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# The Three- and Four-Nucleon Systems from Chiral Effective Field Theory

## Abstract

Recently developed chiral nucleon–nucleon (NN) forces at next-to-leading order (NLO) that describe NN phase shifts up to about 100 MeV fairly well have been applied to 3N and 4N systems. Faddeev-Yakubovsky equations have been solved rigorously. The chiral NLO forces depend on a momentum cut-off $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ lying between 540-600 MeV/c. The resulting 3N and 4N binding energies are in the same range as found using standard NN potentials. In additon, low–energy 3N scattering observables are very well reproduced like for standard NN forces. Surprisingly, the long standing $`A_y`$–puzzle is resolved at NLO. The cut-off dependence of the scattering observables is rather mild.

Effective field theory (EFT) has become a standard tool in modern physics and is applied to a large variety of systems. It can also be used to construct nuclear forces in a systematic and controlled manner. The spontaneously and explicitely broken chiral symmetry of QCD can be implemented in the EFT formulated in terms of the asymptotically observed Goldstone boson (pion) and matter (nucleon) fields. In the purely pionic and the pion-nucleon systems, there is an expansion parameter which is a typical external momentum (or the quark masses) divided by a hadronic mass scale of the order of the $`\rho `$ meson or the nucleon mass. Any S-matrix element or transition current can be systematically expanded in terms of this small parameter based on a systematic power counting. In systems with more than one nucleon, an additional non-perturbative resummation is mandatory to deal with the shallow nuclear bound states. This idea was put forward by Weinberg  and taken up by van Kolck and collaborators  in the construction of two- (NN) and three-nucleon (3N) forces. One basically constructs a potential based on the power counting and calculates bound and scattering states by use of a properly regularized Lippmann-Schwinger or Schrödinger equation. One outstanding result was that 3N forces (3NF) vanish to leading order . Other groups also investigated low energy properties of NN systems along these lines . A different counting scheme was proposed by Kaplan et al.  (KSW) working directly with the scattering amplitudes instead with an effective Hamiltonian like it is the case along the lines proposed by Weinberg. Another important feature which distinguishes the KSW approach from Weinberg’s is the perturbative treatment of the one-pion exchange. Independent of these differences, such type of framework for the first time offers the possibility of calculating nuclear forces directly from fundamental principles and has a direct link to the chiral properties of QCD. Furthermore, this approach is firmly based on quantum field theory and avoids ill-defined concepts like meson-nucleon form factors.

In  we have taken up Weinberg’s idea and constructed a NN and 3N potential based on the most general effective chiral pion-nucleon Lagrangian using the method of unitary transformations. In this method the field theoretical pion-nucleon Hamiltonian is decoupled such that an effective purely nucleonic Hamiltonian consistent with a power counting scheme arises. Previous results were obtained in time-ordered perturbation theory, which lead to energy-dependent nuclear forces. In our formalism, we arrive at hermitian energy-independent nuclear forces which we consider to be a major advantage with respect to applications to 3N and 4N systems, the issue of this letter. In NN forces have been developed at leading, next-to-leading and next-to-next-to-leading orders, LO, NLO and NNLO, respectively. At LO the potential is represented by the ordinary one-pion exchange (with a point-like coupling) as well as two contact interactions without derivatives. At NLO one includes the leading chiral two-pion exchange as well as all possible contact interactions with two derivatives, whereas at NNLO we have additional two-pion exchange with low-energy constants (LECs) determined from pion-nucleon scattering . The forces are properly renormalized and contain nine parameters related to those four-fermion contact terms. The one- and two-pion exchange pieces are parameter free. The nine LEC s have been uniquely fixed to low energy NN phase shifts in the s- and p-waves. The parameter free predictions for higher energies and partial waves and also deuteron properties are in general rather good. It was also observed that the NNLO predictions are better than the ones based on the NLO potential, as expected in a systematic EFT.

The natural question arises now, whether the NN forces based on chiral perturbation theory ($`\chi `$PT) will be also successful in describing 3N and 4N low-energy observables. To that aim we solve the Faddeev-Yakubovsky equations rigorously for 3N and 4N systems  and determine binding energies and various scattering observables. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time that $`\chi `$PT has been practically applied to nuclear systems beyond $`A=2`$ within the Hamiltonian approach.

In this first application we restrict ourselves to the NLO NN potential. In a forthcoming article we shall go on to NNLO and include also 3NF s, which occur at that order the first time. The NLO results presented here are therefore parameter free and can serve as a good testing ground for the usefulness of the approach. Of course, some aspects of the 3N system have already been studied in nuclear EFT , but not as direct extensions of the NN system as done here.

In order to use the chiral NN forces in the NN Lippmann-Schwinger equation one has to introduce a momentum regulator $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. We remark that this regularization on the level of the scattering equation is completely different from standard methods which are applied to individual diagrams. Here we use the smooth regulator, its precise form is given in . In order to investigate the cut-off dependence of 3N and 4N observables we have generated several NN potentials corresponding to different cut-offs between $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ =540 and 600 MeV/c. They were all fitted to the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{3}S_{1}^{}`$-$`{}_{}{}^{3}D_{1}^{}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{1}P_{1}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{0,1,2}^{}`$ NN phase shifts up to $`E_{\mathrm{lab}}=100`$MeV (for the potential parameters contact E.E.). In  we had already demonstrated that going to higher order in the EFT reduces the cut-off dependence and allows to choose larger values for the cut-offs, as expected from general arguments . The resulting phase shifts for NLO are compared to the Nijmegen phase shift analysis  and the ones obtained from the CD-Bonn potential  in Table I. The agreement is fairly well and we know from  that one has to go to NNLO to improve systematically on that. Also, we restrict ourselves to the isospin symmetric case. Thus we do not take into account various charge independence and charge symmetry breaking effects like e.g. the pion mass difference, which are known to be significant at very low energies. Such effects can also be included systematically in our EFT .

Let us regard 3N and 4N binding energies now. In addition to the relative motion in the NN subsystem there occur relative motions of the third and fourth nucleon now. In the spirit of a low momentum theory one has to expect that those additional relative momenta should be also small. This turns out to be true as the numerics tells us. For standard NN potentials, which are defined for all momenta up to infinity, one introduces a momentum cut–off for the numerical integrations. Since the pertinent integrals are convergent, the results are cut–off independent. Using the chiral NN potential we could reduce the cut-offs in those relative momenta from their typical values 8 fm-1 arising with standard potentials down to 4 fm-1 without changing the result. In the Faddeev-Yakubovsky equations there is no mechanism which could introduce high momenta if the NN subsystem momenta are small to start with. We find for the fully converged solutions the 3N and 4N binding energies as given in Table II. The ranges are compatible with what is found using realistic potentials . Note that the NN forces were included up to the total NN angular momentum of $`j_{\mathrm{max}}`$=6.

Also 3N scattering can be solved rigorously nowadays and we show in Figs. 1, 2 a small selection out of the great wealth of observables in comparison to data and the theoretical predictions of CD-Bonn. Three energies, one below the nd break-up threshold and two above are chosen. Note further that we do not indicate error bars for the data since in most cases they will be not distinguishable on this scale. In all cases we show the predictions of the chiral NN potentials for the cut-offs $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=540`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=600`$ MeV/c and compare it to the prediction of one of the most modern, so–called realistic NN potentials, the CD-Bonn. As the simplest observable we show first the nd total cross section in Fig. 1(a). The three theoretical curves overlap completely at very low energies and then the chiral predictions start to deviate somewhat from the data as expected for our EFT at NLO.

In case of the 3N break-up we selected in Fig. 1(b,c,d) a few often investigated configurations, the space-star, a final state interaction peak configuration and a quasi–free scattering (QFS) configuration, respectively. We find very good agreement of the chiral NN force predictions with the one from CD-Bonn. In case of QFS (d) and space-star (b) some of the discrepancies are expected to be caused by Coulomb force effects not included in the theory. The upper group of data in (b) are nd data and the disagreement with the theory presents a well known puzzle at the moment .

For elastic nd scattering we display in Fig. 2 the angular distributions, the nucleon analyzing power $`A_y`$ and the tensor analyzing powers $`T_{2k}`$. Except for $`A_y`$ there are no nd data for those energies. The discrepancies between data and theory for $`T_{2k}`$ and for the differential cross section can be traced back to pp Coulomb force effects . Thus except for $`A_y`$ the agreement of CD-Bonn (thick solid curve) with the data is rather good, which is a well known fact and is just given for the sake of orientation. The dotted and dashed curves are the chiral NN force predictions for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=540`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=600`$ MeV/c, respectively. The $`d\sigma `$ and $`T_{2k}`$ agree rather well with the CD-Bonn result and thus with the data. We consider this to be an important result, demonstrating that the chiral NN forces are very well suited to also describe low-energy 3N scattering observables rather quantitatively. On top of that, surprisingly for us, the chiral force predictions are now significantly higher in the maxima of $`A_y`$ than for CD-Bonn and break the long standing situation that all standard realistic NN forces up to now underpredict the maxima by about 30 %. This is called the $`A_y`$–puzzle. We are now in fact rather close to the experimental nd values. Since we restrict ourselves to NLO we can not expect a final answer from the point of view of chiral dynamics but this result for $`A_y`$ is very interesting. In that context it is important to note that on a 2N level the chiral potential predictions agree well with the predictions based in the Nijmegen PSA as is shown in Fig. 3. There we also include the CD-Bonn predictions. This agreement is especially important for the np analyzing power $`A_y`$, since it is rather sensitive to the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{j}^{}`$ NN phase shifts, which influence also strongly the 3N $`A_y`$.

