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# High resolution KS polarization mapping of OH 231.8+4.2 (OH 0739-14) with SOFI

## 1 Introduction

The bipolar nebula OH 231.8+4.2 (IRAS OH 0739-14, sometimes called the Calabash nebula) is centred on the Mira variable QX Pup and is a source of line and continuum emission at many wavelengths. It displays strong extended optical and IR structure about 40′′ in length, which is very highly polarized (Scarrott et al scarr (1990) for the optical; Kobayashi et al. kob (1978), Heckert & Zeilik heck (1983), Shure et al. shur (1995), Kastner & Weintraub kawe (1995) for the IR). At the extremity of the southern bipolar lobe, there are high velocity emission line knots, similar to Herbig-Haro objects (Reipurth reip (1987)). The central variable star has an amplitude of $``$2 mag., a period of $``$700 days (Kastner et al. kast92 (1992)) and a spectral type of M9 III (Cohen coh81 (1981); Cohen et al. coh85 (1985)). The star is not directly visible in the optical on account of a waist of high extinction, but dominates the structure at longer wavelengths (Woodward et al. wood (1989)). Kastner et al. (kast92 (1992)) have resolved the star from the surrounding nebula at K and L and deduce that it is a typical Mira variable. The object was first discovered on account of its OH maser emission (Turner turn (1971)) and mm wave CO mapping has shown a high velocity outflow oriented at $``$40 to the plane of the sky with deprojected velocities upto 330 kms-1 for the southern lobe and 90 kms-1 for the northern lobe (Alcolea et al. alco (1996)). It is generally considered to be a transition object between the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) and the Planetary Nebula phases in which the high velocity stellar wind is blowing out the AGB dust envelope. The estimated mass of the molecular and dust envelope is estimated to be $``$0.5 - 1M, consistent with a main sequence mass $``$3 M (Kastner et al. kast98 (1998)).

Aside from its great astrophysical interest as a short-lived proto-planetary nebula, OH 231.8+4.2 is a useful test source for polarization measurements. From the optical to the L band it possesses high linear polarization (upto 50% in large apertures, Shure et al. shur (1995)) and so is a useful polarization calibrator. It cannot be stated with any certainty that it possesses the most important attribute for a calibrator - that the polarization is non-variable, but the high polarization makes it useful as a calibrator for the polarimetric efficiency and for position angle determination. In addition, since the polarization pattern is centro-symmetric along the bright lobes (although not in the equatorial direction) and extended over a length of about 50′′, it provides an ideal source to confirm any instrumental depolarization effects. In consequence OH 231.8+4.2 was selected as a test source for the commissioning of the SOFI polarimetric mode. The quality of the instrument and the observations proved to be excellent and yielded the highest resolution near-IR polarization map of this source.

The instrumental set-up and the observations are detailed in Sect. 2 and the polarization results presented in Sect. 3. The spatial polarization structure is discussed in Sect. 4 together with conclusions about the geometry of the elongated dust cloud and the scattering properties of the grains.

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 SOFI

SOFI (Son OF Isaac, Moorwood et al. moor (1998)) is an infrared spectrograph and imaging camera installed at the ESO 3.5m NTT. It has a focal reducing camera and is capable of performing near-infrared imaging, spectroscopy with grisms and polarimetry. Imaging can be achieved with 3 different plate scales (0.144, 0.276 and 0.292′′ per pixel) using broad and narrow band filters in the wavelength range 0.9 to 2.5$`\mu `$m. The detector is an Hawaii HgCdTe 1024 $`\times `$1024 pixels array, with a quantum efficiency of 65% (Moorwood et al. moor (1998)). Imaging polarimetry is possible over the near-IR range using a Wollaston prism installed in the grism wheel and a special mask in the aperture wheel. The mask has three focal plane apertures with separation chosen so that the image pairs resulting from the Wollaston do not overlap on the detector. Broad and narrow filters may be selected together with the Wollaston. Using the Wollaston and aperture mask three pairs of images are collected; one pair for the object and two pairs for offset sky. The Wollaston outputs two divergent beams with the E-vector oriented parallel and perpendicular to its axis; the difference between the two images allows one Stokes parameter to be determined. The size of each strip is about 1023 by 145 pixels, separated by about 8 pixels.

### 2.2 Observational set-up

The observations of OH 231.8+4.2 were performed on 1997 August 8 using the 0.292′′ pixel scale. Data have been acquired with a narrow band filter of 2.162$`\mu `$m central wavelength and 0.275$`\mu `$m width (KS) using double correlated sampling with 60 samples. Double correlated reading measures the signal as the difference between the reset voltage of a diode and the post exposure voltage; the noise from thermal capacitance changes are eliminated as a result. For each of two position angles of the Wollaston, separated by 45 measurements were repeated three times with an exposure time of 70.9s. Between each acquisition the position of the nebula on the chip was displaced, to avoid using exactly the same detector position. This also has the advantage that no extra sky data needed to be acquired. By subtracting one data set from the other, the sky contribution can be removed. The sets of three images allowed one of the Stokes parameters, U or Q, to be measured; the set taken at a position angle rotated by 45 allowed the other Stokes parameter to be determined.

## 3 Reductions and results

### 3.1 Data reduction

The six regions on the detector, one for the object (O) and two for the sky (S1, S2), each of them with two transmissions of the Wollaston (referred to as O (ordinary ray) and E (extraordinary ray)), at which data have been acquired, are called hereafter Ono,One, Sn$`{}_{}{}^{o}{}_{1}{}^{}`$,Sn$`{}_{}{}^{e}{}_{1}{}^{}`$ and Sn$`{}_{}{}^{o}{}_{2}{}^{}`$,Sn$`{}_{}{}^{e}{}_{2}{}^{}`$, where n refers to the repeat observations taken with the object shifted on the detector. There are two ways in which this data can be treated: either the mean sky can be formed from the offset sky images from (Sn$`{}_{}{}^{o}{}_{1}{}^{}`$, Sn$`{}_{}{}^{o}{}_{2}{}^{}`$) and (Sn$`{}_{}{}^{e}{}_{1}{}^{}`$, Sn$`{}_{}{}^{e}{}_{2}{}^{}`$) and subtracted from the corresponding Ono and One; or the repeat (‘nodded’) observations on the object images can be subtracted (i.e. O1o and O2o), for the same Wollaston transmission. The latter procedure has the advantage that the sky is subtracted from the same detector pixels as the object and the procedure should be insensitive to pixel-to-pixel variations; however it has the potential disadvantage that for extended objects there may be stars in the same position as the object in shifted frames. Comparison with the result using the mean sky formed from the offset images can be used to ensure that no stars are in fact subtracted from the nebular image. The nodding procedure was followed to form the nebular images before combination, with the modification that the image to be subtracted was formed from the mean of the other two (i.e. O1o minus mean of O2o and O3o). Thus a total of 12 object images were processed (three positions of the object on the array, each with O and E and with the instrument rotated by 45). Flat field exposures were taken using dome illumination with the same filter and Wollaston prism. Flat field images were created after extraction of similarly defined areas (same size and position) from the original dome flat fields and normalization. It was found that the flat fields implied small ($`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{<}`$5%) but significant changes in the pixel-to-pixel response.

The basic data reduction steps were performed with the ‘eclipse’ package (Devillard nico (1997)). The source frames were first sky subtracted, flat fielded and then bad pixel corrected. Sky data, determined as explained above, has been used to derive bad pixels maps, via a ‘median threshold’ method which detects the presence of spikes above or below the local mean in the individual image. Assuming the signal is smooth enough, bad pixels are found by computing the difference between the image and its median filtered version, and thresholding it. The algorithm used to clean out a frame from bad pixels replaces bad pixels by an average of the valid pixels from of the 8 closest neighbours.

Combining the object images from one set of O and E ray Wollaston data allows one Stokes parameter to be derived. One of the data sets must be rotated by 45 in order to determine the linear polarization from two Stokes parameters. To avoid any artefact that the rotation algorithm might create in the structure of the data, it was decided to rotate the images acquired with the Wollaston at 0 by +22.5 and the ones with a position angle rotated by 45 by -22.5 respectively, so that both data sets are equally affected by this operation. The final results were compared with those produced by rotating one set by 45; no significant differences were noted but the more conservative procedure was followed.

To estimate the spatial variation of the polarization, the Q and U Stokes parameter images had to be shifted to the same position. For this purpose, the centroid position of the star at position $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$X = +16′′ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Y = +9′′ from the core of OH 231.8+4.2 (Fig. 1) was calculated to within a tenth of a pixel, and used to determine the necessary image shift. The IRAF ‘imshift’ procedure was used, ensuring that all images are at the same position within two tenths of a pixel. Since, however, combining images with a rotation of 45 is the worst case situation as far as sampling is concerned, the images were first pixel replicated to 4$`\times `$4 smaller pixels. Then the images were aligned using this star and rotated to a common position angle. The final images were then 4$`\times `$4 binned back to the original pixel scale. A seeing of 1.0′′ (3.5 pixels) was measured during the observations, although the data taken at a PA of 45 had slightly worse seeing. After the rotation, alignment and summing of the three data sets acquired with one given polarization (O or E ray for the Wollaston at 0 or 45), the degradation of FWHM was found to be minimal (less than 0.1′′).

