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# The GPS global detection of the ionospheric response to solar flares

## 1 Introduction

The advent and evolution of a Global Positioning System, GPS, and also the creation on its basis of widely branched networks of GPS stations (at least 700 sites at the May of 2000, the data from which are placed on the INTERNET) opened up a new era in remote ionospheric sensing . Furthermore, there exist also powerful regional networks such as the Geographical Survey Institute network in Japan  consisting of up to 1000 receivers. High-precision measurements of the group and phase delay along the line-of-sight (LOS) between the receiver on the ground and transmitters on the GPS system satellites covering the reception zone are made using two-frequency multichannel receivers of the GPS system at almost any point of the globe and at any time simultaneously at two coherently coupled frequencies $`f_1=1575.42`$ MHz and $`f_2=1227.60`$ MHz.

The sensitivity of phase measurements in the GPS system is sufficient for detecting irregularities with an amplitude of up to $`10^3`$$`10^4`$ of the diurnal TEC variation. This makes it possible to formulate the problem of detecting ionospheric disturbances from different sources of artificial and natural origins. Anthropogenic sources of ionospheric disturbances include nuclear events, chemical explosions, and rocket launches. Among natural sources are solar eclipses, solar flares, earthquakes, volcanoes, heavy thunderstorms, and auroral heating. Studies of these phenomena are of great importance both for a scientific understanding of their genesis and propagation in the atmosphere and as a tool for detecting such sources in remote regions; for instance, the GLONASS system provides more effective coverage at high latitudes .

Recently some authors embarked actively on the development of detection tools for the ionospheric response of powerful earthquakes , rocket launches , and industrial surface explosions ; . Subsequetly, the GPS data began to be used in the context of the spaced-receiver method using three GPS stations to determine the parameters of the full wave vector of traveling ionospheric disturbances under quiet and disturbed geomagnetic conditions ; .

The limitations of the spaced-receiver method with a minimum necessary number of receivers (three) include their low sensitivity and inadequate spatial selectivity, and this gives no way of exploiting the potential of a global GPS system consisting of hundreds of GPS stations. Next in turn is the setting of a more general problem, namely, that of developing processing techniques for the data from the GPS and GLONASS systems, based on the latest achievements in the field of a comprehensive spatio-temporal processing of signals, with due regard for the special features of ionospheric disturbances, however.

The objective of this paper is to develop the concept of a global detector (GLOBDET) of atmosperic disturbances of natural and technogenic origins, based on phase measurements of total electron content (TEC) in the ionosphere using the international network of two-frequency multichannel receivers of the GPS system - section 2. Section 3 discusses the possibilities of using the GLOBDET method in detecting ionospheric effects of solar flares. Basic characteristics of such a detector (sensitivity and time resolution) are examined in Section 4. The practical implementation of the method is illustrated by analyzing a global ionospheric response to a powerful solar flares of July 29, 1999 and December 28, 1999 (Sections 5 and 6). Section 7 discusses the findings and explores the possibilities of utilizing a global GPS network in detecting other kinds of atmospheric disturbances of natural and technogenic origins.

## 2 Using the data from a global GPS network in the context of the ideology of a phased antenna array

Phased antenna arrays (FAA) are extensively used in radiolocation, sonar systems, and in processing seismic signals as systems featuring high sensitivity in signal detection and high spatial selectivity which is necessary for localizing signal sources. There exist quite varied schemes for hardware and software realization of FAA . In general case the treatment of signals imply multiplying a complex signal $`\stackrel{~}{A}(t)_i`$ of each of the $`i`$–spaced FAA elements by a complex factor $`\stackrel{~}{K}_i`$ with the subsequent coherent summation of the resulting products

$$\stackrel{~}{S}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\stackrel{~}{A}(t)_i\stackrel{~}{K}_i$$
(1)
where $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ is the result of the coherent summation; $`i`$ is the FAA element number; and $`i`$=1, 2, …$`N`$.

By specifying different values of $`\stackrel{~}{K}_i`$, which in each particular case depend on the conditions of the problem being solved, it is possible to specify parameters determining the sensitivity and selectivity of FAA.

This author suggests the concept of a global detector (GLOBDET) of atmospheric disturbances of natural and technogenic origins, based on processing the GPS data in the FAA configuration. This concept implies that time dependencies of TEC are obtained for a set of spaced receivers of the GPS network simultaneously for all GPS satellites ”visible” during a given time interval. These series are subjected to filtering over a selected range of oscillation periods in order to eliminate slow variations caused by the orbital motion of the satellites and by the diurnal variation of TEC in the ionosphere. Next, these series are processed in the nonequidistant FAA configuration using them in (1) or in other algorithms of PAA as complex signals $`\stackrel{~}{A}(t)_i`$. It is also assumed that equivalent partial antennas of such an array are located at subionospheric points. The coordinates of these points are determined for the selected height $`h_{max}`$ of the $`F2`$-layer maximum by means of standard (in the GPS system) calculations of the azimuth $`\alpha `$ and elevation $`\theta `$ of the LOS between the receiver and the satellite. $`\alpha `$ and $`\theta `$ are reckoned from the northward direction and from the ground, respectively.

The GPS technology provides the means of estimating TEC variations on the basis of phase measurements of TEC $`I`$ in each of the spaced two-frequency GPS receivers using the formula ; :

$$I=\frac{1}{40.308}\frac{f_1^2f_2^2}{f_1^2f_2^2}[(L_1\lambda _1L_2\lambda _2)+const+nL]$$
(2)
where $`L_1\lambda _1`$ and $`L_2\lambda _2`$ are phase path increments of the radio signal, caused by the phase delay in the ionosphere (m); $`L_1`$, $`L_2`$ is the number of full phase rotations, and $`\lambda _1`$, and $`\lambda _2`$, are the wavelengths (m) for the frequencies $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$, respectively; $`const`$ is some unknown initial phase path (m); and $`nL`$ is the error in determination of the phase path (m).

The TEC unit, $`TECU`$, which is equal to $`10^{16}`$ m-2 and is commonly accepted in the literature, will be used throughout the text.

## 3 Using the GLOBDET technology in detecting the ionospheric response to solar flares

The enhancement of X-ray and ultraviolet radiation intensity that is observed during chromospheric flares on the Sun immediately causes an increase in electron density in the ionosphere. These density variatiuons are different for different altitudes and are collectively called Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances (SID). SID observations provide a key means for ground-based detection of solar flares along with optical observations of flares and solar radio burst observations. Much research is devoted to SID studies, among them a number of thorough reviews and monographs .

SID data for the $`F`$-region acquired by different radio probing methods were used repeatedly to estimate time variations in the X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectral regions and in relative measurements of fluxes in different wavelength ranges ; ; . The main body of SID data for the Earth’s upper atmosphere was obtained in earlier detections of Sudden Frequency Deviations (SFD) of the $`F`$-region-reflected radio signal in the HF range ; .

A further, highly informative, technique is the method of incoherent scatter (IS) . However, the practical implementation of the IS method requires very sophisticated, expensive equipment. An added limitation is inadequate time resolution. Since the relaxation time of electron density in the $`E`$\- and $`F1`$-regions is also less than 5-10 min, most IS measurements lack time resolution needed for the study of inospheric effects of flares.

The effect of solar flares on the ionospheric F-region is also manifested as a Sudden Increase of Total Electron Content (SITEC) which was measured previously using continuously operating radio beacons on geostationary satellites . A serious limitation of methods based on analyzing VHF signals from geostationary satellites is their small and ever increasing with the time number and the nonuniform distribution in longitude.

Consequently, none of the above-mentioned existing methods can serve as an effective basis for the radio detection system to provide a continuous, global SID monitoring with adequate space-time resolution. Furthermore, the creation of these facilities requires developing special-purpose equipment, including powerful radio transmitters contaminating the radio environment. It is also significant that when using the existing methods, the inadequate spatial aperture gives no way of deducing the possible spatial inhomogeneity of the X-ray and EUV flux.

According to the above concept, a global GPS network can be successfully used as a global detector of the ionospheric response to solar flares. A physical groundwork for the method is formed by the effect of fast change in electron density in the Earth’s ionosphere at the time of a flare simultaneously on the entire sunlit surface.

Essentially, the method implies using appropriate filtering and a coherent processing of TEC variations in the ionosphere simultaneously for the entire set of ”visible” (during a given time interval) GPS satellites (as many as 5-10 satellites) at all global GPS network stations used in the analysis. In detecting solar flares, the ionospheric response is virtually simultaneous for all stations on the dayside of the globe within the time resolution range of the GPS receivers (from 30 s to 0.1 s). Therefore, the coherent addition of individual realizations $`\stackrel{~}{A}(t)_i`$ does not require a partial phase shift (the complex part of the term $`\stackrel{~}{K}_i`$ is zero), and the entire procedure reduces to a simple addition

$$\stackrel{~}{S}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\stackrel{~}{A}(t)_iK_i$$
(3)
where $`\stackrel{~}{A}(t)_i`$ represents filtered TEC variations, and $`K_i`$ is the amplitude weighting factor determined by the geometry of the $`i`$ -beam (LOS) to the satellite. To a first approximation, this factor is .

$$K_i=cos\left[arcsin\left(\frac{R_z}{R_z+h_{max}}cos\theta _i\right)\right]$$
(4)
where $`R_z`$ is the Earth’s radius; $`h_{max}=300`$ is the height of the $`F2`$–layer maximum.

