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# Small-world networks and the conformation space of a lattice polymer chain

## Abstract

We map the conformation space of a simple lattice polymer chain to a network, where (i) the vertices of the network have a one-to-one correspondence to the conformations of the chain, and (ii) a link between two vertices indicates the possibility of switching from one conformation to the other by a single Monte Carlo move of the chain. We find that the geometric properties of this network are similar to those of small-world networks, namely, the diameter of conformation space increases, for large networks, as the logarithm of the number of conformations, while locally the network appears to have low dimensionality.

The physical properties of polymers are the focus of a lot of attention due to (i) their role in many new advanced materials with important technologic applications , and (ii) their role in biological processes . An especially important unsolved problem in polymer studies is protein folding. Solving this problem has recently become more urgent as several studies suggest that a number of human diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and British dementia, may be due to the aggregation of misfolded proteins.

The kinetics of protein folding are controlled by the structure of the free-energy landscape. Theoretical calculations predict that in some cases the barriers in the free-energy landscape are quite small. Hence, the diffusion of a protein’s conformation on its energy landscape may be determined mainly by the structure and connectivity of conformation space. For this reason, much work has been done on the structure of conformation space and many models have been proposed, including tree structures, random networks, and ultrametric spaces. In spite of all this work, very little is known about the conformation space of polymers in general and proteins in particular.

Here, we present evidence supporting the hypothesis that the conformation space of a lattice homopolymer chain may be a small-world network. These networks —which appear as the result of randomly replacing a fraction $`p`$ of the links of a $`d`$-dimensional lattice with new random links— interpolate between the two limiting cases of a regular lattice ($`p=0`$) and a random graph ($`p=1`$). The small-world regime is characterized by the properties (i) that a local neighborhood is preserved —as for regular lattices— and (ii) that the average shortest distance between two vertices increases logarithmically with the number of vertices $`n`$ of the network —as for random graphs.

To gain some insight on the conformation space of real polymers, we consider here the conformation space of a 2-dimensional lattice polymer chain. To study the geometrical properties of conformation space, we map it onto a network . We first enumerate all allowed conformations of the chain. We then identify (i) each conformation of the chain with a vertex of the network, and (ii) the possibility of changing from one conformation to another, through a single Monte Carlo move of the chain, with the existence of a link between the corresponding vertices (Fig. 1).

Our study relies on two important simplifications. The first simplification is to use a lattice model. On this regard, note that due to the limited number of allowed equilibrium angles between two monomers, the modeling of a polymer by a linear chain on a lattice may be experimentally justified. In fact, even for the study of proteins, lattice models led to important insights . The second simplification is to neglect interactions. On this regard, note that here we are only interested in determining the geometric and structural properties of conformation space, and that interactions affect the rate of transfer between the allowed conformations . Moreover, our results will also apply to any polymer chain in the limit of very high temperature for which the monomer interactions are mostly due to steric effects .

We first calculate the geometric properties of conformation space for the simplified lattice polymer model and compare these properties with the predictions of several models for conformation space. This approach is different from the ones considered so far in the literature. We do not start by postulating a particular type of structure with some theoretically-desirable properties but, instead, try to generate the full network describing conformation space and compare its properties with different models.

As a first test, we study the dependence of the average shortest distance $`\mathrm{}`$ between any two vertices in the network on the number $`n`$ of vertices. Note (i) that the size of the network equals the number of allowed conformations of the chain, and (ii) that the distance between two vertices equals the minimum number of elementary moves of the chain necessary to switch between the two corresponding conformations. For a tree structure or a random network we expect a logarithmic increase of $`\mathrm{}`$ with $`n`$, while for a $`d`$-dimensional lattice we expect an algebraic increase: $`\mathrm{}n^{1/d}`$. In contrast, for a small-world network, $`\mathrm{}`$ follows the scaling law

$$\mathrm{}(n,p)(n^{})^{1/d}f(n/n^{}),$$
(1)
where the scaling function $`f(u)`$ has the limits $`f(u)u^{1/d}`$ for $`u1`$ and $`f(u)\mathrm{ln}u`$ for $`u1`$; $`n^{}p^1`$ is a crossover size that separates the large- and small-world regimes, and $`p`$ is the fraction of “rewired” links. Figure 2 displays our results for the polymer chain, which suggest that the conformation space can be described by a small-world network with $`p10^3`$. Figure 2 clearly rules out the possibility that, for $`n1`$, the conformation space is a low dimensionality lattice.

As a second test, we study the local structure of conformation space and compare it with that of a random network. To this end, we calculate the clustering coefficient $`C`$, which is defined as the average ratio of the number of existing links between neighbors of a vertex and the maximum number of possible links. For a random network, we expect $`Cz/n`$, where $`z`$ is the average connectivity of the network. In contrast, small-world networks have values of $`C`$ of the same order of magnitude as those of regular lattices, because only a small percentage of links are different from those in the lattice. In Fig. 3(a), we compare the values of $`C`$ obtained for the networks with the values of $`C`$ for random networks with the same size and connectivity. Clearly, the measured clustering coefficients are much larger than the expected values for random networks, ruling out a purely random structure for conformation space.

As a third test, we calculate the number of elementary loops in conformation space —usually referred to as the cyclomatic number— and compare the results with those for a tree structure. For a tree structure the cyclomatic number is identically zero while for all other networks it increases linearly with $`n`$. Figure 3(b) shows that the cyclomatic number for the polymer conformation space clearly increases with $`n`$, consistent with a small-world network but ruling out a tree structure for conformation space.

As a final test, we calculate the percentage of triplets $`\{A,B,C\}`$ of vertices in conformation space whose distances obey an ultrametric relation: $`d_{AC}\mathrm{max}(d_{AB},d_{BC})`$. Figure 3(c) shows the percentage of ultrametric triplets for conformation space. The percentage of ultrametric triplets is significantly smaller than 100%, ruling out a purely ultrametric structure for conformation space. Moreover, the measured percentage of ultrametric triplets also rules out the random network and the tree structure as descriptions of conformation space.

In summary, the regular lattice is rejected by the first test, the tree structure is rejected by the first, third, and fourth tests, and the random network is rejected by the first, second and fourth tests. Hence, we conclude that the geometrical properties of the conformation space of a lattice polymer chain are consistent with those of small-world networks but not with the geometric properties of the other geometries discussed in the literature.

Next, we address the implications of our finding that the conformation space of a lattice polymer chain may be a small-world network. A central problem in protein folding is the characterization of relaxation processes. The kinetics of a protein’s conformations can be mapped to a random walk on conformation space. Naturally, the model studied here is too simplistic to enable us to understand protein folding, however, the study of diffusion on conformation spaces with small-world geometries may still develop our understanding of relaxation in protein folding. Hence, we consider next the problem of diffusion on a small-world network. The usual way to solve a diffusion problem is to obtain the density of states $`\rho (\lambda )`$ of the transition matrix of the system. For a small-world network, one has

$$\rho (\lambda )\lambda ^{d/21}\mathrm{exp}(p/\sqrt{\lambda }),$$
(2)
where the $`\lambda `$’s are the eigenvalues of the transition matrix for the network. To quantify the relaxation properties, we calculate the probability of return to the origin, usually considered in the study of random walks, which is the Laplace transform of (2),

$$P_0(t)=_{1/\mathrm{}^2}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\lambda \rho (\lambda )\mathrm{exp}(\lambda t),$$
(3)
where the lower limit in the integral is a cut-off that takes into account the finite size of the network. The return probability has the scaling behavior

$$P_0(t)P_0(\mathrm{})\{\begin{array}{cc}t^{d/2}\hfill & tt_1\hfill \\ \mathrm{exp}((p^2t)^{1/3})\hfill & t_1tt_2\hfill \\ \mathrm{exp}(t/\mathrm{}^2)\hfill & tt_2\hfill \end{array},$$
(4)
where $`P_0(\mathrm{})=1/n`$ and the two crossover times scales can be written, in the small-world regime, as

$$\{\begin{array}{c}t_11/p^2(n^{})^2\hfill \\ t_2p\mathrm{}^3(n^{})^2(\mathrm{ln}n)^3\hfill \end{array},$$
(5)
where we used the result $`\mathrm{}n^{}\mathrm{ln}n`$ . The results (2-5) are consistent with our numerical simulations both for small-world networks and for the conformation space of the lattice polymer chain.

The description of the conformation space as a small-world network may be useful for other complex disordered systems such as spin-glasses . Specifically, small-world networks combine the features of apparent infinite dimensionality and low connectivity thought to be important for glassy relaxation . It has been hypothesized, that in order to reproduce stretched exponential decays , the space of accessible conformations must have a tree-like structure. We have shown that for conformation spaces with a small-world structure stretched exponential relaxation can appear as an intrinsic feature of the space’s geometry.


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# A Systematic Search for Short-term Variability of EGRET Sources

## 1 Introduction

The Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on board the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) began observing the high-energy gamma-ray sky in 1991. Since that time, EGRET has contributed enormously to the list of gamma-ray point sources; the third EGRET catalog (Hartman et al. (1999), hereafter H99) contains 271 point sources exhibiting significant flux above 100 MeV. Besides a single solar flare, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and a probable association with a radio galaxy (Cen A), the identified sources are distributed among two established classes of high-energy gamma-ray emitters: pulsars and radio-loud blazars. 170 sources remain unassociated with known objects. There is great interest in the nature of the unidentified sources, whether they be pulsars, blazars, or representatives of new classes of gamma-ray sources.

The limited spatial resolution of EGRET often hampers source identification based solely on position; an alternate means of determining source class is the study of flux variability. In particular, pulsars are believed to be stable on short ($`1`$ day) time scales (Ramanamurthy et al. (1997)) while blazars are known to be strongly variable (e.g., Mattox et al. 1997a ). Short-term and long-term variability studies have also led to the discovery of two candidates for a new gamma-ray source class: 3EG J1837-0606 (GRO J1838-04) (Tavani et al. (1997)) and 3EG J0241-6103 (2CG 135+01) (Kniffen et al. (1997); Tavani et al. (1998)). These sources display transient behavior but cannot be associated with any known radio-loud blazars.

There are many instances of gamma-ray flares of AGN on short time scales. For example, 3C 279 (Kniffen et al. (1973); Wehrle et al. (1998)), PKS 0528+134 (Hunter et al. (1993)), 3C 454.3 (Hartman et al. (1993)), PKS 1633+382 (Mattox et al. (1993)), PKS 1406-076 (Wagner et al. (1995)), PKS 1622-297 (Mattox et al. 1997a ), and CTA 26 (Mattox et al. (1995); Hallum et al. (1997); Mattox et al. (2000)) all show strong evidence of variability on time scales of 1-3 days. Many other AGN show variations on time scales of weeks to months (von Montigney et al. (1995); McLaughlin et al. (1996); Mukherjee et al. (1997)). Although these many instances of short-term variability have been noted, no exhaustive survey of the EGRET database has been performed.

