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# Decoherence and the rate of entropy production in chaotic quantum systems

## Abstract

We show that for an open quantum system which is classically chaotic (a quartic double well with harmonic driving coupled to a sea of harmonic oscillators) the rate of entropy production has, as a function of time, two relevant regimes: For short times it is proportional to the diffusion coefficient (fixed by the system–environment coupling strength). For longer times (but before equilibration) there is a regime where the entropy production rate is fixed by the Lyapunov exponent. The nature of the transition time between both regimes is investigated.

2

Environment induced decoherence has been identified in recent years as one of the main ingredients in the transition from quantum to classical behavior. Classicality emerges as a consequence of the coupling of quantum systems to an environment which, in effect, dynamically enforces super-selection rules by precluding the stable existence of the majority of states in the Hilbert space of the system. The physics of decoherence has been thoroughly studied during the last few years both from the theoretical  and also from the experimental point of view . As part of these studies it has been recognized that the decoherence process has rather unique properties for systems whose classical analogues are chaotic. In fact, for classically chaotic systems decoherence has two very important features: First, decoherence restores the validity of the correspondence principle that for isolated chaotic systems could be violated in an absurdly short time-scale (see the Hyperion paradox in ). Thus, environment induced decoherence ensures that classical and quantum expectation values agree for a long range of times pushing towards infinity the “breakdown’ time which would otherwise be present and would depend logarithmically on $`\mathrm{}`$. This important feature was first conjectured in  and later studied in more detail in .

The second salient feature of decoherence for classically chaotic systems concerns the entropy production rate. In fact, in  it was also conjectured that, when decoherence is effective, there is a robust range of parameters for which the entropy production rate becomes independent of the strength of the coupling to the environment. In such regime, the rate is equal to the sum of positive Lyapunov exponents (the conjecture was modified in  where it was noticed that, in general, one should use appropriately averaged Lyapunov exponents).

In this letter we present the first conclusive numerical evidence supporting the above conjecture for open quantum systems evolving continuously in time (in the last few years the status of the conjecture was analyzed in part for some open quantum maps ). Our results show that Lyapunov exponent determines the value of the entropy production rate after an initial transient. We also clarify other important issues: First we show that during the initial transient the entropy production rate is proportional to the system–environment coupling strength. Second we analyze the transition between the two regimes. Our numerical results are consistent with a linear dependence of the transition time $`t_c`$ on the entropy of the initial state and with a logarithmic dependence on the coupling strength. Again, remarkably enough, our results validate once more the grossly oversimplified but very intuitive picture that was presented in .

The system we analyze is a quantum particle moving in a quartic double well potential under the action of an harmonic driving force. The Hamiltonian is $`H=p^2/2+V(x,t)`$ with the potential $`V(x,t)=Bx^2+Cx^4/2+Ex\mathrm{cos}(\omega t)`$. This driven system has been extensively studied  and it is well known that for a wide range of parameters it has chaotic (mixed) behavior. In our studies we chose several sets of parameters in such a way that the stroboscopic phase space portrait is like the one shown in Figure 1 where one clearly sees the coexistence of islands of stability and a chaotic sea. The coupling of this system to an environment is modeled via the simplest (ohmic, high temperature) quantum Brownian motion model. In this case, the evolution of the reduced density matrix of the system follows a local master equation , which gives rise to the following equation for the Wigner function of the system:

$`\dot{W}=\{H,W\}_{PB}`$ $`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n1}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^n\mathrm{}^{2n}}{2^{2n}(2n+1)!}}_x^{(2n+1)}V_p^{(2n+1)}W`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`2\gamma _p\left(pW\right)+D_{pp}^2W`$ (2)
The physical effects included in this equation are well understood. The first term in the right hand side is the Poisson bracket that induce classical evolution (Liouville flow). The second term carries the quantum corrections. The last two terms bring the influence of the environment generating, respectively, friction and diffusion. The regime of interest for us is the one where the friction term can be neglected ($`\gamma 0`$, and energy is approximately conserved) while the diffusive term, that produces decoherence is non–negligible ($`D=2m\gamma k_BT=`$ constant).

Let us first qualitatively describe the most important effects we expect to test in our numerical study. We consider initial states with a smooth Gaussian Wigner function centered either in the chaotic sea or in a regular island as shown in Figure 1 (these two cases lead to drastically different results). Let us suppose first that the diffusion term in (2) is absent (i.e., the state evolves according to Schrödinger equation). For a smooth initial state the dominant term in (2) is the Poisson bracket. As Wigner function initially evolves following nonlinear classical trajectories it looses its Gaussian shape and develops tendrils while folding (this happens exponentially fast if the initial state is in the chaotic sea). As a consequence, gradients of $`W`$ increase and quantum corrections in (2) become important, inducing oscillations in the Wigner function. The decoherence producing term in (2) can be qualitatively understood as being responsible of two interrelated effects: On the one hand, the diffusion term tends to smooth out the Wigner function naturally reducing gradients. This washes out the oscillations in the Wigner function suppressing quantum interference. The time-scale characterizing the dissapearence of the fringes can be estimated using previous results : Fringes with a characteristic wave-vector (along the $`p`$–axis of phase space) $`k_p`$ decay exponentially with a rate given by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_D=Dk_p^2`$. Noting that a wave-packet spread over a distance $`\mathrm{\Delta }_x`$ with two coherently interfering pieces generate fringes with $`k_p=\mathrm{\Delta }_x/\mathrm{}`$ one concludes that the decoherence rate is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_D=D\mathrm{\Delta }_x^2/\mathrm{}^2`$. This rate, depends linearly on the diffusion constant, and is one of the factors that contribute to the rate of entropy increase during the first phase of the evolution.

There is a second related aspect of decoherence which is drastically different for regular and chaotic systems. Thus, appart from suppressing the fringes, the diffusion term also tends to spread the regions where the Wigner function is possitive, contributing in this way to the entropy growth. But, as discussed in , the rate of entropy production distinguishes regular and chaotic cases. For regular states, decoherence should produce entropy at a rate which depends on the diffusion constant $`D`$. However, for chaotic states the rate should become independent of $`D`$ and should be fixed by the Lyapunov exponent. The origin of this $`D`$–independent phase can be understood using a simple minded argument (presented first in  and later discussed in a more elaborate way in ): Chaotic dynamics tends to contract the Wigner function along some directions in phase space competing against diffusion. These two effects may balance each other giving rise to a critical width below which Wigner function cannot contract. This local width should be approximately $`\sigma _c^2=2D/\lambda `$ (being $`\lambda `$ the local Lyapunov exponent). Once this critical size has been reached, the contraction stops along the stable direction while the expansion continues along the unstable one. Therefore, the area covered by the Wigner function grows exponentially in time and, as a consequence, entropy grows linearly with a rate fixed by the Lyapunov exponents.

Here, we will present solid numerical evidence supporting the existence of this $`D`$–independent phase. For simplicity, instead of looking at the von Neuman entropy $`_{VN}=Tr\left(\rho _r\mathrm{log}\rho _r\right)`$ we examine the linear entropy, defined as $`=\mathrm{log}(Tr\left(\rho _r^2\right))`$, which is a good measure of the degree of mixing of the system and sets a lower bound on $`_{VN}`$. The above argument concerning the role of the critical width $`\sigma _c`$ may appear as too simple but captures the essential aspects of the dynamical process. Indeed, the master equation can be used to show that

$$\dot{}=2D(_pW)^2/W^2$$
(3)
where the bracket denotes an integral over phase space. The right hand side of this equation is proportional to the mean square wave–number computed with the Fourier transform of the Wigner function. This implies that the entropy production rate is closely related to the phase space structure present in the Wigner distribution. Thus, the $`D`$–independent phase begins at the time when the mean square wave–length along the momentum axis scales with diffusion as $`\sqrt{D}`$ (as $`\sigma _c`$ does). This behavior cancels the diffusion dependence of $`\dot{}`$ which becomes entirely determined by the dynamics.

Appart from analyzing the $`D`$–independent phase of entropy production we will analyze the nature of the the transition time between the diffusion dominated and the chaotic regime. This time $`t_c`$ can also be naively estimated along the lines of the previous argument: The time for which the spread of the Wigner function approaches the critical one is $`t_c\lambda ^1\mathrm{log}(\sigma _p(0)/\sigma _c)`$. Thus, one expects $`t_c`$ to depend logarithmically on the diffusion constant and on the initial spread of the Wigner function (for Gaussian initial states the spread depends exponentially on the initial entropy, therefore $`t_c`$ should vary as a linear function of the initial entropy). Our numerical work is devoted at testing these intuitive ideas.

We solved numerically the master equation using two different methods (that give similar results). First, we computed the Wigner function numerically solving equation (2) using a third order pseudo–spectral method . For this, we used a phase space grid of variable size and adaptive time-steps (a similar method was used in ). Second we obtained approximate solutions to (2) using a different strategy: We computed the Floquet states of the original (isolated) driven system and obtained the master equation in the Floquet basis . This equation has a rather simple form when averaged over one driving period. In such case, it can be numerically solved by usual means (the limiting factor is the number of Floquet states that are required). In what follows we present our results for the entropy behavior (plots are obtained using the first of the two numerical methods, more details and other results will be presented elsewhere ).