Reconstructing the absolute value of the ionospheric response to the solar flare requires a more accurate (than used in this paper) conversion of the ”oblique” TEC value to a ”vertical” one, especially at low values of elevations of the beam to the satellite. To do this, it is necessary not only to eliminate, for this beam to the satellite, the ambiguity of the determination of the absolute TEC value which arises when only phase measurements are used in the GPS system. The response can only be estimated reliable, with the inclusion the spatially inhomogeneous ionosphere, by using all beams to the satellite, and by applying adequate methods of spatial interpolation. This problem is considered in a series of publications (for example, ) and is beyond the scope of this paper.

## 4 Characteristics of a global detector

The detection sensitivity is determined by the ability to detect typical signals of the ionospheric response to a solar flare (leading edge duration, period, form, length) at the level of TEC background fluctuations. Ionospheric irregularities are characterized by a power spectrum, so that background fluctuations will always be distinguished in the frequency range of interest. However, background fluctuations are not correlated in the case of beams to the satellite spaced by an amount exceeding the typical irregularity size.

With a typical length of X-ray bursts and EUV emission of solar flares of about 5-10 min, the corresponding ionization irregularity size does normally not exceed 30-50 km; hence the condition of a statistical independence of TEC fluctuations at spaced beams is almost always satisfied. Therefore, coherent summation of responses to a flare on a set of beams spaced thoughout the dayside of the globe permits the solar flare effect to be detected even when the response amplitude on partial beams is markedly smaller than the noise level (background fluctuations). The proposed procedure of coherent accumulation is essentially equivalent to the operation of coincidence schemes which are extensively used in X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes.

If the SID response and background fluctuations, respectively, are considered to be the signal and noise, then as a consequence of a statistical independence of background fluctuations the signal/noise ratio when detecting the flare effect is increased through a coherent processing by at least a factor of $`\sqrt{N}`$, where $`N`$ is the number of LOS.

The solar flares of July 29, 1999 and Decevber 28, 1999 were used to illustrate the performance of the proposed method. Fig.1a presents the geometry of a global GPS array used in this paper to analyze the effects of the July 29, 1999 flare (105 stations). Heavy dots correspond to the location of the GPS stations. The upper scale indicate the local time, LT, corresponding to 19:00 UT. The coordinates of the stations are not given here for reasons of space.

As is evident from Fig. 1a, the set of stations which we chose out of the global GPS network available to us, covers rather densely North America and Europe, but provides much worse coverage of the Asian part of the territory used in the analysis. The number of GPS stations in the Pacific and Atlantic regions is even fewer. However, coverage of the territory with partial beams to the satellite for the limitation on elevations $`\theta >10^{}`$ , which we have selected, is substantially wider. Dots in Fig. 1a mark the coordinates of subinospheric points for the height of the $`F2`$–layer maximum $`h_{max}=300`$ km for all visible satellites at 19:00 UT for each GPS station. A total number of beams (and subionospheric points) used in this paper to analyze the July 29, 1999 flare is 622.

Fig.1b presents the geometry of a global GPS array used in this paper to analyze the effects of the December 28, 1999 solar flare, (230 stations; only for the dayside). A total number of beams (and subionospheric points) is 1200.

Such coverage of the terrestrial surface makes it possible to solve the problem of detecting time-coincident events with spatial resolution (coherent accumulation) two orders of magnitude higher, as a minimum, than could be achieved in SFD detection on oblique HF paths. For simultaneous events in the western hemisphere, the correspoding today’s number of stations and beams can be as many as 400 and 2000–3000, respectively.

It should be noted that because of the relatively low satellite orbit inclinations, the GPS network (and to a lesser degree GLONASS) provides poor coverage of the Earth’s surface near the poles. However, TEC measurements in the polar regions are ineffective with respect to the detection of the ionospheric response to a solar flare because the amplitude of background fluctuations in this case is much higher when compared with the mid-latitude ionosphere. This is partiocularly true of geomagnetic disturbance periods. For the same reason, equatorial stations should also be excluded from a coherent processing.

If the Earth’s ionosphere is regarded as the filling of some global detector of X-ray and EUV emissions, then it is possible to estimate a huge volume $`V_{det}`$ of the potential sensitivity region of such a detector. This volume is equal to one-half the difference of the volumes of spheres with the radii $`R_z+H_{max}`$ and $`R_z+H_{min}`$

$$V_{det}=2\pi [(R_z+H_{max})^3(R_z+H_{min})^3]/3$$
(5)
where $`H_{min}`$ and $`H_{max}`$ are the upper and lower boundaries of the absorbing layer for a given part of the flare emission spectrum. For the EUV range, $`H_{min}=100`$ km, and $`H_{max}=200`$ km , which gives the volume $`V_{det}`$ of order $`\mathrm{2.65\hspace{0.17em}10}^{19}`$ m3. For the X-ray part of the spectrum, $`H_{min}=60`$ km, and $`H_{max}=80`$ km , and the corresponding volume is $`\mathrm{0.523\hspace{0.17em}10}^{19}`$ m3.

The actual sensitivity is in fact determined by the number of beams penetrating the region of potential sensitivity. Furthermore, solar flare-induced TEC perturbations constitute but a small part of TEC including the height range up to 1000 km. There are methods to estimate the height in the ionosphere, but they do not come within the province of this paper.

On the one hand, GLOBDET time resolution is limited by technical capabilities of the GPS system. Essentially, data with a time resolution of about 30 s are currently available on the INTERNET, which is insufficient for a detailed analysis of the fine structure of the SID time dependence. Yet this limitations seems to be transient since current multichannel two-frequency GPS receivers can operate with a time resolution of up to 0.1 s.

On the other hand, time resolution is determined by time constants of ionization and recombination processes in the ionosphere at a given height , ; these parameters can be taken into acount when processing the data.

## 5 Ionospheric response to the solar flare of July 29, 1999

A powerful impulsive flare of July 29, 1999 was chosen to illustrate the practical implementation of the proposed method. The thick line in Fig. 2d shows the time dependence of the X-ray emission intensity $`R(t)`$ of this flare as measured by the X-telescope BATSE on satellite CGRO in 25–50 keV range. The envelope of the dependence $`R(t)`$ represents a bell-shaped pulse of about 3-min duration with a maximum corresponding to 19:34 UT, or to about 12:00 LT in the U.S. West (Fig. 1a). This time interval is characterized by a low level of geomagnetic disturbance (within -10 nT), which simplified greatly the SID detection problem.

We now describe briefly the sequence of GPS data processing procedures. Primary data include series of ”oblique” values of TEC $`I(t)`$, as well as the corresponding series of elevations $`\theta (t)`$ and azimuths $`\alpha (t)`$ along LOS to the satellite calculated using our developed CONVTEC program which converts the GPS system standard RINEX-files on the INTERNET . The determination of SID characteristics involves selecting continuous series of $`I(t)`$ measurements of at least a one-hour interval in length, which includes the time of the flare. Series of elevations $`\theta (t)`$ and azimuths $`\alpha (t)`$ of the beam to the satellite are used to determine the coordinates of subionospheric points. In the case under consideration, all results were obtained for elevations $`\theta (t)`$ larger than $`10^{}`$.

Fig. 2a presents typical time dependencies of an ”vertical” TEC $`I(t)`$ for the PRN03 satellite at the CME1 station ($`40.4^{}`$N; $`235.6^{}`$E) on July 29, 1999 (thick line) and for PRN21 at the CEDA station ($`40.7^{}`$N; $`247.1^{}`$E – thin line). It is apparent from Fig. 2a that in the presence of slow TEC variations, the SID-induced short-lasting sudden increase in TEC is clearly distinguished in the form of a ”step” as large as 0.4 $`TECU`$.

For the same series, similar lines in panel b. show variations of the time derivative of TEC $`dI(t)/dt`$ with the linear trend removed and with a smoothing with the 5-min time window. The TEC time derivative is invoked because it reflects electron density variations which are proportional to the X-ray or EUV flux .

The coherent summation of $`dI(t)/dt_i`$ realizations was made by the formula

$$S(t)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}dI(t)/dt_iK_i$$
(6)
The (normalized to $`N`$) result of a coherent summation of the $`S(t)`$-series for all beams and GPS stations located mainly on the dayside is presented in panel c (thick line). A comparison of the resulting coherent sum of $`S(t)`$ with the time dependence $`dI(t)/dt`$ for individual beams presented in panel b. confirms the effect of a substantial increase of the signal/noise ratio caused by a coherent processing.