It is the purpose of this study to conduct a systematic and comprehensive survey of EGRET data from proposal cycles 1-4 in search of evidence of short-term flux variability above 100 MeV. The standard method of EGRET data analysis, maximum likelihood, was applied to short-duration (one-day and two-day) maps of gamma-ray intensity. The variability statistic $`V`$ was used as a guide for singling out those light curves which deviate appreciably from constant flux. For the unidentified sources that display evidence of flaring, Monte Carlo simulations were performed to determine the probability of such fluctuations assuming intrinsically nonvariable sources. Six catalog sources were found to exhibit variability on one- and two-day time scales: four are unidentified, one is a flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ), and one is a BL Lac object. In addition, two transient non-catalog excesses and one non-catalog sub-threshold repeating source are discussed. The limitations of this study are then considered; a summary and concluding remarks follow.

## 2 EGRET Data and Preliminary Analysis

The data used for the present analysis are those from Phase 1 through Cycle 4 of the CRGO mission (1991 April - 1995 October), matching the time span of the third EGRET catalog (H99). The CGRO timeline is divided into observation (viewing) periods at fixed attitudes that range in duration from one day to several weeks. Each of the 144 viewing periods longer than 3 days was first divided into two-day intervals (for viewing periods with an odd number of days, the last interval has three days). For each interval, a sky map was generated for $`E>100`$ MeV using the same criteria used to generate standard EGRET maps. In addition, for each instrument pointing within 20 of the Galactic plane (where the sources typically are brighter), a series of one-day maps was generated. Each of these maps was analyzed with the EGRET maximum likelihood program (Mattox et al. (1996)) using the following procedure: (1) All sources from H99 within 30 of the pointing direction were modeled. Sources beyond 30 for these short intervals have too little exposure to be useful and would require separate analysis, because the EGRET Point Spread Function (PSF) is broader at wide angles (Esposito et al. (1999)). (2) Fluxes for all the sources and the EGRET diffuse radiation model (Hunter et al. (1997); Sreekumar et al. (1998)) within the map were optimized simultaneously, producing a table with statistical significance and flux for each source. (3) A search was made for any statistically-significant source in the map not found in the EGRET catalog.

The statistics of the data are very limiting, especially for the one-day light curves. In order to isolate the curves for which the flux uncertainty is not overwhelming, the significance of each of the short-duration detections were examined. An excess of 4$`\sigma `$ is the minimum requirement for inclusion of a source in H99, and this threshold was applied here so that only those light curves which contain at least one 4$`\sigma `$ short-duration detection were considered for further analysis.

Even with this requirement, much of the data suffers from large statistical uncertainty. This leads us to the conclusion that for all but the strongest sources, EGRET is sensitive to only the most dramatic short-term variations in flux. In order to single out the most variable light curves, the variability statistic $`V`$ (McLaughlin et al. (1996)) was used. For the remaining light curves the $`\chi ^2`$ statistic was calculated from

$$\chi ^2=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{(F_i\overline{F})^2}{\sigma _i^2}$$
(1)
where N is the number of observations, $`F_i`$ is the detected flux during the $`i`$th observation, $`\overline{F}`$ is the mean flux for the viewing period, and $`\sigma _i`$ is the 1-$`\sigma `$ flux uncertainty of the $`i`$th observation. If $`Q`$ is the probability of obtaining a value of $`\chi ^2`$ equal to or greater than the empirical $`\chi ^2`$ from an intrinsically nonvariable source, then $`V\mathrm{log}`$$`Q`$. For this work, light curves with $`V3.0`$ ($`Q10^3`$) are considered to manifest source variability. Light curves displaying one or more consecutive strong two-day detections or two or more consecutive strong one-day detections against a background of weak detections and/or upper limits are considered to show evidence of flaring. In such situations, the value of $`V`$ is depressed by the high number of weak detections and/or upper limits; for this reason these curves were retained for further study if they had variability indexes at or above 1.0.

Seven light curves of six sources displayed one or two-day variability indexes greater than 3.0 and/or 1.0 with evidence of flaring. With one exception, the one-day analysis turned up a final list of variable light curves identical to that of the (independently performed) two-day analysis. Four of the seven sources are listed as unidentified in H99.

For the unidentified sources that display evidence of flaring behavior, Monte Carlo simulations of the data were performed. The data in question were simulated using the current models of the diffuse isotropic radiation (Sreekumar et al. (1998)) and the diffuse Galactic emission (Hunter et al. (1997)) in conjunction with the source flux. In some cases, the source in question was not isolated and a number of nearby sources were included in the simulation; all sources were assumed to be intrinsically nonvariable. Mean fluxes for each source and short-duration exposures representative of the viewing period are input into the model. For a given source, the simulation consisted of distributing the flux as the EGRET PSF and adding Poisson-distributed deviates pixel-by-pixel. In this way 1000 counts maps were generated; these maps were analyzed using maximum likelihood, resulting in a distribution of the significance for the source of interest. The probability of finding a single detection and subsequently a “flare” of given overall significance or greater from an intrinsically nonvariable source was then determined from this distribution. See Mattox et al. (1996) for more details about the Monte Carlo simulation.

## 3 Discussion of Individual Catalog Sources

The following sources are listed in H99 and display evidence for variable output. To be listed in H99, sources with $`|b|<10^{}`$ must be detected with a significance of at least $`5\sigma `$ and sources with $`|b|>10^{}`$ must be detected at a significance of at least $`4\sigma `$. Four of the sources have not been previously known to display short-term variability. The variability of the other two has been reported and for these we present additional work.

### 3.1 New Reports of Short-term Variability

#### 3.1.1 3EG J0222+4253 (3C 66A/PSR J0218+4232?)

Source 3EG J0222+4253 exhibits a strong two-day flare in VP 15.0 111The preliminary version of this result appeared in Bloom et al. 1997.; virtually all of the detection in this 14-day interval came on days 11 and 12. The peak flux value on day 12, $`(8.1\pm 2.4)\times 10^{}7`$ photons cm-2 s-1, is over four times the mean flux for this source, either in the full viewing period or averaged over all observations in H99. The source was 125 off-axis and the two-day light curve (see Figure 1) registers a variability index of 2.6. Monte Carlo simulation of this source indicates that one should expect only about 5 in $`10^4`$ such viewing periods to display an equivalent or stronger “flare” if the source is intrinsically nonvariable. Source 3EG J0222+4253 was also observed within 20 of the instrument axis in VP’s 211.0, 325.0, and 427.0, but was found in all three cases to be nonvariable and consistent with the lower-level flux observed in VP 15.0.

At energies above 1 GeV, the spatial analysis (H99) strongly supports an association of this source with the BL Lac object 3C66A ($`z=0.444`$). This identification would place this source among the more than 60 blazar-class objects seen by EGRET, many of which show short-term time variability, as noted above.

Verbunt et al. (1996) and Hermsen et al. (1999) suggest that much of the sub-GeV gamma-ray flux may have its origin in a second source, the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J0218+4232, located less than 1 degree from 3C66A. Their argument is based on three lines of evidence: (1) the 100-1000 MeV data show a 3.5 sigma evidence of pulsation at the radio period; (2) the gamma-ray light curve resembles the one seen in hard X-rays; and (3) the spatial analysis shows that the source position moves from the BL Lac position toward the pulsar position with decreasing gamma-ray energy.

For the two-day flare, the EGRET data do not have good enough statistics or resolution to determine which of the two candidate sources is responsible for the flare. Modeling both the AGN and the pulsar at their known positions, the likelihood analysis assigns some photons to each source. The flare does have many more photons at lower energies than higher energies, as indicated in Table 2. Also listed in Table 2 are the number of photons expected from a single 2-day interval given the average flux of 3EG J0222+4253 in VP 15.0. From the numbers it is clear that the flare is seen at all energies, including the 100-300 and 300-1000 MeV bands. The energy distribution of the flare can also be seen in the source spectrum for all of VP 15.0, shown in Figure 2. The photon number index is $`2.37\pm 0.29`$ for this viewing period, compared to $`2.01\pm 0.14`$ for the sum of phases 1-4 for this source. Because most of the photons that make up the flare are of lower energy, they would be associated with the pulsar and not the AGN in the two-source model. Flaring behavior is not seen, however, in the other EGRET-detected pulsars. We cannot rule out the possibility that the AGN spectrum extended to lower energies during the flare, although other EGRET AGN spectra tend to flatten rather than steepen during flares (Sreekumar et al. (1996); Hartman et al. (2000)).

#### 3.1.2 3EG J1410-6147

In the first four days of VP 14.0, this unidentified source decayed from a flux of almost $`(5.4\pm 1.5)\times 10^6`$ photons cm-2 s-1 to below EGRET’s sensitivity, where it remained for the rest of the 14-day period (see Figure 3). This is suggestive of flaring behavior. The one-day variability index is 1.5 and Monte Carlo simulation gives a probability of about 0.0006 that the fluctuation found in VP 14.0 is produced by a nonvariable source. Although the source is 271 off-axis during VP 14.0, this was an early observation, when EGRET’s sensitivity was high.

It has been suggested that 3EG J1410-6147 ($`l=312.18`$, $`b=0.35`$) is associated with SNR G312.4-0.4 (Sturner, S. J. & Dermer, C. D. (1995)), which falls just outside the 68% error contour; this association is not well-confirmed. Flaring behavior would not be expected if the origin of the gamma rays was either cosmic rays from the SNR interacting with the surrounding material or a radio-quiet pulsar in the SNR. No association with any point radio source can be made (Mattox et al. (2000)). Sources 3EG J0241-6103 (2CG 135+01; see below) and 3EG J1837-0606 (GRO J1838-04) share this characteristic (Kniffen et al. (1997); Tavani et al. (1998)) of low Galactic latitude, variability, and lack of a strong radio counterpart. It may be that along with these sources, 3EG J1410-6147 represents a new class of gamma-ray emitter. This suggestion should be considered with caution in light of the high aspect during VP 14.0.

