text:
# Comparing Tycho–2 astrometry with UCAC1

## 1 Introduction

Two new major astrometric catalogs became available in early 2000. The Tycho–2 Catalogue for the brightest 2.5 million stars (Høg et al. 2000a, ), (Høg et al. 2000b, ) and the first U.S. Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog, UCAC1, for 27 million stars on the Southern Hemisphere (Zacharias et al., 2000). Both catalogs are important steps towards the extension of the optical reference frame (Zacharias, 1998) beyond densities and magnitudes of the Hipparcos Catalogue.

The Tycho–2 Catalogue is a new, extended version of the original Tycho Catalogue (ESA, 1997), based on a re–reduction of the ESA Hipparcos space mission Tycho data and over 140 ground–based catalogs for the Tycho–2 proper motions. An external comparison of the Tycho–2 astrometry is presented here utilizing the UCAC1 positions. A similar comparison between the Tycho–1 Catalogue and CCD astrograph test data was presented earlier (Zacharias et al. 1997a, ).

The U.S. Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph (UCAC) project was planned and initiated in the mid 1990s (Gauss et al., 1996), (Zacharias, 1997), (Zacharias et al. 1997b, ). Observations started at the South Celestial Pole in 1998 and full sky coverage is expected by mid 2003. For the comparison presented in this paper, these new, high precision observations were available for about 80% of the Southern Hemisphere, covering the magnitude range R$`816^m`$. Thus, particularly, the new, faint extension of the Tycho–2 catalog ($`11^m`$ to $`12.5^m`$) is very well covered by these independent ground–based observations.

Both catalogs are on the Hipparcos system, thus the International Celestial Reference System (ICRS). The epoch difference of about 8 years is bridged by proper motions given in the Tycho–2 catalog at the expense of introducing a third error contribution besides the positional errors of both catalogs. The UCAC is not a photometric catalog, with only approximate magnitudes given in a single bandpass (red). Therefore no external photometric comparison of the Tycho–2 data can be presented here. Both Tycho–2 and UCAC1 are of great importance to the general astronomical community and the astrometric comparison presented here is also of benefit for the Tycho–2 and in particular the UCAC projects. Another important catalog comparison between the Tycho–2, the ACT and the Hipparcos Catalogue is in preparation Urban et al. (2000).

## 2 Description of the Catalogs

Here we briefly describe properties of both catalogs which are relevant for this comparison. For more details, the reader is referred to the papers mentioned in the introduction.

### 2.1 Tycho–2

The major improvement of the Tycho–2 Catalogue over the original Tycho Catalogue is the faint extension, providing positions for some 1.5 million more stars, extending its limiting magnitude to about V=12.5. This was made possible by a new reduction procedure which also provides new, slightly improved positions for the stars previously given in Tycho–1. The mean epoch for the Tycho observations is in the range of 1990.72 to 1992.36, depending on the individual star. The estimated precision of the Tycho positions is a function of magnitude, as given in Table 1, adopted from (Høg et al. 2000a, ). An internal error of a position component for each star in Tycho–2 is derived from the distribution of the $`130`$ individual observations per star made by the Hipparcos satellite. Excluding the wings of the distribution, a standard error for the position of each star is calculated. The medians of those standard errors per magnitude bin are given in Table 1 ($`\sigma _T`$), providing a robust estimate of the standard error with outliers rejected.

Proper motions have been derived utilizing the Tycho–2 positions and a large number of ground–based catalogs, including a new reduction of the Astrographic Catalogue (AC) data. Significant changes were made here, particularly in the magnitude dependent systematic error corrections of the AC data as compared to the previous release, the AC2000 (Urban et al. 1998b, ). Assuming a mean difference of 7.7 years between the Tycho–2 and UCAC1 epochs and taking the formal errors of the Tycho–2 proper motions from (Høg et al. 2000a, ), we obtain the error contribution due to proper motions, $`\sigma _{PM}`$, also given in Table 1.

### 2.2 UCAC1

The UCAC astrometric sky survey started in February 1998 at Cerro Tololo, Chile. In this first, preliminary catalog, data are included up to November 1999, thus the mean epoch of the catalog is about 1999.0. The UCAC survey is performed in a single bandpass (579-642 nm) with a 2-fold overlap pattern of fields, with a long and a short exposure on each field. The 5–element lens astrograph of 206 mm aperture uses a single 4k by 4k CCD detector, providing a 61$`\mathrm{}`$ field of view with a scale of 0.9”/pixel. Stars in the range of 10 to 14th magnitude are the most precise with an estimated positional error of $``$20 mas. Brighter stars are overexposed on the long exposures, hence only the short exposures generally contribute to positions of stars around magnitude 8 to 9.5. Stars brighter than $`8.0^m`$ are also saturated on most short exposures. For faint stars, the precision degrades to about 70 mas at the limiting magnitude of R$``$16.

A first catalog (UCAC1) for 27 million stars (Zacharias et al., 2000) was released by the end of March 2000, see also http://ad.usno.navy.mil/. Preliminary proper motions are included for all stars in UCAC1. Those proper motions have not been used here at all. For the magnitude range overlapping with the Tycho–2 data, the UCAC1 proper motions are mainly derived from AC and Tycho–2 data, thus are highly correlated with the Tycho–2 proper motions. For this catalog comparison the Tycho–2 proper motions were used to update the Tycho–2 positions to the UCAC epoch of each individual star in common.

The UCAC1 was reduced using Hipparcos, Tycho–1 and ACT data, thus mainly depends on the original Tycho–1 Catalogue stars plus the proper motions derived from the AC2000 reductions. In particular, all new, faint stars in Tycho–2 which are not in Tycho–1 are field stars in UCAC1, thus were not used as reference stars. Therefore UCAC1 positions of those stars are largely independent of Tycho–2 positions. Both Tycho–2 and UCAC1 are in the same system (Hipparcos), except for a possible, slight alteration by the use of ACT proper motions.

All CCD frames of the UCAC1 data were reduced individually using the astrometrically suitable reference stars on each frame with a linear 6–parameter mapping model. The low charge–transfer efficiency (CTE) of our CCD results in significant coma–like systematic errors along the x–coordinate (right ascension). The effect in the raw data is up to $`\pm `$70 mas. These errors have been corrected to first order. Remaining systematic errors are believed to be on the 10 mas level. The remaining residuals versus coma are $``$ 10 mas for most part in both axis. There is an asymmetric feature of up to 20 mas in the x–coordinate for a small fraction of the stars. These plots and more details can be found in the UCAC1 paper (Zacharias et al., 2000).

A magnitude equation was already noticed in the residuals of the CCD frame reductions, mainly for the x–coordinate. However, for this first catalog neither corrections for a magnitude term were applied nor were such terms included in the reduction model. At this point it is not obvious if the magnitude dependent systematic errors are inherent in the UCAC $`x,y`$–data or introduced by the ACT via proper motions. Future UCAC astrometric reductions will use the Tycho–2 Catalogue, which was not available at the time of UCAC1 reductions.

Weighted mean catalog positions were obtained from the individual positions. Precisions of the mean positions are obtained from the scatter of the few ($`2\mathrm{}6`$) individual observations per star. The (squared) mean of these individual sigmas over all stars in a magnitude bin is an estimate of the standard error of the positional precision of the catalog and is given in Table 1 as $`\sigma _U`$. This $`\sigma _U`$ is slightly underestimated due to the correlations of the individual field star positions from the short and long exposure frames, which use a significant number of reference stars in common for their reductions.

The precision of the UCAC1 positions is also a function of magnitude. For magnitudes $`R_U`$11, the precision of UCAC1 positions is underestimated due to the correlation with the reference stars. For the UCAC data the $`R_U`$ red magnitude has to be used. On average, the color index is $`V_TR_U0.5`$, thus the precisions in position given in Table 1 for both catalogs are for about the same stars on each line. The last column in Table 1 gives the expected combined standard error of (Tycho–2 $``$ UCAC1) position differences as derived from internal, formal errors only.

## 3 Results of the Catalog Comparison

In total, close to 1.0 million stars have been found in common between the Tycho–2 Catalogue and UCAC1, adopting a match radius of 500 mas. Excluding the Tycho–1 stars (reference stars of UCAC1) and adopting the same match radius we find 597,809 stars in common.

### 3.1 Systematic errors

Position differences (Tycho–2 $``$ UCAC1), at the UCAC1 epoch, are plotted versus Tycho V magnitude in Figure 1. All stars in common are shown here. Using only the stars not included in Tycho–1 gives just the faint part of the plots shown in Figure 1. One dot represents the mean of 2000 stars. A magnitude equation is clearly present, with systematic differences up to $`\pm 15`$ mas over the range of $``$5 magnitudes. While the magnitude equation for the right ascension component (x) is almost linear, it is non–linear for the declination component (y).