Polarization maps have been created both for flat-fielded and non flat-fielded data using the imaging polarimetry package IRAF.stecf.impol. The SOFI detector is known to suffer from a signal dependent bias so that the absolute level of the flat field exposure can induce artefacts into the flat field. The flat fields were fairly flat in signal over the exposed regions of the chip (rms $``$5%), so the induced effects should not be large. The primary aim of the flat fielding was to reduce pixel-to-pixel scatter. Examination of the final images showed that the flat-fielded images were indeed slightly smoother than the non flat-fielded ones. Comparing the flat-fielded and non flat-fielded polarization maps showed that there were no features, above the noise, detected in one image which were not present in the other.

The instrumental polarization had not yet been determined prior to the observations of OH 231.8+4.2. A series of observations of the unpolarized standard star HD 94851 (B polarization 0.057%, Turnshek et al. turns (1990)) were made rotating the instrument by 22.5 degrees from 0 to 180 in steps of 22.5. All the O and E ray data at all position angles were reduced together for both flat fielded and non-flat fielded data frames. The results were obtained fitting a cosine 2$`\times `$$`\theta `$ curve to all the data points using least squares. For the flat fielded data the instrumental polarization at KS was found to be 1.03$`\pm `$0.07% at 142.2$`\pm `$1.8. This determination assumes that the polarization of HD 94851 at 2.1$`\mu `$m is zero; the value is not known but is probably less than 0.01% assuming a normal interstellar polarization curve. This value of the instrumental polarization was used to correct the linear polarization and position angle of the OH 231.8+4.2 data.

### 3.2 Results

The total intensity KS map formed by summing all the images in the two Wollaston sub-images and two orientations, aligned, as described above, on the star to the south-west, is shown in Fig. 1a in a logarithmic plot. Part of the extended nebulosity to the S, containing Herbig-Haro objects (Reipurth reip (1987)) was out of the imaged area. The sky subtracted and flat fielded images in the two Wollaston sub-images and at the two rotator angles were combined to form images and errors in Q and U Stokes parameters using the IRAF.stecf.impol package. The errors were propagated from the original images assuming a conversion of 5.9 e- per ADU and a read-out noise of 12 e- per pixel. The linear polarization, the corresponding error map, the position angle and error image were determined. The polarization was corrected for non-negativity bias (e.g. Wardle and Kronberg wakr (1974)) and the position angle errors determined from the distribution given by Naghizadeh-Khouei & Clarke (nag (1993)). No correction was applied for intervening interstellar polarization. Fig. 1b shows the image of the linear polarization in OH 231.8+4.2 in an unbinned form (cut-off in polarization error is 10%). Fig. 1c shows the 2$`\times `$2 pixel binned linear polarization map. The cut-off in polarization error is 10% in this map. A wealth of structure in the polarization map is evident attesting to the fact that it is not a simple centro-symmetric reflection nebula. The polarization structure is discussed in Sect. 4.

In order to compare the SOFI polarimetry with previous work, the signal in a number of apertures was summed and the polarization and position angle values determined. Measurements were made in three circular apertures at the centre, at 2.5′′E,7.0′′N and at 2.5′′W,7.0′′S (respectively the apertures C, A and E of Shure et al. shur (1995)) and are listed in Table 1. Fig. 2 shows a sketch of the appearance of the nebula in KS with the positions of these three apertures shown by dotted circles. In addition the linear polarization at six other positions ofinterest, whose exact positions are detailed in Table 1, was determined for the northern crescent knot, the fainter central knot, the whole of the brighter S knot, the peak of the southern knot, the knot to the south-west and the extreme southern knot. Aperture diameters, selected to include these features, are listed in Table 1 and the aperture positions are also shown in Fig. 2. The linear polarization and position angle values at K from Shure et al. (shur (1995)) are also listed in the last column of Table 1. The agreement is generally excellent: for position C the linear polarization and position angle agree within errors; for position A (the brightest region) the agreement in polarization is fair; for position E, the error bars are larger since this is the faintest region of the three, and the position angle is discrepant. The small discrepancies may be partly attributable to differences in the exact positioning of the different apertures. The last item in Table 1 is the alignment star to the SE (upper right in the figures); it has a polarization consistent with zero to within the errors.

Given this good agreement between the aperture polarimetry results presented in Table 1 and those of other observers, the results of the imaging polarimetry with SOFI are considered to be reliable, although a full calibration of the instrument has not yet been performed. It is concluded that there is no large correction for polarizing efficiency or position angle to be applied. Although this source is certainly useful as a high polarization calibrator, the position and size of the aperture must be carefully chosen otherwise discrepant results can be obtained.

Fig. 3 shows the profiles of total intensity, linear polarization and position angle along the long axis of the nebula (PA 20); each point corresponds to three pixels binned. Offset 0 corresponds to the position of the central star as estimated by comparison with the images of Kastner et al. (kast98 (1998)). This central position also displays the lowest value of linear polarization and the position angle shows an abrupt change across this region. Error bars are shown for the polarization and position angle in Fig. 3.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Intensity and polarization morphology

The KS total intensity morphology shown in Fig. 1a consists of two lobes which however are substantially different in appearance. The sketch of the nebula in Fig. 2 indicates the morphological features distinguished here. The northern lobe, which is tilted towards the observer (from the plane of the sky) by about 40 (e.g. Cohen et al. coh85 (1985); Kastner et al. kast92 (1992); Scarrott et al. scarr (1990)) has a central finger and two curling lobes emerging from the core which hides the Mira star QX Pup behind a dense disc of dust (Kastner et al. kast98 (1998)). The finger and north-eastern filament meet in the northern crescent shaped knot (#1 in Table 1). The southern lobe is less sharply defined; the eastern loop is not present and the western one is composed of several knots. The high resolution achieved without adaptive optics can be appreciated by comparison with the K band AO imaging of Kastner et al. (kast98 (1998)). The features on the AO image are not much sharper than in Fig. 1a and the lobes are not strikingly composed of many resolved knots.

Kastner et al. (kast92 (1992)) have also published a K band polarization map (their Fig. 2). There is broad agreement with their Fig. 2 but the SOFI map has higher spatial resolution and signal-to-noise. The linear polarization images in Figs. 1b and c show important features in common with the total intensity map which bring a wealth of new information on the structure of the nebula and the nature of the dust features. The new polarization features can be summarized as follows:
the central finger in the N lobe has a higher polarization than the immediate surroundings, by about 20% (Figs. 1b and c);
the northern knot has low polarization (offset -13′′ in Fig. 1b and c) and the position angle is distinct across the knot;
there is a line of lower polarization running diagonally across the central region (Figs. 1b and c);
there is an outer halo of lower polarization (though still $``$30%) around the nebula (Figs. 1b and 1c);
the polarization increases from west to east across both lobes, but most noticeably for the northern lobe (Fig. 1b,c).
Comparing Figs. 1a and 1b it is clear that the finger and loops visible in total intensity in the N lobe are also more strongly polarized, whilst in the southern lobe (tilted by $``$40 away from the plane of the sky) there is no such clear 1:1 correspondence.

The most remarkable features are the elongated very high polarization features in the north lobe. Along the central finger the polarization increases from 48 to 71% (at 5.3′′ from the central star) before declining again to values around the average for the N lobe (40%). The eastern filament in the N lobe has its peak value of 80% at an offset of 10.5′′ from the centre; the position angle of this entire feature is 20-30 greater than the surroundings. The other dominant feature in this lobe, the knot at -15′′ offset, however has low (30%) polarization and the position angle is distinct and close to the value for the S lobe. This difference may be due to intrinsic emission diluting the polarization or, more probably, an orientation closer to that of the S lobe (i.e. in the background). The south lobe has a feature along its length with linear polarization decreasing from 70% to 60% although the collimation of this feature is much less clear than for the N lobe and there is no distinction in position angle relative to the surrounding lobe. This high polarization feature in the S lobe is towards the eastern side and is more similar to the high polarization eastern edge to the N lobe, but does not correspond clearly to a filamentary feature on the intensity image. The lower contrast of features in the S lobe may be caused by obscuration by the equatorial disc. The knot at +11′′ offset on the western side of the S lobe with 35-40% polarization parallels the low polarization crescent knot in the N lobe but is less striking in its brightness and polarization minimum.

The almost circular cloud of lower polarization values surrounding the bipolar nebula are interpreted as belonging to the disc. The low polarization on the front side of this disc is clearly seen as the minimum a few arsec to the south of the position of the central star in Figs. 3 and 1b and c. Note also how the position angle of polarization changes across this region (Fig. 3 offsets 0 to +8′′). This coincides with the brightest spot in Fig. 1a. If this was single scattering from the surface of the disc, the polarization would be expected to be higher than for the northern lobe at a similar offset. Since this region is offset from the position of the central star, the scattered flux cannot be diluted by direct radiation, so that multiple scattering must be occurring. The minima in polarization around the central star can be attributed either to viewing directly along the flaring edge of the bipolar lobe as it emerges from the thick disk, or to multiple scattering at the dense interface region between the equatorial disc and one of the bipolar cavities. The gradual increase in polarization along the bipolar axis into the south lobe (Fig. 3) can be explained by an increasing mix of scattered flux from the bipolar lobe over that of the disc as the line of sight optical depth through the disc decreases outward.

