beyond the Fermi surface. An important finding is that the magnitude and the shape of the high momentum component is almost independent of the system under consideration while the inner parts, especially in light nuclei, are affected by the shell structure and finite size effects. Hence, the high momentum tails of the spectral functions are likely to reflect a universal property of nuclear many-body dynamics at short distances.

Theoretically, many attempts have been made to understand short-range correlations in nuclei. Approaches based on nuclear many-body theory up to explanations referring to the QCD aspects of strong interactions  have been proposed. Obviously, before conclusions on non-standard phenomena can be drawn the many-body theoretical aspects of short-range correlations must be understood in detail. In fact, the results obtained from many-body theory are describing the available data rather satisfactorily. In recent years the theoretical results have converged, at least for the depletion of nuclear matter occupation probabilities. The majority of the model calculations are using Brueckner and Dirac-Brueckner techniques, see e.g. . In  a correlation dynamical treatment was applied. Most of the approaches use the quasi-particle approximation, i.e. a sharp energy distribution for the nucleons is assumed (see e.g. ). Occupation probabilities in finite nuclei could be well described in a second RPA approach  and by polarization self-energies , respectively. The Dirac-Brueckner calculations in , including hole-hole propagation, led to an extended and numerically rather involved energy-momentum structure of self-energies. However, the net effect on binding energies and occupation probabilities was only moderate, but improving the agreement with empirical data.

Here, we investigate spectral functions in nuclear matter by quantum transport theory , thereby taking up a proposal of Danielewicz and Bertsch . Indeed, the present study is motivated by our recent implementation of off-shell effects in a transport theoretical treatment of heavy-ion and other nuclear collisions . A sound theoretical basis how to treat off-shell effects in transport equations has been given in  (see also ). A central result of transport theory is that collision rates and correlation functions are directly related: The calculation of either of the two quantities requires the knowledge of the other one. Theoretically, this corresponds to a rather involved self-consistency problem for which a direct solution apparently does not exist. Similar to , a practical approach is obtained by an iterative procedure. Successive approximations for self-energies, spectral functions and collision integrals are obtained be re-inserting the corresponding quantities from previous cycles of the calculation until convergence is achieved. The method is discussed below. Results are presented and compared to the work of Benhar et al.  who calculated the nuclear matter spectral function within the framework of correlation-basis theory and of Ciofi degli Atti et al.  who derived a global parameterization of spectral functions for finite nuclei and nuclear matter.

In quantum transport theory  dynamical processes are described by the one-particle correlation functions

$`g^>(1,1^{})`$ $`=`$ $`i\mathrm{\Psi }(1)\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(1^{})`$
$`g^<(1,1^{})`$ $`=`$ $`i\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(1^{})\mathrm{\Psi }(1),`$ (1)
where $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ are the nucleon field operators in Heisenberg representation. They account for the non-stationary processes which introduce a coupling between causal and anti-causal single particle propagation. In other words, states from below and above the Fermi surface are dynamically mixed as discussed above. Correspondingly, in an interacting quantum system the single particle self-energy operator includes correlation self-energies $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{<>}`$ which couple particle and hole degrees of freedom . Obviously, $`g^{<>}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{<>}`$ are closely related to each other and must be determined by those parts of the fundamental interactions producing non-stationary effects. The wanted relation is obtained from transport theory. After a Fourier transformation to energy-momentum representation one finds for the self energies

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }^>(\omega ,p)`$ $`=`$ $`g{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p_2d\omega _2}{(2\pi )^4}\frac{d^3p_3d\omega _3}{(2\pi )^4}\frac{d^3p_4d\omega _4}{(2\pi )^4}(2\pi )^4\delta ^4(p+p_2p_3p_4)\overline{||^2}}`$ (2)
$`\times g^<(\omega _2,p_2)g^>(\omega _3,p_3)g^>(\omega _4,p_4)`$
$`\mathrm{\Sigma }^<(\omega ,p)`$ $`=`$ $`g{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p_2d\omega _2}{(2\pi )^4}\frac{d^3p_3d\omega _3}{(2\pi )^4}\frac{d^3p_4d\omega _4}{(2\pi )^4}(2\pi )^4\delta ^4(p+p_2p_3p_4)\overline{||^2}}`$ (3)
$`\times g^>(\omega _2,p_2)g^<(\omega _3,p_3)g^<(\omega _4,p_4),`$
where $`g=4`$ is the spin-isospin degeneracy factor and $`\overline{||^2}`$ denotes the square of the nucleon-nucleon scattering amplitude, averaged over spin and isospin of the incoming nucleons and summed over spin and isospin of the outgoing nucleons. Since both $`g^{<>}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{<>}`$ describe the correlation dynamics, the spectral function can be obtained from either of the two quantities as the difference over the cut along the energy real axis. In terms of the correlation propagators,

$$a(\omega ,p)=i\left(g^>(\omega ,p)g^<(\omega ,p)\right).$$
(4)
In a non-relativistic formulation the single particle spectral function is found explicitly as

$$a(\omega ,p)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega ,p)}{(\omega \frac{p^2}{2m_N}\text{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }(\omega ,p))^2+\frac{1}{4}\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\omega ,p)},$$
(5)
including the particle and hole nucleon self-energy $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, which accounts for long-range mean-field dynamics. The width of the spectral distribution is determined by the imaginary part of the self-energy,