The drastic difference between the behavior of the entropy production rate for regular and chaotic initial conditions is clearly displayed in Figure 2. Regular initial conditions produce entropy at a rate linearly dependent on the diffusion coefficient. This is precisely what we expect when the entropy production is due to: (i) the destruction of interference fringes, (ii) the slow increase in the area covered by the possitive Wigner function. The oscillations evident in Figure 2 have some distinguishing features: they have the frequency of the driving force and both their amplitude and their phase are $`D`$–independent (this is true for the regular initial state and for the initial transient of the chaotic state). These oscillations can be shown to be related both to the change in orientation of the fringes (decoherence is more effective if fringes are aligned along the $`p`$ axis) and to the change in spread of the Wigner function in the momentum direction induced by the dynamics. When the initial state is centered in the chaotic sea, the initial transient is followed by a regime where the rate $`\dot{}`$ becomes independent of the value of the diffusion constant (if $`D`$ is not too small, see below). Moreover, the numerical value of the rate oscillates around the average local Lyapunov exponent computed by averaging over an ensemble of classical trajectories weighted by the initial Wigner function (In  the use of a more elaborate averaging scheme was suggested, we will compare these approaches elsewhere ).

It is remarkable that for long times the entropy production rate is indeed fixed just by the dynamics becoming independent of $`D`$ (after all, the entropy production is itself a consequence of the coupling to the environment but the value of the rate becomes independent of it!). The result presented in Figure 2 was shown to be robust under changes of initial conditions and other parameters characterizing the classical dynamics. There are two limitations for the above results to be obtained. On the one hand the diffusion constant cannot be too strong: In that case the system heats up too fast and entropy saturates, making the numerical simulation unreliable. On the other hand, diffusion cannot be too small either: If that is the case decoherence could become too weak and the interference fringes could persist over many oscillations (the minimal value of $`D`$ required for efficient decoherence could be estimated as follows: if the Wigner function is coherently spread over a region of size $`\mathrm{\Delta }_x10`$, we would need a diffusion constant larger than $`D_{min}\mathrm{}^2/\mathrm{\Delta }_x^210^4`$ for the environment to be able to wash out the smallest fringes in one driving period. In fact, Figure 2 shows that when $`D=10^5`$ the entropy production rate is one order of magnitude smaller than the one corresponding to $`D=10^4`$.

It is interesting to remark that while the simple picture presented in  is in good qualitative agreement with our results, the arguments presented in that paper are too simple to include some important effects we found. In particular, the oscillatory nature of the rate was completely overlooked in . However, having said this, it is still possible to test some simple results obtained in  for the transition time between the diffusion dominated regime and the one where the rate is fixed by the Lyapunov exponent. For this purpose we performed two related studies. First we analyzed the dependence of the transition time $`t_c`$ on the diffusion constant. Of course, there is some ambiguity in the definition of the transition time because of the oscillatory nature of the rate. Here, we defined $`t_c`$ as the time for which the rate reaches some value after the initial transient (fortunately the value of the rate before and after the transient differ by two orders of magnitude making this a reasonable definition). Second, we analyzed the behavior of the rate as a function of the entropy of the initial state (i.e., on the spread of the initial Wigner function). Again, we used the same definition of $`t_c`$ (for this study we considered a different set of parameters than the one used to construct Figure 1 to assure that the chaotic sea can accommodate initial states with linear entropy up to $`=4`$). With this results we obtained the plots in Figure 3 where the linear dependence of $`t_c`$ on the initial entropy (mixed initial states produce entropy at a smaller rate) and its logarithmic dependence on the diffusion constant are shown.

Entropy production, a consequence of the entangling interactions between the system and its environment, plays a central role in studies of decoherence (for example, it is esential to find the “pointer states” of the system using the “predictability sieve” ). Here, we presented results supporting the point of view stating  that entropy production rate during decoherence could also be used as a diagnostic for quantum chaos. On the other hand these results also make evident the fact that, for quantum systems that are classically chaotic, the nature of the classical limit induced by decoherence is rather peculiar (and quite different from the one corresponding to regular systems). Indeed, this limit exhibits an unavoidable source of unpredictability, being the rate at which information is lost into the environment entirely fixed by the chaotic nature of the Hamiltonian of the system.

This work was supported by grants from Anpcyt (PICT 01014), Ubacyt and Conicet.


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# A class of 𝑇-stable (ℙ¹×⋯×ℙ¹)’s in 𝐺/𝐵

## 1. Introduction

Let $`G`$ be a connected complex semi-simple group. Let $`B`$ be a Borel subgroup and consider the natural (left) action of a maximal torus $`TB`$ on the flag variety $`G/B`$. A number of authors have studied $`T`$-stable subvarieties in $`G/B`$; see e.g. . In particular, all $`T`$-stable curves are known : for each $`w`$ in the Weyl group $`W:=\mathrm{N}_G(T)/T`$ and each root $`\alpha `$, there is a unique $`T`$-stable curve through the $`T`$-fixed points $`wB`$ and $`ws_\alpha B`$. Each of these curves is isomorphic to the projective line $`^1`$.

In this note, we describe a class of higher dimensional smooth $`T`$-stable subvarieties in $`G/B`$, generalizing those $`T`$-stable curves. More precisely, to each $`wW`$ and each set $`\{\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _d\}`$ of pairwise orthogonal roots (in the weaker sense, i.e. the sum of two $`\alpha _k`$’s may be a root), we associate a $`T`$-stable subvariety in $`G/B`$ passing through all $`T`$-fixed points $`w^{}B`$ with $`w^{}`$ of the form: $`w`$ times a product of some of the $`s_{\alpha _k}`$. We then show (Theorem 4.1) that such a subvariety is a closed embedding into $`G/B`$ of a product $`^1\times \mathrm{}\times ^1`$ of $`d`$ projective lines. To the best of my knowledge, these varieties have not yet been described in the literature (except for the curves mentioned above). Also, I do not know whether they exhaust all $`T`$-stable subvarieties in $`G/B`$ that are isomorphic to a product of projective lines.

Although the varieties considered here are reminiscent of Bott-Samelson varieties (see e.g. ), we would like to point out some differences: the latter are associated to certain sequences of simple roots (not necessarily orthogonal), whereas our roots need not be simple (but must be orthogonal). Our varieties are direct products of $`^1`$’s, whereas Bott-Samelson varieties are (generally nontrivial) $`^1`$-fibrations over Bott-Samelson varieties of lower dimension. (However, if the roots involved are both simple *and* pairwise orthogonal, then the successive $`^1`$-fibrations become trivial and both constructions agree: we obtain the Schubert variety corresponding to the product of the reflections associated to these roots.)

Finally, let us remark that we found the present class of subvarieties of $`G/B`$ while investigating an approach to quantum analogues of flag varieties . Since they could be of independent interest to algebraic geometers, we decided to describe them in this note, separately from .

Acknowledgements. I would like to thank M. Brion and H. Kraft for useful discussions, as well as the Université de Reims for granting a sabbatical leave during the year 1999–2000, when the present work has been done.

## 2. Notation

| $`G`$ | a connected complex semi-simple group |
| --- | --- |
| $`B,B^{}`$ | two opposite Borel subgroups of $`G`$ |
| $`T`$ | the maximal torus $`BB^{}`$ |
| $`U,U^{}`$ | the unipotent radicals of $`B,B^{}`$ |
| $`W`$ | the Weyl group $`\mathrm{N}_G(T)/T`$ |
| $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ | the root system of $`G`$ w.r.t. $`T`$ |
| $`\mathrm{\Phi }^+,\mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$ | the sets of positive and of negative roots w.r.t. $`B`$ |
| $`<`$ | the partial order on $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ defined by $`\alpha <\beta \beta \alpha \mathrm{\Phi }^+`$ |
| $`s_\alpha `$ | the reflection in $`W`$ associated to a root $`\alpha `$ |
| $`L_\alpha `$ | the copy of $`(\mathrm{P})\mathrm{SL}(2)`$ in $`G`$ corresponding to a root $`\alpha `$ |
| $`U_\alpha `$ | the root group corresponding to a root $`\alpha `$ |
| $`B_\alpha `$ | the Borel subgroup of $`L_\alpha `$ containing $`U_\alpha `$ |

## 3. A class of subvarieties in $`G/B`$

###### Definition 3.1.

An *orthocell* in $`W`$ is a left coset in $`W`$ of a subgroup generated by pairwise commuting reflections.

To each orthocell $`CW`$, we will associate a $`T`$-stable subvariety $`E(C)G/B`$. To define it, we will have to make some choices: first, choose $`wC`$, and choose a representative $`\dot{w}\mathrm{N}_G(T)`$ of $`w`$. By definition, we have $`C=ws_\alpha \alpha \mathrm{\Omega }`$ for some set $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of positive and pairwise orthogonal roots: next, choose a numbering $`\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _d`$ of the elements of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ that is *nonincreasing*, in the sense that

$$\alpha _k\alpha _k^{}\text{for all }k<k^{}\text{.}$$

(This is always possible: choose a maximal element in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and call it $`\alpha _1`$, then choose a maximal element among the remaining ones and call it $`\alpha _2`$, etc.) Note that the numbering may be chosen arbitrarily unless $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ has a component of type Bn, Cn, or F4.

