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# Yes, semiclassical zero temperature black holes exist!

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In a recent letter , the claim was made that “in all physically realistic cases, macroscopic zero temperature black hole solutions do not exist.” We will show this conclusion was reached on the basis of an incorrect calculation.

The Reissner-Nordström metric is parameterized as

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`(1+2ϵ\rho (r))(1{\displaystyle \frac{2m(r)}{r}}+{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{r^2}})dt^2`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`(1{\displaystyle \frac{2m(r)}{r}}+{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{r^2}})^1dr^2+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^2.`$ (2)
Defining $`m(r)=M(1+ϵ\mu (r))`$, with $`ϵ=\mathrm{}/M^2`$, the authors find the semiclassical Einstein equations

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\mu }{dr}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi r^2}{Mϵ}}T_t^t`$ (3)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\rho }{dr}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi r}{ϵ}}(1{\displaystyle \frac{2M}{r}}+{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{r^2}})^1(T_r^rT_t^t)`$ (4)
and try to find a perturbative solution for $`\mu `$ and $`\rho `$. At the unperturbed horizon $`r_+=M+\sqrt{M^2Q^2}`$, the authors set $`\mu (r_+)=C_1`$ and $`\rho (r_+)=C_2`$.

They then go on to state that the perturbed horizon lies at $`r=M_R+\sqrt{M_R^2Q^2}`$ where $`M_R=M(1+ϵC_1)`$. The perturbed horizon is a solution of

$$r^22m(r)r+Q^2=0.$$
(6)
Here they perform a double expansion in $`ϵ`$ and $`rr_+`$, keeping $`|rr_+|𝒪(ϵ)`$. Keeping only terms of order $`ϵ`$ in $`m`$ gives the result the authors find. However when one approaches the extremal limit ($`M^2Q^2𝒪(ϵ)`$), it becomes necessary to expand $`m`$ to order $`ϵ^2`$ to obtain $`r_h`$ correctly to order $`ϵ`$. This follows simply from the form of the solution to the quadratic equation. When one does this the perturbed horizon does not lie at $`M_R+\sqrt{M_R^2Q^2}`$.

The correct answer at extremality (expanding in $`ϵ`$ and $`rM`$, keeping $`|rM|𝒪(ϵ)`$ and denoting $`d\mu /dr`$ by $`\mu ^{}`$) is

$$m(r)=MM^3ϵ^2(\mu ^{}(M))^2+Mϵ\mu ^{}(M)(rM)+\mathrm{}$$
(7)
with the extremal charge $`Q=M\frac{1}{2}ϵ^2M^3(\mu ^{}(M))^2+\mathrm{}`$. Note $`\mu ^{}(M)`$ is determined by (3). The $`rM`$ independent term in (7) is an integration constant of (3) which may be chosen for convenience. The quantum correction to the extremality relation between $`M`$ and $`Q`$ is fixed by demanding that the discriminant of the quadratic equation (6) vanishes. The solution of (6) gives the position of the horizon $`r_h=M+\mu ^{}(M)ϵM^2+\mathrm{}`$, to leading order in $`ϵ`$. Inserting (7) into the metric, one finds the surface gravity of the black hole vanishes on the horizon. This is most easily seen by noting that (6) has a double zero at $`r=r_h`$ (at order $`ϵ^2`$). This solution holds regardless of the sign of $`\mu ^{}(M)`$, and smoothly matches onto the classical solution as $`ϵ0`$, contradicting the calculation performed in .

I thank Don Marolf for helpful comments.


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# Simultaneous intensive photometry and high resolution spectroscopy of 𝛿 Scuti stars.Based on observations collected at ESO-La Silla (Proposals 57.E-0162, 61.E-0120)

## 1 Introduction

Asteroseismology is knowing an increasing interest thanks to satellites which are expected to fly in the incoming years (MOST, MONS, COROT) and which will perform accurate investigations of stellar variability at the $`\mu `$mag level. Stars located in the lower part of the instability strip are suitable candidates to find a large quantity of excited modes, both radial and nonradial. The detailed knowledge of the pulsational properties of $`\delta `$ Sct stars can help in the preparation of the scientific background of these missions; a review of the photometric properties of these variable stars is given by Poretti (2000). The main difficulty in their investigation is the typing of the excited modes, i.e. classifying the oscillations in terms of quantum numbers $`n,\mathrm{}`$ and $`m`$. To proceed on this way, we started an observational project combining photometric and spectroscopic techniques at the European Southern Observatory. In this paper we supply the last result, after those on FG Vir (Mantegazza et al. 1994), X Cae (Mantegazza & Poretti 1996, Mantegazza et al. 2000) and HD 2724 (Mantegazza & Poretti 1999).

BV Circini$``$ HD 132209 was discovered to be a $`\delta `$ Scuti variable star by Kurtz (1981). He detected four pulsation modes from the frequency analysis of 18 nights of observations in the $`B`$ and $`V`$ colours in 1980. The author also pointed out that these modes did not provide a complete description of the stellar variability. The strongest term at 6.328 cd-1 was suggested to be the radial fundamental mode. Since the star is rather bright ($`V=6.56`$) and its light variations are quite large ($`\mathrm{\Delta }V>0.1`$ mag), we decided to include it among our targets.

## 2 Physical parameters

The stellar physical parameters can be estimated independently by means of the $`uvby\beta `$ and Geneva colour indices and related calibrations. They are required for fitting the line profile variations and are useful for discussing the pulsation properties.

The Moon & Dworetsky (1985) calibration applied to Hauck & Mermilliod’s $`uvby\beta `$ data supplies $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=7330\pm 30`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}g=3.58\pm 0.06`$ (this estimate also includes the correction for metallicity effects as derived by Dworetsky & Moon 1986). The recent calibration of Geneva photometric indices by Kunzli et al. (1997) applied to the data by Rufener (1988) supplies $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=7185\pm 62`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}g=3.95\pm 0.10`$. The discrepancy in the value of the temperature is negligible since models are marginally affected by small temperature differences. In the following an average value of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=7260\pm 100`$ K will be adopted.

The disagreement on $`\mathrm{log}g`$ deserves further investigation in the future, since it has also been found for X Cae (Mantegazza et al. 2000). From some tests made on other $`\delta `$ Sct stars, the $`\mathrm{log}g`$ values derived from Geneva photometry seem to be always higher than those derived from $`uvby\beta `$ photometry, even if usually with a lesser extent than here. In the case of BV Cir, the hipparcos parallax measurement ($`7.85\pm 0.60`$ mas) offers us the possibility to solve the matter. From this parallax and the interstellar reddening estimate supplied by the $`uvby\beta `$ indices ($`E(by)=0.022`$, and thus $`A_V=0.095`$), we derive $`M_V=0.94\pm 0.17`$ and therefore $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}=0.97`$ ($`BC=+0.035`$, Flower 1996). Finally, from the photometric temperature and the hipparcos luminosity, we get $`R=3.59\pm 0.30`$ R. BV Cir is then an evolved $`\delta `$ Scuti star, located in the middle of the instability strip, slightly shifted toward the cold border.

According to the theoretical models by Schaller et al. (1992) a mass of $`2.0\pm 0.1`$ M can correspond to such temperature and luminosity; finally, by combining this with the radius estimate we get $`\mathrm{log}g=3.62\pm 0.09`$ in nice agreement with the estimate from the Moon & Dworetsky (1985) calibration.

## 3 Frequency analysis of Kurtz’s (1981) photometric data

Since the solution proposed by Kurtz (1981) did not give not a fully satisfactory fit of the observations, we decided to analyze his data with the least–squares power spectrum technique, which has been widely used by us in a lot of papers and has proved to be rather efficient in analysing multi–periodic time–series (e.g. Mantegazza et al. 2000).

Both $`B`$ and $`V`$ datasets were independently analyzed and the results are summarized in Tab. 1. Nine components were found in common between the two datasets, 8 with the same frequencies and one with an uncertainty of 1 cd-1 (9.232 cd-1 in $`B`$ and 10.232 cd-1 in $`V`$). One low frequency term was detected in both datasets, but the frequency is slightly different (0.295 cd-1 in $`B`$ and 0.239 cd-1 in $`V`$). Owing to the fact that the data are distributed in 5 sequential segments and were obtained with three different telescopes, this term could be due to the procedure adopted to align the differents datasets. This spurious nature can account for the quite high $`A_B/A_V`$ ratio, i.e. 1.9, unlikely for a pulsation mode.

The four strongest terms are the same as detected by Kurtz (1981). We note that among the new terms, a frequency (9.901 cd-1) is very close to a 2 cd-1 alias of the term at 7.892 cd-1. However, it should be a real feature since each attempt to get rid of it has failed (for example by substituting the two frequencies with the intermediate alias at 8.90 cd-1 and so on).

Other terms are probably present but their unambiguous detection is problematic with the present data. There could be also variations in the amplitudes of the detected terms, as detected in the spectroscopic data (see below); since the photometric baseline spans 116 days, these variations could be appreciable, but again the data sample is inadequate to supply an unambiguous answer.

In order to get a final list of frequencies, the $`B`$ and $`V`$ data were put together by aligning the zero–points and rescaling the $`V`$ data in order to match the $`B`$ amplitudes; the resulting time-series was frequency analyzed again. This approach is the same as used by Breger et al. (1998) to study FG Vir and by Mantegazza et al. (2000) to study X Cae. The frequencies detected in this way are also listed in Tab. 1; the $`B`$ and $`V`$ amplitudes obtained by fitting the respective time–series and the rms residual are also reported.

## 4 New photometric observations

The photometric data presented in this paper were collected during a campaign in June 1996 with the 0.5 m telescope at la Silla Observatory. During five consecutive nights 322 and 312 measurements were collected in the Strömgren $`v`$ and $`y`$ bands respectively. Differential photometry was performed by using HD 132249 and HD 132222 as comparison stars. These stars were used by Kurtz (1981), who found them constant at the mmag level. Due to the non-perfect atmospheric transparency during these Chilean winter nights, systematic intra-night variations were noticed in the extinction coefficient. Therefore, the data were reduced by means of the instantaneous extinction coefficient procedure (Poretti & Zerbi 1993). Nevertheless, the photometric measurements could not reach the typical level of precision for the La Silla site; the magnitude differences between the two comparison stars show a standard deviation of 6.5 mmag in $`y`$–light and 8.7 mmag in $`v`$–light.