It is interesting to compare, for the same time interval, the results from a coherent summation for the dayside and nightside. The r.m.s. of the coherent sum of $`S(t)`$ in panel c. for the nightside (thin line) is an order of magnitude (as a minimum) smaller than the SID response amplitude.

A comparison of the coherent sum of $`S(t)`$ with the time dependence of the X-ray emission intensity $`R(t)`$ of the July 29, 1999 flare, based on the data from the X-telescope BATSE on satellite CGRO data in 25–50 keV range (panel d), shows their high correlation and an almost total coincidence of the form of $`S(t)`$ with the $`R(t)`$ pulse envelope.

It should be noted, however, that generally TEC variations $`S(t)`$ are 60 s ahead of $`R(t)`$. It is pointed out in  that EUV emission is mostly responsible for SID in the $`F`$-region, TEC variations are also well correlated with X-ray flares. This is also confirmed by simultaneous measurements of flare emission characteristics in the X-ray and EUV ranges by the Solar Maximum Mission spacecraft . It is also observed in  that the EUV emission flare does lead (but only slightly) the X-ray flare.

## 6 Ionospheric response to the solar flare of December 28, 1999

A powerful impulsive flare of December 29, 1999 was chosen also to illustrate the practical implementation of the proposed method. The dashed line in Fig. 3d shows the time dependence of the X-ray emission intensity $`R(t)`$ of this flare as measured by the X-telescope BATSE on satellite CGRO in 25–50 keV range (thin line). The envelope of the dependence $`R(t)`$ represents a bell-shaped pulse of about 1.5-min duration with a maximum corresponding to 00:44 UT, or to about 16:00 LT in the U.S. West (Fig. 1b). This time interval is characterized by a low level of geomagnetic disturbance (within - 22 nT), which simplified greatly the SID detection problem. The December 28, 1999 flare was also recorded by X-ray telescope HXT on the YOHKOH satellite (Fig. 3d - thick line; in 23-33 keV range).

Fig. 3a presents typical time dependencies of an ”vertical” TEC $`I(t)`$ for the PRN26 satellite at the LEEP station ($`39.1^{}`$N; $`241.7^{}`$E) on December 28, 1999 (thick line) and for PRN04 at the CHI1 station ($`60.2^{}`$N; $`213.3^{}`$E – thin line). It is apparent from Fig. 3a that in the presence of slow TEC variations, the SID-induced short-lasting sudden increase in TEC is clearly distinguished in the form of a ”step” as large as 0.2–0.5 $`TECU`$.

For the same series, similar lines in panel b. show variations of the time derivative of TEC $`dI(t)/dt`$ with the linear trend removed and with a smoothing with the 5-min time window.

The (normalized to $`N`$) result of a coherent summation of the $`S(t)`$-series for all beams and GPS stations located mainly on the dayside is presented in panel c (thick line).

A comparison of the coherent sum of $`S(t)`$ with the time dependence of the X-ray emission intensity $`R(t)`$ of the December 28, 1999 flare, based on the data from the X-telescopes BATSE on satellite CGRO data in 25–50 keV range and HXT on the YOHKOH satellite in 14-23 keV range (panel d), shows their high correlation and an almost total coincidence of the form of $`S(t)`$ with the $`R(t)`$ pulse envelope.

## 7 Discussion and conclusions

This paper has offered a brief outline of the concept of a global detector (GLOBDET) of atmospheric disturbances, based on phase measurements of a TEC in the ionosphere which were made using the international network of two-frequency multichannel GPS receivers. We have discussed the possibilities of using GLOBDET method in detecting ionospheric effects of solar flares. A case study of a global ionospheric response to a powerful solar flares of July 29, 1999 and December 28, 1999 illustrates the new experimental potential.

The GLOBDET technology, suggested in this paper, can be used to detect small solar flares; the body of data processed is the only limitation in this case. The high sensitivity of GLOBDET permits us to propose the problem of detecting, in the flare X-ray and EUV ranges, emissions of nonsolar origins which are the result of supernova explosions.

For powerful solar flares like the one examined in this report, it is not necessary to invoke a coherent summation, and the SID response can be investigated for each beam. This opens the way to a detailed study of the SID dependence on a great variety of parameters (latitude, longitude, solar zenith angle, spectral characteristics of the emission flux, etc.). With current increasing solar activity, such studies become highly challenging. In adidtion to solving traditional problems of estimating parameters of ionization processes in the ionosphere and problems of reconstructing emission parameters , the data obtained through the use of GLOBDET can be used to estimate the spatial inhomogeneity of emission fluxes at scales of the Earth’s radius.

The GLOBDET technology can also be used in detecting disturbances of natural and technogenic origins accompanied by the propagation of acoustic and acoustic-gravity waves. They include such phenomena as explosions, rocket launches, solar eclipses, the displacement of the solar terminator, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, heavy thunderstorms, and auroral heating. Unlike solar flares, however, the response to the above-mentioned effects is not time-coincident for different beams. Therefore, when selecting complex factors $`\stackrel{~}{K}_i`$, it is necessary to appropriately take into account the amplitude attenuation and the phase delay which are caused by the propagation decay and finite velocity (sonic and subsonic in this case) of the response in the ionosphere. Furthermore, a processing of traveling TEC disturbances implies essentially using regional rather than global GPS networks, which reduces the sample statistic of the beams when the signal is accumulated.

## 8 Acknowledgments

Author is grateful to Altyntsev A. T. and L. A. Leonovich for their encouraging interest in this study and active participations in discussions. Author is also indebted to V. V. Grechnev, E. A. Kosogorov, O. S. Lesuta and K. S. Palamarchouk for preparing the input data. Thanks are also due V. G. Mikhalkovsky for his assistance in preparing the English version of the -manuscript. This work was done with support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant No. 99-05-64753) and from RFBR grant of leading scientific schools of the Russian Federation No. 00-15-98509.


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# References

About nondegenerative four photon mixing gain spectroscopy of the $`SF_6`$ molecules.

V.A.Kuz’menko

Troitsk Institute of Innovation and Fusion Research,

Troitsk, Moscow region, 142092, Russian Federation.

## Abstract

Infrared-infrared double resonance measurements of the $`\nu _3`$ absorption band of $`SF_6`$ using a $`CO_2`$ TEA laser radiation have been carried out. The results obtained in the present and in some earlier works are discussed taking into account existence of a wide component of lines, nondegenerative four photon mixing (NFPM) and time invariance violation in the photon-molecule interactions. It is proposed to use the NFPM effect in investigations of the shape of the optical transition in polyatomic molecules and especially for evaluation of the homogeneous width of the wide component of lines. The need and problems of experimental study of existing effects of the T-invariance violation in optics are discussed.

PACS number: 42.65.-k, 33.70.-w, 33.80.-b

Introduction

Studies of the IR-IR double resonance in $`SF_6`$ were widely carried out in 70’s with a purpose to clarify the mechanism of the IR multiple photon excitation (IR MPE) of the polyatomic molecules. Large experimental material was obtained in this area in the subsequent years . Also, a substantial progress was achieved in understanding the underlying physical processes. All this demands to reexamine the old experiments, as they contain interesting and important information.

A very strong bleaching in $`SF_6`$ was observed in the work . This bleaching was destroyed by molecular collisions at characteristic rate of $`p\tau =48`$ns mbar. An effect of the direct multiphoton absorption of the pump laser radiation by molecules was proposed as a candidate for explanation of this bleaching. On the contrary, in works  a hypothesis was proposed of existence of some wide component in the absorption line of the polyatomic molecules. If the natural width of this wide component greater, than anharmonicity of vibrations, the IR MPE can occur in a natural way. Later, this idea was proved experimentally, when the far wings in the absorption band of polyatomic molecules were found , which were independent on the gas pressure. The intensities of these lorentzian-like band wings well coordinate with the saturation data of molecular absorption at low pressure, with the data of depletion of rotational levels in the $`SF_6`$ molecules  and with the data on the $`SF_6`$ absorption of laser radiation in the molecular beam conditions . Integrated intensity of this wide component can be rather easily estimated from the saturated spectrum data. But the natural width can be measured correctly only in the molecular beam conditions, where rotational temperature is extremely low. Therefore, development of methods for measuring this width in the room temperature cell conditions is of great interest.

Experiments on the IR-IR double resonance provide such an opportunity. The bleaching, observed in work , is very similar to the coherent effect of NFPM. In the latter case, redistribution of energy between a powerful pump beam and a weak probe beam takes place. It is well known, that such a process proceeds in $`SF_6`$ very effectively (up to depletion of the pump beam) as a superradiation in the case of degenerative four photon mixing (DFPM) in a somewhat specific conditions (a short cell and high $`SF_6`$ pressure) . As in the case of the coherent Raman gain spectroscopy , spectral dependence of the NFPM efficiency contains information about the shape of the optical transition. The peculiarity of this case is that the NFPM effect occurs within a very wide optical transition. Thus, the spectral width of the bleaching effect characterizes the homogeneous width of the optical transition.