The systematic errors as a function of magnitude vary with declination as can be seen in Figure 2. Here the (Tycho–2 $``$ UCAC1) position differences are plotted versus declination. The general offset is due to the fact that the majority of stars (faint end) have a non–zero position difference due to the magnitude equation. The variation of this offset and thus the magnitude equation follows a zonal pattern in declination. A plot of the differences vs. right ascension shows no pattern. There are also no additional significant systematic errors of the position differences with respect to color. Figure 3 shows plots for the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha \mathrm{cos}\delta `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta `$ components vs. $`(BV)`$ Tycho color index.

### 3.2 Error budget

In the following statistics, only the non-Tycho-1 stars are used. Table 2 summarizes the results by magnitude bins, with all position items given in units of mas. The listed $`V_T`$ magnitude is for the center of each bin, while $`n`$ gives the number of stars available per magnitude bin. The standard deviations given in Table 2 are obtained from

$$\sigma _x=\sqrt{\frac{(x_i\overline{x})^2}{n}}$$

and similarly for the $`y`$–coordinate, where $`x_i`$, $`y_i`$ are the individual (Tycho–2 $``$ UCAC1) position differences and $`\overline{x},\overline{y}`$ are their arithmetic means for that magnitude bin. In order to exclude outliers, two approaches were made. First the $`(x_i\overline{x})^2`$ values were sorted and the largest 10% were rejected. The resulting standard errors from this cut of the distribution are given in Table 2 in the $`\sigma _{cx},\sigma _{cy}`$ columns. The second method used the 25 to 75 percentile of the distribution of the position differences around their mean. Assuming the central parts of our position differences distributions to be Gaussian, $`\sigma _{qx},\sigma _{qy}`$ values were derived (see Table 2). For easy comparison, the last column of Table 2 gives the expected combined standard error for our position differences, from the formal errors alone, which has been copied from Table 1.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Magnitude equation

A comparison with the Yale Southern Proper Motion (SPM) data (Platais et al., 1998) shows that the apparently linear magnitude equation in UCAC1 for the right ascension component does not extend to fainter magnitudes. Results are presented in (Zacharias et al., 2000), indicating good agreement between UCAC1 and SPM positions around 15th magnitude for both coordinates. The systematic pattern as a function of declination can best be understood to originate from the proper motion part in this comparison. Individual zones in the AC might be responsible for this signature. A plausible magnitude dependent error of $``$100 mas at a 1900 AC epoch would lead to an error in the ACT proper motions consistend with a 10 mas offset seen in our comparison at the 1999 UCAC1 epoch.

The overall offset in Figure 2 results from an average slope in the magnitude equation and the fact that the mean magnitude of the stars in comparison here is fainter than the mean magnitude of the reference stars used in the UCAC1 reductions. This mean magnitude equation at the 8 to 12 mag range is possible to come from the UCAC $`x,y`$–data. Many images of those stars are close to the pixel saturation level, within a factor of $``$3 in the amplitude counts in either the long or short exposure. It is also conceivable, that remaining systematic errors associated with the CTE effect show up as pure magnitude terms. A systematic error in the Tycho–2 data of $``$ 5 to 10 mas at the faint end can not be excluded from this comparison either. However this is unlikely based on studies made in the Tycho–2 construction (comparison with Hipparcos). Future reductions of the UCAC data will help to clarify this issue.

### 4.2 Error budget

There are 5 contributions to the observed scatter in the position differences: random errors in both the Tycho–2 and UCAC1 positions at their mean epochs, random errors in the proper motions needed to bridge the epoch difference between the catalogs, additional noise from incompatibilities and systematic differences. The additional noise from incompatibilities includes items like unknown multiplicity of stars, which shifts the center of light as a function of time and bandpass. It is conceivable that a relatively small number of multiple stars can bias the statistics significantly, particularly in the highest precision area around 10th magnitude. Unresolved components on the few 100 mas level are likely to cause offsets in the photocenters on the 10 to 100 mas level, introducing a significant additional error. Neither the cut of the observed distribution ($`\sigma _{cx},\sigma _{cy}`$) nor the 50% quantile standard errors are likely to eliminate those problem stars from the statistics. Also, positional shifts by differential refraction are not taken into account in the UCAC data. Individual stars, depending on their color and zenith distance at the time of observation, will have different offsets w.r.t. the mean of the reference stars, contrary to the Tycho–2 data which are collected outside the Earth’s atmosphere. The difference in position between an O5 and an M5 main sequence star due to differenctial color refrection is about 10 mas for the UCAC bandpass and a zenit distance of 45. Thus there are physical reasons to expect a noise term in the observed scatter of the position differences in addition to the 3 internal errors (catalog 1, catalog 2, proper motions), even in the absence of significant systematic errors.

For magnitudes V$``$9.0 the statistics are affected by the small number of available stars. Overall the observed scatter in the position differences agrees very well with the expected, formal, errors at those magnitudes. In general the x–coordinate (right ascension) shows a significantly larger error than the y–coordinate. This very likely shows still unresolved systematic errors in the UCAC data due to the CTE problems along the x–axis.

The largest discrepancies (typical 40 to 50% underestimation of errors) between observed and expected standard errors are seen in the mid range of fainter than 9th and brighter than 11th magnitude. This is the transition area between positions based on short exposures only and the combination of short and long exposures. Also, in this magnitude range the combined formal error is lowest, allowing a moderate additional contribution from systematic errors to show up most pronounced.

At the faint end (V$``$11.0) the excess of the observed scatter w.r.t. the formal errors is relatively small; insignificant to $``$10% when compared with the $`\sigma _{cx},\sigma _{cy}`$ (cut distribution), and about 20% when compared to the $`\sigma _{qx},\sigma _{qy}`$ numbers. This gives an external verification of the accuracy of the Tycho–2 astrometry and sets an upper limit to the ratio of true/formal errors to about 1.2 at the faint end of the catalog, which includes the majority of the stars. At those magnitudes the UCAC1 positions, even if underestimated by their formal errors, are more accurate than the Tycho–2 positions. The high UCAC1 accuracy is also confirmed by a comparison with SPM data Zacharias et al. (2000).

## 5 Conclusions

The Tycho–2 and UCAC1 positions overall are in good agreement with systematic differences being very small by current astrometric catalog standards. This external comparison shows the observed scatter in the position differences to be 10 to 50% larger than the formal, internal precisions predict. A significant fraction of the additional errors can be explained by systematic errors present in the current UCAC1, which by all means is a preliminary catalog. The UCAC1 contains the best positions available today (at current epochs) for stars in the 11 to 16 magnitude range. UCAC today covers only 80% of the Southern Hemisphere with no data in the North. When completed in 2003 it will form the basis for the FAME Johnston et al. (1999) input catalog. The Tycho–2 Catalogue covers all sky and is the preferred astrometric reference down to about magnitude V=10.5 or wherever no UCAC1 data are available.

We wish to thank the entire UCAC project team and the CTIO staff, in particular our observers D.Castillo and M.Martinez. More information on the UCAC project is available at http://ad.usno.navy.mil/ad/ucac/. The UCAC1 is available on CD–ROM on request to nz@pisces.usno.navy.mil. The Tycho–2 Catalogue is available on CD–ROM on request to Tycho-2@astro.ku.dk or seu@pyxis.usno.navy.mil.


format: text

text:
# The saturation of disk heating in the solar neighborhood and evidence for a merger 9 Gyrs ago

## 1 The age-velocity dispersion relation in the solar neighborhood

The observed correlation between the ages and velocity dispersions of solar neighborhood stars has been a subject of study since the work of Spitzer and Schwarzschild (1951) and (1953). Spitzer and Schwarzschild established that scattering of stars from initially circular orbits into more eccentric and inclined orbits was a likely explanation for the increase in velocity dispersion, $`\sigma `$, with age $`t`$. They suggested that massive gas clouds (then undetected) were responsible. Molecular clouds were thought to be the sole scattering agents (e.g., Mihalas & Binney (1981)) until Lacey (1984) showed that the observed ratio of the dispersion in the direction perpendicular to the Galactic plane and that towards the Galactic center, $`\sigma _z/\sigma _R`$, was too low to be consistent with the predictions from this scattering process. There was also a discrepancy between the predicted and then measured relation between $`\sigma `$ and $`t`$: if $`\sigma t^\alpha `$, models predicted $`\alpha 0.20`$, while observations of the time yielded $`\alpha 0.5`$ (Wielen (1977)). This resulted in the development of models that incorporated the heating of the stellar disk from transient spiral structure (Barbanis & Woltjer (1967); Sellwood & Carlberg (1984); Carlberg & Sellwood (1985)) in addition to scattering from molecular clouds (Jenkins & Binney (1990); Jenkins (1992)).