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega ,p)=2\text{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }(\omega ,p)=i(\mathrm{\Sigma }^>(\omega ,p)\mathrm{\Sigma }^<(\omega ,p)).$$
(6)
From Eqs. (2), (3) it is apparent that the high momentum, i.e. short range, components of nuclear interactions are of primary importance for the energy-momentum spreading of the single particle strength. Obviously, the $`\delta `$-shaped quasi-particle distribution is recovered for $`\text{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }0`$, i.e. vanishing correlations.

The correlation propagators $`g^{<>}`$ are given by

$`g^<(\omega ,p)`$ $`=ia(\omega ,p)f(\omega ,p),`$ (7)
$`g^>(\omega ,p)`$ $`=ia(\omega ,p)(1f(\omega ,p))`$ (8)
in terms of the energy-momentum phase space distribution function $`f(\omega ,p)`$. Since we are dealing with a system at $`T=0`$, $`f`$ reduces to

$$f(\omega ,p)=\mathrm{\Theta }(\omega _F\omega )$$
(9)
with the Fermi energy $`\omega _F`$. Therefore,

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }^>(\omega ,p)=0,\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega ,p)=i\mathrm{\Sigma }^<(\omega ,p)\text{for}\omega \omega _F`$ (10)
$`\mathrm{\Sigma }^<(\omega ,p)=0,\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega ,p)=i\mathrm{\Sigma }^>(\omega ,p)\text{for}\omega \omega _F.`$ (11)
In order to obtain $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, we have to calculate the self-energies $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^>`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^<`$. Since these quantities themselves depend on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ via the spectral function $`a(\omega ,p)`$, the calculation has to be done iteratively.

Diagrammatically, the particle- and hole-type transition rate $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^>`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^<`$, Eqs. (2) and (3), are of two-particle–one-hole (2p1h) and one-particle–two-hole (1p2h) structure, respectively. In this respect, they are of the same basic structure as the polarization self-energies considered in many-body theoretical descriptions. However, while in many-body theory the polarization self-energies are typically included perturbatively in lowest order only by performing the integrations over intermediate 2p1h and 1p2h states with quasi-particle spectral functions, e.g. in Ref.  and also Refs. , we apply a more extended scheme accounting for higher order effects.

A first attempt to extend the many-body scheme to higher order calculations was made in . Since, as expected, the computational effort was found to increase considerably approximations on spectral functions of particle intermediate states had to be invoked. An important aspect of the present transport theoretical approach is the fully self-consistent treatment of particle and hole strength function in each stage of the calculation. Within our iterative approach this is achieved by calculating the correlation self-energies with the self-consistently obtained spectral functions. Hence, the converged results include a non-perturbative summation of a whole series of $`n`$p $`m`$h diagrams.

Dynamically, the strength of the transition rates is determined by the in-medium (off-shell) nucleon-nucleon scattering amplitude $``$. We now make the extreme assumption of a constant transition amplitude, as is appropriate for the short-range part of the $`NN`$ interaction. Neglecting the energy-momentum dependence of the amplitude clearly simplifies the computations. Then, $``$ contributes only as an overall multiplicative factor to the transition rates which, at a given density, may be treated as an empirical parameter $`\overline{}`$. The self-energies $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^>`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^<`$ are then given by

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }^>(\omega ,p)`$ $`=`$ $`4i{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{||^2}}{(2\pi )^6}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\omega _3𝑑\omega _2𝑑p_3p_3^2𝑑p_2p_2^2\frac{d\mathrm{cos}\vartheta _2}{p_{\text{tot}}p_3}a(\omega _2,p_2)}`$
$`\times f(\omega _2,p_2)a(\omega _3,p_3)(1f(\omega _3,p_3)){\displaystyle 𝑑p_4p_4a(\omega _4,p_4)(1f(\omega _4,p_4))}`$
and