#### 3.1.3 3EG J1746-2851

As this source is unidentified, strong, and coincident with the Galactic Center, it has been studied in some detail (Mayer-Hasselwander et al. (1998)). However, until now its short-term time history has not been examined. There is some evidence of fluctuation in VP’s 16.0 and 429.0. It should be stated first that 3EG J1746-2851 sits in the center of the most densely-packed region of the gamma-ray sky; there are 10 sources listed in H99 within 10 of the Galactic Center. Given the broad EGRET PSF, source confusion is a serious problem. In addition, EGRET’s sensitivity was high during this early observation but the source was 203 off-axis, leading to increased statistical uncertainty. However, while 3EG J1746-2851 appears to fluctuate during two different viewing periods, no other sources in highly congested regions display any evidence of short-term variability.

In VP 16.0 the three strongest one-day detections fall on days 7-9 of the 14-day period, exhibiting a peak flux of $`(3.40\pm 0.92)\times 10^6`$ photons cm-2 s-1 on day 8 (see Figure 4). This is only a 4.3$`\sigma `$ detection, but it is flanked on days 7 and 9 by detections of 3.9$`\sigma `$ and 3.1$`\sigma `$ respectively and there is no detection stronger than 2.3$`\sigma `$ within 5 days of the peak. The one-day variability index for VP 16.0 is 2.1, corresponding to a probability of 0.008 that these data are consistent with a nonvariable source. Monte Carlo analysis is more restrictive. This source and the seven others within a 7 radius were modeled and there is a probability of 0.0011 that a fluctuation of this (or greater) significance will occur in a 14-day period given intrinsically nonvariable sources.

Source 3EG J1746-2851 also shows evidence of variability in VP 429.0. During this pointing the aspect is only 6 and the one-day variability index has a value of 3.0. The peak flux is very high $`(6.4\pm 1.7)\times 10^6`$ photons cm-2 s-1 and on two days the source is not detected at all, but there is no evidence of flaring. The light curve is shown in Figure 5.

Time variability would indicate a compact object as the gamma-ray source. Models such as advection-dominated accretion flow onto a massive black hole (Mahadevan et al. (1997)) would be favored rather than a collection of pulsars or a cosmic ray enhancement. See Mayer-Hasselwander et al. (1998) for further discussion of possible models.

#### 3.1.4 3EG J2006-2321

During VP 13.1 (1991 October 31 - November 7), this source ($`l=18^{}8,b=26^{}3`$) exhibited transient behavior on time scales of 12 hours. During this VP the source was 136 from the instrument axis and the overall significance of the detection is 4.8$`\sigma `$. A light curve of 3EG J2006-2321 in VP 13.1 is shown in Figure 6. The first two days of observation are broken down into four 12-hour periods; the remaining points represent full days. Breakdown of the data into smaller time intervals is not useful as poor statistics become overwhelming. EGRET appears to have caught 3EG J2006-2321 on the leading edge of an intense flare, although this is not known with high confidence. The peak flux, centered on MJD 48560.25, is $`(1.75\pm 0.53)\times 10^6`$ photons cm-2 s-1; this 12-hour detection has a significance of 5.4$`\sigma `$. The source then decays monotonically on this time scale; less than two days later it is not detected by EGRET at all. The flux never rises above $`3.9\times 10^7`$ photons cm-2 s-1 for the rest of VP 13.1. The ratio of peak to average flux for the VP is 5:1. The gamma-ray spectrum of 3EG J2006-2321 for VP 13.1 is consistent with a power law with exponent $`2.13\pm 0.31`$.

Applying a $`\chi ^2`$ test to the light curve yielded a probability of 0.0006 that these data are consistent with an intrinsically nonvariable source. Results from Monte Carlo simulations of the source are consistent with these analyses. From the simulated data it was determined that the probability of finding such a deviation in a 7-day viewing period is 0.0005.

The combination of high Galactic latitude and short-term transient behavior suggests an association with the blazar class of AGN. While this source may well be a blazar, its radio flux at 5 GHz is significantly lower than blazars with similar peak gamma-ray flux values. The best candidate for association with 3EG J2006-2321 is the radio source PMN J2005-2310 (260 mJy at 5 GHz, $`\alpha _r`$ not known at this frequency; (Griffith, M. R. & Wright, A. E. (1993))). Of the 10 high-confidence blazars listed by Mattox et al. (1997) with peak gamma-ray flux above $`10^{}6`$ photons cm-2 s-1, all are associated with flat-spectrum radio sources having a 5 GHz intensity above 1.0 Jy. The analysis of Mattox et al. (2000b) has determined that the a priori probability of EGRET detecting such a weak radio source is 0.0006. This low probability ensures that even though PMN J2005-2310 falls only 11.0 arcmin from the EGRET-determined position of 3EG J2006-2321, well within the 50% confidence countour, the probability of association is only 0.015 (Mattox et al. (2000)). However, the variability presented in the present study bolsters the possibility of the source being a blazar. In addition, while PMN J2005-2310 is not bright, there is strong evidence that it is a flat-spectrum source; it is listed with a flux of 260 mJy in the Texas 365 MHz survey (Douglas, J. N. et al. (1996)) where it is listed as TXS 2002-233. The spectral index around 365 MHz is $`0.7\pm 0.2`$. The radio source also appears as NVSS J200556-231028 in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (Condon et al. (1998)) at 1.4 GHz with a strength of 302 mJy.

A multi-wavelength investigation of PMN J2005-2310 is encouraged in order to determine its nature. VLBI measurements may resolve a compact core, and optical observations may aid in determining redshift and polarization. Finally, an X-ray detection of this source will help to establish its spectral energy distribution.

### 3.2 Follow-up Reports of Short-term Variability

#### 3.2.1 3EG J0241+6103 (2CG 135+01)

Source 3EG J0241+6103 is unidentified and has been the subject of several papers because of evidence of short-term variability and lack of radio-loud blazar counterparts (Kniffen et al. (1997); Tavani et al. (1998)). The short-term data have been re-analyzed in light of indications that another source (3EG J0229+6151, H99) exists only 168 away with about half the intensity of 3EG J0241+6103. The results still indicate evidence of variability in VP 211.0 (1993 25 February - 9 March) with a two-day variability index of 3.1 (see Figure 7). Although this source is near the galactic plane ($`b=+0^{}`$99), there are no EGRET-detected sources other than 3EG J0229+6151 within $`10^{}`$. Source 3EG J0241+6103 and the nearby source were modeled using Monte Carlo methods and the probability of finding a fluctuation this strong or stronger from steady sources in a 14-day period is about $`5.9\times 10^4`$. During no viewing period other than 211.0 was the source found to be variable.

#### 3.2.2 3EG J0530+1323 (PKS 0528+134)

Previous analyses of this quasar, located near the Galactic anticenter, found it to be strongly variable on two-day time scales during early EGRET observations (Hunter et al. (1993); Thompson et al. (1997)). PKS 0528+134 was observed in 1993 March to have a peak flux of $`3.5\times 10^6`$ photons cm-2 s-1; by 1993 May it had decreased by a factor of 2.5. The two-day variability index of 4.6 for VP’s 0.2 through 2.1 corresponds to a probability of 0.0002 that these data are consistent with an intrinsically nonvariable source. This is in stark contrast to the results of almost three weeks of continuous observations of the Galactic Anticenter in 1995 February - March (VP’s 412.0 and 413.0). During this time PKS 0528+134 displayed virtually constant flux in its two-day light curve (see Figure 8); there is no evidence of variability from this strong, previously erratic source. The $`\chi ^2`$ analysis indicates that the probability that these late-period data are consistent with a constant source is 0.97. Therefore one must be careful when using flux histories to determine source class; while strongly variable data might be used to rule out identification of pulsars, measurements of constant flux do not rule out identification of AGN.

## 4 Discussion of Non-catalog Sources

The thresholds for inclusion in H99 ($`5\sigma `$ for $`|b|<10^{}`$ and $`4\sigma `$ for $`|b|>10^{}`$) apply to any single viewing period or combination of viewing periods; however, it is possible for a source to display a short-duration significance well above that of the entire viewing period. This is almost always true of flaring sources, and is true of the following two sources. Their overall detections during the viewing periods in question fall below the catalog thresholds, but have short-duration excesses above these values.

### 4.1 GRO J0927-41

This source appears near $`l=266.68`$, $`b=7.03`$ with a 95% confidence radius of 101 during the third and fourth days of VP 338.5. On these days the source displays excesses of $`3.3\sigma `$ and $`4.0\sigma `$ respectively (see Figure 11). The combined significance for these two days is $`5.2\sigma `$. The very strong Vela pulsar is 104 away; Monte Carlo simulation of GRO J0927-41 and Vela indicates that the probability of such transient behavior from an intrinsically nonvariable source is 0.0013. A search for counterparts revealed PKS 0920-397, a FSRQ 133 away near the 99% confidence contour. This quasar ($`z=0.591`$) has a flat radio spectrum above 1.4 GHz, with a flux of 1.5 Jy at 4.85 GHz. It may be that EGRET has detected the tip of a flare from this source. There are not enough counts in the data to produce a spectrum of this source.

### 4.2 GRO J1547-39

In VP 226.0, an excess of $`4.7\sigma `$ appears near $`l=336.17`$, $`b=11.78`$ 95% with a confidence radius of 097. The source is given the name GRO J1547-39 and is seen most clearly in the third of four two-day maps. The light curve is shown in Figure 10. When broken down into one-day intervals, the significance falls to $`4.0\sigma `$ and $`3.1\sigma `$. The overall detection for this source in VP 226.0 is $`3.6\sigma `$; in no other viewing periods that include the source position does the overall significance rise above $`3.0\sigma `$. No flat-spectrum radio loud blazars or other candidate objects appeared as candidates for association with this source, and there are not enough counts to provide a spectrum. Monte Carlo simulation of this source indicates that there is a probability of 0.010 of finding a “flare” of equal or greater strength from an intrinsically nonvariable source. With such a high probability we make only a weak claim for variability of GRO J1547-39.

### 4.3 Sub-threshold Repeating Sources

In the region $`40<b<40`$, 148 two-day non-catalog excesses with significance $`3.5\sigma `$ are found. Among these are seven spatially coincident pairs and one spatially coincident triplet. For each set, the data are combined; in six of these combined maps the significance exceeds the standard thresholds. These pairs are considered for further analysis, with the hypothesis that each one represents the same transient source at high flux values.

This hypothesis is almost certainly not true. The probability of finding six such coincident pairs from 148 excesses is not negligible; assuming that the sources are randomly scattered and that each source has an error circle with radius $``$10, the probability of finding six or more spatially coincident pairs is nearly 0.03. Beyond this simple analysis, the individual excesses are below threshold and most are close to the Galactic plane, and may not represent real sources. However, of these six pairs one is worthy of mention for its high combined significance.

