text:
# The CRESST Experiment: Recent Results and Prospects

## Introduction

The question of dark matter was first raised by astronomer Fritz Zwicky in a 1933 study of redshifts of galaxies in clusters distefano:zwicky1933 . In the Coma system, Zwicky found the mean mass density to be at least 400 times greater than the luminous mass density, which led him to postulate the presence of dark matter. Today, the problem remains, at many additional scales in the Universe, and there is a compelling cosmological case for the presence of non-baryonic weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in our galactic halo distefano:generaldm . WIMPs are all the more appealing that they arise in supersymmetric theories in the guise of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), which is typically the neutralino.

The direct approach to detecting these halo WIMPs is to look for their interactions in a detector, as was first proposed in connection with cryogenic devices distefano:leo ; distefano:goodman . The low energies (of the order of keVs) and rates (of the order of counts per day per kg of detector) involved present a major experimental challenge. Historically, the first detectors used were semi-conducting devices, followed by scintillating crystals and more recently, after much development, the cryogenic techniques.

## CRESST Sapphire Calorimeters

In its first phase, the Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers (CRESST) employs calorimeters composed of a 262 g sapphire absorber in which an incident particle creates a nuclear or an electron recoil which in turn produces non-thermal phonons. These phonons make their way to a thin tungsten film deposited on the crystal and maintained in its superconducting transition in the vicinity of 15 mK distefano:colling1995 . The arrival of the phonons heats the film slightly, inducing a relatively large change in its resistance distefano:proebst1995 . This change is measured with a SQUID, by passing a constant current through a parallel circuit, one branch of which is the film, and the other a resistor and the inductance coil of the SQUID.

Typical tungsten transition curves are not always smooth, therefore reconstructing the energy scale is not necessarily straightforward. CRESST calorimeters are designed to facilitate this task : they have a resistive gold wire bonded to the film, through which it is possible to apply a heat pulse to the thermometer, mimicking the shape of pulses coming from the sapphire absorber. These are employed to inject pulses of known energy into the film, and thereby reconstruct the energy scale and monitor trigger efficiency at low energies. Supplied with constant current, such gold heaters can also serve to stabilize the operating point on the transition curve. Performances of this type of detector include a resolution FWHM of 250 eV at 1.5 keV distefano:sisti1999 , which can be improved to 130 eV using active thermal feedback distefano:meier1999 .

## Results from Gran Sasso

The experimental setup underground is in Hall B of the Gran Sasso National Laboratories in Italy, where the rock shielding, equivalent to 3800 meters of water, reduces the cosmic muon flux to about 1 $`/\text{m}^2/\text{h}`$. The fast neutron flux has been measured as $`10^6/\text{cm}^2/\text{s}`$. The experiment is housed in a 3 storey building, erected around a Faraday cage to shield the apparatus from electromagnetic interferences. Within the cage is a class 100 clean room protecting the cryostat from radioactive dust. The cryostat itself has been designed and constructed to protect the detectors from vibrations as well as from radioactivity and electronic noises. It reaches a base temperature of 6 mK. Though its experimental volume is greater, so far it has housed up to four calorimeters. They are mounted within 10 mm of each other and with no interposed material (other than small nibs at the corners of the crystals) so as to make them self-shielding and to allow the study of coincidences between them. More details of this setup are available in Ref. distefano:CRESST1999 .

First results from the detectors were puzzling. The experimental rate was orders of magnitude higher than expected, despite all the pulses having the shape anticipated from calibrations with a $`{}_{}{}^{57}\text{Co}`$ source. Moreover, the spectrum showed no lines or structures, the time distribution of events did not follow a Poisson distribution, and there were no coincidences between crystals.

Several attempts were made to understand this enigma. For instance, the detectors were isolated mechanically with a spring suspension, and the electrical circuits were modified. These changes improved the stability of the setup to external perturbations, but did not affect the overall background significantly. The next step was to install a special calorimeter consisting of a standard 262 g sapphire absorber with two tungsten films on it.

All pulses were found to be coincident between these two sensors and of same energy (Fig. 1), demonstrating that the background originated within the sapphire crystal itself rather than in the tungsten films or in the electrical circuitry. The cause was finally traced back to slight fracturing of the sapphire crystal under pressure from the sapphire balls maintaining it in place. Over the course of the run, a network of micro-cracks gradually develops, releasing mechanical energy as it spreads. These micro-cracks have since been observed under microscope.

To alleviate this problem, the crystals were next mounted using softer and blunter Delrin stubs rather than sapphire balls. The improvement in the background is noticeable (Fig. 1), and surpasses three orders of magnitude at low energies. In a run lasting several months, trigger efficiency has been studied by means of the heater pulses, and is found to rise to 100 % by 2 keV. This value is taken as a conservative threshold henceforth. Above it, the time distribution of events is Poissonian. A structure is present in the spectrum at around 8 keV. This could be due to copper and/or nickel X-rays, and is under investigation. Above this contamination, the rate is of the order of 1 count/d/kg/keV. As a whole, the spectrum is an improvement over previous smaller sapphire devices of other groups distefano:EDELWEISS1996 ; distefano:ROSEBUD2000 . Limits in terms of WIMPs are in the process of being inferred.

## Development of Scintillating Calorimeters

Further progress requires being able to differentiate between the electron recoils caused by the photon and electron background, and the nuclear recoils expected to be induced by the neutron background and the WIMPs. Other groups have achieved this using a simultaneous measure of charge and heat in semiconducting calorimeters distefano:spooner1991 ; distefano:shutt1992 ; distefano:berge1999 . The CRESST group is developing an alternative technique, which involves measurement of scintillating light and phonons, using a principal calorimeter made of a scintillating crystal which yields the phonon signal and emits photons read by a very sensitive secondary sapphire calorimeter (scintillation signal). Efficiency is enhanced by placing both calorimeters in a light collector. The proof of principle experiment with a rectangular parallelepiped scintillator distefano:meunier1999  has demonstrated a rejection of electron recoils greater than 99.7 % for a 95 % acceptance of nuclear recoils above 15 keV, and no reduction in performance in the case of surface events. A scaled-up device is in preparation, the challenge being that in the proof of principle experiment, a mere 0.8 % of the energy deposited as electron recoils in the main crystal was converted to scintillation and eventually read in the secondary calorimeter. For a given material and type of recoil, among the factors which may influence this fraction are the shape and size of the scintillator, the efficiency of the light collector, and the size and efficiency of the light detector.

A 300 g $`\text{CaWO}_4`$ crystal of the readily available cylindrical geometry is being prepared as the main scintillator. It was initially feared that in such a shape, internal reflections would lead to a reduction of escaping light as the radial position of the interaction increased. This was tested by exposing the bottom of the crystal (itself of 40 mm height and diameter) to a $`{}_{}{}^{60}\text{Co}`$ source supplying 1.17 and 1.33 MeV photons with interaction lengths in the crystal of between 2.5 and 3 cm. The resulting light spectrum showed that the two peaks were well enough resolved ($`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{FWHM}/E`$ 15 %) for one to be able to conclude that the expected bulk effect is in fact not significant. This is interpreted to mean that scattering on impurities in the crystal and non specular refraction out of the crystal at surface irregularities dominate absorption within the crystal. For the tungsten phonon sensor, transition temperatures of 40 mK have repeatedly been reached on small $`\text{CaWO}_4`$ substrates. The evaporation process is being studied to make the 15 mK transitions obtained in some instances reproducible. The higher transition temperature may already provide a better sensitivity than the glued film used for the demonstration experiment. An alternative solution, proximity effect Ir-Au films distefano:nagel1994 , is under investigation.

The second thrust of development is the light collector. The present design uses special reflective foil distefano:foil2000  wrapped into a cylinder concentric to the scintillating crystal, with two diffusive Teflon end-caps, one of which holds the light detector. Using the same light detector as in the demonstration experiment, this has yielded a new ratio of light detected over energy deposited in the scintillator of 0.68 % for electron recoils. Therefore, though the scintillator mass has been increased fiftyfold to 300 g, this setup still gives 85 % of the light of the smaller experiment.

The third component being optimized is the light detector, which will be crucial for the threshold of the scaled-up device. Its design presents an apparent dilemma in that sensitivity of the calorimeter requires its size to be small, whereas efficiency of light collection requires its surface to be large. A $`40\times 40\times 0.5\text{ mm}^3`$ sapphire calorimeter (sixteen times the effective surface area of the demonstration light detector) with a tungsten film has provided encouraging results : resolution FWHM of 150 eV at 6 keV and baseline noise FWHM of 25 eV (in all likelihood dominated by the readout, which is noisier than that at Gran Sasso). Moreover, response to a collimated source shining on three different points of the calorimeter was homogeneous. With a slightly smaller and more sensitive light detector, the scintillator and light collector described above, it is hoped to duplicate the proof of principle rejection factor above phonon energies of 15 keV. Assuming those performances and a background equal to that obtained with the sapphire, and inducing mainly electron recoils, 300 g of $`\text{CaWO}_4`$ exposed for three months would have a sensitivity comparable to the best spin-independent limits distefano:CDMS2000 , thanks to the background suppression and the large coherent cross section of tungsten.

## Conclusion and Outlook

The CRESST dark matter experiment has demonstrated the feasibility of running massive cryogenic detectors in stable conditions underground for several months. A main source of background, the micro-cracking of the crystals under stress, has been identified and eliminated. This leaves a background rate which is now competitive with that of other experiments, and is probably dominated by photons or electrons.

