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# Phutball Endgames are Hard

## 1 Introduction

John Conway’s game Phutball , also known as Philosopher’s Football, starts with a single black stone (the ball) placed at the center intersection of a rectangular grid such as a Go board. Two players sit on opposite sides of the board and take turns. On each turn, a player may either place a single white stone (a man) on any vacant intersection, or perform a sequence of jumps. To jump, the ball must be adjacent to one or more men. It is moved in a straight line (orthogonal or diagonal) to the first vacant intersection beyond the men, and the men so jumped are immediately removed (Figure 1). If a jump is performed, the same player may continue jumping as long as the ball continues to be adjacent to at least one man, or may end the turn at any point. Jumps are not obligatory: one can choose to place a man instead of jumping. The game is over when a jump sequence ends on or over the edge of the board closest to the opponent (the opponent’s goal line) at which point the player who performed the jumps wins. It is legal for a jump sequence to step onto but not over one’s own goal line. One of the interesting properties of Phutball is that any move could be played by either player, the only partiality in the game being the rule for determining the winner.

It is theoretically possible for a Phutball game to return to a previous position, so it may be necessary to add a loop-avoidance rule such as the one in Chess (three repetitions allow a player to claim a draw) or Go (certain repeated positions are disallowed). However, repetitions do not seem to come up much in actual practice.

It is common in other board games111More precisely, since most games have a finite prescribed board size, these complexity results apply to generalizations in which arbitrarily large boards are allowed, and in which the complexity is measured in terms of the board size. that the problems of determining the outcome of the game (with optimal play), or testing whether a given move preserves the correct outcome, are PSPACE-complete , or even EXPTIME-complete for loopy games such as Chess  and Go . However, no such result is known for Phutball. Here we prove a different kind of complexity result: the problem of determining whether a player has a move that immediately wins the game (a mate in one, in chess terminology) is NP-complete. Such a result seems quite unusual, since in most games there are only a small number of legal moves, which could all be tested in polynomial time. The only similar result we are aware of is that, in Twixt, it is NP-complete to determine whether a player’s points can be connected to form a winning chain . However, the Twixt result seems to be less applicable to actual game play, since it depends on a player making a confusing tangle of his own points, which does not tend to occur in practice. The competition between both players in Phutball to form a favorable arrangement of men seems to lead much more naturally to complicated situations not unlike the ones occurring in our NP-completeness proof.

## 2 The NP-Completeness Proof

Testing for a winning jump sequence is clearly in NP, since a jump sequence can only be as long as the number of men on the board. As is standard for NP-completeness proofs, we prove that the problem is hard for NP by reducing a known NP-complete problem to it. For our known problem we choose 3-SAT: satisfiability of Boolean formulae in conjunctive normal form, with at most three variables per clause. We must show how to translate a 3-SAT instance into a Phutball position, in polynomial time, in such a way that the given formula is solvable precisely if there exists a winning path in the Phutball position.

The overall structure of our translation is depicted in Figure 2, and a small complete example is shown in Figure 6. We form a Phutball position in which the possible jump sequences zigzag horizontally along pairs of lines, where each pair represents one of the variables in the given 3-SAT instance. The path then zigzags vertically up and down along triples of lines, where each triple represents one of the clauses in the 3-SAT instance. Thus, the potential winning paths are formed by choosing one of the two horizontal lines in each pair (corresponding to selecting a truth value for each variable) together with one of the three vertical lines in each triple (corresponding to selecting which of the three variables has a truth value that satisfies the clause). By convention, we associate paths through the upper of a pair of horizontal lines with assignments that set the corresponding variable to true, and paths through the lower of the pair with assignments that set the variable to false. The horizontal and vertical lines interact at certain marked crossings in a way that forces any path to correspond to a satisfying truth assignment.

We now detail each of the components of this structure.

At the ends of each pair or triple of lines, we need a configuration of men that allows paths along any member of the set of lines to converge, and then to diverge again at the next pair or triple. Figure 3 depicts such a configuration for the triples of vertical lines; the configuration for the horizontal lines is similar. Note that, if a jump sequence enters the configuration from the left, it can only exit through one of the three lines at the bottom. If a jump sequence enters via one of the three vertical lines, it can exit horizontally or on one of the other vertical lines. However, the possibility of using more than one line from a group does not cause a problem: a jump sequence that uses the second of two horizontal lines must get stuck at the other end of the line, and a jump sequence that uses two of three vertical lines must use all three lines and can be simplified to a sequence using only one of the three lines.

Figure 4 depicts a configuration of men that allows two lines to cross without interacting. A jump sequence entering along the horizontal or vertical line can and must exit along the same line, whether or not the other line has already been jumped.

Figure 5 depicts a configuration of men forming an interaction between two lines. In the initial configuration, a jump sequence may follow either the horizontal or the vertical line. However, once the horizontal line has been jumped, it will no longer be possible to jump the vertical line.

###### Theorem 1

Testing whether a Phutball position allows a winning jump sequence is NP-complete.

Proof:  As described above, we reduce 3-SAT to the given problem by forming a configuration of men with two horizontal lines of men for each variable, and three vertical lines for each clause. We connect these lines by the fan-in and fan-out gadget depicted in Figure 3. If variable $`i`$ occurs as the $`j`$th term of clause $`k`$, we place an interaction gadget (Figure 5) at the point where the bottom horizontal line in the $`i`$th pair of horizontal lines crosses the $`j`$th vertical line in the $`k`$th triple of vertical lines. If instead the negation of variable $`i`$ occurs in clause $`k`$, we place an interaction gadget similarly, but on the top horizontal line in the pair. At all other crossings of horizontal and vertical lines we place the crossing gadget depicted in Figure 4. Finally, we form a path of men from the final fan-in gadget (the arrow in Figure 2) to the goal line of the Phutball board.

The lines from any two adjacent interaction gadgets must be separated by four or more units, but other crossing types allow a three-unit separation. By choosing the order of the variables in each clause, we can make sure that the first variable differs from the last variable of the previous clause, avoiding any adjacencies between interaction gadgets. Thus, we can space all lines three units apart. If the 3-SAT instance has $`n`$ variables and $`m`$ clauses, the resulting Phutball board requires $`\mathrm{6}n+O(\mathrm{1})`$ rows and $`\mathrm{9}m+O(\mathrm{1})`$ columns, polynomial in the input size.

Finally, we must verify that the 3-SAT instance is solvable precisely if the Phutball instance has a winning jump sequence. Suppose first that the 3-SAT instance has a satisfying truth assignment; then we can form a jump sequence that uses the top horizontal line for every true variable, and the bottom line for every false variable. If a clause is satisfied by the $`j`$th of its three variables, we choose the $`j`$th of the three vertical lines for that clause. This forms a valid jump sequence: by the assumption that the given truth assignment satisfies the formula, the jump sequence uses at most one of every two lines in every interaction gadget. Conversely, suppose we have a winning jump sequence in the Phutball instance; then as discussed above it must use one of every two horizontal lines and one or three of every triple of vertical lines. We form a truth assignment by setting a variable to true if its upper line is used and false if its lower line is used. This must be a satisfying truth assignment: the vertical line used in each clause gadget must not have had its interaction gadget crossed horizontally, and so must correspond to a satisfying variable for the clause.

Figure 6 shows the complete reduction for a simple 3-SAT instance. We note that the Phutball instances created by this reduction only allow orthogonal jumps, so the rule in Phutball allowing diagonal jumps is not essential for our result.

## 3 Phutball and Checkers

Phutball is similar in many ways to Checkers. As in Phutball, Checkers players sit at opposite ends of a rectangular board, move pieces by sequences of jumps, remove jumped pieces, and attempt to move a piece onto the side of the board nearest the opponent. As in Phutball, the possibility of multiple jumps allows a Checkers player to have an exponential number of available moves. Checkers is PSPACE-complete  or EXPTIME-complete , depending on the termination rules, but these results rely on the difficulty of game tree search rather than the large number of moves available at any position. Does Checkers have the same sort of single-move NP-completeness as Phutball?

It is convenient to view Checkers as being played on a nonstandard diamond-shaped grid of square cells, with pieces that move horizontally and vertically, rather than the usual pattern of diagonal moves on a checkerboard (Figure 7). This view does not involve changing the rules of checkers nor even the geometric positions of the pieces, only the markings of the board on which they rest. Then, any jump preserves the parity of both the $`x`$\- and $`y`$-coordinates of the jumping piece, so at most one fourth of the board’s cells can be reached by jumps of a given piece (Figure 8, left).

For any given piece $`p`$, form a bipartite graph $`G_p`$ by connecting the vacant positions that $`p`$ can reach by jumping with the adjacent pieces of the opposite color that $`p`$ can jump. If $`p`$ is a king, this graph should be undirected, but otherwise it should be directed according to the requirement that the piece not move backwards. Note that each jumpable piece has degree two in this graph, so the possible sequences of jumps are simply the graph paths that begin at the given piece and end at a vacant square. Figure 8, right, depicts an example; note that opposing pieces that can not be jumped (because they are on cells of the wrong parity, or because an adjacent cell is occupied) are not included in $`G_p`$. Using this structure, it is not hard to show that Checkers moves are not complex:

###### Theorem 2

For any Checkers position (on an arbitrary-size board), one can test in polynomial time whether a checker can become a king, or whether there is a move which wins the game by jumping all the opponent’s pieces.

Proof:  Piece $`p`$ can king precisely if there is a directed path in $`G_p`$ from $`p`$ to one of the squares along the opponent’s side of the board. A winning move exists precisely if there exists a piece $`p`$ for which $`G_p`$ includes all opposing pieces and contains an Euler path starting at $`p`$; that is, precisely if $`G_p`$ is connected and has at most one odd-degree vertex other than the initial location of $`p`$.

The second claim in this theorem, testing for a one-move win, is also proved in . That paper also show that the analogous problem for a generalization of checkers to arbitrary graphs is NP-complete.

## 4 Discussion

We have shown that, in Phutball, the exponential number of jump sequences possible in a single move, together with the ways in which parts of a jump sequence can interfere with each other, leads to the high computational complexity of finding a winning move. In Checkers, there may be exponentially many jump sequences, but jumps can be performed independently of each other, so finding winning moves is easy. What about other games?

In particular, Fanorona  seems a natural candidate for study. In this game, capturing is performed in a different way, by moving a piece in one step towards or away from a contiguous line of the opponent’s pieces. Board squares alternate between strong (allowing diagonal moves) and weak (allowing only orthogonal moves), and a piece making a sequence of captures must change direction at each step. Like Checkers (and unlike Phutball) the game is won by capturing all the opponent’s pieces rather than by reaching some designated goal. Is finding a winning move in Fanorona hard? If so, a natural candidate for a reduction is the problem of finding Hamiltonian paths in grid graphs .

The complexity of determining the outcome of a general Phutball position remains open. We have not even proven that this problem is NP-hard, since even if no winning move exists in the positions we construct, the player to move may win in more than one move.

## Acknowledgment

This work was inspired by various people, including John Conway and Richard Nowakowski, playing phutball at the MSRI Combinatorial Game Theory Research Workshop in July 2000.