During VP 423.5, a source appeared near $`l=334.78`$, $`b=0.28`$, prompting a report to the IAU (Kanbach et al. (1995)). The source, GRO J1627-49, has a 95% confidence radius of 042 and was found to be coincident with an H II region. However, it was not seen in any other band and faded during the viewing period; it was not strong enough for the viewing period as a whole to be included in H99. The present analyses reveal that during VP 23.0 a sub-threshold excess appeared for two days at a coincident position. The data from these viewing periods combine to yield an excess with significance $`5.7\sigma `$. The spectrum of these combined data is shown in Figure 11 and is rather flat, with a spectral index of $`1.78\pm 0.31`$.

## 5 Limitations of this Study

EGRET’s sensitivity, while higher than any previous gamma-ray telescope, is low enough to severely limit the present analyses when combined with the intrinsically low gamma-ray flux. Often there are simply not enough counts to break t he data down into smaller divisions and retain any meaningful information. For much of the data, low counts translate into statistical errors of $``$40-50%. In these cases, an intrinsic flux increase of 100% is barely detected with any significance; changes of $``$200-300% are required for higher-confidence claims of variability. Thus only the most dramatic changes in flux are measured with any confidence. For all but the strongest sources, the estimated 10% systematic uncertainty (Thompson et al. (1995)) adds insignificantly to statistical error.

Interpretations of the variability index $`V`$ are rendered problematic by the low EGRET count rate. A low value of $`V`$ may have its origin in constant source output; it may also be due to poor statistics. There is no way to distinguish between these two cases. Again, this means that only very large values of $`V`$ are meaningful, and that only strong variations from constant flux are detected.

Also, the high short-duration errors lead to uncertainties in mean fluxes for given viewing periods; the shorter the duration of the detection, the higher the uncertainty of the mean. This may result not only in misleading values of $`V`$ but also Monte Carlo probabilities, as these calculations assume the averages for the viewing period in question.

## 6 Summary and Conclusions

The results of this work are summarized in Table 1. The first column indicates the source name by increasing Right Ascension; sources found in H99 are given the 3EG designation and non-catalog sources are given the GRO designation. The second column indicates alternate names, and the third column indicates source identification as FSRQ, BL Lac, or unidentified (UID). Column four indicates those viewing periods in which the source is found to be variable, column five gives the variability index for that viewing period, and column six indicates whether the source flared in that viewing period. The Monte Carlo probability for unidentified flaring sources is given in the seventh column.

The detections of short flares in 3EG J0222+4253 and 3EG J2006-2321 demonstrate that EGRET can detect short, intense flares in relatively weak catalog sources ($`3.9\sigma `$ and $`4.8\sigma `$ in the viewing periods in which the flares were seen) as well as in strong blazars. Therefore most EGRET sources, except bright AGN, are not characterized by strong variability on one- and two-day time scales. If intense flares from sources like 3EG J0222+4253 and 3EG J2006-2321 were common, this survey would have detected more of them.

The same conclusion is reached for sub-threshold sources. The detections of GRO J0927-41 and GRO J1547-39, plus the repeating sources, demonstrate that EGRET can find very weak transients from sub-threshold sources with this sort of systematic analysis. The fact that few such intense flares are seen in this study indicates that the gamma-ray sky is not filled with these kind of flares from sub-threshold sources.

The flaring behavior seen in 3EG J0222+4253 adds another puzzle to the issue of identification of this source. The flaring is seen at energies between 100 MeV and 1 GeV, where the emission may be dominated by PSR J0218+4232. This would make this source unusual in two ways; it would be the only ms pulsar seen by EGRET and the only pulsar to show strong flaring.

The long observation of steady emission from PKS 0528+134 shows that, as seen by EGRET, blazars are not always variable even on time scales of three weeks. Therefore long episodes, free of intense flares from a given source, do not rule out the identification of that source as a blazar.

The observation of clear short-term variability in 3EG J2006-2321 indicates that this source may be a blazar, although its radio flux at 5 GHz is significantly less than other EGRET-detected blazars with similar peak gamma-ray brightness. The suggestion of variability of 3EG J1410-6147 may place it alongside 3EG J0241-6103 and 3EG J1837-0606 as a third candidate for a new gamma-ray class of variable Galactic sources.

In summary, the results of this study suggest that EGRET reached the threshold of an important new feature of gamma-ray astrophysics: the ability to measure short-term time variability. The few examples found by EGRET show that such sources do exist and are not restricted to the blazar class. Variability offers an effective tool for matching gamma-ray sources to objects seen at other wavelengths. With its ability to detect much fainter sources, measure variability on time scales of hours, and detect smaller flux variations that EGRET, the proposed Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) should be able to take full advantage of gamma-ray source time variability to extend the results of the present study.

The authors wish to thank J. R. Mattox and J. P. Halpern for their helpful comments and suggestions. P. W. gratefully acknowledges support from the NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program.


text:
# Exploration of the BaSeL stellar library for 9 F-type stars COROT potential targets⋆

## 1 Introduction

The Basel Stellar Library (BaSeL) is a library of theoretical spectra corrected to provide synthetic colours consistent with empirical colour-temperature calibrations at all wavelengths from the near-UV to the far-IR (see Cuisinier et al. 1996 for the correction procedure, and Lejeune et al. 1998 and references therein for a complete description). These model spectra cover a large range of fundamental parameters (2000 $``$ Teff $``$ 50,000 K, $``$5 $``$ \[Fe/H\] $``$ 1 and $``$1.02 $``$ log g $``$ 5.5) and their photometric calibrations are regularly updated (for instance, the calibrations in the very low metallicity range is being improved by comparisons with globular cluster populations, Westera et al. 1999) and extended to an even larger set of parameters (see Lejeune et al. 1997, Lejeune et al. 1998, and Lejeune et al. 2000).
The BaSeL library spectra have been calibrated directly for standard dwarf and giant sequences at solar abundances and using UBVRIJHKLM broad-band photometry, and are hence expected to provide excellent results in these photometric bands. Since they are based on synthetic spectra, they can in principle be used in many other photometric systems taken either individually or simultaneously, and this is another major advantage of these models. For these reasons, they are currently used in an increasing number of astrophysical studies (e.g. Bruzual et al. 1997, Weiss & Salaris 1999, Kurth et al. 1999).
Nevertheless, little attention has been paid until now to validate the possibilities offered by the BaSeL models in several photometric bands simultaneously. The fact that the library spectra have been calibrated using broad-band observations (UBVRIJHKLM) does not necessarily imply that similarly reliable results can be expected from their application to intermediate- and/or narrow-band photometry data. On the contrary, the extent to which the coarse UBVRIJHKLM calibration provides useful results even at higher resolution requires separate investigation. In this paper, we investigate the BaSeL models using Johnson and Strömgren photometric systems simultaneously. BaSeL Strömgren photometry has been previously tested with success against stars belonging to double-lined eclipsing binaries for which gravities are accurately known (Lastennet et al. 1999a). Here we use a sample of 9 F-type stars for which detailed spectroscopic analysis has been performed. These stars are potential candidates of the COROT (COnvection and ROTation) space experiment main programme (see for instance Catala et al. 1995, Michel et al. 1998, and Baglin et al. 1998 for details), and has been observed at the 193cm telescope at Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP, France) as part of the target selection process. High signal to noise ratio (S/N $``$ 150) spectra have been obtained using Elodie echelle spectrograph and analysed by comparison with theoretical spectra (Lignières et al. 1999). This set of new spectroscopic data together with both Johnson and Strömgren photometry from the literature provides a unique test of the predicted results of the BaSeL library. In addition, other calibration methods, namely the Templogg programme (based on Napiwotzki et al. 1993, and Künzli et al. 1997) and the Marsakov & Shevelev (1995) catalogue, provide further comparisons.
The paper is organized as follows: Sect. 2 deals with the description of our working sample of stars and the extinction issue, Sect. 3 presents the various methods used to derive estimates of Teff, \[Fe/H\], and log g, and Sect. 4 is devoted to the presentation and the discussion of the results, with particular emphasis put on the intrinsic properties of the BaSeL library spectra in Sect. 5. Finally, Sect. 6 draws our general conclusions.

## 2 The sample: relevant data and reddening

### 2.1 Basic data for the 9 stars

The photometric data in the Johnson (B$``$V and U$``$B) and Strömgren (b$``$y, m1, c1) systems of our working sample of F-type stars are presented in Table 1, along with cross-identifications, Hipparcos parallaxes ($`\pi `$) and rotational velocities (v sini is derived from the application of the Least-Squares Deconvolution method of Donati et al. 1997 on the OHP spectra).

### 2.2 Reddening

Estimates of the extinction are required for photometric calibration methods and in particular for the BaSeL and Templogg methods used in this paper. Parallaxes listed in Table 1 from the Hipparcos catalogue (ESA, 1997, see also Perryman et al. 1997) show that all the stars are in the close solar neighborhood ($``$ 45 pc). While reddening is generally expected to be close to zero inside this very local sphere (e.g. Welsh et al. 1991), we checked this by applying the extinction model of Vergely (1998) to our stars. This model has been constructed from a sample of 4000 stars (in a sphere of 250 pc) with Strömgren photometry and provides extinction as a function of position and distance 111However, it is also worth noticing that this model neglect small clumps and circumstellar extinction, which means that if there is a small clump with a high density on the line of sight, the model underestimates the extinction. The $`\sigma _\pi `$/$`\pi `$ values ($``$3.3%) reported for the present stars in the Hipparcos Catalogue ensure that our extinction estimates cannot be seriously affected by distances uncertainties. Results are shown in Table 1 (col. E(b$``$y)) and confirm that the reddening is very close to zero for all stars. Such small values have no influence on the inferred photometric results presented in this paper, and will thus be neglected. Therefore, all the results obtained in the remainder of this paper will be given without reddening.

## 3 Description of the different methods

In this section, we present the various methods used to derive Teff, \[Fe/H\], and log g. Apart from the BaSeL models, a detailed spectroscopic analysis and two photometric calibrations have been considered.

### 3.1 Photometric analysis

#### 3.1.1 The BaSeL models

For the present work, more than 50700 models have been computed by interpolation by two of us (Lastennet and Lejeune), each model giving synthetic photometry in the Johnson and Strömgren systems for a set of (Teff, \[Fe/H\], log g). In order to fit the observed colours of the target stars, we have computed a fine grid in the (Teff, \[Fe/H\], log g) parameter space. The grid explored is defined in this way: 5000 $``$ Teff $``$ 8000K in 20K steps, $``$1 $``$ \[Fe/H\] $``$ 0.5 in 0.1 steps, and 3 $``$ log g $``$ 5 in 0.1 steps. These parameter ranges are reasonable matches to the expected properties of F dwarfs, for which the BaSeL library includes the Kurucz atmospheric models (Mixing Length Theory of convection with $`l/H_\mathrm{P}=1.25`$, and with the overshooting parameter equal to 1).