Scintillating calorimeters being developed by the collaboration will reduce the impact of part of this background. In addition to a two orders of magnitude suppression of the background afforded by the discrimination between electron and nuclear recoils, the spin-independent sensitivity will be much improved through the higher coherent cross section of tungsten. Indeed, assuming a phonon threshold of 15 keV and a background rejection of 99.7 % (both reached on a smaller-scale experiment), and assuming the same exposure time and background as those of the sapphire devices, a 300 g $`\text{CaWO}_4`$ scintillating calorimeter would have a sensitivity on a par with current best limits distefano:CDMS2000 . This 300 g device will be a stepping-stone to a 10 kg array of 33 such scintillating calorimeters, for which planning and development are already underway. With adequate neutron shielding, this next major phase of the experiment will cover more of supersymmetric parameter space distefano:CRESSTProp2000 .

## Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by EU-TMR Network for Cryogenic Detectors ERB-FMRX-CT98-0167 and SFB 375-95 für Astro-Teilchenphysik der DFG.


format: text

text:
# Galactic Disk Warps

## 1. Introduction

Warps of disk galaxies are a common phenomenon (as common as spirtal structure), yet they are still not fully understood. In this review I will try to summarize their observed properties, including preliminary results of a new HI survey we have carried out with Westerbork, and try to relate these to several proposed mechanisms for explaining warps. I will not attempt a historic review of the theoretical work on this subject; such reviews can be found in Binney (1992), or Kuijken (1998), for example.

## 2. Observed Properties

The global observational understanding of galaxy warps has been summarized in two pairs of Laws.

* Bosma’s Laws (Bosma 1991, on overall statistics of warps)

1. At least half of all galaxies are warped
    Implication: Warps are long-lived or continuously generated
    2. Galaxies with small dark halo core radii (as determined from a rotation curve decomposition) are less likely to be warped
    Implication: Link between warps and the dark halo potential
* Briggs’s Laws (Briggs 1990, on structure of individual warps)

1. Disks are generally flat inside radius $`R_{25}`$. Out to radius $`R_{26.5}`$ the line of nodes of a warp is straight
    Implication: Self-gravity of the disk is important (it keeps the different parts of the disk precessing synchronously and hence the line of nodes straight—cf. the winding problem of spiral waves)
    2. The outer line of nodes advances in the direction of galactic rotation
    Implication: Warps are not quite in equilibrium at large radii. This points to a link to the environment, or to very long timescales

Warps are primarily observed in HI. Significant warps (misalignments between inner and outer parts of the disk of more than a degree or two) in stellar disks are rarely observed (Reshetnikov & Combes 1999), though recently the warp of the Milky Way has also been seen in the stellar distribution (Alard 2000). . This may indicate that warps are a phenomenon which affects only the cold ISM, or that only the very outskirts of galaxy disks, which are only observable in HI, are involved.

The Galaxy warp illustrates the general point that, analogously to spiral structure, warps come in several varieties: ‘grand-design’, nice integral-sign shaped bi-symmetric warps; ‘irregular’ warps which are only visible on one side, or in which one side of the galaxy is more warped than the other; and ‘feeble’ (weak or absent) warps. To determine the relative frequency of these classes is important, as it points the way for attempts at an explanation: should we be looking for mechanisms which naturally produce beautiful integral-sign warps, or for—possibily more chaotic—ways to make irregular ones?

In order to address this question, we have performed a blind survey of edge-on (as judged from optical images) galaxies. These galaxies form part of the WHISP sample, which is basically an HI flux-density limited sample ($`>200`$mJy) selected from the UGC catalogue. We chose galaxies with blue major diameters larger than 2’, and inclination class 6 or 7. DSS images of these galaxies were inspected to filter out obviously less-inclined galaxies, to leave us with a sample of galaxies which, as judged from optical images, have inclinations at least $`80^{}`$. We chose edge-on galaxies for this survey so that the warps can be studied purely morphologically, without the need for interpretation or modelling of the velocity field (e.g., by means of tilted ring models).

Our sample clearly shows that warps occur in all types. About 1/3 of our galaxies show a nice integral-sign warp, about 1/3 are flat, and the final 3rd of the sample are of the irregular (one-sided or asymmetric) types (Table 1).

## 3. Models

Though there have been suggestions that magnetic fields coupling to a slightly ionized ISM could explain the observed warps (Battaner et al. 1991) we will concentrate here on models invoking gravitational processes. The fact that regular disk galaxies show no major discrepancies between stellar and gaseous rotation curves (beyond the well-understood asymmetric drift) indicates that magnetic fields are in any case not a dominant contributor to large-scale galaxy dynamics. Moreover, in the Milky Way, recently Alard (2000) has shown that the stellar disk shares in the warp seen in the HI.

I will briefly discuss three scenarios for warps: the normal mode models, accretion of angular momentum, and interaction with satellites.

### 3.1. Normal Modes

The normal mode picture of warps (Toomre 1983; Dekel & Shlosman 1983; Sparke & Casertano 1988) envisions the disks as embedded in a flattened dark halo. If the disk is misaligned with the equator of the halo, the resulting torque combined with the disk’s spin will cause it to precess about the halo minor axis. This precession rate is easily calculated (Kuijken 1991) as the ratio of the torque from the halo (determined from the circular and vertical frequencies $`\mathrm{\Omega }_H`$ and $`\nu _H`$ in the potential of the halo) to the spin of the disk (governed by the total circular frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$):

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{prec}=\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }R^3(\mathrm{\Omega }_H^2\nu _H^2)𝑑R}{2\mathrm{\Sigma }R^3\mathrm{\Omega }_c𝑑R}$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is the surface density of the disk at radius $`R`$.

Because different parts of the disk have a different free precession frequency in the potential of the halo, without disk selfgravity the warp would wind up and disappear, analogously to spiral perturbations in massless disks. However, the disk does have selfgravity, and Sparke and Casertano were able to show that solutions exist in which the disk precesses as a single, warped, unit in the halo. When the precession frequency difference across the disk is too large, or the disk is too lightweight, these solutions do not exist.

The problem with normal modes was already forseen by Toomre (1983), who pointed out that a crucial assumption in this picture is the neglect of backreaction from the halo to the precession of a massive disk in its center. This effect, analogous to dynamical friction, was investigated by Dubinski & Kuijken (1995), Nelson & Tremaine (1995), and Binney et al. (1998) after earlier investigation in terms of WKB density waves by Bertin and Mark (1980). It turns out to be very important: the precession frequencies implied by equation 1 are so low compared to the dynamical time of the inner halo that there is ample time for the inner halo to adjust itself to the reorientation of the disk. This aligned inner halo results in a diminished torque, which in turn further reduces the precession speed. The overall effect is an alignment wave which propagates outwards through the disk, as the precession grinds to a halt. The alignment between disk and halo is rather fast, on the order of three local orbital times.

Under some conditions, the close coupling between halo and disk can instead lead to a fast excitation. This can happen, for example, if the halo rotates retrograde with respect to the disk, or if it is prolate (Nelson & Tremaine 1995).

### 3.2. Accretion of Angular Momentum

There is evidence that galaxies from time to time acquire material with significantly different alignment of angular momentum. Polar rings and counterrotating components in disks are clear examples.

If this such accretion continuously alters the orientation of the dark halo angular momentum axis, the disk finds itself in a slowly changing potential, in which it is continuously trying to align itself with the dark halo symmetry plane. Damping is now not such a problem, as the halo is continuously changing in response to outside influences, rather than only to the disk. As shown by Jiang & Binney (1999), this process can generate realistic warp amplitudes in disks.

If this mechanism dominates, one might expect this slowly changing tidal fields to result in rather symmetric warps, though no detailed simulations have yet been performed.

### 3.3. Forcing by Satellites

One of the first possible explanations for the warp of the Galaxy was the tidal perturbation by the Magellanic Clouds. Hunter & Toomre (1969) however showed that these are too weak to have a strong effect. Lately this idea has been revived, however, by the work of Weinberg (1995, 1998). He presented a model for which he calculated the self-consistent response (wake) of the Galactic dark halo to the orbiting Clouds. This wake turns out to be rather massive, and to be strongest at a radius inside that of the Cloud orbit; both help to boost the tidal effect of the wake to dominate that of the Cloud itself. With such halo-enhanced tides, he was able to reproduce the observed Galactic warp amplitude.

Weinberg’s model requires some tuning in order to achieve the amplitudes observed. It also makes several assumptions:

1. The Cloud orbit is modelled as a quasi-periodic orbit, i.e., the dynamical friction-induced decay of the orbit is ignored. This means that the model disk is perturbed at a constant set of frequencies, and it has time to build up its response to these perturbations. In reality, however, the frequencies at which the disk is perturbed are continuously increasing.
2. The halo’s back-reaction to the disk precession is not included in the calculations. In fact, in these models the halo is assumed to be spherically symmetric (before the LMC perturbs it). We have seen above, however, that the halo couples very effectively to a precessing misaligned disk.

These caveats suggest that satellites may not generally be responsible for causing warps in their hosts.