The measured value of $`\alpha `$ depended on stellar age estimates that were necessarily highly uncertain. However, parallaxes from the Hipparcos satellite, along with improvements in stellar evolution models for low-mass stars, have made it possible in the past few years to estimate the ages of stars in the solar neighborhood more precisely than previously possible (e.g., Ng & Bertelli (1998)). Imprecise ages not only add scatter to a plot of stellar dispersion versus age but also smooth over any underlying structure in this relation that might actually exist in the solar neighborhood. The theoretical work by Lacey (1984) and Jenkins & Binney (1990) was motivated in part by the smooth form of the age dispersion relation advocated by Wielen (1977). However Strömgren (1987) and Freeman (1991) suggested that the observations were more consistent with little or no heating between 3 and 10 Gyrs and an abrupt increase in the dispersion occurring at about 10 Gyrs. Freeman (1991) suggested that disk heating mechanisms saturated or became inefficient at $`\sigma 30`$ km s-1 and that another process, such as a merger or large scale bar, would be required to explain the high dispersions seen in the ‘thick disk’ or in stars with ages greater than 10 Gyrs. The thick disk was proposed to explain an excess in the number of stars compared to predictions from an exponential disk model (Gilmore & Reid (1983); Kuijken & Gilmore (1991)). However, the discreteness of this component compared to Population I stars in age, metallicity or dispersion has been difficult to establish (e.g., Gilmore, King & van der Kruit (1989)). Stellar evolution models for the solar neighborhood have supported both forms for the age dispersion relation. Sommer-Larsen & Antonuccio-Delugo (1993) found that a jump at 8 Gyrs in the age dispersion relation was required to fit the stellar dispersions and other observational constraints. However, Binney, Dehnen, & Bertelli (2000) fit the color distribution of stars observed with Hipparcos from an evolution model with $`\sigma t^{0.33}`$. In this paper we use improved age estimates to re-examine the age-dispersion correlation. We then compare the resulting relations with the existing theoretical framework.

### 1.1 Age and velocity component measurements for stars in the solar neighborhood

We have compiled new space velocity components for solar neighborhood stars from the metallicity study of Edvardsson et al. (1993). Edvardsson et al. (1993) obtained metallicity and kinematic information for 189 nearby F and G star dwarf stars within 80 parsecs of the Sun. They selected stars for metallicity and effective temperature based on Strömgren indices. Because the stars were selected from the magnitude-limited photometric catalogue of Olsen (1988), the sample is expected to be unbiased kinematically (Freeman (1991)). For the stars in this sample we computed velocity components U, V, and W from parallaxes and proper motions measured by the Hipparcos satellite and radial velocities obtained from SIMBAD. In most cases our velocity components were within 1 km s-1 of those listed by Edvardsson et al. (1993) which were derived from ground-based proper motions and distances. Eight stars, (HD 17548, 18768, 68284, 78747, 98553, 144172, 155358, and 218504) listed by Edvardsson et al. (1993) have no published radial velocities, so for these stars we use the velocity components listed by Edvardsson et al. (1993). For the purposes of this study, we excluded the eleven stars labeled as new spectroscopic binaries, which could introduce spurious scatter into the velocity dispersions.

New ages for the Edvardsson et al. (1993) stars were taken from Tables 5 and 6 of Ng & Bertelli (1998). These ages are derived in the same manner as those of Edvardsson et al. (1993), that is, by comparing each star’s position in the HR diagram with theoretical stellar evolution tracks, but are based on Hipparcos parallax measurements and the isochrones of Bertelli et al. (1994), as opposed to the isochrones from Vandenberg (1985) used by Edvardsson et al. (1993). The precision in derived ages depends on how far a given star lies from the main sequence. Stars close to the main sequence have larger uncertainties because of the smaller spacing between evolution tracks in the HR diagram. The uncertainty is generally between 0.05 and 0.3 dex, though there are cases where the uncertainty is particularly large; for example, for HR 5459 ($`\alpha `$ Cen A) the Edvardsson et al. (1993) and the Ng & Bertelli (1998) ages differ by a factor of two! Another example, HD 148816, was assigned an age of 13.5 Gyr by Edvardsson et al. (1993), but was assigned an age of only 5.3 Gyr by Ng & Bertelli (1998). Its V velocity of $``$220 km s-1 suggests that HD 148816 is actually a halo star which would be consistent with the larger age. Nevertheless, we exclude HD 148816 from our analysis because of the uncertainty; if included at the Ng & Bertelli (1998) age, it increases the velocity dispersion in the log age = 0.7–0.8 bin from 42 km s-1 to about 70 km s-1. For this reason we excluded two additional stars for which the Ng & Bertelli (1998) and Edvardsson et al. (1993) ages differed by more than 0.3 dex. Although the actual uncertainties (particularly systematic errors) in the stellar ages are difficult to quantify, these ages are undoubtedly a major improvement over the ages estimated during the 1970s (e.g., Wielen (1977)) which typically used mean ages for groups of stars of similar spectral types.

Figure 1 shows the complete set of U, V, and W velocities for all stars in our sample (where U is defined as positive toward the Galactic center, V is positive in the direction of Galactic rotation, and W is positive toward the North Galactic Pole). Figure 2 shows the total and U, V, W velocity dispersions derived from these data as a function of stellar age (values are given in Table 1 for each age bin). The error bars are estimated from the scatter of the stars in each bin and so represent the statistical error in the velocity dispersions only. A comparison of the bottom panel of Figure 1 with the corresponding Figure 16b of Edvardsson et al. (1993) and the similar figure of Freeman (1991) shows that the we find a slight, but noticeable reduction in the scatter in the W velocities. A similar effect was noted by Garnett & Kobulnicky (2000) for the scatter in the age-metallicity relation compared to that found by Edvardsson et al. (1993).

### 1.2 An abrupt increase in velocity dispersion at an age of $`9`$ Gyrs

We see from Figure 2 that there is a statistically significant and abrupt increase in all velocity components of the velocity dispersion at a stellar age of $`9\pm 1`$ Gyrs. If we use the size of the errorbars on the points to represent our uncertainty then the dispersion at 12 Gyrs is $`2\sigma `$ in the individual components and $`3\sigma `$ in the total dispersion above the dispersions from 5-9 Gyrs.

Note that the data in Figure 2 show velocity dispersions computed directly from the velocity data, with no weightings. Wielen (1977) advocated weighting the velocity differences by the amplitude of the W component, appropriate for stars moving in a harmonic potential. A harmonic potential is appropriate for the low velocity dispersion stars. For stars which spend most of their orbit above the bulk of the stellar population the weighting should be somewhat larger. We show the results of weighting by $`|W|`$ in Figure 3. In general, the results are the same, with the exception that the jump in the U dispersion is reduced. Nevertheless, the jump in $`\sigma `$ at 9 Gyr remains significant. We also note that our derived dispersions for the oldest (thick disk) stars are in excellent agreement with the values determined by Chiba & Beers (2000), ($`\sigma _U`$, $`\sigma _V`$, $`\sigma _W`$) = (46$`\pm `$4, 50$`\pm `$4, 35$`\pm `$3) km s-1. Figure 4 shows the UV plane distribution of the stars in 4 different age bins and illustrates that there is little difference in the UV plane distribution of the stars with ages between 2.5 and 5 Gyrs and those between 5 and 9 Gyrs.

We have been unable to imagine a selection effect that could lead to kinematic biases in the sample. Although the stellar selection criteria used by Edvardsson et al. (1993) causes the sample to contain a larger fraction of metal-poor stars than is actually the case in the solar neighborhood, contamination by halo stars is unlikely because the halo contributes less than 1% to the local stellar space density (Schmidt (1975)). Only one strong candidate for a halo star (HD 148816) is present in the sample. The Edvardsson et al. (1993) sample may also be biased against selection of old, metal-rich stars, but it is not clear that this would result in a bias against an old, low velocity dispersion component if it exists.

We therefore suspect that there is a genuine increase in the dispersion at an age of about 9 Gyrs, which we associate with the onset of the thick disk. We can see from the figures that this increase happened on a timescale less than a few Gyrs. An abrupt large increase is inconsistent with scattering models involving either molecular clouds or spiral arms. The only process discussed in the literature that could cause such an abrupt and large increase in the velocity dispersion would be a merger that did not completely destroy the disk of the Milky Way (e.g., Tóth & Ostriker (1992)). Numerical simulations (e.g., Walker, Mihos & Hernquist (1996); Huang & Carlberg (1997); Velázquez & White (1999)) suggest that the Milky Way could have survived merging with a smaller galaxy of up to 1/3 of the Milky Way’s mass (at that time). Such a merger would result in significant thickening of the disk. Based on the statistics of lopsided galaxies, Zaritsky & Rix (1997) estimate that minor mergers occur in an $`L_{}`$ galaxy about every 10 Gyrs. This is consistent with the possibility that the Milky Way suffered such an event $`10`$ Gyrs ago. Cosmological models also predict that for an $`L_{}`$ galaxy the merger rate would have been higher in the past (Lacey & Cole (1993)).

### 1.3 A quiescent disk between 3 and 9 Gyrs

Our figures show that the velocity dispersion hardly increases between an age of 3 and 9 Gyrs rather than smoothly increasing during this time (as previously proposed; Wielen (1977)). Freeman (1991) suggested that the heating mechanisms become inefficient at $`\sigma 30`$ km s-1 and that another process is required to explain the high dispersions seen in the ‘thick disk’.