In order to derive simultaneously the effective temperature (Teff), the metallicity (\[Fe/H\]), and the surface gravity (log g) of each star, we minimize the $`\chi ^2`$-functional defined as:

$`\chi ^2(T_{\mathrm{eff}},[Fe/H],\mathrm{log}g)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{5}{}}}\left[\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{col}(\mathrm{i})_{\mathrm{mod}}\mathrm{col}(\mathrm{i})}{\sigma (\mathrm{col}(\mathrm{i}))}}\right)^2\right]`$
where col(i) and $`\sigma `$(col(i)) are the observed values (B$``$V, U$``$B, b$``$y, m1, and c1) and their error bars, as reported in Table 1, and col(i)mod are obtained from the synthetic computations of the BaSeL models. A similar method has already been developed and used by Lastennet et al. (1996, 1999b) for CMD diagrams.
With 5 observational data (B$``$V, U$``$B, b$``$y, m1 and c1 for each star) and 3 free parameters (Teff, log g and \[Fe/H\]), we expect to find a $`\chi ^2`$-distribution with 2 degrees of freedom. Since the $`\chi ^2`$-value is an estimation of the quality of the fit, with 2 degrees of freedom (DOF), a $`\chi ^2`$-value smaller than 6 is a good fit, because it means that the probability P that this $`\chi ^2`$DOF=2 is smaller than 6 is about 95%, i.e. P($`\chi ^2`$DOF=2) $`<`$ 6 $``$ 95 %. This criterion will change according to the DOF, but basically, small values are signatures of good fits. In the remainder of this paper, the $`\chi ^2`$-values generally satisfy this criterion being most of the time much better, hence by default they will not be discussed when they are good. A $`\chi ^2`$-grid is formed in the (Teff, log g, \[Fe/H\]) parameter space. Once the central minimum value $`\chi _{\mathrm{min}}^2`$ is found, we compute the surfaces corresponding to 1$`\sigma `$, 2$`\sigma `$, and 3$`\sigma `$ confidence levels. For clarity, the intersection of these confidence surfaces with the appropriate plane will be displayed (e.g. Teff-\[Fe/H\] in Fig.1, Teff-log g in Fig. 2).

#### 3.1.2 The ”Templogg” method

We have also run the ”Templogg” program which is designed to determine effective temperature and log g from either Strömgren or Geneva photometry. For Strömgren photometry it uses a Fortran program written by E. Fresno which relies upon the grids of Moon & Dworetsky (1985) in the Teff-log g parameter space relevant to this paper, with the improvements by Napiwotzki et al. (1993). For Geneva photometry it uses a Fortran program written by M. Kunzli (see North et al. 1994). The program chooses among eight different regions in the HR diagram for selecting the best calibration within the Strömgren system and three different regions for the Geneva system. The results from this method are gathered in Table 2.

#### 3.1.3 The catalogue of Marsakov & Shevelev (1995)

Marsakov & Shevelev (1995) (hereafter \[MS95\]) have computed effective temperatures and surface gravities using Moon’s (1985) method, which is also based on the interpolation of the grids presented in Moon & Dworetsky (1985). According to Moon (1985), the standard deviations of the derived parameters are Teff$`=`$$`\pm `$ 100 K and log g $`=`$ $`\pm `$0.06. The metallicities of Marsakov & Shevelev (1995) are obtained with the equation of Carlberg et al. (1985):

$`[Fe/H]=0.160.66\times \mathrm{\Delta }\beta \left[12.338\times \mathrm{\Delta }\beta \right]\times \delta m_1,`$
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$$`\beta `$$`=`$2.72 $``$ $`\beta `$, and the colour excess $`\delta `$m1 and the Strömgren $`\beta `$ index are determined from (b$``$y). All the \[MS95\] results relevant for our sample are given in Tab. 2.

### 3.2 Spectroscopic analysis

The fundamental stellar parameters have been derived from a detailed analysis of spectra with high signal to noise ratio (S/N $``$ 150) obtained at OHP with the Elodie echelle spectrograph (spectra ranging from 3906 Å to 6811 Å at a resolution of $`\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$ $`=`$ 42000). After reduction, the observed spectra were compared with theoretical ones constructed from a combination of Kurucz atmospheric models (ATLAS9 - Mixing Length Theory of convection with $`l/H_\mathrm{P}=0.5`$ and without overshooting. This choice of parameters different than those used by Kurucz is fully justified in van’t Veer-Menneret & Mégessier (1996)), the VALD-2 atomic database (Kupka et al. 1999), and the SYNTH radiative transfer codes (Piskunov 1992) and BALMER9 (Kurucz 1993). In addition, the Least-Squares Deconvolution method (Donati et al. 1997) provided accurate determination of the projected rotational velocities listed in Tab. 1. Details about these determinations are given in the two next subsections and the results are summarized in Tables 1 and 2. Note that the level of accuracy of these results, initially designed to select COROT targets, is sufficient for the purpose of the present study.

#### 3.2.1 Determination of Teff from the H$`\alpha `$ line

The effective temperature can be determined by taking advantage of the sensitivity of H$`\alpha `$ line wings. Most importantly, detailed studies (e.g. van ’t Veer-Menneret & Mégessier 1996), have shown that the H$`\alpha `$ line is independent of the surface gravity (for non-supergiant stars) for effective temperatures ranging from 5000 K to $``$8500 K, and depends only slightly on the metallicity. Teff is therefore obtained for each star of the sample by fitting the observed H$`\alpha `$ line with synthetic spectra computed from a grid of solar metallicity atmospheric models separated by 250K.

#### 3.2.2 Determination of the surface gravity and metallicity

Within the temperature range that we found, we noticed that Fe I absorption lines depend only on temperature and metallicity, being practically independent of the surface gravity, while Fe II lines are sensitive to the temperature, metallicity and gravity. Consequently, the temperature being known from the H$`\alpha `$ line, the metallicity along with the microturbulence velocity are determined first by fitting a set of weak and strong Fe I lines. Then, the gravity is obtained by fitting Fe II lines. The spectral region near 6130 Å proved to be suitable for this analysis. However, the line broadening induced by rotation tends to mix neighbouring lines and prevent the analysis of individual Fe lines for high values of v sini (HD 49434, HD 46304, HD 171834 and HD 164259).

### 3.3 Other determinations in the literature

To be as complete as possible, we looked for other determinations available in the literature and the SIMBAD database. One of the most comprehensive sources for our purpose is the fifth Edition of the catalogue of Cayrel de Strobel et al. (1997), which includes \[Fe/H\] determinations and atmospheric parameters ($`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, log g) obtained from high-resolution spectroscopic observations and detailed analyses, most of them carried out with the help of model atmospheres. However, the stars of our sample are not included in this catalogue. Since the catalogue comprises the literature (700 bibliographical references) up to December 1995, we only looked for more recent references. To the best of our knowledge, the catalogue of metallicities of Zakhozhaj & Shaparenko (1996) (hereafter \[ZS96\]) is the only one which contains useful information for our purpose. These metallicities are obtained from photometric UBV data and are available for two stars of our sample: HD 43587 and HD 164259 (see Table 2).

## 4 Multi-colour exploration of the BaSeL models: comparisons and discussion

In this section, we will discuss the results obtained from the exploration of the BaSeL model properties in the Johnson and Strömgren photometric systems (the best solutions from the BaSeL models and from the other methods are summarized in Table 2). First we discuss the results in the Teff, log g, \[Fe/H\] parameter space using all the photometric indices. Discrepancies between synthetic and spectroscopic results led us to consider solutions derived from Johnson and Strömgren photometry separately, by fixing (in the second part of this discussion) Teff at its spectroscopic values and investigating the BaSeL properties in log g-\[Fe/H\] diagrams. Finally, we present the most reliable combination of synthetic photometry indices to get Teff, log g and \[Fe/H\] simultaneously.

### 4.1 Simultaneous Teff, log g, \[Fe/H\] determinations using all the photometric indices

The results obtained with all the methods described in Sec. 3 are shown in Teff-\[Fe/H\] diagrams (Fig. 1) and Teff-log g diagrams (Fig. 2) for the 9 stars of our sample. The solutions from the BaSeL models (i.e. the best $`\chi ^2`$-solution plus the 1-, 2- and 3-$`\sigma `$ confidence level contours) are obtained in order to fit simultaneously the 5 available observed photometric values of Tab. 1: (B$``$V), (U$``$B), (b$``$y), m1, and c1. For each star, the contour solutions are displayed in a log g $`=`$ constant plane (Fig. 1) or an \[Fe/H\] $`=`$ constant plane (Fig. 2), corresponding to the best simultaneous (Teff, \[Fe/H\], log g) solutions derived from the BaSeL models. When available, the results from the spectroscopic analysis (diamond with error bars) as well as from the ”Templogg” programme (square), and Marsakov & Shevelev (1995) (triangle) are projected in these diagrams for comparison.
As far as the effective temperature is concerned, the overall agreement is good between all the methods. However, with comparison to spectroscopy, the BaSeL models give systematically lower values: $`<`$$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Teff$`>`$$`=`$ $`<`$Teff(spectro) $``$ Teff(BaSeL)$`>`$ $`=`$ 130K on average (which is comparable to the result of Cuisinier et al. 1994). On the other hand, the Templogg method gives systematically larger values (by $``$ 60K on average). Results given by either the \[MS95\] catalogue or the Templogg method are essentially identical.
There is no such overall agreement for the surface gravity and the metallicity, and this disagreement is neither correlated with increasing temperature nor with increasing v sini. For instance in Fig. 2, while the systematic disagreement in gravity appears for stars with the hottest spectroscopic temperatures and high rotation speeds (HD 49434, HD 46304, HD 171834 and HD 164259), the disagreement is even worse for the cooler and slowly rotating star HD 43318. Thus, except in one case (HD 45067) where the match is perfect for both log and \[Fe/H\], BaSeL-derived metallicities and gravities are systematically lower than the values obtained from the other methods. In particular, the best-$`\chi ^2`$ values of log g inferred from the synthetic BaSeL colours range between 3.1 and 3.9, indicating possible evolved/sub-giant stars, which is ruled out by spectroscopic determinations (listed in Tab. 2). Even if inspection of the confidence contours might temper this conclusion by pointing out that the BaSeL results are sometimes compatible to 3-$`\sigma `$, the systematic behaviour remains, at least for the small sample studied, and requires further analysis.