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# QCD Glueball Regge Trajectories and the Pomeron

## Abstract

We report a glueball Regge trajectory emerging from diagonalizing a confining Coulomb gauge Hamiltonian for constituent gluons. Using a BCS vacuum ansatz and gap equation, the dressed gluons acquire a mass, of order 800 $`MeV`$, providing the quasiparticle degrees of freedom for a TDA glueball formulation. The TDA eigenstates for two constituent gluons have orbital, $`L`$, excitations with a characteristic energy of 400 $`MeV`$ revealing a clear Regge trajectory for $`\stackrel{}{J}=\stackrel{}{L}+\stackrel{}{S}`$, where $`S`$ is the total (sum) gluon spin. Significantly, the $`S=2`$ glueball spectrum coincides with the Pomeron given by $`\alpha _P(t)=1.08+0.25t`$. Finally, we also ascertain that lattice data supports our result, yielding an average intercept of 1.1 in good agreement with the Pomeron.

Pacs #: 11.55.Jy; 12.39.Mk; 12.39.Pn 12.40.Yx Keywords: Glueball Regge trajectories, Pomeron, QCD, Coulomb gauge Hamiltonian, TDA.

A vintage problem in hadronic physics is to fundamentally explain the observed monotonously rising, to asymptotically flat cross section behavior with increasing Mandelstam variable $`s`$. Pre-QCD cross section theorems  involving $`t`$ channel exchanges motivated Pomeranchuk’s assertion  that vacuum quantum number ($`J^{PC}=0^{++}`$) $`t`$ channel exchanges would describe elastic cross section high energy dependence. Related, it was historically known that hadronic resonances with specific quantum numbers could be connected to a series or ”tower” of excited states. From this backdrop the successful Regge picture , with poles and trajectories linear in $`t`$ (mass squared), $`\alpha (t)=\alpha (0)+bt`$, emerged which effectively described cross sections and resonances and therefore unified both scattering and bound state data. Of particular interest in this letter are analyses of high energy diffraction data  yielding a $`J^{PC}=J^{++}`$ Regge trajectory with the largest intercept $`\alpha (0)`$. This trajectory is called the Pomeron and from detailed fits is given by

$`\alpha _P(t)=1.08+0.25t.`$ (1)
Note that by definition, the Pomeron entirely governs and correctly reproduces the high energy scattering behavior since the cross section scales as $`s^{\alpha (0)1}`$. The simplicity of this picture is very appealing and the Pomeron remains a contemporary tool for understanding high energy processes, both experimentally and theoretically  . In the discussion below we specialize to the soft non-perturbative Pomeron (for an account of the BFKL hard Pomeron in perturbative QCD see ).

According to Regge theory, the trajectory describing scattering should also be consistent with physical hadron states, implying a $`J^{PC}=J^{++}`$ trajectory of mesons with slope near $`0.25GeV^2`$. However, all known hadronic resonances (both mesons and baryons) fall on Chew-Frautschi  trajectories with slopes close to $`0.9GeV^2`$ but different intercepts. This is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 for several mesons and baryons, respectively, including the $`\rho `$ whose negative parity, positive G parity tower is well described by $`\alpha _\rho (t)=.55+0.9GeV^2t`$. This incompatibility led to the conjecture that the Pomeron corresponded instead to a Regge trajectory for gluonic states, and most likely one describing the $`J^{++}`$ glueballs.

Not surprisingly, the gluonic nature of the Pomeron has been widely investigated (see  for a recent review) with several recent studies linking the Pomeron and glueball trajectories. From meson trajectories and Wilson loops, Kaidalov and Simonov  estimate that the glueball intercept is $`\alpha (0).7`$, while Soloviev  computes $`\alpha (0)=1.07\pm 0.03`$ using the quantized elliptic Nambu-Gotto string model. Motivated by the Maldacena conjecture, and solving the dilaton wave equation, Brower, Mathur and Tan  obtained a glueball intercept of $`\alpha (0)1.2`$. Finally, using mass relations between the glueball and meson sectors, Brisudova, Burakovsky and Goldman  obtain a glueball Regge trajectory with slope $`0.3\pm 0.1GeV^2`$.

In this communication we report results from a new constituent glueball approach which further strengthens the gluonic Pomeron conjecture. Similar to previous relativistic quark approaches  yielding a consistent meson Chew-Frautschi Regge slope, our relativistic many-body calculations also produce a glueball Regge trajectory that arises naturally from the confining linear potential and the scale of angular excitations. In reproducing the lattice gauge positive parity glueball spectrum, we obtain a Regge trajectory with intercept near and above unity. Most significantly, the trajectory slope is close to the Pomeron value ($`b0.25GeV^2`$) and predominantly independent of model details. Our group has applied many body techniques to develop a unified approach for the hadron spectrum utilizing a QCD inspired Hamiltonian. Both the gluon  and meson  sectors have been realistically described and a hybrid meson calculation has also recently been completed .

We briefly summarize our many-body approach (see refs.  for complete calculational details). The starting point is a Coulomb gauge, field theoretical Hamiltonian

$`H=Tr{\displaystyle 𝑑𝐱(𝚷^a𝚷^a+𝐁_A^a𝐁_A^a)}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑𝐱𝑑𝐲\rho ^a(𝐱)V(|𝐱𝐲|)\rho ^a(𝐲)},`$ (2)
with color charge density $`\rho ^a=f^{abc}𝐀^b𝚷^c`$ and fields $`𝚷^a,𝐁_A^a=\times 𝐀^a`$. We utilize an instantaneous Cornell potential for confinement, $`V=\frac{\alpha _s}{r}+\sigma r`$. The potential parameters are $`\alpha _s=.2`$, and, from independent lattice results, $`\sigma =\frac{3}{4}0.18GeV^2`$. The gluons are then dressed by means of a Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS) ansatz for the vacuum ground state which, through a variational Hamitonian minimization, generates the gap equation

$$\omega _q^2=q^2\frac{3}{4}\frac{d𝐤}{(2\pi )^3}\widehat{V}(|𝐪𝐤|)(1+(\widehat{𝐤}\widehat{𝐪})^2)\left(\frac{w_k^2w_q^2}{w_k}\right),$$
(3)
for the gluon self-energy, $`\omega _q`$, containing the dynamical gluon mass. Our potential in momentum space is $`\widehat{V}(|𝐪𝐤|)=\frac{4\pi \alpha _s}{(qk)^2}\frac{8\pi \sigma }{(qk)^4}`$, where each term generates a divergence in the gap equation (Coulomb is quadratic, confinement is logarithmic). Since we are focusing on confinement we have omitted the Couloub potential component and then used a cut-off parameter $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=45GeV`$ to regularize the remaining logarithmic divergence. Finally, a Tamm-Dancoff (TDA) diagonalization, truncated to the 1p-1h level, is performed for the same field theoretical Hamiltonian (no divergences, Coulomb potential is now included) to generate the glueball spectrum. We used the same linear potential in our quark sector applications which produced reasonable results , including the appropriate meson Regge slope as indicated by the solid squares in Fig. 1 for the $`1^{}`$ and $`3^{}`$ $`\rho `$ trajectory. It is important to stress that our quark sector application properly implemented chiral symmetry.

At the more technical level, the glueball TDA state, for fixed orbital, $`L`$, and total gluon spin, $`S`$, is represented by

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }_{LS}^{JPC}={\displaystyle \underset{am_1m_2}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{d𝐪}{(2\pi )^3}\mathrm{\Phi }_{LSm_1m_2}^{JPC}(𝐪)\alpha _{m_1}^a(𝐪)\alpha _{m_2}^a(𝐪)|\mathrm{\Omega }},`$ (4)
where the $`\alpha _m^a`$ are quasiparticle creation operators acting on the BCS vacuum state $`|\mathrm{\Omega }`$. The sum is over the color index $`a`$ and the two transverse spin projections, $`m=1,2`$. The glueball wavefunction has angular momentum composition

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_{LSm_1m_2}^{JPC}(𝐪)=1m_11m_2|Sm_SLm_LSm_S|Jm_J\varphi _{LS}^{JPC}(q)Y_L^{m_L}(\widehat{𝐪}).`$ (5)
As mentioned above, the gluon quasiparticle energies are obtained from the nonlinear mass gap equation which yields a gluon mass around 800 $`MeV`$. Then, with the gap energy, the linear TDA equations are diagonalized for the $`J^{PC}`$ states of interest, either as a radial equation or variationally in a multi-dimensional Monte Carlo calculation for the Hamiltonian matrix elements using the computer code VEGAS. Our work omits renormalization, but a recently improved, renormalized glueball calculation  produced similar $`J^{PC}=0^{\pm +}`$ results. Using a new, independent code we have recomputed the glueball spectrum and confirmed our original results . We have also extended the analysis to the maximally acceptable 1p-1h excitation range spanning higher angular momentum states, up to $`3^{++}`$. The 1p-1h energy upper bound is about 3 $`GeV`$ since it is well known that 2p-2h (4 gluon) states become important for energies twice the lightest 1p-1h excitation ($``$ 1.6 $`GeV`$ ground state glueball). A realistic calculation above 3 $`GeV`$ would entail mixing with 2p-2h states requiring a complicated (4 gluon) Fock space diagonalization. Further, higher angular momentum significantly enhances the interaction spin dependence which is not accurately known. These two reasons are also why we only predict states up to $`J=3`$ for the meson spectrum shown in Fig. 1. The positive parity glueball states reliably predicted by our model are compared to the previous and most recent lattice measurements  in Fig. 3.

Wavefunction symmetry for two identical bosons requires that $`L+S`$ must be even. Since the Pomeron should carry positive parity and C-parity, L odd is not considered nor three gluon states which have odd C-parity. Also, according to Yang’s theorem, a combination of gluon transversality (Coulomb gauge) and Bose statistics, $`J=1`$ states are forbidden for a two gluon system. Further, the $`J=0`$ state is precluded from the Pomeron since it necessarily belongs to a lower (daughter) trajectory. Therefore only the $`J=2^{++}`$, with $`L=0,S=2`$, and $`J=3^{++}`$, with $`L=2,S=2`$, states in Fig. 3 are Pomeron candidates and the corresponding glueball Chew-Frautschi diagram is shown in Fig. 4 along with the Pomeron trajectory.

Figure 4 constitutes the key findings of this study. Notice that our model yields a trajectory with slope .20 $`GeV^2`$ and intercept 1.1, in reasonable agreement with the Pomeron. We found little sensitivity of our results to the confining potential parameter as increasing the strength by 33 % (i.e. $`\sigma =\frac{3}{4}0.18GeV^20.18GeV^2`$), only marginally reduced the intercept. Further, and of interest to BFKL PQCD studies, our model predicts the soft Pomeron is a correlated two gluon state with total intrinic spin $`S=2`$.

Equally significant are the lattice data which qualitatively supports our main result. The lattice calculations entail some uncertainty and therefore generate a less accurate trajectory having slope .15 $`\pm `$ .05 $`GeV^2`$. However, the lattice intercept is above unity, although again with appreciable error (1.1 $`\pm `$ .5). We therefore conclude that both our model and recent lattice data are consistent with a glueball interpretation of the Pomeron.