Heating solely from molecular clouds predicts $`\sigma t^{0.20}`$ (Lacey (1984)) and would be consistent with the quiescent disk or minimal increase in dispersion between 3 and 9 Gyrs ago. However the observed dispersion ratio, $`\sigma _z/\sigma _R`$, is too low to be consistent with this model. Jenkins & Binney (1990) showed that this ratio can be set by the ratio of the heating rate (or radial dispersion increase) caused by the two processes: 1) scattering from spiral structure and 2) scattering from molecular clouds. To match the observed dispersion ratio the radial heating rate from transient spiral structure must be significantly larger than that from molecular clouds. However, their model that best fit the observations of the time predicted $`\sigma t^{0.5}`$ which is inconsistent with what we see between 3 and 9 Gyrs.

Jenkins & Binney (1990) assumed that heating from spiral structure was efficient for dispersions up to 70 km s-1. As pointed out by Carlberg & Sellwood (1985) once the epicyclic amplitude reaches a sizescale similar to that of the spiral arm wavenumbers, heating is much less efficient and $`\sigma t^{0.2}`$. A star with such a large epicyclic amplitude would cross more than one spiral arm as it oscillates radially making it more difficult for the spiral structure to perturb the star. This lower exponent, $`\alpha 0.2`$, is consistent with the nearly constant dispersions between 3 and 9 Gyrs shown in Figure 2 and 3.

The simplest explanation for the observations is that both heating processes are important (setting the ratio of the dispersions as modeled by Jenkins & Binney (1990)) but that heating from spiral structure becomes inefficient once the radial dispersion reaches about 30 km s-1.

The saturation point or maximum dispersion reached can be compared to the limit predicted by the observed wavenumber of spiral structure in the Milky Way. Heating from tightly wound spiral structure becomes inefficient when $`ka1`$ where $`k`$ is the radial wavenumber of the spiral structure and $`a`$ is the epicyclic amplitude (Carlberg & Sellwood (1985)). The epicyclic amplitude is $`a=\sqrt{2E_R}/\kappa `$ where $`E_R`$ is the energy in the epicycle, and $`\kappa `$ is the epicyclic frequency. For a star with maximum radial velocity $`V_R`$, $`E_R=1/2V_R^2`$. $`\kappa =\sqrt{2}v_c/R_0`$ for a flat rotation curve with circular velocity $`v_c`$ at a radius $`R_0`$ from the Galactic Center. Setting $`E_R\sigma _R^2`$ (corresponding to a typical particle with maximum radial velocity $`\sqrt{2}\sigma _R`$), we find that $`ka1`$ when $`kR_0v_c/\sigma _R`$. For $`v_c200`$ km s-1 and heating diminishing at $`\sigma _R30`$ km s-1, consistent with the dispersions between 3 and 9 Gyrs, heating from transient spiral structure in the solar neighborhood becomes inefficient for $`kR_07`$. This is fairly tightly wound; more tightly wound than that seen in the numerical simulations of Carlberg (1987), $`kR4.1`$, which was adopted as limits by Jenkins & Binney (1990). This approximate limit can be directly compared to the winding number of spiral structure observed in the Milky Way.

Tracers of spiral structure in the solar neighborhood suggest that the spiral structure is quite tightly wound (e.g., Vallée (1995)). A two armed spiral is seen at K band in COBE/DIRBE data with pitch angle in the range $`p15.5^{}`$ – $`19^{}`$ (Drimmel (2000)), giving $`kR_0=m\mathrm{cot}p`$ in the range 5.8 – 7.2. This range is consistent with the approximate limit predicted from the maximum radial dispersion reached between 3 and 9 Gyrs. However, the tightly wound spiral structure observed in the Milky Way is unlikely to efficiently heat the disk to the large velocities observed in the thick disk. Spiral arms with a significantly higher pitch angle of $`26^{}`$ (corresponding to $`kR_04`$) would be required to do this. We find that the slow increase in stellar dispersions between 3 and 9 Gyrs observed in Figure 2 is consistent with inefficient heating from the tightly wound spiral structure observed in the Milky Way. More detailed calculations are needed to more accurately determine if the slow observed increase in dispersions can be predicted from a model consistent with the observed spiral structure.

Jenkins (1992) found that the model cloud heating rate that fit the dispersions at ages greater than 8 Gyrs (data from Wielen (1977)) required an order of magnitude larger cloud number density than presently observed. However, to fit the dispersions for the stars younger than 8 Gyrs (data from Strömgren (1987)), he found that the heating required was consistent with the present molecular cloud number density. If an additional process is responsible for the largest dispersions at ages greater than 8 Gyrs, we expect that there would be no discrepancy between the model heating rates and observed dispersions.

The nearly constant dispersion between 3 and 9 Gyrs does not imply that stars that are 8 Gyrs old were heated to 30 km s-1 within 3 Gyrs. It may be that the oldest stars were heated initially to a lower value (which might have been more consistent with a less massive disk) then subsequently were slowly heated as the disk became more massive. This would be consistent with a picture where the Toomre stability parameter, $`Q`$, remained constant as the disk increased in mass.

## 2 Is heating from spiral structure saturated in other galaxies?

There are two approaches to testing any scenario for disk heating. Firstly the properties of stars in the Milky Way disk can be more carefully studied and compared to evolution models. Alternatively, one can look for scaling relations betwen disk properties in other galaxies.

We consider the possibility that heating from transient spiral structure has saturated in other disk galaxies. Galaxies with spiral structure are expected to have a Toomre stability parameter within the range $`1<Q<2`$ where $`Q\frac{\sigma _R\kappa }{\pi G\mathrm{\Sigma }}`$ (see Binney & Tremaine (1987)). This defines a relation between the radial velocity dispersion and quantities that can be estimated from observations; the disk surface density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ (which is the product of the surface brightness and the mass to light ratio) and the rotation curve (which determines $`\kappa `$). If the disk lies at the maximum dispersion above which heating from spiral structure ceases to be efficient, then the winding number of the spiral structure is related to the radial dispersion by $`kRv_c/\sigma _R`$ (see discussion above). If we combine this with the definition for the Toomre $`Q`$ stability parameter, we find that

$$kR\frac{v_c\kappa }{Q\pi G\mathrm{\Sigma }}.$$
(1)
If galaxies have radial dispersions at the saturation point where heating from spiral structure ceases to be efficient then we can relate the winding number of spiral structure to the underlying disk surface density.

We now consider how the right-hand side of the above relation varies between galaxies. Disk central surface brightnesses tend to be similar in many high surface brightness galaxies; $`\mu _{0,B}21.65`$ mag arcsec-2 at B band (Freeman (1970)). At $`R=2.2h`$, where $`h`$ is the disk exponential scale length, (approximately the location of the solar neighborhood in the Milky Way and where the rotational velocity is expected to reach a maximum) the heating becomes inefficient when

$$kR4.0\left(\frac{v_c}{200\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}}\right)^2\left(\frac{\gamma }{\sqrt{2}}\right)\left(\frac{S(21.65\mathrm{mag}^{\prime \prime 2})}{S_{0,B}}\right)\left(\frac{5.0M_{}/L_{,B}}{M/L_B}\right)\left(\frac{3.0\mathrm{kpc}}{h}\right)\left(\frac{2.2h}{R}\right)\left(\frac{1.5}{Q}\right)\left(\frac{e^{r/h}}{e^{2.2}}\right)$$
(2)
where $`S(21.65\mathrm{mag}^{\prime \prime 2})`$ corresponds to the surface brightness (not in magnitudes) which is equivalent to $`21.65`$ mag arcsec-2 at B band. Given typical disk parameters, the scaling relations given by equation 2 could be satisfied in many disk galaxies. In other words, radial dispersions could have reached maximum values where heating from transient spiral structure ceases to be efficient.

Based on scaling from the cosmological spin parameter, we expect that the disk exponential scale length depends on the luminosity $`hL^{1/3}`$ with a large scatter (de Jong & Lacey (1999)). Using the Tully-Fisher relation, $`Lv_c^4`$, we find that $`kR\mathrm{}L^{1/6}`$ at saturation. This implies that more massive galaxies, if they are near saturation, should have slightly more tightly wound spiral structure. This is consistent with the the general trend of the Hubble sequence; more tightly wound galaxies are of earlier-type.

Using observed galaxy surface brightness profiles (preferably at a wavelength not strongly affected by dust and young stars such as K band) and assumed or measured values for the mass-to-light ratio and $`Q`$, it is possible to estimate the value of $`kR`$ for a disk with a maximum radial dispersion. If $`kR`$ estimated from equation (2) is greater than that actually observed from spiral structure in the galaxy, then the stellar radial dispersion should be increasing (spiral structure is actively heating the disk). If the estimated $`kR`$ is lower than that observed, then the observed spiral structure is incapable of causing the inferred high radial dispersion in the disk. This would suggest that another process, such as a merger or galaxy flyby may have caused a stellar dispersion increase. This kind of study could also provide evidence for past mergers in nearby galaxies.