The new observations were analyzed with the same approach adopted for the Kurtz (1981) data: the $`v`$ and $`y`$ measurements were first frequency analyzed separately and then were merged together. The detected frequencies are listed in the first 3 columns of Tab. 2. We notice that the spectral resolution of this dataset, 0.2 cd-1, is consistently lower than that of the 1980 dataset. In the 4th column the corresponding frequencies of Tab. 1 are reported for comparison purposes. The frequencies at 6.328 and 7.892 cd-1 that were dominant in the 1980 data are still present in the new photometry still with a dominant character. A number of other terms such as 9.901, 11.631, 12.289, 12.381 cd-1 were also confirmed in the new photometry while the term at 10.234 cd-1 presented some aliasing uncertainty. The terms at 11.077 and 11.128 cd-1 were not recovered in the 1996 dataset; as we shall see later, they were not detected in the spectroscopic analysis too. Also in our dataset low frequency terms are observed, at values (0.36 cd-1 and its alias 0.64 cd-1) different from those observed in Kurtz’s data (0.29 cd-1): this difference can be accounted for the worst frequency resolution, but it is greater than that observed for other terms (see Tab. 2). Moreover, the power spectrum of the measurements between the two comparison stars shows increased noise at $`f<`$1 cd-1, strongly supporting a spurious nature of the detected peaks.

Amplitudes in the $`v`$ and $`y`$ bands were derived by fitting the respective data adopting the Kurtz values for the frequencies, which are more accurate because of the longer baseline. Figure 1 shows the fit of the measurements in the $`y`$–band. By comparing the $`V`$ amplitudes of Kurtz’s (1981) data with those of the present ones it appears that most of the terms have comparable values. This is not true for the 10.23 cd-1 term, much stronger in the recent data. However, this term is not well resolved from the alias at 2 cd-1 of the 12.29 cd-1 term and therefore this effect could be spurious.

## 5 Spectroscopic observations and data processing

The spectroscopic observations were performed during two runs in 1996 and 1998 at La Silla Observatory (ESO) with the Coudé Echelle Spectrograph attached to the Coudé Auxiliary Telescope (1.4 m).

The first run (6 consecutive nights, June 18–24, 1996) was performed in Remote Control Mode from Garching with the CES configured in the blue path with the long camera and the CCD #38. The reciprocal dispersion was 0.018 Å pix-1 with an effective resolution of about 54000, and the useful spectral region ranged from 4482 to 4532 Å. The weather conditions were not always optimal and, to get an adequate $`S/N`$, the integration times ranged between 12 to 25 minutes. 118 useful spectrograms were gathered; they monitor the star variability for about 38 hours (duty cycle of about 30$`\%`$) and on a baseline of 5.2 days.

The second run (12 consecutive nights, June 7–19, 1998) was performed from La Silla with the same CCD and blue path, but with the very–long camera. The reciprocal dispersion was of 0.0075 Å pix-1 with an effective resolution of about 51000. The useful spectral region ranged from 4498 to 4517 Å. Integration times were of 15 minutes and a total of 156 useful spectrograms were obtained during 9 nights, corresponding to about 48 hours of stellar monitoring (duty cycle about 18$`\%`$) on a baseline of 11.3 days.

The data reduction was performed using the midas package developed at ESO. The spectrograms have been normalized by means of internal quartz lamp flat fields, and calibrated into wavelengths by means of a thorium lamp.

The spectrograms of each run have then been averaged and some windows on the continuum were selected in the very high $`S/N`$ mean spectra. The individual spectrograms have been normalized to the continuum by fitting a 3rd degree polynomial to these windows for the first run set (longer spectral range) and a 2nd degree polynomial for the second run set (shorter spectral range).

Finally the spectra have been shifted in order to remove the observer’s motion (Earth’s rotation and revolution). The spectrograms were rebinned with a step of 0.04 Å (average of 2 original pixels) for the first season data and of 0.035 Å (average of 5 original pixels) for the second one. This step allows us to save the effective resolution according to the Nyquist criterion, and not to have too many pixels to analyze.

Due to the relatively high projected rotation velocity (see below), only the Fe ii line at 4508.3 Å is completely free from blends of adjacent features, and therefore was the only line suitable to study line profile variations.

The mean standard deviation of the pixels belonging to the continuum allows an estimation of the $`S/N`$ of the spectrograms. The resulting average value at the continuum level is about 257 for the first season data and 251 for the second one.

A non–linear least–squares fit of a rotationally broadened Gaussian profile to the average line profiles of the two seasons allows us to get very similar estimates of the projected rotational velocity and the intrinsic width of the 4508 Å line. We get $`v\mathrm{sin}i=96.5\pm 1.0`$ km s-1and $`W_i=12.5\pm 0.5`$ km s-1, respectively.

## 6 Analysis of spectroscopic variations

### 6.1 Radial velocities and the second moment of the line profile

Radial velocities were derived by the computation of the instantaneous line barycentre (i.e. they coincide with the first moment of the line profile, Balona 1986). They were derived for both datesets and the two resulting timeseries were analyzed by the same least–squares technique adopted for the light curve analysis. The amplitudes of radial velocity variations are rather small, not exceeding 5 km s-1 peak to peak; the accuracy of these data is 0.6–0.7 km s-1 as estimated from the white noise level. Because of this, only the 6.33 cd-1 can be detected unambiguously in both datasets. Its semi-amplitude is the same within the uncertainties in both seasons: $`1.3\pm 0.1`$km s-1. The fit of the radial velocity data with the other photometrically dominant frequencies shows that these terms should have amplitudes of the order of 0.5 km s-1 or less. The analysis of the second moment supplies again the same result for both seasons: only one mode is clearly discernible, but it is the 7.89 cd-1, not the 6.33 cd-1 mode. Forcing the fit of the 6.33 cd-1 term to the data we get a negligible amplitude. The conclusion is that the 6.33 cd-1mode, which is also the photometrically dominant term, is axisymmetric ($`m=0`$); on the contrary the 7.89 cd-1 mode should have $`m0`$.

### 6.2 Analysis of the line profile variations

The variations of the shape of the line profiles was studied by means of the pixel by pixel analysis. A detailed description of this approach was made by Mantegazza & Poretti (1999) and by Mantegazza (2000). In particular Fig. 6 of the second paper shows the pixel by pixel least–squares power spectrum relative to the Fe ii 4508 Å line of BV Cir as derived from the 1998 data, where it is apparent that there is a significant contribution to the line profile variations in the whole frequency range (from 1 to 20 cd-1).

The frequencies detected for the two datasets with this technique are listed in order of increasing frequency in Tab. 3. Not all the terms were detected in both seasons; in particular the dominant term in the 1998 data (17.28 cd-1) was not seen in the 1996 ones. The upper panels of Fig. 2 show all the signal contained in the data, while the bottom panels show the signal left after considering all the detected terms. In the 2nd and 3rd columns of Tab. 3 we report the mean square amplitudes across the line profile of the detected terms for the 1996 and 1998 data respectively. These quantities are expressed in square units of the local continuum of the stellar spectrum. Due to the high number of excited modes and to the complexity of the spectral window it cannot be ruled out that some of the detected frequencies could be 1 cd-1 aliases of the true ones. We can be more confident on terms which have been independently detected in both seasons and/or in the photometric data.

Fourteen terms were detected out of which seven were present in both seasons. Moreover six terms have an independent photometric detection: 0.65, 6.33, 7.89, 9.90, 11.63 and 13.43 cd-1. The last value probably corresponds to the 1 cd-1 alias of the photometric value of 12.38 cd-1and in the following we shall adopt this photometric value. The nature of the low–frequency terms is discussed in Sect. 6.4.

An independent check of these detections can be performed with the clean algorithm (Roberts et al. 1987) generalized to study line profile variations (see for example Bossi et al. 1998 and De Mey et al. 1998). Such an approach is complementary to the previous one because the selection of the peaks is completely automatic, i.e. free from human judgement, with the consequent merits and defects. Among the merits the major one is the absence of human intervention: indeed any time we select a known constituent and add it to the least–squares solution we intervene on the representation of the signal thus conditioning to some extent the next procedure. Among the defects the major one is that clean is in condition to make a reliable distinction between a true signal and an alias only when the spectral window is of very good quality. For this reason the procedure we adopted in the past on similar analyses was to put more reliability on the least–squares analysis and use clean only as a cross-check. Moreover, for sake of clarity, we prefer to use the clean power spectra to present the frequency content of the data.

The results of the clean analysis are shown in the two panels of Fig. 3. By comparing this figure with Tab. 3 we can see that there are no great differences with the least–squares technique and that both techniques agree on several detections. Two different alias identifications are observed: the 0.65 and 0.35 cd-1 peaks, the 14.94 and 13.94 cd-1 peaks. Moreover, in the 1998 data the 12.87 and 13.85 cd-1 peaks are related to the same term. It is also possible to see that the peaks of the 1998 data are narrower than those of the 1996 data because of the longer baseline; the same fact can be appreciated with the least–squares power spectra (Fig. 2).

The comparison with the least–squares analysis confirms most of the terms (0.65, 1.46, 2.22, 6.33, 7.89, 9.92, 11.63, 14.34 and 17.28 cd-1) and allows us to prefer the 14.94 and 13.85 cd-1 terms to their aliases.

As regards the terms with frequencies around 16.2–16.5 cd-1, both clean and the least–squares technique confirm the difference between the 1996 (no significant term detected in this region) and 1998 (a bunch of detected terms) datasets. The least-squares technique seems to explain the signal in this region in a simplest way (a unique term, rather than the three suggested by clean). Moreover, clean did not reveal clearly the 15.80 and 12.38 cd-1 terms. These small discrepancies can be accounted for by a noise effect and bad spectral window. In the following analysis we shall use the terms identified by means of the least–squares approach.

In particular, we don’t put particular confidence on the low–frequency terms, except for the 1.48 cd-1 term. The other terms (0.65 and its alias 0.35 cd-1, the 2.22 cd-1) are considered to be spurious ones (see Sect. 6.4).