Ideally a $`J=4^{++}`$ (and higher) state should also be predicted. This may be possible for lattice calculations but, as discussed above, would be quite formidable in our approach. Conversely, assuming a glueball Pomeron interpretation we can use the fitted trajectory to predict that the $`4^{++}`$ and $`5^{++}`$ glueballs should have masses $`M_J=2\sqrt{J1.08}=`$ 3.42 and 3.96 $`GeV`$, respectively.

Finally, we offer a qualitative explanation for our unified model predictions of meson and Pomeron slope trajectories with respective values $`b_{q\overline{q}}0.9GeV^2`$ and $`b_{gg}0.25GeV^2`$. In a simple QCD string model with massless partons separated by a string with length $`r`$ and tension (or energy per unit length) $`k`$, the total relativistic mass scales as $`kr`$ while the angular momentum is proportional to $`\frac{1}{2}kr^2`$, which generates a Regge trajectory with slope $`b=\frac{1}{2\pi kr}`$. This string feature is incorporated in our model through the linear confining potential ($`\sigma r`$), yielding effective string tensions, $`k_{q\overline{q}}=C_{q\overline{q}}\sigma `$ and $`k_{gg}=C_{gg}\sigma `$, for the meson and glueball systems, respectively. Here $`C_{q\overline{q}}=\frac{N_c^21}{2N_c}`$ and $`C_{q\overline{q}}=N_c`$ are the respective quark and gluon color Casimir operators from the density-density Hamiltonian kernel. Hence for $`N_c=3`$ the meson and glueball trajectory slopes are related by $`b_{gg}=\frac{C_{q\overline{q}}}{C_{gg}}b_{q\overline{q}}=\frac{4}{9}b_{q\overline{q}}`$. While this simple estimate explains much of the meson/glueball slope difference, it is significant that our model is able to account for entirely all of the difference, the rest due to BCS quasiparticle masses and the Coulomb potential in the TDA. It would be very interesting to see if alternative QCD models, particularly the flux tube, can reproduce these results.

In summary, our relativistic many-body approach provides a glueball Regge trajectory similar to the Pomeron diffraction fit. The model also unifies and describes the quark sector by properly implementing chiral symmetry (and breaking) to reproduce the observed meson spectra and attending Regge trajectories with the same, predetermined confining potential. Recent lattice measurements are also consistent with this picture and support a gluonic interpretation of the Pomeron. Reproducing higher $`J^{++}`$ states on the Pomeron trajectory would confirm this assertion and more sophisticated model calculations are in progress along with a call for alternative model predictions. Finally, our results indicate that the Pomeron provides a worthwhile guiding constraint which future theoretical and experimental glueball studies should utilize.

Pedro Bicudo acknowledges enlightening Pomeron discussions with Barbara Clerbaux, Brian Cox and Mike Pichowsky. This work is supported in part by grants DOE DE-FG02-97ER41048, DE-FG02-87ER40365 and NSF INT-9807009. Felipe J. Llanes-Estrada was a SURA-JLab graduate fellowship recipient and thanks Katja Waidelich for technical help. Supercomputer time from NERSC is also acknowledged.


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# 𝐵_𝑐 meson and the light-heavy quarkonium spectrum

##

The spectrum and properties of the $`c\overline{b}`$ systems have been calculated various times in the past in the framework of the heavy quarkonium theory . However the recent experimental observation of the $`B_c^+`$ meson  has arisen new theoretical interest on the problem . The mentioned spectrum has been considered again either from the potential and the lattice simulation point of view. A particular interesting quantity should be the hyperfine splitting that as for the $`c\overline{c}`$ case seams to be sensible to relativistic and subleading corrections in $`\alpha _\mathrm{s}`$.

For the above reasons it seems to us worthwhile to present in this paper a calculation of the $`c\overline{b}`$ spectrum based on an effective mass operator with full relativistic kinematics which we have obtained in previous works and applied with a certain success to a fit of the entire quarkonium spectrum, heavy-heavy, light-light and light-heavy cases with the exception however of the $`c\overline{b}`$ case . For comparison and completeness we report also numerical results for the light-heavy spectrum which we have given previously only in a graphical form.

The mass operator was obtained by a three dimensional reduction of the $`q\overline{q}`$ Bethe-Salpeter equation introduced in . It has the quadratic form $`M^2=M_0^2+U`$, with a kinetic part $`M_0=w_1+w_2=\sqrt{m_1^2+𝐤^2}+\sqrt{m_2^2+𝐤^2}`$ and a “potential” that in terms of the istantaneous approximation of the B-S kernel is given by

$$𝐤|U|𝐤^{}=\frac{1}{(2\pi )^3}\sqrt{\frac{w_1+w_2}{2w_1w_2}}\widehat{I}_{\mathrm{inst}}(𝐤,𝐤^{})\sqrt{\frac{w_1^{}+w_2^{}}{2w_1^{}w_2^{}}},$$
(1)
$`𝐤`$ denoting the momentum of the quark in the centre of mass frame, and $`i=1,2`$ the quark and the antiquark.

The B-S equation was derived from QCD first principles, taking advantage of the Feynman-Schwinger path integral representation for the “second order” quark propagator in an external field ***Second order propagator in the sense that it is defined by a second order differential equation; the quadratic form of the mass operator derives essentially from this fact.. The only assumption used consisted in writing the logarithm of the Wilson loop correlator $`W=\frac{1}{3}\mathrm{Tr}P\mathrm{exp}\left(𝑑x^\mu A_\mu \right)`$, as the sum of its perturbative expression and an area term

$$i\mathrm{ln}W=i(\mathrm{ln}W)_{\mathrm{pert}}+\sigma S_{\mathrm{min}},$$
(2)
$`\sigma `$ denoting the string tension.

An explicit expression for $`U`$ is given in Ref. . The perturbative part of such quantity was evaluated at the lowest order in $`\alpha _\mathrm{s}`$. However for $`\alpha _\mathrm{s}`$ we have used the standard running expression

$$\alpha _\mathrm{s}(𝐐)=\frac{4\pi }{(11\frac{2}{3}N_\mathrm{f})\mathrm{ln}\frac{𝐐^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}}$$
(3)
(with $`N_\mathrm{f}=4`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=200\mathrm{MeV}`$) cut at a maximum value $`\alpha _\mathrm{s}(0)`$, to treat properly the infrared region . This amount to include important perturbative subleading contributions.

Notice that, contrary to all the usual potential models, we have given the light quark current and not component masses in our treatment. Component masses of the usual order of magnitude can be recovered at a successive step as effective values in a semirelativistic reformulation . Actually we have fixed such masses on typical values, $`m_u=m_d=10\mathrm{MeV}`$, $`m_s=200\mathrm{MeV}`$, which are not adjusted in the fit (the results depend essentially on $`k`$ and are very little affected by the precise value of the light quark masses). The other parameters of the theory are assumed as: $`m_c=1.394\mathrm{GeV}`$, $`m_b=4.763\mathrm{GeV}`$, $`\sigma =0.2\mathrm{GeV}^2`$, $`\alpha _\mathrm{s}(0)=0.35`$. The first two are chosen in order to reproduce correctly the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)`$ masses, the string tension to give the correct slope for the Regge $`\rho `$ trajectory, $`\alpha _\mathrm{s}(0)=0.35`$ to give the right $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }\eta _c`$ splitting. Notice that, consequently, the results reported in this paper are completely parameter free, with the exception of the $`c\overline{c}(1S)`$ hyperfine splitting.

We have used in our calculations also the more conventional “linear mass” operator (or center of mass relativistic Hamiltonian) $`M=M_0+V`$ (where $`V`$ is defined by $`U=M_0V+VM_0+V^2`$) which makes easier a comparison with the usual phenomenological models. If we neglect the $`V^2`$ term, $`V`$ is obtained from Eq.(1) simply by the kinematical replacement

$$\sqrt{\frac{w_1+w_2}{2w_1w_2}}\sqrt{\frac{w_1^{}+w_2^{}}{2w_1^{}w_2^{}}}\frac{1}{4\sqrt{w_1w_2w_1^{}w_2^{}}}.$$
(4)
This is the form we have used in Ref.  (for some state however $`V^2`$ is not negligible). In the calculations based on this linear formalism we have used the same values for the light quark masses as before, a fixed coupling constant $`\alpha _\mathrm{s}=0.363`$ and taken $`m_c=1.40\mathrm{GeV}`$, $`m_b=4.81\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`\sigma =0.175\mathrm{GeV}^2`$.

Details on the numerical treatment of the eigenvalue equation are given in  and .

In table I we have reported the $`c\overline{b}`$ spectrum as obtained by the quadratic and the linear formalism, together with the values presented in Refs.  and . The observed mass $`M(B_c)=6.40\pm 0.39\pm 0.13`$ GeV has to be referred to the $`1{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{S}_{0}^{}`$ state. For such state all calculations give very close results and reproduce equally well the experimental value within the errors. Larger discrepancies among the various methods occur for the excited states.

In table II we have reported the spectrum for light-heavy mesons obtained by our formalism in numerical form. We have considered the hyperfine structure but omitted the fine one. We have also reported the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{avg}}`$ defined as the average of the deviations of the theoretical values from the experimental data diminished by the experimental errors. Obviously $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{avg}}`$ provides a measure of the accuracy in reproducing the data and give an idea of the precision one can expect in the $`c\overline{b}`$ case.

In table III, finally, we have reported the hyperfine splitting for the $`1S`$ and $`2S`$ states as obtained in the quadratic formalism and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{avg}}`$ quantity even for the channels for which we do not reproduce the results in full here.

Notice the strong discrepancies with the data in the hyperfine splittings of the $`1S`$ light-light cases. This is obviously due to the chiral symmetry breaking problem and the related inadequacy of replacing the quark full propagator in the B-S equation with the free form, as implied in the three-dimensional reduction. For the rest, the agreement is good for the states involving light and $`c`$ quarks, while the theoretical value tends to be too large for states involving $`b`$ quarks.

For comparison we can mention that in the linear formalism the hyperfine splitting turns out less good, being e.g. 97 MeV for $`c\overline{c}(1S)`$, 111 MeV for $`u\overline{c}(1S)`$, 108 MeV for $`c\overline{s}(1S)`$. Likely such difference has to be ascribed to relativistic and $`\alpha _\mathrm{s}`$ subleading effects, taken into account in the quadratic formalism via Eq.(3).