We then define

$$E(C):=\{\dot{w}g_1\mathrm{}g_dBg_kL_{\alpha _k}k\}G/B.$$

In due course, we will show that $`E(C)`$ only depends on the orthocell $`C`$, and not on the choices we have made above (see Remarks 3.5 and 4.2).

###### Remark 3.2.

The set $`E(C)`$ contains all $`T`$-fixed points $`w^{}B`$ with $`w^{}C`$.

###### Proposition 3.3.

If $`\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _d`$ are as above, then the map

$$L_{\alpha _1}\times \mathrm{}\times L_{\alpha _d}G/B:(g_1,\mathrm{},g_d)\dot{w}g_1\mathrm{}g_dB$$

factors down to a map

$$j:L_{\alpha _1}/B_{\alpha _1}\times \mathrm{}\times L_{\alpha _d}/B_{\alpha _d}G/B.$$

###### Proof.

For all $`1kd`$, let $`g_kL_{\alpha _k}`$ and $`b_kB_{\alpha _k}`$. We need to show that $`g_1b_1\mathrm{}g_db_dB=g_1\mathrm{}g_dB`$. By induction over $`d`$, we may assume that the left hand side is equal to $`g_1b_1g_2\mathrm{}g_dB`$, so we must show that $`g_d^1\mathrm{}g_2^1b_1g_2\mathrm{}g_dB`$.

We decompose $`b_1=tu`$, where $`tB_{\alpha _1}T`$ and $`uU_{\alpha _1}`$. Orthogonality of $`\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _d`$ already implies that for each $`2kd`$, $`t`$ commutes with all elements of $`U_{\alpha _k}`$ and of $`U_{\alpha _k}`$. Since $`L_{\alpha _k}=U_{\alpha _k},U_{\alpha _k}`$ for each $`k`$, it follows that $`g_d^1\mathrm{}g_2^1tg_2\mathrm{}g_d=tB`$.

To study the remaining factor $`g_d^1\mathrm{}g_2^1ug_2\mathrm{}g_d`$, we consider the subgroup

$$U_{\alpha _1;\alpha _2,\mathrm{},\alpha _d}:=U_{i_1\alpha _1+\mathrm{}+i_d\alpha _d}i_1,\mathrm{},i_d𝐙,i_1>0$$

(where $`U_\gamma `$ denotes the trivial group whenever $`\gamma `$ is not a root).

Fix $`2kd`$. Let $`\beta =i_1\alpha _1+\mathrm{}+i_d\alpha _d\mathrm{\Phi }`$ for some $`i_1,\mathrm{},i_d𝐙`$, $`i_1>0`$. For all $`u_\beta U_\beta `$ and all $`u_{\alpha _k}U_{\alpha _k}`$, a well known commutation rule (see \[13, Proposition 8.2.3\]) implies that

$$u_{\alpha _k}u_\beta u_{\alpha _k}^1U_{i\beta +j\alpha _k}i>0,j0U_{\alpha _1;\alpha _2,\mathrm{},\alpha _d}.$$

Similarly, $`u_{\alpha _k}u_\beta u_{\alpha _k}^1U_{\alpha _1;\alpha _2,\mathrm{},\alpha _d}`$ for all $`u_{\alpha _k}U_{\alpha _k}`$. Using again that $`L_{\alpha _k}=U_{\alpha _k},U_{\alpha _k}`$, it follows that $`g_k^1U_{\alpha _1;\alpha _2,\mathrm{},\alpha _d}g_k=U_{\alpha _1;\alpha _2,\mathrm{},\alpha _d}`$.

In particular, $`g_d^1\mathrm{}g_2^1ug_2\mathrm{}g_dU_{\alpha _1;\alpha _2,\mathrm{},\alpha _d}`$. To complete the proof, it remains to show that $`U_{\alpha _1;\alpha _2,\mathrm{},\alpha _d}B`$, or, in other words, that $`_ki_k\alpha _k`$ cannot be a negative root if $`i_1>0`$. Write $`\alpha ^2:=(\alpha |\alpha )`$ for all $`\alpha `$ in the root lattice. By orthogonality, we have

$$i_1\alpha _1+\mathrm{}+i_d\alpha _d^2=i_1^2\alpha _1^2+\mathrm{}+i_d^2\alpha _d^2,$$

so there are two cases:

* if $`\alpha _1`$ is long (in its component), then $`_ki_k\alpha _k`$ cannot be a root (except for $`\alpha _1`$ itself);
* if $`\alpha _1`$ is short, then $`_ki_k\alpha _k`$ can only be a root if it is of the form $`\alpha _1\pm \alpha _k`$ for some $`2kd`$. But by assumption, $`\alpha _1\alpha _k`$, so $`\alpha _1+\alpha _k`$ and $`\alpha _1\alpha _k`$ are either positive roots (when $`\alpha _1>\alpha _k`$) or nonroots (when $`\alpha _1,\alpha _k`$ are incomparable).

###### Corollary 3.4.

The set $`E(C)`$ is a subvariety of the flag variety $`G/B`$.

###### Proof.

Use Proposition 3.3 and the fact that the $`L_{\alpha _k}/B_{\alpha _k}`$ are complete. ∎

###### Remark 3.5.

The subvariety $`E(C)`$ does not depend on the numbering of the elements of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ (as long as one chooses a nonincreasing one).

###### Proof.

Let $`\beta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _d`$ be another nonincreasing numbering of the elements of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. For any incomparable roots $`\gamma ,\gamma ^{}`$, the commutator $`(L_\gamma ,L_\gamma ^{})`$ is trivial, so it is enough to show that the sequence $`\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _d`$ can be rearranged into $`\beta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _d`$ by successively swapping adjacent pairs of incomparable roots.

We have $`\beta _1=\alpha _k`$ for some $`1kd`$, and by assumption, this element must be maximal in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Therefore, $`\alpha _k`$ is incomparable with each of $`\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _{k1}`$, so we may move it past these roots to the beginning of the sequence. Now we have got two sequences with a common first term; discarding it, we may reapply the same procedure inductively. ∎

## 4. The embedding property and $`T`$-stability

We retain all previous notation and assumptions.

###### Theorem 4.1.

The map $`j`$ of Proposition 3.3 is an embedding, and its image $`E(C)`$ is a $`T`$-stable subvariety in $`G/B`$, isomorphic to a product of $`d`$ projective lines.

###### Proof.

First, note that if $`E(C)`$ is $`T`$-stable, then for every $`w^{}W`$, $`E(w^{}C)=w^{}E(C)`$ is also $`T`$-stable; we may therefore restrict the proof to the case where $`\dot{w}=1`$.

Since for each root $`\alpha `$, the quotient $`L_\alpha /B_\alpha `$ is a projective line, the last statement follows from the first one and from Proposition 3.3. Now choose a representative $`\dot{s}_\alpha \mathrm{N}_G(T)`$ for the reflection $`s_\alpha `$ and recall that the Bruhat decomposition $`L_\alpha =B_\alpha U_\alpha s_\alpha B_\alpha =B_\alpha s_\alpha U_\alpha B_\alpha `$ induces an open covering

$$L_\alpha /B_\alpha =\{uB_\alpha uU_\alpha \}\{\dot{s}_\alpha uB_\alpha uU_\alpha \}$$

of $`L_\alpha /B_\alpha `$ by two affine lines.

Taking products, we get an open covering of $`_k(L_{\alpha _k}/B_{\alpha _k})`$ by $`2^d`$ affine sets. More precisely, for each subset $`K\{1,\mathrm{},d\}`$, we define

$$V_K:=\{(\dot{r}_{K,1}u_1B_{\alpha _1},\mathrm{},\dot{r}_{K,d}u_dB_{\alpha _d})u_kU_{\alpha _k}k\}\underset{k}{}(L_{\alpha _k}/B_{\alpha _k}),$$

where

$$r_{K,k}:=\{\begin{array}{cc}s_{\alpha _k}\hfill & \text{if }kK\text{,}\hfill \\ 1\hfill & \text{if }kK\text{.}\hfill \end{array}$$

The set $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ is dense in $`_k(L_{\alpha _k}/B_{\alpha _k})`$, so its image

$$j(V_{\mathrm{}})=\{u_1\mathrm{}u_dBu_kU_{\alpha _k}k\}$$

is also dense in $`j\left(_k(L_{\alpha _k}/B_{\alpha _k})\right)=E(C)`$. Since $`T`$ normalizes each root group $`U_{\alpha _k}`$, it follows that $`E(C)`$ is $`T`$-stable.

It remains to show that $`j`$ is an embedding. Since the variety $`_k(L_{\alpha _k}/B_{\alpha _k})`$ is complete, it is enough to show that

* the restriction of $`j`$ to each open affine set $`V_K`$ is an embedding, and
* $`j`$ is injective.