## 3 Summary and Discussion

Freeman (1991) and Strömgren (1987) suspected that the age-dispersion relation of solar neighborhood stars was not consistent with the smoothly increasing relation proposed by Wielen (1977). In this paper we re-examine the age-velocity dispersion relation in the solar neighborhood using improved stellar age estimates which are based on Hipparcos parallaxes and recent stellar evolution calculations. We find that there is an abrupt statistically significant jump in all velocity components at age of about 9 Gyrs, confirming the statements made by Freeman (1991) and Strömgren (1987) and modeling done by Sommer-Larsen & Antonuccio-Delugo (1993). While the slow diffusion model proposed by Wielen (1977) is consistent with the theoretical models for ages up to about 9 Gyrs, it is unlikely to explain the abrupt increase in dispersions seen at this time. The most likely explanation is that the Milky Way suffered a minor merger that formed the thick disk.

The best theoretical modeling of the age-dispersion relation (e.g., Jenkins (1992)) was able to fit the age-dispersion relation proposed by Wielen (1977) but was still inconsistent with the observed number density of molecular clouds. Jenkins (1992) noted that this problem was resolved if he fitted only stars younger than 8 Gyrs. As previously discussed in the literature (Lacey (1984), Jenkins & Binney (1990)) a model incorporating both scattering from molecular clouds and spiral structure is required to match the ratio of the vertical to planar velocity dispersions. However, to be consistent with the nearly constant observed dispersions between 3 and 9 Gyrs a model with more tightly wound spiral structure than assumed by Jenkins & Binney (1990) is required. In such a model, once the epicyclic amplitude reaches a size scale similar to that of the spiral arm wavenumbers, heating is much less efficient and the velocity dispersion increases extremely slowly. The limit given by the observed plateau in dispersion is consistent with the tracers of spiral structure in the Milky Way which find that the local spiral structure is quite tightly wound (Vallée (1995); Drimmel (2000)).

Since we find little evidence for an increase in velocity dispersion for stars between 3 and 9 Gyrs old, disk heating must occur primarily within 3 Gyrs of birth. However, 3 Gyrs is only about 12 rotation periods at the solar circle. This might suggest that a resonant heating model or bar induced heating model might be more appropriate (e.g., as explored in Dehnen (2000)) to explain the rapid increase in dispersions in the solar neighborhood rather than a random diffusive scattering model. In such a model, the ratio of vertical to planar dispersions would also be set by the relative strength of the planar heating and vertical heating rates. If the ratio of vertical to planar dispersions and the Toomre stability parameter are nearly constant with radius (as suggested by Bottema (1989)), then we might expect that spiral structure is more important than the Galactic bar in heating the stellar disk in the solar neighborhood. Alternatively, the short timescale implies that local heating rates could be highly sensitive to the recent history of spiral structure or the Galactic bar. In this case we might expect strong variations in the heating rates and stellar dispersions as a function of radius.

It is possible that many galaxies have radial velocity dispersions at the maximum value where spiral structure ceases efficient heating of the disk. Using surface brightness profiles and assumed or measured values for the mass-to-light ratio and Toomre $`Q`$ parameter, we suggest that the winding number of spiral structure consistent with a disk at this particular dispersion can be predicted. If the winding number of the observed spiral structure is above the predicted value, then the spiral structure is incapable of heating the stars to their estimated radial velocity dispersion. By comparing predicted winding numbers with those observed in a sample of galaxies spanning a range of properties the hypothesis that disks tend to lie near their maximum dispersions can be tested. This type of study could also provide evidence for past mergers in other galaxies. Indeed the large scatter in vertical scale heights seen in edge-on galaxies and tendency of interacting galaxies to have larger vertical scale heights (Schwarzkopf & Dettmar (1999)) suggests that galaxy interactions and mergers may be a dominant cause of vertical heating in disk galaxies.

Much of the controversy concerning the age-dispersion relation is due to the difficulties in measuring accurate ages for a large number of solar neighborhood stars. We expect that in the next few years, through more comprehensive metallicity studies, and with improved stellar evolution tracks, a larger number of stars from the Hipparcos catalog will have improved ages estimates. The trends discussed in this paper can then be more thoroughly tested with a larger sample.

We thank Caty Pilachowski for giving us a routine originally written by Dave Soderblom for computing U, V and W components. Support for this work was provided by NASA through grants NAG5-7734, NAG5-3359, and grants GO-07869.01-96A and GO-07886.01-96A from the Space Telescope Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. We also acknowledge helpful correspondence with Andy Gould and Walter Dehnen.


text:
# Measurement of Carbon Disulfide Anion Diffusion in a TPC

## 1 Introduction

The Directional Recoil Identification From Tracks (DRIFT) detector has recently been proposed  to search for dark matter. This detector is unique in that it drifts negative ions, instead of electrons, in a time projection chamber (TPC). A detailed description of the operation, motivation, and other uses of a negative ion TPC (NITPC) can be found in . Briefly, an electronegative component in the gas captures ionized electrons forming negative ions. These anions then drift to the anode wires where, provided the electronegative component allows it, the anions are ionized and normal electron avalanche occurs. The motivation for such an arrangement is that it allows transport of charge to the anode with the minimum possible diffusion. Using a proportional chamber, Crane showed that CS2 has the desired electronegative properties . Using a single wire drift chamber of unusual design, Martoff et al.  measured the drift velocity and lateral diffusion of CS2 ions in two different gas mixtures. In this paper we used a NITPC to measure the drift velocity, lateral diffusion and longitudinal diffusion in a variety of CS2-Ar gas mixtures. These measurements allowed limits to be set on the electron capture distance in these mixtures.

## 2 Theory

The diffusion of charged particles being drifted through a gas has been parameterized by an expression of the form :

$$\sigma ^2=\frac{4\epsilon _\mathrm{k}L}{3eE}$$
(1)
where $`L`$ is the drift distance, $`E`$ is the drift field and $`\epsilon _\mathrm{k}`$ is the characteristic (average) energy of the electron or ion. For electrons, $`\epsilon _\mathrm{k}`$ varies from thermal ($`k_\mathrm{B}T`$) at low drift fields to several eV at higher $`E/p`$. The nonlinear variation of $`\epsilon _\mathrm{k}`$ for electrons arises from the mass mismatch between electrons and gas atoms which prevents elastic electron–atom collisions from efficiently thermalizing the electron energy gained between collisions . Ions, on the other hand, have masses comparable to the gas atoms and hence would be expected to remain well thermalized even if the energy gained between collisions became comparable with $`k_\mathrm{B}T`$. Thus $`\epsilon _\mathrm{k}`$ for ions should remain constant and one should be able to reduce the diffusion of ions (as 1/$`\sqrt{E}`$) to much lower values than for electrons. The NITPC concept relies critically on this hypothesis. The purpose of the present work was to test it in detail.

## 3 Experimental Method

### 3.1 Apparatus

The NITPC used in this experiment consisted of a drift region attached to a multi-wire proportional chamber (MWPC) (Figure 1). The drift region was composed of a solid copper cathode and field cage. The field cage consisted of 4 loops of 500 $`\mu `$m wire supported by acrylic posts and connected by a ladder of precision 10 M$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ resistors. The lateral dimensions of the field cage were 15 cm by 20 cm. The MWPC was made of three wire planes: two grid planes sandwiching an anode plane. The grid and anode wires were 100 $`\mu `$m and 20 $`\mu `$m gold coated tungsten respectively. Anode wire spacing was 2 mm, grid wire spacing was also 2 mm but at 45 degrees to the anodes and the gap was 1.1 cm. The drift distance, from the solid copper cathode to the nearest grid plane, was 10 cm.

A single negative high voltage supply connected at the cathode was used to set the drift and MWPC potentials via the field cage resistance and a variable resistance between anode and grid. During operation, the MWPC voltage was kept as high as possible to yield the greatest gas gain and to insure 100% transparency .

The detector was mounted with wire planes vertical in an evacuable chamber. Gas mixtures were prepared in the chamber by introducing gases one by one through a manifold. CS2 vapor was evolved from a liquid source by the low pressure in the chamber. All experiments were done at a pressure of 40.0 Torr. The chamber pressure was measured with a capacitive manometer allowing accurate (0.1 Torr) determination of pressure and mixture. Before each run, the chamber was evacuated to $``$ 50 mTorr measured using a Convectron gauge, then backfilled with the desired gas mixture and pressure. A gas filling would be used for several hours, during which time the pressure rise was about a percent.

The diffusion measurements were made using photoelectrons generated from the solid copper cathode in the following way. Near the NITPC was a port containing a fused silica window. A UV flashlamp projected light through a movable 200 $`\mu `$m aperture, through the silica window, through the grid and anode wire planes, and onto the cathode. The projected spot on the cathode was $``$ 1.3 mm by $``$ 2 mm measured using photographic film. To maintain the photoelectron yield, the copper cathode was cleaned with abrasive every three to five runs. A photodiode viewing the flashlamp directly provided a start signal for drift time measurements.

The anode wires were connected to Amptek A-250 charge sensitive pre-amplifiers which were housed inside the chamber to reduce noise pickup. The outputs of the Ampteks were amplified and shaped by Ortec 855 spectroscopy amplifiers. These signals were digitized and stored on a 20 MHz digital oscilloscope. The scope used the photodiode signal as a trigger. Waveform averaging was used to improve signal to noise.