Some extra evidence against the LMC as cause comes from studying the orientation of the warp and of the LMC orbit. Garcia-Ruiz et al (in prep.) made a very simple disk/halo/satellite system. The model consists of a rigid spinning disk, a flattened dark halo, and a satellite orbiting on a circular orbit. The equations of motion for the polar coordinates $`(\theta ,\varphi )`$ of the disk axis (halo axis $`\theta =0`$) can then be linearized in terms of $`(x,y)=(\theta \mathrm{cos}\varphi ,\theta \mathrm{sin}\varphi )`$ to

$`I_1\ddot{x}+S\dot{y}+V_Hx`$ $`=`$ $`V_S\mathrm{sin}2\theta _S(t)\mathrm{cos}\varphi _S(t)`$ (2)
$`I_1\ddot{y}S\dot{x}+V_Hy`$ $`=`$ $`V_S\mathrm{sin}2\theta _S(t)\mathrm{sin}\varphi _S(t)`$ (3)
where $`I_1`$ is the moment of inertia of the disk about its diameter, $`S`$ is the spin of the disk, $`V_H`$ is the torque per unit angle exterted by the halo, $`V_S`$ parameterized the satellite tidal field strength and the satellite orbit follows $`\theta =\theta _S(t),\varphi =\varphi _S(t)`$. This equation is easily solved: for the case of a polar orbit with $`\varphi _S=90^{}`$, $`\theta _S=\mathrm{\Omega }_St`$ the solution is (with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=(V_H4I_1\mathrm{\Omega }_S^2)^2(2\mathrm{\Omega }_SS)^2`$)

$`x`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{\Omega }_SS}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}V_S\mathrm{cos}2\mathrm{\Omega }_St`$ (4)
$`y`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{V_H4I_1\mathrm{\Omega }_S^2}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}V_S\mathrm{sin}2\mathrm{\Omega }_St`$ (5)
The precession path of such a rigid disk, for Galaxy/LMC parameters, is shown in Fig 3. The dominant effect of the satellite perturbation is to make the disk axis nod perpendicular to the satellite orbital plane, a consequence of the slow satellite orbital frequency compared to the natural precession frequency of the disk. The orientation is independent of the satellite mass, or of the strength of the tidal field; it is governed only by the frequencies of the satellite and disk.

An extension of this calculation to a disk consisting of many rigid, precessing rings all anchored to a common center shows the same trend (Fig 3): the warp orientation (defined as the direction along which the inner and outer disk orientations differ maximally) is perpendicular to the satellite orbital plane.

By contract, the LMC orbit lies in the plane along which the Galactic warp is strongest.

A full N-body simulation of a disk/galaxy/LMC system, including halo back-reaction on the disk, shows the same effects. It appears that the wake of the satellite in the halo basically acts in phase with the satellite, and so mostly changes the amplitude of the tides but not their orientation. The backreaction of the halo on the precessing disk is more difficult to predict in these analytical models, as it can act both as a damping or as a destabilizing factor (see discussion on normal modes above); our numerical experiments in simulating the Galaxy/LMC situation have in not turned up any cases where the disk response was as strong as observed in the Milky Way, or oriented as observed.

Interestingly, the Sagittarius dwarf has an orbit almost at right angles to that of the LMC. It could therefore in principle produce a response in the disk of the right phase (but see Binney 2000). However, at this moment the mass of the Sgr dwarf is still rather uncertain, and it is not clear whether it could raise sufficiently strong tides. It is also in a sufficiently small orbit that the tides will be very asymmetric (Ibata & Razoumov 1998).

All in all, therefore, it appears that satellites as an explantion of the warp of the Galaxy, and by extension as a generic model for warps in other galaxies, pose some difficulties.

## 4. Summary

In spite of being known now for many decades, warps are still a puzzle. The observational situation and theoretical models to explain the data are still evolving. In this talk I have tried to summarize the situation as follows.

1. Warps are a very common phenomenon. However, in addition to the classic ‘grand-design’ integral-sign warps, in many cases the warp is asymmetric or even one-sided. Models for warps should therefore not only address the symmetric, regular ones. Quite possibly there is a good analogy here to spiral structure, which also displays varying degrees of regularity.
2. Normal modes (equilibrium configurations of a tilted, warped disk precessing about the symmetry axis of a flattened halo) interact strongly with the dark halo. As a consequence they are easily and strongly damped, or, in special circumstances, excited.
3. Satellite tides are generally too weak to produce warps of the amplitudes observed. However the dark halo can under certain circumstances respond to the satellite in a way that significantly adds to the tidal perturbation on the disk. A useful diagnostic for satellite tides as explanation for a warp is the orientation of the warp with respect to the satellite orbit. In the case of the LMC/Galaxy system, this orientation appears to be different from predictions.
4. Accretion of material can generate warps through a continual change in the orientation of the halo symmetry plane, to which different parts of the disk respond on different timescales. Such models are yet to be investigated in full detail; in particular the question of whether the observed frequency of asymmetric warps can be reproduced by this kind of model may be a useful avenue to explore.

## References

Alard, C. 2000, preprint astro-ph/0007013

Battaner, E., Garrido, J.L., Dánchez-Saavedra, M.L. & Florido, E. 1991, A&A, 251, 402

Bertin, G. and Mark, J.W.-K. 1980, A&A, 88, 289

Binney, J. 1992, ARA&A, 30, 51

Binney, J. 2000, preprint astro-ph/0006417

Binney, J., Jiang, I.-G., & Dutta, S. 1998, MNRAS, 297, 123

Bosma, A. 1991. in Warped Disks and Inclined Rings around Galaxies, eds. S. Casertano, P.D. Sackett & F. Briggs, (Cambridge Univ. Press: Cambridge), 181

Briggs, F.H. 1990, ApJ, 352, 15

Dekel, A. & Shlosman, I. 1983, in Internal Kinematics and Dynamics of Galaxies, IAU Symp. 100, ed. E. Athanassoula, (Dordrecht: Reidel), 187

Dubinski, J. & Kuijken, K. 1995, ApJ, 442, 492

Hunter, C. & Toomre, A. 1969, ApJ, 155, 747

Ibata R.A. & Razoumov, A.O. 1998, A&A, 336, 130

Jiang, I.-G. & Binney, J. 1999, MNRAS, 303, 7

Kuijken, K. 1991, ApJ, 376, 467

Nelson, R.W. & Tremaine, S. 1995, MNRAS, 275, 897

Reshetnokov, V. & Combes, F. 1999, A&AS, 138, 101

Sparke, L.S. & Casertano, S. 1988, MNRAS, 234, 873

Toomre, A. 1983, in Internal Kinematics and Dynamics of Galaxies, IAU Symp. 100, ed. E. Athanassoula, (Dordrecht: Reidel), 177

Weinberg, M.D. 1995, ApJ, 455, L31

Weinberg, M.D. 1998, MNRAS, 299, 499


text:
# Star Formation from Turbulent Fragmentation

## 1. Introduction

Understanding the processes that lead to the formation of stars is one of the fundamental challenges in astronomy. Stars are born in turbulent interstellar clouds of molecular hydrogen. The location and the mass growth of young stars are hereby intimately coupled to the dynamical cloud environment. Stars form by gravitational collapse of shock compressed density fluctuation generated from the supersonic turbulence ubiquitously observed in molecular cloud (e.g. Padoan 1995, Klessen, Heitsch, & Mac Low 2000). Once a gas clump becomes gravitationally unstable, collapse progresses in the center until a protostellar object forms which continues to grow in mass via accretion from the infalling envelope (see Wuchterl, this volume). Also, stars hardly ever form in isolation. Instead they come in small aggregates or larger clusters (Lada 1992, Mizuno et al. 1995, Testi, Palla, & Natta 1998), where the interaction of protostellar cores and their competition for mass from their surrounding are important processes shaping the distribution of the final star properties.

Star formation can thus be seen as a two-phase process: First, turbulent fragmentation leads to transient clumpy molecular cloud structure, with some of the density fluctuation exceeding the critical mass and density for gravitational contraction. This sets the stage for the second phase of star formation, the collapse of individual protostellar clumps building up central protostars. In the following, the words gas clump and shock-generated density fluctuation are used synonymously. Cores are defined as the high-density central regions of collapsing clumps where protostars build up. I focus on the first phase of star formation and demonstrate how the turbulent interstellar velocity field influences the properties of forming stellar aggregates and clusters. Using numerical simulations (§2) of decayed and driven supersonic turbulence in self-gravitating isothermal gas as templates for molecular cloud dynamics, I discuss the spatial distribution and timescale (§3) of star formation, the resulting protostellar accretion rates (§4), and the expected mass spectra for gas clumps and protostellar cores (§5).

## 2. Numerical Method and Driven Turbulence

To adequately describe turbulent fragmentation and the formation of protostellar cores, it is necessary to resolve the collapse of shock compressed regions over several orders of magnitude in density. Due to the stochastic nature of supersonic turbulence, it is not known in advance where and when local collapse occurs. Hence, SPH (smoothed particle hydrodynamics) is used to solve the equations of hydrodynamics. It is a Lagrangian method, where the fluid is represented by an ensemble of particles and flow quantities are obtained by averaging over an appropriate subset of the SPH particles (Benz 1990). High density contrasts are resolved by simply increasing the particle concentration where needed. SPH can also be combined with the special-purpose hardware device GRAPE (Sugimoto et al. 1990, Ebisuzaki et al. 1993; also Steinmetz 1996) permitting calculations at supercomputer level on a normal workstation. The simulations presented here concentrate on subregions within a much larger cloud, therefore periodic boundary conditions are adopted (Klessen 1997). The high-density cores of collapsing gas clumps are substituted by ‘sink’ particles (Bate, Bonnell & Price 1995) while keeping track of mass and momentum.

The large observed linewidths in molecular clouds imply the presence of supersonic velocity fields that carry enough energy to counterbalance gravity on global scales (Williams, Blitz, & McKee 2000). However, it is known that turbulent energy dissipates rapidly, roughly on the free-fall timescale (Mac Low et al. 1998, Stone, Ostriker, & Gammie 1998, Padoan & Nordlund 1999). Unlike previously thought, this is independent of the presence of magnetic fields. For the current models the fields are therefore assumed to be dynamically unimportant and not included. To prevent or considerably postpone global collapse, turbulence is required to be continuously replenished. This is achieved by applying a Gaussian driving scheme, that inserts kinetic energy in a specified range of wavenumbers, $`1k2`$, $`3k4`$, and $`7k8`$, corresponding to sources that act on large, intermediate, and small scales, respectively (Klessen et al. 2000, models $`1h`$, $`2h`$, and $`3h`$). The energy input at each timestep is adjusted to reach a constant level of total kinetic energy, sufficient to stabilize the cloud as a whole. For comparison, I also include one molecular cloud model where turbulence already is decayed and leaves behind a Gaussian density field which begins to contract on all scales (Klessen & Burkert 2000, model $``$).