These very first results using chiral NN forces in 3N and 4N systems are very promising. Since we restricted ourselves to NLO we could not expect a very good description of the data, since on-shell properties are not perfectly well fitted. But the results show that these effective chiral forces are very well suited to describe also low energy properties of nuclear systems beyond $`A=2`$. They agree rather well with standard nuclear force predictions as exemplified with CD-Bonn and most importantly they break the stagnation in the $`A_y`$ puzzle. Our result provides a counter example to the suggestion  that NN forces alone can not describe 2N and 3N $`A_y`$’s at the same time and 3NF’s should cure the 3N $`A_y`$ puzzle. Examples for such trials can be found in .

It will be very interesting to perform the next step and use the NNLO NN forces, which is a systematic improvement. On this level also 3N forces have to be incorporated the first time, which in $`\chi `$PT are defined consistently with the NN force. It should be mentioned further that due to the underlying Lagrangian the coupling of external probes (photons for instance) is well defined and exchange currents consistent to the nuclear forces can be generated. Also the hybrid approaches  can be avoided and wavefunctions based on the chiral dynamics can be used directly instead of wavefunctions generated by standard NN forces. This appears advisable since in this study for NLO we noticed that kinetic energies in 3N and 4N bound states are smaller and two-nucleon correlation functions are smoother than for standard NN forces, indicating a change of the wave functions.

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (A.N.) and by the Polish Committee for Scientific Research under Grant No. 2P03B02818 (H.W.). The numerical calculations have been performed on the CRAY T90 and T3E of the John von Neumann Institute for Computing in Jülich, Germany.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Regardless of nuclear activity, all ellipticals lie in the same fundamental plane, have similar ellipticity distributions, isophotal twists, and colors (Homabe & Kormendy 1987; Ledlow & Owen 1995; Govoni et al. 2000; Urry et al. 2000). Furthermore, the presence of massive black holes at the centers of elliptical galaxies is the rule rather than the exception (Ho 1998; Magorrian et al. 1998; Richstone et al. 1998; van der Marel 1999). This suggests all ellipticals have the potential of experiencing a phase of intense nuclear activity.

To test this attractive possibility, we used Monte Carlo simulations to check whether observed samples of radio galaxies can be random selections of elliptical galaxies.

We start from the optical luminosity function (LF) of ellipticals, which in this scenario gives the number of potential radio galaxies as a function of optical magnitude. Then we introduce a probability function for the fraction of galaxy, of a given magnitude, to host a radio source.

## 2 Calculation

Based on available empirical results for radio galaxies, the following general assumptions are made:

1. The distribution of ellipticals in optical luminosity $`L`$ is given by a Schechter function, with $`M_R^{}=22.8`$ mags and $`\alpha =+0.2`$, as found in the Stromlo-APM experiment (Loveday et al. 1992).
2. All elliptical galaxies of all optical luminosities have the potential of being radio sources, with probability $`S(L)=S^{}(\frac{L}{L^{}})^h`$, where $`S^{}`$ sets the overall normalization. From the bivariate LF it is known that $`S(L)L^2`$ (Ledlow & Owen 1996), so we set $`h=2`$ (the results are not very sensitive to the exact value of $`h`$).
3. Regardless of their optical luminosity, all active ellipticals produce radio sources with total power $`P`$ distributed following the known radio luminosity function $`\frac{dN}{dP}P^\beta `$, with $`\beta =2`$ (Auriemma et al. 1977; Toffolatti et al. 1987; Urry & Padovani 1995; Ledlow & Owen 1996).
4. In the radio-optical luminosity plane, FR I and FR II are separated by a transition line roughly proportional to $`L^2`$ (Bicknell 1995).

The number of radio sources per unit volume, having optical luminosity $`L`$ is the product of the optical LF times the probability $`S`$ (points 1 and 2):

$$N(L)=\mathrm{\Phi }(L)S(L)=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }^{}}{L^{}}S^{}(\frac{L}{L^{}})^{(\alpha +h)}e^{(\frac{L}{L^{}})}.$$
(1)
This is a Schechter function with exponent $`(\alpha +h)=2.2`$. The final distribution of radio sources in the radio-optical luminosity plane, as derived in a radio-flux-limited survey, is given by the product of $`N(L)`$ times the function $`\frac{dN}{dP}`$, assumed to be the same for all optical luminosities (point 3), times the volume $`V(P)`$ over which sources of power $`P`$ can be observed above the flux limit of the survey. Once a random set of galaxies has been generated, sources are divided into FR I and FR II according to point 4.

Given the assumptions, there are essentially no free parameters, but we note the exponent $`h`$ is not well determined. Also, different groups have found significantly different values of $`M^{}`$ and $`\alpha `$ (Muriel et al. 1995; Lin et al. 1996, Loveday et al. 1992; Zucca et al. 1997), and there is some freedom in the position of the FR I–II transition power.

## 3 Results and Discussion

Result shows that under quite general assumption the observed distribution of radio galaxies in the radio-optical luminosity plane is nicely reproduced, as is the observed difference in optical luminosity between FR I and FR II.

The physical basis for our result is that all ellipticals should have a central black hole (van der Marel 1999; Macchetto et al. 1999). Active and non-active galaxies are linked by a probability function, found to be $`L^2`$. We do not attempt to explain why radio sources are preferentially observed in giant ellipticals, however, the $`L^2`$ dependence of the probability of radio activity comes from the observed shape of the bivariate radio LF, and is similar to the dependence of the transistion power from FR I to FR II. There must be a deeper physical meaning for this.

Once accretion onto the black hole has began, the strength of the radio emission should depend mostly on the accretion rate, which is independent from the galaxy size, justifying assumption 3.

The $`L^2`$ dependence of the transition power from FR I to FR II imposes that to be an FR II, a bright galaxy must be associated with a very powerful radio source, a very improbable combination given the steepness of both radio and optical LF. Thus, from probability alone, the association FR II – faint galaxies is favored, causing the difference in observed optical luminosity between the two classes. No deeper physical difference between FR I and FR II host galaxies is required.

References

Auriemma C., Perola G.C., Ekers R., et al. 1977, A&A 57, 41

Bicknell G.V. 1995, ApJS 101, 29

Fasano G., Falomo R. & Scarpa R. 1996, MNRAS 282, 40

Govoni F., Falomo R., Fasano G. & Scarpa R. 2000, A&A 353, 507

Ho L.C. 1998, in “Observational Evidence for Black Holes in
the Universe”, S.K. Chakraberti, ed. Kluwer, p.157

Homabe M. & Kormendy J. 1987, in “Structure and Dynamics of Galaxies”,
IAU symp. N. 127, p. 379, ed. de Zeeuw, Reidel, Dordrecht.

Ledlow M.J. & Owen F.N. 1995, AJ 109, 853

Ledlow M.J. & Owen F.N. 1996, AJ 112, 9

Lin H., Kirshner R.P., Shectman S.A. et al. 1996, ApJ 464, 60

Loveday J., Peterson B.A., Efstathious G. &
Maddox S.J. 1992, ApJ 390, 338

Macchetto F.D. 1999, in press (Astro-ph 9910089)

Magorrian J., Tremaine S., Richstone D. et al. 1998, AJ 115, 2285

Muriel H., Nicotra M.A. & Lambas D.G. 1995, AJ 110, 1032

Richstone D., Ajhar E.A., Bender R. et al. 1998, Nature 395, 14

Toffolatti L., Franceschini A., Danese L & de Zotti G. 1987, A&A 184, 7

Urry C.M. & Padovani P. 1995, PASP 107, 803

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# Acknowledgments

## Acknowledgments

This work is supported in part by the Bruno Rossi MIT-INFN exchange program, by the U.S. Department of Energy under Cooperative Research Agreement No. DF-FC02-94ER40818 and by Spanish DGYCIT contract No. PB 96-0753.

## Figures


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# Simulated Extragalactic Observations with a Cryogenic Imaging Spectrophotometer

## 1 Introduction

In this paper, we discuss cryogenic imaging spectrophotometers (CIS), which appear to be the next major revolution in imaging technology. These devices simultaneously measure the energy, position, and arrival time of incoming photons with a spectral resolution $`R=\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$ greater than 20 with high ($`>50\%`$) quantum efficiency. In addition to the improvements in the temporal resolution over CCDs, these new devices produce low resolution spectra which are collected without the need for filters, spanning a bandpass from the atmospheric cutoff at 3100 Å to at least 1 µm. The red limit is imposed by blocking filters designed to keep the rising sky flux from approaching the maximum count rate of the detectors — the devices have an inherent wavelength sensitivity out to around 6 µm. As a result, data collected from a cryogenic imaging spectrophotometer can be collected in $`20\%`$ of the time as a conventional CCD and standard filter set (e.g.$`u`$, $`g`$, $`r`$, $`i`$, $`z`$), while simultaneously providing at least five times the spectral information.