In conclusion let us mention explicitly that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{avg}}`$ as reported in table III do not include the states $`c\overline{c}(4S)`$ and $`b\overline{b}(6S)`$, (which are largely above threshold) and the $`1{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{S}_{0}^{}`$ and $`1{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{P}_{1}^{}`$ light-light states for the reasons recalled above.


text:
# 𝜋-𝑁 FROM AN EXTENDED EFFECTIVE FIELD THEORY

## 1 Introduction

In order to describe $`\pi N`$ scattering up to at least the delta resonance region it would seem to be mandatory to include the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ isobar, along with the nucleon and pion fields, as in Refs. . When baryon mass scales are involved in loop diagrams the systematic counting of chiral perturbation theory  in powers of small momenta $`Q`$, of order of the pion mass, is lost. It is restored in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory by working with an effective Lagrangian in which the heavy components of the baryon fields have been integrated out. An alternative is to manipulate the loop diagrams themselves and remove the contributions from hard momenta of order of the baryon masses. These are then absorbed in the low energy constants of the Lagrangian. To one loop order these two approaches give equivalent results (the latter has been generalized in the infra-red regularization scheme , see Becher’s talk regarding the threshold regime). Note that the delta-nucleon mass difference is taken to be of order $`Q`$. A practical difficulty is that the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ propagator can go on shell leading to an infinite contribution to the scattering amplitude. In Ref.  this was solved by summing up the leading order, complex $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ self-energy diagrams so that the propagator remained finite; unitarity was obeyed except for a very small energy region. In Ref.  the real part of the scattering amplitude was assumed to be the $`K`$ matrix so that unitarity was automatically obeyed.

## 2 Results

To order $`Q^2`$, no loops occur so it is necessary to use the $`K`$-matrix approximation. The $`\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ coupling can be determined from the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ decay width; note that changes in the off-shell parameter for the vertex can be absorbed in the low energy constants  so that any convenient value can be chosen. There are four low energy constants to be fitted to the $`S`$\- and $`P`$-wave $`\pi N`$ phase shift data. The data can be fit  up to a c.m. pion kinetic energy of $`ϵ50`$ MeV (pion laboratory momentum $`p150`$ MeV). Going to order $`Q^3`$ increases the number of low energy constants to be fitted by about a factor of three and a large number of loop diagrams need to be calculated. The calculations of Refs.  treated unitarity differently, as mentioned, and also fitted different data sets, nevertheless common trends appear. The fit to the phase shifts extends further to an energy of $`ϵ100`$ MeV ($`p250`$ MeV), slightly below the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance position. These results show a considerable improvement over an order $`Q^3`$ calculation  which excluded the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ field, particularly in the $`P33`$ channel as might be expected. They are comparable to, perhaps a little better than, an order $`Q^4`$ calculation  with just the $`\pi `$ and $`N`$ fields. It is also worth remarking that the convergence of the chiral series is much better when the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ field is explicitly included. At order $`Q^3`$ the $`\pi NN`$ vertex is dressed by a series of loop diagrams, nevertheless the effective coupling remains close to the tree-level value  and the Goldberger-Treiman discrepancy is a few percent in agreement with a determination from pionic hydrogen data and the GMO sum rule . The effective $`\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ couping also remains close to the tree-level value. The low energy constants are not accurately determined and unconstrained fits often produce unreasonable values for the sigma term. Nevertheless the fits are only slightly degraded if it is constrained. A value close to the canonical  45 MeV is obtained  with the Karlsruhe data, whereas a larger figure $`75`$ MeV is favored  with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute data.

## Acknowledgments

I acknowledge partial support from the US Department of Energy under grant no. DE-FG02-87ER40328.

## References


text:
# A Monte Carlo Study of the 6.4 keV Emission at the Galactic Center

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The Galactic Center (GC) contains several constituents whose mutual interactions account for a broad range of complex phenomena (e.g., Melia 1994). Among these, the nonthermal radio source Sgr A\*, which appears to be coincident with the peak in the dark matter concentration (e.g., Haller et al. 1996; Eckart & Genzel 1997; Ghez et al. 1998), is of special interest since its properties suggest it is a massive ($`2.6\pm 0.2\times 10^6M_{}`$) black hole. In this context, the unusually strong iron fluorescent emission detected at 6.4 keV near Sgr A\*, particularly from the Sgr B2 giant molecular cloud located some $`90`$ pc away, has raised some interesting questions regarding its origin and its possible diagnostic value for understanding the high-energy behavior of the central engine.

The GC is characterized by the presence of giant molecular clouds having mean volume densities of $`10^4\mathrm{cm}^3`$ and gas temperatures on the order of 60 K (Lis & Carlstrom (1994)). X-ray observations of this region carried out by $`ASCA`$ (Koyama et al. (1996); Murakami et al. (2000)) and $`Beppo`$SAX (Sidoli (1999)) have revealed a source of bright Fe fluorescent K$`\alpha `$ line radiation within Sgr B2, whose radius is $`20`$ pc and whose total enclosed mass is $`6\times 10^6M_{}`$ (Lis & Carlstrom (1994)). This fluorescent emission has a very large equivalent width ($`EW23`$ keV) and a peak around 6.4 keV. The surrounding continuum is quite flat, and shows strong absorption below $`4.5`$ keV and a sharp iron K$`\alpha `$ absorption feature at $`7.1`$ keV.

The large equivalent width is key to understanding the nature of the fluorescent emission (Sunyaev & Churazov (1998)). X-ray fluorescence is due to illumination of cloud material by an X-ray source. For a steady source embedded within a gaseous cloud, an upper limit to the equivalent width is $`1`$ keV (e.g., Fabian (1977); Vainshtein & Sunyaev (1980)), rather insensitive to the parameters chosen. Therefore, in the case of Sgr B2, we are necessarily dealing with either a source external to the cloud or a time-dependent internal source whose flux has diminished, allowing the continuum to fade away relative to the line intensity. An additional argument in favor of a time-dependent illuminator is currently the absence of any bright X-ray source in the vicinity of Sgr B2 with sufficient luminosity to produce the observed fluorescence (e.g., Sidoli (1999); Murakami et al. (2000)); it seems that the illuminating object, whether internal or external to the cloud, must have undergone a decrease in X-ray flux to its current quiescent state. Certainly, the SIGMA survey of this region (Vargas et al. 1996) has indicated that several sources may remain difficult to detect due to their overall faintness and variable behavior.

It is tempting to invoke Sgr A\* as the external illuminator of Sgr B2, which would then provide some measure of its recent variability at X-ray energies. Motivated by the Sgr B2 spectral characteristics and the source morphology, which show that the emission is strongest on the side of the cloud closest to Sgr A\*, Murakami et al. (2000) suggested that we may be witnessing evidence of the black hole’s activity some $`300`$ years ago (the light travel time from the nucleus to Sgr B2). These authors modeled a reflection spectrum using approximations for the photon transfer equations and obtained a decent fit to the observed spectrum. However, it is important to note that this modeling is only a rough approximation, neglecting multiple Thomson scatterings and assuming isotropic reflection. It is also limited by the fact that it does not explore the possibility that the X-ray sources are internal to the cloud or that they are time-dependent, which would provide important comparative results for fully testing the idea that Sgr A\* was the transient high-energy source illuminating the fluorescing region.

There are several reasons for taking a skeptical view of Sgr A\* as the X-ray illuminator. First and foremost, this would require a change in its X-ray luminosity by a factor of about $`10^6`$ in $`300`$ hundred years (from $`L_x10^{39}`$ erg s-1, Sunyaev & Churazov (1998), to the currently observed value of $`L_x10^{33}`$ erg s-1). Secondly, we are reminded of the fact that no other molecular cloud in the region, with the exception of the Sgr A shell, displays any significant Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission (Koyama et al. (1996); Sidoli (1999)). In the case of the Sgr A shell, the K$`\alpha `$ line has a much smaller equivalent width ($`100`$ eV), easily explained by, e.g., a steady X-ray source embedded within the cloud. It is therefore our intention in this Letter to explore alternative scenarios for the illumination of Sgr B2, using time-dependent X-ray sources both internal and external to the cloud, with Monte Carlo methods to accurately model the spectrum.

## 2 METHODOLOGY

To simulate the X-ray spectrum formed under a wide range of conditions, we use a modified version of Leahy & Creighton’s (1983) monte.f code. We have rewritten this algorithm, originally designed to handle a time-steady photon transfer from internal sources, to allow for blackbody and thermal bremsstrahlung continua, a time-dependence due to non-steady illuminators, and the presence of both internal and external X-ray sources. A very important addition is that the escaping photons are now convolved with the $`ASCA`$ GIS response function and assigned to actual $`ASCA`$ GIS energy bins (rather than arbitrary logarithmic energy intervals), enabling a direct comparison with the actual data.

The photon propagation within the cloud, including the effects of electron scattering, absorption, and fluorescence, is handled as in monte.f (c.f. Leahy & Creighton (1993) for a full description). In particular, the bound-free absorption cross-sections are taken from Morrison & McCammon (1983), the elemental abundances are from Dalgarno & Layzer (1987), and the fluorescence yields are those given by Bambynek et al. (1972).

For blackbody and thermal bremsstrahlung spectra the photon distribution function $`N(E)dE`$ is too complex to allow direct Monte Carlo sampling. Instead, we use rejection methods described in Press et al. (1992) to generate photons. We choose a simpler function $`f(E)dE`$ (called the *comparison function*) such that it lies above $`N(E)dE`$ everywhere within the relevant range of energies. The comparison function is sampled using standard Monte Carlo techniques to determine an energy $`E^{}`$. If

$$E_{min}E^{}E_{max},$$
(1)
where $`E_{min}`$ and $`E_{max}`$ are pre-defined lower and upper energy bounds, we multiply $`f(E^{})`$ by a standard deviate $`\xi `$. When

$$\xi f(E^{})N(E^{}),$$
(2)
we accept the result and a photon is generated with energy $`E^{}`$. If not, we reject the result and repeat the process until conditions (1) and (2) are satisfied.

A blackbody spectrum of temperature $`T`$ has a normalized photon distribution function $`N(x)dx=15x^3dx/[\pi ^4(e^x1.0)]`$, where $`xE/T`$ and both $`E`$ and $`T`$ are measured in keV. To generate this spectrum, we choose the piece-wise continuous comparison function

$$f_{bb}(x)=\left\{\begin{array}{cc}0.15625x,\hfill & \mathrm{f}orx<2\hfill \\ 0.3125,\hfill & \mathrm{f}or2x<4\hfill \\ 20/x^3,\hfill & \mathrm{f}orx4\hfill \end{array}\right\}.$$
(3)
Note that we have normalized $`f_{bb}(x)`$ such that

$$2_0^2f_{bb}(x)𝑑x=_2^4f_{bb}(x)𝑑x=_4^{\mathrm{}}f_{bb}(x)𝑑x.$$
(4)
We approximate the thermal bremsstrahlung photon distribution function with cut-off temperature $`T`$ as $`N(x)dxx^{1.2}e^xdx`$, with $`x`$ defined as above; our piece-wise continuous comparison function $`f_{tb}(x)`$ is then

$$f_{tb}(x)=\left\{\begin{array}{cc}0,\hfill & \mathrm{f}orx<E_{min}/T\hfill \\ x^{1.2},\hfill & \mathrm{f}orE_{min}/Tx<1\hfill \\ e^x,\hfill & \mathrm{f}orx>1\hfill \end{array}\right\}.$$
(5)
In this case, the normalization is such that

$$_{E_{min}/T}^1f_{tb}(x)𝑑x=5e\left[\left(\frac{T}{E_{min}}\right)^{0.2}1\right]_1^{\mathrm{}}f_{tb}(x)𝑑x.$$
(6)
To model time dependence, we assume that the source has undergone a period of intense emission that has diminished over a time interval much smaller than the light-crossing time of Sgr B2. In this limit, we create all photons at time $`t=0`$ and track their travel time between interactions within the cloud. Upon the last interaction, an additional time $`(r+\text{r}\text{n})/c`$, where r is the location of the photon at last interaction and n is the directional vector of the escaping photon, is added to each photon. This factor represents the geometrical time lag for an escaping photon to reach the observer; similar lags appear in, e.g., reverberation mapping of active galactic nuclei (Blandford & McKee (1982)). Escaping photons are then assigned to time bins of width $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=R/2c`$, where $`R`$ is the cloud radius, with spectra being constructed for each of these time bins.