The models presented here are computed in normalized units. If scaled to mean densities of $`n(\mathrm{H}_2)=10^5`$cm-3, a value typical for star-forming molecular cloud regions (e.g. in $`\rho `$-Ophiuchus, see Motte, André, & Neri 1998) and a temperature of 11.4 K (i.e. a sound speed $`c_\mathrm{s}=0.2`$km/s), then the total mass contained in the computed volume is 130 M and the size of the cube is $`0.29`$pc. It contains 64 thermal Jeans masses.

## 3. Spatial Distribution and Timescale of Star Formation

Stars form from turbulent fragmentation of molecular cloud material. Supersonic turbulence that is strong enough to counterbalance gravity on global scales will usually provoke local collapse. Turbulence establishes a complex network of interacting shocks, where converging shockfronts generate clumps of high density. This density enhancement can be large enough for the fluctuations to become gravitationally unstable and collapse, when the local Jeans length becomes smaller than the size of the fluctuation. However, the fluctuations in turbulent velocity fields are highly transient. The random flow that creates local density enhancements can disperse them again. For local collapse to actually result in the formation of stars, locally Jeans-unstable shock-generated density fluctuations must collapse to sufficiently high densities on time scales shorter than the typical time interval between two successive shock passages. Only then are they able to ‘decouple’ from the ambient flow pattern and survive subsequent shock interactions. The shorter the time between shock passages, the less likely these fluctuations are to survive. Hence, the efficiency of protostellar core formation and the rate of continuing accretion onto collapsed cores depend strongly on the wavelength and strength of the driving source (Klessen et al. 2000).

The velocity field of long-wavelength turbulence is dominated by large-scale shocks which are very efficient in sweeping up molecular cloud material, thus creating massive coherent structures. When a coherent region reaches the critical density for gravitational collapse its mass typically exceeds the local Jeans limit by far. Inside the shock compressed region, the velocity dispersion is much smaller than in the ambient turbulent flow and the situation is similar to localized turbulent decay. Quickly a cluster of protostellar cores builds up. Both, decaying and large-scale turbulence therefore lead to a clustered mode of star formation. The efficiency of turbulent fragmentation is reduced if the driving wavelength decreases. When energy is carried mainly on small spatial scales, the network of interacting shocks is very tightly knit, and protostellar cores form independently of each other at random locations throughout the cloud and at random times. Individual shock generated clumps have lower mass and the time interval between two shock passages through the same point in space is small. Hence, collapsing cores are easily destroyed again and star formation is inefficient. This scenario corresponds to the isolated mode of star formation. It needs to be pointed out that there is no fundamental dichotomy between the two modes of star formation, they rather define the extreme ends in the continuous spectrum of the properties of turbulent molecular cloud fragmentation.

This is visualized in Fig. 1. It compares the models of decayed, large-wavelength ($`k=1\mathrm{}2`$), intermediate ($`k=3\mathrm{}4`$), and small-scale turbulence ($`k=7\mathrm{}8`$). The density structure of the systems is depicted at $`t=0`$, which means for the model of decayed turbulence that the initial Gaussian density field is visible. For the driven models, $`t=0`$ corresponds to the phase of fully developed turbulence just before gravity is ‘switched on’. The lower panel describes the four models after the first protostellar cores have formed via turbulent fragmentation and have accreted 30% of the total mass. Time is measured in units of the global free-fall timescale $`\tau _{\mathrm{ff}}=(3\pi /32G)^{1/2}\rho ^{1/2}`$, with $`\rho `$ being the mean density. Dark dots indicate the location of dense collapsed core. As for decayed turbulence all spatial modes are unstable, the system quickly evolves into a network of intersecting filaments, where protostellar cores predominantly form. Similarly, also large-scale turbulence builds up a network of filaments, however, this time the large coherent structures are not caused by gravity, but instead are due to shock compression. Once gravity is included, it quickly dominates the evolution inside the dense regions and again a cluster of protostellar cores builds up. In the case of intermediate-wavelength turbulence, cores form in small aggregates, whereas small-scale turbulence leads to local collapse of individual objects randomly dispersed throughout the volume. Note the different times needed for 30% of the mass to be accumulated in dense cores. For small-scale turbulence star formation progresses slowest, but the process speeds up with increasing driving wavelength. The collapse rates for large-scale turbulence and locally decayed turbulence are comparable. This is further exemplified in Fig. 2, which shows the mass accretion history of individual protostellar cores for the three turbulent models, together with the distribution of core formation times. Star formation efficiency is high in the long-wavelength model, all cores form within two free-fall times, whereas in the short-wavelength model the efficiency is low and core formation continues for over 15$`\tau _{\mathrm{ff}}`$ (when the simulation was stopped).

## 4. Protostellar Accretion Rates

In a dynamical cloud environment the mass accretion rates onto collapsing protostellar cores are strongly time variable. This is already visible in Fig. 2, and is quantified in more detail in Fig. 3. It shows $`dM/dt`$ as function of mass $`M`$ and time $`t`$ in each model for the protostellar core which final mass is nearest to $`1`$M. To obtain mass $`M`$ and time $`t`$ in physical units, the models are scaled to a temperature $`T=11.4`$K and a mean density $`n(\mathrm{H}_2)=10^5`$cm-3. The accretion rate $`dM/dt`$ is insensitive to the adopted scaling, as $`M`$ and $`t`$ behave analogously, e.g. if $`n(\mathrm{H}_2)`$ is decreased by 100, then mass and timescale go up by a factor 10. The current models yield peak accretion rates of a few $`10^5`$M yr-1 during the initial phase of protostellar collapse. For undisturbed cores, the accretion rates then rapidly decline in the subsequent evolution. This decrease is expected for dynamical collapse and is suggested by observations (e.g. Hendriksen, André, & Bontemps 1997). In a dynamical cloud environment, however, additional peaks of strong accretion are likely to occur. Their duration and strength are highly probabilistic. In the case of large-scale collapse, variations of $`dM/dt`$ mostly result from clump mergers which modify the immediate surrounding of the accreting cores. In turbulent clouds, most secondary accretion peaks are due to additional shock interaction. Again, gas is compressed in the vicinity the protostar and the accretion rate increases.

The environmental variation of the accretion rates will impact the observational properties of forming protostars. As the accretion luminosity is proportional to the accretion rate, considerable deviations are expected between the pre-main sequence evolutionary tracks of protostars of the same mass and age but different mass growth histories (see also Wuchterl, this volume).

## 5. Mass Spectra of Clumps and Protostellar Cores

The dominant parameter determining stellar evolution is the mass. It is therefore important to investigate the relation between the masses of molecular clumps, protostellar cores and the resulting stars. Figure 4 plots for the four models the mass distribution of all gas clumps, of the subset of Jeans-critical clumps, and of collapsed cores. Three different evolutionary phases are shown, initially just when gravity is ‘switched on’, and then after turbulent fragmentation has lead to significant protostellar core formation when $`M_{}30`$% and $`M_{}60`$%, respectively. In the late stages the gravitational potential is dominated by the dense cores. Clumps are defined based on a method proposed by Williams, De Geus, & Blitz (1994), which has been adapted to the SPH algorithm and makes use of all three spatial coordinates (see Appendix 1 in Klessen & Burkert 2000).

In the initial, completely pre-stellar phase the clump mass spectrum is very steep (about Salpeter slope or less) at the high-mass end and gets shallower below $`M0.4M_\mathrm{J}`$ with slope $`1.5`$, when using a power-law fit to $`dN/dM`$. The spectrum strongly declines beyond the SPH resolution limit. Altogether, individual clumps are rarely more massive than one or two $`M_\mathrm{J}`$. This distribution is similar to what Motte et al. (1998) find for pre-stellar condensations in $`\rho `$-Ophiuchus. Recall that for densities of $`n(\mathrm{H}_2)=10^5`$cm-3 and temperatures $`T=11.4`$K, the mean Jeans mass in the system is $`M_\mathrm{J}1`$M.

Gravity strongly modifies the distribution of clump masses during the later evolution. As gas clumps merge and grow bigger, their mass spectrum becomes flatter and extends towards larger masses. Consequently, the number of clumps that exceed the Jeans limit grows, and local collapse sets in leading to the formation of dense condensations. This is most evident in the model of decayed turbulence, where the velocity field is entirely determined by gravitational contraction on all scales. The clump mass spectrum in intermediate phases of the evolution (i.e. when protostellar cores are forming, but the overall gravitational potential is still dominated by non-accreted gas) exhibits a slope $`1.5`$ similar to the observed one. When the velocity field is dominated by strong (driven) turbulence, the effect of gravity on the clump mass spectrum is much weaker. It remains steep, close to or even below the Salpeter value. This is most clearly seen for small-wavelength turbulence. Here, the short interval between shock passages prohibits efficient merging and the build up of a large number of massive clumps. Only few fluctuations become Jeans unstable and collapse to form protostars. These form independent of each other at random locations and times and typically do not interact. Increasing the driving wavelength leads to more coherent and rapid star formation. It also results in a larger number of protostars, which is maximum in the case of pure gravitational contraction (i.e. decayed turbulence).

Long-wavelength turbulence or turbulent decay leads to a core mass spectrum that is well approximated by a log-normal. It roughly peaks at the average thermal Jeans mass $`M_\mathrm{J}`$ of the system and is comparable in width with the observed IMF (Klessen & Burkert 2000). The log-normal shape of the mass distribution may be explained by invoking the central limit theorem (e.g. Zinnecker 1984), as protostellar cores form and evolve through a sequence of highly stochastic events (resulting from supersonic turbulence and/or competitive accretion). To find the mass peak at $`M_\mathrm{J}`$ may be somewhat surprising given the fact that the local Jeans mass strongly varies between different clumps. In a statistical sense the system retains knowledge of its mean properties. The total width of the core distribution is about two orders of magnitude in mass and is approximately the same for all four models. However, the spectrum for intermediate and short-wavelength turbulence, i.e. for isolated core formation, is too flat (or equivalently too wide) to be comparable to the observed IMF. This is in agreement with the hypothesis that most stars form in aggregates or clusters.