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }^<(\omega ,p)`$ $`=`$ $`4i{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{||^2}}{(2\pi )^6}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\omega _3𝑑\omega _2𝑑p_3p_3^2𝑑p_2p_2^2\frac{d\mathrm{cos}\vartheta _2}{p_{\text{tot}}p_3}a(\omega _2,p_2)}`$
$`\times (1f(\omega _2,p_2))a(\omega _3,p_3)f(\omega _3,p_3){\displaystyle 𝑑p_4p_4a(\omega _4,p_4)f(\omega _4,p_4)}`$
with $`p_{\text{tot}}=|\stackrel{}{p}+\stackrel{}{p}_2|`$, where four integrations due to the delta function and two over the azimuthal angles $`\phi _2,\phi _3`$ already have been carried out. The remaining six dimensional integrals were calculated on a $`(\omega ,p)`$-grid with boundaries $`|\omega |0.5`$ GeV and $`pp_{\text{max}}=1.25`$ GeV and a mesh size of 5 MeV in both directions.

In the present study we work in infinite nuclear matter at equilibrium with the Fermi momentum $`p_F=1.33`$ fm-1, density $`\rho `$=0.16 $`\text{fm}^3`$ and a binding energy per particle of $`\omega _F=16`$ MeV. The real part of the self-energy Re$`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is chosen to be independent of momentum and energy. In fact, a constant Re$`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ only serves to define the scale for the excitation energy $`\omega `$ which in our case is given by $`\omega \omega _F`$. The energy and momentum dependent pieces of Re$`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ play a more important role because they will modify the pole structure of the propagators. Inside the Fermi sphere typically a quadratic momentum dependence is found leading to a scaling of the kinetic energy by an effective mass and a global compression of spectra will be found. Hence, leaving out the momentum dependence will affect the final results only to a minor degree. Neglecting the energy dependence might introduce larger uncertainties because this amounts to a violation of analyticity as expressed by the dispersion relation between real and imaginary parts of polarization self-energies. Since we do obtain an energy dependent imaginary part analyticity could in principle be restored by calculating Re$`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ dispersively. However, using a constant, energy independent transition matrix element clearly fails for large positive energies because the imaginary part would continue to increase beyond any limit with the level density of two-particle states. Thus, the imaginary part of the self-energy is not available over the full range of energies necessary for solving the dispersion equation. Rather than introducing an energy cut-off as an additional free model parameter we decide at the present stage to completely neglect the energy dependence of Re$`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$.

The average amplitude was adjusted such that the spectral functions obtained with many-body theoretical methods by Benhar et al.  are reproduced leading to $`\left(\overline{||^2}\right)^{1/2}`$=207 MeV fm3. Relating this value to on-shell processes would correspond to a constant cross section of about 20 mb. In Fig. 1 the full energy-momentum structure of the resulting nucleon spectral function

$$P(\omega ,p)=Na(\omega ,p)$$
(14)
is displayed, where $`N`$ is a normalization constant. The same normalization as in the work of Benhar et al.  is used. Our results are in remarkable agreement with the calculations of Ciofi degli Atti et al.  as seen by comparing to Fig. 10 in that reference.

For a more quantitative comparison cuts for several momenta are shown in Fig. 2 as a function of energy $`\omega `$ below the Fermi surface and compared to the results of Ref. . The agreement is surprisingly good considering the seemingly drastic approximation invoked for $``$ and the neglect of analyticity.

We conclude from this agreement that the spectral function of nuclear matter in the hole-sector is rather insensitive to the specific energy and momentum structure of the interaction once a fully self-consistent calculation is performed. The effect of self-consistency is illustrated in Fig. 2 where spectral functions obtained after the first iteration are compared to the fully converged results. The iteration scheme was initialized by choosing spectral functions with a constant width of 0.1 MeV as start value. On a level of about 30% global features, as e.g. the location and height of the peak structures, are described already by the first iteration. At first sight, this seems to support the pertubative approach usually applied in many-body theoretical approaches. However, during the self-consistency cycle strength is re-distributed from the peak into the tail regions. Hence, higher order polarization effects act in a similar way as increasing the effective coupling strength. The results show that the full transport theoretical calculation apparently leads to a self-consistent adjustment of spectral functions which ultimately is dominated by phase space effects.

The agreement with the many-body calculations of  extends also to the single nucleon momentum distribution in nuclear matter defined as

$$n(p)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\omega _F}𝑑\omega P(\omega ,p).$$
(15)
Results are displayed in Fig. 3. Again the agreement is close to perfect except for the increase of the distribution towards $`p_F`$, which is in contrast to the calculations of . Calculations in a schematic model using an empirical form for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega ,p)`$ with parameters given in Ref.  show that this behaviour is a direct consequence of the missing analyticity in the self-energies. The schematic approach also confirms that the momentum dependence of Re$`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ indeed leads to minor effects in the bulk behaviour of the spectral functions except close to the Fermi surface. The momentum distribution is affected mainly in the extreme momentum tail where a steeper slope is found. In this context it is important to note that $`n(p)`$ must decrease stronger than $`𝒪`$$`(\frac{1}{p^4})`$ in order to have a convergent result for the kinetic energy distribution of the correlated ground state. The transport theoretical results in Fig. 3 fulfill this constraint.