### 4.2 Simultaneous \[Fe/H\]-log g determinations using various combinations of photometric indices

Since it appears that the BaSeL models have difficulties reproducing simultaneously the 3 parameters with all the photometric information (Strömgren plus Johnson), we checked if this remains true using either Johnson or Strömgren photometry separately, in order to find out which photometric strategy would improve the situation. As only two Johnson indices are available in the data (Table 1), namely B$``$V and U$``$B, the three fundamental parameters cannot be derived simultaneously using Johnson photometry alone. Therefore, we choose to fix the effective temperature derived from spectroscopy, and results for Johnson (Fig. 3) and Strömgren (Fig. 4) are compared in log g-\[Fe/H\] diagrams. Note that the m1 and c1 indices are optimized linear combinations of colour indices designed for the purposes of measuring metallicity and surface gravity, respectively, whereas UBV was not designed at all on such physical considerations. Therefore, the m1 and c1 indices should a priori give the best determinations of \[Fe/H\] and log g.
The effective temperature being fixed to its spectroscopic value, the metallicity and the surface gravity of each star are determined simultaneously by minimizing the following $`\chi ^2`$-functional:

$`\chi ^2([Fe/H],\mathrm{log}g)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{2}{}}}\left[\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{col}(\mathrm{i})_{\mathrm{mod}}\mathrm{col}(\mathrm{i})}{\sigma (\mathrm{col}(\mathrm{i}))}}\right)^2\right]`$
where col(i) and $`\sigma `$(col(i)) are the observed values and their error bars respectively, and col(i)mod are obtained from the synthetic computations of the BaSeL models.

Figures 3 and 4 display the log g-\[Fe/H\] solutions for Johnson and Strömgren, respectively. The impressively good results of Fig. 3 show that for the spectroscopic temperatures, the BaSeL library spectra provide log g values which deviate from the spectroscopic values neither by a significant amount, nor in a systematic manner.
A similar, only slightly weaker agreement holds for the metallicities: they come out within less than $``$ 0.2 dex from the spectroscopic results, which is excellent in view of the intrinsic accuracy ($``$ 0.2 dex) that can be obtained from empirical UBV data and calibrations (e.g. Buser & Kurucz 1992).

Direct comparison of Fig.3 with Fig. 4 \- which uses the information on all the Strömgren indices - clearly shows that the results from Johnson and Strömgren are not compatible. In most cases, even the 1-$`\sigma `$ contours are partly outside the log g-\[Fe/H\] diagrams in Fig. 4, suggesting that the best solutions inferred from the 3 Strömgren synthetic indices are perhaps even further away from the expected values. We performed various tests to identify which synthetic Strömgren index (indices) is (are) responsible for the disagreement with the Johnson solutions. We add separately each Strömgren index to the UBV data, in order to highlight the influence of each of them on the contours derived from the Johnson data. The indices m1 and c1 are clearly found to modify the Johnson contours, in the sense of degrading the results. On the other hand, b$``$y does not modify the UBV confidence contours. This last point is illustrated by comparing Fig. 3 (B$``$V, U$``$B) with Fig. 5 (B$``$V, U$``$B and b$``$y). We observe that neither the contours nor the $`\chi _{\mathrm{min}}`$ values are modified by the addition of the b$``$y index to the B$``$V and U$``$B indices.

The reason of this remarkable property is twofold: first, the b$``$y index depends only slightly on log g and \[Fe/H\] in the parameter range considered; and second, the BaSeL Teff associated with b$``$y is fully compatible with the spectroscopic Teff for the 9 stars. The first point is illustrated in Fig. 6 in the effective temperature range 5000-8000 K: the upper panel shows the effect of gravity (log g between 3 and 5) for constant metallicity (\[Fe/H\] $`=`$ 0), and the lower one the effect of metallicity (\[Fe/H\] between $``$1 and 0.5) for constant gravity (log g $`=`$ 4.5). It appears clearly from these two plots that the Teff$`=`$f(b$``$y) relationship is little influenced by surface gravity between $``$ 5800 and 6700 K, and by metallicity above 6500 K. The second point is proved in Table 3, where Teff derived from the BaSeL calibrations shown in Fig. 6 are in agreement with the spectroscopic determinations. This underlines the reliability of temperature determinations based on the synthetic b$``$y index derived from the BaSeL models.
In conclusion, we find that synthetic Strömgren m1 and c1 account for the difference between the Johnson and Strömgren solutions. We also find that B$``$V, U$``$B are the best BaSeL colours to derive log g and \[Fe/H\] when Teff is fixed. Since b$``$y gives good Teff estimates, this hence suggests that the B$``$V, U$``$B, b$``$y combination, i.e. a combination of Johnson and Strömgren photometric indices, should be able to produce reliable simultaneous estimates of the 3 fundamental parameters. This suggestion is developed in the next part.

### 4.3 Best synthetic colour combination

Fig. 7 and 8 show the Teff-\[Fe/H\]-log g results by using the prescription suggested in the previous paragraph, namely, B$``$V, U$``$B, b$``$y. The results are also summarized in Table 2, where they are quoted as BaSeLc.
A general comparison with the other methods shows that the BaSeL solutions are very satisfactory for the 3 fundamental parameters: effective temperatures are in excellent agreement, and \[Fe/H\] and gravities show good agreement. The improvement is clear when compared with the original results presented in Figs. 1 and 2 because there is no longer any systematic trend towards lower temperatures (see Tab. 2) and because the determinations of log g and \[Fe/H\] are also much better, without systematic deviations.
There is only one exception (HD 46304): its Teff is in perfect agreement with its spectroscopic value, but the predicted log g and \[Fe/H\] are still low. While the BaSeL contours are consistent with the Templogg gravity only at the 2-$`\sigma `$ level, the metallicity predicted from the BaSeL models is poor in comparison to the result of the Templogg calibration ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$\[Fe/H\]$``$0.7). What could explain this persistent difference ? It is worth noticing that this star has a large v sini (200 km s-1, the largest in our working sample), and it is well known that high rotational velocities modify the colours. Since the expected colour effect due to rotation is typically a few hundredths of a magnitude222These values are highly dependent of spectral type, age, and chemical composition, see for instance Maeder (1971) and Zorec (1992). in B$``$V and increases with v sini, this is probably part of the reason why the predictions of the BaSeL models disagree with the Templogg method for this star (even if rotation is not taken into account in the Templogg method).
In conclusion, except in the case discussed before, reliable and simultaneous estimates of the 3 atmospheric parameters can be derived for F-type stars from only the three synthetic BaSeL colours, B$``$V, U$``$B and b$``$y. This is a very useful criterion for further applications.

## 5 Discussion

Some of the intrinsic properties of the BaSeL library spectra can explain why synthetic Strömgren photometry does not increase the performance of UBV in determining fundamental stellar parameters (most particularly, abundances and surface gravities), as follows.
The fact that the library spectra have been calibrated using broad-band photometry implies that their use in determining fundamental stellar parameters from intermediate- and narrow-band photometry cannot be expected to provide results at the same level of confidence. Our results show that, in the particular domain studied, the broad-band calibration is adapted for the b$``$y index but not for the m1 and c1 indices. The reason is that, as b$``$y has been designed to measure the continuum, its synthetic value is less affected than m1 and c1 by high-resolution spectral features. Secondly, the library spectra have a typical resolution of 25Å in the wavelength range where the corresponding synthetic photometry is being calculated. For the Johnson broad-band UBV (with passbands of halfwidths in the range 500-1000Å) a factor of $`>`$2 more flux data points are used in the numerical integrations than are used in those for synthesizing the Strömgren data (where passbands have halfwidths of order 200Å). Since each flux point gives the integrated flux in a 25Å passband and includes the effects of spectral lines and bands, the magnitude of these effects – as well as their nonlinear variations with abundance and/or surface gravity – on the actually observed colours may be severely distorted in the computed colours (Buser 1978). As a consequence, the accuracy of synthetic Strömgren photometry may be significantly lower than it is for UBV, particularly for the m1 and c1 indices, which are weighted sums involving three passbands each (such that errors accumulate faster than in UBV indices).
Finally, a further comment on the impressively good accuracy of the BaSeL determinations for the Johnson-Strömgren B$``$V, U$``$B, b$``$y combination (see Figs. 7 & 8) is in order.
As mentioned before, the Strömgren b$``$y index provides a reliable measure of the continuum and, therefore, a good temperature index. This is particularly interesting, given the known difficulties of matching empirical and theoretical B$``$V-Teff scales to within better than about 0.03 mag (see, e.g., Sekiguchi & Fukugita 2000)333 The b$``$y index is less vulnerable than B$``$V to the secondary effects of surface gravity and metallicity, even at the low spectral resolution given by the model spectra. . The fact that the U$``$B and B$``$V BaSeL colours give good measures of log g and \[Fe/H\] is not surprising. It is well known that if one does not ask UBV data to provide the temperature in the first place (e.g., by using an independent source, such as spectroscopy, spectral classification, or else suitable other photometry, such as Strömgren b$``$y), the sensitivities of both U$``$B and B$``$V can be used to full advantage for determining log g and \[Fe/H\]. Moreover, although these sensitivities change with temperature, they are near or even at their maxima in the F-dwarf star domain (e.g., Buser & Kurucz 1992). This means that the derived values of \[Fe/H\] and log g presented in Figs. 7 and 8 are as reliable as they can possibly be, given the uncertainties in the colours.