Condition (i) holds for $`K=\mathrm{}`$: indeed, the multiplication map $`U_{\alpha _1}\times \mathrm{}\times U_{\alpha _d}U^{}`$ is well known to be an embedding (see e.g. \[13, §8.2.1\]), and so is the canonical map $`U^{}G/B:uuB`$ (by the Bruhat decomposition of $`G`$).

To show condition (i) for an arbitrary subset $`K\{1,\mathrm{},d\}`$, we factor the restriction of $`j`$ to $`V_K`$ through an isomorphism $`V_KV_{\mathrm{}}`$, as follows. Consider an element $`(\dot{r}_{K,1}u_1B_{\alpha _1},\mathrm{},\dot{r}_{K,d}u_dB_{\alpha _d})V_K`$. Recall that for any two orthogonal roots $`\alpha ,\beta `$, $`s_\alpha `$ normalizes $`U_\beta `$ (see e.g. \[13, §9.2.1\]), so we may rewrite

$$\dot{r}_{K,1}u_1\mathrm{}\dot{r}_{K,d}u_d=(\dot{r}_{K,1}\mathrm{}\dot{r}_{K,d})(u_1^{}\mathrm{}u_d^{})=(\underset{kK}{}\dot{s}_{\alpha _k})(u_1^{}\mathrm{}u_d^{})$$

for some $`u_1^{}U_{\alpha _1},\mathrm{},u_d^{}U_{\alpha _d}`$. It is clear that the map

$$\sigma _K:V_KV_{\mathrm{}}:(\dot{r}_{K,1}u_1B,\mathrm{},\dot{r}_{K,d}u_dB)(u_1^{}B,\mathrm{},u_d^{}B)$$

is an isomorphism, and by construction, the restriction of $`j`$ to $`V_K`$ is equal to the composition $`V_K\stackrel{\sigma _K}{}V_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{𝑗}{}G/BG/B`$, where the last arrow is (left) multiplication by $`_{kK}\dot{s}_{\alpha _k}`$. This shows condition (i).

Finally, we must check condition (ii), so let $`p=(p_1,\mathrm{},p_d)`$ and $`q=(q_1,\mathrm{},q_d)`$ be two points in $`_k(L_{\alpha _k}/B_{\alpha _k})`$. Let $`K\{1,\mathrm{},d\}`$ be maximal (w.r.t. set inclusion) such that $`pV_K`$: then for each $`kK`$, $`p_k=\dot{s}_{\alpha _k}u_kB_{\alpha _k}`$ with $`u_kU_{\alpha _k}`$, and for each $`kK`$, we must have $`p_k=B_{\alpha _k}`$. It follows that

$$j(p)=\left(\underset{kK}{}\dot{s}_{\alpha _k}u_k\right)B=\left(\underset{kK}{}u_k^+\right)\left(\underset{kK}{}\dot{s}_{\alpha _k}\right)B$$

for some $`u_1^+U_{\alpha _1}`$, $`\mathrm{}`$, $`u_d^+U_{\alpha _d}`$. Therefore, $`j(p)`$ lies in the Schubert cell $`B\left(_{kK}s_{\alpha _k}\right)B/B`$. Similarly, if $`L\{1,\mathrm{},d\}`$ is maximal such that $`qV_L`$, then $`j(q)B\left(_{kL}s_{\alpha _k}\right)B/B`$. Now assume $`pq`$; there are two cases:

* if $`KL`$, then $`j(p)j(q)`$ because they lie in different Schubert cells of $`G/B`$;
* if $`K=L`$, then $`j(p)j(q)`$ by condition (i).

This shows condition (ii). ∎

###### Remark 4.2.

The variety $`E(C)`$ does not depend on the choice of an element $`wC`$, nor of its representative $`\dot{w}\mathrm{N}_G(T)`$.

###### Proof.

The last part follows from $`T`$-stability (see Theorem 4.1). For the first part, recall again \[13, §9.2.1\] that if $`\alpha ,\beta `$ are orthogonal roots, then $`s_\alpha U_\beta s_\alpha ^1=U_\beta `$; since $`L_\beta =U_\beta ,U_\beta `$, we then also have $`s_\alpha L_\beta s_\alpha ^1=L_\beta `$. Now use this fact in the definition of $`E(C)`$. ∎

## 5. Two examples

###### Example 5.1.

$`G=\mathrm{SL}(n)`$ acts on the set of all (full) flags $`F_1F_2\mathrm{}F_{n1}`$ (with $`dimF_i=i1`$) of linear subspaces in the projective space $`^{n1}`$. Choose a “hypertetrahedron” in $`^{n1}`$, i.e. $`n`$ linearly independent points $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_n^{n1}`$. Let $`B`$ be the stabilizer of the flag

$$p_1p_1,p_2\mathrm{}p_1,\mathrm{},p_{n1}$$

(where $``$ denotes linear span in $`^{n1}`$) and let $`T`$ be the simultaneous stabilizer of the vertices $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_n`$. Identifying $`W`$ with the symmetric group $`S_n`$, the $`T`$-fixed points in $`G/B`$ are the flags of the form

$$p_{w(1)}p_{w(1)},p_{w(2)}\mathrm{}p_{w(1)},\mathrm{},p_{w(n1)}$$

for some $`wW`$.

Let $`\{\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _d\}`$ be a set of positive and pairwise orthogonal roots; each $`s_{\alpha _k}`$ is a transposition $`(a_kb_k)S_n`$, and the sequence is automatically nonincreasing. For each $`k`$, pick a point $`q_k`$ on the projective line $`p_{a_k},p_{b_k}`$; to the tuple $`(q_1,\mathrm{},q_d)`$, we associate the flag $`F(q_1,\mathrm{},q_d)`$ whose $`(i1)`$-dimensional component is obtained from the expression $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_i`$ by replacing $`p_{a_k}`$ by $`q_k`$ whenever $`a_ki<b_k`$. For example, when $`n=4`$ and $`d=2`$, the flag $`F(q_1,q_2)`$ is of one of the following forms:

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| $`s_{\alpha _1}=(\mathrm{1\hspace{0.17em}2})`$, $`s_{\alpha _2}=(\mathrm{3\hspace{0.17em}4})`$; | $`s_{\alpha _1}=(\mathrm{1\hspace{0.17em}3})`$, $`s_{\alpha _2}=(\mathrm{2\hspace{0.17em}4})`$; | $`s_{\alpha _1}=(\mathrm{1\hspace{0.17em}4})`$, $`s_{\alpha _2}=(\mathrm{2\hspace{0.17em}3})`$. |

Then $`E(s_{\alpha _1},\mathrm{},s_{\alpha _d})`$ is the set of all $`F(q_1,\mathrm{},q_d)`$, each $`q_k`$ varying on the line $`p_{a_k},p_{b_k}`$. If $`wWS_n`$, then $`E(ws_{\alpha _1},\mathrm{},s_{\alpha _d})`$ is obtained from the above description by replacing each $`p_i`$ by $`p_{w(i)}`$.

(Note that the embedding property of Theorem 4.1 has an easy proof here: indeed, the $`s_{\alpha _k}`$ pairwise commute, so the sets $`\{a_k,b_k\}`$ are pairwise disjoint, and therefore the projective lines $`p_{a_k},p_{b_k}`$ on which the $`q_k`$ vary are pairwise skew.)

###### Example 5.2.

$`G=\mathrm{Sp}(4)`$ acts on the set of all isotropic flags in $`^3`$, i.e. pairs $`(p,\mathrm{})`$ with $`\mathrm{}^3`$ an isotropic line (w.r.t. the symplectic form defining $`\mathrm{Sp}(4)`$) and $`p`$ a point on $`\mathrm{}`$. Choose a (skew) “isotropic square” in $`^3`$, i.e. four points $`p_1,p_2,p_3,p_4^3`$ such that all lines $`\mathrm{}_{ij}:=p_i,p_j`$ are isotropic except $`\mathrm{}_{13}`$ and $`\mathrm{}_{24}`$. Let $`B`$ be the stabilizer of the flag $`(p_1,\mathrm{}_{12})`$ and $`T`$ be the simultaneous stabilizer of the vertices $`p_1,p_2,p_3,p_4`$. The $`T`$-fixed points in $`G/B`$ are the flags of the form $`(p_i,\mathrm{}_{ij})`$ (with $`ij13`$ and $`ij24`$).

Let $`\alpha ,\beta `$ be two positive orthogonal roots. There are two cases.

* If $`\alpha ,\beta `$ are both short, with $`\alpha >\beta `$, then $`E(s_\alpha ,s_\beta )`$ is the set of all isotropic flags $`(p,\mathrm{})`$ such that $`\mathrm{}`$ crosses $`\mathrm{}_{14}`$ and $`\mathrm{}_{23}`$.
* If $`\alpha ,\beta `$ are both long (hence incomparable), then $`E(s_\alpha ,s_\beta )`$ is the set of all isotropic flags $`(p,\mathrm{})`$ such that $`p`$ lies on the (nonisotropic) line $`\mathrm{}_{13}`$, and $`\mathrm{}`$ also crosses the (nonisotropic) line $`\mathrm{}_{24}`$.