Finally, we remark that the shape of the momentum distribution is closely related to the value of $`\overline{}`$: Increasing the value - corresponding to a stronger interaction amongst the nucleons - would increase the occupation of states above $`p_F`$ and soften the Fermi edge, leading to a better description of the data in Fig. 3 for $`p>p_F`$.

Summarizing, correlations in nuclear matter have been described by an approach that allows to go beyond the perturbative level to which conventional many-body methods are constrained in practice. In a first application, the transition rates were calculated with a momentum independent nucleon-nucleon scattering amplitude. That a transport theoretical description with a simple approximation for the scattering amplitude could reproduce the momentum distribution obtained in state-of-the-art many-body calculations had already been observed by the authors of . The results here show in addition that also the spectral functions are dominated by phase space effects rather than by the off-shell momentum structure of interactions. The excellent agreement of the nucleon spectral function at far-off-shell energies and momenta with those obtained in sophisticated state-of-the-art nuclear many-body calculations also provides some a-posteriori justification for the method to include off-shell effects in nuclear transport calculations developed in Ref. .

Acknowledgements:
We are grateful to S. Fantoni for providing us with his spectral functions and to C. Ciofi degli Atti for helpful comments.


text:
# BIHEP-EP1-2000-01 A Measurement of the Mass and Full-Width of the 𝜂_𝑐 Meson

\[

## Abstract

In a sample of 7.8 million $`J/\psi `$ decays collected in the Beijing Spectrometer, the process J/$`\psi \gamma \eta _c`$ is observed for five different $`\eta _c`$ decay channels: $`K^+K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`K^\pm K_S^0\pi ^{}`$ (with $`K_S^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$), $`\varphi \varphi `$ (with $`\varphi K^+K^{}`$) and $`K^+K^{}\pi ^0`$. From these signals, we determine the mass of $`\eta _c`$ to be $`2976.6\pm 2.9\pm 1.3`$ MeV. Combining this result with a previously reported result from a similar study using $`\psi (2S)\gamma \eta _c`$ detected in the same spectrometer gives $`m_{\eta _c}=2976.3\pm 2.3\pm 1.2`$ MeV. For the combined samples, we obtain $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\eta _c}=11.0\pm 8.1\pm 4.1`$ MeV.

\]

A precise knowledge of the mass difference between the J/$`\psi (1^{})`$ and $`\eta _c(0^+)`$ charmonium states is useful for the determination of the strength of the spin-spin interaction term in non-relativistic potential models. While the $`J/\psi `$ mass has been determined with high accuracy (1 part in $`10^5`$) to be $`3096.88\pm 0.04`$ MeV, the mass of the $`\eta _c`$ is less well measured. The Particle Data Group (PDG) average of $`m_{\eta _c}=2979.8\pm 2.1`$ MeV is based on experiments using the reactions $`e^+e^{}`$ J/$`\psi \gamma \eta _c`$ , $`e^+e^{}\psi (2S)\gamma \eta _c`$  and p$`\overline{\text{p}}\gamma \gamma `$ . These measurements have poor internal consistency, and the PDG fit to the measurements has a confidence level of only 0.001. The most recent result from Fermilab experiment E760  disagrees with the result from the DM2 group  by almost four standard deviations. Measurements of the full width of the $`\eta _c`$ have been made by four groups: E760 reports a result of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\eta _c}=23.9_{7.1}^{+12.6}`$ MeV , which is larger than the results from SPEC ($`7.0_{7.0}^{+7.5}`$ MeV) , Mark III ($`10.1_{8.2}^{+33.0}`$ MeV)  and Crystal Ball ($`11.5\pm 4.5`$ MeV). Additional measurements for both $`m_{\eta _c}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\eta _c}`$ are needed to improve the situation. An $`\eta _c`$ mass value of $`m_{\eta _c}=2975.8\pm 3.9\pm 1.2`$ MeV was reported earlier by the Beijing Spectrometer (BES) collaboration based on an analysis of the reaction $`\psi `$(2S)$`\gamma \eta _c`$ . In this paper we report a measurement of the mass of the $`\eta _c`$ based on a data sample of 7.8 million J/$`\psi `$ events collected in BES. The reactions J/$`\psi \gamma \eta _c`$, $`\eta _cK^+K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`K^\pm K_S^0\pi ^{}`$ (with $`K_S^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$), $`\varphi \varphi `$ (with $`\varphi K^+K^{}`$) and $`K^+K^{}\pi ^0`$ have been used to determine the mass and width of the $`\eta _c`$.