The broad band nature of these detectors combined with their spectral resolution means that techniques designed for CCD photometry or conventional spectrometers are not optimum for these devices. For example, applying a magnitude limit in a specific passband can eliminate important data from consideration since an object faint in one passband may contain significant flux at other observed wavelengths. The four dimensional data cube returned by these devices (x position, y position, arrival time, and energy) presents new challenges in data reduction and analysis, which we address through simulated observations as discussed in Section 3.

Working CIS detectors for astronomy have recently been demonstrated in two forms: (1) Superconducting Tunnel Junction detectors (STJs: Perryman et al. 1999), and (2) Transition Edge Sensors (TESs: Romani et al. 1999). While these technologies deliver similar data to an observer, they have their own individual benefits and drawbacks, which we discuss in more detail in Section 2. Which of these detectors is expected to dominate in the future (if either — several promising new technologies have just emerged) is not clear, and will probably depend on which detector format is the first to produce an affordable, large format device.

As a simple example of the analysis of observations of a deep extragalactic field, we perform a spectral classification of the low resolution spectra generated by our simulated observations in Section 4. The simple $`\chi ^2`$ minimization approach we utilize, which is very similar to a template-based photometric redshift determination, provides a robust estimation for both the galaxy redshift and spectral type. The significantly higher spectral resolution as compared to CCD observations (approximately five to ten times the spectral content) should enable the determination of additional parameters such as age and star formation rate with more advanced techniques such as a full eigen-spectra decomposition (e.g., Connolly & Szalay 2000).

We conclude this paper with a discussion of the implications of this new detector technology on various areas of Astronomy (cf. Peacock et al. 1997), including space-based platforms such as the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST ). Throughout this paper we assume $`H_0=75`$ km s-1 Mpc-1 and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.35`$ unless otherwise noted.

## 2 Cryogenic Imaging Spectrophotometer Technology

Cryogenic superconducting detectors hold great promise as general purpose detectors for ground-based and space-based astronomy. However, several technical challenges must be addressed to make these detectors competitive for general use with current instrumentation.

The most severe problem is that current devices have low pixel counts. Innovative multiplexing solutions will be required to overcome this problem. Several multiplexing schemes are currently being tested, and plans are being made to build large format imaging spectrometers within the next several years.

These devices measure individual photons as pulses instead of storing charge in a potential well. This allows read noise free output and accurate timing resolution, but also implies a limited count rate and a high data rate for a large format array. A one megapixel device could produce uncompressed data rates approaching one Gigabyte per second or multiple Terabytes per night. Storing and analyzing this kind of data will present new challenges, and possibly require complete, on-line reduction.

In a cryogenic spectrophotometer the spectral resolution of the detectors is dependent on the operating temperature. Useful devices start working around $`0.3`$ Kelvin. This means expensive He3, dilution, or adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators will be necessary.

Another problem is caused by the infrared background. Since these devices measure individual photons and are sensitive into the IR, thermal photons from the telescope and the atmosphere can create a low level background photon flux which degrades the spectral resolution of the detectors. Special blocking filters that thoroughly attenuate the thermal IR will be needed for these devices to reach their full potential from the ground.

### 2.1 Transition Edge Sensors

Transition edge sensors work by holding a small piece of superconductor at its transition temperature by means of electrothermal feedback. An incoming photon warms up the detector, and this causes a decrease in the power needed to maintain the superconductor at its transition temperature. This current deficit pulse is read out by a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) array.

The TES can ultimately achieve slightly higher spectral resolution that current generation STJs, but it does have its drawbacks. The pixel size is limited by the heat capacity of the superconductor. Current TES devices are $`18\mathrm{\mu m}`$ square (Romani et al., 1999). The SQUID readout, however, cannot be shrunk to much more that $`100\mathrm{\mu m}`$ on a side. This means that unless powerful multiplexing schemes (e.g.Chervenal et al. 1999) are developed a TES will have a low filling factor and need a complex and expensive readout for each pixel. The spectral resolution of a TES depends on its base temperature (currently $`40`$ mK), so high spectral resolution comes at the price of a very complex cooling apparatus. Despite these challenges, the TES represent the only current CIS technology that has the clear potential to achieve spectral resolution greater than approximately $`60`$ at $`3000`$ Å.

### 2.2 Superconducting Tunnel Junction Detectors

Superconducting tunnel junction detectors work by absorbing a photon in a strip of superconductor (usually Tantalum) held well below its transition temperature. The incoming photon breaks up Cooper pairs and creates free charge carriers called quasiparticles. The quasiparticles diffuse through the Tantalum strip and are trapped in Al-Al2O3-Al Josephson junctions on each end. The junctions are connected to either a low noise amplifier or a RF-SET (radio frequency single electron transistor, see Schoelkopf et al. 1997). Since the charge created by the photon is distributed over both junctions, the amount of charge read out in each junction determines the location the photon hit, and the total charge determines the photon energy. The ultimate spectral resolutions of a STJ is limited by the intrinsic scatter in the number of quasiparticles created by a photon of a given energy. This is known as the Fano limit and is a function of the superconducting energy gap of the material used for the absorber. For a Tantalum absorber this works out to approximately $`55`$ at $`3000`$ Å and decreases at longer wavelengths as the square root of the photon energy to $`30`$ at $`10000`$ Å.

STJs have their own unique limitation. Most designs use back tunneling in the junctions to increase the signal strength. This, along with the shot noise associated with the bias current, lowers the effective spectral resolution. The Josephson current in each junction must be highly suppressed by a magnetic field, thus very uniform junctions are needed so that a magnetic field will suppress every junction.

The charge division provided by having two junctions on one absorber provides STJs with an inherent imaging capability - the number of virtual pixels on one strip is comparable to the spectral resolution (Kraus et al., 1989). For imaging cameras this means many more pixels per readout, a real advantage for practical designs.

## 3 Simulated Observations

In order to demonstrate observations with a cryogenic imaging spectrophotometer, we have generated a simulated extragalactic field. This operation is complicated by the fact that a CIS essentially acts as a low resolution spectrograph and we therefore need not only a simulated galaxy catalog, but also the corresponding spectra for each source. In the following sections, we detail the relevant steps required to generate the simulated data, tracing the photons path from the extragalactic source to the detector. We will address the more complicated issues of star/galaxy separation, blending, extended sources, and the identification of active galaxies in subsequent papers.

### 3.1 Galaxy Catalog

Since we are primarily concerned with demonstrating the utility of CIS detectors, and not in generating accurate cosmological simulations, we have used an existing simulated galaxy catalog. In particular, we started with a galaxy catalog that was drawn from an NGST cosmological simulation ($`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.35`$, $`H_0=75`$, Open CDM) performed by Myungshin Im (Im et al., 2000). This simulation covers a 2′ x 2′ area, which, for our purposes, is incidental (we are not simulating the full three-dimensional data cube, only the individual sources). This catalog includes the galaxy morphological type, redshift, and $`I`$ and $`K`$ apparent magnitudes. These parameters were used to generate spectra for each galaxy in the data set.

We restricted our sample to only include galaxies with $`19I28`$, as galaxies with $`I<19`$ are expected to exceed the maximum count rate of a typical detector, while galaxies with $`I>28`$ will provide an insufficient signal for later analysis. As a result, our final galaxy catalog contains $`449`$ Elliptical galaxies, $`4077`$ Spiral galaxies, and $`4192`$ Irregular galaxies. The resulting redshift distributions for each spectral type in the catalog is shown in Figure 1.

### 3.2 Model Spectra

As morphological type is a poorly defined concept at higher redshift, we interpreted the galaxy types from the original cosmological simulation as representative of different star formation histories. We defined the transformation as follows: Ellipticals are simulated by an instantaneous burst of star formation with subsequent passive evolution, Spirals are simulated with an exponentially decaying star formation rate ($`\tau =1`$ Gyr), and Irregulars are simulated with a constant star formation rate.

The actual model spectra were constructed using the GISSEL software (Bruzual and Charlot, 1998). The Elliptical and Spiral galaxy models were generated at ages of 1, 2, 5, 10, and 15 Gyr with solar metallicity and a Salpeter IMF. Irregulars were assumed to be inherently young and only one model was generated. For each galaxy in the simulated catalog an age was determined based on its redshift and our assumed cosmology. Using this age we selected the closest matching model spectra. Traces of the complete set of the input model spectra used can be found in Figure 2.

After selecting the appropriate model spectra, we apply various corrections in order to account for different attenuation factors that affect the emitted photons. The first modification (which is optional, in our analysis we simulate observations with and without this complication) is a correction for cosmological variance (or template incompleteness). Template incompleteness results when the template spectra used to fit the observed data do not span the entire range of possible galaxy spectra. This problem is addressed in template-based photometric redshift estimation by including many templates with various dust extinction, stellar populations, etc. , which reduces the contribution of template incompleteness (e.g.Sawicki et al. 1996).