The behaviours of phases across the line profile of the modes adopted for further analysis are shown in Fig. 4 for the 8 modes detected in the spectra of both seasons and in Fig. 5 for those detected in one dataset only. The behaviour of the 9.901 cd-1 term is puzzling. It was observed photometrically in 1980 and 1996. On this latter occasion, there was no significant spectroscopic counterpart (see lower panel of Fig. 3): the spectroscopic amplitude may be undetectable because the mode had quite a small photometric amplitude. Moreover, owing to the modest frequency resolution, its power could have been transferred via the 2 cd-1 alias to the stronger 7.89 cd-1 mode. The frequency resolution is better in the 1998 data and the 9.901 cd-1 term was clearly detected, maybe thanks to an increased amplitude; unfortunately, we do not have photometric data with which to check this possibility. Therefore, we decided to consider a 9.90 cd-1 term in the analysis of the 1996 spectroscopic data also.

The behaviour of the phases across the line profile gives already some hints about the nature of a few of the detected modes. For instance the phases of the 13.85, 14.34, 14.95, 15.80, 16.44 and 17.28 cd-1 modes have the typical signature of high–degree prograde modes. The behaviour of the phases of the 1.48 cd-1 term is interesting because it is typical of a retrograde mode.

### 6.3 Mode identification: the technique

It is possible to try to estimate the $`\mathrm{}`$,$`m`$ parameters of the detected modes by a model which fits the variations induced on the line profile shape. The technique adopted to separate the contributions of the different modes to the global observed line profile variations and to fit them is described in Mantegazza et al. (2000) and Mantegazza (2000). The theoretical line profile variations are computed according to the model developed by Balona (1987), by means of his LNPROF routine. If simultaneous light variations are available it is possible to fit them with the same model at the same time, and in this case a more accurate typing of the mode can be proposed, since we can constrain at the same time both the velocity fields and the flux variations. The best fitting modes are selected according to a “discriminant” whose value defines the goodness with which the candidate mode reproduces the variations of the line profile and of the light (if available) of the detected frequency term. For some modes the discriminant is also sensitive to the inclination of the rotational axis, and therefore if several modes are detected it is possible to build a total discriminant (the sum of the individual ones) as a function of inclination angle $`i`$. The minimum of this function can in principle fix this parameter.

In the case of BV Cir only the 1996 data have simultaneous light and spectroscopic observations and therefore only these data can be used to perform a simultaneous fit of both quantities and hence to constrain velocity and flux variations.

### 6.4 Low frequency modes

Three terms were observed at low frequencies: 0.65, 1.48 and 2.22 cd-1. The attempts to fit 0.65 and 2.22 cd-1were fruitless and no meaningful identification was possible. The phase diagrams of 0.65 (Fig. 4, left panel of the upper row) and 2.22 cd-1 (Fig. 5, left panel of the upper row) terms look like a scattered plot, without any discernible trend. This result supports our hypothesis that these terms are spurious effects in the analysis. It can be argued that the 0.65 cd-1 term is found both in the spectroscopic and in the photometric datasets, which are independent from each other. However, there are other peaks in this frequency region having similar amplitudes (see Fig. 3) and therefore the numeric coincidence can be considered as merely casual. We again remind the reader that in the photometric analysis also there are many doubts on the reality of the 0.65 cd-1 term. Therefore, in the discussion, we prefer not to consider the 0.65 and 2.22 cd-1 terms as pulsational modes, even if some uncertainties are left, especially on the former.

On the contrary the term at 1.48 cd-1, which has been observed in both seasons, and whose phase diagrams clearly show that it is a retrograde mode, supplied useful discriminants. As is also evident from its phase diagrams (Fig. 4, right panel of the upper row) it is retrograde and has a rather high degree, and as in the case of the prograde mode the discriminant is rather insensitive to the inclination and to the $`\mathrm{}`$ degree. The derived values from the two datasets are shown in Fig. 6. The 1998 discriminant has a lower depth than the 1996 one because in that season the $`S/N`$ was lower. In any case we can estimate $`m=`$7 or 8.

Such modes are rarely observed in $`\delta `$ Scuti stars, and often their detection is rather ambiguous, but in this case the evidence is remarkable and is independently shown by the two datasets (Fig. 4). This typing constitutes a warning about the identification of a low–frequency terms as a $`g`$–mode, since a $`p`$–mode can assume these values in the observer’s reference frame.

### 6.5 Modes with spectroscopic and photometric detections

The identification of the modes which were independently detected both by photometry and spectroscopy was performed looking for all the possible $`\mathrm{},m`$ combinations up to $`\mathrm{}=4`$ and with inclinations of the rotation axis between 20 and 90 degrees (the lower limit was fixed considering that the star reaches the break–up velocity at about $`i=17^o`$). The main results are shown in Fig. 7 where the horizontal panels belong to the same mode whose frequency is reported in the leftmost panel. In each panel the behaviours of the discriminants versus the inclinations of the best fitting modes are reported. Each mode is identified by a different colour. Since in the 1998 season we have no photometric data, in order to allow a comparison of the results the 1996 data were analyzed fitting simultaneously line profile and light variations (left panels) and only line profile variations (central panels). The panels on the right contain the discriminant computed from the 1998 spectroscopic data. In the first case the models allowed for both velocity and flux variations, while in the second case only velocity variations were considered. In the 1998 data the 12.38 cd-1 term was not detected and therefore the corresponding panel is missing. The simultaneous fitting of velocity and flux variations made the results shown in the leftmost panels more reliable. Those in the other two panels are useful only to check how reasonable it is to neglect flux variations to model line profile variations (and hence if we can avoid getting simultaneous light and spectroscopic data) and the consistency between the two seasons’ data. The general conclusion is that the agreement between the best fitting modes in the two seasons’ data is reasonable because the best fitting modes are the same, with a few exceptions. However we can see that by fitting line profile variations only we tend to assign a higher degree to the detected modes. The light curves play a decisive role in the mode typing since the photometric amplitude is very sensitive to the cancellation effects originated by the high–degree modes. For instance for the 6.33 cd-1 term the possibility of identifying it as $`3,0`$ is completely ruled out if we also take into account light variations.

As regards possible identification, we can give reasonable estimates for two terms only. The terms at 9.91, 11.63, and 12.38 cd-1 are the more uncertain since many modes supply comparable results. The term at 6.33 cd-1 is certaintly axissymmetric (all the proposed identifications have $`m`$=0) and its most probable identification is $`\mathrm{}=0`$, $`m=0`$, unless the star is seen almost exactly equator–on. In this case $`\mathrm{}=2`$, $`m=0`$ could also be possible. The term at 7.89 cd-1 has $`\mathrm{}=1`$, $`m=1`$ or $`\mathrm{}=2`$, $`m=1`$ as the most probable identifications, although we cannot completely rule out the possibility $`\mathrm{}=2`$, $`m=2`$.

Because of the mode involved, the present discriminants do not help very much to decide on the most probable inclination of the rotational axis, which however will be constrained on the basis of different considerations later.

### 6.6 High degree prograde modes

Six of the detected terms belong to this group: 13.85 and 14.95 cd-1 (which were detected both in the 1996 and in the 1998 data), 14.34 cd-1 (which was detected in the 1996 data) and 15.80, 16.44 and 17.28 cd-1 (which were detected in the 1998 data). In order to fit the line profile variations produced by these terms all the prograde modes with $`5\mathrm{}20`$ were explored, either taking into account flux variations or not. These high–$`\mathrm{}`$ modes are not very sensitive to flux variations. In turn, line profile variations are rather insensitive to the inclination and to the $`\mathrm{}`$ degree, while they were strongly dependent upon the azimuthal order. Figure 8 shows the discriminant of these six terms as a function of $`m`$ and computed for $`i=55^o`$ and $`\mathrm{}=m`$. However as was said above the inclination is rather unimportant, as for a fixed mode the discriminant is flat at minimum and increases appreciably only for $`i35^o`$. In Fig. 8 the solid lines indicate the discriminants derived from the 1998 data while the dashed lines indicate those obtained from the 1996 data, and they are in agreement. From Fig. 8 we can also estimate the $`m`$ values reported in Tab. 4.

As an example of how the fits of the models to the observational quantities look we show in Fig. 9 the behaviour of the amplitude and phase across the line profile of the 17.28 cd-1 mode with the best fitting solutions for $`\mathrm{}=12,m=12`$ (dashed lines) and $`\mathrm{}=13,m=13`$ (dotted lines).

## 7 Discussion and Conclusions

BV Circini has a lot of excited pulsation modes with observed frequencies ranging from low to high values. Nine frequencies were detected from photometric data (1980 and 1996) and 13 from spectroscopic (1996 and 1998) ones, 5 of them are in common in both datasets. The amplitudes of some modes are dramatically changing and this is particularly evident from the two spectroscopic datasets, in particular the strongest spectroscopic mode in the 1998 data at 17.28 cd-1 , was not detectable in the previous dataset.

Six of the detected modes are high azimuthal order prograde modes with $`14m12`$ and one is retrograde with $`m=`$7 or 8. For only two of the modes detected by simultaneous photometry and spectroscopy it has been possible to suggest a complete $`(\mathrm{},m)`$ identification, while better $`S/N`$ spectroscopic data are needed for the others. The two identified modes are the one at 6.33 cd-1 (the photometric dominant mode), which can be identified as the $`\mathrm{}=0`$ (radial mode). The other is the one at 7.89 cd-1 which is a low degree prograde mode with $`\mathrm{}=1`$ or $`2`$ and $`m=1`$. The proposed typings of the pulsation modes of BV Cir are summarized in Tab. 4.

By using the physical parameters computed in Sect. 2 we can evaluate the pulsation constant of the 6.33 cd-1 mode, i.e. $`Q=0.032\pm 0.005`$ d. Therefore, this mode is probably the radial fundamental in agreement with the suggestion by Kurtz (1981). If we take this result for granted, we can use this information to narrow the uncertainties on some physical parameters. In fact, assuming for this mode the theoretical value of $`Q=0.033\pm 0.001`$ d as pulsation constant, we get from its definition $`\overline{\rho }/\overline{\rho }_{\mathrm{}}=0.044\pm 0.003`$ and also $`\mathrm{log}g=3.63\pm 0.04`$. Moreover if we combine the mean density with the radius estimate we get $`M=2.04\pm 0.12M_{\mathrm{}}`$, again in excellent agreement with the value derived from the evolutionary models (see Sect. 2).