The Beijing Spectrometer has been described in detail in Ref. . Here we describe briefly those detector elements essential to this measurement. Charged particle tracking is provided by a 10 superlayer main drift chamber (MDC). Each superlayer contains four cylindrical layers of sense wires that measure both the position and the ionization energy loss (dE/d$`x`$) of charged particles. The momentum resolution is $`\sigma _P/P=1.7\%\sqrt{1+P^2}`$, where $`P`$ is in GeV/$`c`$. The dE/d$`x`$ resolution is $`9\%`$ and provides good $`\pi /K`$ separation in the low momentum region. An array of 48 scintillation counters surrounding the MDC measures the time-of-flight (TOF) of charged tracks with a resolution of 330 ps for hadrons. Outside of the TOF system is an electromagnetic calorimeter comprised of streamer tubes and lead sheets with a $`z`$ position resolution of 4 cm. The energy resolution of the shower counter scales as $`\sigma _E/E=22\%/\sqrt{E}`$, where $`E`$ is in GeV. Outside the shower counter is a solenoidal magnet that produces a 0.4 Tesla magnetic field.

The event selection criteria for each channel are described in detail in previous papers . Here we repeat only the essential information and emphasize those considerations that are special to the $`m_{\eta _c}`$ measurement. Candidates are selected by requiring the correct number of charged track candidates for the given hypothesis. These tracks must be well fit to a helix in the polar angle range $`0.8<\mathrm{cos}\theta <0.8`$ and have a transverse momentum above $`60`$ MeV/c. For the four-charged-track channels, at least one photon with energy $`E_\gamma >30`$ MeV is required in the barrel shower counter; for the $`K^+K^{}\pi ^0`$ channel, at least three $`E_\gamma >30`$ MeV photons are required. Showers that can be associated with charged tracks are not considered. Events are fitted kinematically with four constraints (4C) to the hypotheses: $`J/\psi \gamma K^+K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`J/\psi \gamma \pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`J/\psi \gamma K^\pm \pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`J/\psi \gamma \gamma \gamma K^+K^{}`$. A one-constraint (1C) fit is done for the $`J/\psi \gamma _{miss}K^+K^{}K^+K^{}`$ hypothesis, where $`\gamma _{miss}`$ indicates that this photon is not detected. We select those events for each particular channel that have a confidence level greater than 5%. A cut on the variable, $`|U_{miss}|=|E_{miss}P_{miss}|<0.10`$ GeV (for $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$), $`<0.12`$ GeV (for $`K^+K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$), $`<0.15`$ GeV (for $`K^\pm K_S^0\pi ^{}`$) and $`<0.15`$ GeV (for $`\varphi \varphi `$) is imposed to reject events with multiphotons and misidentified charged particles. Here, $`E_{miss}`$ and $`P_{miss}`$ are, respectively, the missing energy and missing momentum calculated using the measured quantities for the charged tracks. Another cut on the variable, $`P_{t\gamma }^2=4|P_{miss}|^2\mathrm{sin}^2(\theta _{t\gamma }/2)<0.006(\text{GeV}/c)^2`$ (for $`K^+K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ and $`K^\pm K_S^0\pi ^{}`$) is used to reduce the backgrounds from $`\pi ^0`$’s, where $`\theta _{t\gamma }`$ is the angle between the missing momentum and the photon direction. For the $`K^+K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ and $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ channels, $`|M_{\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0}M_\omega |>30`$ MeV is required to remove the background from $`J/\psi \omega \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ and $`J/\psi \omega K^+K^{}`$; where a $`\pi ^0`$ is associated with the missing momentum. For the $`K^\pm K_S^0\pi ^{}`$ (with $`K_S^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$) channel, the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ invariant mass for the $`K_S^0`$ candidate is required to be within 25 MeV of $`M_{K_S^0}`$. For the $`\varphi \varphi `$ (with $`\varphi K^+K^{}`$) channel, the invariant masses of both candidate $`\varphi `$’s corresponding to $`K^+K^{}`$ pairs are required to be within 30 MeV of the $`\varphi `$ mass. For the $`K^+K^{}\pi ^0`$ channel, at least one of the three $`\gamma \gamma `$ invariant mass combinations is required to be within 40 MeV of the $`\pi ^0`$ mass; for events where this happens for more than one combination, the one with invariant mass closest to the $`\pi ^0`$ mass is taken to be the candidate $`\pi ^0`$.