## 6 Conclusion

Several methods of determination of the fundamental stellar parameters Teff, log g and \[Fe/H\] are compared for nine single F stars. Particular attention has been paid to the simultaneous predictions of the BaSeL models in two photometric systems, Johnson and Strömgren. We show that using all photometric data is not the best strategy to obtain reliable simultaneous determinations of Teff, log g and \[Fe/H\] with the BaSeL models in the temperature range relevant for this paper, because of intrinsic limitations of the BaSeL library. As a matter of fact, if one uses all five available photometric indices (B$``$V, U$``$B, b$``$y, m1 and c1), only the agreement with spectroscopic determination for the effective temperature is good, although the BaSeL-derived temperatures are slightly but systematically lower. The discrepancies in gravity and metallicity are however rather high, with the BaSeL predictions being too low. Alternatively, we show that the best results are obtained by using B$``$V, U$``$B, b$``$y in combination. This BaSeL combination is the best because on the one hand the b$``$y synthetic index gives reliable and accurate estimates of the effective temperature and, on the other hand, B$``$V and U$``$B give good estimates of \[Fe/H\] and the surface gravity. We wish to emphasize that, if Strömgren photometry is shown here to be less performing than UBV as a device for determining fundamental stellar parameters (and, most particularly, abundances and surface gravities), this is due to the fact that the BaSeL library spectra have been calibrated by colour-calibration in UBVRIJHKLM; it is not, of course, due to an intrinsic superiority of the UBV system over the Strömgren system. Thus, because the BaSeL library has only been calibrated in the UBVRIJHKLM colours, the best parameters derivations come from this system. Whilst parameters derivations in equivalent bandwidth systems such as Washington seem to be as good with the BaSeL libraries than with empirical methods (Lejeune 1997), parameter derivations from the BaSeL library in narrow band systems such as Strömgren photometry seem to be of poorer quality.
This work thus strongly suggests that the BaSeL library should be calibrated in various photometrical systems, in various bandwidth (maybe using higher resolution synthetic stellar spectra libraries) in order to represent in the best way the variety of the knowledge of stellar spectral energy distributions that exists today in various photometric systems.
We found that the best combination to determine stellar parameters within the BaSeL library, even with its limitation, was to use a combination of two Johnson colours, U$``$B and B$``$V, and a Strömgren colour, b$``$y.
We also note that the agreement between Templogg and BaSeL for the hottest stars of the sample could be especially useful in view of the well known difficulty of spectroscopic determinations for fast rotating stars.
As far as the astrophysical applications are concerned, the BaSeL synthetic colours are of particular interest in evolutionary synthesis and colour-magnitude diagram studies of stellar populations, such as open clusters and young associations, where (i) F-type stars are highly common and, of course, (ii) a vast abundance of data are available in B$``$V, U$``$B and b$``$y colours. Concerning the determination of the atmospheric parameters of the COROT potential targets, a result of the present analysis is that all the methods give consistent solutions. In the context of the further $``$1000 potential targets of the COROT exploratory programme, it will be interesting to compare the results of the BaSeL models with those of automated spectral analysis methods (e.g. Katz et al. 1998, and Bailer-Jones 2000).

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank J.-L. Vergely for providing extinction calculations as well as J.C. Bouret, C. Catala and D. Katz for their participation in the spectral caracterization of the stars. We are fully indebted to R. Kurucz for all the codes and theoretical data so generously displayed. E.L. and F.L. are supported by PPARC postdoctoral fellowship. Th. Lejeune gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Swiss NSF (grant 20-53660.98 to R.B.), and Th. Lüftinger from the ’Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung’. F.C. thanks FAPERJ for partial funding, through the grant E-26/171.368/1999. This research has made use of the QMW Starlink resource facilities and the SIMBAD database operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France.


text:
# 1 INTRODUCTION

## 1 INTRODUCTION

$`MgO`$ crystals containing $`[Li]^0`$ centers (substitutional $`Li^+`$ ions, each attended by a hole), have been shown to be p-type semiconducting, with an acceptor level of $`0.7`$ eV -. By analogy, substitutional $`Mg^{2+}`$ in $`Al_2O_3`$ is also attended by hole  and expected to serve as a p-type semiconductor. Both $`MgO`$: $`Li`$ and $`Al_2O_3`$:$`Mg`$ systems have potential as high-temperature p-type semiconductors. However whereas the former is brittle and will have limited application, the latter is expected to have better mechanical integrity. In the present study, AC and DC electrical measurements were used to characterize the electrical conductivity of $`Al_2O_3`$:$`Mg`$ single crystal containing $`[Mg]^0`$ center after oxidation at elevated temperatures.

## 2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

$`Al_2O_3`$:$`Mg`$ crystal were grown by the Czochralski method. Atomic Emission Spectrometry analyses indicated that the magnesium concentration was $`25`$ppm. Samples were polished to optical transparency. The c axis was parallel to the broad face of the sample. Electrodes were made by sputtering several metals with different work functions ($`Mg`$, $`Al`$ and $`Pt`$) onto the samples surfaces, and the electrical field was applied perpendicular to the c axis. The same response was observed regardless of contact electrode materials. Optical absorption measurements were made whit Perkin Elmer Lambda $`19`$ spectrophotometer.

## 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Single crystal of $`Al_2O_3`$:$`Mg`$ are colorless after heating at $`T>950`$ K in a reducing atmosphere. However they become gray-purple after oxidation at $`T>1200`$. This coloration is due a broad asymmetric optical adsorption band, centered at $`2.5`$ eV ($`496`$ nm), and has been attributed to $`Mg^{2+}`$ cations, each with a trapped hole localized on one of the six NN oxygen ions. These defects are paramagnetic and are referred to as $`[Mg]^0`$ centers .

Electrical conductivity measurements between $`273800`$ K were made in $`Al_2O_3`$:$`Mg`$ crystal containing $`[Mg]^0`$ centers. DC electrical measurements at low fields revealed blocking contacts. However, at high fields, the reverse bias characteristic is that of a ”soft” barrier, and the I-V characteristic of the sample corresponds to a directly biased barrier with a series resistance, Rs, (bulk resistance), regardless of the polarity of the applied voltage (Fig.1).

The results of low voltage AC measurements reinforce the DC interpretation and yield values for the junction capacitance as well as for the sample resistance. Fig. 2, shows a log-log plot of impedance the applied voltage frequency for a low voltage ($`1`$V). Three frequency regions are observed, consistent whit a series combination of a capacitance ($`Cs`$), with a resistance ($`Rs`$), and both connected in parallel with a capacitance ($`Cp`$). In Fig.2, the corresponding impedances of $`Cs`$, $`Rs`$, $`Cp`$ dominate the low, intermediate and high frequency region, respectively. The resulting value for $`Cp`$ agrees with the capacity of a parallel-plate condenser with the $`Al_2O_3`$ dielectric constant. $`Rs`$ is in good agreement with the value derived from $`Al_2O_3`$ I-V characteristic.

Lastly a $`Cs`$ value of the order of a nF seem to be reasonable for a sample with a cross section of $`25mm^2`$.

AC measurements provide perfectly reproducible conductivity values. At a fixes temperature, the conductivity varies linearly with the $`[Mg]^0`$ concentration (Fig. 3). From the temperature dependence of the conductivity, a thermal activation energy of $`0.68`$ eV was obtained, which agrees very well with the activation energy for the motion of free holes as large polarons .

## Acknowledgments.

Research at the University Carlos III was supported by the CICYT of Spain. The research of Y.C. is an outgrowth of past investigation performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Chemical analyses were performed at the Centro de Espectrometría Atómica de la Uiversidad Complutense de Madrid.


text:
# Perfect fluid cosmologies with varying light speed

## 1 Introduction

Recent observations suggest a universe that is lightweight: matter density about one-third the critical value, is accelerating, and is flat. The acceleration implies the existence of cosmic dark energy that overcomes the gravitational self-attraction of matter and causes the expansion to speed up. This has once more drawn attention to the possible existence, at the present epoch, of a small positive cosmological term. Determination of the Hubble constant also seem to point in the same direction .

Albrecht and Magueijo  have investigated possible cosmological consequences of a time variation in the velocity of light in vacuum. In particular it offers new ways of resolving the problems of the standard Big-Bang cosmology, distinct from their resolutions in the context of the inflationary paradigm  or the pre-Big-Bang scenario of low-energy string theory . Moreover, in contrast to the case of the inflationary universe, varying $`c`$ may provide an explanation for the relative smallness of the cosmological constant today. An action formalism describing the speed of light as a minimally coupled scalar is given in Ref. . We will follow this formalism. Several other theories including a variable speed of light have been proposed recently   .

In refs. and  it was considered a model containing a fluid whose equation of state obeys a linear baryotropic law with constant adiabatic index. The study presented in ref. envisages a sudden fall in the speed of light, precipitated by a phase transition or some shift in the values of the fundamental constants, and explores the general consequences that might follow from a sufficiently large change. On the other hand in  it was proposed that the speed of light has a power-law dependence on the scale factor.

In this paper we investigate a varying speed of light scenario for a perfect fluid without restriction on the equation of state. We identify the attractor solutions and use them to perform the calculations. Thus we show that the cosmological field equations can be solved in general, defining the law of variation for $`c(t)`$. This allows us to give simple solutions to the flatness, coincidence, quasiflatness and horizon problems   , even when the strong energy condition is satisfied.

## 2 The variable $`c`$ model

In  it was argued that a time-variable $`c`$ should not introduce changes in the curvature of the space-time in the cosmological frame and that Einstein’s equations must still hold. They have assumed that the universe is spatially homogeneous and isotropic, so that there are no spatial variations in $`c`$ or $`G`$. This leads to the requirement that the Lemaitre equations still retain their form with $`c(t)`$ and $`G(t)`$ varying. Thus the expansion scale factor obeys the equations

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}^2}{a^2}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{8\pi G\rho }{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{Kc^2(t)}{a^2}}`$ (1)
$`\ddot{a}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi G}{3}}\left[\rho +{\displaystyle \frac{3p}{c^2(t)}}\right]a`$ (2)
where $`p`$ and $`\rho `$ are the density and pressure of the perfect fluid, and $`K`$ is the metric curvature parameter. This perfect fluid may comprise several components like clustered matter with energy density $`\rho _m`$ and pressure $`p_m`$, and a cosmological term that may be described as a perfect fluid with a stress satisfying $`p_\mathrm{\Lambda }=\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }c^2`$ where

$$\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }=\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }c^2}{8\pi G}$$
(3)
From (1) and (2), we find the generalized conservation equation incorporating possible time variations in $`c(t)`$ and $`G(t)`$,

$$\dot{\rho }+3\frac{\dot{a}}{a}(\rho +\frac{p}{c^2})=\frac{3Kc\dot{c}}{4\pi Ga^2}\rho \frac{\dot{G}}{G}.$$
(4)
The cosmological density parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is defined as the ratio of as the density of the universe with the critical density $`\rho _c=(3/8\pi G)H^2`$, where $`H`$ is the Hubble variable. The critical density defines the $`K=0`$ solution of Eq. (1). The fractional contributions to the right-hand side of Eq. (1), are given by $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\rho _m/\rho _c`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }/\rho _c=\mathrm{\Lambda }c^2/(3H^2)`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_KKc^2/(aH)^2`$, respectively. Thus, inserting

$$\mathrm{\Omega }\frac{\rho }{\rho _c}=\frac{8\pi G\rho }{3H^2}$$
(5)
in (1), we have

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }1}=\frac{8\pi G\rho a^2}{3Kc^2(t)}.$$
(6)
Differentiating it, and using the conservation equation (4) we find the dynamical equation for the cosmological density parameter

$$\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}=\left(\mathrm{\Omega }1\right)\left[\left(1+\frac{3p}{\rho c^2}\right)\mathrm{\Omega }H+\frac{2\dot{c}}{c}\right]f\left(\mathrm{\Omega }\right)$$
(7)
It is important to obtain exact solutions of Eq. (7) in order to evaluate the effects of a perfect fluid, varying $`G`$ and $`c`$ on the expansion dynamics. In particular, as we shall see bellow, stable constant solutions of this equation are relevant to solve several cosmological conundrums like the flatness, coincidence, quasi-flatness, and horizon problems. Eq. (7) has three constant solutions: $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0`$, when $`\dot{c}=0`$, that corresponds to the Milne universe, $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$ that represents the flat universe and $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ that arises when the squared bracket in (7) vanishes. To show that these solutions are dynamical attractors we will use the fact that a constant solution $`f(\mathrm{\Omega }_s)=0`$ of (7) is asymptotically stable provided $`f^{}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }_s\right)<0`$.