For simplicity, we assume that Sgr B2 is a uniform spherical cloud; its optical depth and elemental abundances are allowed to vary, as well as the shape of the illuminating X-ray spectrum and the source location. The flux density is also kept as a free parameter, since fixing this would require further assumptions about the nature of the X-ray source, which is not necessary for the modeling we describe here.

We consider both internal and external sources. The former are assumed to lie at the center of the cloud and to emit isotropically, therefore maintaining spherical symmetry. The escaping photons are binned only in time, as there is no need for angular bins due to the isotropy. The external sources are assumed to lie at a distance much greater than the radius of the cloud, so that incoming photon distribution is roughly plane parallel. The cloud is located with its center at the origin, and photons are incident from $`+\widehat{z}`$-axis. They enter the sphere at polar angle $`\theta =\mathrm{sin}^1(\xi )`$, where $`\xi `$ is a random deviate chosen for each photon; the azimuthal angle $`\varphi `$ is chosen randomly for each photon. Each incident photon is assigned an initial time $`(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )R/c`$, representing the geometrical time lag for the photon to reach the sphere’s surface. As spherical symmetry has been broken, escaping photons are binned in $`\theta `$; we typically use four $`\theta `$ bins of width $`\pi /4`$ each. Azimuthal symmetry is retained, so no $`\varphi `$ binning is necessary.

The modeled spectra are compared to the background-subtracted data of Murakami et al. (2000). These observations were made using $`ASCA`$ during October 1993 and September 1994. The escaping photons are convolved with the $`ASCA`$ GIS response function and binned according to the observed energy intervals. Each model run consists of several million photons, and the spectra are constructed for each time and $`\theta `$ bin.

## 3 RESULTS

In this section, we describe illustrative (reasonable) fits to the data. Because there is a wide range of parameter values giving acceptable results and because the results are sensitive to, e.g., our selection of time and angular bin boundaries, it is not yet worthwhile attempting to make a best fit, which is unlikely to be the “unique” solution. In addition, our use of a cold emitting gas appears to be lacking a key ingredient of the observed emission (c.f., Section 4), making a best-fit analysis premature.

### 3.1 Internal Sources

An internal source must have a spectrum that drops off steeply at higher energies in order to explain the observed flat continuum. This is because the absorption cross-section decreases at higher energies; there must be fewer incident photons at these energies in order for the escaping continuum to remain flat. We find that blackbody and thermal bremsstrahlung sources, with their exponential cut-offs, provide decent fits to the data.

Figure 1 shows reasonable fits for blackbody (left) and thermal bremsstrahlung (right) internal sources. In both cases, we used a cloud optical depth of $`\tau =0.2`$ and elemental abundances enhanced to three times the local ISM values. The blackbody and bremsstrahlung illuminating spectra have $`T=1`$ keV and $`3`$ keV, respectively, and both have been allowed to evolve over time. The output spectra illustrated here are those that would be observed at time $`3R/ct<7R/2c`$ (blackbody) and $`5R/2ct<3R/c`$ (bremsstrahlung). Note that the first photons escape the sphere at $`t=R/c`$. The fits lack an emission component at $`6.46`$ keV. For these models, we obtain $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.23`$ (33 d.o.f.) for the blackbody and $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.17`$ (33 d.o.f.) for the bremsstrahlung illuminators.

### 3.2 External Sources

Unlike the case of the internal sources, where the illuminator must apparently have a time-dependent luminosity, we find that both time-steady and time-dependent external sources provide good fits to the data. The best fits have incident spectra with $`\alpha 1`$, where $`N(E)dEE^\alpha dE`$, although there is much leeway here. We note that for $`xE/T1`$, thermal bremsstrahlung spectra have $`\alpha =1.2`$, so a hot, external bremsstrahlung source is certainly a possibility.

Figure 2 shows reasonable fits for time-steady (left) and time-dependent (right) external sources. In both models, we used $`\alpha =1`$, a cloud optical depth of $`\tau =0.4`$, and elemental abundances enhanced to three times the local ISM values. The spectra plotted are for $`\pi /2\theta <3\pi /4`$, although the $`\pi /4\theta <\pi /2`$ spectra are nearly as good. In the time-dependent model we are looking at the spectrum formed during the period $`R/ct<3R/2c`$, which is early in the time-evolution and therefore (not surprisingly) quite similar to the time-steady case. The fits appear to be slightly better than those of the internal models, with $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.05`$ (33 d.o.f.) for the steady source and $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.06`$ (33 d.o.f.) for the time-dependent source. Although not as apparent here, these spectra also lack an emission component at $`6.46`$ keV.

## 4 DISCUSSION

We have shown that the bulk of the iron fluorescent emission can be explained by either internal or external X-ray sources, though internal sources must be time-dependent; over time the line-emission becomes stronger relative to the continuum, giving an $`EW`$ approaching the observed value. External sources may be time-steady or time-dependent, as it is possible to obtain a large $`EW`$ by angular selection effects. However, a time-steady illuminator may be unlikely due to the current lack of an obvious source near Sgr B2, with the possible exception of 1E 1743.1-2843, which lies only 63 pc (in projection) away (e.g., Murakami et al. 2000).

The fact that internal sources are viable illuminators for the fluorescence in Sgr B2 is due in part to the limited energy resolution of the ASCA GIS detector. Although the equivalent width of the Fe 6.4 keV line is smaller for an internal source than for an external illuminator, this situation changes when the calculated spectrum is convolved with the detector response function. It is evident from Figures 1 and 2 that both internal and external sources give reasonable fits to the data. Thus future observations, e.g., with XMM, can in principle distinguish between these two types of sources and help resolve the question of whether the iron line fluorescent emission in Sgr B2 does indeed indicate a past high-energy activity in Sgr A\*.

All the calculations reported here lack an emission component at $`6.46`$ keV. It is possible that the appearance of this spectral feature is simply an artifact due to an incomplete background subtraction (since the Sgr B2 background is very inhomogeneous). If it is real, however, it may indicate emission from “warm” iron species (c.f., Nagase (1989)), in an ionization state Fe 20 or greater. Based on ionization calculations carried out with CLOUDY (Ferland (1996)), we find that these “warm” species exist only at temperatures on the order of $`10^5`$ K. Gas at these high temperatures is unlikely to coexist with the cold cloud material, so one possibility is that it constitutes a transition layer between Sgr B2 and the hot ($`T10^6`$ K) plasma surrounding it. However, thermal conduction models seem to suggest that such a layer would be too thin to produce significant emission (Cowie & McKee (1977)). Future observations may provide better clues to this puzzle.

## 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Hiroshi Murakami for providing the $`ASCA`$ GIS data. We also thank Rashid Sunyaev, Lara Sidoli and Sandro Mereghetti for their helpful discussions. This work was supported by an NSF Graduate Fellowship at the University of Arizona, by a Sir Thomas Lyle Fellowship and a Miegunyah Fellowship for distinguished overseas visitors at the University of Melbourne, and by NASA grants NAG5-8239 and NAG5-9205 at the University of Arizona.


text:
# A Note on Cosmology and Loop Quantum Gravity 11footnote 1The fact that the references may look old is due to the fact that the present paper was completed in 1997

## Abstract

One possible description of the very early stages of the evolution of the universe is provided by chaotic inflationary models for which the role of the phenomenological inflaton field is played by quantum gravitational effects. We argue that simple non perturbative calculation supporting and establishing that kind of scenario may be possible within the framework of loop quantum gravity. This approach could even lead to testable predictions of quantum gravity (QG).
We explore this proposal in a model for QG, Rovelli’s T-theory, without reaching definitive results. However the analysis shows that our approach does not lead to difficulties of principle, and could well work in a more realistic model.

It is widely accepted that quantum gravitational effects were dominant in the very early universe. It is also assumed that a future theory of QG should provide the framework to describe the origin of the universe as well as its initial conditions (in terms of a definition of the kinematic and the dynamic that must also be a part of the theory). However it is usually believed that a subsequent inflationary period would wash out any observable consequence of those QG effects.
The success of the chaotic inflation scenario  and the difficulties of the old  and new  inflationary models (see for instance ) shift the problem of finding the physical foundations of the phenomenological inflationary models from the Grand Unification scale ($`10^5M_{Pl}`$) to the Planck scale. And that is just the scale in which QG effects are expected to be important.
It is well known that the chaotic inflationary scenario can be realized in a wealth of physical model, including models in which the role of the inflaton field is played by higher curvature terms in the Einstein-Hilbert action coming from quantum corrections. To this class belongs the Starobinsky model , often considered the first inflationary model, in which inflation is driven by second order curvature terms coming from vacuum polarization of matter fields. Starobinsky inflationary solution has been shown by Simon  not to be valid within the limits of the semiclassical gravity perturbative approach used to obtain the higher curvature corrections in the action of the model. However the fact remains that higher curvature theories are known to often have de Sitter-like solutions. It is known furthermore that quantum corrections to pure gravity (vaccum polarization of gravitons) lead to higher order curvature terms .
A recent work on the above mentioned approach to inflation is Reference.
This kind of picture seems reasonable from general physical considerations. Out of the different kinds of physical effects able in principle of driving an inflationary period, the first one in taking over would dominate, because the energy densities of the other fields will be rapidly diluted (scalar fields energy densities would decrease to a constant, much smaller anyway than the ”inflaton” energy density), while the contribution of the ”inflaton” part would remain esentially constant. Therefore we can argue that if QG effects can support an inflationary expansion, then they would be the ones to do it, because they dominate at an earlier time (the Planck era).
The problem with the standard perturbative approach is that close to the initial state the curvature and all the higher curvature counterterms are divergent. Even if we keep the lower orders with a suitable redefinition of the constants such an expansion around a smooth geometry is unlikely to be a good approximation for the possibly very non classical singular (zero volume) initial state.
An alternative approach could be provided by the loop quantum gravity program . In that framework the eigenstates and eigenvalues of the volume operator are known , including a sector of states with zero volume (described in a completely non singular way). The space of states is actually simpler for zero or small volumes. The time evolution of the physical states starting in some zero volume initial state222our opinions about how this initial state could be determined and about how a time variable ought be chosen in quantum gravity are stated elsewhere . See also references therein for other approaches to the problem of the initial conditions and to the ”issue of time” can in principle be adressed in a non perturbative way (see  and references therein) without any infinities. From there one could compute the evolution of the expectation value of the volume operator $`V(t)`$ (and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V(t)`$) 333We could have otherwise a set of quasi classical decohering histories with $`V_1(t)`$, $`V_2(t)`$,….The role of the ”enviroment” could be played by the degrees of freedom of loop QG that are non zero for zero volume states, which should be traced out. If $`V(t)`$ were an exponential (or some other rapidly increasing function) and $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }V(t)}{V(t)}`$ were small we could argue that we had a quasi classical evolution and that the irregularities would be smoothed away by the fast expansion, giving a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric with scale factor $`a(t)`$ proportional to $`V^{1/3}(t)`$. The knowledge of $`a(t)`$ is all what is required to be able to make concrete predictions about the spectrum of primordial density fluctuations, or the spectrum of fossil gravitational waves, using standard techniques (see for instance ).
A recent loop quantum gravity model that allows concrete computations of the evolution of physical states, expected values of operators and transition amplitudes is provided by Rovelli’s T-theory . This model consists of of standard General Relativity (GR) with a negative cosmological constant and a massless scalar field which is to play the role of a ”clock field” after some gauge fixing.The action of the model is