Using the event selection criteria described above, we determine the invariant mass spectra for each decay mode shown in Figs. 1(a) to 1(e). The curve in each figure indicates the result of a likelihood fit using a Breit-Wigner line shape convoluted with a Gaussian mass resolution function for the $`\eta _c`$, plus a polynomial function to represent the background. In these fits, the $`\eta _c`$ total width is fixed at its PDG central value of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=13.2`$ MeV, and the resolution at the Monte Carlo determined value. The number of fitted events and the mass of the $`\eta _c`$ determined for each of the channels are listed in Table I. The experimental resolution, which varies from channel to channel, is also listed in the table.

Figure 1(f) shows the combined four-charged-track invariant mass distributions in the $`\eta _c`$ mass region for the $`K^+K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`K^\pm K_S^0\pi ^{}`$ and $`\varphi \varphi `$ channels, which are the those with similar mass resolution. Here, a likelihood fit using a $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ fixed at the PDG value and a mass resolution ($`\sigma `$) fixed at the value averaged over the four channels ($`\sigma _{avg}=13.3`$MeV) gives a total of $`100.9\pm 19.8`$ $`\eta _c`$ events and a mass $`m_{\eta _c}=2976.7\pm 3.4`$ MeV with a $`\chi ^2/\text{dof}=14.2/20`$, corresponding to a confidence level of 81.9%. If $`\sigma =13.3`$ MeV is fixed and the mass, number of events, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are allowed to float, the resulting mass value and number of events are $`m_{\eta _c}=2976.7\pm 3.0`$ MeV and $`91.5\pm 21.2`$, respectively.

The main systematic errors associated with the $`m_{\eta _c}`$ determination arise from the mass-scale calibration, the detection efficiency, and the uncertainties associated with the selection of the cut values. In the case of the $`\psi (2S)`$ measurement , the level of the systematic error on the overall mass scale of BES was estimated as 0.8 MeV by comparing the masses of the $`\chi _{c1}`$ and $`\chi _{c2}`$ charmonium states, detected in the same decay channels, with their PDG values. These masses have been measured in a number of experiments, and the reported values have good internal consistency. The systematic error caused by the detection efficiency was determined to be 0.7 MeV by using a Monte Carlo simulation. Systematic errors originating from the cut conditions are mainly from the confidence-level cuts for the constrained kinematic fits and the photon minimum energy requirement. For example, when the accepted confidence level probability is varied between 1% and 10%, the central value of $`m_{\eta _c}`$ shifts by 0.7 MeV. When the minimum energy of the photon is changed from 30 MeV to 50 MeV, the central value of $`m_{\eta _c}`$ shifts by 0.2 MeV. The systematic errors associated with the uncertainties in the experimental mass resolution and the full width of the $`\eta _c`$ are small. When the experimental mass resolution is varied between the extreme values of 11.0 and 15.0 MeV, and the full width is changed from 10.0 to 16.0 MeV, we find that shifts of the mass are less than 0.2 MeV. The total overall systematic error of this measurement is taken to be 1.3 MeV, the sum in quadrature of all contributions.

Combining the weighted average with the result for the $`K^+K^{}\pi ^0`$ decay channel (see Table I), we obtain the result $`m_{\eta _c}=2976.6\pm 2.9\pm 1.3`$ MeV for the five channels. Combining this result with that from the BES analysis of $`\psi (2S)\gamma \eta _c`$, namely $`m_{\eta _c}=2975.8\pm 3.9\pm 1.2`$ MeV , we obtain a weighted average $`m_{\eta _c}=2976.3\pm 2.3\pm 1.2`$ MeV. Here, since most of the systematic error in the mass scale is common between the $`J/\psi `$ and $`\psi (2S)`$ measurements, we take the systematic error of the combined measurement to be that from the $`\psi (2S)`$ measurement.

The full width of the $`\eta _c`$ was determined from a fit to the combined $`J/\psi `$ and $`\psi (2S)`$ event samples. Figure 2 shows the combined four-charged-track invariant mass distribution in the $`\eta _c`$ mass region for $`J/\psi \gamma \eta _c`$ (with $`\eta _cK^+K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`K^\pm K_S^0\pi ^{}`$ and $`\varphi \varphi `$) and $`\psi (2S)\gamma \eta _c`$ (with $`\eta _cK^+K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, $`K^\pm K_S^0\pi ^{}`$ and $`K^+K^{}K^+K^{}`$). An $`\eta _c`$ full width of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=11.0\pm 8.1`$ MeV is given by a likelihood fit performed with the resolution fixed at $`\sigma =13.3`$ MeV. This fit gives a total of $`168.3\pm 26.8`$ $`\eta _c`$ events with a $`\chi ^2/\text{dof}=15.0/21`$, corresponding to a confidence level of 82.1%. The systematic error of the width measurement is 4.1 MeV which includes the sum in quadrature of the uncertainty in the mass resolution $`\sigma `$ (2.5 MeV), the uncertainty associated with the choice of selection cuts (2.5 MeV), and the mass dependence of the detection efficiency (2.0 MeV).