Hence by comparing the information from pulsation properties (as derived from our analysis), hipparcos parallax and effective temperature (as derived from multicolour photometry), we determined physical parameters which are perfectly consistent (Tab. 5.)

We have remarked in the previous section that the discriminants of the detected modes are not particularly sensitive to the inclination of the rotation axis. However we can constrain this value using the azimuthal orders derived for the high degree modes and the fact that the 6.33 cd-1mode is the radial fundamental, because in this case their frequencies in the stellar reference frame should be larger than the radial fundamental one. Among the prograde modes the critical one is the 13.85 cd-1 , which with $`m=12.5\pm 1`$ imposes $`i62^o\pm 10^o`$, while the 1.48 cd-1 with $`m=7.5\pm 1`$ gives $`i56^o\pm 12^o`$. By combining the two results we obtain $`i60^o`$. Consequently the equatorial rotation velocity is about 111 kms-1 and the rotation frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ about 0.61 rev d-1.

Let us finally deal with a few considerations about the technique to fit line profile variations. We have seen that in order to get an unambiguous discrimination between the possible identifications we need data with a rather high $`S/N`$. The present data, with a $`S/N`$ of the order of 250, supply useful information for the strongest spectroscopic terms only. Since the observed amplitudes are typical of $`\delta `$ Scuti stars, it is not unreasonable to believe that, in order to do a good job, data with a $`S/N`$ of 500 or better could be necessary.

We have also explored the difference between fitting line profile variations considering velocity fields only or taking also into account flux variations. We have seen that in the first case we tend to overweight the higher degree modes when we try to identify low degree modes. For these modes it is therefore important to consider flux variations too, and in this case, in order to properly constrain the fitted model, it is necessary to have simultaneous light variations.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors wish to thank D. Kurtz for kindly putting his data at their disposal and Jacques Vialle for checking the English form of the manuscript.


text:
# Non-LTE analysis of neutral magnesium in cool stars Based on observations collected at the German-Spanish Astronomical Center, Calar Alto, Spain and Beijing Astronomical Observatory, Xinglong, China

## 1 Introduction

Abundance patterns of $`\alpha `$-elements, such as Mg, Si and Ca, in stars with different metallicities are important for understanding the chemical evolution of Galaxy. The first stellar generations are supposed to have produced mostly $`\alpha `$-elements during massive supernova explosions of type II. Studies of $`\alpha `$-element synthesis in SNe II have been undertaken by Arnett (ARNETT91 (1991)), Thielemann et al. (THIELEMANN96 (1996)), Woosley & Weaver (WOOSLEY95 (1995)), and Nakamura et al. (NAKA99 (1999)). Due to small differences in the way stellar winds and semi-convection are treated and in the specification of the mass cut and explosion mechanism their predictions differ, mainly in the respective Fe yields but also in the pre-explosion yields of Mg. There is no question that Mg, in principle, is less affected by the fine-tuning of SN II explosions. Therefore, inasmuch as the products of SN II nucleosynthesis are mixed into interstellar space 24Mg should constitute a reliable reference of the early evolution of the Galaxy. Due to the number of strong absorption lines found in the spectra of even the metal-poor stars, Mg i is easier to observe than e.g. O i. However, it shares the disadvantage of most neutral metals in the atmospheres of moderately cool stars with Mg ii being the dominant ionization stage at temperatures above 5000 K. Consequently, neutral magnesium is sensitive to deviations from local thermodynamic equilibrium, particularly as its ionization balance is dominated by large photoionization cross-sections from the 3p $`^3`$Po state. In metal-poor stars reduced line-blanketing produces an increased UV radiation field that, in combination with the large cross-sections, leads to strong photoionization rates; this makes Mg i even more sensitive to NLTE and affects any careful abundance analysis of Mg in these objects. Moreover, the density of free electrons decreases roughly in proportion to metal abundance, and the collision rates become correspondingly smaller. Together this change of microscopic interaction processes should lead to substantially stronger deviations from LTE in metal-poor stars at optical depths $`\mathrm{log}`$$`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ between $`3`$ and $`0`$, if the reduced electron collisional interaction is not compensated by hydrogen collisions (Baumüller & Gehren BAUM96 (1996),BAUM97 (1997)).

In our present study, we use several Mg i lines chosen from the solar spectrum which were carefully analyzed previously (Zhao et al. ZHAO98 (1998), hereafter Paper I). The standard atmospheric models we use in our present analysis are described in Sect. 2. We start with test calculations including the standard model atom of Paper I, and we fit the calculated NLTE equivalent widths for models of different stellar parameters. We determine Mg abundance corrections due to differences between NLTE and LTE analyses for series of model atmospheres with the different stellar parameters in Sect. 3. All Mg i lines considered here are reproduced using standard NLTE line formation techniques with the radiative transfer solved in the Auer-Heasley scheme, taking into account the interaction processes between all levels of the Mg model atom. A previous investigation (Paper I) has demonstrated how the line profiles observed in the solar spectrum can be used to improve the atomic model of neutral magnesium. This model is the subject of further scrutiny in the light of information coming from comparison of test calculations with line profiles in the spectra of metal-poor stars. We then calculate magnesium abundances of 10 cool dwarfs and subgiants with metallicities from $`2.29`$ to $`0.0`$ using both LTE and NLTE line formation techniques in Sect. 4. Our conclusions are given in last section.

## 2 Model atmospheres

The statistical equilibrium calculations are performed in horizontally homogeneous LTE model atmospheres in hydrostatic equilibrium. We account for metallic and molecular UV line absorption using Kurucz’ (KURUCZ92 (1992)) opacity distribution functions (ODF) interpolated for the proper stellar metallicities. In order to use the meteoritic iron abundance $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon _{Fe}=7.51`$ as the solar reference, we scaled Kurucz’ ODF by $`0.16`$ dex to put his iron opacity on the proper scale. Bound-free opacities were computed with solar abundances from Holweger (HOLWEGER79 (1979)), scaled by the stellar metallicities, and in case of \[Fe/H\] $`<0.6`$ corrected for a general enhancement of $`\alpha `$-element abundances of O, Mg, and Si with \[$`\alpha `$/Fe\] = 0.4. Since Mg is the most important electron donator among the $`\alpha `$-elements this approximation follows the results found by Fuhrmann et al. (1995). Convection is taken into account parametrically with a mixing-length of 0.5 pressure scale heights (see Fuhrmann et al. FAG93 (1993)).

The reason for adopting this model as a standard is that we can easily use the model to calculate stellar atmospheres differentially with full physics included. On the other hand, the abundance differences between the LTE and NLTE calculations have nearly the same value independent of the type of model atmospheres adopted, even though we had to adjust some line parameters (e.g. logC6, $`\mathrm{log}gf`$ ) in order to obtain a better line fit (cf. Paper I).

## 3 NLTE line formation

### 3.1 The standard atomic model

The standard atomic model we used in this analysis is basically the same as that used for the solar calculations (cf. Paper I). The neutral magnesium model includes all levels n$`\mathrm{}`$ up to n $`=9`$ and $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{n}1`$ resulting in a total of 83 Mg i terms plus the doublet ground state of Mg ii. All energies were taken from the compilation of Martin & Zalubas (MART80 (1980)) except for those terms with $`\mathrm{}>5`$ which were obtained using the polarization formula of Chang & Noyes (CHANG83 (1983)). Fine structure splitting has been neglected. This model is nearly the same as that used by Carlsson et al. (CARL92 (1992)). All terms are coupled by radiative and collisional interactions as described in more detail in Paper I.

We have shown in Paper I that collisional interaction with neutral hydrogen atoms will not affect the results obtained for the solar Mg i lines except those in the infrared. However, since neutral hydrogen collision rates do not depend on metal abundance, they can maintain an important influence in metal-poor stellar atmospheres and raise the total collision rates to high enough efficiency at which they can even compensate the strongly increased photoionization. As outlined in Paper I the hydrogen collisions are based on the formula of Drawin (DRAWIN69 (1969)). It is most often used in a form due to Steenbock & Holweger (STEE84 (1984)) although the validity of this formula cannot be judged. We have used it as an order of magnitude estimate and carefully investigated the influence of hydrogen collisions on our atomic model by fitting all available Mg i lines modifying Drawin’s formula by a scaling factor. For Mg i it turns out (as was the case for aluminium) that this factor should vary exponentially with upper level excitation energy $`E_\mathrm{n}`$ (in eV), $`S_\mathrm{H}=1000\mathrm{exp}\{\mathrm{n}E_\mathrm{n}/2\}`$. This was determined in a fully empirical manner recomputing the complete NLTE line formation with statistical equilibrium equations including the scaled hydrogen collision rates, and it enabled us to fit solar lines of different excitation energies. The decrease of hydrogen collision cross-sections with excitation energy is also in rough agreement with Kaulakys’ (KAULAKYS85 (1985), KAULAKYS86 (1986)) prediction for Rydberg transitions.

### 3.2 Statistical equilibrium calculations for different stellar parameters

The statistical equilibrium is calculated using the Detail code (Giddings GIDDINGS81 (1981); Butler & Giddings BUTLER85 (1985)) in a version based on the method of complete linearization as described by Auer & Heasley (AUER76 (1976)). The calculation includes all radiative line transitions, most of them represented by Doppler profiles; 99 lines were linearized. The Mg b lines are treated with full radiative and van der Waals damping. The linearized line transitions were selected from test calculations including different combinations with a preference for the stronger transitions including the $`\mathrm{}=\mathrm{n}1`$ levels. Adding more transitions did not change the results. The bound-free transitions of the lowest 22 levels were linearized, too.