### Acknowledgments.

I thank Andreas Burkert, Fabian Heitsch, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, and Günther Wuchterl for many stimulating discussions and fruitful collaboration.

## References

Benz, W., 1990, in The Numerical Modeling of Nonlinear Stellar Pulsations, ed. J. R. Buchler (Dordrecht: Kluwer), 269

Bate, M.R., Bonnell, I.A, Price, N.M. 1995, MNRAS, 277, 362

Ebisuzaki, T., Makino, J., Fukushige, T., Taiji, M., Sugimoto, D., Ito, T., Okumura, S. K., 1993, PASJ, 45, 269

Henriksen, R., André, P., Bontemps, S., 1997, A&A, 323, 549

Klessen, R. S., 1997, MNRAS, 292, 11

Klessen, R. S., Burkert, A., 2000, ApJS, 128, 287

Klessen, R. S., Heitsch, F., Mac Low, M.-M., 2000, ApJ, 535, 887

Lada, E., 1992, ApJ, 393, L25

Mac Low, M.-M., Klessen, R. S., Burkert, A., Smith, M. D., 1998, Phys.Rev.Lett, 80, 2754

Mizuno, A., Onishi, T., Yonekura, Y., Nagahama, T., Ogawa, H., Fukui, Y. 1995, ApJ, 445, L161

Motte, F., André, P., Neri, R., 1998, A&A, 336, 150

Padoan, P., 1995, MNRAS, 277, 337

Padoan, P., Nordlund, Å., 1999, ApJ, 526, 279

Steinmetz, M., 1996, MNRAS, 278, 1005

Stone, J. M., Ostriker, E. C., Gammie, C. F., 1998, ApJ, 508, L99

Sugimoto, D., Chikada, Y., Makino, J., Ito, T., Ebisuzaki, T., Umemura, M., 1990, Nature, 345, 33

Williams, J. P., Blitz, L., McKee, C. F., 2000, in Protostars and Planets IV, eds. V. Mannings, A. Boss, & S. Russell, in press (astro-ph/9902246)

Williams, J. P., De Geus, E., Blitz, L., 1994, ApJ, 428, 693

Testi, L., Palla, F., Natta, A., 1998, A&A, 342, 515

Zinnecker, H., 1984, MNRAS, 210, 43


text:
# Status of the CANGAROO-III Project

## Introduction

The CANGAROO-III is a project to study celestial gamma-rays in the 100 GeV region utilizing a stereoscopic observation of Cherenkov light flashes with an array of four 10-meter telescopes Mori99a , following the CANGAROO-I (3.8 m) Hara93  and CANGAROO-II (7 m) telescopes Tanimori99  Mori99  Kubo99  in Woomera, South Australia ($`136^{}47^{}`$E, $`31^{}06^{}`$S, 160m a.s.l.)333Visit our website for the latest information: http://icrhp9.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp.

It has officially started in April 1999 and is planned as a five-year program. In February 2000 we have expanded the 7 m telescope to 10 m, which is the first telescope of the CANGAROO-III array (Fig. 1). This year we are building the second telescope in Japan which will be shipped and installed in 2001. The other two telescopes will be installed in the fourth and fifth years. Each telescope will be set on a corner of a diamond of about 100 m side in order to have a maximum number of pairs of telescopes of the same baseline length. The first stereoscopic observation will be performed in 2002 and the full four telescope will be in operation in 2004.

## The First 10 m Telescope

10 m reflector

The reflector of the 7 m telescope is described elsewhere Kawachi99 : its support structure was designed to be 10 m in diameter with an 8 m focal length and the extension was simple: just adding 54 mirrors of 80 cm in diameter and increasing the counterweights. However, mounting mirrors on the reflector without dismantling the telescope was not an easy task since we had to work on a high platform. We completed this work in two weeks using a large crane.

Adjusting the mirrors to a common focus was also a challenge. A flood light placed 5 km away worked as a light source providing parallel light. Instead of covering all mirrors except the mirror being worked on which was the method used in tuning the 7 m telescope, we adjusted mirrors using a mask to select a image of each mirror 40cm before the focal plane. Then we could tune the attitude of each mirror by stepping-motor control, so that the image appeared at the expected position on the mask . The image of a star was measured with a CCD camera and its size (FWHM) is $`0.20^{}`$. This is a little worse than the 7 m telescope but expected because of the elongated images formed by the outer mirrors.

Camera

We have added 40 PMTs to the prime focus camera to enlarge the field of view of the camera. Now the camera has 552 PMTs of half-inch diameter and subtends about 3 degrees in octagon shape. The camera housing itself was replaced in order to reject stray light coming from outside of the reflector.

Electronics

Now the signals from PMTs are fed into analog-buffer amplifiers. One output goes to the existing front-end module (discriminator and scaler) and the other goes to newly developed VME-based ADCs (9U height, 32 ch/board, 12 bit resolution, 0.25 pC/count, 150 ns internal delay, 50 ns gate width), thus enhancing the pulse height resolution and dynamic range. The discriminated signals are sent to TDCs to measure timing and pulse width as before.

Observation

Observation resumed in March 2000 with the 10 m reflector and ADCs are working since April 2000. Target objects were selected from our list of TeV gamma-ray souces: SN1006, PSR1706-44 and RXJ1713.7-3946 in order to confirm our previous detections with the 3.8m telescope (see Ref.Mori99a  for a list of observations with the 3.8m telescope). Also nearby X-ray selected BL Lacs: PKS2005-489, PKS2155-304 were observed along with multiwavelength campaigns. Data analysis is underway and will be reported soon. A preliminary comparison of data with a Monte Carlo simulation suggests the threshold energy for a proton shower is around 600 GeV.

## Work in Progress for New Telescopes

Mirrors

The CFRP mirrors of 80 cm in diameter and $`1617`$ m in curvature radius developed for the CANGAROO-II telescope are very light and durable Kawachi99 . Refining the manufacturing process of them are underway so as to produce better quality mirrors and to obtain a better yield.

Camera design

The new design of a camera will be in hexagonal shape so that the dead space between PMTs are minimal. The field-of-view will be $`4.3^{}`$ with 427 3/4” PMTs (Hamamatsu R3478) of size larger than those of the CANGAROO-II telescope. Light guides to increase the light collection are redesigned to match the new PMT arrangement. Signals from PMTs are amplified at the camera and sent to the electronics via twisted-pair cables to minimize the weight. High voltages are supplied to PMTs individually from the ground electronics so that the gains can be tuned remotely. Now we will apply positive high voltages to PMTs to solve the discharging problem when the humidity is high in winter.

Electronics

The new electronics system will be all VME-based. The front-end circuit (under development, 16 ch/VME-9U) amplifies the signal and feeds to an ADC (the improved type of those used in the CANGAROO-II with faster conversion), discriminates it and feeds to a TDC (64 ch/VME-6U), an internal scaler and a trigger circuit. The new pattern trigger circuit using PLD devices are under development to reduce unwanted triggers caused by night sky background.

Increased data size requires faster data acquisition. Now we are testing several possibilities including VME-based Pentium CPU board running a Linux operating system, which shows faster task switching, reducing deadtime of data acquisition.

Monitor

Event data will be sampled and displayed on-line at a central control room. Scaler data which can act as a star sensor are acquired independently, reducing the load on the data-taking computers. A blue LED set at the pole of the reflector is used for field-flattening of the camera sensitivity every night. A cloud monitor which detects far infrared light Dowden97  will be used to monitor sky condition. Weather data and temperatures in electronics will be recorded as house-keeping data. These environmental monitor data are acquired through network and stored with event data. Telescope tracking will be controlled by networked computers and its accuracy will be checked with optical CCD cameras by observing stars. A light pulser source to monitor telescope performance has been developed and is being tested at the 10m telescope Patterson00 .

## Summary

The CANGAROO-III will be the first array of telescopes in the southern hemisphere exploring sub-TeV region of the sky. The HESS array in Namibia, also under construction, is very welcome since the difference in time zone makes the sky coverage for transient sources wider, and should provide useful confirmation.


text:
# Search for Discrete Refractive Scattering Events

## 1 Introduction

Radio signals, during their passage through the interstellar medium, are scattered due to the irregularities in the density of free electrons (Scheuer 1968). Most often, signals from distant sources undergo strong and multiple scattering. This leads to many observable effects such as the apparent angular broadening of the source, temporal broadening of the pulse profile, diffractive and refractive scintillations. The nature of interstellar scattering at this limit and the effect on relevant observables have been studied in detail by many early workers (Lee & Jokipii 1975; 1976; Blandford & Narayan 1985; Blandford, Narayan & Romani 1984; Cordes 1986). Refractive alterations (by irregularities larger than the relevant Fresnel scale) of diffraction patterns sometimes lead to multiple images with angular separations larger than the diffraction broadening of the source (Cordes & Wolsczan 1986; Cordes et al. 1986; Goodman & Narayan 1989a,b).