In summary, we have used the BES 7.8 million $`J/\psi `$ data sample to observe the $`\eta _c`$ in five different decay modes and determine the $`\eta _c`$ mass to be $`2976.6\pm 2.9\pm 1.3`$ MeV. Combining this result with a prior BES analysis of $`\psi (2S)\gamma \eta _c`$, we find $`m_{\eta _c}=2976.3\pm 2.3\pm 1.2`$ MeV. Combining the two samples, we also obtain $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\eta _c}=11.0\pm 8.1\pm 4.1`$ MeV. The mass measurement of $`\eta _c`$ from BES is in good agreement with the PDG value of $`2979.8\pm 2.1`$ MeV, but 3.8$`\sigma `$ below the E760 result of $`2988.3_{3.1}^{+3.3}`$ MeV. Figure 3 shows the BES results together with the four previous measurements with the smallest errors. The curve in Fig. 3 allows a determination of the values of $`\chi ^2`$ versus $`m_{\eta _c}`$ for a fit including all existing measurements. The minimum value, $`\chi ^2/\text{dof}=22.2/8`$ occurs at $`2979.2\pm 0.9`$ MeV. The high $`\chi ^2`$ value is predominantly due to the poor agreement between the DM2 and E760 measurements. The two measurements of BES reduce the new world average for the mass by 0.6 MeV.

The BES collaboration acknowledges financial support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Ministry of Science & Technology of Korea. It thanks the staff of BEPC for their hard efforts. This work is supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contracts Nos. 19991480, 19825116 and 19605007 and the Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract No. KJ 95T-03(IHEP); by the Department of Energy under Contract Nos. DE-FG03-92ER40701 (Caltech), DE-FG03-93ER40788 (Colorado State University), DE-AC03-76SF00515 (SLAC), DE-FG03-91ER40679 (UC Irvine), DE-FG03-94ER40833 (U Hawaii), DE-FG03-95ER40925 (UT Dallas); and by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea under Contract KISTEP I-03-037(Korea). We also acknowledge Prof. D. V. Bugg, Prof. B. S. Zou and Prof. S. F. Tuan for helpful suggestions and discussions.


text:
# Constraining reionization using the thermal history of the baryons

## 1. Introduction

Quasars have provided us with a unique probe of the high redshift universe. These bright point sources shine like a flashlight through space, revealing the presence of baryonic matter through the light it absorbs. Thus every quasar spectrum contains a one-dimensional map of the distribution of matter along the line of sight. The extraordinary quality of the spectra obtainable with the HIRES spectrograph on the Keck telescope, enables us to extract the wealth of information that has been collected by the quasar’s light along its journey through space and time. Computer simulations of structure formation have been remarkably successful in reproducing these observations. They show that the physics governing the high redshift intergalactic medium (IGM), which is responsible for the low column density absorption lines (the so-called Ly$`\alpha `$ forest) is relatively simple. The IGM, which contains most of the baryons in the universe, is photoionized and photoheated by the collective UV radiation from young stars and quasars. On large scales its dynamics are determined by the gravitational field of the dark matter, while on small scales gas pressure is important. The availability of superb data and a detailed physical model, have made the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest into a powerful probe of the high-redshift universe.

Since shock heating is unimportant in the low-density IGM, most of the gas follows a simple temperature-density relation which is the result of the interplay of photoionization heating and adiabatic cooling due to the expansion of the universe. For densities around the cosmic mean, this relation is well-described by a power-law, $`T=T_0(\rho /\overline{\rho })^{\gamma 1}`$ (Hui & Gnedin 1997). At reionization the gas is reheated, resulting in an increase in $`T_0`$ and a decrease in $`\gamma `$ (provided that the gas is reionized on a timescale short compared to the Hubble time). In ionization equilibrium, $`T_0`$ decreases and the slope of the effective equation of state steepens (i.e. $`\gamma `$ increases). However, because the timescale for recombination is long, the gas retains some memory of how and when it was reionized (Miralda-Escudé & Rees 1994).