In a star such as the Sun the flux in the ultraviolet spectral region is determined to a large part by opacities due to metal line absorption. As in our analysis of the solar Mg spectrum we use the opacity distribution functions of Kurucz (KURUCZ92 (1992)) to represent this opacity. In these ODF data single line opacities in small frequency intervals are represented by superlines; consequently, the ODF opacity is not identical to that required at a specific position in frequency space. For the calculation of a model atmosphere this simplification is a sufficient approximation, but for NLTE line formation the actual radiation field across a line transition or an ionization continuum is important for the determination of the statistical equilibrium of an atom. For bound-free transitions the exact position of the absorbing lines is less important, and the use of the ODFs will be reliable, provided the intervals are small enough in the frequency region near the ionization edge. For a bound-bound transition with its narrow line width it can be important in which part of the broad synthetic ODF line it is formed. We include the additional ODF opacity in the UV for wavelengths between 1300 and 3860 Å to allow for a realistic behaviour of the ionization from the ground state and the first excited level without affecting most of the line transitions. Only a few Mg i lines are found in this region allowing us to omit additional line opacities as most of these transitions are of minor importance for the statistical equilibrium.

We use the statistical equilibrium of Mg i with hydrogen collisions from Drawin’s formula (Drawin DRAWIN69 (1969)) but scaled exponentially with upper level excitation energy as described in Sect. 3.1. Abundance differences between the NLTE and LTE calculations with various stellar models are shown in Table 1. These results are obtained requiring NLTE and LTE line formation to fit the same equivalent width. The results confirm that deviations of the Mg i level populations from LTE increase with decreasing metal abundance. The NLTE effects in solar metallicity stars are almost negligible. In Fig. 1 we demonstrate the variation of the NLTE corrections of magnesium abundances versus \[Fe/H\] for sequences of model grids with constant surface gravity, $`\mathrm{log}g`$ $`4.5`$, and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $`=5200,5780`$ and $`6500`$ K, and with constant effective temperature, $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $`=5780`$ K, and $`\mathrm{log}g`$ $`=3.5`$ and $`4.44`$. From these plots it is evident that the NLTE effects are systematically stronger for the hotter models, which is in accordance with the statistical equilibrium of aluminium and sodium (Baumüller & Gehren BAUM96 (1996); Baumüller et al. BAUM98 (1998)). The dependence upon temperature is, however, strongly tied to the change in ionization; as soon as $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ drops below 5300 K, Mg ii starts to recombine, and Mg i becomes more dominant. For stars at the turnoff the temperature dependence is negligible. As expected, the strongest departures from LTE are found for models with high temperature and low metallicity. The reduction of surface gravity results in a decreased efficiency of collisions by electron and hydrogen atoms which again leads to slightly stronger NLTE effects.

## 4 Magnesium abundances in cool stars

Our present study is based on spectroscopic data obtained by K. Fuhrmann and M. Pfeiffer using the fiber optics cassegrain echelle spectrograph (FOCES) fed by the 2.2m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory during three observing runs in September 1995, October 1996 and May 1997. The 1995 spectra were exposed to a 1024 $`\times `$ 1024 24$`\mu `$ CCD, and the resolving power was $``$ 35,000. In October 1996 and May 1997 a 2048 $`\times `$ 2048 15$`\mu `$ CCD was employed at R $``$ 60,000. Almost all the stars were observed at least twice with the signal-to-noise ratio of about 200 (Fuhrmann F98 (1998)). Details with respect to the FOCES spectrograph can be found in Pfeiffer et al. (PFE98 (1998)). For HD 19445, HD 95128, HD 103095, HD 194598, and HD 201891 additional spectra were obtained by G. Zhao and H. Zhang with the Coudé Echelle Spectrograph attached to the 2.16 meter telescope at Beijing Astronomical Observatory (Xinglong, China) in October 1996 and March 1997. The detector is a Tek CCD (1024$`\times `$1024 pixels of 24 $`\mu `$m2 each). The Coudé Echelle Spectrograph has two beams: a blue path and a red path. For the blue path, the 79 grooves/mm echelle grating is used along with the prism as cross-disperser and a 0.5 mm slit, leading to a resolving power of the order of 44,000. For the red path, the 31.6 grooves/mm echelle grating is used along with the prism as cross-disperser and a 0.5 mm slit, leading to a resolving power of the order of 37,000. The more detailed technique and performance descriptions of the Coudé Echelle Spectrograph can be found in the paper of Jiang (JIANG96 (1996)).

The effective temperatures of our program stars were determined from the wings of the Balmer lines Hα and Hβ profile fitting. For metal-poor stars, Hγ and Hδ are also taken into account (cf. Fuhrmann F98 (1998)). Fortunately, the dependence of the results on effective temperature is not important for most of the stars; only HD 6582 and HD 103095 are cool enough to be affected (see Fig. 1). Surface gravities have been derived from Hipparcos data using the method given by Nissen & Schuster (NISS97 (1997)). The final surface gravities are determined by comparison to the strong line wings of the Mg ib triplet which gives a slightly higher value than that from the determination of Hipparcos data. The \[Fe/H\] values were adopted from the determination of Fe ii lines which are insensitive to NLTE effects (Thévenin & Idiart TI99 (1999)). The mircoturbulence velocity $`\xi _t`$ was estimated using an extended set of Fe lines.

We note that only a few Mg i lines show a suitable line profile for spectrum synthesis in our spectra of sample stars. Therefore, four lines, namely $`\lambda \lambda `$ 4571, 4703, 5528 and 5711Å, which are often used for magnesium abundance determinations are selected in our present analysis. Synthetic spectra using either LTE or NLTE level populations were calculated using the line data given in Paper I. The final results are presented in Table 2, where both the NLTE and the LTE line profile fit abundances are listed for comparison. We present the magnesium abundances of 10 cool dwarfs and subgiants using NLTE and LTE line formation in Fig. 2; the plots of the NLTE correction $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$\[Mg/Fe\] versus \[Fe/H\] and $`\mathrm{log}g`$ are shown, too. One of the most striking results is the difference between NLTE and LTE abundances in the very metal-poor subgiant HD 140283 and subdwarf HD 19445, corresponding to factors of 1.35 and 1.39, respectively. It is again evident how NLTE abundance corrections increase with decreasing stellar metallicity. There is one star HD 103095 (Groombridge 1830) that shows a different behaviour in Fig. 2 (middle); due to its low effective temperature ($`5110`$ K, the lowest one in our sample stars) its ionization equilibrium is more affected by temperature than by NLTE effects. This is in accordance with our analysis for the grids of the model atmospheres in Sect. 3. The effective temperature, surface gravity, metallicity and microturbulence have typical error of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$$`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $``$ 80 K, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$$`\mathrm{log}g`$ $``$ 0.1 dex, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$\[Fe/H\] $``$ 0.07 dex and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\xi _t`$ $``$ 0.2 km/s. Consequently, the error estimate for the magnesium over hydrogen abundances is about 0.07 dex. These error estimations are nearly the smae for LTE and NLTE abundance determination. Note that in most cases the abundance differences are well above the observational errors. On the other hand, the NLTE abundances based on various line profile fits generally produce a satisfactory smaller standard deviation than that of LTE abundances. This result is perhaps the most important because it shows that with high resolution ($`R>40000`$), high signal-to-noise spectra it is possible to reproduce line profiles with very high accuracy. A few profile fits for the different magnesium lines are given in Fig. 3 to show the quality of the line synthesis. They are representative for the average fit quality obtained for the $`R40000`$ and $`60000`$ spectra.

## 5 Conclusions

The variation of \[Mg/Fe\] with the stellar mean metallicity \[Fe/H\] contains information about the chemical evolution of the Milky Way. Previous investigations of magnesium based on LTE analyses by a number of researchers (e.g. Magain MAGAIN87 (1987); Hartmann & Gehren HARTMANN88 (1988); Fuhrmann et al. FUHRMANN95 (1995); Fuhrmann F98 (1998)) show that magnesium has a solar abundance ratio in disk stars (\[Fe/H\] $``$ $``$0.5), and then \[Mg/Fe\] becomes constant at +0.3 …0.4 in metal-poor stars (\[Fe/H\] $`0.5`$). As shown by Fuhrmann (F98 (1998)), this overabundance is a distinct result of population membership. Our new results based on the NLTE analysis of 10 cool unevolved stars demonstrate that the magnesium overabundance with respect to iron becomes even larger by roughly 0.1 dex for stars with reduced stellar metal abundance \[Fe/H\] due to photoionization dominating over collisions. The reduction of the surface gravity results in a decreased efficiency of collisions by electron and hydrogen atoms which also leads to small NLTE effects. The strongest departures from LTE are found for metal-poor stars with high temperature and low gravity, i.e. turnoff stars.

Fortunately, the trend obtained from LTE abundance analyses of magnesium in cool stars (Fuhrmann F98 (1998)) is confirmed. The significant \[Mg/Fe\] ratio in metal-poor stars is found from NLTE spectrum analyses, with the increased level indicating a shift to even higher stellar masses in the parent population (III). Such a trend was also found by Fuhrmann et al. (1995) or Audouze & Silk (1995) who investigated the initial mass function based on the $`\alpha `$-element enrichment of population II. Recent investigations of the Fe ii/Fe i equilibrium (see Thévenin & Idiart TI99 (1999)), however, seem to demonstrate that \[Mg/Fe\] may be more affected by deviations from LTE when using Fe i linese to derive iron abundances. We recall that in our analysis we used only Fe ii linese which are insensitive to NLTE effects.

In order to confirm the present results for magnesium, and in particular the mean abundance differences between LTE and NLTE it is necessary to reinvestigate a larger sample of stars with various metallicities based on the NLTE analysis, especially for the metal-poor stars of the thick disk and halo. Such an investigation should, however, include an Fe i NLTE analysis. Then it will be an important step improving our present understanding of stellar nucleosynthesis and the chemical evolution of the Galaxy.

###### Acknowledgements.

This research was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China. We thank Dr. Klaus Fuhrmann who kindly provided the spectra data of the program stars. We thank Dr. Johannes Reetz for supporting the line synthesis code.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The high energy neutrino cross section is a crucial ingredient in the calculation of the event rate in high energy neutrino telescopes. The detectors presently in design or construction stages  look for Čerenkov light from the neutrino-induced muon in charged current interactions and take advantage of both the long muon range and the rise of the neutrino cross to meet the neutrino detection challenge. The background of atmospheric muons is rejected searching for neutrinos that have travelled through the earth. For energies above a few hundred TeV the interaction length for neutrinos becomes comparable to the Earth diameter. As a result the event rate is a convolution of the differential spectrum, the cross section and the exponential attenuation of the neutrino flux. Uncertainties in the cross section get amplified into the energy spectrum and the angular distribution of the event rate and it is important that they are kept under control.