Template incompleteness was simulated by adding a single, random component of stellar light, according to the following likelihood rule: $`25\%`$ O stars, $`50\%`$ A stars, $`20\%`$ G stars, and $`5\%`$ M stars. The actual stellar spectra were drawn from a published stellar library (Pickles, 1998), scaled by a Gaussian random number with a sigma of $`5\%`$ of the amplitude of the model galaxy spectra, and added to the original galaxy model spectra.

To account for dust in the simulated galaxies, the model spectra were attenuated using an empirical extinction law (Calzetti et al., 1994). The actual extinction parameters for the models with cosmic variance were randomly selected according to a Gaussian probability distribution function with mean and sigma determined by the following rules: $`E(BV)=0.0\pm .01`$ for Ellipticals, $`E(BV)=0.1\pm .02`$ for Spirals and $`E(BV)=0.3\pm .05`$ for Irregulars (Calzetti et al., 1994). The models without cosmic variance used the mean values described above with no random component. In order to avoid unphysical attenuation, the extinction parameters are restricted to positive values.

Following the dust correction, the spectra were redshifted and corrected for the mean attenuation due to the inter-galactic medium (Madau et al., 1996). Each spectrum was normalized by defining the measured apparent $`K`$ magnitude to be equal to the original $`K`$ magnitude from the cosmological simulations. An SDSS $`i^{}`$ magnitude was then computed for each galaxy. The final steps in the spectral simulator are to apply the necessary corrections for the estimated atmospheric extinction and the combined telescope and device quantum efficiencies (in this particular simulation we utilize the expected quantum efficiency for an STJ, see Rando et al. 1997, and assume a $`40\%`$ loss of photons in the telescope and camera optics). A detailed, graphical outline of these steps is shown in Figure 3.

### 3.3 Broadband Photometric Redshifts

In order to test the validity of our models and compare them quantitatively to similar work in the literature we computed broad band photometric redshifts using our galaxy catalog and associated model spectra. This was accomplished by simulating a wide field image from the Keck telescope with one hour of integration time in each of four visible bands, $`U`$,$`G`$,$`R`$,$`i^{}`$. For each galaxy a magnitude and its associated photometric errors were produced. Using the same $`\chi ^2`$ template fitting technique described in Section 4 we fit all galaxies with photometric errors of less than $`0.1^m`$ (i.e. 10 % photometry) in each observed band. The resulting redshift errors, $`z_{real}z_{phot}`$ were then used to determine the standard deviation of the redshift error, $`\sigma _z`$. In Table 1, these results are compared to results of simulations by Bolzonella et al. (2000) using a similar filter set and the results of Lanzetta et al. (1999) using a combination of HST photometry and ground based near-infrared photometry.

It is clear from these simulations that our method of simulating template incompleteness does in fact broaden the computed redshift distribution to levels comparable (even slightly higher) than found in the literature. The redshift range where we have the greatest differences with existing broad band data is $`z<1.0`$, where our errors are dominated by irregular galaxies with poor photometry. As our set of galaxy spectral templates only includes one Irregular, we are clearly experiencing the effects of template incompleteness as we do not properly identify those irregular galaxies with significant flux from late type stars.

### 3.4 Detector Simulations

Each of the resultant galaxy spectra were pushed through a custom developed STJ simulator at two spectral resolutions, $`R=20`$ at $`3000`$ Å and $`R=55`$ (Fano-limited) at $`3000`$ Å with $`R`$ decreasing as $`1/\sqrt{\lambda }`$. This STJ simulator uses the input spectrum to perform a photon by photon simulation of the output of the STJ assuming a one hour integration on the Keck Telescope in $`0.6`$″ seeing. The dominant noise source is sky noise, which is simulated with the STJ simulator using the sky spectrum of Turnrose (1974). Figure 4 displays sample output of the STJ simulator.

Our analysis method simulates aperture photometry with a $`1`$″ diameter circular aperture. Depending on the seeing conditions and the actual galaxy diameter, a variable size aperture (i.e. a “total” magnitude) could yield a higher signal to noise ratio. The imaging properties of the CIS detector will allow observers to dynamically select the best aperture during data reduction, or to allow spectrophotometry on each individual pixel. The latter, for example, could yield interesting data for extended sources on the differences in age, metallicity, and dust content of the stellar populations of bulges compared to disks.

The broad band nature of these simulated observations makes conventional selection criteria like an $`i^{}`$ band magnitude limit difficult to apply. We propose that a correct formalism is to utilize the broad band signal to noise ratio ($`S/N`$). This is just the total detected source counts divided by the estimated noise produced by the object plus sky Poisson noise. This selection criteria does not translate well into a magnitude limited sample since an object that is faint in one band may provide significant flux at other wavelengths that the CIS detector is observing. It does, however, quantify the low-resolution spectral signal generated by the CIS detector. Careful analysis will be needed to quantify the selection effects introduced by this formalism. The bottom panel in Figures 78, and 9 shows the locations of the simulated galaxies in a two-dimensional broad band $`S/N`$ ratio and SDSS $`i^{}`$ band apparent magnitude phase space.

## 4 Data Analysis

With the advent of the Hubble Deep Field (Williams et al., 1996), the utility of estimating redshifts from broadband photometry has achieved wide-spread acknowledgment. Several complementary approaches have been developed, including techniques which use an empirically derived function of galaxy flux or colors (Connolly et al., 1995; Brunner et al., 1997; Brunner, 1997; Brunner et al., 1999) and spectral template techniques which minimize the difference between redshifted empirical or model templates and the observed photometry to determine redshifts (Gwyn & Hartwick, 1996; Lanzetta et al., 1996; Mobasher et al., 1996; Sawicki et al., 1996). All of these techniques, however, are designed to utilize broadband photometry, not low resolution spectra, and they do not, as a result, extract the maximal amount of information from our simulated data. Since the major intent of this paper is not to develop a theoretical framework for maximal data extraction from CIS observations (which we defer to a subsequent paper), we instead develop a technique for determining galaxy parameters which is similar to template photometric redshift estimation.

In order to determine the redshift of the simulated galaxies, a subset of the initial model spectra were used. The following six model templates were deemed to sufficiently span the template space occupied by the simulated galaxies: 2 Gyr Elliptical, 10 Gyr Elliptical, 2 Gyr Spiral, 5 Gyr Spiral, 10 Gyr Spiral, and Irregular. The model spectra were attenuated as described in the previous section to generate a series of template spectra with no cosmic variance. A grid of new template spectra were generated by redshifting these six model spectra over the range $`0z5`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }z=0.025`$. The new spectra were convolved with a Gaussian kernel to simulate the effects of an STJ with a spectral resolution $`R=20`$ and $`R=55`$ at $`3000`$ Å. The resulting smoothed spectrum was rebinned into $`100`$ Å bins to match the output of the simulator.

The best fit was determined by finding which template minimized a $`\chi ^2`$ error statistic (Press et al., 1992). Examples of the fit returned by this algorithm are shown in Figures 5 and 6. This method returns both the galaxy spectral type and redshift. The measured deviation for all galaxy types is shown in Figures 7, 8, and 9. The results for the $`R=55`$ simulations, as well as the lower resolution $`R=20`$ simulation are summarized in Table 2. Adjusting the minimum $`S/N`$ ratio used by the fitting algorithm showed that a $`S/N`$ ratio of 30 is adequate to provide an accurate redshift. Lower $`S/N`$ ratios can cause misidentifications because of noise spikes.

Clearly, as expected, our simple technique operates most effectively when there is no cosmic variance in our simulated observations (in which case we do not suffer from template incompleteness). Furthermore, as expected, the results for the higher resolution STJ detector are considerably better than the equivalent results for the lower resolution detector (see Table 2).

For Elliptical galaxies, our naive approach does a good job at determining the best redshift and spectral template, except for some outliers in the simulations which include cosmic variance. A quick comparison of the simulations with and without cosmic variance for those Elliptical galaxies which are detected with $`S/N`$ above $`30`$ shows that the small number of outliers increase the dispersion in the redshift estimation by an order of magnitude. Upon closer inspection, these simulated galaxies invariably had significant contributions of blue stellar light added to their spectrum (similar to an E+A galaxy). Since there is no comparable template spectrum in our sample (i.e. no E+A template) to model this type of galaxy, our fitting algorithm misidentifies these cases. Aside from these rare exceptions, the dispersion in the estimated redshift versus the simulated redshift for Ellipticals is lower than for the other galaxy types. We attribute this to the greater relative strength of the spectral breaks in the instantaneous burst models compared to the younger star forming models.