The lower polarization region around the nebula that shows the bulk of the polarization vectors are aligned radially, rather than normal to the direction to the central star, as first noted by Dougados et al (doug (1991)). This has been traditionally ascribed to multiple scattering in an optically thick dusty disc (e.g. Kastner & Weintraub kawe (1995); see also Bastien & Ménard bast (1990)). The possibility that there is substantial flux scattered off the lobes reflected from the surface of the disc seems less likely; the scattering geometry would produce a range of position angles with only two scatterings and so is probably not a significant effect. However the constancy of the position angle over large areas of the disc, in particular to the east (Fig. 3), suggest a large scale organization of grain alignment. The degree of multiple scattering is primarily dependent on the optical depth, which should vary with position around the disc, so may not be able to produce such a coherent pattern of polarization vectors. Bulk alignment of (non-spherical) grains by a frozen-in magnetic field might however be capable of explaining the observed configuration (e.g. Hildebrand hild (1983)).

### 4.2 Dust features

The high polarization, together with the stronger KS signal, over the finger and the eastern loops in the northern and southern lobes requires to be explained. The higher KS flux must be attributable to high column depth of dust since it cannot be explained together with increased polarization: polarization increases while scattered flux decreases with increasing scattering angle for interstellar dust scattering situations (e.g. Mathis math (1990)). Two possibilities are considered for the high polarization features:

* the high polarization is caused by differing scattering angles. The higher values correspond to values closer to 90 scattering where polarization, at least for Rayleigh scattering, is maximum. Since the N lobe is tilted towards the observer it would imply that the finger and the eastern wall are tilted more away from the observer. To avoid the over-complex view that the lobe is composed of several components, all with different tilts, the lower polarization regions could represent an integration along the line of sight of a range of scattering angles. The lower polarization of the western edge then indicates a smaller scattering angle and hence an east-west tilt of a lobe of elliptical section. The central finger would have to be at a rather different tilt from the lobe axis for its polarization to be dissimilar to the surroundings;
* the dust in these features is indeed different from that in the bulk of the lobe. In order for the polarization to be higher then the particles would have to be smaller. If the lobes are hollow then it is difficult to see why one edge of the lobe should happen to have differing particles to those averaged through the lobe. The hypothesis of differing particles can only realistically be applied to the finger.

The first suggestion could explain the differing polarization of the loops, as compared to the material within the lobe, by having the lobe more elongated in the line of sight. The tilt in polarization perpendicular to the projected major axis of the nebula could be explained by an elliptical section with the eastern side more twisted away from the observer. Fig. 4 shows a sketch of this configuration. A 3-D dust nebula with this shape was generated and scattered intensity and polarization maps were computed (cf. the polarization models for $`\eta `$ Carinae in Meaburn et al meab (1993)). Rayleigh scattering was employed, although problems with the presence of small grains have been suggested by Shure et al. (shur (1995)) on account of the similar optical depth with wavelength in the near-IR. It was found from the scattering model that the twisted ellipsoidal geometry produces a reverse (i.e. increasing east-west) trend in the polarization across the south lobe. Thus there is a suggestion that the southern lobe is twisted in the opposite sense about the long axis to the northern lobe. However given the irregularity of the southern lobe this is no more than a suggestion. A polarization map formed from the 3-D model is shown in Fig. 5 where the nebula was tilted at 40 to the plane of the sky and the lobes of elliptical section were twisted about their major axis by 40. A qualitative match to the fall-off of intensity along the axis (c.f. Fig. 3) is achieved for a density gradient of r-0.5 along the lobes. A small central disc, whose thickness is however 40% of the length of each lobe, and has a density gradient $``$ r-2 has been included. The model manages to reproduce a number of the large scale features such as the bright loops bounding the lobes, as well as several salient features such as the low polarization filament to the west of the centre and the east-west slope in polarization across the N lobe. The slope in polarization of the S lobe is in the reverse direction to that observed and the lower polarization and radially oriented position angles of the material in the equatorial ‘disc’ are not matched by this model. Further modelling with multiple scattering for the central disc was not able to produce the observed pattern of radially oriented polarization vectors.

None of these alterations in geometry can simply explain the central finger and it seems most probable that it is indeed a distinct feature with a different tilt or composed of smaller grains. However the trend in polarization along the axis of this feature could more easily be attributed to a curve of the feature from close to the plane of the sky (i.e. towards the backside of the lobe) towards the line of sight, rather than a continuous change in grain properties. Given the fast outflow from the star (the CO data show a linear increase of radial velocity with deprojected distance of 8.9kms-1 arcsec-1, Alcolea et al. alco99 (2000)) and its variability, an outflow with temporally varying dust properties could perhaps not be excluded. Polarimetry at different wavelengths for this feature could test if the grain properties differ from the surroundings. Clearly high spatial resolution spectra are required to measure radial velocities along this feature in order to distinguish a differing outflow direction. However this is not simple if the feature is only visible in scattered light since polarization velocity modelling is required (see Meaburn et al. meab (1993)). Emission lines such as \[N II\] and \[S II\] from shocked gas would be a discriminating probe of the geometry of this feature. At present there is no evidence that this is a true jet until high spatial resolution imaging or spectrometry reveal intrinsic forbidden line emission.

The N lobe finger and the eastern loops in both lobes have such a remarkably high polarization which implies very stringent limitations to these features. They must be highly collimated otherwise the change in scattering angle across them would dilute the polarization; the dust must consist of very small particles so that only Rayleigh scattering is occurring with no admixture of large grains; there must be very little local emission from the grains or gas. The method to produce bipolar outflows is usually taken as interacting winds (e.g. Icke et al. ipb (1989)) or magnetic fields (Garcia-Segura et al. garc (1999)). The presence of highly collimated dust, which is considered to have been ejected by the slow, dense wind in the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) phase has not previously been explicitly considered in the hydrodynamic models. Since the central star of OH 231.8+4.2 is still too cool to ionize the nebula, the shaping of the dust features must have occurred by compression and/or erosion by the cool fast wind, which is deduced from the high molecular line outflow velocity (Alcolea et al alco99 (2000)). Alternatively the red giant wind is itself asymmetric and the collimated features arise in wind collimation at the star surface. Garcia-Segura et al. (garc (1999)) have shown that stellar magnetic fields of hundreds of Gauss together with stellar rotation rates close to critical rotation speed can produce highly collimated outflows from AGB and post-AGB stars. The very high polarization values, implying strong confinement, strongly suggest that magnetic fields or instabilities could play a part. The HST press release image of OH 231.8+4.2 (PRC 99-39) shows a series of undulations along the N finger and the NE filament which present evidence of clumping that could arise from collimation of magnetic origin. If magnetic collimation does occur, then there may be microscopic alignment of grains, which could contribute to the very high linear polarization values observed, and would also produce measurable circular polarization. Such microscopic alignment of grains is also suggested for the equatorial disc on the basis of the large scale pattern of radially aligned polarization vectors. Mid-IR polarimetry would allow direct detection of polarized emission from aligned grains, as found for the Homunculus nebula around $`\eta `$ Carinae (Aitken et al. ait95 (1995)) for example.

### 4.3 New southern knot?

On the unrotated O and E ray images, there is a stellar (unresolved) knot on the projected major axis of the nebula at 36′′ offset from the position of QX Pup in the direction of the northern lobe. However on the 45 rotated images this knot is off the imaged area, so its polarization cannot be measured from these data. This could be a star but its position on the projection of the major axis of the nebula is suggestive. Although this is the lower velocity lobe (e.g. Alcolea et al. alco (1996)), it may be a high velocity ejectum similar to the knots identified by Reipurth (reip (1987)) in the arc shaped nebula to the south of the southern lobe. Follow up emission line imaging and/or spectrometry are suggested to confirm its association with OH 231.8+4.2.

## 5 Conclusions

A linear polarization map of OH 0231.8+4.2 has been obtained in the KS band with the SOFI multi-mode instrument. A wealth of structure is revealed in the polarization and two elongated features in the northern bipolar lobe have very high linear polarization. A geometrical model with bipolar lobes and an equatorial disc is proposed which accounts for some of these features. However the high polarization finger in the northern lobe, and the position angle of polarization vectors in the surrounding (disc) material, are not explained. Higher spatial resolution polarimetry of OH 231.8+4.2 is achievable from the ground with AO, and polarization maps at different wavelengths would further understanding of this fascinating target.

###### Acknowledgements.

We sincerely thank Jean-Gabriel Cuby who was not only responsible for the fine functioning of the instrument but also obtained all the observations. We are very grateful to Alan Moorwood for master minding the SOFI instrument and for prompting us to provide a calibration target; the one we chose also turned out to be scientifically interesting.


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# 1. History

## 1. History

It has long been recognized that the two main theoretical frameworks of present day physics, quantum theory and relativity theory, are not easily reconcilable together microscopically. Namely, the treatments of gravity using the methods of ordinary quantum field theory almost necessarily lead to the nonrenormalizable ultraviolet infinities. String theory is an attempt towards the ultimate theory which should explain all of the particle interactions and the fundamental structure of matter and space-time, by resolving the ultraviolet difficulties and the associated problems in a natural scheme where all other particle interactions can also be taken into account in a completely unified manner. In this talk, I would like to explain why string theory is promising for this direction and what is the present status of the development of the theory.

In view of the nature of this talk, it seems appropriate to start with some account of history. Please refer to the table in the next page.

The year 1998 was the 30th anniversary of string theory . The first clue for string theory came from the discovery  of simple formula for scattering amplitudes for hadrons (‘strongly’ interacting particles). They satisfy a duality symmetry, called the ‘$`s`$-$`t`$’ duality at that time. This symmetry essentially says that we can represent the amplitudes symmetrically from the dual viewpoints of evolutions, either along the usual time-like direction or along space-like direction. Both give the same equivalent description of the physical scattering amplitudes. It soon turned out that such amplitudes are beautifully described by the quantum mechanics of relativistic strings . In particular, the above $`s`$-$`t`$ duality is naturally encoded in the familiar mathematical properties of Riemann surfaces, which are interpreted as the base space for quantum mechanics of strings, namely, the two-dimensional field theory (conformal field theory) describing the dynamics of the world sheet swept out by strings in the target space-time.