The purpose of the current work was to repeat the experiments of work , to perform some more detailed study of the spectral characteristics of the bleaching effect, to discuss the role of the NFPM and to propose to use it for determination of the widths of line wings of polyatomic molecules in the condition of cell experiments at room temperature. However, in the present experiments any nondegenerative bleaching was absent.

Experiment

The experimental set-up is shown in Fig.1. The main difference from work  was that a separate mirror (3) with R=-2m was used for focusing the laser radiation in the copper waveguide absorption cell (ø10mm and length 110cm). The probe laser radiation passed through the hole ø8mm in the mirror (4) without focusing and was registered by an integrated calorimeter 2. Such an experimental set-up allows to work without a monochromator and to measure absorption of the probe laser radiation in the case of coinciding frequencies of the pump and the probe lasers. The difference in divergences of the scattered pump radiation and that of the probe laser is so great, that total energy of pump radiation, registered by the calorimeter 2 at the distance $`1m`$ from the mirror (4) is $`<10\mu j`$ and does not prevent to measure the energy of the probe pulse.

The resonator of the probe laser was formed by a rather flat mirror (R=-50m) and a diffraction grating. Its radiation was characterized by small divergence and good uniformity of the beam. Nitrogen free gas mixture was used. Multimode laser pulse had a full width about 100ns at half maximum without any ”tail” and consisted of chaotic spikes.

The pump laser had an unstable resonator and two very old $`BaF_2`$ coated NaCl windows. In the far field region, where it was focused, radiation was very non-uniform and had a typical speckle-structure. With small contents of nitrogen in the gas mixture, the multimode pulse consisted of a spike about 100ns FWHM and a ”tail” about $`3\mu s`$ full length, that contained about 20% of the total pulse energy. Directions of polarization of both laser beams coincided. Temporal characteristics were measured by means of a photon-drag detector and an oscilloscope (not shown in the figure).

The measurements were carried out at pressures 1,5 Torr $`SF_6`$ for the P10— P14 and R10—R20 lines, 1,0 Torr for line P16 and 0,4 Torr $`SF_6`$ for lines P18—P30.

Experimental results

The results of the IR-IR double resonance experiments are presented in Fig.2. The pump laser was tuned in the P16 line. Similar results were obtained when the pump laser was tuned in the P20 line. Incident pump laser fluence in the waveguide was $`250mj/cm^2`$. Energy fluence of the probe laser radiation was $`7mj/cm^2`$. The latter was decreased down to $`1mj/cm^2`$ in some experiments without any changes in the results. In the whole range of testing (including the R10—R20 area) only increase in absorption of the probe laser radiation was observed.

Some bleaching effect was observed only when both lasers were working on the same line. Apparent mutual influence of the lasers was observed in this case. Were the pulses of both lasers synchronized, energy of the probe laser pulse decreased by $`10\%`$, and its beam pattern became non-uniform. The distance between two lasers was about 10m in this case, so that only scattered pump laser radiation could get into the resonator of the probe laser.

Also, a set of experiments was carried out in which the same laser radiation was used both for pumping and for probing. Again, the bleaching effect was found in this case. An open square in Fig.2 corresponds to the case, when the probe laser was used, and the full square illustrates the case of using only the pump laser radiation.

Discussion

IR-IR double resonance was studied in numerous works \[3,13-17\]. These experiments frequently gave contradictory results, and it was difficult to give satisfactory explanations to these contradictions. At present, however, the situation has substantially cleared up.

A wide component with Lorentzian FWHM $`150GHz`$ exists in the spectrum of narrow absorption lines of $`SF_6`$ molecule . Its integral intensity for the $`10`$ transition of the $`\nu _3`$ band contains only $`0,2\%`$ of the integral intensity of this optical transition. However, absorption of the powerful pump laser radiation takes place just through this component. The weaker probe radiation can be absorbed mainly through the narrow or through the wide component of the line. Thus, the results of probing can be different. All experiments on the IR-IR double resonance in $`SF_6`$ can be conditionally broken into three classes: (1) when the probing occurs through the narrow component of lines, (2) when the probing occurs through the wide component of lines and (3) an intermediate case.

In the work  very weak probe radiation of the CW $`CO_2`$ laser with intensity $`1mW/cm^2`$ was used. Both induced transmissions in the P8—P22 region of the probe laser frequencies and induced absorption in the red side were observed. Saturation of the narrow component of lines was absent in this case. The main cause of the observed effects was an anharmonic shift of the optical transitions of the excited molecules.

It is surprising, but experiments with megawatt intensity and picosecond timescale probe pulse laser radiation belong to the same class . In this case laser radiation has large spectral width ($`1cm^1`$). Therefore, any saturation of the narrow component of lines is again absent, and the results of these experiments coincide practically with those of work .

CW $`CO_2`$ probe laser radiation with intensity about $`0,10,5W/cm^2`$ was used in works \[15-17\]. These experiments belong to the intermediate class. Here we can see appearance of appreciable saturation of the narrow component of lines. Also, absorption through the wide component of lines begins to play some role. This role depends on exact tuning of the probe laser radiation frequency: is it set-up on a strong rotational line or between lines. Thus, in the area P8-P22 both induced transmission and induced absorption can be observed.

A specific effect of short-time induced absorption in the course of the pump pulse was observed in work . One should keep in mind, that planes of polarization of the probe and the pump laser radiation were orthogonal in this experiment. A coherent polarization effect could take place in this case, that is due to the population transfer between degenerated levels. Phenomena of this kind are studied in the atomic polarization spectroscopy , and they are out of scope of the present paper.

Experiments of the present paper belong to the next class, when probing occurs mainly through the wide component of lines. Average probe laser intensity was $`1070kW/cm^2`$. Saturation of the narrow component of lines was much stronger in this case. The role of the wide component in absorption of the probing radiation became essential.

In this case, besides the anharmonic shift, an effect of sharp growth of integral intensity of the wide component in the region of low lying vibrational levels should be taken into account. This effect manifests itself through a strong temperature dependence of the IR MPE process . In some range of the experimental conditions this effect becomes decisive, and then induced absorption of the probe laser radiation can be observed in all spectral intervals.

To the same class of experiments the works  belong. In the work  the experiments were carried out in the molecular beam conditions. Along with rather high intensity of the probe laser radiation ($`10kW/cm^2`$), these experimental conditions were characterized by ultralow ($`5^0K`$) rotational temperature . A number of rotational lines were very low, and the probe laser radiation interacted practically with the wide component of lines only. The obtained results were similar to those of the present work. One should keep in mind, however, that experiments of work  were carried out with rather hot gas ($`T=500^0K`$).

A special case is work , where, as we believe, a coherent NFPM effect was observed. The first argument for such a conclusion is unusually strong effect of collisions. Even elastic collisions can destroy coherency. The second argument is amplification in the region R12-R20, that clearly indicates the combination $`\nu _2+\nu _6`$ band can contribute to this process. In this case the phase-matched radiation must exist in the region near $`915cm^1`$, and it is better to search for it in the direct beams without waveguide. And the third argument is that in our experiments, which were carried out in rather similar conditions, the characteristic bleaching was absent. This fact can be due to rather poor coherency of the pump beam in our case. It is known, that efficiency of the DFPM effect is extremely sensitive to the divergence and uniformity of the laser beam . In the works \[15-17\] the NFPM effect might be absent as a result of low intensity of probe radiation, and in the experiments with molecular beam  its absence could be a consequence of low density and small size of the interaction zone.

Is the bleaching effect, observed in our work, when both lasers radiate on the same line, a result of four photon mixing? Absence of such an effect in the molecular beam conditions ( , Fig.3, without exact adjusting) is an indirect argument for the positive answer. In this case, the NFPM effect can be a consequence of a very small difference in the frequencies of the pump and probe radiation.

Thus, detailed experimental studies of occurrence of the NFPM effect in $`SF_6`$ are of undoubted interest. They can give information about the shape of optical transitions, and not only about the forward transitions, but maybe about the backward ones.

Why one needs the NFPM effect to present within the wide and homogeneous optical transition? Here we are concerning a very important and interesting question about the time invariance violation in the photon-atom and photon- molecule interactions. Basing on the considerations of symmetry, the theorists assume the existence of the T-invariance violation effects in optics for a long time. It is not known, however, in which part of optics and in which form could these effects exist. For many years the scientists try to find them in the form of the so-called electrical dipole moment (EDM) . The EDM is not found till now.