Another interesting but rare situation arises for a small number of Irregular galaxies in the cosmic variance simulations, in which the redshift is systematically misidentified. This problem is illustrated in Figure 10 where high $`S/N`$ irregulars show a much larger dispersion than other galaxy types at similar magnitudes. This problem was also evident in the broad band simulations discussed in Section 3.3. In these special cases, low redshift Irregulars are confused with young $`z1.5`$ Spiral and Irregular templates. These are mainly detections which contain a significant component of late type stellar light added by the cosmic variance routine. Since a young Irregular is likely to be dominated by O and B stars, our method for adding cosmic variance can easily overestimate the likely contribution of late type stars. In a real observation this problem could be corrected by adding a template with a small contribution of late type stellar light. This means we expect a more realistic deviation of Irregulars to be closer to that predicted by the models with no cosmic variance.

The simulated galaxies in the special cases described above are all misclassified as a result of template incompleteness. When the $`S/N`$ ratio in these galaxies is over about 30, it is possible to determine which galaxies are effected by template incompleteness by monitoring the $`\chi ^2`$ goodness of fit parameter (Press et al., 1992). Selecting and eliminating these galaxies from consideration based on this parameter would lower the deviation much closer to the simulated galaxies with no cosmic variance. However, in a real observation, the fact that these galaxies do not conform to the standard galaxy models would make them interesting targets for further study.

One last peculiarity in the measured deviation (somewhat independent of broadband $`S/N`$ cut or inclusion of cosmic variance) is the increase in the dispersion of the relationship for Spiral and Irregular galaxies with $`1z2`$. This redshift region is a problem for both photometric and spectroscopic redshift estimation due to the dearth of spectroscopic features. As a result, galaxies encounter problems due to template confusion. A possible solution to this problem may be obtained by improving our template set, but it seems likely that the only real solution is to expand the wavelength coverage of the detectors into the near-infrared. In the latter scenario, the 4000 Å break would continue to be sampled on the red side of the spectrum to sufficiently high redshifts that we would eventually begin to simultaneously sample the rest frame UV features like the Lyman break on the blue side of the spectrum. We discuss several ways of increasing the wavelength coverage below.

Since the templates were generated on a grid with a spacing of $`\mathrm{\Delta }z=0.025`$ the maximum error in our redshift estimation due to grid quantization is 0.0125. If we assume this error is randomly distributed, the best we can do is a deviation of 0.0063. This systematic error is over $`50`$% of our best case dispersion (see Table 2), suggesting that our results can be significantly improved with more advanced spectral classification techniques.

Overall, we expect that with real data and a large template set (theoretical or empirical), it will be possible to obtain deviations close to those computed in our simulations with no cosmic variance. If we ignore the problem area between $`z=1.2`$ and $`z=1.6`$ this gives us an expected deviations of less than 0.06 for all galaxy types with $`z<5`$. With the addition of cosmic variance the deviation is broadened to 0.16, which should be considered an upper limit. These values can be compared with Table 1, which shows that this one ground based detector can determine redshifts far more accurately than is possible with the best current techniques using Hubble Deep Field photometry and deep Keck IR images.

## 5 Discussion

These simulations clearly show that cryogenic spectrophotometers will be far more efficient and accurate than any broad band technique for redshift determination. The attraction of these detectors is obvious. The minimal five-fold reduction in observing time that is possible by removing the filters from conventional photometry is equivalent to transforming the Keck telescope into a 22 meter telescope for a cost which is considerably lower than building such a telescope.

From these simulations, it is possible to directly compare the efficiency of this detector to broadband techniques. In our most accurate broadband simulation we identify 1018 out of 8717 galaxies with the highest detected redshift around 3 using 4 hours of observation time with Keck. The CIS detector with $`R=55`$ and $`S/N>30`$ identifies 2045 galaxies much more accurately in only one hour out to a redshift of 5, translating into an 8 fold efficiency increase. This advantage, however, is only realized in detectors of the same size. Since CCDs currently are very big, CIS detectors will become competitive for large galaxy redshift surveys when their pixel counts reach around 1/10 those of CCDs.

We expect that if large format CIS detectors can be built and made economical they will eventually replace CCDs as the wide field detectors of choice at most observatories. The consequences for using these devices in space is even more dramatic. Due to the removal of atmospheric effects, space-based CIS devices would allow imaging spectrophotometry from $`1100`$ Å to $`6`$ µm with the same detector. A large field imager of this type, mounted on a NGST -class telescope with passively cooled mirrors and actively cooled detectors, would allow images of similar depth to the Hubble Deep Field with $`2`$% of the observation time required with the WFPC2 instrument, and significantly higher spectral coverage and resolution. Significant performance gains can also be achieved by putting the ground-based detector behind an adaptive optics (AO) system. This would lower the background count rate enough to allow wavelength coverage out to 2.5 µm with diffraction limited imaging in the near-infrared.

There are many other possible astronomical applications to this technology. Applications like an order sorter for an echelle spectrograph, optical pulsar and X-ray binary work, speckle imaging, interferometry, integral-field spectroscopy, and lensing surveys are certainly possible and interesting projects, but only scratch the surface of the potential uses. In general, almost any project which uses multicolor photometry on faint sources will be better served by large format CIS arrays.

The techniques used in this paper for redshift estimation are not particularly sophisticated. Indeed, we expect that spectral classification techniques may prove to be more robust, as well as extracting more information from the low resolution spectral energy distributions provided by these detectors.

## 6 Conclusions

In this paper, we have discussed the different types of Cryogenic Imaging Spectrophotometers which are under development, including Superconducting Tunnel Junction detectors and Transition Edge Sensors. We have presented simulated observations of a deep extragalactic field using a custom developed STJ simulator. While purposefully ignoring stars and active galaxies in order to focus the analysis, we have demonstrated that cryogenic spectrophotometers are an extremely promising new technology for extragalactic astronomy. Future work in this area will include more detailed simulations of extragalactic fields including stars and active galaxies, and observations based from the ground and from space. More advanced spectral analysis techniques will also be developed to maximally extract information from the available data.

We are grateful to Pat Cote, Lori Lubin, Brian Kern, Chris Martin, David Schminiovich, and Todd Small for useful discussions. More information on STJ detectors is available at http://spaceball.caltech.edu/.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The diffuse X-ray background (XRB) above $`1`$ keV is commonly explained as the integrated emission of unobscured plus obscured AGNs (Setti & Woltjer 1989; Comastri et al. 1995). Strong support on AGN synthesis models has been provided by ROSAT and Chandra, which resolved most of the 0.5-2 keV and 2-10 keV background, respectively (Hasinger et al. 1998; Mushotzky et al. 2000). ROSAT sources were mainly identified as AGNs (Schmidt et al. 1998), while the identifications of the Chandra sample are not complete. Nevertheless, from the first results AGNs seem to be the dominant population.

Recent synthesis models (Gilli et al. 1999; Pompilio et al. 1999), suggested that the number of absorbed AGNs, with respect to the unabsorbed ones, would increase with the redshift. This is in agreement with the results of Reeves & Turner (2000), who found some evidence for the percentage of X-ray absorbed QSOs (mainly, but not only, radio-loud objects) to be higher at high redshift than in the local Universe.

Results from ASCA and BeppoSAX surveys (Akiyama et al. 2000; Fiore et al. 2000) show that many blue, broad lined optical QSOs at a redshift above z$``$1 have hard X-ray spectra, where the hardening is likely to be produced by absorption, in agreement with Reeves & Turner (2000). According to the unified schemes, absorbed objects should not show broad lines in the optical. In fact, luminous AGNs with only optical narrow lines, optical QSO2s, are not commonly observed. However, from an X-ray point of view, several QSO2s have already been discovered, although the informations on these objects as a population are still lacking.

At present the behavior of the AGN space density at high redshift is not clear. From optical and radio surveys it was found that the AGN density declines beyond z$`3`$ (e.g. Schmidt et al. 1995), while from soft X-ray surveys (Miyaji et al. 2000) a constant density of AGNs beyond z$`3`$ is not ruled out. We will show that, as soon as optical identifications of Chandra faint sources are complete, this issue will be settled.