### 3.2 Measurement

To measure the lateral diffusion, the maximum pulse heights on two adjacent wires were measured as the aperture was moved laterally through 40, 125 $`\mu `$m steps. Pulse height maxima were measured on waveforms averaged over either 128 or 256 individual flashlamp shots. Space charge should not affect the results of this experiment. The number of photoelectrons produced was always less than $``$ 50 per flash. The lateral diffusion of the anions was always greater than 0.7 mm. Since the gain was low, $``$ 3000, the size of the avalanche was $``$ 0.05 mm . In those cases where two avalanches overlapped, the reduction in gain for the second avalanche was less than 1% . In addition to these theoretical arguments, the gain linearity was tested by confirming that a $`\times `$10 reduction in flash energy resulted in an order of magnitude reduction in pulse height.

Figure 2 shows a set of measurements, with aperture position on the horizontal axis and pulse height of the averaged waveforms on the vertical axis. The data for each peak was fit to a function that allowed deconvolution of the deposited charge from a known electronic artifact. The distance between the two peaks represented the 2 mm wire spacing and was used to normalize the lateral measurement. The +’s and $`\times `$’s in Figure 2 are the data for each wire, the line is the fitted function.

The longitudinal diffusion was determined by measuring the pulse width in time on a single wire. To convert this measurement to distance, the drift speed as a function of drift field was determined for each gas mixture. This was done by measuring the delay time between the light pulse (photoelectron generation) and the peak of the anode signal. Though the majority of the delay was due to the time ions spent in the drift field, a correction was made for the delay in the MWPC.

In order to minimize variations due to changing chamber conditions, a set of runs at different drift fields would be done with a given gas mixture. Additionally, all of the above measurements (lateral and longitudinal diffusion and drift velocity) were done concurrently at a given drift field. The delay time and pulse time-width were both measured at the aperture position corresponding to maximum pulse height for the wire under test. To reduce the effects of gas aging, a gas mixture was kept for only one set of runs, and was flushed at the end of the day.

## 4 Results and Discussion

There are a number of contributions to the measured $`\sigma `$. The main ones are the finite spot size, geometry of the chamber, capture distance, and the diffusion itself(given by Equation 1). Since the gap distance in the MWPC was so small and the field so large the diffusion there was assumed to be minimal. The various contributions can be assumed to be uncorrelated and hence to add in quadrature:

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{measured}}^2=\sigma _{\mathrm{spot}}^2+\sigma _{\mathrm{geometry}}^2+\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}^2+\frac{2k_\mathrm{B}T_{\mathrm{eff}}L}{e}\frac{1}{E}$$
(2)
where $`\epsilon _\mathrm{k}`$ in Equation 1 has been characterized in terms of an effective temperature $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. The NITPC hypothesis is that $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ will remain constant and close to room temperature up to very high drift fields.

For the lateral measurements, the $`\sigma _{\mathrm{spot}}`$ was significant while for the longitudinal measurements it was not due to the short duration of the pulse. In the lateral measurements $`\sigma _{\mathrm{geometry}}`$ arises from the 2 mm wire spacing and is significant. For the longitudinal measurements $`\sigma _{\mathrm{geometry}}`$ arises from the different pathlengths ions can take to get to the anode wires and is also significant. None of these is a function of the field.

Since $`\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}`$ is expected to increase with increasing field, a linear relationship between $`\sigma _{\mathrm{measured}}^2`$ and $`1/E`$ supports the assumption that $`\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}`$ is slowly varying or constant. In that case, $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ can be deduced from the slope. The capture distance can be deduced from the intercept if the geometry and spot size contributions are known or estimated, since according to Equation 2

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}^2=\sigma _{\mathrm{intercept}}^2\sigma _{\mathrm{geometry}}^2\sigma _{\mathrm{spot}}^2$$
(3)
### 4.1 Lateral Diffusion

The main lateral diffusion results are summarized in Figure 3 and Table 1. The plot shows the lateral diffusion squared ($`\sigma ^2`$) versus the inverse of the drift field.

On the graph, the marks represent the data taken for different gas mixtures at a variety of drift fields. The triangles are electrons drifted in 50% propane-50%argon for reference. The points very close to the origin are from experiments where the drift region was removed and the MWPC used alone with a copper cathode in place of one of the grid planes. The copper cathode was in approximately the same position relative to the light source for both the MWPC and NITPC measurements so that the spot size was constant. The reason that several diffusion values appear for each drift field is that two wires were used during the measurement. Since the uncertainty in the Gaussian fits for the points is much smaller than the marks, the separation between the points at identical fields represents a systematic error. This is believed to be due to the modulation of UV light intensity by the grid and anode wires.

Clearly, the electron data (open triangles in Figure 3) do not obey Equation (2), but all of the ion data do. The ion data were fit to lines from which $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and the intercept were extracted. As can be seen in Table 1, all of the temperatures are consistent with thermal diffusion with perhaps a hint that the lateral diffusion is decreasing with increasing concentration of Ar.

The fact that the high field points lie on the general trend of the data is important in that it shows that electrons are captured even in very large E/p. For the 100% CS2 data the high field was 83 V/cmTorr while for the 25% CS2 \- 75% Ar data it was 45 V/cmTorr. The intercept data shown in Table 1 and Equation 3 can now be used to figure out $`\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}`$. Given the crude nature of our photographic measurement $`\sigma _{\mathrm{spot}}`$ could not be estimated with any reliability. However, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{geometry}}=2mm/\sqrt{12}`$ which allows to us to place the upper limits on $`\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}`$ shown in Table 1.

### 4.2 Mobility

Figure 4 shows the drift velocity data for the gas mixtures plotted against the reduced field. The data from each of the gas mixtures was fitted to $`v=m(E/p)+n(E/p)^2`$.

Table 2 shows the drift velocity coefficients for the different gas mixtures. The drift velocity increases with increasing concentration of argon. This is not unexpected as an Ar atom is much smaller than a CS2 molecule and therefore the mean free path of the CS2 ions is much larger, the mean time to collision is increased, thus yielding a higher drift velocity. In addition the larger mass of the CS2 molecule means that it will preferentially scatter off of the Ar atoms in the forward direction.

### 4.3 Longitudinal Diffusion

The longitudinal diffusion results are shown in Figure 5 and Table 3. As in the lateral case, the rms diffusion squared is plotted against the inverse of the reduced drift field.

As before, the marks represent the data for the various gas mixtures. All of the data look linear with the obvious exception of the 25%CS2-75%Ar mixture. The linear datasets were fit to straight lines, giving the $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ values and intercepts shown in Table 3. Notice that in this case the trend is for the temperature to increase with increasing concentration of Ar.

Unlike the lateral case, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{spot}}`$ is small since photoelectrons are created at the same time. Also unlike the lateral case, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{geometry}}`$ is difficult to calculate since it arises from the different path lengths traveled by the ions. It is probably significant on the scale of these measurements (i.e. sub-mm). Therefore we can again only infer an upper limit on the capture distance, shown in Table 3 for the three measurements which indicated a constant capture distance.

Given the discussion accompanying Equation 2 the interpretation of the 25%CS2-75%Ar data is that $`\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}`$ is a stronger function of the field for this mixture. This interpretation is bolstered by a measurement of a 10%CS2-90%Ar mixture in which some of the electrons drifted directly to the anode wires without being captured by the CS2. This was seen as a “direct” pulse, arriving within several microseconds after the light pulse instead of the several milliseconds that the ions take.

### 4.4 Trends

The lateral and longitudinal ion diffusion data are generally consistent with diffusion at thermal ion energies, with the exceptions noted above (25%CS2-75%Ar mixtures).

If a further trend exists it is for the lateral diffusion to decrease with increasing Ar concentration while the opposite occurs for the longitudinal diffusion. Removing the systematic error discussed above may help to resolve these trends. Both of these deviations from Equation 1 can be understood from the fact that CS2 is much heavier than Ar and therefore tends to preserve its direction of motion after a collision with Ar, violating one of the assumptions underlying Equation 1.

The $`\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}`$ limits are harder to understand. For gas mixtures 50% Ar or less the lateral and longitudinal data both indicate a constant value with respect to field and gas mixture. One would expect each of these to increase with increasing Ar concentration but this increase may be masked by the constant terms in Equation 3. At 75% Ar the lateral and longitudinal data are very different. The lateral data seem to indicate an elevated though field independent $`\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}`$ while the longitudinal data clearly indicate a field dependent $`\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}`$. At 90% Ar the prompt arrival of electrons is evidence for a $`\sigma _{\mathrm{capture}}`$ larger than 10 cm.

## 5 Conclusion

The lateral and longitudinal diffusion of CS2 anions were systematically studied as a function of field and gas mixture. While mostly consistent with a thermal model certain trends were identified which need to be explored in more detail. The drift velocity of CS2 anions and limits on the capture distance for producing those anions were also measured. These measurements are critical for the operation of the DRIFT detector and for future uses for NITPCs. The results show that the NITPC concept will permit detectors such as DRIFT to achieve submillimeter track diffusion for drift distances of the order of a meter, over a useful range of gas mixtures and drift fields.