The DIS cross-sections are obtained from $`x`$ and $`Q^2`$ dependent structure functions which are calculated in perturbative QCD. In practice, structure functions are obtained from $`x`$ and $`Q^2`$ dependent parton distribution functions which follows DGLAP evolution equations . The DGLAP formalism effectively resum logarithmic terms in $`Q^2`$ which appear in the perturbative series.

The calculation of the neutrino-nucleon cross section involves an integration over $`x`$. As the energy increases, the integral becomes dominated by the interaction with low $`x`$ quarks and gluons while the average $`Q^2`$ rises to values of order the electroweak boson mass squared (for a detailed discussion see for example Ref. ). Then, in the process of the total cross section calculation, the parton densities extracted from present data must be extrapolated using the theoretical formulas to the region in the $`x,Q^2`$ plane not supported by experiments.

The uncertainty due to the extrapolation to high $`Q^2`$ is not expected to be large because the $`x`$ shape of the parton distribution functions at low $`Q^2`$ is narrowly constrained by HERA data while the further evolution to high $`Q^2`$ values seems to be well defined in DGLAP. At the highest energies, uncertainties between $`\pm 20\%`$  and a factor $`2^{\pm 1}`$  are typically reported.

However, DGLAP is expected to break down at low $`x`$ because of potentially large logarithmic terms in $`x`$ which also appear in the perturbative series. These dangerous logarithms are partially considered under certain approximations in DGLAP. A different approach is provided by the BFKL formalism  which deals with the $`Q^2`$ evolution of unintegrated in transverse momentum parton densities. The BFKL predictions are nowadays under discussion: the leading order (LO) result does not agree with data and the next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections are found to be suspiciously large to be trusted, although it seems that the adequate choosing of the renormalization scale  can solve this problem.

We discuss in this letter a different source of uncertainty in the calculation of the high energy neutrino-nucleon DIS cross section, which comes from the fact that parton densities widely used were extracted under the assumption that partons belong to isolated nucleons when, on the contrary, the nucleons are usually bound in larger nuclei at the interaction sites. In this work we perform a more realistic calculation taking into account these effects by using the standard parton densities in free nucleons with the modifications due to nuclear effects as given by the EKS parameterizations .

## 2 Nuclear effects

It is experimentally well known that the structure function $`F_2`$ in deep inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering for large atomic mass, $`A`$, is different from that measured for hydrogen or deuterium targets (see for example ). If one maintains the partonic view of the nucleon, this result may indicate that parton distributions of bound nucleons are different from those of free nucleons.

Parton distributions of the nucleon in a nucleus containing $`A`$ nucleons have been obtained in Ref.  using QCD evolution at leading twist and leading order of perturbation theory together with the experimental ratios $`F_2^A/F_2^D`$ measured by EMC and NMC at CERN .

With the quark ratios as defined in Ref. :

$`R_V^A(x,Q^2){\displaystyle \frac{u_V^A(x,Q^2)+d_V^A(x,Q^2)}{u_V(x,Q^2)+d_V(x,Q^2)}}\text{and}`$ (1)
$`R_S^A(x,Q^2){\displaystyle \frac{\overline{u}^A(x,Q^2)+\overline{d}^A(x,Q^2)+\overline{s}^A(x,Q^2)}{\overline{u}(x,Q^2)+\overline{d}(x,Q^2)+\overline{s}(x,Q^2)}},`$ (2)
we have generated the correction due to nuclear effects to the parton distribution functions in free nucleons. The ratios of valence and sea quarks given by Eq. (1) and (2) are plotted in Fig. 1. From low to high $`x`$ one can easily identify in Fig. 1 the regions of shadowing ($`R<1`$), anti-shadowing ($`R>1`$), EMC ($`R<1`$) and Fermi motion ($`R>>1`$) which are experimentally observed in the ratio $`F_2^A/F_2^D`$. We show below that the shadowing region (small $`x`$) gives the main correction to the neutrino-nucleon DIS cross section at high energy. The smooth $`Q^2`$ dependence of the ratio, which was difficult to observe experimentally, is also apparent in Fig. 1.

We have calculated the neutrino-nucleon DIS cross-sections following Ref. 111For brevity, in this letter we do not present the explicit expressions for the cross sections calculation but considering valence and sea parton distributions of the nucleus as corrected by Eqs. (1) and (2). In the calculation we use parton densities from the group MRST  at the LO approximation in $`\alpha _s(Q^2)`$. At the LO approximation we are consistent with the EKS parameterization of nuclear effects  which has been extracted with the help of LO evolution equations equations. However, the effect of higher order corrections should be small  and it would not modify the conclusions of the present work. In addition, in the cross section calculation we have also neglected the contribution from the longitudinal structure function, which is proportional to $`\alpha _s(Q^2)`$, and terms suppressed by the ratio of the nucleon mass to $`Q^2`$.

Let us comment some technical details of the calculation: In the integration we take the minimum value of Q2=4 GeV2 although the result is not sensitive to variations around this value. We have also extrapolated the $`x`$ dependence of the quark distribution functions beyond the limits of applicability given by the authors using the $`x`$ behavior at the lowest $`x`$ value of the parametrization For the MRST98 set, we assume the Regge type shape $`x^\lambda `$ below $`x=10^5`$ with $`\lambda `$ the slope obtained at $`x=10^5`$. This simple phenomenological approach agrees with the extrapolations based on perturbative QCD (for example the double-logarithmic-approximation) which explain HERA data. For the EKS parameterizations, we take below $`x=10^6`$ the constant behavior shown in Fig. 1 at low $`x`$.

In this work we are also interested in the modification due to nuclear effects of the average value of the inelasticity $`y`$, which is the fraction of the neutrino energy which flows to the hadronic part of the interaction in the laboratory frame.

This parameter fixes the relative rates of the two main types of detections in neutrino telescopes, using muons in charged current interactions and using the showers. It is also responsible for the relative sizes of the electromagnetic and hadronic showers induced in a charged current electron neutrino interaction. The knowledge of $`y`$ is also necessary for extracting the neutrino energy in high energy neutrino telescopes from the detected muon or hadronic shower. On the other hand it has been found that $`y`$ is directly related to the $`x`$ slope of the parton distribution functions at small $`x`$ and $`Q^2`$ around $`M_W^2`$ . If $`y`$ could be extracted from events observed in high energy neutrino telescopes , it should provide a unique oportunity to study the low $`x`$ physics at high $`Q^2`$, well beyond the reach of present and near future accelerators.

It is very interesting to study the stability of both, the total cross section and $`y`$, to the consideration of nuclear effects in parton distributions. The average value of $`y`$ is obtained by integrating the differential cross-section: $`y=1/\sigma _0^1𝑑yy𝑑\sigma /𝑑y`$. The results for the total cross-section and the average $`y`$ are compared to the non-corrected ones in Figures 2 and 3. From Fig. 2 one sees that the departure from the total cross-section for free nucleons increases with energy and $`A`$ at the highest energies. For example, for $`E_\nu =10^{10}`$ GeV, CC interaction and $`A=60`$, the modified parton distribution functions result in a 10 % reduction of the total cross section. The regions of EMC effect, anti-shadowing and shadowing are apparent in Fig. 2.

The modification of $`y`$ due to nuclear effects is presented in Fig. 3 for the case of neutrino-nucleon CC interaction. The correction to the results with partons in a free nucleon is less than 3 % for the largest nucleus and neutrino energies around 107 GeV.

In conclusion, we have calculated the UHE neutrino-nucleon DIS cross section with parton distributions in bound nucleons to take into account nuclear effects. In comparison with the calculation using partons in free nucleons we found that the correction, which is mainly due to shadowing at small $`x`$, is of the order of few per cent for the parameter range of interest in neutrino telescopes (A=10 and E=106 GeV) and it reaches 20 $`\%`$ at the highest energies (E=1012 GeV) and for the largest nuclear size (A=190) considered.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Xunta de Galicia under grant PGIDT00-PXI20615PR and CICYT grant AEN99-0589-C02-02.

Figure captions

Figure 1. The ratio of nuclear parton (valence and sea quarks) distribution functions over free parton distributions as a function of the $`x`$-Bjorken variable for different values of $`Q^2`$

Figure 2. The ratio of nuclear effects corrected over non corrected total neutrino-nucleon cross sections as a function of neutrino energy in the lab frame for different nuclei A.

Figure 3. The ratio of nuclear effects corrected over non corrected average inelasticity in CC $`\nu N`$ interaction for different nuclei A as a function of neutrino energy in the lab frame.


text:
# Onset of Antiferromagnetism in heavy fermion metals.

There are two views of antiferromagnets. The first proceeds from atomic physics, which predicts that atoms with unpaired electrons develop magnetic moments. In a solid, the coupling between moments on nearby ions then yields antiferromagnetic order at low temperatures . The second, based on the physics of electron fluids or ’Fermi liquids’, states that Coulomb interactions can drive the fluid to adopt a more stable configuration by developing a spin density wave.  It is presently unknown which view is appropriate at a ‘quantum critical point’, where the antiferromagnetic transition temperature vanishes . Here we describe an atomically local contribution to the magnetic correlations which develops in the metal CeCu6-xAux at the critical gold concentration ($`x_c=0.1`$) where the magnetic ordering temperature is tuned to zero. This contribution implies that a Fermi-liquid destroying spin-localizing transition, unanticipated for the spin density wave description, coincides with the antiferromagnetic quantum critical point

CeCu6  is a “heavy fermion” compound, a class of metal formed between actinide or rare earth elements and transition or noble metals. ’Heavy’ refers to the extremely large effective masses of the charge carriers at low temperatures, often hundreds or even thousands of times greater than the electron mass. Because of their large effective electron masses and proximity to antiferromagnetism, heavy fermion materials are ideal venues for observing the competition between metallic electron band formation and magnetism. The large masses imply small bandwidths, and the magnetism is easily tuned by external pressure , magnetic field and chemical composition. Thus, all of the phenomena associated with the competition can be readily accessed at low temperatures where it is much easier to collect clean data than for other materials, such as the transition metals or their oxides , which also display competition between band formation and magnetism but whose characteristic temperatures are much higher. Because of a substantial data base  and the ability to grow large and highly homogeneous single crystals, we have chosen CeCu6-xAux as a test material. The quantum critical point (QCP) occurs as gold is substituted for the Cu atoms; when more than 0.1 Cu sites per cerium are replaced, the heavy fermion paramagnet gives way to an ordered antiferromagnet  (Fig.1a).