$`S[g_{\mu \nu },\varphi ]={\displaystyle d^4x\sqrt{g}[\frac{R\lambda }{16\pi G}+\frac{1}{2}g^{\mu \nu }_\mu \varphi _\nu \varphi ]}`$ (1)
giving the classical equations of motion

$`R_{\mu \nu }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_{\mu \nu }R+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_{\mu \nu }\lambda =8\pi G[_\mu \varphi _\nu \varphi {\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_{\mu \nu }_\mu \varphi ^\mu \varphi ]`$ (2)
$`D^\mu D_\mu \varphi =0`$ (3)
In order to do the canonical analysis of the model, the gauge freedom of the model (general covariance) is fixed by the gauge (coordinate) conditions

$`\varphi (𝐱,t)=\mu T`$ (4)
$`N_i=g_{i0}=0`$ (5)
Notice that choice of the time variable $`T`$ is only possible if the hypersurfaces $`\varphi (𝐱,t)=constant`$ are spacelike, what is not true in general (for instance for a stationary solution they would be timelike). We will restrict ourselves to the situations in which this gauge fixing is possible. This clearly might be a problem at the quantum level for wich all configurations should in principle be included.
The canonical analysis gives then the true hamiltonian

$`H=\sqrt{2}\mu {\displaystyle d^3x\sqrt{q}\sqrt{\rho _\lambda 𝒞_{ADM}}}`$ (6)
where $`q`$ is the determinant of the 3-metric and $`𝒞_{ADM}`$ is the usual ADM hamiltonian constraint. For $`H`$ to be a well defined real hamiltonian it must be $`\rho _\lambda 𝒞_{ADM}>0`$.
The following step is to chose the initial condition in such a way that the negative energy density of the vacuum due to the cosmological constant term cancels the positive density of the ”clock field”. This is called the ”well balanced clock regime” (WBCR) and it can hold approximately only for a while. We have in the WBCR

$`𝒞_{ADM}=\rho _{TOT}=\rho _\varphi \rho _\lambda =0`$ (7)
We ask furthermore the lapse function to be equal to one initially $`N(0)=1`$, what imply that, for small $`T`$, $`T`$ is approximately the proper time. But

$`\rho _\varphi ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2N}}{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{T}}{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{T}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2N}}\mu ^2`$ (8)
Then from the WBCR and $`N(0)=1`$ it follows

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{16\pi G}}=\rho _\lambda ={\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{2}}`$ (9)
which forces a choice of $`\mu `$ given $`\rho _\lambda `$. The hamiltonian becomes

$`H=2\rho _\lambda {\displaystyle d^3x\sqrt{q}\sqrt{1\frac{𝒞_{ADM}}{\rho _\lambda }}}`$ (10)
Now we will look for FRW solutions for the model to see how does it work at the level of classical cosmology. The Friedmann equations for the model are

$`\ddot{\varphi }+3{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}}{a}}\dot{\varphi }=0`$ (11)
$`({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}}{a}})^2+{\displaystyle \frac{k}{a^2}}={\displaystyle \frac{4\pi G}{3}}[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\varphi }^2\rho _\lambda ]`$ (12)
$`\ddot{a}={\displaystyle \frac{8\pi G}{3}}[\dot{\varphi }^2+\rho _\lambda ]`$ (13)
where the dots represent derivatives with respect to the proper time $`t`$. Notice that the energy density $`\rho `$ and the pressure $`p`$ are given by

$`\rho ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\varphi }^2\rho _\lambda `$ (14)
$`p={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\varphi }^2+\rho _\lambda `$ (15)
from where it follows that even in the WBCR the pressure will be non zero.
We have to first order in t

| $`k`$ | $`a(t)`$ | $`\varphi (t)`$ |
| --- | --- | --- |
| +1 | $`a_0+it`$ (unphysical) |  |
| 0 | $`a_0+𝒪(t^2)`$ | $`\varphi _0+\dot{\varphi _0}t`$ |
| -1 | $`a_0\pm t`$ | $`\varphi _0+\dot{\varphi _0}t`$ |

For $`k=0`$ we have the exact solutions

$`\varphi \varphi _0=\pm {\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{6\pi G}}}lnsec[\sqrt{12\pi G\rho _\lambda }(tt_0)+C_\pm ]+tan[\sqrt{12\pi G\rho _\lambda }(tt_0)+C_\pm ]`$ (16)
$`a=a_0\{cos[\sqrt{12\pi G\rho _\lambda }(tt_0)+C_\pm ]\}^{\frac{1}{3}}`$ (17)
where $`C_\pm =sec^1(\pm \frac{\dot{\varphi }_0}{\sqrt{2\rho _\lambda }})`$. In the WBCR and for $`\dot{\varphi }>0`$ in a neighborhood of $`t=0`$ we get

$`\varphi \varphi _0={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{6\pi G}}}lnsec[\sqrt{12\pi G\rho _\lambda }(tt_0)]+tan[\sqrt{12\pi G\rho _\lambda }(tt_0)]`$ (18)
$`a=a_0\{cos[\sqrt{12\pi G\rho _\lambda }(tt_0)]\}^{\frac{1}{3}}`$ (19)
or, for $`\varphi _0=0`$ and $`\varphi =\mu T`$

$`a/a_0={\displaystyle \frac{4}{[cosh(3\mu \sqrt{6\pi G}T)+3cosh(\mu \sqrt{6\pi G}T)]}}`$ (20)
Notice that $`a`$ collapses to 0 while $`\varphi `$ diverges as functions of $`t`$ for $`tt_0=\frac{1}{4}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{3}}\frac{1}{\sqrt{G\rho _\lambda }}`$, but $`a(T)`$ is well behaved for $`T>0`$. For large $`T`$ the radius $`a`$ is proportional to $`e^{3\mu \sqrt{6\pi G}T}`$

At the quantum level we will consider the case in which the matrix elements of $`\frac{𝒞_{ADM}}{\rho _\lambda }`$ in some basis $`s_a`$ to be specified below satisfy

$`s_a{\displaystyle \frac{𝒞_{ADM}}{\rho _\lambda }}s_b1`$ (21)
what is just the quantum version of the WBCR. In that case the hamiltonian operator can expanded444Note that is not immediate that the hamiltonian is well defined and hermitian, what would require the operator $`1𝒞_{𝒜𝒟}/\rho _\lambda `$ to be positive definite and hermitian. See  about this point as

$`H=2\rho _\lambda {\displaystyle d^3x\sqrt{q}\sqrt{1\frac{𝒞_{ADM}}{\rho _\lambda }}}`$ (22)
$`2\rho _\lambda V+{\displaystyle d^3x\sqrt{q}\sqrt{𝒞_{ADM}}}=H_0+W`$
where $`V`$ is the volume operator and

$`H_0=2\rho _\lambda V`$ (23)
$`W={\displaystyle d^3x\sqrt{q}\sqrt{𝒞_{ADM}}}`$ (24)
It is plausible that the WBCR and the parameter choice $`\rho _\lambda =\frac{\mu ^2}{2}`$ in the quantum case, plus the correspondence principle would yield that initially $`T`$ is approximately the proper time.

The base of eigenstates of the unperturbed hamiltonian is the base of eigenstates of the volume operator. That is the so called s-knot states basis , satisfying

$`ss^{}=\delta _{ss^{}}`$ (25)
$`Vs=V(s)s`$ (26)
where $`V(s)`$ is the eigenvalue of the state. The spectrum of the volume operator is believed by the experts to be discrete, though a mathematical proof of the absence of accumulation points in it is still missing . The evolution of the s-knot states in the unperturbed theory is

$`s,t=e^{iE_sT/\mathrm{}}s`$ (27)
with

$`E_s=2\rho _\lambda V(s)`$ (28)
A perturbative approach is valid for $`M_{Pl}\rho _\lambda V(s)`$ because

$`W_{ab}=s_aWs_b=M_{Pl}_{ab}`$ (29)
with $`_{ab}1`$ for $`ab`$ and for the lower volume states 555This follows from the action of $`𝒞_{ADM}`$ on spin network states as given by Borissov . However the action of the hamiltonian constraint on spin network states is still matter of debate . Standard perturbation theory gives the probability amplitudes, given an initial state $`s_i`$, as

$`s_f,Ts_i,0=W_{fi}{\displaystyle \frac{1e^{i\frac{(E_fE_i)}{\mathrm{}}T}}{E_fE_i}}+\mathrm{}..`$ (30)
and transition probabilities

$`𝒫_{fi}(T)=W_{fi}^2{\displaystyle \frac{1cos[\frac{(E_fE_i)}{\mathrm{}}T]}{(E_fE_i)^2}}+\mathrm{}..`$ (31)
These expressions are good approximations for $`𝒫_{fi}(T)1`$. The transition probabilities are strongly peaked around $`E_f=E_i`$. That means that transitions between states with different volume are strongly supressed. For instance for $`\rho _\lambda =100`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V=1`$ we get $`𝒫_{fi}(T)<\frac{1}{5000}`$. This could be interpreted as a prediction of freezing on the evolution of the volume of the universe, however the situation is not so simple. The reason is that the spacing between states with different values of the volume decreases with the volume (or equivalently the density of states increases) faster than $`1/V`$ 666To see this is enough to notice that for a class of s-knots with one four valent vertex the eigenvalue of the volume operator is $`2L_{Pl}^3\sqrt{\sigma }[j_1j_2j_3(j_1+j_2+j_3)]^{\frac{1}{4}}`$ where $`\sqrt{\sigma }`$ is a number of order one and the $`j`$’s are arbitrary positive integers or positive half integers and $`L_{Pl}`$ is the Plank length , then though for the lower volume states (say smaller than 10 in Planck units) which have volume differences of order one we do have a frozen volume situation, after enough time the system could reach a higher volume state for which there are many states with very close values of the volume. To know what would happen in that case would require higher orders in perturbation theory as well as a detailed knowledge of the $`W_{ab}`$’s777 An important point is that because for vertices of valence four or higher there is a continuous of s-knot states , the operator $`W`$ could induce transitions between subspaces corresponding to different volumes with very different dimensions, what could make transitions almost certain. However if we accept Borissov action for the hamiltonian constraint  we can rule out that possibility, because it only adds trivalent vertices. . If the volume is actually increasing that would contrast with the classical behaviour for a FRW metric with $`k=0`$.
We have not been able to actually compute the evolution of the volume. Despite of that the study of the model shows that the kind of calculations suggested, giving a quantum gravitational prediction for $`V(t)`$ from some zero volume initial state (which might be uniquely determined from other considerations) are already possible. And, as we pointed out before, that calculation may lead to experimentally testable predictions of quantum gravity.