## 6 Acknowledgments

Funding for this project was provided by:

* Academic Student Project Award of Occidental College (spring 98, fall 98)
* Ford-Anderson Summer Research Grant (summer 98)
* Research Corporation Grant No. CC–4512 (summer 98)

## 7 References


text:
# A Self-gravitating magnetic monopoles

## A Self-gravitating magnetic monopoles

For our purposes it is sufficient to consider spherically symmetric spacetimes, for which the metric can be written in the form

$$ds^2=Bdt^2Adr^2r^2(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2).$$

In general, a horizon corresponds to a zero of $`1/A`$; the horizon is extremal if $`d(1/A)/dr`$ also vanishes. We work in the context of an SU(2) gauge theory with gauge coupling $`e`$ and a triplet Higgs field whose vacuum expectation value $`v`$ breaks the symmetry down to U(1). The elementary particle spectrum of the theory includes a neutral massive Higgs particle, a pair of electrically charged vector bosons, and a massless photon.

In flat spacetime this theory possesses a finite energy monopole solution with magnetic charge $`Q_M=4\pi /e`$ and mass $`Mv/e`$. This monopole has a core region, of radius $`1/ev`$, in which there are nontrivial massive fields. Beyond this core is a Coulomb region in which the massive fields rapidly approach their vacuum values, leaving only the Coulomb magnetic field.

The effects of adding gravitational interactions depend on the value of $`v`$. For $`v`$ much less than the Planck mass $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$, one finds that $`1/A`$ is equal to unity at the origin, decreases to a minimum at a radius of order $`1/ev`$, and then increases again with $`A(\mathrm{})=1`$. As $`v`$ is increased, this minimum becomes deeper, until an extremal horizon develops at a critical value $`v_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ of the order $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$; interestingly, the interior remains nonsingular. We will refer to the radius, $`r=r_{}`$, at which $`1/A=(1/A)_{\mathrm{min}}`$ as the quasi-horizon.

## B Probing the quasi-black hole

For any $`v<v_{\mathrm{cr}}`$, the self-gravitating monopole solution is a nonsingular spacetime with a Penrose diagram of the same form as that of Minkowski spacetime (Fig. 1a). The critical solution, on the other hand, can be extended beyond the original coordinate patch to yield a spacetime with the Penrose diagram shown in Fig. 1b. This diagram is quite similar to that of an extremal RN black hole, but differs from it by not having a singularity at $`r=0`$. The difference between the two diagrams is striking and seems to indicate a discontinuity at $`v=v_{\mathrm{cr}}`$, in contradiction with the usual expectation that physical quantities should vary continuously with the parameters of a theory. However, this discontinuity is perhaps better viewed as an artifact of the conformal transformation that produces the Penrose diagram from an infinite spacetime. This can be seen by considering an observer who remains at a radius $`r=r_{\mathrm{obs}}r_{}`$ and probes the interior of the quasi-black hole by sending in a particle along the trajectory ACB shown in Fig. 1a. As the probe moves along this trajectory, the elapsed coordinate time (which is approximately the same as the elapsed proper time of the observer) is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t=2_0^{r_{\mathrm{obs}}}𝑑r\frac{dt/d\tau }{dr/d\tau }=2_0^{r_{\mathrm{obs}}}𝑑r\frac{A}{\sqrt{AB}}\left[1\frac{B}{E^2}\left(\frac{J^2}{r^2}+1\right)\right]^{1/2}$$

where $`E`$ is the probe’s energy and $`J`$ is its angular momentum.

Consistency with our physical expectations of continuity requires that $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ diverge as the quasi-black hole approaches the critical limit and $`ϵ=(1/A)_{\mathrm{min}}0`$. If this happens, then the region containing point B would become effectively disconnected from that containing point A, just as in the black hole Penrose diagram of Fig. 1b. By examining the behavior of the metric functions as the quasi-black hole approaches the critical limit, we find that in this limit

$$\mathrm{\Delta }tkϵ^q+\mathrm{}$$

where the exponent $`q`$ depends on specific monopole parameters but is always greater than or equal to $`0.5`$. A similar result is obtained if one considers probing the black hole interior by sending in waves of some classical field. Thus, the time needed for an external observer to obtain information from the interior region diverges in the critical limit. Most importantly, the leading contribution to $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is determined solely by the spacetime geometry and is independent of the energy, angular momentum, or other features of the probe.

## C Entropy and thermodynamics

Until a horizon is actually formed, the interior of the quasi-black hole can be probed by external observers of infinite patience and lifetime. However, for an observer with a finite lifetime $`T`$, the interior region of a near-critical configuration becomes inaccessible once $`ϵT^{1/q}`$. Such an observer would most naturally describe any larger system containing this configuration in terms of a density matrix $`\rho `$ obtained by tracing over the degrees of freedom inside the quasi-horizon. Using this density matrix one can define an entropy $`S_{\mathrm{interior}}=\mathrm{Tr}\rho \mathrm{ln}\rho `$ that can be associated with the interior of the quasi-black hole.

One could, of course, proceed in this manner to define an entropy for any arbitrary region in space, just as one can choose to make the information in any subsystem inaccessible by putting the subsystem behind a locked door. The crucial difference here is that the inaccessibility is due to the intrinsic properties of the spacetime, and that the boundary of the inaccessible region is defined by the system itself rather than by some arbitrary external choice. It is thus reasonable to define $`S_{\mathrm{interior}}`$ as the entropy of the quasi-black hole.

A precise calculation of this entropy is clearly infeasible. Among other problems, such a calculation would require a correct implementation of an ultraviolet cutoff, which presumably would require a detailed understanding of how to perform the calculation in the context of a consistent theory of quantum gravity. As an initial effort, one can take the ultraviolet cutoff to be the Planck mass $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$ and try to obtain an order of magnitude estimate. To see what result might be expected, we recall a calculation of Srednicki , who showed that tracing over the degrees of freedom of a scalar field inside a region of flat spacetime with surface area $`A`$ leads to an entropy $`S=\kappa M^2A`$, where $`M`$ is the ultraviolet cutoff and $`\kappa `$ is a numerical constant. Although the value of $`\kappa `$ depends on the details of the theory, general arguments  suggest that an entropy obtained in this fashion should always be proportional to the surface area. Hence, we expect that the entropy associated with our quasi-black hole is $`S_{\mathrm{interior}}M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2A`$. A very plausible guess is that in the critical limit this goes precisely to the standard black hole result $`S_{\mathrm{BH}}=M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2A/4`$.

The suggestion that the entropy of a black hole might be understood in terms of the degrees of freedom inside the horizon is not a new idea. However, any attempt to make this idea more precise must overcome the difficulties that the “interior” region of a black hole is not static and that it contains a singularity. In contrast, our spacetime configurations are static and topologically trivial. Because their interiors can be unambiguously defined, it is conceptually clear what it means to trace over the interior degrees of freedom, even though it may not yet be possible to implement this calculation in complete detail.

Our calculations suggest an understanding of how a thermodynamics description emerges as one moves from a flat space configuration to a black hole. In any thermodynamic description of a system there is an implicit time scale $`\tau `$ that separates fast processes accounted for in the thermodynamics from slow process that are not. One assumes that for times shorter than $`\tau `$ the system can be described as effectively in equilibrium; for true equilibrium, this time scale is infinite. Correspondingly, self-gravitating monopoles have an associated time scale that gives the minimum time needed for an external observer to probe the interior; on shorter time scales, the monopole is effectively a statistical system as far as the observer is concerned. In the limit where the horizon forms and the monopole becomes a true black hole, this time scale becomes truly infinite and the thermodynamic description becomes exact.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy.


text:
# Fine Structure in the Energy Spectrum of Cosmic Ray Protons at 50 GeV ?

## 1 Introduction

It is commonly asserted that the energy spectrum of cosmic rays is almost featureless, being characterised by a power law spectrum which slowly steepens near 3$``$1015 eV ( the knee ) and continues with a new exponent to near 1019 eV, where it flattens somewhat ( the ankle ).

In fact, we ( Erlykin and Wolfendale, to be referred to as EW ) have claimed that near the knee the situation is more complex (  and references therein ). The complexity is attributed to the effect of a single, local and recent supernova, the remnant of which has accelerated particles, particularly oxygen and iron nuclei, with a spectrum of the form E-2 up to a rather sharp maximum at $`410^{14}Z`$ eV. It is not unreasonable, statistically , that such a single ’source’ should show itself in a rather narrow band of energy.

## 2 The AMS experiment

The EW result has led us to examine the situation at other energies, viz. to search for irregularities. The very recent results from the powerful AMS experiment  make a study of the proton spectrum recorded by that experiment of considerable value, from the standpoint of small deviations from smoothness. That such irregularities cannot be more than a few tens of percent is inferred from studies of the spectra reported by earlier workers ( to be considered later ). However, the AMS ( satellite ) experiment, with its 107 particles and carefully calibrated equipment, holds out the hope of searching for irregularities down to a few percent in intensity ( over some tens of GeV ).