## 2 Tests

A different evolution for absorbed and unabsorbed AGNs?
Starting from the synthesis model described in Gilli et al. (1999) we have tried to verify if a model where the ratio R of absorbed to unabsorbed AGNs increases with the redshift provides a better description of the XRB spectrum and source counts with respect to a standard model where R does not evolve. We first considered a model with R(z)=4 at every redshift and at every luminosity (model A) and then a model where the ratio increases from R(0)=4 to R(zcut=1.4)=7 at every luminosity (model B). We tuned the parameters in the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of Miyaji et al. (2000) to obtain two models giving the same $`\chi ^2`$ on the hard XRB spectral fit, and then we checked the differences in reproducing the soft and the hard counts (Fig. 1). Model B provides a better description of the data, with an improvement significant at $`>99\%`$ confidence level with respect to model A. However, this result depends on some systematic uncertainties in the data and a full statistical test including fits to as many constraints as possible (e.g. redshift and absorption distributions in flux limited samples) should be performed before drawing any secure conclusions.
The effect of QSO2s.
In order to test the effect of removing high luminosity absorbed objects, the QSO2s, from the model, following Gilli et al. (1999) we introduced in model B an exponential cut-off in the XLF of absorbed AGNs (with an $`e`$-folding de-absorbed luminosity of $`2\times 10^{44}`$erg s-1 in the 0.5-2 keV range), and then re-fitted the XRB spectrum by tuning the parameters of the XLF (model C). As shown in Fig. 2, QSO2s are necessary to reproduce the ASCA counts at fluxes of $`10^{13}`$ cgs (erg cm-2 s-1).
The AGN density at high redshift.
In the previous calculations we simply assumed that the AGN density increases from z=0 to zcut=1.4 and then remains constant up to z=4.5. Above z=4.5 no more AGNs were assumed to exist. Now, starting from model B, we check two different assumptions on the high redshift AGN density. Following Schmidt et al. (1995) we first assume an exponential decrease in the AGN density above z=3 (model D), and then no decline of the AGN density up to z=10 (model E). Both models provide a good fit to the XRB spectrum, soft and hard counts, and redshift distributions. Then, with the data available at present it is not possible to discriminate between the two alternatives. However, as shown in Fig. 2, the predictions for the redshift distribution of the Mushotzky et al. (2000) sample are significantly different: the percentage of objects above z=4 expected from model D and E are 5% and 26%, respectively. Therefore, as soon as the optical identifications of this sample are complete, the behavior of the AGN density at high redshift will be determined.

## Acknowledgements

This work has been done in collaboration with G. Hasinger and M. Salvati. I thank A. Comastri for useful discussions.


text:
# Interesting consequences of brane cosmology

\[

## Abstract

We discuss cosmology in four dimensions within a context of brane-world scenario. Such models can predict chaotic inflation with very low reheat temperature depending on the brane tension. We notice that the gravitino abundance is different in the brane-world cosmology and by tuning the brane tension it is possible to get extremely low abundance. We also study Affleck-Dine baryogenesis in our toy model.

\]

Recently there has been a renewed interest in perceiving the four dimensional world which is in a form of three dimensional hypersurface along with time embedded in a higher dimensional space-time. Such a claim has a pedigree from strongly coupled sector of $`E_8\times E_8`$ hetrotic string theory which can be described by a field theory living in a $`11`$ dimensional space-time . The $`11`$ dimensional world is comprised of two $`10`$ dimensional hypersurfaces embedded on an orbifold fixed points, where fields are assumed to be confined to the hypersurfaces which are known to be $`9`$ branes in this scenario. After compactifying the $`11`$ dimensional theory on a Calabi-Yau three fold, one obtains an effective $`5`$ dimensional theory , which has a structure of two $`3`$ branes situated on the orbifold boundaries. The theory allows $`N=1`$ supergravity with gauge and chiral multiplets on the two $`3`$ branes. Thus, it is possible to get phenomenologically interesting $`N=1`$ supergravity in four dimensions from the hetrotic string theory. The low energy theory in four dimensions also allows a rich cosmological implications and in recent past some attempts have been made to understand the cosmology .

In this paper we consider a very simple toy model in $`5`$ dimensions and we assume that we reside in one of the two $`3`$ branes which are separated by a distance. In this set-up it has been realized that the effective $`4`$ dimensional cosmology is non-conventional . The Friedmann equation is modified due to localization of the fields on the brane and also due to presence of the second brane. The extra $`5`$th dimension is assumed to have orbifold symmetry $`y=y`$, and static in our case. The main goal of this paper is to point out some of the interesting implications of the brane cosmology taking place at energy scales below four dimensional Planck mass and above the nucleosynthesis scale. It is fairly well recognized that the root of most of the nagging problems of presently observed Universe have some relation to the early Universe. We mention here two of them. The present Universe seems to be extremely flat, isotropic and homogeneous. A small inhomogeneity is measured to be one part in $`10^5`$ by Cosmic Explorer Background (COBE) satellite, and the second startling observation is that the present observable Universe has a small baryon asymmetry which is noted to be roughly one part in $`10^{10}`$, measured from the abundances of light elements synthesized at the time of nucleosynthesis. A small inhomogeneity of the Universe can be explained by quantum fluctuations of the scalar fields during inflation. While the observed baryon asymmetry can also be explained quite elegantly in the early Universe because of the presence of a preferred time and the expansion of the Universe which leads to out-of-equilibrium decay of massive particles via explicit CP violation interactions. In this paper we will consider one such example of baryogenesis in supersymmetric theories which is known as Affleck-Dine (AD) mechanism . Strictly speaking we will be treating the branes as hypersurfaces. We will be assuming that initial configuration of the branes are supersymmetric and due to some known or unknown reasons supersymmetry is broken at a suitable scale to solve the hierarchy problem in the Planck brane where we reside. Regarding this we are assuming that our set-up has two branes with opposite brane tensions and a negative bulk cosmological constant. In this respect our discussion could as well be generalizable to the configuration where gravity can be localized on the Planck brane  and some attempts have been made to supersymmetrize the two branes . However, some formal aspects of supersymmetrizing infinitely thin branes are still under extensive study , and more recently .

A simple isotropic and homogeneous cosmology can be described by the expansion parameter known as the Hubble parameter. It has been noticed that the two branes with opposite brane tensions can cancel the negative bulk cosmological constant  to give rise to a simple modification to the expansion equation. The Friedmann equation in the Planck brane is given by

$`H^2={\displaystyle \frac{8\pi }{3M_\mathrm{p}^2}}\rho \left[1+{\displaystyle \frac{\rho }{2\lambda }}\right],`$ (1)
where $`\rho `$ is the energy density of the matter stuck to the brane. The brane tension $`\lambda `$ relates the four dimensional Planck mass $`M_\mathrm{p}10^{19}\mathrm{GeV}`$ to the five dimensional Planck scale $`M_5`$ via

$`M_\mathrm{p}=\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4\pi }}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_5^2}{\sqrt{\lambda }}}\right)M_5.`$ (2)
It is noticeable from Eq. (1) that there is an extra contribution to the right-hand side of the Friedmann equation. If we demand that successful nucleosynthesis occurs then the second term proportional to $`\rho ^2`$ has to play a negligible role at a scale $`𝒪(\mathrm{MeV})`$, corresponding to the era of Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Thus we have to assume that the modified Friedmann equation paves the usual term in the right-hand side of Eq. (1), which is just linear in energy density. This naturally leads to constraining the brane tension as $`\lambda >(1\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^4`$ ***A more stringent constraint on the brane tension has been obtained in Ref. , by considering the fifth dimension to be non-compact and also from the validity of the Newtonian gravity in $`3+1`$ dimensiuons on scales more than $`1`$mm, which lead to constraning the brane tension $`\lambda >(100\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^4`$.. This means that the Universe evolves exactly in a familiar fashion even in the presence of branes at energy scales lower than a MeV. However, there could be a significant departure from the usual lore at very high energies, especially when $`2\lambda <\rho `$. In this regime the expansion rate of the Universe is certainly dominated by the $`\rho ^2`$ term in the right-hand side of Eq. (1). Our aim is to illustrate that perhaps we can accommodate the non-conventional term in Eq. (1) for solving some of the problems, such as excess gravitino production during reheating.

The energy conservation equation for the matter which is strictly residing within our brane is given by: $`\dot{\rho }+3H(\rho +p)=0`$. This has an obvious consequence for the scalar field dominating the early Universe during the inflationary phase. It has been pointed out in Refs.  that inflation is well supported by $`\rho ^2`$ contribution because of the dominance of the friction term leads to many e-foldings of inflation. For our purpose it is the last $`5060`$ e-foldings of inflation should be sufficient enough to form structures in the Universe. The possibility of chaotic inflation with massive inflaton field ($`V(\varphi )=m^2\varphi ^2/2`$) has been discussed in Ref. . The density perturbation produced by the scalar field $`\varphi `$ during inflation has been compared to that of the COBE result and it has been realized that chaotic inflation can occur for field values below the four dimensional Planck mass $`\varphi _{\mathrm{cobe}}10^2M_\mathrm{p}^{1/3}\lambda ^{1/6}<M_\mathrm{p}`$, but above the five dimensional scale $`M_5`$. The mass of the inflaton field has also been found to be constrained $`m5\times 10^5M_5`$, which essentially translates to $`m10^5M_\mathrm{p}^{1/3}\lambda ^{1/6}`$ from Eq. (2). Hence, for $`\lambda 𝒪(\mathrm{GeV})^4`$, the mass could be $`m𝒪(10)\mathrm{GeV}`$, and, $`\varphi _{\mathrm{cobe}}𝒪(10^8)\mathrm{GeV}`$. Thus the scale of inflation is determined by the brane tension and depending on its value inflation could take place at extremely low scale. One of the most important consequence of having inflation at a low scale is the low reheat temperature and various other physical implications which we will describe next.