If the refractive alterations become significant, then multiple imaging manifests itself in the form of periodic spectral & temporal modulation of intensity with periods smaller than the decorrelation bandwidth & decorrelation time, respectively. The probablity of multiple imaging occuring is low for a Kolmogorov spectrum of density distribution, and increases for steeper spectra as they imply dominant refractice effects (see Cordes et al. 1986 for details). However, for nearby sources, refraction angles may become comparable with the diffraction broadening even for relatively less steep density spectra. It is also likely that the diffractive scattering of the signals from some of the close-by sources is less ‘multiple’ in nature (with a relatively small number of speckles), mimicing in some sense the multiple imaging situation, where, with an unscattered version of the signal, only a few delayed versions interfere. Also, this may improve the detectability of a distinct signature of single or discrete refractive scattering events, where we receive, only a few discrete (diffractive) bundles of rays that correspond to different refracted (and correspondingly) delayed versions of the signal. In such a case, it appears possible to probe the properties (such as the size and density contrast) of the discrete density-irregularities responsible for the refractive/diffractive scattering, if the associated time delays can be measured.

## 2 Observations and Analysis

We observed two near-by pulsars, B0950+08 and B1929+10 with the aim of detecting discrete refractive scattering events. These observations were carried out with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) with its pulsar backend, PuMa. The WSRT consists of 14 dishes, each of 25-m diameter. For this observation, the delays between the dishes were compensated, and the signals were added in phase to construct an equivalent single dish of about 94 m diameter, with an antenna gain of about 1.2 K/Jy. Observations were conducted on 1999 Feb 22, and 1999 Apr 28 at a centre frequency of 382 MHz, with a bandwidth of 10 MHz. The signal voltages were Nyquist-sampled and recorded at 20 MHz in both X and Y polarisation channels. The data are quantized to represent each sample with 2 bits.

During the off-line analysis, we first performed “coherent de-dispersion” (Hankins 1971), to remove the effect of interstellar dispersion on the signals corresponding to the X and the Y polarisation channels. The assumed dispersion measure values were, $`2.9704\pm 0.0001`$ pc cm-3 for PSR B0950+08, and $`3.1760\pm 0.003`$ pc cm-3 for PSR B1929+10. To minimise the analysis time, we gated and coherently dedispersed only the portion around the pulse (about 14% of the rotation period for PSR B0950+08, and about 8% for PSR B1929+10). The width of the gate was chosen on the basis of the known widths of the average pulse profiles. The widths at 10% of the pulse peak intensity are $``$8% & $``$6% of the periods for B0950+08 & B1929+10 respectively. The dispersion smearing within our band for both these pulsars is much smaller than the width of the gate.

In order to detect the signature of discrete refractive scattering events, we looked for significant features in the Autocorrelation (AC) function computed from the coherently de-dispersed voltage series. Since the delay we expect is of the order of microseconds (or less), there was no need to compute the AC function over a very long delay range. We computed the AC function of short stretches, each of length 102.4 $`\mu `$sec ($`2^{11}`$ sampled points), by computing the power spectrum and inverse fourier transforming it back, after correcting for instrumental effects. There is also another important reason for restricting the length of the AC functions to such a short length. PSR B0950+08 is known to show significant short-time scale features (microstructure) in its pulse window. The typical time scale for these features is about 175 $`\mu `$sec (Hankins 1972). Since it is important to minimise the contribution of this microstructure to our AC function, we chose our transform lengths to a value of 102.4 $`\mu `$sec, which is smaller than the microstructure time scale.

Since the input voltage time series is a “real-function”, the power spectrum computed over 20 MHz would be (real &) symmetric about the ‘zero’ frequency. Any discrete feature in the AC function manifests itself as a “fringe pattern” (or a periodic modulation) in this power spectrum. Since the phase of such a pattern is also of some interest, while taking the inverse fourier transform we use only a one-sided power spectrum (say, frequencies $``$0), such that the AC function thus obtained contains both, amplitude & phase, information (i.e. this AC function would be a complex function) associated with any spectral modulation.

It should be emphasised here that we compute the autocorrelation of the voltage series, and not the “detected” (i.e., intensity) series. It is easy to see that the fourier transform of the latter would correspond to a fluctuation spectrum of the intensity, rather than the radio frequency spectrum we wish to study. This allows us not only to reduce considerably the effect of any intrinsic fluctuations like microstructure, but also to measure more directly the time delays of interest.

Within the pulse window, autocorrelation functions were computed by taking half-overlapping time sections of $`2^{11}`$ points. In order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, all these autocorrelation functions were added together with weights given by the square of their individual signal-to-noise ratios (which is estimated from the mean power in the power spectrum). Furthermore, we repeat this procedure over many pulses and average all the individual autocorrelation functions, to compute the final autocorrelation function.

### 2.1 Instrumental and other spurious effects

While computing the mean of the power spectrum, we made sure to identify all the spurious interference signals, and to not include them in the calculation. We replaced the spectral channel contributions affected by the narrow-band interference by the value corresponding to the mean contribution from the unaffected channels, so that they do not corrupt the autocorrelation function estimation. It was very important to remove such contributions. Otherwise they bias the mean estimations, and can also introduce strong intermodulation products.

#### 2.1.1 Instrumental response function

The estimations of two major instrumental effects which had to be compensated for are an essential part of our analysis. The two effects are related to, (1) the intrinsic band shape of the instrument, and (2) the front-end response. The reason for considering the front-end (signal path from the telescope up to the first amplifier) as a separate entity is that a very significant fraction of the system noise, contributed by the first amplifier, does not sample the spectral response of the front-end. This means that the spectral response estimated on the basis of the off-pulse region of the data set can not be used to adequately correct for the instrumental response to the sky/pulsar signal.

We model the instrumental response function as follows:

$$B_{\mathrm{on}}(\nu )=B_{\mathrm{off}}(\nu )\left[1+\left(\frac{A_{\mathrm{on}}A_{\mathrm{off}}}{A_{\mathrm{off}}}\right)D(\nu )\right]$$
(1)
Here, $`B_{\mathrm{on}}(\nu )`$ is the on-pulse bandshape as a function of frequency (obtained for a given stretch of $`2^{11}`$ points), $`B_{\mathrm{off}}(\nu )`$ is the average off-pulse bandshape as a function of frequency, $`A_{\mathrm{on}}`$ is the mean of the instantaneous on-pulse bandshape, and $`A_{\mathrm{off}}`$ is the mean of the average off-pulse bandshape. $`D(\nu )`$ is the front-end response function.

In order to correct for the above, we pre-computed a high-signal-to-noise ratio average off-pulse band shape function, $`B_{\mathrm{off}}(\nu )`$. We also pre-computed the function $`D(\nu )`$ by inverting the above equation and by estimating its suitably weighted average as

$$D(\nu )=\frac{_{i=1}^M\left[\frac{B_{\mathrm{on}}(\nu )}{B_{\mathrm{off}}}1\right]w_i}{_{i=1}^Mw_{i}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}$$
(2)
here, $`M=(N_{\mathrm{str}}\times N_{\mathrm{pul}})`$, with $`N_{\mathrm{str}}`$ and $`N_{\mathrm{pul}}`$ being the number of stretches in a pulse & the number of pulses considered for the analysis, respectively and $`w_i=[A_{\mathrm{on}}/A_{\mathrm{off}}1]`$ is a quantity proportional to the signal-to-noise ratio of the pulse in the corresponding stretch.

Then, before computing the autocorrelation functions, we compensated for the instrumental effects to obtain

$$B_{\mathrm{on}}(\nu )=\left[B_{\mathrm{on}}^{}(\nu )B_{\mathrm{off}}(\nu )\right]/\left[D(\nu )B_{\mathrm{off}}(\nu )\right]$$
(3)
where, $`B_{\mathrm{on}}^{}(\nu )`$ is the uncorrected power spectrum. The corrected power spectrum, $`B_{\mathrm{on}}(\nu )`$, is inverse fourier transformed to estimate the autocorrelation as function of delay $`\tau `$. The front-end response function, $`D(\nu )`$, was determined using the pulsar observation itself, and a smooth functional form (with a low-order polynomial) fitted to the estimate was used for the correction described. This ensured that any fine-scale spectral modulation in the pulsar signal was not removed as part of the instrumental response.

## 3 Results

We analysed 632 pulses for PSR B0950+08, and 700 pulses for PSR B1929+10. The final AC functions are normalised according to the following procedure.

As described in section 2, in each stretch, we have $`N=2^{11}`$ samples (102.4 $`\mu `$sec). With the root-mean-square value (r.m.s.) of the initial voltage time series $`\sigma _{}`$, the r.m.s. of the noise in the real and the imaginary parts of the normalised AC function is $`\sigma =\sqrt{2/N}`$.

In our procedure, many such AC functions are added together. The number of AC functions in either the X or the Y polarisation channel is given M as defined above. The final AC function $`C(\tau )`$ is computed by a weighted average given by,

$$C(\tau )=\frac{_{i=1}^MW_iC_i(\tau )}{_{i=1}^MW_i}$$
(4)
where $`C_i(\tau )`$ is the AC function for the $`i^{\mathrm{th}}`$ stretch and the weightage $`W_i`$ (=$`w_{i}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$) is proportational to the square of the signal-to-noise ratio of the pulsar contribution in that 102.4$`\mu `$sec stretch.

The r.m.s. of the real and imaginary parts of the normalised final AC function is $`\sigma _f=\sigma /\sqrt{M_{\mathrm{eq}}}=\sqrt{2/(N\times M_{\mathrm{eq}})}`$, where $`M_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ is the equivalent number of ACFs averaged ($`M`$). If the weights for all the stretches are equal, then $`M_{\mathrm{eq}}=M`$.

Figures 1 & 2 give the normalised amplitude of the final (average complex) AC function for PSRs B0950+08 and B1929+10, respectively. Note that the AC function resulting from this analysis has a null at ‘zero-delay’, i.e. the feature corresponding to the mean spectral contribution is removed. As our radio frequency bandwidth is 10 MHz, in principle, we should be able to measure any feature whose time delay is greater than $``$100 ns. However, due to a finite residual in the instrumental response which remains uncompensated despite our detailed modelling, the minimum delay for our ACF estimation is $``$200 ns. As we can see, there is no significant feature in the AC functions beyond this delay. This indicates an absense of a) prominant discrete refractive scattering events as well as b) non-multiple diffractive scattering along both lines of sight.

