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# Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A

## 1 Introduction

The observational discoveries (Smith & Terrile 1984) of $`\beta `$ Pic type dusty rings provide tantalizing hints of residual planetesimal disks similar to the Kuiper belt may exist around other stars (Artymowicz 1997). Perhaps the most intriguing dust rings are those around HR 4796A (Schneider et al. 1999) and HD 141569 (Weinberger et al. 1999). The sharp surface density variations near the ring boundaries of HR 4796A are remarkably similar to that found around Saturn’s F ring (Cuzzi et al. 1984) and Uranus’ $`ϵ`$ ring (Elliot & Nicholson 1984). Under the action of viscous stress, these differentially rotating disks have a general tendency to diffuse in the radial direction (Lynden-Bell & Pringle 1974). The expansion of planetary rings are prevented by the tidal torques of nearby shepherding satellites (Goldreich & Tremaine 1979, 1982). The structural resemblance between circumstellar and planetary rings naturally leads to the conjecture that the former, too, may be perturbed by nearby hypothetical planets (Jura et al. 1995). The reported azimuthal brightness asymmetry (Telesco et al. 2000) provides a supporting evidence for the scenario that the ring may be gravitationally perturbed by a planetary or stellar companion (Wyatt et al. 2000).

Another motivation for invoking the embedded planet scenario is the perseverance of the ring itself. The NICMOS image shows that the surface brightness has a maximum at 70 AU with a sharp decline at the smaller radii and an inner cutoff near 50 AU. Outside this region, the surface brightness decreases more gradually with radius to less than half of the peak brightness at 90AU (Schneider et al. 1999). The observed ratio of flux from the ring to that from the star increases with wavelength at 1.1 and 2.6 $`\mu m`$, indicating the mean particle size is larger than these wavelength. But, using the flux ratio at 10 and 18 $`\mu m`$ and assuming a Mie emissivity, Telesco et al. (2000) inferred a “characteristic” diameter for the dust particles to $`23\mu m`$ which is in contrast to the lower particle-size limit of $`10\mu m`$ inferred from the $`60\mu m`$ radiation by Jura (et al. 1993). The observed spectral energy distribution (SED) with wavelength $`\lambda =1010^3\mu m`$ (Koerner et al. 1998) has been modeled. Using single-size particles ($`>100\mu m`$), Augereau et al. (1999) were able to fit the observed SED between $`1010^2\mu m`$ but not the resolved images of the ring. Both the SED and the resolved images were better modeled with reprocessing by particles with a power-law collisional particle-size distribution (Heller 1970, Mathis et al. 1977) with adopted minimum ($`a_{\mathrm{min}}`$) and maximum ($`a_{\mathrm{max}}`$) sizes of $`10\mu m`$ and a few meters respectively. In these models, since the models are applied to SED in the wavelength range of $`1010^3\mu m`$, the actual values chosen for $`a_{\mathrm{min}}`$ and $`a_{\mathrm{max}}`$ do not significantly affect the actual match.

With the stellar luminosity $`L_{}=35L_{}`$, small particles, if they exist, would be blown away by the radiation pressure on the time-scale of a few hundred years (Backman & Paresce 1993). In the models adopted by Augereau et al. (1999), all particles with sizes larger than $`a_{\mathrm{min}}`$ would survive the radiative blow-out effect. But for the models proposed by Telesco et al. (2000), the “characteristic-size” particles would not be able to remain. In a companion paper, Wyatt et al. (2000) suggested that these small particles are probably the collisional fragment of a population of larger particles. In this replenishment scenario, it is still essential for the parent particles to have an adequate reservoir of total mass to replenish the $`\mu m`$-size particles for HR 4796A’s life span $`\tau _{}=8\times 10^6`$ yr (Stauffer et al. 1995, Jayawardhana et al. 1998). In order to be consistent with the observed SED and ring structure, most of these parent particles must also be located within $`70\pm 20`$ AU and have a surface density comparable to or less than that inferred by Augereau et al. (1999). One or more nearby planets may provide both the supply and confinement mechanism for the parent particles.

An important issue to be resolved is the required mass for such perturbers. In HR 4796A, such confining planets must either form or migrate to the vicinity of the rings (which is well beyond the orbit of Neptune) within $`\tau _{}`$. In conventional theories, the first stage of planetary formation is the emergence of planetesimals and solid cores (Safronov 1969; Wetherill 1980). Only after these cores have acquired a few Earth-masses does dynamical accretion of gas become possible (Pollack et al. 1996). But, beyond the orbit of Neptune, the formation of a few Earth masses core requires at least several $`10^7`$ yr ($`>\tau _{}`$) unless the mass of solid material is much larger than that inferred from the minimum mass solar nebula model (Lissauer 1993). Assuming an initial surface density 10-20 times that of the minimum mass solar nebula (which corresponds to 150-300 $`M_{}`$ within the annulus between $`5882`$ AU), Kenyon et al. (1999) found it possible to form planetesimals larger than $`10^3`$ km within $`10^7`$ yr. They further suggested that gravitational perturbation by these large objects may excite large velocity dispersion that may lead to disruptive collisions. However, if this assumed surface density of the dust particles is augmented for the solar composition, the inferred mass of the gaseous ring ($`0.050.1M_{}`$ within $`70\pm 12`$ AU) would make it gravitationally unstable. Cameron (1978) and Boss (1998) have suggested that gravitational instability in the disk may indeed lead to the formation of giant planets directly from the disk gas. But, some numerical simulations show that the growth of non axisymmetric perturbations excited by gravitational instability are more likely to induce efficient transfer of angular momentum in the disk rather than fragmentation (Nelson et al. 1998, Burkert & Bodenheimer 1996). The initial surface density required for this conjecture is also large compared with the mass inferred for the outer regions of typical protostellar disks (Beckwith & Sargent 1993a).

In this paper, we examine the persistence of the dust ring structure around HR 4796A. Since the host star is only $`8\times 10^6`$ yrs old, we hypothesize the existence of some residual gas analogous to those found around several young stellar objects with similar ages (Beckwith et al. 1990, Beckwith & Sargent 1993b, Zuckerman et al. 1995, Hartmann et al. 1998). An upper limit 1-7 $`M_{}`$ of gas has been inferred from the mm continuum radiation by Greaves et al. (2000). (A larger gas mass may exist if a substantial amount of heavy element is depleted from the gas phase and is stored in particles larger than a few mm.) We explore the interaction between the dust, radiation, and residual gas in the disk. In §2, we briefly recapitulate the physical interaction between particles, stellar radiation, and residual gas. We show that the hydrodynamic drag tends to promote the effect of radiation pressure and increase the critical particle size for radiative blow out. In §3, we provide some constraints on the size and total mass of particles in the ring around HR 4796A. We show that variations in the surface distribution of the gas provide a favorable condition for modest (more than 100 $`\mu m`$) size particles to congregate into a dust ring. This ring structure is preserved during and after the depletion of the disk gas. We suggest that these particles provide a supply of the dominant contributors to the IR emission of the dust ring. Finally in §4, we discuss the implications of these results on planet formation and the ubiquity of similar rings around other early type stars.

## 2 The Dynamics of Residual Dust Particles

In this section, we examine the interaction between stellar radiation, residual disk gas, and dust particles of various sizes.

### 2.1 The gaseous disk

For illustrative purpose, we consider a simple model in which a disk of dust particles is embedded in a residual gaseous disk. The only free parameters in this model are those which describe the gas surface density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(R)`$ as a function of the disk radius $`R`$. All other gas properties are deduced in a self-consistent way.

The qualitative results presented here depend on the gross global gas distribution in the disk and are insensitive to the detailed expression of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(R)`$. In principle, the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ distribution is determined by the efficiency of angular momentum transfer (e.g. via viscosity from turbulence) in the disk and the tidal perturbation by planetary or stellar companions. The former mechanism generally leads $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ to attain a power law function of $`R`$ in most regions of the disk (Lin & Bodenheimer 1981; Ruden & Lin 1986). The latter process leads to a localized $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ variation such as gaps (Lin & Papaloizou 1979; 1993) and confined rings (Goldreich & Tremaine 1978). Although low-mass companions may not be able to induce the formation of a gap, they can nevertheless introduce variations in the surface density of the disk. Self-gravitational effects will not affect the disk structure as the surface density in our models is always orders of magnitude smaller than any critical value (see Toomre 1964). For computational purpose (e.g. to produce our plots), we adopt the following generic prescription in which the global variation of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is non monotonic:

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0\times \left(\begin{array}{ccc}d\left(\frac{R}{R_0}\right)^{2.5}& if:& R<R_1\\ e^{\frac{(RR_0)^2}{\delta R_0^2}}& if:& R_1RR_0\\ \left(\frac{R}{R_0}\right)^{2.5}& if:& R>R_0\end{array}\right)`$ (4)
where $`d`$ is a model parameter which determines the amplitude of a local maximum. The magnitude of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ at some fiducial radial location $`R_0`$ is set to be $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$. For $`R<R_1`$ and $`R>R_0`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ decreases monotonically with $`R`$ following a power law (with an index -2.5) which is somewhat steeper than that for the minimum mass solar nebula model (Hayashi et al. 1985). But in the outer region of the disk, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is likely to decline more rapidly with $`R`$ as inferred from observation (Mundy et al. 1996, Hartmann et al. 1998). Since our results are insensitive to the detailed nature of the global radial dependence of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, we choose such a power law so that the disk mass remains finite at large $`R`$.

The inner and outer regions of the disk are connected through a transition zone at $`R_1RR_0`$. In this zone the surface density has the shape of a Gaussian with a width of $`\delta R_0`$. The value of $`R_1`$ is set to satisfy $`(R_1R_0)=\delta R_0(2.5\mathrm{ln}(R_1/R_0)\mathrm{ln}d)^{1/2}`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is continuous. In all our models, we choose $`d<1`$ which is reasonable because the continuum flux in the mid-IR wavelength range is observed to be more intense than that in the near-IR range in several protostellar disks (Hillenbrand et al. 1998). One possible interpretation is that these disks are more depleted in the inner region or better preserved in the outer region as in the context of circumbinary disks (Jensen & Mathieu 1997). On the theoretical side, such a $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ variation is expected if a) the viscosity decreases rapidly with radius (Ruden & Pollack 1991), b) the inner region is depleted by either a stellar or a disk wind (Shu et al. 1994, Konigl & Ruden 1993), c) HR4796A is a A0V star and a strong source of UV radiation which could lead to photo evaporation in some regions of the disk (Shu et al. 1993) and quench gas infall along the rotation axis and onto the inner regions of the disk (Yorke et al. 1995), d) the disk is depleted by the formation of one or more planets which are expected to first emerge in the inner regions of the disk (Jura et al. 1993), or e) the structure of disk around HR4796A may be tidally perturbed by the stellar companion HR4796B (Augereau et al. 1999), especially if the binary orbit is eccentric (Korycansky & Papaloizou 1995). The difference between the inner and outer regions of the disk can be minimized by setting $`d`$ close to unity. Finally, the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ variation in the transition region $`R_1RR_0`$ can also represent a tidal perturbation of a nearby embedded planetary companion.