I would like to thank T. Jacobson for disscussions on the topics of this paper, even though he would probably would not agree with the approach followed here. As I said before this paper was completed in 1997, and at this point I am myself have became quite doubtful about several points of such approach. I am publishing it here anyway because I believe some people may still find some points of interest in it.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) has been operated in stable since 1990 and the exposure exceeds 4.0 $`\times `$ 1016 m2 s sr until the end of May 2000. Since there are many requests to use new events after the publication of the event list in PRL  and Ap.J. , we show the updated list in this report. The analysis was carried out with the same parameters used in the previous papers .

Although the zenith angle range is limited less than 45 in the present analysis, our dataset has now enough statistics to determine experimentally the lateral distribution of shower particles and the attenuation of S(600) with atmospheric depth to larger zenith angles in energy range of $`>`$ 3 $`\times `$ 1019eV. Our energy estimation procedure for larger zenith angles is now under careful investigation, and we may be able to apply a refined attenuation length beyond 45. This may modify the parameters in the energy estimation procedure slightly; but we can extend our observable sky to larger zenith angles than 45 and increase the effective exposure of AGASA in our next full-paper publication.

In this report, we first show the updated energy spectrum above 3 $`\times `$ 1018eV with events until May 2000. And then we show the cosmic-ray arrival direction distribution with the additional dataset of the Akeno 20 km2 array (A20) before 1990. Important informations for the present analysis are listed below, and for details refer our publications .

|  | Exposure : | 4.0 $`\times `$ 1016 m2 s sr |
| --- | --- | --- |
|  | Energy conversion formula : | E $`=`$ 2.03 $`\times `$ 1017 S0(600) eV |
|  | Attenuation of S(600) : | $`S_\theta (600)=S_0(600)\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{920}{500}\left(\mathrm{sec}\theta 1\right)\frac{920}{594}\left(\mathrm{sec}\theta 1\right)^2\right]`$ |

|  | Error in S(600) determination : | $`\pm `$ 30 % above 1019eV |
| --- | --- | --- |
|  | Error in arrival direction determination : | 1.6 above 4 $`\times `$ 1019eV |

## 2 Updated Results

The updated energy spectrum observed with AGASA (without A20) is shown in Figure 1, multiplied by E3 in order to emphasize details of the steeply falling spectrum. Error bars represent the Poisson upper and lower limits at $`68\%`$ and arrows are $`90\%`$ C.L. upper limits. Numbers attached to points show the number of events in each energy bin. The dashed curve represents the spectrum expected for extragalactic sources distributed uniformly in the Universe, taking account of the energy determination error . Now we observed 8 events above 1020eV.

Figure 2 shows arrival directions of cosmic rays with energies above 4 $`\times `$ 1019eV in the equatorial coordinates. Open circles, and Open squares represent cosmic rays with energies of (4 – 10) $`\times `$ 1019eV, and $``$ 1020eV, respectively. The shaded regions indicate the celestial regions excluded in this paper due to the zenith angle cut of $``$ 45. The galactic and supergalactic planes are drawn by the red and blue curves. The shaded circle near the center is the C2 triplet – three events are observed within 2.5 – and the chance probability of observing such triplet under an isotropic distribution is about 1 %. This value becomes somewhat larger than our Ap.J. publication , but this triplet is an interesting phenomenon. A new doublet is observed around (14h 10m, 37.5), which is referred to as “C6” on the basis of our Ap.J. publication .

## Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Akeno-mura, Nirasaki-shi, Sudama-cho, Nagasaka-cho, Ohizumi-mura, Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Nihon Telegram and Telephone Co. for their kind cooperation. The authors are indebted to other members of the Akeno group in the maintenance of the AGASA array.


text:
# Exploring the Structure of Distant Galaxies with Adaptive Optics on the Keck-II Telescope

## 1. Introduction

It has only been very recently, with new facilities such as the Keck telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), that early galaxy formation and galaxy evolution could be studied in detail. The high spatial resolution of the HST has revealed that young galaxies appear to be more numerous and smaller than nearby galaxies (e.g., Phillips et al. 1997), and often have a distorted morphology (e.g., Driver et al. 1998). Studies of Lyman break galaxies (e.g., Steidel 1999) and the Hubble Deep Fields have also revealed that star formation was more intense at higher redshifts, although the star formation rate as a function of time is still heavily debated. Taken together, these attributes suggest that galaxies have gone through a period of significant evolution since their formation. It has been difficult, however, to obtain detailed answers about the growth of galaxies and the rates of star formation and mergers. Also, still unknown, is the prevalence of modest AGN activity at high redshifts.

Part of the difficulty in trying to answer these problems is the extremely small angular sizes of distant galaxies. The exponential scale lengths of spiral galaxies are predominantly in the range from 1 to 10 kpc (e.g., de Jong 1996). Thus, by a redshift of $`z`$=0.5 all disks have an angular scale length under an arcsecond. Bulges are typically of order 10 times smaller than the disks. Consequently, very few measurements have been made of the central spheroidal component of galaxies at high redshifts. Several recent surveys have, however, been able to measure disk properties at optical wavelengths and look for evidence of disk evolution. In particular, Schade et al. (1996) as part of the CNOC2 redshift survey, showed that the peak surface brightness of disks increased 1.5 mag by $`z`$0.8. Vogt (1999) argued that within their own data (the DEEP Project) a similar effect could be explained primarily by selection bias, and they concluded that disk evolution is relatively mild. Recent cold dark matter models by Mao, Mo, & White (1998) and Dalcanton, Spergel, & Summers (1997) have been used to model the rate of galaxy growth and have made predictions that disk radii should decrease as (1+$`z`$)-1 with roughly constant $`B`$-band luminosity so that the intrinsic surface brightness must increase. In all of these cases, the use of $`B`$-band magnitudes has been a significant complication since the K-corrections and mass-to-luminosity ratios at $`B`$ are poorly constrained. It would be preferable to use infrared images, especially in the $`H`$ and $`K`$ bands. These wavelengths trace the older stellar population even at fairly high redshifts and are less affected by dust or recent star formation. Unfortunately, HST cannot currently observe at these wavelengths and NICMOS images had insufficient angular resolution to resolve most distant bulges.

Adaptive optics (AO) systems provide real-time compensation of the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmosphere (e.g., Beckers 1993). Most astronomical AO systems can be divided into two categories reflecting their method of wavefront sensing and correction. The Keck AO system falls in the Shack-Hartmann based category and uses a lenslet array to measure the wavefront error at a location close to the conjugate of the primary mirror. A deformable mirror is also placed close to a pupil plane and is used to correct for the measured aberrations. Since the characteristic scale length of atmosphere turbulence (r0 $``$ 10-40 cm) is much smaller than telescope diameters, a large number of actuators is needed to produce good correction. For the Keck AO system (Wizinowich et al. 2000), 349 actuators are updated at up to 660 Hz. Many of the most successful AO systems such as PUEO (Rigaut et al. 1998) on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope use a curvature sensor to measure wavefront error and have traditionally used a bimorph mirror with a relatively small number of degrees of freedom ($`<`$50). For several reasons including the use of avalanch photodiodes and the need to divide the light into fewer elements, curvature based systems can operate on fainter targets and have historically been more successful on extragalactic targets.

In any AO system, only a fraction of the light is restored to the diffraction-limited core, while the rest remains in an extended halo roughly the size of the seeing disk. A parameter used to describe the effectiveness of AO is the Strehl ratio. It is the ratio of the peak intensity of the point-spread function (PSF) compared to the theoretical peak intensity of a diffraction-limited source. A higher-order system with many actuators (or degrees of freedom) will normally result in a higher Strehl ratio than a lower-order system on the same telescope. Typical Strehl ratios at 1.6 $`\mu `$m for the Keck system are around 0.3 for the guide star and fall off with angular separation. The Strehl ratio is typically below 0.1 at a distance of $`30^{\prime \prime }`$ from the guide star, although there is significant variation with atmospheric conditions.

The Keck system requires a guide star brighter than 12th mag at $`R`$ for full correction. Partial correction is possible on guide stars as faint as 14th mag. This limitation of using bright sources for wavefront references has severely limited the use of AO systems on faint extragalactic targets. Our study of faint field galaxies is the first of its kind and is only possible because of the high density of galaxies on the sky. Deep infrared imaging surveys (e.g., Djorgovski et al. 1995) have shown that in the $`K`$ band (2.2 $`\mu `$m), on average, there are 2 galaxies brighter than $`K`$ = 20 mag within $`20^{\prime \prime }`$ of any star. These objects form a statistically unbiased set of galaxies at high redshift and provide an excellent sample for studying galaxy evolution. At a typical redshift between 0.25 and 1.0 (corresponding to look back times of (3-8)$`\times `$109 years ago) these objects are seen at a critical time in galaxy development555In this paper we will use a cosmology with H0=65 km/sec/Mpc, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$=0.3, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$=0.7 (Garnavich et al. 1998). Assuming other models including an open universe with q0=0.1 does not significantly affect the results.. This corresponds to just after the time that the Milky Way’s disk appears to have stabilized and when the oldest disk stars formed (Winget et al. 1987). Recent evidence also indicates that star formation throughout the Universe may have begun its decline to the present levels at around $`z=1`$ (Madau, Pozzetti, & Dickinson 1998).

## 2. Observations

Between 1998 September and 1999 July, 25 stars were imaged with a non-AO infrared camera (NIRC; Matthews & Soifer 1994) on the Keck-I telescope. These images were used to provide a sample of galaxies within $`30^{\prime \prime }`$ of potential guide stars. The stars were all A-type stars with a visual magnitude between 8 and 12. Over 200 galaxies were selected in these fields down to a $`K`$-band magnitude of 21.5. Many of the fields also have faint off-axis stars that can be used to measure the PSF in order to determine the level of correction achieved. This is critical since the performance of AO systems can vary significantly with position in the sky and brightness of the guide star. These pre-AO images are detailed in Larkin & Glassman (1999).

The camera used for the AO observations was KCAM, which was developed at UCLA by James Larkin and Ian McLean in coordination with Peter Wizinowich and the AO development team. It uses a NICMOS infrared array detector with 256$`\times `$256 pixel elements. It is sensitive from 1 to 2.5 $`\mu `$m, although the current filter set limit it to $`J`$ (1.27 $`\mu `$m), $`H`$ (1.65 $`\mu `$m) and $`K^{}`$ (2.15 $`\mu `$m). The plate scale in the $`H`$-band is 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0176 $`\pm `$ 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0004 per pixel yielding a total field of view of 4$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$51 (Macintosh 2000). This plate scale was selected to Nyquist sample the $`H`$-band diffraction limit.