Again, if $`wW`$, then $`E(ws_\alpha ,s_\beta )`$ is obtained from this description by applying $`w`$, viewed as a “symmetry” of the “square” $`p_1p_2p_3p_4`$.

## 6. $`T`$-orbits in $`E(C)`$

Let $`C`$ be an orthocell of rank $`d`$ and identify $`E(C)^1\times \mathrm{}\times ^1`$ via the map $`j`$ of Proposition 3.3.

###### Proposition 6.1.

The $`T`$-action on $`E(C)`$ has $`3^d`$ orbits, viz. the subsets of the form $`A_1\times \mathrm{}\times A_d`$, where each $`A_k^1`$ is one of $`\{0\}`$, $`\{\mathrm{}\}`$, $`^1\{0,\mathrm{}\}`$.

###### Proof.

For each $`\alpha \mathrm{\Phi }`$, choose an isomorphism $`u_\alpha :(𝐂,+)U_\alpha `$ such that $`tu_\alpha (z)t^1=u_\alpha (\alpha (t)z)`$ for all $`tT`$ and all $`z𝐂`$ \[13, Proposition 8.1.1(i)\].

Consider first the case where $`C=s_{\alpha _1},\mathrm{},s_{\alpha _d}`$ (i.e. $`w=1`$). The set of all $`u_{\alpha _1}(z_1)\mathrm{}u_{\alpha _d}(z_d)B`$, $`(z_1,\mathrm{},z_d)𝐂^n`$, is an open dense subset of $`E(C)`$ (cf. the proof of Theorem 4.1), and we have

$$tu_{\alpha _1}(z_1)\mathrm{}u_{\alpha _d}(z_d)B=u_{\alpha _1}(\alpha _1(t)^1z_1)\mathrm{}u_{\alpha _d}(\alpha _d(t)^1z_d)B.$$

By orthogonality, the $`\alpha _k`$ are linearly independent, hence the morphism

$$T𝐂^{}\times \mathrm{}\times 𝐂^{}:t(\alpha _1(t),\mathrm{},\alpha _d(t))$$

is surjective. Therefore, by continuity, this morphism turns the $`T`$-action on $`E(C)`$ into the natural componentwise action of $`𝐂^{}\times \mathrm{}\times 𝐂^{}`$ on $`^1\times \mathrm{}\times ^1`$. The orbit structure is now clear.

The general case $`C=ws_{\alpha _1},\mathrm{},s_{\alpha _d}`$ is obtained similarly, by multiplying $`\dot{w}u_{\alpha _1}(z_1)\mathrm{}u_{\alpha _d}(z_d)B`$ by $`wtw^1`$. ∎

To describe the $`T`$-orbit closures, define a *subcell* of an orthocell $`C=ws_{\alpha _1},\mathrm{},s_{\alpha _d}`$ to be an orthocell of the form $`w^{}s_{\alpha _1^{}},\mathrm{},s_{\alpha _e^{}}`$ for some $`\{\alpha _1^{},\mathrm{},\alpha _e^{}\}\{\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _d\}`$ and some $`w^{}C`$.

###### Corollary 6.2.

The $`T`$-orbit closures in $`E(C)`$ are exactly the $`E(C^{})`$ with $`C^{}`$ a subcell of $`C`$.


text:
# Multicolor Observations of a Planetary Transit of HD 209458

## 1 Introduction

The discovery of transits of the Sun-like star HD 209458 by an orbiting, low-mass companion has definitively established the existence of extrasolar gas-giant planets (Charbonneau et al., 2000; Henry et al., 2000). The identification of a transiting extrasolar planet system allows, for the first time, exploration of the physical characteristics of a planet outside our solar system.

The most interesting quantity that we can derive from the photometric observations of the transit is the planetary radius, $`R_p`$. Although HD 209458b is less massive than Jupiter, its radius is significantly larger, a result of slowing of the planetary contraction due to exposure to high stellar insolation early after the planet’s formation (Burrows et al. 2000). The precise value of $`R_p`$ is dependent upon the planetary Bond albedo, $`A`$, a fundamental parameter in the thermodynamics of the planetary atmosphere. A precise measurement of $`R_p`$ may allow an estimate of $`A`$ (Burrows et al., 2000), though the published uncertainty in $`R_p`$ (Mazeh et al., 2000) is too great for a meaningful constraint.

The photometric observations of the transit published to date have been in the $`R`$ band (two full transits; Charbonneau et al. (2000)) and in a Strömgren $`b+y`$ band (one half transit; Henry et al. (2000)). In this *Letter*, we present observations in five wavelength bands of the planetary transit on UT 1999 November 15. As we describe below, we have observed color-dependent variations in the transit shape due to the stellar limb-darkening. We present a likelihood analysis of the data that improves the estimates of the planetary radius and orbital inclination. More generally, we outline a method that may be used to analyze future high-precision, multicolor data and exploit the color-dependence in order to break the degeneracy shared between the planetary and stellar parameters.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

### 2.1 University of Hawaii 2.2m Data

Our multicolor observations of the HD 209458 planetary transit were made with the University of Hawaii 2.2m telescope on Mauna Kea under photometric skies. The data were taken with the Tek 20482 CCD at $`0.22\mathrm{}`$ per pixel. The brightness of HD 209458, $`V=7.64,\mathrm{B V}=0.58`$ (Høg et al., 2000)111For HD 209458 and the comparison stars, we list *consistent* Johnson $`V`$ and $`\mathrm{B V}`$ magnitudes based on the recommended transformation from the Tycho-2 catalogue $`B_T`$ and $`V_T`$ magnitudes, as described by ESA (1997), Vol. 1, Sec. 1.3., forced us to defocus the telescope in order not to saturate the detector. As there were no stars of comparable brightness in the field of view, we took images of a nearby comparison star before and after each set of HD 209458 observations. Each observation sequence on target consisted of five 1 s exposures in each of Johnson $`V`$ and Kron-Cousins $`R`$ and $`I`$, and five 5 s exposures with a $`Z`$ filter. We also observed comparison stars that bracketed HD 209458 in airmass, alternating between HD 210483 ($`V=7.58,\mathrm{B V}=0.61`$) and HD 208156 ($`V=8.11,\mathrm{B V}=0.50`$). The comparison star observations were taken in the same manner as those of the target star.

We performed aperture photometry on the bias-corrected and flat-fielded CCD images, using a $`60\mathrm{}`$ digital aperture. The magnitudes of the comparison star were plotted against airmass to define an extinction correction. We continued observations as far as airmass 2.1, but a linear extinction correction was sufficient to fit the data. We also corrected for color-dependent extinction by interpolating between the extinction corrections derived for the comparison stars (which straddled HD 209458 in color).

We converted the derived magnitues into relative fluxes and each set of five consecutive observations (in each filter) was binned to produce a single average value, with an uncertainty given by the error in the mean. The photometry was limited primarily by scintillation noise, and the achieved relative precision for the time series was $`1.5\times 10^3`$ (1.6 mmag), $`9\times 10^4`$ (1.0 mmag), $`1.1\times 10^3`$ (1.2 mmag), and $`7\times 10^4`$ (0.8 mmag), for the $`V`$, $`R`$, $`I`$, and $`Z`$ data, respectively. For each band, the off-transit flux level was derived from the statistically-weighted average of the last three observations, and time series in each color were normalized to this level to yield the relative fluxes used in the modeling. Applying the reduction procedure to the comparison star observations yielded constant light curves as expected.

### 2.2 University of Hawaii 0.6m Data

We obtained Johnson $`B`$ observations of HD 209458 with the University of Hawaii 0.6m telescope, in combination with a three channel photometer, similar to the one described in Kleinman, Nather, & Phillips (1996). Using identical photomultiplier and amplifier-discriminator detectors this device allows high-speed aperture photometry to be simultaneously conducted on three selectable regions of the sky, thus enabling continuous monitoring of a target star, comparison star and sky background.

HD 209458 was continuously monitored using 10 s integrations through a Johnson $`B`$ filter. A nearby (fainter) star was used for comparison and guiding, with all channels (including sky) using $`30\mathrm{}`$ apertures. A $`B`$ filter was not available for the comparison star channel, so its effective filter was determined by the atmosphere to the blue and a dichroic beam-splitter to the red (sending the red light in this channel to a CCD guider), resulting in a bluer and broader passband than the target channel. We consequently obtained an improved atmospheric absorption model for the final data reduction by observing HD 209458 off-transit on a subsequent night (UT 1999 November 17), during virtually identical photometric conditions over the same airmass range (1.1 to 1.8) and with the same instrumental configuration. The HD 209458 sky-corrected instrumental magnitudes were corrected for color-dependent extinction with a linear airmass model. These were converted to relative fluxes and binned into 4 minute time bins, with normalization by the weighted average of the final two data bins, which occured off-transit. The resulting rms relative flux residuals were $`7\times 10^4`$ (0.8 mmag).