The value of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ is set such that the mass $`M_g=2\pi _{R_0\delta R_0}^{R_0+\delta R_0}R\mathrm{\Sigma }(R)𝑑R`$ contained within a ring centered on $`R_0`$ with a half width $`\delta R_0`$ is to be specified as a model parameter. This mass is to be spread over a ring with a half width $`\delta R_0=1020`$ AU centered on a radial location $`R_0=70`$AU. In our models $`M_g`$ is 1-100 Earth masses ($`M_{}`$). The corresponding $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is orders of magnitude smaller than that for the minimum mass solar nebula model at a similar distance from the central star (Hayashi, Nakazawa & Nakagawa 1985).

The outer regions of the disk are optically thin such that every dust particle in the disk receives direct irradiation from the central object. The particles are heated to the local black body temperature (small grains may be hotter because they cannot radiate efficiently, Chiang & Goldreich 1997). The luminosity and mass of HR 4796A are $`L_{}=35L_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`M_{}=2.5M_{}`$ respectively (Jura et al. 1993). The temperature of the dust grains can be given by:

$$T_d=\left(\frac{L_{}}{16\pi aR^2}\right)^{1/4}$$
(5)
where $`a`$ is the radiation density constant. This upper limit estimation holds for particles larger than the typical wave length of the radiation and assuming an albedo of zero. A more careful treatment of the optical properties of the particles is not necessary in the context of the effects studied in this paper.

If gas molecules collide frequently with the dust particles, they can also attain a similar temperature, $`T_{high}=T_d`$. In the low gas density limit, however, thermal conduction between the dust and the gas is less efficient than the gas radiative processes. As a consequence of this thermal imbalance, the gas temperature may decrease to a minimum value ($`T_{low}=10`$K) which is comparable to that of the radiation background field (Preibisch, Sonnhalter and Yorke 1995; Yorke & Lin in preparation). In general, $`T_{low}<T_{gas}<T_{high}`$ and the associated sound speed $`c_s=\sqrt{T_{gas}R_{gas}/\mu }`$, where $`R_{gas}`$ is the gas constant and $`\mu `$ the mean molecular weight (i.e. $`\mu =2.353`$ for an $`HeH_2`$ mixture). The disk thickness is determined by its pressure scale height $`H_p=c_s/\mathrm{\Omega }`$ where $`\mathrm{\Omega }(GM_{}/R^3)^{1/2}`$ is the Keplerian frequency. At $`R=70`$ AU, $`0.03<H_p/R<0.1`$ for the low and high temperature limits. For the parameters we have adopted, the disk gas is likely to be in the low temperature and small thickness range. The local gas density in the midplane of the disk can be estimated as $`\rho =\mathrm{\Sigma }/2H_p`$ and the pressure $`p`$ becomes $`p=c_s^2\rho `$.

The azimuthal orbital frequency of the gas ($`\omega `$) is given by the condition for hydrostatic equilibrium between the gravitational potential of the central object and the sum of centrifugal acceleration and the radial pressure gradient

$$\frac{GM_{}}{R^2}=\omega ^2R\frac{1}{\rho }p,$$
(6)
which leads, in first order approximation, to a local deviation $`dV`$ from the Keplerian profile of (see Whipple 1972)

$$dV(\omega \mathrm{\Omega })R=V_\varphi \mathrm{\Omega }R=\frac{1}{2\mathrm{\Omega }\rho }p\frac{c_s^2}{2\mathrm{\Omega }R}\frac{\mathrm{ln}\rho }{\mathrm{ln}R}$$
(7)
where $`V_\varphi =\omega R`$ is the azimuthal speed. In §2.4, we consider the case that this angular frequency may be modified by the particles’ drag when they become the dominant constituent of the disk.

Results under specific assumptions for the free parameters of this model will be discussed in the §3.

### 2.2 Radial drift of dust grains

The particles are drifting radially under two independent physical effects: 1) hydrodynamic drag by the gas and 2) the radiation pressure of photons emitted by the central object.

#### 2.2.1 Departure from Keplerian flow

While the pressure gradient induces the gas to attain a finite $`dV`$, the particles’ motion is determined by the gravity of the central star, the hydrodynamic drag by the disk gas, and the drag and pressure by the stellar radiation. Radial inward and outward drift of the particles can be generated by the non-Keplerian motion of the gas. Small particles are well coupled to the gas, thus they also move on non-Keplerian orbits provided their Stokes number $`St\tau _f\mathrm{\Omega }<<1.0`$ (Weidenschilling 1977). The friction time for a spherical particle in the Epstein regime (e.g. Klahr & Henning 1997) is given by

$$\tau _f=\frac{a_d\rho _d}{c_s\rho }=\frac{3m_d}{4A_dc_s\rho },$$
(8)
where $`a_d`$ is the particle’s radius, $`m_d`$ its mass, $`A_d=\pi a_d^2`$ its cross section, $`\rho _d`$ its density, $`c_s`$ the thermal velocity of the gas and $`\rho `$ the local gas density. In the case of transonic velocities (which is irrelevant in our model) $`c_s`$ has to be replaced by $`\sqrt{c_s^2+dv^2}`$ with the relative velocity ($`dv`$) between the particle and the gas (H. Yorke 1999, private communication). The critical particle size which demarcates the small and large particle size range then becomes

$$a_0=\mathrm{\Sigma }/2\rho _d$$
(9)
which is a few cm for a minimum mass solar nebula model at 70 AU and smaller for a depleted gaseous disk. In our standard models (see Sect. 3.5.1 and Sect. 3.5.2 ), $`a_0=0.06`$ cm at $`R_0`$.

In the solar system today, the absence of gas makes $`St>>1`$ for all particles. Modest-size particles spiral inwards due to the Poynting Robertson effect (see below), but spherical particles (with $`\rho _d=2.5`$gm cm<sup>-3</sup>) with size

$$a_d<a_1\frac{3}{16\pi }\frac{L_{}}{GM_{}c\rho _d}3.2\mu m$$
(10)
would be blown out by the radiation pressure on hyperbolic orbits as “beta meteorites” (see Grün et al. 1985) on a time-scale comparable to the local dynamical time-scale $`\tau _d\mathrm{\Omega }^110^2`$ yr (see below). For our considerations we neglect particles smaller than the typical wavelength of the radiation (No Mie scattering).

Larger particles would remain bound to the host star. They can even remain on a circular orbit with a sub Keplerian azimuthal velocity

$$v_\varphi ^{}=\sqrt{\frac{GM_{}\frac{L_{}A_d}{4\pi m_dc}}{R}},$$
(11)
where $`v_\varphi ^{}`$ denotes the particles theoretical velocity in the absence of gas, which is an important quantity (see below). While the particles are orbiting around the central star they also experience a radiative head wind due to the aberration of its photons. In gas-free environments, such as our own solar system, this Poynting-Robertson radiative drag effect induces the azimuthal velocity ($`v_\varphi `$) of small particles to change at a rate

$$\dot{v}_\varphi =\frac{L_{}}{4\pi R^2}\frac{A_d}{m_dc^2}v_\varphi .$$
(12)
This process leads an inward drift for all remaining particles with $`a_d>a_1`$.

In a gaseous environment, the combined influence of hydrodynamic and radiative drag induces the particles’ azimuthal velocity to change at a rate

$$\dot{v}_\varphi =\frac{(v_\varphi V_\varphi )}{\tau _f}\frac{L_{}}{4\pi R^2}\frac{A_d}{m_dc^2}v_\varphi .$$
(13)
If $`\tau _f`$ is small in comparison to the relevant evolutionary time-scales (see Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A and Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A), an equilibrium would be rapidly established with $`\dot{v}_\varphi =0`$ so that

$$v_\varphi =\frac{V_\varphi }{1+\tau _f\left(\frac{L_{}}{4\pi R^2}\frac{A_d}{m_dc^2}\right)}.$$
(14)
Substituting $`\tau _f`$, we find

$$v_\varphi =\frac{V_\varphi }{1+\left(\frac{L_{}}{4\pi R^2}\frac{3}{4c^2c_s\rho }\right)}$$
(15)
which is independent of particle sizes (as long as $`St<<1`$ and the particles are larger than the wavelength of the radiation)!

Around young stellar objects where the particles are embedded in a gaseous circumstellar disk environment, the term $`dvv_\varphi V_\varphi `$ (see Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A) is typically less than of 1 mm/s at 70 AU while $`dV10^3`$cm/s. Note that the Poynting Robertson effect is insignificant until $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is depleted below $`3L_{}/8\pi R^2c^2\mathrm{\Omega }`$ which is not only more than four orders of magnitude below that for our standard model and that inferred from mm continuum radiation for typical protostellar disks but also smaller than that inferred for the CO gas around some young stellar objects (Zuckerman et al. 1995). (The actual gas content may be even larger if a significant amount of CO gas is depleted due to grain condensation.) Thus, in our estimate of the particles’ motion, we only consider contributions from $`dV`$ and neglect the Poynting Robertson effect.

#### 2.2.2 Radial drift

In addition to the radiative drag in the azimuthal direction, the stellar photons also exert on the particles a radiative pressure in the radial direction. In general, the radial drift $`v_r`$ of small particles (with $`St<1`$) results from the non-Keplerian motion and the radial radiation pressure can be obtained from the radial component of the equation of motion such that

$$\frac{v_r}{t}=\frac{v_r}{\tau _f}+\frac{v_{\varphi }^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{R}\frac{GM_{}}{R^2}+\frac{L_{}}{4\pi R^2}\frac{A_d}{m_dc}.$$
(16)
In order to simplify work we define $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}(v_\varphi ^{}/R)`$ which is the orbital frequency with respect to the radial radiation pressure (see Eq. 11). Note that $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}<\mathrm{\Omega }`$ in general. Thus it follows

$$\frac{v_r}{t}=\frac{v_r}{\tau _f}+\frac{\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^{}R+dV^{}\right)^2}{R}\mathrm{\Omega }_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}R.$$
(17)
Here $`dV^{}v_\varphi \mathrm{\Omega }^{}R`$ denotes the deviation of the gas from the modified Keplerian orbit. Since the radius dependence of gravity and radiation pressure is identical, the outward radiation pressure effectively reduces the gravitational attraction on the particles imposed by the host star everywhere (Gustafson 1994).

The “characteristic size” of particles inferred by Telesco et al. (2000) is smaller than $`a_1`$ such that they are expected to be blown away by the radiation pressure of HR4796A. In order to remove this dilemma, Wyatt et al. (1999) suggested that although these small particles are continually being blown out, they are also being replenished by collisional fragmentation of larger particles which are not significantly affected by the radiation pressure. In a gas free environment, the parent body size must be larger than $`a_1`$.

But, around many young stellar objects, small particles are embedded in a residual gaseous background. The gas generally does not directly experience the radiation pressure because its molecular opacity is too small. Thus, the gas azimuthal speed ($`V_\varphi `$) is independent of $`L_{}`$ and it is given by eq. (6). The discussions in §2.2.1 indicate that particles with $`St<1`$ (or equivalently with $`a_d<a_0`$) have $`v_\varphi V_\varphi `$ (see eq. 15). As the hydrodynamic drag forces these small particles to nearly corotate with the gas, they attain a finite $`v_r`$ as a consequence of being out of hydrostatic equilibrium. When a steady state is established,

$$v_r=\tau _f2\mathrm{\Omega }^{}dV^{}\mathrm{for}St<<1,$$
(18)
in the limit that the quadratic term $`dv^2`$ is small in comparison to $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}Rdv^{}`$ (cf Weidenschilling 1977; He used another definition of $`dV`$!). The sign of $`dV^{}`$ can now be negative or positive, depending on whether the particle is less or even more sub-Keplerian than the gas. Relatively large particles follow in a similar fashion,

$$v_r=dV^{}\mathrm{for}St=1,$$
(19)
and

$$v_r=\frac{2dV^{}}{\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\tau _f}\mathrm{for}St>>1.$$
(20)
Note that the effect of radiation pressure decreases with the particle size. From this equation one can deduce that in regions where $`dV>0`$ (as a positive of a negative gas pressure gradient), all the particles would migrate outwards since their azimuthal speed is always slightly hyper-Keplerian, just like the gas. But in the more common situation where $`dV0`$ (which corresponds to a negative gas pressure gradient as expected in unperturbed regions of protostellar disks), hydrodynamic drag is more important than radiative drag for all particles with

$$a_d>a_2\frac{3L_{}}{32\pi R^2c\mathrm{\Omega }\rho _ddV}$$
(21)
so that they undergo orbital decay. In contrast, particles with $`a_d<a_2`$ are blown away by the stellar radiation pressure (see Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A and Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A). This minimal size for the given parameters of HR 4796A is $`a_2100200\mu `$m for almost all disk radii $`R`$. Only at those location where variations in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ lead to a reduction in $`dV`$ is $`a_2`$ greater than $`500\mu `$m. In the location where $`dV`$ vanishes or attains a negative value, $`a_2`$ becomes infinite and particles of all sizes (including planets) are prevented from inward radial drift.

We note that the magnitude of $`a_2`$ is larger than $`a_1`$ in eq(10) by a factor $`(R^2/H_p^2)(d\mathrm{ln}\rho /d\mathrm{ln}R)^110100`$ because the small particles are forced to corotate with the gas such that a centrifugal balance is always maintained. Thus, if they are embedded in a residual gaseous disk, the “characteristic-size” ($`\mu m`$-size) particles in HR 4796A inferred by Telesco et al. (2000) must be supplied by parent bodies which are at least two order of magnitude larger than them.

In a gaseous disk environment, all particles with $`a_d`$ smaller than both $`a_0`$ and $`a_2`$ are blown away by the radiation pressure on the dynamical time-scale $`\tau _d`$. In the limit that $`a_0>a_2`$, particles with sizes $`a_0>a_d>a_2`$ can achieve both positive and negative radial drift velocities depending on the local gas pressure gradient. In §3, we present numerical results to show that these changes in the direction of particles’ radial drift lead to the particles’ accumulation into rings. Note that the value of $`a_2`$ does not directly depend on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. As the disk gas is depleted, neither $`dV`$ nor $`a_2`$ are strongly affected. But, $`a_0`$ is linearly proportional to $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. When $`a_0`$ decreases below $`a_d`$ of some particles, they decouple from the gas and their azimuthal velocity becomes closer to the local modified Keplerian value $`v_\varphi ^{}`$ (see eq. 11). Since their $`a_d`$ is larger than $`a_2`$ initially and $`a_2`$ decreases, the radiation pressure and the Poynting Robertson effect have a weaker effect than the hydrodynamic drag throughout the evolution such that their radial drift velocity is described by eq. 20. Eventually, the depletion of the residual gas increases $`\tau _f`$ and reduces $`v_r`$.

### 2.3 Constrains on the disk profile

We already noted that the trapping mechanism for particles is located at places, where the disk becomes Keplerian, as the radial pressure gradient vanishes, i.e.

$$p=\left(c_s^2\rho \right)=\left(c_s\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }\right)=0.$$
(22)
Since $`\mathrm{\Omega }R^{3/2}`$, the general criterion for the ring formation is

$$c_s\mathrm{\Sigma }R^{3/2}.$$
(23)
This criterion can now be used to determine the local shape of the Surface density profile. We consider three distinct cases: 1) an isothermal disk($`T=T_{low}`$), 2) an optically thin disk in radiation equilibrium ($`T=T_{high}`$), and 3) an optically thick viscous disk.

In the isothermal case $`c_s`$ is constant such that the trapping mechanism requires $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ to increase locally as $`R^{3/2}`$ regardless its magnitude and radial extent. In the standard optical thin case, (perhaps most relevant to the case of HR4796A), $`c_sR^{\frac{1}{4}}`$ as $`TR^{\frac{1}{2}}`$. The necessary power-law $`R`$dependence in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is only slightly steeper than in the previous case: i.e. $`\mathrm{\Sigma }R^{\frac{7}{4}}`$.

In an optically thick disk which is heated by the local viscous dissipation, the disk’s mid plane temperature $`T_c=T_e\left(3\tau _r/8\right)^{1/4}`$ where the vertical optical thickness $`\tau _r\kappa \mathrm{\Sigma }/2`$ and the Rosseland mean opacity $`\kappa =\kappa _oT_c^2`$ (Lin & Papaloizou 1985). If the disk is approximately in a steady state, its effective temperature $`T_eR^{\frac{3}{4}}`$ (e.g. Lynden-Bell & Pringle 1974, Bell et al. 1997) such that $`T_c\kappa _o^{1/2}T_e^2\mathrm{\Sigma }^{1/2}R^{3/2}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{1/2}`$. Particles are trapped in regions where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\kappa _o^{1/5}R^{9/5}`$ which is similar to the isothermal and the optically thin cases.

The dominant contributors to the disk opacity are grains. Across some critical locations (dust destruction zone) in the disk where the grains sublimate, the opacity increases mainly through changes in the scaling constant $`\kappa _o`$ (Ruden & Lin 1986). Particles may be trapped in regions where $`\kappa _oR^9`$. A full 2-D detailed model is needed to address the issue whether such a transition may indeed be a viable effect to prevent dust in form of meter sized solid bodies from drifting into the sun and help collect bodies at certain transition radii from the sun to form the terrestrial planets. For the present context, the ring around HR 4796 A is well outside the ice and silicate destruction zones.

### 2.4 Particle-dominant flow

In the above discussion, we neglect the feedback effect of hydrodynamic drag on the gas flow. In principle, the gas flow may be perturbed by the motion of the particles when the particles dominate in mass surface density ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }_d`$) over the surrounding gas (Nakagawa, Sekiya, & Hayashi 1986). In the Kuiper Belt today, no sign of residual gas has been detected. Gas may be preferentially depleted prior to the depletion of the dust particles. When the surface density of the gas ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$) decreases below that of the dust ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }_d`$), the hydrodynamic drag between them may induce the gas to comove with the particles rather than forcing the particles to corotate with the gas. In reality, however, the only particles which can provide an efficient momentum transfer with the gas are those with sizes $`a_d<<a_0`$ (Nakagawaet al. 1986). During the depletion of gas, $`a_0`$ decreases with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, leading to a reduction in the total fraction of particles which are well coupled with the gas. Thus, the gas speed is unlikely to be significantly affected by the particles’ drag effect.

For those regions of the disk with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }>\mathrm{\Sigma }_d`$, gas flow would be affected by the hydrodynamic drag of the particles near the midplane of the disk if the total mass density of the particle $`n_dm_d`$ exceeds the gas density $`\rho \mathrm{\Sigma }/H_p`$ (Weidenschilling & Cuzzi 1993). (Similarly, particle accumulation due to variations in the radial drift speed may also lead to local enhancement of particle density.) The average mass density of the particles $`\rho _{\mathrm{dust}}`$ is determined by their scale height $`H_d=\sigma _d/\mathrm{\Omega }`$ where $`\sigma _d`$ is the velocity dispersion of the particles. In a turbulent medium, the particles are being stirred by the dispersive motion of the gas. Since the turbulent speed of the gas is unlikely to exceed its sound speed, particles with $`a_d>a_0`$ would sediment toward the mid plane and attain a scale height $`H_d<H`$. With a substantially sub sonic turbulent speed, sedimentation is also possible for sufficiently small ($`a_d<a_0`$) particles which couple well with the gas. Only after $`\rho _{\mathrm{dust}}`$ of the small ($`a_d<a_0`$) particles has exceeded the gas density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }/2H`$, would the gas motion be forced to corotate with the small particles’ $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ of the rather than $`\omega `$. Without a significant differential motion between them and the gas, particles with $`a_1<a_d<a_0`$ would not undergo any further orbital migration. But larger ($`a_d>a_0`$) particles are less affected by the radiation pressure and have a larger $`v_\varphi ^{}`$. Gas drag induced by the residual headwind would continue to drive the larger particles inward though at a much reduced pace.

But, the optical depth of HR4796 A is well below unity and

$$\rho _{dust}=\frac{2L_{disk}}{3\pi L_{}}\frac{\rho _da_d}{H_d}$$
(24)
(see eq. 29 below). For particles of $`a_d=200\mu `$m the density is $`\rho _{dust}<<6.3\times 10^{17}`$g cm<sup>-3</sup>, which is well below the gas density inferred from the minimum mass solar nebula model. For those models we have adopted in this paper, particles have negligible drag effect on the motion of the gas.

## 3 Models for HR 4796A

In this section, we present a scenario for the ring structure around HR 4796A. First, we revisit the two existing models for particle size distribution by analyzing the preferred size of particles for retention. We describe a simple quasi static model in which we assume that HR 4796A had initially a circumstellar gas and dust disk around it. We then show that a dust disk will evolve into a ring structure with sharp edges. We argue such a structure would be preserved after the gas is depleted.

### 3.1 Replenishment of a population of $`\mu m`$-size particles

First, we examine the implication of the scenario proposed by Telesco et al. (2000) in which the dominant contributors to the 10 and 18 $`\mu m`$ radiation from the ring around HR 4796A are $`\mu m`$-size particles. Since the “characteristic” size of the particle is comparable to the wavelength of the photon, the reprocessed radiation by the disk particles

$$L_{disk}=QL_{}\frac{A_d}{4\pi R^2}\frac{M_{char}}{m_d}$$
(25)
where $`Q`$ is the albedo and assumed to be one for large particles and $`dR`$ the radial width of the dust ring. Assuming $`SiO`$-dust particles which have spherical shape and a density $`\rho _d=2.5`$gm cm<sup>-3</sup>, the total mass of those particles with “characteristic” sizes is

$$M_{char}=\frac{16\pi }{3}\frac{L_{disk}}{L_{}}R^2\rho _da_d.$$
(26)
The total IR luminosity of the ring is estimated to be $`L_{disk}/L_{}=5\times 10^3`$ (Jura et al. 1993) so that

$$M_{char}(a_d/1\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m})\times 2.3\times 10^{29}g(a_d/1\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m})\times 38M_{}.$$
(27)
For the all particle size to be at the “characteristic” size $`a_c=12\mu m`$, one would need $`M_{char}48\times 10^3M_{}`$.

If the IR emitting particles are smaller than both $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ they would be blown away from the ring region on a dynamical time-scale $`\tau _d=\mathrm{\Omega }^110^2`$ yr in both gas-rich and gas-free environment. Over the life span of HR4796A ($`\tau _{}=8\times 10^6`$ yr), an amount $`M_{lost}^{char}M_{char}\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _{}300M_{}`$ of characteristic-size particles is lost through blow out by radiation pressure. In order to replenish this loss, Wyatt et al. (2000) proposed that the IR-emitting $`\mu m`$-size particles are collisional fragments of larger parent particles. Unless we are observing HR 4796A in a special epoch, the total amount of mass in the parent particles ($`M_{tot}`$) is likely to be comparable to or larger than $`M_{lost}^{char}`$.

In the model presented by Telesco et al. (2000), only a single population of characteristic $`\mu m`$-size particles is assumed to be responsible for the reprocessing of stellar radiation. In order for the parent particles assumed by Wyatt et al. (2000) to remain inconspicuous, their total surface area must be less than that of the $`\mu m`$-size IR-emitting particles. For a population of parent particles to contribute a major fraction of $`M_{tot}`$, their total area is $`a_d^1`$. Since $`M_{lost}^{char}/M_{char}\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _{}10^5`$, the minimum size for the parent particles is $`a_{min}10^5a_c10cm`$ such that their $`\tau _z`$ is less than that of the IR-emitting $`\mu m`$-size particles.

### 3.2 Particle collisions

The production of $`\mu m`$-size particles requires collisions. The collisional frequency for individual characteristic particles is

$$\nu _cn_dA_d\sigma _d,$$
(28)
where $`\sigma _d`$ is the velocity dispersion of the particles. The spatial number density of those particles which contribute to most of the IR radiation is

$$n_d=\frac{M_{char}}{m_d4\pi RdRH_d}\frac{4R}{3dR}\frac{L_{disk}}{L_{}}\frac{\rho _da_d}{m_dH_d}.$$
(29)
For photons with wavelength smaller than the characteristic size of the particles, the particles’ opacity is determined by their geometric cross section $`A_d`$. The optical depth in the direction normal to the plane of the disk is $`\tau _z(M_{char}/m_d)(A_d/2\pi RdR)L_{disk}/L_{}`$. From Eqs. (26) and (28) we find the collisional frequency for IR emitting particles to be

$$\nu _c\nu _{cI}=\frac{R}{dR}\frac{L_{disk}}{L_{}}\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _z\mathrm{\Omega }<<\tau _d^1.$$
(30)
If the dominant contributors of the IR radiation are $`\mu m`$-size particles as postulated by Wyatt et al. (2000), they would be blown out on a dynamical time-scale because their $`a_d<a_1`$ (in a gas-free environment) and $`a_d<a_2`$ (when the particles are embedded in a gaseous disk). Thus, after they are produced from the collisions of their parent particles, these particles would not have sufficient time to collide, fragment, or coagulate among themselves before they are ejected of the ring region. Furthermore, in order for the $`\mu m`$-size particles to remain as the dominant IR emitters, both $`\tau _z`$ and $`\nu _c`$ must decrease with particle size so that the particles with $`12\mu m<a_d<a_1`$ or $`a_2`$ would not dominate the radiation reprocessing. Since both $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ are considerably larger than a few $`\mu m`$, the hypothetical $`\mu m`$-size IR-emitting particles must be produced directly (rather than through a cascade process) during collisions between the smallest surviving particles (those with $`a_d>a_1`$ or $`a_d>a_2`$).

We now consider the collision frequency of the population of parent particles which are the main suppliers of the $`\mu m`$-size IR-emitting particles. In the minimum-size (with $`a_da_{min}10`$ cm) limit, the parent particles’ $`\nu _c`$ is comparable to that of the IR-emitting particles, i.e. $`\nu _{cI}`$ in eq(30). On the dynamical time-scale during which the $`\mu m`$-size particles are blown away, a total fraction $`\nu _{cI}\tau _d`$ of the parent particle population would collide. In order for this limited number of events to directly replenish the mass loss due to the radiative blow-away of the IR-emitting particles, each collision must generate $`N_f(\tau _{}/\tau _d)^2L_{}/L_{disk}10^{12}`$ ($`\mu m`$-size) fragments. The parent bodies could have a size $`a_d>a_{min}`$, in which case, collisions would occur less frequently by a factor $`a_{min}/a_d`$ provided they can lead to the production of $`(\tau _{}/\tau _d)^2(a_dL_{}/a_{min}L_{disk})`$ fragments. Note that particles with sizes $`>(\tau _{}L_{disk}/\tau _dL_{})a_{min}`$ collide less than once during $`\tau _{}`$. Nevertheless, at least in principle, collisions among a fraction of the large-particle population may replenish the $`\mu m`$-size IR-emitting particles.

The considerations presented in this subsection indicate that the $`\mu m`$-size particle scenario suggested by Telesco et al. (2000) and Wyatt et al. (2000) requires not only a population of parent bodies which are larger than a few cm but also a non continuous bimodal ($`1\mu m`$ and $`>10cm`$) particle-size distribution. There is no simple physical mechanism to preferentially produce this type of particle distribution function.

### 3.3 Particle size distribution

In reality, collisions are more likely to produce fragments with a range of sizes. As noted above that all fragments with $`a_d>a_1`$ (in a gas-free environment) or $`a_d>a_2`$ (if the fragments are embedded in a residual gaseous disk) would survive the radiative blow out. During the life span of HR4796A, the minimum-size parent particles would undergo $`\nu _{cI}\tau _{}(L_{disk}/L_{})(\tau _{}/\tau _d)10^3`$ collisions. Although fragmentary particles with $`a_1<a_d<a_{min}`$ or $`a_2<a_d<a_{min}`$ may collide less frequently, they may nevertheless attain a collisional coagulation-fragmentation equilibrium.

In principle, the particles’ size distribution may be obtained by solving the appropriate coagulation equation with both coagulation and fragmentation effects included. Approximate solutions may be obtained for collisional steady state in which the disruption or growth rates ($`\dot{M}_d`$) of the total mass ($`M_d=N_dm_d`$) for a given population may be assumed to be independent of $`a_d`$. If we assume the size-distribution evolution occurs primarily through collisions between similar size particles,

$$\dot{M}_dM_d\nu _cN_d^2m_d(a_d/R)^2\mathrm{\Omega }.$$
(31)
A constant $`\dot{M}_d`$ would imply $`N_da_d^{2.5}`$, $`M_da_d^{0.5}`$ and $`\tau _za_d^{0.5}`$, i.e. most of the mass are contained in the large particles whereas most of the surface area cross sections are contained in the small particles. This particle size distribution is similar to that derived for collisional equilibrium (Hellyer 1970, Mathis et al. 1977) and adopted by Augereau et al. (1999) in which

$$dN_d/da_da_d^{3.5}.$$
(32)
More generally, the growth and fragmentation may be mainly regulated by collisions between different-size particles, which would result in a slightly modified size distribution.

The distribution function in eq(32) is only applicable for particles with $`a_da_1`$ or $`a_da_2`$. Since smaller particles are subject to radiative blow out of the ring before they can collide with each other again, their size distribution is probably determined by that resulting from the break up of the parent bodies. But if this distribution function can be extended to the small particles the total mass carried by the blown-away dust particles is $`M_{lost}^{tot}M_{lost}^{char}(a_1/a_c)^{1/2}510\times 10^2M_{}`$ in the gas free environment and $`M_{lost}^{tot}M_{lost}^{char}(a_2/a_c)^{1/2}3\times 10^3M_{}`$ if the particles are embedded in a protostellar disk of gas. Note that the inferred values of $`M_{lost}^{char}`$ and $`M_{lost}^{tot}`$ are comparable to Jupiter and Saturn’s masses and the Oort’s cloud (Duncan, Quinn, & Tremaine 1987). This mass is larger than the present mass estimate ($`0.1M_{}`$) for the Kuiper Belt today (Luu et al. 1997) but may be comparable to it in the past (Stern et al. 1997, Kenyon & Luu 1999). The associated surface density of heavy elements is also comparable to that extrapolated from the minimum mass nebula for $`R_0=70`$AU.

### 3.4 Preserved particle scenario

We now consider the possibility that a range of particles were formed inside a gaseous protostellar disk. When the surface density of the disk is depleted, particles in the outer regions of the disk become exposed to the stellar radiation, all particles with $`a_d<a_2`$ would be blown away by the radiation pressure. If these small particles are not the dominant IR emitters, they would not not need to be continually replenished by some parent particle. In their model analyses of a large wavelength range of IR emission, Augereau et al. (1999) adopt a distribution of particles with sufficiently large size to survive radiation blow outs. We follow their approach by examining the evolution of the surviving particles.

Using our model parameters, we find $`a_2=100200\mu m`$ (see Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A and Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A). (Note that $`a_2`$ does not directly depend on the gas surface density as long as $`a_0>a_2`$). For illustrative simplicity, we assume the IR-emitting particles have a characteristic size $`a_d=a_0=600\mu m`$ such that eq(27) gives $`M_{char}2.3M_{}`$. Since these particles survive the radiation blow out, they collide up to $`\nu _c\tau _{}(L_{disk}/L_{})(\tau _{}/\tau _d)10^3`$ times within the life span of the central star.

In order to determine the collisional velocity among the particles, we note that in the absence of any warp, the optical depth in the disk’s radial direction to the host star is $`\tau _r\tau _zR/H_d`$. Since the surface brightness of the disk is spread out over an extended radial range, $`\tau _r<1`$ and $`H_d/R>L_{disk}/L_{}`$ for the IR emitting particles. The corresponding velocity dispersion of the particles would be $`\sigma _d3\times 10^3`$cm s<sup>-1</sup>. If these particles are embedded in a gaseous background, $`H_d`$ is expected to be $`H_p`$ which corresponds to an upper limit $`\sigma _d10^5`$cm s<sup>-1</sup>. Within this velocity range, collisions may lead to either erosion (Hatzes et al. 1991) or coagulation if the particles are coated with frosts or traces of methanol as in comets Supulver (et al. 1997). Repeated collisions may eventually lead to an equilibrium in which fragmentation and coagulation are balanced to result in a size distribution similar to that in eq(32) (see review by Artymowicz 1997).

In addition to the mass requirement, a population of surviving particles (with $`a_d>a_1`$ and $`a_d>a_2`$) need to have a spatial distribution similar to that observed ring structure whether they are parent particles or the dominant IR emitting particles. In the following subsection we show that particles which are marginally larger than $`a_2`$ can congregate into rings if there are some non monotonic variations in the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ distribution of the gas. However, if particles become larger than $`a_0`$, they decouple from the gas flow. Nevertheless, this confinement mechanism continues to be effective provided $`dV`$ become positive although the rate of concentration decreases with the particle size. Meter sized particles need $`10^3`$ times longer to concentrate as they radially drift about $`10^3`$times slower then the $`600\mu `$ particles.

### 3.5 A set of quasi-static models

#### 3.5.1 Model: A

We first consider the hydrostatic structure of both gas and dust disk. We set the initial surface density distribution of the gas to be proportional to $`R^{5/2}`$ as it is typical for protostellar disks. The presence of gas is invoked in order to establish a flow with velocity reversal which would spontaneously lead to the emergence of ring structure. In §2.1, we adopt the surface density distribution of the gas disk to be that in eq (1) with its mass within $`70\pm 20`$ AU to be $`99M_{}`$ in order to augment for the solar composition. As a free parameter, we set $`d=0.9`$ which corresponds to a smooth $`10\%`$ surface density increase at 70 AU. The amplitude of this variation in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ (see Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A and Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A) is much smaller than that associated with gap formation.

The disk structural parameters are calculated self-consistently for a dynamically stable, rotating, optical-thin disk. This equilibrium configuration is established on the dynamical time-scale $`\tau _d`$. The increase in surface density of the gas at 70 AU corresponds to a minor peak in density, a local minimum in the friction time and stokes number, but it has no effect on temperature and pressure scale height, because the disk is optical thin (Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A). The pressure as function of density also shows a small amplitude local maximum. The resultant local maximum in the radial pressure gradient strongly influences the local rotational profile such that the deviation from the Keplerian rotation speed is decreased by $`50\%`$. The velocity resulting from the Poynting Robertson effect is orders of magnitude smaller and it attains this local minimum as a consequence of the decrease in the friction time $`\tau _f`$ (see eq. 5). The last frame shows the minimum radius for particles to be gravitationally bound ($`a_2`$), which is given in eq(21) by the equilibrium of the radiation pressure, gravity and centrifugal forces. This plot also indicates the upper particle size limit for particles to be stopped at 70AU, which is about $`700800\mu `$.

For these disk parameters, our chosen particle’s size is ($`a_d=a_0=600\mu m`$) to receive maximal velocities and thus to show the upper limit of concentration. In Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A, the solid line represents the resulting drift velocity of these particles due to combined effect of gas drag and radiation pressure in accordance to eq(18). In order to consider the relative importance of various contributions, we compare our main results with the dashed-line velocity curve for particles in a gravity- and rotation-free system, where radial radiation pressure and friction forces cancel each other. In this idealized case, the particles’ radial velocity is positive everywhere because the friction time grows faster than the radiation pressure decreases with radius. The decline in $`v_r`$ at 70 AU is due to the local minimum in the friction time-scale.

We also show with the dotted line, the $`v_r`$ distribution in a system where the radiation pressure is neglected and the orbital evolution is determined by gas drag only. In this limit, the radial drift is proportional to the friction time and the particles migrate inward everywhere. Due to the non monotonic variation in our prescribed $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ distribution near 70 AU, the deviation of the gas velocity from the Keplerian flow is at a minimum. This change in $`dV`$ leads to a large increase in $`v_r`$. But with $`d=0.9`$ and $`\delta R_0=20AU`$ in Model A, gas drag alone is not sufficient to change the sign of $`dV`$ and $`v_r`$. In contrast, when the effects of radiation pressure and gas drag are fully taken into account simultaneously, a radial velocity inversion is established near 70 AU.

For this model, particles with $`a_d<a_2`$ are blown away by the radiation pressure on the dynamical time-scale $`\tau _d`$. When the surface density of the gas is reduced below $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_23L_{}/(8\pi Rcc_s^3\mathrm{ln}\rho /\mathrm{ln}R)0.1`$g cm<sup>-2</sup>, $`a_0`$ becomes smaller than $`a_2`$ (see eq. 9 and eq. 21) and there are no longer particles that drift radially outward as a result of the combined forces from gas and radiation. If the motion of the disk gas is only affected by a negative pressure gradient, all particles with $`a_d<a_0`$ would be blown away by the stellar radiation pressure and all particles with $`a_d>a_0`$ would become segregated from the motion of the gas, drift inwards with a radial velocity in accordance to eq(20) and a corresponding orbital evolution time-scale $`R/v_r(R/H_p)^2(a_d\rho _d/\mathrm{\Sigma })\tau _d(R/H_p)^2\tau _d`$. In this case, all particles with sizes smaller than $`a_2(H_p/R)^2(\tau _{}/\tau _d)`$ would be depleted during the lifespan of HR4796A. But $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_2`$ is only marginally larger than the surface density of the parent particles inferred in §3.1. In §2.4, we have already shown that the particles’ drag have a negligible effect on the motion of the gas. Eventually, when the surface density of the gas is reduce below $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_13L_{}/(8\pi GM_{}c)10^2`$g cm<sup>-2</sup>, $`a_0<a_1`$. All particles with $`a_d<a_1`$ are blown away by the radiation pressure whereas larger particles would not undergo further orbital decay as the effect of head wind diminishes.

#### 3.5.2 Model: B

We also computed a model with the same $`d`$ but a smaller $`\delta R_0=10AU`$ which represents a gaseous ring with a 2 times steeper surface density gradient (see Figs. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A and Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A). In this case, the gas rotation is hyper Keplerian with a sign change in $`dV`$ such that gas drag alone may lead to an outward velocity near 70 AU. All particles with $`a_d>a_2`$ or $`a_d>a_0`$ would migrate outwards in regions with a positive pressure gradient and inwards in regions with a negative pressure gradient. In this case there is no upper limit for the particle size in order to be stopped at 70 AU. Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A shows that the resulting drift velocities for 1m sized objects is about three orders of magnitude smaller which nevertheless allows these bodies to concentrate in reasonable time in a ring at 70 AU.

### 3.6 Dynamical evolution

The resulting radial drift velocity (Eq. 18) can be used with the continuity equation to compute the global evolution of the dust surface density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_d`$ as a result of their orbital migration. In a cylindrical coordinate system,

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }_d}{t}=\frac{1}{R}\frac{}{r}\left(Rj_\mathrm{\Sigma }\right).$$
(33)
The local flux of dust particles is partially contributed by the systematic radial drift $`v_r`$ (see Eq. 18). Small particles with $`a_d<a_0`$, are well coupled to the disk gas. If the disk gas is turbulent, as in accretion disks in many astrophysical contexts (cf. Lin & Papaloizou 1996), these particles may undergo diffusion following the trace of turbulent eddies. For computational convenience, we describe the turbulent stirring as passive diffusion in the conventional Navier-Stokes equation such that

$$j_\mathrm{\Sigma }=\mathrm{\Sigma }_dv_r\frac{D}{R}\frac{}{r}\left(R\mathrm{\Sigma }_d\right).$$
(34)
A similar approach was used by Morfill and Völk (1984) to study the reprocessing of meteorites in the solar nebula. Following Cuzzi et al. (1993), we assume the turbulent diffusivity $`D=\nu /Sc`$ with the Schmitt number which describes the coupling between the particle and the gas is set to be $`Sc=(1+St)^{1/2}`$. For the gas turbulent viscosity, we adopt the ad hoc $`\alpha `$ prescription which is commonly used in accretion disks (Shakura & Sunyaev 1973) such that

$$\nu =\alpha c_sH_p.$$
(35)
The Stokes number for particles is modified from that for a laminar disk (see §2.2.1) by

$$St=\tau _f\omega _t.$$
(36)
$`\omega _t`$ is the circular frequency of the largest eddy (typically smaller than $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$). Thus, from the definition of the effective viscosity it follows:

$$\omega _t=\frac{\nu }{H_p^2}.$$
(37)
For the particle size we are considering, the turbulent Schmitt number is $`1`$ so that maximum mixing is expected to occur.

The differential equation (33) is solved numerically using a finite volume scheme. It is integrated explicitly in time with a simple Euler backward scheme.

#### 3.6.1 Model: A

In Figure Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A the initial radial $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_d`$ distribution of $`600\mu m`$ dust particles ($`=10^2\mathrm{\Sigma }`$) is shown with the solid line. The evolution of the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_d`$ distribution is shown with a series of dotted lines which represents time sequences separated by $`10^3`$ yr between each line. After the first $`400`$ yr, the dust particles inside 66AU drift inward while that between 66 and 69 AU drift outward. The lack of replenishment causes $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_d`$ interior to 66AU to decline. The results in Figure Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A indicate that $`v_r`$ is a decreasing function of $`R`$ (i.e. the magnitude of $`v_r`$ is more negative at large $`R`$) inside 66 AU. Consequently, the depletion of the disk is more rapid at larger R and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_d`$ becomes a decreasing function of $`R`$ in this region. The outward drift at 66-69AU and inward drift at radius larger than 69AU cause the accumulation of dust particles between 67-73 AU and the depletion of dust exterior to 73 AU. After several $`10^3`$ yr, an equilibrium is reached in which the turbulent diffusion is balanced by the systematic drifts. In this equilibrium, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_dR`$ between 67-73 AU becomes nearly two orders of magnitude larger than that of the disk interior to 67 AU and another two orders of magnitude larger than that of the disk beyond 73 AU. The actual width of the ring depends on the magnitude of the effective viscosity parameter. A much wider ring may be obtained for a larger viscosity $`\alpha >10^4`$.

After the equilibrium is established, the persistence of the gas is not required. In §2.2.2, we show that as $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ decreases during the depletion of the disk, $`a_0`$ decreases and $`\tau _f`$ increase while $`dV`$ is not significantly modified. While $`a_d`$ is still small compared with $`a_0`$, the factor $`(L_{}A_d/4\pi R^2mc+2\mathrm{\Omega }dV)`$ in eq(18) remains unchanged. Although the magnitude of $`v_r`$ may increase due to the weakening hydrodynamic drag effect, the locations for velocity reversal remain unaltered. Thus, dust particle concentration in the ring is not affected by the depletion of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. Although dust particles would generally migrate inwards after $`a_0`$ decreases below their size $`a_d`$, the drag time-scale becomes so large that the radial locations of the particles are preserved. Thus, this scenario only needs the gas to be present for the initial few $`10^4`$ yrs in order to produce the ring. Afterwards it can be evaporated or be viscously diffused, while the dust distribution remains intact.

#### 3.6.2 Model: B

Similar model parameter are applied to a narrower ring ( with $`\delta R_0=10AU`$). In this model, we examine the concentration of 1$`m`$-size large objects. Fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A shows the same behavior like the smaller particles, but this time the process is about 1000 times slower. Nevertheless, the concentration process takes an order of magnitude less time than the life time of HR4796A.

#### 3.6.3 Model: C and D

So far the upper limit for the observed gas around HR4796A is 1-7 $`M_{}`$ (Greaves et al. 1999), which is 1-2 orders of magnitude less than we used for Model A and Model B. Now we present to models with only 10 $`M_{}`$ of gas (see fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A) and 1 $`M_{}`$ (see fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A). In comparison to the first models the densities are smaller, the Stokes numbers for 600 $`\mu `$ particles are bigger and thus the resulting drift velocities become also smaller. There are no significant changes in the critical particle size $`a_2`$.

Thus the dynamical evolution takes 5 times longer for Model C (see fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A) and about 25 times longer for Model D (see fig. Dust Distribution in Gas Disks. A Model for the Ring Around HR 4796A). Even the time-scales increase at lower gas densities, the general effect persists.

## 4 Summary and Discussions

We examined in this paper the dynamics of the dust ring around HR 4796A with two separate scenarios. In the first scenario, we consider the case where the dominant emitters of the IR radiation are $`\mu m`$-size particles. Since these particles are being blown away by the radiation pressure of the central star, they must be replenished by large particles which are not affected by such a process. In a gas-free case, the parent particles must have a size greater than $``$ 3.2 $`\mu m`$ whereas in a gas-rich environment, another order of magnitude larger size is needed. In order to account for the magnitude of reprocess radiation, $`M_{char}48\times 10^3M_{}`$ of $`\mu m`$-size particles are needed at any given time. During the life span of HR4796A, a total mass $`M_{lost}^{char}M_{char}\tau _{}/\tau _d300M_{}`$ is needed in the reservoir of parent particles. In order for the parent particles to be inconspicuous sources of IR radiation relative to the $`\mu m`$-size particles, a large fraction of $`M_{lost}`$ must be contained in particles with $`a_d>10`$cm. However, the smallest surviving particles (with sizes $`100200\mu m`$), could provide adequate supplies of $`\mu m`$ size particles if a large fraction of their mutual collisions results in their total fragmentation.

The main difficulty of identifying small particles as the dominant contributors of the IR radiation is the requirement of a non continuous bimodal size distribution. This problem would be removed if the particles which emit most of the IR radiation are sufficiently large ($`>100\mu m`$) to survive the radiative blow out. In this case, a total mass $`<0.4M_{}`$ is needed throughout the life span of HR 4796A. We suggest the preservation of these modest-size particles (whether they are parent particles or the dominant IR emitters) is due to the combined effect of radiation pressure and gas drag.

We presented a detailed model for the formation of dust rings in circumstellar disks. Our model can account for rings with sharply defined edges if it is embedded in a gas disk. A very small amount of inhomogeneity is needed to induce the congregation of the particles. This inhomogeneity can be the result of a planet, but it does not necessarily has to be so. Photo-evaporation, an inhomogeneous initial distribution of mass after the infall, or inhomogeneities in the radial viscous transport of material can also account for such an anomaly in the surface density distribution. Thus we conclude that dust rings with sharp structures are not necessarily good indicator for embedded planets.

We thank D. Trilling and P. Bodenheimer for useful conversation. This work is supported in part through National Science Foundation grant AST-9618548, NASA grants NAG5-4277, 4494, 7515, and a special NASA astrophysics theory programme which supports a joint Center for Star Formation Studies at NASA-Ames Research Center, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Cruz.

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# Selection rules in three-body B decay from factorization

## I Introduction

The factorization calculation has successfully reproduced the decay rate for many two-body channels of $`B`$ decay. It has been argued that the factorization should become exact in the large $`b`$-quark mass limit and that the only deviation from the factorization is short-distance corrections of $`O(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}/m_b)`$. For some channels of $`B`$ decay, however, the factorization calculation appears to be in clear disagreement with current measurement. Theoretically the factorization and the final-state interaction (FSI) are closely tied together. If the factorization is a good approximation, the FSI phase should be small in general. If the FSI phase turns out to be large in experiment, it is a warning sign against the factorization. Some initial state interaction can also affect the factorization. The observed smallness of the upper bounds on the FSI phases of the two-body $`bc`$ processes such as $`B\overline{D}\pi `$ is consistent with absence of long-distance FSI. On the other hand, purely phenomenological suggestions were recently made about possibility of large FSI phases in $`BK\pi `$, $`\pi \pi `$. At present, little is known in experiment about FSI phases of decays other than the charm producing channels.

The factorization clearly fails in the $`D`$ decay in spite of the relatively small value of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}/m_c=1/71/5`$. The observed relative FSI phase in $`D\overline{K}\pi `$ is close to $`90^{}`$ though one would naively expect the factorization to work reasonably well if $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}/m_c`$ is really the controlling parameter of its corrections.*** It has been well established that the FSI phase is close to $`90^{}`$ in most of the two-body decay channels of $`J/\psi `$ so far analyzed. In two-body $`B`$ decays the c.m. energy between a fast quark and a spectator grows only like $`\sqrt{m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}}`$ with $`m_b`$, not linearly in $`m_b`$. Therefore, $`\sqrt{m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}}`$ must be large in order for perturbative QCD to be applicable. Even if one accepts the asymptotic validity of the factorization in theory, one should test in experiment whether or not the $`B`$ mass of 5.3 MeV is high enough to be in the asymptopia of its final states.

In this paper, we extend the basic premise of the factorization and explore its consequences in three-meson decay channels of $`B`$ decay in which one of mesons is soft. We propose simple selection rules which will provide a further test of the fractorization at the $`B`$ mass scale. Our approach is purely phenomenological and we do not attempt here a rigorous justification of the selection rules by perturbative QCD. When we compare the selection rules with the soft-pion theorem of chiral symmetry, it appears as if they were incompatible. The origin of this superficial incompatibility is traced to difference in kinematics: The selection rules hold when the c.m. energy $`\sqrt{m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}}`$ between a fast quark and a soft quark is sufficiently large, while the soft-pion theorem holds when the same c.m. energy is equal to a light quark mass, i.e., negligibly small. The purpose of our selection rules is to probe if $`\sqrt{m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}}`$ in $`B`$ decay is in the QCD asymptopia or not.

## II Basis of factorization

We state the factorization of two-body decays as follows: When a $`B`$ meson decays with a current-current interaction through the quark decay process,

$$\overline{b}\overline{q}_1+q_2+\overline{q}_3,$$
(1)
either $`\overline{q}_1q_2`$ or $`\overline{q}_3q_2`$ forms one meson and the remaining $`\overline{q_3}`$ or $`\overline{q}_1`$ forms the other meson with a soft quark $`q_4`$ from the light spectator cloud around $`\overline{b}`$. (See Fig.1a.) The formation of a meson by two hard quarks through a color-singlet current is given by a decay constant while the formation of the other meson is described by a transition form factor of the other current. It is important that once combinations of $`q\overline{q}`$ have been chosen for meson formation, no flavor exchange occurs thereafter, not even a charge exchange. Any flavor-changing process is supposedly a higher order process of perturbative QCD. Therefore the final mesons retain their flavor contents, including charges, determined by the short-distance quark decay process. This leads us to various constraints of the factorization which relate different isospin amplitudes of two-body decays for a given decay operator.

What happens if three mesons are produced ? In the case that all final mesons are energetic, each meson should contain one of the three final quarks of Eq.(1) picking up one soft quark from the spectator cloud. (See Fig.1b.) In the case that two of the mesons are energetic and one is very soft, the energetic mesons are formed just as in the two-body decay and the third one emerges from the spectator cloud with energy no larger than $`O(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD})`$. In this case the energetic mesons retain the history of the weak interaction while the soft meson is made of whatever left in the spectator cloud. This is the natural extension of the factorization from two-body decays to three-body decays. We call this picture as the factorization for three-body decays and explore its consequences here. The c.m. energy of the FSI between an energetic meson and the soft cloud is $`O(\sqrt{m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}})`$, which is the same as the c.m. energy of $`\overline{q}_1`$ and $`q_4`$ of the two-body decay in Fig.1a. The c.m. energy between the soft meson and the soft quark in the fast meson is $`O(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD})`$, but our selection rules do not depend on a soft interaction between them. If $`\sqrt{m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}}`$ is large and short-distance QCD dominates in FSI, flavor exchange between any pair of final mesons would be a higher order correction. In this case, the three quarks produced by the $`\overline{b}`$-quark can be tracked down into the flavor contents of the final mesons.

## III Illustration by $`B^0\overline{D}^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$

We illustrate derivation of our selection rule in the decay,

$$B^0(\overline{b}𝐝)\overline{c}u\overline{d}𝐝\overline{D}^0(\overline{c}u)\pi ^+(\overline{d}u)\pi ^{}(\overline{u}d),$$
(2)
which proceeds through the tree-operator $`(\overline{b}c)(\overline{u}d)`$ and its gluon corrections. The boldface letter $`𝐝`$ in Eq.(2) represents a cloud of light quark-antiquarks and gluons around $`\overline{b}`$ which carries the net flavor of the $`d`$-quark;

$$𝐝=d+d(\overline{u}u)+d(\overline{d}d)+\mathrm{}.$$
(3)
We refer to $`𝐝`$ as the spectator $`d`$-quark cloud. When the decay products $`\overline{c}u\overline{d}`$ of $`\overline{b}`$ enter three mesons one each, all mesons are energetic. In this case we cannot find a simple flavor selection rule of the factorization. The reason is as follows: Even if no flavor exchange occurs between final mesons, the process $`\overline{u}u\overline{d}d`$ occurs perpetually inside the cloud prior to meson formation. This annihilation process has the same effect as a flavor exchange between final mesons since each meson picks up one soft quark from the cloud. Therefore, no simple testable selection rule results in this case.

On the other hand, if one of the pions is soft, it must be generated by the spectator cloud without involving a hard quark. The three quarks from $`\overline{b}\overline{c}u\overline{d}`$ must go into $`\overline{D}^0`$ and the energetic $`\pi `$. A quantitative estimate will be given later to show that the soft tails of $`u`$ and $`\overline{d}`$ are negligible. The hard $`u`$ can form either $`\pi ^+`$, $`\pi ^0`$, or $`\overline{D}^0`$ while the hard $`\overline{d}`$ can form either $`\pi ^+`$ or $`\pi ^0`$. Even though $`\overline{d}`$ or $`\overline{c}`$ picks one soft quark from the cloud, the resulting meson is energetic. After one quark ($`u`$ or $`d`$) is removed from the spectator cloud d of total charge $`1/3`$, the remainder of the cloud is either negatively charged or neutral. That is, the soft pion can be either $`\pi ^{}`$ or $`\pi ^0`$, but not $`\pi ^+`$. We thus conclude that $`\pi ^+`$ cannot be soft in $`B^0\overline{D}^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$. This selection rule is depicted in Fig.2.

In fact, the selection rule holds irrespective of the decay interaction. It depends only on the flavor content of the spectator d: When one quark is taken away from a cloud of charge $`1/3`$, the remainder cannot be positively charged. The key is that mesons carry quantum numbers of quark-antiquark no matter what their Fock-space compositions are. The only assumption we have made here is that the energetic mesons do not exchange a flavor with the soft meson by short-distance QCD dominance in FSI.

Our prediction should be tested in the form,

$$B(\pi _{soft}^+\overline{D}^0\pi ^{})/B(\pi _{soft}^{}\overline{D}^0\pi ^+)=0,$$
(4)
where $`|𝐩_\pi |O(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD})`$ for the soft pion. The bands of the $`\pi \pi `$ and $`\overline{D}^0\pi `$ resonances should be excluded in testing Eq.(4). If, contrary to the factorization, elastic or inelastic rescattering is important at $`E_{\pi \pi }=\sqrt{m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}}`$ ($`1.5`$ GeV), $`\pi _{soft}^+\overline{D}^0\pi ^{}`$ can be fed through the unsuppressed decay modes, for instance, through $`\pi _{soft}^0\overline{D}^0\pi ^0`$ followed by the forward charge exchange rescattering $`\pi ^0\pi ^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ or through $`\pi _{soft}^{}\overline{D}^0\pi ^+`$ followed by the backward elastic rescattering $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^{}\pi ^+`$, i.e., the forward rescattering of two units of charge exchange. Thus the selection rule is sensitive to FSI.§§§To be precise, rescattering to individual channels need not be small if they are cancelled out by destructive interference. The FSI of our concern is the soft-hard process at c.m. energy of $`O(\sqrt{m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}})`$ that involves a hard quark, since the soft-soft FSI is no more than a different pick of soft quarks from the cloud.

Selection rules similar to Eq.(4) can be derived for many other three-body decay modes. Considering their relative simplicity, it is worthwhile exploring such selection rules for better understanding of strong interaction dynamics in $`B`$ decay.

## IV Generalization

### A Soft pion and kaon production

The $`\overline{D}^0`$ meson can be replaced by any meson or meson resonance in Eq.(2); $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}M^0`$, where $`M^0`$ denotes a neutral meson or meson resonance such as $`K^0`$, $`\pi ^0`$, or $`\rho ^0`$. The selection rule reads:

$$B(B^0\pi _{soft}^+\pi ^{}M^0)/B(B^0\pi _{soft}^{}\pi ^+M^0)=0.$$
(5)
We can apply the same reasoning to $`B^+`$ by replacing the spectator $`𝐝`$ by $`𝐮`$;

$$B(B^+\pi _{soft}^{}M^+\pi ^+)/B(B^+\pi _{soft}^+M^+\pi ^{})=0,$$
(6)
where $`M^+`$ is a positively charged meson or meson resonance such as $`K^+`$, $`\pi ^+`$, and $`\rho ^+`$. For $`B_s`$, we can write the selection rule

$$B(B_sK_{soft}\overline{K}M)/B(B_s\overline{K}_{soft}KM)=0.$$
(7)
If we include $`\overline{s}s`$ in the spectator cloud, we obtain corresponding selection rules,

$`B(B^+K_{soft}^0\overline{K}M)/B(B^+K_{soft}^+\overline{K}M)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (8)
$`B(B^0K_{soft}^+\overline{K}M)/B(B^+K_{soft}^0\overline{K}M)`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (9)
Furthermore,

$`B(B^+\overline{K}_{soft}KM)/B(B^+K_{soft}^+\overline{K}M)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (10)
$`B(B^0\overline{K}_{soft}KM)/B(B^0K_{soft}^0\overline{K}M)`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (11)
Since the rest energy of a kaon exceeds $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$, formation of any kaon from the spectator cloud is kinematically suppressed. Eqs.(8) to (11) mean that the factorization-forbidden modes are even further suppressed than the modes in the denominators.

### B Soft resonance production in quasi-three-body decay

The lightest meson resonance that the spectator cloud can produce is the $`\rho `$-meson. Since its rest mass far exceeds $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$, $`B\rho _{soft}M_1M_2`$ is suppressed no matter what charge state the $`\rho `$-meson is in. The cloud simply does not have enough energy to produce $`\rho `$ even at rest.

To be concrete, consider $`B\rho \pi M`$. Then the lack of energy in producing a resonance from the cloud leads us to

$`B(B^+\rho _{soft}M\pi ^+)/B(B^+\pi _{soft}^+M\rho )`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (12)
$`B(B^0\rho _{soft}M\pi ^{})/B(B^0\pi _{soft}^{}M\rho )`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (13)
where $`\rho `$ can be in any charge state. In Eq.(13) $`\rho `$ may be replaced by $`\omega `$ or some other resonance. Similarly,

$$B(B_s\overline{K}_{soft}^{}KM)/B(B_s\overline{K}_{soft}K^{}M)=0.$$
(14)
Though we have listed only the selection rules that are relatively simple and clean, one can write down many more selection rules by the same reasoning.

Since meson or meson resonance production of energy higher than $`O(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD})`$ from the cloud is highly suppressed kinematically, we may raise the softness limit considerably from $`|𝐩|\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$ to, for instance, $`|𝐩|m_\rho `$ in actual testing of the selection rules, provided that one can avoid resonance bands of quasi-two-body decays. If we raise it too high, however, the tail of the energy spectrum of a decay product quark enters the “soft meson”. To find a compromise, we need some numerical study.

## V How soft should the soft pion be ?

Our selection rules are based on the postulate that a soft meson must be produced entirely from the spectator cloud. Therefore, they would fail if a soft meson contains a significant contribution from the low-energy tail of a decay product of $`\overline{b}\overline{q}_1q_2\overline{q}_3`$. For this reason we would like to know how much the low-energy tail contributes when we define the soft meson by $`|𝐩_\pi |\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$. If the tail is indeed negligible, then we should ask how much we can raise the upper limit of softness in actual test without violating the selection rules substantially.

To be concrete, consider $`B^0\pi _{soft}^+\overline{D}^0\pi ^{}`$ again. Suppose that we define the soft pion by its momentum $`|𝐩_\pi |p_{max}`$. Estimate of the matrix element involves uncertainties in soft meson formation. If we use the quark-hadron duality for the low-energy tail region and replace the meson wavefunctions by their average values, we can obtain a crude estimate of the decay rate ratio as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\pi _{soft}^+\overline{D}^0\pi ^{})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\pi _{soft}^{}\overline{D}^0\pi ^+)}}`$ $``$ $`C^2{\displaystyle \frac{_{|𝐩_u|p_{max}}𝑑\mathrm{\Gamma }(\overline{b}\overline{c}u\overline{d})}{_{|𝐩_u|m_b/2p_{max}}^{m_b/2}𝑑\mathrm{\Gamma }(\overline{b}\overline{c}u\overline{d})}}`$ (15)
$``$ $`ϵ^2C^2,`$ (16)
where $`ϵ=2p_{max}/m_b`$. The factor $`C`$, which arises from difference in meson formation probability, is given by the ratio of the pion wavefunction $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ on the light-cone as

$$C\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }(ϵ)\mathrm{\Phi }(x_0)}{\mathrm{\Phi }(1/2)^2},$$
(17)
where $`x_0=\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}/(p_{max}+\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD})`$. The value of $`C`$ is sensitive to $`\mathrm{\Phi }(ϵ)`$ near the end point. Let us extrapolate $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)x(1x)`$ smoothly to $`x=0`$. Then for $`p_{max}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\pi _{soft}^+\overline{D}^0\pi ^{})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\pi _{soft}^{}\overline{D}^0\pi ^+)}16\left(\frac{2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}}{m_b}\right)^4.$$
(18)
The right-hand side is a fraction of 1% for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}=300`$ MeV. It is indeed small due to the phase space suppression of the soft $`u`$-quark and a smaller meson formation probability for a quark pair of highly uneven energies. From this estimate we expect that accuracy of our selection rules should be very high. When $`p_{max}`$ is raised to $`m_\rho `$, the ratio in Eq.(16) goes up to 8%. In carrying out experimental test, therefore, we may be able to raise the softness upper limit from $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$ to $`m_\rho `$. The main background in testing our this selection rule will be a spillover from the resonance bands of $`\rho ^0`$ and $`D^{}`$ due to errors in pion measurement.

## VI Comparison with the soft-pion theorem

In the zero four-momentum limit of the soft pion, we can relate three-body decay matrix elements to two-body decay matrix elements by the soft-pion theorem of chiral symmetry. It can be expressed with $`f_\pi =130`$ MeV as

$$M(B\pi ^{}(k_\mu )\overline{M}_1M_2)\stackrel{k_\mu 0}{=}\frac{1}{f_\pi }M_1M_2|[u^{}\gamma _5d,H_w(0)]|B+k_\mu M^\mu ,$$
(19)
where the $`k_\mu M^\mu `$ term gives the correction to the soft-pion limit. For soft $`\pi ^+`$ emission, $`u^{}\gamma _5d`$ should be replaced by $`d^{}\gamma _5u`$. Upon extrapolation to the physical pion at rest $`k_\mu =(m_\pi ,\mathrm{𝟎})`$, the correction term $`k_\mu M^\mu `$ is of $`O(k_\mu /\mathrm{\Delta }m)`$ where $`\mathrm{\Delta }m`$ is a typical excitation energy of the $`B`$ system. According to the traditional wisdom, the Born diagram of $`B^{}(1^{})`$ is likely the most important correction (see Fig.3a) since it is nearly degenerate with $`B`$ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }m46`$ MeV). This correction can be of $`O(1)`$ or even dominate over the zero-four-momentum limit for a physical soft pion. It is easy to see that the $`B^{}`$ contribution to $`k_\mu M^\mu `$ satisfies the selection rule Eq.(4). In fact, this is the case for the contributions from all Born diagrams. The reason is that the quark diagrams for the Born diagrams of Fig.3a are topologically equivalent to those of the three-body factorization process. The only difference between them is whether a soft pion is emitted from the cloud before or after weak interaction takes place.

If we keep only the soft-pion limit, we obtain

$`\underset{k_\mu 0}{lim}M(\pi ^+(k_\mu )\overline{D}^0\pi ^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{f_\pi }}M(\overline{D}^0\pi ^0),`$ (20)
$`\underset{k_\mu 0}{lim}M(\pi ^{}(k_\mu )\overline{D}^0\pi ^+)`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (21)
Eq.(21) results from the vanishing commutator, $`[u^{}\gamma _5d,H_w]=0`$. In contrast, the zero four-momentum limit of the factorization-forbidden decay $`B^0\pi ^+(k_\mu )\overline{D}^0\pi ^{}(k_\mu 0)`$ is related to $`B^0\overline{D}^0\pi ^0`$. While $`M(\overline{D}^0\pi ^0)`$ is $`O(1/N_c)`$ for $`𝒪_2`$, it is the leading term for $`𝒪_1`$.

Eqs.(20) and (21) look puzzling at the first sight. If we work out the soft-pion limit for $`B^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+`$, our three-body factorization predicts

$$\frac{B(B^+\pi _{soft}^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+)}{B(B^+\pi _{soft}^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+)}=0,$$
(22)
while the soft-pion theorem gives for the tree-operator $`𝒪_1=(\overline{b}_L\gamma _\mu d_L)(\overline{u}_L\gamma ^\mu u_L)`$ and $`𝒪_2=(\overline{b}_L\gamma _\mu u_L)(\overline{u}_L\gamma ^\mu d_L)`$

$`\underset{k_\mu 0}{lim}M(B^+\pi ^{}(k_\mu )\pi ^+\pi ^+)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\sqrt{2}}{f_\pi }}M(B^+\pi ^+\pi ^0),`$ (23)
$`\underset{k_\mu 0}{lim}M(B^+\pi ^+(k_\mu )\pi ^{}\pi ^+)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{f_\pi }}M(B^0\pi ^0\pi ^0).`$ (24)
The situation looks equally bizzare in $`BK\pi \pi `$ through the penguin operators. Since the penguin operators of $`\overline{b}\overline{s}`$ are all singlets of chiral SU(2)$`\times `$SU(2), their commutators with the axial isospin charges are zero. That is, the soft-pion limit should disappear for all matrix elements of $`B\pi (k_\mu )K\pi `$ as $`k_\mu 0`$ for the penguin operators.

It appears as if the selection rules contradicted the soft-pion theorem of chiral symmetry. We can trace the origin of this apparent discrepancy to the c.m. energy between a fast quark ($`p_\mu `$) from $`\overline{b}`$-decay and a soft quark ($`k_\mu `$) in the cloud. In the physical soft pion limit where our selection rules should hold,

$$(p+k)^22(kp)=O(m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}),$$
(25)
while in the zero four-momentum limit

$$(p+k)^2p^2=m_q^2.$$
(26)
In order for the factorization to work, the right-hand side of Eq.(25) must be large enough to be in the asymptopia of QCD. The same variable is equal to the light quark mass in the soft-pion theorem. Their predictions apply to different kinematical regions.

The chiral Lagrangian has been successful for which the soft-pion theorem gives the leading terms. However, extrapolation to the physical region of $`B`$-decays is a long way because of large $`B`$ mass (cf Eqs.(25) and (26)) and involves large incalculable corrections.

We can understand what physical process the soft-pion theorem represents. The commutator of the axial charge $`Q_5^a=q^{}\gamma _5(\tau _a/2)q(a=1,2,3)`$ with weak decay operator $`𝒪_i`$ arises from its commutator with the currents in $`𝒪_i`$. In the case of $`B^0\pi ^+(k_\mu )\overline{D}^0\pi ^{}`$ at $`k_\mu 0`$ with $`𝒪_1=(\overline{b}_L\gamma _\mu d_L)(\overline{u}_L\gamma ^\mu c_L)=(\overline{b}_{L\alpha }\gamma _\mu c_{L\beta })(\overline{u}_{L\beta }\gamma ^\mu d_{L\alpha })`$, for instance, the commutator with $`\overline{u}_{L\beta }\gamma ^\mu d_{L\alpha }`$ survives to give

$$[d^{}\gamma _5u,𝒪_1]=(\overline{b}_{L\alpha }\gamma _\mu c_{L\beta })(\overline{u}_{L\beta }\gamma ^\mu u_{L\alpha }\overline{d}_{L\beta }\gamma ^\mu d_{L\alpha }),$$
(27)
where the right-hand side is the $`I_3=0`$ partner of $`𝒪_1`$. This commutator describes production of states of charge $`Q=+1`$ through $`\overline{u}_{L\beta }\gamma ^\mu d_{L\alpha }`$ of $`𝒪_1`$ and subsequent fragmentation of the soft $`\pi ^+`$ from them. Emission of a zero-four-momentum pion from the energetic quark pair $`\overline{u}_{L\beta }\gamma ^\mu d_{L\alpha }`$ is not suppressed by asymptotic freedom since no large momentum transfer occurs. After the $`\pi ^+`$ emission, these states ($`\overline{u}_\beta u_\alpha \overline{d}_\beta d_\alpha `$) and the operator $`\overline{b}_{L\alpha }\gamma _\mu c_{L\beta }`$ together produce the final state $`\overline{D}^0\pi ^{}`$. (See Fig.3b.) For soft $`\pi ^{}`$ emission, the commutator vanishes so that there is no diagram corresponding to Fig.3b. Thus physics in the zero-four-momentum limit is quite different from what we have introduced as an extension of the factorization in this paper.

An important question is which picture gives a better description of the three-body $`B`$ decay in which one pion is soft. Is the approximation of $`\sqrt{m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}}\mathrm{}`$ better than the zero four-momentum approximation ? The issue should be settled by experimental test of the selection rules proposed here.

## VII Summary

The dynamics underlying the factorization can be tested with the selection rules in three-body decays in which one of mesons is soft. The selection rules test whether the soft-hard FSI at c.m. energy of $`O(\sqrt{m_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}})`$ is in the QCD asymptopia or not. The rules are intuitive and do not depend on decay operators nor on form factors. If the selection rules are verified in experiment, we would obtain better understanding of physics underlying the factorization and strong interactions in $`B`$ decay in general.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported in part by the Director, Office of Science, Division of High Energy and Nuclear Physics, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE–AC03–76SF00098 and in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant PHY–95–14797.


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# Deconfinement in QCD at Finite Temperature

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank F. T. Brandt for helpful discussions on thermal field theory, and the support of the Special Research Centre for the Subatomic Structure of Matter at the University of Adelaide during the initial stages of this work. This work was supported by FAPESP (96/7756-6, 98/2249-4).