It is known to us that inflation leads to extremely cold Universe because the entropy generated before and during inflation redshifts away, thus it is necessary to attain thermalization at a scale above the nucleosynthesis scale to preserve the successes of the Big Bang model. We notice, after the end of inflation the scalar field begins oscillating coherently at the bottom of the potential, and for the massive inflaton the average pressure density vanishes during the oscillations, thus leading $`\rho _\varphi a^3`$, where $`a`$ is the scale factor. If we denote $`\rho _{\varphi \mathrm{i}}`$ and $`a_\mathrm{i}`$ as the inflaton energy density and the scale factor at the beginning of the coherent oscillations, then the Hubble expansion is given by $`H^2(a)(8\pi /3M_\mathrm{p}^2)(\rho _{\varphi \mathrm{i}}^2/2\lambda )(a_\mathrm{i}/a)^6`$ If the decay rate of the inflaton is denoted by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\varphi `$, then equating $`H(a)`$ to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\varphi `$ leads to an expression for the scale factors. If we assume reheating occurs with the energy density in radiation $`\rho _\mathrm{r}=\left(\pi ^2/30\right)g_{}T_{\mathrm{rh}}^4`$, where $`g_{}`$ is the relativistic degrees of freedom then the reheat temperature $`T_{\mathrm{rh}}`$ is given by

$`T_{\mathrm{rh}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_\varphi M_\mathrm{p}\sqrt{\lambda }}{g_{}}}\right)^{1/4}\left(10^{5/4}M_\mathrm{p}^{1/3}\lambda ^{1/6}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{g_{}}}\right)^{1/4}`$ (3)
$`10^{15/4}m_\varphi \left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{g_{}}}\right)^{1/4},`$ (4)
where we have assumed massive boson decay $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\varphi \alpha m_\varphi `$ with a Yukawa coupling $`\alpha `$, and, while deriving the last expression in Eq. (3), we have taken $`m_\varphi 10^5M_\mathrm{p}^{1/3}\lambda ^{1/6}`$. We see that the reheat temperature is proportional to the mass of the inflaton. For the brane tension $`\lambda 𝒪(1)\mathrm{GeV}`$, reheat temperature could be $`T_{\mathrm{rh}}𝒪(10^3)\mathrm{GeV}`$, assuming $`g_{}𝒪(100)`$ and $`\alpha 0.01`$. However, the reheat temperature is always more than the brane tension. This is a direct consequence of inflation occurring at low scales. Inflation at such a scale is desirable from the point of view of nucleosynthesis which we briefly describe here.

If we believe that supersymmetry is needed to solve the hierarchy between the electro-weak scale and the four dimensional Planck mass then the gravitino mass must be no higher than $`1`$ TeV. Since we know that gravitino coupling to matter is Planck mass suppressed, the life time of gravitino at rest is quite long $`\tau _{3/2}M_\mathrm{p}^2/m_{3/2}^310^5\left(m_{3/2}/\mathrm{TeV}\right)^3\mathrm{sec}`$ . If the gravitino decays to either gauge bosons and its gaugino partner, or, if it decays to energetic photons, synthesis of light elements can be in danger by changing the number density of baryon to photon ratio required for a successful nucleosynthesis. However, if the Universe thermalizes at a temperature which is as low as $`𝒪(10^3)`$ GeV, the thermal production of gravitinos is also suppressed, but gravitinos could also be produced non-perturbatively during preheating , which we do not consider here. The thermal production of gravitino usually involves $`22`$ processes involving gauge bosons and gauginos during reheating. In the brane-world scenario it is very likely that the bulk is also supersymmetric and in that case there is a possibility to excite the kaluza-Klein gravitino modes. At the Planck brane these modes are coupled to the matter field with a Planck mass suppressed interactions and it could be very interesting to analyse them separately, there has been some discussion upon localization of the zero mode gravitino in this context . In this paper we do not study exciting the kaluza-Klein gravitino modes, however, if the formal approach to study them becomes clear then it is worth investigating this issue separately, because they are likely to increase the gravitino abundance and thus likely to pose a bigger challenge to nucleosynthesis.

In order to study the gravitino abundance by strictly assuming that there is no gravitino contribution from the bulk, we need to study the Boltzmann equation for the gravitino number density $`n_{3/2}`$ in $`3+1`$ dimensions .

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dn_{3/2}}{dt}}+3Hn_{3/2}=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{tot}}v_{\mathrm{rel}}n_{\mathrm{rad}}^2{\displaystyle \frac{m_{3/2}}{E_{3/2}}}{\displaystyle \frac{n_{3/2}}{\tau _{3/2}}},`$ (5)
where $`\mathrm{}`$ represents thermal average, $`n_{\mathrm{rad}}`$ is the number density of relativistic particles $`n_{\mathrm{rad}}T^3`$, $`v_{\mathrm{rel}}`$ is the relative velocity of the scattering radiation which in our case $`v_{\mathrm{rel}}=1`$, and the factor $`m_{3/2}/E_{3/2}`$ is the average Lorenz factor. We notice that in radiation era the non-conventional brane cosmology gives the following Hubble rate of expansion:

$`H\left({\displaystyle \frac{4\pi ^5}{3}}\right)^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{g_{}}{30}}{\displaystyle \frac{T^4}{\sqrt{\lambda }M_\mathrm{p}}}.`$ (6)
In supersymmetric version $`g_{}300`$ provided the reheat temperature is more than the masses of the superpartners. It is worth mentioning that the scale factor during radiation era follows $`a(t)t^{1/4}`$, which is contrary to the standard Big Bang scenario where $`a(t)t^{1/2}`$. However, we must not forget that the derivation is based on the fact that we are in a regime where $`\rho >2\lambda `$. In Eq. (5), after the end of inflation the first term in the right-hand-side dominates the second. If we assume adiabatic expansion of the Universe $`aT^1`$, then we can rewrite Eq. (5) as $`Y_{3/2}=(n_{3/2}/n_{\mathrm{rad}})`$. We yield $`dY_{3/2}/dT(\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{tot}}n_{\mathrm{rad}}/HT)`$. We notice that we can integrate the temperature dependence from this equation, and, we mention here that the above expression is exactly the same as in the standard Big Bang case . However, this equation does not produce the correct value of $`Y_{3/2}`$, since the true conserved quantity is the entropy per comoving volume. In our case if we assume the gravitinos do not decay within the time frame we are interested in, then we may be able to get the abundance expression at two different temperatures

$`Y_{3/2}(T){\displaystyle \frac{g_{}(T)}{g_{}(T_{\mathrm{rh}})}}{\displaystyle \frac{n_{\mathrm{rad}}(T_{\mathrm{rh}})\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{tot}}}{H(T_{\mathrm{rh}})}}.`$ (7)
Here we assume that the initial abundance of gravitinos at $`T_{\mathrm{rh}}`$ is known to us, and the dilution factor $`g_{}(T)/g_{}(T_{\mathrm{rh}})`$ takes care of the decrease in the relativistic degrees of freedom. The total cross-section $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{tot}}1/M_\mathrm{p}^2`$, and $`n_{\mathrm{rad}}(T_{\mathrm{rh}})T_{\mathrm{rh}}^3`$, we finally get an expression for the gravitino abundance at temperature $`T`$

$`Y_{3/2}(T1\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})10^3{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\lambda }}{T_{\mathrm{rh}}M_\mathrm{p}}}.`$ (8)
The above expression is an important one and now we are in a position to estimate the abundance for gravitinos. First of all we mention that the abundance equation is in stark contrast to the conventional one $`Y_{3/2}10^2(T_{\mathrm{rh}}/M_\mathrm{p})`$, where the reheat temperature appears in the numerator rather than in denominator. If we assume that after their creation during reheating their number density is conserved, then for $`T_{\mathrm{rh}}10^3\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`\lambda (1\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^4`$, we get an extremely small abundance of gravitinos $`Y_{3/2}10^{25}`$. However, for similar reheat temperature, the conventional Big Bang cosmology would predict the abundance $`Y_{3/2}10^{18}`$. Thus we find extremely low abundance of gravitinos in our case. However, there is a word of caution. The abundance depends on the brane tension and it can be evaluated at ease that increase in brane tension leads to increase in the mass of the inflaton and also the reheat temperature. This eventually leads to extremely high abundance of gravitinos during reheating compared to the ordinary Big Bang case. This could be a potent problem for intermediate range five dimensional Planck mass, which is a common feature in M-theory compactifications. So, all is not well with the brane cosmology, however, for small brane tensions, $`\rho ^2`$ contribution to the Friedmann equation could be beneficial. In order to be a successful candidate for small brane tensions, the issue of baryogenesis becomes very important and this is the discussion we follow next.