### 2.3 STARE Telescope Data

Additional $`R`$ observations of HD 209458 were made with the High Altitude Observatory STARE telescope (Brown & Kolinski 1999222Available at http://www.hao.ucar.edu/public/research/stare/stare.html; Brown & Charbonneau 2000) on the same night, though the target star set at mid-transit. The observations and reduction of these data were identical to those described by Charbonneau et al. (2000), though the precision is significantly lower than those observations since the star was observed at higher airmass. The data were binned into 5 minute sets, and converted to relative fluxes by normalizing by the statistically-weighted average of the off-transit data. The achieved relative flux residual rms increased from $`3.7\times 10^3`$ (4 mmag) to $`6.3\times 10^3`$ (7 mmag) over the course of the night as the target set.

Our final multicolor photometry is displayed in Figure 1, along with our best-fit model, described in the next section.

## 3 Analysis

### 3.1 Improvement to Orbital Parameters

Assuming the transit is symmetric, we find the time for the center of the transit is $`T_c=2451497.797\pm 0.002`$ HJD. The two previous observations of the full transit (Charbonneau et al., 2000) found $`T_c=2451430.823\pm 0.003`$ HJD and $`T_c=2451437.873\pm 0.003`$ HJD, which occured, respectively, 19 and 17 orbits earlier than the one we report here. From these three measurements of $`T_c`$, we calculate an orbital period of $`P=3.52495\pm 0.0003`$ days. We note also that this period is consistent with the more precise statements of the period of $`P=3.524736\pm 0.000045`$ days (3.9 s) (Castellano et al., 2000) and $`P=3.524739\pm 0.000014`$ days (1.2 s) (Robichon & Arenou, 2000) derived from *Hipparcos* archive photometry.

### 3.2 Analysis of the Multicolor Transit Curve

Derivation of parameters from transit observations in a single bandpass is plagued by a degeneracy: the transit curve is described primarily by its depth and duration, yet it is always possible to fit these with a larger (smaller) planet provided the stellar radius is also increased (decreased) and the orbital inclination, $`i`$, is decreased (increased). However, by observing the *relative* depth and shapes of the transit curves in different bands, this degeneracy can be lifted. Measurement of the relative flux at a given time during the transit can be combined with a limb-darkening model for the star, $`I_\lambda (\mu )`$, to derive $`\mu `$, the cosine of the angle between the normal to the stellar surface and the line of sight, thus constraining the inclination. With this constraint, the transit duration constrains the stellar radius, which when combined with the transit depth (a measurement of the ratio $`R_p/R_s`$) constrains the planetary radius. For example, if one observes that the transit is deeper in $`R`$ than in $`B`$, one would infer that a larger planet passes close to the limb of a larger star, because the star is relatively brighter in the red towards the limb.

Because we can observe only the flux integrated over the stellar disk, we proceed as follows. R. Kurucz (personal communication) generated model stellar intensities as a function of wavelength and $`\mu `$. For each passband, we multiplied the model intensities by a response function (see below) and integrated over wavelength to produce intensity as a function of $`\mu `$. For the 2.2m observations, the response function was the combination of the mirror, CCD, and filter responses, whereas for the 0.6m and STARE data, we used only the filter response. We then produced, for each passband, $`C`$, a grid of model light curves, $`M_C(R_p,R_s,i)`$, as a function of the planetary radius, the stellar radius, and the orbital inclination. The light curve model follows the description presented in Sackett (1999) and Charbonneau et al. (2000), taking into account the finite size of the planet and the limb-darkening of the star. Since we integrate over the whole stellar disk and a wide passband, the light curves are relatively insensitive to small errors in the Kurucz model; we have confirmed this with fits using parameterized limb-darkening models.

Because all data points of the light curve have been normalized by the statistically weighted average of the off-transit points, there is a potential systematic uncertainty in the transit depth, as there are fewer off-transit points than on-transit points. Thus we introduced a fourth parameter into the model, a scale factor for the data, $`f`$, equivalent to allowing for an unknown magnitude zeropoint. This nuisance-parameter was subsequently integrated out (see below), and this integration serves to account properly for the systematic uncertainty introduced by the paucity of out-of-transit data by appropriately broadening the likelihood distributions.

We adopt a Bayesian approach for the analysis; in a given passband the likelihood of a particular model is

$$p_C(R_p,R_s,i,f)\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\chi ^2}{2}\right)\widehat{p}(R_p)\widehat{p}(R_s)\widehat{p}(i)\widehat{p}(f),$$
(1)
with

$$\chi ^2=\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}\left(\frac{D_C(t_n)fM_C(t_n;R_p,R_s,i)}{\sigma _C(t_n)}\right)^2,$$
(2)
where $`D_C(t_n)`$ are the observed data with uncertainties $`\sigma _C(t_n)`$, and the $`\widehat{p}`$ are the prior probabilities (priors; see below). We evaluated $`p_C`$ separately in each passband for our grid of light curve models spanning the range of $`\{R_p,R_s,i,f\}`$ where the likelihood was non-negligible.

As we wish to measure the parameters independently of the previous results, we assume we have no prior knowledge of $`R_p`$ and $`i`$. However, we can estimate $`R_s`$ as follows. With the photometry as above, the *Hipparcos* parallax of HD 209458 yields $`M_V=4.27\pm 0.11`$ (Perryman et al., 1997). Applying a bolometric correction (Bessell, Castelli, & Plez, 1998) of $`0.06`$, appropriate for the stellar type and metallicity (Mazeh et al., 2000), we can calculate the stellar bolometric flux. Then from the measured effective temperature of 6000 K (Mazeh et al., 2000), we derive $`R_s=1.18R_{\mathrm{}}`$. There is a 10% uncertainty in the visual luminosity and a 1% uncertainty in the effective temperature, and we estimate a few percent uncertainty in the bolometric correction. Combining these implies an 8% uncertainty in the stellar radius. Thus, in our analysis of the transit curves we adopt a Gaussian prior for the stellar radius, $`\widehat{p}(R_s)`$ corresponding to $`R_s=1.18\pm 0.09R_{\mathrm{}}`$, and uniform priors $`\widehat{p}(R_p)`$, $`\widehat{p}(i)`$ and $`\widehat{p}(f)`$, on the other model parameters. Different choices for the exact shape of the prior on the stellar radius did not significantly affect the results.

We derived $`p_C`$ independently for each of the six passbands: the UH 0.6m $`B`$ data; the UH 2.2m $`V`$, $`R`$, $`I`$ and $`Z`$ data; and the STARE $`R`$ data. The minimum reduced $`\chi ^2`$ is very near unity for four of the six passbands, $`B:\chi _\nu ^2=0.97`$ (with 39 degrees of freedom), $`V:\chi _\nu ^2=1.16`$ (13), STARE $`R:\chi _\nu ^2=1.03`$ (49), $`I:\chi _\nu ^2=1.04`$ (13). The two exceptions are the UH 2.2m $`R`$ and $`Z`$ data, which have minimum $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ of 2.85 and 2.97, respectively for 13 degrees of freedom each. As these are the two passbands with the smallest statistical uncertainty, we adopt the plausible hypothesis that the poor fits are caused by an unidentified systematic uncertainty (at the level of $`1`$ mmag), rather than a failing of the light curve models. Data of higher precision will resolve this issue, but for the time being we have scaled the uncertainties for the UH 2.2m $`R`$ and $`Z`$ data to give a minimum reduced $`\chi ^2`$ of unity, thus broadening the derived likelihood distributions.

To derive combined constraints from the individual likelihoods, we first integrate each $`p_C`$ over the nuisance parameter $`f`$, leaving correctly broadened three-dimensional likelihood distributions over $`\{R_p,R_s,i\}`$. Multiplying these distributions together (but with the priors included only once) yields our combined likelihood; the peak of this distribution is our best-fit model and the light curves corresponding to this model are shown as the solid lines in Figure 1. We note that the uncertainties in our derived parameters are highly correlated and to underscore this important fact, we present contours of the two-dimensional likelihood distributions (integrated over the third variable) in Figure 2. To correctly account for these correlations in determining the individual likelihoods for each of the parameters separately, we integrate the three-dimensional distribution over the other two parameters. These one-dimensional distributions are well-fit by Gaussians, with $`R_p=1.55\pm 0.10R_{\mathrm{Jup}}`$, $`R_s=1.27\pm 0.05R_{\mathrm{}}`$, and $`i=85.9\pm 0.5\mathrm{°}`$.

## 4 Discussion and Conclusion

Our derived parameters are consistent with the results of Mazeh et al. (2000), with our multicolor data roughly halving the uncertainties presented there, and favoring a slightly larger planet and star. Combined with the orbital data of Mazeh et al. (2000), our results imply a mean planetary density of $`\rho =0.23\pm 0.05\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$.