The AMS authors have presented data on the proton spectrum from the kinetic energy 0.1 to 200 GeV. Below about 10 GeV ( for certain directions of incidence with respect to the earth ) interesting geomagnetic effects are visible, but these are not the subject of concern here. Rather, we examine the spectra above 10 GeV where geomagnetic effects quickly become negligible. In this energy range all the data presented, which relate to 10 bands of geomagnetic latitude, are completely consistent and, when averaged by us, they give the spectrum shown in Figure 1.

A discussion of the ’errors’ in the intensities is necessary. In the AMS work the errors for each of the ten bands of geomagnetic latitude are enlarged considerably to allow for ’systematic errors’. Such errors are, no doubt, present, but they should vary slowly from one energy bin to the next - viz. they should not, in themselves, be able to give the observed excess. The dispersion of the intensities ( the actual points ) about their mean ( from the averaged set of ten ) is very small indeed and the errors indicated by us in figure 1 are correspondingly small.

The result is of considerable interest in that it shows that a single power law ( shown dashed ) will not fit the data. Instead, an excess appears centered on 50 GeV. The ’peak’ is some 15% above the power law of constant exponent neglecting the region of the peak.

It has been pointed out to us ( by Professor Yu.Galaktionov of the AMS group ) that the unfolding technique used to ’correct’ the data may amplify existing irregularities. This is, of course, true but the fact that every one of the ten spectra presented shows such ( amplified ? ) peaks indicates, to us, that there is an underlying genuine peak. The AMS group shows, as an example, a representative spectrum before and after unfolding. We estimate that the ’raw’ spectrum has an excess about one half of that after correction. It seems safer, therefore, to take this value as the AMS result, i.e. $``$ 6% above the power law.

In Figure 2 we give the excess from a datum line which is drawn through intensities in the range logE = 1.20 - 1.55 and 1.85 onwards, the intensities below logE = 1.20 are increasingly affected by geomagnetic processes and are not used. An important point about taking excesses from such a datum is that the slowly varying systematic errors disappear on subtraction. Thus, the only errors left in the AMS excesses of Figure 2 should be the, presumably smaller, rapidly varying systematic errors. As remarked above, such errors due to the unfolding technique probably reduce the AMS values by a factor 2, to give the line as shown dashed in the Figure.

Returning to the initial excess, the peak carries with it $`210^3`$ eV cm-3, i.e. 0.4% of the total cosmic ray energy density; the reduced value is, correspondingly, $`110^3`$ eV cm-3.

An interesting feature is that the peak is rather narrow, being not far from what would have been expected from the momentum resolution of the instrument itself.

## 3 Comparison with the Results of Other Workers

### 3.1 Results for Protons.

It is necessary to examine the extent to which the AMS ’excess’ is also found in those other experiments in which the proton spectrum has been measured. Clearly, despite the undoubted superiority of the AMS project ( in terms of particle numbers, at least ), it is necessary to have support from other work, or at least reasons why others did not see the excess, before taking the excess seriously.

Figure 2 shows the excess intensities derived by us from the data. The logic in drawing a straight line for the datum needs consideration, the main reason is that this is standard procedure as a way of quantifying the spectral shape. There might, in fact, be some very small curvature ( convex upwards ), but due to small residual solar curvature and the narrow interval, $``$ 1.2/2.4, where the excess was derived, the overestimate of the excess cannot exceed 0.003.

### 3.2 The Results for Heavier Nuclei.

The fraction of nuclei in the cosmic radiation falls with increasing Z and the statistical accuracy falls accordingly. The search for fine structure is, correspondingly, even more difficult than for protons. Nevertheless, a search has been made.

A useful summary  has been given for the spactra of P, He, C, O, Mg, Si and Fe in terms of rigidity. Such a parameter is important in view of the fact that a promising explanation for the proton structure is in terms of acceleration effects by way of weak SNR in the ISM ( see §5 ) and these will presumably be rigidity-dependent. Inspection of a superposition of the rigidity spectra over the range 100 - 200 GV reveals no peak at 50 GV ( specifically $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ 0.05, but perhaps a peak at twice this rigidity: $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.07\pm 0.05`$ at 100GV.

Comparison with Figure 2 shows that the 50GV upper limit is a little above the ’corrected’ AMS value ( $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ 0.03 ) and thus not inconsistent with it. However, it gives no positive support to the proton results.

Turning to 100 GV rigidity ( 100 GeV energy for protons ) inspection of Figure 1 shows a peak there of less than about 0.01, not inconsistent with the 0.07$`\pm `$0.05 for the heavy nuclei, but again not providing positive support. It should be remarked, however, that 100 GeV is getting close to the ’maximum detectable energy’ of the AMS spectrometer, and peaks would certainly be smeared here and their magnitude considerably reduced.

### 3.3 The Results for Electrons.

It is here that recent work  gives rather strong evidence for a peak at 50 GeV, of magnitude $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.27\pm 0.1`$. The only other experiments of adequate statistical precision give a broad peak in the same region of smaller magnitude: in one case $`0.1\pm 0.1`$  and a null result in the other: $`0\pm 0.1`$ , the last-mentioned being a measurement reported 24 years ago. The average is $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.10\pm 0.06`$.

## 4 Discussion of the results

Taking the AMS results at their face value the 15% excess in the peak reduces to (11$`\pm `$1.5)% when averaged over the range logE: 1.55 - 1.85. However, as remarked earlier, a safer estimate is lower by a factor $``$ 2, with a larger error; specifically the ’best estimate’ for the average is (5 $`\pm `$ 2)%.

Turning to the mean of the other results, this is ( 1.6$`\pm `$0.9)%, a value lower than our AMS value but not impossibly so. A figure of (3$`\pm `$1.5)% would be consistent with both.

Turning to the results for other components, and transforming from $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-values to percentages, we have:

* nuclei of the same rigidity: $`<`$ 12%
* electrons of the same rigidity ( and energy ): $`26\pm 16`$%

The results for nuclei are not inconsistent with the proton results and the electron ’peak’ is, if anything, higher. Taken with the 100 GV nuclear excess ( of $`17\pm 12`$% ) there is at least the suggestion of small peaks in the other components, too.

## 5 Possible explanations

A non-exhaustive list is as follows.
(i) Technical origin
It is unlikely that technical factors, such as errors in exposure at the energy in question, are responsible for the excess in all the measurements, but technical causes cannot be ruled out.
(ii) Protons from exotic processes
Concerning the AMS excess the easiest ( observationally ) explanation would be a delta-function, i.e. the presence of protons of unique energy near 50 GeV. Apart from the large energy density ( 0.2-0.4% of the whole cosmic ray energy density ) the absence of anti-protons of the same flux ( at least none have been reported ) acts against some exotic processes, such as the decay of massive baryons and anti-baryons, at least.
Other possibilities involve the annihilation of dark matter particles of supersymmetric type . Again, the non-observation of accompanying particles - such as gamma rays - rules out many possibilities. Nevertheless, there may be appropriate decay modes which would be acceptable. This aspect is, in fact, topical because of the possibility of dark matter candidates having the appropriate mass.
(iii) Supernova Remnant Effects
Although not predicted by acceleration models, such as was - in a sense - the situation for the EW mechanism at PeV energies, this is perhaps the best contender. The stochastic nature of supernova shocks means that there must be spectral structure at some, small, level, at all energies where supernovae play a part. We are currently examining this aspect in some detail.
The likely presence of small effects for the spectra of nuclei and electrons increases the attractiveness of this interpretation.
(iv) Heliospheric Shock Effects
The energy in question, 50 GeV, is of the right order to be possibly accomodated by shocks at the heliospheric boundary. However, why the excess should be so sharp ( after allowance for resolution broadening ) is a mystery.

## 6 Conclusions

Inspection of the very recent, precise, AMS measurements of the primary cosmic ray proton spectrum shows an interesting excess in the region of 50 GeV. Although the quoted values may overestimate the excess - perhaps by a factor 2 - it seems unlikely that the whole effect will go away.

Including results from other proton experiments, too, an overall excess averaged over $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ logE = 0.15 centred on 50 GeV of ( 3$`\pm `$1.5)% would fit all the data.

It should be possible to confirm or deny a value of this magnitude by a more sophisticated study of the AMS results.

More importantly, perhaps, is the general point that modern experiments of apparently high precision, should focus on examinations of the detailed shape of the energy spectrum of protons, of heavier nuclei and of electrons, too. Fine structure should be visible at some level; perhaps it is already starting to be seen ?
Concerning the explanation, if the heavier nuclei do, in fact, show similar effects to those for protons ( at present the results are clearly very marginal ) - at the same rigidity - it will be possible to rule out exotic processes as being responsible. Weak, local supernova remnants, would then be the preferred mechanism. However, it is premature to rule out exotic processes, yet.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Professor Yu.Galaktionov for useful discussions and comments. The Royal Society is thanked for the provision of financial support by way of a Joint Project. Mr. P.Kiraly kindly provided helpful comments, as did the referee, and we are grateful to them.