Fig.1 illustrates two competing models of magnetic order in rare earth metals that have been widely discussed in the context of heavy fermion systems. The fundamental parameter is the strength of the hybridization $`W`$ between the localized f orbitals and the more extended s, p and d orbitals. When $`W`$ is small, the extended orbitals form a metal which is weakly coupled to the unfilled, and hence magnetic, f-orbitals. Thus, as $`T`$ is reduced, the two subsystems undergo largely independent evolutions towards Fermi liquid and magnetically ordered ground states, a situation found in many elemental rare earths(e.g. gadolinium), and their compounds. The volume bounded by the Fermi surface is “small”, containing only electrons from the extended orbitals. As we begin to increase $`W`$, the magnetic coupling between the rare earth ions via the conduction electrons and the magnetic ordering (or “Néel”) temperature, $`T_N`$, both increase. On the other hand, if $`W`$ is large, the material develops a Fermi liquid of strongly hybridized carriers with a “large” Fermi volume containing electrons from both extended and f orbitals. The kinetic energy of band electrons then overwhelms interaction effects, with the result that $`T_N`$ is suppressed to zero for $`W`$ beyond a critical value $`W_c`$ .

A key scale for heavy fermion materials is the “Kondo temperature” $`T_K`$: the temperature below which the magnetic susceptibility saturates and the hybridization of the f-orbitals with the other orbitals becomes apparent. In contrast to $`T_N`$, the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$, increases monotonically with $`W`$. The central open question concerns how this scale behaves near the quantum critical point: in particular, whether it remains finite, (Fig. 1b) or whether $`T_K`$ and $`T_N`$ vanish at the same point(Fig. 1c). The first scenario is required if the local moments are quenched at a finite temperature above the quantum critical point: here, local moments do not play a role in the physics of the quantum critical point and a spin-density wave model must be used. In the second case, local moments are present at all temperatures down to $`T=0`$ at the QCP, so a heavy electron Fermi surface ceases to exist at the quantum critical point. The present paper gives comprehensive evidence in favor of the second scenario, fig.1(c).

To discriminate between the local-moment and spin-density-wave visions, we have measured the magnetic response function $`\chi (𝐪,E)`$, as a function of temperature (T) and external magnetic fields (H), using neutron scattering and bulk magnetometry. The function $`\chi (𝐪,E)`$ describes the Fourier components at frequencies $`E/\mathrm{}`$ of the magnetization $`\delta m(𝐪,t)=\chi (𝐪,t)\delta h_o`$ induced by a unit external field pulse $`\delta h(𝐫,t)=\delta h_0e^{i𝐪𝐫}\delta (t)`$ with spatial modulation described by the wavevector $`𝐪`$. A particularly simple impulse response is an exponential decay, $`\chi (𝐪,t)exp[\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝐪}{\mathrm{}}t]`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝐪/\mathrm{}`$ is the magnetic decay rate, for which

$`\chi (𝐪,E)=A/(\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝐪iE),`$ (1)
where $`A`$ is a constant. The exponential form is typical for paramagnetic rare-earth insulators where the magnetization is not conserved. To understand how $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝐪`$ can depend on temperature, recall that the zero-energy response is the static magnetic susceptibility, which in paramagnetic insulators follows a Curie-Weiss law $`\chi (𝐪,E)|_{E=0}=C/(T+\theta (𝐪))`$ with Curie constant $`C`$ and q-dependent Weiss temperature $`\theta (𝐪)`$. At $`𝐪=0`$ this is just the uniform susceptibility, which can be directly measured using a magnetometer. Comparison with eq. (1) leads to the conclusion that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝐪=a(T+\theta (𝐪))`$ where $`a=A/C`$. Hence, in paramagnetic insulators, the inverse magnetic response function

$`\chi ^1(𝐪,E,T)=\chi _0^1(E,T)+\theta ^\alpha (𝐪)/C`$ (2)
is a sum of a non-local, purely $`𝐪`$-dependent piece $`\theta ^\alpha (𝐪)/C`$ (here with $`\alpha =1`$) and a local ($`𝐪`$-independent) driving term $`\chi _0^1=(TiE/a)/C`$. Thus $`T`$ and $`iE/a`$ are interchangeable in expressions for $`\chi (𝐪,E)`$, and at critical wavevectors, i.e. the points in the Brillouin zone where $`\theta (𝐪)=0`$, $`\chi =\chi _0`$ exhibits $`E/T`$ scaling, meaning that

$`\chi _0=T^\alpha g(E/T)=E^\alpha j(T/E)`$ (3)
where $`j(1/y)=y^\alpha g(y)`$. In the simple Curie-Weiss example, $`\alpha =1`$ and $`g(y)=g_0(y)=C/(1iy)`$ with $`y=E/aT`$.

While $`E/T`$-scaling at critical wavevectors is well-known and established, it does not capture the general dependence of $`\chi `$ on wavevector, magnetic field, and zero-temperature tuning parameter (e.g. pressure or composition) for the quantum phase transition. However, inspection of the Curie-Weiss example suggests a set of hitherto untested scaling laws and data replotting procedures. The first follows from insertion of the $`T0`$ limit of eq.(3) into eq. (2) . The outcome is that $`\chi ^1(𝐪,E,T=0)`$ displays $`E/\theta (𝐪)`$ scaling, i.e.

$$\chi (T0)=\theta (𝐪)^\alpha G(E/\theta (𝐪))$$
(4)
In the simple Curie-Weiss case $`G(\delta )=g(\delta )`$ (with $`\delta =E/a\theta `$), which is easily understood if we regard excursions in wavenumber or quantum control parameter as excursions in an effective Curie temperature. Letting $`E0`$ instead of $`T0`$ in eq.(3) and again inserting the result into eq.(2) gives a second verifiable relation,

$$\chi ^1(𝐪,T)=(T^\alpha +\theta (𝐪)^\alpha )/C,$$
(5)
Eq.(5) implies that the traditional Curie-Weiss plot, where $`1/\chi `$ is a straight line as a function of $`T`$, can be replaced across a series of experiments where the Weiss temperature is varied (e.g. by varying $`𝐪`$ or composition $`x`$) by a plot where $`1/\chi `$ as a function of $`T^\alpha `$ is a straight line with intercept $`\theta (𝐪)^\alpha `$.

Finally, combining the knowledge that for local moment systems, the magnetic response is governed by the ratio of the Zeeman energy $`g\mu _BH`$ to the thermal energy $`k_BT`$, with eq.(2) yields another scaling law, namely

$$(\chi (H,T)^1\theta (0)^\alpha /C)^1T^\alpha =f(H/T)$$
(6)
The law eq.(6) can be tested with extraordinary sensitivity in the long wavelength $`(q=0)`$ limit using bulk magnetometry.

For systems in which the critical magnetic degrees of freedom derive from spin-density fluctuations of a Fermi sea, matters are much more complicated and do not satisfy eqs(2)-(6). Here we expect that non-local terms, derived from the band-structure, should have both $`E`$ and $`T`$ dependence. At low $`T`$, the first correction to the $`T=0`$ Pauli susceptibility is of order $`T^2`$ rather than $`T^\alpha `$, as suggested by the generalized Curie-Weiss Ansatz. Also, $`T`$ and $`iE`$ are not interchangeable in the temperature-dependent susceptibility. In particular, above two dimensions, the quantum critical fluctuations of a spin density wave are non-interacting at low energies and long wavelengths, in which case $`E/T`$ scaling never occurs. Likewise, none of the less familiar forms(4)-(6) accounting for the $`𝐪`$-, $`T`$-, $`x`$-, and $`H`$-dependence should obtain. Of special significance is that an external magnetic field modifies the band structure, implying an influence on the non-local terms and an inability to scale the field-dependent effects simply in terms of the ratio $`g\mu _BH/k_BT`$.

We have thus reduced the problem of discriminating between the scenarios in figs.1b) and c) to discovering whether the largely untested laws (4)-(6) describe the $`H`$-, $`T`$-, $`E`$-, and $`x`$\- dependent magnetic response of CeCu6-xAux, and to verifying that with an order of magnitude improvement in energy range, $`E/T`$\- scaling obtains at the critical composition and wavevector. To carry out this ambitious program, we have taken advantage of a low-T dc magnetometer and the IRIS spectrometer at the ISIS spallation source. IRIS represents a substantial improvement over the instruments previously used to examine the magnetic fluctuations in CeCu5.9Au0.1 in that it (a) surveys the magnetic fluctuation spectrum over a very wide range of wavenumbers, (b) has an energy resolution $`9\mu \mathrm{eV}0.1K`$ almost an order of magnitude better than that of previous experiments, and (c) yields data in absolute units established using the simultaneously measured elastic incoherent scattering from the sample.

As $`x`$ is varied in $`CeCu_{6x}Au_x`$, Bragg reflections due to antiferromagnetism appear at specific wavenumbers on a “butterfly”-shaped critical line , (black crosses in fig 2a). At the quantum critical concentration $`x=x_c`$, the Bragg peaks are replaced by magnetic critical scattering - peaked on the same “butterfly”. Fig. 2b) and c) show scans through the butterfly, obtained for the very small energy $`E=35\mu eV`$. On warming from 50 mK to $`0.4KE/k_B`$, the magnetic response at the butterfly is somewhat reduced, while on going to $`1.5K=4E/k_B`$, it is greatly suppressed, showing that when T crosses $`E/k_B`$, the magnetic response begins to change rapidly. Fig. 2a shows energy scans collected at 50mK at the various (nearly) fixed momentum transfers indicated in the inset and plotted following the new scaling paradigm eq(4), using the exponent $`\alpha 0.75`$ obtained from the $`E/T`$ scaling found in our previous critical wavenumber $`(𝐪=(1.2,0,0))`$ experiment  and verified with much greater confidence below. The data collapse onto a single curve is clearly consistent with eq(4), but there is sufficient scatter to mandate checks of the other untested laws (5) before we can claim to have verified the local moment scenario giving rise to eq(2).