We are also in a position to make a comparison between the observations and models for HD 209458b. Burrows et al. (2000) present evolutionary tracks of radii versus time for close-in extrasolar giant planets, taking into account the effects of high stellar insolation in retarding the planet’s contraction. Previous measurements of the radius of HD 209458b were not precise enough to differentiate between models with low and moderate albedos (models A and B of Burrows et al. (2000) in their Figure 1, with Bond albedos of 0.0 and 0.5, respectively). Our more precise measurement favors a larger planet, and is in very good agreement with model A, which has a radius close to 1.5 $`R_{\mathrm{Jup}}`$ (at the approximate age of the system of several Gyr). Our derived radius disfavors model B, for which the radius is predicted to be near 1.3 $`R_{\mathrm{Jup}}`$. This result provides evidence for a low albedo for HD 209458b.

It is also of interest to see if we can detect any differences in the planetary radius as a function of color. The value of $`R_p`$ as derived from transit observations may vary with the passband, since the planet would appear slightly larger when observed at wavelengths where the atmosphere contains strong opacity sources (Brown & Charbonneau, 2000; Burrows et al., 2000; Seager & Sasselov, 2000). To explore this possibility, in Figure 3 we present the peak positions of the one-dimensional conditional likelihood distributions for the planetary radius in each passband, with the stellar radius and inclination *fixed* at their best-fit values. The uncertainties shown then do not incorporate the correlations exhibited in Figure 2, but they are correct relative to each other. For instance, if the stellar radius were increased, *all* of the points on Figure 3 would increase together. Even so, the data are not precise enough to show evidence for any variation in the planetary radius with wavelength. Future observations should be able to improve the measurement precision, and provide a tool for learning about the planetary atmosphere.

The discovery of an extrasolar planet transiting its host star has heralded a new era in a young field. While precision radial velocities reveal much about orbital characteristics, the addition of transit observations yield understanding about the physical characteristics of the planets themselves. We eagerly anticipate further exploration of extrasolar planets with continued observations of this shadowy nature.

We thank R. Kurucz for producing the stellar model, R. Noyes and T. Mazeh for valuable discussions, J. Dvorak for his skill operating the UH 2.2m, and the anonymous referee for useful suggestions. D. J. S. and T. S. were observing at the UH 0.6m as part of a Whole Earth Telescope campaign and acknowledge financial support from IITAP at Iowa State University, partially funded by UNESCO. D. C. is supported in part by a Newkirk Fellowship of the High Altitude Observatory. This work was supported in part by NASA grant W-19560. S. J. is supported through an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.


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# Iron K line emission in AGN: observations

## 1. Introduction

The first iron K$`\alpha `$ lines were discovered in NGC 4151, and a few source with large absorbing columns, in which the line was thought to originate ((Mushotzky, Holt & Serlemitsos 1978; Mushotzky 1982). The first unobscured AGN to show line emission was MCG-6-30-15 (Nandra et al. 1989; Matsuoka et al. 1990) and Ginga subsequently found iron K$`\alpha `$ emission to be extremely common in Seyfert galaxies (Pounds et al. 1990; Nandra & Pounds 1994). Line emission had been predicted from optically-thick material close to the nucleus (Guilbert & Rees 1988), including the accretion disk (Fabian et al. 1989). Detailed predictions of the line strength from the disk (George & Fabian 1991; Matt, Perola & Piro 1991) were found to be in excellent agreement with the observations (Nandra & Pounds 1994), but the Ginga data were unable to determine the width or profile of these lines. This is of clear importance, as the profiles allow the location and geometry of the material to be constrained. Specifically, in the case of an accretion disk, large widths and distinctive profiles are expected due to the rotation and gravitational effects of the black hole (Fabian et al. 1989; Stella 1990; Laor 1991; Matt et al. 1992). The launch of ASCA offered an opportunity to test these models, with the SIS detectors having good sensitivity and a factor $`4`$ improvement in energy resolution compared to Ginga.

## 2. Profiles of individual sources

The early ASCA data did indeed show evidence that the iron K$`\alpha `$ lines in AGN were broad with velocity widths of $`50,000`$ km s-1, characteristic of material extremely close to the central black hole (Fabian et al. 1994; Mushotzky et al. 1995). Uncertainties in calibration, limited sensitivity above $`7`$ keV and the short exposures of these early observations made it difficult to determine the profiles, however. Long observations have provided the best constraints:

MCG-6-30-15: The first high signal-to-noise ratio profile was obtained in a $`150`$ ks observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG-6-30-15 (Tanaka et al. 1995). These data provided strong confirmation of the hypothesis that the iron K$`\alpha `$ line arises from the inner accretion disk (Fig. 1). The profile is extremely broad, with FWZI$`0.3`$c, and is skewed to the red. This is characteristic of accretion disk models in which the disk is observed close to face-on, where the dominant broadening process is the strong gravitational field of the black hole, rather than Doppler motions. Indeed, the particular characteristics of the line in MCG-6-30-15 are extremely difficult to explain without the invocation of a black hole and accretion disk (see, e.g. Fabian et al. 1995). The line profile of MCG-6-30-15 has therefore rightly received much attention and scrutiny, as it presents arguably the most direct evidence we have for the existence of black holes in active galaxies. The broad profile in MCG-6-30-15 has been confirmed by BeppoSax (Guainazzi et al. 1999).

NGC 4151: Yaqoob et al. (1995) presented a profile very similar to MCG-6-30-15 for NGC 4151, based on another long ASCA exposure. In this case the origin of the line is less clear-cut, as the complexity of the continuum in NGC 4151 makes the line difficult to model (Zdziarski et al. 1996). Nonetheless, the similarity of the two profiles is highly suggestive of a common origin.

NGC 3516: A third example (Nandra et al. 1999; Fig. 1), which again shows a profile remarkably similar to MCG-6-30-15. Once more, an origin in a face-on accretion disk orbiting a black hole is indicated and in this case there is also evidence for an absorption feature in the red wing of the line. This feature may be due to resonance scattering by iron, redshifted from the rest energy. If the redshift is due to kinematic effects, this feature presents rare evidence for material inflowing into the black hole and could be an important tracer of accretion. The interpretation is not unique, however, as it is possible that redshift is gravitational, in which case it indicates that there may be an ionized “skin” above or around the accretion disk. Ruzkowski & Fabian (these proceedings) show that this also fits the data.

## 3. Accretion disk models

Fig. 1 shows various models of line emission from an accretion disk, which are used to fit the ASCA data. The disk line models such as those of Fabian et al. (1989) and Laor (1991) are characterized by a number of parameters, which can in principle be constrained by the data (Table 1). It has already been mentioned that the very red profiles of MCG-6-30-15 and NGC 3516 favor low inclinations for the disk. Because the emission tends to be centrally-concentrated, the inner radius of the disk is usually better constrained than its outer radius. The former is of particular interest because it can help constrain the black hole spin. The innermost stable orbit around the black hole metric: for a Schwarzschild (non-rotating) hole this occurs at 6 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$; for a rapidly rotating hole, however, the stable orbits exist close to the gravitational radius. Another crucial parameter is the line emissivity law, which parameterizes the X-ray illumination of the disk. In the models of Fabian et al. (1989) and Laor (1991), a power-law emissivity assumed, which is a useful parameterization, if somewhat unphysical. The true emissivity depends on the geometry of the X-ray source and accretion disk and their relationship, modified by relativistic effects and ionization. As the geometries are very poorly known, what is really required is to formulate specific physical models and compare them with the data. Alternatively, one can attempt to “invert” the problem and derive the emissivity from the line profile (Dabrowski et al. 1997; Cadez & Calvani, these proceedings).

## 4. AGN Samples

The profiles of individual sources provide strong constraints, but studying samples has also been extremely informative. The widespread applicability of the disk line models has been demonstrated by the fact that they fit the data better than symmetric profiles, such as a gaussian (Nandra et al. 1997a hereafter N97; Reynolds 1997). The parameters can also be constrained.

N97 presented ASCA iron K$`\alpha `$ data for 18 Seyfert 1 galaxies and found good constraints on the inclination of a number of these. Low inclinations are very strongly preferred, with a mean of $`30\mathrm{deg}`$. As these are Seyfert 1 galaxies, this may not be considered surprising, as in standard unification schemes, highly inclined sources would be expected to be obscured, and seen as Seyfert 2 galaxies (Lawrence & Elvis 1982; Antonucci & Miller 1995). It is puzzling then, that Turner et al. (1998) also found low inclinations to be preferred for a sample of Seyfert 2s and NELGs. A possible solution to this is suggested by Weaver & Reynolds (1998), who fitted the spectra with an additional, narrow line at 6.4 keV, presumed to arise from the obscuring torus (Ghisselini, Haardt & Matt 1994; Krolik, Madau & Zycki 1994). If such a line is allowed, then so is a higher inclination of $`50\mathrm{deg}`$.

The mean emissivity was found by N97 to be proportional to $`R^{2.5}`$ for Seyfert 1 galaxies. This rather steep function implies that the illumination - and therefore the line emission - is strongly concentrated in the inner regions of the AGN, with $`50`$ % of the line coming from within $`20R_\mathrm{g}`$ and 80 % from within $`100R_\mathrm{g}`$. Such an emissivity is roughly consistent with that of a centrally-illuminated disk. No universal emissivity law was found, however, suggesting that there is no single geometry.