## 3 The Flatness Problem

The combined measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations and the distribution of galaxies on large scales began to suggest that the universe may be flat . Within standard General Relativity, where $`\dot{G}0\dot{c}`$, the conservation equation (4) gives

$$\rho =\rho _0\mathrm{exp}\left[3𝑑t\left(1+\frac{p}{\rho c^2}\right)H\right]$$
(8)
Hence the curvature term will dominate the matter density term at large $`a`$ whenever the matter stress obeys the strong energy condition (SEC) $`\rho +3p/c^20`$. Equivalently, Eq. (7) shows the solution $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$ is unstable so that extreme fine tuning of the conditions at the early universe seems to be required to accommodate the observations. This is called the flatness problem . The solution postulated by inflation requires a sufficiently long period of evolution in the early universe during which the expansion was dominated by a gravitationally repulsive stress that violated SEC. In this way the evolution would have been driven very close to $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$. Also Eq. (2) implies a period with superluminal expansion as $`\ddot{a}>0`$.

From Eq. (7) we see that a decreasing speed of light ($`\dot{c}/c<0`$) would also drive $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ to 1. In fact, when the speed of light changes with $`\dot{c}/c<\left(1+3p/\rho c^2\right)H/2`$, the solution $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$ is asymptotically stable. Thus in a varying speed of light (VSL) scenario the flatness problem can be solved even when SEC is satisfied. No fine-tuning of the initial conditions is needed in this scenario and no further specification of the equation of state is required.

## 4 The Coincidence Problem

In the last years there has been a renewed interest in the possibility that a positive cosmological constant may dominate the total energy density in the universe. Interest in the cosmological constant stems from several directions. Dynamical estimates of the amount of clustered matter yield a conservative upper limit $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\text{ }\stackrel{<}{}0.3`$, and recent observations of Type 1a supernovae indicate an accelerating universe. Combining them with the observations suggesting $`\mathrm{\Omega }_K0`$ we conclude that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }1`$, where the density ratio parameter $`ϵ=\rho _m/\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }=\mathrm{\Omega }_m/\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ has the current value $`ϵ_03/7`$ .

The puzzle with the cosmological term is explaining why $`\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and the matter energy density $`\rho _m`$ should be comparable today. Throughout the history of the universe the two densities decrease at different rates and so it appears that the conditions in the early universe have to be set very carefully in order for the energy densities to be comparable today. We refer to this issue of initial conditions as the coincidence problem .

From these observational evidences, it is natural to take a step beyond Einstein’s original hypothesis and consider that the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-term is not a constant, but rather, describes a new dynamical degree of freedom. Neither observational data, nor inflationary considerations tell us that a cosmological term is constant. Between different mechanisms explored in the literature to solve this problem the VSL theory provides us a simple way to obtain a decaying effective cosmological term $`\mathrm{\Lambda }c(t)^2`$. Following  we adopt this model to find a stable solution of the Einstein equations with constant $`ϵ`$.

Integrating (4) for $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$ we get

$$\rho (t)=\frac{\rho _0}{G}\mathrm{exp}\left[3𝑑t\left(1+\frac{p}{\rho c^2}\right)H\right]$$
(9)
where $`\rho =\rho _m+\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Hence, using (3) we find that $`ϵ`$ has the constant solution

$$ϵ_0=\frac{8\pi \rho _0}{\mathrm{\Lambda }c_0^2}1$$
(10)
provided that the speed of light decreases as

$$c(t)=c_0\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{3}{2}𝑑t\left(1+\frac{p}{\rho c^2}\right)H\right]$$
(11)
where $`c_0`$ is a positive constant (we assume the dominant energy condition throughout). From (11) and (9) we have

$$\rho =\frac{\rho _0c^2}{c_0G}$$
(12)
This solution is an attractor as in the neighbourhood of $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$ we get $`\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}2H\left(\mathrm{\Omega }1\right)`$. In this way we have solved the coincidence problem in the framework of the VSL scenario as $`ϵ`$ approaches the attractor solution (10) without a fine-tuning of the initial conditions and without restriction on the equation of state. In this asymptotic regime, assuming cold dark matter and using (11), we find that $`ca^{3ϵ_0/[2(1+ϵ_0)]}`$.

## 5 Quasiflatness problem

In general it is accepted that our universe has a low-mass-density ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_m<1`$). The determination of the universe’s mass density is currently the best-studied cosmological parameter and its low value is indicated by a number of independent methods for the study of clusters of galaxies. They include the mass-to-light ratio, the baryon fraction, the cluster abundance and the mass power spectrum . Thus, if the energy density of our universe were dominated by clustered matter we would find a problem related to the flatness problem: a low $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ universe with $`\mathrm{\Omega }O(1)`$ also requires extreme fine tuning of initial conditions. This is the quasi-flatness problem and we shall see that it also has solution within the VSL framework.

The constraint associated with the constant solution $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ determines a first order differential equation for $`c(t)`$ whose general solution becomes

$$c(t)=c_0a^{\mathrm{\Omega }_0}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{3\mathrm{\Omega }_0}{2}𝑑t\left(1+\frac{p}{\rho c^2}\right)H\right]$$
(13)
We note that this expression leads to a decreasing speed of light provided that SEC holds. We can solve (4) using (13)

$$\rho (t)=\rho _0\frac{a^{2\left(\mathrm{\Omega }_01\right)}}{G}\mathrm{exp}\left[3\mathrm{\Omega }_0𝑑t\left(1+\frac{p}{\rho c^2}\right)H\right]$$
(14)
hence we find

$$\rho =\frac{\rho _0}{c_0^2}\frac{c^2}{a^2G}$$
(15)
Using (1), (5) and (15), we get this a relationship between the cosmological density parameter and the integration constants

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_0=\frac{1}{1\frac{3Kc_0^2}{8\pi \rho _0}}$$
(16)
Integrating (1) for the energy density (15), we express the scale factor as

$$a(t)=\sqrt{\frac{K}{\mathrm{\Omega }_01}}c(t)𝑑t$$
(17)
Using (13), in a neighbourhood of the solution (16), Eq. (7) becomes

$$\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }_01\right)\left(1+3\frac{p}{\rho c^2}\right)H\left(\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_0\right)$$
(18)
Hence the solution $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0<1`$ is an attractor provided SEC holds, solving the quasi-flatness problem for any perfect fluid that satisfies this condition.

In the particular case that we choose the linear baryotropic equation of state $`p=\left(\gamma 1\right)\rho c^2(t)`$ with constant adiabatic index $`\gamma `$, we obtain from (13)

$$c(t)=c_0a^n$$
(19)
$$\mathrm{\Omega }_0=\frac{2n}{23\gamma }$$
(20)
In this case SEC holds when $`\gamma >2/3`$ that means $`n<0`$ when $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0>0`$. From (17) the scale factor is

$$a(t)\mathrm{\Delta }t^{\frac{1}{1n}}$$
(21)
In this way our exact solution is the late time limit of the solution found in .

## 6 The Horizon Problem

One of the most puzzling features of the Standard Big Bang model is the presence of cosmological horizons. At any given time any observer can only see a finite region of the Universe. Since the horizon size increases with time we can now observe many regions in our past light cone which are causally disconnected. The fact that these regions have the same properties is puzzling as they have not been in physical contact . This would have required an extraordinary fine-tuning of the initial conditions in the early Universe. Usually this problem is solved in the inflationary scenario again appealing to sufficiently long period violating SEC. We will show that a VSL scenario may also solve this problem without its violation.

The observed Universe was already smooth at the nucleosynthesis era ($`1`$s). Hence the horizon problem has to be solved at an earlier time, $`t_1`$ say. The size of the connected region at time $`t_1`$ with events at an initial time $`t_0`$ is proportional to the integral

$$_{t_0}^{t_1}𝑑t^{}\frac{c(t^{})}{a(t^{})}$$
(22)
and the particle horizon corresponds to the limit $`t_00`$. When the curvature becomes negligible the scale factor for the scenario solving the coincidence problem is given by

$$a(t)=a_0\mathrm{exp}\left[\sqrt{\frac{8\pi \rho _0}{3}}𝑑t\frac{c}{c_0}\right]$$
(23)
In this case the integral (22) diverges in the limit $`t_00`$. The same occurs when this integral is evaluated using the expressions for the speed of light (13) and scale factor (17) of the scenario solving the quasiflatness problem. Hence in the VSL cosmology the size of the connected region at $`t_1`$ can be made arbitrary larger than the size of our past light cone at $`t_1`$ by choosing the initial time $`t_0`$ small enough. This solves the horizon problem without violation of SEC.

## 7 Discussion

In this letter we have considered a varying-$`c`$ theory recently proposed by Albrecht and Magueijo  as a new way of solving the flatness, coincidence, quasiflatness and horizon problems for any perfect fluid.

We have found the constant solutions for the cosmological density parameter of the Einstein equations and the conditions that determine when these solutions are attractors for an expanding universe. In this way we have solved several problems of the Standard Big Bang cosmology without requiring a stage when the strong energy condition is violated. No specific form for the equation of state of the perfect fluid has been imposed, and in this way a wide range of matter sources can be accommodated within our model. Also we have proposed a better way to understand a small but nonzero cosmological constant, as indicated by a number of recent observational studies.

It is interesting to mention that a time dependent $`G`$ cannot solve the flatness, coincidence or quasiflatness problems as it does not appear in Eq. (7). We have not touched in this letter the issue of entropy production within the VSL scenario. This will be the subject of a future paper.

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by the University of Buenos Aires under project TX-93. We are grateful to the University of the Basque Country for partial support under project UPV 172.310-G02/99.