On 1999 April 3, we observed the first faint field galaxy ever examined with a Shack-Hartmann AO system. The galaxy is 18′′ from a $`V`$=10.2 mag natural guide star (NGS) named PPM 127095 (R.A.=10h05m26.86s, dec=+162150$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$18, J2000). The galaxy (PPM 127095-8+16)666We name each galaxy by the position and proper motion (PPM) designation of the guide star augmented by the offsets in arcseconds to the galaxy. is 19.0 mag in the $`H`$-band. Its infrared colors are $`JH`$=0.9 mag and $`HK`$=0.8 mag. Non-AO imaging marginally resolved the galaxy in good seeing conditions (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5), but no morphological information was available. A second star 17$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$9 from the same NGS was used to measure the PSF. Six exposures of five minutes each were taken on the galaxy, with the PSF star observed before and after the galaxy sequence. Between each of the six exposures, the galaxy was moved $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ in a square dither pattern. The total integration time was limited by the demands of the AO commissioning program.

A second galaxy was observed in a similar manner in September 1999. The galaxy (PPM 114182+6+27) is $`27^{\prime \prime }`$ away from the 8th mag A-type star PPM 114182 (R.A.=22h13m40.2s, dec=+210258$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$7, J2000) and has a total $`H`$-band magnitude of 17.4 and an extent of roughly $`3^{\prime \prime }`$. Its infrared colors are $`JH`$=0.7 mag and $`HK`$=0.1 mag. In this particular case, the Strehl ratio degraded rapidly during the observations from $``$0.2 to less than $``$0.1. In the final image, only the first three frames (each 5 minutes) out of a total of six were utilized. The variability of the PSF is discussed in the results section below. This galaxy was also observed with the optical spectrograph LRIS (Oke et al. 1995) on the Keck-II telescope on 1999 December 12. Two 10-minute exposures were taken, but the first suffered from a large amount of scattered light from the PPM star and was not used.

The images were reduced using standard techniques for non-AO images. Sky frames were created by masking off the quadrant with the galaxy from each frame and then they were medianed together without positional offset. For PPM 114182+6+27, frames with poor Strehl ratios were used for creating median sky frames even if they weren’t used for the final image. Flat field images were created from observations of the twilight sky.

## 3. Results

Figure 1 shows the image of PPM 127095-8+16. The contours of the galaxy are consistent with a disk galaxy with an inclination of 65. We removed the first-order effects of inclination by rotating the image, making its major axis horizontal, then resampling it in the vertical direction to produce roughly circular isophotes. The radial profile was subsequently produced by azimuthally averaging the image. This yields a high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) profile of the galaxy out to a surface brightness of $`H`$22 mag/arcsec2. Figure 1 also shows this radial profile for both the galaxy and the PSF star.

Figure 1. - Faintest galaxy ever imaged with a high order adaptive optics system ($`H`$=19.0 mag). This image of the galaxy PPM 127095-8+16 has a resolution of 50 milliarcseconds and also represents the highest resolution infrared image ever taken of a faint field galaxy.

To decompose the galaxy into bulge and disk components, we created 2-dimensional model galaxies and convolved these models with the PSF star image. We used an exponential profile for both the bulge and the disk and found that a de Vaucouleurs (1948) model for the bulge produced significantly worse fits. The free parameters of the model were the scale sizes and peak brightnesses of the exponential disk and bulge plus an overall background offset. This offset is necessary because the small field of view does not allow for an unambiguous background measurement. Since we had good infrared photometry on the galaxy in non-AO images, however, we were able to constrain the flux in the galaxy within $`3^{\prime \prime }`$, which restricts the amount of background fluctuation that is allowed in the model. Errors in the profile were estimated empirically by performing the azimuthal averaging in four angular bins, then determining the variation within the bins as a function of radius. A grid search was used to determine these parameters to the nearest two pixels for the disk and the nearest 0.2 pixel for the bulge. The best fit bulge scale length is 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$042 with a 1$`\sigma `$ range from 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$025 to 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$056. The disk scale is 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$63 with 1$`\sigma `$ limits of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$42 and 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$81. Of the four galaxy parameters, the disk scale size is the most uncertain due to a partial degeneracy with the background level. The measured peak surface brightness of the disk is 19.6 mag/arcsec2 at $`H`$ which corresponds to $`K`$=18.8 mag/arcsec2 (using non-AO colors to convert $`H`$ to $`K`$). The peak surface brightness of the bulge is $`H`$=17.2 mag/arcsec2. The radial profile of the best fit model galaxy is also shown in Figure 1 as a dashed curve.

Figure 2 shows the image and radial profile of PPM 114182+6+27. Unfortunately conditions were not as good as on the PPM 127095-8+16 source and the FWHM of the PSF star was just under 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1. Isophotal contours of the galaxy are approximately circular so no inclination correction is applied. The outer region of the radial profile is well fit with an exponential disk with a scale length of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$92 with a 1$`\sigma `$ range of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$73 to 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$23. The central region is best fit by an exponential bulge with radial scale length of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1. However, if the disk component is subtracted from the galaxy, the residual is only slightly wider than the PSF. Given the variability of the psf during the observations of this galaxy it is possible that the central region is not resolved. Using the point source model, the core has an $`H`$-band magnitude of 20.8, $``$4% of the total $`H`$-band luminosity of the galaxy. This core would be undetectable without AO.

Figure 2. - AO image of a galaxy at the epoch of the formation of the Solar System. This galaxy (PPM 114182+6+27) shows evidence for a disk but perhaps not a true bulge. Instead a central unresolved core is found along with a point source 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6 south of the center.

The LRIS spectrum of PPM 114182+6+27 (Figure 3) shows no spectral lines but does have a significant break at 5500 Å (observed frame). If we interpret this as the 4000 Å break we find good agreement with a template spectrum at a redshift of 0.37$`\pm `$0.05. At this redshift, the physical scale size of the disk is 5.1 kpc and the scale size of the bulge is less than 300 pc (3 pixels). This corresponds to a look back time of 4.4 Gyr, almost exactly the estimated age of our own Solar System. Other possibilities for the identification of the break would require a much higher redshift and would be inconsistent with the observed surface brightness of the disk. Regardless of redshift or cosmological model, the ratio of bulge to disk scale size is below 0.12. For the galaxy PPM 127095-8+16, no redshift is currently available.

## 4. Discussion

For direct comparison to the properties of local disk galaxies we selected the de Jong (1996) sample of 86 nearly face-on spiral galaxies. Its advantage is that it contains accurate bulge and disk parameters in all major bands from $`U`$ to $`K`$. At a redshift of 0.37 the galaxy PPM 114182+6+27 has a luminosity distance of 2.1 Gpc giving it an absolute $`K`$-band magnitude of -24.4. This is comparable to the most luminous objects in the de Jong sample. Perhaps more importantly, its peak disk surface brightness is 17.2 mag/arcsec2 after correcting for the (1+$`z`$)-4 fading. This is again near the maximum for all of the local sample of galaxies. Large disk galaxies with comparable scale lengths (3-6 kpc) range from 17.5 to roughly 19.0 mag/arcsec2 making the AO galaxy brighter than the brightest local galaxy of comparable size, and $``$1.0 mag brighter than the average. The central source, however, has an absolute magnitude of -20.8 in $`H`$ which is towards the middle of the local distribution of bulges. Its size, however, is compact with a scale length under 500 pc.

Figure 3. - Optical spectrum of PPM 114182+6+27. It has been shifted to match the spectrum of the local elliptical galaxy IC 4889. The best shift corresponds to a redshift of 0.37$`\pm `$0.05 primarily based on the position of the spectral break at 4000 Å. No emission lines are visible.

One possible explanation for an unresolved core is a nuclear starburst. Some local galaxies exhibit greatly enhanced star formation within the central kpc, often due to tidal interactions. This phenomenon might be expected to increase at high redshift as galaxy separations decrease. We compared the bulge with the local starburst galaxy NGC 1808. Tacconi-Garman et al. (1996) found that the central 750 pc of NGC 1808 has an absolute $`K`$-band magnitude of -22.3 corresponding to a star-formation rate of 11 M per year. Using $`HK`$= 0.4 mag, this is only 0.1 mag different from our high-redshift core.

The optical spectrum (Figure 3) does not contain a bright \[O II\] $`\lambda `$3727 emission line, however, and is generally inconsistent with strong ongoing star formation. If most of the star formation in the disk occurred at an even earlier time, then the \[O II\] line may be too faint for detection. The central core, where star formation may be active, is too weak to be detected in the spectrum since it was taken without AO and thus includes most of the galaxy.

Another possible contributor to the core would be an active nucleus. Again, the core is probably too faint to have produced detectable emission lines in the LRIS spectrum. It is interesting to consider that AO spectroscopy may be one of the most sensitive methods for detecting faint AGNs at high redshifts since most of the starlight is rejected.

The AO image of PPM 114182+6+27 (Figure 2) also shows a point source 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6 south of the nucleus, with an $`H`$-band magnitude of 22. The knot then has an absolute $`H`$-band magnitude of -20 and may be a very luminous star-forming region. Similar “super star clusters” are seen in local galaxies, but this would be among the most extreme examples and is about 2 mag brighter than the brightest knot in the interacting galaxies NGC 6090 (Dinshaw et al. 1999). It is likely that the knot in PPM 114182+6+27 is composed of many such regions and may even be a second galactic nucleus indicating an ongoing merger or simply a companion galaxy seen in projection against the disk. If it is a star forming knot and others like this one prove to be common, then it may indicate that star formation at high redshifts was often in giant superclusters.

## 5. Conclusions

We have presented new near-diffraction-limited images of cosmologically distant field galaxies taken with the Keck AO system. Even these preliminary images show significant detail and provide morphological information on scales as small as 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$05. This gives us the first ability to accurately study morphological evolution at cosmological distances from 8-10 meter telescopes. Both of the objects presented here show a smooth exponential disk and a bulge with a scale size at or below 0.1 of the disk, consistent with local objects. One of the galaxies has a large star-forming region or possibly a companion galaxy and an elevated peak surface brightness.

We have recently obtained similar images of over 10 additional galaxies and more observations are scheduled. We soon hope to produce a statistically meaningful population study of these objects. Also within the next year, with new spectrographic capabilities and infrared colors, we plan to search for the presence of active nuclei, study the stellar population ages, and measure the rotation curves of these cosmologically young objects.

We would like to acknowledge the contributions of the members of the Keck AO team including the wavefront controller team at LLNL. We also want to thank the Keck Observatory staff, especially Director Fred Chaffee and our night assistants. The engineering science camera was provided by UCLA and was originally constructed by Ian McLean. Ian McLean, Andrea Ghez, and Alycia Weinberger also provided useful discussions and support on preliminary observing. Funding for the project came in part from the new NSF Center for Adaptive Optics under the leadership of Jerry Nelson. A.V.F. is supported by NSF grants AST-9417213 and AST-9987438, and A.L.C. acknowledges an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation.