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# Chandra imaging of the X-ray core of Abell 1795

## 1 Introduction

The rich cluster Abell 1795, at redshift $`z=0.063`$, has been well-studied at optical, radio and X-ray wavelengths. It shows a relaxed X-ray structure (Buote & Tsai 1996) with a strong central peak of cooler gas (Fabian et al 1994; Briel & Henry 1996; Allen & Fabian 1997; Ikebe et al 1999; Allen et al 1999). This is good evidence for a cooling flow (Fabian 1994) which is supported by the presence of strong emission-line nebulosity around the central cD galaxy (Cowie et al 1983; van Breugel, Heckman & Miley 1984; Hu, Cowie & Wang 1985; Heckman et al 1989) accompanied by excess blue light (Johnstone, Fabian & Nulsen 1987; Smith et al 1997; Cardiel, Gorgas & Aragon-Salamanca 1998). The blue light is probably due to massive stars (McNamara et al 1996a), with some from young globular clusters (Holtzman et al 1996). Molecular gas in the cD has been detected through molecular hydrogen emission (Falcke et al 1998). The small central radio source 4C 26.42 shows high Faraday rotation measures (Ge & Owen 1993) which is also a characteristic of a cooling flow (Taylor et al 1991, 1999). The radio source may have triggered some of the star formation in the cD (McNamara et al 1996b).

Hill et al (1988) reported that the cD in A1795 is not at rest in the gravitational potential of the cluster but has a peculiar radial velocity of $`365\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This was supported by the outer emission-line nebulosity having a blueshift relative to the cD galaxy. Oegerle & Hill (1994) later revised the velocity, and the significance of the effect, down to about $`150\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, and argue that a subcluster has merged with the cluster.

Here, we present for the first time Chandra X-ray images of the core of A 1795. The high spatial resolution of Chandra allows us to see an 80 kpc long filament of X-ray emission extending SSE from the central galaxy. This filament coincides with a an H$`\alpha `$ emission feature discovered by Cowie et al (1983). We discuss possible causes for such a striking feature.

## 2 The Chandra observations

Chandra (Weisskopf et al 2000) observed A 1795 for 19,594 s on 1999 December 20 and for 19421 s on 2000 March 21. The central galaxy was centred 3 arcmin from the edge of the ACIS-S CCD chip, yielding good cosmetic quality and sensitivity from about 0.3 – 7 keV. Detailed spectral studies of the cluster will be reported elsewhere (Ettori et al 2000, in preparation). We report here on the X-ray structure of the cluster core and present simple X-ray colour maps.

X-ray images of the cluster in the 0.3–1.5 and 1.5–7 keV bands are shown in Fig. 1. A linear structure running N-S is apparent in the soft image, but not in the hard one. An adaptively smoothed (Ebeling, White & Rangarajan 1999) X-ray image is shown in Fig. 2 together with a copy of the H$`\alpha +`$NII image of Cowie et al (1983) at approximately the same scale. The cD galaxy lies at the top of the filament seen in both X-rays and H$`\alpha +`$NII.

The X-ray profiles across the filament, in three energy bands (0.3–0.8, 0.8–1.5 and 1.5–7 keV), are shown in Fig. 3. The bins are $`35\times 1`$ arcsec, with the long axis parallel to the filament. These have then been adaptively binned and converted to colour ratios which have been compared with colours predicted by MEKAL thermal models (as discussed for the Perseus cluster by Fabian et al 2000). The bin size is varied across the image to preserve the same signal-to-noise ratio in all bins (Sanders & Fabian, in preparation). This procedure has yielded the temperature profile across the filament in Fig. 3 and the temperature map of Fig. 4. The temperature map shows the profile along the filament and indicates that the pixel at the Southern end of the filament is cooler ($`2.5\pm 0.15\mathrm{keV}`$) than the remainder of the filament to the North (which is at about $`2.9\pm 0.15\mathrm{keV}`$). The coolest spot on the map coincides with the cD galaxy position where the temperature is $`2\pm 0.15\mathrm{keV}`$. Note that these are emission-weighted, line-of-sight, temperatures. As shown in Fig. 3, the filament itself may only give about one third of the counts at that position, the rest being projected into that position from the surrounding gas. The true emission-weighted temperature of the filament is likely to be lower than the values quoted above, probably by about 1 keV.

Approximate electron densities have also been determined by assuming that the pathlength through the emitting gas equals the radius. The radiative cooling time is less than 5 Gyr within the inner arcmin radius and about $`3\times 10^8\mathrm{yr}`$ along the filament and on the cD galaxy. We also find evidence from the colour maps for excess X-ray absorption at the position of the filament and cD from the colour profile analysis.

## 3 Optical and radio comparison

The X-ray filament coincides with an H$`\alpha `$ filament detected nearly two decades ago (Fig. 2). There are no obvious galaxies which can be responsible for this feature. McNamara et al (1996a) show $`U`$-band images of this region in which the filament is well-detected and indeed resolved into at least two separate filaments. It is at a level which, they claim, probably requires continuum emission (e.g. stars) in addition to line emission.

The radio source extends about 5 arcsec to the north of the nucleus, and has a similar extension to the south. Its orientation is shown in Fig. 5. In Fig. 2 we can just see faint depressions in the X-ray emission to the N and W of the present radio source. These may perhaps be buoyant older radio lobes, as seen in the Perseus cluster (Fabian et al 2000) The X-ray emission from the cD galaxy is seen as a curved structure brightest at the North, about 5 arcsec from the nucleus (Fig. 5). This morphology closely resembles that of the H$`\alpha +`$NII emission there (see Fig. 6 of van Breugel et al 1984). There is also a dust lane associated with the optically-bright regions (Pinkney et al 1996; McNamara et al 1996b).

The polarized intensity of the radio emission is anticorrelated with the optical line emission, presumably due to substantial Faraday rotation within the line emitting gas (Ge & Owen 1993). This requires the line-emitting gas to be in front of the radio source. The correlation between the optical line and X-ray emission in the cD indicates that the X-ray gas also lies in front.

## 4 Discussion

The Chandra images confirm the short cooling time of the gas in the centre of A1795 and also that the gas is cooler toward the centre. The shortest cooling time is about $`3\times 10^8\mathrm{yr}`$ close to the cD galaxy and along the brightest part of the filament. These results are consistent with the presence of a strong cooling flow in the cluster core.

We have discovered a filament of X-ray emission coincident with the H$`\alpha `$ filament of Cowie et al (1983). The X-ray luminosity of the filament, assuming a width of 5 arcsec and length of 40 arcsec (corresponding to a projected length of about 80 kpc, assuming $`H_0=50\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$), is about $`2\times 10^{42}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This is only about an order of magnitude greater than the H$`\alpha +`$NII luminosity of the filament. This last luminosity probably converts to a bolometric line luminosity comparable to (or possibly greater than) the X-ray luminosity when all optical and UV emission lines are taken into account. If there is no heating balancing cooling then the mass cooling rate in the filament alone is about $`10\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. The X-ray brightest region in the cD galaxy also coincides with the H$`\alpha +`$NII brightest region there.

The age of the filament given its projected length and radial velocity of $`150`$$`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$corresponds to $`5\times 10^8`$ yr, if it is at an angle of 45 deg to the line of sight. The timescale is of course less if the filament lies closer to the plane of the Sky. This raises the possibility that its length is constrained by cooling. We have found (Fig. 4) that the coolest part of the X-ray filament is near the end opposite to the cD galaxy. The straightness of the filament argues against the intracluster medium being very turbulent.

We note that the radial velocity of the cD relative to the velocity dispersion of the cluster ($`\sigma =920\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, Oegerle & Hill 1994) is small. This suggests that if the angle of its motion to the line of sight is low then the cD must be very close to the turnaround point in its orbit. An approximate estimate for the difference between the position of the cD, $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$, from the turnaround radius of its (radial) orbit, $`r`$, assuming that the core is of constant density out to radius $`a,`$ is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }r/r0.33(v/\sigma )^2(a/r)^2.`$ If the angle is large (close to the plane of the Sky) then the restriction is much less and the true velocity much higher.

Although the filament is clear in both the X-ray and H$`\alpha +`$NII images the brightness variations along it do not compare well. The brightest part of the H$`\alpha +`$NII filament about 25 arcsec S of the centre of the cD galaxy corresponds to a minimum in the X-ray surface brightness. The reverse is true of the X-ray bright part almost 20 arcsec from the cD. There is also little evidence in the X-ray image for the SE pointing tail to the filaments seen in H$`\alpha +`$NII and the $`U`$-band.

We note that the centroid of the outer X-ray emission (Fig. 4) lies not on the cD but partway (10–20 arcsec S of the cD) along the filament. This suggests that the cD is oscillating about the cluster core. There is no strong evidence from the X-ray surface brightness for a deep cusp at the cluster centre as determined from the outer emission. This argues against any static dark matter cusp at the cluster centre. The lack of any extensive ($`>10`$ arcsec) peak around the cD also argues against any deep dark matter well associated with the massive cD halo seen in the cluster (Johnstone, Naylor & Fabian 1991) from moving directly with the cD itself.

There are several possible explanations for the filament. Detailed modelling is beyond the scope of this Letter. It may a) be a cooling wake, produced by a cooling flow occurring around a moving galaxy (e.g. NGC5044; David et al 1994), b) a contrail produced by the ram pressure of the radio source passing through a multiphase medium, c) evaporation of cold gas ram-pressure stripped from the cD, or d) an accretion wake (Sakelliou, Merrifield & McHardy 1996).

This last possibility, d), requires that the gas be focussed by the gravitational effect of the cD and then cool into a wake. Since the likely space velocity and the velocity dispersion of the cD are both at least a factor of two smaller than the sound speed of the hot gas it is unlikely that gravitational focussing of the hot gas alone is responisble. The evaporation scenario c) requires that there was more than $`5\times 10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$ of gas (the hot gas mass of the filament) within the cD to be stripped out. It is not clear that it would be pulled out into such a straight, even filament (the ram-pressure-stripped wake behind the elliptical galaxy M86 in the Virgo cluster, Forman et al 1979, is very broad). Note that it is most unlikely that there is, or has been, any significant ($`10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$) hot interstellar medium intrinsic to the cD galaxy. The radiative cooling time of any 1 keV component in the galaxy would be only $`10^8\mathrm{yr}`$ or less and it is replenished from stellar mass loss at only a few $`\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ (Takeda, Nulsen & Fabian 1984). The cool gas at the position of the cD is then due to a combination of stellar mass loss and inflow from the intracluster medium.

We cannot rule out the contrail, b), but it is likely that the passage of the galaxy would heat gas rather than lead to it cooling. The simplest explanation is a cooling wake, a). The basic picture then is that the hot gas is in almost hydrostatic equilibrium in the cluster core potential, and cooling radiatively very slowly and steadily. The gas with a cooling time exceeding $`10^9\mathrm{yr}`$ only senses the mean gravitational field of the cD, which then averages to a line along its direction of motion. Gas with shorter cooling time cools onto that line as the cD passes. Basically the mass of the cD serves to focus the inner part of the cooling flow, which is probably multiphase. Cooling will limit the length of the wake, in accord with the coolest X-ray gas being observed to be most distant from the cD. Of course, if the cD is also oscillating about the cluster dark matter centre then the filament length will not exceed the oscillation length.

The emission-line velocity map presented by Hu et al (1985) shows that most of the filament has the velocity of the cluster (i.e. $`150\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ blueshifted from the velocity of the cD; the cD is redshifted relative to the cluster by the same amount, Oegerle & Hill 1994). Only the line emission at the position of the cD shares its redshift. This velocity structure agrees with the above cooling model and argues strongly against the stripping hypothesis, where a strong velocity gradient is expected.

The extensive X-ray/H$`\alpha `$ filament in A1795 offers the possibility to identify the source of energy and ionization of the optical nebulosity common in cooling flow clusters (Crawford et al 1999 and references therein; Donahue et al 2000). The filament extends at least 80 kpc from the cD and most of it is therefore well removed from the cD nucleus, the radio source, and the bulk of the stars in the cD. If part of the $`U`$-band emission (McNamara et al 1996a) is due to massive young stars then the formation of intergalactic stars can be studied. It will clearly be interesting to observe the clumpiness of the emission. As reported above, the optical emission from the filament does not appear to correlate in detail with the X-ray emission, which could be due to clumpiness in the gas: the denser parts cool out fastest and so form stars more readily.

The Balmer decrement of 3–4 reported by Hu et al (1985) in the filament is consistent with a small amount of reddening. Further optical spectra can search for emission lines from calcium (Donahue & Voit 1993; Fabian, Johnstone & Daines 1994) which depletes onto dust. If dust is present, it need not rule out condensation from the intracluster medium since large grains may survive sputtering and supernovae from massive stars in the filament can inject dust. This could be helpful in studying prompt dust formation from young stellar populations which is not clearly understood at present (Feigelson, private communication).

The filament also enables studies of the survivability of cool gas in the intracluster medium against mixing and conduction. Mixing layers (Begelman & Fabian 1990) may provide some of the photoionizing radiation for the cold gas in the filament. Thermal conduction, if it proceeds at the Spitzer value, would destroy the filament in $`10^8\mathrm{yr}`$, so it must be suppressed by at least an order of magnitude, presumably by magnetic fields.

In summary, the optically-derived velocity structure of the filament associates it with the intracluster gas, not the galaxy. The X-ray-derived temperature structure of the filament, with the gas furthest from the galaxy (therefore oldest) being the coolest, indicates that the gas is cooling with time and not heating up (evaporating). Together with the approximate match in timescales, the evidence points to the filament originating from cooling of the intracluster gas, attracted into a wake along the path of the moving cD galaxy.

## 5 Acknowledgements

ACF is grateful to NASA for the opportunity to participate as an InterDisciplinary Scientist and the Chandra project for such a superb instrument. ACF, CSC and SWA thank the Royal Society for support.


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# Mean-atom-trajectory model for the velocity autocorrelation function of monatomic liquids

## 1 Introduction

In order to explain the experimental fact that the specific heat of a solid changes little, while its self-diffusion coefficient changes greatly, when it melts to a liquid, Frenkel  suggested that an atom in a liquid undergoes approximately harmonic vibrations about an equilibrium position, occasionally jumping from one equilibrium position to another; these jumps are responsible for self-diffusion. Using molecular dynamics calculations, Stillinger and Weber (-) demonstrated the presence of local many-particle minima (“inherent structures”) in the potential surface underlying the liquid state, and they observed that “diffusion and fluid flow within a liquid may be interpreted as transitions between $`\mathrm{}`$ local minima” . Building on these ideas, Zwanzig  studied the self-diffusion coefficient $`D`$, given in terms of the velocity autocorrelation function $`Z(t)=\frac{1}{3}𝒗(t)𝒗(0)`$ by the Green-Kubo formula

$$D=_0^{\mathrm{}}Z(t)𝑑t.$$
(1)
For harmonic motion about a many-particle equilibrium position, $`Z(t)`$ is given by

$$Z(t)=\frac{kT}{M}\rho (\omega )\mathrm{cos}(\omega t)𝑑\omega $$
(2)
where $`\rho (\omega )`$ is the density of normal mode frequencies. (The derivation of this formula is discussed in  and performed in Section II of .) Zwanzig suggested that jumps between equilibrium positions will have the effect of multiplying this expression by a factor $`\mathrm{exp}(t/\tau _{\mathrm{zw}})`$, where the “hopping time” $`\tau _{\mathrm{zw}}`$ is characteristic of the time between jumps. Much effort has been devoted to developing these ideas into full harmonic theories of liquid dynamics, particularly theories of self-diffusion in liquids and supercooled liquids (-). In most theories one finds $`\rho (\omega )`$ by expanding the potential energy to second order around each of some set of configurations, diagonalizing the second-order term in the potential (often called the dynamical matrix) to find the frequency distribution for that configuration, and averaging over all configurations chosen. This is done in one of two different ways. In quenched normal mode (QNM) theories , $`\rho (\omega )`$ is calculated at several potential minima and averaged, while in instantaneous normal mode (INM) theories (-, -, , ) $`\rho (\omega )`$ is averaged over a thermal distribution of configurations, with no special emphasis placed upon configurations in potential valleys. This difference manifests itself in the fact that in INM theories, the configuration-averaged $`\rho (\omega )`$ usually includes both real and imaginary frequencies (corresponding to stable and unstable normal modes), since most configurations will not lie at the bottoms of valleys, while in QNM theories only real frequencies are represented. In addition, the QNM density of states for a given system will in general be temperature-independent, while the INM density will depend strongly on temperature. The two most prominent ways to determine $`\tau _{\mathrm{zw}}`$ are (a) to extract it from the imaginary frequency INM distribution, developed most notably by Keyes (-), and (b) to set $`\tau _{\mathrm{zw}}^1`$ equal to the long-time decay rate of the “cage correlation function” of Rabani, Gezelter, and Berne . (Another theory uses Cao and Voth’s frequency-dependent multiplicative factor .) Notice that none of these theories attempt to model the actual motion of a diffusing particle in the liquid and then calculate $`Z(t)`$ from this motion; they try to model the effects of diffusion on the autocorrelation function directly.

The theory of $`Z(t)`$ we propose differs from those discussed above both in how we determine $`\rho (\omega )`$ and how we model the effects of diffusion. In Section 2, we suggest a density of states of the QNM type that also incorporates insights drawn from studies of the potential energy surface of liquid Na by Clements and Wallace . These studies were undertaken to test a theory of monatomic liquid dynamics proposed by Wallace  that has been applied previously with some success to the thermodynamics of a wide variety of liquid metals  and an earlier study of $`Z(t)`$ , and the present work is also intended to lend credence to that theory. We propose a model for the process of diffusion based on the following observations. The system moves in a set of nearly harmonic many-particle valleys, and the motion within each valley may be analyzed into normal modes of vibration about the valley minimum. The motion of the system from one valley to another is called a transit, and it corresponds to a change in the equilibrium positions of a small group of atoms. When a transit occurs involving a given atom, or one of its neighbors, the normal mode eigenvector components for that atom will change, and since this can happen many times during a single vibrational period (as we will see in Section 3), the eigenvectors will not necessarily provide a useful basis for describing the motion. This suggests that an independent atom model will be a good theoretical starting point . (Notice that this argument does not apply to INM, where the eigenvectors change continuously with the motion, instead of discontinuously only at transits.) Therefore, we propose a mean-atom-trajectory model which describes a single average particle in the diffusing liquid actually transiting between single-particle equilibrium positions, and from this model we calculate $`Z(t)`$ directly. In Section 3 we compare our predictions with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of liquid Na over a very broad range of temperatures, and in Section 4 we discuss our results.

## 2 The model

### 2.1 Density of states

Wallace  has predicted that in any monatomic liquid the many-body potential valleys can be divided into three categories: the few crystalline valleys; so-called “symmetric” valleys which retain some remnant of the crystal system’s symmetry; and “random” valleys, in which no crystal symmetries remain. He argued further that the random valleys should greatly outnumber the symmetric ones (thus controlling the statistical mechanics of the liquid), and that all random valleys should have the same distribution of normal mode frequencies. Wallace and Clements  have verified these predictions for liquid Na, as well as discovering criteria that one can use to determine whether the system is in a symmetric or random valley when nondiffusing. From Fig. 7 of  one can construct a distribution $`\rho (\omega )`$ for liquid Na that will be valid whenever the system remains in a random valley; this $`\rho (\omega )`$ is shown in Fig. 1.

However, since we actually have the set of normal mode frequencies $`\{\omega _\lambda \}`$ found in , we can use them in Eq. (2) directly, so our nondiffusing $`Z(t)`$ is

$$Z(t)=\frac{1}{3N3}\frac{kT}{M}\underset{\lambda }{}\mathrm{cos}(\omega _\lambda t),$$
(3)
where $`N`$ is the number of particles in the system, and the number of normal modes is $`3N3`$ because the three zero-frequency modes corresponding to center of mass motion are not excited. This is our model $`Z(t)`$ when the system remains in a single random valley without diffusion. Note that because all of the random valleys have the same $`\rho (\omega )`$, an average over quenched configurations is unnecessary.

### 2.2 Motion of an Average Particle

Our first goal is to construct a model for the motion of an average particle that reproduces Eq. (3) for $`Z(t)`$ in the absence of transits. Since the system is transiting with overwhelming likelihood from random valley to random valley, and since all the random valleys have the same frequency distribution, it is sensible to model an average particle’s motion in terms of oscillations at those frequencies, or

$`𝒓(t)`$ $`=`$ $`𝑹+𝒖(t)`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`𝑹+{\displaystyle \underset{\lambda }{}}𝒘_\lambda \mathrm{sin}(\omega _\lambda t+\alpha _\lambda ),`$
where the particle’s position $`𝒓(t)`$ is divided into a center of oscillation $`𝑹`$ and oscillations $`𝒖(t)`$ about that center, and the parameters in $`𝒖(t)`$ aside from the $`\omega _\lambda `$ have yet to be determined. Let us assume that the values of the phases $`\alpha _\lambda `$ are randomly distributed among the particles; then one calculates $`Z(t)`$ from Eq. (4) by differentiating to find $`𝒗(t)`$, computing the product $`𝒗(t)𝒗(0)`$, and averaging over each of the $`\alpha _\lambda `$ separately; the result is

$$Z(t)=\frac{1}{6}\underset{\lambda }{}|𝒘_\lambda |^2\omega _\lambda ^2\mathrm{cos}(\omega _\lambda t).$$
(5)
Eq. (5) becomes Eq. (3) with the choice

$$𝒘_\lambda =\sqrt{\frac{1}{N1}\frac{2kT}{M\omega _\lambda ^2}}\widehat{𝒘}_\lambda $$
(6)
where $`\widehat{𝒘}_\lambda `$ is an arbitrarily chosen unit vector. Thus Eq. (4) with the phases $`\alpha _\lambda `$ randomly chosen and $`𝒘_\lambda `$ given by Eq. (6), with the unit vectors $`\widehat{𝒘}_\lambda `$ also randomly chosen, constitute our mean-atom-trajectory model when the system is not diffusing.

To include diffusion in our model, we must incorporate both the rate at which transits occur and their effect on the particle’s motion. We will allow the rate $`\nu `$ to be a temperature-dependent parameter that we will determine in Section 3 by fitting to MD simulations (so the probability of a transit in small time $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is $`\nu \mathrm{\Delta }t`$), and we assume that the transit occurs instantaneously (the particle simply crosses the surface separating distinct valleys), so it must conserve both the particle’s position $`𝒓(t)`$ and velocity $`𝒗(t)`$. To be more specific, we assume that the transit occurs in the forward direction, so that the center of the new valley lies an equal distance away from the particle but on the opposite side from the center of the old valley. Let $`𝒓^{\mathrm{before}}(t)`$, $`𝑹^{\mathrm{before}}`$, and $`𝒖^{\mathrm{before}}(t)`$ be the position parameters from Eq. (4) before the transit, and let $`𝒓^{\mathrm{after}}(t)`$, $`𝑹^{\mathrm{after}}`$, and $`𝒖^{\mathrm{after}}(t)`$ be the parameters after; then our assumption of a forward transit implies that $`𝒖^{\mathrm{after}}(t)=𝒖^{\mathrm{before}}(t)`$, and this together with $`𝒓^{\mathrm{before}}(t)=𝒓^{\mathrm{after}}(t)`$ implies

$$𝑹^{\mathrm{after}}=𝑹^{\mathrm{before}}+2𝒖^{\mathrm{before}}(t).$$
(7)
This is the change in $`𝑹`$ produced by a transit. We choose to leave the unit vectors $`\widehat{𝒘}_\lambda `$ in Eq. (6) unaffected by transits, leaving only the effect on the phases $`\alpha _\lambda `$ to be determined. They must change in such a way as to reverse the sign of $`𝒖(t)`$ but conserve $`𝒗(t)`$; since $`𝒖(t)`$ is a sum of sines while $`𝒗(t)`$ is a sum of cosines, this is easily done by reversing the signs of the arguments $`(\omega _\lambda t+\alpha _\lambda )`$ in Eq. (4). Let the transit occur at time $`t_0`$; then $`\omega _\lambda t_0+\alpha _\lambda ^{\mathrm{after}}=(\omega _\lambda t_0+\alpha _\lambda ^{\mathrm{before}})`$ so

$$\alpha _\lambda ^{\mathrm{after}}=2\omega _\lambda t_0\alpha _\lambda ^{\mathrm{before}}.$$
(8)
Thus, a transit is implemented at time $`t_0`$ by leaving the $`\widehat{𝒘}_\lambda `$ alone and making the substitutions

$`𝑹`$ $``$ $`𝑹+2𝒖(t_0)`$
$`\alpha _\lambda `$ $``$ $`2\omega _\lambda t_0\alpha _\lambda .`$ (9)
This conserves $`𝒓`$$`(t)`$, reverses the sign of $`𝒖`$$`(t)`$, and conserves $`𝒗`$$`(t)`$.

Now the model consists of two parts. (a) Between transits, the average particle moves nondiffusively as given by Eq. (4) and (6), with the phases $`\alpha _\lambda `$ and unit vectors $`\widehat{𝒘}_\lambda `$ assigned randomly. (b) In each small time interval $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ a transit occurs with probability $`\nu \mathrm{\Delta }t`$; if it occurs, it replaces $`𝑹`$ and the $`\alpha _\lambda `$ with new values according to Eq. (9). With the addition of transits, we can no longer express $`𝒓`$$`(t)`$ and $`𝒗`$$`(t)`$ in closed form at all times, so we no longer have a closed form for $`Z(t)`$; but the model can be implemented easily on a computer, and then the data from the run can be used to calculate $`Z(t)`$ in a manner analogous to an MD simulation. We turn to comparison of the predictions of this model with MD results next.

## 3 Comparison with MD

The MD setup used to test our model is that described in  with two changes: $`N=500`$ in all runs and the MD timestep was reduced to $`\delta t=0.2t^{}`$, where $`t^{}=7.00\times 10^{15}`$ s is the natural timescale defined in . (The system’s mean vibrational period $`\tau =2\pi /\omega _{\mathrm{rms}}`$, where $`\omega _{\mathrm{rms}}`$ is the rms average of the normal mode frequency distribution, is approximately $`287\delta t`$.) We performed equilibrium runs of the system at 6.69 K, 22.3 K, 216.3 K, 309.7 K, 425.0K, 664.7 K, and 1022.0 K; at the lower two temperatures the system is not diffusing (as can be seen from the system’s mean square displacement, or from the integral of $`Z(t)`$), and the system is diffusing otherwise. Since $`T_m=371.0`$ K for Na at this density, our simulations range from the glassy regime to nearly three times the melting temperature. We then ran the model for various values of $`\nu `$, adjusting until the model matched the value of the first minimum of $`Z(t)`$ at each temperature. The values of $`\nu `$ that we fit for all temperatures are given below; Figs. 2 through 7 compare the model’s predictions with the MD results for $`\widehat{Z}(t)=Z(t)/Z(0)`$. The model requires $`\nu =0`$ for both nondiffusing states, so they are presented together in Fig. 2.

| $`T`$ (K) | $`\nu (\tau ^1)`$ |
| --- | --- |
| 6.69 | 0.0 |
| 22.3 | 0.0 |
| 216.3 | 0.35018 |
| 309.7 | 0.60276 |
| 425.0 | 0.83985 |
| 664.7 | 1.24858 |
| 1022.0 | 1.68774 |

Notice that in all diffusing cases $`\nu `$ is of the same order of magnitude as $`\tau ^1`$, indicating roughly one transit per mean vibrational period, as predicted in  and noted in Section 1.

The most obvious trend in $`\widehat{Z}(t)`$ is that its first minimum is rising with increasing $`T`$; this is the primary reason for the increasing diffusion coefficient $`D`$. Note that the model is able to reproduce this most important feature quite satisfactorily. In fact, all fits of the model to the MD results capture their essential features, but we do see systematic trends in the discrepancies. First, note that the location of the first minimum barely changes at all in the model as $`\nu `$ is raised, but in MD the first minimum moves steadily to earlier times as the temperature rises. The first minimum occurs at a time roughly equal to half of the mean vibrational period (recall $`\tau =287\delta t`$), so the steady drift backward suggests that the MD system is sampling a higher range of frequencies at higher $`T`$. Also, for the three lowest diffusing temperatures the model tends to overshoot the MD result in the vicinity of the first two maxima after the origin, and at the highest two temperatures this overshoot is accompanied by a positive tail that is slightly higher than the (still somewhat long) tail predicted by MD. These overshoots should clearly affect the diffusion coefficient $`D`$. To check this, we calculated the reduced diffusion coefficient $`\widehat{D}`$, the integral of $`\widehat{Z}(t)`$, which is related to $`D`$ by $`D=(kT/M)\widehat{D}`$. The results are compared to the values of $`\widehat{D}`$ calculated from the MD runs in Fig. 8.

In all of the diffusing cases, the model overestimates $`\widehat{D}`$ by roughly the same amount, which we take to be the effect of the overshoots at the first two maxima. At the higher temperatures the discrepancy is also higher, presumably due to the model’s long tail.

## 4 Conclusions

We have presented a single-atom model of a monatomic liquid that provides a unified account of diffusing and nondiffusing behavior. The nondiffusing motion is modeled as a sum of oscillations at the normal mode frequencies (Eq. (4) and (6)); self-diffusion is accounted for in terms of instantaneous transits between wells, which occur at a temperature-dependent rate $`\nu `$. Since this model gives a simple and straightforward account of the motion itself, it can easily be used to calculate any single-atom correlation function one wishes; here we have focussed on $`Z(t)`$ and its integral $`D`$. The relaxation of correlations expressed by the decay of $`Z(t)`$ arises here from two distinct processes: Dephasing as a result of the large number of frequencies in the single-valley motion, and transits between valleys. The dephasing effect produces relaxation but not diffusion: It causes $`Z(t)`$ to decay but its integral remains zero. On the other hand, transits certainly contribute to relaxation, but in addition they raise the first minimum of $`Z(t)`$ substantially, increasing its integral and providing a nonzero $`D`$.

Most other workers in the field have studied Lennard-Jones or molecular liquids; the only other work with liquid Na we have found is Wu and Tsay’s INM analysis , with which our results are of comparable quality. This is remarkable in light of the fact that our model of the transit process is exceedingly simple; one would expect that a more realistic model would produce even better results. We are also pleased to see that the model retains its validity from the glassy regime to well beyond the liquid’s melting temperature.

In light of these results, answers to the following questions are worth pursuing. Do other monatomic liquids exhibit the same division of their potential valleys into random and symmetric that liquid Na does? (It is known that LJ Ar does .) How harmonic are these valleys? How similar are their frequency distributions? Fig. 2 shows that in Na the valleys are very nearly perfectly harmonic, and we expect the same qualitative potential surface for all nearly-free-electron metals (a total of 24 elemental liquid metals), but other liquids might show more pronounced anharmonicities, and those would need to be accounted for in the model. Could a more sophisticated model of the transit process (as opposed to simply transiting forward) produce the shift in the first minimum and smaller long-time tail shown in MD? Can one develop a theory to predict the transit probability $`\nu `$? (Such a theory would be conceptually related to the decay of the cage correlation function of .) Finally, how can these ideas be applied to theories of other transport coefficients, such as bulk and shear viscosities? Future work will focus on answering these questions.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the U. S. DOE through contract W-7405-ENG-36.


text:
# Electronic pressure on ferromagnetic domain wall

## Acknowledgements

G.T. thanks H. Matsukawa for useful discussion. He also thanks Max Planck Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik for its hospitality during his stay at an early stage of this work and Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung for financial support. This work is supported by a Grand-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture. Y.T. acknowledges financial support from the Dutch Organization for Fundamental Research on Mater (FOM) and from the NEDO joint research program (NTDP-98).


text:
# Acknowledgments

## Acknowledgments

The Sher Alam’s work is supported by the Japan Society for for Technology \[JST\].


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

It is well known that when the distance $`t`$ traveled by neutrinos in matter is short, the probabilities of oscillations of neutrino flavour in matter reduce to those in vacuum, i.e. with decreasing $`t`$ matter effects on neutrino oscillations die out more rapidly than the oscillations effects themselves. In the present Letter we show that under certain conditions this is no longer true and matter effects in short-$`t`$ experiments can be quite significant or even dominate the oscillation probability. In particular, we show that if neutrinos propagate significant distances in vacuum before entering matter (or after exiting it) matter effects in short-$`t`$ neutrino oscillations can be strongly enhanced. We also discuss oscillations of neutrino mass eigenstates in matter, which are relevant for oscillations of solar and supernova neutrinos inside the earth. We show that these oscillations can have sizeable probabilities even when neutrino pathlengths in matter are relatively short.

## 2 Two-flavour neutrino evolution in matter

Consider the evolution equation for two-flavour neutrino oscillations in matter in the weak eigenstate basis :

$$i\frac{}{t}\left(\begin{array}{c}\nu _a\\ \nu _b\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}A(t)& B\\ B& A(t)\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}\nu _a\\ \nu _b\end{array}\right)H(t)\left(\begin{array}{c}\nu _a\\ \nu _b\end{array}\right)$$
(1)
Here $`\nu _{a,b}(t)`$ are the probability amplitudes of finding neutrinos of the corresponding flavor $`a,b`$ at a time $`t`$ (in particular, one of these two species can be a sterile neutrino $`\nu _s`$). The parameters $`A`$ and $`B`$ are

$$A(t)=\mathrm{cos}2\theta _0\delta V(t),B=\mathrm{sin}2\theta _0\delta ,$$
(2)
where

$$\delta =\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }m^2}{4E},V(t)=\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}N(t).$$
(3)
Here $`G_F`$ is the Fermi constant, $`E`$ is neutrino energy, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2=m_2^2m_1^2`$, where $`m_{1,2}`$ are the neutrino mass eigenvalues, and $`\theta _0`$ is the mixing angle in vacuum. The effective density $`N(t)`$ depends on the type of the neutrinos taking part in the oscillations. For transitions between antineutrinos one should substitute $`N`$ for $`N`$ in eq. (2). In a matter of constant density the probability of $`\nu _a\nu _b`$ oscillations takes a very simple form

$$P(\nu _a\nu _b;t)=\mathrm{sin}^22\theta \mathrm{sin}^2\omega t,$$
(4)
where $`\theta `$ and $`2\omega `$ are the mixing angle in matter and the energy splitting between the matter eigenstates respectively:

$$\mathrm{sin}2\theta =\frac{B}{\omega }=\mathrm{sin}2\theta _0\frac{\delta }{\omega },\omega =\sqrt{A^2+B^2}.$$
(5)
It is now easy to see that in the short baseline limit ($`\omega t1`$) the oscillation probability

$$P(\nu _a\nu _b;t)\mathrm{sin}^22\theta (\omega t)^2=\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _0(\delta t)^2=\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _0(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }m^2}{4E}t)^2,$$
(6)
which is just the short-baseline limit of the oscillation probability in vacuum .

This raises a number of questions:

$``$ Why do the matter effects on oscillations die out with decreasing $`t`$ more rapidly than the oscillation effects themselves?

$``$ Is this true also in a matter of non-constant density?

$``$ Is this true in the case of oscillations between more than two neutrino species?

$``$ Are there any conceivable situations when the matter effects on oscillations of neutrinos traveling short distances in matter can be as large as the oscillation effects themselves?

The answer to the first of these questions will help us to find the answers to the rest of them.

## 3 Short-pathlength neutrino oscillations in matter

Consider the two-flavour evolution equation (1) in the short baseline (small oscillation phase) limit. In this limit the oscillation effects are known to be small, so one can solve the evolution equation in perturbation theory. Assume that the initial neutrino state is $`\nu _a`$. Then in the leading order in perturbation theory the amplitude $`\nu _b(t)=iBt`$, which immediately yields (6). Thus, the fact that the matter effects on neutrino flavour oscillations disappear in the short baseline limit is the consequence of the two facts: (1) the oscillations effects are small and the perturbation theory applies; (2) since the initial state is a flavour eigenstate, in the leading order the transition amplitude is only determined by the off-diagonal terms in the effective Hamiltonian in (1), whereas the matter effects enter only through the diagonal terms.

From the above the answers to the other questions that we asked immediately follow: The functional $`t`$ dependence of matter density is irrelevant, i.e. our conclusion holds irrespective of whether the matter density is constant or not; it is also true in the case of oscillations between more than two species because, in the weak eigenstate basis, matter density enters only into the diagonal terms of the effective Hamiltonian for any number of flavours; the above conclusions need not be correct if the initial neutrino state is not a weak eigenstate, i.e. not a neutrino of a definite flavour.

Let us now consider the situation when the initial neutrino state entering the matter is a coherent superposition of the flavour eigenstates $`\nu _a`$ and $`\nu _b`$: $`|\nu _i=|\nu (0)=a_1|\nu _a+a_2|\nu _b`$, $`|a_1|^2+|a_2|^2=1`$. In what follows, unless otherwise is specified, we shall always understand by neutrino pathlength the distance traveled by neutrinos in matter. It is straightforward to find the transition probabilities to the second order in perturbation theory:

$$P(\nu _i\nu _a;t)|a_1|^2(|a_1|^2|a_2|^2)(Bt)^22\text{Im}(a_2^{}a_1)(Bt)4\text{Re}(a_2^{}a_1)B_0^t𝑑t_1_0^{t_1}𝑑t_2A(t_2),$$
(7)
$$P(\nu _i\nu _b;t)|a_2|^2+(|a_1|^2|a_2|^2)(Bt)^2+2\text{Im}(a_2^{}a_1)(Bt)+4\text{Re}(a_2^{}a_1)B_0^t𝑑t_1_0^{t_1}𝑑t_2A(t_2),$$
(8)
For our further discussion it is useful to write down the simplified versions of these expressions relevant for neutrino oscillations in a matter of constant density:

$$P(\nu _i\nu _a;t)|a_1|^2(|a_1|^2|a_2|^2)(Bt)^22\text{Im}(a_2^{}a_1)(Bt)2\text{Re}(a_2^{}a_1)(ABt^2),$$
(9)
$$P(\nu _i\nu _b;t)|a_2|^2+(|a_1|^2|a_2|^2)(Bt)^2+2\text{Im}(a_2^{}a_1)(Bt)+2\text{Re}(a_2^{}a_1)(ABt^2).$$
(10)
Matter effects enter through the parameters $`A`$ in the last terms on the r.h.s. of eqs. (7)-(10). Notice that the leading order matter-induced contribution is $`V\delta t^2`$, whereas in the case when the initial state is a pure flavour eigenstate the leading order matter effect is $`(V\delta t^2)^2`$ (assuming $`V\stackrel{>}{_{}}\delta `$). Thus, matter effects in short-pathlength neutrino oscillations can be strongly enhanced when the initial state is not a pure flavour eigenstate 111It is also important that the term $`V\delta t^2`$ is sensitive to the sign of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$, whereas $`(V\delta t^2)^2`$ is not..

As can be seen from (7)-(10), the oscillation effects themselves get enhanced in this case provided that $`\text{Im}(a_2^{}a_1)0`$, the leading contribution to the transition probability being now $`\delta t`$ rather than $`(\delta t)^2`$.

## 4 Two-media neutrino oscillations

How can one create an initial neutrino state which is not a pure flavour eigenstate? One possibility is to let neutrinos oscillate in a different medium before entering the medium of interest. For example, if neutrinos propagate in vacuum before they enter the matter, the initial state arriving at the vacuum-matter border is no longer a flavour eigenstate but rather a coherent superposition of the flavour eigenstates.

Assume that neutrinos are initially produced in the flavour eigenstate $`\nu _a`$, propagate a distance $`t_1`$ in vacuum and then the resulting state propagates a distance $`t`$ in a matter of constant density. The oscillation phase acquired in vacuum is $`\varphi _1=\delta t_1`$. Let us denote $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi _1=s_1`$, $`\mathrm{cos}\varphi _1=c_1`$. Then the state $`|\nu _i`$ entering the matter is characterized by $`a_1=c_1+i\mathrm{cos}2\theta _0s_1`$, $`a_2=i\mathrm{sin}2\theta _0s_1`$. In the limit of short-pathlength oscillations in matter one finds from (9) and (10) 222These probabilities can also be directly obtained (as a small $`\varphi _2`$ limit) from the general expression for the evolution matrix for neutrino oscillations in two layers of different constant densities derived in .

$$P(\nu _i\nu _b;t)\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _0\left\{s_1^2+(c_1^2s_1^2)(\delta t)^2+2s_1c_1(\delta t)+2s_1^2\mathrm{cos}2\theta _0(V\delta t^2)\right\}$$
(11)
and $`P(\nu _i\nu _a;t)=1P(\nu _i\nu _b;t)`$. Notice that the l.h.s. of eq. (11) can also be understood as $`P(\nu _a\nu _b;t_1+t)`$.

Eq. (11) has a simple physical interpretation. In the limit $`t0`$ one has $`P(\nu _i\nu _b;t)=\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _0s_1^2`$ which corresponds to propagation only in vacuum; the second and the third terms in the curly brackets are due to the increase of the oscillation phase during the time interval $`t`$, neglecting the matter effects. These terms come from the expansion of $`\mathrm{sin}^2(\varphi _1+\delta t)`$ in small $`\delta t`$. The fourth term is the leading order matter contribution. Notice that we do not assume the smallness of the phase $`\varphi _1`$, and in fact a sizeable enhancement of matter effects is only possible when it is not small.

Several comments are in order.

(i) The leading-order matter contribution vanishes in the case of maximal mixing in vacuum, $`\theta _0=\pi /4`$. This may be useful for studying deviations of lepton mixing from the maximal one.

(ii) The first three terms in the curly brackets in eq. (11) are even in $`\delta `$ while the last, matter-induced, term is odd in it and so is sensitive to the sign of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$. 333More precisely, it is sensitive to the sign of $`\mathrm{cos}2\theta _0\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$ as only the sign of this quantity has a physical meaning. We adopt the convention $`\mathrm{cos}2\theta _00`$ and allow for both positive and negative signs of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$. Thus, enhanced matter effects can facilitate studying the type of the neutrino mass hierarchy.

(iii) Although the absolute magnitude of matter effects, of course, strongly depends on $`\theta _0`$, their relative size is only mildly $`\theta _0`$ dependent provided that the vacuum mixing angle is not too close to $`\pi /4`$. This follows from the fact that $`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _0`$ is the common factor in (11).

(iv) If the phase $`\varphi _1=\delta t_1`$ is not very close to $`\pi /2`$, the transition probability itself (i.e. neglecting matter effects) is also considerably enhanced as it now contains an $`\delta t`$ term in addition to the $`(\delta t)^2`$ ones. The relative size of the matter effects in this case is

$$\mathrm{cos}2\theta _0\mathrm{tan}\varphi _1(Vt),$$
(12)
while for $`\varphi _1\pi /2`$ it is

$$\mathrm{cos}2\theta _0(V/\delta ).$$
(13)
Thus for generic values $`s_1,c_11`$ the contribution of the matter effects to the transition probability, though strongly enhanced compared to the case of pure flavour eigenstate entering the matter, is relatively small. It may, however, still be noticeable as the short pathlength approximation applies even for $`Vt`$ as large as $`1/3`$ (the corrections are of the order $`(Vt)^2`$). When $`\varphi _1\pi /2`$, matter effects give an important contribution to the transition probability over the time period $`t`$; they dominate in the limit $`V\delta `$. This fact can be used for experimental searches of matter effects in short-pathlength neutrino experiments.

(v) The estimates (12) and (13) apply to the situations when the probability of finding $`\nu _b`$ at the vacuum-matter border is either experimentally known (two-detector experiments), or can be reliably estimated theoretically. If this is not the case, one has to compare the matter-induced contributions to $`P(\nu _i\nu _b)`$ with the probability of finding $`\nu _b`$ in the final state itself rather than with the increase of this probability due to neutrino propagation in matter. The relative contribution of matter effects is then

$$\mathrm{cos}2\theta _0(V\delta t^2).$$
(14)
For $`Vt\delta t1/3`$ it can be about 10%.

(vi) Eq. (11) is also valid when neutrinos first propagate a distance $`t`$ in matter and then a distance $`t_1`$ in vacuum. This is a consequence of the fact that two-flavour neutrino oscillations in matter are invariant under time reversal even if the matter density profile is not $`T`$ invariant. Indeed, let the evolution matrix for eq. (1) be $`U(t_2,t_1)`$, so that $`|\nu (t_2)=U(t_2,t_1)|\nu (t_1)`$. The time-reversed evolution matrix is $`U(t_1,t_2)=U(t_2,t_1)^1=U(t_2,t_1)^{}`$. Since for any unitary $`2\times 2`$ matrix $`|U_{21}|=|U_{12}|`$, the probability of neutrino flavour oscillations is $`T`$ invariant. Notice that this is not in general true in the case of oscillations between $`n>2`$ neutrino species.

Consider now a few numerical examples.

Atmospheric neutrinos coming to a detector from below the horizon propagate first in the air (which for the purposes of neutrino oscillations can be considered as vacuum) and then in the matter of the earth. The distances that neutrinos travel in the atmosphere $`t_1`$ and in the earth $`t`$ are given by

$$t_1=R|\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta }|+\sqrt{(R+h)^2R^2\mathrm{sin}^2\mathrm{\Theta }},t=2R\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta },$$
(15)
where $`R=6371`$ km is the radius of the earth, $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the zenith angle of the neutrino trajectory, and $`h15`$ km is the average hight at which the neutrinos are produced in the atmosphere. We are interested in the regime $`t_1t`$ which corresponds to nearly horizontal neutrino trajectories (zenith angles only slightly exceeding $`\pi /2`$). In this case one can have sizeable phases $`\varphi _1`$ whereas neutrino oscillations in the earth are in the short pathlength regime. This corresponds to $`|\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta }|\stackrel{<}{_{}}0.01`$. Atmospheric neutrinos with nearly horizontal trajectories pass through the earth’s crust where the density is nearly constant and equal to about 2.8 $`g/cm^3`$ and the electron number fraction $`Y_e0.49`$ (the same is also true for short pathlength accelerator neutrino experiments). For oscillations between active neutrinos $`\nu _\mu \nu _e`$ or $`\nu _e\nu _\tau `$ this gives $`V5.17\times 10^{14}`$ eV; for active-sterile neutrino oscillations $`V`$ is a factor of two smaller.

Consider, e.g., atmospheric $`\nu _\mu \nu _e`$ (or $`\nu _e\nu _\tau `$) oscillations for the neutrino trajectory with the zenith angle $`\mathrm{\Theta }1.581`$ ($`\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta }=0.01`$). From eq. (15) one finds $`t_1378`$ km, $`t127`$ km, which gives $`Vt3.3\times 10^2`$. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2=3.2\times 10^3`$ eV2, which is the current best-fit value of the Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrino data , and $`E=1`$ GeV, one has $`\delta =8\times 10^{13}`$ eV, $`\varphi _11.535`$, $`\delta t0.517`$. The relative matter contribution to the total transition probability is 4.3% and that to the increase of the probability due to neutrino propagation in the earth is 18%. This is a large effect, taking into account that the distance neutrinos travel inside the earth is only 127 km. If neutrinos did not oscillate in the atmosphere before entering the earth, this contribution would have been only about 0.5%. It should be noted, however, that the short-pathlength regime is valid only in a narrow range of zenith angles. In addition, the effective mixing angle for $`\nu _e\nu _x`$ oscillations is known to be small .

Oscillations of $`\nu _\mu `$ into sterile neutrinos are disfavoured as the dominant channel of the atmospheric neutrino oscillations , but allowed as a subdominant channel with a weight that can be as large as about 50% . For this channel, relative matter effects are a factor of two smaller than they are for the $`\nu _\mu \nu _e`$ or $`\nu _e\nu _\tau `$ channels, but their absolute value can be significantly larger because the corresponding mixing angle can be quite large.

Consider now the situation when neutrinos first propagate in matter and then in vacuum. This could, e.g., be realized in accelerator neutrino experiments with a detector placed on an earth’s satellite, which is certainly a rather remote possibility. Let us assume for definiteness that the distance that neutrinos propagate in the earth $`t=730`$ km (the baseline of CERN – Gran Sasso and Fermilab – Soudan mine experiments). This corresponds to $`\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta }=5.7344\times 10^2`$, $`Vt0.191`$ (for oscillations between active neutrinos). Assuming that the height of the satellite’s orbit is 750 km, the distance that neutrinos propagate after exiting the earth $`t_12837`$ km. Let us again take $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2=3.2\times 10^3`$ eV2. For $`E=8`$ GeV, which is a typical energy of the accelerator neutrino experiments, one has $`\delta =10^{13}`$ eV, $`\varphi _11.438`$, $`\delta t0.37`$. The relative matter contribution to the total transition probability is 13%, and that to the transition probability acquired due to neutrino propagation in the earth is a factor 1.3. This means that matter effects dominate the transition inside the earth in this case. If the detector is placed on the surface of the earth, i.e. $`t_1=0`$, matter effects constitute only about 3.5% of the oscillation probability for neutrinos that have traversed the earth, i.e. are almost a factor of 37 smaller. Thus, as paradoxical as it looks, the earth’s matter effects on the oscillation probability become stronger when neutrinos are detected farther from the surface of the earth.

Can one achieve a significant enhancement of the matter effects in the accelerator experiments by having very long decay tunnels? Unfortunately, this does not seem to be possible since a sizeable enhancement is only achieved when the distance traveled by neutrinos in vacuum is much larger than their pathlength in matter, and the latter should be at least a few hundred km.

## 5 Day-night effect in solar neutrino experiments

Another example of an initial state which is not a flavour eigenstate is given by the earth matter effects on solar neutrinos coming to a detector during night in the case of the MSW  solutions of the solar neutrino problem. In this case the neutrino state arriving at the earth is an incoherent superposition of the mass eigenstates $`\nu _1`$ and $`\nu _2`$ (see, e.g.,  for a recent discussion). The probability of finding a $`\nu _e`$ at the detector depends on the probability of $`\nu _2\nu _e`$ oscillations inside the earth $`P_{2e}`$. Since in this case the initial state is a mass eigenstate $`\nu _2`$, one has $`a_1=\mathrm{sin}\theta _0`$, $`a_2=\mathrm{cos}\theta _0`$. In the short pathlength limit, in the case of matter of constant density, one finds from (9)

$$P_{2e}(P_{2e})_{init}=P_{2e}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _0=\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _0(V\delta t^2).$$
(16)
This expression vanishes in the $`V0`$ limit because mass eigenstates do not oscillate in vacuum. However, it is nontrivial that it is of the order $`V\delta t^2`$ rather than $`(V\delta t^2)^2`$; because of this the day-night effect in solar neutrino experiments can be sizeable and must not be neglected even when the neutrino pathlengths inside the earth are relatively short. Since $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ are both real, there is no $`\delta t`$ contribution to the transition probability.

Another interesting point to notice is that the r.h.s. of (16) is $`1/E`$. For sizeable pathlengths, the day-night effect increases with neutrino energy when $`\delta V`$ and decreases when $`\delta V`$ (see, e.g., fig. 4 in ). From (16) it follows that for short pathlengths it always decreases with $`E`$, irrespective of the relative magnitudes of $`V`$ and $`\delta `$.

Let us consider a few numerical examples. For $`Vt\delta t1/3`$, which corresponds to the neutrino pathlength inside the earth $`t1270`$ km and $`\delta V5.2\times 10^{14}`$ eV, and assuming $`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _01`$, the matter-induced oscillation probability (16) is of the order of 10%. For 7Be solar neutrinos ($`E=0.862`$ MeV) the above value of $`\delta `$ corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^21.8\times 10^7`$ eV2, which is in the range of the MSW-LOW solution of the solar neutrino problem (for a recent analysis of the solar neutrino data see ). For the same distance $`t1270`$ km, matter effects on the probability of neutrino flavor oscillations would constitute only about 1%, i.e. an order of magnitude smaller. For typical parameters of the MSW-LMA solution and $`E10`$ MeV (typical energy of the 8B solar neutrinos) eq. (16) yields the probability $`1`$% for the pathlengths as short as about 100 km, which has to be compared with the value $`10^4`$ for the earth matter effect on neutrino flavour oscillations over the distance of 100 km.

Similar considerations apply to oscillations of supernova neutrinos inside the earth since those neutrinos also arrive at the earth as mass eigenstates. If the next supernova explosion occurs at such a time that its neutrinos come to a terrestrial detector passing through a short distance inside the earth, the earth’s matter effects on their oscillations may still be quite strong and should be taken into account 444The importance of matter effects on oscillations of supernova neutrinos inside the earth was recently emphasized in ; however, the short pathlength limit was not discussed in these papers..

Mass eigenstate neutrinos are also produced in neutral current reactions, i.e. in decays of real or virtual $`Z^0`$ bosons; it appears, however, technically rather difficult to produce sizeable beams of neutrinos born in neutral current reactions.

## 6 Neutrino oscillations due to FCNC

Neutrinos can oscillate in matter even if their masses are zero or negligible, provided that they have flavour changing neutral current (FCNC) interactions . The evolution of the system is described by eq. (1) with $`A`$ and $`B`$ being now both $`t`$ dependent:

$$A(t)=\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}ϵ^{}N(t),B(t)=\sqrt{2}G_FϵN(t),$$
(17)
Here $`ϵ`$ and $`ϵ^{}`$ are the FCNC parameters. In the short-baseline approximation, the transition probability $`P(\nu _a\nu _b;t)B^2t^2`$. In contrast to the case of the ordinary neutrino oscillations in which the off-diagonal element $`B`$ of the effective Hamiltonian is independent of matter density $`N(t)`$, in the case of oscillations due to FCNC it is proportional to $`N(t)`$. Therefore the matter effect on the oscillation probability (which in this case coincides with the probability itself) is of the order $`(Vt)^2`$ rather than $`(V\delta t^2)^2`$. This explains why in this case, unlike in the case of the ordinary neutrino flavour oscillations, matter effects can be quite sizeable even for as short baselines as that of the K2K experiment, $`t=250`$ km (this fact was previously pointed out in ). The expression $`P(\nu _a\nu _b;t)B^2t^2`$ also explains why in the short baseline limit matter effects do not depend on $`ϵ^{}`$ in the leading order .

## 7 Summary and conclusion

We discussed matter effects in short-pathlength neutrino oscillations and found out the reason why these effects generally decrease with decreasing pathlength more rapidly than the oscillation effects themselves. This happens because, in the leading order in perturbation theory, the transition amplitudes are determined by the off-diagonal terms of the effective Hamiltonian which are matter independent. This, however, is not true if the initial neutrino state is not a flavour eigenstate, in which case the diagonal terms of the effective Hamiltonian also contribute, or if the oscillations are due to flavour changing neutral currents, when the off-diagonal terms depend on matter density.

Initial states which are not flavour eigenstates can be obtained if neutrinos propagate significant distances in vacuum before entering matter (or after exiting it). In this case matter effects in short-pathlength neutrino oscillations can be strongly enhanced. We discussed implications of this observation for atmospheric neutrinos with nearly horizontal trajectories and for short pathlength accelerator experiments with the detector placed at large distances from the point where neutrinos exit the earth.

One also deals with initial neutrino states which are not flavour eigenstates when considering the earth matter effects on solar neutrinos in the case of the MSW solutions of the solar neutrino problem, or oscillations of the supernova neutrinos inside the earth. In these cases the initial states are mass eigenstate neutrinos. Matter effects for short neutrino pathlengths inside the earth are of the order $`V\delta t^2`$ rather than $`(V\delta t^2)^2`$ which would be expected if the initial state were flavour eigenstate.

In conclusion, we have shown that matter effects in oscillations of neutrinos traveling short distances in matter can be strongly enhanced when the initial neutrino state entering the matter is not a flavour eigenstate, or when neutrinos are detected at significant distances from the point where they exit the matter. We believe that this is an interesting observation, even though the conditions for such an enhancement are generally difficult to realize. A notable exception is provided by solar and supernova neutrinos for which these conditions are realized as they arrive at the earth in mass rather than in flavour eigenstates.

The author is grateful to H. Minakata for asking a question during the NOW2000 workshop which led to the present study, and to A. Yu. Smirnov for useful discussions. This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through the grant JNICT-CERN/P/FIS/15184/99 and by the TMR network grant ERBFMRX-CT960090 of the European Union.


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# Lead: Asymptotic Giant Branch production and Galactic Chemical Evolution

## 1 Introduction

Neutron captures are the main way for the building up of the nuclei heavier than iron. According to the seminal work by Burbidge et al. (1957), in order to reconstruct the Galactic evolutionary history of heavy elements one has to consider two major mechanisms of neutron addition: the $`s`$-process (slow neutron-captures) and the $`r`$-process (rapid neutron-captures). For the $`s`$-process, the abundance distribution in the solar system was early recognized to derive from a non unique site. Indeed, the phenomenological approach of $`s`$-process studies, or classical analysis, was shown to require three components to account for the abundances of all $`s`$-nuclei from Fe to Bi: the weak, the main, and the strong component (Seeger, Fowler, & Clayton 1965; Clayton & Rassbach 1967; Käppeler et al. 1982; Käppeler, Beer, & Wisshak 1989).

The weak component, responsible for the $`s`$-process nuclides up to $`A`$ 90, was ascribed to neutron captures occurring in advanced evolutionary phases of massive stars, through the activation of the 22Ne($`\alpha `$,n)25Mg reaction (Lamb et al. 1977; Prantzos et al. 1990; Raiteri et al. 1993 and references therein). The main component, feeding the heavier $`s`$-process nuclides up to $`A=`$ 208, is known to originate in AGB stars of Galactic disk metallicity during recurrent thermal pulses, hereafter TP. Many theoretical and observational works (see Busso, Gallino, & Wasserburg 1999 for a review) converge on the idea that Low-Mass Stars (hereafter LMS, $`M`$ $``$ 4 $`M_{}`$) play the dominant role in $`s`$-processing, and that neutrons are released in radiative conditions in the interpulse phase via the 13C($`\alpha `$,n)16O reaction (Straniero et al. 1995). A tiny 13C pocket is thought to develop in the top layers of the He- and C-rich zone (called He intershell) as a consequence of the penetration of a small amount of protons from the envelope, to burn locally and to produce neutrons before the development of the next TP. During advanced TPs a second small neutron burst is released by the marginal activation of the 22Ne($`\alpha `$,n)25Mg reaction. Finally, the strong component was advanced on theoretical grounds by the classical analysis of the $`s`$-process (Clayton & Rassbach 1967), in order to reproduce more than 50% of 208Pb, the most abundant Pb isotope in the solar system, although the astrophysical site for this process remained unknown.

In this work we study the Galactic enrichment of Pb in the light of AGB nucleosynthesis results presented by Straniero et al. (1997) and Gallino et al. (1998). One of the main goals of these works was the development of a new set of model calculations for AGB stars with different masses and metallicities, to provide stronger evolutionary supports to nucleosynthesis calculations. The results demonstrated in detail the dependence of the $`s`$-process yields on stellar metallicity, and introduced the idea that a separate astrophysical site for the strong component might be unnecessary (Gallino et al. 1998), because a large production of 208Pb derives from AGB stars of low metallicity. This expectation must however be substantiated with a detailed model for the Galactic enrichment, to verify whether the production of Pb isotopes is really adequate.

The paper is organized as follows: in § 2 we discuss the sensitivity of Pb production (in particular 208Pb) to metallicity and to different assumptions on the 13C pocket in low-mass AGB stars. We also analyze the role of intermediate-mass AGB stars in the Pb production at different metallicities. In § 3 we present spectroscopic estimates by synthetic spectra of the Pb abundance on a limited sample of field metal-poor stars using the Pb line at 3683.48 Å and outline the difficulties and the aims of such an analysis. In § 4 we briefly introduce the Galactic Chemical Evolution (hereafter GCE) model adopted, present our predictions for the $`s`$-components of the Pb isotopes in the solar system, and compute the \[Pb/Fe\]111We adopt the usual spectroscopic notation \[Pb/Fe\] = log (Pb/Fe) $``$ log (Pb/Fe) trend vs. metallicity in the three Galactic zones in which the GCE model is organized (halo, thick disk and thin disk). Then we compare our model predictions with the above new spectroscopic determinations and with a few other published data, outlining the need of a dedicate observational effort. Finally, in § 5 we summarize the main conclusions and point out a few aspects deserving further analysis.

## 2 Pb production by $`s`$-process nucleosynthesis

We compute stellar yields for $`s`$-processing of Pb in AGB stars as a result of post-process calculations on the basis of stellar evolutionary models obtained with FRANEC (Frascati Raphson-Newton Evolutionary Code; see Chieffi & Straniero 1989) and presented in Straniero et al. (1997) and Gallino et al. (1998). Additional models have been discussed by Vaglio et al. (1999) and Straniero et al. (2000). The detailed evolutionary computations were performed at \[Fe/H\] = 0.0, $``$0.3 and $``$1.3 for the AGB stars of mass 1.5 and 3 $`M_{}`$. For the 5 $`M_{}`$ case the metallicities were \[Fe/H\] = 0.0 and $``$1.3, while for the 7 $`M_{}`$ star only models of solar metallicity were calculated. The $`s`$-process results has then been obtained with post-process runs span over the metallicity interval from $`Z=Z_{}`$ down to $`Z=Z_{}`$/4000 for 1.5, 3, 5 and 7 $`M_{}`$. The results of the FRANEC stellar structures are extrapolated to the whole metallicity range adopted for the $`s`$-process calculations (more details are available in Straniero et al. 1997, 2000, and Gallino et al. 1998). Mass loss was taken into account by adopting the parameterization of Reimers (1975). The values adopted for this work are $`\eta =`$ 0.3 for 1.5 $`M_{}`$ , and $`\eta =`$ 1.5 for 3 $`M_{}`$ (Straniero et al. 1997). Calculations for 5 $`M_{}`$ and 7 $`M_{}`$ are instead performed with $`\eta =`$ 10 and $`\eta =`$ 3, respectively (Straniero et al. 2000). The models self-consistently reproduce the so-called third dredge up episode (TDU), defined as the penetration of the convective envelope below the H-He discontinuity. TDU was found to occur after a limited number of TPs and to cease when the envelope mass decreases by mass loss below a limiting mass of $``$ 0.5 $`M_{}`$.

The cumulative mass for the He intershell dredged up into the envelope of AGB models of 1.5, 3, 5, and 7 $`M_{}`$ according to FRANEC models and eventually ejected into the interstellar medium by stellar winds is reported in Table 1. Different treatments for convection with respect to the one adopted in FRANEC, where the convective/radiative borders are followed according to the Schwarzschild criterion, may provide larger TDU efficiencies, as e.g. discussed by Frost & Lattanzio (1996), Herwig et al. 1997; Langer et al. 1999; Herwig 2000). Moreover, the criterion adopted for the mass loss during the AGB phase introduces a second major source of uncertainty, and at the present moment only the comparison with observations is expected to provide constraints on these points.

Despite first successful models for the formation of the 13C pocket have already been presented (Hollowell & Iben 1988; Herwig et al. 1997; Langer et al. 1999), the mass involved and the profile of 13C formed at TDU in the He intershell are still to be assumed as free parameters, being related to hydrodynamical mixing mechanisms that cannot be properly accounted for in stellar models (Straniero et al. 2000). However a series of constraints can be obtained by comparing spectroscopical abundances in Pop. I AGB stars and in Pop. II Ba and CH stars (e.g., Smith & Lambert 1990; Luck & Bond 1991; Vanture 1992; Plez, Smith, & Lambert 1993; van Winckel & Reyniers 2000) with model predictions. In fact, Galactic disk AGB stars show a significant spread in $`s`$-process efficiencies that can be attributed to variations in the 13C amount in the pocket and to the large sensitivity of the resulting $`s`$-process distribution on the initial metallicity. As discussed by Busso et al. (1995, 2000), the observed data are distributed around an average $`s`$-process efficiency rather similar to that of the main component in the solar system. However, the considerable intrinsic scatter revealed by spectroscopic studies can only fix broad limits to the amount of 13C burnt. Notice that the same spread in 13C concentrations was found to be appropriate to account for the $`s`$-process isotopic signatures of heavy elements in presolar grains recovered in meteoritic material (Zinner 1997), most likely condensed in the circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars of close to solar metallicity (Gallino et al. 1993, 1997; Lugaro et al. 1999; Amari et al. 2000). In our calculations the intrinsic spread in the $`s`$-process yields at each metallicity was modelled parametrically by varying the 13C concentration in the pocket by factors from 0 to 2 times the “standard” (ST) value discussed in Gallino et al. (1998) and Arlandini et al. (1999) ($``$ 4 10-6 $`M_{}`$ of 13C). The ST choice was shown to reproduce the main component through AGB models in the mass range 1.5 $``$ 3 $`M_{}`$ and metallicity \[Fe/H\] = $``$0.3. Identical best-fits to the solar component are obtained for other choices of the 13C pocket, provided the metallicity varies according to the rule $`N`$(13C)/$`N`$(56Fe) = const. Implications for different choices of the ST profile and/or metallicity have been discussed elsewhere (Busso et al. 1995, 2000).

Following a similar approach, Travaglio et al. (1999) analyzed the GCE of Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Pr, Sm, and Eu. Both here and in Travaglio et al. (1999) unweighted yields averaged over the whole set of 13C abundances have been adopted. In Fig. 1 the abundances by mass of 208Pb in the He intershell material cumulatively mixed with the surface of a 1.5 $`M_{}`$ star by TDU episodes are shown as a function of metallicity. The main difference in the present computations with respect to those presented in Travaglio et al. (1999) lies in a finer interpolation grid at the lowest concentrations of 13C. This larger grid of models can be useful for a better account of recent observational constraints from evolved stars at low and intermediate metallicity (Ryan et al. 2000a; Travaglio, Gallino, & Busso 2000). Actually, the extension of the 13C parameterization towards the lowest concentration of 13C has negligible influence on the average unweighted yields (see § 3).

The strong dependence of the $`s`$-process yields on stellar metallicity is evident in Fig. 1. The trend of $`s`$-process elements, and of 208Pb in particular, the most abundant among Pb isotopes, can be understood as follows. The build up of heavy $`s`$-process nuclei is due to neutron captures starting on pre-existing seeds; it is therefore formally of secondary origin and one would expect them to decline with declining metallicity. However, the abundance distribution is not only dependent on the initial Fe concentration, but also on the neutron addition efficiency, i.e. on the neutron exposure $`\tau `$ (where $`\tau n_nv_T𝑑t`$, with $`n_n`$ neutron density and $`v_T`$ thermal velocity). The gradual increase of the neutron exposure toward low metallicities entirely masks this expected secondary behaviour (as first noticed by Clayton 1988), resulting in a rather complex dependence of $`s`$-process yields on metallicity. Starting from AGB stars of nearly solar metallicity and going toward more metal-poor stars, the neutron-flux first builds up the $`s`$-elements belonging to the Zr-peak (at neutron magic number $`N`$ $`=`$ 50). Then the Zr-peak is partly bypassed and the production of the elements at the second $`s`$-peak increases ($`N`$ $`=`$ 82, Ba-peak), reaching a maximum at \[Fe/H\] $``$ $``$0.6 (Travaglio et al. 1999; Busso et al. 1999). For even lower metal contents, the $`n`$-flux feeds Pb (in particular 208Pb), with a maximum production yield at \[Fe/H\] $``$1 (see Fig. 1). The value of \[Fe/H\] at which the maximum is reached depends on the choice of the 13C-pocket. For lower 13C concentrations the production peak is shifted towards lower metallicities. Finally, when very low metallicities are reached, also Pb starts to decrease, but it never really follows the expected secondary behavior. In fact, at very low metallicities, after the shortage of Fe during 13C consumption becomes a conspicuous effect, the $`s`$-elements can continue to be fed thanks to the neutron captures starting on the abundant lighter primary neutron absorbers (e.g. 16O, 22Ne and its progeny).

We also considered in the GCE model the role of intermediate mass AGB stars. In Fig. 2 we show a plot similar to Fig. 1, but for the 5 $`M_{}`$ (upper panel) and the 7 $`M_{}`$ (lower panel) models. In these stars, the 22Ne($`\alpha `$,n)25Mg reaction is efficiently activated (Iben 1975; Truran & Iben 1977), since the temperature at the base of the convective pulse reaches values of $`T=`$ 3.5 108 K. As a consequence, the neutron exposure by the 22Ne neutron source becomes more significant. Also the peak neutron density during the TP phase is consistently higher than in LMS ($`\rho 10^{11}`$ n/cm3, see Vaglio et al. 1999, Straniero et al. 2000), overfeeding a few neutron-rich isotopes involved in important branchings along the $`s`$ process, such as 86Kr, 87Rb, and 96Zr, with respect to the production of the $`s`$-only nuclei. As for the choice of the 13C neutron source, due to the much shorter interpulse phases in these stars ($``$6500 yr for a 5 $`M_{}`$ and $``$1500 yr for a 7 $`M_{}`$) with respect to LMS ($``$ 3 $``$ 6 104 yr), the He intershell mass involved is smaller by one order of magnitude. Consequently, also the TDU of $`s`$-process-rich material from the He intershell into the surface is reduced, again by roughly one order of magnitude. Due to the above reasons, for the 5 $`M_{}`$ and 7 $`M_{}`$ cases we considered as a new “standard” choice (STIMS) a 13C mass scaled accordingly ($`M`$(13C)STIMS = 10-7 $`M_{}`$). Then, in the calculations we considered a spread of 13C abundances by a factor $`\pm `$2 (from STIMS$`\times `$2 down to STIMS/2), as shown in Fig. 2. On the whole, IMS play a minor role in the production of Galactic Pb. A more extended set of evolutionary calculations are needed for IMS, however the model of 5 $`M_{}`$ and \[Fe/H\] = $``$1.3 does not show any relevant differences with respect to the one computed at solar metallicity (Straniero et al. 2000).

## 3 Lead abundances in stars

Lead has very few lines suitable for an abundance analysis in the optical range. The only relatively unblended line in the solar spectrum is the Pb I line at 3683.48 Å (Grevesse 1969; Hauge & Sørli 1973; Youssef & Khalil 1989). A resolution $`R`$ $``$ 50,000 is required to adequately separate it from the nearby Fe I blend at 3683.623 Å. Few spectra of high S/N for metal-poor stars have been taken in this difficult spectral region at this resolution. A line of similar strength is located at 4057.81 Å; however this line is more heavily blended (mainly with CH lines), leading to more uncertain abundances.

Hence, very few abundance determinations exist for Pb. Sneden et al. (1998) used UV spectra obtained with HST to derive Pb abundances in a few halo stars with large excesses of n-capture elements. The Pb I line at 2833.05 Å was clearly seen in HD 126238; a tentative detection was obtained in HD 115444, while the line was not detected in the “normal” star HD 122563. Sneden et al. (2000) measured a Pb abundance from Keck spectra of CS 22892-52. Finally, Aoki et al. (2000) and Ryan et al. (2000a) recently gave a Pb abundance for the C-rich and $`s`$-rich star LP 625-44 from the line at 4057.81 Å.

To improve this situation, we used a set of spectra obtained in the last years at McDonald Observatory for another program (Gratton et al. 2000). These spectra have a resolution of $`R`$ $``$ 60,000. For ten of the stars considered in that program, the observed spectral range extended down to $``$ 3678 Å, allowing observation of the best Pb I line at 3683.48 Å. These spectra are shown in Fig. 3, where they are compared with synthetic spectra obtained with the atmospheric parameters listed by Gratton et al. (2000), and three different abundances of Pb: \[Pb/Fe\] = 0.0, 0.5, and 1.0. A mark signs the location of the Pb I line. In our spectra this is clearly out of the wings of the Fe I blend at 3683.623 Å. Table 2 lists the abundances we inferred from these spectra; additionally, we also give abundances for Ba, derived from the same spectra. In most cases Pb abundances are uncertain, since the noise level is quite high at these wavelengths that are at the UV extreme of the spectra. Pb is clearly detected in the spectrum of HD 23439A, a star possibly classified as a CH star (Tomkin & Lambert 1999), with small excesses of C and Ba (\[C/Fe\] = +0.09, \[Ba/Fe\] = +0.21). For this star we derive a quite large excess of Pb: \[Pb/Fe\] = +0.6. We think the Pb line is also present in the spectra of HD 6229, HD 175305, and BD +29 366, although in all cases detection is uncertain. We did not detect the Pb line in the spectra of the remaining stars; upper limits were obtained for HD 2665, HD 21581, and HD 201891.

Notice that according to Tomkin & Lambert (1999) HD 23439A belongs to a binary system of which HD 23439B (a single-lined spectroscopic binary) is also a dwarf CH star with a quite similar $`s`$-element composition. According to the authors the $`s`$-element enhancements must be primordial, reflecting a heterogeneous local interstellar medium. Unfortunately this companion does not belong to the sample of stars by Gratton et al. (2000). Analysis of the Pb I line in a spectrum in this star of comparable quality is highly desirable.

## 4 Galactic chemical evolution of Pb

The GCE model adopted here is described in detail in Ferrini et al. (1992) and Travaglio et al. (1999). As mentioned, it is based on the interconnected evolution of three zones: halo, thick disk and thin disk, whose relative composition in stars, gas phases, and stellar remnants is followed during the Galactic age. Here we consider the evolution of the solar annulus, located at 8.5 kpc from the Galactic center. The Star Formation Rate (SFR) is the outcome of self-regulating processes occurring in the molecular gas phase, either spontaneous or stimulated by the presence of massive stars. In Fig. 4 (small box) the SFR is plotted as a function of \[Fe/H\] during the evolution of the Galaxy (see also Travaglio et al. 1999).

When introducing the $`s`$-process stellar yields of AGB stars only, we get the results listed in Table 3 (sixth column) for the Galactic $`s`$-process contribution to the various Pb isotopes at the epoch of solar system formation. In particular, at $`t=t_{}`$ we obtain an $`s`$-fraction to Pb of 91%. The uncertainty in this evaluation may depend on the set of prescriptions adopted to estimate the $`s`$ yields from AGB stars with varying the metallicity and on the general prescriptions adopted in the GCE model. However, as recalled before, a high degree of consistency is inferred from the detailed comparison of the predicted yields for the elements from Ba to Eu with spectroscopic determinations in unevolved stars in the Galaxy (Travaglio et al. 1999). Concerning Pb itself, its $`s`$-fraction to solar depends on the present estimate of solar Pb based on meteoritic studies, which, according to Anders & Grevesse, is given at 7.8% (one s.d.). In turn, the effect of the uncertainty of neutron capture cross sections on Pb isotopes is very small, because of the high precision of those determinations (see Bao et al. 2000).

In the second column we also report, as reference, the elemental solar abundance of lead from Anders & Grevesse (1989). In the third column we show the prediction by Arlandini et al. (1999), as derived from the best-fit to the main component of the $`s`$-process in the solar system with the stellar model. The best-fit reported in this column was obtained with AGB models of metallicity \[Fe/H\] = $``$0.3 and the ST choice, by averaging the production in the mass range between 1.5 and 3 $`M_{}`$. In the fourth column the updated predictions by the classical analysis are given (from Arlandini et al. 1999). Finally, in the fifth column we report the prediction from Beer, Corvi, & Mutti (1997) for the strong component of the phenomenological approach.

From a comparison of the best fit by the classical analysis to the main component by Arlandini et al. (1999) with the outcome of our GCE, one can notice that there is a good agreement for all Pb isotopes, with the exception of 208Pb. In fact Arlandini et al. (1999) obtained an $`s`$-process contribution of 10% to 208Pb (19% to elemental Pb). They instead estimated a higher 34% of the $`s`$-process contribution to 208Pb (and 46% to elemental Pb) from their single AGB model (“stellar model”) with the ST choice and \[Fe/H\]= $``$0.3 (actually a mean of 1.5 and 3 $`M_{}`$ AGB models), which also reproduces the main component. The discrepancy of the two above predictions on 208Pb by the classical analysis and by the “stellar model” was already a clear indication that not a unique AGB stellar model, nor the classical analysis, were able to explain the main component in the solar system, which must be considered as the outcome of different generations of AGB stars prior of the solar system formation.

As a matter of fact, our GCE calculations provide 89% of 208Pb abundance, thanks to the contribution of different generations of AGB stars and in particular to those at low metallicities, which are the main contributors to 208Pb. The proper account of GCE confirms in a quantitative way what was anticipated by Gallino et al. (1998), i.e. that the role previously attributed to the strong component is actually played by AGB stars of low metallicity.

A remarkable result of introducing the AGB yields at different metallicities (as shown in Fig. 1 for 208Pb) as input data of GCE computations is that the predicted chemical compositions in the interstellar medium at any epoch are grossly independent of the particular 13C profile adopted inside the 13C pocket. For example, the results presented in the last column of Table 3 remain essentially the same even assuming a constant 13C mass fraction in the pocket. A more detailed analysis will be presented elsewhere, including the GCE trends of all Pb isotopes.

The $`s`$-process yields discussed in § 2 and shown in Fig. 1 allow us to estimate the chemical enrichment of Pb in the Galaxy at different epochs. We show in Fig. 4 the resulting $`s`$-fraction of lead in the thick and in the thin disk. This has been obtained by considering AGB stars in the mass range 2 $``$ 8 $`M_{}`$, but the dominant production of Pb comes in the mass range 2 $``$ 4 $`M_{}`$ (see discussion in § 2). It is evident that the $`s`$-process contribution dominates the GCE of Pb, starting from \[Fe/H\] $``$1.5, both in the thick and thin disk. This is mostly due to the coincidence between the peak of Pb production in LMS (in the range $`1.5`$ \[Fe/H\] $``$1) with the peak of the star formation rate in the thick and thin disk. At lower values of \[Fe/H\], independently of the characteristics of the GCE model, the contribution of $`s`$-process nucleosynthesis rapidly decreases as a result of the long lifetimes of AGB stars.

This confirms previous results of the GCE evolution of elements from Ba to Eu (Travaglio et al. 1999). At very low metallicities, as suggested by spectroscopic observations (in particular of Ba and Eu) and pointed out by Travaglio et al. (1999), the $`s`$-contribution by AGB stars is by far too small. Instead, as anticipated by Spite & Spite (1978) on observational grounds and by Truran (1981) on theoretical grounds, the heavy element abundance pattern in very metal-poor stars is compatible with an $`r`$-process origin. This point was recently sustained by observations of low metallicity halo stars (Sneden et al. 1998; McWilliam 1998; Sneden et al. 2000; Westin et al. 2000; Ryan et al. 2000b, and references therein).

From the theoretical point of view, despite a large number of recent works, the astrophysical site of the $`r`$-process is still a debated problem (e.g., Wheeler, Cowan, & Hillebrandt 1998; Freiburghaus et al. 1999). In order to quantify the $`r`$-contribution, as described in more detail by Travaglio et al. (1999), we treat the $`r`$-process as a typical primary mechanism occurring in a subset of Type II SNe (those in the mass range 8 $``$ 10 $`M_{}`$). Recent theoretical simulations by Wheeler et al. (1998) support this choice. Our estimate of $`r`$-process abundances at $`t=t_{}`$ was simply derived by subtracting from the solar abundances the $`s`$-fractions.

In Fig. 4 the predicted Galactic evolutionary trend for the $`s+r`$ contribution to Pb is shown. In the figure we also compare our model to recent spectroscopic data for halo and disk field stars at different metallicities, discussed in the previous Section. It is clear that a larger set of observations is desirable, and we underline that these are the first available observational data of Pb. The star with \[Fe/H\] = $``$3.1 and \[Pb/Fe\] = +1.3 is the very peculiar CS 22893-052 (recent observations of Pb in this star has been presented by Sneden et al. 2000). This star shows exceptionally high abundances of all heavy elements, with $`r`$-process/Fe enrichment of $``$40 times the solar ratios. Therefore it was probably born in an environment strongly polluted by SN debris with respect to the average interstellar gas in the halo. This supports the current idea of an incomplete mixing of the gas in the Galactic halo at early epochs, which would allow the formation of stars both very deprived, or very enriched, in $`r`$-process elements (for recent studies of this problem see e.g. Tsujimoto, Shigeyama, & Yoshii 1999; Raiteri et al. 1999; Argast et al. 2000; Travaglio, Galli, & Burkert 2001).

## 5 Conclusions

In this paper we have studied the evolution of Pb in the interstellar gas of the Galaxy, adopting a new set of models for $`s`$-processing in AGB stars of different metallicities, and new observational constraints of unevolved field stars for Pb abundances.

We have calculated the $`s`$-process yields with post-process calculations based on AGB models and applied these yields in the framework of a Galactic model that follows the GCE of the halo, thick and thin disk. Taking into account the important role played by different generations of low-metallicity AGB stars for the production of Pb in the Galaxy, we obtain at $`t=t_{}`$ a Pb $`s`$-fraction of 91%, together with a sharp increase at \[Fe/H\] $``$1.5. Confirming the prediction by Gallino et al. (1998), we also found that the production of the most abundant Pb isotope, 208Pb, is matched when the $`s`$-process occurring in low-metallicity AGB stars is properly considered in the context of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. Only a small portion of 208Pb can be attributed to the $`r`$-process, even accounting for decays of transuranic isotopes.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are indebted to F. Ferrini for allowing us free access to his GCE model, to O. Straniero, A. Chieffi and M. Limongi for sharing the results of FRANEC computations, and for a longstanding collaboration on scrutinizing deeper and deeper in AGB stellar evolutionary models. We also thanks S.G. Ryan for very useful discussions.