The emission line usually peaks at 6.4 keV, and for low-inclination disks this implies a low state of ionization, typically $`<`$Fe xx. If the peak is due to a contribution from a narrow line from another source, however, no constraint can be placed on the line rest energy (N97), and therefore ionization. Standard accretion disks are expected to be very dense, and can therefore remain cool despite the intense illumination. Nonetheless, significant ionization might be expected especially in the central regions, where the X-rays are most strongly concentrated (e.g. Matt, Fabian & Ross 1993). A range of ionization sates throughout the disk is certainly consistent with the current data. The inner disk could be highly ionized, with the gravitational and Doppler shifts dominating and making it difficult to tie down the rest energy. The observed profiles are well-fit with a disk line alone, and in Seyfert 1s there is no strong requirement from line emission from other regions (N97). In Seyfert 2s, however, there is evidence for an additional component (Weaver & Reynolds 1998) and it is quite plausible that the optical BLR or obscuring torus could contribute to the line emission in all AGN. The difficulty is in distinguishing such emission from that of the low-velocity outer disk, which requires high spectral resolution.

### 4.1. Differences and similarities

All of the high quality profiles obtained so far show profiles which are remarkably similar, and similar to the composite profile of Seyfert 1s. There are a few cases where it has been claimed that the line is narrow (e.g. NGC 4051 Mihara et al. 1994; NGC 7469 Guainazzi et al. 1994; Mrk 766 Leighly et al. 1996) but it is very difficult to exclude a broad component with the ASCA data, and none of these case is clear cut. Nonetheless there do appear to be differences in the profiles comparing different sources. The lack of a universal emissivity law is one suggestion of this (N97). Good quality data for more sources is required to confirm this, and investigate the origin. They may, for example, represent differences in geometry. Alternatively, they could be as simple as variations in the relative contributions of narrow and disk-line components.

## 5. Variability studies

Variability studies often contribute fundamentally to our understanding of AGN. The line emission is no exception, and here some of the observations are reviewed.

* MCG-6-30-15: During the observation reported by Tanaka et al. (1995) the profile of the line was found to be variable (Fig. 3). Iwasawa et al. (1996) reported an unusually broad and redshifted profile during a “deep minimum” in continuum flux. Another long observation in 1997 showed a similar mean profile but this time exhibited the extreme broadening during a flare (Iwasawa et al. 1999). The profile variability was interpreted as being due to changes in the illumination pattern of the disk. If, instead of a single coherent source, localized flares produce the X-rays, then at certain times a few or even a single flare could dominate the emission. If that flare occurred in the very innermost regions, the line profile would temporarily appear more redshifted than the average. In MCG-6-30-15 the line is so broad during the deep minimum that it implies that the line emission arises within $`6`$ Rg thus implying a Kerr black hole (Iwasawa et al. 1996; see also Reynolds & Begelman 1997; Dabrowski et al. 1997; Young et al. 1999).
* NGC 3516: Nandra et al. (1999) have noted profile variability in NGC 3516 also (Fig. 3). The absorption feature at 5.8 keV (Fig. 1) was found to be prominent only in the middle part of the observation, where the flux was high. Furthermore, while the core of the line appeared to follow the variations in the continuum, the red and blue wings wings did not. They were well correlated with each other, however, and showed show strong variability (factor $`2`$). This was in excess of the variations in the driving continuum and therefore very difficult to explain in standard models. An interpretation similar to MCG-6-30-15 remains valid, where a localized flare beamed towards the inner disk causes the variation. Alternatively, or additionally, flares could cause an increase in the ionization of the inner disk. This could cause on over-response because the effective fluorescence yield increases sharply in the helium-like and hydrogen-like ionization states. Nandra et al. (1997b) also noted significant variability of the line flux in NGC 3516 over a 1 year baseline, with no obvious change in profile.
* Other sources: Yaqoob et al. (1996) found evidence for rapid variability of the broad wing in NGC 7314 but no obvious changes were seen in the core. This is consistent with the simple disk model, where the red wing is expected to come from close in. In NGC 4051 Wang et al. claimed a significant flux change comparing two ASCA observations, though some portion of the line flux is constant and comes from a more distant region (Uttley et al. 1999). Chiang et al. (1999) found no evidence for changes in the line flux of NGC 5548 despite large variability of the continuum.

## 6. Problems and open issues

Some of the iron K$`\alpha `$ line observations - particularly in the realm of variability - have been surprising in the context of the standard disk-line model. Depending on ones viewpoint, this may be interpreted as a further demonstration of their diagnostic power (see above) or as being problematic for the disk line model (e.g., Sulentic, Marziani & Calvani 1998a). Alternatives to the relativistic disk have been suggested and we review those briefly here. Many of these issues have been discussed by Fabian et al. (1995). They include:

Alternative geometries: in the original paper predicting the iron K$`\alpha `$ lines, Guilbert & Rees (1988) suggested that they may come from optically thick clouds, sheets or filaments, rather than the disk. Such material can produce the observed line strengths, as long as the covering fraction is high, but less than unity to avoid obscuring the continuum (e.g. Bond & Matsuoka 1993; Nandra & George 1994). Detailed calculations of the profiles in a pseudo-spherical geometry have not been carried out and it is therefore difficult to make a definite statement as to whether the observations can be reproduced. It does, however, seem unlikely. In MCG-6-30-15 and NGC 3516 (Fig. 1), there is very little evidence for emission blue-ward of the rest energy, and it is hard to envisage a non-disk geometry in which the blue emission is suppressed. The details depend on the geometry, kinematics and self-covering of the cloud system but, for example rotating blobs are almost certainly excluded, given that the high velocities would cause Doppler boosting of the blue wing. Inflowing or outflowing cloud distributions are another possibility, but once again it seems hard to suppress the emission from material moving towards us without a special geometry.

Complex continuum: As mentioned above, Zdziarski et al. (1996) have suggested that an apparently-broad line in NGC 4151 can be accounted for by a complex continuum - in particular complex absorption. Many AGN have material in their lines-of-sight, such as “warm absorbers” (e.g. Reynolds 1997; George et al. 1998) but typically these are not thought to affect the spectrum above about 3 keV. As in all other wavebands, a great challenge in determining the line strengths and profiles is determining the underlying continuum. Although different continuum-deconvolution methods tend to produce similar results, unknown complexities add additional uncertainty to the profile determination.

Comptonization: Kinematics and gravitation are not the only mechanisms by which lines can be broadened. A particular alternative suggestion has been that Compton scattering can broaden the line (e.g., Misra & Khembavi 1998). Fabian et al. (1995) argued against such a model, as the Comptonizing medium must be finely-tuned to generate the observed profile. In particular a very compact, high optical depth ($`\tau 5`$), cool ($`0.2`$ keV) medium is required. Such a medium would down-scatter the X-ray continuum also, producing a spectral break at $`20`$ keV which is not observed.

Line blending: Combinations of numerous lines can appear broad when observed at low resolution. Differently-ionized species of iron-K, for example, result in emission from 6.4-6.9 keV. This cannot explain the observed profiles, as the broad emission occurs below 6.4 keV. No abundant element produces line emission in the 4-6 keV region where the red wing is observed, but Skibo (1997) has suggested that spallation of iron nuclei by $`>10`$ MeV photons could result in significant amounts of V, Ti, Cr and Mn. There are numerous difficulties with such a model. For example, the observed profile changes (see above) argue forcefully against such a suggestion, as all the fluorescence lines should vary together.

### 6.1. Open issues

None of these alternatives is as compelling as the standard disk, but some open questions remain. The broad lines have been confirmed by BeppoSax (Guainazzi et al. 1999), but we await further confirmation and definition of the profiles. In particular, it is important to quantify and deconvolve the disk line contribution from narrower components from the BLR and obscuring torus. ASCA observations have shown some differences comparing objects, but the high signal-to-noise profiles all show common features, and in particular the derived inclinations are often very similar. This, and possible disagreements with other inclination indicators (Sulentic et al. 1998b) are not yet significant problems, but it will be important in the future to relate the properties derived from iron K$`\alpha `$ with other AGN observables. With large collecting area, it may be possible to discover the weak and very broad lines expected from edge-on accretion disks, which have so far eluded us. Deconvolution from a (potentially-complex) continuum is the key here.

The K$`\alpha `$ observations so far have been of great importance, but have shown unexpected complications. The interpretation of future observations is therefore likely to be challenging. Two particular issues are the emissivity and ionization of the disk as a function of radius. These are both arbitrary from an observational standpoint, and difficult to predict theoretically. Detailed interpretation of, e.g., variability data - including reverberation mapping (e.g. Reynolds et al. 1999) - will require an understanding of these effects. Iron K$`\alpha `$ observers can therefore look forward to developing the kind of complex physical models and advanced data analysis techniques that many other astronomers have been enjoying for many years. We hope and expect the rewards to be substantial.

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to Andy Fabian, Ian George, Kazushi Iwasawa, Richard Mushotzky, Chris Reynolds, Jane Turner and Tahir Yaqoob for much discussions and data. Financial support is provided by NASA grant NAG 5-7067, through USRA.

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