## 4 Discussion

In our observations, we have looked for fine periodic spectral structure across a bandwidth not very much wider than the decorrelation bandwidth. Also, the data span used corresponds to an interval smaller than the decorrelation time for diffractive scintillations of both pulsars. Thus our analysis uses data over at most a couple of diffractive scintles, and is therefore less affected by any possible decoherence due to variation of the diffractive phase from scintle to scintle. Considering the possibility that the spectral modulation (which we have searched for) could drift across the spectrum with time (although the drift is expected to be small over our data span), we have also examined the average of ACF amplitudes alone (instead of its vector equivalent) so as to avoid possible ‘dephasing’ of any otherwise detectable ACF feature. Again, no significant feature was apparent.

We interprete our null result as indicating an absense of strong refraction gradients across the scattering screens. Our results also suggest that the diffractive scattering is rather ‘multiple’, i.e. the diffraction image consists of a large number of ‘speckles’ or sub-images. While the former indication can be understood simply as the result of a non-steep spectrum of density irregularities with an ‘inner scale’ much smaller than the Fresnel scale, we attempt to quantify our conclusion using the following simple-minded picture.

Crossing of refracted ray bundles is a necessary condition for multiple imaging (see Cordes et al 1986 for more details). This condition is not met if the differential refraction across a given transverse scale is less than its angular size as seen from the observer’s location. Let us consider a refracting screen mid-way along a pulsar sight-line, and assume that two wavefronts, one of which is refracted significantly more (by, say, an angle $`\theta `$) than the other, describe the refractive effect of the scattering screen over a transverse separation ‘$`a`$’. For a difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }DM`$ in the electron column density sampled by the two paths, the two wavefronts will cross if $`\mathrm{\Delta }DM`$ $``$ $`(8\pi /Lr_e)(a/\lambda )^2`$, where $`r_e`$ is the classical electron radius, $`L`$ is the distance to the pulsar, and $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength of observation. For the situation described here, it is easy to show that the geometric delay difference will be equal to the differencial dispersion delay corresponding to $`\mathrm{\Delta }DM`$.

Figure 3 shows the above mentioned limits on column density contrast $`\mathrm{\Delta }DM`$ (in units of pc cm-3) associated with large-scale irregularity as a function of transverse scale ‘$`a`$’ (in AU) for the two pulsars, B0950+08 (solid line) and B1929+10 (‘dash’ line). The distances to these two pulsars are assumed to be 120 pc and 170 pc, respectively. The vertical axis (right side) indicates the associated relative delay (including the dispersion contribution) for comparison with our measurements. The horizontal axis (top side) is also marked with relative epochs (for the line of sight to traverse a mid-way transverse distance of $`a`$) corresponding to a proper motion of 100 km/s. It would be instructive to compare these limits on the structure function of dispersion measure when suitable direct measurements of changes in DM in the two directions may become available in future. It is also worth mentioning that the characteristic delay associated with diffractive scattering of the two cases (B0950+08 & B1929+10) are 4.7 & 0.08 $`\mu `$sec, respectively, and would translate to scattering disk size of 0.8 & 0.12 AU, respectively. The Fresnel scale, for comparison, is $`10^2`$ AU.

It is worth mentioning that the power spectrum of irregularities in the direction of B1929+10 appears relatively steep (Bhat, Gupta & Rao 1999) and hence the refractive effects can be expected to be dominant, relatively speaking. Also, the multipath scale (defined by the apparent size of the scatter-broadened image) when viewed in units of the Fresnel scale is an order of magnitude smaller for B1929+10 than that for B0950+08, indicating correspondingly weaker and less multiple scattering. However, it is not clear as to how much of this apparent difference is due to the possible differences in the fractional distance to the scatterer (i.e. the scatterer location may be at one end in the case of B1929+10 instead of mid-way as we have assumed). It should be emphasised here that the refractive effects are highly episodic. So our (null) results on these two pulsars, and the implied constraints (as in Figure 3), while being indicative, should be viewed as applying strictly only to the epochs of our observations.

To summarise, radio signals emitted by very near-by sources may be scattered by discrete refractive irregularities that alter the diffraction patterns significantly, or may undergo ‘non-multiple’ diffractive scattering. Finding distinct spectral signatures of such events allows us to study the size and the density contrast of such large-scale irregularities. We have looked for such signatures in the signals from PSR B0950+08 and PSR B1929+10, but found no corresponding ACF feature significantly above the noise threshold ($`7\sigma `$) of $`2\times 10^3`$ and $`1.3\times 10^3`$, respectively. The absence of any such signature/event in the observed data suggests useful limits on the structure function of dispersion measure corresponding to a wide range of refractive scales in the two lines of sight (as sampled at the epoch of our observations).

## Acknowledgements

The software code for coherent de-dispersion was developed by Dipankar Bhattacharya, along with one of the authors (RR). We thank our referee, Jim Cordes, for valuable critical comments that have helped us in improving the paper significantly.


text:
# References

Statistical Multifragmentation in Thermodynamic Limit

K.A. Bugaev1,2, M.I. Gorenstein1,2, I.N. Mishustin1,3,4 and W. Greiner1

1 Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Frankfurt, Germany
2 Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyiv, Ukraine
3 Kurchatov Institute, Russian Research Center, Moscow, Russia
4 Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

## Abstract

An exact analytical solution of the statistical multifragmentation model is found in thermodynamic limit. The model exhibits a 1-st order phase transition of the liquid-gas type. The mixed phase region of the phase diagram, where the gas of nuclear fragments coexists with the infinite liquid condensate, is unambiguously identified. The peculiar thermodynamic properties of the model near the boundary between the mixed phase and the pure gaseous phase are studied. The results for the caloric curve and specific heat are presented and a physical picture of the nuclear liquid-gas phase transition is clarified.

Key words: Nuclear matter, 1-st order liquid-gas phase transition, mixed phase thermodynamics

PACS: 21.65.+f, 24.10. Pa, 25.70. Pq

Nuclear multifragmentation is one of the most interesting and widely discussed phenomena in intermediate energy nuclear reactions. The statistical multifragmentation model (SMM) (see  and references therein) was recently applied to study the liquid-gas phase transition in nuclear matter . Numerical calculations within the canonical ensemble exhibited many intriguing peculiarities of the finite multifragment systems. However, the investigation of the system’s behavior in the thermodynamic limit was still missing. Therefore, there was no rigorous proof of the phase transition existence, and the phase diagram structure of the SMM remained unclear. Previous numerical studies for the finite nuclear systems (the canonical and microcanonical ensembles) led to unjustified (and sometimes wrong) statements concerning the nuclear liquid-gas phase transition in the thermodynamic limit. In our recent paper  an exact analytical solution of the SMM was found within the grand canonical ensemble which naturally allowed to study the thermodynamic limit. The self-consistent treatment of the excluded volume effects was an important part of this study. In this letter we investigate the peculiar thermodynamic properties near the boundary between the mixed phase and the pure gaseous phase. New results for the caloric curve and the specific heat are presented and a physical picture of the nuclear liquid-gas phase transition in SMM is clarified. This physical picture differs from the one advocated in the previous numerical studies.

In the SMM the states of the system are specified by the multiplicity sets $`\{n_k\}`$ ($`n_k=0,1,2,\mathrm{}`$) of $`k`$-nucleon fragments. The partition function of a single fragment with $`k`$ nucleons is : $`\omega _k=V\left(mTk/2\pi \right)^{3/2}z_k`$, where $`k=1,2,\mathrm{},A`$ ($`A`$ is the total number of nucleons in the system). $`V`$ and $`T`$ are, respectively, the volume and the temperature of the system, $`m`$ is the nucleon mass. The first two factors in $`\omega _k`$ originate from the non-relativistic thermal motion and the last factor, $`z_k`$, represents the intrinsic partition function of the $`k`$-fragment. For $`k=1`$ (nucleon) we take $`z_1=4`$ (4 internal spin-isospin states) and for fragments with $`k>1`$ we use the expression motivated by the liquid drop model (see details in Ref. ): $`z_k=\mathrm{exp}(f_k/T),`$ with the fragment free energy

$$f_k=[W_\mathrm{o}+T^2/ϵ_\mathrm{o}]k+\sigma (T)k^{2/3}+\tau T\mathrm{ln}k.$$
(1)
Here $`W_\mathrm{o}=16`$ MeV is the bulk binding energy per nucleon, $`T^2/ϵ_\mathrm{o}`$ is the contribution of the excited states taken in the Fermi-gas approximation ($`ϵ_\mathrm{o}=16`$ MeV) and $`\sigma (T)`$ is the temperature dependent surface tension which is parameterized in the following form: $`\sigma (T)=\sigma _\mathrm{o}[(T_c^2T^2)/(T_c^2+T^2)]^{5/4},`$ with $`\sigma _\mathrm{o}=18`$ MeV and $`T_c=18`$ MeV ($`\sigma =0`$ at $`TT_c`$). The last Fisher’s term in Eq. (1) with dimensionless parameter $`\tau `$ is introduced for generality. The canonical partition function (CPF) of the ensemble of nuclear fragments has the following form:

$$Z_A^{id}(V,T)=\underset{\{n_k\}}{}\underset{k=1}{\overset{A}{}}\frac{\omega _k^{n_k}}{n_k!}\delta (A\underset{k}{}kn_k).$$
(2)
The model defined by Eqs.(1,2) with $`\tau =0`$ was studied numerically in Refs. . This is a simplified version of the SMM since the symmetry-energy and Coulomb contributions are neglected. However, its investigation appears to be very important for understanding the physics of multifragmentation.