After a few years of first explosion on the establishment of string theory as the theory of hadronic interactions, it was soon understood that the theory might rather be regarded as an extension of general relativity    and gauge theories (1972$``$ 1977)  . However, it took a decade for particle physicists to recognize its significance as the guide for unified theory. The main reasons for this was that, at the same period, great developments are paralleled in renormalization theory of non-Abelian gauge theories which made us possible to describe the hadronic interactions in terms of ordinary local quantum field theories. The successes prompted most particle physicists to further extensions of gauge field theories to unify all interactions including gravity. Such attempts culminated into the construction of theory of supergravity (1976$``$ 1980)  which generalized the general covariance to its supersymmetrically extended version. Actually, the most extreme of supergravity theory, $`N=8`$ supergravity in four dimensional space-time could also be understood as the dimensional reduction from 10 dimensional (super) string theory.

| 1968 $``$ 1971 | Veneziano, Virasoro-Shapiro formulae |
| --- | --- |
|  | String interpretation |
|  | (Nambu-Goto action) |
|  | (fermionic strings) |
| 1973 $``$ 1976 | Relation with Yang-Mills theory |
|  | and General Relativity |
|  | (Einstein theory and Supergravity) |
|  | (ultraviolet finiteness) |
| 1985 $``$ 1989 | Classification of perturbative string |
|  | theories in 10 space-time dimensions |
|  | (I, IIA, IIB, HSO(32) and H$`_{E_8\times E_8}`$) |
| 1994 $``$ present | Connection (‘dualities’) among |
|  | perturbative string theories |
|  | ‘M-theory’ conjecture |
|  | (connection to 11D supergravity) |
|  | Role of ‘D-branes’ |

However, we soon understood that even supergravity could not resolve the ultraviolet difficulty of general relativity. This is essentially due to the fact that supergravity is not unique if we include (space-time) higher derivatives. Namely, supersymmetry is not sufficient to control the short distance space-time structure and hence the ultraviolet divergences which are inherent to all local-field-theory approaches to gravity. On the other hand, in the infrared, supersymmetry is very powerful. For instance, the classical action of N=8 supergravity is unique if we forbids higher derivatives than second in the field equation. We also understood that when one attempts to include the gauge interactions that could possibly fit in with the standard gauge models, one usually encounters various anomalies which violate the classical gauge symmetries and general covariance at the quantum level. It turned out  that the quantum anomalies of gauge symmetry and general covariance could be resolved in the field theories which could be regarded as the limit of supersymmetrical string-theory models.

The last observation opened up the second explosion of string theories (1985 $``$ 1989), where the perturbative string theory models  corresponding to stable perturbative vacua in flat 10 space-time dimensions are classified into five theories, type I $`SO(32)`$, type IIA, IIB, heterotic $`SO(32)`$ and $`E_8\times E_8`$. However, if one goes to lower dimensions by compactifying extra six space-time dimensions from 10 dimensions, it turns out that innumerable possibilities exist for the stable perturbative vacua. Thus the perturbative string theory has no predictive power for physics in 4 dimensions. It is also noted that around from this period, the interests on string theory from the side of mathematicians arose. In particular, the conformal field theories with a variety of nontrivial compactified target spaces provided various new interplays between mathematics and physics.

During several years after the second explosion, some of the physicists have attempted to find the ways of formulating string theory in a nonperturbative fashion. For example, one such approach was to study certain toy models (called now ‘old’ matrix models ), which were soluble as string theory in lower dimensions, such as 0+0, 1+0, 1+1 or even ‘negative’ dimensional target space-times. It suggested some interesting hints on the structure of non-perturbative formulation, but unfortunately could not reach to spectacular successes from the original viewpoints of string unification. Around the same period, a different type of toy models became a focus of intensive studies, namely the topological field theory. Its physical significance is not clear. On the mathematical side, however, the topological field theory provided new powerful methods in certain area of algebraic topology and/or geometry.

Since around 1994 till present, we are in the third explosion of developments of string theory. This began with the improved understandings  on the relationship among the perturbative string vacua. In particular, we are now gaining a good grasp on the relation among the five perturbatively consistent string theories. They are connected by various duality relations which exchange the regimes of weak and strong string couplings.

The diagram above indicates the typical relationships. Here nine dimensional theories in the third line of the diagram are obtained by the dimensional reduction of ten dimensional theories by compactifying one spatial dimension into a circle of radius $`R`$. The ‘S-duality’ interchanges the strong and weak coupling regions $`g_s1/g_s`$, while the ‘T-duality’ reverses the radius of the compactification circle $`R1/R`$ measured in the string unit where the fundamental string length parameter is set to one Do not confuse this S-and T- duality with the $`s`$-$`t`$ duality discussed before. . A crucial assumption in this relation is the existence of ‘M-theory’ such that it reduces to 10 dimensional type IIA (or Heterotic theory) by the dimensional reduction on a circle (or on a circle$`/Z_2`$) with radius $`Rg_s\mathrm{}_s`$. Also we found new degrees of freedom, Dirichlet-branes , which are crucial building blocks to establish the above duality relation. They can be formulated as dynamical objects attached to the end points of open strings and behave as a sort of soliton-like excitations in string theory, which correspond to various monopole and instanton solutions in the low-energy field theory approximation to string theories.

In view of this duality relation, we now believe that there must exist a unified theoretical framework in which all known perturbative string theories can be derived as ‘classical’ solutions. In such a framework, we will perhaps be able to proceed to study the true dynamics of microscopic physics near the Planck length and thereby to give definite predictions.

## 2. Merits of string theory

Now, is there any evidence for believing such a promise? Or is it merely a wild fancy of string physicists? Although it must be a long way to fix this question, we can at least mention the following points as merits or achievements of present string theory.

1. Encompasses almost all past ideas towards unification of particle interactions:

The past ideas include gauge invariance, Kaluza-Klein mechanism, supersymmetry, etc.
2. Provides several new perspectives for understanding the dynamics of ordinary gauge field theories:

The most recent and remarkable example of this is the AdS/CFT correspondence , among others.
3. Provides a realistically possible and conceptually satisfying scheme of unifying all interactions including gravity:

For example, the interaction and motion become a completely unified concept in string theory, and gravity is automatically included as an intrinsic property of its mathematical structure.
4. Solves ultraviolet difficulty which is inherent to all the perturbative theories of particle theories with local interactions:

Previous attempts to unify gravity suffer from the ultraviolet difficulty. The removal of the ultraviolet difficulty within the usual framework of local field theory or in an extended framework allowing non-local interactions usually suffers from the violation of unitarity.
5. Provides for the first time a microscopic explanation  of black hole entropy in terms of quantum statistical language:

This is based upon the interpretation of the extremal and near extremal black holes in terms of Dirichlet-branes. The Dirichlet branes are the key for the most recent developments of string theory.

The importance of resolving the ultraviolet problems with gravity being included can never be overemphasized. For example, if we try to compute the entropy in the usual local field theory, we necessarily encounter ultraviolet infinities, since the Newton constant is always infinitely renormalized. Not only that, the renormalization also forces us to introduce infinitely many other dimensionful constants to write down the microscopic theory. Remember that, in the history of quantum theory, the statistical interpretation of the entropy of black body played an indispensable role in identifying the correct microscopic degrees of freedom. We have to remind ourselves that the ultraviolet catastrophe of classical field theory 100 years ago has never been completely resolved when we take into account gravity. Certainly, string theory provided the first (and only known) promising direction toward its resolution.

## 3. Problems of string theory

Although string theory is really promising in this way, it is certainly true that the theory has its own problems in its present stage of developments. String ‘theory’ at present is merely a collection of rules of games for constructing scattering amplitudes ( elements of S-matrix) using the various datum of conformal field theory. It is indeed an extension of the standard Feynman rules for constructing the scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory of particles based on perturbation theory. The datum for the particle Feynman rules are ‘propagators’, describing the dynamics of world lines swept out by free particles in space-time, and ‘vertices’ which describe the interaction, namely, the transformations among particles in space-time such as emission and absorption of particles. In string theory, these datum are unified into conformal field theories on world sheets. The rules are astonishingly tight, self-consistent, and most importantly they conform to crucial physical requirements for acceptable physical scattering amplitudes in general quantum theory, such as unitarity (conservation of probability). In particular, comparing with the particle Feynman rules, the string ‘Feynman rules’ achieve a complete unification of free propagation and interactions of particles, while in particle theory they must be given independently. In other words, we would need, in general local field theory, separate principles for determining completely the particle spectrum and interactions. However, we must admit that we have not yet arrived at a satisfactory understanding on why that works so well, why that conforms to general relativity at long distances, and what the basic principles are behind the rules. Worse than that, we cannot at present give definite physical predictions from string theory, because we do not know the real nonperturbative definition of string theory. Perhaps, our goal will be envisaged in the course for resolving these mysteries of present string theory.

Therefore, the most fundamental problem in string theory at present is to explore possible directions towards its nonperturbative formulation and the principles behind the rules based on which we can confidently construct the concrete mathematical framework.

To explain the nature of such explorations, I will discuss some important mysteries, lying at the heart of physical properties of string theory rules, whose origin have not been understood completely even after the various surprising developments achieved in 30 years. I hope that by so doing I might be able to convey some of the flavors to you on the matters what we are aiming to. I will take two problems, first why string theory contains gravity, and secondly why string theory can resolve the ultraviolet infinities.

## 4. String to gravity

Now, in what sense, does string theory contain gravity? Everyone here knows that gravity, as Einstein taught us, is formulated as the space-time geometry based on (pseudo) Rimannian geometry of space-time. In physical terms, this amounts to formulating gravity as a field theory of space-time metric and requires to treat all particle fields as geometrical objects (sections, connections, etc). However, string theory in its present formulation does not require such geometrical objects at least at their starting point. Indeed, the usual formulation of string theory is done assuming just the flat space-time. Thus from the traditional point of view of dynamics, string theory, especially in its classical theory, is merely describing the motion of strings in flat space-time, and hence could not be the dynamical theory of space-time metric itself. How can string theory be the theory of gravity?

### 4.1 A quantum physicists’s derivation of general relativity

To understand this, it is useful, before going directly to string theory, to take a brief digression on an elementary derivation of general relativity from a purely physical viewpoint of field theory without relying upon the Riemannian geometry.

The basic idea of quantum field theory is that all the fundamental forces of nature can be understood as a result of exchanges of quanta corresponding to each force, such as photon (electromagnetic interaction), W-Z bosons (weak interactions), gluons (strong color force). The quantum of gravity is called graviton. The field theories of these quanta are constructed following the classic example of Maxwell theory. The photon is represented by the electromagnetic field or its vector potential $`A_\mu (x)`$ which universally couples to electric current $`j_\mu (x)`$,

$$^2A_\mu =ej_\mu ,_\mu j_\mu =0$$

where $`e`$ is the unit of electric charge (or electrical coupling constant). Here and in what follows, we will use the Euclidean conventions for the space-time indices. Unitarity requires that the only physical components of the vector potential are the transverse ones, since otherwise the time component of the vector potential yields negative probability according to usual probabilitistic interpretation of quantum theory. This leads to the gauge invariance requirement: Physical observables must be invariant under

$$A_\mu A_\mu +_\mu \lambda $$
(4.1)
with $`\lambda =\lambda (x)`$ is an arbitrary scalar. The field equation is then modified to

$$(^2\delta _{\mu \nu }+_\mu _\nu )A_\nu =ej_\mu ,$$
(4.2)
This is a consistent field equation as long as the current is conserved. The property of the electromagnetic force is precisely explained in this framework: For example, in the lowest order approximation with respect to $`e`$, the force is computed from the expectation value of the two-point correlator $`(A_\mu j_\mu )^2`$. Masslessness corresponds to the long-range nature of Coulomb force and nondefinite sign of the charge density $`j_0`$ to the existence of both repulsive and attractive forces.

Now what is the corresponding construction for graviton? Since gravity is again a long-range force, the graviton must corresponds to a field satisfying the same massless field equation on-shell. Also it is always attractive and couples universally to mass or energy-momentum. Only candidate for the currents leading to this property of universal gravitation is the energy-momentum tensor $`T_{\mu \nu }`$, which is a second rank conserved tensor current.

$$T_{\mu \nu }=T_{\nu \mu },_\mu T_{\mu \nu }=0.$$
(4.3)
Thus the potential must also be a second-rank and symmetric tensor $`h_{\mu \nu }`$.

$$^2h_{\mu \nu }=2\kappa ^2T_{\mu \nu }$$

where $`\kappa ^2`$ is proportional to Newton’s gravitational constant. Unitarity again requires that only transverse components survive, which is ensured if the gauge invariance is assumed under

$$h_{\mu \nu }h_{\mu \nu }+_\mu \lambda _\nu +_\nu \lambda _\mu .$$
(4.4)
This leads to the field equation

$$^2h_{\mu \lambda }_\mu _\lambda h_\nu ^\nu +_\nu _\lambda h_\mu ^\nu +_\mu _\nu h_\lambda ^\nu \eta _{\mu \lambda }(^2h_\nu ^\nu +_\alpha _\beta h^{\alpha \beta })=2\kappa ^2T_{\mu \nu }.$$
(4.5)
This form is unique if we assume that the left hand side is of second order in the space-time derivatives and that the equation is Lorentz invariant. However, the result combined with the conservation law (4.3) of the energy-momentum tensor is not completely consistent. The reason is that the graviton itself has nonzero energy. Hence, the exchange of the graviton induces the change of energy of matter and leads to the violation of the conservation law when we only take into account the matter energies. But if we take into account the energy and momentum of graviton to recover the conservation law, we have to include the graviton field to its second order in the energy-momentum tensor by adding the contribution of $`h_{\mu \nu }`$, $`T_{\mu \nu }=T_{\mu \nu }^{matter}+T_{\mu \nu }^h`$. This in turn modifies the equation of motion of the graviton itself and the gauge transformation too. The modification of graviton field equation leads to a further modification of the conservation law of the energy-momentum in the next order. And hence we have to again modify the energy-momentum tensor. This process continues to infinite order in the graviton field. The field equation thus becomes non-polynomial with respect to the graviton field.

It is an old common knowledge  that the final result is nothing but the formal power series expansion obtained from the Einstein field equation $`R_{\mu \nu }\frac{1}{2}g_{\mu \nu }R=\kappa ^2T_{\mu \nu }`$ by introducing the graviton field $`h_{\mu \nu }`$ as

$$g_{\mu \nu }=\delta _{\mu \nu }+\kappa h_{\mu \nu }$$
(4.6)
and the modified gauge transformation is equivalent to the transformation law of the metric $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ under the general coordinate transformation. To summarize, what we have seen is that, under a few reasonable assumptions, the requirement of getting consistent field theory for graviton could lead to general relativity even if we did not know the Riemannian geometry at all. It should be noted that the requirement of unitarity (or gauge invariance) and also the tacit assumption that the field equation contains the space-time derivatives only to second order are the essential assumptions for the above derivation.

We have emphasized that there is a big conflict between quantum theory and general relativity, since it leads to ultraviolet difficulties. However, it does not mean that both frameworks are fundamentally contradictory to each other. In fact, at large distances, the situation is quite contrary. For an example, an old story in the famous debates between Einstein and Bohr shows that the quantum mechanical uncertainty relation $`\mathrm{\Delta }E\mathrm{\Delta }th`$ is consistent with the equivalence principle when it applied to the measurement of weights in weak gravitational fields. Their mutual contradiction is manifested only at sufficiently short distances near the Planck length, where the quantum gravitational effects become of the same order as other nongravitational effects. The lesson we learn from this seemingly elementary discussion is that the geometric formulation of gravity at large distances could well be a natural consequence of some well-defined microscopic theory of gravity which could possibly be based on new principles entirely different from the ordinary Riemannian geometry, but be perfectly consistent with the fundamental principles of both general relativity and quantum theory in the sufficiently large distance region. This, I think, is a suggestive lesson in pursuing the unification of geometry and quantum theory. From the viewpoint of quantum field theory, genuine observable quantities are only S-matrix elements. Even the geometry itself must ultimately be constructed from S-matrix, if we emphasize the operational aspect of any physical theory.

### 4.2 Why does string theory contain General Relativity ?

Let us now discuss why and how string theory contains general relativity. First we briefly summarize the string Feynman rules.

String Feynman Rules

1. string world sheet = Riemann surface :

particle quantum mechanics

$$$$

two-dimensional (super)conformal field theory
2. S-matrix : defined by the following path integral

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$={Riemann surfaces} $``$ M = (super) space-time

$$\underset{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{}_{}[dxd\psi ]g_s^{\chi (\mathrm{\Sigma })}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{4\pi \alpha ^{}}_\mathrm{\Sigma }d^2\xi L(x,_\xi x,\psi ,_\xi \psi ,\mathrm{})\right]\underset{i}{}d^2\xi _iV_i(\xi _i)$$
3. world-sheet lagrangian

$$L=g_{\mu \nu }(x)_{\overline{z}}x^\mu _zx^\nu +\mathrm{}$$
4. (string length)2 = $`\alpha ^{}=\mathrm{}_s^2`$
5. string coupling = $`g_s`$

$$\chi (\mathrm{\Sigma })=22ghe$$

$`g`$= # of handles, $`h`$ =# of holes , $`e`$=# of external lines (punctures)

Here $`x`$ is the bosonic coordinate $`x^\mu (\xi )`$ and $`\psi (\xi )`$ collectively represents all the other world-sheet variables, and $`z=\xi _1+i\xi _2,\overline{z}=\xi _1i\xi _2`$ are the homomorphic coordinates of a Riemann surface. $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ is the metric of the target space-time, which is flat $`g_{\mu \nu }=\delta _{\mu \nu }`$ in 10 dimensional perturbation theory but is curved when we consider a compactified space-time. The integral $`_{}[dxd\psi ]`$ symbolizes the path-integral on a Riemann surface corresponding to a given topology of the world-sheet. The summation symbol $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ means that the sum over all nonequivalent Riemann surfaces are made. The weight factor $`g_s^{\chi (\mathrm{\Sigma })}`$ can actually be absorbed into the world-sheet Lagrangian by introducing the two-dimensional Einstein term $`\frac{1}{4\pi }d^2\xi R^{(2)}\sqrt{g^{(2)}}\varphi (x)`$ coupled to the external dilaton field $`\varphi `$ by the constant shift of the dilaton $`\varphi \varphi +\mathrm{log}g_s`$, where $`g_{ab}^{(2)}`$ is the intrinsic metric for two-dimensional world-sheet. The summation over all topologies and over the moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces just fits to the requirement of unitarity of quantum theory. Namely, the singularities caused at the boundaries of the moduli space give the correct physical singularities of unitary amplitudes. The initial and final asymptotic states are represented by the product of vertex operators $`V_i(\xi _i)`$ which have one-to-one correspondence with the physical states which manifest themselves as the singularities at the boundaries of the moduli space of the Riemann surfaces.

From the viewpoint of two-dimensional field theory, the rules are characterized by the local conformal invariance (or Weyl) invariance. Namely, the theory is invariant under the Weyl transformation (and its supersymmetrical generalization) $`g_{ab}^{(2)}(\xi )\rho (\xi )g_{ab}^{(2)}(\xi )`$ of the intrinsic metric of the world sheet. Although the two-dimensional Einstein term apparently coupled with dilaton violates this symmetry, it actually is needed to cancel a quantum anomaly of the Weyl transformation associated with the vertex operator for dilaton, which is a massless scalar excitation contained inevitably in string theory and accompanied by the graviton. The requirement of local conformal invariance is the most crucial property of the string Feynman rules and leads to the following properties of the string S-matrix.

1. Complete unification of motion and interaction:

The particle spectrum and interactions are determined simultaneously, since locally there is no distinction between motion and interaction on the Riemann surface.
2. Existence of massless spin 2 state = graviton :

From the viewpoint of particle spectrum, this is schematically explained as follows. For simplicity, we explain it in the bosonic string theory. The case of theories with fermionic degrees of freedom is basically the same. The world sheet-conformal invariance leads to one constraint and one gauge freedom in each space-time dimensions for the bosonic coordinate for the left and right moving modes (namely, holomorphic and anti-holomorphic modes) separately.

$$x^\mu (\xi )=x^\mu (z)+\overline{x}^\mu (\overline{z})$$

$$L(z)=(_zx)^2+\mathrm{}=0,\overline{L}(\overline{z})=(_{\overline{z}}x)^2+\mathrm{}=0$$

$$zf(z),\overline{z}\overline{f}(\overline{z})$$

This reduces the number of physical modes by two in each direction and hence the first orbital excitations are decomposed into the irreducible components with respect to the rotation group O($`D2`$) of transverse directions as

$$D^2(D2)^2=\frac{D(D3)}{2}\frac{(D2)(D3)}{2}1.$$

In the language of relativistic quantum field theory they are represented by the massless symmetric tensor (graviton) $`h_{\mu \nu }`$, massless antisymmetric tensor $`B_{\mu \nu }`$ and massless scalar (dilaton) $`\varphi `$ with gauge invariance under $`\delta h_{\mu \nu }=_\mu \lambda _\nu +\lambda _\mu `$, $`\delta B_{\mu \nu }=_\mu B_\nu _\nu B_\mu `$ and $`\delta \varphi =c`$ with $`c`$ being a constant, respectively. Actually, because of the above mentioned anomaly, the gauge transformation of $`\varphi `$ must be associated with the change of string coupling $`\delta g_s=cg_s`$.
3. Background independence :

This comes about because there is a 1 to 1 correspondence between vertex operators and physical states of strings. In particular, deformation of background metric $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ is absorbed by the condensation of graviton modes graviton vertex operator : $`h_{\mu \nu }(x)_{\overline{z}}x^\mu _zx^\nu `$ for $`^2h_{\mu \nu }=0=_\mu h_{\mu \nu }`$.

This has the correct gauge symmetry property on shell. Namely the gauge variation

$$\delta h_{\mu \nu }(x)_{\overline{z}}x^\mu _zx^\nu =_z\lambda _\mu _{\overline{z}}x^\mu +_{\overline{z}}\lambda _\mu _zx^\mu $$

is a total derivative, due to the world-sheet equation of motion $`_z_{\overline{z}}x=0`$. Similarly the gauge symmetry is also valid for the antisymmetric tensor $`B_{\mu \nu }`$ too.

More generally, all possible deformations of the world sheet lagrangian (including the boundary conditions in the case of open strings) are absorbed by the condensation of various modes of string theory (if D-branes are taken into account).

Thus string theory automatically is a quantum-dynamical theory of space-time, although it has not been constructed as such. Consistency with unitarity and Lorentz invariance ensures that the theory is bound to be consistent with General Relativity at long-distance regime, provided that the low-energy limit is described by local field theory. The last point is connected with the next item. We have used the terminology ‘background’ independence. This is not meant that the present string theory is already formulated in a completely background independent manner. But the structure of the theory locally in an infinitesimal neighborhood of the theory space suggests that a truly background independent formulation should be possible.
4. The dynamics of strings is local with respect to world sheet:

In particular, the factorization property of the world sheet is satisfied. Namely, if we pinch off some cycles of the Riemann surfaces, the surfaces in general change topology or factorize into two disjoint surfaces. Since the dynamics of the world sheet is local, the dynamics also faithfully reflect the change of topology and disjointing of the surfaces. This implies that in the limit where the string length parameter $`\mathrm{}_s=\sqrt{\alpha ^{}}`$ vanishes, the string Feynman rules smoothly reduce to those of ordinary particle theories. Combining with some dimensional consideration, this leads to the conclusion that the low-energy limit of the rules must be described by the local field theory with only two powers with respect to derivatives in any space-time dimensions. The explicit computations of scattering amplitudes involving gravitons have been carried out long time ago and provided confirmations of the general arguments  .

This is how string theory in general contains gravity (supergravity in supersymmetrical cases). Most of you perhaps now understand why I have called the existence of gravity a mystery of string theory. Although we understood how gravity is contained at a ‘phenomenological’ level, we do not have a ‘theoretical’ explanation. Why do the Weyl invariant string Feynman rules lead to gravity and other gauge forces at long-distances? There must be some fundamental mathematical formulation which will give ‘geometrical’ explanations on this surprising phenomenon. That would provide proper principles based on which string theory is reformulated in a completely nonperturbative and background independent fashion.

## 5. Resolution of UV divergencies

The next mystery I would like to discuss is why the ultraviolet difficulties are resolved  in string theory. This again is regarded as a consequence of the conformal invariance of the string Feynman rules. Basically, there is no ultraviolet region in those rules, since the singularities of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces only reside on its boundaries. However, as we have already mentioned, the singularities of the scattering amplitudes caused at the boundaries of the moduli space are mostly physical ones required by unitarity. In contrast to this, the particle world-lines have extra singularities which do not corresponds to the boundary of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces. Those are points where the proper time of propagation of particles vanishes. For any finite string length parameter $`\mathrm{}_s`$, those singularities are resolved in the Riemann surface because of the conformal invariance. A short time propagation with respect to some direction is actually a long-distance propagation of strings in another direction.

Actually, there is a danger at the boundary of the moduli space that some additional singularities may arise which are not compatible with unitarity. This is the possible problem of tachyon divergencies. If the theory contains tachyons, they yield exponential divergences associated with infinitely long proper time. That would be an indication of the instability of the vacuum one starts with in formulating the Feynman rules. This is precisely where the supersymmetry in space-time plays a proper role. If the supersymmetry is realized linearly, there can be no tachyonic excitation. As emphasized already, the supersymmetry is not powerful enough to control the ultraviolet divergences. Its proper position in string theory is rather in the infrared region to ensure the stability of perturbative vacua.

Now we have understood that both the existence of gravity and the resolution of ultraviolet difficulties usually associated with gravity in the ordinary framework of local field theory rely upon the conformal invariance of the string Feynman rules. This strongly suggests that there is some geometrical meaning for the world-sheet conformal invariance. From the point of view of two-dimensional field theories in general, choosing the conformal invariant field theories amounts to considering only a very special class of 2d field theories. In terms of the language of renormalization group, we are considering the fixed-point theories. This reminds us an analogy with the experience which physicists have had in early quantum theory in the beginning of the 20th century. To explain the spectrum of hydrogen atom in terms of classical Newtonian mechanics, we have to choose only special orbits for an electron circulating around the nucleus by imposing the Bohr-Sommerfeld condition. The latter condition is characterized by adiabatic invariance. It is tempting to compare this situation with the choice of fixed point theories characterized by conformal invariance in string theory. Then, just like there is the uncertainty relation behind the Bohr-Sommerfeld condition, it is natural to suppose the existence of some characteristic new relation by which the old theory is limited and the structure of new theory is signified. In this sense, the relation should contain the string length parameter $`\alpha ^{}`$ which is the only free (but fundamental) parameter of string theory. Remember that the string coupling $`g_s`$ cannot be regarded as fundamental, since it can be absorbed by a constant shift of the dilaton field $`\varphi `$.

There is a very simple candidate relation which nicely fits to the above expectations. That is called the space-time uncertainty relation

$$\mathrm{}T\mathrm{}X\begin{array}{c}>\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}\mathrm{}_s^2$$
(5.7)
between an invariant characteristic length scale $`\mathrm{}T`$ measured in the time-like direction and an invariant characteristic length $`\mathrm{}X`$ measured in the space-like direction. This relation faithfully represents the manner by which the ultraviolet divergencies are eliminated in the string Feynman rules. Moreover, it turns out that the relation gives nice qualitative explanations of the properties of the interaction of D-branes. For example, the relation leads to the prediction of the characteristic distance probed by the scattering of D-particles as given by $`\mathrm{}Xg_s^{1/3}\mathrm{}_s`$  which is supposed to be the characteristic distance scale of ‘M-theory’. Since I have a plan of publishing a separate article in which the space-time uncertainty relation is reviewed extensively and developed further, I do not describe further details on this relation here. For previous reviews, see .

## 6. Future of string theory

I hope that the foregoing discussions were of some help to understand the nature of string theory and its mysterious which must be reformulated more appropriately in the future for the construction of really nonperturbative unified theory. Let me finally provide some personal viewpoints on the future development of string theory. It seems to me that further clarifications of the mysteries emphasized above are important in exploring the unified theory of geometry and quantum theory, which must necessarily be the unified theory of matter and space-time. Let us recall them again using a slightly different way of looking.

1. Formulation of the space-time uncertainty relation

The space-time uncertainty relation is still only a qualitative characterization without firm mathematical formulation. For example, we do not know the way for precisely defining the quantities $`\mathrm{}T,\mathrm{}X`$. Its original derivation  was based on the theory of general conformal invariants known as ‘extremal length’, but that is clearly insufficient for our present purpose since the Riemann surface is the perturbative concept. We are aiming the nonperturbative definition of the theory and therefore must find some reinterpretation of conformal invariance which does not require perturbation theory. The following analogy with the phase space of classical dynamics and its quantum version might be of some help in pursuing along this direction:

classical phase space $``$ classical space-time

$``$

canonical structure $``$ ‘conformal structure’

$``$

space of quantum state $``$ ‘quantum space-time’

The space-time uncertainty relation can be interpreted as an analog of the ordinary Heisenberg uncertainty relation in the transition from the second line to the third line of the above diagram.

This analogy obviously suggests us to try an algebraic characterization of the space-time uncertainty relation by elevating the space-time coordinates into some operator algebra. For such an attempt, I would like refer the reader to  .
2. A new way of looking at gravity in string theory

The advent of D-branes has provided a new data for considering the question of why gravity is contained in string theory. The low-energy or low-velocity behavior of D-branes and their interactions are described by the Yang-Mills type matrix models with maximal supersymmetries. Based on this, an interesting conjecture for the possible formulation of M-theory has been proposed in  . If this conjecture is true, the mystery concerning the existence of gravity is further enhanced. We cannot find any remnant of gauge invariance associated with graviton in the Yang-Mills degrees of freedom only, since the graviton in this case only appears as the $`t`$ channel effect. In the $`s`$ channel, there is no graviton which directly corresponds to the one exchanged in the $`t`$ channel, at least apparently. On the other hand, in matrix-theory interpretation  , we have the Kaluza-Klein excitation of graviton in the $`s`$ channel. Thus, if we interpret the theory as being defined in 11 dimensional space-time as M-theory, the phenomenon of reproducing gravity only using the Yang-Mills degrees of freedom is not inconsistent with general properties of string theory. Indeed, explicit computations shows that we can simulate the graviton exchanges including its first non-linear effect by using supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories. There remains many puzzles to be clarified further in the general matrix model approaches. For fuller discussions, I would like to invite the readers to our original papers , or to a previous review  and the references therein.
3. Deeper understanding on the correspondence between classical supergravity and string theory

If the general structure of string theory as we understand at present is basically justified for the ultimate unification, the new theory is characterized by one and only one new constant, string length $`\mathrm{}_s`$. In other words, if we take the long distance limit $`\mathrm{}_s0`$, we must be able to recover the standard quantum theory of gauge fields and classical general relativity. The former is characterized by the Planck constant $`\mathrm{}`$, while the latter is by the Newton constant $`G_N`$. In particular, the Newton constant remains finite in the limit of going to classical physics $`\mathrm{}0`$. Therefore it is natural to adopt the unit where $`G_N=1`$. In this unit, the dimension of the Planck constant itself is equal to the square of length. Thus we must have

$$\mathrm{}=k\mathrm{}_s^2$$

where $`k`$ is a numerical constant. In string theory, the constant $`k`$ is in principle calculable in terms of the expectation value of dilaton $`k=k(\varphi )`$. Thus in the presence of gravity, the transition from classical physics to quantum physics is equivalent to the introduction of string length. In other words, the quantization is necessarily the quantization of space-time. This line of arguments further strengthens the point of view emphasized above and suggests the importance of establishing some definite ‘correspondence principle’ between classical physics and string theory.

## 7. Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the organizers of the workshop for inviting me to this interesting workshop. The present work is supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 09640337) and Grant-in-Aid for International Scientific Research (Joint Research, No. 10044061) from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.


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# Characterizing the Low-Frequency QPO behavior of the X-ray Nova XTE J1550–564

## 1 Introduction

XTE J1550–564 is an X-ray nova and black hole candidate discovered with the All Sky Monitor (ASM; Levine et al. 1996) onboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in 1998 September (Smith et al. 1998). The outburst lasted until 1999 May; its duration was approximately 250 days, during which time RXTE performed an almost daily series of pointed observations. A summary of these observations can be found in Sobczak et al. (2000b). Extensive spectral and timing studies of this source have been performed using these data. The source has been observed in the very high, intermediate, and high/soft outburst states of black hole X-ray novae, with an X-ray spectrum that can be well modeled by multicolor blackbody disk and power-law components (Sobczak et al. 1999,2000b; Homan et al. 2000).

The power spectra of XTE J1550–564 exhibit quasiperiodic X-ray oscillations (QPOs) at both high frequencies ($`100`$–285 Hz) and low frequencies (0.08–18 Hz) (Remillard et al. 1999; Sobczak et al. 1999; Cui et al. 1999; Homan et al. 2000). Herein we are interested only in the latter ‘low-frequency’ QPOs. These QPOs can have large amplitudes, with peak to trough ratios as high as 1.5 (Remillard et al. 1999), which indicates that they are a fundamental aspect of the accretion process. A sample lightcurve of XTE J1550–564 can be seen in Figure 1 of Sobczak et al. (2000a), which explored the correlations between the QPO frequency and amplitude and the X-ray spectral parameters. They reported that both the power-law and the disk components are linked to the QPO phenomenon: QPOs are observed only when the power-law component contributes more that 20% of the 2–20 keV flux, and the QPO frequency generally increases as the disk flux increases.

Our focus in this paper is on the properties of the phase lags associated with the low-frequency QPOs. The Fourier time delay, or lag, can be computed to measure the phase lags between soft and hard X-ray energy bands. Recent studies have shown that the phase lags associated with low-frequency QPOs and their harmonics are quite complex. In one observation of GRS 1915$`+`$105, Cui (1999) found that the lower energy (soft) photons lagged behind the higher energy (hard) photons (“soft lag”) for the fundamental QPO and it’s 2nd harmonic; however, the higher energy photons lagged behind the lower energy photons (“hard lag”) for the 1st and 3rd harmonics. Wijnands, Homan, & van der Klis (1999) reported even more complicated behavior from 14 observations of XTE J1550–564 near the end of the outburst. However, Wijnands et al. were able to show that the complicated phase lag behavior observed in these 14 observations actually consists of variations on only two fundamental types. Phase lags for 13 observations during the initial rise of XTE J1550–564 are discussed by Cui, Zhang, & Chen (2000).

In this paper we analyze the phase lags for all 209 RXTE observations of XTE J1550–564. These observations cover the entire 250 day outburst cycle of the source and are the most complete and arguably the richest data set for any black hole X-ray nova. We find that there are three fundamental types of phase lag behavior – one more than reported by Wijnands et al. (1999). The new type occurred during the first half of the outburst. We discuss correlations between the phase lags and the X-ray spectral parameters, QPO frequencies, and amplitudes.

## 2 Observations and Data Analysis

The PCA data were accumulated with $`125\mu `$s resolution in ‘single bit’ mode, providing two energy channels corresponding roughly to 2–6 and 5–13 keV (modes SB\_125us\_0\_17\_1s & SB\_125us\_18\_35\_1s), respectively. Above 13 keV, the event mode was used with 16 energy channels and $`16\mu `$s time resolution (mode E\_16us\_16B\_36\_1s). The single bit data modes were combined into a single channel, resulting effectively in two energy channels covering 2–13 keV and 13–30 keV (which corresponds to PCA channels 0–35 and 36–255, respectively). These three data modes and channels ranges were not available for five of the observations listed in Table 1. The alternate channel ranges for those observations are given in the footnotes to Table 1.

We compute the phase lag between the two energy bands as follows (Bendat & Piersol 1986; Cui et al. 1997; Vaughan & Nowak 1997). Let $`a(t)`$ & $`b(t)`$ denote the lightcurves in two energy bands with Fourier transforms $`A(f)`$ & $`B(f)`$. The cross spectral density or cross power spectrum is given by

$$C(f)=A^{}(f)B(f),$$
(1)
where $``$ denotes an average over on ensemble of measurements. If $`R(f)`$ and $`I(f)`$ are the real and imaginary parts of $`C(f)`$, then the average phase lag of $`b(t)`$ with respect to $`a(t)`$ is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi (f)=\mathrm{tan}^1\left(\frac{I(f)}{R(f)}\right),$$
(2)
It follows that the time lag of $`b(t)`$ with respect to $`a(t)`$ is $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi /2\pi f`$.

The coherence function, $`\gamma ^2(f)`$, is a measure of the linear correlation between two simultaneous time series as a function of frequency and is defined by

$$\gamma ^2(f)=\frac{|C(f)|^2}{|A(f)|^2|B(f)|^2}$$
(3)
(Bendat & Piersol 1986; Vaughan & Nowak 1997; Nowak et al. 1999). The coherence functions reported here include a correction for the effects of Poisson noise and were calculated using equation (8) in Vaughan & Nowak (1997). If the coherence is significantly less than unity then the measured phase lag cannot be trusted.

See Remillard et al. (1999) and Sobczak et al. (2000a) for information regarding the analysis of the power density spectra (PDS) for XTE J1550–564. The QPO properties for each observation are listed here in Table 1.

## 3 Results

We find three fundamental types of phase lag behavior for XTE J1550–564 – one more than the two types identified by Wijnands et al. (1999). Figures 1–4 show representative power density spectra, phase lags, and coherence functions for these three types of timing behavior. Types A and B correspond to those identified previously by Wijnands et al. Type C, the third type of phase lag behavior, appears during the first half of the outburst that was not analyzed by Wijnands et al. Figure 6 shows that these three types of QPO behavior can be grouped according to the relative contribution of the disk (or power-law) component to the total flux. The characteristics of each type of QPO behavior are discussed below and summarized in Table 2.

Type A timing behavior is characterized by broad QPO features in the PDS ($`Q2`$–3, where $`Q=\nu /\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$) near 6 Hz that are likely the superposition of a QPO peak and it’s harmonic (Fig. 1). The integrated rms amplitude of the QPO features is a few percent. The phase lags for type A behavior are generally featureless except for a broad soft lag centered near the QPO feature with $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi |1`$ rad and poor coherence ($`<50`$%). The soft spectral component from the accretion disk contributes $``$ 50–70% of the 2–20 keV flux during type A behavior (Fig. 6). We identify 4 observations with type A QPO behavior, all of which display high-frequency ($`\nu `$ 100–284 Hz) QPOs (Remillard et al. 1999; Homan et al. 2000; Remillard, private communication).

Type B timing behavior is characterized by a narrow fundamental QPO feature ($`Q10`$) at 5–6 Hz (Fig. 2) with rms amplitude $`4`$%. The first and sub-harmonic of the fundamental QPO feature are also apparent at 11–12 and 2.5–3 Hz, respectively. Type B observations display a hard lag nearly coincident with, but slightly off-center from, the fundamental QPO feature with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi 0.0`$–0.4 rad, as well as soft lags associated with the first and sub-harmonics. The coherence of the type B fundamental lags is typically within 10% of unity and has small statistical errors, but the coherences of the harmonics have large errors. Type B timing behavior is observed when the power-law component contributes 60–75% of the 2–20 keV flux (Figure 6). We identify 9 observations with type B QPO behavior, all of which display high-frequency QPOs.

We now introduce type C timing behavior (Fig. 3), which occurs primarily during the first half of the outburst when the source is in the very high state and the power-law component contributes $`75`$% of the 2–20 keV flux (Figure 6). Type C timing behavior is characterized by sharp ($`Q10`$) fundamental QPO features with a range of rms amplitudes from 3–16%. The first harmonic is present, and the first sub-harmonic is usually observed as well. The phase lags for type C behavior are typically modest, with the fundamental exhibiting soft lags $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi |0.4`$ rad. The sub-harmonic usually has a small soft phase lag of the same magnitude as the fundamental, whereas, the first harmonic has a hard lag, which can be several times larger than the soft lag displayed by the fundamental. The coherence of the fundamental lag is high $``$85–95%, while the coherence of the first and sub-harmonic are typically closer to 75–80%. We identify 50 observations with type C QPO behavior, only three of which also display high-frequency QPOs (observations 17 & 18 on 1998 September 20 and observation 161 on 1999 March 13; see Table 1).

The 50 type C observations can be further subdivided into 45 type C1 and 5 type C2 classifications. In the five type C2 observations (Fig. 4 and open circles in Fig. 6), the fundamental QPO appears to be a superposition of two narrow QPO features and the harmonics are difficult to discern. By dividing the observations into smaller time increments, we found that this blended QPO feature is the result of a single QPO with a centroid frequency that varies during the observation. The five type C2 observations all occurred during the two days (1998 September 20-21) immediately following the 6.8 Crab flare in the XTE J1550–564 lightcurve. The fundamental type C2 QPOs have frequencies from 6–10 Hz with rms amplitudes of 3–7% and phase lags of $`0.2`$ rad. When we make the distinction between types C1 and C2 QPOs, Figure 7a shows that the frequency of type C1 QPOs increases nearly linearly with the 2–20 keV disk flux. Two of the three type C observations that display high-frequency QPOs belong to the C2 subgroup.

There are two exceptions to the three fundamental types of QPO behavior described above. The first anomalous QPO occurred during the 6.8 Crab flare on 19 September 1998 (Sobczak et al. 1999; Remillard et al. 1999). The PDS for this observation shows a 13 Hz QPO with an integrated rms amplitude of 1% (Fig. 5). The QPO has a large soft lag of $`0.9\pm 0.2`$ rad with a coherence of $`80\pm 20`$%. The power-law dominates the spectrum during this flare, with the disk contributing only $`3`$% of the 2–20 keV flux. This observation is also the first occurrence of the high-frequency ($`183`$ Hz) QPO. The magnitude of the soft lag and the presence of a high-frequency QPO are consistent with type A behavior, but the QPO frequency and the low contribution of the disk to the total flux for this observation (Fig. 6) are similar to type C behavior.

The second anomalous QPO occurred on 2 March 1999. This QPO is observed at a much higher frequency than the others (18 Hz with an indeterminate phase lag and coherence) with no harmonics. It is significantly sharper than the other QPOs ($`Q18`$) and has a very small rms amplitude (0.5%). The disk component contributed 80% of the 2–20 keV flux during this observation.

The three types of QPOs are clearly distinguished by the relative contribution of the disk component to the total flux (Fig. 6). However, most of the observations for which the disk fraction exceeds 0.4 do not exhibit QPOs. Furthermore, no QPOs have been detected when the disk fraction exceeeds 0.8.

The phase lag of the fundamental QPO is plotted vs. frequency and amplitude in Figures 8a & 8b for all the QPO types discussed above.

## 4 Discussion

Hard lags in broadband X-ray lightcurves are often attributed to the Compton upscattering of photons by hot electrons in an extended corona (Miyamoto et al. 1988; Hua & Titarchuk 1996; Kazanas, Hua & Titarchuk 1997; Böttcher & Liang 1998; see also Cui 1999 and references therein). In this scenario, the hard photons undergo more scatterings in order to reach higher energies and therefore lag behind the soft photons. The hard lag is directly related to the photon diffusion time scale through the corona, which scales logarithmically with photon energy (Hua & Titarchuk 1996), in agreement with observations (Cui et al. 1997; Nowak et al. 1999). The time lags reported herein for XTE J1550–564 are typically on the order of 0.001–0.01 s; for a 10 $`M_{}`$ black hole this corresponds to the light crossing time over 10–100 Schwarzschild radii. However, the measured lags in other sources can be much larger (e.g. $`1`$ s for the 67 mHz (14.9 s) QPO in GRS 1915$`+`$105 reported by Cui 1999), which would require an extended Comptonizing region that would be difficult to maintain physically (Nowak et al. 1999; Böttcher & Liang 1999; Poutanen & Fabian 1999). Other models for hard lags include the intrinsic spectral hardening of X-ray emitting magnetic flares (Poutanen & Fabian 1999) and waves or blobs of matter moving inward through an increasingly hotter region where the hard X-rays are emitted (Böttcher & Liang 1999). All of these models have been proposed to explain broadband (continuum) hard lags and do not apply directly to the QPO phenonemon. Furthermore, these scenarios cannot explain the observed soft lags, which may be due to the evolution of the QPO waveform with time (Cui 1999). In addition, both type B & C QPOs exhibit near-perfect coherence, which presents a challenge for QPO models because there are more mechanisms for destroying coherence than there are for producing coherence (Vaughan & Nowak 1997).

High-frequency QPOs are coincident with all types A and B low-frequency QPOs. The low-frequency QPOs are observed at 5–6 Hz in these cases, whereas the high-frequency QPOs vary in the range 120–285 Hz. This pattern indicates substantially less correlation between the high and low-frequency QPOs in black hole sources than that reported for the corresponding oscillations for accreting neutron stars (van der Klis et al. 1996; Ford & van der Klis 1998; Markwardt, Strohmayer, & Swank 1999). In this sense, the behavior of XTE J1550–564 does not support the idea that QPOs in neutron star and black hole systems are fundamentally related (Psaltis, Belloni, & van der Klis 1999).

We do not include a discussion of the models pertaining to the origin of the QPO phenomenon. The reason for this omission is that none of the models proposed to date contain sufficient detail to fit the observed QPO properties discussed here. See Cui (1999), Markwardt, Swank, & Taam (1999), and Sobczak et al. (2000a) for a discussion of QPO models.

## 5 Conclusions

In conclusion, we summarize the observed QPO properties for XTE J1550–564. First, whenever QPOs are observed the power-law component contributes more than 20% of the 2–20 keV flux (Sobczak et al. 2000a). During the very high state of the outburst, when the QPOs have the largest amplitude, the disk component contributes as little as 3% of 2–20 keV flux (Sobczak et al. 1999,2000b). However, the QPO frequency generally increases as the disk flux increases (Fig. 7a). These results demonstrate that both the disk and the power-law components are linked to the QPO phenomenon. Secondly, there are three fundamental types of QPO behavior which can be grouped according to the relative contributions of the disk and power-law components to the total flux (Fig. 6). The QPOs display both hard and soft lags, as well as near unity coherence in two of the QPO types.

G.S. would like to thank J. Poutanen, J. Homan, and R. Wijnands for helpful discussions.