Fig.3 shows the modified Curie-Weiss plots suggested by eq(5) for CeCu6-xAux, where the effective Weiss temperature is varied either by changing $`q`$ in the neutron scattering experiment, or by changing $`x`$ in the bulk (low field) magnetometry. Near the quantum critical point, the static susceptibility follows the modified Curie-Weiss law over the entire two-decade temperature range of our measurements. As $`x`$ moves away from $`x_c`$ in either direction, $`\chi ^1(T)`$ becomes more curved as $`T0`$, although there still is a quantum critical regime bounded by a cross-over temperature which increases with distance from $`x_c`$ and above which the $`T^\alpha `$ power law seems to hold (Fig. 3b), and below which a tendency towards less singular (heavy) Fermi liquid behavior is seen. Fig.3a also demonstrates that at quantum criticality (i.e. $`x0.1`$) the same law is followed for general $`𝐪`$, where $`\chi ^{}(𝐪)`$ is obtained via the Kramers-Kronig relation from the neutron data. Indeed, the parallelism of the lines in Fig.3a shows not only that a single exponent $`\alpha `$ is sufficient to account for all of the magnetometry and neutron data, but also that the Curie constant $`C`$ is - within the limited statistical accuracy of the latter - the same for all wavenumbers. The overlap between the neutron data at $`𝐪=(1.8,0,0)`$ far from the butterfly but close to (2,0,0), equivalent to (0,0,0), and the $`𝐪=0`$ bulk results is reassuring and shows that $`𝐪=0`$ is a typical non-critical wavenumber, with a spectrum likely to resemble that measured at $`𝐪=(1.8,0,0)`$. A final result which can be extracted from Fig.3 is another estimate of the wavenumber-dependent Weiss temperature $`\theta (𝐪)`$, which is simply the $`x`$-axis intercept, taken to the power $`1/\alpha `$, of the lines going through the data for each q. The outcome is entirely consistent with that of the $`E/\theta (𝐪)`$ scaling analysis in fig.2a).

We finally turn to the energy- and T-dependent spectroscopies with the best signal to noise ratios, namely the neutron measurements of the scattering with $`𝐪`$ on the butterfly and the $`H`$\- dependent static magnetization. Fig 4a shows the former, plotted versus $`E/T`$, collected at a wavenumber (0.8,0,0). This data set, which densely covers four decades of $`E/T`$, confirms that the scaling is optimal (see left inset) for $`\alpha =0.75\pm 0.05`$. Fig4b shows the collapse of the bulk magnetization data as suggested by the H/T scaling form (6). The similarities in the scaling function and exponent ($`\alpha =3/4`$), obtained in this entirely independent assay, to those obtained via neutron measurements demonstrates that the magnetic response is driven by a singular local term. Two interesting details emerge. First, the effective moment (for definition see Fig 4) $`\mu =g\mu _B=1.5\mu _B`$ is the same order as an atomic moment ($`0.6\mu _B`$)estimated from considering the $`q`$-space average of the neutron data integrated to $`E=1meV`$. This rules out large, randomly occurring ferromagnetic clusters are a key feature of the quantum critical point. Second, the scaling function $`f(h)`$ (where $`h=g\mu _BH/k_BT`$) has the power-law asymptote $`h^\alpha `$ at large $`h`$, which decays much more slowly than the $`exp(h)`$ asymptote derived from the Brillouin function. Thus, the active ingredient responsible for the critical behavior is an atomically local magnetic moment, with a size comparable with a single spin $`S=1/2`$ with an intrinsically critical response to an external field.

Our experiments reveal that the magnetic fluctuations in the heavy fermion metal CeCu6-xAux are extraordinarily simple near the quantum critical point at $`x=0.1`$. Not only do our new high-resolution neutron data satisfy E/T scaling at the critical wavenumbers with much greater certainty than before, but they together with magnetization data satisfy two hitherto untested scaling laws and a generalized Curie-Weiss paradigm, all of which emerge from a local moment scenario for the quantum critical point. Detailed quantitative analysis (see figure captions) reveals that an algebraic form,

$$\chi ^1(𝐪,E,T)=\left[\left(\left[T^2+({\scriptscriptstyle \frac{g\mu _B}{k_B}})^2H^2\right]^{1/2}iE/a\right)^\alpha +\theta (𝐪)^\alpha \right]C^1=\chi _0^1(E,T)+\theta (𝐪)^\alpha /C$$
(7)
accounts for all of our $`H`$\- $`𝐪`$\- and $`T`$\- dependent results. Eq(7) is the most straightforward generalization of the Curie-Weiss description of a critical point and has only three inputs, an overall amplitude, an exponent $`\alpha `$ and the function $`\theta (𝐪)`$.

Clearly then, in answer to the question posed in the introduction, whether an itinerant (fig.1b) or local (fig.1c) picture of the magnetic quantum critical point applies to this heavy fermion system, it is the local scenario (fig.1c) that is appropriate. Beyond this, the most striking feature of the results is the appearance of a single unusual exponent $`\alpha =0.75`$ in the scaling properties at widely different wave-vectors. The $`E/T`$ and $`H/T`$ scaling with the unusual exponent $`\alpha =0.75<1`$ means that the magnetic properties of CeCu6-xAux are more severely non-analytic than those of both Fermi liquids and conventional insulating magnets, where $`\alpha =1`$.

We conclude that a Fermi liquid, CeCu6, with one of the largest known effective carrier masses is remarkably close to an instability marked by a new kind of critical behavior where the moments associated with the tightly bound f electrons are on the brink of separation from the conduction electrons- how close is apparent from the approach of the inverse magnetic susceptibility to the anomalous $`T^\alpha `$ asymptote as $`T`$ rises above 2K( fig.3b). The locality of the quantum fluctuations in the ordered phase suggests the development of a new kind of localized excitation, one derived from the ambiguity of whether the f-electrons are counted within the Fermi sea or not. These excitations are neither heavy quasi-particles nor conventional spin excitations and might best be regarded as Fermi surface “shredders”: new degrees of freedom which are ultimately responsible for the non-Fermi liquid behavior and the unusual local scaling behavior at the quantum critical point.

###### Acknowledgements.

A. S., O. S. and H. v. L. acknowledge financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. R. C. acknowledges financial support from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Postdoctoral Research Associates Program administered jointly by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. P. C. and R. R. acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation. Figure Captions    1. Phase diagram and scenarios for quantum criticality in $`CeCu_{6x}Au_x`$ a) Phase diagram for CeCu6-xAux, where increasing Au-concentration $`x`$ drives the heavy fermion alloy into an antiferromagnetically ordered state. The quantum critical point at $`x=0.1`$ is the subject of this paper. b)-c) Two competing models for the magnetic quantum critical point in heavy fermions. $`W`$ is the strength of the hybridization between the localized f-electrons and the surrounding conduction sea, which causes the antiferromagnetic order (with transition temperature $`T_N`$) to collapse at a critical value $`W=W_c`$. (b) The local moments are magnetically quenched - absorbed into the metallic bands- at a finite ”Kondo” temperature, $`T_K`$ and do not play a role at the quantum critical point. Antiferromagnetism develops via a “spin-density-wave instability” of the underlying Fermi surface. (c) Local moments exist down to an effective lattice Kondo temperature, $`T_K^{}`$, which vanishes at the quantum critical point. In this model, local moments become quenched precisely at the quantum critical point, and play an active role in the magnetic critical fluctuations.
2. Magnetic neutron scattering data. (a) Spectra at wavevectors q indicated in inset, as a function of energy transfer E in units of the q-dependent Weiss temperature $`\theta (𝐪)`$. Intensities are correspondingly normalized to $`\theta (𝐪)^\alpha `$ ($`\alpha =0.75`$), as suggested by eq.(4). The line is the scaling function $`G(\delta )=C/(1+(i\delta )^\alpha )`$ with $`\delta =E/(aT)`$. The inset is a map of reciprocal space showing the critical line (black lines) close to the magnetic Bragg peaks in the ordered regime (black crosses) and the considered wave vector regions (labeled A-H). b,c, Wavevector (q) dependence of the magnetic fluctuations along the middle (b) and lower (c) trajectory in the inset of (a) for fixed $`E=0.035meV`$. $`\chi ^{\prime \prime }=S(1e^{E/k_BT})`$ is shown, where the non-magnetic background, derived from scans with $`q`$ parallel to the easy moment direction $`c`$, has been subtracted. Different colours represent different temperatures. Lines correspond to Eq.(7) by $`H=0`$ and a temperature independent $`\theta (𝐪)^\alpha `$ expanded in even powers of q.
3. Temperature dependence of the inverse static susceptibility. (a) $`\chi (𝐪)`$ (from direct magnetization ($`𝐪=0`$) and neutron data ($`𝐪0`$)), showing the same anomalous power-law dependence on temperature, over a wide range of different momentum values (see inset in fig.2a). b) Checking the same anomalous power-law in temperature of $`1/\chi (𝐪=0)`$ for different Au concentrations $`x`$. The temperature below which deviations occur increases with distance to the critical concentration $`x=0.1`$.
4. Energy and field scaling Plots.(a) $`E/T`$ scaling plots taken at various critical $`𝐪`$ vectors (labelled as A and B as in the inset of fig. (2a)), combining previous triple-axis data with the much more extensive time-of-flight data taken at IRIS. The line is the product of the Bose-Einstein factor $`(1e^{E/k_BT})`$ multiplied by the scaling function $`g(y)=C/(1iy)^\alpha `$ with $`y=E/(aT)`$ in eq.(3) with exponent $`\alpha =0.75`$. Right inset shows the wide range of $`ET`$ covered. Left inset shows the “scatter” of the scaling plot as a function of $`\alpha `$, being minimal for $`\alpha =0.72\pm 0.05`$. (b) H/T-scaling of the local contribution to the uniform magnetization $`M(T,H)`$. $`1/\chi _0=(dM/dH)^1(4.1\mu _B^2/\text{mev})^1`$. Solid line corresponds to scaling function $`f(h)=(1+h^2)^{\alpha /2}`$ with $`h=g\mu _BH/k_BT`$ with $`\alpha =0.75`$ and an effective moment $`\mu =g\mu _B=1.5\mu _B`$. Inset shows the $`HT`$ range where scaling applies.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4