In Eq. (2) the nuclear fragments are treated as point-like objects. However, these fragments have non-zero proper volumes and they should not overlap in the coordinate space. In the Van der Waals excluded volume approximation this is achieved by replacing the total volume $`V`$ in Eq. (2) by the free (available) volume $`V_fVb_kkn_k`$, where $`b=1/\rho _\mathrm{o}`$ ($`\rho _\mathrm{o}=0.16`$ fm-3 is the normal nuclear density). Therefore, the corrected CPF becomes: $`Z_A(V,T)=Z_A^{id}(VbA,T)`$.

The calculation of $`Z_A(V,T)`$ is difficult because of the constraint $`_kkn_k=A`$. This difficulty can be partly avoided by calculating the grand canonical partition function:

$$𝒵(V,T,\mu )\underset{A=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\mathrm{exp}\left(\mu A/T\right)Z_A(V,T)\mathrm{\Theta }(VbA),$$
(3)
where the chemical potential $`\mu `$ is introduced. The calculation of $`𝒵`$ is still rather difficult. The summation over the sets $`\{n_k\}`$ in $`Z_A`$ cannot be performed analytically because of the additional $`A`$-dependence in the free volume $`V_f`$ and the restriction $`V_f>0`$. The problem can be solved by introducing the so-called isobaric partition function (IPF) which is calculated in a straightforward way (see details in Refs. ):

$$\widehat{𝒵}(s,T,\mu )_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑V\mathrm{exp}(sV)𝒵(V,T,\mu )=\frac{1}{s(s,T,\mu )},$$
(4)
where

$$(s,T,\mu )=\left(\frac{mT}{2\pi }\right)^{3/2}\left[z_1\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\mu sbT}{T}\right)+\underset{k=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}k^{3/2\tau }\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{(\nu sbT)k\sigma k^{2/3}}{T}\right)\right],$$
(5)
with $`\nu \mu +W_\mathrm{o}+T^2/ϵ_\mathrm{o}`$. In the thermodynamic limit $`V\mathrm{}`$ the pressure of the system is defined by the farthest-right singularity, $`s^{}(T,\mu )`$, of the IPF $`\widehat{𝒵}(s,T,\mu )`$

$$p(T,\mu )T\underset{V\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{\mathrm{ln}𝒵(V,T,\mu )}{V}=Ts^{}(T,\mu ).$$
(6)
The study of the system’s behavior in the thermodynamic limit is therefore reduced to the investigation of the singularities of $`\widehat{𝒵}`$.

The IPF (4) has two types of singularities: 1) the simple pole singularity defined by the equation $`s_g(T,\mu )=(s_g,T,\mu )`$; 2) the singularity of the function $``$ itself at the point $`s_l(T,\mu )=\nu /Tb`$ where the coefficient in linear over $`k`$ terms of the exponent in Eq. (5) is equal to zero.

The simple pole singularity corresponds to the gaseous phase where pressure $`p_gTs_g`$ is determined by the transcendental equation: $`p_g(T,\mu )=T(p_g/T,T,\mu )`$. The singularity $`s_l(T,\mu )`$ of the function $``$ defines the liquid pressure: $`p_l(T,\mu )Ts_l(T,\mu )=\nu /b.`$  Here the liquid is represented by an infinite fragment (condensate) with $`k=\mathrm{}`$.

In the region of the $`(T,\mu )`$-plane where $`\nu <bp_g(T,\mu )`$ the gaseous phase is realized ($`p_g>p_l`$), while the liquid phase dominates at $`\nu >bp_g(T,\mu )`$. The liquid-gas phase transition occurs when the two singularities coincide, i.e. $`s_g(T,\mu )=s_l(T,\mu )`$. As $``$ in Eq. (5) is a monotonously decreasing function of $`s`$ the necessary condition for the phase transition is that the function $``$ is finite in its singular point $`s_l`$. At $`\tau =0`$ this condition requires $`\sigma (T)>0`$ and, therefore, $`T<T_c`$. Otherwise, $`(s_l,T,\mu )=\mathrm{}`$ and the system is always in the gaseous phase as $`s_g>s_l`$. As one can see from Eq.(5) the convergence properties of $`(s,T,\mu )`$ depend significantly on the Fisher’s exponent $`\tau `$ in the vicinity of the critical point where the surface term vanishes. In what follows we concentrate on the case $`\tau =0`$. Other possibilities which appear at $`\tau >0`$ are discussed in Ref.  and their detail study will be presented elsewhere. Here we only note that Eqs. (4, 5) represent an exact solution of the Fisher’s droplet model  where additionally the effects of excluded volume are incorporated.

The baryonic density $`\rho `$ in the liquid and gaseous phases is given by the following formulae, respectively:

$$\rho _l\left(p_l/\mu \right)_T=1/b,\rho _g\left(p_g/\mu \right)_T=\rho _{id}/(1+b\rho _{id}),$$

where the function $`\rho _{id}`$ is the density of point-like nuclear fragments with shifted, $`\mu \mu bp_g`$, chemical potential:

$$\rho _{id}(T,\mu )=\left(\frac{mT}{2\pi }\right)^{3/2}\left[z_1\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\mu bp_g}{T}\right)+\underset{k=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}k^{5/2}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{(\nu bp_g)k\sigma k^{2/3}}{T}\right)\right].$$
(7)
A similar expression for $`\rho _g`$ within the excluded volume model for the pure nucleon gas was obtained in Ref. .

At $`T<T_c`$ the system undergoes a 1-st order phase transition across the line $`\mu ^{}=\mu ^{}(T)`$ defined by the condition of coinciding singularities: $`s_l=s_g,`$ i.e., $`p_l=p_g`$. The phase transition line $`\mu ^{}(T)`$ in the $`(T,\mu )`$-plane corresponds to the mixed liquid and gas states. This line is transformed into the finite mixed-phase region in the $`(T,\rho )`$-plane shown in Fig. 1. The baryonic density in the mixed phase is a superposition of the liquid and gas baryonic densities: $`\rho =\lambda \rho _l+(1\lambda )\rho _g,`$ where $`\lambda `$ ($`0<\lambda <1`$) is the fraction of the system’s volume occupied by the liquid inside the mixed phase. Similar linear combinations are also valid for the entropy density $`s`$ and the energy density $`\epsilon `$ with $`(i=l,g)`$ $`s_i=\left(p_i/T\right)_\mu `$ , $`\epsilon _i=T\left(p_i/T\right)_\mu +\mu \left(p_i/\mu \right)_Tp_i`$.

Inside the mixed phase at constant density $`\rho `$ the parameter $`\lambda `$ has a specific temperature dependence shown in Fig. 2: from an approximately constant value $`\rho /\rho _\mathrm{o}`$ at small $`T`$ the function $`\lambda (T)`$ drops to zero in a narrow vicinity of the boundary separating the mixed phase and the pure gaseous phase. This corresponds to a fast change of the configurations from the state which is dominated by one infinite liquid fragment to the gaseous multifragment configurations. It happens inside the mixed phase without discontinuities in the thermodynamical functions.

An abrupt decrease of $`\lambda (T)`$ near this boundary causes a strong increase of the energy density as a function of temperature. This is evident from Fig. 3 which shows the caloric curves at different baryonic densities. One can clearly see a leveling of temperature at energies per nucleon between 10 and 20 MeV. As a consequence this leads to a sharp peak in the specific heat per nucleon at constant density, $`c_\rho (T)(\epsilon /T)_\rho /\rho `$, presented in Fig. 4. A finite discontinuity of $`c_\rho (T)`$ arises at the boundary between the mixed phase and the gaseous phase. This finite discontinuity is caused by the fact that $`\lambda (T)=0`$, but $`(\lambda /T)_\rho 0`$ at this boundary (see Fig. 2).

It should be emphasized that the energy density is continuous at the boundary of the mixed phase and the gaseous phase, hence the sharpness of the peak in $`c_\rho `$ is entirely due to the strong temperature dependence of $`\lambda (T)`$ near this boundary. Moreover, at any $`\rho <\rho _\mathrm{o}`$ the maximum value of $`c_\rho `$ remains finite and the peak width in $`c_\rho (T)`$ is nonzero in the thermodynamic limit considered in our study. This is in contradiction with the expectation of Refs.  that an infinite peak of zero width will appear in $`c_\rho (T)`$ in this limit. Also a comment about the so-called “boiling point” is appropriate here. This is a discontinuity in the energy density $`\epsilon (T)`$ or, equivalently, a plateau in the temperature as a function of the excitation energy. Our analysis shows that this type of behavior indeed happens at constant pressure, but not at constant density! This is similar to the usual picture of a liquid-gas phase transition. In Refs.  a rapid increase of the energy density as a function of temperature at fixed $`\rho `$ near the boundary of the mixed and gaseous phases (see Fig. 3) was misinterpreted as a manifestation of the “boiling point”.

In conclusion, the simplified version of the SMM is solved analytically in the grand canonical ensemble. The progress is achieved by reducing the description of phase transitions to the investigation of the isobaric partition function singularities. The model clearly demonstrates a 1-st order phase transition of the liquid-gas type. The considered system has peculiar properties near the boundary of the mixed and gaseous phases. The rapid change of the thermodynamical functions with $`T`$ at fixed $`\rho `$ takes place near this boundary due to the disappearance of the infinite liquid fragment. This leads to leveling of the caloric curves shown in Fig. 3 at temperatures between 6 – 10 MeV depending on the density. As a consequence a sharp peak and a finite discontinuity are developed in the specific heat $`c_\rho (T)`$ at the boundary of the mixed and gaseous phases.

Acknowledgments. The authors are grateful to A.S. Botvina, Ph. Chomaz, D.H.E. Gross, A.D. Jackson, J. Randrup and P.T. Reuter for useful discussions. We thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and DAAD (Germany) for the financial support. The research described in this publication was made possible in part by Award No. UP1-2119 of the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (CRDF).