General situation, however, is that the whole nonlinear optics based on or connected with T-invariance violation. The principle of T-invariance violation is obviously a quantum analog of the nonlinear susceptibility principle. Most of the nonlinear effects in optics can be explained from the quantum point of view on the basis of the T-invariance violation principle. The effect of T-invariance violation usually manifests itself only in an indirect way, for example, as a population transfer effect at sweeping the resonance conditions . Usually, experimenters cannot control the natural width and the cross-section of optical transitions in such a way to be able to compare these parameters for the forward and backward processes.

Maybe a unique exception for this day is the wide component of lines. It is a unique physical object that is characterized by an unusual combination of properties: a huge homogeneous width of transition is combined with long lifetime of the excited state. This allows to divorce in time and in space the process of laser excitation and that of monitoring the exited states of molecules . These experiments yield fantastic results: the width of the backward optical transition proves to be more than five orders of magnitude less than that of the forward one, the cross-section of the backward transition being more, than four orders of magnitudes greater, than that of the forward one . These experiments provide a direct and full experimental proof of existence of the strong T-invariance violation in the photon-molecule interactions. For more detailed experimental study of the T-invariance violation effect we need to reanimate and straightforwardly continue experiments of work  (fig.5, 6).

In principle, experiments of this type can be carried out in the cell conditions also. It is possible to study the dependence of absorption of the probe radiation on the angle between the probe and the pump beams. We expect to see a transition from direct stimulated deexcitation of molecules to the four photon mixing effect, which can reach a superradiation regime in optimum conditions . We hope to prolong such experiments in future using the straight crossed beams without waveguide. It would be useful, if the same studies were conducted somewhere else.

The author is grateful to Dr. V.S.Mezhevov for equipping us with a pump laser and to Dr. A.P.Dyad’kin for discussions.


text:
# Evolution of globular cluster systems in elliptical galaxies. I: log-normal initial mass function

## 1 Introduction

The study of the properties of globular cluster systems (hereafter GCS) in our Galaxy and in external galaxies can provide important clues on the formation and the evolution of individual globular clusters and of their host galaxies. A large number of observational investigations have been carried out (see e.g. Ashman & Zepf 1998 and Harris 2000 for recent reviews) and the wealth of data collected have provided several indications on the relations between the properties of GCS and those of the host galaxies as well as on the dependence of the properties of individual GCS on the position inside their host galaxies.

On the theoretical side, a firmly established theory for the formation of globular clusters is still lacking and the interpretation of a number of observational results is matter of debate. Several theoretical studies addressing the evolution of the properties of GCS have concluded that evolutionary processes lead to the disruption of a significant number of globular clusters and can change the shape and the parameters of the initial mass function of the system (see e.g. Fall & Rees 1977, Fall & Malkan 1978, Caputo & Castellani 1984, Chernoff, Kochanek, Shapiro 1986, Chernoff & Shapiro 1987, Aguilar, Hut & Ostriker 1988, Vesperini 1994, 1997, 1998, Okazaki & Tosa 1995, Capuzzo Dolcetta & Tesseri 1997, Gnedin & Ostriker 1997, Murali & Weinberg 1997a, 1997b, Ostriker & Gnedin 1997, Baumgardt 1998; see also Meylan & Heggie 1997 for a recent review on the dynamical evolution of globular clusters).

On the other hand, many observational investigations have shown that the mass functions of globular cluster systems (hereafter we will indicate the mass function of a globular cluster system by GCMF and the luminosity function of a globular cluster system by GCLF) of galaxies with structures markedly different from each other, in which the efficiency of evolutionary processes should be different, are very similar to each other and they are all well fitted by a log-normal function with approximately the same mean value and dispersion (see e.g. Harris 1991); the turnover of the GCLF has been often used as a standard candle calibrated on the value of the turnover of GCS of galaxies in the Local Group for the determination of extragalactic distances (see e.g. Jacoby et al. 1992).

As to the radial variations of the GCMF properties inside individual galaxies, while in some observational analyses it has been claimed that inner clusters tend to be more luminous than outer clusters (Crampton et al. 1985 for the M31 GCS, van den Bergh 1995a, 1996 for the Galactic GCS, Gnedin 1997 for the GCS of the Milky Way, of M31 and of M87, see also Ostriker & Gnedin 1997 for a theoretical analysis of the data presented in Gnedin 1997; see also Chernoff & Djorgovski 1989, Djorgovski & Meylan 1994 and Bellazzini et al. 1996 for evidence of differences in the structure of inner and outer Galactic clusters), most observational studies fail to report any significant radial trend in the properties of the GCMF (see e.g. Forbes et al. 1996, Forbes, Brodie & Hucra 1996, Forbes, Brodie & Hucra 1997, Kavelaars & Hanes 1997, Harris, Harris & McLaughlin 1998, Kundu et al. 1999; see also Gnedin 1997 for a discussion of the possible role of the statistical methodology used in the determination of the difference between the GCLF parameters of inner and outer clusters).

The apparent universality of the GCMF in galaxies with different structures and the lack of a strong radial gradient of the properties of the GCMF inside individual galaxies have been often interpreted, at odds with the conclusions of the theoretical studies mentioned above, as an indication that evolutionary processes do not play a relevant role in determining the current properties of GCS.

In some recent investigations the issue of the universality of the GCMF has been addressed more in detail (Whitmore 1997, Ferrarese et al. 2000, Harris 2000) and the absolute magnitude of the turnover of the GCLF have been determined using primary standard candles; these studies have shown that, in fact, there is an intrinsic scatter in the properties of GCMF of galaxies of the same type and that there are some non-negligible differences between the mean properties of the GCMF of galaxies of different type. In particular the results of the most recent of these studies (Harris 2000) show that 1) giant ellipticals have a mean turnover magnitude, $`M_V^0`$, equal to -7.33 with a galaxy-to-galaxy rms scatter equal to 0.15 (corresponding, for $`M/L_V=2`$, to $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}=5.16`$ and a scatter of 0.06), 2) dwarf ellipticals have a mean turnover about 0.4 mag fainter than giants, $`M_V^0=6.9`$ with a galaxy-to galaxy rms scatter of 0.6 mag (corresponding to $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}=4.99`$ and a scatter of 0.24), 3) for disk galaxies, the mean turnover of the GCLF, $`M_V^0=7.46`$, appears to be about 0.15 mag brighter than that of giant ellipticals, with a dispersion of about 0.2 mag ($`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}=5.21`$ and a scatter of 0.08).

In this paper we will focus our attention on elliptical galaxies and we will explore the dependence of the evolution of the GCMF, of the fraction of clusters surviving after one Hubble time and of the ratio of the final to the initial total mass of clusters on the structure of the host galaxy; the efficiency of evolutionary processes in producing a significant radial gradient of the properties of the GCMF inside individual galaxies will be studied. The results of our simulations will be compared with the observational data available for giant, normal and dwarf elliptical galaxies.

We will adopt a log-normal initial GCMF with parameters equal to those observed in the external regions of some galaxies where evolutionary processes are unlikely to have altered the initial conditions of the GCS; we will not consider here younger globular cluster populations which could have formed during mergers or interactions. In a companion paper (Vesperini 2000) we will consider the evolution of GCS with a power-law initial GCMF similar to that of young cluster systems observed in merging galaxies.

The layout of the paper is the following: in §2 we describe the method adopted for this investigation; in §3 we explore the evolution of GCS located in a large set of host galaxies with different effective masses and radii and derive a number of general results on the dependence of the evolution of GCS on the host galaxy; then we show the implications of our results for a sample of host galaxies with effective masses and radii equal to those estimated observationally for a number of ellipticals; the results obtained are compared with the observed trends in the properties of GCS in elliptical galaxies. In §4 we study the dependence of our results on the initial mean mass of the GCMF. In §5 we discuss and summarize all the results.

## 2 Method

In order to calculate the evolution of the masses of individual globular clusters in a GCS, we will adopt the expressions derived by means of large set of N-body simulations by Vesperini & Heggie (1997) and already used to study the evolution of the Galactic GCS in Vesperini (1998). The evolutionary processes we will consider are the mass loss associated to the evolution of individual stars in a cluster, two-body relaxation, the presence of the tidal field of the host galaxy and dynamical friction. The effects due to the time variation of the tidal field for clusters on elliptical orbits (see e.g. Weinberg 1994a,b,c, Gnedin, Hernquist & Ostriker 1999) were not considered in the simulations of Vesperini & Heggie and are not included here. For details on the N-body simulations we refer to Vesperini & Heggie (1997).

Fitting the time evolution of the mass of individual clusters as obtained by N-body simulations, Vesperini & Heggie (1997) derived the following analytical expression for a cluster with initial mass $`M_i`$ and located at a galactocentric distance $`R_g`$

$$\frac{M(t)}{M_i}=1\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }M_{st.ev.}}{M_i}\frac{0.828}{F_{CW}}t$$
(1)
where $`t`$ is time measured in Myr, $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }M_{st.ev.}}{M_i}`$ is the mass loss due to stellar evolution (see eq.10 in Vesperini & Heggie 1997) and $`F_{CW}`$ is a parameter introduced by Chernoff & Weinberg (1990) which is proportional to the initial relaxation time of the cluster and is defined as

$$F_{CW}=\frac{M_i}{M_{}}\frac{R_g}{\text{kpc}}\frac{1}{\mathrm{ln}N}\frac{220\text{km s}^1}{v_c},$$
(2)
where $`N`$ is the total initial number of stars in the cluster and $`v_c`$ is the circular velocity around the host galaxy.

For the host galaxy we will assume a simple isothermal model with constant circular velocity.

The effects of dynamical friction at any time $`t`$ are included by removing, at that time, all clusters with time-scales of orbital decay (see e.g. eq. 7.26 in Binney & Tremaine 1987) smaller than $`t`$.

Each host galaxy we have considered is characterized by a value of the effective radius, $`R_e`$, and of the effective mass $`M_e`$. For each GCS we have explored, we have drawn 20000 random values of $`M_i`$ according to the initial GCMF chosen and the distances of clusters from the center of the host galaxy are such that the number of cluster per cubic kpc is proportional to $`R_g^{3.5}`$ with $`R_g`$ ranging from $`0.16R_e`$ to $`5R_e`$. The adopted profile for the radial distribution is similar to that observed for Galactic halo clusters; a similar slope for the initial radial distribution has been obtained by Murali & Weinberg (1997a) from detailed models of the evolution of the GCS of M87.

We have studied the evolution of GCS in a large set of different host galaxies: Fig. 1 shows all the pairs $`(\mathrm{log}M_e,\mathrm{log}R_e)`$ considered.

The evolution of each GCS has been followed for one Hubble time here taken equal to 15 Gyr.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 General results

In this section we discuss the results obtained adopting a log-normal initial GCMF with mean mass $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i=5.25`$ and dispersion $`\sigma _i=0.6`$ which is similar, for example, to the GCMF of outer (and thus unlikely to be significantly affected by evolutionary processes) clusters in M87 (see e.g. McLaughlin, Harris & Hanes 1994, Gnedin 1997).

Figs 2a and 2b show the contour plots of the final (at $`t=15`$ Gyr) mean mass and dispersion of the GCMF, $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ and $`\sigma _f`$, in the plane $`\mathrm{log}M_e\mathrm{log}R_e`$. In most host galaxies with low values of $`M_e`$, for which dynamical friction is more important than evaporation, $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f<\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ while $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f>\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ for high-mass host galaxies where mass loss and disruption due to two-body relaxation are more important. It is interesting to note that for a large number of host galaxies, $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ and $`\sigma _f`$ do not differ significantly from their initial values 111In comparing initial and final values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$, one has to consider that, no matter how efficient dynamical friction and evaporation are, all GCS have their initial total mass and mean mass decreased because of the mass loss associated to stellar evolution; for the initial stellar mass function used in the simulations by Vesperini & Heggie (1997), on which this investigation is based, after 15 Gyr the mass lost by each cluster because of stellar evolution amounts to about 18 per cent of the initial total mass; this means that also in those GCS in which no cluster is disrupted, the final total mass and the final mean mass are always smaller than or equal to approximately 0.82 times the corresponding initial values.. Figs 2c and 2d show the contour plots of the ratio of the final to the initial total number of clusters, $`N_f/N_i`$, and of the ratio of the final to the initial total mass of clusters, $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$. The four panels of Fig. 2 clearly show that a small difference between the initial and the final parameters of the GCMF does not necessarily imply that the number of clusters disrupted by evolutionary processes is negligible. As already shown in Vesperini (1998) for the Galactic globular cluster system, the gaussian shape is always well preserved during evolution and the disruption of a large number of clusters does not always lead to a strong variation in the values of the initial mean mass and dispersion.

The minima of the curves of constant $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$ approximately correspond to the transition from a regime dominated by evaporation to one dominated by dynamical friction: if only the effects of evaporation were taken into account, the curves of constant $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$ would go down from the upper right to the lower left region of the $`\mathrm{log}M_e\mathrm{log}R_e`$ plane; as dynamical friction takes over as the dominant evolutionary process, the curves of constant $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$ turn up leading to values of these quantities smaller than those one would have if evaporation were the only process included.

Fig. 3 shows the contour plot of the difference, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_{innout}`$, between the mean mass of inner clusters (defined as those with galactocentric distance smaller than $`R_e`$) and outer clusters (those located at galactocentric distances larger than $`R_e`$).

Since the efficiency of evolutionary processes depends on the galactocentric distance, the formation of a radial gradient in the parameters of the GCMF has to be expected; nevertheless, as shown in Fig.3, in several cases this gradient is very weak. Moreover, since the observed positions of globular clusters in external galaxies are not real galactocentric distances but projected distances, any radial gradient will appear even weaker and its detection is likely to be difficult (see e.g. Harris 2000).

Inner clusters are those more affected by evolutionary processes: depending on whether the dominant evolutionary process is dynamical friction or evaporation and on the balance between disruption of clusters by these evolutionary processes and the evolution of the masses of the clusters which survive (see §3.1 in Vesperini 1998 for a detailed discussion of the effects of disruption and evolution of the masses of surviving clusters) $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_{innout}`$ can be positive or negative and, as shown in Fig. 3, in a number of cases it is very close to zero. Another point to note is that, in principle, the radial gradient of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$, if investigated in finer radial bins, does not need to be monotonic: it is conceivable that as $`R_g`$ increases, the dominant evolutionary process and the balance between disruption and evolution of the masses of the surviving clusters which are responsible for the evolution of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$, can change in a way leading to a non-monotonic behavior of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$.

Fig. 4 shows $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_{innout}`$ versus the fraction of surviving clusters, $`N_f/N_i`$: it is important to remark that, while all GCS characterized by a large value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_{innout}`$ have had their initial population of clusters significantly depleted by evolutionary processes, a weak or negligible radial gradient of the mean mass of the GCMF does not imply that evolutionary processes have not played an important role in modeling the properties of individual clusters and in disrupting a significant fraction of the initial number of clusters; as Fig. 4 shows, there are a large number of systems in which much less than 50 per cent of the initial number of clusters have survived but still $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_{innout}`$ is equal to or close to zero.

### 3.2 Implications

We now turn our attention to the implications of the results discussed above for a sample of host galaxies with structural properties known from observations. We will refer to the sample of elliptical galaxies for which the values of $`M_e`$ and $`R_e`$ are provided in Burstein et al. (1997). Here we will adopt values of $`M_e`$ and $`R_e`$ corresponding to $`H_0=75\text{km s}^1\text{Mpc}^1`$. Figs 5a-d show the contour plots of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$, $`\sigma _f`$, $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$ in the plane $`\mathrm{log}M_e\mathrm{log}R_e`$ with the observational values of $`\mathrm{log}R_e`$ and $`\mathrm{log}M_e`$ superimposed; these figures illustrate the expected final properties of the GCS of the galaxies considered.

The fraction of the initial population of clusters which survive after one Hubble time and the ratio of the final to initial total mass in clusters for the sample of galaxies considered span the entire range of possible values; in contrast with such a broad range of values of $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$, Fig. 5a shows that most galaxies (in particular those with $`\mathrm{log}M_e\text{ }>\text{ }10`$) occupy a region of the $`\mathrm{log}M_e\mathrm{log}R_e`$ plane corresponding to a very narrow range of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$: a small range of values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ in galaxies with different structures implies neither that the fraction of the initial number of clusters which have been disrupted in these galaxies is similar nor that evolutionary processes did not alter the initial conditions of individual clusters. This point is further illustrated in Figs 6a-d where we have plotted $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$, $`\sigma _f`$, $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$ versus the mass of the host galaxy. Fig. 6a shows that $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ is approximately constant for $`\mathrm{log}M_e\text{ }>\text{ }1010.5`$ while it decreases for smaller galaxies; this result is perfectly consistent with the findings of the observational analysis by Harris (2000) discussed above in the Introduction which shows that the mean luminosity of globular clusters is approximately constant in giant ellipticals and that the mean luminosity of clusters in dwarf galaxies is fainter than that of giant ellipticals.

Figs 6c and 6d show that $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$ increase with the mass of the host galaxy. The trend of $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$ to increase with the mass of the host galaxy results from the relation between the observational values of $`M_e`$ and $`R_e`$ (for $`\mathrm{log}M_e\text{ }>\text{ }10`$, $`R_eM_e^{0.66}`$; see Burstein et al. 1997 for further details on the fundamental plane relations for the sample of elliptical galaxies considered here) which is such that both the efficiency of relaxation and that of dynamical friction decrease as $`M_e`$ increases (for example $`R_eM_e^{0.66}`$ implies $`F_{CW}M_e^{0.49}`$). This is clearly illustrated in Fig 5c: the slope of the relation between $`\mathrm{log}M_e`$ and $`\mathrm{log}R_e`$ is steeper than the slope (referring for example to the high-$`M_e`$ side of the plot) of the curves of constant $`N_f/N_i`$ and, as $`M_e`$ increases, observational points in the $`\mathrm{log}M_e\mathrm{log}R_e`$ plane cross curves corresponding to larger and larger values of $`N_f/N_i`$.

Fig. 6c is also important for its implications for the dependence of the number of clusters on the mass of the host galaxy. Several investigations have been carried out to study the abundance of globular clusters as a function of the properties of the host galaxies: the specific frequency, $`S_N`$, defined as the number of clusters per unit luminosity (Harris & van den Bergh 1981), has been determined for a number of galaxies and, more recently, Zepf & Ashman (1993) have introduced a mass-normalized specific frequency defined as the ratio of the total number of clusters to the total mass of the host galaxy. In general, observational analyses (see e.g. Ashman & Zepf 1998, Elmegreen 2000 and references therein) have shown that ellipticals tend to have specific frequencies larger than spirals and, within the sample of ellipticals, specific frequency tends to increase with the luminosity of galaxies (see e.g. Djorgovski & Santiago 1992, Santiago & Djorgovski 1993, Zepf, Geisler & Ashman 1994, Kissler-Patig 1997). A similar trend is observed also for the mass normalized frequency (see Ashman & Zepf 1998). For nucleated dwarf galaxies this trend is reversed and the specific frequency tends to increase with decreasing luminosity of the host galaxy (van den Bergh 1995b, Durrell et al. 1996, Miller et al. 1998). The origin of the observed trend between specific frequency and luminosity (or mass) of the host galaxy is still not clear (see e.g. Elmegreen 2000, Harris 2000 for recent reviews). In a recent work, McLaughlin (1999; see also Blakeslee 1999) has shown that the observed trend is consistent with a constant efficiency of cluster formation and a varying efficiency of star formation per unit gas mass available; the trend for nucleated dwarf galaxies could be ascribed, according to McLaughlin’s analysis, to a smaller fraction of gas retained (and thus of stars formed) in these galaxies after the formation of globular clusters.

Our analysis can provide information only on the ratio of the final to the initial number of clusters; only with the additional knowledge of the dependence of $`N_i`$ on the mass of the host galaxy it would be possible to determine the dependence of the current number of clusters on the host galaxy mass. Fig. 6c shows that the fraction of surviving clusters depends on the mass of the host galaxy; though with a large scatter, a power-law scaling $`N_f/N_iM_e^{0.35}`$ fits well our theoretical results. This implies that for $`N_iM^\alpha `$ and $`M/LL^\beta `$, $`N_fM^{\alpha +0.35}`$ or $`N_fL^{(1+\beta )(\alpha +0.35)}`$; for $`N_iL^\lambda `$, $`N_fM^{\left(\frac{\lambda }{1+\beta }+0.35\right)}`$ or $`N_fL^{0.35(1+\beta )+\lambda }`$.

We do not aim to a detailed fit of our results with the observational correlations but it is interesting to note that, for example, either assuming $`N_iM`$ or $`N_iL`$, our results imply that evolutionary processes will lead to a dependence of the current specific frequency on the mass (and on the luminosity as well) of the host galaxy: in particular, for $`N_iL`$ we obtain $`N_fM^{1.16}`$ or, adopting $`M/LL^{0.24}`$ (see e.g. Faber et al. 1987), $`N_fL^{1.43}`$; for $`N_iM`$ we obtain $`N_fM^{1.35}`$ or $`N_fL^{1.67}`$. We thus conclude that, starting with a mass- (or luminosity-) independent specific frequency, evolutionary processes can lead to a trend mass(or luminosity)-specific frequency consistent with that observed. The possible role of evolutionary processes in producing a luminosity-specific frequency correlation has been pointed out also by Murali & Weinberg (1997a) and this result is in agreement with their conclusion.

It is important to remark that our analysis shows that evolutionary processes can lead to a trend mass(or luminosity)-specific frequency without producing, at the same time, any correlation (which would be in contrast with observations) between the mean mass of the GCMF and the mass of the host galaxy for galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e\text{ }>\text{ }10.5`$.

Figs 7a-c show the histograms of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$, $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$ for galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e>10.5`$: the average value of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ for these galaxies is equal to 5.16 with a galaxy-to-galaxy rms dispersion of about 0.03; these values are in good agreement with those found by Harris (2000) for giant galaxies. It is interesting to emphasize again the contrast between the relatively narrow distribution of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ and the much broader distributions of $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$.

In order to illustrate the evolution of the distribution of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ for galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e>10.5`$ we have plotted in Fig. 8 the time evolution of the values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ corresponding to the 10th, 50th and 90th percentiles of the $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ distribution. The initial rapid decrease of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ is caused by the mass loss due to stellar evolution which does not depend on the host galaxy; the subsequent evolution, which is essentially determined by two-body relaxation and dynamical friction, depends on the structure of the host galaxy and broadens the distribution of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ with a slight increase of the median $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$.

For galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e<10.5`$, plots like those shown in Figs 7 and 8 are less significant because of the smaller number of objects for which data are available and of the not uniform distribution of these objects in the $`\mathrm{log}M_e\mathrm{log}R_e`$ plane. The important point to remark is that, in general, as is evident from Fig. 6a, there is a clear trend for low-mass galaxies to have a $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ smaller than that of high-mass galaxies and a larger galaxy-to-galaxy dispersion; these differences are perfectly consistent with the findings of the observational analysis by Harris (2000).

In order to further explore the dependence of the properties of the GCMF on the host galaxy and to better illustrate the differences between giant, normal and dwarf galaxies we have considered the subsample of all the initial conditions investigated in §3.1 corresponding to the region where most observational data are located (see Fig. 9).

For four representative cases, shown in Fig. 9 by filled dots, a further detailed analysis of the time evolution of the properties of the GCMF and of their dependence on the galactocentric distance has been carried out and the results are discussed below in §3.3. We have divided the sample of host galaxies in three subsamples according to their masses: high-mass galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e>10.5`$, intermediate galaxies with $`9.5<\mathrm{log}M_e<10.5`$ and low-mass galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e<9.5`$.

The panels in the left column of Fig. 10 show the distribution of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ at $`t=2,5,10,15`$ Gyr for the three subsamples considered. These plots further illustrate the expected differences in the mean mass of the GCMF of different classes of galaxies and the intrinsic galaxy-to-galaxy dispersion in the distribution of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ in galaxies of the same type; the result discussed above is confirmed: low-mass galaxies tend to have lower values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ and a larger galaxy-to-galaxy dispersion.

The panels in the central and in the right columns of Fig. 10 show the distributions of the fraction of surviving clusters and of the ratio of the total mass in clusters at $`t=2,5,10,15`$ Gyr to the total initial mass in clusters for the same samples of host galaxies discussed above.

### 3.3 Detailed analysis of the evolution of GCS in four fiducial host galaxies

In this subsection we focus our attention on four fiducial galaxies with values of $`\mathrm{log}M_e`$ and $`\mathrm{log}R_e`$ shown by filled dots in Fig. 9 and we study more in detail the evolution and the final properties of their GCS.

In Fig. 11 we show the time evolution of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ and $`\sigma `$, of the fraction of surviving clusters and of the ratio of the total mass of surviving clusters to the total initial mass of clusters. While $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ evolves significantly only in the first 2-3 Gyr, individual clusters are continuously disrupted and those which survive keep losing mass (see Figs 11c and 11d): after the initial evolution, the gross properties of the GCMF adopted do not evolve significantly despite the continuous disruption of clusters and the evolution of the masses of the surviving clusters.

In Figs 12a-c we plot $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$, $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$ versus the galactocentric distance. For the two most massive galaxies considered, evolutionary processes are efficient only within a galactocentric distance approximately equal to $`R_e`$ while most clusters survive at larger radii where most of the mass loss is that associated to the effects of stellar evolution.

For less massive and more compact galaxies, a strong disruption and mass loss occur well beyond $`R_e`$ and even at $`R23R_e`$ about 50 per cent of the clusters are disrupted. In spite of the significant disruption, only in the least massive and most compact host galaxy considered, a strong radial gradient of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ extending beyond $`R_e`$ is produced by the effects of evolutionary processes.

The plot of $`N_f/N_i`$ vs $`R_g`$ is of interest for the interpretation of the data on the radial dependence of the specific frequency. Observational data (see e.g. McLaughlin 1999 and references therein) show that GCS have, in general, a spatial distribution less centrally concentrated than the stellar halos of their host galaxies with cores larger than those of the stellar halo while in the outer regions the spatial distribution of clusters usually matches that of the stellar halo; this implies that the local specific frequency increases with the galactocentric distance in the central regions and tends to a constant values in the outer parts of the host galaxy.