An important mechanism for generating baryon asymmetry is through the decay of sfermion condensate proposed in Ref. , known as AD mechanism. Let us consider sfermion condensate denoted by $`\psi `$ and a simple potential for $`\psi `$ which is lifted by breaking supersymmetry at a suitable scale $`V\stackrel{~}{m}^2\psi ^2`$, where $`\stackrel{~}{m}`$ is related to the supersymmetry breaking scale. A large baryon asymmetry can be generated if there is a baryon number violating operator, such as $`A0`$. The baryon number density stored in the sfermion oscillations is given by

$`n_\mathrm{B}=ϵ\left({\displaystyle \frac{\psi _0^2}{M_\mathrm{G}^2}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\rho _\psi }{\stackrel{~}{m}}},`$ (9)
where $`\psi _0`$ is the initial amplitude of the sfermion oscillations, $`M_\mathrm{G}`$ can be assumed to be an intermediate scale, this could be supersymmetric grand unification scale. $`ϵ(\psi _0^2/M_\mathrm{G}^2)`$ is the net baryon number generated by the decay of $`\psi `$. As we know in general that the inflaton begins oscillating when $`Hm_\varphi `$ at $`a=a_\varphi `$ and oscillations of the sfermion begin quite late when $`H\stackrel{~}{m}`$ at $`a=a_\psi `$. One of the most important condition to realize the AD baryogenesis is that the thermalization due to the decay products of the inflaton field must take place after the decay of the AD field, and, $`\rho _{\mathrm{r}\varphi }>\rho _\psi `$, where $`\rho _{\mathrm{r}\varphi }`$ is the energy density in radiation after the inflaton decay. This is mainly required to prevent washing out the baryon asymmetry. This tells us that the inflaton should decay very slowly and possibly via gravitational interactions, however, if this is so, then most probably the Universe would undergo transition from non-conventional to the standard one while the process of reheating. This will happen when $`\rho _\varphi m_\varphi ^2\varphi ^2(a_\varphi /a)^3\lambda `$ at $`a=a_\lambda =(m_\varphi ^2\varphi ^2/\lambda )^{1/3}a_\varphi `$ We picturize a situation where the Universe began with a non-conventional cosmology, then after the end of inflation the inflaton begins oscillating, but the Universe is still non-conventional. When the Hubble parameter drops to a value $`H\stackrel{~}{m}`$ the oscillations in the AD field begins and at this time also the Universe is non-conventional. However, soon after oscillations in the AD field is induced, the transition from non-conventional to the standard cosmology paves its way. Since the mass of the AD field is $`\stackrel{~}{m}m_{3/2}<m_\varphi `$ small compared to the mass of the inflaton, the oscillations in the AD field begin after the inflaton oscillations. This can be estimated by taking $`H\stackrel{~}{m}`$. Since this happens when the Universe is non-conventional; $`H(m_\varphi ^2\varphi ^2/M_\mathrm{p}\sqrt{\lambda })(a_\varphi /a)^3\stackrel{~}{m}`$. We can estimate the scale factor when this happens $`a=a_\psi =(\sqrt{\lambda }/M_\mathrm{p}\stackrel{~}{m})^{1/3}a_\lambda `$. It can be verified easily that $`a_\psi <a_\lambda `$. However, this restricts the five dimensional Planck mass $`M_5<10^{14}`$ GeV. After $`a_\lambda `$ the cosmology becomes the standard one and the Hubble rate is given by $`H\sqrt{\rho }/M_\mathrm{p}`$. In our set-up the inflaton decays when the Universe is already in the standard cosmology, thus we can estimate the scale factor when this happens by equating the Hubble parameter to the decay rate of the inflaton; $`H(m_\varphi \varphi /M_\mathrm{p})(a_\varphi /a_\lambda )^{3/2}(a_\lambda /a)^{3/2}\mathrm{\Gamma }_\varphi =(m_\varphi ^3/M_\mathrm{p}^2)`$. Notice that the decay rate of the inflaton is via the gravitational coupling. This yields $`a=a_{\mathrm{d}\varphi }=(\lambda M_\mathrm{p}^2/m_\varphi ^6)^{1/3}a_\lambda `$. It can be verified that $`a_\varphi <a_\psi <a_\lambda <a_{\mathrm{d}\varphi }`$, this also requires to use the constraint on the mass of the inflaton; $`m_\varphi 10^5M_\mathrm{p}^{1/3}\lambda ^{1/6}`$ . During the oscillations of the AD field, the energy density decreases in the same fashion as in the case of inflaton. We can estimate the energy density in the AD field by $`\rho _\psi =\stackrel{~}{m}^2\psi _0^2(a_\psi /a)^3=(\stackrel{~}{m}\sqrt{\lambda }\psi _0^2/M_\mathrm{p})(a_\lambda /a)^3`$. It can be easily verified that for larger $`\psi _0`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\varphi /\mathrm{\Gamma }_\psi >1`$ for the sfermion decay rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\psi (\stackrel{~}{m}^3/\psi ^2)`$ . However, in this case an important factor is that thermalization due to the decay of the inflaton field must happen after the full decay of the AD field.

Once the Universe becomes radiation dominated, the energy density of the relativistic decay products of the inflaton can be given by $`\rho _{\mathrm{r}\varphi }=(m_\varphi ^6/M_\mathrm{p}^2)(a_{\mathrm{d}\varphi }/a_\lambda )^4(a_\lambda /a)^4=(\lambda ^{4/3}M_\mathrm{p}^{2/3}/m_\varphi ^2)(a_\lambda /a)^4`$, and, the Hubble parameter is given by $`H=(\lambda ^{2/3}/m_\varphi M_\mathrm{p}^{2/3})(a_\lambda /a)^2`$. Now we must estimate when the AD field decays, following Refs.  and  we equate $`H\mathrm{\Gamma }_\psi \stackrel{~}{m}^3/\psi ^2`$. This takes place when the scale factor is given by $`a=a_{\mathrm{d}\psi }=(\lambda ^{7/6}\psi _0^2/\stackrel{~}{m}^4m_\varphi M_\mathrm{p}^{5/3})^{1/5}a_\lambda `$. It can be verified that $`\rho _{\mathrm{r}\varphi }(a_{\mathrm{d}\psi })>\rho _\psi (a_{\mathrm{d}\psi })`$. Now we have to make sure that the thermalization of the inflaton field happens after the decay of the the AD field. For that we need to estimate the thermalization rate of the inflaton field. Following the arguments given in Refs. and  we get $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{T}n_\varphi \sigma m_\varphi \varphi ^2(a_\varphi /a)^3(\alpha ^2/m_\varphi ^2)(a/a_{\mathrm{d}\varphi })^2\alpha ^2(\lambda ^{1/3}m_\varphi /M_\mathrm{p}^{4/3})(a_\lambda /a)`$, where $`n_\varphi `$ is the number density of the relativistic particles, $`\sigma `$ is the cross-section and $`\alpha `$ is the fine structure constant. The thermalization of the Universe occurs when $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{T}H`$, and, $`a_\mathrm{T}=\alpha ^2(\lambda ^{1/3}M_\mathrm{p}^{2/3}/m_\varphi ^2)a_\lambda `$. At this point we can also check that $`a_{\mathrm{d}\psi }<a_\mathrm{T}`$ for $`m_\varphi 10^5M_5`$, and $`\alpha 10^{3/2}`$. The condition is satisfied for any reasonable value of $`\psi _0`$ less than the four dimensional Planck mass.

At $`a_\mathrm{T}`$ we can compute the final baryon to entropy ratio given by . We also have to compute the entropy, which is given by: $`s=(\rho _{\mathrm{r}\varphi }(a_\mathrm{T}))^{3/4}(\alpha ^6m_\varphi ^{9/2}/M_\mathrm{p}^{3/2})`$ and finally the baryon to entropy ratio can be given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{n_\mathrm{B}}{s}}={\displaystyle \frac{ϵ\psi _0^4m_\varphi ^{3/2}}{M_\mathrm{G}^2\sqrt{\lambda }M_\mathrm{p}^{3/2}}}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ\psi _0^4m_\varphi ^{3/2}}{M_\mathrm{G}^2M_5^3M_\mathrm{p}^{1/2}}}.`$ (10)
It is noticeable that the baryon to entropy ratio does not depend on $`\stackrel{~}{m}`$. However, it does depend on the brane tension and the initial amplitude of the AD field oscillations. The last step in the above equation has been been expressed in terms of the five dimensional Planck mass. For an example, we may take $`M_\mathrm{G}10^{15}`$ GeV, $`m_\varphi 10^5M_5`$, we get an estimation of the initial amplitude of oscillations in the AD field $`\psi _0=(10^{37}/ϵ)^{1/4}(M_5/\mathrm{GeV})^{3/8}\mathrm{GeV}`$, where we have taken the observed baryon to entropy ratio to be $`n_\mathrm{B}/s10^{10}`$. It is evident that the value of $`\psi _0`$ is more than $`\varphi _{\mathrm{COBE}}10^2M_5`$. However, for smaller values of $`M_5`$ the amplitude could be comparable to $`\varphi _{\mathrm{COBE}}`$. In that case, situation could be different. Here we have implicitly assumed that the AD field decays after the decay of the inflaton. For smaller values of $`\psi _0`$, the situation could be reversed, in that case the AD field would decay before the inflaton decay. In such a case, the entropy produced would be simply given by the inflaton decay and we do not have to bother about actual thermalization of the relativistic particles.

Here we summarise by saying that the brane-world cosmology differs quite a lot in their predictions from the standard cosmology. Here we have looked upon two issues, the gravitino abundance and the baryogenesis. Other interesting issues should also be taken into account and work in this direction is in progress.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The author is supported by INLAKS foundation. The author is thankful to Andrew Liddle for fruitful discussion.