The distribution of line widths ($`b`$-parameters) depends on various mechanisms. Thermal motions of the hydrogen atoms broaden the H I absorption lines and other processes, such as the differential Hubble flow across the absorbing structure and bulk flows, also contribute to the line widths. However, the minimum line width is set by the temperature of the gas, which in turn depends on the density. A standard way of analyzing Ly$`\alpha `$ forest spectra is by decomposing them into a set of Voigt profiles. Since the minimum line width ($`b`$-parameter) depends on the temperature, and since column density ($`N`$) correlates strongly with physical density, there is a cut-off in the $`b(N)`$ distribution which traces the effective equation of state of the IGM (Schaye et al. 1999; Ricotti, Gnedin & Shull 2000; Bryan & Machacek 2000). We have used this relation to measure the thermal evolution of the IGM from a set of nine Ly$`\alpha `$ quasar absorption line spectra.

This work is more fully described and discussed in a forthcoming publication (Schaye et al. 2000).

## 2. Method

We have measured the $`b(N)`$ cut-off for a set of nine high-quality Ly$`\alpha `$ forest spectra, spanning the redshift range 2.0–4.5, eight of which were taken with the HIRES spectrograph of the Keck telescope. We used hydrodynamic simulations to calibrate the relations between the $`b(N)`$ cut-off and the temperature-density relation. Except for the two lowest redshift quasars, the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest spectra were split in two in order to take into account the significant redshift evolution ($`\mathrm{\Delta }z0.5`$) and signal-to-noise variation across a single spectrum. The calibration was done separately for each half of each observed spectrum. The synthetic spectra were processed to give them identical characteristics (resolution, pixel size, noise properties, mean absorption) as the real data. The same Voigt profile fitting package (an automated version of VPFIT (Webb 1987)) was used for both the simulated and the observed spectra.

## 3. Results and discussion

The measured evolution of the temperature at the mean density and the slope of the effective equation of state are plotted in Figure 1. From $`z3.5`$ to $`z3.0`$, $`T_0`$ increases and the gas becomes close to isothermal ($`\gamma 1.0`$). This behavior differs drastically from that predicted by models in which helium is fully reionized at higher redshift. For example, the solid lines correspond to a simulation that uses a uniform metagalactic UV-background from quasars as computed by Haardt & Madau (1996) and which assumes the gas to be optically thin. In this simulation, both hydrogen and helium are fully reionized by $`z4.5`$ and the temperature of the IGM declines slowly as the universe expands. Such a model can clearly not account for the peak in the temperature at $`z3`$ (reduced $`\chi ^2`$ for the solid curves are 6.9 for $`T_0`$ and 3.6 for $`\gamma `$). Instead, we associate the peak in $`T_0`$ and the low value of $`\gamma `$ with reheating due to the second reionization of helium (He II $``$ He III). This interpretation is supported by measurements of the Si IV/C IV ratio (Songaila 1998, but see also Boksenberg, Rauch, & Sargent 1998 and Giroux & Shull 1997) and direct measurements of the He II opacity (Heap et al. 2000 and references therein).

The dashed lines in Figure 1 are for a model that was designed to fit the data (reduced $`\chi ^2`$ is 0.24 for $`T_0`$ and 1.38 for $`\gamma `$). In this simulation, which has a much softer UV-background at high redshift, He II reionizes at $`z3.2`$. Before reionization, when the gas is optically thick to ionizing photons, the mean energy per photoionization is much higher than in the optically thin limit (Abel & Haehnelt 1999). We have approximated this effect in this simulation by enhancing the photoheating rates during reionization, so raising the temperature of the IGM.

Since the simulation assumes a uniform ionizing background, the temperature has to increase abruptly (i.e. much faster than the gas can recombine) in order to make $`\gamma `$ as small as observed. In reality, the low-density gas may be reionized by harder photons, which will be the first ionizing photons to escape from the dense regions surrounding the sources. This would lead to a larger temperature increase in the more dilute, cooler regions, resulting in a decrease of $`\gamma `$ even for a more gradual reionization. Furthermore, although reionization may proceed fast locally (as in our small simulation box), it may be patchy and take some time to complete. Hence the steep temperature jump indicated by the dashed line, although compatible with the data, should be regarded as illustrative only. The globally averaged $`T_0`$ could well increase more gradually which would also be consistent with the data. More data at $`z>3`$ is needed to determine whether the temperature rise is sharp or gradual. On the theoretical side, more realistic models should include radiative transfer effects, which are important during reionization.

Together with measurements of the He II opacity, which probe the ionization state in the voids, the thermal history of the IGM provides important constraints on models of helium reionization. Furthermore, the temperature of the IGM before the onset of helium reionization can be used to constrain the redshift of hydrogen reionization, which marks the end of the dark ages of cosmic history.

### Acknowledgments.

We are grateful to Bob Carswell and Sara Ellison for giving us permission to use their spectra of the quasars Q1100$``$264 and APM 08279+5255 respectively.

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