Our results show that the increase of the specific frequency with $`R_g`$ for $`R_g\text{ }<\text{ }12R_e`$ can be, at least in part, the result of the effects of evolutionary processes (see also Capuzzo Dolcetta & Tesseri 1997, Murali & Weinberg 1997a), while for $`R_g\text{ }>\text{ }12R_e`$ evolutionary processes have been unimportant in giant galaxies and any observed radial trend has to be ascribed to the processes of cluster formation. Of course, it is not possible to exclude that the decrease of the specific frequency in the central regions was not in part imprinted by the formation processes and subsequently further strengthened by evolutionary processes.

## 4 Dependence of the results on the mean mass of the initial GCMF

We conclude our investigation by exploring the dependence of the main final properties of GCS on the initial value of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ (as to the initial dispersion we will keep the value adopted until now, $`\sigma =0.6`$).

We will restrict our attention to galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e>10.5`$. We have adopted the following values of $`\mathrm{log}M_e`$ and $`\mathrm{log}R_e`$: $`(\mathrm{log}M_e,\mathrm{log}R_e)=`$ (12,1.4), (11.75,1.18), (11.5,1), (11.25,0.8), (11.0,0.64), (10.75,0.52), (10.5,0.4); these values span the entire strip of the $`\mathrm{log}M_e\mathrm{log}R_e`$ plane covered by real galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e>10.5`$.

The main evolutionary process responsible for the disruption of clusters is evaporation due to internal relaxation for GCS with low values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$, or, as $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ increases, disruption of high-mass clusters by dynamical friction. As discussed in Vesperini (1998), $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ is larger or smaller than $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ depending on the balance between disruption of low-mass clusters by evaporation, disruption of high-mass clusters by dynamical friction and evolution of the masses of the clusters which survive: for low values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ most of the disrupted clusters are low-mass clusters and, in general, $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f>\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ while, as $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ increases, disruption by dynamical friction becomes the most important process and most of the disrupted clusters are those in the high-mass tail of the initial GCMF which leads to $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f<\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$.

Fig. 13 shows $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$, $`N_f/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$ as a function of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ for the seven fiducial host galaxies considered. The range of values spanned by $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ is larger for low and high values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ while for intermediate values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ ($`4.7\text{ }<\text{ }\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i\text{ }<\text{ }5.5`$), in spite of the significant spread of values of $`N_f/N_i`$ and of $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$, the range of values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ is very small.

As shown in Figs 13b and 13c, low-mass galaxies are generally those where disruption processes are more efficient and where the difference between $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ is larger. The dependence of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ on $`M_e`$ varies with $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$: for low values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$, $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ decreases as $`M_e`$ increases while $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ increases with $`M_e`$ for high values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$. Since here we have restricted our attention to galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e>10.5`$, for which observational analyses show that $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$ spans a narrow range of values, our results seem to exclude the possibility that the initial GCMF was a log-normal function with low ($`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i\text{ }<\text{ }4.7`$) or high ($`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i\text{ }>\text{ }5.5`$) values of the mean mass. Moreover the values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ obtained for $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i\text{ }<\text{ }4.7`$ and for $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i\text{ }>\text{ }5.5`$ do not fall in the range of observed values.

## 5 Summary and conclusions

In this paper we have studied the evolution of globular cluster systems in elliptical galaxies. We have followed the evolution of globular cluster systems with a log-normal initial GCMF with initial mean mass and dispersion similar to those currently observed in the external regions of some galaxies where evolutionary effects are unlikely to have significantly altered the initial conditions ($`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i=5.25`$ and $`\sigma _i=0.6`$ corresponding, for $`M/L_V=2`$, to $`M_V=7.5`$ and $`\sigma _V=1.5`$); a large set of N-body simulations carried out by Vesperini & Heggie (1997) have been used to determine the evolution of the masses of individual globular clusters.

* In the first part of the paper we have carried out a survey over a large sample of values of the effective mass, $`M_e`$, and radius, $`R_e`$, of the host galaxy and we have investigated in detail the dependence of the final mean mass and dispersion of the GCMF, of the fraction of surviving clusters and of the ratio of the final to the initial total mass of clusters on $`M_e`$ and $`R_e`$. The difference between the properties of the GCMF of inner and outer clusters has been investigated too. Contour plots of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$, $`\sigma _f`$, $`N_f/N_i`$, $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_{innout}`$ in the plane $`\mathrm{log}M_e\mathrm{log}R_e`$ (see Figs 2, 3 and 4) have allowed us to determine the relation between the evolution of the GCMF and the fraction of clusters disrupted and to show the dependence of the evolution of a GCS on the structure of the host galaxy.
* In the second part of the paper, we have focussed our attention on a subset of values of $`M_e`$ and $`R_e`$ equal to the observational values available for giant, normal and dwarf ellipticals and we have compared our theoretical results with the results of some recent observational analyses (see Figs 5-10).

1. For galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e\text{ }>\text{ }10.5`$, our results are in general qualitative and quantitative agreement with the findings of several observational studies: $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ is approximately constant ($`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f5.16`$ or $`M_V=7.3`$ for $`M/L_V=2`$) with a small galaxy-to-galaxy dispersion. We have shown that the narrow range spanned by $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ for galaxies with different structures and the lack of a strong radial gradient in the properties of GCMF inside many individual galaxies do not imply that evolutionary processes have been unimportant: in most of the host galaxies we have considered, a significant fraction of clusters have been disrupted and the masses of many of those which survived have changed; in contrast with the narrow range of values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$, the fraction of surviving clusters for different host galaxies, $`N_f/N_i`$, spans almost the entire range of possible values.
    2. As to dwarf galaxies, our results show that evolutionary processes lead to values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ smaller than those of giant ellipticals and to a larger galaxy-to-galaxy dispersion. Both these findings are in agreement with those of observational analyses (Harris 2000).
    3. The fraction of surviving clusters increases with the mass of the host galaxy and it ranges from $`N_f/N_i0.9`$ for the most massive galaxies to $`N_f/N_i0.1`$ for dwarf galaxies. A mass-(or luminosity-)specific frequency correlation can result from the effects of evolutionary processes (see also Murali & Weinberg 1997a). The ratio of the final to the initial total mass of clusters ranges from $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}0.8`$ for the most massive galaxies to $`M_{GCS,f}/M_{GCS,i}0.01`$ for dwarf galaxies.
    4. The time evolution of the distribution of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$, $`N(t)/N_i`$, $`M_{GCS}(t)/M_{GCS,i}`$ for all the galaxies considered as well as the detailed time evolution of the GCMF parameters, of $`N(t)/N_i`$, and of $`M_{GCS}(t)/M_{GCS,i}`$ for four fiducial galaxies have been investigated (see Figs 8, 10, 11); this allows to determine the expected properties of GCS in elliptical galaxies younger than the adopted age of 15 Gyr. Our analysis shows that while the number of clusters and their total mass, $`N(t)/N_i`$ and $`M_{GCS}(t)/M_{GCS,i}`$, continue to decrease for 15 Gyr, the mean mass of clusters, $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$, evolves significantly only in the first few Gyrs.
    5. For some fiducial galaxies we have studied in larger detail the dependence of the properties of the GCMF and of the fraction of surviving clusters on the galactocentric distance (see Fig. 12). We have shown that in massive galaxies disruption occurs mainly within $`R_e`$ while in low-mass compact galaxies a significant fraction of clusters are disrupted also at $`R_g>R_e`$. The difference in concentration between the spatial distribution of clusters and that of stars is, at least in part, due to the disruption of inner clusters.

    As discussed above, we have shown that there are several systems in which the radial gradient of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ is negligible in spite of a significant disruption of clusters.
    6. For a sample of fiducial galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}M_e>10.5`$, we have studied the dependence of the final properties of the GCMF on the initial value of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}`$, $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$. We have shown how the dependence of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ on the mass of the host galaxy, the spread of values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ and the fraction of surviving clusters vary with $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ (see Fig. 13). $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ increases as $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ increases; for a given value of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$, the spread of values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ is larger for $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i\text{ }<\text{ }4.7`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i\text{ }>\text{ }5.5`$ while for intermediate values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i`$ ($`4.7\text{ }<\text{ }\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_i\text{ }<\text{ }5.5`$) the range of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ is small.

    A small spread of values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}M}_f`$ in different galaxies is never the result of negligible disruption or of a similar fraction of surviving clusters in the host galaxies considered. The properties of the final GCMF are always determined by the interplay between disruption of clusters and evolution of the masses of the clusters which survive.

In this paper we have focussed our attention on GCS with a log-normal initial GCMF. In a companion paper (Vesperini 2000) we will study the evolution of GCS starting with a power-law initial GCMF similar to that observed in young cluster systems in merging galaxies and we will investigate whether the final properties of GCS starting with such a functional form for the initial GCMF are consistent with those currently observed in old globular cluster systems.

## Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Giuseppe Bertin and the referee, Oleg Gnedin, for many useful comments on the paper.
Support form a Five College Astronomy Department fellowship is acknowledged.

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